UN: Plugging Away in Failure

Artville

UN: Plugging Away in Failure

Mankind’s attempt at world government has failed. Here’s why.

The 66th session of the United Nations General Assembly kicked off in New York last week. Right now, a swarm of world leaders and dignitaries is busily working to solve the world’s problems. They did this last year too, and the year before that, and 10 years before that, and 30 years before that. In fact, the UN has been meeting annually to resolve mankind’s troubles since 1945.

What? You can’t tell?

Each year when the UN meeting rolls around, my mind always hearkens back to Herbert W. Armstrong. Together with his wife, Loma, Mr. Armstrong attended the inaugural United Nations conference in San Francisco way back in April 1945. The conference was considered a milestone moment, a historic juncture at which the fate of mankind turned onto a brighter road. The UN, promised U.S. President Harry Truman moments after the charter was signed, was to be a “solid structure upon which we can build a better world.”

As he listened to world leaders chart their ambitious dreams of peace—many of which now depended on the newly created UN—Mr. Armstrong considered history, human nature, and the Holy Bible. And as the world lauded its latest vehicle for peace, Mr. Armstrong wrote its obituary. “Already I see the clouds of World War iii gathering at this conference,” he said. “I do not see peace being germinated here, but the seeds of the next war! … The United Nations conference is producing nothing but strife and bickering, and is destined from its inception to end in total failure.”

The superficial response to that observation may be to criticize it as pessimistic and pointless. The more you think on it though, especially against the backdrop of the UN today—which is a picture of “strife and bickering”—the easier it is to accept it as profound and astonishing insight. Imagine a person standing on the dock in Southampton in 1912 watching the Titanic triumphantly depart, and warning that the ship would hit an iceberg and sink.

That was Herbert Armstrong at the UN conference in San Francisco in 1945.

As the years passed and more and more countries joined the organization, Mr. Armstrong warned consistently that the UN was an exercise in futility. In 1970, 25 years after he attended the San Francisco conference, he wrote in the August/September Plain Truth: “World War ii was the ‘war to end all wars.’ The United Nations was the world ‘peace effort’ to prevent further wars. What are the results after a quarter-century? There have been more than 50 wars. The UN has contributed to the shortening of four wars—BUTthere is no evidence to show that the United Nations has prevented any war!”

Fifteen years later, as the world celebrated the UN’s 40th anniversary, Mr. Armstrong recalled its mandate to create peace, and wrote that “more than 150 local wars have occurred since, and no peace is remotely in sight now.” The UN had been endorsed by most nations, and had been injected with countless hours of labor and billions of dollars. Still, the world was filled with troubles.

“Why has the United Nations so utterly failed?” Mr. Armstrong asked in 1985.

Today, the UN has had 66 years to iron out the kinks, to figure out what works and what doesn’t in the pursuit of world peace and stability—and to prove Herbert Armstrong wrong. But after all these decades, creating world peace—solving man’s troubles—is more elusive than it ever was. We have more problems today than we did in 1945. The UN today is a moribund organization, one better at creating conflict than solving it.

Even still, as world leaders make their annual pilgrimage to New York, very few among us ever ask: Why has the United Nations so utterly failed?

Meanwhile, the UN plugs away in failure.

How did Herbert Armstrong know that the UN would not—could not—bring peace to this world? It’s simple, really. He looked into and believed God’s Word, which explains the nature of man and the futility of human government. For example, Mr. Armstrong read the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans 3:17—“And the way of peace have they not known”and believed them. He read the Prophet Jeremiah’s instruction in chapter 17, verse 9—which says that the human “heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked”and believed it. He read Psalm 127:1—“except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it”—and believed it!

So often the feature that distinguishes the true Christian from everyone else is belief. Herbert Armstrong believed God when He said that the human mind is incomplete, deeply flawed and utterly incapable of producing sustained peace, happiness and stability. He believed the Word of God—which has been proven true repeatedly throughout mankind’s miserable existence—which says the human heart is wicked, deceitful and infinitely selfish. God says the UN does not work because it’s run by selfish, sinful human beings—and Mr. Armstrong believed Him!

His belief in God’s Word was so strong, he staked his word and work on it!

Sooner or later, we will all have to follow Mr. Armstrong’s example and display this level of belief in the Word of God. In fact, this is why God is allowing multiple major, nation-threatening problems to increasingly swallow our families, our communities, our cities and our countries. God is trying to get your attention—the world is falling apart for a reason. The UN won’t tell you this, but this is the solution to all of our problems: repenting of our rebellion, believing the Word of God, then using the power of God to follow God’s law!

The good news is, Bible prophecy says that God will be successful in His effort to reach us. Sadly though, it will take a tremendous amount of suffering. But the time is coming when a viable, successful world government will be established on Earth. More than anything, we need one government, one law, one eternal vision of peace—one all-powerful, living God reigning supreme and in love over us all. Very soon now the failed efforts of the United Nations to create peace between nations and peoples will be replaced by the perfect government of Jesus Christ—“the Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6).

Believe it, this world-ruling government is man’s only hope for peace!