BATTLE OF THE AGES

Southland Times, Issue 23932, 26 September 1939, Page 11

BATTLE OF THE AGES

ADDRESS BY SYDNEY EVANGELIST EUROPE PREPARED FOR ARMAGEDDON That the stage was set for “Armageddon,” the battle of the ages, was the contention of Mr C. J. Griffin, the Sydney evangelist, who delivered an address to a big and interested audience in the State Theatre on Sunday evening. The speaker said that the nations of the East were to be awakened and come up to the valley of Jehosophat or the place of Megiddo. Megiddo was situated about 55 miles north of Jerusalem. It was noted that the original Greek expression, “kings of the east,” was literally translated, “Kings of the sun rising.” The vernacular for Japan was “Nippon,” meaning the “Rising Sun.” This emblem was found on every Japanese flag. The eastern nations, Russia, India, China and Japan, had slept in seclusion from antiquity until the present day. Suddenly,, as 'though springing out of oblivion with rocket speed, the Oriental nations with their 1,000,000,000 people had flashed into the arena of international strife. The sudden rise of the East, especially Japan, was admitted by all historians to be the historic problem of international politics—the greatest riddle recorded in history’s many and varied pages. The destined hour was reached. The alarm of the infallible clock of prophecy wound by omnipotent handshad struck. The nations of the East had heard it. Rubbing the slumber of millenniums from their eyes, they had arisen and with astounding haste had made ready. They now stood fullyclad, manoeuvring for position in the greatest international drama of all time, the stage for which was set in Megiddo. The evangelist quoted Sir lan Hamilton, one-time Chief of the Imperial Staff and one of the world’s keenest strategists, as saying:—“l have looked carefully at the map and the best spot for Europe to meet and throw back Asia is Megiddo; or, in some maps, Armageddon.”