| Highlights of Dawn | February 1967 |
This Changing World
DECEMBER 7 last was the twenty-fifth anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese, that act of aggression that catapulted the United States into the second World War. Commenting on the long-range result of this tragic bombing, U.S. News and World Report said, “The bombs that hit Pearl Harbor unleashed forces that produced a quarter century of the vastest changes the world has known. Since that morning; man has tamed atoms, moved into space, surged ahead in unprecedented prosperity in many parts of the world. Empires have vanished, maps changed, centers of power shifted. And a whole new set of problems has replaced problems of the past.”
Surveying the national and political changes which have taken place in the world in our generation, we are inclined to go back twenty-seven years prior to Pearl Harbor, to the outbreak of the first World War. That war was precipitated much less spectacularly than was America’s entry into the second World War. Then all that was needed was the assassination of an obscure Austrian prince. Because of the interlocking of treaties by the various powers of Europe, that assassination triggered a chain reaction which quickly resulted in essentially all of Europe being engulfed in the flames of war. Later, non-European nations, including the United States, joined the struggle, and it became a World War.
Prior to that war, most of the great powers of Europe were governed by hereditary ruling houses. In Austria-Hungary it was the House of the Hapsburgs; in Germany, the House of the Hohenzollerns; in Italy, the House of Savoy; and in Russia, the House of the Romanoffs. By the time the war was over, the ruling family of Russia had been murdered and that country was controlled by the Communists. The Kaiser of Germany was in exile, and a republic had been established.
The King of Italy was still nominally the ruler of that country, but in developments following the war, Italy came under the control of a fascist dictator. The German republic gave way to the Nazi dictator, Adolf Hitler, who ousted the government in Austria and extended his rulership over that country.
Following the first war, dramatic efforts were made to save the peace. For this purpose the League of Nations was formed, but that organization failed of its purpose. In the 1920’s there were years of prosperity for the United States; then came the Great Depression, which merged into the rise of the dictators and the second World. War. This war had been in progress for more than two years before the United States became actively involved. But the bombing of Pearl Harbor ended this noninvolvement, and the United States became one of the most active participants.
Fascism and Nazism were overthrown in the second World War, but communism continued to flourish and to extend its sphere of influence to other parts of the world, and it is still doing so.
So the bombing of Pearl Harbor merely accentuated the changes already taking place in what had become a topsy-turvy world of uncertainty.
No Victors
The United States was probably the one nation most responsible for bringing that war to a close, assisted by the use of the atomic bomb. While, for the want of better terms, commentators and historians speak of the victors and the defeated in that war, actually no one was truly victorious, for at the war’s end all nations were wounded and bleeding. Because of the tremendous resources of the United States this country was able to keep the other nations from going completely under. This was done, first through the Marshall Plan, and then through continuing foreign aid.
But how the world has changed since those first atomic bombs marked the end of the war! Now hydrogen bombs have superseded atomic bombs as the world’s most destructive weapons, and the United States no longer has a monopoly on these most modern instruments of destruction. France, England, Russia, and China now have the secret and are producing these total-kill weapons.
In the second World War Japan was one of the chief enemies of the United States. Now Japan is considered to be one of America’s most powerful allies in the Far East. One of the American objectives in fighting the second World War was to protect China from Japanese aggression. Now China is the number one enemy of the United States hi that part of the world. That destructive war in Korea was fought against soldiers from China.
At the time that the United States entered the second World War, Russia was on the verge of being defeated by the German armies. American supplies in Russia, plus the added pressure against Germany in the West by American soldiers, turned the tide of battle, and at the end of the war Russia was counted among the “victors.” Now Russia is regarded by most as America’s greatest potential enemy.
British Empire Gone
Prior to the first World War the British Empire was a formidable bastion, and the British Navy ruled the seas. Now Great Britain is just a second-class nation, and geographically, merely an island off the coast of Europe., Its once colossal industry is now eclipsed by other nations, and the power of her sterling, once the financial standard of the world, is broken.
It is only by looking backward that we can recognize the many changes which have been brought about in the distressed world of today. For example, as recently as at the end of the second World War Africa was largely a. continent of colonies. Now it is a continent of thirty-nine independent nations.
Russia, of course, disclaims being a colonial power, and this is technically true. Nevertheless she uses her armies to maintain a hold on Poland, Rumania, Bulgaria, Hungary, East Germany, and Czechoslovakia. Besides this, Russia has completely taken over the little nations of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. The degree of change which has taken place in the last fifty years exceeds by far anything which historians record pertaining to the preceding centuries. Indeed hundreds, even thousands, of years were required in the past for such national and international changes to take place.
Scientific Developments
Not alone in the fields of politics and national associations have great changes been made in the last fifty years. The necessities of war, prodding scientists and inventors into more resolute action, have produced what at one time, would have been considered not only fantastic, but impossible. In reality there has been a scientific and technological revolution of astounding proportions. There is the computer, for example, which is making possible many almost miraculous accomplishments in so many fields of endeavor; among these, the exploration of space.
We are all acquainted with the advancements which have been made in the fields of communication and travel. Six hundred miles an hour is now normal traveling speed for jet passenger planes, and planes are being constructed that will more than double this speed. Supersonic speeds will soon make the longest journeys very short. Providing adequate terminal facilities for the increasing masses who travel by air has already become a serious problem for the airlines.
