Never did the clouds of war, so strange and so dark hang in an angry thunder-head over the world, and never did the world see itself as it does today. Everywhere, — in government, in industry, in halls of learning, in churches, in homes, on the streets — in every walk of life, the question uppermost is, Whitherbound mankind?
From pre-eminent scientific and journalistic spokesmen have come such representative utterances as these:
“…What is the story of Man? It is that men die, Man survives. Now men are measurably nearer the most terrible of all the climaxes they have brought upon themselves in their long history of struggle. If the climax comes it will change life and change the world. But it will not end life, it will not destroy the world. In this utmost climax, or perhaps in its prospect, men may at last find the secret of peace and the way to live without destruction. That is a hope. The certainty is that Man will be on earth, making a world.” — Life, Oct. 3, 1949, p. 22.
“…Einstein…agrees…that other nations can rediscover our secret processes by themselves; that no military defense can be expected and preparedness is futile, that if another war breaks out, atom bombs will surely destroy civilization…
“‘It is important,’ he went on to say, ‘to enlighten public opinion on the real situation about the bomb. Only the prevention of war by action on an international scale, which will make preparation for war unnecessary and even impossible, can save us from its consequences.’” — Newsweek, March 10, 1947, p. 58.
“… Fanaticism has replaced reason; terror, compromise; hate, friendship. Science, education, and philosophy, the vehicles of progress to Western man, have been perverted, distorted and retooled into weapons against civilization.” — John Edgar Hoover, in a report sent out by the FBI.
“… Insecurity and strife are so general that the prevailing attitude is one of anxious and pessimistic uncertainty.” — John Dewey, Reconstruction in Philosophy, p. 8.
“There is only too much reason to fear that Western civilization, if not the whole world, is likely in the near future to go through a period of immense sorrow and suffering and pain…” — Bertrand Russel on the subject, “If We Are To Survive This Dark Time,” in the New York TIMES magazine, September 3, 1950.
“We have now arrived at the ultimate stage in history. What is ultimately required of us is required of us now… It is very late. Perhaps nothing can save us. But the handwriting on the wall is plain enough. It says to the people of earth, ‘Unite or die.’” — Dr. Robert M. Hutchins.
“Everyone is agreed that an atomic war is world suicide, that no one can win. No scientist of repute doubts the fact that every country with an industrial capacity will have the atomic bomb in five years. We therefore have just five years to build for peace.” — Dr. Robert M. Hutchins, Chancellor of Chicago University, in Chicago Daily Tribune, March 26, 1946.
“There can be no doubt about the world crisis. We are living at one of those turning points of history which offers two roads, one of which leads to death and the other to life.
“The fact is, the H-bomb represents mankind’s final suicide triumph, the unlocking of the inmost secrets of nature for purposes of total destruction. It brings into absolute focus the failure of a materialistic civilization which has sought to organize its life apart from God.” — G. Ashton Oldham, formerly bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Albany, on “The World Crisis and the Future,” in the bulletin of the Church Peace Union for June.
“People are discovering a frightful queerness has come into life, even unobservant people are betraying, by fits and starts, a certain wonder, a shrinking, fugitive sense that something is happening so that life will never quite be the same.
“Spread out and examine the pattern of events and you will find yourself face to face with a new scheme of being hitherto unimaginable by the human mind….
“Writers are convinced there is no way out, around or through the impasse. It’s the end.” — H.G. Wells, Los Angeles Examiner, October 21, 1945.
In the thoughtfully considered opinion of these eminent on-the-scene observers in the 1940s, their generation was at the zero hour of civilization. Over 50 years have passed since the above-quoted words were penned, and the world is in no less turmoil today than it was in their day. In fact, it is much worse, considering the strides in advancement that civilization has since taken in the field of technology, which have proportionately advanced the means of violence and destruction. How much closer must we be to the end of all things! Political and social unrest blight the atmosphere the world over, and whether we realize it or not, the day of doom is shortening its shadow. With all that is transpiring around the globe, it is safe to say that we are face to face with the most momentous issues ever to confront a generation of men.
Atomic warheads, lethal rockets, poison gas, bacterial bombs, super-submarines boring through the mighty deeps, and supersonic aircraft stabbing through space above, — what mean these and other dread devices of destruction?
What do these signs of the times portend for the Church and for all the world? Had the question flung itself at any generation in the days of God’s ancient prophets, then beyond doubt they would have answered: “As the Church lives, and as it is certain that God lives, it would be impossible that He leave His people in darkness concerning the signs of their times.”
And their answer must certainly be our answer, too.
Moreover it is a self-evident fact that if we want to know, God will enable us to know the true meaning of these unprecedentedly destructive things. From the outset, this much is clearly manifest: If the superbombs, superbombers, and superall import nothing else, they without question threaten civilization.
Manifest, too, is the certainty that Heaven has permitted these instruments of destruction to come in order to rouse Christendom, ministry and laity alike, to a concerted, enlightened, all-out action as the Lord leads ahead to save man from himself and from the Devil.
