ROCK OF THE PLAIN

Part 4: Besieging the Rock

By C.C.

Scripture citations are to the King James

(Authorised) Version, unless noted otherwise.

Behold, I am against thee, O inhabitant of the valley, and rock of the plain, saith the Lord; which say, Who shall come down against us? or who shall enter into our habitations? But I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings, saith the Lord: and I will kindle a fire in the forest thereof, and it shall devour all things round about it.

— Jer. 21: 13, 14 —

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fortress on the rock PART THREE OF this series emphasised the date of 1914 and its dual significance as (1) the beginning of the end of ʻGentile timesʼ (Luke 21: 24) a graduated eviction of world powers from control of earth's affairs through a prolonged series of calamities; and (2) as the point from which the Jews, regathered to Palestine, would begin their rise to national independence, which came about in 1948. This present instalment reviews signal events of the decades following the Second World War.

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We have grasped the mystery of the atom

and rejected the Sermon on the Mount.

– General Omar Bradley (1948) –

America's participation in the war of 1914-18 as an ʻassociatedʼ power was a brief and sometimes confused affair, but nonetheless significant in the shaping of the twentieth century. The episode raised the nation's status on the world stage, especially in diplomatic and political matters. A major industrial power and an energetic exporter of machine tools, automobiles, consumer goods and agricultural produce, the United States was already a serious rival to Britain's pre-eminence. On the financial front, pound sterling would remain the world's prime reserve currency for some decades to come, but Britain's dominance as an economic power had been severely damaged by the costs of the war. By 1922, the United Statesʼ navy had attained parity with the Royal Navy, confirmed in the naval agreements at the Washington Conference of 1922, which regulated the building of capital ships, effectively splitting sea-going power between Britain and America. And by 1929 the U.S. had sufficient economic clout that a collapse on Wall Street triggered a decade-long world-wide depression. (Note: The Washington Agreement relegated Imperial Japan to a lesser role, which added to that country's perception of being ill-treated. This, and the fact that Japanese immigrants were denied immigration to the U.S. partly explains Japan's desire to strike at Anglo-American interests in December 1941, at Singapore and Pearl Harbor).

But it was the Second World War and its aftermath which accelerated the United States to head and shoulders rank among nations, incidentally confirming the decline of the British Empire. Although Britain remained a potent force in the Middle East throughout the 20s and 30s, and fought valiantly in the Second World War across several continents and oceans, by 1945 she was a broken power. When she relinquished her role in 1948 of midwife to Israel's re-birth, she effectively sealed her own demise as an instrument of God's providence. The United States would henceforth occupy the seat which Britain vacated. Referring to Britain's history of involvement in the Near (Middle) and Far East, one American general is reported to have said ʻit's now our turn to bat in Asiaʼ. He probably did not have cricket in mind.

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Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.

– Joel 3: 10 –

The dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by American aircraft in 1945 began a new phase of history. The atomic programme, begun early in the Second World War by the British and Canadian governments under the codename Tube Alloys, was shifted for reasons of economy and practicality from Britain to the U.S. in 1942, and completed under the Manhattan Project.

The atom bomb and the later hydrogen bomb were lusted after by other nations, and all means fair and foul were employed to get the secret technology in order to make them. Armed with such awesome means of destruction, even the impotent could now claim to be mighty. The mere threat potential of these weapons whether in the ʻrightʼ or the ʻwrongʼ pair of hands no doubt contributed to severe psychological disruption of millions across the world, keeping adults and children awake at night. The spectre of sudden incineration is far more frightening than any bogeyman.

Long-term anxieties settled in as children practised ducking under desks in regular drills of nuclear attack, and governments advised their citizens how to hide in cellars and seal window openings to avoid radiation seeping in. Gory images worse than those shown on cigarette packets to discourage smoking circulated in magazines, newspapers and end-of-world motion pictures. Peoples around the world got the collective jitters; the better off you were, the more afraid you were, having more to lose. A careful observer will take this psychological factor into account when complaining about the ʻcrazyʼ development of post-war society.

Moving The Goalposts

The United States had long since set aside the advice of President George Washington, who in his Farewell Address of 1796 warned against ʻinterweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangl[ing] our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor or capriceʼ. But now, standing at the portal of the Nuclear Age, this nascent American empire would embark on a permanent rivalry with any and all foreign powers deemed inimical to its own national interests and ambitions, forming alliances to suit the imperatives of the time, eventually spanning the globe with military bases, operated in tandem with those host countries inclined to allow them.

From the early 1950s on, the United States became a shadow European power, more influential in north and west Europe than the European states themselves. It influenced the development of social policies and cultural trends across Europe through its embassies and private corporations. And through its programmes of financial aid, it helped European states to rebuild their infrastructure and industries. The new world and the old merged, locked in a common destiny.

