| News and Views | March 1942 |
A Grand and Awful Time
MORE true today than ever before are the well known words of the poet:
“We are living, we are dwelling,
In a grand and awful time.
In an age on ages telling,
To be living is sublime.
Hark! the rumbling in the nations,
Iron crumbling with the clay;
Hark! what soundeth? ’Tis creation
Groaning for a better day.“Scoffers scorning, Heaven beholding,
Thou hast but an hour to fight.
See prophetic truth unfolding!
Watch! and keep thy garments white.
Oh, let all the soul within you
For the truth’s sake go abroad!
Strike! let every nerve and sinew
Tell on ages—tell for God!”
President Roosevelt’s famous utterance, “This generation has a rendezvous with destiny” seems like the acknowledgement of an outstanding personality and a brilliant statesman that things which are happening throughout the world today are not only beyond the control of man but unexplainable in the light of facts upon which human reasoning is ordinarily based. One of the Scriptural ways of explaining the “destiny” now being worked out with the nations is by describing the time in which we live as the “day of the Lord.” It’s not the Lord’s day in the sense that everything in the world is already brought into harmony with His laws of righteousness, but rather that divine intervention in the affairs of men has now become a reality. And that’s why so many unexpected and unexplainable things are happening.—Isaiah 34:1,2; Joel 2:1-11
However, if we are to obtain the maximum comfort and encouragement from the Scriptural explanation of the momentous times in which we live it is important to keep in mind the international character of the divine program. Many of the nations now engaged in battle are claiming that their god is sponsoring their viewpoint and their efforts. But the God of the Bible is bigger than these nationalistic gods, and His program much more comprehensive than theirs. Even the Anglo-Saxon god is dwarfed by the picture the Bible gives of Jehovah, the true God of all the earth; and the new world orders now being proposed by one or another well-meaning statesman seem puny and inadequate in the light of the divine plan for the human race. The divine program is simply stated by the Lord, saying, “I will shake ALL nations, and the desire of ALL nations shall come.”—Haggai 2:7
That’s the main reason why it’s such a grand time in which to be living, for as we view the progress of world events through the field glass of divine prophecy we can readily recognize the “stately steppings of our God,” and we can’t help but stand aside in awe as we see the divine purpose being accomplished. In a word, that purpose is to humble all the nations so that they will turn to the Lord and seek to know and do His will as it will be expressed through the Messianic Kingdom now at the doors. If we think that God is thus dealing merely with the Anglo-Saxons, or other national groups, to the exclusion of the rest, then our vision of His plan is entirely too limited.
Four thousand years ago God made a promise to Abraham that through his seed all the families of the earth were to be blessed; and no racial or nationalistic theories of any sort whatever will be permitted to interfere with the fulfillment of that promise. It’s a promise to bless all the families of the earth that lived before the flood, and all who have lived and died since; and all who are living now. Back in Abraham’s day God destroyed the Sodomites because of their wickedness, yet they were included in His promise to bless all the nations of the earth; for the prophecy of Ezekiel 16, and Jesus’ statement recorded in Matthew 10:15 and 11:24 show that they are to be restored and blessed.
Yes, God’s promise to Abraham includes, in addition to his natural descendants, all the “heathen” (non-Jewish) nations that have lived and died throughout all the ages. Today it means the Chinese, the Filipinos, the Malayans, the Hindus, the “wild men of Borneo,” the Japanese, the Russians, the Italians, the Germans, and all the rest, including the Anglo-Saxons. God loves them all, and is working out a destiny for them in which they will be brought in humility to Him and become the recipients of His blessings of lasting peace, happiness and life.
