Revelation 16
Excerpts from -Daniel and the Revelation by Uriah Smith
The Three Unclean Spirits.--
An event to be noticed under this plagues is the issuing forth of the three unclean spirits to gather the nations to the great battle. The agency now already abroad in the world known as modern spiritism, is in every way a fitting means to be employed in this work. But it may be asked how a work which is already going can be designated by that expression, when the spirits are not introduced into the prophecy until the pouring out of the sixth plague, which is still future. We answer that in this, as in many other movements, the agencies which Heaven designs to employ in the accomplishment of certain ends, go through a process of preliminary preparation for the part which they are to act. Thus, before the spirits can have such absolute authority over the race as to gather them to battle against the King of kings and Lord of lords, they must first win their way among the nations of the earth, and cause their teaching to be received as of divine authority and their word as law. This work they are now doing, and when they shall have once gained full influence over the nations in question, what fitter instrument could be employed to gather them to be so rash and hopeless an enterprise?
To many it may seem incredible that the nations should be willing to engage in such an unequal warfare as to go up to battle against the Lord of hosts; but it is one province of these spirits of devils to deceive, for they go forth working miracles, and thereby deceive the kings of the earth, that they should believe a lie.
That great statesmen recognize the influence of spiritism, or the spirits of devils, in influencing nations to go to war, is seen in the following statement by Sir Edward Grey, when speaking to the House of Commons. In describing the workings of these forces, the British Foreign Secretary accurately said: "It is really as if in the atmosphere of the world there were some mischievous influence at work, which troubles and excites every part of it." [7]
Ramsay MacDonald, twice Prime Minister of Britain, said:
"It would seem as if they were all bewitched, or laboring under some doom imposed upon them by devils. . . . People were beginning to feel that there was something devilish in the operations now going on to increase armies, navies, and air forces." [8]
The sources from which these spirits issue, denote that they will work among three great religious divisions of mankind, represented by the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet, or paganism, Roman Catholicism, and apostate Protestantism.
But what is the force of the caution thrown out in verse 15? Probation must have been closed, and Christ have left His mediatorial position, before the plagues begin to fall. Is there danger of falling after that? It will be noticed that this warning is spoken in connection with the working of the spirits. The inference therefore is that it is retroactive, applying from the time these spirits begin to work to the close of probation, and that by a use of tenses sometimes occurring in the Greek language, the present tense is put for the past, as if it had read, Blessed is he that hath watched and kept his garments, as the shame and nakedness of all how have not done this will at this time especially appear.
"He gathered them." Who are the ones here spoken of as "gathered," and what agency is to be used in gathering them? If the work "them" refers to the kings of verse 14 it is certain that no good agency would be made use of to gather them; and if the spirits are referred to by the word "he," why is it in the singular number? The peculiarity of this construction has led some to read the passage thus: "And he [Christ] gathered them [the saints] into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon [the illustrious city, or New Jerusalem] ." But this position is untenable.
Let us notice how the text really reads. The word for "spirits" is {GREEK CHARACTERS IN PRINTED TEXT}, pneumata, a noun in the plural number. According to an established law of Greek language, when a plural noun is in the neuter gender, as pneumata is, it requires the verb to be in the singular. Accordingly, in verse 14, the verb "go forth" with "spirits" as its subject, is in the singular number in the Greek original. Likewise, also, as the narrative is resumed following the parenthetical exhortation in verse 15, the verb "gathered" is also in the singular in the Greek to co-ordinate with "go forth" in verse 14, since these two verbs have the same subject "which," that should not be printed as a supplied word, and that stands for "spirits." There is therefore every sound reason for translating verse 16, "They [the spirits] gathered them [the kings] together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon." This interpretation is supported by other versions.
"They gathered them together into the place which is called in Hebrew Har-Magedon," says the American Revised Version. "They did bring them together to the place that is called in Hebrew Armageddon," reads Young's Literal Translation of the Bible. Hence it is logical to conclude that the persons gathered are the minions of Satan, not the saints; that it is the work of the spirits, not of Christ; and that place of assemblage is not in the New Jerusalem at the marriage supper of the Lamb, but at Armageddon (or Mount Megiddo), at "the battle of that great day of God Almighty."
Verse 17 And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. 18 And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. 19 And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath. 20 And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. 21 And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.
The Seventh Plague.--
Thus has Inspiration described the last judgment which is to be inflicted in the present state of the earth upon those who are incorrigibly rebellious against God. Some of the plagues are local in their application, but this one is poured out into the air. The atmosphere envelops the whole earth, and it follows that this plague will envelop equally the habitable globe. It will be universal. The very air will be deadly.
The gathering of the nations has taken place under the sixth vial, and the battle remains to be fought under the seventh. Here are brought to view the instrumentalities with which God will slay the wicked. At this time it may be said, "The Lord hath opened His armory, and hath brought forth the weapons of His indignation." Jeremiah 50: 25.
The Scripture declares, "There were voices." Above all will be heard the voice of God. "The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shall shake; but the Lord will be the hope of His people, and the strength of the children of Israel." Joel 3: 16. (See also Jeremiah 25: 30; Hebrews 12: 26.) The voice of God will cause the great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth.
"Thunders and lightnings"--another allusion to the judgments of Egypt. (See Exodus 9: 23.) The great city is divided into three parts: that is, the three grand divisions of the false and apostate religions of the world (the great city), paganism, Roman Catholicism, and apostate Protestantism, seem to be set apart each to receive its appropriate doom. The cities of the nations fall; universal desolation spreads over the earth; every island flees away, and the mountains are not found. Thus great Babylon comes in remembrance before God. read her judgments as more fully described in Revelation 18.
"A great hail out of heaven, falling upon men," is the last instrumentality used in the infliction of punishment upon the wicked--the bitter dregs of the seventh vial. God has solemnly addressed the wicked, saying, "Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place." Isaiah 28: 17. (See also Isaiah 30: 30.) The Lord asks Job if he has seen the treasures of hail, which He as "reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war." Job 28: 22, 23.
Every hailstone is said to be "about the weight of a talent." According to various authorities, a talent as a weight is about fifty-seven pounds avoirdupois. What could withstand the force of stones of such an enormous weight falling from heaven? But mankind, at this time, will have no shelter. The cities have fallen in a mighty earthquake, the islands have fled away, and the mountains are not found. Again the wicked give vent to their woe in blasphemy, for the plague of the hail is "exceeding great."
Some faint idea of the terrible effect of such a disaster as is here predicted, may be inferred from the following sketch of a hailstorm on the Bosphorus, by Commodore Porter:
"We had got perhaps a mile and a half on our way, when a cloud rising in the west gave indications of an approaching rain. In a few minutes we discovered something falling from the heavens with a heavy splash, and of a whitish appearance. I could not conceive what it was, but observing some gulls near, I supposed it to be them darting for fish, but soon after discovered that they were large balls of ice falling. Immediately we heard a sound like rumbling thunder, or ten thousand carriages rolling furiously over the pavement. The whole Bosphorus was in a foam, as though heaven's artillery had been discharged upon us and our frail machine. Our fate seemed inevitable; our umbrellas were raised to protect us, but the lumps of ice stripped them to ribbons. We fortunately had a bullock's hide in the boat, under which we crawled, and saved ourselves from further injury. One man of three oarsmen had his hand literally smashed; another was much injured in the shoulder; Mr. H. received a severe blow in the leg; my right hand was somewhat disabled, and all more or less injured. . . .
"It was the most awful and terrific scene that I ever witnessed, and God forbid that I should be ever exposed to such another! Balls of ice as large as my two fists fell into the boats, some of them came with such violence as certainly to have broken an arm or leg had they struck us in those parts. One of them struck the blade of an oar, and split it. The scene lasted, maybe five minutes; but it was five minutes of the most awful feeling that I ever experienced. When it passed over, we found the surrounding hills covered with masses of ice, I cannot call it hail, the trees stripped of their leaves and limbs, and everything looking desolate. . . .
"The scene was awful beyond all description. I have witnessed repeated earthquakes; the lightning has played, as it were, about my head; and wind roared, and the waves have at one moment thrown me to the sky, and the next have sunk me into the deep abyss. I have been in action, and have seen death and destruction around me in every shape of horror; but I never before had the feeling of awe which seized upon me on this occasion, and still haunts, and I fear will ever haunt me. . . . My porter, the boldest of my family, who had ventured an instant from the door, had been knocked down by a hailstone, and had they not dragged him in by the heels, would have been battered to death. . . .Two boatmen were killed in the upper part of the village, and I have heard of broken bones in abundance. . . . Imagine to yourself, however, the heavens suddenly frozen over, and as suddenly broken to pieces in irregular masses, of from half a pound to a pound weight, and precipitated to the earth." [9]
Reader, if such were the desolating effects of a hailstorm of ice, which discharged stones double the size of a man's fist, weighing at most a pound or so, who can depict the consequences of that coming storm in which "every stone" will be more than fifty pounds in weight? As surely as God's word is truth, He is thus soon to punish a guilty world. May it be ours, according to the promise, to have "sure dwellings" and "quiet resting places" in that terrific hour. Isaiah 32: 18, 19.
"There came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done!" Thus all is finished. The cup of human guilt has been filled up. The last soul has availed itself of the plan of salvation. The books are closed. The number of the saved is completed. The final period is placed to this world's history. The vials of God's wrath are poured out upon a corrupt generation. The wicked have drunk them to the dregs, and sunk into the realm of death for a thousand years. Reader, where do you wish to be found after that great decision?
But what is the condition of the saints while the "overflowing scourge" is passing over? They are the special subjects of God's protection, without whose notice not a sparrow falls to the ground. Many are the promises which come crowding in to afford them comfort, summarily contained in the beautiful and expressive language of the psalmist:
"I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress; my God; in Him will I trust. Surely He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust: His truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked. Because thou has made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall plague come nigh they dwelling." Psalm 91: 2-10.
***
May God Bless and keep us in HIM! May we watch and pray, waiting and ready as His and only His. May His will be done in us as we take Christ alone as our righteousness, in Him alone is found salvation.
By His unfathomable mercy and His unending, amazing grace.
Amen.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
Plagues 1-6
Revelation
Excerpts from- Daniel and the Revelation by Uriah Smith
Revelation Chapter 16
Seven Plagues Devastate the Earth
Verse 1 And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. 2 And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshiped his image.
This chapter is a description of the seven vials of the unmingled wrath of God, and the effects that follow as they are poured upon the earth. Our first inquiries are, What is the true position of these points? Are they symbolical and mostly fulfilled in the past? Or are they literal, and all future?
Time of the Plagues.--
The description of the first plague clearly reveals at once the time when it shall fall upon the earth, for it is poured out upon those who have the mark of the beast, and who worship his image--the very work against which the third angels warns us. This is conclusive proof that these judgments are not poured out until after this angel closes his work, and that the class who hear his warning and reject it, are the ones to receive the first drops from the overflowing vials of God's indignation. If these plagues are in the past, the image of the beast and his worship are in the past. If these are past, the two-horned beast, which makes this image, and all his work, are in the past. If these are past, then the third angel's message, which warns us in reference to this work, is in the past; and if this is ages in the past, then the first and second messages which precede it were also ages in the past. Then the prophetic periods, on which the messages are based, especially the 2300 days, ended ages ago. If this is so, the seventy weeks of Daniel are thrown wholly into the Jewish period, and the great proof of the Messiahship of Christ is destroyed. But it has been shown in remarks on Revelation 7, 13, 14, that the first and second messages have been given in our own day; that the third is now in process of accomplishment; that the two-horned beast has come upon the stage of action, and is preparing to do the work assigned; and that the formation of the image and the enforcement of the worship are just in the future. Unless all these positions can be overthrown, the seven last plagues must also be assigned wholly to the future.
But there are other reasons for locating them in the future and not in the past.
Under the fifth plague, men blaspheme God because of their sores, the same sores, of course, caused by the outpouring of the first plague. This shows that these plagues all fall upon one and the same generation of men, some being, no doubt swept off by each one, yet some surviving through the terrible scenes of them all.
These plagues are the wine of God's wrath without mixture, threatened by the third angel. (Revelation 14: 10; 15: 1.) Such language cannot be applied to any judgments visited upon the earth while Christ pleads with His Father in behalf of our fallen race. Therefore we must locate them in the future, when probation shall have closed.
Another and more definite testimony on the beginning and duration of these plagues is found in the these words: "The temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from His power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled." Revelation 15: 8. The temple here introduced is evidently that which is mentioned in Revelation 11: 19: "The temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in His temple the ark of His testament." In other words, we have before us the heavenly sanctuary. When the seven angels with the seven golden vials receive their commission, the temple is filled with smoke from the glory of God, and no being can enter into the temple, or sanctuary, until the angels have fulfilled their work. There will therefore be no ministration in the sanctuary during this time. Consequently, these vials are not poured out until the close of the ministration in the tabernacle above, but immediately follow that event. Christ is then no longer a mediator. Mercy, which has long stayed the hand of vengeance, pleads no more. The servants of God are all sealed. What could then be expected but that the storm of vengeance should fall, and earth be swept with the besom of destruction?
Since the time of these judgments places them in the very near future, treasured up against the day of wrath, we proceed to inquire, into their nature, and the result when the solemn and fearful mandate goes forth from the temple to the seven angels saying, "Go you ways, and pour our the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth." Here we are called to look into the "armory" of the Lord, and behold the "weapons of His indignation." Jeremiah 50: 25. Here are brought forth the treasures of hail, which have been reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war. (Job 38: 22, 23.)
The First Plague.--
"The first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beat, and upon them which worshiped his image." (See also Zechariah 14: 12.)
There is no apparent reason why this should not be regarded as strictly literal. These plagues are almost identical with those which God inflicted upon the Egyptians as He was about to deliver His people from the yoke of bondage, the reality of which is seldom, if ever, called in question. God is now about to reward His people with their final deliverance and redemption, and His judgments will be manifested in a manner no less literal and terrible. What the sore here threatened is, we are not informed. Perhaps it may be similar to the parallel plague which fell upon Egypt. (Exodus 9: 8-11.)
Verse 3 And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea.
The Second Plague.--
A more infectious and deadly substance can scarcely be conceived of than the blood of a dead man; and the thought that the great bodies of water on the earth, which are doubtless meant by the term sea, will be changed to such a state under this plague, presents a fearful picture. We have here the remarkable fact that the term living soul is applied to irrational animals, the fish and living creatures of the sea. This is, we believe, the only instance of such an application in the Authorized Version. In the original languages, however, it occurs frequently, showing that the term as applied to man in the beginning (Genesis 2: 7) cannot be taken as furnishing any evidence that he is endowed with an immaterial and immortal essence called the soul.
Verse 4 And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood. 5 And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because Thou hast judged thus. 6 For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and Thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy. 7 And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are Thy judgments.
The Third Plague.--
Such is the description of the terrible retribution for the "blood of saints" shed by violent hands, visited upon those who have done so, or wish to do, such deeds. Though the horrors of that hour when the fountains and rivers of water shall be like blood, cannot now be realized, the justice of God will stand vindicated, and His judgments approved. Even the angels are heard exclaiming, "Thou are righteous, O Lord, . . . because Thou hast judged thus. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets. . . . Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are Thy judgments."
It may be asked how the last generation of the wicked can be said to have shed the blood of saints and prophets, since the last generation of saints are not slain. Reference to Matthew 23: 34, 35; 1 John 3: 15, will explain. These scriptures show that guilt attaches to motive no less than to action. No generation ever formed a more determined purpose to devote the saints to indiscriminate slaughter than the present generation will, not far in the future. (See comments on Revelation 12: 17; 13: 15.) In motive and purpose, they do shed the blood of saints and prophets, and are every whit as guilty as if they were able to carry out their wicked intentions.
