December, 1936
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
468
The Cry of "W a r " By LOU IS S. SH U M A N * Long Beach, California
them come up: Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong” (Joel 3:9, 10). Over and over and over have we heard men quote Isaiah, and dream of the day when “ they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: na tion shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Isa. 2 :4 ). But seldom have we heard men quote the proclamation of Joel: “ Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears” (Joel 3 :1 0 ). Know they not that the unfailing W ord of God has declared that a day when men shall beat their “ plowshares into swords" must immediately precede the day when they shall beat their “ swords into plow shares"? Strangely enough, but it is even so, that the day o f awful bloodshed w ill be the forerunner of the day of enduring peace. The day of darkness will be the harbinger of the day of glory. The day of foreboding fears w ill be the auspice of the day of perfect rest. Th e day of the Anti christ will be the herald of the day of Christ. M a n ’ s P acifism D oomed to F ail Never before have so many professed believers deluded themselves into joining the children of this world in sincere efforts to dethrone Mars from reigning over the earth during man’s day. However humane and sincere are these efforts o f pacifist brethren, no beneficent work is more cer tainly doomed to fail. The hell of war w ill never be quenched until “ the Desire of all nations shall come ( Hag. 2 :7 ), cut off the battle bow, and “ speak peace unto the nations” (Zech. 9:10, R .V .). “ From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?” (Jas. 4 :1 ). Verily, “ Ye must be born again" (John 3 :7 ) ! Peace on earth is an idle dream, so long as the Prince of Peace is rejected of men and unregenerate dictators ride in the saddles of the mighty. E urope B ecomes O ne G igantic A rsenal Recently, at the Biltmore Hofei in Los Angeles, Lieu tenant General Ernst Franz Insinger, an old soldier and close observer of the European military cockpits, and who retired several years ago from the position of commander in chief of the Netherlands’ field army, discussed the Euro pean situation: “ I should say another war in Europe is possible. Is it prob able?" Then, shrugging his shoulders, he continued: “ The situation is loaded! . . . Poor Germany! ’ Hitler is a mad man! When last in Germany, I saw hundreds of uniformed boys, each of whom wore a dagger with the words, ‘Blood and Honor’ on it. Such things are shocking!” His 7,700,000 countrymen must fear his fear, for, last April, the Netherlands, “ the most phlegmatic and pacifist of Europeans,” neutral in all wars for a century past, voted $36,000,000 for the purchase of modern aircraft and anti aircraft guns, and for the erection of fortifications. In Germany, since the advent o f the Nazi regime a little more than three years ago, the entire nation has been organ-
L O O M IN G up before us just as mighty mountain peaks loom before weary travelers from the plains, are * the portents of God, designed by Him to let His children know that just ahead is “ The Great Divide be tween man’s day and “ the day of the Lord.” Only the utterly blind can fail to see. Not the least of these portents is the feverish cry, "Prepare war!" As never before on this earth, it literally echoes and reechoes through the air above every city and hamlet of earth— “ Prepare war!" T ime for the S hepherd of I srael to A wake T h e prophetic eye of the seer, Joel, peered down across a span of twenty-eight centuries, and visualized the day when the nations would marshal their steel-panoplied mul titudes to Armageddon. He heard the Eternal decree: “ I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations” (Joel 3:2)7.-. And it would seem that the time is about ripe for the Shepherd of Israel to arise and plead for His sheep. The tides o f hate against Jacob again roll high on every sea. Every morning paper tells the story. Th e press announces that Poland, with her hundreds of thousands of Jews, has informed the League of Nations that some land must be found into which it can drive the Jews that are no longer welcome within Central Europe. And Esau, in Abraham s land, is arming, determined to close the gate of the only homeland the world’s wanderer ever knew. O , Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, “ It is time for thee . . . to work” (Psa. 119:126). The prophet saw the day when Jehovah would “ sit to judge all the nations” (R .V .), when the “ harvest” would be “ ripe” and the “ press” would be “ fu ll” (Joel 3:12, 13) — the same vision exactly that the seer of Patmos beheld vividly seven centuries later (cf. Rev. 14:14-20). He saw the day when the “ Lion of the tribe of Juda” would “ roar out of Zion, . . . and the heavens and the earth shall shake” ; “ then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more” (Joel 3:16, 17). And, beholding, as with the eye of God, the last muster of all the unregenerate forces on the earth into “ the valley of decision,” Joel simply could not refrain from bursting forth with the cry, "Thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Jehovah" (Joel 3:14, 11, R .V .; cf. Rev. 19:11-21). And when that prayer is answered, the king dom from above shall have come to earth. J oel and I saiah It is the purpose of God that His children should not have “ the day of the Lord” overtake them “ as a thief” (1 Thess. 5 :1 -5 ). Joel therefore furnishes us with this wisdom: “ Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let
* Pastor, First Brethren Church .
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