WHY DON'T GOD STOP THE WAR?

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 16 December 1915, Page 2

WHY DON'T GOD STOP THE WAR?

DIVINE PROPHECY.

A SERMON Delivered by Mr S. L. P. SIMMER (Auckland), in the Helensville Presbyterian Church, on Sunday, December 12th; 1915.

" Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an. answer to every man that asketh you a .reason of the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear."—l Peter 3. 15.

. The Bible invites investigation; the believer of the Bible is commanded to submit to interrogation. . What is more, he is to be ready to answer reasonable questions. A few weeks ago your local newspaper has propounded to the Christians of Helensville three questions and has asked that they should be answered from the pulpit. My presence here to-night is to try and meet the demand. The questions are :

. "Is this present war- a fulfilment of Divine prophecy ?" ■ •' '

" Is the Kaiser anti-Christ ?" " Why doesn't the Almighty.stop these atrocities.?" '. ' \

As an evidence J ehovah is God. He says : " I am God and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning." " Ask me of things to come !" ,

I here throw out a challenge to all the learned of the world to find me another book that will tell the future like the Bible does. Its prophecies cover almost a third of its contents. It gives detailed accounts of things which were to befall many, cities and many countries and many peoples. It tells what will happen in Europe after this war; what will become of the Turks; the Church o$ Rome andi all other churches; who anti-Christ is, and what he will do. Some prophecies are in such simple language! that a child, can understand them; others are given in symbolic language. Some prophecies were intended to be understood; others were clothed yfrith language to. hide their meaning. Of some it says, " None of the wicked shall understand-, but the wise shall understand at the time of their completion or near it. As an illustration let me take Egypt: Jehovah says;—" I will make the land of Egypt desolate in . the midst of the countries that; are desolate, and her cities shall be laid waste forty years, and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nation's. . .■ .

At the end of forty years will"' I gather them unto the land of .their habitation, and they shall be . there a base nationIt shall be there the basest of the kingdoms, neither shall it exalt itself any more above the nations. . . . . And there shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt." All this/is plain enough, for a child to understand. What are the facts ? In the year 525 8.C., Egypt was conquered by the Persians, and its King Psammitik 111. was made prisoner. It was finally subdued by Ochus in 350 B.C. It was afterwards ruled successively by the Greeks, the Romans, the Mahometans, and the British. No ruler of the land of Egypt has ever mounted its throne since 350 B.C. The Copts are descended from the ancient Egyptians. The Turks call them in derision "the posterity of Pharaoh," but their uncouth figure, ignorance and wretchedness do little credit to the sovereigns of Egypt. Before the British took possession of Egypt, Wilkinson found as a result, of careful calculation that in the most favourable circumstances the peasant had only two and two-fifths farthings a day on which to support himself and his family. Are any people sunk lower in the scale of civilization than that ? Our Lord as He came with His disciples from the Temple said : " There shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down." They then asked Him three questions—(l) When shall these things be? (2) What-shall be the sign of Thy coming ? (3) And the end of the age ? Luke answers the first; Matthew the other tw"o. Luke 21, 20 —" When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies then know her desolation is near." This was A.D. 30. In A.D. 67, Jerusalem was besieged with an army by Cestius Gallus. He despaired of taking the city and left it. The Jews destroyed his army. Vespasian and Titus were sent by Nero to subdue the Jews, and Titus again surrounded the city, and destroyed it just three years from the time the Jews saw it compassed with armies. The prophecy was given in language a child . could understand. The fulfilment of the prophecy was so evident, scepticism assaults it in vain. If the Lord answered the first question so clearly and fully, have we not reason to expect the second one, viz., " What shall be the sign of Thy coming?" as simply and clearly foretold and answered? In Matthew Heanswers it. He says : " Many shall come in My name, saying ' I am Christ,' and shall deceive many." Has not that been fulfilled dozens of times ? Did not Mrs Besant trot out her little Christ a year or two since, and did not members of the Star of the East worship him ? " And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars. See that ye be not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet." Wars and war rumours have to be the normal condition of a world that has rejected and crucified the Son of God. Then He says : " N ation shall rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines and pestilences, and earthquakes in many places. All these are the beginning of travail." The sign His disciples had given them to escape was the besieging of the city of Jerusalem. The sign- of the beginning of events leading up to our Lord's coming is—a worldwide movement of nation against nation, in conjunction with famines, pestilences and earthquakes in many places. This sign is as clearly given as the one with respect to Jerusalem. Now the question for us to settle is—does this present war fulfil the specification given by our

Lord ? If it doe?, then this war is the j commencement of a series of events that will lead up to the setting-up of the ', Kingdom of God in this world -within the ' ' £ experience of tbe people now living. t ' For He says the people who see them %£, commence, will ree them all fulfilled. " >%* I have no hesitation in saying that this ,■> '^ war, with its concomitant events, is that t &M predicted in Matthew 24, 7. Is the * jji i Kaiser anti-Christ? Yes,- and no. t^m Anti is against or opposite. In that 'a|w sense the Kaiser is anti-Christ, but he is ftim ■ not the anti-Christ, though he bears •^RI many resemblances to the real one. For tlfci' instance, anti-Christ has to have his sjffc| right eye utterly darkened, and his arm , -y' t^j dried up, but this is done with a sword f$ wound. Like the Kaiser, he will t>e the / cause of millions losing their lives, , but-, TfjM he comes up at the time the Kingdoms of Europe federate. Ten Kingdoms feder- .^jf ate, and anti-Christ roots up three, and •" Aj .becomes the^sole Arch-Regent of this % Confederate Power. He will compel a|I A , -.^ men to worship him, and also have imaflAMß^l made of himself to be ~se"^ "PjM^i^"^l worshipped. The last q,uestion*"Tm^* " * ' ]M leave; .saving to say God is permitting Vs& the sin and rebellion of man to come to' '^' TS a head.\that He may deal with it -^ drastically. ''J •,-":! •■:==== 4