Copyright, 1910, by Milton C. Wilcox. "Let the Revelation speak and tell what is truth. . . . Uplift Jesus as the center of all hope."
XX. Saracens and Turks
THE first four trumpets signify the events that broke in pieces the Roman Empire. For years, under the greatest corruption, the mighty machine outwardly moved on apparently irresistible and indestructible. Christianity seemed for a time to impart new vigor. It was not, however, received as a life, but a form; and hence the empire became weaker than before. Lardner, in his "Logical Outline of the Roman Empire," well delineates this phase of it:
Christianity, springing up in Judea in the first century of the empire, spread through and around it like an interlacing vine,—sweet and wholesome in its early fruits, strong as a bond, powerful as a regenerating influence. But when the ecclesiasticism of a political fashioned church had been grafted on the Christian vine, it bore then the evil seeds of new corruption, new discord, new maladies for the Roman world.
So there came at last a time when the long-enduring frame of Roman government could no longer bear the increasing dead-weight of social paralysis within and the increasing pressure of barbaric enemies from without. Of real vitality in the empire there had been little for half a century before its fall in the West.
The incursions of barbarians from the North and from the North through the South disclosed the weakness of the mighty shell and broke it in fragments. Alaric with his Goths and kindred tribes for a decade of years in the beginning of the fifth century beat upon the empire, and for the first time for over six centuries the conqueror of Rome trod in triumph the streets of the eternal city. The "terrible Genseric" with his hordes of Vandals captured first Roman Africa, and then from the South for a half century waged unremitting, devastating war. From the North and East rushed again another tidal wave, on the crest of which rode Attila, "the scourge of God." In 476 Odoacer, the Goth, abolished the empire of Western Rome, in the deposing of Romulus Augustulus, the last little ruler of the once proud mistress of the world. The empire of the East still continued in ever growing feebleness.
The Roman Empire became divided into ten kingdoms, according to the prophecies of God's Word; but the peoples heeded not the Word. The same prophet had declared "that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will;" but the lesson had not been learned. The God of the prophet had enjoined, "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me," and in the same divine law and in numerous other scriptures had forbidden idolatry—image-worship. But the divisions of Rome, though Christian in name, were idolatrous in form and fact; and in a transformed heathen worship, images of angels and saints replaced the statues of the mythical gods and tutelary deities of the pagans of the past.
Scarcely had the broken empire settled into shape ere it exalted man as the vicar of Christ, as the visible representative of God upon earth, who assumed dominion over the faith and conscience of men. As apostasy was coming to its full bloom another power was arising to the southeast, another person was claiming spiritual rulership of the world. As Isham puts it:
Mohammed cried from the East, "Jesus is not the prophet-heir; I am he." The bishop of Rome answered from the Far West, "The throne is mine; I am the visible representative of the Lord Jesus on earth." The dispute was for the religious sovereignty of the earth, and during subsequent centuries both disputants used the sword unrestrainedly against all who did not support their pretentions. There is nothing to astonish us in the deeds of war performed by one who professed to supersede Jesus, but the same deeds in one who professed to represent Jesus are a wonderful and horrible thing.
How this power under a twofold phase was to scourge the apostate church, is the subject of the ninth chapter of the Revelation, our lesson for this week.
The Answer of the Text
1. What did John see when the fifth angel sounded?
And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from heaven fallen unto the earth: and there was given to him the key of the pit of the abyss.
2. What did the fallen angel do?
And he opened the pit of the abyss.
3. What followed the opening of the abyss?
And there went up a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And out of the smoke came forth locusts upon the earth; and power was given them, as the scorpions of the earth have power.
4. What command was given these locusts?
And it was said unto them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree, but only such men as had not the seal of God on their foreheads.
5. How long would their special work of devastation last?
And it was given them that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when it striketh a man.
6. How did their terror affect men?
And in those days men shall seek death, and shall in no wise find it; and they shall desire to die, and death fleeth from them.
