8 November 2018 | St Albans, UK [Victor Hulbert]<\/p>\n
It was called \u2018the war to end all wars\u2019. Sadly, history tells another tale. Despite the World War I (WWI) deaths of 17 million soldiers, with the injury of 21 million more, the Imperial War Museum<\/a> in London records that war has taken place every single year since, killing an estimated 187 million people.<\/p>\n This week the world looks back 100 years to armistice day 1918 and the end of WWI. Yet reflecting \u2014 and looking forwards \u2014 provides a paradox for Seventh-day Adventist Christians. <\/p>\n As Christians we recognise that war and rumours of war is one of the signs of the end of the age, and whether WWI, Syria or the Yemen, we still struggle with the horror of man\u2019s inhumanity to man. We long for the time when war will be no more, for the Great Controversy between Christ and Satan will be over, when God, as promised in Revelation 21, will make all things new.<\/p>\n But until then, how do we react?<\/p>\n In keeping with our being people of peace, Adventists have generally, although far from totally, held a pacifist position. Four years ago, at the commencement of centenary memories of WWI, Pastor Ted Wilson, President of the Seventh-day Adventist World Church, wrote an article in Adventist World<\/a><\/em>, \u2018The Battle: Should Adventists serve in the military?\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cAs with other difficult questions, the pioneer leaders studied the issues using the Bible as their guide, and concluded that the position most consistent with biblical principles was noncombatancy (the conscientious objection to bearing arms). The primary reason for this position was that Adventists serving in the U.S. military would be forced to compromise their loyalty to God if they obeyed the commands of their officers. The two Bible commandments most directly involved were the fourth\u2014to keep the Sabbath holy, and the sixth\u2014not to kill.\u201d<\/p>\n