Interesting Items
In the twenty-five years since Pearl Harbor, the population of the United States has increased by sixty-three million. The total is now one hundred and ninety-eight million. It is estimated that at the end of: the next twenty-five years the population of the United States will be two hundred and seventy-two million.
In the last twenty-five years the number of automobiles on the roads in the United States increased by fifty million, to a total of seventy-nine million. It is predicted that in the next twenty-five years this total will increase to one hundred and fifty million. It is, of course, hopefully expected that new and improved highways will be constructed to keep pace with this increasing travel.
Through technology the work week has been greatly shortened. In 1916 the average work week was fifty-five hours now it is forty-one hours, with labor constantly bringing pressure upon industry to reduce the hours of work still more. It is predicted that before too long the people of the United States may see a thirty-hour work week, possibly spread over four days. This would mean a three-day week-end each week.
At the beginning of the first World War we had neither radio nor television; when Pearl Harbor was bombed, radio was in almost universal use in the United States, and there are millions who remember the news flashes concerning that world-shaking event as they came over the radio. But television was then unknown except in the dreams of the inventors. Now, twenty-five years later, television is in as general use in the United States as radio was then; and now, most television stations are broadcasting in color.
Future Changes Needed
We might go on and on reminding ourselves of the almost endless evidences of the changes that are taking place. But have these changes tended to make the world a happier place? Reluctantly we have to admit that with all the advances in technology the world has become more chaotic and distressed. One reason for this is that the advancements of science have not provided adequate food and clothing for seventy-five per cent of the world’s population, who, even today, twenty-five years from Pearl Harbor, are hungry and poorly clothed.
This is a fact that we too often overlook. We speak glibly of the high standard of living we enjoy, yet often seem unaware of the fact that but a small number of the earth’s population enjoy this standard. It is too easy to think of the United States and parts of Europe as being the world, and congratulate ourselves on the marvelous progress the “world” is making. Even right here in the United States, large segments of the population in certain areas do not enjoy the high standards of living which most of us are so happy to talk about.
It is good to be able to say that the government is endeavoring to correct this situation, War has been declared on poverty, and billions of dollars have already been spent on this war, but the progress thus far reported is not encouraging. It would seem that this perplexing problem, like all the others, facing this changing world, goes beyond the ability of feeble man to solve.
It is natural that writers who sum up the changes that have taken place in the world since Pearl Harbor, or since 1914, should also attempt to give us foregleams of what the future will bring. It is reasonably certain that further great strides will be made along scientific lines. Probably some of the marvels of today will be crude oddities tomorrow. But will the better things to come solve the basic problem of human selfishness, so that the potentials for production in the future will be utilized to create equal standards of living for all the peoples of all nations and races?
Judging from the past fifty years, we can only suppose that the more technological progress that is made, the greater will be the dissatisfaction and the more striving there will be among the people and nations of the earth. Computers will never be able to instill love in the hearts of the people, nor will men’s longing hearts and empty stomachs ever be satisfied by knowing that the people of another country are living luxuriously while they are languishing in poverty.
God’s Remedy
If we believe the promises of the Bible, we can look into the future with great hope and joy. And we should be able to believe those promises, for the Bible foretells the very time in which we are living and indicates that it is one of preparation for the long-promised messianic kingdom, a transitional period in which the old world is dying, to make way for God’s new world of tomorrow. Since the Bible so correctly forecasts what we see taking place in the world today, we should have confidence in what it testifies concerning the outcome of this time of chaotic change.
One of God’s kingdom promises is recorded in Micah 4:1-4. Here the kingdom is symbolized by a mountain—Mount Zion in Jerusalem, the mountain from which God, through the various kings of Judah, beginning with David, ruled his ancient people. The promise states that God’s law shall go forth from Zion, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem. Then, according to the promise; the people will recognize the authority of the kingdom and will seek to be taught the Lord’s ways and walk in his paths.
The result of this will be that they “will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks,” and will learn war no more. This is simply the Lord’s pictorial way of saying that no longer will the nations drain their resources to provide munitions of war, as is done today. But, learning the Lord’s way, they will convert their equipment to produce the needs of peace. The full meaning of this can be appreciated when we consider that the United States alone during the year 1967 will spend upwards of seventy billion dollars for war.
In verse 4 of this wonderful promise of the Lord, we are told that every man will then dwell under his vine and fig tree: This is not to be understood literally, but is a beautiful symbol of economic security, and an assurance that the people of all nations will then, under the rulership of Christ’s kingdom, enjoy such security. The prophecy does not reveal the details as to how this will be accomplished. But we do know that in learning the Lord’s way the people will have their entire outlook changed from one of selfishness to one of love. And we know that the power and wisdom of the great and loving Creator of the universe will guarantee that all the divine promises on behalf of the people will be fulfilled.
In Isaiah 25:6-9 we find another promise of the kingdom, describing it as a “mountain.” In this promise we are assured that the “veil” of misunderstanding now spread over the face of all nations will be removed. Then they will be able to “see” God and, knowing him, they will desire with all their hearts to serve him. This promise also gives assurance that sickness and death shall then be destroyed.