It would seem that none of the human family could long survive a continuance of a plague so terrible as this. It must therefore be limited in its duration, as was the similar one on Egypt. (Exodus 7: 17-21, 25.)
Verse 8 And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. 9 And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give Him glory.
The Fourth Plague.--
It is worthy of notice that every succeeding plague tends to augment the calamity of the previous ones and to heighten the anguish of the guilty sufferers. We have now a noisome and grievous sore preying upon men, inflaming their blood, and pouring its feverish influence through their veins. In addition to this, they have only blood to allay their burning thirst. As if to crown all, power is given unto the sun, and it pours upon them a flood of fire, and they are scorched with great heat. Here, as the records runs, their woe first seeks utterance in fearful blasphemy.
Verse 10 And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain, 11 And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.
The Fifth Plague.--
An important fact is established by this testimony. The plagues do not at once destroy all their victims, for some who were at first smitten with sores, are still living under the fifth vial, and gnawing their tongues for pain. An illustration of this vial will be found in Exodus 10: 21-23. It is poured upon the seat of the beast, the papacy. The seat of the beast is wherever the papal see is located, which has thus far, and without doubt will continue to be, the city of Rome. "His kingdom" probably embraces all those who are ecclesiastical subjects of the pope wherever they may be.
As those who place the plagues in the past have the first five already wholly accomplished, we here pause a moment to inquire where in past ages the judgments here threatened have been fulfilled. Can judgments so terrible be inflicted, and nobody know it? If not, where is the history of the fulfillment? When did a noisome and grievous sore fall upon a specified and extensive part of mankind? When did the sea become as the blood of a dead man, and every living soul in it die? When did the fountains and rivers become blood, and people have blood to drink? When did the sun so scorch men with fire as to extort from them curses and blasphemy? When did the subjects of the beast gnaw their tongues for pain, and at the same time blaspheme God on account of their sores? In these plagues, says Inspiration, is filled up the wrath of God, but if they can be fulfilled and nobody know it, who shall henceforth consider His wrath so terrible a thing, or shrink from His judgments when they are threatened?
Verse 12 And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. 13 And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. 14 For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. 15 Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. 16 And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.
The Sixth Plague.--
What is the great River Euphrates, upon which this vial is poured out? One view is that it is the literal River Euphrates in Asia. Another is that it is a symbol of the nation occupying the territory through which that river flows. The latter opinion is preferable for many reasons.
It would be difficult to see what end would be gained by the drying up of the literal river, as that would not offer an obstruction at all serious to the progress of an advancing army. It should be noticed that the drying up takes place to prepare the way of the kings of the East, that is, regular military organizations, and not a promiscuous and unequipped crowd of men, women, and children, like the children of Israel at the Red Sea, or at the Jordan River. The Euphrates is only about 1,400 miles in length, about one third the size of the Mississippi. Without difficulty, Cyrus turned the whole river from its channel at his siege of Babylon. Notwithstanding the numerous wars that have been carried on along its banks, and the mighty hosts that have crossed and recrossed its streams, it never yet had to be dried up to let them pass.
It would be as necessary to dry up the River Tigris as the Euphrates, for that is nearly as large as the latter. Its source is only fifteen miles from that of the Euphrates in the mountains of Armenia, and it runs nearly parallel with it and but a short distance from it throughout its whole course. Yet the prophecy says nothing of the Tigris.
The literal drying up of the rivers takes place under the fourth vial, when power is given to the sun to scorch men with fire. Under this plague occur beyond question the scenes of drouth and famine so graphically described by Joel, and as one result of these it is expressly stated that "the rivers of waters are dried up." (See Joel 1: 14-20.) The Euphrates can hardly be an exception to this visitation of drouth; hence not much would remain to be literally dried up under the sixth vial.
These plagues, from the very nature of the case, must be manifestations of wrath and judgments upon men; but if the drying up of the literal Euphrates is all that is brought to view, this plague is not of such a nature, and turns out to be no serious affair, after all.
With these objections existing against considering the Euphrates a literal river, it must be understood figuratively as symbolizing the power holding possession of the territory watered by that river when it is observed as beginning to dry up. All agree that that power was Turkey. Hence we may look for the fulfillment of the specifications of this prophecy to affect definitely the Turkish nation.
It is so used in other places in the Scriptures. (See Isaiah 8: 7; Revelation 9: 14.) In this latter text, all must concede that the Euphrates symbolizes the Turkish power; and being the first and only other occurrence of the word in the Revelation, it may well be considered as governing its use in this book.
The drying up of the river in this sense would be the diminution of the Turkish nation, the gradual shrinking of its borders. This is what has actually happened.
At its height the Ottoman Empire extended on the east to the Tigris and the Caspian Sea; on the south to Aden, including Arabia, Palestine, Egypt, Algiers; on the north, the kingdom of Hungary, the Balkan States, the Crimea. Turkey waged war again and again with the mightiest armies of Europe, with Germany, Russia, and others. She carried her conquests deep into Asia, and received appeals of assistance from India. But this mighty scourge of Christendom did not pass her bounds. In the events leading up to 1840 she all but collapsed, and since then has rapidly declined. Let us consider some of her loses.
Turkey lost the kingdom of Hungary in 1718; the Crimea in 1774; Greece in 1832; Rumania, Montenegro, and Bulgaria, 1878; Tripoli, 1912; Egypt was lot in 1914; Mesopotamia was taken by Britain in 1917; Palestine in 1917; Syria, 1918; the Hejaz about the same time. At the close of World Ware I, the straits and Constantinople were made international, and the Turkish capital was removed to Ankara. Turkey recovered western Anatolia, including Smyrna, from the Greeks; she regained the western portion of Armenia, the headwaters of the Euphrates; she recovered her ancient capital Constantinople in Europe, with a portion of Thrace; but little territory was left to this one-time mighty empire. Her dominion has been reduced province by province, until she retains but a shadow of her former possessions. Surely the nation symbolized by the Euphrates is drying up. But it may be objected that while contending for the literality of the plagues, we nevertheless make one of them a symbol. We answer, No. A power is introduced, it is true, under the sixth vial, in its symbolic form, just as it is under the fifth, where we read of the seat of the beast, which is a well-known symbol; or as we read again in the first plague of the mark of the beast, his image, and its worship, which are also symbols. All that is here insisted upon, is the literality of the judgments that result from each vial, which are literal in this case as in all the others, though the organizations which suffer these judgments may be brought to view in their symbolic form.
The Battle of Armageddon.--It may be asked how the way of the kings of the East will be prepared by the drying up, or consumption, of the Ottoman power? The answer is obvious. For what is the way of these kings to be prepared? Is it not that they may come up to the battle of the great day of God Almighty? Where is the battle to be fought? The answer of the prophet is that those who fight this battle will be gathered together "into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon." This name is drawn from the ancient valley of Megiddo, where so many fierce and decisive battles were fought in Old Testament times. Concerning the name "Armageddon," Lyman Abbot, in A Dictionary of Religious Knowledge says:
"This name is given to the great plain of the central Palestine which extends from the Mediterranean to the Jordan, separating the mountain ranges of Carmel and Samaria from those of Galilee. . . . It is the ancient plain of Megiddo, the Armageddon of Revelation 16: 16." [1]
On the importance of this battlefield, George Cormak says:
"Megiddo was the military key of Syria. It commanded at once the highway northward to Phoenicia and Coele-Syria and the road across Galilee to Damascus and the valley of the Euphrates. . . . The vale of Kishon and the region of Megiddo were inevitable battlefields. Through all history they retained that qualification; there many of the great contests of southwestern Asia have been decided." [2]
Admitting that "Megiddo was the military key of Syria" and that it commanded the highways of the Near East, the reader may still be interested to know why, aside from direct prophetic statement that the final battle will there be fought, this region should be chosen by the nations of earth as the scene of the last great conflict. To answer this logical question we submit the conclusions of others whose year of investigation of social, economic, and political reasons which lead nations to fight, entitle them to consideration.
"With the fall of Ottoman sovereignty . . . . there will arise once more the Eternal Question of the position of Asia Minor. That land is the corridor between Europe and Asia, along which had passed most of the European conquerors --the Russians alone excepted--who have invaded Asia, and most of the Asiatic conquerors who have invaded Europe." [3]
Mark this opinion long held concerning Constantinople and its environs by H. Huntington Powers: "Constantinople with its tributary straits is the most strategic site in the world. . . . When Napoleon and the Czar Alexander sat down at Tilsit to divide the world between them, Alexander is said to have pled with Napoleon: 'Give or take what you will, but give us Constantinople. For Constantinople my people are prepared to make any sacrifice.' Napoleon bent long over the map, and then straightening up with sudden resolution replied: 'Constantinople? Never! That means the rule of the world.' . . . Merchant and strategist alike still rank Constantinople as the most valuable of territorial possessions." [4] Again we read concerning the shift of interest from Constantinople to Asiatic Turkey:
"The problem of Constantinople has perplexed and distressed the world during many centuries. Numerous wars have been waged and innumerable lives have been sacrificed by the nations desiring to possess or control that glorious city and the wonderful Narrows which separate Europe from Asia and which connect the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, the East and the West, the Slavonic and the Latin-Germanic world. Hitherto it was generally believed that an attempt to settle the question of Constantinople would inevitably lead to a world war among the claimant States, that their agreement impossible. Hence diplomats thought with dread of the question of Constantinople, which seemed insoluble. . . . However, while we may rejoice that the ever-threatening problem of Constantinople has at last been eliminated, it seems possible that another, a far greater and a far more dangerous one, may almost immediately arise in its place. The question of Asiatic Turkey is forcing itself to the front." [5]
Because the territory so long held by Turkey has dominated the great trade routes of three continents is has never ceased to be coveted by those who would rise to world domination. The discovery of vast reservoirs of oil in the Near East has greatly increased the desire of nations to possess Asia Minor and the region drained by the Euphrates River. Indeed the discovery that the words of Job 29: 6, "the rock poured out rivers of oil," was not hyperbole but literal truth, has led every first class nation to recognize that oil deposits said to be equal to those of the Western Hemisphere constitute an invaluable possession in the hands of those who would dominate the commercial and military world.
But why should the kings of the East be interested in this question which definitely affects the Near East? Let it not be forgotten that there have been in the past three invasions of the Near East by Oriental conquerors--which invasions have richly rewarded the invaders. With the entire East "in the throes of rebirth" it is not unnatural that they should cover the liquid gold of the Euphrates Valley.
In an interview given by the noted British general, Sir Ian Hamilton to Kingsbury Smith, staff correspondent of the International News Service, as General Hamilton spoke of the menace to Western European civilization of Asiatic penetration, he predicted that "the spot where Europe may attempt to halt Asiatic penetration will be the last battlefield of all time and mark the end of civilization." He said further, "I have looked carefully at the map and the best spot for Europe to meet and throw back Asia is called Megiddo, or in some maps, Armageddon." [6]
From the language of these writers it would seem obvious that if such mighty armies as would be made up of "the kings of the earth and of the whole world" should gather together anywhere from the ancient valley of Megiddo through the vast stretches of the Euphrates valley and Asia Minor, to fight the "battle of that great day of God Almighty," what is comprehended territorially by the term "Armageddon" in the prophecy would be fully met.
For centuries the territories of Palestine and the Euphrates valley have been under the control of Mohammedan rulers, who were amenable to the Turkish nation. Logically, then, the Turk will come to his end before the kings of the earth debouch their armies in that territory. The end of the Turk opens the way for the battle of Armageddon.
*******
The Middle East. Who doesn't recognize that term. Conflict in the Middle East. The conflict over there has been unending. In 1948 Israel fought and won against Palestine. In 1967 Israel had Jerusalem in it's possession. Yet even now in 2009, the battle goes on in word and deed over there. Wars are being waged. Territory being fought for, freedom being fought for, terrorism being fought against it seems unending. The land where riches in oil exist warranting interest there are wars, fighting for power, for control. In the lands where there is no oil, no real political interest battles maybe be fought civilly but other countries take little interest. The main area of interest is the Middle East. Trying for peace in the Middle East is something we hear about all the time.
Those who don't see the import in the going ons about our world ignore the obvious, or are blind because they wish to be blind.
We don't call Turks, Turks, we don't use the same terminology today as they did when the book was written but we all know who the Moslems are, we all know what Islam is. The names may have changed but the battles, the aminosity is still the same.
May God bless us and keep us in Him as we strive to be prepared for His soon coming. There is much just ahead and they may have said the same thing years ago, but even more no things are relevant. Luke 21:24 was prophecy just fulfilled in 1980-- not so long ago.
By the mercy and grace of Jesus may we be forgiven and found covered in His righteousness, in His love.
Amen.
Excerpts from- Daniel and the Revelation by Uriah Smith
Revelation Chapter 16
Seven Plagues Devastate the Earth
Verse 1 And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. 2 And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshiped his image.
This chapter is a description of the seven vials of the unmingled wrath of God, and the effects that follow as they are poured upon the earth. Our first inquiries are, What is the true position of these points? Are they symbolical and mostly fulfilled in the past? Or are they literal, and all future?
Time of the Plagues.--
The description of the first plague clearly reveals at once the time when it shall fall upon the earth, for it is poured out upon those who have the mark of the beast, and who worship his image--the very work against which the third angels warns us. This is conclusive proof that these judgments are not poured out until after this angel closes his work, and that the class who hear his warning and reject it, are the ones to receive the first drops from the overflowing vials of God's indignation. If these plagues are in the past, the image of the beast and his worship are in the past. If these are past, the two-horned beast, which makes this image, and all his work, are in the past. If these are past, then the third angel's message, which warns us in reference to this work, is in the past; and if this is ages in the past, then the first and second messages which precede it were also ages in the past. Then the prophetic periods, on which the messages are based, especially the 2300 days, ended ages ago. If this is so, the seventy weeks of Daniel are thrown wholly into the Jewish period, and the great proof of the Messiahship of Christ is destroyed. But it has been shown in remarks on Revelation 7, 13, 14, that the first and second messages have been given in our own day; that the third is now in process of accomplishment; that the two-horned beast has come upon the stage of action, and is preparing to do the work assigned; and that the formation of the image and the enforcement of the worship are just in the future. Unless all these positions can be overthrown, the seven last plagues must also be assigned wholly to the future.
But there are other reasons for locating them in the future and not in the past.
Under the fifth plague, men blaspheme God because of their sores, the same sores, of course, caused by the outpouring of the first plague. This shows that these plagues all fall upon one and the same generation of men, some being, no doubt swept off by each one, yet some surviving through the terrible scenes of them all.
These plagues are the wine of God's wrath without mixture, threatened by the third angel. (Revelation 14: 10; 15: 1.) Such language cannot be applied to any judgments visited upon the earth while Christ pleads with His Father in behalf of our fallen race. Therefore we must locate them in the future, when probation shall have closed.
Another and more definite testimony on the beginning and duration of these plagues is found in the these words: "The temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from His power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled." Revelation 15: 8. The temple here introduced is evidently that which is mentioned in Revelation 11: 19: "The temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in His temple the ark of His testament." In other words, we have before us the heavenly sanctuary. When the seven angels with the seven golden vials receive their commission, the temple is filled with smoke from the glory of God, and no being can enter into the temple, or sanctuary, until the angels have fulfilled their work. There will therefore be no ministration in the sanctuary during this time. Consequently, these vials are not poured out until the close of the ministration in the tabernacle above, but immediately follow that event. Christ is then no longer a mediator. Mercy, which has long stayed the hand of vengeance, pleads no more. The servants of God are all sealed. What could then be expected but that the storm of vengeance should fall, and earth be swept with the besom of destruction?
