Sunday morning, 2 September, 1945, Tokyo Bay, aboard the battleship USS Missouri. The historic occasion formally finalized the surrender of the Japanese empire to her Allied opponents, represented by a hundred plus Allied generals and Admirals in attendance.
The ship’s 3,000 man crew positioned themselves atop her 16-inch gun turrets to watch. Eleven Japanese men walked the gangway to the ship’s deck, the civilians formally-dressed, the military shabbily—symbolizing their failure in war. Across the surrender table stood men in their national military uniforms—symbolizing the crushing power of Allied armies. After Japanese civilian and military representatives signed the surrender document, MacArthur signed for the Allies, using three pens. The first he gave to General Wainwright, American commander who surrendered troops in the Philippines March, 1942. The second he gave to British General Percival, who surrendered Singapore in February, 1942. The third he stuck in his pocket as a gift to wife Jean. After he announced, “These proceedings are closed,” MacArthur walked towards Halsey’s cabin. On the way he put his arm on the Admiral’s shoulders and asked, “Bill, where the hell are those airplanes?” WWII History, pp 24, 72, August 2020. And almost immediately knew. For, from far away, and still-out-of-site, all aboard heard rumbling like distant thunder marching directly towards Tokyo Bay. Soon, spread across the sky an armada of 1900 carrier-based bombers and fighters became THUNDER itself, their advance an explosion of concatenated air power, flinging cascades of ear-deafening roars ahead and continuous ear-splitting claps above as they swept overhead into the distance beyond. For the victors, KNOCK-OUT Conquest. For the defeated, KNOCKED-OUT collapse. All this is a poor physical demonstration of the very powerful spiritual dynamic every believer has in worship. And a poorer example still of every new revelation God gives of himself when he gathers his people around THE throne—each in a new body and brain—and delights and surprises and exalts them with one glory after another. Forever and ever continued, one mouth-gasping ecstasy interrupted only to show a greater ecstasy that only our new brain and body can appreciate and understand. Amen. Fini.
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