Thoughts on the Revelation.
THIS chapter gives a description of the seven vials of the unmingled wrath of God, and the effects that follow as they are poured upon the earth. Concerning these plagues there is a difference of opinion among Bible readers. Our first inquiry therefore is, What is the true position in reference to their character and chronology? Are they symbolical and mostly fulfilled in the past, as some contend, or are they literal and all future, as others no less confidently affirm? A brief examination of the testimony will, we think, settle conclusively these questions. Verse 1. 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. 2. 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 of the beast, and upon them which worshiped his image. This description of the very first plague sets us on the track of their chronology; for it is poured out upon those who have the mark of the beast, and who worship his image—the identical work against which the third angel now warns us. This is conclusive proof that these judgments are not poured out till after this angel closes his work, and that the very class who hear his warning and reject it, are the ones to receive the first drops from the overflowing vials of God's indignation. Occasionally a believer in the third message has inclined to the position that these plagues are in the past, with the exception of the seventh; but such evidently did not see the bearing this position would have upon other portions of present truth. So connected is this system, so like clock-work do all parts bear upon each other, that not even a pin can be removed, without destroying the harmony, if not working destruction to the whole system. Thus, if these plagues are past, the image of the beast and his worship are in the past. If these are past, the two-horned beast which makes this image, and his work are in the past. If these are past, then the third angel's message which warns us in reference to this work, is in the past; and if this is past, that is, ages in the past where this view locates the commencement of the plagues, then the second and first messages which precede that, are also in the past, and we are found to be wholly in error in our application of all these things. Thus by removing this single link, small and unimportant as it may at first appear, the golden chain is broken, and the whole fabric of truth thereon suspended falls in ruins to the ground. But there are other reasons for locating them in the future and not in the past: 1. Under the fifth plague, men blaspheme God because of their sores, the same sores, of course, caused by the outpouring of the first plague. This shows that these plagues all fall upon the same generation of men, some being no doubt swept off by each one, but yet some surviving through the terrible scenes of them all: a fact utterly subversive of the position that they commenced far in the past, and occupy centuries each in their fulfillment; for how then could those who experience the first plague be alive under the fifth? 2. These plagues are the wine of God's wrath without mixture, threatened by the third angel, chap. xiv, 10; xv, 1. Such language cannot be applicable to any judgments visited upon the earth while Christ pleads between his Father and our fallen race. Hence we must locate them in the future, when probation shall have closed. 3. Another, and more definite testimony as to the commencement and duration of these plagues, is found in chap. xv, 8: "And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled." What is the temple here introduced? Evidently that which is mentioned in chap. xi, 19, where it says, "The temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament." In other words, we have before us the heavenly Sanctuary. The testimony is then that when the seven angels with the seven golden vials receive their commission, the temple is filled with smoke from the glory of God, and no man can enter into the temple, or Sanctuary, till they have fulfilled their work; there will therefore be no ministration in the heavenly sanctuary during this time; consequently the close of the ministration of the tabernacle above, marks the time for the commencement of the outpouring of the seven last plagues. Christ is then no longer a mediator: mercy, which has long stayed the hand of vengeance, pleads no more; the servants of God are sealed. What could then be expected but that the "storm of vengeance should fall," and earth be swept with the besom of destruction? Having now shown the chronology of these judgments, that they are just before us in the near future treasured up against the day of wrath, we proceed to inquire into their nature, and what will result when the solemn and fearful mandate shall go forth from the temple to the seven angels, saying, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. Here we are called to look into the "armory of the Lord," and behold the "weapons of his indignation." Jer. l, 25. Here are brought forth the treasures of hail, which have been reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war. Job xxxviii, 22, 23. THE VIALS AND THEIR EFFECTS.
