ARMAGEDDON

Opotiki News, Volume II, Issue 251, 27 October 1939, Page 4

ARMAGEDDON

By Rev. C. G. <3.Salt, When over there is a great war,, ..or when ever great distress comes* to the nations of the earth,--we hear talk of the Battle of Armageddon, which it has heeir prophecied must come before the end of the world.' There are people who go to great lengths to pfove that this must be the year, or the time A. I), of that,battle, and to show that it will be'Touglit in the Plains of Megiddo near Jerusalem. But there* are two great, difficulties in the way. of any spell interpretation of this prophecy. The first i ; s that no sooner dd we regard prophecy as something connected with .time, than wo fall into the snares of Predestination; if there is such a war predestinated to occur, at some given date in history, then what use are all our efforts, to avert such a war? Secondly, although the word Armageddon may have some resemblance to the word Megiddo, still there can bo no connection between the -two, for Megiddo is a plain, a valley lying between bills, and the word Armageddon means a Mountain, “the mountain of fruits”.

Time and prophecy. Let us consider these two difficulties separately. First, what relation can time have to prophecy in order to avvoid the error of Predestinated Fatalism? Modern Science teaches us that Time is a fourth dimension, or a fourth

way of measuring things. . For' instance, \ if one wants to.- describe accurately where ascertain thing is in space, wo must state accurately some moment of time. Let us suppose that we are describing to some ethericaT being the locality of New* Zealand, we must not only tell him the longitude and latitude of New Zealand in this world, but wo must also give him a date,, or he will not ho able to find the world! a» it hurtles throug?i‘Space.

It i.s perhaps simpler jj; wo regard time, not so much as a thing that passes by, but as a vast field, across which wo arc walking. And let us suppose that that field is marked off in squares, each with its own name and peculiarities. Wo are now in a square called 1930, and in that square there is„ a war. Let us think of that war asf a tree growing in the middle of a field, and wo have bnmped into it as we walked across the field.

This gives us a fairly good idea of the modern conception of Time. If wo had been able to see far enough ahead, wo should not have pumped into that war-tree as wo crossed this particular square of Time. But being poor blind creatures, we have bumped into it. The prophet is one who is not so blind, and sees things that lie in our, way ahead of us, and warns us. If we heed his .warning we may quite well walk around the obstacle, but if we do not, we shall bump into it- it is never predestined' that wo shall bump into anything. It.is .simply that there are many obstacles in the way of human progress, and without good

guides we /hall naturally hump into many of them. Spiritual Experiences and Time. -Mneh man horn into this world lives a life that is quite his own. To complete our picture of 'rime we must think of the squares*nitp which we have divided Space, as the lives of men.- And in those squares which represent the lives we live in this world, there are always certain characteristics common to all. These characteristics may he called our Spiritual experiences. They are such things n-» Troubles, Sorrow, Peace, Toy, Love, Despair, Hope, and so on, and we must add to these purely human feelings such truly important things as ignorance and knowledge. The first part of every square which forms the life of a man. is a part which might be called innocence. Later lie will pass to a place .where the same thing can no longer he called innocence, but must be called ignorance. But this part may lie avoided by 'making full use of our senses as we walk aJong. Ignorance i.s really an aimless wandering and meandering about in that part which is called innocence. It is the result of refusing to press onward in the journey, and being content to idle about without making real progress. The last part of the square of. each human life steadily may lie called Knowledge, and it is only reached by those who march forward all their lives, and do not daily about. We may therefore think ol each of the squares of time which represent a man’s life, a.s being divided into say seventy sections, each representing one year. If the man lives his life properly, or makes full use of his time, at his seventieth year he will pass out of this world lull of knowledge. On the other hand, if he misuses his time, although ho may live the allotted span of seventy solar years, spiritually speaking, he will only have reached the age of ten, twenty, thirty, or forty years, as the case may he. Similarly if lie has been particularly energetic, be may reach the spiritual age of seventy years whilst he has only lived some thirty or forty .solar years. in this later case, he will be a prophet for the rest of his time in this world. And although still comparatively young, he will be able to guide aliyl direct others who are older-than lie is from the point of view of actual Time. The Battle of Armageddon. This Battle is one of the landmarks which lie. close to the end of every square of time representing a human lii'e. It may be said to be a place where the soul in its journey comes to the dividing of the ways, and wheic lie must choose definitely, once and tor all whether lie shall’ continue in the place, of Spiritual ignorance, or whether he will' take up' his cross and press on to his true home. It is a time when he must deliberately undorc.t'to the work of sacrificing his human nature to the Divine, or turn back upon his path and make no further use oi his allotted! span 01. Time. Picturesquely speaking, as a rule he roaches this place tired and worn out. 'lTiere has been a terrible storm and Hood in bis life, which has iorced him to seek spiritual heights for safety. And as he stands on these heights he is faced with the choice oi ascending to the very top. or 0 f standing still and raging against the storms which have driven him to seek the heights. Il ho will “look up” he will see the hand el Cod. outstretched to help hiin ; “his redemption draweth nigh”. But it lie will net look up lie must spendi the rest of his life mourning the things lilo lias taken from him, a poor hopeless soul. Tits Final BaUle. To those who accept the liaild of God outstretched to help them, to save them, the end of this world comes with their aeei ptanee of that help. hven though they may. live on here for a while, their heart i.s in heaven, they know their final rest is assured. Such times as these in which we live to-day, may force many on to these heights of Armageddon. But it would he foolish to think of the war as the true Battle of Armageddon. That is something throng}) which each soul passes alone. Bui on the oilier hand, there may come a time when the Soul of the whole Human Cnee passes through this experience. But no man knoweth the fiiiie or the hour thereof.