| Highlights of Dawn | January 1957 |
Crises at the Year’s End
NOVEMBER 1956 will go down in history as a month in which a world, suffering from national, international and political tensions, began to break under the strain, bringing renewed and immediate threats of the outbreak of a third World War. This global catastrophe was at least temporarily averted, but the danger is still acute, with no solution to any of the problems leading to the series of crises which came to a head in November.
As a matter of fact, throughout the years since the close of the last World War not a single major problem confronting the nations has been solved. The fighting was stopped in Korea, but only on the basis of an uneasy armistice, the terms of which have already been broken. The armistice between Israel and her neighbors has not adjusted the basic differences which exist between them. The controversies between France and her colonies continue to flare up into intermittent armed conflict. There is no basis for genuine and lasting peace anywhere in the world.
Until November, it was supposed that at least the three powerful western nations—England, France, and the United States—would continue to agree, and thus present a solid front against disturbing influences among the smaller nations. But now that illusion is punctured. It might be argued that the difference between the United States and her allies, Great Britain and France, pertains only to the latter’s military action to wrest control of the Suez Canal from Egypt. But this is a basic difference. It pertains, for one thing, to the survival of colonialism on the one hand, and the right to self-determination of small nations on the other. And this was important enough, in the opinion of Great Britain and France, to risk a third World War by using their armed forces in an attempt to recover control of the Suez Canal, and to do this contrary to the wishes of the United States and the United Nations.
The importance of the Suez Canal to Great Britain and other West European countries is emphasized by the hardships now resulting from its temporary closure. In all probability, for example, gasoline rationing will be imposed throughout all Western Europe. Other serious economic strains will also result from that short period of armed conflict in November. This, of course, will help to increase discontent and fortify the determination that, regardless of the consequences, Egypt must not be allowed to maintain permanent control of Europe’s “lifeline.”
Israel’s position in the Middle East controversies also presents a problem which the wisdom of this world cannot solve. Her own attempt to obtain a larger measure of security by sending an army into the Sinai Peninsula has further alienated her neighbors and increased the tensions in that already greatly disturbed area.
The Communist World
Meanwhile the communist world is having its troubles. Ruthless methods are being used to keep its subjects under control, which are only partially successful. What the leaders of the communist world may suddenly decide to do under these circumstances is another cause for fear throughout the non-communist world. One editorial writer says that the fate of the human race now “hangs on a drink of vodka,” meaning that under the influence of drink anything might be started.
These fear-producing conditions throughout the world are causing many to wonder if they are significant from the standpoint of the Bible. Under the heading, “Is Day of Armageddon Near?” John Justin Smith, in an article written for The Chicago Daily News, said:
“As mighty armies gather in the Middle East, a terrible, fateful question is raised: Is the day of Armageddon, the fiery battle of Judgment Day, at hand? This is the battle men have feared for centuries, a battle prophesied some say, in the Bible. Last week foreign correspondent William Stoneman stood at Armageddon. He described the sights and sounds of armies girding for war at this place of destiny. Are these the armies of “the kings of the whole earth” mentioned in the Bible? Will their battles set off the frightening events believed to have been predicted by St. John, the Apostle? Will they see the Day of Judgment, the day of God’s wrath, the day when the earth will quake as never before?”
Mr. Smith doesn’t have too clear an understanding of the various biblical terms he uses in this article, but he does reveal the thinking of many people in this time of acute distress and fear. The Armageddon battlefield in Palestine is used in the prophecies of the Bible merely as a symbol of certain characteristics of what the Revelator describes as “the battle of the great day of God Almighty,” just as we think of “Waterloo” as having a certain symbolic meaning. When we say that an army meets its “Waterloo” we do not mean that it traveled to a certain place in Europe called Waterloo.
Armageddon was Israel’s battleground. There was one outstanding characteristic of all Israel’s battles which was not true and has never been true, of battles fought between other nations. It is the fact that God took a hand in them and overruled their victories and defeats in keeping with his own great plan of the ages.
