One woe is past…
Revelation 9-
VERSE 12. One
woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more
hereafter. 13. And the sixth angel sounded,
and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before
God, 14. Saying to the sixth angel
which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river
Euphrates. 15. And the four angels were loosed, which
were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the
third part of men.
The first woe was to
continue from the rise of Mohammedanism until the end of the five months. Then
the first woe
p 508 -- was to
end, and the second to begin. And when the sixth angel sounded, it was
commanded to take off the restraints which had been imposed on the nation, by
which they were restricted to the work of tormenting men, and their commission
was enlarged so as to permit them to slay the third part of men. This command
came from the four horns of the golden altar.
The Four Angels.
-
These were the four
principal sultanies of which the Ottoman empire was composed, located in the
country watered by the great river Euphrates. These sultanies were situated at
Aleppo, Iconium, Damascus, and Bagdad. Previously they had been restrained; but
God commanded, and they were loosed.
In the year 1449,
John Palaeologus, the Greek emperor, died, but left no children to inherit his
throne, and Constantine, his brother, succeeded to it.
1 But he would not venture to ascend the throne
without the consent of Amurath, the Turkish sultan. He therefore sent
ambassadors to ask his consent, and obtained it before he presumed to call
himself sovereign.
Let this historical
fact be carefully examined in connection with the prediction given above. This
was not a violent assault made on the Greeks, by which their empire was
overthrown and their independence taken away, but simply a voluntary surrender
of that independence into the hands of' the Turks. The authority and supremacy
of the Turkish power was acknowledged when Constantine virtually said,
"I cannot reign unless you permit."
The four angels were
loosed for an hour, a day, a month, and a year, to slay the third part of men.
This period, during which Ottoman supremacy was to exist, amounts to three
hundred ninety-one years and fifteen days. Thus: A prophetic year is three hundred
and sixty prophetic days, or three hundred and sixty literal years; a prophetic
rnonth, thirty prophetic days, is thirty literal years; one prophetic day is
one
1-- Some
historians have given this date as 1448, but the best authorities sustain the
date here given, 1449. See Chamber's
Encyclopedia, art., Palaeologus.
p 509
-- literal year; and an hour, or the twenty-fourth part of a prophetic
day, would be a twenty-fourth part of a literal year, or fifteen days; the
whole amounting to three hundred and ninety-one years and fifteen days.
But although the
four angels were thus loosed by the voluntary submission of the Greeks, yet
another doom awaited the seat of empire. Amurath, the sultan to whom the
submission of Constantine XIII was made, and by whose permission he reigned in
Constantinople, soon after died, and was succeeded in the empire, in 1451, by
Mohammed II, who set his heart on securing Constantinople as the seat of his
empire.
He accordingly made
preparations for besieging and taking the city. The siege commenced on the 6th
of April, 1453, and ended in the capture of the city, and the death of the last
of the Constantines, on the 16th day of May following. And the eastern city of
the Caesars became the seat of the Ottoman empire.
The arms and mode of
warfare which were used in the siege in which Constantinople was to be
overthrown and held in subjection were, as we shall see, distinctly noticed by
the Revelator.
VERSE 16. And
the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand:
and I heard the number of them.
Inumerable hordes of
horses, and them that sat on them! Gibbon thus describes the first
invasion of the Roman territories by the
Turks: "The myriads of Turkish
horse overspread a frontier of six hundred miles, from Taurus to Erzeroum; and
the blood of 130,000 Christians was a grateful sacrifice to the Arabian
prophet." Whether the language is
designed to convey the idea of any definite number or not, the reader must
judge. Some suppose 200,000 twice told is meant, and, following some
historians, they find that number of Turkish warriors in the siege of
Constantinople. Some think 200,000,000 to mean all the Turkish warriors during
the three hundred and ninety-one years and fifteen days of their triumph over
the Greeks. Nothing can be affirmed on the point. And it is nothing at all
essential.
p 510 -- VERSE
17. And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them,
having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of
the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and
smoke and brimstone.
