It Is Written

The Greatest War

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants:

Series Code: IIW

01:29 ♪[Music]
01:40 ♪[Music]
01:49 [Sound of train]
01:53 >>John Bradshaw: This is It Is Written.
01:55 I'm John Bradshaw.
01:56 Thanks for joining me.
01:58 Seems like a strange sort of a name for a war.
02:02 The Great War.
02:04 They said it would be the war that would end all wars.
02:08 And, of course, it wasn't.
02:10 Now, there is a war that will end all wars.
02:14 Maybe we should call that one the Greatest War.
02:16 And to dig into it,
02:18 we're going to learn some lessons from the past today,
02:21 that will help us better understand our future.
02:25 Now, some things get started in some odd places.
02:28 And this surely seems like an odd place
02:32 for a global conflict to kick off in.
02:35 But kick off it did, right here.
02:39 ♪[Music]
02:41 This is Sarajevo.
02:42 It was once a part of the Ottoman Empire,
02:45 or the Turkish Empire,
02:47 which stretched through the Balkans
02:49 into Greece and Turkey,
02:50 the Middle East and North Africa,
02:52 and which ruled for hundreds of years.
02:56 After the Ottoman Empire,
02:57 Sarajevo was in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
03:01 For the better part of the 20th century
03:02 it was part of Yugoslavia, communist for half a century.
03:07 And since 1992 it's been the capital
03:10 of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
03:13 It's a city with an especially painful past [sound of gunfire],
03:17 littered with war and conflict and bloodshed and loss of life.
03:22 A rose in Sarajevo means something different
03:25 to what it means where you live.
03:27 I'll explain later.
03:30 The Winter Olympics coming here in 1984
03:33 suggested this was a city with a bold, bright future.
03:37 Instead, less than a decade after Sarajevo hosted
03:41 the Winter Olympics,
03:42 the city was plunged into chaos.
03:44 And the conflicts that have marked the history
03:48 of this beautiful city speak of a bigger,
03:51 bloodier conflict that threatens the world today.
03:57 The key event that led to the start of World War I
04:00 happened here, in Sarajevo.
04:03 The war to end all wars began here.
04:06 In fact, right there.
04:10 It was 1914, and Bosnia and Herzegovina was under
04:14 the rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
04:17 The Austro-Hungarian Empire existed for about 50 years,
04:21 and it controlled not only Austria and Hungary,
04:25 but what today we'd call the Czech Republic,
04:27 Slovakia, Croatia, Slovenia, parts of Poland,
04:31 Romania and the Ukraine, part of Italy, and the north of Serbia.
04:37 Many people who were getting tired
04:39 of being ruled by outsiders.
04:41 Feelings of nationalism were heating up all across Europe.
04:43 Ethnic minorities were struggling
04:46 to forge their own unique identities.
04:49 Democracy was rising In the early 20th century,
04:52 but Austria-Hungary, Germany, and Russia
04:55 were controlled, basically, by generals and officials
04:58 around the monarch.
05:00 No democracy there.
05:02 Europe was basically divided into two factions:
05:06 Austria-Hungary and Germany on one side,
05:09 with Great Britain, France, and Russia on the other.
05:15 Industrialization had pressed society forward,
05:18 but a lot of people who worked long hours
05:20 and lived in deplorable conditions
05:22 didn't see much advantage.
05:25 Conditions were ripe for revolution.
05:28 And on June the 28th, 1914, the revolution began.
05:34 It's interesting when you consider
05:36 how a war can get started.
05:37 But there's another war we're going to take a look at
05:39 that has a far more surprising start,
05:43 and a much more far-reaching influence.
05:44 ♪[Music]
05:46 Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the heir to the throne
05:49 of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
05:52 He'd been invited by the Governor of Bosnia
05:54 and Herzegovina,
05:55 which at that time was a province in the empire,
05:58 to come to Sarajevo and spend three days
06:00 watching troops on maneuvers.
06:03 When the procession in which the archduke was traveling
06:05 passed the main Sarajevo police station,
06:08 a would-be assassin threw a grenade at the car
06:11 in which he was traveling.
