of I WORLD EVENTS IN THEOLIGHT Volume 52, Number 2 Price id. OF PROPHECY Warburton, Victoria, January II, 1937 The March of Prophetic Events HE months of 1936 have been TAYLOR G. BUNCH "peace and safety" is being heard filled with events full of mean- on every hand, the nations are T ing. The parade of current engaged in the most gigantic arma- happenings in the onward march of ment race in human history. During time presents a picture that is both depressing and 1935 the various nations signed 156 peace treaties heartening. To the ungodly, modern events and and at the same time increased their standing conditions are incomprehensible mysteries that armies to 10,000,000 men. Germany spent i800,- make the future dark and uncertain and fill them 000,000 on her war machine, and the United States with forebodings of disaster. To the godly who spent more on her army and navy than the total view the unrolling scroll of history through the operating cost of the Federal Government in 1916. telescope of Bible prophecy, the passing events There appeared in the Literary Digest of March presage the tragic end of the reign of sin and the 2 1, 1936, an article entitled, "Making and Breaking dawn of a brighter day. To them the darkest of Treaties," accompanied by a map with more clouds have silver linings, and the fiercest storms than half the world in red as the result of armed are messengers of hope and cheer. conflict, rebellion, or treaty violations. Under the "WARS AND RUMOURS OF WARS" caption, "A Carnival of Peace," was the statement: "For seventeen years torn treaties have swirled like THE days immediately preceding the return of Christ are to be characterized by vast war prepara- tions with their attendant "wars and rumours of wars." At the same time peace organizations and The Chicago River, flowing through the heart of Chicago, disarmament conferences will seek to prevent with the La Salle Street Bridge in the foreground. In the threatened conflicts and to settle international dif- past year America has had the severest floods and the worst drought in her history. ferences by peaceful methods. While the cry of Wide World Photo [Registered at the G.P.O., Melbourne, for transmission by post as a newspaper.] 2 SIGNS OF THE TIMES January 11, 1937 hitherto dependable laws of nature are being disrupted? CAPITAL AND LABOUR REGARDLESS of the evident signs of recovery from the economic depres- sion, the number of the unemployed in the United States continued to increase until at the beginning of 1936, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, it reached the unprecedented height of 12,892,000. This not only increased the problem of relief, but multiplied labour disturbances in all parts of the nation. In many instances strikes have been attended by vio- lence and bloodshed. This situation is also a sign of the times, according Wide World Photo to the fifth chapter of James, and These few hardy cornstalks, which managed to struggle knee high in a partially irrigated should tell us that "the coming of field in Pennington County, western South Dakota, United States, were eaten clean by grasshoppers shortly after the picture was to ken, the photograph being taken as the grass- the Lord draweth nigh." hoppers approached about a mile away. RELIGIOUS WORLD confetti across the civilized world. the drought to a greater or less ex- THE religious world presents a Armed conflict and broken treaties tent, but the Middle Western and very complex situation, which can be everywhere have followed in the wake North Central states have suffered explained only in the light of the of the World War." most severely. As a result of the "sure Word of prophecy," which The conquest of Ethiopia has been grain-crop reduction by the forces of "shineth in a dark place" and illu- completed. All efforts of the League nature, America became an importer minates dark and difficult problems. of Nations to curb military ambi- instead of a great exporter. The The struggle between modernism and tions or punish with sanctions were United States Conservation Service fundamentalism continues, with hope- in vain, and as a result of its impo- estimates that 9,000,000 acres have ful signs of a turning of the tide of tency in the face of a crisis involving been ruined by erosion beyond recov- war in favour of the latter. An in- a great nation, the League has lost ery, and that 5o,000,000 acres more creasing number of hitherto militant prestige as a peace-making and war- are so seriously damaged that it liberals are confessing their mistakes, breaking organization, and all Eu- seems impossible to save them. It and changing sides in the contro- rope was brought perilously near to is feared that a large area