p. 10 | LESSON TWENTY by Uriah Smith

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jan 10, 1878

LESSON TWENTY.

By Uriah Smith

THE SEVEN TRUMPETS.

THE political events of this dispensation are properly symbolized by trumpets, those heralds of war and revolution. These are brought to view in the 8th, 9th and a part of the 11th chapters of Revelation.

The record of the first trumpet begins with verse 7 of chapter 8. These trumpets are the counterpart of the prophecy of the second chapter of Daniel. That prophecy brings to view the dividing of the Roman kingdom into ten parts as represented by the ten toes of the great image; and the first four of the seven trumpets introduce the events by which this division was effected.

The first trumpet represents hail and fire mingled with blood cast upon the earth. It was fulfilled by the invasion of the Roman Empire by the Goths under Alaric, commencing A. D. 395. This invasion is represented by hail from the fact that the invaders came from the frozen regions of the North. It is further described as fire mingled with blood because the course of the invaders was marked by slaughter and conflagration.

The second trumpet brings us to a new location and another event. A great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea. The next great invasion of the Roman Empire which shook it to its foundation and conduced to its fall, was that of the Vandals under Genseric. The base of his operations was at Carthage in Africa. The date of his career is marked by the years 428 to 468. His warfare was carried on by sea, well symbolized by a great mountain burning with fire cast into the sea. He ravaged and devastated all those provinces of the Roman Empire which lie upon the Mediterranean.

The frequent reference to the third part, noticed in the trumpets, has allusion to the tripartite division of the Roman Empire. Twice it was divided into three parts before its permanent division into Eastern and Western Rome; and when the third part is spoken of in this prophecy, it refers to that division in which the events of the trumpet under consideration were taking place.

The third trumpet brings to view another invading chieftain, who, like a comet or a blazing star, flamed over the Roman Empire. It was Attila at the head of his warlike Huns. The name of this star is called Wormwood as describing the bitter consequences of this invasion and the terrors and miseries wrought by this war-like chief.

This star fell upon the third part of the rivers and fountains of waters. The scene of Attila's operations was in the northern part of Italy, the regions in which so many streams and rivers have their source. Attila styled himself "The scourge of God," and made his boast that the grass never grew where his horse had trod.

The fourth trumpet is described in the 12th verse and brings to view the blotting out of the third part of the sun, moon, and stars. These are undoubtedly here used as symbols representing the three highest sources of authority in the Roman Empire; namely, emperors, consuls and senators; and we naturally infer from the phraseology of the text that it denotes their overthrow. We have now come to the time when the Western Empire of Rome was extinguished. The date, as given by Gibbon, is 476 or 479. It was accomplished by Odoacer who was succeeded by Theodoric the Ostrogoth; and the events of the trumpet were finally accomplished by Justinian. The Imperial office, the sun, was extinguished by Odoacer. Justinian abolished the Consulship, the moon, and Narses, the general of Justinian extinguished the Senate, the stars. Thus in the third part of the Roman Empire, the sun, moon and stars were smitten, here represented as a third part of these luminaries.

Another angel, not one of this series of seven, is now introduced declaring that the three remaining trumpets will be trumpets of woe.

Two of these trumpets, the 5th and 6th, occupy, in equal portions, the whole of the ninth chapter of Revelation. The prophet now turns from those agencies which were employed to scourge Rome and break it up into political divisions, to those agencies which were employed to scourge it as an ecclesiastical power after its change from Paganism to the Papacy.

Eleven verses are used in describing the fifth trumpet. A star is first seen falling from heaven unto the earth. This star was Chosroes, the king of Persia. He was overthrown by Heraclius, the emperor of the Eastern Empire. His fall was the key by which the bottomless pit was opened For Rome in overthrowing Persia, utterly exhausted herself; and thus the only two powers which were capable of meeting and crushing Mohammedanism, namely, Persia and Eastern Rome, were virtually taken out of the way by this revolution. The bottomless pit symbolizes the wastes of the Arabian desert from which issued a great smoke or the dark and delusive doctrines propogated by Mohammed and his fanatical followers. Chosroes, after his loss of empire was murdered in the year 628; and the year 629 is marked by the conquest of Arabia and the first war of the Mohammedans against the Roman Empire. The locusts that came out of the smoke symbolized the Arabian horsemen as they went forth to fight what they called the battles of the Lord.