"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 of the beast, and upon them which worshiped his image." Is there any reason why we should not regard this as strictly literal? We know of none. These plagues are almost identical with those which God inflicted upon the Egyptians as he was about to deliver his people from the yoke of bondage; and the literality of those we have never heard called in question. God is now about to crown his people with their final deliverance and redemption, and his judgments will be manifested in a manner no less literal and terrible. What the sore here threatened is, we are not informed. Perhaps it may be similar to the parallel plague which fell upon Egypt. Ex. ix, 8-11. Verse 3. 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. 4. And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood. 5. And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus. 6. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy. 7. And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments. Such is the description of the terrible retribution for the "blood of saints," which will be given to the enemies of God's people. And though we can hardly conceive of the horrors of that state of things, when the pools and fountains and rivers of water shall be loathsome and stagnant blood, the justice of God will stand vindicated, and his judgments approved. Even the angels are heard exclaiming, Thou art righteous, O Lord, because thou hast judged thus; for they have shed the blood of saints and prophets. Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous art thy judgments. It may be asked how the last generation of the wicked can be said to have shed the blood of saints and prophets, since the last generation of saints are not to be slain. A reference to Matt. xxiii, 34, 35; 1 John iii, 15, will explain. These scriptures show that guilt attaches to motive no less than to action. And no generation ever formed a more determined purpose to give the saints to indiscriminate slaughter, than the present one will, not far in the future. See chap. xii, 17; xiii, 15. In motive and purpose they do shed the blood of saints and prophets. The term, prophets, shows that the spirit of prophecy will be revived, and that there will be prophets in the remnant church. It would seem that not one of the human race could survive a long continuance of a plague so terrible as this. We hence conclude that this one may be limited in its duration, as was the similar one on Egypt. Ex. vii, 17-21. Verse 8. And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. 9. And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues; and they repented not to give him glory. It is worthy of notice that every succeeding plague tends to augment the calamity of the previous ones, and highten the anguish of the guilty sufferers. We have now a noisome and grievous sore preying upon men, inflaming their blood, and pouring its feverish influence through their veins. In addition to this they have, to allay their parching thirst, putrid blood; and, as if to crown all, power is given unto the sun, and he poures upon them a flood of liquid fire, and they are scorched with great heat. Here, as the record runs, their woe first finds utterance in horrid blasphemy. Verse 10. 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. 11. And blasphemed the God of heaven, because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds. An important fact is established by this testimony: It is that the plagues do not at once destroy all their victims; for some who were at first smitten with sores, we find still living under the fifth vial, and gnawing their tongues for pain. An illustration of this vial will be found in Ex. x, 21-23. It is poured upon the seat of the beast, the papacy. The seat of the beast is wherever the papal see is located, which thus far has been Rome. "His kingdom," probably embraces all those who are subjects of the pope in an ecclesiastical point of view. Verse 12. And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. 13. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. 14. For they are 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 the great day of God Almighty. 15. Behold I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. 16. And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.5 What is the great river Euphrates, which is the object of this vial? One view is that it is the literal river Euphrates in Asia; and another is, that it is a symbol of the nation occupying the territory through which it flows. We incline to the latter opinion for the following reasons: 1. No end would be gained by the drying up of the literal river; for that would not offer an obstruction at all serious to the progress of an advancing army. And it should be noticed that the drying up takes place to prepare the way of the kings of the east, that is, regular military organizations, and not a promiscuous and unequipped crowd of men, women, and children, like the children of Israel at the Red Sea, or at the Jordan. The Euphrates is only about 1400 miles in length, or about one-third the size of the Mississippi. Cyrus, without difficulty, turned the whole river from its channel at his siege of Babylon; and notwithstanding the numerous wars that have been carried on along its banks, and the mighty hosts that have crossed and re-crossed its stream, we have never read that it had to be once dried up to let them over. 2. It would be as necessary to dry up the river Tigris as the Euphrates, the source of the former being only fifteen miles from the latter, in the mountains of Armenia, and it running nearly parallel with, and but a short distance from, the latter throughout its whole course. Yet the prophecy says nothing of the Tigris. 