ALL men’s efforts to bring about a warless world are doomed to result in failure, so long as the Prince of Peace is rejected. He alone can speak peace to the nations. In His own times He will take over the reins of government, and then the nations shall learn war no more.
While His authority is denied and His Word spurned, the world will ever be, as He Himself foretold, a scene where nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and men’s hearts will fail them for fear as they behold the things that are coming on the earth.
But even when ideologies are clashing, kingdoms being destroyed and vast armies endeavoring to annihilate one another, the heart of the Christian may be kept in peace as he realizes that God’s restraining hand is over all, and the most wicked of men can do nothing apart from His permissive will.
“In the sun, and moon, and stars,
Signs and wonders there shall be;
Earth shall quake with inward wars,
Nations with perplexity.
Soon shall ocean’s hoary deep,
Tossed with stronger tempests, rise;
Wilder storms the mountains sweep,
Louder thunders rock the skies.
Dread alarms shall shake the proud,
Pale amazement, restless fear;
And amid the thundercloud
Wilt thou, Son of Man; appear!”
—R. Heber.