..To Ancient SDA's ............ To "What's New?"
Readings in the Book of
The Revelation
We are living in the time of the 7th church (Revelation 3:14-22),
in the middle of the chapter of the 5th seal (Revelation 6:9-7:17),
and reading about the sound of the 6th trumpet, for we are in the midst of that too.
Its blast is long, reaching right through to chapter 11:14, so we won’t be able to cover it all this week, but as we read we’ll move from the past into the present, and then the future, so keep an eye out for the changes.
We spent some time last week looking at the rise of Islam around 629AD, and its annoying role against the Europeans for 150 years from 1299. Now we move on from that year into the middle ages.
***************(Begin Quote)
Revelation 9:
13 And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a Voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, 14 saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, “Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates”.
***************(End Quote)
The Son of God commanded the trumpet-bearing angel to release four angels which were tied up in a river! We saw earlier that there are four angels of God holding back the winds of strife from the world until His people are sealed. (Revelation 7:1). Here we see that Satan also has “four” (representative) angels on his side, but they themselves were being held back by God’s “four” because they wanted to cause much strife in the world! But now their period of 150 years was up and due to the conditions in Europe they could no longer be restrained.
They were “bound” in the river Euphrates we are told. That river ran through the ancient city of Babylon and supplied its water for drinking and transport. See note 1. But after its destruction by the Medes and Persians in 539BC the city was gradually abandoned until the following prophecy was fulfilled.
***************(Begin Quote)
Isaiah 13:
1 The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see . . .
17 [God says] “Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it . . .
19 “And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. 20 It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. 21 But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs [wild goats] shall dance there. 22 And the wild beasts of the islands [hyenas NKJ] shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons [jackals, NKJ] in their pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged . . .
22 “For I will rise up against them, says the LORD of hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew, says the LORD.
23 “I will also make it a possession for the bittern [a swamp bird], and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the besom [broom] of destruction, says the LORD of hosts”.
***************(End Quote)
This “loosing” cannot apply to the literal city of Babylon or to its river, for they had been abandoned long before this prophecy came to fulfillment. (I understand that Saddam Hussein did attempt to rebuild it ¼ size as a tourist attraction but it was never finished.) We must look elsewhere for the explanation of that body of water. In a statement we’ll look at more fully in a later reading we find, “And he [John’s angel guide] said to me, “The waters which you saw, where the whore [spiritual Babylon] sits, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues”. Revelation 17:15. Therefore this “loosing” refers to the freeing of the peoples of that area to engage in a greater war than they, the Muslims, had already been fighting. Now their term of engagement was extended.
***************(Begin Quote)
Revelation 9:
15 And the four “angels” were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.
***************(End Quote)
As an explanation of these words I can think of nothing better than a quote from my library:
***************(Begin Quote)
In the year 1840 another remarkable fulfillment of prophecy excited widespread interest. Two years before [in 1838], Josiah Litch, one of the leading ministers preaching the second advent, published an exposition of Revelation 9, predicting the fall of the Ottoman [Turkish] Empire [the Russia of the time]. According to his calculations, this power was to be overthrown “in A.D. 1840, sometime in the month of August;” and only a few days previous to its accomplishment he wrote: “Allowing the first period, 150 years, to have been exactly fulfilled before Deacozes [a Christian emperor of the eastern Roman empire] ascended the throne [of Constantinople] by permission of the Turks, and that the 391 years, fifteen days, commenced at the close of the first period, it will end on the 11th of August, 1840, when the Ottoman power in Constantinople may be expected to be broken. And this, I believe, will be found to be the case.”--Josiah Litch, in Signs of the Times, and Expositor of Prophecy, Aug. 1, 1840.
At the very time specified, Turkey, through her ambassadors, accepted the protection of the allied powers of Europe, and thus placed herself under the control of Christian nations. The event exactly fulfilled the prediction.
***************(End Quote)
How did he work that out? Using the “day for a year” principle he calculated: 1 year = 360 day/years; 1 month = 30 day/years; 1 day = 1 day/year; 1 hour (a part day) = 15 days in a year; a total of 391 years and 15 days. Then he added this to July 27, 1449 when the 150 years ended and came up with the 1840 date! See note 2.
