In March 1942, General Douglas MacArthur was forced to flee the Philippines in the face of an aggressive Japanese invasion. MacArthur had been appointed Field Marshal of the Philippines by the United States government and had been tasked with protecting the Philippines from Japanese invasion.
Unable to fend off the Japanese, MacArthur, his family and a small team of close associates fled to Australia on the U.S. B-17 airplanes. He landed in Darwin and then went to South Australia by train.
Disembarking from the train, he stood right here on this platform and addressed the small group of people waiting to welcome him. He vowed that he would return to the Philippines with these famous words, “I came out of Bataan, and I shall return”.
MacArthur vowed that though he had been forced to leave the Philippines, he would return and liberate the country from the Japanese. True to his word, in 1944, MacArthur landed in the Philippines and worked to liberate the country from the Japanese.
In September 1945, he accepted a formal surrender from the Japanese on board the USS Missouri. MacArthur was able to keep his promise. Two thousand years before MacArthur, Jesus made a similar promise. Before returning to heaven, He promised his disciples that He would come again.
This is what He said, “I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” (John 14:1-3)