Since the time of these judgments places them in the very near future, treasured up against the day of wrath, we proceed to inquire, into their nature, and the result when the solemn and fearful mandate goes forth from the temple to the seven angels saying, "Go you ways, and pour our the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth." Here we are called to look into the "armory" of the Lord, and behold the "weapons of His indignation." Jeremiah 50: 25. Here are brought forth the treasures of hail, which have been reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war. (Job 38: 22, 23.)
The First Plague.--
"The first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beat, and upon them which worshiped his image." (See also Zechariah 14: 12.)
There is no apparent reason why this should not be regarded as strictly literal. These plagues are almost identical with those which God inflicted upon the Egyptians as He was about to deliver His people from the yoke of bondage, the reality of which is seldom, if ever, called in question. God is now about to reward His people with their final deliverance and redemption, and His judgments will be manifested in a manner no less literal and terrible. What the sore here threatened is, we are not informed. Perhaps it may be similar to the parallel plague which fell upon Egypt. (Exodus 9: 8-11.)
Verse 3 And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea.
The Second Plague.--
A more infectious and deadly substance can scarcely be conceived of than the blood of a dead man; and the thought that the great bodies of water on the earth, which are doubtless meant by the term sea, will be changed to such a state under this plague, presents a fearful picture. We have here the remarkable fact that the term living soul is applied to irrational animals, the fish and living creatures of the sea. This is, we believe, the only instance of such an application in the Authorized Version. In the original languages, however, it occurs frequently, showing that the term as applied to man in the beginning (Genesis 2: 7) cannot be taken as furnishing any evidence that he is endowed with an immaterial and immortal essence called the soul.
Verse 4 And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood. 5 And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because Thou hast judged thus. 6 For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and Thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy. 7 And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are Thy judgments.
The Third Plague.--
Such is the description of the terrible retribution for the "blood of saints" shed by violent hands, visited upon those who have done so, or wish to do, such deeds. Though the horrors of that hour when the fountains and rivers of water shall be like blood, cannot now be realized, the justice of God will stand vindicated, and His judgments approved. Even the angels are heard exclaiming, "Thou are righteous, O Lord, . . . because Thou hast judged thus. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets. . . . Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are Thy judgments."
It may be asked how the last generation of the wicked can be said to have shed the blood of saints and prophets, since the last generation of saints are not slain. Reference to Matthew 23: 34, 35; 1 John 3: 15, will explain. These scriptures show that guilt attaches to motive no less than to action. No generation ever formed a more determined purpose to devote the saints to indiscriminate slaughter than the present generation will, not far in the future. (See comments on Revelation 12: 17; 13: 15.) In motive and purpose, they do shed the blood of saints and prophets, and are every whit as guilty as if they were able to carry out their wicked intentions.
It would seem that none of the human family could long survive a continuance of a plague so terrible as this. It must therefore be limited in its duration, as was the similar one on Egypt. (Exodus 7: 17-21, 25.)
Verse 8 And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. 9 And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give Him glory.
The Fourth Plague.--
It is worthy of notice that every succeeding plague tends to augment the calamity of the previous ones and to heighten the anguish of the guilty sufferers. We have now a noisome and grievous sore preying upon men, inflaming their blood, and pouring its feverish influence through their veins. In addition to this, they have only blood to allay their burning thirst. As if to crown all, power is given unto the sun, and it pours upon them a flood of fire, and they are scorched with great heat. Here, as the records runs, their woe first seeks utterance in fearful blasphemy.
Verse 10 And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain, 11 And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.
The Fifth Plague.--
An important fact is established by this testimony. The plagues do not at once destroy all their victims, for some who were at first smitten with sores, are still living under the fifth vial, and gnawing their tongues for pain. An illustration of this vial will be found in Exodus 10: 21-23. It is poured upon the seat of the beast, the papacy. The seat of the beast is wherever the papal see is located, which has thus far, and without doubt will continue to be, the city of Rome. "His kingdom" probably embraces all those who are ecclesiastical subjects of the pope wherever they may be.
As those who place the plagues in the past have the first five already wholly accomplished, we here pause a moment to inquire where in past ages the judgments here threatened have been fulfilled. Can judgments so terrible be inflicted, and nobody know it? If not, where is the history of the fulfillment? When did a noisome and grievous sore fall upon a specified and extensive part of mankind? When did the sea become as the blood of a dead man, and every living soul in it die? When did the fountains and rivers become blood, and people have blood to drink? When did the sun so scorch men with fire as to extort from them curses and blasphemy? When did the subjects of the beast gnaw their tongues for pain, and at the same time blaspheme God on account of their sores? In these plagues, says Inspiration, is filled up the wrath of God, but if they can be fulfilled and nobody know it, who shall henceforth consider His wrath so terrible a thing, or shrink from His judgments when they are threatened?
Verse 12 And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. 13 And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. 14 For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. 15 Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. 16 And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.
The Sixth Plague.--
What is the great River Euphrates, upon which this vial is poured out? One view is that it is the literal River Euphrates in Asia. Another is that it is a symbol of the nation occupying the territory through which that river flows. The latter opinion is preferable for many reasons.
It would be difficult to see what end would be gained by the drying up of the literal river, as that would not offer an obstruction at all serious to the progress of an advancing army. It should be noticed that the drying up takes place to prepare the way of the kings of the East, that is, regular military organizations, and not a promiscuous and unequipped crowd of men, women, and children, like the children of Israel at the Red Sea, or at the Jordan River. The Euphrates is only about 1,400 miles in length, about one third the size of the Mississippi. Without difficulty, Cyrus turned the whole river from its channel at his siege of Babylon. Notwithstanding the numerous wars that have been carried on along its banks, and the mighty hosts that have crossed and recrossed its streams, it never yet had to be dried up to let them pass.
It would be as necessary to dry up the River Tigris as the Euphrates, for that is nearly as large as the latter. Its source is only fifteen miles from that of the Euphrates in the mountains of Armenia, and it runs nearly parallel with it and but a short distance from it throughout its whole course. Yet the prophecy says nothing of the Tigris.
The literal drying up of the rivers takes place under the fourth vial, when power is given to the sun to scorch men with fire. Under this plague occur beyond question the scenes of drouth and famine so graphically described by Joel, and as one result of these it is expressly stated that "the rivers of waters are dried up." (See Joel 1: 14-20.) The Euphrates can hardly be an exception to this visitation of drouth; hence not much would remain to be literally dried up under the sixth vial.
These plagues, from the very nature of the case, must be manifestations of wrath and judgments upon men; but if the drying up of the literal Euphrates is all that is brought to view, this plague is not of such a nature, and turns out to be no serious affair, after all.
With these objections existing against considering the Euphrates a literal river, it must be understood figuratively as symbolizing the power holding possession of the territory watered by that river when it is observed as beginning to dry up. All agree that that power was Turkey. Hence we may look for the fulfillment of the specifications of this prophecy to affect definitely the Turkish nation.
It is so used in other places in the Scriptures. (See Isaiah 8: 7; Revelation 9: 14.) In this latter text, all must concede that the Euphrates symbolizes the Turkish power; and being the first and only other occurrence of the word in the Revelation, it may well be considered as governing its use in this book.
The drying up of the river in this sense would be the diminution of the Turkish nation, the gradual shrinking of its borders. This is what has actually happened.
At its height the Ottoman Empire extended on the east to the Tigris and the Caspian Sea; on the south to Aden, including Arabia, Palestine, Egypt, Algiers; on the north, the kingdom of Hungary, the Balkan States, the Crimea. Turkey waged war again and again with the mightiest armies of Europe, with Germany, Russia, and others. She carried her conquests deep into Asia, and received appeals of assistance from India. But this mighty scourge of Christendom did not pass her bounds. In the events leading up to 1840 she all but collapsed, and since then has rapidly declined. Let us consider some of her loses.
Turkey lost the kingdom of Hungary in 1718; the Crimea in 1774; Greece in 1832; Rumania, Montenegro, and Bulgaria, 1878; Tripoli, 1912; Egypt was lot in 1914; Mesopotamia was taken by Britain in 1917; Palestine in 1917; Syria, 1918; the Hejaz about the same time. At the close of World Ware I, the straits and Constantinople were made international, and the Turkish capital was removed to Ankara. Turkey recovered western Anatolia, including Smyrna, from the Greeks; she regained the western portion of Armenia, the headwaters of the Euphrates; she recovered her ancient capital Constantinople in Europe, with a portion of Thrace; but little territory was left to this one-time mighty empire. Her dominion has been reduced province by province, until she retains but a shadow of her former possessions. Surely the nation symbolized by the Euphrates is drying up. But it may be objected that while contending for the literality of the plagues, we nevertheless make one of them a symbol. We answer, No. A power is introduced, it is true, under the sixth vial, in its symbolic form, just as it is under the fifth, where we read of the seat of the beast, which is a well-known symbol; or as we read again in the first plague of the mark of the beast, his image, and its worship, which are also symbols. All that is here insisted upon, is the literality of the judgments that result from each vial, which are literal in this case as in all the others, though the organizations which suffer these judgments may be brought to view in their symbolic form.
The Battle of Armageddon.--It may be asked how the way of the kings of the East will be prepared by the drying up, or consumption, of the Ottoman power? The answer is obvious. For what is the way of these kings to be prepared? Is it not that they may come up to the battle of the great day of God Almighty? Where is the battle to be fought? The answer of the prophet is that those who fight this battle will be gathered together "into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon." This name is drawn from the ancient valley of Megiddo, where so many fierce and decisive battles were fought in Old Testament times. Concerning the name "Armageddon," Lyman Abbot, in A Dictionary of Religious Knowledge says:
"This name is given to the great plain of the central Palestine which extends from the Mediterranean to the Jordan, separating the mountain ranges of Carmel and Samaria from those of Galilee. . . . It is the ancient plain of Megiddo, the Armageddon of Revelation 16: 16." [1]
On the importance of this battlefield, George Cormak says:
"Megiddo was the military key of Syria. It commanded at once the highway northward to Phoenicia and Coele-Syria and the road across Galilee to Damascus and the valley of the Euphrates. . . . The vale of Kishon and the region of Megiddo were inevitable battlefields. Through all history they retained that qualification; there many of the great contests of southwestern Asia have been decided." [2]
Admitting that "Megiddo was the military key of Syria" and that it commanded the highways of the Near East, the reader may still be interested to know why, aside from direct prophetic statement that the final battle will there be fought, this region should be chosen by the nations of earth as the scene of the last great conflict. To answer this logical question we submit the conclusions of others whose year of investigation of social, economic, and political reasons which lead nations to fight, entitle them to consideration.
"With the fall of Ottoman sovereignty . . . . there will arise once more the Eternal Question of the position of Asia Minor. That land is the corridor between Europe and Asia, along which had passed most of the European conquerors --the Russians alone excepted--who have invaded Asia, and most of the Asiatic conquerors who have invaded Europe." [3]
Mark this opinion long held concerning Constantinople and its environs by H. Huntington Powers: "Constantinople with its tributary straits is the most strategic site in the world. . . . When Napoleon and the Czar Alexander sat down at Tilsit to divide the world between them, Alexander is said to have pled with Napoleon: 'Give or take what you will, but give us Constantinople. For Constantinople my people are prepared to make any sacrifice.' Napoleon bent long over the map, and then straightening up with sudden resolution replied: 'Constantinople? Never! That means the rule of the world.' . . . Merchant and strategist alike still rank Constantinople as the most valuable of territorial possessions." [4] Again we read concerning the shift of interest from Constantinople to Asiatic Turkey:
"The problem of Constantinople has perplexed and distressed the world during many centuries. Numerous wars have been waged and innumerable lives have been sacrificed by the nations desiring to possess or control that glorious city and the wonderful Narrows which separate Europe from Asia and which connect the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, the East and the West, the Slavonic and the Latin-Germanic world. Hitherto it was generally believed that an attempt to settle the question of Constantinople would inevitably lead to a world war among the claimant States, that their agreement impossible. Hence diplomats thought with dread of the question of Constantinople, which seemed insoluble. . . . However, while we may rejoice that the ever-threatening problem of Constantinople has at last been eliminated, it seems possible that another, a far greater and a far more dangerous one, may almost immediately arise in its place. The question of Asiatic Turkey is forcing itself to the front." [5]
Because the territory so long held by Turkey has dominated the great trade routes of three continents is has never ceased to be coveted by those who would rise to world domination. The discovery of vast reservoirs of oil in the Near East has greatly increased the desire of nations to possess Asia Minor and the region drained by the Euphrates River. Indeed the discovery that the words of Job 29: 6, "the rock poured out rivers of oil," was not hyperbole but literal truth, has led every first class nation to recognize that oil deposits said to be equal to those of the Western Hemisphere constitute an invaluable possession in the hands of those who would dominate the commercial and military world.
But why should the kings of the East be interested in this question which definitely affects the Near East? Let it not be forgotten that there have been in the past three invasions of the Near East by Oriental conquerors--which invasions have richly rewarded the invaders. With the entire East "in the throes of rebirth" it is not unnatural that they should cover the liquid gold of the Euphrates Valley.
In an interview given by the noted British general, Sir Ian Hamilton to Kingsbury Smith, staff correspondent of the International News Service, as General Hamilton spoke of the menace to Western European civilization of Asiatic penetration, he predicted that "the spot where Europe may attempt to halt Asiatic penetration will be the last battlefield of all time and mark the end of civilization." He said further, "I have looked carefully at the map and the best spot for Europe to meet and throw back Asia is called Megiddo, or in some maps, Armageddon." [6]
From the language of these writers it would seem obvious that if such mighty armies as would be made up of "the kings of the earth and of the whole world" should gather together anywhere from the ancient valley of Megiddo through the vast stretches of the Euphrates valley and Asia Minor, to fight the "battle of that great day of God Almighty," what is comprehended territorially by the term "Armageddon" in the prophecy would be fully met.
For centuries the territories of Palestine and the Euphrates valley have been under the control of Mohammedan rulers, who were amenable to the Turkish nation. Logically, then, the Turk will come to his end before the kings of the earth debouch their armies in that territory. The end of the Turk opens the way for the battle of Armageddon.
*******
The Middle East. Who doesn't recognize that term. Conflict in the Middle East. The conflict over there has been unending. In 1948 Israel fought and won against Palestine. In 1967 Israel had Jerusalem in it's possession. Yet even now in 2009, the battle goes on in word and deed over there. Wars are being waged. Territory being fought for, freedom being fought for, terrorism being fought against it seems unending. The land where riches in oil exist warranting interest there are wars, fighting for power, for control. In the lands where there is no oil, no real political interest battles maybe be fought civilly but other countries take little interest. The main area of interest is the Middle East. Trying for peace in the Middle East is something we hear about all the time.
Those who don't see the import in the going ons about our world ignore the obvious, or are blind because they wish to be blind.
We don't call Turks, Turks, we don't use the same terminology today as they did when the book was written but we all know who the Moslems are, we all know what Islam is. The names may have changed but the battles, the aminosity is still the same.
May God bless us and keep us in Him as we strive to be prepared for His soon coming. There is much just ahead and they may have said the same thing years ago, but even more no things are relevant. Luke 21:24 was prophecy just fulfilled in 1980-- not so long ago.
By the mercy and grace of Jesus may we be forgiven and found covered in His righteousness, in His love.
Amen.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
WAKE UP!
