At this juncture, the Scriptures show, Divine Power will step forward, and God will gather the marshaled hosts to Armageddon-to the Mount of Destruction. (Rev. 16:16) The very thing which they sought to avert by their union, federation, etc., will be the very thing that they will hasten. Other Scriptures tell us that God will be represented by Messiah, and that He will be on the side of the masses. "At that time shall Michael [the Godlike One-Messiah] stand up." (Dan. 12:1) He will assume authority. He will take possession of His Kingdom in a manner little looked for by many of those who erroneously have been claiming to be His Kingdom, and authorized by Him to reign in His name and in His stead.

Our Lord Jesus declared, "His servants ye are unto whom ye render service." Some may be rendering service to Satan and to error, who claim to be rendering service to God and to righteousness; and some may serve ignorantly, as did Saul of Tarsus, who "verily thought that he did God service" in persecuting the Church. The same principle holds true reversly. As an earthly king does not hold himself responsible for the moral character of each soldier who fights his battles, so the Lord does not vouch for the moral character of all who enlist and fight on His side of any question. His servants they are to whom they render service, whatever the motive or object prompting.

The same principle will apply in the coming Battle of Armageddon. God’s side of that battle will be the people’s side; and that very nondescript host, the people, will be pitted at the beginning of the battle. Anarchists, Socialists, and hot-headed radicals of every school of reason and unreason, will be in the forefront of that battle. He who has any knowledge of army life knows that a great army is composed of all classes.

The masses will be restless under their restraints, but will be conscious of their weakness as compared with the kings and princes, financial, social, religious and political, who will then hold sway. The majority of the poor and the middle class prefer peace at almost any price. The masses have no sympathy with anarchy. They realize truly that the worst form of government is better than none. The masses will seek relief through the ballot and the peaceful readjustment of earth’s affairs for the elimination of evil, for the placing of monopolies and utilities and the supplies of nature in the hands of the people for the public good. The crisis will be reached when the hitherto upholders of the law shall become violators of the law and resisters of the will of the majority as expressed by the ballot. Fear for the future will goad the well-meaning masses to desperation, and anarchy will result when Socialism fails.

The Lord’s saints are not to be in this battle at all. God’s consecrated people, longing at heart for Messiah’s Kingdom and the glorious Year of Jubilee and Restitution which it will inaugurate, will patiently abide the Lord’s time, and wait unmurmuringly for it. Their lamps trimmed and burning, they will not be in darkness respecting the momentous events of the impending battle; but they will be of good courage, knowing the outcome portrayed in the "more sure word of prophecy," to which they have done well to "take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the Day dawn." 2 Pet. 1:19

The question now arises, Why did not God send His Kingdom sooner? Why is Armageddon necessary? We answer that God has His own times and seasons, and that He has appointed the Great Seventh Thousand-Year Day for the reign of Christ. Divine Wisdom has withheld until our day the great knowledge and skill which is breeding at the same time millionaires and discontents. Had God lifted the veil of ignorance a thousand years sooner, the world would have lined up for Armageddon a thousand years sooner. God did not bring these things before the present time because His Plan has various parts, all of which are converging at the same time. In kindness God veiled the eyes of mankind until the gathering to Armageddon would immediately precede Messiah’s taking to Himself His great power and beginning His reign. Rev. 11:17,18

The attitude of the people of God should be that of great thankfulness to the Giver of every good. They should make provision for the great storm that is coming and keep very quiet, not unduly interested in the side of either rich or poor. We know in advance that the Lord is on the side of the people. He it is that will fight the Armageddon Battle, and His agency will be that peculiar army-all classes. When this great "earthquake" of social revolution comes, it will not be a mere handful of anarchists, but an uprising of the people to throw off the great power that is strangling them. Selfishness is at the bottom of the whole matter.

Armageddon forces have been mustering for both sides of the conflict. Strikes, lockouts and riots, great and small, have been merely incidental skirmishes as the belligerents cross each other’s paths. Court and army scandals in Europe, insurance, trust and court scandals in America, have shaken public confidence. Dynamite plots, charged by turns on employees and on employers, have tended to make each distrustful of the other. Bitter and angry feelings on both sides are more and more manifested. The lines of battle are daily becoming more distinctly marked. Nevertheless Armageddon cannot yet be fought.

The Image of the Beast must yet receive life-power. It must be transformed from a mere mechanism to a living force. Protestant association of denominations realizes that its organization will continue to be futile unless it receives vitalization-unless its clergy directly or indirectly shall be recognized as possessed of apostolic ordination and authority to teach. This, the prophecy indicates, will come from the two-horned Beast, which we believe symbolically represents the Church of England. High-handed activities of Protestantism and Catholicism, operating in conjunction for the suppression of human liberties, await this vivifying of the Image. This may come soon, but Armageddon cannot precede it.

Still another thing intervenes. Although the Jews are gradually flowing into Israel, gradually obtaining control of the land, nevertheless, prophecy requires an evidently larger number of wealthy Jews to be there before the Armageddon crisis be reached. Indeed, we understand that "Jacob’s trouble" in the Holy Land will come at the very close of Armageddon.