06:13 Two men in the car were seriously wounded.
06:15 After attending a reception at City Hall,
06:18 the archduke requested that he be taken to the hospital
06:20 to visit the two wounded men.
06:23 The governor decided the archduke should not travel
06:26 through the center of the city for the sake of his safety,
06:29 and he decided that he should instead go another route.
06:33 But somebody forgot to tell the driver.
06:37 When they were crossing the Miljacka River
06:39 on the Latin Bridge,
06:41 the governor then realized they were going the wrong way.
06:44 He asked the driver to turn around.
06:47 So the driver put the vehicle in reverse and started to back up.
06:50 He was therefore traveling very slowly,
06:53 and it was then that a 19-year-old Serbian
06:57 with a pistol and a grudge against the empire
07:00 stepped out of the crowd and fired two shots,
07:03 hitting the archduke's wife, Sophia,
07:06 and the archduke himself.
07:08 Both were dead within an hour.
07:11 ♪[Music]
07:16 A month later,
07:17 Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia.
07:21 Less than a week later, Germany, Austria-Hungary's close ally,
07:26 declared war on Russia,
07:28 which had begun to mobilize its troops.
07:30 Germany invaded Luxembourg and declared war on France,
07:34 which it wanted to invade.
07:36 Germany invaded Belgium.
07:38 Britain declared war on Germany.
07:41 Austria-Hungary declared war on Russia.
07:44 Britain declared war on Austria-Hungary.
07:47 And before you knew it, there were,
07:48 depending on how you count,
07:50 40 or so countries involved in World War I.
07:54 Great Britain, Russia, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary,
07:58 as well as Panama,
08:01 Cuba, Siam (that's today's Thailand),
08:05 Nepal, New Zealand, Australia,
08:08 Rhodesia (that's today's Zimbabwe), South Africa.
08:13 War has a habit of affecting an awful lot of people.
08:18 The United States joined World War I in 1917
08:22 and sent two million men and women overseas.
08:26 New York sent 368,000.
08:29 Pennsylvania, 298,000.
08:32 Illinois, a quarter of a million.
08:34 Ohio, 200,000.
08:36 One hundred thousand went from both Iowa and Minnesota;
08:40 75,000 each from Kentucky and Tennessee.
08:44 And there were many more.
08:46 One hundred and sixteen thousand Americans died,
08:49 more than half due to disease.
08:52 Three and a half million prisoners of war were held
08:55 during World War I.
08:57 It's estimated 5 million civilians perished
09:00 as a result of the war.
09:02 About 65 million soldiers fought and over 9 million of them died.
09:09 One in three French men between the ages of 18 and 30
09:14 had died by 1917.
09:18 That's a lot of death.
09:21 Almost 40 years before,
09:22 General Sherman had made his famous statement when he said,
09:26 “War is hell.”
09:28 Now, soldiers were finding that out for themselves.
09:31 [Sounds of marketplace]
09:33 Most of the men who went off to war
09:35 thought that they were in for a glorious adventure.
09:36 They thought the conflict be short
09:39 and that they'd be home by Christmas.
09:41 Well, it wasn't, and they weren't.
09:44 And it all began here in Sarajevo,
09:48 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a country with a population today
09:52 of around three and a half million people,
09:54 smaller than West Virginia.
09:56 An unlikely place for a war to start.
09:59 But wars can begin in unlikely places.
10:02 And the greatest war of all began in the one place
10:06 that you would never expect.
10:08 It involves everyone in the world,
10:10 and whether you like it or not, you're involved too.
10:13 I'll tell you more in just a moment.
10:17 ♪[Theme music]
10:26 >>Announcer: In Old Testament times, ancient Babylon fell.
10:30 The Book of Revelation says Babylon is going to fall again.
10:33 ♪[Music]
10:35 Understand the fall of Babylon in Earth's last days.
10:38 Receive “The Fall of Babylon”
10:40 absolutely free.
10:41 Call us at 800-253-3000.
10:45 That's 800-253-3000.
10:49 You could write to the address on your screen,
10:51 or visit us online at iiwoffer.com.
10:56 >>John: I'm in the Bahamas.