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The burden of the valley of vision. What aileth thee now, that thou art wholly gone up to the housetops? Thou that art full of stirs, a tumultuous city, a joyous city: thy slain men are not slain with the sword, nor dead in battle. All thy rulers are fled together, they are bound by the archers: all that are found in thee are bound together, which have fled from far.

– Isa. 22: 1-3 –

The political and martial spheres now split broadly into two antipathetic ideologies, Capitalism and Communism. The western European nations scooted under the umbrella of America's influence, broadly subscribing to Washington's foreign policies; while eastern and central European states were herded into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, headed by Moscow. Nations far removed geographically or culturally from the continent of Europe also aligned with one side or the other, according to whether they were ʻdemocraticʼ or ʻtotalitarianʼ. Thus Australia, New Zealand and Canada, outgrowths of the Anglosphere, were firmly western by instinct; while E. Germany and post-revolution Cuba were not. Non-aligned India and an indecisive Pakistan, former British colonial states, tilted their foreign policies westward or eastward as it suited them. The ever-inscrutable China espoused its own version of communism, suspected everyone, and chose its friends carefully. The Cold War was under way.

But warfare, cold or hot, requires its belligerents to be easily identified, and so the perception of a ʻbipolarʼ world of two hostile forces – East and West took hold, and the popular recollection of the period reflects this simple view. The divided city of Berlin (and its later Wall) encapsulated the us-versus-them mood, one which has been exploited in countless films and books ever since.

ban the bomb symbol But the nuclear option no longer seemed such a good idea. In Britain, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) sprang up, and students took to the streets by the thousands, tossing marbles under the hooves of police horses and generally expressing their anger at the terrible situation their elders had foisted on them. Several proposals were put forward by the United States to reduce nuclear stockpiles around the world and to ban atmospheric testing of the weapons. Complete disarmament was mooted, but was never likely to be implemented so long as possession of nuclear weapons held a certain macabre cachet and won grudging respect from other countries. The nations which hold the largest stockpiles of nuclear arms today are (still) the United States and Russia. But rather than make new ones, which would violate existing treaties, older weapons are modernised. They remain no less deadly than before.

For the next few decades, East and West fought each other through various means short of dropping atomic bombs on the other's homeland. They waged the propaganda war in multiple languages via short wave radio transmission by the BBC External Services (funded by the British Foreign Office), Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (funded by Washington), Radio Moscow, etc.; carried out espionage on land, sea, and by high-altitude satellites and spy planes; despatched covert agents to each other's territory to stir up disaffected groups and spur revolution; and engaged in surrogate ʻhotʼ wars throughout Central and South America, Africa and South-East Asia. Each squandered its resources (and those of its partners) in what had now become an all-out struggle for supremacy. But it was in Europe the old Christendom the birthplace of the Renaissance, the Protestant Reformation and liberal democracy where the troubles would be focused, spreading out from this cockpit to the rest of the world, leaving no territory unaffected.

The Virtual War (Or Why Trust Is In Short Supply)

Contrary to what might have been expected after the dissolution of nations and national boundaries in the aftermath of the wars of 1914-18 and 1939-45, the world as a whole has got richer, even as it has become more troubled. Righteousness is no longer the pride and boast of those western nations whose culture, virtue and prosperity grew out of their attachment to biblical roots. The Christian church is in spasmodic retreat across the globe, as it accommodates itself to new ideas of conduct and public morality.

The current situation is more intense than ever and fraught with danger, because the pressure points on all societies at all levels have multiplied a thousand times over, especially in the opening decade of the twenty-first century, due to the all-encompassing web of global economics, finance, trade, and disruptive social media, with its lightning-quick communications, giving a new and powerful voice to the disenfranchised and distressed. It will become increasingly difficult for even the most sophisticated of states to keep up with these technological hazards. The sheer volume of intelligence and information that bombards the modern state, requiring urgent and sober response in a crisis, will cripple all but the most capable.

In the era of the Cold War the military threat from bellicose nations could at least be quantified according to a certain ʻcivilisedʼ rationale that is, their having something to lose. The new type of threat real or imagined arises out of a world of wireless connections and encrypted communications and is relatively inexpensive to mount, forcing national governments and their intelligence-gathering agencies into overdrive. The notion of national sovereignty, of borders which can be inked on a map, is now out of date.

This present trouble is unlike that expected by earlier students of Bible prophecy, for it has proved itself unlike any which has preceded it. And it has continued far longer than anyone expected. For this reason, one cannot merely extrapolate trends and conditions prior to 1914 and apply them to the present situation, one hundred years on. As Jesus implies in Matthew 24: 21, this time of trouble is unique ʻsuch as was not . . . nor ever shall beʼ. It's not simply a matter of degree.

However long the Time of Trouble has yet to run, it will not an end until God's purpose for it is complete and Israel is fully delivered. Few nations will be left untouched by it.

Continues

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June 2014. The usual and natural author rights are asserted, except that you may reproduce this article in whole or in part without express permission, but please acknowledge its source.

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