Chapter Thirty-Seven/Mourning and Rejoicing at Babylon's End - An Appalling Bloodguilt - Continue

 However, the prophecy says that the blood of "all those who have been slaughtered on the earth" must be charged to Babylon the Great. That has certainly been true in modern times. For example, since Catholic intrigue helped to bring Hitler to power in Germany, the Vatican shares in a terrible bloodguilt with regard to the six million Jews that died in Nazi pogroms. Further, in this 20th century alone, well over a hundred million people have been killed in hundreds of wars. Is false religion to blame in this connection? Yes, in two ways.

One way is that many wars are related to religious differences. For example, the violence in India between Muslims and Hindus in 1946-48 was religiously motivated. Hundreds of thousands of lives were lost. The conflict between Iraq and Iran in the 1980s is related to sectarian differences, with hundreds of thousands being killed. Violence between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland has taken thousands of lives. The continuing violence in Lebanon is religiously based. Surveying this field, columnist C.L. Sulzberger said in 1976: "It is a dismal truth that probably half or more of the wars now being fought around the world are either openly religious conflicts or involved with religious disputes." Indeed, it has been so throughout the turbulent history of Babylon the Great.

Next time: Chapter Thirty-Seven/Mourning and Rejoicing at Babylon's End - An Appalling Bloodguilt - Continue

From the jw.org publications