10:57 It's a slice of paradise, really.
10:59 And as beautiful as it is, it's a place with a colorful past.
11:04 Once upon a time, the Bahamas was a haven for pirates.
11:10 Blackbeard sailed these waters.
11:12 Pirates lived, or live, outside the law.
11:16 They are lawless.
11:18 And the fact is, they were thieves, murders.
11:22 This isn't a game.
11:24 We still see lawlessness today.
11:28 The battle is real.
11:30 Undoubtedly you've experienced it.
11:32 You might be caught in the middle of it now.
11:34 Can you see yourself in that picture,
11:37 doing the things that you know you should not?
11:39 See yourself in that picture?
11:41 You want a way out of lawlessness?
11:43 You want a way out of slavery to the old life?
11:47 Jesus is that way.
11:50 “Lawless.”
11:51 Watch now on itiswritten.tv.
11:56 ♪[Sound of car driving by/music]♪
11:59 Thanks for joining me today on It Is Written.
12:01 I'm in Sarajevo, in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
12:04 This is where World War I began.
12:07 World War I ended in 1918.
12:09 But that did not mean peace would come to Bosnia.
12:14 Far from it.
12:16 War is waged ostensibly to bring about
12:18 or to restore peace and order.
12:21 But that doesn't always happen.
12:22 In fact, sometimes war brings about more war.
12:27 After World War I ended,
12:29 Europe inherited communism, Nazism, and fascism.
12:33 And 21 years later, World War II.
12:37 So where did all this begin?
12:39 Where did human beings develop their penchant,
12:42 their inclination for war?
12:45 The most surprising of places.
12:49 You read about it in Revelation 12, verse 7:
12:52 “And there was war in heaven:
12:54 Michael and His angels fought against the dragon;
12:58 and the dragon fought and his angels.”
13:01 War began in Heaven.
13:02 From heaven it came to the earth.
13:06 And on earth, it continues.
13:08 So why did it begin?
13:09 Well, let's ask ourselves, why did World War I begin?
13:14 Well, Gavrilo Princep shot the archduke, right?
13:19 Well, yes, but it goes deeper.
13:21 People didn't want to be ruled over,
13:22 especially by outsiders.
13:25 Why should Bosnians or Serbs be ruled by
13:27 Austrians and Hungarians?
13:30 And why should Austrians and Hungarians presume to want to
13:33 rule over Bosnians and Croats and Serbs
13:35 and Romanians and Czechs?
13:37 Now we can understand a little better why war began in heaven.
13:42 Long ago, Satan said in his heart,
13:45 “I will be like the Most High.” That's Isaiah 14:14.
13:50 A desire to sit in God's place.
13:54 At once, a refusal to submit to just leadership,
13:57 and a desire to set himself up as a ruler over others.
14:01 Before long, Satan had deceived a third of the angels in heaven.
14:05 You see that in Revelation 12, verse 4:
14:07 And he came to the earth to get the worship
14:10 he wasn't able to get in heaven.
14:13 But peace doesn't come following a war
14:16 unless someone is willing to do something decisive.
14:19 ♪[Music]
14:20 The Great War didn't end war,
14:22 because it couldn't fix the broken human heart.
14:27 After World War I,
14:28 Bosnia and Herzegovina was pressed into Yugoslavia,
14:32 along with Slovenia, Serbia,
14:34 Croatia, Montenegro, and Macedonia.
14:37 But when communism collapsed in the early 1990s,
14:40 the fight was on for who would control what,
14:43 and who would control who, in the form of Yugoslavia.
14:47 Bosnians wanted to control their own affairs.
14:50 But not everyone saw it that way.
14:53 There was a push to create a Bosnian Serb state.
14:57 Some planned to have Bosnia and Herzegovina
15:00 split between Serbia and Croatia.
15:03 Sarajevo was under siege by Serbs for four years,
15:07 the longest any capital city has ever been under siege.
15:12 The horrors of the Bosnian war were horrible.
15:17 Many people were killed.
15:19 War crimes were committed.
15:21 Ratko Mladic became known as the Butcher of Bosnia
15:25 for his role in the Bosnian war.
15:28 Mass murder.
