The Devil and the Nations

Text: Ephesians 6:10–13

10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. 11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. 13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

I. War and violence are the result of the Devil's attempt to destroy the Orderly universe that God has created.

Everything that has do do with God is orderly and operates according to Divine Law. Everything God does is purposeful and nothing wasted in the universe. The chief goal of the Devil is to cause disorder, lawlessness, and confusion. The Devil is bent on tearing down the orderly universe that God has established by His Divine wisdom. One of the best ways to do this is to cause divisions that create the circumstances that cause war.

This was all determined for us in Genesis 3:15 when God declared that there would be a great and ultimate war in his creation between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. This is the entire story of the Bible, and the entire story of the history and future of mankind, that God created to inhabit on His earth from the beginning of time.

The Explanation and cause of War and Violence- the "Root Cause" Lawlessness and rebellion- the result of Pride, which produces jealousy, selfishness, greed, exaggerated notion of "self."

This is all captured in the story of Cain and Able in the very beginning.

The people before the flood, the tower of Babel and Nimrod are also examples of the fruits of Pride.

James 4:1–4 (KJV 1900)

From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? 2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. 3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. 4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

This is also true of Devil's work in the life of the individual...

1 Peter 2:11 (KJV 1900)

11 Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;

Revelation 12:7–12 (KJV 1900)

7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, 8 And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. 9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. 10 And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. 11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. 12 Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.

Revelation 13:7–8 (KJV 1900)

7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. 8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

The Demonic element of War.

Nimrod, Nebuchadnezzar, Antiochus Epiphanies. the Roman Empire and emperor worship are all examples of the exaggeration of Pride and it's demonic origins. Hitler was a religious man who worshiped his own race, moved by demonic pride.

Communism is the culmination of the worship of the state. Communism claims the right over a man's thinking as illustrated the the Progressive Left's insistence on being intolerant for anyone who disagrees with them and their liberal ideology.

Anything that demands a total allegiance to it's self, weather it be an individual, or an state institution, is demonic in nature.

II. God's reaction to the Devils actions

A. Governments.

Because of the Devil's influence, God established the order of Government and Law. Government is meant to restrain the forces of evil and chaos. The primary task of Government is to restrain and keep within bounds- to restrain and keep order. To preserve law and order and prevent chaos.

Romans 13:1–7 (KJV 1900)

Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. 2 Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: 4 For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. 5 Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. 6 For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God’s ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. 7 Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.

In light of this , what is the Christians relationship to War?\

According to Romans 13:1, If a war is waged by your nation that falls within the bounds set by God for nations to restrain evil and preserve order, and nation self-defence, then the christian does not have the right to be a conscientious objector and go against his nation.

If, however, the nation is involved in a war of aggression, going about to steal another nation's property, or to conquer another people, that nation is operating outside of the limits that God has given to nations. A christian then may have a Biblical grounds to not participate or support such a war, according to his conscience.

(insert here the story of Sargent York)

God has only temporary tolerated war and violence.

Throughout history there have been many attempts of the devil, to raise up, individuals, and nations and empires to become world conquerors in order to dominate the entire world. They have said that the only way for us to have peace in the world is for us to be in control of everything. We will keep everybody down, and there will be no more war, because we will be preserving peace in the world. And God has permitted this.

He allowed men Nimrod to build the tower of Babel, He allowed Nebuchadnezzar, he allowed the Syrians, He allowed the Pharos of Egypt, He allowed Alexander the Great, He allowed the Greek dynasties, He allowed the Romans, He allowed Turkey and Islam, He allowed Hitler to rise to power, but with each attempt God allowed, they all, without exception ended up being Judged by God and brought down.

This is all illustrated to in Daniel chapter 4. With all that God has allowed to rise to power in the world, they have all been debased and put down by God like Nebuchadnezzar as he crawled around on the ground, as a BEAST on the ground in his insanity! The conclusion of Daniel chapter 4 is that nobody is to be worshiped but God!

(quote from Nebuchadnezzar here)

The nations have been weighed in the balances.

