I have a confession to make. I'm not a fan of history.
Oh, in a general sense I am but to study it, to make it my profession or hobby,
no, it's not something I'm fond of. I don't have a knack for remembering
historical facts, I find a lot of historical documentaries boring. I'm not sure how many people reading this
might feel the same way, I'm not even sure anyone is reading this at all, truly
only God knows. The reason I'm making this confession is because I just reread
the following study for at least the third time and to tell you the truth it
seemed confusing to me. I read the facts
and I know MUCH greater minds than mine (as I mention in the study) have
figured things out. Now do I believe them? What if my belief is misplaced? All along we've talked about how important it
is to study and to read, to keep the things in this book of Revelation and that
will forever be true. I WILL keep on
with the study and I WILL pray earnestly to comprehend what I need to
comprehend and I pray YOU do the same. So go ahead and read the following and
continue on with the study and may God bless us both with the TRUTH we need to
be His which is the most important thing ever. May our confusion one day become
enlightened by Jesus our Savior, our Lord now and forever.
AMEN.
******* Continuing our prophecy study-- Please
GO back and READ the study from the beginning to gain full understanding of
where we are if you haven't been following this study daily. Thank you
:) We are on lesson number 80. God bless you! ******
The First Trumpet Sounds
So far
in our study we have seen that the Seven Churches and the Seven Seals all
follow a sort of parallel journey. We need to study the seven trumpets in the
same light to keep consistent.
Before
the Seven Angels with their trumpets sounded we were given a very solemn scene
in heaven where there was silence and then the prayers of the saints in smoke
from incense was sent up before God. The censer fire was then tossed to the
earth drawing our attention once more back to the earthly and out of the
heavenly.
We
know factually that with these goings on representing history that we are being
pointed to an eventual time when we will all be sealed and Christ will return
for us. That same conclusion must be drawn in the seven trumpets as well.
Because
history has played a key part in the others and the angels are sounding their
trumpets from heaven not leaving heaven just as the angels to the churches
revealed, and the seals were loosed in heaven, let's see if history doesn't
coincide in some manner with the seven angels trumpets sounding.
The
trumpets announce things- some good, some bad. They call to battle, they call
to feasts, and even as they call to those things they are announcing them are
they not?
Can it
be that the announcing these trumpets represent are showing battle scenes?
Let's
go to history and see if there isn't a time such as this would describe- political struggles, wars.
Please
note- greater minds than mine have studied diligently to produce the facts
related here. In fact many great minds have studied this and the consensus
seems to be that it 'fits'. So if I point you to a number of things that I
haven't personally dug up in the sense that I've become a historian overnight,
please understand that I still believe what is being said based on the facts
that history reveals so much and God will guide us as He needs to.
In the
Seven Seals we were shown a parallel history with the Seven Churches that for
the most part aligned with each other to review the Christian era throughout
time- God's people throughout time. The Seven Trumpets seem to take on a
different point of view and tell the history of the political structure through time.
Rev
8:7 The first angel sounded, and there
followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth:
and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.
Taken
from the book Daniel and Revelation by Uriah Smith-
'The
First Trumpet.--The blast of the first trumpet has it location about the close
of the fourth century and onward, and refers to these desolating invasions of
the Roman Empire under the Goths.'
'Alexander Keith has justly remarked on the subject of this
prophecy: (((Alexander Keith (1792–1880)
was a Church of Scotland minister, known for his writings on biblical prophecy. From <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Keith_(minister)> ))))
"None
could elucidate the texts more clearly, or expound them more fully, than the
task has been accomplished by Gibbon. The chapters of the skeptical philosopher
that treat directly of the matter, need but a text to be prefixed and a few
unholy words to be blotted out, to form a series of expository lectures on the
eighth and ninth chapters of the Revelation of Jesus Christ." [1]
"Little or nothing is left for the professed interpreter to do but to
point to the pages of Gibbon." [2]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Gibbon Noted Historian.
The
first sore and heavy judgment which fell on Western Rome in its downward
course, was the war with the Goths under Alaric, who opened the way for later
inroads. The death of Theodosius the Roman emperor, occurred in January, A.D.
395, and before the end of the winter the Goths under Alaric were in arms
against the empire.
The
first invasion under Alaric ravaged the Eastern Empire. He captured the famous
cities and enslaved many of the inhabitants. Thrace, Macedonia, Attica, and the
Peloponnesus, were conquered, but he did not reach the city of Rome. Later, the
Gothic chieftain crossed the Alps and Apennines and appeared before the walls
of the Eternal City, which fell a prey to the fury of the barbarians in A.D.
410.
