Views From The Watch Tower

January 1, 1915

C. T. Russell, Editor

A series of articles reprinted from the

Bible Students magazine The Watch Tower

(not to be confused with the

contemporary publication of similar name).

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This article is a product of its time, with its information and assumptions, and should be read with this in mind. This is an extract of a longer piece and is reproduced with no alterations to the text, except that spelling, punctuation and formatting have been adjusted to conform to our present style. Scripture references are to the King James (Authorised) Version.

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When our worthy President [Wilson] and also his Holiness the Pope [Benedict XV] requested Christian people to pray God for the cessation of the European war, we declared that the prayer was not in harmony with the divine arrangement and would not be answered. We pointed out that according to the Scriptures the 2,520 years of Gentile dominion ended in September, 1914; and that the war is the one predicted in the Scriptures as associated with the great day of Almighty God ʻthe day of vengeance of our Godʼ (Isa. 61: 2). We pointed out the Word of the Lord through the Prophet Joel respecting the gathering of all nations to the Valley of Jehoshaphat the valley of death (Joel 3: 1-12).

The experiences of Elijah in the closing of his ministry showed us how the great day of the Lord will be ushered in: first, the wind rending the rocks, representing the present war; secondly, the great earthquake, representing the revolution that will follow the present war; thirdly, the fire, representing the anarchy that will follow the revolution; fourthly, the ʻstill small voiceʼ of God which will follow the anarchy in the world through Messiah's kingdom speaking, ʻPeace, be stillʼ (1 Kings 19: 12; Mark 4: 39). ʻ[T]hey shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any moreʼ (Micah 4: 3).

We see no reason for thinking that the present war will terminate until either Great Britain or Germany has a decisive victory upon the sea. The strife between these two has been fomenting for thirty years. Each has wished the destruction of the other's fleet and colonies, but dreaded the war which would accomplish these ends, well knowing in advance that it would be a terrible one. The unfortunate circumstances which suddenly led up to Austria's assault upon Servia, Russia's defence of Servia, and France's revenge for Alsace-Lorraine, involving Germany on both sides, presented Great Britain the long-sought opportunity for crushing her commercial rival. It seems improbable that the British would now consent to cessation of war until a complete victory would be had over Germany, or until her own existence would be in jeopardy.

So far as at present may be discerned, nothing very decisive may be expected before Spring. Meantime, the soldiers are perishing, vast debts are accumulating and the industries of peace are being neglected. By and by, doubtless, the people will awaken to a saner view of the matter, and ask themselves why the people of Europe cannot live as happily there as they can live together in the United States. By and by they will raise the question as to why it should be wrong to murder one another at any private behest, and yet right to slay one another at the command of kings and kaisers. By that time the earthquake stage of the trouble will be near.

When the earthquake, or revolution, so prominently mentioned in the Scriptures shall have come, that, no doubt will be the time when the kings and the captains of industry, of finance and of politics will in self-defence greatly exalt the power of religious leaders. Then we may expect that the Federation of Churches will exercise a power in the world such as has not been since the days of Papal supremacy. In the symbolic language of Revelation, that will be the time in which the ʻimage of the beastʼ will have life and work great wonders, threatening, commanding, in the name of Heaven (Rev. 13: 11-18).

Meantime, What Shall We Do?

The effect of the war is not unfavourable in all respects.

From Europe we have the word that a great religious impression is being made upon the people by the war.

In their own distress and the distress of their loved ones on the battlefield, there is a natural tendency to turn to heaven for help.

At the same time there is a quickening of understanding. People are more ready to think than previously. Told that the soldiers are fighting for the Lord's cause, and with the implication given that those who die are more or less martyrs for the cause of right (and are therefore heirs of heaven), the people are fighting valiantly.

The newspapers tell them how the Catholics and the Protestants of Great Britain are praying for the Allies against their enemies; and how the German churches, Catholic and Protestant, are praying for the Germans and against the Allies. The people are wondering and will wonder still more as they think further as to how these different prayers can be answered how the Germans could be taken to heaven for fighting against the Allies and the Allies be taken to heaven for fighting against the Germans! With all their thinking some will be sure to wonder whether or not these are reasonable conclusions, and what is their foundation.

On the other hand, they will think of the hell of fire and the purgatory of suffering taught them from infancy; and if all the soldiers are going to heaven, they will wonder who is going to hell. The sober thinking which the war is engendering will, no doubt, be helpful in the end, however unreasonable some of the conditions may be in the beginning. Saner views must ultimately come.

The American people are in some respects suffering more from the war than are the people of Europe; for the traffic of the world is temporarily hindered. They have not the business stimulus which prevails in Europe, because of military preparation there.

Americans, too, have a better opportunity of taking a calm, unprejudiced view of the war than have the people of Europe, who are so close to it and so liable to be influenced by the specious arguments of crafty leaders who tell them that the war is necessary for the maintenance of civilisation putting on their own construction as to what is real civilisation. Partisan spirit, called patriotism, runs high in the countries engaged in the strife. The newspapers defend and uphold the governments; so do the preachers; so do the orators. The few who take the saner and correct view of matters are forced to silence.

From a distance the war seems most unreasonable. Germany should be allowed to build as many ships as she desires, until her people, vexed and worn out with the cost of militarism, will insist on a change of governmental policy. Great Britain should be allowed to have as many ships as she wants and as her people are willing to pay for. Each nation should be allowed to do all the business she can do justly, honestly.

Christian ministers should have long ago pointed out to the people that the present kingdoms of Europe are not God's kingdoms, but human institutions; and that all these, according to the Bible, will eventually pass away at the inauguration of Messiah's kingdom. The reverence of the Lord should have been taught, and patient waiting for his time and way. The effect of the war has certainly in America been favourable to Christian enlightenment. People who may be said never to have thought before on religious subjects are thinking now, thinking hard, and many are reaching reasonably sane conclusions.

The work which our Society has been doing in the world for several years is bearing some fruitage. People who sneered at the thought of Christ's Millennial kingdom being imminent, and who trusted for a time that the world would be converted by the nominal churches, are now awakening to a realisation of the fact that the fulfilment of the Lord's Prayer is the only real salvation of the world, and are continually praying, with more meaning than before, ʻThy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heavenʼ (Matt. 6: 10). They are beginning to realise that not only have the heathens abroad doubled within a century, but that the heathenism at home is much greater than they had believed, and that the so-called Christianisation of modern civilisation is but a thin veneer. . . .

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