On Sept. 2, 1945, General Douglas MacArthur accepted the formal surrender of Japan aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, ending World War II.

MacArthur was an enigma.  He was a soldier who came from a military family.  He possessed an exceptional ability to understand military tactics, and he was a great leader who led American forces to glory in war.  Yet he was a man who abhorred the brutality of war.

The general spoke after the surrender ceremony itself — the title of his speech was "Today the Guns Are Silent."

In the following excerpt from that speech (emphasis added) I believe he spoke a truth that mankind does not grasp even to this day:

Men since the beginning of time have sought peace. Various methods through the ages have attempted to devise an international process to prevent or settle disputes between nations. From the very start workable methods were found insofar as individual citizens were concerned, but the mechanics of an instrumentality of larger international scope have never been successful. Military advances, balances of power, leagues of nations, all in turn failed, leaving the only path to be by way of the crucible of war. We have had our last chance. If we do not now devise some greater and more equitable system, Armageddon will be at our door. The problem basically is theological and involves a spiritual recrudescence and improvement of human character that will synchronize with our almost matchless advances in science, art, literature and all material and cultural developments of the past two thousand years. It must be of the spirit if we are to save the flesh.

I do not know this for a fact, but from this speech, I believe that General MacArthur had a good command of the contents of the Holy Bible.  He well understood that the only savior of mankind who could keep mankind from destroying itself was the omnipotent power that created us.

Earlier in his address to the public by radio, he noted this:

Even the lesson of victory itself brings with it profound concern, both for our future security and the survival of civilization. The destructiveness of the war potential, through progressive advances in scientific discovery, has in fact now reached a point which revises the traditional concepts of war.

In the Bible, we find a number of passages that speak of a time when the world will go through a period of war on a level never seen before.  Christ spoke of this "great tribulation" himself:

For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days be shortened, there should no flesh be saved. (Matt. 24:21-22)

MacArthur realized the truth of these words.  When Christ spoke the words in the passage above, mankind did not have the means to destroy itself, but, on August 6 and 9 of 1945, all that was changed by the bombs that fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

MacArthur was removed from his high position over the military in 1951 by then-president Harry Truman.  It wasn't because of MacArthur's failure to lead — it was about the chain of command and, ultimately, about politics.  And it is politics and politicians who are taking America and the rest of the world down the rabbit hole of destruction.

It is time to put our faith where it belongs — not in men and politics, for they cannot be trusted.  MacArthur nailed it when he stated: It must be of the spirit if we are to save the flesh.

Image: U.S. National Archives, no known restrictions.