of the Cen- versy. This is because of the utter a general conflict. tral West, known as "the nation's failure of modern religious philoso- The bloody civil strife in Spain bread-basket," will soon become a phy to satisfy the desires and de- between the loyalists and the rebels desert waste unless something can mands of the spiritual life, as well continues with fury. The loyalists, be done to save it, and salvation from as the effect it has had on society by who are known also as the Reds and the ravages of nature's forces is dif- the lowering of moral standards, with Leftists, are endeavouring to main- ficult, if not impossible. the consequent increase of moral, so- tain the Popular Front Government To save them from certain death cial, economic, and political ills of against the Fascists and monarchists by starvation, millions of cattle have every description. The advancement who form the Rightist Popular Ac- been slaughtered and other millions of true science, especially in the field tion bloc. The Spanish revolt could shipped out of the "dust bowl" to of archaeology, has also played an easily prove to be a spark to explode more favoured regions. Thousands important part in causing the retreat the powder magazine of the Old of stricken families have abandoned of liberals, and the abandonment of World and lighten the whole earth all they possessed and have migrated a faith based on the hypotheses of a with the fires of a terrible conflagra- to other states and to Canada, and "science falsely so called." tion. millions more are on government re- The discoveries of modern science Only the ministration of the angels lief. It is estimated that the relief are gradually but surely corroborat- of peace pictured in the seventh and rehabilitation programme of the ing the Biblical record, and concern- chapter of the Revelation can hold in Federal Government will cost be- ing many haughty and arrogant mod- restraint the cyclonic winds of war tween $1,5oo,000,000 and $2,000,- ernists the prediction of the prophet and human passion until the gospel 000,000. is being fulfilled: "The wise men are commission has been fulfilled. According to divine revelation, "in ashamed, they are dismayed and the last days" there will come "peril- taken: lo, they have rejected the FLOODS AND DROUGHTS ous," or hard, times that will bring word of the Lord; and what wisdom IN the United States, floods of un- "distress of nations, with perplexity" is in them?" Jer. 8: 9. precedented severity visited fifteen of and cause men's hearts to fail them The multiplying of spurious relig- the states during the spring, causing "for fear, and for looking after those ions and counterfeit christs and scores of deaths, and property dam- things which are coming on the earth, prophets in all parts of the world is age to the amount of 5300,000,000 for the powers of the heaven shall another predicted sign of the soon (i6o,000,000). This superabundance be shaken." The latter statement return of Jesus. To His disciples He of rain and flood-water has been fol- reads thus in the Weymouth transla- said: "There shall arise false christs, lowed by the worst drought in the tion: "For the forces which control and false prophets, and shall show history of the country, accompanied the heavens will be "disordered and great signs and wonders; insomuch by dust storms and grasshopper disturbed." Does this refer to the that, if it were possible, they shall plagues that have left large areas of present-day freakish and unusual deceive the very elect." Matt. 24: hitherto fertile country a desert climatic changes, dust storms, and 24. In the Sunday School Times of waste. Thirty-five states have felt cyclones, that indicate that even the (Concluded on page 15) January i t, 1937 SIGNS OF THE TIMES 3 sibility toward God and the sacred- ness of the Ten Commandments. It would be a deterrent of crime and wicked living if people would only remember the statement found in Gen. 16: 13, "Thou God seest me." No matter how dark the night on which some crime or other evil deed is committed, there are unseen witnesses — the heavenly watchers. God sees. The criminal may flatter himself that his wicked deed has es- caped detection, but even if he is not Every Criminal Known to God brought to justice in this life, there is a bar at which—should he not re- OME time ago G men were The Literary Digest further states pent in this life — he must finally cruising along a highway in that "scientists have discovered that stand and where the sentence will be S Minnesota, United States, seek- the same pattern of friction-ridges sure and just and irrevocable—the ing the trail of the kidnappers of on a finger will be duplicated but bar of the Eternal.