The first part of
this description may have reference to the appearance of these horsemen. Fire,
representing a color, stands for red, "as red as fire" being a
frequent term of expression; jacinth, or hyacinth, for blue; and brimstone, for
yellow. And these colors greatly predominated in the dress of these warriors;
so that the description, according to this view, would be accurately met in the
Turkish uniform, which was composed largely of red, or scarlet, blue, and
yellow. The heads of the horses were in appearance as the heads of lions, to
denote their strength, courage, and fierceness; while the last part of the
verse undoubtedly has reference to the use of gunpowder and firearms for
purposes of war, which were then but recently introduced. As the Turks
discharged their firearms on horseback, it would appear to the distant beholder
that the fire, smoke, and brimstone issued out of the horses' mouths, as
illustrated by the accompanying plate. 1
Respecting the use
of firearms by the Turks in their campaign against Constantinople, Elliott
(Horae Apocalyticae, Vol. I, pp.
482-484) thus speaks: - "It was to 'the fire
and the smoke and the sulpliur,' to the artillery and firearms of Mahomet, that
the killing of the third part of men, i. e., the capture of
Constantinople, and by consequence the destruction of the Greek empire, was
owing. Eleven hundred years, and more had now elapsed since her foundation by
Constantine. In the course of them, Goths, Huns, Avars, Persians, Bulgarians,
Saracens, Russians, and
1 -- Quite
an agreement exists among commentators in applying the prophecy concerning the
fire, smoke, and brimstone to the use of gunpowder by the Turks in their
warfare against the Eastern empire. (See Clarke, Barnes, Elliott, Cottage Bible, etc.) But they
generally allude simply to the heavy ordnance, the large cannon, employed by
that power; whereas the prophecy mentions especially the "horses,"
and the fire "issuing from their mouths," as though smaller arms were
used, and used on horseback. Barnes thinks this was the case; and a statement
from Gibbon confirms this view. He says (IV, 343): "The incessant volleys
of lances and arrows were accompanied with the smoke, the sound, and the fire
of their musketry and cannon." Here is good historical evidence that
muskets were used by the Turks; and, secondly, it is undisputed that in their
general warfare they fought principally on horseback. The inference is
therefore well supported that they used firearms on horseback, accurately
fulfilling the prophecy, according to the illustration above referred to.
p 511 --
p 512 -- indeed
the Ottoman Turks themselves, had made their hostile assaults, or laid siege
against it. But the fortifications were impregnable by them. Constantinople
survived, and with it the Greek empire. Hence the anxiety of the Sultan
Mahomet to find that which would remove the obstacle. 'Canst thou cast a
caanon,' was his question to the founder of cannon thatdeserted to him, 'of
size sufficient to batter down the wall of Constantinople?' Then the foundry
was established at Adrianople, the cannon cast, the artillery prepared, and the
siege began.
"It well
deserves remark, how Gibbon, always the unconscious commentator on the
Apocalyptic prophecy, puts this new instrumentality of war into the foreground
of his picture, in his eloquent and striking narrative of the final catastrophe
of the Greek empire. In preparation for it, he gives the history of the recent
invention of gunpowder, 'that mixture of saltpeter, sulphur, and charcoal,'
tells of its earlier use by the Sultan Amurath, and also, as before said, of
Mahomet's foundry of larger cannon at Adrianople; then, in the progress of the
siege itself, describes how 'the volleys of lances and arrows were accompanied
with the smoke, the sound, and the fire of the musketry and cannon;' how 'the
long order of the Turkish artillery was pointed against the walls, fourteen
batteries thundering at once on the most accessible places;' how 'the
fortifications which had stood for ages against hostile violence were
dismantled on all sides by the Ottoman cannon, many breaches opened, and near
the gate of St. Romanus, four towers leveled with the ground:' how, as 'from
the lines, the galleys, and the bridge, the Ottoman artillery thundered on all
sides, the camp and city, the Greeks and the Turks, were involved in a cloud of
smoke, which could only be dispelled by the final deliverance or destruction of
the Roman empire:' how 'the double walls were reduced by the cannon to a heap
of ruins:' and how the Turks at length 'rushing through the breaches,'
'Constantinople was subdued, her empire subverted, and her religion trampld in
the dust by the Moslem conquerors.' I say it well deserves observation how
markedly and strikingly Gibbon atributes the capture of the city, and
p 513 --
(Entry of Mohammed
II, Into Constantinople)
p 514 -- so the
destruction of the empire, to the Ottoman artillery. For what, is it but a
comment on the words of our prophecy? 'By these three was the third part of men
killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the sulphur, which issued out of
their mouths.'"
