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WHAT WRITERS HAVE SAID ABOUT 1914

Even after a second world war, many refer back to 1914 as the great turning point in modern history:

“It is indeed the year 1914 rather than that of Hiroshima which marks the turning point in our time.”​—Rene Albrecht-Carrie, “The Scientific Monthly,” July 1951

“Ever since 1914, everybody conscious of trends in the world has been deeply troubled by what has seemed like a fated and pre-determined march toward ever greater disaster. Many serious people have come to feel that nothing can be done to avert the plunge towards ruin. They see the human race, like the hero of a Greek tragedy, driven on by angry gods and no longer the master of fate.”​—Bertrand Russell, New York “Times Magazine,” September 27, 1953

“The modern era . . . began in 1914, and no one knows when or how it will end. . . . It could end in mass annihilation.”​—Editorial, “The Seattle Times,” January 1, 1959

“In 1914 the world, as it was known and accepted then, came to an end.”​—James Cameron, “1914,” published in 1959

“The First World War was one of the great convulsions of history.”​—Barbara Tuchman, “The Guns of August,” 1962

“Thoughts and pictures come to my mind, . . . thoughts from before the year 1914 when there was real peace, quiet and security on this earth​—a time when we didn’t know fear. . . . Security and quiet have disappeared from the lives of men since 1914.”​—German statesman Konrad Adenauer, 1965

“The whole world really blew up about World War I and we still don’t know why. . . . Utopia was in sight. There was peace and prosperity. Then everything blew up. We’ve been in a state of suspended animation ever since.”​—Dr. Walker Percy, “American Medical News,” November 21, 1977

“In 1914 the world lost a coherence which it has not managed to recapture since. . . . This has been a time of extraordinary disorder and violence, both across national frontiers and within them.”​—“The Economist,” London, August 4, 1979

“Civilization entered on a cruel and perhaps terminal illness in 1914.”​—Frank Peters, St. Louis “Post-Dispatch,” January 27, 1980

“Everything would get better and better. This was the world I was born in. . . . Suddenly, unexpectedly, one morning in 1914 the whole thing came to an end.”​—British statesman Harold Macmillan, New York “Times,” November 23, 1980

“A BEGINNING OF PANGS OF DISTRESS”

14. Despite protests to the contrary, what favors the year 1914 C.E. as the date for Christ’s return?

¹⁴ When does this mighty King, unwanted by the nations, start his reign over our earth? All the evidence points to the year 1914 C.E. But someone will protest, saying, ‘Rather than bring in Christ’s reign of peace, that year marked the beginning of an era of trouble for mankind!’ That is precisely the point! For, according to Bible prophecy, it is when ‘the kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of our Lord Jehovah and of his Christ’ that the nations of earth become “wrathful.” (Revelation 11:15, 18) It is also the time when Jehovah sends forth his associate king, saying, “Go subduing in the midst of your enemies.” (Psalm 110:1, 2) But those enemies are not instantly destroyed.

15. How, appropriately, does Revelation 12 describe the Kingdom’s birth?

¹⁵ Revelation chapter 12 describes a breathtaking vision in which the apostle John saw in symbol the birth of God’s Messianic kingdom. Like a man-child, this is brought forth from God’s “woman”​—his heavenly organization of angelic creatures. It is “caught away to God and to his throne,” for the Kingdom must be dependent on Jehovah and his sovereignty for its operation.​—Revelation 12:1-5.

16, 17. (a) What accounts for the woes on earth since 1914? (b) How do Jesus’ words in Matthew and Luke describe the start of these distresses?

¹⁶ Next, there is war in heaven! The enthroned King and his angels battle with Satan and his demon hordes, and hurl these out of Jehovah’s heavens down to the vicinity of our earth. Hence, it is “woe for the earth and for the sea, because the Devil has come down to you, having great anger, knowing he has a short period of time.” (Revelation 12:7-12) During that comparatively “short period,” the King gathers righteously inclined humans for salvation and sounds the warning of the impending execution of judgment on Satan’s world system of things.​—Matthew 24:31-41; 25:31-33.

¹⁷ Today we perceive the fulfillment of Jesus’ “sign,” as set out in detail at Matthew chapters 24 and 25, Mark chapter 13 and Luke chapter 21. Note that Jesus here describes “a beginning of pangs of distress,” in these words:

“Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there will be great earthquakes, and in one place after another pestilences and food shortages; and there will be fearful sights and from heaven great signs.” (Matthew 24:3, 7, 8; Luke 21:10, 11)

Did such “pangs of distress” come to plague mankind from 1914 C.E. onward?