15:29 Torture.
15:30 Mutilation.
15:32 Rape.
15:34 It was after the Bosnian war that mass rape
15:36 was acknowledged as a war crime.
15:39 The group Doctors Without Borders says,
15:42 “Systematic rape was used as part of the strategy
15:46 of ethnic cleansing”
15:47 by Serbian troops during the Bosnian War.
15:51 Eight thousand men and boys were massacred over three days
15:55 in the town of Srebrenica,
15:57 less than a hundred miles from here.
16:00 Mladic is currently serving a lifetime prison sentence
16:04 in the Hague in the Netherlands.
16:06 Radovan Karadzic was sentenced to 40 years.
16:10 Slobodan Milosevic attempted to orchestrate the creation
16:13 of a greater Serbia, and Bosnia would have fallen
16:16 victim to Milosevic's plans had they succeeded.
16:20 Milosevic died in prison.
16:26 Today there are still divisions along ethnic
16:29 and religious lines in Bosnia.
16:31 Some of the scars of war here
16:34 can still be seen in the buildings.
16:37 The Sarajevo rose I mentioned earlier?
16:40 Sarajevo roses don't grow on bushes.
16:42 The Sarajevo rose is a mark left in concrete
16:46 by an exploded mortar shell
16:48 that has since been filled with red resin,
16:52 as a reminder of what has taken place here.
16:57 You didn't want to be here during the siege of Sarajevo.
17:01 Dangerous, dangerous place.
17:05 Planet Earth is currently under siege.
17:07 According to the Bible, we're all involved in a war.
17:12 And it's serious.
17:14 That verse we looked at a moment ago,
17:16 Revelation 12:7:
17:18 “And there was war in heaven:
17:20 Michael and His angels fought against the dragon;
17:23 and the dragon fought and his angels.”
17:25 Verse 8:
17:26 “And prevailed not;
17:28 neither was their place found any more in heaven.”
17:31 And now verse 9:
17:33 “And the great dragon was cast out,
17:36 that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan,
17:39 which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth,
17:44 and his angels were cast out with him.”
17:47 The focus of the war in heaven
17:50 has become the war here on earth.
17:52 And we see its effects everywhere.
17:55 Sin entered the world when Adam and Eve
17:57 yielded to the temptations of Satan.
18:00 And sin brought death and pain and sorrow and injustice
18:04 and cruelty and war and ethnic cleansing.
18:08 And so it goes.
18:10 In God is life.
18:12 Separated from God, there is no life.
18:15 And because God has given everybody freedom of choice,
18:20 it's up to each person to decide individually
18:23 what side he or she wishes to be on.
18:27 But in a war, you can choose to be on the right side
18:32 and still get wounded.
18:34 Imagine being here in Sarajevo during the war,
18:38 and having to duck down or hide as you move about
18:42 from place to place,
18:43 to make yourself less of a target for a sniper.
18:47 Because being on the right side doesn't guarantee your safety.
18:52 During World War I, German U-boats sank the Lusitania,
18:57 a passenger ship with almost 2,000 people on board;
19:02 1,200 died.
19:04 The Germans said that, because she was carrying hundreds
19:07 of tons of munitions, she was a legitimate target.
19:09 The people on the ship thought they were safe
19:12 and wouldn't be targeted.
19:14 They were innocent, but, during war,
19:18 innocent people often suffer.
19:23 And that's why people suffer today.
19:25 Innocent people: a child, a follower of Jesus.
19:30 People suffer because there's a spiritual war raging.
19:35 And there's an enemy looking to cause casualties.
19:38 The Bible says in 1 Peter 5:8,
19:41 “Be sober, be vigilant;
19:43 because your adversary the devil,
19:45 as a roaring lion, walketh about,
19:48 seeking whom he may devour.”
19:51 Now, that's serious.
19:52 There's an enemy who's actively looking to take lives.
19:55 He's trying to ruin, well, you and me.
20:00 So what are you doing, proactively,
20:03 to keep yourself safe in this war?
20:05 What are you doing intentionally to safeguard your soul?
20:08 How can a person be safe?
20:11 What can you do to make sure you experience victory in this war?
