CHAPTER XVII.

 

THE GREAT EUROPEAN WAR.

 

 

THIS book goes to press in the spring of 1916.  One of the mightiest struggles in the history of man is now going on in Europe.  The whole world is in some way affected by this war, and the eyes of the whole race are now focussed on the scene of battle.  Every mind contains a question mark as to the outcome of this mighty struggle.  Since things are thus, we feel that a treatise on the subject of the second coming of Jesus appearing just at this time would be regarded as failing in its purpose if it said nothing concerning the present war, and its relation to the subject in hand.  We, therefore, undertake to submit to our readers some thoughts about said war for their careful consideration.

This war has claimed our attention from the first, and yet we have been slow to express opinion in regard to its relation to prophecy.  Many prophetic writers have appeared on the scene for the last two years, and they as well as many speakers have made no hesitation in making prophetic statements con­cerning it.  Many statements thus made have already proven to be false, and we think that it is the part of wisdom to go slow with our statements until we are sure that we have the facts of prophecy before us.  The writer confesses his in­ability to give the subject justice, and makes no claim to superior light on the question.  He feels rather that it becomes him to take his place in the great school of prophetic students who are now studying the question, and to open wide his mind and heart for instruction.  The points here given, therefore, are only suggestive, and are not claimed to be dogmatic facts.

The idea prevailing among certain circles that the present war is the beginning of The Great Tribulation is contrary to my thought.  Jesus spoke of The Great Tribulation (Luke 21:

 

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25‑35), and then said, “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things.”— Luke 21: 36.  From this verse I draw three conclusions: (1), There is a possibility of escaping all The Great Tribulation; (2), There will be those who will avail themselves of this opportunity and escape all said Tribulation; and (3), The present war can not be The Great Tribulation because the Bride has not yet been caught away.  How near this war may be to The Great Tribulation is yet to be learned.

That the present war has a place in prophecy and has a rela­tion to the second coming of Jesus is our duty to confess.  However, the placing of said struggle in its relation to said subject may apprehend some difficulty, and it is here that so many err.  After it is over, no doubt, we all will be surprised that we understood it no better while it was going on.  We may then find that we have been living through Matt. 24: 6, 7.  “And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.  For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.”  True, all these things have been happening through the Gentile Age, but I think the context indicates a multiplicity of them near the end; and especially do I think so since the next verse says, “All these are the beginning of sorrows (birth‑pangs, in the Greek).”  The same Greek word is used in 1 Thes. 5: 3.  The catching away of the Bride is mentioned as a birth (Rev. 12), and in the above quotation wars, etc., are said to be the beginning of birth‑pangs.  What may or may not lie between this beginning of birth‑pangs and the full development of the birth is ours to humbly inquire.

     May it not profit us to study in this connection the second chapter of Daniel?  Nebuchadnezzar had the vision, and Daniel gave the interpretation.  “Thou art this head of gold,” said the prophet to the king.  Following Babylon, and in line with the

 

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vision, came Media‑Persia, Greece, and Rome.  The two legs of the image in the vision clearly bespoke of the Eastern and Western divisions of the Roman Empire, which division was made by Theodosius the Great in A. D. 395 by dividing the empire between his two sons, Arcadius and Honorius.  The Western Empire ended in A. D. 476. The Eastern continued until 641, when it became mixed with a Greek element, and was finally captured by the Turks in 1453.  From that date till now we have been passing down toward the toe‑age.  Some writers have tried to put us in the toe‑age already; but their interpre­tations are not applicable to the facts of the vision.  Ten is often used in an indefinite sense; but when so used it signifies hundreds, thousands, millions, or an indefinite number.  There are now just 54 independent and three quasi‑independent governments in the world.  These will not fit the ten toes no matter what your system of interpretation may be.  Are we not, therefore, to expect certain things to transpire that will bring all the nations of the earth under exactly ten govern­ments?  Can anyone deny that this present war is the factor that shall bring the actual fulfilment of the toe‑age?

We are, therefore, expecting it to close in peace conferences of a world‑wide aspect.  We believe that the conclusion of said conferences will result in bringing all the nations of the world under just ten governments.  The statesmen of the world will then declare that war can be no more.  At the same time the nations thus united will begin to prepare for war as never before.  The present preparedness issue in the United States is now engaging the minds of all thinking men.  What shall be the immediate outcome no one knows; but that it is an issue come to stay with us for many years I verily believe.  Men may spend time and talent in lecturing against it, and you and I may agree with the one side or the other, but the fact that the: United States and all the world are going to prepare for the great war of The Great Tribulation is according to prophecy, and the thing will surely be done sooner or later.

 

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In taking this position, I do not mean to put one single incident as necessarily occurring between us and the catching away of the saints.  Things transpire rapidly in these days, and it would not require much time for all the above mentioned changes to be brought about after the Bride is gone.  However, I do see a possibility of the war closing, the ten governments established, and the preparedness issue pushed to a finish before the Bride is called away.

     Having given you the above suggestive remarks, I am pleased to leave the question with my reader until a future chapter shall call for further suggestive remarks in regard to it, and then leave it to him to await the development of the actual facts.  Such facts the writer feels will in a few years be facts of history