Their mission was to torment men five months, but not to kill them. Verses 5 and 10. This period is doubtless prophetic, denoting 150 years. The question then arises, From what point are these years to be dated? The 11th verse gives us the key to the solution of the query. They had a king over them whose name is given both in Hebrew and Greek as the destroyer. The conclusion naturally follows that the five months of torment must have taken place under this Ottoman power after its consolidation into a kingly government. Previous to the time of Othman the Mohammedan power was composed of separate and distinct tribes. Under the policy of this man they were consolidated into one government with himself as king. His government was founded near the close of the thirteenth century and has ever since been known, from the name of its founder, as the Ottoman Empire.

The first assault of Othman upon the Eastern Empire took place on the 27th day of July, 1299. Commencing the five months' torment from this event, they would end 150 years later, in 1449. As we inquire for the events which mark the termination of that period, we are brought to the sounding of the next trumpet.

When the sixth angel sounded, a voice was heard, saying, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. The river Euphrates must here be taken for a symbol of that kingdom of which it was the principal river, which was the Ottoman or Turkish Empire. The four angels are supposed to mean the four chief Sultanies of which that Empire was composed. These were Iconium, Aleppo, Damascus, and Bagdad. They were loosed so that they should hereafter have not simply the power of tormenting, but of destroying. This was accomplished by the following events:—

When the last emperor of the Greeks, John Paleologus, died, leaving no children, Constantine Deacozes succeeded to the empire; but he would not venture to ascend the throne without asking the consent of Amurath, the Turkish Sultan. Thus he virtually surrendered his power into Turkish hands. And this was in the very year when the 150 years of the preceding trumpet ended, namely, in 1449. Amurath, soon after died and was succeeded by Mohammed II. in 1451, who set his heart on possessing Constantinople. The siege commenced April 6, 1453, and the city was taken on the 16th of May following. The eastern seat of the Cæsars thus became the seat of the Ottoman Empire and has so remained to this day.

The principal point for exposition under this trumpet is the prophetic period brought to view in verse 15. The angels were loosed for an hour, a day, a month, and a year. This reduced from prophetic to literal time gives us the following period: A year 360 days, 360 years. A month, 30 days, 30 years, a day, one year, an hour, a twenty-fourth part of a prophetic day, fifteen literal days, making in all 391 years and 15 days. This added to the point in 1449 where the 150 years ended, brings us to August 11, 1840.

The means by which their conquests were achieved is described in verses 17 and 18 as fire and smoke and brimstone; and it is a remarkable fact that in this revolution gun-powder was first used for purposes of war. Thus we have a prophecy of the remarkable invention of gun-powder written by John in A. D. 96.

As the prophetic period of this trumpet commenced by the voluntary surrender of power into the hands of the Turks by the Christian emperor of the East, so we might conclude its termination would be marked by the voluntary surrender of that power by the Turkish Sultan back again into the hands of the Christians. In 1838 Turkey became involved in war with Egypt. The Egyptians bid fair to overthrow the Turkish power unless other nations should interfere. To prevent this, the four great powers of Europe, England, Russia, Austria and Prussia interfered to sustain the Turkish government. Turkey accepted their intervention. A conference was held in London at which an ultimatum was drawn up to be presented to Mehemet Ali, the Pacha of Egypt. It is evident that when this ultimatum should be placed in the hands of Mehemet matters would then be committed into the hands of the Christian powers. And on the day when this was submitted to him the Sultan addressed a note to the ambassadors of the four powers inquiring what should be done in case Mehemet refused to comply with the terms which they had proposed. The answer was that he need not alarm himself about any contingency that might arise; for they had made provision for that. And what day was this? The 11th of August, 1840. Thus the second woe ended, and the sixth trumpet ceased its sounding.

Passing over the 10th and a portion of the 11th chapters of Revelation, the series of trumpets is again taken up in verse 14 of chapter 11. The events of this trumpet are described in the five following verses. They are such as show that this trumpet witnesses the conclusion of all earthly kingdoms and the beginning of the everlasting reign of Christ. Among the events introduced the opening of the temple of God in Heaven. Verse 19. This was the commencement of the work of cleansing the sanctuary, as explained in the exposition of that subject. This is the same as the finishing of the mystery of God spoken of in Rev. 10:7 which was to mark the beginning of the sounding of that angel. We therefore place the beginning of that trumpet in the autumn of 1844, and the little space termed "quickly" which was to intervene between the second and third woes reached from August 11, 1840, where the sixth trumpet ceased to sound to the autumn of 1844 where the seventh commenced. The 18th verse of Rev. 11 shows that this trumpet covers the concluding troubles of the last days and reaches over to the destruction of the wicked at the end of the thousand years. U. S.