Turkey in Prophecy by Percy T. Magan

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 16, 1909

Turkey in Prophecy

By Percy T. Magan

Six of the Seven Last Plagues

PERCY T. MAGAN

Last week we spoke of some general features relative to the seven last plagues. This week we desire to present six of these plagues; viz., the first five and the seventh, and to notice especially one striking feature prominent in all of them.

The opening verse of the sixteenth chapter of Revelation relates the commission which is given to the angels having

charge over the seven last plagues: “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.”

The word “ways” would indicate that all these angels do not go the same way. Some go one way, and some go another way. In other words, these plagues are not universal. Some fall upon one place, and some upon another.

A Noisome and Grievous Sore

“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 [brand] of the beast, and upon them which worshiped his image.” Rev. 16:2.

From this it is evident that the first plague falls without any warning. Men will awaken to the fact that a new disease—“a noisome and grievous sore”—is working devastation and death. There is no train of events beforehand which indicates the approach of this malady. It is, to use a legal phrase, “an act of God,” that is, something which is in no sense the act or deed of men. It “falls,” says the scripture; it falls as the rain. Men suffer from it; but beyond this they have no part in it. It is a judgment of God upon men, but it is not the deed of man. Ever since the fall of the human race, God, from time to time, on account of their sins, has visited judgments upon the inhabitants of the earth. Frequently in the administration of these punishments, God uses one nation to scourge another. Thus he used Assyria to scourge Israel. Hence the words, “Woe to the Assyrian [margin], the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation.” Isa. 10:5.

But this plague, this visitation of judgment, is of a different character; no man or men are used as agents for the chastisement of their fellows. The pain and torture of this plague are an inevitable necessity arising by reason of the operation of God, unaided and unmixed with human agency of any name or nature. The plague is wholly and altogether an “act of God.”

This plague falls upon those who have the mark, or brand, of the beast, and upon them who worship his image. The specific sins which call down this judgment are definitely stated.

As the Blood of a Dead Man

In nature and kind the second plague resembles the first: “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.” Rev. 16:3.

There is no indication that this plague gives any warning of its advent. Ships will be sailing the ocean as they have since the time of the flood, when the water will become, or, more literally, be “congealed,” “as the blood of a dead man.” This also is an act of God in which no human agency is used.

There has been, according to the Scriptures, great persecution. Men have slain saints and prophets, and this is why God gives them blood to drink. And the third plague is similar, affecting the rivers and fountains of waters.

“And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which had power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.” Rev. 16:8, 9.

This plague, therefore, is caused by the sun being so hot that men are scorched with fire. Scorching is the very next thing to burning. And this is also an “act of God,” without the employment of any human instrumentality to administer it.

A Kingdom Full of Darkness

“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, and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.” Rev. 16:10, 11.

This “act of God” is localized. It falls upon “the seat of the beast and his kingdom.” The beast is the papacy; consequently Rome, the city of the Vatican, is the seat of the beast. The term “his kingdom” may apply to Roman Catholic countries, or to that territory formerly embraced by the Papal States, but which was made a part of United Italy under Victor Emmanuel in 1870. A plebiscite was held in the Papal States, Oct. 2, 1870. Out of 167,548 votes, 133,681 were cast for union with the kingdom of Italy, and 1,507 against such union. The remainder of the votes were not cast. From this it will be clear that the entire movement was a popular one. It was the people against the pope.

Nevertheless, the papacy has ever held that the whole transaction was a most iniquitous one. It was likened to the taking of Naboth’s vineyard by the wicked Ahab. See “Life of Pius IX,” Mgr. Bernard O’Reilly, chap. 34, par. 11. From that day to this there has been a constant agitation emanating from the Vatican, clamoring for the restoration of the temporal sovereignty of the papacy. Present events would indicate that it is not at all beyond the realm of possibility that the papacy may yet succeed in her endeavors to possess herself of the much-coveted civil scepter in the near future. The event of the plague, however, will make manifest the exact extent of its operation.

Voices, Thunders, Lightnings, Earthquakes

Passing by the sixth plague, for the present, we come to the seventh and last. “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. 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. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon come in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. . . . 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.” Rev. 16:17-21.

Let it be noted that there are a number of separate and distinct acts in these plagues; but all of them, like the five plagues already considered, are acts of God without the use of any human agency. There are voices, and thunders, and lightnings. There is a great earthquake, such as never was since men were upon the earth. The cities of the nations fall. Great Babylon comes in remembrance before God. Islands flee away, and mountains are not found, and great hail falls from heaven.

It is very evident that when this plague is poured out, the destruction of this old earth has arrived. Certainly when there is an earthquake such as was not since men were on the earth, when islands are fleeing away, and mountains can not be found,—certainly when all this is going on,—the foundations of the earth are giving way, and everything is going to pieces. In short, with this seventh plague comes the end of the world; for, according to the seventeenth verse, this plague is poured out into the air. This is the time when the heavens depart as a scroll when it is rolled together, and a great voice from the throne speaks the words, “It is done.”

Now all the things which occur under this plague, considered by themselves, come without warning. How true this is of “voices, and thunders, and lightnings,” and of earthquakes, of the disappearance of islands and mountains. In fact, to come without warning is in the very nature of all these things.

Nowadays men scoff at the idea that earthquakes are divine judgments. We are told that a good and merciful God would not cause his creatures such suffering, sorrow, and death. Such a course is supposed to be utterly out of harmony with the nature of a divine and beneficent Creator.

But God himself, in the Inspired Book, distinctly and specifically takes the responsibility for these very things. “For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.” “The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein. Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him.” Deut. 32:22; Nahum 1:5, 6, R. V.

And Yea, verily all of these things are “acts of God.” Men may reason that they are strange acts. Aye, aye, they are; the Scripture styles them so: “For the Lord shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act.” The entire record

makes it clear that these plagues are his act, his strange act. They are strange because they are so different from God’s ordinary way of dealing with the human family. They are strange, for they are not commingled with mercy. They come only when divine patience is exhausted, when the limit of God’s forbearance is reached, when the Lord God of hosts hath “determined” “a consumption” “upon the whole earth.” They do not fall until the fiat has gone forth: “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.” Rev. 22:11.

Will there be no warning? no way by which men can tell when these terrible calamities are nigh at hand? Has God left the human family to sail an uncharted sea into the vortex of this Charybdis?—O, no; for “the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.”

And in a most striking manner, and by a most wonderful way—marvelous because of its simplicity—God has provided a sign whereby men may know when these things are close at hand.

That way is made clear in the story of the sixth plague, the only one of the seven not considered in this article. It will be the subject of the next article.

Madison, Tenn.