The world stands on the brink of trade war. United States President Donald Trump is promising tariffs of more than 100 percent on goods coming from China—meaning their price would more than double. Analysts fear China could take the “nuclear option” and sell U.S. treasuries, pushing the government into bankruptcy.

Headlines are full of angry debates on the virtues of Donald Trump’s trade policy. But the prospect of trade war is not new—we’ve stood on the brink many times before.

Herbert W. Armstrong, managing editor of the Trumpet’s predecessor, the Plain Truth, had a lot to say on the subject. He even met with the major participants in previous bouts of tension. And he offered a simple, clear, Bible-based perspective that is desperately needed among all the heated debate.

In 1971, President Richard Nixon hit Japan with a 10 percent tariff. Mr. Armstrong met with Japanese Prime Minister Eisaku Sato ahead of the crisis that became known as the “Nixon shock.” He spoke to Sato and the world about the causes of that trade war—and its solution.

“From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?” (James 4:1). This biblical truth applies to trade wars as well as military ones. They’re based on lust, greed and the spirit of competition.

“There are the two overall broad philosophies as a way of life,” Mr. Armstrong wrote in the March 1971 Plain Truth. “This world, I repeat again and again, lives on the ‘get’ philosophy. The other is the ‘give’ way of outgoing concern for the good and welfare of others equal to one’s own self-concern. It’s difficult to make human nature see that the latter is the more practical way that pays off bigger in the end.”

There were times when even hard-noised businessmen leaned toward the give way of life, and they reaped the benefits. In 1914, Ford Motor Co. shocked America by paying its workers $5 for an 8-hour day—compared to the standard $3.40 for a 9-hour day. Their switch to a mechanized production line meant they got much more productivity out of each worker. They shared the gains with their workers—and benefited from a happier, more productive workforce.

Ford’s pioneering of the production line was a foundational moment for American manufacturing. But greed and selfishness have caused its decline. Too often, bosses and business owners “took every selfish advantage,” wrote Mr. Armstrong. The result was the trade union movement, which confronted these abuses but brought in its own. “Whoever has the power uses it for selfish advantage regardless, usually, of the harm to others,” he wrote.

Unions fought for the interests of their own members at the expense of the profitability of the companies they worked for and even other workers. Strikes forced companies to pay unsustainable wages to union workers. The unions resisted change, making factories inefficient, in order to preserve the jobs of their own workers.

This selfishness played a major role in the decline of manufacturing in states like Michigan. Businesses moved to “right to work” states, where trade unions held less power.

But this selfishness continued to go both ways—business owners showed little loyalty to their workers. Investors prioritized quick gains over long-term profitability, neglecting factory upgrades that would keep businesses profitable and workers employed. Pension funds were mismanaged, creating debilitating costs. When it looked more cost effective to build new, more efficient factories abroad with cheaper workers, many businesses shifted production—with little regard for Americans who had dedicated decades of their lives to the company and now found themselves unemployed.

Meanwhile, on the international scene, each nation works to get for its own at the expense of others. During the Cold War, America stood for free-market capitalism against Communist tyranny. Because of that ideological commitment, America championed free trade. Like the $5 wage, there were some giving principles involved, and it worked. Other countries were able to join a global trading system and their people grew richer. These countries sided with the U.S. and not the Soviet Union—helping America win the Cold War.

But long before the Cold War was over, nations started taking advantage of the U.S. America allowed foreign goods in freely, but too often it didn’t work the other way around. Even America’s allies placed tariffs on U.S.-made goods to protect their own jobs at the expense of America’s. China turbocharged this at the end of the Cold War, offering businesses massive tax discounts or even subsidies if they relocated to China. It wanted to dominate global manufacturing as a way of boosting its own power.

Now President Trump is placing large tariffs on other countries, trying to fix years of manufacturing decline—but at the expense of the rest of the world.

Ten years after the “Japan shock” Mr. Armstrong’s Plain Truth produced another article on the causes of trade wars as another outbreak threatened the world.

“These new battles over trade are strident in tone, with strong emotions,” it wrote. “And no wonder! The focus of these battles is simple: It is preserving and protecting scores of thousands of industries and jobs—the only means of livelihood for millions. It is a matter of national survival! Your job or livelihood—or that of your family’s—is directly or indirectly at stake!”

Once again, we see the same “strident” tone.

“There is a cause for repeated cycles of these crises in world affairs!” it stated. “Millions will not believe it. But the vast majority of humanity are living the wrong way of life! Wrong patterns of living are causing our terrible economic problems. Trade wars, with their attendant threats of unemployment and political upsets, have a cause.”

This spirit of get is the cause of America’s manufacturing decline. It’s at the heart of the way nations operate today. It has been there since the foundation of the world.

Like Mr. Armstrong did so often, that Plain Truth article takes the cause of all these problems back to the first two chapters of Genesis. Here God confronted man with a choice of the two basic ways of life—give and get—in the form of two trees. God gave man access to the tree of life, representing this way of give, love and outflowing concern. But Adam and Eve chose to listen to “the serpent,” the devil, who came with what he thought was a better way, based on getting and competition.

“When God shut off the tree of life, that act marked the foundation of the world,” wrote Mr. Armstrong in his book Mystery of the Ages. “It was founded on rejection of God, on disobedience to God’s law, which defines God’s way of life. And all the evils, sorrows, pain and suffering in 6,000 years of human civilization have resulted.”

Competition and the spirit of taking, between individuals, management and labor, and nation and nation has been the result.

The solution is simple. It is to eat from the other tree, to live the give way of life.

For one nation to do that alone in today’s evil world requires wisdom, guidance from God and divine protection. Blindly giving to a world that is out to take would not be showing love to the citizens of a country.

Instead our increasing problems point to a vital and simple truth: We need a new world built on a new foundation. The way of get is causing problems on every level. A world based on the tree of life would see nations developing their resources and talents in unique ways, to the betterment of all mankind.

Man’s system, built on its faulty foundation, will soon fail catastrophically. Only then will mankind finally be willing to admit he made the wrong choice and then build on a new foundation.