War Inconsistent with the Religion of Jesus Christ

by David Low Dodge

When he, with all his heads, are cast into the lake of fire, she will likewise be given to the burning flame. But before this great and dreadful day of the Lord shall come, which will burn as an oven, when the whore shall be consumed with the nations of the earth, God will call to his people to come out of her, saying unto them, “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” As God’s ancient people were carried captives into literal Babylon, so God’s dear people will be found captives in mystical Babylon, until they hear the command of their Lord to come out of her that they be not partakers of her sins and that they receive not of her plagues. The captive daughters of Zion are very numerous. O that they may soon arise and shake themselves from the dust! “Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion.”

5. If the Mediator’s kingdom is not of this world, and the kingdoms of this world are under the dominion of Satan, and if Christ’s subjects cannot unite themselves to the kingdoms of this world, without committing spiritual whoredom, then we may infer the great impropriety of the subjects of the Mediator’s kingdom becoming political Christians and enrolling themselves with the men of this world. They cannot serve two masters: for they will either hate the one, and love the other; or else they will hold to the one, and despise the other.

How humiliating is it to see subjects of the King of Zion engaged in the drudgery of the prince of darkness, laboring and struggling to support his tottering throne! Satan’s kingdom is divided against itself and must, therefore, come to an end. But how lamentable is it to see the sons of the living God, the subjects of the Prince of Peace, taking sides in the cause of the adversary of souls, and actually opposing and fighting each other under his banner! They do it ignorantly and will, therefore, obtain forgiveness, for they know not what manner of spirit they are of. They are commanded to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.

Before our Lord departed from this world to go to the Father, he gave laws to his subjects for their rule of life until his second coming. All these laws contemplated their residing as a holy nation in the midst of a wicked and benighted world, to reflect the rays of the Sun of righteousness on the thick darkness which covers the people. They were to be a city set upon a hill and a light to the world. The apostle exhorts them to “do all things without murmurings and disputings: that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world.” They must be a peculiar people to show forth the praises of God. How inconsistent is it, then, for the citizens of the heavenly Zion to be mingling with the politicians of this world and uniting in their processions, feasts, and cabals, when they ought rather to be praying for them, that the very sins they commit in these scenes may be forgiven them! Dear brethren, is it not high time to come out from the world and be separated? “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial?” “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father to you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”

6. In view of what has been said, we finally infer that every interest which is not built upon the sure foundation stone which God has laid in Zion will be swept away when the storms of divine wrath shall beat upon our guilty world. “For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.” “For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low.” “The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down; and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.” “The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath. He shall judge among the heathen, he shall fill the places with their dead bodies; he shall wound the head over many countries.” “For, behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire and by his sword will the Lord plead with all flesh: and the slain of the Lord shall be many.” “For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies: he hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter. Their slain shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcasses, and the mountains shall be melted with blood.” “For this is the day of the Lord God of hosts, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge him of his adversaries: and the sword shall devour, and it shall be satiate and be made drunk with their blood.” The nations must drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which shall be poured out without mixture, into the cup of his indignation; and they will be trodden in the great wine press of the wrath of God Almighty. And the great whore which has drunk the blood of the saints and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus will have blood to drink; for she is worthy.

The sword of the Lord has two edges; it will cut off the offending limbs of the church and destroy her enemies. The fire of the Lord will purify his saints but utterly burn up the wicked. He “whose fan is in his hand will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” Although the earth is thus to be desolated, and the nations destroyed, yet the saints of the Most High shall “possess the kingdom for ever and ever.” “And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.”

Dear brethren, these events are rapidly rolling in the fiery wheels down the descent of time; and although the nations must first drink the vials of divine wrath and the battle of God Almighty must first be fought, yet the time is at hand when we shall no more hear the sound of war, and of garments rolled in blood, for man will cease to be the enemy of man, and every one will sit quietly under his own vine and under his own fig tree; and there will be nothing to hurt or destroy in all God’s holy mountain, and the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the channels of the mighty deep.

Dear brethren, is it not “high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.” And let us pray with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit for all men, not only for ourselves, our families, and our friends, and the church of God, but for a dying world, that God would in infinite compassion cut short these days of dreadful calamity for his elect’s sake; and in the midst of deserved wrath remember mercy.

“He that hath ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.”