God permits these individuals and nations to rise, and then comes suddenly and destroys them in the very peak of their pride and arrogance!

Nimrod rose and drew all men to himself and he became worshiped as a god, and met with a terrible death, torn to pieces, and this terrible death became the pagan season of the "weeping for (tamose)"

Nebuchadnezzar rose up like a giant god of gold and demanded to be bowed down to and worshiped, and in the peak of his pride God brought him down to the ground to eat from the ground like an ox, look at this god now with his nails like an animals claws, naked with the hair on his back like the feathers of a bird! What a fool!

Where are the great dynasties of Egypt that ruled from Africa to Europe in the ancient days of Jacob and Joseph of the Old Testament?

Alexander the Great dies at an early age of an aneurism, the power of Assyria is destroyed in one night as God turned it's army on each other in the dark, and Shenakarab leaves in shame only to be killed by his children praying in the house of his false god.

Mighty Rome feeling invincible, was destroyed was ultimately brought donw by the Huns and the Goths, and the Vandals, heathen, uncivilized tribes know by historians as the barbarian tribes.

God permits this things for a while, but then rises up and destroys their pride into the dirt!

God has never allowed an empire to rule the world and never will, and even the kingdom of the antichrist to come will be defeated by the great King Jesus Christ.

God's ultimate measure against the nations is the theme of the Bible.

This was all determined for us in Genesis 3:15 when God declared that there would be a great and ultimate war in his creation between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. This is the entire story of the Bible, and the entire story of the history and future of mankind, that God created to inhabit on His earth from the beginning of time.

God has used temporary measures and brought the pride of kingdoms down, in the past, but the bruising of the head of the serpent, the devil is the ultimate and the final measure of the story of men and nations.

Revelation 11:15–18 (KJV 1900)

15 And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. 16 And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, 17 Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned. 18 And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.

The wars and rumors of wars which we know are only temporary. Jesus Christ has prevailed to bring peace to the earth.

III. What is the future outlook of War?

(Discussion of the false sense of security and sense of euphoria after the first world war.)

The hope that the league of nations would put an end to all war changed the worldview after world war I.

The excitement of the Locarno pact.

Pact of Locarno, (Dec. 1, 1925), series of agreements whereby Germany, France, Belgium, Great Britain, and Italy mutually guaranteed peace in western Europe. The treaties were initialed at Locarno, Switz., on October 16 and signed in London on December 1.Jan 27, 2014

Locarno Treaties

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

From left to right, Gustav Stresemann, Austen Chamberlain and Aristide Briand during the Locarno negotiations

The Locarno Treaties were seven agreements negotiated at Locarno, Switzerland, on 5–16 October 1925 and formally signed in London on 1 December, in which the First World War Western European Allied powers and the new states of Central and Eastern Europe sought to secure the post-war territorial settlement, and return normalizing relations with defeated Germany (which was, by this time, the Weimar Republic). Ratifications for the Locarno treaties were exchanged in Geneva on 14 September 1926, and on the same day they became effective. The treaties were also registered in the League of Nations Treaty Series on the same day.[1]

Locarno divided borders in Europe into two categories: western, which were guaranteed by Locarno treaties, and eastern borders of Germany with Poland, which were open for revision, thus leading to Germany's renewed claims to the German-populated Free City of Danzig and mixed ethnic Polish territories approved by the League of Nations including the Polish Corridor, and Upper Silesia.[2][3][4][5][6]

Contents

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1 Background 2 Parties and agreement 3 Effect 4 See also 5 Notes 6 References 7 External links

Background[edit]

The Locarno discussion arose from exchanges of notes between the British Empire, France and Germany over the summer of 1925 following German foreign minister Gustav Stresemann's 9 February proposal for a reciprocal of his country's western frontiers as established under the unfavourable 1919 Treaty of Versailles, as a means of facilitating Germany's diplomatic rehabilitation among the Western Powers.