Revelation
Excerpt from--
Daniel and the Revelation by Uriah Smith
Revelation Chapter 15
Preparing the Vials of Divine Wrath
This chapter introduces the seven last plagues, a manifestation of Heaven's unmingled wrath, in its full measure upon the last generation of the wicked. The work of mercy is then forever past.
Verse 1 And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God. 2 And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. 3 And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints. 4 Who shall not fear Thee, O Lord, and glorify Thy name? for Thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before Thee; for Thy judgments are made manifest. 5 And after that I looked, and, behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened: 6 And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles. 7 And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever. 8 And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from His power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.
A Preparatory Scene.--
Thus reads the fifteenth chapter. By it we are carried back to a new series of events. The whole chapter is but an introduction to the most terrible judgments of the Almighty ever to be visited upon this earth--the seven last plagues. What we behold here is a solemn preparation for the outpouring of these unmixed vials. Verse 5 shows that these plagues fall after the close of the ministration in the sanctuary, for the temple is opened before they are poured out. They are given to seven angels clothed in linen pure and white, a fit emblem of the purity of God's righteousness and justice in the infliction of these judgments. They receive these vials from one of the four beasts, or living creatures. These living beings were shown in comments on Revelation 4 to be a class of Christ's assistants in His sanctuary work. How appropriate then that they should be the ones to deliver to the ministers of vengeance the vials of the wrath to be poured upon those who have slighted Christ's mercy, abused His long-suffering, heaped contumely upon His name, and crucified Him afresh in the persecution of His followers! While the seven angels are performing their fearful mission, the temple is filled with the glory of God, and no man--{GREEK CHARACTERS IN PRINTED TEXT}, oudeis, "no one, no being" --can enter there. This shows that the work of mercy is closed, since there is no ministration in the sanctuary during the infliction of the plagues. Hence they are manifestations of the wrath of God without any mixture of mercy.
God's People Remembered.--
In this scene the people of God are not forgotten. The prophet is permitted to anticipate somewhat in verses 2-4, and behold them as victors upon the sea which had the appearance of glass mingled with fire. They sing the song of Moses and the Lamb as they stand upon that sparkling expanse of glory. The sea of glass upon which these victors stand, is the same as that brought to view in Revelation 4: 6, which was before the throne in heaven. As we have no evidence that it has yet changed location, and the saints are seen upon it, we have here indubitable proof in connection with Revelation 14: 1-5 that the saints are taken to heaven to receive a part of their reward. Thus, as if the bright sun should burst through the midnight cloud, some scene is presented or some promise given to the humble followers of the Lamb in every hour of temptation, to assure and reassure them of God's love and care for them, and of the certainty of their final reward. "Say ye to the righteous," wrote Isaiah of old, "that it shall be well with him;" but, "Woe unto the wicked! It shall be ill with him." Isaiah 3: 10, 11.
The song the victors sing, the song of Moses and the Lamb, is given here in epitome: "Great and marvelous are They works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints." It is a song of infinite grandeur. How comprehensive in its terms! How sublime in its theme! It appeals to the works of God which are a manifestation of His glory. With immortal vision the saints will be able to comprehend them as they cannot in the present state, even though astronomy reveals enough to fill all hearts with admiration. From our little world we pass out to our sun ninety-three million miles away; on to its nearest neighboring sun, twenty-five million million miles away; on to the great double polestar, from which it takes light four hundred years to reach our world; on past systems, groups, constellations, till we reach the great star Rigel, in Orion, shining with the power of fifteen thousand suns like ours! What then must be the grand center around which these myriads of shining orbs revolve! Well may the song be sung, "Great and marvelous are Thy works." But the song covers another field also, the field of God's providence and grace: "Just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints." All the dealings of God with all His creatures in the eyes of the redeemed and the sight of all worlds will be forever vindicated. After all our blindness, all our perplexities, all our trials, we shall be able to exclaim at last in the exuberance of satisfied joy, "Just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints."
*******
Who entered the Sanctuary to plead for us?
Hebrews-
{9:23} [It was] therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. {9:24} For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, [which are] the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us
As with the earth Sanctuary service is was a type, an example of the heavenly. Daily sacrifices were made and then once a year the Sanctuary was cleansed.
We've gone over the prophecy that led us to the conclusion of this--
Daniel {8:14} And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.
2300 years and the dates lined up with history to bring it to 1844.
They believed Christ would come then, that the sanctuary was cleansed on that day rather than the beginning of the cleansing started.
Looking to the type the High Priest alone once a year entered the Most Holy Place and a day of cleansing would take place. The Sanctuary itself would be cleansed, the people would be cleansed, all the sin that accumulated there over the year would be cleansed. It was a solemn day, a day for afflicting the soul of making sure you were right with God.
As Jesus began the cleansing of the Sanctuary the time for the normal day to day sacrifices was over. 2300 years were up. So in 1844 Jesus began the cleansing of the Sanctuary and when it's finished He will no longer be in the Sanctuary. As it says above-
5 And after that I looked, and, behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened: 6 And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles. 7 And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever. 8 And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from His power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.
NO MAN was able to enter into the temple- till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.
Probation is over completely, the cleansing work moved from the Most Holy place to the Holy, to the outer court just as it was typified in the earthly Sanctuary work.
We are told this in Daniel as well--
{11:45} And he shall plant the tabernacles of
his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain;
yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.
{12:1} And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great
prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and
there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since
there was a nation [even] to that same time: and at that time
thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found
written in the book.
The beast that is being talked of throughtout chapter 11 will plant the tabernacle of his palace between the seas in the gloious holy mountain-- yet he shall come to his end and none shall help him, and at THAT time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people.
We have something to signal us. We have a prophecy unfulfilled to look towards. We have other as yet unfulfilled prophecies such as the situation of not being able to buy or sell save we make some sort of compromise with our faith that will allow us to do so. These things have to be paid attention to. Yes, just as it was in the days of Noah and Sodom and Gomorrah this will ALL take place with the majority of people blissfully in the dark because they don't want to see, they don't want to believe, they aren't watching and praying, they aren't prepared with oil in their lamps awaiting the Bridegroom. Looking at the world today as we see more and more how the Papacy has regained so much power- power that was unthinkable for it to have even in the 1950's when there was a massive protest over sending an ambassador to the Vatican. Power that today people back then would cringe at. Today we have our president calling the Pope, His Holiness, and the world looks on and smiles, applauding the diplomacy. Less than a hundred years ago, just under sixty years ago and it was impossible for the Protestant churches to allow such a thing and now they have ALL joined hands with the Papacy. The power that has grown since the deadly wound was healed is tremendous. Under Pope John Paul the Second ties were formed that before were unthinkable. With Pope Benedict the Sixteenth, they are being tied tighter than ever and all over the world people are beginning to look to the Papacy as a bringer of PEACE, of UNITY, of LOVE, of GOD, of HOPE. Eyes are being drawn off Christ and placed upon a man, upon a system. And the world sleeps on content to be lulled, unalarmed, claiming no need for extra oil in their lamps, no need for upset, no need to stand watch they are content to believe there is another watching for them, another praying for them.
We can't be lulled, we can't let ourselves be lulled! WAKE UP! WAKE UP!
It's all unfolding as foretold and by the grace and mercy of God may we be with Him, protected in His amazing love, through HIS righteousness so that when the plagues of God's wrath are unleashed they will not touch us.
Amen!
Excerpt from--
Daniel and the Revelation by Uriah Smith
Revelation Chapter 15
Preparing the Vials of Divine Wrath
This chapter introduces the seven last plagues, a manifestation of Heaven's unmingled wrath, in its full measure upon the last generation of the wicked. The work of mercy is then forever past.
Verse 1 And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God. 2 And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. 3 And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints. 4 Who shall not fear Thee, O Lord, and glorify Thy name? for Thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before Thee; for Thy judgments are made manifest. 5 And after that I looked, and, behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened: 6 And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles. 7 And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever. 8 And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from His power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.
A Preparatory Scene.--
Thus reads the fifteenth chapter. By it we are carried back to a new series of events. The whole chapter is but an introduction to the most terrible judgments of the Almighty ever to be visited upon this earth--the seven last plagues. What we behold here is a solemn preparation for the outpouring of these unmixed vials. Verse 5 shows that these plagues fall after the close of the ministration in the sanctuary, for the temple is opened before they are poured out. They are given to seven angels clothed in linen pure and white, a fit emblem of the purity of God's righteousness and justice in the infliction of these judgments. They receive these vials from one of the four beasts, or living creatures. These living beings were shown in comments on Revelation 4 to be a class of Christ's assistants in His sanctuary work. How appropriate then that they should be the ones to deliver to the ministers of vengeance the vials of the wrath to be poured upon those who have slighted Christ's mercy, abused His long-suffering, heaped contumely upon His name, and crucified Him afresh in the persecution of His followers! While the seven angels are performing their fearful mission, the temple is filled with the glory of God, and no man--{GREEK CHARACTERS IN PRINTED TEXT}, oudeis, "no one, no being" --can enter there. This shows that the work of mercy is closed, since there is no ministration in the sanctuary during the infliction of the plagues. Hence they are manifestations of the wrath of God without any mixture of mercy.
God's People Remembered.--
In this scene the people of God are not forgotten. The prophet is permitted to anticipate somewhat in verses 2-4, and behold them as victors upon the sea which had the appearance of glass mingled with fire. They sing the song of Moses and the Lamb as they stand upon that sparkling expanse of glory. The sea of glass upon which these victors stand, is the same as that brought to view in Revelation 4: 6, which was before the throne in heaven. As we have no evidence that it has yet changed location, and the saints are seen upon it, we have here indubitable proof in connection with Revelation 14: 1-5 that the saints are taken to heaven to receive a part of their reward. Thus, as if the bright sun should burst through the midnight cloud, some scene is presented or some promise given to the humble followers of the Lamb in every hour of temptation, to assure and reassure them of God's love and care for them, and of the certainty of their final reward. "Say ye to the righteous," wrote Isaiah of old, "that it shall be well with him;" but, "Woe unto the wicked! It shall be ill with him." Isaiah 3: 10, 11.
The song the victors sing, the song of Moses and the Lamb, is given here in epitome: "Great and marvelous are They works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints." It is a song of infinite grandeur. How comprehensive in its terms! How sublime in its theme! It appeals to the works of God which are a manifestation of His glory. With immortal vision the saints will be able to comprehend them as they cannot in the present state, even though astronomy reveals enough to fill all hearts with admiration. From our little world we pass out to our sun ninety-three million miles away; on to its nearest neighboring sun, twenty-five million million miles away; on to the great double polestar, from which it takes light four hundred years to reach our world; on past systems, groups, constellations, till we reach the great star Rigel, in Orion, shining with the power of fifteen thousand suns like ours! What then must be the grand center around which these myriads of shining orbs revolve! Well may the song be sung, "Great and marvelous are Thy works." But the song covers another field also, the field of God's providence and grace: "Just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints." All the dealings of God with all His creatures in the eyes of the redeemed and the sight of all worlds will be forever vindicated. After all our blindness, all our perplexities, all our trials, we shall be able to exclaim at last in the exuberance of satisfied joy, "Just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints."
*******
Who entered the Sanctuary to plead for us?
Hebrews-
{9:23} [It was] therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. {9:24} For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, [which are] the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us
As with the earth Sanctuary service is was a type, an example of the heavenly. Daily sacrifices were made and then once a year the Sanctuary was cleansed.
We've gone over the prophecy that led us to the conclusion of this--
Daniel {8:14} And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.
2300 years and the dates lined up with history to bring it to 1844.
They believed Christ would come then, that the sanctuary was cleansed on that day rather than the beginning of the cleansing started.
Looking to the type the High Priest alone once a year entered the Most Holy Place and a day of cleansing would take place. The Sanctuary itself would be cleansed, the people would be cleansed, all the sin that accumulated there over the year would be cleansed. It was a solemn day, a day for afflicting the soul of making sure you were right with God.
As Jesus began the cleansing of the Sanctuary the time for the normal day to day sacrifices was over. 2300 years were up. So in 1844 Jesus began the cleansing of the Sanctuary and when it's finished He will no longer be in the Sanctuary. As it says above-
5 And after that I looked, and, behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened: 6 And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles. 7 And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever. 8 And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from His power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.
NO MAN was able to enter into the temple- till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.
Probation is over completely, the cleansing work moved from the Most Holy place to the Holy, to the outer court just as it was typified in the earthly Sanctuary work.
We are told this in Daniel as well--
{11:45} And he shall plant the tabernacles of
his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain;
yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.
{12:1} And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great
prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and
there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since
there was a nation [even] to that same time: and at that time
thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found
written in the book.
The beast that is being talked of throughtout chapter 11 will plant the tabernacle of his palace between the seas in the gloious holy mountain-- yet he shall come to his end and none shall help him, and at THAT time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people.
We have something to signal us. We have a prophecy unfulfilled to look towards. We have other as yet unfulfilled prophecies such as the situation of not being able to buy or sell save we make some sort of compromise with our faith that will allow us to do so. These things have to be paid attention to. Yes, just as it was in the days of Noah and Sodom and Gomorrah this will ALL take place with the majority of people blissfully in the dark because they don't want to see, they don't want to believe, they aren't watching and praying, they aren't prepared with oil in their lamps awaiting the Bridegroom. Looking at the world today as we see more and more how the Papacy has regained so much power- power that was unthinkable for it to have even in the 1950's when there was a massive protest over sending an ambassador to the Vatican. Power that today people back then would cringe at. Today we have our president calling the Pope, His Holiness, and the world looks on and smiles, applauding the diplomacy. Less than a hundred years ago, just under sixty years ago and it was impossible for the Protestant churches to allow such a thing and now they have ALL joined hands with the Papacy. The power that has grown since the deadly wound was healed is tremendous. Under Pope John Paul the Second ties were formed that before were unthinkable. With Pope Benedict the Sixteenth, they are being tied tighter than ever and all over the world people are beginning to look to the Papacy as a bringer of PEACE, of UNITY, of LOVE, of GOD, of HOPE. Eyes are being drawn off Christ and placed upon a man, upon a system. And the world sleeps on content to be lulled, unalarmed, claiming no need for extra oil in their lamps, no need for upset, no need to stand watch they are content to believe there is another watching for them, another praying for them.
We can't be lulled, we can't let ourselves be lulled! WAKE UP! WAKE UP!
It's all unfolding as foretold and by the grace and mercy of God may we be with Him, protected in His amazing love, through HIS righteousness so that when the plagues of God's wrath are unleashed they will not touch us.
Amen!
Saturday, October 10, 2009
A Clean Heart
Psalm 149
{149:1} Praise ye the LORD. Sing unto the LORD a new song, [and] his
praise in the congregation of saints.
{149:2} Let Israel rejoice in him that made him: let the children of
Zion be joyful in their King.
{149:3} Let them praise his name in the dance: let them sing praises
unto him with the timbrel and harp.
{149:4} For the LORD taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify
the meek with salvation.
{149:5} Let the saints be joyful in glory: let them sing aloud upon
their beds.
{149:6} [Let] the high [praises] of God [be] in their mouth, and a
twoedged sword in their hand;
{149:7} To execute vengeance upon the heathen, [and] punishments upon
the people;
{149:8} To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters
of iron;
{149:9} To execute upon them the judgment written: this honour have all
his saints. Praise ye the LORD.
Proverbs {5:3} For the lips of a strange woman drop [as] an
honeycomb, and her mouth [is] smoother than oil: {5:4}
But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged
sword.
Hebrews {4:12} For the word of God [is] quick, and
powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing
even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirt and of the
joints and marrow, and [is] a discerner of the thoughts and
intents of the heart.