"Hail
and fire mingled with blood!" were cast upon the earth. The terrible
effects of this Gothic invasion are represented as "hail," from the
northern origin of the invaders; "fire," from the destruction by
flame of both city and country; and "blood," from the terrible
slaughter of the citizens of the empire by the bold and intrepid warriors.
After
quoting at some length from Edward Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of
the Roman Empire, Chapters XXX-XXXIII, concerning the conquests of the Goths,
Alexander Keith has presented an admirable summary of the historian's words
emphasizing the fulfillment of prophecy:
"Large
extracts clearly show how amply and well Gibbon has expounded his text in the
history of the first trumpet, the first storm that pervaded the Roman earth,
and the first fall of Rome.
To use
his words in more direct comment, we read thus the sum of the matter:
The
Gothic nation was in arms at the first sound of the trumpet, and in the
uncommon severity of the winter, they rolled their ponderous wagons over the
broad and icy back of the river. The fertile fields of Phocis and Boeotia were
crowned [sic] with a deluge of barbarians: the males were massacred; the
females and cattle of the flaming villages were driven away. The deep and
bloody traces of the march of the Goths could easily be discovered after
several years. The whole territory of Attica was blasted by the baneful
presence of Alaric. The most fortunate of the inhabitants of Corinth, Argos,
and Sparta were saved by death from beholding the conflagration of their
cities. In a season of such extreme heat that the beds of the rivers were dry,
Alaric invaded the dominion of the West. A secluded 'old man of Verona' [the
poet Claudian], pathetically lamented the fate of his contemporary trees, which
must blaze in the conflagration of the whole country [ note the words of the
prophecy,--'The third part of the trees was burned up']; and the emperor of the
Romans fled before the king of the Goths.
"A
furious tempest was excited among the nations of Germany; from the northern
extremity of which the barbarians marched almost to the gates of Rome. They
achieved the destruction of the West. The dark cloud which was collected along
the coasts of the Baltic, burst in thunder upon the banks of the upper Danube.
The pastures of Gaul, in which flocks and herds grazed, and the banks of the
Rhine, which were covered with elegant houses and well-cultivated farms, formed
a scene of peace and plenty, which was suddenly changed into a desert,
distinguished from the solitude of nature only be smoking ruins.
Many
cities were cruelly oppressed, or destroyed. Many thousands were inhumanly
massacred. The consuming flames of war spread over the greatest part of the
seventeen provinces of Gaul.
"Alaric
again stretched his ravages over Italy. During four years the Goths ravaged and
reigned over it without control. And in the pillage and fire of Rome, the
streets of the city were filled with dead bodies; the flames consumed many
public and private buildings; and the ruins of a palace remained, after a
century and a half, a stately monument of the Gothic conflagration." [3]
After
making this summary, Keith completes the picture by saying:
"The
concluding sentence of the thirty-third chapter of Gibbon's History is of
itself a clear and comprehensive commentary; for in winding up his own
description of this brief but most eventful period, he concentrates, as in a
parallel reading, the sum of the history and the substance of the prediction.
But the words which precede it are not without their meaning: 'The public
devotion of the age was impatient to exalt the saints and martyrs of the
Catholic Church on the altars of Diana and Hercules. The union of the Roman
empire was dissolved; its genius was humbled in the dust; and armies of unknown
barbarians, issued from the frozen regions of the North, had established their
victorious reign over the fairest provinces of Europe and Africa.'
"The
last word--Africa--is the signal for the sounding of the second trumpet. The
scene changes from the shores of the Baltic to the southern coast of the
Mediterranean, or from the frozen regions of the North to the borders of
burning Africa. And instead of a storm of hail being cast upon the earth, a
burning mountain was cast into the sea." [4]
[1]
Alexander Keith, Signs of the Times, Vol. I, p. 241.
[2]
Ibid.
3]
Ibid., pp. 251-253.
[4]
Ibid., p. 253.
*******
History
by a renowned scholar uncontested
by others for its factual content.
*******
I'm no
Bible scholar and certainly no historian, but I'm able to see when things seem
to fit.
I
could conclude that I'll never understand prophecy and stop looking, stop
studying, stop reading, but I'm not going to do that. I'm going to continue to
pray and hope that the Lord will guide me to all the truth I need to know so
that I may be His when He returns. If, as some suppose, these prophecies have
nothing to do with history, time will tell that too but for now as the pieces
of the puzzle seem to be falling into place we have to trust that we are being
guided in the right direction.
May
the Lord bless and keep us in Him now and forever, may the Holy Spirit sent to
guide us and keep us in truth do so now and forever, by the mercy and the grace
of Jesus Chirst, our Lord and Savior.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment