In more recent times, religious views were adjusted. “The idea of some modern theological writers,” explains The Dictionary of the Apostolic Church published in 1916, is “that this world as we know it will develop under Christian influence until it becomes the Kingdom.” But has it?
During the lifetime of millions still living, so-called Christian nations have been responsible for the greatest bloodbaths in human history. Church historian Roland H. Bainton observed: “The churches in the United States particularly took a crusading attitude toward the First World War.”
According to American churchmen, Bainton explained, “this was a holy war. . . . The Germans were Huns. To kill them was to purge the earth of monsters.” Similarly, the bishop of London, A. F. Winnington-Ingram, urged the English people: “Kill Germans—do kill them . . . As I have said a thousand times, I look upon it as a war for purity.”
The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom. January 15, 1980 p. 6