At least one of the main reasons Britain promoted the Locarno Pact of 1925, besides to promote Franco-German reconciliation, was because of the understanding that if Franco-German relations improved, France would gradually abandon the Cordon sanitaire, as the French alliance system in Eastern Europe was known between the wars.[7] If France were to abandon its allies in Eastern Europe, the Poles and Czechoslovaks, having no Great Power to protect them from Germany, would be forced to adjust to German demands; in the British viewpoint, they would be expected to peacefully hand over the territories claimed by Germany such as the Sudetenland, the Polish Corridor, and the Free City of Danzig (modern Gdańsk, Poland).[8] In this way, promoting territorial revisionism in Eastern Europe in Germany’s favor was one of the principal British objects of Locarno.

Parties and agreement[edit]

The principal treaty concluded at Locarno was the "Rhineland Pact" between Germany, France, Belgium, the United Kingdom, and Italy. The first three signatories undertook not to attack each other, with the latter two acting as guarantors. In the event of aggression by any of the first three states against another, all other parties were to assist the country under attack.

Germany also agreed to sign arbitration conventions with France and Belgium and arbitration treaties with Poland and Czechoslovakia, undertaking to refer disputes to an arbitration tribunal or to the Permanent Court of International Justice.

France signed further treaties with Poland and Czechoslovakia, pledging mutual assistance in the event of conflict with Germany. These essentially reaffirmed existing treaties of alliance concluded by France with Poland on 19 February 1921 and with Czechoslovakia on 25 January 1924.

Effect[edit]

The Locarno Treaties were regarded as the keystone of the improved western European diplomatic climate of 1924–1930, introducing a hope for international peace, typically called the "spirit of Locarno". This spirit was seen in Germany's admission to the League of Nations in 1926, the international organization established under the Versailles treaty to promote world peace and co-operation, and in the subsequent withdrawal (completed in June 1930) of Allied troops from Germany's western Rhineland.

In contrast, in Poland, the public humiliation received by Polish diplomats was one of the contributing factors to the fall of the Grabski cabinet. Locarno contributed to the worsening of the atmosphere between Poland and France (despite the French-Polish alliance), and introduced distrust between Poland and Western countries.[9] Locarno divided borders in Europe in two categories: those guaranteed by Locarno, and others, which were free for revision.

In the words of Józef Beck, "Germany was officially asked to attack the east, in return for peace in the west."[10] The failure at Locarno may be also one of the contributory factors in the decision of Józef Piłsudski to return to power in Poland.[11] With regard to Locarno, Piłsudski would say that "every honest Pole spits when he hears this word [Locarno]". Later, when a French ambassador assured him that France would always back Poland and stand up to Germany, Piłsudski, foreseeing the appeasement, would say: "No, no, believe me, you will back down, really, you will."

One notable exception from the Locarno arrangements was, however, the Soviet Union, which foresaw western détente as potentially deepening its own political isolation in Europe, in particular by detaching Germany from its own understanding with Moscow under the April 1922 Treaty of Rapallo. Political tensions also continued throughout the period in eastern Europe.

In both 1925 and 1926, the Nobel Peace Prize was given to the lead negotiators of the treaty, going to Sir Austen Chamberlain (with Charles Dawes) in 1925 and jointly to Aristide Briand and Gustav Stresemann in 1926. In 1930, after the death of Stresemann the year before, German politics became less cooperative again. In 1933, Adolf Hitler came to power; his practice was to conduct bilateral, not multilateral, negotiations. Proposals in 1934 for an "eastern Locarno" pact securing Germany's eastern frontiers foundered on German opposition and on Poland's insistence that its eastern borders should be covered by a western guarantee of her borders. The Locarno treaty was heavily undermined by the Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance on May 2, 1935, which the German government claimed was a violation of its "spirit." Germany formally repudiated its Locarno undertakings by sending troops into the demilitarized Rhineland on 7 March 1936.

The treaty was, in some ways, a bluff by Austen Chamberlain. He announced publicly that Britain's defensive frontier was no longer the English Channel but on the Rhine. However, British Chiefs of Staff privately informed him that Britain did not have sufficient military power to back up the treaty.[12]

See also[edit]

United Nations portal

British military history Interwar period Weimar Republic

Notes[edit]

Jump up ^ League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. 54, pp. 290–301.