“Armageddon,” then, suggests a struggle in which God is definitely interested, and in which he will direct the issue, assuring final and glorious victory for the forces of righteousness. It is the last great battle of the age, and will result in the defeat of all the agencies of Satan, thus preparing the way for the full manifestation of the kingdom of Christ. This is why it is described as the “battle of the great day of God Almighty.”—Rev. 16:14
That “Great Day”
The “great dray of God Almighty” is the period of time which marks the end of the present age. It is the time in which this “present evil world,” or age, comes to an end. It is described in the Bible as the day of God’s “vengeance,” and as the “last days.” It is also spoken of as the “day of the Lord,” because it is the time when the Lord intervenes in the affairs of the world to halt their mad and downward rush into sin and destruction, and establish his long-promised kingdom.
The “day of the Lord” is the time referred to by the prophecy which reads, “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 [governments], to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger: for all the earth [the social order] shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy.”—Zeph. 3:8
In the next verse of this prophecy, 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.” (vs. 9) This promise indicates that it is merely the symbolic “earth” that is destroyed in the day of the Lord’s wrath against the sinful and selfish institutions constituting the social order. The planet itself will survive this Armageddon struggle; and indeed, the people also, and these will then be enlightened with respect to the true God and his will for them, and they will serve him with “one consent.”
Isaiah 45:18 reads, “Thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord; and there is none else.” Here the Lord explains his original purpose in the creation of the earth. He “formed it to be inhabited.” This agrees with the Genesis record in which we are informed that God commanded our first parents to multiply and fill the earth, and subdue it.—Gen. 1:28
God permitted man to disobey his law in order that he might have an experience with evil and thus learn first hand its disastrous and devastating effects. Meanwhile the population of the earth has continued to increase, with each generation receiving its experiences with sin, suffering, and death. In his love, God made, through Christ a provision for the recovery from death of the fallen and dying race.
This is to be accomplished through the agencies of Christ’s kingdom, that divine government of promise which will be manifested in power and great glory following the great “Armageddon” struggle which will result in the overthrow of Satan’s rulership in the earth. Then all mankind, restored from death, will know God, and will delight to serve him.
This is the great objective of the Creator’s plan for his human creation. As we enter the new year, evidences all around us increase that the world over which Satan is “prince,” and “god,” is disintegrating, its cross currents of selfish interests causing the nations to destroy one another. We know not what detailed developments we will witness during 1957, but we do know that the glorious kingdom of Christ is near. For this we give thanks, and continue to pray, “Thy kingdom come.”
MOUNT SINAI
MOUNT SINAI, located somewhere in the Sinai peninsula, is where Moses received the Law of God, epitomized in the Ten Commandments, and proclaimed it to the Israelites. There are a number of mountains on the peninsula, but nobody knows for sure just which of them is the ancient Sinai.
Following close in the wake of Israel’s army, which recently invaded the Sinai Peninsula, is a group of scholars and pilgrims dedicated to the task of establishing the true identity of Sinai. Commenting on the interest shown in this endeavor, Dr. Samuel Cahane, Israel’s Minister of Religion, said, “It seems as if all the Jews in the world want to go to Mount Sinai.”
But a group of soldiers in the Israeli army was in no mood to wait for the scholars and pilgrims. A jeep load of them left their army base and drove to Jebel Musa—meaning the mount of Moses—where they climbed 737 steps in the sheer rock to plant the Israeli flag where they were sure Moses had talked to God. They picked the soldier with the best handwriting and had him write in the visitors’ book at a near by monastery, “We are the first unit of the Israel army to stand on top of our holy Mount of Moses. We have made history. This moment has majesty for us all.”
There are three other mountains in the Sinai Peninsula which, scholars claim, may have been the ancient Mount Sinai. To date, however, the most generally accepted one is Jebel Musa, where the Israeli flag is now flying. It is located approximately in the center of the peninsula, a little toward the south. It is one of a range of mountains.
In the Bible, Horeb is also mentioned in connection with the giving of the Law. Some claim that Horeb was the name of the whole group of mountains, of which Sinai was one. This traditional Mount Sinai is in full view of the plain of er Rahah, where the children of Israel were encamped.
