| News and Views | June 1942 |
Freedom for the People
EARLY in the 19th century Elliot Ebenezer wrote what he called “The People’s Anthem,” a part of which reads as follows:
When wilt thou save the people?
Oh, God of mercy, when?
Not kings and lords, but nations!
Not thrones and crowns, but men!
Flowers of Thy heart, oh, God, are they!
Let them not pass, like weeds, away!
Their heritage a sunless day!
God, save the people!
The noble expression of interest in and sympathy for the common man is echoed in the hearts of millions. Indeed, these words express the sentiments of an ever-increasing number of people the world over, as modern education continues to reveal the God-given rights of man. The divinely foretold “increase of knowledge” which was to come in the “time of the end” began to make its impact felt upon a world enslaved in ignorance as far back as the close of the 18th century. (Dan. 12:3) Only those, however, who are viewing world developments in the light of prophecy can grasp the full significance of this sudden advent of education and invention during the last century and a half. They see these things as a part of the divine preparation for the Kingdom of Christ which is destined to bring complete liberation—including freedom from sin and death—for the people of all nations—rich and poor.
When the foretold “increase of knowledge” was in its infancy there was only one here and there who caught the vision of what it meant for mankind clearly enough to give expression to it; and even these viewed it merely from the standpoint of human wisdom. They did not realize that in lifting the curtain of ignorance from the masses God was preparing them for the blessings of liberty and happiness which He was about to give them through the medium of Christ’s Kingdom.
In Daniel’s prophecy of the “time of the end” the increase of knowledge is associated with a “time of trouble.” (Dan. 12:1-3) The trouble is the inevitable first result of the knowledge. People do not clamor and fight for liberty, and other blessings which have been withheld from them, until they have been awakened to a realization that they have been denied these blessings. Furthermore, the hereditary royalists and the “economic royalists” are not willing at first to voluntarily surrender their “rights,” hence struggle to retain them. And inasmuch as selfishness measurably controls both groups there is bound to be a controversy—a controversy that increases as the years and decades pass, and which finally breaks in all its fury in a world-wide “time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation.”
World economists who are viewing this developing struggle merely from the standpoint of human wisdom see in it what they think to be a step in human progress toward a higher civilization for all nations. These fail to take into consideration two important factors. First, they don’t realize that the sudden increase of knowledge coming to the world after nearly six thousand years of ignorance and superstition is of divine appointment, and does not represent an enlargement of human brain capacity. Second, education has not in itself furnished a solution for the problem of human selfishness, as is evidenced in the present-day misuse of modern inventions.
The world is not to blame for failing to consider these two factors. In due time they will realize that what they thought to be higher attainments of man were but the beginnings of blessings which God had centuries before promised would be poured out for all nations through the administration of Christ’s Kingdom. But even now outstanding personalities in the world are beginning to see vaguely the meaning of the increase of knowledge, and see in it eventual liberation for a world of slaves. The following quotation from a speech by Mr. Henry A. Wallace, Vice President of the United States, delivered on May the 8th of this year, will be of interest in this connection:
“As we begin the final stages of this fight to the death between the free world and the slave world, it is worthwhile to refresh our minds about the march of freedom for the common man. The idea of freedom—the freedom that we in the United States know and love so well—is derived from the Bible with its extraordinary emphasis on the dignity of the individual.
“The prophets of the Old Testament were the first to preach social justice. But that which was sensed by the prophets many centuries before Christ was not given complete and powerful political expression until our Nation was formed as a Federal Union a century and a half ago. Even then, the march of the common people had just begun. Most of them did not yet know how to read and write. There were no public schools to which all children could go. Men and women cannot be really free until they have plenty to eat, and time and ability to read and think and talk things over. Down the years, the people of the United States have moved steadily forward in the practice of democracy. Through universal education, they now can read and write and form opinions of their own. They have learned, and are still learning, the art of production—that is, how to make a living. They have learned, and are still learning, the art of self-government.
“Everywhere, reading and writing are accompanied by industrial progress, and industrial progress sooner or later inevitably brings a strong labor movement. From a long-time and fundamental point of view, there are no backward peoples which are lacking in mechanical sense. Russians, Chinese, and the Indians both of India and the Americas all learn to read and write and operate machines just as well as your children and my children. Everywhere the common people are on the march. By the millions, they are learning to read and write, learning to think together, learning to use tools. These people are learning to think and work together in labor movements, some of which may be extreme or impractical at first, but which eventually will settle down to serve effectively the interests of the common man.
“When the freedom-loving people march—when the farmers have an opportunity to buy land at reasonable prices and to sell the produce of their lands through their own organizations, when workers have the opportunity to form unions and bargain through them collectively, and when the children of all the people have an opportunity to attend schools which teach them truths of the real world in which they live—when these opportunities are open to everyone, then the world moves straight ahead.”
