The world war and Bible prophecy

Front matter

D 524 .H7 Copy 1

WORLD WAR

AND

Introduction

HOW TO READ.

A young college graduate, who had won high honors, said to the writer: "I had a good streak come over me the other day to read the Bible and I bought a large beautiful moroccobound Bible and began to read where it says that a lion came up from the sea and the lion had eagle's wings and the eagle's wings were plucked and made stand upon the feet of a man {Dan. 7: 4.)

Then it said another beast, a leopard, came up from the same sea which had four heads and four wings of a fowl (Dan. 7:6.)

I then asked my young college friend how he interpreted what he had read: "I interpreted it," said he, "that whoever wrote such stuff was either drunk, crazy or a fool and I closed the Bible and bade it goodnight for all time."

"But," said I, to my good college friend, "before you began to study Latin or Greek, you could not read a word of it, yet you studied days, months and years that you might understand. Would you expect to play the beautiful and wonderful music of Mozart, Wagner or Beethovan simply because you had the money to buy the music and a piano? In buying the Bible you bought one of the most prized and worshiped books in all the world ; it is one of the most ancient, yet more Bibles are being sold everyday than of the most modern book that any man or woman can write today, however wise, learned or talented they may be. If you had read that 7th chapter of Daniel through, you would have read the program of this great and terrible world war from the time the British Lion declared war against the German Leopard, till the United States sets up a world democracy of all people, nations and languages."

"But," said my college learned friend, "the Bible is not true for the lion or the leopard are not an amphibious animal, neither does the lion grow eagle's wings or the leopard grow four heads and four wings as a fowl."

"But, John," said I, "if you had read that chapter to the 17th verse you would have found the key by which it was to be understood for it reads that these beasts are kings that shall arise and did not your college learning of history tell you that the British Empire had adopted the lion as the symbol of her king and government? Did it not tell you that United States had adopted the flying eagle as the symbol of her government, the eagle's wings being her great source of governing power? Did not your history tell you that the flying eagle of the United States plucked her wings of governing power from the British Lion and furthermore you know that Germany calls herself the Leopard Beast and since this war began you have seen

VIII

BIBLE PROPHECIES.

the Literary Digest and other publications picturing Germany as a leopard beast in their cartoons and didn't your college history tell you that the German Empire is a federal state composed of four heads, Prussia, Bavaria, Wurttemburg and Saxony, and that Germany is the only empire on earth with four political parties and in Germany they are called political wings."

"But," said John, "Why didn't the Bible author write it that way." "John," said I, "You ought to know, being a college graduate with high honors, that when this prophecy was written, no printing or printing press was in existence, paper had not been invented, even our alphabet of letters to make a written language had not been invented, and picture writing was in common use at the time many of these prophecies were written. Even as late as the days of William Penn his treaty with the American Indians was made by drawing a picture of an Indian and a white man clasping hands. That was as good for them as a long-winded legal document and great deal clearer."

"And today this picture writing of these ancient prophets of God has come down to us in a clearer view than they would have been, if written in some for^gn language with the figurative language left out."

Most everyone thinks they know how to read, but if the learned author, Edward Everett Hale, had thought so, he would not have written his valuable work entitled How to Read, in which he says: "The first rules are: Do not read too much at a time ; stop when you are tired ; and, in whatever way, make some review of what you read, even as you go along."

Says the noted author Capel Lofft in his interesting book Self-Formation, "that his wliole life was changed and indeed saved, when he learned that he must turn back at the end of each sentence, ask himself what it meant, if he believed it or disbelieved it."

Says our greatest genius on how to master personal efficiency, Edward Earle Purington: "The way a man reads for self advancement is tremendously important. Aim to get the author's real meaning * * * Keep your mind absolutely open. If you should disagree with any statement, be sure it is not hasty reading, or some preconceived notion or prejudice of yours that causes misunderstanding. The greatest men are the most anxious to be taught."

Ida B. Cole in her essay entitled Getting the Best Out of a Book says : "I number the points as they are given. If there is something that I do not believe or understand, I put a question mark after it. After finishing each chapter I go back over it and review the points."