20:16 Let's talk about that in just a moment.
20:19 ♪[Theme music]
20:28 >>John: Thank you for remembering that It Is Written
20:30 exists because of the kindness of people just like you.
20:34 To support this international life-changing ministry,
20:37 please call us now at 800-253-3000.
20:41 You can send your tax-deductible gift
20:43 to the address on your screen,
20:44 or you can visit us online at itiswritten.com.
20:48 Thank you for your prayers and for your financial support.
20:51 Our number again is 800-253-3000.
20:55 Or you can visit us online at itiswritten.com.
20:58 ♪[Music]
21:01 >>John: Thanks for joining me today on It Is Written.
21:04 The city of Sarajevo in Bosnia Herzegovina
21:07 was where World War I was born.
21:10 A Serb named Gavrilo Princip shot and killed the heir
21:14 to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire
21:17 as well as the heir's wife,
21:19 setting the wheels in motion that would result in millions
21:22 of deaths and untold horror.
21:25 ♪[Music]
21:26 This same city was under siege for four years by Serbians
21:30 who were trying to take the territory and divide it
21:33 between themselves and Croatians.
21:36 Four years of shelling and sniper attacks.
21:39 More than 100,000 deaths, a city devastated,
21:43 and a long, hard recovery process which is far from over.
21:48 [Bell ringing]
21:51 [Traffic noise]
21:57 About 50 miles in a straight line from here
22:00 is the town of Mostar.
22:02 Mostar is famous for its old bridge,
22:05 the Stari Most.
22:07 Except, the old bridge in Mostar today isn't old.
22:10 It's really very new.
22:12 The original was completed in 1576 or thereabouts,
22:16 and it stood for 427 years,
22:18 until it was destroyed by Croat forces in the Bosnian War.
22:23 Now, the bridge wasn't of any strategic importance at all,
22:27 so it seems the destruction of the bridge
22:30 was simply an attempt to wipe out traces of Bosnian culture.
22:35 Now, keep this in mind about the Bosnian war.
22:38 Bosnia is a majority Muslim country.
22:41 The Croats are largely Catholic,
22:43 while the Serbians are basically Orthodox,
22:46 which is pretty much Catholic.
22:48 So while this war was about territory,
22:52 it was also about religion.
22:55 The new bridge was completed in 2004.
22:58 No, it's not the original, but it is still regarded today
23:01 as one of the most iconic bridges in all of the world.
23:06 Now, speaking of destroyed, in 1984,
23:11 Sarajevo was the host city for the XIV Winter Olympics.
23:16 ♪[Music]
23:28 The bobsled track hasn't been used in years.
23:32 It was left to go to ruin, really,
23:35 a fitting symbol for what happened
23:36 to the city of Sarajevo.
23:38 The other Olympics Games facilities were either neglected
23:42 or destroyed in the war,
23:44 a war that came to Bosnia just eight years after
23:47 the Olympic Games.
23:49 The Bosnian war has pretty well been forgotten by the world,
23:52 and it's a lot like that with the Great War.
23:56 Here's what we know.
23:57 ♪[Music]
23:58 An angel named Lucifer rebelled in Heaven.
24:01 Unhappy with his place, he wanted worship.
24:05 Cast out of heaven, he came to the newly created earth,
24:08 and led Adam and Eve into sin.
24:12 God then had a rogue planet on His hands.
24:16 What would He do?
24:17 John 3:16 says that
24:19 “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,
24:24 that whoever believes in Him should not perish
24:27 but have everlasting life.”
24:29 When the planet rebelled and sin entered the world,
24:32 God could have simply decided He was done with it.
24:35 But He didn't.
24:36 A couple of reasons why.
24:38 One, the angels didn't understand all the issues.
24:41 If God destroyed Lucifer when rebellion occurred,
24:45 heaven would then have been filled with fear and not love.
24:48 The universe would have been plunged
24:50 into disarray and confusion.
24:52 Beyond that, God had a plan.
24:56 He said, I'll show the world that I'm good.
24:58 I'll let them see that God is love,
24:59 and offer everyone who wants it the gift of everlasting life.
