A T IM E L Y M E SS A G E G IV EN A T T H E FA LL BIBLE C O N F E R E N C E OF TH E BIBLE IN S T IT U T E OF LO S A N G E L E S
Bÿ Rev. J. G . K E N N E D Y , D . D. of Santa Ana, California
I HATE war. I love peace. I have preached peace as the gospel of the kingdom of heaven. I have denounced war as the outcroppings of the horrors of hell. Yet I find myself in sympathy with war, supporting war, praying for success in war, rejoicing in victories that leave the fields covered with count less thousands of dead men. Yea, I almost forget to pray for millions of my fellow sinners because they are arrayed against us in war. Many other Chris tians aré in the same uncomfortable situation. Men are killing their fel low men who could scarce bear to take the life of a chicken. Godly women are distressed over the calling of their loved ones to the business of shedding human blood. Have we lost our Christianity? Have .we gotten out of harmony with the meek and lowly Jesus who lived a life of non-resistance and taught the gospel of forgiveness and love, even toward enemies? Can we be followers of Jesus and deliberately go to war in order that we may kill those for whom Christ died? Many good people think not, and refuse to go to war. What should be our attitude, as servants of God, toward this war? Some Things to Remember 1. God, who gives life and sustains it according to His good pleasure, has a right to terminate it when and how He will, whether by sickness, accidents, calamities, through the forces of nature, or at the hands of constituted govern ment. Job’s losses came some of them by the sword of enemies; some by fire
from heaven; some by a great wind from the wilderness; all of them thru the agency of Satan; yet he said, “ Jehovah gave, and Jehovah hath taken away, blessed be the name of Jehovah.” Job. 1:1-21. 2. God is unchangeable in His char acter. “ The same yesterday, today, and forever.” “ He is infinite and unchange able in His being wisdom, power, holi ness, justice, goodness, love and truth.” The same God that smote Sodom with fire, Egypt in the Red Sea, the Canaanites with the sword, and Israel at the hands of her enemies, “ Gave His only begotten. Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” He loved men just as much when He executed judgments upon them because of sin as He did when He provided them a Savior from sin. The God of the Old Testament is the God of the New Testament. God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, “ equal in power and glory,” were as fully in accord in meting out penalties to evil doers as in ministering mercy to penitents. 3. Christ Jesus should be known by all that is written of Him in the Word of God; not merely by what is found in the Gospels. Men are urged to “ Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish froni the way when His wrath is kindled but a little.”— Ps. 2:12. Men are pictured crying to the rocks and mountains to fall on them and hide them “ From the wrath of the Lamb.”—Rev. 6:16. Think of the doom which Jesus pro-
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