Rev. {1:16} And he had in his right hand seven stars: and
out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his
countenance [was] as the sun shineth in his strength
The ultimate discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart- Jesus.
Psalms {51:10} Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit
within me.
{51:11} Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy
spirit from me.
{51:12} Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me [with
thy] free spirit.
This is my prayer now and always.
I will never feel *clean* enough, I will never feel *right* enough. My thoughts and intents of my heart are not as they should be and Jesus can discern this, He knows and I come before Him begging His mercy and grace- asking that He create a clean heart in me, that He renews a right spirit in me. I cry out with David, 'Cast me not away from thy presence and take not the holy spirit from me, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit.'
John
{17:1} These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to
heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son,
that thy Son also may glorify thee: {17:2} As thou hast
given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal
life to as many as thou hast given him. {17:3} And this is
life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God,
and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. {17:4} I have
glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which
thou gavest me to do. {17:5} And now, O Father, glorify
thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with
thee before the world was. {17:6} I have manifested thy
name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world:
thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have
kept thy word. {17:7} Now they have known that all things
whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. {17:8} For I
have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and
they have received [them,] and have known surely that I
came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst
send me. {17:9} I pray for them: I pray not for the world,
but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.
{17:10} And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I
am glorified in them. {17:11} And now I am no more in the
world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy
Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast
given me, that they may be one, as we [are. ]{17:12} While
I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those
that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost,
but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.
{17:13} And now come I to thee; and these things I speak
in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in
themselves. {17:14} I have given them thy word; and the
world hath hated them, because they are not of the world,
even as I am not of the world. {17:15} I pray not that thou
shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest
keep them from the evil. {17:16} They are not of the world,
even as I am not of the world. {17:17} Sanctify them
through thy truth: thy word is truth. {17:18} As thou hast
sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into
the world. {17:19} And for their sakes I sanctify myself,
that they also might be sanctified through the truth. {17:20}
Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall
believe on me through their word; {17:21} That they all
may be one; as thou, Father, [art] in me, and I in thee, that
they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that
thou hast sent me. {17:22} And the glory which thou gavest
me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are
one: {17:23} I in them, and thou in me, that they may be
made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou
hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
{17:24} Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given
me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory,
which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the
foundation of the world. {17:25} O righteous Father, the
world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and
these have known that thou hast sent me. {17:26} And I
have declared unto them thy name, and will declare [it:] that
the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and
I in them.
AMEN!
{149:1} Praise ye the LORD. Sing unto the LORD a new song, [and] his
praise in the congregation of saints.
{149:2} Let Israel rejoice in him that made him: let the children of
Zion be joyful in their King.
{149:3} Let them praise his name in the dance: let them sing praises
unto him with the timbrel and harp.
{149:4} For the LORD taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify
the meek with salvation.
{149:5} Let the saints be joyful in glory: let them sing aloud upon
their beds.
{149:6} [Let] the high [praises] of God [be] in their mouth, and a
twoedged sword in their hand;
{149:7} To execute vengeance upon the heathen, [and] punishments upon
the people;
{149:8} To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters
of iron;
{149:9} To execute upon them the judgment written: this honour have all
his saints. Praise ye the LORD.
Proverbs {5:3} For the lips of a strange woman drop [as] an
honeycomb, and her mouth [is] smoother than oil: {5:4}
But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged
sword.
Hebrews {4:12} For the word of God [is] quick, and
powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing
even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirt and of the
joints and marrow, and [is] a discerner of the thoughts and
intents of the heart.
Rev. {1:16} And he had in his right hand seven stars: and
out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his
countenance [was] as the sun shineth in his strength
The ultimate discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart- Jesus.
Psalms {51:10} Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit
within me.
{51:11} Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy
spirit from me.
{51:12} Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me [with
thy] free spirit.
This is my prayer now and always.
I will never feel *clean* enough, I will never feel *right* enough. My thoughts and intents of my heart are not as they should be and Jesus can discern this, He knows and I come before Him begging His mercy and grace- asking that He create a clean heart in me, that He renews a right spirit in me. I cry out with David, 'Cast me not away from thy presence and take not the holy spirit from me, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit.'
John
{17:1} These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to
heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son,
that thy Son also may glorify thee: {17:2} As thou hast
given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal
life to as many as thou hast given him. {17:3} And this is
life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God,
and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. {17:4} I have
glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which
thou gavest me to do. {17:5} And now, O Father, glorify
thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with
thee before the world was. {17:6} I have manifested thy
name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world:
thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have
kept thy word. {17:7} Now they have known that all things
whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. {17:8} For I
have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and
they have received [them,] and have known surely that I
came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst
send me. {17:9} I pray for them: I pray not for the world,
but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.
{17:10} And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I
am glorified in them. {17:11} And now I am no more in the
world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy
Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast
given me, that they may be one, as we [are. ]{17:12} While
I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those
that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost,
but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.
{17:13} And now come I to thee; and these things I speak
in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in
themselves. {17:14} I have given them thy word; and the
world hath hated them, because they are not of the world,
even as I am not of the world. {17:15} I pray not that thou
shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest
keep them from the evil. {17:16} They are not of the world,
even as I am not of the world. {17:17} Sanctify them
through thy truth: thy word is truth. {17:18} As thou hast
sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into
the world. {17:19} And for their sakes I sanctify myself,
that they also might be sanctified through the truth. {17:20}
Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall
believe on me through their word; {17:21} That they all
may be one; as thou, Father, [art] in me, and I in thee, that
they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that
thou hast sent me. {17:22} And the glory which thou gavest
me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are
one: {17:23} I in them, and thou in me, that they may be
made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou
hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
{17:24} Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given
me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory,
which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the
foundation of the world. {17:25} O righteous Father, the
world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and
these have known that thou hast sent me. {17:26} And I
have declared unto them thy name, and will declare [it:] that
the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and
I in them.
AMEN!
Friday, October 9, 2009
Warning
Revelation
(Excerpts from Daniel and Revelation by Uriah Smith- written in the late 1800's revised in 1940's.)
A Message of Warning.--
The argument showing what constitutes the beast, the image, and the mark, has already been given in comments on Revelation 13; and it has been shown that the two-horned beast, which erects the image and enforces the mark, is the United States of America. It is this work, and these agents, against which the third angel's message utters its warning, which is further proof that this message is now in order, and shows the most conclusive harmony in all these prophecies. The arguments we need not here repeat; it will be sufficient to recapitulate the points established.
The "beast" is the Roman Catholic power.
The "mark of the beast" is that institution which this power sets forth as proof of its authority to legislate for the church, and command the consciences of men under sin. It consists in a change of the law of God, by which the signature of royalty is taken from the law. The seventh-day Sabbath, the great memorial of Jehovah's creative work, is torn from its place in the decalogue, and a false and counterfeit sabbath, the first day of the week, is set up in its stead.
The "image of the beast" is some ecclesiastical combination which will resemble the beast in being clothed with power to enforce its decrees with the pains and penalties of the civil law.
The "two-horned beast," by which the image is given power to speak and act, represents the United States of America, which is moving toward the formation of the image of the beast.
The two-horned beast enforces the mark of the beast, that is, it establishes by law the observance of the first day of the week, or the Sunday rest day. What is being done in this direction has already been noticed. The movement is urged on by individuals and by organized groups which mix agitation for religious laws with their better aims.
But the people are not left in the dark in this matter. The third angel's message utters a solemn protest against all this evil. It exposes the work of the beast, shows the nature of its opposition to the law of God, warns the people against compliance with its demands, and points the way of truth to all. This naturally excites opposition, and the church is led so much the more to seek the aid of human power in behalf of its dogmas as they are shown to be sadly lacking in divine authority.
What has this message accomplished, and what showing does it make in the world today? In answer to this query, some striking facts may be presented. The first publication in its interests was issued in 1849. Today this message is proclaimed by books, tracts, and periodicals in 200 different languages, and maintains 83 publishing houses scattered throughout both hemispheres, in which are published 313 periodicals. The value of its literature sold during 1942 amounted to $5,467,664.99. Its evangelistic work is carried forward in 413 countries, and preached in more than 810 languages.
Such a movement is at least a phenomenon to be explained. We have found movements which fulfill most strikingly and accurately the first and second angel's messages. Here is another which now challenges the attention of the world as a fulfillment of the third. It claims to be a fulfillment, and asks the world to examine the credentials on which it bases its right to such a claim. Let us look at them.
"The third angel followed them." So this movement follows the two previously mentioned. It takes up and continues the promulgation of the truths they uttered, and adds to them what the third angel's message involves besides.
The third message is characterized as a warning against the beast. So this movement holds prominent among its themes an explanation of this symbol, telling the people what it is, and exposing its blasphemous claims and works. The third message warns all against worshiping the beast. So this movement explains how this beast-power has brought into Christendom certain institutions which antagonize the requirements of the Most High, and shows that if we yield to these, we worship this power. "Know ye not," says Paul, "that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey?" Romans 6: 16.
The third message warns all against receiving the mark of the beast. So this movement makes it the burden of its work to show what the mark of the beast is, and to warn against is reception. It is the more solicitous to do this, because this unchristian power has worked so cunningly that the majority are deceived into making unconscious concessions to its authority. It is shown that the mark of the beast is a institution which has been arrayed in Christian garb, and insidiously introduced into the Christian church in such a way as to nullify the authority of Jehovah and enthrone that of the beast. Stripped of all its disguises, it is simply setting up a counterfeit sabbath of its own on the first day of the week, in place of the Sabbath of the Lord on the seventh day--a usurpation which the great God cannot tolerate, and from which the remnant church must fully clear itself before it will be prepared for the coming of Christ. Hence the urgent warning, Let no man worship the beast or receive his mark.
The third message has something to say against the worship of the image of the beast. So this movement speaks of this subject also, telling what the image will be, or at least explaining the prophecy of the two-horned beast. It reveals where the image is to be formed. The prophecy concerns this generation; and is evidently on the verge of fulfillment.
There is no religious enterprise extant today except that of the Seventh-day Adventists which claims to be a fulfillment of the third angel's message--no other which holds forth as its prominent themes the very subjects of which this book is composed. What shall we do with these things? Is this the fulfillment? It must so stand, unless its claims can be disproved: unless it can be shown that the first and second angels' messages have not been heard; that the positions taken in reference to the beast, the image, the mark, and the worship are not correct; and that all the prophecies, and signs, and evidences which show that the coming of Christ is near, and consequently that this message is due, can be wholly set aside. This the intelligent Bible student will hardly undertake.
The result of the proclamation as declared in verse 12, still further proves the correctness of the positions here taken. It brings out a company of whom it can be said, "Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." In the very heart of Christendom this work is being done, and those who receive the message are rendered peculiar by their practice in reference to the commandments of God. What difference is there in practice, and what only difference among Christians in this respect?--Only this: some think that the fourth commandment is kept by devoting the first day of the week to rest and worship. Others claim that the seventh day is the one set apart to such duties, and spend its hours accordingly, resuming on the first day their ordinary labor. No plainer line of demarcation could be drawn between two classes. The time which one class regards as sacred and devotes to religious uses, the other looks upon as only secular and devotes to ordinary laboring. One class, pursing its worldly vocations, finds the other class withdrawn from all such pursuits, and the avenue of commercial intercourse between them abruptly closed. Thus for two days in the week these two classes are kept apart by difference of doctrine and practice in regard to the fourth commandment. On no other commandment could there be so marked a difference.
The Sabbath Made Prominent in the Message.--The third angel's message brings its adherents to the observance of the seventh day, for in this way only are they made peculiar, inasmuch as an observance of the first day would not distinguish a person from the masses who were already observing that day when the message was introduced. In this we find still further evidence that Sundaykeeping is the mark of the beast, for the message, presenting as its chief burden a warning against receiving the mark of the beast, will of course brings its adherents to discard that practice which constitutes the mark, and to adopt the opposite course. It does lead them to discard the observance of the first day of the week, and adopt that of the seventh day. In view of this, it is at once seen that there is here more than an inference that Sundaykeeping is the mark of the beast against which it warns us, and that the observance of the seventh day is its opposite.
This is in harmony with the argument on the seal of God, as given in the remarks on Revelation 7. It was there shown that sign, seal, mark, and token are synonymous terms, and that God takes His Sabbath to be His sign, or seal, in reference to His people. Thus God has a seal, which is His Sabbath. The beast has a mark, which is a counterfeit sabbath. One is the seventh day, the other is the first day. Christendom will at last be divided into just two classes: those who are sealed with the seal of the living God--that is, have His sign, or keep His sabbath; and those who receive the mark of the beast-- that is, have his sign, or keep his counterfeit sabbath. In reference to this issue, the third angel's message both enlightens and warns us.
As so much importance attaches to the seventh-day Sabbath, it will be proper to present here the leading facts connected with the Sabbath institution.
The Sabbath was instituted in the beginning, at the conclusion of the first week of time. (Genesis 2: 1-3.)
It was the seventh day of that week, and was based on facts which are inseparably connected with its very name and existence--facts which can never be changed. God's resting on the seventh day made it His rest day, or the Sabbath (rest) of the Lord; and it can never cease to be His rest day, as that fact never can be changed. He sanctified, or set apart, the day then and there, the record states; and that sanctification can never cease, unless it is removed by an act on the part of Jehovah as direct and explicit as that by which He placed it upon the day in the beginning. No one claims that this has ever been done, and one could prove it if he did so claim.
The Sabbath has nothing in it of a typical or ceremonial nature, for it was instituted before man sinned, and hence belongs to a time when in the very nature of things a type or shadow could not exist.
The laws and institutions which existed before man's fall were primary in their nature. They grew out of the relation between God and man, and man and man, and were such as would always have remained if man never had sinned, and were not affected by his sin. In other words, they were in the nature of things immutable and eternal. Ceremonial and typical laws owed their origin to the fact that man had sinned. These were from dispensation to dispensation subject to change; and these, and these only, were abolished at the cross. The Sabbath law was a primary law, and therefore immutable and eternal.
The sanctification of the Sabbath in Eden assures its existence from creation to Sinai. Here it was placed in the very bosom of the decalogue as God spoke it with an audible voice, and wrote it with His finger on tables of stone-- circumstances which forever separate it from ceremonial laws, and place it among the moral and eternal.
The Sabbath is not indefinite, any seventh day after six labor. The law from Sinai (Exodus 20: 8-11) makes it as definite as language can make it. The events that gave it birth (Genesis 2: 1-3) confine it to the definite seventh day. The 6,240 Sabbath miracles in the wilderness, three each week for forty years--a double supply of manna on the sixth day, the preservation of the sixth-day manna on the seventh day, and none on the seventh day (Exodus 16)-- show that it is one particular day, and not simply a proportion of time. To claim otherwise would be like claiming that Washington's Birthday or Independence Day was only a 365th part of a year, and might be celebrated on any other day as well as the day upon which it occurred.
The Sabbath is a part of that law which our Lord openly declared that He came not to destroy. On the other hand, He most solemnly affirmed that it should endure in every jot and tittle while the earth should continue. (Matthew 5: 17- 20.)
It is a part of that law which Paul declares is not made void but established by faith in Christ. (Romans 3: 31.) On the contrary the ceremonial or typical law, which pointed to Christ and ceased at the cross is made void, or superseded, by faith in Him. (Ephesians 2: 15.)
It is a part of that royal law, a law pertaining to the King Jehovah, which James declares is a law of liberty, and which shall judge us at the last day. God does not have different standards of judgment for different ages of the world. (James 2: 11, 12.)