3. The literal drying up of rivers we understand takes place under the fourth vial, when power is given to the sun to scorch men with fire. Under this plague occur beyond question the scenes of drouth and famine so graphically described by Joel, chap. i, 14-20, and as one feature of which, it is expressly stated that "the rivers of waters are dried up." The Euphrates will probably be no exception to this; hence, not much would remain to be literally dried up under the sixth vial. 4. These plagues, from the very nature of the case, must be manifestations of wrath and judgments upon men. But if the drying up of the literal Euphrates is all that is brought to view, nobody is hurt, and the plague turns out to be no serious affair, after all. These objections existing against its being taken literally, it must be understood figuratively as symbolizing the power holding possession of its territory, which is the Ottoman or Turkish empire. 1. It is so used in other places in the scriptures: see Isa. viii, 7; Rev. ix, 16. In this latter text, all must concede that the Euphrates symbolizes the Turkish power; and being the first and only other occurrence of the word in the Revelation, it may well be considered as governing its use in this book. 2. The drying up of the river in this sense would be the consumption of the Turkish empire, accompanied with more or less destruction of its subjects. Thus we should have literal judgments upon men, as the result of this plague, as in the case of all the rest. Then, it may be objected, notwithstanding you contend for the literality of the plagues, you would nevertheless make one of them a symbol. We answer, No. A power is introduced, it is true, under the sixth vial in its symbol; true, just as it is under the fifth, where we read of the seat of the beast, which is a well-known symbol; or as we read again in the first plague of the mark of the beast, his image and its worship, which are also symbols. All that we contend for is the literality of the judgments that result from each vial, which are literal in this case, as in all the rest. Again, it may be asked how the way of the kings of the East will be prepared by the drying up or consumption of the Ottoman power? The answer is obvious. For what is the way of those kings to be prepared? Ans. To come up to the great battle. Where is the battle to be fought? At Jerusalem. See Joel and Zephaniah. But Jerusalem is in the hands of the Turks. They hold possession of the land of Palestine and the sacred sepulchres. Here is the bone of contention. On these the nations have fixed their covetous and jealous eyes. But though Turkey now possesses them, and others want them, it is nevertheless thought necessary to the tranquility of Europe that Turkey should be maintained in her position, in order to preserve, as it is called, the "balance of power." Her office therefore at present seems to be merely like that of a great and distended shell, which so long as it can be kept from collapsing, keeps at distance belligerent and hostile powers. Therefore the four allied powers of Europe are pledged to sustain the integrity of the Sultan's throne. By them alone it is now maintained, and when they shall withdraw their hands, and leave it to itself, as we believe they will do under the sixth plague, that symbolic river will be clean dried up, Turkey will be no more, and the way will be all open for the nations to rush to the holy land. The kings of the East, the nationalities, powers, and kingdoms lying east of Palestine, will act a conspicuous part in the matter; for Joel says in reference to this scene, Let "the heathen" be wakened and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat. Another event to be noticed under this plague, is the issuing forth of the three unclean spirits to gather the nations to the great battle. And as we have taken the position that the agency now already abroad in the world, and known as modern Spiritualism, is the means to be employed in this work; or rather, as we have applied this scripture, Rev. xvi, 14, to the modern manifestations of spirit power, the question has been asked, how we could think that a work was designated by it, which was already going on, when the spirits are not introduced into the prophecy until the sixth plague, which is still future. We answer that in this, as in many other things, the agencies which Heaven designs to employ in the accomplishment of certain ends, are being for a while trained to the part which they are to act. Thus before the spirits can have such absolute authority over the race as to gather them to battle against the King of kings and Lord of lords, they must first win their way among the nations of the earth, and cause their teaching to be received as of divine authority, and their word as law. This work they are now doing; and when they shall have once got the multitudes of earth under their influence, what fitter instruments could be employed to gather them to so rash and hopeless an enterprise? To many it may seem incredible that the nations should be willing to engage in such an unequal warfare as to go up to battle against the Lord of hosts; but it is one province of these spirits of devils to deceive; for they go forth working miracles, and