| News and Views | November 1940 |
Peace, and the New Order
WITH the war spreading to the Balkans, and France brought into the Axis orbit in a major diplomatic move toward establishing a new order for Europe and for the world, talk of peace again is heard. On the other hand we are told that Germany and Italy are about to launch an imposing peace drive through the good offices of their newly acquired ally, the Vichy Government. It is hoped that in this effort the aid of President Roosevelt will be available.
And now the report comes out that the Pope has either launched, or is about to launch a drive for peace. The objective of this drive is stated as being to “bring the civil populations—men, women, and children—out of the cellars and bomb shelters before Christmas,” and to establish “peace by or before Easter.” In the Pope’s peace drive also it is hoped to elicit the good offices of President Roosevelt, according to a report given out by Karl H. Von Wiegand.
As a part of the Pope’s drive for peace, he has set aside Sunday, November the 24th, as a day when the whole world will be asked to pray for peace. Should these prayers appear to be answered in some sort of a compromise peace arrangement among the nations, it will tremendously increase the power and prestige of the Pope among all nations. On the other hand, should there not be an answer to the prayers bidden by the Pope, it will be another exhibition to the world that his claims to represent God and to speak for Him are not well founded. It is but natural that the Pope should wish for and work for peace. The fact that he is doing so, should not lead us to hastily conclude that the Papacy is again to rise to power and control the political interests of a new order. This may be so, but we’ll have to wait and see.
With the talk of peace being revived, it is natural that much thought should be given to what sort of a new order will be fixed up by the terms of peace, by whomsoever they may be imposed. So far the outlook for a new order of any kind is not too promising. All sorts of pacts are being made, but there is little evidence thus far that they will contribute toward a permanent peace. Writing about the recently established alliance between the Axis powers and Japan, Dorothy Thompson, in The Herald Tribune, says:
“The German-Italian-Japanese pact ought to make clear to Americans, if there are any who still need convincing, that this is no European war, but a world revolution for the redistribution of the entire planet. That’s what it was intended to be in the beginning; that’s what it is; and in the nature of things it is directed as much against us as against anybody else.”
With this block of nations attempting to force a world revolution, and the democracies bending every possible diplomatic and military effort to prevent it; the outcome from the human standpoint is quite unpredictable. Meanwhile the struggle continues, and spreads and becomes more horrible with the passing days and months. Especially foreboding is the outlook for the civilian populations for Europe during the forth-coming winter.
But truly hope springs eternal in the human breast, so that even the Jews who have probably suffered more than any other peoples during the last few years, are still waiting and hoping for a new order in which they will enjoy opportunities and privileges now denied them. And the British Government, while not now in a position to give any material aid to the Jews, yet still has the faith to make promises. This is revealed in a recent statement by Arthur Greenwood, a member of the War Cabinet, in a message to the American Jews delivered through an English Rabbi, which says:
“The tragic fate of the Jewish victims of Nazi tyranny has, as you know, filled us with a deep emotion. The speeches of responsible statesmen in Parliament and at the League of Nations during the last seven years have reflected the horror with which the people of this country have viewed the Nazi relapse into barbarism.
“The British Government sought again to secure some amelioration of the lot of persecuted Jewry both in Germany itself and in the countries which were infected by the Nazi doctrine of racial hatred. Today the same sinister power which has trampled on its own defenseless minorities, and by fraud and force has temporarily robbed many small peoples of their independence, has challenged the last stronghold of liberty in Europe.
“When we have achieved victory, as we assuredly shall, the nations will have the opportunity of establishing a new world order based on the ideals of justice and peace. In such a world it is our confident hope that the conscience of civilized humanity would demand that the wrongs suffered by the Jewish people in so many countries should be righted.
“In the rebuilding of civilized society after the war, there should and will be a real opportunity for Jews everywhere to make a distinctive and constructive contribution; and all men of goodwill must assuredly hope that in new Europe the Jewish people, in what ever country they may live, will have freedom and full equality before the law with every other citizen.”
That the pre-1914 world order which men called civilization cannot be restored seems now to be an accepted fact by economists, statesmen, and rulers of all nations. No longer do men raise the question, Can civilization be saved? but rather What can we do about building a new order? To date there is certainly very little progress being made in the way of building a new world which is likely to be any better—if indeed, as good—as the one that was mortally wounded by the first World War, and has been dying ever since. However, there is a great deal of talk along this line, and probably still more wishful thinking.
While leaders of thought in all nations are discussing the prospects of a new order, their viewpoints vary as to what the world will or should be. The new civilization (?) for which the Axis Powers are working is certainly not a kind that will be satisfactory to Great Britain and her Allies. Indeed, the whole British Empire is putting every ounce of its fighting strength into a battle to prevent an Axis-controlled world-order from becoming a reality. The Democracies feel that such an order would deprive the masses of liberty, destroy religion, and reduce practically all the nations to impotency.
British statesmen, though, are also discussing a new world order which they will build, when victorious—with the help, of course, of the other democracies. Doubtless this democratically inspired new civilization would be much better in every way than the one proposed by the Axis powers; at least, it should be hoped so. But is it one that will be wholly satisfactory to all nations and peoples, so that there will be no causes for future wars? Will it satisfactorily eliminate the constant struggle between capital and labor? Will it provide constant and adequately gainful employment for every able bodied man and woman in the world who wants and needs work in order to provide food, clothing and shelter for self and family?