It is the "Lord's day" of Revelation 1: 10. (See comments on that verse.)
It appears as the institution in reference to which a great reform is predicted in the last days. (Isaiah 56: 1, 2 compared with 1 Peter 1: 5.) Under this head would also come the message under consideration.
In the new creation, the Sabbath, true to its origin and nature, again appears, and will thenceforward shed its blessings upon God's people through all eternity. (Isaiah 66: 22, 23.)
Such is a brief synopsis of some of the arguments to show that the Sabbath law has been in no wise relaxed, and the institution in no way changed; and that a person cannot be said to keep the commandments of God unless he keeps His day. To have to do with such an institution is a high honor. To pay heed to its claims will prove an infinite blessing.
Punishment of Beast Worshipers.--
These shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. When is this torment inflicted? Revelation 19: 20 shows that at the second coming of Christ there is a manifestation of fiery judgments which may be called a lake of fire and brimstone, into which the beast and the false prophet are cast alive. This can refer only to the destruction visited upon them at the beginning, not at the end, of the thousand years.
There is a remarkable passage in Isaiah to which we are obliged to refer in explanation of the phraseology of the threatening of the third angel, and which unquestionably describes scenes to take place here at the second advent and in the desolate state of the earth during the thousand years following. That the language of Revelation was borrowed from this prophecy can hardly fail to be seen. After describing the Lord's anger upon the nations, the great slaughter of their armies, and the departing of the heavens as a scroll, the prophet says: "It is the day of the Lord's vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion. And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up forever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it forever and ever." Isaiah 34: 8-10. Since it is expressly revealed that there is to be a lake of fire in which all sinners perish at the end of the thousand years, we can only conclude that the destruction of the living wicked at the beginning of this period, and the final doom of all the ungodly at its close, are similar.
The expression "forever and ever" cannot here denote eternity. This is evident from the fact that this punishment is inflicted on this earth, where time is measured by day and night. This is further shown from the passage in Isaiah already referred to, if that is, as above suggested, the language from which this is borrowed, and applies to the same time. That language is spoken of the land of Idumea; but whether it be taken to mean literally the land of Edom, south and east of Judea, or to represent, as it doubtless does, this whole earth at the time when Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven in flaming fire, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion comes, in either case the scene must eventually terminate. This earth is finally to be made new, cleansed of every stain of sin, every vestige of suffering and decay, and to become the habitation of righteousness and joy throughout eternal ages. The word {GREEK CHARACTERS IN PRINTED TEXT}, aion, here translated "forever" is defined thus by G. Abbot-Smith in A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament: "A space of time, as, a lifetime, generation, period of history, an indefinitely long period." So without doing violence to the accepted meaning of the Greek word, we may here interpret it in harmony with other plain statements of Scripture.
The period of the third angel's message is a time of patience with the people of God. Paul and James both give us instructions on this point. (Hebrews 10: 36; James 5: 7, 8.) Meanwhile this waiting company are keeping the commandments of God--the ten commandments--and the faith of Jesus, that is, all the teachings of Christ and His apostles as contained in the New Testament. The true Sabbath as given in the decalogue is thus brought out in vivid contrast with the counterfeit sabbath, the mark of the beast, which finally distinguishes those who reject the third angel's message.
Verse 13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them. 14 And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle. 15 And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in Thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for Thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. 16 And He that sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped.
A Solemn Crisis.--
Events grow solemn as we near the end. It is this fact which gives to the third angel's message, now going forth, its unusual degree of solemnity and importance. It is the last warning to go forth prior to the coming of the Son of man, here represented as seated upon a white cloud, a crown upon His head, and a sickle in His hand, to reap the harvest of the earth.
We are fast passing over a line of prophecy which culminates in the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven in flaming fire, to take vengeance on His foes, and to reward His saints. Not only so, but we have come so near its accomplishment that the next link in the chain is this crowning and momentous event. Time never rolls backward. As the river does not falter as it approaches the precipice, but bears all floating bodies over with resistless power; and as the seasons never reverse their course, but summer follows in the path of the budding fig tree, and winter treads close upon the falling leaf; so we are borne onward and onward, whether we will or not, whether prepared or not, to the unavoidable and irreversible crisis. Ah, how little do the proud professor of religion and the careless sinner dream of the doom that is impending! How hard, even for those who know and profess the truth, to realize it as it is!
A Blessing Promised.--
John is commanded by a voice from heave to write, "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth;" and the response of the Spirit is, "Yea, . . . that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them." "From henceforth" must signify from some particular point of time. What point?--Evidently from the beginning of the message in connection with which this is spoken. But why are those who die after this point of time blessed? There must be some special reason for pronouncing this benediction upon them. Is it not because they escape the time of fearful peril which the saints are to encounter as they close their pilgrimage? While they are thus blessed in common with all the righteous dead, they have an advantage over them in being doubtless that company who are raised to everlasting life in the special resurrection in Daniel 12: 2.
It will be noticed that in this line of prophecy three angels precede the Son of man on the white cloud, and three are introduced after that symbol. The opinion has already been expressed that literal angels are engaged in the scenes here described. The first three have charge of the three special messages. The message of the fourth angel is evidently to be uttered after the Son of man finishes His priestly work, and takes His seat upon the white cloud, but before He appears in the clouds of heaven. As the language is addressed to Him who is seated upon the white cloud, having in His hand a sharp sickle ready to reap, it must denote a message of prayer on the part of the church, after their work for the work is done, probation has ceased, and nothing remains but for the Lord to appear and take His people to Himself. It is doubtless the day-and-night cry spoken of by our Lord in Luke 18: 7, 8, in connection with the coming of the Son of man. This prayer will be answered; the elect will be avenged; for does not the parable read, "Shall not God avenge His own elect, which cry day and night unto Him?" He that is seated upon the cloud will thrust in His sickle, and the saints, under the figure of the wheat of the earth, will be gathered into the heavenly garner.
The Wheat Garnered.--
"He that sat on the cloud," says the prophecy, "thrust in His sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped." By this language we are carried past the second advent, with its accompanying scenes of destruction to the wicked and salvation to the righteous. Beyond these scenes we must therefore look for the application of the following verses.
Verse 17 And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. 18 And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. 19 And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. 20 And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.
The Winepress of God's Wrath.--
The last two angels have to do with the wicked, who are most fitly represented by the purple clusters of the vine of the earth. May it not be that the closing doom of that class at the end of the thousand years is here presented, the prophecy thus making a final disposition of both the righteous and the wicked-- the righteous clothed with immortality, and safely established in the kingdom, the wicked perishing outside the city?
This can hardly be applied at the time of the second advent, for events are here given in chronological order, and the destruction of the wicked would be contemporaneous with the gathering of the righteous. Again, the living wicked at Christ's coming drink of the "cup" of His indignation. But this passage brings to view the time when they perish in the "winepress" of His wrath, which is said to be trodden "without the city," answering completely to the description of Revelation 20: 9, this latter expression more naturally denoting their complete and final destruction.
The angel comes out of the temple, where the records are kept and the punishment is determined. The other angel has power over fire. This may have some connection with the fact that fire is the agent by which the wicked are at last to be destroyed, although, to carry out the figure, the wicked are likened to the clusters of the vine of the earth, and are said to be cast into the great winepress which is trodden without the city. Blood comes out of the winepress, even to the horses' bridles. We know that the wicked are doomed to be swallowed up at last in a flood of all-devouring flame descending from God out of heaven, but what preceding slaughter may take place among the doomed host, we do not know. It is not improbable that this language will be literally fulfilled. As the first four angels of this series denoted a marked movement on the part of the people of God, the last two may denote the same; for the saints are to have some part to act in meting out and executing the final punishment of the wicked. (1 Corinthians 6: 2; Psalm 149: 9.)
The Saints Triumphant.--This prophecy closes as the others do, with the triumph of God, Christ, and the redeemed.
*******
It'll never happen. People shake their heads and say, it can't happen. There will never be a Sunday law, in fact we are shoving religion- especially Christianity out the door as fast as we can. Nothing resembling must exist in schools, in courts, in any government function. The government cannot claim as holy any one day over another. The government cannot promote any one religion over another. The separation of church and state is growing wider not narrower. The government has its finger in so much and making sure all religion stays out of the government is something prominent today. So hearing the words - 'It will never happen' - seems about right doesn't it? Our imaginations can't fathom a time where the government declares ANY day a day for religion. We can fathom the government declaring a day for themselves unrelated to religion.
Remember how deceptive the Devil is? He's not going to make it something obvious.
If I claim I'm a democrat what am I saying? If a person says this and this is what democrats believe so you must believe that- it would be true, right? If I say I'm a republican there are certain attributes all republican hold in common that makes them part of that group. If I say I'm a catholic then you know there are certain rituals I believe in. The same is said if I'm a protestant. When we make a claim relating to our beliefs defining us then we stand behind those claims. Yes, some might say they are democratic with more liberal leanings, or republican with more conservative views. A liberal republican, a conservative democrat, we have adjectives to discribe just where our stand might be. We might not be a staunch democrat, and people know what is meant by being staunch. Still, we lay claim to the democratic title no matter the various leanings.
The point I'm trying to make here is while we might stand up and shout we worship no God, if we then claim to be affiliated to a group, and that group has it's beliefs that will -- whether knowingly or unknowingly -- institute something the has its deepest roots in religion then we are followers of that whether we are even aware of it in that respect.
Matthew {22:19} Shew me
the tribute money. And they brought unto him a penny.
{22:20} And he saith unto them, Whose [is] this image and
superscription? {22:21} They say unto him, Caesar’s. Then
saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things
which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.
We have to have our only affliation with God. We must have our hearts and beliefs purely with God. We must stand for God over anything. Yes, the government has its rules and we follow those rules but only so far as they don't interfere with our stand for God.
A mark - a seal. Marked as the Devil's or sealed as God's. So many people believe they can take on 'Caesar's ways, and give to Caesar what belongs only to God.
How will it all unfold? Time will truly tell but we must have our hearts and eyes opened to recognize the deception and be on God's side. We must be able with the Holy Spirit's guidance to see through the deceptive blanket that will come down upon the many, praying always that we will not be caught up in the untruths disguised as truths.
May the Lord Bless and Keep Us as we live in these last days and the grand deception is played out. May we be sealed by the Holy Spirit unto God by the mercy and grace of our Lord and Savior, God's Son, Jesus Christ.
Amen.
(Excerpts from Daniel and Revelation by Uriah Smith- written in the late 1800's revised in 1940's.)
A Message of Warning.--
The argument showing what constitutes the beast, the image, and the mark, has already been given in comments on Revelation 13; and it has been shown that the two-horned beast, which erects the image and enforces the mark, is the United States of America. It is this work, and these agents, against which the third angel's message utters its warning, which is further proof that this message is now in order, and shows the most conclusive harmony in all these prophecies. The arguments we need not here repeat; it will be sufficient to recapitulate the points established.
The "beast" is the Roman Catholic power.
The "mark of the beast" is that institution which this power sets forth as proof of its authority to legislate for the church, and command the consciences of men under sin. It consists in a change of the law of God, by which the signature of royalty is taken from the law. The seventh-day Sabbath, the great memorial of Jehovah's creative work, is torn from its place in the decalogue, and a false and counterfeit sabbath, the first day of the week, is set up in its stead.
The "image of the beast" is some ecclesiastical combination which will resemble the beast in being clothed with power to enforce its decrees with the pains and penalties of the civil law.
The "two-horned beast," by which the image is given power to speak and act, represents the United States of America, which is moving toward the formation of the image of the beast.
The two-horned beast enforces the mark of the beast, that is, it establishes by law the observance of the first day of the week, or the Sunday rest day. What is being done in this direction has already been noticed. The movement is urged on by individuals and by organized groups which mix agitation for religious laws with their better aims.
But the people are not left in the dark in this matter. The third angel's message utters a solemn protest against all this evil. It exposes the work of the beast, shows the nature of its opposition to the law of God, warns the people against compliance with its demands, and points the way of truth to all. This naturally excites opposition, and the church is led so much the more to seek the aid of human power in behalf of its dogmas as they are shown to be sadly lacking in divine authority.
What has this message accomplished, and what showing does it make in the world today? In answer to this query, some striking facts may be presented. The first publication in its interests was issued in 1849. Today this message is proclaimed by books, tracts, and periodicals in 200 different languages, and maintains 83 publishing houses scattered throughout both hemispheres, in which are published 313 periodicals. The value of its literature sold during 1942 amounted to $5,467,664.99. Its evangelistic work is carried forward in 413 countries, and preached in more than 810 languages.
Such a movement is at least a phenomenon to be explained. We have found movements which fulfill most strikingly and accurately the first and second angel's messages. Here is another which now challenges the attention of the world as a fulfillment of the third. It claims to be a fulfillment, and asks the world to examine the credentials on which it bases its right to such a claim. Let us look at them.
"The third angel followed them." So this movement follows the two previously mentioned. It takes up and continues the promulgation of the truths they uttered, and adds to them what the third angel's message involves besides.
The third message is characterized as a warning against the beast. So this movement holds prominent among its themes an explanation of this symbol, telling the people what it is, and exposing its blasphemous claims and works. The third message warns all against worshiping the beast. So this movement explains how this beast-power has brought into Christendom certain institutions which antagonize the requirements of the Most High, and shows that if we yield to these, we worship this power. "Know ye not," says Paul, "that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey?" Romans 6: 16.
The third message warns all against receiving the mark of the beast. So this movement makes it the burden of its work to show what the mark of the beast is, and to warn against is reception. It is the more solicitous to do this, because this unchristian power has worked so cunningly that the majority are deceived into making unconscious concessions to its authority. It is shown that the mark of the beast is a institution which has been arrayed in Christian garb, and insidiously introduced into the Christian church in such a way as to nullify the authority of Jehovah and enthrone that of the beast. Stripped of all its disguises, it is simply setting up a counterfeit sabbath of its own on the first day of the week, in place of the Sabbath of the Lord on the seventh day--a usurpation which the great God cannot tolerate, and from which the remnant church must fully clear itself before it will be prepared for the coming of Christ. Hence the urgent warning, Let no man worship the beast or receive his mark.
The third message has something to say against the worship of the image of the beast. So this movement speaks of this subject also, telling what the image will be, or at least explaining the prophecy of the two-horned beast. It reveals where the image is to be formed. The prophecy concerns this generation; and is evidently on the verge of fulfillment.
There is no religious enterprise extant today except that of the Seventh-day Adventists which claims to be a fulfillment of the third angel's message--no other which holds forth as its prominent themes the very subjects of which this book is composed. What shall we do with these things? Is this the fulfillment? It must so stand, unless its claims can be disproved: unless it can be shown that the first and second angels' messages have not been heard; that the positions taken in reference to the beast, the image, the mark, and the worship are not correct; and that all the prophecies, and signs, and evidences which show that the coming of Christ is near, and consequently that this message is due, can be wholly set aside. This the intelligent Bible student will hardly undertake.
The result of the proclamation as declared in verse 12, still further proves the correctness of the positions here taken. It brings out a company of whom it can be said, "Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." In the very heart of Christendom this work is being done, and those who receive the message are rendered peculiar by their practice in reference to the commandments of God. What difference is there in practice, and what only difference among Christians in this respect?--Only this: some think that the fourth commandment is kept by devoting the first day of the week to rest and worship. Others claim that the seventh day is the one set apart to such duties, and spend its hours accordingly, resuming on the first day their ordinary labor. No plainer line of demarcation could be drawn between two classes. The time which one class regards as sacred and devotes to religious uses, the other looks upon as only secular and devotes to ordinary laboring. One class, pursing its worldly vocations, finds the other class withdrawn from all such pursuits, and the avenue of commercial intercourse between them abruptly closed. Thus for two days in the week these two classes are kept apart by difference of doctrine and practice in regard to the fourth commandment. On no other commandment could there be so marked a difference.