Bierhower in his essay on Reading ivith a Purpose and Mabie, in his Art of Reading and Beecher in his Plan of Reading, all voice the same warning to those who read for wisdom and knowledge, to read very slow and a little at a time, turn it over and over in the mind till one is positively satisfied that the author must be surely right or wrong in his interpretation of these Bible prophecies. Hold fast to the fact and keep it always in mind while reading this book that United States will surely win this

INTRODUCTION.

IX world war and bring about the long hoped for World Democracy. It may not come as soon as our patience would like to have it come, or how and where we would like to have it come, but that it will come when, how and where the Bible prophecies said it would, is beyond any question of a doubt in the minds of those who thoroughly understand these Bible prophecies from their many new points of view that God has given us.

Prov.l7: 27.— "He that hath knowledge spareth his words."

The author will be very brief in his interpretations, as one would avoid unnecessary steps in a long, hard, uphill journey, when the time is very short.

PROPHECY.

Chapter I

It is vitally important for everyone of us to secure a clear and thorough understanding of what prophecy is and what prophecy is for before we can undertake to interpret any of our Bible prophecies at all.

Prov. 4: 7.— "With all thy getting, get understanding."

How shallow, thin and frail is a definition like that of Webster in the International Dictionary when he says : "Prophecy is a declaration of something to come ; especially an inspired foretelling." If that vere all, Isaiah's word would be true of us : "It is a people of no understanding."

Compare such an interpretation with the Bible view of prophecy, given to us almost two thousand years ago.

// Peter 1: 19. — "We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place."

In fact nothing more perfectly illustrates the true meaning and value of our inspired Bible prophecies than does the lighthouse on our coast. As it warns our sailors of rocks and reefs which mean distress and death to any one sailing in their direction, so prophecy tells of danger ahead.

If you were a pilot on one of our great ocean liners in the most terrible storm you ever encountered and you saw straight ahead a light streaming before you, would you take it as marking the channel to a safe and peaceful harbor? No! A thousand times, No. The warning would be, "Keep away. — Steer clear of this hid den reef or shoal which means destruction and death to you."

"Study your government chart of navigation"' it would say. "Read how far away to the right hand or the left, you must steer your craft."

In this way prophecy is "A light shining in a dark place whereunto ye do well that ye take heed," or as the Apostle Paul says: / Cor. 12: 7. — "The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal."

If, for example, Bible prophecy foretells that Germany will win this war— Da?2. 7: G. — "And behold another beast like a leopard and dominion was given to it," such a foretelling is given for the express purpose that we take heed and see that no such issue is accomplished.

On the other hand if prophecy says that the United States will meet downfall; Dan. 7: 7, 11.— "I saw a fourth beast * * * and strong exceedingly; and * * * I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame; Rev. A: 7.— "And the fourth beast like a flying eagle." — In all this the meaning must be, not that the United States is inevitably doomed but that she will be doomed and meet

BIBLE PROPHECIES.

destruction and death, if she does not look well at God's navigation chart and change her course.

Bible prophecy tells us just what to do and where to steer. It points out the straight and narrow channel which will save not only the lives of our best boys and girls who are now in France but also our National life, the liberty and freedom for which Old Glory stands.

This is the significance of Matt. 7: 13, lU- — "Enter ye in at the strait gate * * * . Strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life." The narrow way will be unveiled to you before you finish reading this book.

Go back with me for a few moments to the begining of history and verify with me the fact that prophecy is a mental light that shineth in darkness and that those who took heed thereto did well while those who did not heed it were punished with sorrow, pain or death.

At the very beginning, God told Adam and Eve not to touch the tree of good and evil. Did Adam and Eve heed the prophecy ? No, they thought their own judgment superior to that of God and Bible history (Gen., chap. 3) tells us of the sorrow, pain and hardship which this decision cost them.

Then, you remember, there was born into Adam's home one of the world's great capitalists. He was a man of progress and influence even to the building of a great city and the naming of it after his son {Gen. h: 17).

God loved Cain because God saw him advancing civilization. But God also saw Cain approaching a hidden reef and Cain was warned thereof. Did Cain heed the warning? No, and Bible history tells us of the sorrow, pain and hardship that the rich capitalist suffered because of his neglect. Gen. I^: 13. — "And Cain said unto the Lord 'My punishment is greater than I can bear.' "

Later in the history, we meet the greatest crisis of ancient life in the days of Noah when with his family he alone escaped. Gen. 6: 5. — "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of his heart was evil continually." God warned humanity of the issue of their wickedness and evil ways. Did they heed the prophecy? Noah did and saved himself and his family but the rest paid the same old price of sorrow, pain and death with destruction.