6. The Layman’s Movement - We have through the years seen numerous persons and groups of persons in different parts of the Adventist world who at one time or another did stage what they termed a "revival and reformation," but not one of them have ever been able to accomplish much, if anything. One by… Christianity, failing this task, and leaving the world to save itself as best it can, the Enemy will ere long wipe out not only the knowledge of God and of salvation, but also civilization itself!
Indeed, every open-eyed observer can distinctly see that while Heaven and earth wearily wait upon Christians to take the offensive against all unrighteousness, the power of evil is exerting an utterly sinister influence through Christless men and women such as bear the red torch of Communism.
Grim indeed, is the picture. And the stark peril of it hurls its challenge at Christendom as a whole. What shall we do about it? Close our eyes tight to it? or arise in the face of it, and be Noahs, Gideons, Davids, Elijahs, Daniels, Luthers, and all such with a faith to do something about it while the light still shines and while opportunity still remains us? Will we lay well to heart the tragic truth that “the sin of the world’s impenitence lies at the door of the church”? — The Great Controversy, p. 389.
Will we all accept the supreme annunciation, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:14), as the supreme trust and duty of the Church more than of the State? Our country and the whole world need the Church, and God is waiting for her members, both laity and ministry, to
“Arise, shine.” Isa. 60:1.
Every Christian who truly knows that the gospel “is the power of God unto salvation,” knows that if the masses were converted to Christ, there would not, indeed could not, be any aggressive Communistic or other totalitarian power in the world, and therefore no such threat as militant Communism now presents to civilization.
And every Christian also knows that there is no power on earth, other than “the sword of the Spirit,” that can cut off the head of the Goliath of today.
What pity, then, and what recreancy to trust, should the Church not immediately lift from the shoulders of the State her own neglected part, which is the greater part, of the burden of peace-making, but continue to leave Government to bear the whole load and to do the best it can without Divine enlightenment and without power which only the Church can impart.
In virtually pushing the church out of all Communist-dominated countries, the Enemy has already stolen a long and victorious march on her, and is now fiercely fighting to extend his victory to final triumph in pushing her from the very face of the earth. But there is yet hope if only she will in courageous loyalty respond to the Divine command now ringing forth to every defender of the faith:
Isa. 60:1–3 — “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.”
In the power-crazed, rule-or-ruin, war-bent and hell-bent, self-destructive course of mankind, in the angry and catastrophic upheavals and out-breakings of the elements of nature, and in the cumulative fulfillment of the fast unfolding prophecies in the Word of God, the signs of the times thunder the warning appeal that we arise in God’s light and make haste to rescue His people from the ills which threaten to devastate the world.
If such is not the Church’s great mission and duty at this crisis hour, what need, then, do the Lord and the world have of her? But what can the Church do unless her members, both lay and clerical, arise together as one man, and throw their all into the conflict?
Well knowing as we do the answer to these urgent questions, what excuse will we have if we do not now arouse ourselves and all saints in Christendom along with us to do what the gospel commands us to do?
Regardless how dramatic and impressive any demonstrations the church may put on, it is no secret that even if she is not pushed out of any place or country, still at her present pace of preaching the gospel of the Kingdom a temporal millennium will not suffice her in which to warn the world, finish the work, and bring the Kingdom in. And every enlightened mind knows this to be the inevitable truth.
Just look at the brute, predatory forces loose and lurking everywhere, and causing the whole earth to erupt with violence, tumult and terror. Verily, they are making “men’s hearts [to fail] them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth….” Luke 21:26.
Will not all Christians everywhere be aroused by these things to “put on the whole armour of God” and to “take…the sword of the Spirit” (Eph. 6:11, 17) while following the Lord as He leads ahead? If not, then certain it is that the Church and the World as well are hopelessly doomed. To be sure, though, the few who do arouse to make the total surrender which the hour demands, God will save from, the conflagration to come:
Dan. 12:1– And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation [even] to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
How, though, shall He deliver any one who fails to heed the signs of the times, the thunderings of the dread drums of Doom’s Day, now flashing in our eyes and rumbling in our ears with warning more awful than the flaming thunders of Sinai? No, He could no more deliver such spiritually blind, deaf, and dumb incurables than He could have delivered the antediluvians who failed to go into Noah’s ark.
And now what do the flying saucers (UFOs) add to the already grim picture? Whether they are earth-produced mechanisms or celestial, interplanetary space ships, they paint still grimmer the picture for the sinner.
What Flying Saucers Add to the Already Grim Picture
What is of first and supreme importance to each, however, is to know for a surety that his name is written in the Book.
To have this most blessed assurance, one must first know what will keep one’s name out of the Book, and what will put it in.
8. The Judgment Of The Living - What is the need of a judgment, and why should we be judged after we are saved? That the Bible teaches of a coming judgment no one can deny. We therefore need only to give the reason for it. The true people of God, we are told, are commingled with… 