The Sabbath Made Prominent in the Message.--The third angel's message brings its adherents to the observance of the seventh day, for in this way only are they made peculiar, inasmuch as an observance of the first day would not distinguish a person from the masses who were already observing that day when the message was introduced. In this we find still further evidence that Sundaykeeping is the mark of the beast, for the message, presenting as its chief burden a warning against receiving the mark of the beast, will of course brings its adherents to discard that practice which constitutes the mark, and to adopt the opposite course. It does lead them to discard the observance of the first day of the week, and adopt that of the seventh day. In view of this, it is at once seen that there is here more than an inference that Sundaykeeping is the mark of the beast against which it warns us, and that the observance of the seventh day is its opposite.
This is in harmony with the argument on the seal of God, as given in the remarks on Revelation 7. It was there shown that sign, seal, mark, and token are synonymous terms, and that God takes His Sabbath to be His sign, or seal, in reference to His people. Thus God has a seal, which is His Sabbath. The beast has a mark, which is a counterfeit sabbath. One is the seventh day, the other is the first day. Christendom will at last be divided into just two classes: those who are sealed with the seal of the living God--that is, have His sign, or keep His sabbath; and those who receive the mark of the beast-- that is, have his sign, or keep his counterfeit sabbath. In reference to this issue, the third angel's message both enlightens and warns us.
As so much importance attaches to the seventh-day Sabbath, it will be proper to present here the leading facts connected with the Sabbath institution.
The Sabbath was instituted in the beginning, at the conclusion of the first week of time. (Genesis 2: 1-3.)
It was the seventh day of that week, and was based on facts which are inseparably connected with its very name and existence--facts which can never be changed. God's resting on the seventh day made it His rest day, or the Sabbath (rest) of the Lord; and it can never cease to be His rest day, as that fact never can be changed. He sanctified, or set apart, the day then and there, the record states; and that sanctification can never cease, unless it is removed by an act on the part of Jehovah as direct and explicit as that by which He placed it upon the day in the beginning. No one claims that this has ever been done, and one could prove it if he did so claim.
The Sabbath has nothing in it of a typical or ceremonial nature, for it was instituted before man sinned, and hence belongs to a time when in the very nature of things a type or shadow could not exist.
The laws and institutions which existed before man's fall were primary in their nature. They grew out of the relation between God and man, and man and man, and were such as would always have remained if man never had sinned, and were not affected by his sin. In other words, they were in the nature of things immutable and eternal. Ceremonial and typical laws owed their origin to the fact that man had sinned. These were from dispensation to dispensation subject to change; and these, and these only, were abolished at the cross. The Sabbath law was a primary law, and therefore immutable and eternal.
The sanctification of the Sabbath in Eden assures its existence from creation to Sinai. Here it was placed in the very bosom of the decalogue as God spoke it with an audible voice, and wrote it with His finger on tables of stone-- circumstances which forever separate it from ceremonial laws, and place it among the moral and eternal.
The Sabbath is not indefinite, any seventh day after six labor. The law from Sinai (Exodus 20: 8-11) makes it as definite as language can make it. The events that gave it birth (Genesis 2: 1-3) confine it to the definite seventh day. The 6,240 Sabbath miracles in the wilderness, three each week for forty years--a double supply of manna on the sixth day, the preservation of the sixth-day manna on the seventh day, and none on the seventh day (Exodus 16)-- show that it is one particular day, and not simply a proportion of time. To claim otherwise would be like claiming that Washington's Birthday or Independence Day was only a 365th part of a year, and might be celebrated on any other day as well as the day upon which it occurred.
The Sabbath is a part of that law which our Lord openly declared that He came not to destroy. On the other hand, He most solemnly affirmed that it should endure in every jot and tittle while the earth should continue. (Matthew 5: 17- 20.)
It is a part of that law which Paul declares is not made void but established by faith in Christ. (Romans 3: 31.) On the contrary the ceremonial or typical law, which pointed to Christ and ceased at the cross is made void, or superseded, by faith in Him. (Ephesians 2: 15.)
It is a part of that royal law, a law pertaining to the King Jehovah, which James declares is a law of liberty, and which shall judge us at the last day. God does not have different standards of judgment for different ages of the world. (James 2: 11, 12.)
It is the "Lord's day" of Revelation 1: 10. (See comments on that verse.)
It appears as the institution in reference to which a great reform is predicted in the last days. (Isaiah 56: 1, 2 compared with 1 Peter 1: 5.) Under this head would also come the message under consideration.
In the new creation, the Sabbath, true to its origin and nature, again appears, and will thenceforward shed its blessings upon God's people through all eternity. (Isaiah 66: 22, 23.)
Such is a brief synopsis of some of the arguments to show that the Sabbath law has been in no wise relaxed, and the institution in no way changed; and that a person cannot be said to keep the commandments of God unless he keeps His day. To have to do with such an institution is a high honor. To pay heed to its claims will prove an infinite blessing.
Punishment of Beast Worshipers.--
These shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. When is this torment inflicted? Revelation 19: 20 shows that at the second coming of Christ there is a manifestation of fiery judgments which may be called a lake of fire and brimstone, into which the beast and the false prophet are cast alive. This can refer only to the destruction visited upon them at the beginning, not at the end, of the thousand years.
There is a remarkable passage in Isaiah to which we are obliged to refer in explanation of the phraseology of the threatening of the third angel, and which unquestionably describes scenes to take place here at the second advent and in the desolate state of the earth during the thousand years following. That the language of Revelation was borrowed from this prophecy can hardly fail to be seen. After describing the Lord's anger upon the nations, the great slaughter of their armies, and the departing of the heavens as a scroll, the prophet says: "It is the day of the Lord's vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion. And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up forever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it forever and ever." Isaiah 34: 8-10. Since it is expressly revealed that there is to be a lake of fire in which all sinners perish at the end of the thousand years, we can only conclude that the destruction of the living wicked at the beginning of this period, and the final doom of all the ungodly at its close, are similar.
The expression "forever and ever" cannot here denote eternity. This is evident from the fact that this punishment is inflicted on this earth, where time is measured by day and night. This is further shown from the passage in Isaiah already referred to, if that is, as above suggested, the language from which this is borrowed, and applies to the same time. That language is spoken of the land of Idumea; but whether it be taken to mean literally the land of Edom, south and east of Judea, or to represent, as it doubtless does, this whole earth at the time when Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven in flaming fire, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion comes, in either case the scene must eventually terminate. This earth is finally to be made new, cleansed of every stain of sin, every vestige of suffering and decay, and to become the habitation of righteousness and joy throughout eternal ages. The word {GREEK CHARACTERS IN PRINTED TEXT}, aion, here translated "forever" is defined thus by G. Abbot-Smith in A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament: "A space of time, as, a lifetime, generation, period of history, an indefinitely long period." So without doing violence to the accepted meaning of the Greek word, we may here interpret it in harmony with other plain statements of Scripture.
The period of the third angel's message is a time of patience with the people of God. Paul and James both give us instructions on this point. (Hebrews 10: 36; James 5: 7, 8.) Meanwhile this waiting company are keeping the commandments of God--the ten commandments--and the faith of Jesus, that is, all the teachings of Christ and His apostles as contained in the New Testament. The true Sabbath as given in the decalogue is thus brought out in vivid contrast with the counterfeit sabbath, the mark of the beast, which finally distinguishes those who reject the third angel's message.
Verse 13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them. 14 And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle. 15 And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in Thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for Thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. 16 And He that sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped.
A Solemn Crisis.--
Events grow solemn as we near the end. It is this fact which gives to the third angel's message, now going forth, its unusual degree of solemnity and importance. It is the last warning to go forth prior to the coming of the Son of man, here represented as seated upon a white cloud, a crown upon His head, and a sickle in His hand, to reap the harvest of the earth.
We are fast passing over a line of prophecy which culminates in the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven in flaming fire, to take vengeance on His foes, and to reward His saints. Not only so, but we have come so near its accomplishment that the next link in the chain is this crowning and momentous event. Time never rolls backward. As the river does not falter as it approaches the precipice, but bears all floating bodies over with resistless power; and as the seasons never reverse their course, but summer follows in the path of the budding fig tree, and winter treads close upon the falling leaf; so we are borne onward and onward, whether we will or not, whether prepared or not, to the unavoidable and irreversible crisis. Ah, how little do the proud professor of religion and the careless sinner dream of the doom that is impending! How hard, even for those who know and profess the truth, to realize it as it is!
A Blessing Promised.--
John is commanded by a voice from heave to write, "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth;" and the response of the Spirit is, "Yea, . . . that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them." "From henceforth" must signify from some particular point of time. What point?--Evidently from the beginning of the message in connection with which this is spoken. But why are those who die after this point of time blessed? There must be some special reason for pronouncing this benediction upon them. Is it not because they escape the time of fearful peril which the saints are to encounter as they close their pilgrimage? While they are thus blessed in common with all the righteous dead, they have an advantage over them in being doubtless that company who are raised to everlasting life in the special resurrection in Daniel 12: 2.
It will be noticed that in this line of prophecy three angels precede the Son of man on the white cloud, and three are introduced after that symbol. The opinion has already been expressed that literal angels are engaged in the scenes here described. The first three have charge of the three special messages. The message of the fourth angel is evidently to be uttered after the Son of man finishes His priestly work, and takes His seat upon the white cloud, but before He appears in the clouds of heaven. As the language is addressed to Him who is seated upon the white cloud, having in His hand a sharp sickle ready to reap, it must denote a message of prayer on the part of the church, after their work for the work is done, probation has ceased, and nothing remains but for the Lord to appear and take His people to Himself. It is doubtless the day-and-night cry spoken of by our Lord in Luke 18: 7, 8, in connection with the coming of the Son of man. This prayer will be answered; the elect will be avenged; for does not the parable read, "Shall not God avenge His own elect, which cry day and night unto Him?" He that is seated upon the cloud will thrust in His sickle, and the saints, under the figure of the wheat of the earth, will be gathered into the heavenly garner.
The Wheat Garnered.--
"He that sat on the cloud," says the prophecy, "thrust in His sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped." By this language we are carried past the second advent, with its accompanying scenes of destruction to the wicked and salvation to the righteous. Beyond these scenes we must therefore look for the application of the following verses.
Verse 17 And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. 18 And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. 19 And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. 20 And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.
The Winepress of God's Wrath.--
The last two angels have to do with the wicked, who are most fitly represented by the purple clusters of the vine of the earth. May it not be that the closing doom of that class at the end of the thousand years is here presented, the prophecy thus making a final disposition of both the righteous and the wicked-- the righteous clothed with immortality, and safely established in the kingdom, the wicked perishing outside the city?
This can hardly be applied at the time of the second advent, for events are here given in chronological order, and the destruction of the wicked would be contemporaneous with the gathering of the righteous. Again, the living wicked at Christ's coming drink of the "cup" of His indignation. But this passage brings to view the time when they perish in the "winepress" of His wrath, which is said to be trodden "without the city," answering completely to the description of Revelation 20: 9, this latter expression more naturally denoting their complete and final destruction.
The angel comes out of the temple, where the records are kept and the punishment is determined. The other angel has power over fire. This may have some connection with the fact that fire is the agent by which the wicked are at last to be destroyed, although, to carry out the figure, the wicked are likened to the clusters of the vine of the earth, and are said to be cast into the great winepress which is trodden without the city. Blood comes out of the winepress, even to the horses' bridles. We know that the wicked are doomed to be swallowed up at last in a flood of all-devouring flame descending from God out of heaven, but what preceding slaughter may take place among the doomed host, we do not know. It is not improbable that this language will be literally fulfilled. As the first four angels of this series denoted a marked movement on the part of the people of God, the last two may denote the same; for the saints are to have some part to act in meting out and executing the final punishment of the wicked. (1 Corinthians 6: 2; Psalm 149: 9.)
The Saints Triumphant.--This prophecy closes as the others do, with the triumph of God, Christ, and the redeemed.
*******
It'll never happen. People shake their heads and say, it can't happen. There will never be a Sunday law, in fact we are shoving religion- especially Christianity out the door as fast as we can. Nothing resembling must exist in schools, in courts, in any government function. The government cannot claim as holy any one day over another. The government cannot promote any one religion over another. The separation of church and state is growing wider not narrower. The government has its finger in so much and making sure all religion stays out of the government is something prominent today. So hearing the words - 'It will never happen' - seems about right doesn't it? Our imaginations can't fathom a time where the government declares ANY day a day for religion. We can fathom the government declaring a day for themselves unrelated to religion.
Remember how deceptive the Devil is? He's not going to make it something obvious.
If I claim I'm a democrat what am I saying? If a person says this and this is what democrats believe so you must believe that- it would be true, right? If I say I'm a republican there are certain attributes all republican hold in common that makes them part of that group. If I say I'm a catholic then you know there are certain rituals I believe in. The same is said if I'm a protestant. When we make a claim relating to our beliefs defining us then we stand behind those claims. Yes, some might say they are democratic with more liberal leanings, or republican with more conservative views. A liberal republican, a conservative democrat, we have adjectives to discribe just where our stand might be. We might not be a staunch democrat, and people know what is meant by being staunch. Still, we lay claim to the democratic title no matter the various leanings.
The point I'm trying to make here is while we might stand up and shout we worship no God, if we then claim to be affiliated to a group, and that group has it's beliefs that will -- whether knowingly or unknowingly -- institute something the has its deepest roots in religion then we are followers of that whether we are even aware of it in that respect.
Matthew {22:19} Shew me
the tribute money. And they brought unto him a penny.
{22:20} And he saith unto them, Whose [is] this image and
superscription? {22:21} They say unto him, Caesar’s. Then
saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things
which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.
We have to have our only affliation with God. We must have our hearts and beliefs purely with God. We must stand for God over anything. Yes, the government has its rules and we follow those rules but only so far as they don't interfere with our stand for God.
A mark - a seal. Marked as the Devil's or sealed as God's. So many people believe they can take on 'Caesar's ways, and give to Caesar what belongs only to God.
How will it all unfold? Time will truly tell but we must have our hearts and eyes opened to recognize the deception and be on God's side. We must be able with the Holy Spirit's guidance to see through the deceptive blanket that will come down upon the many, praying always that we will not be caught up in the untruths disguised as truths.
May the Lord Bless and Keep Us as we live in these last days and the grand deception is played out. May we be sealed by the Holy Spirit unto God by the mercy and grace of our Lord and Savior, God's Son, Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Third Angel's Message
Revelation-
(Excerpts taken from Daniel and Revelation by Uriah Smith)
Verse 9 And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, 10 the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: 11 and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. 12 Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.
The Third Angel's Message.--
This is a message of most fearful import. No more severe threatening of divine wrath can be found in all the Bible. The sin against which it warns must be a terrible sin, and it must be one so plainly defined that all who will may understand it, and thus know how to avoid the judgments pronounced against it.
It will be noticed that these messages are cumulative, that is, one does not cease when another is introduced. Thus, for a time the first message was the only one going forth. The second message was introduced, but that did not put an end to the first. From that time there were two messages. The third followed them, not to supersede them, but only to join with them, so that we now have three messages going forth simultaneously, or rather, a threefold message, embracing the truths of all three, the last one of course being the culminating proclamation. Until the work is done, it will never cease to be true that the hour of God's judgment has come, nor that Babylon has fallen. These facts sill continue to be proclaimed in connection with the truths introduced by the third message.