These are significant words when we consider that they were uttered by the Vice President of the United States in time of war. Indeed, his speech was designed to clarify the objective of the American war effort, and the viewpoint expressed by Mr. Wallace was that the present war is one of the battles in a major “people’s revolution” which has already been drawn out over a period of more than a hundred and fifty years. In explaining his understanding of this world development Mr. Wallace speaks of the role the Axis powers are playing in the struggle as being an attempt to reverse the sign boards on the road which the peoples of the world are marching to freedom.
This was made possible, he said, because the misguided rich had financed the dictators in the hope that they could turn back the march of human progress. It is a well known fact that the conservative elements in Great Britain, under the leadership of the late Sir Neville Chamberlain, favored the rearmament of Germany in the belief that the Nazis would serve as a wall of protection to prevent Russian Communism spreading westward. Now a Vice President of the United States glorifies the Communist revolution in Russia by putting it in the same category as the American Revolution, speaking of it as another step forward in the people’s march to freedom. The following paragraph is also from Mr. Wallace’s speech of May the 8th:
“The march of freedom of the past 150 years has been a long drawn out people’s revolution. In this Great Revolution of the people, there were the American Revolution of 1775, the French Revolution of 1792, the Latin-American Revolutions of the Bolivarian Era, the German Revolution of 1848, and the Russian Revolution of 1917. Each spoke for the common man in terms of blood and on the battlefield. Some went to excess, but the significant thing is that the people groped their way to the light. More of them learned to think and work together.”
That conservative England’s attempt to keep Communism confined to Russia was futile is now apparent. The appeasement policy not only failed to prevent war with the nation they permitted to arm, but now the war has actually resulted in Communism becoming popular in Great Britain. Edward R. Murrow, CBS correspondent in London, reports that at newsreel theatres in Great Britain, the picture of Joseph Stalin is much more loudly applauded than pictures of Churchill or Roosevelt. It is natural, of course, that Russia’s contribution to the war should be greatly appreciated by the British people, but irrespective of the cause, Communism is making rapid strides forward in many parts of the earth today, and this fact is one of the most outstanding results of the present war. The “Left Wing” tendencies of high officials in the British Government and in the Anglican Church are but straws in the wind indicating the drift in this direction. In line with this drift is a report issued by the British Labor Party, through two cabinet members, Hugh Dalton and Herbert Morrison; and designed as a basis for discussion at the 41st Annual Labor Party Conference, which opened in London on Monday, May the 25th. We quote the following excerpts from this report:
“No party is more fully aware than the British Labor Party that this war makes a crisis in our civilization as profound as that of the Reformation and the French Revolution. The first act was the war of 1914; and men hoped when peace came that the lesson of its sufferings had been learned. The hope proved vain; and this tragedy has swept over mankind because in the years between 1918 and 1939 the forces of privilege refused, where they could, to admit the need for vital change.
“They sought to meet the social and economic problems of the 20th Century with ideas which already were obsolete. They refused to recognize that a democratic civilization is incompatible, under the conditions of modern science and technology, with either the parochialism of national sovereignty on the one hand, or the confinement of freedom, on the other, to those whose possession of property gave them, and them alone, access to economic security. That refusal meant a civilization which, for most, was careless of equity and justice.
“The inequity of the system was plainly demonstrated in the years of the Great Depression. All over the world millions of men and women were unemployed, vast areas of production were left to waste, poverty was widespread, while every device that could restrict the potential wealth at our disposal was called into play. … It was fear for privilege which, in the epoch of ‘appeasement,’ led so many of the corresponding classes in Britain, France and the United States to sympathize with the habits and the purposes of the Fascist and Nazi dictators…
“In the result, they got the war they did not want at the hour chosen by the enemies of civilization at their moment of highest preparation. ‘Appeasement’ almost sacrificed the liberties of the world to those vested interests which had for so long been careless either of equity or of justice.”
* * *“We have, therefore, in the judgment of the Labor Party to set out now, as a deliberate part of our war effort to organize for four things.
Ҧ We have to provide full employment.
Ҧ We have to rebuild a Britain to standards worthy of the men and women who have preserved it.
Ҧ We have to organize social services at a level which secures adequate health, nutrition, and care in old age, for all citizens.
Ҧ We have to provide educational opportunities for all which insure that our cultural heritage is denied to none.
“Unless we do these things, there will be, after the war, a repetition of mass-unemployment, the re-emergence of distressed areas, a rebuilding of Britain made mean and inadequate by the surrender of public good to private interest. The Labor Party does not believe that the nation will accept peacefully a return to these conditions. They would endanger the whole purpose for which we are fighting.
“The Labor Party asks that we register now, as a nation, our recognition that this war has already, socially and economically, effected a revolution in the world as vast, in its ultimate implications, as that which marked the replacement of Feudalism by Capitalism. All over the world, the evidence is abundant that this revolution deeply has affected men’s minds; our central problem is to discover its appropriate institutions, above all, if we can, to discover them by consent.”
