QUESTIONS by John Norton Loughborough

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 22, 1858

QUESTIONS.

By John Norton Loughborough

A BROTHER proposes the following questions:

Who do you understand those are in Rev. vi, 11, that are to be "killed," and has it been fulfilled? If so, when?
Can the "forty days" in the prophecy of Jonah, chap. iii, 4, possibly be construed to mean forty years, i. e. a day for a year? Can you inform us how long after this prediction of Jonah, before Nineveh was destroyed?

REPLY. We understand those who were to be "killed" referred to in Rev. vi, 11, ("And it was said unto them that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants also and their brethren that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled,) as those who were slain in the Papal persecutions under the fifth seal. That the fifth seal carries us to the end of the Papal persecution is clearly manifest in the fact that the sixth seal opens with those signs which are located, (by the discourse of Christ, Matt. xxiv,) immediately following the tribulation by the Papal power; namely, the darkening of the sun and moon, and the falling of the stars.

Our idea of the time when these are killed, will be clearly seen by reading the testimony concerning the fourth and fifth seals in connection. When the fourth seal was opened John says, "I looked and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was death, and hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth." Here John beheld a power commissioned to go forth and kill. When the fifth seal was opened, John saw those who were slain, &c. Those which John saw when the fifth seal was opened, we understand were those who had been put to death under the previous seal. He here states that these souls cried, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth . . . And it was said unto them that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants also and their brethren that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled." They had been killed under the fourth seal. Their brethren were to be slain during that "little season" in which they "must rest." When their brethren were slain "as they were," then would commence the avenging of their blood on them that dwell on the earth. Of course this would be in process of fulfillment when the judgment should have set on the Papacy. Daniel says, [chap. vii, 26,] "But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end." The dominion of the Papacy was taken away in 1798. Then the judgment set on that power previous to that time.

That which the martyrs plead for, was the judgment of the power persecuting them. And it was to come when "their fellow-servants also, and their brethren that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled." When we come to 1798, this was fulfilled and judgment began on the Papacy which is to be carried out in consuming and destroying that power unto the end.

Some have supposed that those who were to be "killed," as brought to view under the fifth seal were to be slain just prior to the coming of Christ. Where is the proof of that position? Why says one, the martyrs are to be redeemed as soon as their fellow-servants are slain as they were, and in Rev. xiii, we see that the last decree that is passed against God's people, is that of the Two-horned beast that they "shall be killed." On this we reply. The testimony does not say that the martyrs should be redeemed as soon as their brethren were killed. It simply shows that then will commence the work of avenging their blood, which as we claim above, commenced with the taking away of the dominion of the Papacy. And in regard to those of whom it is said, the image of the beast should "cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed, it is inconsistent with Scripture itself to claim, because such a decree is made, therefore it must be executed, and those comprehended in the decree must be killed. Allowing that Rev. xiv. 1-5 concludes the prophecy of the preceding chapter, all is plain. Although decrees of death are passed, victory comes on the side of God's people. This too, accords with the Lord's manner of dealing with his people in past time; which is, when he shows great persecutions that are coming on his people, he also presents the manner of their deliverance. The 144,000 are delivered from the decree of the Two-horned beast by being redeemed from the earth.

On the second question we reply. It seems from the chronology of Jonah's prophecy compared with the chronology of the actual overthrow of Nineveh, that Jonah's forty days could not be prophetic; although many have supposed this was the case, and we ourselves once inclined to it, until on comparing the chronology of the two events, we found the following were the facts in the case.

Jonah prophesied, according to Usher's Chronology, B. C. 862.

Nineveh was destroyed B. C. 612, as may be learned from Prideaux's Connection, Vol. i, p. 90.

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.