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T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
December, 1934
PREPARE War!” B y LOUIS S. BAUMAN* Long Beach, Calif.
God’s Final Challenge to the Nations “Peace, peace; when there is no peace” (Jer. 6:14). N o ancient prophecy is so universally known among the sons of men as th is: “And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Isa. 2 :4). Fervently have men prayed and unceasingly have they toiled for a realization of that day. Yet, never before in the history of man has there been such a multiplication of instruments for the destruction of war, as today— “Ministerial Strikes against War,” Student Pacifist Or ganizations, Disarmament Conferences, Peace Societies, Peace Leagues, Peace Treaties, “Peace Patriots,” Peace Petitions—Peace This and Peace That! Paradoxical as it may seem, the most vociferous prayers for peace and universal disarmament emit from the lair of the huge Russian bear. This fact led Senor de Madariaga, Spanish delegate to that organized flimflam at Geneva, to let loose a bit of satire before that august body: “The lion,” said he, “suggested to the eagle that it should dispense with its talons; the eagle appealed to the
and having given itself over to demonic influences, it must even be so. They would understand the utter futility of all their puny efforts at holding back the storm, and would spend their energies in getting themselves and their fel lows into a refuge upon the top of a Rock that no surging waves of human anguish will ever overflow?) Only ignor ance or unbelief of the “Scripture [that] cannot be broken” (John 10:35) can be back of the waste of effort on the part of church councils in petitioning preachers to preach peace, pray for peace, work for peace, promise peace—when there can be no peace.jHowever much we may admire the good intentions and sympathize with the holy passions which drive men to a hopeless task, and however much we realize that the slightest criticism of these well- meant peace efforts only creates misunderstanding and brings down contempt, we dare affirm that the mission of every true messenger of the most high God is not to preach the gospel of peace to the unregenerate nations as such, but to preach the gospel ofpeace by the blood of Christ to the unregenerate individuaLl We must leave it to Another to plant His feet upon themauntains and publish peace to the nations, even as it is written n-r? h i / / • va 9 “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daugh
bull to give up its horns; the bull appealed to the tiger to abandon its claws; then the bear suggested that all should disarm completely and join him in a universal embrace!”
ter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass. And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off: and he shall speak peace unto the heathen” (Zech. 9:9, 10 ) “Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tid ing, that publisheth peace!” (Nahum 1:15). ¡There is no hope for humanity at Geneva, Lausanne, London, Washington, or elsewhere on this earth. No war of man will end war, whether carried on by bullets or ballots?) Simply because we believe the eternal Word of God, we accept the striking dictum of General Sir Ian Hamilton: “Nothing will stop war save a second advent o f Christ” (The Encyclopaedia Britannica, Thirteenth Edition, Page 981). I nconsistent P eace A dvocates
The Hope of the World The hope of the world Is not in leagues, pacts, or alliances, but in the coming of a personal divine King. It is sometimes said that the laws of economics have broken down. That is not so. It is the men who have to live economic lives who have disobeyed the laws. And the disobedience / rSJ is so widespread that no man can force his fellows to a sufficient obedience to the laws to restore prosperity. It is Christ— coming as King— who can alone do that. But that implies that He who Is coming as the King of the world must be also the King of the individual. "I cannot tell how He will win the nations, How He shall claim His earthly heritage,
2 n spite of all the pretentious gestures for peace, the most stu pendous preparations for slaughter in the history of earth or helLsare # being made by these “beasts” r(Dan. 7 :12) of the earth. They sulk back in their ill-smelling dens, only to await an opportune moment for dashing forth to rip and tear each other into shreds. While the quiv ering voices of fearful and shiver ing multitudes are everywhere call ing, “Peace! Peace!” they arise only to be drowned by the continu ous thunderclaps of the jagged lightnings within the red-black clouds now threatening to sweep man once more from the earth-— this time in a deluge of bloodJlFis aiT7 aptly summed up by Britain’s fam- {_ ous World-War statesman, David Lloyd George: “All nations »are marching to the battlefield with the dove of peace embroidered on their banners.” T he O nly H ope for H umanity -
How satisfy the needs and aspirations O f East and West, of sinners and of sage; But this I know: All flesh shall see His glory, ^ And He shall reap the harvest He h as,,^ s°wn. y w And some glad day His sun shall shine in / splendor A ^
^When He, the Saviour, Saviour of the world, is known." A t _ j. RUSSELL HOW DEN .
The difficulty with so many advocates of peace is that they advocate peace only in time of peace. Some of us have very vivid recollections of many of the present-day advo cates of peace back in World-War days. Peaceful enough until the great provocation came! Then the blood of na tionalism suddenly throbbed hotly in their veins, and they went forth in the spirit of General Jauch, who, in the Swiss civil war, at the battle of Cappel, amid dead silence ex claimed : “In the name of the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost— fire!”
Thinking men stand in amazement at the stupidity of a world in which “every prospect pleases”—preparing with avidity the implements with which to blow itself into atoms. Yet (if men would only open their ears to the inspired voices of the prophets of God, they would know that, due to an unregenerate world’s having forsaken God,
* Pastor, First Brethren Church.
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