The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1915-04-10
APPROACHING
ARMACEDDON
The Meaning of This World War
As Elder Perez Sees 1t.
,ditors Pleasantville Press

Editors Pleasantville Press
What is the meaning of this cata-
clysm of the nations? What means
the beating of this fail of death on
the quivering flesh of civilization? Is
it only a step in human evolution? Is
it the wreck of civilization? Is it the
long-expected Armageddon of Bibli-
cal prophecy?
Yesterday this world was a neigh
borhood; today it is a slaughterhouse,
a charnel, a cyclone, a cemetery. Yes
terday there was comparative peace
and prosperity, confidence, friendly
intercourse, and kindly m-inistration;
today there is turmoil and famine,
distrust, hatred, malevolence, ruin,
dismay, and a mutual desire to injure
and to kill. Does it NEAR nothing to
this race but the changing of a few
rulers and the making of new boun-
Diary lines?
1t means much more. Civiliza-
ton as a ~guarantor of peace has prov
ed itself a broken reed. The hand
that leaned upon it has been pierced
by it; and the innocent victims of
that trust are watering the storm
swept soil with their tears and their
blood.
Centuries ago this world was warn
ed that a time would come when the
call to war would go ringing through
the earth, and the nations would res
pond.
Certain religious leaders have been
teaching the world for years that we
were soon to enter upon a millennium
of peace. They have deluded themsel-
yes and their hearers with the belief
that some of the wishes of the hu-
man heart are the very oracles of God.
They have wanted wars to cease, and
have declared that they would cease.
God has recorded their declaration;
and then they have declared that Gods
record of their declaration in this mat
ter was Gods own declaration to the
human race of what he purposed
should be. This utterance from Isa-
iah they have thus interpreted:
"And he (God) shall judge among
the nations, and shall rebuke many
people: and thev shall beat their
swords into p~lowshares, and their
spears into pruning hooks; nation
shall not lift up sword against nation
neither shall they learn war any
more" Isaiah pa.
It is essential that we know who
is saying this. The verse immediate
II preceding the one quoted reads:
And many people shall go and say,
Come We, and let US go up to the
mountain Of the Lord, to the house of
the God of Jacob; and he will teach
Us Of his ways, and we will walk in
his paths; for out of Zion shall go
forth the law, and the word of the
Lord from Jerusalem"
Who says it?-"Manv people" And
they are saying it now. And what
else are they saying ?-That "they
shall beat their swords into plow-
shares, and their spears into pruning
hooks;" and that "nation shall not
lift up sword against nation, neither
shall they learn war any more"
When are they saying it? The Sec
ond verse of the same chapter tells
US that at shall come to pass in the
last days." etc.
Then "in the last days" we are to
hear much talk of an epoch of peace,
tranquility, and prosperity; much
talk of regulating all human conduct
by divine law; much talk of the church
regulating all the affairs of the world;
much talk of the speedy and perpet-
ual elimination of war from the activ-
tiles of this world. If we had no
other proof that we are living in the
last days, present-day facts fulfilling
that prophecy would be proof enough.
That scripture describes our times,
and our times fulfill that scripture.
Now what is the truth of the mat
ter? In the same chapter we learn
what the true conditions will be in the
last days. 1t portrays a condition of