For more on this subject, try http://www.oocities.org/weprotest.geo/TruthSeeker/con_034.html
***************(Begin Quote)
Revelation 9:
16 And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand [200,000,000]: and I heard the number of them.
17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. 18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. 19 For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like to serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt.
***************(End Quote)
Whether the number is intended to be read as literal or not makes no difference – there were a lot of them! Again their colourful breastplate armour took John’s eye, and the fact that their guns could fire from the front of the horse (past its head) as well as from its back (from its tail). The puffs of smoke and the flash from the rifle barrels was also a feature of his vision.
So, without any explanation the Spirit of God was able to comfort His people by these words as they were needed. See note 3.
***************(Begin Quote)
Revelation 9:
20 And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: 21 neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.
***************(End Quote)
The sad fact of it all was that these “plagues” did not alter the opinions of the men and women of Europe any more than they will do in the future. We are learning to live with terrorism as they learned to live with the Turk! They were sure that they were Christians, for they had been baptised soon after birth! They were also sure that the Muslims were Satanic!
The problem with a universal “Christendom” (which is what the majority who call themselves “Christian” think they belong to today), is that it has to accept the fact that many who call themselves “Christian”, or are called so by others, do not behave as Christians should. The Roman Catholic clergy of the reformation days were notorious for their attitudes, as the priests were in the last days of the Jewish branch of the church. So it is today with many officials of the Protestant churches openly changing God’s ways.
Consider this word from God as a picture:
***************(Begin Quote)
Malachi 1:6-10 (MSG)
6 "Isn't it true that a son honors his father and a worker his master? So if I'm your Father, where's the honor? If I'm your Master, where's the respect?"
God-of-the-Angel-Armies is calling you on the carpet: "You priests despise me!
"You say, 'Not so! How do we despise you?'
"By your shoddy, sloppy, defiling worship.
"You ask, 'What do you mean, "defiling"? What's defiling about it?'
7 "When you say, 'The altar of God [in the heavenly sanctuary] is not important anymore [remember the Angel at the altar? Revelation 8:3-5]; worship of God is no longer a priority,' that's defiling.
8 And when you offer worthless animals for sacrifices in worship, animals that you're trying to get rid of—blind and sick and crippled animals [today a counterfeit gospel]—isn't that defiling? Try a trick like that with your banker or your senator—how far do you think it will get you?"
God-of-the-Angel-Armies asks you. 9 "Get on your knees and pray that I will be gracious to you. You priests have gotten everyone in trouble. With this kind of conduct, do you think I'll pay attention to you?"
God-of-the-Angel-Armies asks you. 10 "Why doesn't one of you just shut the Temple doors and lock them? Then none of you can get in and play at religion with this silly, empty-headed worship. I am not pleased. The God-of-the-Angel-Armies is not pleased. And I don't want any more of this so-called worship!
***************(End Quote)
WOW!!
Bye for now,
Ron
Some of the comments in these readings are adapted from books in my library. No recognition is given because they are not intended as authorities, but are used because they express my understanding clearly. All the ideas expressed in these readings, right or wrong, are my own.
Some of these readings are available at http://www.oocities.org/weprotest.geo/BibleReadings/books_index.html
On to next reading Back to previous reading
View a PDF version of this reading To the chapter index for this book
http://www.bible-history.com/babylonia/BabyloniaHistory_of_Babylonia.htm
***************(Begin Quote)
The city of Babylon was the capital of
the ancient land of Babylonia in southern Mesopotamia. It was situated on the
Euphrates River about 50 miles south of modern Baghdad, just north of what is
now the modern Iraqi town of al-Hillah.
The tremendous wealth and power of this city, along with its monumental size and
appearance, were certainly considered a Biblical myth, that is, until its
foundations were unearthed and its riches substantiated during the 19th century.
Archaeologists stood in awe as their discoveries revealed that certain stories
in the Bible were an actual situation that had happened in time.
Back
***************(End Quote)
We have spent some considerable time in reading about the rise of Islam and the Turkish empire and it may seem to some that this is old history, but the Spirit of God wants us to see that as He was in control of the world then and it survived those times, so He is today as well and we will survive our problems. Although Turkey does not pose much of a threat to the West now, in the times we are reading about it was the equivalent of the Russian nation and their communism – in fact our “cold war” and “iron curtain” had their counterparts in those centuries. Not until 1840 was there any appreciable break in their ability to conquer and proselytize, and not until after World War 1 when the Middle east was broken up into the countries we know of today, was the threat considered over.