As Christians, we know that God loves all the people, the rich and the poor, rulers and the ruled. We know, too, that He intends to bless them all through the medium of Messiah’s Kingdom. Our outlook on world developments therefore is a more comprehensive one than is held by those who are not viewing them through the prophecies of the Bible. We, too, see a great “revolution” taking place, in which the end result will be the full establishment of Christ’s Kingdom. And we see that Kingdom destroying all the enemies of God and man, and man restored to his rightful position as king of earth. More than sixty years ago Pastor Russell wrote about this larger revolution, as follows:
“The ‘Day of Jehovah’ is the name of that period of time in which God’s Kingdom, under Christ, is to be gradually ‘set up’ in the earth, while the kingdoms of this world are passing away and Satan’s power and influence over men are being bound. It is everywhere described as a dark day of intense trouble and distress and perplexity upon mankind. And what wonder that a revolution of such proportions, and necessitating such great changes, should cause trouble. Small revolutions have caused trouble in every age; and this, so much greater than any previous revolution, is to be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation—no, nor ever shall be.—Daniel 12:1; Matthew 24:21,22.”—The Divine Plan of the Ages, page 307.
The following paragraph, from page 313 of The Divine Plan of the Ages, is also to the point, and coincides closely with Vice President Wallace’s appraisal of world developments in the “time of the end”:
“During past ages, under various influences (among others, ignorance, race prejudices, and national pride), the great wealth of the world has generally been in the hands of the few—the rulers—to whom the masses rendered slavish obedience as to their national representatives, in whose wealth they felt a pride and an interest as their own representatively. As the time drew near in which Jehovah designed to bless the world through a restitution at the hands of Messiah, He began to lift up the veil of ignorance and superstition, through modern facilities and inventions; and with these came the general elevation of the people and the decreasing power of earthly rulers. No longer is the wealth of the world in the hands of its kings, but chiefly among the people.”
The following from page 541 of The Battle of Armageddon, will also be of interest, especially when we remember that it was written 45 years ago:
“The Battle of the great day, like every other revolutionary war, has its stages of gradual development. Back of every indication of strife are the inspiring causes, the real or fancied national and individual wrongs; next comes a keen appreciation of those wrongs by those who suffer from them; then generally follow various attempts at reform, which, proving abortive, lead to great controversies, wars of words, divisions, strife of opinions, and finally to revenge and strife of arms. Such is the order of the battle of the Great Day of God Almighty. Its general character is that of a struggle of light against darkness, of liberty against oppression, of truth against error. Its extent will be world-wide—peasant against prince, pew against pulpit, labor against capital: the oppressed in arms against injustice and tyranny of every kind; and the oppressors in arms for the defense of what they have long considered to be their rights, even when seemed to be encroachments upon the rights of others.”
What a wonderfully true picture is thus given us of national and international events as we have witnessed them, particularly since 1914! And even before that some of the “stages of gradual development” were apparent. These are referred to by the same writer as “incidental skirmishes” to the “Battle of the Great Day.” We should remember that this is a world-wide struggle, which means that its manifestations in each country vary, depending upon the political, educational, and religious background of the people in that country.
Thus for example, we should not expect to see such a violent manifestation of “pew against pulpit” here in America as was witnessed when the revolutionary forces of Russia overthrew the church system that had oppressed that benighted people for so many centuries. Here in America we see a more clear-cut example of “labor against capital” than is apparent in some other countries. In the over-all picture, however, every nation on earth is made to feel the effect of increasing light, so that, depending upon the specific type of shackles with which the peoples of the respective nations have been bound, necessary and appropriate moves are made toward freedom.
Nor are the old regimes of tyranny overthrown in any one birth pang or “spasm.” There are many “stages of gradual development,” many “incidental skirmishes, before the final dreadful convulsion which will be the climax of Armageddon. And the Scriptures indicate that even then not all the nations will at once awaken to a realization of what has actually occurred. Following the climax of Armageddon, Christ’s Kingdom will take over Jerusalem, and then it will remain for all the nations of the earth to fall in line. But the Scriptures indicate that there will be some “strong nations afar off” which will still need to be “rebuked,” and the Lord tells us that upon the nations which do not recognize the authority of the divine government there shall be no rain. (Micah 4:1-4; Zech. 14:17) The Prophet David informs us that the nations which then will bring peace to their people will be those which adhere to the righteous principles set before them by earth’s new King.—Psa. 72:3
Then will come genuine liberty to all peoples, the rich and the poor. It will be a liberty far beyond the fondest dreams of the merely worldly-wise. It will include freedom from sin, sickness and death. The world will then be liberated from selfishness; because the divine educational program for God’s new order will include instruction—disciplinary instruction where necessary—in the advantages and necessity of love as a ruling principle in world affairs. (Isaiah 26:9) Thus will God solve the problems that human wisdom cannot solve; and thus will the “increase of knowledge” finally clear out and purify all the dark places of the earth—even of men’s hearts—and God’s glory, with all that that implies, will fill the earth.