18. From 1914, how did war become utterly horrible?

¹⁸ It was in the year 1914 that the Great War (later called “World War I”) got under way, and with it came pestilence and famine. Writers have found it difficult to describe the utter horror that pervaded the battlefields, as millions perished in trench warfare during the carnage of 1914-1918. In the book Eye Deep in Hell, Paul Nash is quoted as saying of the European battleground: “No pen or drawing can convey this country​—the normal setting of the battles taking place day and night, month after month. Evil and the incarnate fiend alone can be master of this war, and no glimmer of God’s hand is seen anywhere. . . . The shells never cease . . . annihilating, maiming, maddening, they plunge into the grave which is this land; one huge grave, and cast upon it the poor dead. It is unspeakable, godless, hopeless.”

19. What do statistics show as to an upsurge of earthquakes since 1914?

¹⁹ Also, “earthquakes” are included as part of the “sign.” An upsurge in earthquakes since 1914? This may sound surprising. But the statistics are even more surprising! As Geo Malagoli commented in Il Piccolo: “During a period of 1,059 years (from 856 to 1914) reliable sources list only 24 major earthquakes.” His figures show that during those years an average of 1,800 persons died each year in earthquakes, whereas there have been 43 major earthquakes since 1915, and these have killed an average of 25,300 persons a year.

“FROM HEAVEN GREAT SIGNS”

20, 21. (a) What “fearful sights” have become apparent since 1914, and why? (b) What fulfillment of Luke 21:25, 26 do we see today? (c) How have ‘great signs from heaven’ come increasingly to attention?

²⁰ Jesus prophesied also: “And there will be fearful sights and from heaven great signs.” (Luke 21:11) In World War I, the incessant barrages of artillery shells signified something new​—total warfare. For the first time, the airship and then, more importantly, the airplane opened up the era of aerial warfare. True, in 1914-1918, it was only a beginning, but it would lead to the situation that Jesus describes further on in his prophecy, saying:

“Also, there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth anguish of nations, not knowing the way out because of the roaring of the sea and its agitation, while men become faint out of fear and expectation of the things coming upon the inhabited earth; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”​—Luke 21:25, 26.

²¹ Man’s so-called conquest of space has focused attention on “sun and moon and stars,” and there are ominous pointers that the Great Powers intend to use satellites for establishing military springboards. But already they have the know-how for raining down intercontinental ballistic missiles from outer space upon any target of their choice. The present arsenal of nuclear weapons, as stockpiled by opposing nations, is enough to annihilate mankind many times over, and it is estimated that by the turn of the century some 35 nations may be equipped with such weapons of mass destruction.

22. (a) How has the literal “sea” taken on a new dimension since 1914? (b) What do knowledgeable persons warn concerning the threat to our globe?

²² The “sea,” which took on a fresh aspect with the introduction of submarine warfare in World War I, and which brought the United States into the war, is today even more foreboding. Nuclear submarines stand at the ready in the seas. No city on earth is out of range of nuclear missiles. The New York Times of August 30, 1980, quoted U.S. State Department expert Marshall D. Shulman as saying that the possibility of a nuclear war “is likely to increase rather than to diminish.” A full-page advertisement in the New York Times of March 2, 1980, sponsored by more than 600 professional men and women, stated: “Nuclear war, even a ‘limited’ one, would result in death, injury and disease on a scale that has no precedent in the history of human existence.” They added that “an all-out nuclear exchange could be complete in one hour, and could destroy most life in the northern hemisphere.” Said the U.S. ambassador to Moscow, in 1981: “I perceive the world to be more dangerous than it has ever been in its history.” But expenditure on armaments of mass destruction keeps on spiraling upward.

23. In fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy, what stage in history does mankind appear to be reaching?

²³ Mankind appears to be reaching the stage forecast some years ago by Nobel Prize-winner Harold C. Urey, who said: “We will eat fear, sleep fear, live in fear and die in fear.” Truly, there is “anguish of nations, not knowing the way out . . . while men become faint out of fear and expectation of the things coming upon the inhabited earth.”

24. Who knows the “way out,” and why should we pray earnestly for the ‘coming’ of the Kingdom?

²⁴ Happily, the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, who created this earth for his good purpose, does ‘know the way out,’ and he will provide that way through the kingdom of his Son. But before we examine in detail the “way out,” let us give further attention to Jesus’ prophecy, and note how remarkably his words about world war, famine and pestilence, as features of the “sign,” parallel a striking prophecy in Revelation. Remember, God’s kingdom by Messiah is the remedy​—that kingdom for whose ‘coming’ we earnestly pray!