Jump up ^ Gustav Stresemann during the Locarno negotiations. Locarno Treaties. Chronology. See: Google Books preview of The Weimar Republic By Eberhard Kolb: "By the Locarno treaty Germany...reserved her claim for a revision of the eastern frontier" (page 64). Routledge, 2005. ISBN 0-415-34442-5.

Jump up ^ Stephen A. Schuker, "The End of Versailles". Page 38–49. In Gordon Martel, The origins of the Second World War reconsidered by Routledge, 1999. Google Books preview: "Stresemann sought to recover Danzig, the Polish Corridor, and Upper Silesia" (page 48), "the treaties were meant to open the way for territorial revision" (page 49). ISBN 0-415-16324-2.

Jump up ^ "For me, Locarno means opening the possibility of taking back from Poland of German provinces in the east" Gustav Stresemann

Jump up ^ Henryk Samsonowicz, Historia Polski, Tom 2, page 45 "Chciano rzucić Polskę na kolana, wymusić na niej ustępstwa terytorialne." Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN 2007

Jump up ^ Wojna celna (The custom's war with Poland), PWN Biznes (Polish)

Jump up ^ Schuker, Stephen “The End of Versailles” pages 38–56 from The Origins of the Second World War Reconsidered edited by Gordon Martel Routledge: London, United Kingdom, 1999 pages 48–49.

Jump up ^ Schuker, Stephen “The End of Versailles” pages 38–56 from The Origins of the Second World War Reconsidered edited by Gordon Martel Routledge: London, United Kingdom, 1999pages 48–49.

Jump up ^ Stanisław Sierpowski, "Polityka zagraniczna Polski międzywojennej", Warszawa 1994

Jump up ^ Józef Beck, "Dernier rapport. Politique polonaise 1926 – 1939", 1951

Jump up ^ Marian Eckert, "Historia polityczna Polski, lata 1918–1939". Warszawa 1989

Jump up ^ Johnson, Paul. "Modern Times: The World from the Twenties to the Eighties" page 147

References[edit]

Cohrs, Patrick O. "The First 'Real' Peace Settlements after the First World War: Britain, the United States and the Accords of London and Locarno, 1923-1925," Contemporary European History, (Feb 2003) 12#1 pp 1–31 Johnson, Gaynor. Locarno Revisited: European Diplomacy 1920-1929 (2004) excerpt and text search Magee, Frank. "Limited Liability"? Britain and the Treaty of Locarno," Twentieth Century British History, (Jan 1995) 6#1 pp 1-22 Schuker, Stephen. "The End of Versailles" pages 38–56 from The Origins of the Second World War Reconsidered A.J.P. Taylor And The Historians edited by Gordon Martel, Routledge: London, United Kingdom, 1999, ISBN 0-415-16325-0 Wright, Jonathan. "Locarno: a democratic peace?" Review of International Studies, (April 2010) 36#2 pp 391–411

External links[edit]

Text of the Treaties Locarno Treaties Final Protocol of the Locarno Conference of the same Date and Collective Note to Germany dated London, December 1, 1925, regarding Article 16 of the Covenant of the League of Nations http://treaties.un.org/Pages/showDetails.aspx?objid=08000002801683d0 Map of Europe at time of Locarno Treaties at omniatlas.com

Men thought "We finally done it! A pact to outlaw war! It didn't take long to see the folly of that did it?

A man who can believe that is blind to the spiritual message of the Bible. We are not promised peace as long an mankind is against God. Jesus said there shall be wars and rumors of wars.

Nations are nothing but arrogates of individuals and are thus subject to the fallen nature of mankind.

Wars will continue until the appointed time that Jesus Christ will arrive at the promised day of God on which the Devil and evil will be finally destroyed forever.

Revelation 20:1–3 (KJV 1900)

And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, 3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.

Revelation 20:7–10 (KJV 1900)

7 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, 8 And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. 9 And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. 10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.