This plain is a level camping ground, surrounded by mountains. It is about two miles long by half a mile broad—large enough for the whole people of Israel—two million in number—to find ample accommodation for seeing and hearing. The air is wonderfully clear for this purpose. Many years ago tests were made and it was found that from the highest point of the mountain, most generally favored as being Sinai, the reading of a book could be easily heard at a great distance. There is no other place known among all these mountains so well adapted for the purpose of giving and receiving Law as this natural amphitheatre of er Rahah.
It is, of course, faith-strengthening to realize that Mount Sinai was a real mountain which still exists. It emphasizes again that the Bible has a geographical and historical background of reality. Its contents are not fables and bedtime stories. Knowing that its records of the past are so true, and so accurate, should give us confidence in its prophecies and promises pertaining to the future. One of these is directly associated with the giving of the Law at Sinai, and reads,
“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they break. … But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my Law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.”—Jer. 31:31-33
The next verse of this prophecy informs us that this work of writing God’s law in the hearts of the people will be so complete and so universal that it will no longer be necessary for anyone to say to his neighbor, “Know the Lord,” for all shall know him from the least even unto the greatest. The fact that the Israelites are now repossessing their land is one of the proofs that the time is here when this, and other promises of God pertaining to the age of Christ’s kingdom will soon be fulfilled.
The kingdom of Christ is symbolized in the Bible by a mountain, and the time is near when from this symbolic mountain, which will dominate the whole world of mankind, the laws of the new kingdom will be proclaimed by a greater than Moses. Obedience to these will lead to everlasting life. In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul indicates that the thunderings and lightnings, and the earthquake which accompanied the giving of the Law at Sinai foreshadowed the world-shaking events of the present time which are preparing the world for the blessings of Christ’s kingdom just beyond.—Hebrews 12:18-28
ROME
THE International Astronautical Congress, at a meeting in Italy’s capital, decided that the time had come for the proper authorities to make decisions relative to the ownership of outer space, and to formulate the necessary legal arrangements for dealing with the people on Mars and other planets which they imagine will one day become accessible to travelers by means of space ships. Mr. Andrew G. Haley, general counsel of the American Rocket Society, maintains that if there are inhabited planets anywhere in the universe, other than the earth, and if they can be reached by man, lawyers and statesmen will have problems to solve which will be much more baffling than those confronting our confused and fear-filled world today.
Mr. Haley is undoubtedly right. However, that little word “if,” is actually a very important one in this connection. “If” any of the other planets are inhabited, and “if” we humans are ever able to visit them, there would be problems other than riding through space on a space ship that has not even been built. We do not want to destroy the dreams of any who are wishfully thinking they might be able to escape the problems of our own planet by becoming involved in new ones on Mars. The fact is, however, the Bible makes it quite plain that in the creation of man the Creator intended that he should remain on the earth. Speaking to the Athenians on Mars’ Hill the Apostle Paul said concerning the human race, that all nations were made of one blood “to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bound’s of their habitation.”—Acts 17:26
This harmonizes with the Genesis record of the creation of man which informs us that God commanded man to multiply and “fill the earth.” Nothing was said about migrating to other planets when the earth would be filled. Through sin man forfeited his right to eternal life on the earth, but the redemptive work of Christ guarantees that all will have another opportunity to live. This opportunity will come to the human race during what the Apostle Peter describes as “times of restitution of all things,” which, he declares, was foretold by the mouth of all God’s holy prophets since the world began.
True, the Bible does hold out an off-the-earth reward for the footstep followers of Jesus. In the Bible the invitation to these is described as a “heavenly calling.” (Heb. 3:1) Those who attain to it will be associated with Jesus in his long-promised kingdom which is to rule over the earth for a thousand years, and it will be during this time that the dead and dying race will be restored to life on the earth.
ROCHESTER, N.Y.
DR. WILLIAM S. CARLSON, president of the State University of New York, addressing the state’s annual health forum said that the “very atmosphere of the university tends to corrode the average student’s traditional moral and religious beliefs.” To this Dr. Carlson added, “To the extent that colleges take no steps to fill the vacuum of belief which they create, they are contributing to the sum total of mental instability.” He explained that the colleges had not intentionally created an atmosphere “unconducive to religious growth.”
