July 1931
293
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Æ e s e n i-C Û a y ¿ L i f i l lm e n i o/pROPHECY ... By LOUIS S. BAUMAN
A Mouth Speaking Great Things D an iel 11:36 ; R evelation 13 :4-7
there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies . . . And he opened his mouth in blas phemy against God” (Rev. 13:4-6). The blatant boasts of Communism are marvellously exact fulfillments of the “sure word of prophecy.” It might be wise for the followers of the beast, so anxious to know “who is able to make war with him,” to investigate a certain vision that the seer of Patmos had, recorded in the nineteenth chapter of the book of Revela tion. When the last hour arrives, and some one is “smashed to pulp,” it will not be the living God, nor His Christ. _______ s we write , the morning paper brings us the news that President Hoover, in an address before the International Chamber of Commerce, with more than one thousand delegates present, representing forty- six nations of the earth, solemnly declared that civilization faces disaster through the ever-increasing accumulation of the paraphernalia of war. He based his argument on the following statistics: The world expenditure on all arms is now nearly $5,000,000,000 yearly, an increase of about seventy per cent over that previous to the great war. We stand today with nearly 5,500,000 men actively under arms, and 20,000,000 more in reserve. All the world knows that the piling up of the imple ments of war was a staggering burden before the storm broke in 1914. It created world-wide unrest then, and we know the sad result. But now a world authority tells us that, in spite of the terrible experience of 1914 to 1918, a frenzied world has increased the burden seventy per cent. The nations are literally beating their plowshares into swords. No wonder there is a world cry for bread! More over, this age, boasting its splendid scientific advance ment, seems baffled in its attempt to get from beneath the burden of dynamite whose burning fuse is growing pain fully short. The exact situation was clearly seen by the One who sees the end from the beginning. Therefore He said unto His prophet Joel: “Behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat. . . . Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war. . . . Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruninghooks into spears. . . . Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye nations”—to Armageddon! And then the great prophet quickly leads us out of the smoke of that last battle of the “multitudes, multi tudes in the valley of decision” into the sunrise of earth’s gladdest day, when God will “be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel” (v. 16). It is rather a curious fact that the beating of “plow shares into swords, and . . . . pruninghooks into spears” Plowshares Into Swords J oel 3 versus I saiah 2
spiritual portent of first magnitude is sending a quiver of fear up thé spine of the troubled world. It is nothing less than a studied revolt against all that is called God, an attempt to blot the very word out of the minds of vast populations on the earth. Communism is the .modern Goliath that now, strides forth with a pas sionate determination to annihilate everything that would remind us that there is any God but man himself. A stanza from the Communist Marseillaise tells the story: Up! Up! Ye people, avengers of the world’s suffering!
Wake up! Arise! Strike dead; strike dead All those who have stolen our bread ! Ye workers, now smash to pulp With your fists that phantom, God ! You are master of the fate of the world! The end is come, you rulers, the end is come Onwards 1 And—shot .on shot !
With the last two lines of this cry from out of the atheistic night, we may well agree that “the end is .come” ! At least, it looks that way from the prophet’s watch tower. Read again (if your nerves will permit) that awful challenge to the living God, and then read this : 1 “And the king shall do according to his will ; and he shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvelous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accom plished” (Dan. 11:36). Communistic leaders, howling with demoniacal glee at their onward march over the earlh to seeming victory upon victory, may well study those words. “Prosper” ? Yes! The coming “king” (Antichrist) who will combine all the anti-God forces of earth -will “prosper,” it is true; but only “till” the very God he would annihilate has used him, as He used Nebuchadnezzar, His “servant,” to pour out upon a Christ-rejecting earth His last “indignation.” This communistic war cry reminds us of many other passages that have to do with the brief prosperity of an anti-God “king” whose brief reign shall ring down the curtain upon the scenes of the present age. Here is one of these passages : “That day [of Christ] shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing him self that he is God” (2 Thess. 2:3, 4). When man once accomplishes his annihilation of “all that is called God,” there will be nothing left for him to do but to erect an image of himself (Rev. 13:14, 15) as the highest of all creation—therefore, its God. Man will worship. If he knows no other God, he will worship him self. The inclination of this boastful age is very much in that direction right now. But, once again, read this: “And they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? And
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