Will the democratic new world remember the army of “forgotten men” for which our President evinced so much interest? Will it increase the privileges of the under-privileged? Will it be so wholly satisfactory to all nations that they will be unable to foresee any causes for further war; hence will do away with their standing armies, and “beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks”? Will it put these much needed reforms into practice quickly enough so that one or more of the nations will not get tired waiting for them and start another war to achieve these objectives for themselves at the expense of others?
We are confident that every right-thinking person in the world would say, I hope so; but are the masses of the people, the rich and the poor alike, unselfish enough to make possible the establishment of such a wonderful world? Is there reason to believe that the rich, for example, can suddenly become more interested in the general welfare and happiness of humanity than they are in their own selfish interests? Is there any reason to believe that the poor will suddenly be willing to adopt an unselfish interest in the betterment of all mankind, including the rich, than they are merely in obtaining shorter working hours and bigger pay?
This problem of human selfishness is just as great today as at any time during the history of the past. It has been at the bottom of all the evils the world has known, and has prevented every nobly conceived effort that has ever been made to establish a genuine utopia of human happiness based upon justice and goodwill. Neither science nor education has eradicated selfishness from the fallen and depraved human heart. The cruelties of war do not destroy it. A thousand bombing planes may destroy a city and scatter its inhabitants, but they cannot rout the ingrained selfishness that has and continues to be the motivating power of so much human thought and activity. Only by divine intervention can this fundamental reform in human action be accomplished.
It is the prophetically-inspired expectation of divine intervention in the affairs of men following the collapse of the institutions that are based upon selfishness, that constitutes the Christian’s real source of comfort in the troubled world today. It is in the knowledge that man’s selfishness has brought him to his present extremity, and that God will take the opportunity to act, that we can with hope look forward to the world of tomorrow.
One of the major features of God’s plan for world betterment is a program of education by which the people will “learn righteousness.” (Isa. 26:9) In Zephaniah’s prophecy (3:8,9) the death of the old order is depicted, and the prophet declares that following that God will “turn to the people a pure language,” that they “may all call upon the name of the Lord to serve Him with one consent.” In Jeremiah 31:31-34 the promise is that God will enter into a covenant with Israel, which will be extended until all shall know the Lord, from the least to the greatest. That this will not be merely a superficial knowledge is shown by the statement that the Law of God will be written in the hearts of the people.
When the people learn the Lord’s ways they will recognize the advantages of love, and will adopt love as the motivating principle in their lives. This would mean that a person would rather lay down life for another than to take unjust advantage of him. It would mean that the great force impelling all human action will be to give rather than to get. With such a change in human hearts, we can well imagine how readily all will quickly fall into line with the laws of Christ’s Kingdom, knowing that they are designed for the general good and for the glory of God. So it is that as Christians we, too, look forward to the new order, knowing that it is to be a divine order, and for that new Kingdom arrangement we continue to wait and pray.
There are many today who seem vaguely to realize that only divine intervention in the affairs of men will bring lasting peace and happiness to the distressed world. Few of these, however, are yet willing to go all the way in their dependence upon God, but prefer to continue in the age-old delusion that Goff will help their side to win and thus establish peace. Howard B. Rand, a Boston attorney, Secretary of the Anglo-Saxon Federation of America, predicts upon the basis of pyramid measurements that in the summer of 1941 “a spiritual awakening will be evidenced in the nations fighting the dictators that will give the democracies the power to win. The results of the awakening, according to the prophets, will be the complete collapse of the present economic order by 1948 and the greatest disarmament conference in the history of the world. Peace will reign for untold centuries when this war ends.”—Chicago Daily News
To much of this we can agree. There will be a genuine disarmament program, because the prophet has said that “nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” But, we cannot agree that the fulfillment of this divine prophecy depends upon a “spiritual awakening” of nations that will enable them to defeat other nations. This sort of philosophy is just another way of saying that the present war is a “holy war,” with God on one side, and the devil on the other.
We have no difficulty in agreeing that the ideals and methods of the democracies in the present struggle are more lofty and humanitarian than those inspiring the totalitarians, but let us not make the age-old mistake of supposing that God is sponsoring the cause of one against the other. For six thousand years God has been preparing the organizational agencies through which His Kingdom laws are to be administered; and it will be through these that He will establish peace and good will in the earth. It will not be through the agencies of victorious democracies or defeated dictators.
In the new Kingdom arrangements doubtless God will use all that is good and righteous wherever found; but the laws of that Kingdom are to go forth from “Zion,”—Christ and His glorified church (Psalms 2:8,9; Rev. 2:26,27)—and the “word of the Lord from Jerusalem”—the earthly phase of the Kingdom, consisting of the resurrected ancient worthies. (Matt. 8:11; Micah 4:1-4) The authority of that Kingdom will not be backed up by battleships and bombing planes, but by the power of God.
Yes, there will he a new order, but whether by 1948 or 1954 is relatively unimportant. One thing we know is that the new order will be established in God’s due time; and we know that it will be the “desire of all nations.” All nations will have a part in establishing it, and that part will be to humble themselves before the Lord, acknowledge their own inability to properly rule the world in peace and righteousness, and to say “Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain [Kingdom] of the Lord, … and He will teach us of His ways and we will walk in His paths.”—Isa. 2:2-4
That will truly be a spiritual awakening, and it will cause the nations to love and help each other rather than to hate and destroy. Meanwhile we must wait, and while waiting, continue to pray for God’s new order. And we can be thankful that we are living in a country where the people want peace, and where the government is striving to maintain peace. Let us be glad for the blessings now enjoyed, yet look forward to the better days of the new Kingdom.