God’s promised was that this blessing to all nations would come through the “seed” of Abraham. Primarily this “seed” is Jesus, and associated with Him will be His church, gathered from among all nations, and as members of His body will share with Him in the administration of the promised blessings. (See Galatians 3:8,16,27-29) The Israelitish nation was the natural seed of Abraham, to which the opportunity of joint-heirship with the Messiah was first given. Jesus came to His own we are told, “but His own received Him not.” (John 1:11) A few as individuals did, and these became the nucleus of the spiritual “seed,” which is Christ and the church.—John 1:12
The Israelitish nation as a whole was temporarily cast off from divine favor, but they are still “beloved for the fathers’ sake,” and now that the “fulness of the Gentiles” is almost come in, are soon to experience their deliverance and the blotting out of their national sin. (See Romans 11:26,27) The experiences of natural Israel today in connection with the rebuilding of Palestine, their severe persecutions in Europe and elsewhere, are among the important developments which portend the near approach of earth’s new day when the “desire of all nations” is to come.—Luke 21:30,31; Haggai 2:7
God’s ancient people, the Israelites, are to play a very important role in connection with the establishment of divine control over the affairs of men. The prophecies indicate that the final scenes of Armageddon will be in the nature of an assault upon Palestine and the people of Israel regathered there. Then will come direct divine intervention, when the eyes of Israel and of the other nations will be open to behold the glory of God and to realize that He is the Master of the situation.
We will fail to realize how wonderfully “grand” is the time in which we are living unless we view it in the light of God’s plan as a whole. This plan embraces all ages, and provides blessings for the living as well as the dead. To the Sadducees who did not believe in the resurrection of the dead, Jesus said, “Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.” (Matt. 22:29) We, too, will err in our attempt to understand God’s plan for the nations unless we take into consideration the Scriptural fact of a coming resurrection of the dead, that they, too, may share in the blessings provided by the love and power of God.
If we view the present catastrophe of the nations merely from the standpoint that they are being chastised and humbled, and that afterwards the world will go on in much the same way as it has in the past, we are seeing the awfulness of the times in which we are living but not much of their grandness. Such a limited purpose on God’s part would leave the countless millions of innocent individuals now being killed—civilians and soldiers alike—with no compensation. But how different the outlook when we see that not only those who are suffering and dying now, but all who have suffered and died in the past—on the field of battle, in beds of sickness, by accident, or by whatever cause—are to live again and have an opportunity to profit by their experience.
Death does not put an individual outside of the reckoning in God’s long-range program. He has carried forward His plan just as though every human being from the days of Eden until now had continued in the land of the living, for they are to be brought back and have an opportunity to share in the blessings to be dispensed during the final age in that plan. This means that each individual will be able to look back upon his past experiences and benefit from them. The expression, “IF I only had my life to live over again,” will have the “if” removed, and the dead will live again under the righteous laws of the Messianic Kingdom, when the experiences of the past will greatly aid them in then appraising the real value of God’s ways and Law.
At present we are, as a well known news commentator has said, watching a world fall to pieces. It started to crumble in 1914, and has never recovered itself. But we’ll make a great mistake if we think that only the other fellow’s part of the world is crumbling, and that God will hold our part together. The hand of divine destiny is over all the nations. This doesn’t mean that there are not degrees of righteousness and unrighteousness nor that one nation or group of nations may not be more to blame for the present breakdown of peace than others. It does mean that no nation on earth is sufficiently righteous to be used of God as the foundation of the new order that He proposes to establish for the blessing of all nations.
It is indeed an “awful” thing to watch a world fall apart, but it’s truly “grand” to know that God’s long-promised new world is to take its place. The reason we so greatly appreciate the democratic part of the present world is because of the many good features of democracy. There is no reason to suppose that God will cast aside the good that’s in the world. The reason He proposes to establish His own world is because the percentage of good in the present one is too low. Speaking of God’s new world, the apostle tells us that it will be one “wherein dwelleth righteousness.”—II Peter 3:13
Let’s take a close-up view of the world that is crumbling. It will help us not to feel so badly about its demise. The first thing we notice is that selfishness rules. As a result of this we see abject poverty on one hand and pyramided wealth on the other. We see dishonesty, greed, graft—in fact, the whole catalog of evil practices, not only among the common people, but in high places as well. Besides, there is sickness, suffering, crying and dying on every hand. These evils have been ever present throughout the entire history of this “present evil world.” Surely a world in which these evils will not be permitted to exist will be much better for all concerned.