7. What description is given of these locusts?
And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared for war; and upon their heads as it were crowns like unto gold, and their faces were as men's faces. And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots, of many horses rushing to war. And they have tails like unto scorpions, and stings; and in their tails is their power to hurt men five months.
8. Who is their king?
They have over them as king the angel of the abyss: his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek tongue he hath the name Apollyon.
9. What announcement followed?
The first wo is past: behold, there come yet two woes hereafter.
10. What did the prophet hear when the sixth trumpet sounded?
And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the horns of the golden altar which is before God, one saying to the sixth angel that had the trumpet, Loose the four angels that are bound at the great river Euphrates.
11. What was the response to the voice?
And the four angels were loosed, that had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, that they should kill the third part of men.
12. What was the number of the armies engaged in the war?
And the number of the armies of the horsemen was twice ten thousand times ten thousand: I heard the number of them.
13. What description is given of the warriors?
And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates as of fire and of hyacinth and of brimstone: and the heads of the horses are as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths proceedeth fire and smoke and brimstone.
14. What was wrought by these plagues?
By these three plagues was the third part of men killed, by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone, which proceeded out of their mouths. For the power of the horses is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails are like unto serpents, and have heads; and with them they hurt.
15. How were those not killed generally affected by these plagues?
And the rest of mankind, who were not killed with these plagues, repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and the idols of gold, and of silver, and of brass, and of stone, and of wood; which can neither see, nor hear, nor walk: and they repented not of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.
Note and Comment
1. A star from heaven fallen.—Some have made this star represent the pope of Rome; some, Mohammed; some, like Keith, Chosroes; and other some give it other applications. In this it seems to us the language of the Scripture must decide. Who is the star fallen from heaven? Not that John saw it fall, but that it was already fallen in his day. Isaiah thus refers to the fallen angel: "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning [day-star]!" Isa. 14:12-14. Jesus said, "I7beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven." Luke 10:18. "He [the devil and Satan] was cast down to the earth." Rev. 12:9. This is further confirmed by verse 11 of our lesson: "They have over them as king the angel of the abyss: his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek tongue he hath the name Apollyon [margin, destroyer]."
2. The abyss.—The word "abyss" is transferred from the Greek. It means unmeasured depth. It is rendered "the deep" in Luke 8:31. In Rom. 10:7 it seems to refer to the abode of the dead. In Gen. 1:2 in the Septuagint it refers to the earth before the work of the six days was wrought, an empty, void waste. See also Rev. 11:7; 17:8; 20:1, 3. In the latter text it refers to this earth empty and desolate. The language here is symbolical. The picture is of a vast deep, having an opening, or well, or shaft, running down into it, but the pit closed until God permits this angel to open its great depths, just as He suffers the latter-day strong delusions to sweep over the world.
3. Smoke indicates obscurity. So Mohammed arose known neither to Jew nor Christian; he was the prophet of neither. Smoke fierce and black arose; the sun was obscured; the air was darkened. This is not the sun of Western Rome that was smitten. This sun can not be removed; it is only obscured. Jesus Christ is the "Light of the World." The sun is a symbol of the Sun of Righteousness. The air by which men breathe and by which they live is a fitting symbol of the Spirit. This symbolic smoke hid from the people Jesus the Sun of Righteousness; it shut them away from the light of the Spirit of God. This Mohammedanism does; it puts Mohammed in the place of Christ, leaves the world without a Saviour, and knows no Holy Spirit and its regenerating power. It has been aptly said that Mohammedanism consists of a great truth and a great lie: the truth, "There is but one God;" the lie, "Mohammed is His prophet." It exalted man in the place of God; so did the Papacy. But it worshiped no idols. Not knowing the Gospel, it pushed its conquests by the sword; and God used it to scourge an unrepentant and apostate church, "a terrible wo to those who do not love Christ, who are warned that since they will not be true to the true One they shall come under the rule of a deceiver."
