Prophecy and the World War

Prophecy and the World War By Charles W. Kingston

When Germany let loose her hell hounds in August, 1914, itwas no surprise to those who knew the word of the Lord. He had shown the very time and nature of the struggle, more than twenty-five centuries before, to one of his prophets who lived in America. Although our nation is the birthplace and cradle of freedom, it was almost three years after the beginning of the war before the United States government seemed to realize the na- ture of the contest, and even then the truth had to be brought home to her by the trampling under foot of her sacred rights, and by the murder of her citizens on the high seas. Even then, very few of our people realized that the struggle then going on in. Europe was a contest and, indeed, a death grapple between lib- erty, on the one side, and autocracy, on the other. But the King of this land, Jesus Christ, the champion of liberty from the very beginning of time, even before the earth was created, says, speaking to Nephi, with reference to the time in which we live, and of the land which we are pleased to call our home "And this land shall be a land of liberty * * * and there shall be no kings upon the land * * * and I will fortify this land against all other nations; and he that fighteth against Zion [or, in other words, the land of liberty] shall perish, sayeth God; for he that raiseth up a king against me [or, carrying the meaning from the former verse, against the principle of freedom and liberty,] shall perish, for I the Lord the King of heaven, will be their King."

To students of American history and doctrine these words are very significant, also with regard to our part in the world conflict. It is also a striking fact, in the light of things recorded in this inspired writing, that the Government of the United States should declare war on the 6th day of April, the revealed date of the birthday of Christ, and also the anniversary of the organization of his Church. Had the Kaiser and his cohorts un- derstood and believed the Book of Mormon 5 which was trans- lated into the German language many years ago by the unselfish sacrifice of some humble elders, instead of banishing its teachers from his land, what a blessing it might have been to Germany and to the rest of the world. In a recent issue of the Literary Digest, quoting the Los An- geles Times, General Foch is described as Christ's general. While the fighting was at its height General Foch spent hours at a time in prayer and supplication to God, praying for divine aid, that

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he might be able to conduct the mighty army successfully, and thus gain the victory for the cause of freedom.* From an under- standing of the scriptures quoted, and the knowledge of the out- come of the war, we know that he did not pray unrewarded. *There is a strong contrast between the Kaiser and the figure the Los — Angeles Times draws of his conqueror, General Ferdinand Foch "the Gray Man of Christ." "This has been Christ's war," says The Times "Christ on one side, and all that stood opposed to Christ on the other side. And the Generalissimo, in supreme command of all the armies that fought on the side of Christ, is Christ's man." "The deeper we question as to who Foch is, the clearer is the answer that in every act of his life and in every thought of his brain he is Christ's man. "If you were to ask him, 'Are you Christ's man?' he would answer 'Yes.' "It seems to be beyond all shadow of doubt that when the hour came in which all Christ stood for was to either stand or fall, Christ raised up a man to lead the hosts that battled for him. "When the hour came in which truth and right, charity, brotherly love, justice, and liberty were either to triumph or to be blotted out of the world, Christ came again upon the road to Damascus. "Whoever does not realize this and see it clearly as a fact, he does but blunder stupidly. "There will be a crowding company of critics when the war is ended and they will all be filled with the ego of their own conclusions. They will attempt to explain the genius of Foch with maps and diagrams. But, while they are doing so, if you will look for Foch in some quiet church, it is there that he will be found humbly giving God the glory, and absolutely declining to attribute it to himself. "Can that kind of a man win a war? Can a man who is a practical soldier be also a practical Christian? And is Foch that kind of a man? Let us see. "A California boy, serving as a soldier in the American Expeditionary Forces in France, has recently written a letter to his parents in San Bernar- dino, in which he gives, as well as any one else could give, the answer to the question we ask. — — "This American boy Evans by name tells of meeting General Foch at close range in France. "Evans had gone into an old church to have a look at it, and as he stood there with bared head satisfying his respectful curiosity, a gray man with the eagles of a general on the collar of his shabby uniform, also entered the church. Only one orderly accompanied the quiet, gray man. No glittering staff of officers, no entourage of gold-laced aids were with him; nobody but just the orderly. ,

"Evans paid small attention at first to the gray man, but was curious to full three- see him kneel in the church, praying. The minutes passed until quarters of an hour had gone by before the gray man arose from his knees. "Then Evans followed him down the street and was surprised to see soldiers salute this man in great excitement, and women and children stop- ping in their tracks with awe-struck faces as he passed. counts the experi- "It was Foch. And now Evans, of San Bernardino, of an hour that ence as the greatest in his life. During that three-quarters his knees in humble sup- the Generalissimo of all the Allied armies was on roaring at his word on a plication in that quiet church, 10,000 guns were hundred hills that rocked with death. rushed across blood- "Millions of armed men crouched in trenches or cavalry, engineers, drenched terranes at his command, generals, artillery, tanks, fought and wrought across the map of Europe absolutely as he com-

