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the day is soon coming
when God Himself will intervene in this violent world, and war shall be forever
abolished
countdown.org
“You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. … For
nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom” - Matthew
24:6,7
Prior
to 1914, war had never been universal, but in both World War I and II, global
war was waged.
In
the latter, all but 12 small nations of the world were militarily or
technically involved, and 93 million people served in the armed forces of both
sides.
Of
these, 25 million died. Civilian casualties were unprecedented: In the Soviet
Union alone, over 20 million civilians died as a result of the war.
The Washington Post noted: [The] 20th-century wars
have been “total wars” against combatants and civilians alike. … The barbarian
wars of centuries past were alley fights in comparison.
Other
newspapers and commentators have also described the carnage:
Since
the end of World War II, there have been at least 130 wars, killing more than
23 million people directly and another 20 million through famine and other
war-related disruptions.
Whereas
the number of major wars — killing at least 1,000 persons — stood at around a
dozen in any given year during the fifties, and rose no higher than 20 a year
during the sixties and seventies, it surged at the beginning of the eighties to
more than 30.
In
the 1990s there were 56 wars in 44 countries. Most were civil upheavals for
control of the government or territory.
As
of 2007 there were 34 armed conflicts being waged around the world.
Three
times as many people — 110 million — fell victim to war in the 20th century as
in all the wars from the first century A.D. to 1899.
And
70 percent of all war casualties since World War II have been civilians, rising
to more than 90 percent in the 1990s.
The
innocent have paid the greatest price in wars, the data show.
Between
1990 and 2000 alone, 2 million children were killed. Since 1945, wars have
produced 35 million refugees.
Since
the War on Terror was declared after 9/11, till July 2007 an estimated 832,962
people were killed, and 1,590,895 seriously injured in Afghanistan and Iraq,
regarded as the two principal theaters of that war.
That
is 16 times as many people as have been killed in all terrorist attacks in the
world since 1968.
Further
studies put the death toll in Iraq alone at 1.2 million.
The
world hoped that the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 would not only
signify the end of the Cold War between the superpowers, but usher in a new era
of global peace.
Unfortunately,
this has not been the case.
Ethnic
Cleansing and Tribal Terror
The Greek word for “nation” originally used in
this prophecy, “nation shall rise against nation,” is ethnos,
which is more accurately translated “a race” or “a tribe.”
In
other words, Jesus was saying that ethnic groups would rise against each other.
This has been tragically fulfilled in recent times.
Pulitzer prize-winning historian Arthur M.
Schlesinger, Jr. (1917–2007) warned, “The 20th century [was] a century of
the warfare of ideologies: democracy vs. fascism, democracy vs. communism. But
the end of the Cold War has released long-buried national, racial, ethnic, and
linguistic antagonisms around the world. … The 21st century promises to be a
century of the warfare of ethnicities.”
The
Associated Press (AP) reports that during the 20th century the murders
perpetrated by nations against their own people exceeded the deaths caused by
wars with rivals outside their borders.
Citing
Stalin’s purges, Mao’s Cultural Revolution, Pol Pot’s killing fields, the
so-called ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, the horrors of Rwanda, etc., the grim
verdict is reached:
Conflicts
within states now make up more than 95% of all conflicts.
Prominent
among this type of conflict is the perennial Palestinian/Israeli conflict that
has now gone on for sixty years, resulting in thousands of deaths, many more
casualties, and millions of refugees, some displaced now for generations.
Although
the outlook may appear bleak, the day is soon coming when God Himself will
intervene in this violent world, and war shall be forever abolished.
The Bible tells us that when Christ returns to rule
the Earth, “He shall judge between the nations, and rebuke many people; they
shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war
anymore” (Isaiah 2:4).
More
about this future reign of world peace later, but now, back to the pressing
realities of the present.
The Countdown site is devoted to exploring the mysteries of Bible
prophecies about the “last days” which presage the end of this world as we know
it, and to keeping
a watchful eye on the “signs of the times” that the Bible indicates
will foreshadow these events.
Countdown features news
articles, blog posts, and editorials that address current events, trends,
culture, and technological advances, in light of biblical prophecy.
https://countdown.org/en/books/the-future-foretold/a-world-at-war/
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