| News and Views | May 1943 |
Gathered for War and Peace
“Wait ye upon Me, saith the Lord, until the day that I rise up to the prey; for My determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them Mine indignation, even all My fierce anger; for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of My jealousy. For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve Him with one consent.”—Zephaniah 3:8,9
“THE gathering of the nations in these last days, in fulfillment of the above prophecy, is very notable. Modern discovery and invention have indeed made the remotest ends of the earth neighbors to each other. Travel, mailing facilities, the telegraph, the telephone, commerce, the multiplication of books and newspapers, etc., have brought all the world to a considerable extent into a community of thought and action hitherto unknown. This condition of things has already made necessary international laws and regulations that each of the nations must respect. Their representatives meet in Councils, and each nation has in every other nation its ministers or representatives. International Exhibitions have also been called forth as results of this neighboring of nations. There can no more be that exclusiveness on the part of any nation which would bar every other nation from its ports. The gates of all are necessarily thrown open, and must remain so; and even the barriers of diverse languages are being easily surmounted.”—The Battle of Armageddon, 1897.
While the railroad, the steamship, and the telegraph were being used in their crude form forty-five years ago, yet the quotation above from “The Battle of Armageddon” may now be considered largely as a prophecy in the light of present-day developments. This has been emphasized recently in a book written by Wendell L. Willkie, describing his round-the-world trip, and the impression it made upon him. The book is entitled “One World.” In it the author relates his impressions of how small the world has become as a result of modern education and invention.
He says he traveled a total of 31,000 miles, and that the net impression of his trip was not one of distance from other peoples, but of closeness to them. He says that there are really no distant points in the world any more, that the millions of human beings of the Far East are now as close to us by airplane as Los Angeles is to New York by the fastest trains. He is convinced that in the future what concerns them cannot be ignored by us.
Daniel’s prophetic increase of knowledge (12:4) is doing more to the peoples of the earth than merely bringing them closer together geographically. While the advantages of education and invention should, and in isolated instances do, result in blessings upon mankind, yet its initial impact upon the masses hitherto held in the bondage of ignorance and superstition promotes a spirit of unrest and dissatisfaction leading to what Daniel declared would be “a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation.”—Daniel 12:1
Mr. Willkie also notes this in his book, explaining that while it may seem strange, yet one senses a leaven in these lands, a reaching out of the long-inert masses; among which there is a growing apathy toward restrictive religious rites and practices. He found in every city a small group of restless, energetic, intellectual young people who knew the techniques of the mass movement by which the Russian revolution was accomplished. While there is a growing desire for liberty among all people, yet, as Mr. Willkie reports, there is also, everywhere, a growing spirit of fervid nationalism, which to him was disturbing. It seemed to him that these newly awakened peoples are destined to become followers of some extremist leader if their new hunger for education and opportunity for a release from old religious and governmental practice is not met by those now administering their affairs.
Mr. Willkie has many complimentary things to say about Russia. He was apparently favorably impressed with many things that he saw in that vast country, and what he learned about the 200,000,000 subjects of the U.S.S.R. But with Russia, as with the other countries he visited, he reveals a great sense of uncertainty and fear as to what the result of their awakening will be. What he says about the future of Russia is in principle true of the masses of mankind everywhere, as they emerge from the ignorance and superstition of the past and face the increasing light of a new day. Knowledge may dispel ignorance and superstition, but it does not in itself destroy selfishness, and enlightened selfishness in the hearts of hitherto have-not peoples of the earth becomes a real threat to whatever plans may be made for future peace. This is doubtless the reason Mr. Willkie and others are raising questions concerning the future of Russia.
What are Russia’s plans? Will she be a new disturber of the peace? What will she demand at the end of the war that will make it impossible to re-establish lasting peace in Europe? Will she attempt to flood other countries with her communistic philosophy? Mr. Willkie says he doesn’t think anyone knows the answers to these questions, not even Mr. Stalin. He says, however, that Russia must be reckoned with.
What Mr. Willkie saw to be the result of education and enlightenment among the masses of the people, and the uncertainty of what the outcome will be, is symbolically described by the prophet as follows: “The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be moved like a cottage; and the transgressions thereof shall be heavy upon it and it shall fall, and not rise again.”—Isa. 24:19,20
The result of the revolutionary power of thought now unsettling the masses of mankind is described in Isaiah 24:1 as a turning of the symbolic earth upside down. The prophetic increase of knowledge, for which God Himself takes the responsibility, is creating in the hearts of men everywhere a desire for liberty, peace and happiness, long denied them in the past. As yet, however, divine providence is holding back that further knowledge which will point the only true way to a realization of their awakening desires.
That is why Mr. Willkie is forced to admit that he doesn’t know the answers. That is why none of the statesmen of earth knows the answers, as he admits. As he fees it, there is a revolutionary force throughout the nations, which, as he puts it, is exciting and a little frightening. This, Mr. Willkie sees as proof of the enormous power of thought which impels men to fight for freedom. It is also frightening because human wisdom is unable to foresee the extent to which this clamor for liberty will lead the nations into chaos.
The prophetic increase of knowledge has gone a long way toward gathering the nations, as foretold in Zephaniah 3:8. Mr. Willkie clearly recognizes how small the world has become as the result of education and invention, and how close together all the nations of the earth have been brought. He sees clearly that the resultant interdependence of nations makes impossible a solution to world problems which leaves any of the nations out of consideration. He recognizes that just as this gathering of the nations has resulted in a global war, so the only solution must be that of a global peace—a peace that will include all nations.
Quite true! But at this point human wisdom, in its effort to find a way out, is confronted with an impasse which it can neither surmount nor bypass. The plan of God alone furnishes the answer beyond this point. The Scriptures agree with what all the world’s statesmen now know to be inevitable, that the revolution of ideas implemented by the force of arms, will make a full end of the order of things which is rapidly becoming the world of yesterday. In our text, it is symbolically described as the “earth,” which is said to be devoured by the fire of God’s jealousy. God thus takes the responsibility for the destruction of a selfish world. The method by which it is being done, as we have already seen, is that of turning on the light through the increase of knowledge.
But the Bible goes beyond the chaos of the present, and furnishes the answers as to how a global peace is finally to be established. One of those answers is given in the 9th verse of our text, in which the Lord says, “Then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve Him with one consent.” This indicates an extension of God’s educational program to include knowledge concerning Himself, and the standards of righteousness for which He stands, and to which all peoples must adhere in order to enjoy lasting peace and happiness. Other prophecies (such as that of Jeremiah 31:31-34) indicate that this educational program will be so far-reaching, and its results so deep-rooted that the law of God will be written in the very hearts of the people.
And this is not merely wishful thinking. It is not merely what God and His people would like to see. It is what divine wisdom and love have decreed should be, and what divine power guarantees shall be. It is for this purpose that the Kingdom of Christ will take over the rulership of the earth—all the earth: all that Mr. Willkie saw, and the remainder that he did not see, for “of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end. … The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.”—Isa. 9:6,7