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However, all liberty-loving persons will not soon forget the mighty dread which filled their very souls during those dark hours when the deciding battles were being fought, when the cause of liberty was hanging in the balance; but they will long remember the supreme joy and relief they felt when the danger point was safely past. Christ styles himself the Champion of Freedom and Lib- erty, any one fighting against these principles are fighting against him; and, indeed, the war just past is by no means the first one waged upon the same lines. We read that there was a war in heaven to decide the very same issues, Christ being the Cham- pion of Liberty there, and the victor also. In that struggle, Lucifer, the Son of the Morning, was cast out of heaven with his innumerable host, and since that time he has ever been planning and working to foist his pet scheme of autocracy upon the in- habitants of the earth. The prophecy spoken of above is found in I Nephi 14:13, and reads as follows: "And it came to pass that the great mother of abominations did gather together multitudes upon the face of all the earth, among all the nations of the gentiles, to fight against the lamb of God * * * and it came to pass that I beheld that the wrath of God was poured out upon the great and abominable church, insomuch that there were wars and rumors of wars

manded them to do, and in no other manner, as he went into that little church to pray. "Nor was it an unusual thing for General Foch to do. There is no day that he does not do the same thing if there be a church that he can reach. He never fails to spend an hour on his knees every morning that he awakes from sleep; and every night it is the same. "Moreover, it is not a new thing with him. He has done it his whole life long. "If young Evans could have followed the General on to headquarters, where reports were waiting him and news of victory upon victory was piled high before him, he would doubtless have seen a great gladness on the General's face, but he would have seen no look of surprise there. "Men who do that which Foch does have no doubts. When Premier Clemenceau, the old Tiger of France, stood on the battle-front with anxious heart, one look at the face of Foch stilled all his fears. He returned to Paris with the vision of sure and certain victory. "The great agnostic statesman doubted, but the Gray Man of Christ did not doubt. "The facts, then, in the case are that when the freedom of the world hung in the balance the world turned to Foch as the one great genius who could save it against the Hun; and that Foch, who is perhaps the greatest soldier the world has produced, is, first of all, a Christian. * * * "Young Evans, of San Bernardino, just an every-day American boy from under the shadow of old San Gorgonio, spent nearly an hour with Foch in an old French church, and not even one bayonet was there to keep them apart. "They represented the two great democracies of the world, but there in that old church they represented, jointly, a far greater thing — the democracy of Christ."

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among all the nations and kindreds of the earth, * * * and when the day cometh that the wrath of God is poured out upon the mother of harlots, which is the great and abominable church of all the earth, whose founda- tion is the devil, then, at that day the work of the Father shall commence, in preparing the way for the fulfilling of his covenants, which he has made to his people, who are of the House of Israel."

In order to be able to understand the prophecy more fully it will be necessary to get a Book of Mormon definition of the phrases: mother of harlots, abominable church, the whore of all the earth, phrases used interchangeably and all applying to the same thing. In II Nephi 10:16, we find the phrase denned: "Wherefore, he that fighteth against Zion [or, in other words, liberty]both Jew and Gentile, both bond and free, both male and female, shall perish; for they are they who are the whore of all the earth." Then, the great and abominable church are they, no matter of what creed or race, who are against liberty and freedom in any sense of the term. Then, to interpret the verse more liter- ally, by aid of the inpsired record itself, and not any private in- terpretation, we have it something like this: And it came to pass that the plotters against freedom and liberty, the champions of autocracy, or the cohorts of Kaiserism (in other words, or the words of the book, "the abominable church") did gather to- gether multitudes from all the nations of the gentiles to fight against Liberty, Zion, or their Champion, the Son of God, which- ever you choose to call it. The issue could not be more clearly defined. Another interesting feature of this prophecy is the last part which says that at this time when the wrath of God is poured out, etc., that the Father would commence to fulfil his promises which he has made to the House of Israel. That this promise does not altogether have reference to the restoration of the gos- pel must be quite clear to any Book of Mormon student, because Nephi always refers to the people who were to be the custodians of the gospel message, as gentiles, to distinguish them from the other two branches of the House of Israel so oftea mentioned by him. This, then, would more fully refer to the Jews and the Lamanites; so now that the way is open we will soon see the hand of God in the deliberations of the peace conference shifting the scenes favorable to the return of the Jews to their holy land; and the fulfilment of all the prophecies concerning them. We may also look for the awakening of the Lamanites from their long slumbering, when we may expect the Spirit of God to fall upon them, and do more for them in a few short years than four centuries of civilization has accomplished. And when these things happen under our very eyes, who will be so blind as not

to see in them the Supreme will and pleasure? Idaho Falls, Idaho.