4. Not hurt the grass.—A strange command to give to locusts. Again we would like to remind our readers that Bible figures and symbols are not used for the purpose of expressing harmony and beauty or consistency, but to present great facts and mighty moral truth. In God's sight, therefore (it ought to be in ours), this old world is sin-sick, a moral and physical wreck, utterly abnormal, and men are even more so. Isa. 60:2. It is because of man's sin that the curse rests upon all nature. Because of this abnormal condition God must use abnormal and inconsistent combinations to symbolize abnormal powers and conditions, and to represent inconsistent actions and nations. Hence a lion with eagle's wings represents Babylon. Hence a four-headed, four-winged leopard is used to represent Grecia. Hence a combination of locust, scorpion, horse, man, symbolizes the unique, devastating Saracen. Then, too, in the Scriptures we have combined both the symbolical and the literal; but the symbol, the representation, is always fitting and applicable. Therefore the command that these locusts should not hurt any green thing, only the men who have not the seal of God on their foreheads. Here is a command issued by Abubeker, the successor of Mohammed, the follower of the prophet. It will be seen that it is similar to the command God gave the children of Israel (Deut. 20:19), which may have suggested to Abubeker the decree he issued:
When you fight the battles of the Lord acquit yourselves like men without turning your backs; but let not your victories be stained by the blood of women and children. Destroy no palm-trees, nor burn any fields of corn [grain]. Cut down no fruit-trees, nor do mischief to cattle, only such as you kill to eat. When you make any covenant or article, stand to it and be as good as your word. As you go on you will find some religious persons who lived retired in monasteries, and propose to themselves to serve God that way; let them alone, and neither kill them nor destroy their monasteries. And you will find another sort of people that belong to the synagog of Satan, who have shaven crowns; be sure you cleave their skulls and give them no quarters till they either turn Mohammedans or pay tribute.
The seal of God, as we learned in our study of Rev. 7:1-3, is His Sabbath sealed home with all it means with the Spirit of God upon the heart and in the character of the true believer. There have been such through all the centuries. Some of these may have been in monasteries in those early centuries; others were scattered throughout the East. Not against such, not against the productions of nature, was this fearful scourging directed, but against the great apostate church, the priestly representatives of which are indicated in the command of Abubeker. Upon this matter of those sealed Isham remarks, "Those who are primarily noted under the sealing are the Christians of Jewish origin among whom or close to their territory the locusts first showed themselves." The prophecy declares that such a command should be given. History declares that it was given. Nor do we have any account that true, devoted people of God suffered from the fiery scenes of the scourge.
5. Five months.—This period of time is held to be prophetic time, thirty days to the month, a period of 150 years, beginning at a time when as an organized power the Mohammedans entered the Roman Empire and especially began their work of scourging the Eastern Empire of Rome. Under Othman, the founder of the Ottoman Empire, the Saracens entered Nicomedia, Greek territory, on their career of conquest July 27, 1299; nay, better, their career of spreading constant terror and torment for 150 years, and yet the lesson was not learned by those who received the scourging.
6. Locusts.—A borrowed and fitting figure of devastation, well known to those acquainted with the East. See Ex. 10:4, 15; Joel 1:2-7. "The land is as a Garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them." Chapter 2:3. But to these locusts, symbols of devastation, are added the speed and courage of the war-horse, the poison of the scorpion, the savage strength of a lion, the wisdom of man, clad in invulnerable armor. Scorpions generally cause severe suffering, but do not kill. Yet in Arabia, where the worst scorpions are found, there are those that do kill; hence the proviso in the prophecy, and hence also the Arabian source of the scorpion. This combination well represents the Saracenic hordes that swept up from Arabia and the mountain regions of Western Asia and fell upon a land once Christian.