Observe the same historic process in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot and his family heeded the warning and were saved. But multitudes from the great cities heeded not the prophecy and were destroyed.

Or witness the record of King Pharoah, hard-hearted and most wicked as he was. God sent him a lighthouse warning in a prophecy that there were coming seven years of great plenty and seven years of famine. He was commanded to save enough from the years of plenty to bridge over the time of famine. He certainly did well in taking heed to the prophecy. It was a lighthouse to him.

Passing over a multiutde of other prophecies which might be cited, I call attention to one beautiful illustration of the value and infallible use of this divine gift to men. You will

PROPHECY.

find it in the third chapter of Jonah's prophecies. "And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah saying 'Arise, go unto Ninevah, that great city and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee * * * . Let them turn everyone from his evil way and from the violence that is in their hands * * * and God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way, and God repented of the evil that he said that he would do unto them ; and he did it not." Even those few citations are enough to verify the truth of the Bible description of prophecy — that it is a sure word, a light shining in a dark place, that if ye (as a Nation) take heed thereto, ye will do well. And the prophecy of the downfall and utter destruction of our beautiful country will never take place. {Dan. 7: 7, 11.) P^or as in Ninevah whenever homes, cities and nations, visited with sorrow, trouble and violence, turn from their ways of greed, wickedness and jealousy into the paths of justice, equality and fraternity the Divine method will be verified.

When William H. Taft, that bighearted and far-sighted Ex-President of ours declared "that a poor man cannot get justice in our courts," he pointed to the hidden reef upon which proud Babylon fell.

Isaiah 59: H- — "And judgment is turned away backward and justice standeth afar off; for truth is fallen in the streets and equity cannot enter."

Neither can we ever better our labor troubles till there is a growing justice and equality in wages. Nor can we have a good Republican form of government as long as we elect a porkbarrel class of men to Congress and allow our grafters and government thieves to escape the serving of time in our state prisons. Our faithful, untiring, patient, merciful as well as foresighted President said pertinently in his address to Congress, May 27, 1918: "The profiteering that cannot be got at by the restraints of conscience and love of country can be got at by taxation." Thanks be to Heaven that we have in Wilson as President another Washington and another Lincoln.

Let me say right here that I do not look for the fulfillment of any Bible prophecy pointing to the downfall of our beloved country. I wait expectantly for the speedy homecoming of our choicest youth — our boys and girls from France. I believe that we shall enter the harbor of peace and safety. My conviction is that in that haven we are to wait patiently until the second woe and the third woe of the great world war is over.

Shortly following this great and terrible conflict with Germany will come a far more gigantic and fearful war for which Japan is now preparing in colossal fashion. This will be the second woe ; the first woe is nearly passed. Rev. 9: 12. — "One woe is past and behold there come two woes more hereafter."

APPOINTED TIME.

CHAPTER IL

Daniel 12: 1. — "And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation to that same time." Mark well the fact that our Bible prophecies make known in

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many different ways the beginning and the ending of this day of trial. Daniel 11: ^7.— "The end shall be at the time appointed." Daniel 8: 19. — "And he said, Behold I will make thee know what shall be in the last end of the indignation : for at the time appointed the end shall be."

Certain it is also that our Bible prophecy did make it known that there would be a few wise enough to find the appointed time and make it known to the world before the beginning of that great and terrible day.

Da7i. 12: 10. — "But the wise shall understand."

That this prophecy is now fulfilled, I \yill proceed to show and I will give you the evidence and proof positive of the fact.

The World's Crisis of Nov. 3, 1915, (published in Boston, Mass.) says: "That this world war is the Daniel time of trouble. Let it be remembered that in our study of this prophecy we have found the events of history following one another in successional order, exactly as laid out in prophecy. And then we are duly impressed with the fact that this unquenchable blaze of war has broken out at the well-timed hour scheduled in the Bible."

The World's Crisis of Dec. 15, 1915, said: "The great European warwhich broke out in August, 1914, came at the right time to fulfill the prophetic mould."