The Apostle John wrote that Christians should not love this world, neither the things of the world. Evidently the apostle understood well the teachings of the Master that Satan is the prince of this world, and that Christians are called out from it and are not to love its selfish ways. True, as already noted, there is much good in the world, even as it is. This is because there is so much good in the hearts of the people. After all, the world is made up of those whose first parents were created in the image of God. But God’s plan calls for a full restoration of mankind to that moral and character image of Himself that was originally implanted in the human breast, and in order to do this He proposes to establish His own world order through which to deal with mankind.
That new world will be so far superior to the one we now see falling apart that the latter “shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.” (Isa. 65:17) This doesn’t mean, that the people in God’s world will have obliterated from their minds all memory of the past, but rather that the new environments will be so wonderful that they will not long for the past nor desire to return to it. You’re dreaming, someone may say. We answer, nay you err, “not knowing the power of God.” We are talking of the things the divine Christ will do for the people, not about some sort of a new world proposed by man.
The present world is falling apart because its outposts of protection and its home guards have not been alert enough and loyal enough and, strong enough. Its Pearl Harbors and its Singapores have failed in the hour of need. But of the time when the hand of divine destiny has brought all nations under the sovereignty of Christ’s Kingdom the prophet tells us that the “shields” or protections of the earth will “belong unto God.” (Psa. 47:9) No surprise attacks, nor fifth column activities will then be permitted to destroy the peace and happiness of the world.
Tragic indeed is the position of those today whose only hope for the future happiness of the human race has been based upon the accomplishments of man. Even worse is the position of those who have mistakenly thought that what we called civilization was sponsored by God and was the manifestation of Christ’s Kingdom on earth. We remember how, following the first World War, the League of Nations was hailed as the “political expression of Christ’s Kingdom on earth.” How disappointing have been the hopes based upon such viewpoints.
Now, however, is the time to re-examine the Bible to find out wherein previously held views of God’s position in the affairs of men have been wrong. Let no one conclude that because what they thought was Christ’s Kingdom is now crumbling that Satan has triumphed. He hasn’t. It is erroneous viewpoints and false hopes that are now being shattered by the compelling logic of world events. God is still in His heaven, and is still controlling the destiny of men and of nations.
One news commentator said that all we have left is hope, but didn’t tell us upon what to base our hope. The Bible alone tells us that, and when we scan carefully its sacred pages we find the answer, which is that “the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” It tells us, moreover, how we can know this. It points out that the time would be marked by a general and world-wide “increase of knowledge”; by the nations becoming “angry”; by their being “broken to pieces like a potter’s vessel”; by the restoration of Palestine, and bitter persecution of the Jews.—Rev. 11:19; Dan. 2:35; Jer. 23:7,8; Ezek. 37:21-28; Dan. 12:4; Psa. 2:9
But then, as we trace the prophecies through to the end they leave us with a wondrous vision of a new earth in which peace and happiness reign supreme and continuously. While the prophecies tell us that the kingdoms of this world will be melted by the blood of their armies, they also assure us that in Christ’s Kingdom to follow; the “wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.” Upon these promises we can base our hope and know that we will not be disappointed.
Yes, surely, it is “grand” to “see prophetic truth unfolding,” and grander still to know that the message God is thus conveying to us is to “look up” and “lift up” our heads knowing that our “deliverance draweth nigh.” Not only does it mean deliverance for the church, but also for the world, the whole “groaning creation.” Shall we not then, while sympathizing with the people in their distress, also bid them to “fear not, for while this is the day of God’s vengeance” yet the time is come when soon, through the Christ, He will bring salvation. Yes, our King is marching on, and while His pathway is enshrouded the clouds of war, yet the glorious Sun of the new day, the “Sun of righteousness,” will soon dispel those clouds, and God’s tomorrow will have come.—Isaiah 35:4