For God to carry out His purpose, He has arranged the world situation. History is meaningful when we realize this. Just a few years before Christ was born, the Roman Empire became fully established. Everything was ready for Christ to be born according to the prophecies in the Old Testament. Why, for example, did Mary have to go to Bethlehem? She was in Galilee, but Augustus issued a decree that required her to go to Bethlehem. If Christ had been born in Nazareth, where Mary was living, it would have been contrary to the prophecy (Micah 5:2). The Roman Empire also provided a way for the gospel to be spread.
Later, Germany was used by God to support the Reformation, and Great Britain in more recent times was raised up by God to further carry out His purpose. After defeating the Spanish Armada in 1588, she became the leading world power. Through her the gospel was spread throughout the world. Because of her unfaithfulness and pride, however, she has lost her preeminence.
Britain’s unfairness was demonstrated when the League of Nations was in effect. The League had been formed after World War I under the direction of President Woodrow Wilson, though the United States did not join. Britain, France, Japan, and China all belonged, along with many other nations. Britain and France were in favor of the League of Nations as the means to keep Germany under restraint. The other nations wanted to be protected. In 1931 Japan invaded Manchuria, which was part of China. When China appealed to the League of Nations, the League sent a mission to Manchuria under the chairmanship of the British Lord Lytton to investigate. However, the League of Nations was not able to do anything to correct the situation.
This weakness in dealing with Japanese aggression emboldened Japan to invade northern China in 1937. The United States had previously realized the need for a strong China to maintain the balance of power on the other side of the Pacific. Thus, under the United States’ leadership, a treaty had been drawn up in 1921 and 1922, respecting the independence and territorial integrity of China and promising to maintain an Open Door there. Japan was one of the signatories to this Nine-Power Treaty. When Japan invaded China, Roosevelt, who was President at the time, reminded Japan of its signature on this treaty and demanded that Japan withdraw. Japan refused. China again appealed to the League of Nations, which again proved unable to help.
In 1941 Japan sent a delegation to the United States to gain more favorable treatment for Japan. Negotiations were still going on when Japanese planes attacked Pearl Harbor. With the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the United States declared war on Japan; there was only one vote against it in Congress. A few days later Congress also declared war on Germany and Italy. The Chinese were joyful that after four years of trying to resist Japan, they were finally being joined by the United States. With the aid of its top-notch generals-Eisenhower in Europe, MacArthur in the Far East, and Marshall as Chief of Staff-the war was won.
Russia in territory and population was the largest country in Europe. While the other European nations were striving to gain world markets for their goods, however, Russia was still backward. Their ways were Oriental, not Western. During the reign of Peter the Great, Russia became a great power. It adopted western ways and gained access to the sea. The Bible speaks of Russia as Gog and Magog (see Ezek. 38; 39; Rev. 20) and says that this people will be rebellious against God till the end of the thousand years. The territory assigned to them is in the frozen north.
The czars tried again and again to gain a warm water outlet to the sea. They tried to get a port on the Black Sea so that they could go through the Aegean Sea, between Greece and Turkey, into the Mediterranean and out through Gibraltar into the Atlantic Ocean. Britain prevented this by persuading the Turks to watch over the Aegean and by using Malta and Gibraltar to guard the Mediterranean. When the Suez Canal was built in Egypt, the British also controlled this, again preventing the Russians from gaining an outlet to the sea. The czars then tried to get through the Persian Gulf into the Indian Ocean, but once again the British thwarted their efforts by influencing Persia.
Still with the aim of getting a warm water port, the czars had begun work in 1891 on the Trans-Siberian railroad. It began operating in 1901, though the last section was not completed till 1916. It extended from Moscow to Vladivostok on the Sea of Japan, was some five thousand miles in length, and cost millions of dollars to build. The czars were also able to gain eastern Siberia from China because the foolish emperor considered such a frozen land was not worth keeping. The Siberian railroad extended through this area also. Then the czars again got the emperor to agree to allow Russia to build the Chinese Eastern Railway across Manchuria and partially to control the province. In 1898 Russia leased the Liaotung Peninsula from China; the railroad was extended into that area. At the tip of the peninsula the Russians built the commercial port of Dairen and the naval base of Port Arthur. This meant the Russian navy had ships at Port Arthur. This was just across the sea from my home town of Chefoo.
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