In the early years of the Reformation (from 1517 onwards), the Turkish danger constantly increased. Large parts of southeastern Europe were under Turkish rule. This should be interesting to us in the light of the resurgence of Islam and the terrorist groups. The following is written regarding the times of the Reformation in Europe.
http://www.ltsp.edu/news_events/2001-2002/010911tragedy/luther_islam.html
***************(Begin Quote)
Islam was also a strong political force and perpetual threat to Western Europe. The fear of a Muslim conquest of Europe and the subjugation of Christians under a Muslim rule was real. Beginning with the First Christian Crusades (1096-9) and up to the zenith of Ottoman imperialism in the 16th century, Muslims and Christians understood themselves to be two mutually exclusive societies at war. The fall of Constantinople in 1453, the capture of Belgrade in 1520 and the conquest of Hungary in 1526 by the Ottoman Turks sent shock waves of terror over Europe. A good measure of medieval Christian perception of Islam was influenced by this factor.
Already in the eighth century Muslims had swept through Spain to threaten France. The persecution of Christians in Spain under the rule of Moors had provoked considerable search for understanding the origins and destiny of Muslim Moors . . .
Historical circumstances forced Luther to deal with Islam in two respects. During his early controversies over indulgences, he had attacked the idea of Christian crusades in his 95 Theses. Following Wycliff and Erasmus, Luther looked upon the visitation of Turks as the well-deserved rod of God for the punishment of Christian transgressions. He did not realize at the time how his statements would be used against him in the Papal bull of excommunication. Luther defended his original statement by arguing that it "did not mean that we are not to fight against the Turk - rather, that we should first mend our ways and cause God to be gracious to us" (Luther’s Works, 32:90). Luther never abandoned this view of the Turkish threat as an expression of God’s wrath, which required prayer and repentance on the part of Christians. His early views advocated some measure of tolerance toward Muslims and opposition to crusades. Back
***************(End Quote)
As an example of how history repeats itself, since 1798 we’ve had the rise of a new branch of the church in 1833-44 with religious persecutions against it (without any mortalities, thankfully), and wars and disasters greater than ever before. And now we have Islam attacking the west again!
We’ve had two “world” wars and numerous smaller ones, and now the fanatical elements of the world are indulging in religious wars between the two major religions of the world – Protestantism against Islam. Yet all this is minor compared to what is to come! I’m not saying that these are the REAL fulfilments of the six angels’ trumpets (maybe they are), but you can get the idea of what it will be like. Would we know if it was the real thing? Would we recognise the events as harbingers of the end? Maybe not. But as Isaac Newton (1642-1727) is reported to have said,
***************(Begin Quote)
But if the last age, the age of opening these things, be now approaching, as by the great successes of the late interpreters it seems to be, we have more encouragement than ever to look into these things. If the general preaching of the gospel be approaching [the Loud Cry], it is to us and our posterity that those words mainly belong. “In the time of the end the wise shall understand, but none of the wicked shall understand. Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein” . . .
There is already so much of the prophecy fulfilled, that as many as will take pains in this study, may see sufficient instances of God’s providence: but then the signal revolutions predicted by all the holy prophets [the turn of events], will at once turn men’s eyes upon considering the predictions, and plainly interpreting them. Till then we must content ourselves with interpreting what hath already been fulfilled.
Amongst the interpreters of the last age there is scarce one of note who hath not made some discovery worth knowing; and thence I seem to gather that God is about opening these mysteries. The success of others put me upon considering it; and if I have done anything which may be useful to following writers, I have my design [my desire].
Sir Isaac Newton, Observations upon the Prophecies, pp. 251-253, quoted in The Midnight Cry by Francis D. Nichol, pp. 490-491, published 1944.
***************(End Quote)
Newton took the position that God intended that we shall understand the various prophecies only when the time of their fulfilment is at hand, or while they are being fulfilled. He did not believe that God planned that they should be used by interpreters to foretell far in advance events that could not be otherwise known, to make them appear as prophets.
I think he had a point! Back
To Ancient SDA's ............ To "What's New?"