Why the Cry for World Peace

PEOPLE around the earth are weary of war.

For a quarter of a century now since the end of World War II​—the major powers have waged a “hot-cold war.” This has produced the biggest arms race in history. It has held all mankind in a state of uncertainty, on edge.

Will world peace come? Will the major powers one day join in triumphantly announcing an end to their strife?

Yes, they will! And the evidence is that they will do it in the near future.

Do you find that hard to believe? If so, surely it is not because of any lack of desire for peace.

What World Peace Could Mean for All of Us

True, you may not be in a “hot war” zone right now. But you do not have to be killed, wounded or crippled, or see members of your family suffer violence, to feel the crying need for peace.

Are tax pressures getting heavier and heavier? Does the struggle to meet the daily cost of living keep getting harder? Then realize this:

Each year the world spends some $200 billion on military expenses. This is equal to a year’s wages of the 1.8 billion people who make up the poorer half of earth’s population!

Another reason why many desire peace is the disgust they feel at the sheer waste war brings. Products costing enormous sums of money are being ‘blown to bits.’ By 1971, for example, more than $150 billion had already been spent on the Vietnam war. What if that same amount had been distributed to the Vietnamese people?

Then each family in both North and South Vietnam could have received some $20,000​—more than most of them earn in a lifetime!

Instead, their country is largely devastated, pocked with an estimated twenty-one million crater holes from the intense shelling and bombing.

Yes, world peace could bring welcome relief from crushing economic burdens affecting all of us.

Still another reason for desiring peace is that our whole outlook on life is affected by today’s uncertainty. We seem to pass from one crisis to another and from one outbreak of violence to another. After twenty-five years of this, it is little wonder that people around the world feel increasingly irritated and frustrated.

Granted, like most people you may feel that it is unlikely that an all-out nuclear war will break out. But knowing that the combined arsenals of the United States and Russia now contain destructive power equal to five tons of dynamite for every man, woman and child on this planet​—is this not enough to keep most persons from looking to the future with any real peace of mind or confidence?

So, what a change, then, world peace could mean! What a blessing it would be for human efforts and resources to be turned to constructive goals! What a relief to be free from continual tension and uncertainty!

Yet, no matter how desirable peace may be, that does not make it a certainty, does it? So, where is the evidence that an unprecedented peace arrangement is coming?

As we will see, there is strong evidence pointing to that conclusion. In fact, the coming of such peace will fulfill prophecies written long ago in the Bible.

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Each year the world spends $200 billion on military expenses​—equal to what the poorer half of earth’s population earns annually

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In the combined arsenals of the United States and Russia there is destructive power equal to 5 tons of dynamite for every man, woman and child on earth today

5 TONS

5 TONS

5 TONS