you will make every effort to learn about Jehovah’s purposes and what he requires of you for preservation into a righteous world under the rule of his kingdom. By acting in harmony with his will your trial for life will not end in an adverse judgment of death but in a favorable judgment of life.

Part 30—“Your Will Be Done on Earth”

The age-long conflict between the symbolic king of the north and the king of the south, foretold in Daniel’s prophecy, chapter 11, has now entered the twentieth century of our Christian era. On January 1, 1871, the German Empire was re-established and shortly it formed a Triple Alliance or “Dreibund” with Austria-Hungary and the Kingdom of Italy. On the other hand, in 1882 the British Empire established virtual control over the land of Egypt. Thus the Anglo-American dual world power in effect stepped into the shoes of the king of the south. A.D. 1914 war broke out between the two kings. Regarding this, Daniel 11:29 prophesied that it would not now be the same for the king of the north as it had been in former times, for now he was but a second-rate power and he faced not only a first-rate power, the Anglo-American dual world power, but also the kingdom of God established in heaven in 1914.

16. At first what mainly were the “ships of Kittim” that came against the king of the north?

¹⁶ Commenting on this lack of sameness with former times, the angel said to Daniel: “For there will come against him the ships of Kittim; and he will become fainthearted, and return, and will rage against the holy covenant; and he will do it: and he will return, and have an understanding with those that forsake the holy covenant.” (Dan. 11:30, Le) Although armed with the second-largest navy and many destructive U-boats, the king of the north proved no match for the “ships of Kittim” that came against him. These were not literally ships of Cyprus, the ancient Kittim, although on November 5, 1914, Great Britain annexed the island of Cyprus, to keep pro-German Turkey out. According to the Jewish historian Josephus, the term Kittim was applied not only to Cyprus but also to the coasts of Italy. Interestingly, Italy joined the warring Britain in 1915, according to the Treaty of London, and thus put her own Roman navy alongside that of the king of the south. But the “ships of Kittim” were at first mainly the great British navy.

17. How did more ships of Kittim come later when the seventh world power fully got into the war with the king of the north?

¹⁷ More “ships of Kittim” came from the west later, after the German submarine, U-20, sank the British Cunard Liner Lusitania off Ireland on May 7, 1915, and 124 American lives were lost. A diplomatic controversy arose between America and Germany. Matters worsened, and on April 6, 1917, American President Wilson declared a state of war existed with Germany. Then from the west came the American warships in the fight against the king of the north, and American troops were poured onto the European continent. The king of the south, the Anglo-American dual world power, was now fully at war with the rival king. In September, 1916, however, the British had introduced a strange kind of armor-clad land battleship