MARCHING TO ARMAGEDDON

Manawatu Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 2779, 22 October 1923, Page 4

MARCHING TO ARMAGEDDON

BIBLE STUDENTS’ LECTURE. There ivas a very fair number of people at Everybody’s Theatre last night, when Mr E. Nelson, of Auckland, lecturer of the International Bible Students’ Association, gave an address on thee topic, “All Nations Marching to Armageddon, but Millions now Living will Never Die.” The latter statement, which is the slogan of the Bible students, he briefly explained to mean not life in a spirit form in some other sphere, but real, perfect, human life here on earth. Jesus spoke of the last day—i.e., the seventh millennium, when “he that liveth and believeth in Me shall never die.” The evidence was abundant and convincing that we now lived in the beginning of that era. For forty years prior to 1914 Bible students had published books showing the end of Gentile times was due that year. The great war had shifted over 200 kings and kinglets who, up till then, had "ruled by the grace of God.” The real ruler all the time, the Bible showed, had been Satan, “the god of this world.” Jesus called him the Prince of this world” (Jno. 14:3/). Satan offered our Lord a share in his world-empire when in the Temptation (Luke 4), he invited Him” in to “fall down and worship him” in return for worldly glory and power. No one could tfhow what or how the kingdoms of this world had become Christ's since then and God’s will done on earth as in heaven. Satan’s will had been done most of the time, except in the hearts of a minority. The Lord took unto Himself His great power in 1914 and ousted the Gentile kings, “the nations were angry and the time of God’s wrath. commenced” (Rev. 11:15-18). The war, famine, pestilence, earthquakes and revolutions -which had taken place were “the beginning of sorrows.” The Battle of Armageddon was the final and decisive conflict between Christ and His army of righteousness (Rev. 19: 11,12) and truth, composed of His true followers on both sides of the veil and Satan, the old “god of this world.” While this battle included warfare and class strife of a sanguinary nature, as many prophecies show, yet in its essence it was a conflict between the spirit of truth and error—God and Mammon. The issue was not in doubt. Christ would win, and Satan would be bound for 1000 years, and the agencies by which he had deceived and controlled the people, symbolically spoken of “The Dragon, the Beast, and the False Prophet” ( Rev. 16:13) would be utterly destroyed. By 1925, Die. speaker believed, this conflict would break out like a consuming fire. Extracts from current news cables were read showing the apprehension wherewith world leaders viewed world conditions, and the feebleness and insufficiency of existing means for averting the clash. It would probably begin with a war in which Turkey, Russia and Germany would oppose some of the old Allies, but it would quickly degenerate into revolution, overthrowing the present order of society. Anarchy would result when Socialism failed. Those who now sought righteousness and meekness would be “kept by the power of God, through faith unto a salvation shortly to be revealed"—a heavenly salvation for those “begotten of the spirit,” and the earthly salvation to another- class who turned to Go*d now. The latter would be the nucleus of that new society over which Christ -would reign in holiness and peace. Close and earnest attention was given to Mr Nelson’s lecture throughout. On Wednesday he will speak on “The Resurrection” in the Oddfellows’ Hall.