There will also be noticed a logical connection between the messages themselves. Viewing the situation immediately before the first message was introduced, we see the Protestant religious world sadly in need of reformation. Divisions and confusion existed in the churches. They were still clinging to many papal errors and superstitions. The power of the gospel was impaired in their hands. To correct these evils, the doctrine of the second coming of Christ was introduced, and proclaimed with power. They should have received it and been quickened by it into new life, as they would have been had they received it. Instead of this, they rejected it, and suffered the consequences spiritually. Then followed the second message, announcing the result of that rejection, and declaring what was not only a fact in itself, but a judicial version verdict of God upon them for recreancy in this respect; namely, that God had departed from them, and they had met with a spiritual fall.
This did not have the effect to arouse them and lead them to correct their errors, as it was sufficient to do had they been willing to be admonished and corrected. What follows? The way is open for a still further retrograde movement, for wider apostasy and still greater evils. The powers of darkness will press forward their work, and if the churches still persist in this course of shunning light and rejecting truth, they will soon find themselves worshiping the beast and receiving his mark. This will be the logical sequence of that course of action which began with the rejection of the first message.
Now another proclamation is sent forth, announcing in solemn tones that if any man shall do this, he shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation. That is to say, you rejected the first message, and met with spiritual fall. If you continue to reject truth and disregard the warnings sent out, you will exhaust God's last means of grace, and finally meet with a literal destruction for which there will be no remedy. This is as severe a threatening as God can make to be inflicted in this life, and it is the last. A few will heed it and be saved, but the multitude will pass on and perish.
The proclamation of the third angel's message is the special religious movement to be made before the Lord appears, for immediately following this, John beholds one like the Son of man coming upon a great white cloud to reap the harvest of the earth. This can represent nothing else than the second coming of Christ. If therefore the coming of Christ is at the door, the time has come for the proclamation of this message. There are many who with voice and pen are earnestly teaching that we are in the last days of time, and that the coming of Christ is at the door; but when we remind them of this prophecy, they are suddenly at sea, without anchor, chart, or compass. They do not know what to do with it. They can see as well as we that if what they are teaching respecting the coming of Christ is true, and the Lord is at hand, somewhere-- yes, all over the land--should be heard the warning notes of this angel's message.
The arguments on the two preceding messages fix the time of the third, and show that it belongs to the present day. But the best evidence that the message is now going to the world, is found in the events that demonstrate its fulfillment. We have identified the first message as a leading proclamation in the great Advent movement of 1840-1844. We have seen the fulfillment of the second message in connection with that movement in the latter year. Let us now look at what has taken place since that time.
When Christ did not come in 1844, the entire Adventist body was thrown into more or less confusion. Many gave up the movement entirely. More concluded that the argument on the time was wrong, and immediately endeavored to re-adjust the prophetic period, and set a new time for the Lord to come--a work which they have continued more or less to the present time, fixing a new date as each one passed. A few searched closely and candidly for the cause of the mistake, and were confirmed in their views of the providential character of the advent movement, and in the correctness of the argument on the time, but saw that a mistake had been made in their understanding of the sanctuary, by which error the disappointment could be explained. They learned that the sanctuary in Daniel 8: 14 was not on this earth, as had been supposed, that the cleansing was not to be fire, and that the prophecy on this point did not involve the coming of the Lord at all. They found in the Scriptures clear evidence that the sanctuary referred to was the temple in heaven, which Paul calls "the sanctuary," the "true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched and not man." They saw further that its cleansing, according to the type, would consist of the final ministration of the priest in the second apartment, or most holy place. They then understood that the time had come for the fulfillment of Revelation 11: 19: "The temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in His temple the ark of His testament."
Having their attention thus called to the ark, they were naturally led to an examination of the law contained in the ark. That the ark contained the law was evident from the very name applied to it. It was called "the ark of His testament," but it would not have been the ark of His "testament," and it could not have been so called, had it not contained the law. Here then was the ark in heaven, the great antitype of the ark which, during typical times, existed here on earth. The law which this heavenly ark contained must consequently be the great original of which the law on the tables in the earthly ark was but a transcript, or copy. Both these laws must read precisely alike, word for word, jot for jot, tittle for tittle. To suppose otherwise would involve only falsehood.
That law, then, is still the law of God's government, and its fourth precept now as in the beginning demands the observance of the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath. No one who admits the argument on the sanctuary disputes this point.
Thus the Sabbath reform was brought to view; and it was seen that whatever had been done in opposition to this law, especially in the introduction of a day of rest and worship which destroyed the Sabbath of Jehovah, must be the work of the papal beast, that power which was to oppose God, to attempt to change His laws and to exalt himself above God. But this is the exact work in reference to which the third angel utters his warning. Hence it began to be seen by the believers of 1844 that the period of the third angel's message synchronizes with the period of the cleansing of the sanctuary, which began with the ending of the 2300 days in 1844, and that the proclamation is based on the great truths developed by this subject.
Thus light of the third angel's message dawned upon the church. They saw at once that the world would have a right to demand of those who professed to be giving that message, an explanation of all the symbols which it contains the beast, the image, the worship, and the mark. Hence these points were made subjects of special study. The testimony of the Scriptures was found to be clear and abundant, and it did not take long to formulate from the truths revealed, definite statements and proofs in explanation of all these points.
*******
Again, a note here is necessary. After this study with excerpts from Uriah Smith other studies will be presented because he wrote that so long ago and we have history to account for that he didn't have. We have truths to reveal that he obviously couldn't. The mark of the beast has not been placed upon everyone to this extent--
Rev. {13:15} And he had power
to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the
beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would
not worship the image of the beast should be killed. {13:16}
And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free
and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their
foreheads: {13:17} And that no man might buy or sell, save
he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the
number of his name. {13:18} Here is wisdom. Let him that
hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is
the number of a man; and his number [is] Six hundred
threescore [and] six.
In light of this part of the 3 angel's message--
Chap. 14 Verse 9 And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, 10 the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: 11 and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. 12 Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.
We know that all will receive a mark and that mark could be figuratively - an action (hand), a belief (forehead), but this mark either way will have consequences and those consequences are 'that no man might buy or sell save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.' No buying or selling which we've discussed already as well. The image of the beast that is given life by the beast will speak and as a result cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed- then a mark, name, number will proclaim the supremacy of the beast's power.
I can talk about this until I'm blue in the face and it'll mean little to many because it's doom saying, it's nay saying to people, it's crazy talk, unrealistic. And you know what? Because we don't have a script to follow that will allow us to say oh yeah... this is it for sure, but only prophetic mysteries we can what unfold, maybe it's a little of all of that but shouldn't we err on the side of caution? Isn't our eternal life worth such erring? To err in man's eyes and yet hold fast the truth in God's eyes, isn't that what the disciples did with Jesus? They were erring horrifically in man's eyes, stoned, tortured, imprisoned, beheaded, hung on a cross because man believed the disciples were not of God. Why do we believe that things will be different for God's true followers today? Why do we imagine that the majority will follow God's truth and so they must be right- because we live in an enlightened age?! Hardly. Satan is working harder than ever to deceive and all but the very elect will be deceived, a fact we dare not forget.
May God continue to bless us and open our hearts and mind to all truth in Him and only in Him. As the gravity of our situation unfolds dare we choose the world and give up eternal life? By the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ, may His strength overcome our weakness, may His righteousness overcome our filthiness.
Amen.
(Excerpts taken from Daniel and Revelation by Uriah Smith)
Verse 9 And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, 10 the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: 11 and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. 12 Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.
The Third Angel's Message.--
This is a message of most fearful import. No more severe threatening of divine wrath can be found in all the Bible. The sin against which it warns must be a terrible sin, and it must be one so plainly defined that all who will may understand it, and thus know how to avoid the judgments pronounced against it.
It will be noticed that these messages are cumulative, that is, one does not cease when another is introduced. Thus, for a time the first message was the only one going forth. The second message was introduced, but that did not put an end to the first. From that time there were two messages. The third followed them, not to supersede them, but only to join with them, so that we now have three messages going forth simultaneously, or rather, a threefold message, embracing the truths of all three, the last one of course being the culminating proclamation. Until the work is done, it will never cease to be true that the hour of God's judgment has come, nor that Babylon has fallen. These facts sill continue to be proclaimed in connection with the truths introduced by the third message.
There will also be noticed a logical connection between the messages themselves. Viewing the situation immediately before the first message was introduced, we see the Protestant religious world sadly in need of reformation. Divisions and confusion existed in the churches. They were still clinging to many papal errors and superstitions. The power of the gospel was impaired in their hands. To correct these evils, the doctrine of the second coming of Christ was introduced, and proclaimed with power. They should have received it and been quickened by it into new life, as they would have been had they received it. Instead of this, they rejected it, and suffered the consequences spiritually. Then followed the second message, announcing the result of that rejection, and declaring what was not only a fact in itself, but a judicial version verdict of God upon them for recreancy in this respect; namely, that God had departed from them, and they had met with a spiritual fall.
This did not have the effect to arouse them and lead them to correct their errors, as it was sufficient to do had they been willing to be admonished and corrected. What follows? The way is open for a still further retrograde movement, for wider apostasy and still greater evils. The powers of darkness will press forward their work, and if the churches still persist in this course of shunning light and rejecting truth, they will soon find themselves worshiping the beast and receiving his mark. This will be the logical sequence of that course of action which began with the rejection of the first message.
Now another proclamation is sent forth, announcing in solemn tones that if any man shall do this, he shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation. That is to say, you rejected the first message, and met with spiritual fall. If you continue to reject truth and disregard the warnings sent out, you will exhaust God's last means of grace, and finally meet with a literal destruction for which there will be no remedy. This is as severe a threatening as God can make to be inflicted in this life, and it is the last. A few will heed it and be saved, but the multitude will pass on and perish.
The proclamation of the third angel's message is the special religious movement to be made before the Lord appears, for immediately following this, John beholds one like the Son of man coming upon a great white cloud to reap the harvest of the earth. This can represent nothing else than the second coming of Christ. If therefore the coming of Christ is at the door, the time has come for the proclamation of this message. There are many who with voice and pen are earnestly teaching that we are in the last days of time, and that the coming of Christ is at the door; but when we remind them of this prophecy, they are suddenly at sea, without anchor, chart, or compass. They do not know what to do with it. They can see as well as we that if what they are teaching respecting the coming of Christ is true, and the Lord is at hand, somewhere-- yes, all over the land--should be heard the warning notes of this angel's message.
The arguments on the two preceding messages fix the time of the third, and show that it belongs to the present day. But the best evidence that the message is now going to the world, is found in the events that demonstrate its fulfillment. We have identified the first message as a leading proclamation in the great Advent movement of 1840-1844. We have seen the fulfillment of the second message in connection with that movement in the latter year. Let us now look at what has taken place since that time.
When Christ did not come in 1844, the entire Adventist body was thrown into more or less confusion. Many gave up the movement entirely. More concluded that the argument on the time was wrong, and immediately endeavored to re-adjust the prophetic period, and set a new time for the Lord to come--a work which they have continued more or less to the present time, fixing a new date as each one passed. A few searched closely and candidly for the cause of the mistake, and were confirmed in their views of the providential character of the advent movement, and in the correctness of the argument on the time, but saw that a mistake had been made in their understanding of the sanctuary, by which error the disappointment could be explained. They learned that the sanctuary in Daniel 8: 14 was not on this earth, as had been supposed, that the cleansing was not to be fire, and that the prophecy on this point did not involve the coming of the Lord at all. They found in the Scriptures clear evidence that the sanctuary referred to was the temple in heaven, which Paul calls "the sanctuary," the "true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched and not man." They saw further that its cleansing, according to the type, would consist of the final ministration of the priest in the second apartment, or most holy place. They then understood that the time had come for the fulfillment of Revelation 11: 19: "The temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in His temple the ark of His testament."
Having their attention thus called to the ark, they were naturally led to an examination of the law contained in the ark. That the ark contained the law was evident from the very name applied to it. It was called "the ark of His testament," but it would not have been the ark of His "testament," and it could not have been so called, had it not contained the law. Here then was the ark in heaven, the great antitype of the ark which, during typical times, existed here on earth. The law which this heavenly ark contained must consequently be the great original of which the law on the tables in the earthly ark was but a transcript, or copy. Both these laws must read precisely alike, word for word, jot for jot, tittle for tittle. To suppose otherwise would involve only falsehood.
That law, then, is still the law of God's government, and its fourth precept now as in the beginning demands the observance of the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath. No one who admits the argument on the sanctuary disputes this point.
Thus the Sabbath reform was brought to view; and it was seen that whatever had been done in opposition to this law, especially in the introduction of a day of rest and worship which destroyed the Sabbath of Jehovah, must be the work of the papal beast, that power which was to oppose God, to attempt to change His laws and to exalt himself above God. But this is the exact work in reference to which the third angel utters his warning. Hence it began to be seen by the believers of 1844 that the period of the third angel's message synchronizes with the period of the cleansing of the sanctuary, which began with the ending of the 2300 days in 1844, and that the proclamation is based on the great truths developed by this subject.
Thus light of the third angel's message dawned upon the church. They saw at once that the world would have a right to demand of those who professed to be giving that message, an explanation of all the symbols which it contains the beast, the image, the worship, and the mark. Hence these points were made subjects of special study. The testimony of the Scriptures was found to be clear and abundant, and it did not take long to formulate from the truths revealed, definite statements and proofs in explanation of all these points.
*******
Again, a note here is necessary. After this study with excerpts from Uriah Smith other studies will be presented because he wrote that so long ago and we have history to account for that he didn't have. We have truths to reveal that he obviously couldn't. The mark of the beast has not been placed upon everyone to this extent--
Rev. {13:15} And he had power
to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the
beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would
not worship the image of the beast should be killed. {13:16}
And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free
and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their
foreheads: {13:17} And that no man might buy or sell, save
he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the
number of his name. {13:18} Here is wisdom. Let him that
hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is
the number of a man; and his number [is] Six hundred
threescore [and] six.
In light of this part of the 3 angel's message--
Chap. 14 Verse 9 And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, 10 the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: 11 and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. 12 Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.
We know that all will receive a mark and that mark could be figuratively - an action (hand), a belief (forehead), but this mark either way will have consequences and those consequences are 'that no man might buy or sell save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.' No buying or selling which we've discussed already as well. The image of the beast that is given life by the beast will speak and as a result cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed- then a mark, name, number will proclaim the supremacy of the beast's power.
I can talk about this until I'm blue in the face and it'll mean little to many because it's doom saying, it's nay saying to people, it's crazy talk, unrealistic. And you know what? Because we don't have a script to follow that will allow us to say oh yeah... this is it for sure, but only prophetic mysteries we can what unfold, maybe it's a little of all of that but shouldn't we err on the side of caution? Isn't our eternal life worth such erring? To err in man's eyes and yet hold fast the truth in God's eyes, isn't that what the disciples did with Jesus? They were erring horrifically in man's eyes, stoned, tortured, imprisoned, beheaded, hung on a cross because man believed the disciples were not of God. Why do we believe that things will be different for God's true followers today? Why do we imagine that the majority will follow God's truth and so they must be right- because we live in an enlightened age?! Hardly. Satan is working harder than ever to deceive and all but the very elect will be deceived, a fact we dare not forget.
May God continue to bless us and open our hearts and mind to all truth in Him and only in Him. As the gravity of our situation unfolds dare we choose the world and give up eternal life? By the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ, may His strength overcome our weakness, may His righteousness overcome our filthiness.
Amen.
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