ARE THESE REALLY THE LAST DAYS? - War in the Last Days

If you read Matthew chapters 24 and 25, Mark chapter 13, and Luke chapter 21, you will see unmistakable evidence that Jesus was talking about our own age.  He foretold a time of wars-not just the "wars and reports of wars" that have always marred human history but wars involving 'nation against nation'-yes, great international wars. -Matthew 24:6-8.

Think for a moment about how warfare has changed in our century.  When war meant merely the clash of armies representing two opposing nations, slashing with sabers or even firing guns at one another on a battlefield, it was terrible enough.  But in 1914 the Great War broke out.  Nation followed nation into the conflagration in a domino effect-the first global war. Automatic weapons were designed to kill more and more people and from greater distances.  Machine guns spat bullets with grim efficiency; mustard gas burned, tormented, maimed, and killed soldiers by the thousands; tanks rumbled mercilessly through enemy lines, their great guns blazing.  The airplane  and the submarine also came into play-mere harbingers of what they were to become.

World War II did the unimaginable-it actually dwarfed its predecessor, killing scores of millions of people.  Huge aircraft carriers, virtual floating cities, plied the seas and unleashed warplanes to rain death from the skies upon enemy targets.  Submarines torpedoed and sank enemy vessels.  And atom bombs were dropped claiming thousands of lives in each crushing blow!  Just as Jehovah prophesied, there have indeed been "fearful sights" to mark this warring age. -Luke 21:11.

Has war eased off since World War II?  Hardly.  Sometimes literally dozens of wars rage during a single year.  And there has been no change in war's primary victims.  No longer are the dead mainly soldiers.  Today, most casualties of war-in fact, over 90 percent of them -are civilians.

Next time: ARE THESE REALLY THE LAST DAYS> - Other Features of the Sign

The Watchtower, 1997