VERSE 18. By
these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke,
and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.
19. For their power is in their month, and
in their tails; for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and
with them they do hurt.
These verses express
the deadly effect of the new mode of warfare introduced. It was by means of
these agents, - gun-powder, firearms, and cannon, - that Constantinople was
finally overcome, and given into the hands of the Turks.
In addition to the
fire, smoke, and brimstone, which apparently issued out of their mouths, it is
said that their power was also in their tails. It is a remarkable fact that the
horse's tail is a well-known Turkish standard, a symbol of office and authority.
The meaning of the expression appears to be that their tails were the symbol,
or emblem of their authority. The image before the mind of John would seem to
have been that he saw the horses belching out fire and smoke, and, what was
equally strange, he saw that their power of spreading desolation was connected
with the tails of the horses. Any one looking on a body of cavalry with such
banners, or ensigns, would be struck with this unusual or remarkable
appearance, and would speak of their banners as concentrating and directing
their power.
This supremacy of
the Mohammedans over the Greeks was to continue, as already noticed, three
hundred and ninety-one years and fifteen days. Commencing when the one hundred
and fifty years ended, July 27, 1449, the period would end Aug. 11, 1840.
Judging from the manner of the commencement of the Ottoman supremacy, that it
was by a voluntary acknowledgment on the part of the Greek emperor that he
reigned only by permission of the Turkish sultan, we should naturally conclude
that the fall or departure of the Ottoman independence would be brought about
in the same way; that at
p 515 -- the
end of the specified period, that is, on the 11th of August, 1840, the sultan
would voluntarily surrender his independence into the hands of the Christian
powers, just as he had, three hundred and ninety-one years and fifteen days
before, received it from the hands of the Christian emperor, Constantine XIII.
This conclusion was
reached, and this application of the prophecy was made by Elder J. Litch in
1838, two years before the predicted event was to occur. It was then purely a
matter of calculation on the prophetic periods of Scripture. Now, however, the
time has passed by, and it is proper to inquire what the result has been -
whether such events did transpire according to the previous calculation. The
matter sums itself up in the following inquiry: -
When Did Mohammedan
Independence in Constantinople Depart? - For several years previous to
1840, the sultan had been embroiled in war with Mehemet Ali, pasha of Egypt. In
1838 the trouble between the sultan and his Egyptian vassal was for the time being
restrained by the influence of the foreign ambassadors. In 1839, however,
hostilities were again commenced, and were prosecuted until, in a general
battle between the armies of the sultan and Mehemet, the sultan's army was
entirely cut up and destroyed, and his fleet taken by Mehemet and carried into
Egypt. So completely had the sultan's fleet been reduced, that, when the war
again commenced in August, he had only two first-rates and three frigates as
the sad remains of the once powerful Turkish fleet. This fleet Mehemet
positively refused to give up and return to the sultan, and declared that if
the powers attempted to take it from him, he would burn it. In this posture
affairs stood, when, in 1840, England, Russia, Austria, and Prussia interposed,
and determined on a settlement of the difficulty; for it was evident that, if
let alone, Mehemet would soon become master of the sultan's throne.
