ON THE EVE OF ARMAGEDDON THE DOOM OF CIVILIZATION CIVILIZATION is doomed, and that within this generation. Serious-minded, thinking men, scores of whom hold exalted positions among the statesmen of many nations in the Old World and the New, stand appalled at the cosmic forces of destruction they see about them. Clear-eyed, they look out upon a world shaken to its foundations by the death agony of war and its fearful consequences and distress, and they do not hesitate to declare that the world cannot recover from its hurt unless by a miracle. Something far more devastating than an earthquake has jarred the world out of its course and is breaking it in pieces. Said Secretary of State Cordell Hull in his address to the American Society of International Law on May 13, 1940: “The specter of a new descent into the conditions of international anarchy which characterized the Dark Ages looms on the horizon today. I am profoundly convinced that it menaces the civilized existence of mankind-of every nation and every individual. Every nation and every individual should be actively on guard.” Nor do men see much upon which to build hopes for stability and progress in the future. “Fear; hatred between states, social classes, parties; growing distress in the whole world; the progressive sterilization of capital and labor; the degradation of intelligence, more and more enslaved to might. The confusion of all standards of measure; intellectual and moral anarchy, in which good and evil, truth and falsehood, reason and madness, right and wrong, are distorted to such a point that it is increasingly difficult to discriminate between them. Selfishness, violence, ferocity, which are becoming more and more the rule in relations between men and state.” - PROFESSOR GUCLIELMO FERRERO, University of Geneva, Aug. 10, 1939. Men thought the first World War was the most devastating conflict that had ever been waged by civilized man. Millions of able-bodied men were killed. Millions more were permanently crippled. All told, more than twenty million of the world’s strongest and best were killed and mutilated in but little more than four years. This has now been repeated on an even more appalling scale. The enormous accumulations resulting from the industry of generations have been scattered and destroyed. The wealth of nations has been sapped and dissipated. The destruction of property, of wealth, and of the accumulated fruits of industry has been gigantic. All that men relied on has proved uncertain and insecure. The disintegration of the structure of civilized society has proceeded until there is no soundness anywhere. Nothing is certain, nothing secure. Civilization appears to be falling to pieces before our eyes. It is a distracted world, a nerve-racked world, a panic-stricken world, at which we cannot look without recalling those amazingly descriptive words of our Lord, nineteen centuries ago, when, pointing to our generation, He said: “There shall be signs.... men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth!” Luke 2l:25,26. Or, as Fenton, in his translation, puts it: “Upon the earth, nations in despair, as when in terror of the roaring and raging sea; men expiring from fear, and apprehension of what is coming upon the world!” THE WORLD SHOCKED OUT OF ITS COURSE The world, which for so many centuries followed a path of seeming security, has been sent rocking and reeling out of its course. The entire map of Europe has been changed, its geography altered, its frontiers shifted, its currency depleted, its conditions materially lowered, its people plunged into despair; and many of its governments have been destroyed. Kingdoms have passed into history. Empires have crashed into oblivion. Great governments have rolled into utter, endless darkness. Whole countries have been shattered to atoms. The earth has quivered and shaken, and no man can tell how far it has been driven out of its course. Because of the devastation of war, and the intense preparations for continued war, whole 3 On The Eve Of Armageddon populations are facing starvation. Irrespective of the outcome of any particular conflict, the seeds of dissolution have been sown. A terrible harvest is bound to be reaped. Discontent is seething in the hearts of millions, and unrestrained passions are being let loose on the world. It is not surprising that thinking men everywhere are looking for anarchy, lawlessness, the overthrow of civilization-chaos.
Posted on: Mon, 29 Jul 2013 15:56:12 +0000