thereby deceive the kings of the earth that they should believe a lie. The sources from which these spirits issue, denote that they will work among three great divisions of mankind, represented by the dragon, beast, and false prophet, or Paganism, Catholicism, and Protestantism. But what is the force of the exhortation in verse 15? Probation must have closed, and Christ have left his mediatorial position, before the plagues begin to fall. And is there danger of falling after that? It will be noticed that this warning is spoken in connection with the working of the spirits. We infer therefore that it goes back and is applicable from the time these spirits begin to work, to the close of probation; that by an interchange of tenses, common to the Greek language, the present tense is put for the past; as if it had read, Blessed is he that hath watched and kept his garments, as the shame and nakedness of all who have not done this, will at this time especially appear. "And he gathered them." Several translations read, And they gathered them, &c., referring to the spirits. To Armageddon, the valley of Megiddo, the place of the battle. Verse 17. 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. 18. 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. 19. And the great city was divided into three parts, 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. 20. And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. 21. 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. Thus has inspiration described to us the last judgment which God has appointed to rebellious man in his present state. Some of the plagues we have seen are local in their application; but this one is poured out into the air. The air is a universal element; hence we may conclude that this plague will envelop equally the habitable globe. It will be universal. The air will be tainted. The gathering of the nations having taken place under the sixth vial, the battle remains to be fought under the seventh; and we here find brought to view the instrumentalities with which God will plead with all flesh. At this time it may be said, "The Lord hath opened his armory, and brought forth the weapons of his indignation." There were voices. Above all will be heard the voice of God. "The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake. But the Lord will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel." Joel iii, 16. See also Jer. xxv, 30; Heb. xii, 26. This will cause the great earthquake such as was not since men were upon the earth. And thunders and lightnings. Allusion again to the judgments of Egypt. See Ex. ix, 23. The great city is divided into three parts; that is, the three grand divisions of the false and apostate religion of the world (the great city), Paganism, Catholicism, and Protestantism, seem to be set apart each to receive its appropriate doom. The cities of the nations fell. A universal desolation of the earth, when every island shall flee away and the mountains not be found. And great Babylon came in remembrance before God. Read her judgments more fully in chap. xviii. And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven. This is the last instrumentality brought to bear upon the shelterless heads of the wicked—the bitter dregs of the seventh vial. God has solemnly declared to the wicked, saying, "Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet; and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding-place." Isa. xxviii, 17. See also Isa. xxx, 30. And he asks Job if he has seen the treasures of the hail, which he has reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war. Job xxxviii, 22, 23. Every stone about the weight of a talent. A talent, according to various authorities, as a weight, is about fifty-seven pounds avoirdupois. What could withstand the force of stones of such an enormous weight falling from heaven? But mankind, at this time, will have no shelter. The cities have fallen in the mighty earthquake, the islands have fled away, and the mountains are not found. Again the wicked give vent to their woe in blasphemy; for the plague of the hail is exceeding great. And there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven from the throne, saying, It is done! Thus all is finished. The cup of human guilt has been filled up. The last soul has availed itself of the plan of salvation. The books are closed. The number of the saved is made up. The final period is placed to this world's history. The vials of God's wrath are poured out upon a corrupt generation. The wicked have drunk them to the dregs, and sunk into the realm of death for a thousand years. Reader, where do you wish to be found after that great decision? But what is the condition of the saints while the "overflowing scourge" is passing over? They are the special subjects of God's protection, in whose hands not a sparrow falls to the ground. Many are the promises which come crowding in to afford them comfort, summarily contained in the beautiful and expressive language of the psalm, which alone we have space to quote: Ps. xci, 2-10. "I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge and my fortress: my God, in him will I trust. Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for the destruction that wasteth at noon-day. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked. Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling."