Page 9 - BOOKLET - LD -1973 08032020

6) We haven’t forgotten about the poison gas analogy. It is indeed crucial to the whole point. Let’s go back to World War II. True enough, poison gas was never used. But had Germany launched her much-heralded invasion of England, that statement would no longer have been true. William L. Shirer, in his classic work, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, reports that British plans called for the extreme all-out utilization of poison gas had conventional methods of defense failed – even though such action would have surely meant a brutal German retaliation on the British civilian population.
“Had the invasion been attempted the Germans would not have been received gently by the British . . . [Peter Fleming in his book, The Sea Lion, says] the British had decided . . . as a last resort and if all other conventional methods of defense failed, to attack the German beach-heads with mustard gas, sprayed from low-flying airplanes. It was a painful decision, taken not without much soul-searching at the highest level; and as Fleming comments, the decision was surrounded by secrecy at the time and ever since” (William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Fawcett Publications, Inc., 1962, p.1030).
In other words, when the vital interests of a nation are being threatened, when that nebulous line “here and no further” is crossed, a nation will use every weapon at its disposal to defend itself. And as more and more countries acquire nuclear capabilities, the number of “here and no further” lines likewise increases. Imagine India and Pakistan, Israel and Egypt, North and South Korea! – bringing new perils into an already precarious situation.
Matthew 24:22
“And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.”
In this popular King James translation the meaning of “saved” is ambiguous.
What is meant by “saved”? Spiritual salvation? Or simply, as we have explained here, the preservation and continuance of physical human life? If this verse refers to the spiritual condition of individual human beings during a certain period of history, then the whole prophetic significance would be lost. The original Greek can go either way. The answer must be determined from the context.
And the context is very physical. The entire twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew deals with the basic problem of staying alive during wars (verse 6), famines, pestilences and earthquakes (verse 7), religious persecution (verse 9), great tribulation (verse 21), etc. Consequently, as mentioned before, more modern translations emphasize that Matthew 24:22 refers to the fact that human life would literally be on the verge of total annihilation and this was to be a sure sign that the last days of the end-time generation had arrived.
Review several translations:
9