Winston Churchill
gives this clever peace parable:
Once upon a time all the
animals in the zoo decided they would disarm, and they
arranged to hold a conference to decide the matter. The
rhinoceros said that the use of teeth in war was
barbarous and horrible, and ought strictly to be
prohibited by general consent. Horns, which were mainly
defensive weapons, would, of course, have to be
tolerated. The buffalo, stag, and porcupine said they
would vote with the rhino; but the lion and the tiger
took a different view. They defended teeth, and even
claws, as honorable weapons.
Then the bear spoke. He
proposed that both teeth and horns should be banned. It
would be quite enough if animals would be allowed to give
each other a good hug when they quarreled. No one could
object to that. It was so fraternal, and would be a great
step toward peace.
However, all the other
animals were offended with the bear, and they fell into a
perfect panic.
This illustration
demonstrates perfectly the problem today with world peace
- no absolute authority! As long as that condition exist
there will be "wars and rumors of war."
There are several things
that the title "Prince of Peace" reminds us of:
The untempered morter
is a picture of the philosophies of man. without God, the
wall will collapse.
According to the Canadian
Army Journal, a former president of the Norwegian Academy
of Sciences, aided by historians from England, Egypt,
German, and India came up with some fantastic figures and
findings:
Since 3600 B.C. the world
has known only 292 years of peace. During this period
there have been 14,531 wars, large and small, in which
3,640,000,000 people have been killed. The value of the
destruction would pay for a golden belt around the world
97.2 miles in width and about 33 feet thick.
Since 650 B.C. there have
been 16,656 arms races, only 16 of which have not ended
in war. The remainder have ended in the economic collapse
of the countries concerned.
From 1500 B.C. to present
more than 10,000 peace treaties of peace, meant to remain
in force forever, were concluded. The average time they
remained in force was two years.
War is the result of:
A. The lust of men - (Jam.
4:12)
B. Punishment for sin -
(Judg. 5:8) - Peace comes as a result of righteousness
(Ps. 37:4,11,37; Pro. 16:7)
"Russia now has
satellites in space carrying multiple nuclear warheads
that are capable of obliterating the population of the
whole earth. The U.S. has atomic submarines in every
ocean carrying atomic warheads that are capable of
obliterating Russia and China. One submarine can loose in
16 minutes more explosive force than all the bombs and
ammunition exploded by all the nations in the six years
World War II."
If God does not intervene it
is only a matter of time before man will destroy himself
There are several things that Jesus said that must
precede the Lords intervention:
A. Many False Christs -
(Matt. 24:5)
There have been over 100
religious leaders in different parts of the world in the
last 50 years who have claimed to be Christ and the
Saviour of the world.
B. Increase in wars - (Matt.
24:6)
What Emil Ludwig call
"annihilating statistics," he presents in the following
ghastly summary of World War I: "Ten million men killed.
a parade of these dead men, marching ten abreast from
sunrise to sunset, with a new rank passing every two
seconds, would take forty-six days to pass by a given
spot!
To this number should be
added 13,000,000 missing.
There were also 10,000,000
refugees and 6,000,000 children who had lost their
fathers. The daily loss of human life amounted to 16,585.
The cost of the war came to a total of $338,000,000,000
-in other words, $20,000 for every hour since the birth
of Christ. The war itself cost $9,000,000 an hour to
wage. In those four years, Europe lost all savings it had
accumulated during a century! "
By far the most costly war
in terms of human life was World War II (1939-45), in
which the total number of fatalities, including battle
deaths and civilians of all countries, is estimated to
have been 54,800,000, assuming 25,000,000 U.S.S.R.
fatalities and 7,800,000 Chinese civilians killed. The
country which suffered most was Poland with 6,028,000 or
22.2 percent of her population of 27,007,000 killed.
C. Famines, pestilence,
earthquakes - (Matt. 24:7).
In the 9th century, there
was one major earthquake; in the 11th century, two; in
the 13th century, three; in the 16th, two; 17th, two;
18th, five (including the Lisbon); and in the 19th
century, nine major earthquakes. So far in the 20th
century, there have been over 40 (including the Peking
quake).
From the World Almanac comes
another set of facts: there were only 6 earthquakes of
strength between 1800 to 1896. But in each decade from
1897 until 1947, there were either 2 or 3, and in the
decade from 1947 to 1956, there were 7. From 1957 to 1966
there were 17.
Time magazine's front cover
for its Sept. 1, 1975 issue was a split earth with this
inscription: "FORECAST: EARTHQUAKE." Since
that date to the end of 1976, there have been 24
significant earthquakes - in China, Guatemala, Italy,
Indonesia, Soviet Central Asia, and many other
places.
The year 1976 experiences at
least 50 significant quakes (intensity 6.5) and 18 major
quakes (over 7.0). An estimated 695,000 deaths - the
highest in modem history; in were in Germany. It
was Hitler's aim not only to exterminate all the Germany
Jews, but to kill all Jews in Europe. His reign of
terror, in which five to six million Jews were killed, is
one of the blackest in the pages of history. When Hitler
was through with them, six out of every 10 Jews in Europe
were killed.
