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214 The Bible, Prophecy and the War
of God’s purpose and be reigning with Him in that place of exalted
privilege which He has reserved for those who have submitted them-
selves by faith to His Son.
in
This War Not Armageddon
We come now to the last part of this address,—the war. When we
talk about purifying judgments on the earth in these days, people
ask whether the conflict now going on in Europe is not the fulfillment
of this prophecy? They ask whether this is not the purifying judg-
ment out of which the millennial blessing shall come? In other
words, "Is not this war the Battle of Armageddon?" We know from
the sixteenth chapter of Revelation that the battle of Armageddon is
that great conflict out of which God will bring to pass these purposes
of blessing which have been mentioned.
But the answer to that question is in the negative. This war is not
Armageddon. How do we know it? That is another reason why we
need to study prophecy. We know it from the Word of* God. It is
not what I think about it. It is true, as Dr. Brooks has said, that a
prophet is not a foreteller but a forth-teller. The prophets who wrote
by inspiration of God were foretellers, but he who seeks to interpret
their prophecies to the people is not a fore-teller. If he attempts to be
he is doing wrong. He should simply proclaim what God has revealed.
Now from that point of view one can say with some positiveness
that this conflict is not the Armageddon. In the first place, it is not
in the right locality. Armageddon is the name of a hill rising up from
the plain of Esdraelon in northern Palestine. Many a battle has been
fought there by Joshua, by Josiah and other kings of Israel. Babylon
and Egypt fought there, the Saracens and the Crusaders fought there,
Napoleon fought there, Great Britain is fighting the Turks in that
neighborhood today. But the greatest battle the world has even seen
shall be fought there, and that is the battle of Armageddon.
Again, this confiict has not the right objective for Armageddon.
What is the objective of the present war? It is somewhat difl[icult to
see Just now, but there is no doubt whatever as to what will be the
objective of Armageddon, namely, the capture of Jerusalem, when
occupied once more by Israel. God calls that land "the apple of His
eye." Ezekiel, His prophet, speaks of it as "the middle of the earth."
God knew why He chose Palestine to be the homeland of His peculiar
people. All the great nations of the earth, east and west, have cov-
eted that land. On two occasions, as revealed in the Word of God,
Jerusalem has been besieged by Gentile armies. Once under Nebu-
chadnezzar and again under Titus. On both occasions she was over-
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