The sultan accepted
this intervention of the great powers, and thus made a voluntary surrender of
the question into their hands. A conference of these powers was held in London,
the Sheik Effendi Bey Likgis being present as Ottoman plenipotentiary. An agreement
was drawn up to be presented to
p 516 -- the
pasha of Egypt, whereby the sultan was to offer him the hereditary government
of Egypt, and all that part of Syria extending from the Gulf of Suez to the
Lake of Tiberias, together with the province of Acre, for life; he on his part
to evacuate all other parts of the sultan's dominions then occupied by him, and
to return the Ottoman fleet. In case he refused this offer from the sultan, the
four powers were to take the matter into their own hands, and use such other
means to bring him to terms as they should see fit.
It is apparent that
just as soon as this ultimatum should be put by the sultan into the hands of
Mehemet Ali, the matter would be forever beyond the control of the former, and
the disposal of his affairs would, from that moment, be in the hands of foreign
powers. The sultan despatched Rifat Bey on a government steamer to Alexandria,
to communicate the ultimatum to the pasha. It was put into his hands, and by
him taken in charge, on the eleventh day of August, 1840! On the same day,
a note was addressed by the sultan to the ambassadors of the four powers,
inquiring what plan was to be adopted in case the pasha should refuse to comply
with the terms of the ultimatum, to which they made answer that provision had
been made, and there was no necessity of his alarming himself about any
contingency that might arise. This day, the period of three hundred and
ninety-one years and fifteen days, allotted to the continuance of the Ottoman
power, ended; and where was the sultan's independence? - GONE! Who
had the supremacy of the Ottoman empire in their hands? - The four great
powers; and that empire has existed ever since only by
the sufferance of these Christian powers. Thus was the prophecy
fulfilled to the very letter.
From the first
publication of the calculation of this matter in 1838, before referred to, the
time set for the fulfilment of the prophecy - Aug. 11, 1840 - was watched by
thousands with intense interest. And the exact accomplishment of the event
predicted, showing, as it did, the right application of the prophecy, gave a
mighty impetus to the great Advent movement then beginning to attract the
attention of the world.
p 517 -- VERSE
20. And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet
repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils,
and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither
can see, nor hear, nor walk: 21. Neither repented
they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of
their thefts.
God designs that men
shall make a note of his judgments, and receive the lessons he thereby designs
to convey. But how slow are they to learn! and how blind to the indications of
providence! The events that transpired under the sixth trumpet constituted the
second woe; yet these judgments led to no improvement in the manners and morals
of men. Those who escaped them learned nothing by their manifestation in the
earth. The worship of devils (demons, dead men deified) and of idols of gold,
silver, brass, stone, and wood, may find a fulfilment in
the saint worship and image worship of the Roman Catholic
Church; while of murders, sorceries, (pretended miracles through the agency of
departed saints), fornications, and thefts in countries where the Roman
religion has prevailed, there has been no lack.
The hordes of
Saracens and Turks were let loose as a scourge and punishment upon apostate
Christendom. Men suffered the punishment, but learned there from no
lesson.
*******
History, so much
history. The realization of predicted outcomes being fulfilled with such
accuracy is amazing, is miraculous. We can witness these truths or deny them
and rip them apart to tiny shreds, our choice.
So often we choose
to rip things apart just to appease what we believe to be our superior unbiased
selves. W claim there is no connection
between history and these Revelation prophecies, but rather the are all yet to
be fulfilled and that is a LIE, a deception we've been allowed to indulge.
We are told to prove
it. We are told anyone can take anything and make it fit according to their own
beliefs. We are told a lot of things,
and all of them meant to direct us away from the truth- that prophecy has been
fulfilled according to God's will. When we have a firm foundation upon the
truth of prophecy we are given so much!
Many key events are unlocked, future events are revealed, all things we
could never see without the past laying open the predicted events.
Truly we are blessed
as we read and seek to keep all within this book of Revelation.
By the grace and
mercy of God may we find truth and understanding, wisdom in all things.
All through the love
of our God, of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit!
We are to obey God
over man. We are to listening to God over man.
Now and forever,
Amen.
