single emotion which dominates our lives is fear. It is fear of war, fear of nuclear holocausts, and fear of surprise attack that may leave vast areas of the world devastated and strewn with tens of millions of dead.”c As former United States Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara said: “More than 120 million Americans would die in the event of a Soviet missile attack . . . If it were to include urban centers, . . . the death toll would be 149 million.”d It is just as Jesus foretold: mankind is fearful and the nations are in anguish.

All the foretold marks of the “last days,” are here. They prove beyond a doubt that we have been in the “last days” since 1914. Hence it was in that year that God’s heavenly kingdom came to power!—Rev. 11:17, 18.

It is true that in past generations there were periods marked by violence and much immoral conduct. The decline of the Roman Empire is an example. But never before in human history have all the conditions specified by Jesus been observed in the same generation. And never before have they existed at the same time in every nation of the earth. Today we live, not merely in the last days of one political empire, but in the “last days” of the entire wicked system controlled by Satan.

1914 a Marked Year

YEARS in advance Bible scholars realized that 1914 was to be a year of great significance. Bible chronology specifically points to that year,a and careful students of God’s Word knew that. They expected great changes to take place. In fact, they publicly pointed forward to the significance of the date 1914.

The August 30, 1914, issue of the secular publication called “The World” observed: “The terrific war outbreak in Europe has fulfilled an extraordinary prophecy. . . . ‘Look out for 1914!’ has been the cry of the hundreds of traveling evangelists who . . . have gone up and down the country enunciating the doctrine that ‘the Kingdom of God is at hand’.”

The facts of history confirm that 1914 was, indeed, a marked year. The London Evening Star of August 4, 1960, commented that World War I “tore the whole world’s political setup apart. Nothing could ever be the same again. . . . some historian in the next century may well conclude that the day the world went mad was August 4, 1914.”

In 1954, as the fortieth anniversary of that marked year approached, the historian H. R. Trevor-Roper said of the great change 1914 made: “It is instructive to