Your ShelfYour Projects

REVELATION 16

9%

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 19, 1901

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 78, No. 12.

Read the full edition

REVELATION 16

By S. N. H.

S. N. H.
It was “one of the four beasts [cherubim, who] gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God;” but it was “a great voice out of the temple” which said “to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.” The first six plagues were poured on different localities, while the seventh was poured out in the air, and affected all mankind, the earth, and vegetation. The time of the outpouring of the plagues is supposed to last about one year. Isa. 61:2; 63:4; 34:8; 16:14; Rev. 18:8. These are the seven last plagues. Rev. 15:1. The first plagues were upon Egypt.
The plagues upon Egypt when God was about to deliver Israel were similar in character to those more terrible and extensive judgments which are to fall upon the world just before the final deliverance of God’s people. Says the revelator, in describing these terrific scourges, “There fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the Beast, and upon them which worshiped his Image.” The sea “became as the blood of a dead man; and every living soul died in the sea.” And the rivers and fountains of waters became blood. Terrible as these inflictions are, God’s justice stands fully vindicated. The angel of God declares: “Thou art righteous, O Lord, . . . because thou hast judged thus. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.” By condemning the people of God to death, they have as truly incurred the guilt of their blood as if it had been shed by their hands. Matt. 23:34, 35; Rev. 18:24.
In the fourth plague, power is given to the sun “to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat.” Rev. 14:18. The prophet thus describes the condition of the earth at this fearful time: “The land mourneth; . . . because the harvest of the field is perished. . . . All the trees of the field are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men.” See Joel 1:10–12, 17–20; Amos 8:3, 11, 12; Hab. 3:8–19; Psalm 91; Isa. 33:16; 41:17, 18.
“These plagues are not universal, or the inhabitants of the earth would be wholly cut off; yet they will be the most awful scourges that have ever been known to mortals. All the judgments upon men, prior to the close of probation, have been mingled with mercy. The pleading blood of Christ has shielded the sinner from receiving the full measure of his guilt; but in the final judgment, wrath is poured out unmixed with mercy. The people of God will not be wholly free from suffering. But that God who numbers the hairs of their heads will preserve them. It is then they cry day and night for deliverance. Like Jacob, all are wrestling with God. Their countenances express their internal struggle. Paleness sits on every face. Yet they cease not their earnest intercession.”
The darkness that comes upon the seat of the Beast can not be described any more than the effect of it. “They gnawed their tongues for pain.” It is of a nature to cause the most excruciating suffering. It comes upon the seat of government, and perchance at the time when those at the head of the government are issuing stringent laws against those who are keeping God’s commandments.
The expressions in verses 11 and 9, “And repented not of their deeds,” “And they repented not to give Him glory,” show that had God granted them probation, none would have accepted it. “Let favor be showed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the Lord.” Isa. 26:10. Verse 11 also shows that those who receive the first plague still live to curse God.
When the Turk leaves Europe, there will be a time of trouble such as never was. But there comes a time when the nations of the earth scramble for his territory. This will be under the sixth plague. It will be a cause of the final gathering of the nations “into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.” Armageddon and Megiddo are the same. An object-lesson battle was fought there in the days of Deborah and Barak. See Judges 4 and 5, especially the fifth chapter, at the battle of Megiddo. This is an important chapter for Seventh-day Adventists to study in connection with the sixth and seventh plagues.
The great agency that will unite the dragon (paganism), the Beast (papacy), the false prophet (Protestantism), will be “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.” It is under the pouring out of the sixth vial that the voice of God is heard declaring His everlasting covenant. It is then those who have died in the Third Angel’s Message will come forth to hear this covenant of peace. Then, at the hearing of this voice, will the captivity of God’s people be turned, and the last trace of disease and deformity will leave the people of God. For a vivid description of this time, read carefully the chapter on The Shaking, in Spiritual Gifts, “Early Writings;” also the chapters, The Time of Trouble, and God’s People Delivered, in “Great Controversy.” At the present time the study of these chapters is especially important.
“And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven [this is God’s voice, not Christ’s], 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 [paganism, papacy, and Protestantism], 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. And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. 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.” It is at this point that God rises up to come with every angel in glory, and with Christ, to deliver His people. No comment on these verses can be compared to the three chapters to which we have already referred.