In this observation by Dr. Carlson we have a frank admission that our higher institutions of learning are weakening the moral and religious beliefs of their students. To what extent will this affect the youth of the nation as they step into positions of responsibility in government, business, and in the social life of the country?
Dr. Carlson has expressed a viewpoint which is surprising from still another standpoint. Many claim that too serious a consideration of religion is liable to unbalance one’s mind, but Dr. Carlson says that it is the lack of religion that does this. He suggests that the colleges supply a substitute to fill the vacuum they create by weakening the moral and religious beliefs of their students. But he doesn’t indicate what this substitute should be.
The religious beliefs which are being destroyed by the colleges are largely those which have been handed down to us from the Dark Ages. They do not stand the test of reason, and this is why they are being discarded. Our suggestion is that all the creeds and dogmas of men be set aside, and a sincere effort be made to study and understand the pure teachings of the Bible.
The Bible, when allowed to interpret itself, reveals a harmonious plan of the Creator for the ultimate establishment of peace and good will throughout the earth. It reveals the great Creator of the universe to be a God of wisdom, justice, love, and power. It assures us that the time is coming, and soon, when a knowledge of his glory will fill the earth as the waters cover the sea. To learn the truth of the Bible tends toward stability of mind and purpose, described by the Apostle Paul as the “spirit of a sound mind.”
ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA
ACCORDING to a report published in the Air Force Magazine, the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Co. has developed a new aluminum coated material of which suits can be made which will resist intense heat. An engineer wearing a heat-protective suit made of this material, has walked into an industrial furnace heated to 1200 degrees Fahrenheit. He carried an armload of wood which promptly burst into flames and burned as he stood in the heat. A half-inch thick steak which he held on another trip into the furnace cooked medium rare in less than two minutes.
Critics have wondered about the story in the Book of Daniel concerning the three Hebrews who, because they refused to bow down and worship an image erected by King Nebuchadnezzar, were cast into a fiery furnace, but were not burned. Well, they can stop wondering now, for if mere man can find a way to protect himself against the flames of a fiery furnace, it should be simple for the Creator, who provided man with all that he has to work with, to do the same.
We often think of man’s new-found ability to split the atom and utilize its pent up energy. But only God can make an atom. This great God, who created all things, even life itself, has promised to restore life by resurrecting all who have died, to give them an opportunity to obey his laws of righteousness and live forever.
BUCK HILLS FALLS, PENNSYLVANIA
DR. EUGENE L. SMITH, addressing the Division of Foreign Missions of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., said that American pastors “expurgate the Gospel,” and feed their congregations on “half truths.” He said that generally speaking we “cut the Gospel down to a size that fits easily into our culture,” that we “expurgate those elements which embarrass us by their radicalness, their grandeur, their terrifying purity.”
In order to understand clearly just what Dr. Smith might have meant by this strong condemnation of modern preaching we would have to know what he means by the “Gospel.” We suspect, however, that he is referring particularly to the moral and ethical teachings of Jesus which are found in that exalted standard of righteousness set forth in his Sermon on the Mount.
And there is much in this sermon to embarrass modern churchianity, in a world in which preparation for war is considered to be the best safeguard for peace, the clarion call of Jesus to “turn the other cheek” is a bit embarrassing. The various facets of what Dr. Smith refers to as the terrifying purity” of the Gospel are not appealing to the unbelieving world.
Actually, of course, the word “Gospel” applies more particularly to God’s designs toward the human race rather than the righteous precepts of his Word by which his will for his people is expressed. The word “Gospel” means “good news,” and it was the good news of God’s provision of life through Christ that angels proclaimed on the night Jesus was born. “Behold, I bring you good tidings of great, joy, which shall be unto all people,” said the angel, “for unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior which is Christ the Lord.”—Luke 2:10,11
The Apostle Paul informs us that this “Gospel” was preached beforehand unto Abraham, when God said to him that through his seed all the families of the earth would be blessed. Christ is this “seed” of promise, and the Apostle Peter describes the work which he accomplishes on behalf of mankind following his return, as the restitution of all things,” and adds that all God’s prophets foretold this time of blessing coming to mankind, To us, it would seem that leaving out any part of the prophetic message pertaining to the future blessing of the world, would be a serious expurgation of the Gospel.