25:05 When the saved get to heaven, nobody's going to say,
25:07 if only God had destroyed Lucifer.
25:10 Everyone's going to say, we are glad He waited for us.
25:15 And think about, think about who paid the most for sin.
25:19 Sin cost God far more than anybody else.
25:23 He paid a gigantic price.
25:25 Jesus, the divine Son of God, would bear the sin of the world.
25:31 There's no other belief system in the world
25:33 that offers you what God offers you in Jesus Christ.
25:37 The Great War continues, but victory is now guaranteed.
25:43 Back in the Garden of Eden,
25:45 God told Satan that while the serpent
25:47 would bruise Jesus' heel,
25:50 Jesus would bruise the head of the serpent.
25:53 Satan would be defeated.
25:55 At Calvary, the outcome of the Great War was decided.
26:01 So the war rages on,
26:03 as a defeated fallen angel tries to do as much damage
26:06 as possible and keep as many people
26:08 as possible away from faith in God.
26:12 How's it working out for him?
26:13 Well, look around the world.
26:15 You'd have to think he's doing pretty well.
26:18 But how's it going for you?
26:20 You know, there are two sides in this war: Christ and Satan.
26:23 Satan has been defeated.
26:26 So when you choose Jesus, you're choosing the side of victory.
26:32 So whose side would you say you're on today?
26:34 To be in God's side, it's simple.
26:39 You just surrender your life to Jesus.
26:42 You know how it goes in war.
26:44 Often, victory is only decided when somebody
26:47 decides to surrender.
26:48 They say, we are not going to fight anymore.
26:52 That's where we find ourselves.
26:54 When we're not surrendered to God,
26:55 we are fighting against God.
26:58 We want our will done rather than His.
27:01 So it's time to do so.
27:04 Do it now.
27:05 Raise the white flag and say, that's it, God.
27:08 I don't want to fight You anymore.
27:10 I surrender.
27:12 I want Jesus to live His life in me.
27:15 I want You to come into my heart and just take over
27:19 and let Your will be done.
27:21 And when you do that, when you surrender your life to God,
27:25 that's when you know the peace of God.
27:27 And that's when you face a certain future.
27:32 >>Announcer: In Old Testament times, ancient Babylon fell.
27:36 The Book of Revelation says Babylon is going to fall again.
27:41 Understand the fall of Babylon in Earth's last days.
27:45 Receive “The Fall of Babylon”
27:47 absolutely free.
27:48 Call us at 800-253-3000.
27:52 That's 800-253-3000.
27:56 You could write to the address on your screen,
27:58 or visit us online at iiwoffer.com.
28:03 >>John: Let's pray together now.
28:04 Our Father in heaven,
28:06 we come to you in the name of Jesus,
28:09 the Prince of Peace.
28:11 And we are grateful that even though we live in a world
28:15 that is troubled by warfare and disputes and unrest,
28:21 that there is victory,
28:23 there is triumph,
28:24 and there is peace in You,
28:27 the God of heaven.
28:29 Then, Lord, we consider what's going on in our own hearts:
28:33 trouble,
28:35 discouragement,
28:37 trials,
28:38 worry.
28:40 And so I pray that Jesus,
28:41 the Prince of Peace,
28:42 will move into every heart and bring with Him
28:45 the peace of heaven.
28:47 Friend, is it peace you want?
28:49 Is it peace you need?
28:50 You can have it now in Jesus.
28:52 Would you lift your heart up to God and say,
28:55 Lord, give me peace.
28:56 Give me Jesus.
28:58 Give me the presence of the God of heaven.
29:00 Lord, that's our prayer.
29:01 We believe it.
29:03 We believe that as we reach out to You,
29:05 You've reached out to us already,
29:08 and You give us heaven's perfect peace and assurance in Jesus.
29:14 We pray with grateful thanks in Jesus' name.
29:18 Amen.
29:20 Thanks so much for joining me today.
29:21 I'm looking forward to seeing you again next time.
29:24 Until then, remember:
29:26 “It is written:
29:28 ‘Man shall not live by bread alone,
29:30 but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'”
29:34 ♪[Theme music]

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Revised 2018-07-18