Will There Still Be A World War III? Or Have We Been Through It?

I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. — Albert Einstein

Have we just experienced WWIII? Or is it still pending?

How symbolically significant are the world’s recent experiences of 2020 pandemic as manifestations of what has been predicted to happen?

Wars have always been part of human history. They have been a way of settling scores or getting key resources unavailable to those with superior armies and weapons. Wars can also happen because of bruised fragile egos of leaders. The most common among the reasons are errors of judgment.

The causes are not as important as the devastations that wars bring to human lives — the loss of wealth, destruction of economies, institutions, and cultures. The social, psychological, and material impacts take generations to recoup.

World War I which lasted for 4 years caused the deaths of tens of millions by direct assault, genocide, influenza pandemic, etc. Over 70 million soldiers, including those mobilized from the colonies, were involved.

With the end of that war in November 1918 when Germany signed the armistice, The League of Nations was formed in June 1919 primarily to prevent future wars through disarmament, diplomacy, and international cooperation and sanctions for war.

President Woodrow Wilson’s efforts in the formation of the League would earn him the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize even though the US never joined the League. The Soviet Union which joined the League in September 1934 was expelled in December 1939 for invading Finland in November 1939. It had invaded Poland in September of that same year.

World War II which started in September 1939 with the invasion of Poland by Germany, came 20 years after WWI and lasted for 6 years involving more than 100m people from 30 countries of the world. It caused more than 70 million fatalities by genocide, starvation, massacre, and diseases.

The war ended with the invasion of Germany by Western Allies and the capture of Berlin by Soviet troops, the suicide of Adolf Hitler, and the unconditional surrender of Germany in May 1945. However, it was not completely over until the surrender of Japan in August 1945 following the US dropping of atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki earlier in the same month.

World War II also saw

• the use of nuclear weapons
• the dissolution of the League of Nations and creation of the United Nations in July 1947 to help with rehabilitation and repair of relationships between countries also focused through its agencies on preventing conflicts and crises and to ensure that no more would so many countries of the world experience wars.
• fall of Japanese and Italian empires
• fall of Nazi Germany
• the decline of European colonial empires and the rise of the 2 superpowers, USSR & USA who became competitors after and engaged in a cold war fought through mutual suspicions, subversion of interests, and proxy wars.
• The nuclear arms race, raising concerns for the dangers and damages that could come with a WW111
• The rise of the communist Peoples Republic of China.
• Decolonization.

An interesting fallout of the world wars was that it also opened the underbelly of the Empires and showed those from the colonies the weaknesses and frailties of the colonialists.

Soldiers from the Empires experiencing cold, fear, and death along with those from Colonies. This took away the perception of the invincibility of the colonial masters and helped to speed up the demand for independence and decolonization.

Europe was after WW11 carved up by the Soviet Union (and its Western allies) which saw to the erection of an ‘Iron Curtain’ between Eastern and Western Europe. In 1961, the Berlin wall was built to split Berlin into East and West Berlin. And turning Germany into two countries

West Europe and Japan were rebuilt through American Marshall Plan, Central & Eastern Europe fell to the control of the USSR, with the Iron Curtain dividing Europe into Western & Eastern blocs.

West European countries formed the European Economic Community and later the European Union, principally to deter another conflict between Germany and France.

In 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev Gorbachev would become Secretary of the Communist Party and leader of the USSR. His reform policy of glasnost and perestroika Soviet Union towards Open market economy, Western Democracy freedom of speech and respect of human rights, and less direct intervention in the affairs in the affairs of neighboring countries.

On June 12, 1987, President Ronald Reagan, made what later became known as the Berlin Wall speech. He called for an end to the arms race. 22 years later and 15 years after his death that speech will earn Reagan a bronze statue near the site of the speech at Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.

What really made the speech (delivered in front of two panes of bulletproof glass) famous was Reagan’s unequivocal demand on General Secretary Gorbachev of the USSR to advance the cause of freedom and peace.

General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, come here to this gate, Mr Gorbachev, open this gate, Mr Gorbachev, tear this wall! — President Ronald Reagan

The wall eventually came down in 1990 and Germany again became one country.

The Union of Soviet Republics would break up in December 1991 and Gorbachev resigned as General Secretary and leader. The Cold War appeared contained and WWIII looked imminently remote.

Fast forward to 2020 Suddenly the Virus appeared and all the other wars and rumors of war came to a standstill. The guns went silent and the war fronts and sports arena had no contestants. Boxing, Wrestling, and Mixed Art tournaments got postponed. People went into their basements. Business and commercial activities ceased. And all over the world, in virtually all countries, deaths were being recorded in big numbers.

]Hospitals and morgues became got stretched. Foods and drugs demanded huge attention like in war situations. This war affected all humanity and all the countries of the world much more than WW1 and WW11, even where the casualties were less. Could it then have been WW111?

Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream and Daniel’s interpretation In the Bible book of Daniel, when Jehoiakim was King of Judah, Israel was conquered by Babylon and some of the people particularly the youth were taken to learn the language of the Chaldeans and serve in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon. Among them was Daniel.

Nebuchadnezzar had a troubling vision and refused to reveal it while challenging his Chaldean magicians to tell him the dream and its interpretation. Daniel who would solve the puzzle, telling the dream and the interpretation of the image the king saw (represented below and narrated in verses 31–34 of Daniel chapter II).

31 You, O king, saw, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before you; and its form was frightening.

32This image’s head was of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze,

33 Its legs of iron, its feet part of iron and part of clay.

34You saw till a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image upon its feet that were of iron and clay, and broke them to pieces.

The Roman Empire which is the feet with mix of clay and iron has had four realms dated and marked as

First Reich: 800 to 1806

Second Reich: 1871 to 1918 (WW1)

Third Reich: 1933 to 1945 (WW11)

Fourth Reich: 2004 to present (European Union)

The stone that shattered the image is further said to represent the institution of the sovereignty of Will of God on earth and the beginning of a thousand years of the reign of peace in the Millennium.

That also marks the end of mankind’s efforts at bringing about peace through the United Nations and the European Union.

The promised New Order in the New Earth is also said to be a period when mankind will know no more wars when the swords will be turned into ploughshares,(Isaiah 2:4)

Isaiah wrote: … they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.

The Let Us Beat Swords into Plowshares bronze statue sculpted by Evgeny Vuchetich was donated by the Soviet Union to the United Nations in 1959.

The primary, fundamental, the essential purpose of the United Nations is to keep the peace. Everything it does which helps prevent World War III is good. Everything which does not further that goal, either directly or indirectly, is at best superfluous — Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.

So are we in the No More Wars Zone now? Has the Global Pandemic symbolically become World War 111? And since even the superpowers were beaten in this war is this, therefore, the real war to end all wars? Whose prediction is to be believed: Colin Powell’s’ (below) or Albert Einstein’s (above, at the beginning of this piece)?

There’s not going to be a World War III, because there is no one to have World War III with. — Colin Powell

End-Time and The New World Order There are various interpretations of how the End-Time arising from mankind’s failures will come about. Related to that is the concept of the Final Judgement and the cleansing of the whole earth to usher in a New World. The signs are all there in the number and frequency of natural disasters, climate change, economic collapses, dwindling resources, population crises, terrorist attacks, and biological warfare, the shift in the global ( economic and financial)power balance.

Is this the loss of grip and influence of the US as a superpower significant in the interpretation of the run of play of World events at this time? Would the November 2020 elections in the US change anything in world affairs?

These themes we shall highlight to call attention to the way forward for humanity in the course of our journey.

We shall also not forget that stone that shattered the feet of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream image and its significance for present times.

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