7. A voice.—God rules in the kingdom of men. The golden altar before God is the altar of incense upon which are offered and are recorded the prayers of His people. Four angels.—Four is the world number, and these were messengers of judgment. The judgments were not to come from heaven or from a supernatural source, but earthly agencies were to be set in operation more fully to chastise the apostate people. Euphrates.—Bayley upon this passage remarks: "The great river Euphrates is the symbolized name for eastern empire, for Babylon on the Euphrates was the capital of three successive empires — Chaldean, Persian, and Greek. Bagdad, the Saracen capital, was not on the Euphrates. It was on the Tigris." The expression would seem to indicate that the wo of the sixth trumpet would come from the section named, where the four chief sultanies of the Mohammedan power were situated, Bagdad, Aleppo, Iconium, Damascus. The center of Mohammedan power was henceforth to be found in Byzantine territory, even in Constantinople itself; and the Eastern Empire of Rome would be left but a memory. Constantine XIII, the last of the Palæologi and the last Greek Emperor, came to the throne in 1449. He saw how hopeless it was to resist the Turks, and so obtained the consent of the Sultan Amurath, virtually yielding his independence to the Turkish power. It is true that shortly after that Constantine, urged on by ill-advisers, sought to throw off the Turkish yoke; but it was fastened more securely in the capture of Constantinople by Mohammed II, in 1453.
8. For the hour and day and month and year.—Prophetic time, as the five months; according to prophetic-time rule, a day for a year, equal to 391 years and 15 days, and which added to 150 years equals 541 years and 15 days, the period covered by the first two wo trumpets. This period began July 27, 1299, when Othman entered Nicomedia, and ended August 11, 1840, when by consent of the Sultan Turkey became a vassal power, ruling by sufferance of the great powers of Europe.
These calculations were made, prior to the ending of the prophetic period above noted, by Josiah Litch, and published in 1838 in the work entitled "Christ's Second Coming." In brief his closing is as follows: Prior to the last-named date there was war between Turkey and her vassal Mehemet Ali, the Pasha of Egypt. Turkey was getting decidedly the worst of the conflict. France seemed to be deciding with Egypt. Complications were such that the equilibrium of Europe was threatened. England took the initiative. Representatives of Prussia, Russia, and Austria met with the representatives of England, and decided to take the situation into their own hands. Turkey yielded to the situation. An ultimatum was drawn up which granted to Mehemet Ali the hereditary government of Egypt, with certain other possessions for life; while he in return was to restore the rest of the Sultan's dominion which he held, together with the fleet he had taken. Should Mehemet Ali refuse, the combined powers would assume responsibility and compel his acquiescence.
The conference of the powers was held in London. One messenger was despatched with the ultimatum to Amurath the Sultan, the other to Mehemet Ali of Egypt. This document was placed in the hands of the Sultan August 11, 1840. The messenger who proceeded to Egypt landed in Alexandria on the same day, but did not secure audience with Mehemet Ali till August 20. The crux of the matter rested with Turkey and with the powers rather than with Egypt. Egypt was but the incident. It is manifest that when the ultimatum was placed in the hands of the Sultan and accepted by him, the independence of Turkey was at an end, even as the independence of the Eastern Empire had been yielded to Turkey 391 years before. Mr. Litch's prediction that sometime in August, 1840, the independence of Turkey would cease, was watched with great interest; and the fact that it was met in history gave a mighty impetus to the great advent movement at that time.
9. The number of the armies, reckoned by some as 200,000,000, by others as less, by others still as a great indefinite number. Those who count the greater definite number hold it to include all engaged in the wars during the nearly four hundred years.
10. I saw.—The description given is of the Turkish soldiers, and their equipment, their mode of fighting. Turkish colors predominant were red and blue and yellow. Gunpowder had just come into military use. By its agency were men destroyed. The terms of the prophecy indicate boldness, fierceness. The tail of the horse is said to have been used as a standard by the Turks, and a sign of authority and power.
11. Repented not.—The sad and awful sequel is that the empire was not reformed, that the great apostasy, in either Latin or Greek Rome, would not return to God. Their ornate form, their adoration and worship of images, their worship of demons or deified or exalted dead, persecution to the death of those adjudged as heretics, sorceries, or communion with the dead, the fornications, or unlawful union between Church and State, seizing the honor that belonged to God alone, so robbing the people of the riches of His grace,—they "repented not." The only thing that saved Europe was the salt of the Reformation, sent in mercy by the Father to save all who would receive His mighty Gospel. The men and nations turn from God, He will not forsake the doomed earth as long as one soul longs for His salvation; but "behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation."