This war was prophesied by prominent Adventists at least two years before it came to pass. But you ask me how the Adventist finds out the appointed moment for the beginning of this terrible conflict. Says the

Boston Sunday American, April 18, 1915._"The Adventist figures that each day means a week of years from the creation and in that way they figured that 1914 would see the great world war."

The Boston Globe, Dec. 30, 1917, says : "Daniel's vision of the Four Great Empires happened in the year 606 B. C. ; the time appointed for the fulfillment of the prophecy was 'Seven Cycles' and as each cycle represents 360 years, so seven times 360 would equal 2,520, As the prophecy was delivered in the year 606 B. C, as before stated, then by subtracting 606 from 2,520 we get the number 1914, the year the present war broke out, the greatest war, the world has ever seen."

But not only in the year and month, nay but on the very day of Christ's appointment, on a day of judgment prophesied, did the great war begin. Acts 17: 31. — "He hath appointed a day in which he will judge theworld."

Says the Christian Herald of April 14, 1915: "Truly the time of the Palestinian Covenant, given in Lev. 26, the Gentile supremacy over the land has continued exactly the seven times, i. e. 2,520 years, and the war began on the self-same day, the month of Ab, according to the Jewish reckoning."

But many will say, "Oh well, now that the event has taken place there are people cunning enough to conjure up something to fit the prophecy." But now I am going to show you that the coming of this fearful world war and the hour of its beginning was discovered by many Bible students, years if not many years in advance of the events.

APPOINTED TIME.

Prof. A. E. Hatch, A. M., in his Handbook of Prophecy, published in 1912 on pages 102 and 286 says: "There is to be a general and universal war. God has spoken and his word will not fail. There is to be universal war and the nations are already arming for it. The year 1914 marks the end, when the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled."

In the year 1911 Rev. George Shoreij delivered a public address in Berwick Maine, in which he said : "The prophecies have been carefully figured out and 1914 is the year appointed for the beginning of the great world war and beginning of the time of trouble such as the world has never seen before."

Rev. Charles T. Russell published in 1891 a work, The Millenial Dawn. In Vol. Ill, pages 23 and 59, he says : "The time of the end is particularly marked in the Scriptures. This time of the End or Day of Jehovah's Preparations, closing A. D., 1914, is to culminate in the greatest time of trouble the world has ever known."

William A. Redding published a book in 1895, entitled Our Near Future. On page 25 he plainly states that the year 1914 marks the doom of the present Gentile government and the beginning of the great world war.

The Literary Digest of March 6, 1915, (published in New York City) tells us that several years ago there was a booklet printed in Chicago that foretold that a great and terrible war would begin in the year 1914.

Says the Literay Digest of March 6, 1915 : "There has been discovered in an old family Bible in the Fatherland (Germany) a prophecy which foretold a world war in 1914.

In closing this chapter I want frankly to say that I have only introduced a very small part of the proof that can be given that this vast and terrible war drama began and was destined to begin on the identical day, month and year foretold in Bible prophecy. And I mean to tell you in my book the appointed time when the world war-drama will end.

BEGINNING OF SORROW.

Chapter III

A few years ago, I climbed to the top of the Washington Monument at our Nation's Capital and while coming down, I met several people who had made an ascent of perhaps 150 of the 550 feet to the summit. "For Heavens sake," said one of them to me, "How much further is it to the top? If it is much farther, we shall have to give it up." In this same way, many are saying now: "We don't see how we are going to stand it, if this terrible war lasts much longer."

If you examine the prophecies carefully, you can only reach the conclusion that the world war has just begun. Consider carefully and read slowly the prophecies from the following three great prophets.

KEY.

Exodus 15: 5.— "The Lord is a man of war: the Lord is his name." ISAIAH'S PROPHECY.

Isaiah 2U: 1, 3, 6.— "Behold the Lord maketh the earth empty; and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.

BIBLE PROPHECIES.

The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are burned, and few men are left."

DANIEL'S PROPHECY.

Daniel 12: 1. — "And at that time, there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that time."

CHRIST'S PROPHECY.

St. Matt., chap. 2^.— "Tell us, when shall these things be and what shall be the sign of the end * * * . Jesus answered and said * * * Nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom : and there shall be famines and pestilences in divers places * * * . Ye shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet * * * there shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved."

