Did you know that World War 1 was started by acci­dent? It’s true. The assas­si­na­tion of Arch­duke Fer­di­nand, while planned, didn’t turn out like the assas­sins hoped. In fact, when they tried to approach the car that was car­ry­ing the arch­duke and his wife, they were stopped.

The Arch­duke, angry about the attempt on his life, decided to change the route in which the car was going. That led to his assas­si­na­tion any­way. One of the assas­sins, Gavrilo Prin­cip, was com­ing out of a cafe when the Arch­duke passed, giv­ing Prin­cip a per­fect tar­get. Even though he had lit­tle train­ing, Prin­cip suc­ceeded in killing both the Arch­duke and his wife, although Prin­cip wanted to kill the gov­er­nor of Bosnia.

Now, while this event trig­gered the start of the first World War, blame can­not be placed all on Prinicp. Many Euro­peans had a roman­tic notion of war any­way. They saw it as ben­e­fi­cial, noble, and glo­ri­ous– a notion that reli­gious lead­ers went along with. So, it can be said that the assas­si­na­tion of Arch­duke Fer­di­nand didn’t actu­ally start the idea of war, it cut the bands hold­ing it back.

World War 1 was the dead­liest war until World War 2. But, that war also gave a sign of Jesus’ rule begin­ning in heaven, and the Devil being cast out. (Rev. 12:9,12) While war is by no means a cause for joy, World War 1 and the events there­after give us a sign of the times, and the joy of know­ing that, soon, with Jesus as the King of God’s King­dom, all wars will cease.