Christ made it perfectly clear and used great plainness of speech for he said: "When ye see nation rising against nation and kingdom against kingdom and famines and pestilences, these are just the beginning of sorrows (Matt. 2Jt: 8).

Some of our papers would seem to imply that this world war is at its height, nearly over and not to last much longer.

Says the Safeguard and Armory of October, 1915, page 12: "Nothing in all history of Oriental civilization can compare with the enormity of this holocaust of blood in Europe. The story of it is one for which the white race must blush with ignominy and shame forever. For destruction of invaluable and irreparable treasure, for the waste of vast sums gathered from the requited toil of millions; for the unlosing of the fiercest passions and the gratification of greed and lust; for the sowing of inhuman enmities never to be forgotten — this European Horror has no precedent in all the savagery of the past.".^ ,.

Said President Emeritus Charles W. Eliot of Harvard College, Feb. 7, 1915 : "More than 300,000,000 of people are involved in the most cruel and savage war that has ever been waged — a war in which the recently won powers of man over nature are all turned with an administrative efficiency greater than the world ha^ ever before seen to the most active and persistent destruction of life and property, and now, within the last five months, the worst, because of its wide extent, the fury with which it is prosecuted and the destructive power of its new implements — brings unheard-of-misery upon the human race; and the Christian churches are helpless to prevent it."

Said the Boston Herald of Jan. 3, 1915: "The world war — there has never been a war like it. It is the greatest war in all history. Never since war began has such a gigantic combat been known. After five months of it we may confidently say that it is not only the most fiercely contested but the most deadly of any war in memory."

Says the Boston American, Nov. 19, 1915: "The human mind never before conceived such a horror as this war has become. It surpasses the insane imagination of the bitter soul of Swift, the frightful visions

BEGINNING OF SORROW.

that haunted the gloomy soul of Dante."

The World's Crisis, Nov. 3, 1915, has truly said: "We may conclude that we are now in the time of trouble here foretold {Dan. 12: 1 and Matt. 2h: 21.) In momentum and sweep the present European war is without a parallel. It is easily the most gigantic of wars. It may be regarded as the worst and last v/ar of the nations."

"Any war is horrible. This war is the most horrible of all wars in its extent and in the severe and widespread suffering it has caused." — New York Wccklij Witriess, July 11, 1017.

It is perfectly clear that we are only at the beginning of this great world war. The Bible prophecy makes it known to us that this conflict will bring the time of the greatest abomination of desolation and tribulation and death since the beginning of the world, the disaster and loss of life being even greater than at the time of Noah and the Flood.

It is true that the war has destroyed several millions of people but when you compare this loss wiih the population of the earth which may be estimated as one billion two hundred million and when you remember that as many have been born as have fallen in battle, you cannot fail to see the fulfillment of prophecy is as yet but a drop in the bucket of what is to come. It is true also that France and Belgium have seen a few hundred miles of their possessions laid waste but compare this with the desolation prophesied by the Bible and we see how much is yet to come before all is fulfilled.

If you compare this war so far with what Isaiah foretold and Christ declared you will see at a glance that we are now only at the beginning of sorrow, tribulation and desolation that will shortly come to pa<ss in every little detail. The Bible, as you will see, foretells it and God's word has never failed. Matt. 5: 18. — "For verily I say unto you, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled."

WAR LORD.

Chapter IV

The reader of the Holy Bible from Genesis to Revelation can not fail to notice the constant recurrence of the mention made of The Coming of the Lord and of the many terrible things He would do. And as I see it, no one of the prophets omits to mention this German War-Lord, the Kaiser.

Does the Bible give us the key to this word Lord? I believe such a key is found in Exodus 15: 3. — "The Lord is a man of war : the Lord is his name."

Did the Bible prophecies say that God would send messengers to warn the world of this coming War-Lord?

Mark well the perfectness of the prophecy. Luke 12: 5. — "I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear."

Did not Joseph Wolf commence preaching in Asia as early as 1820 that the coming of the Lord was an event near at hand? Did not Edward Irving, that noted English orator, in 1823, begin to proclaim the same message in Europe? John Wesley also took his part in proclaiming the near coming of the Lord and he even

BIBLE PROPHECIES.

figured out the prophetic periods of Revelation. Did not hundreds and thousands of the people receive the preaching of Wolf, Irving and Wesley, as glad tidings of joy?