The Fourth Angel Pours Out His Bowl on the Sunby IpswichSDA
16:8Revelation 16:8
And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.
The fourth of the seven last plagues is poured out upon the sun, and power is given to it to scorch men with fire with great and almost unendurable heat. It falls in the future after intercession ends, when every case is decided and wrath is poured out without mercy and without an intercessor. It strikes the living wicked who worship the beast and its image and receive its mark, yet the plagues are severe but not universal and are not the final execution of judgment at the second death. Before that time God draws a covering over His people to protect them, and only those sanctified through the truth and hid with Christ will stand until the desolation is overpast. Instead of repenting, the wicked are enraged against the righteous whom they blame for bringing the judgments, and issue a decree to slay them until God delivers His saints.
Words and Plague Order
The fourth vial is poured upon the sun, and power is given to the sun to scorch men with fire. Men suffer great, intense heat from that scorching. In sequence it follows the plague in which the waters are turned to blood.
It stands as the fourth of the seven last plagues. Those seven are the vials of God's wrath, poured out vial after vial one after another upon the inhabitants of the earth.
Timing and Those Struck
The scorching of men by the sun falls in the future, after priestly work in the most holy place is finished, priestly attire is laid off, garments of vengeance are put on, the place between the Father and man is left, and the kingly role to execute judgment is taken up. Then the angel of mercy leaves the world, intercession ends, every case is decided for salvation or for destruction, mercy's voice has ceased, and wrath is poured out without mercy and without an intercessor. The wrath in the plagues cannot come until that intercession is finished.
The four angels hold the four winds until that sanctuary work is done, and only then are the seven last plagues poured out. The anger of the nations, the wrath of God, and the time to judge the dead are separate events following one after another. Michael has not yet stood up and the time of trouble such as never was has not yet commenced.
It falls on the living wicked who worship the beast and its image and receive its mark. They are those who rejected truth, transgressed the law, broke the covenant, and trampled the Sabbath while accepting a spurious rest day in its place. Before that time a covering is drawn over God's people to protect them during the plagues, while those left without shelter find no deliverance from the burning wrath.
The plagues are severe but not universal and do not destroy every inhabitant of the earth. They are not the final execution of judgment, which comes at the second death.
Some who were alive in May 1856 would live to be subjects of the plagues. They are distinct from those who would die beforehand as food for worms and from those who would remain alive to be translated at Jesus' coming without seeing death.
Severity and Physical Effects
The plague follows the turning of the waters to blood, when power is given to the sun to scorch people with fire and they suffer great heat. That scorching brings severe devastation with withered vegetation, failed crops, drought, and widespread distress. The withering judgments fall on all people, from kings and nobles to the rich and poor.
The heat will be almost beyond endurance, with air so hot it seems to burn flesh. It makes the blood rush to the head and the face feel burned. It is part of the torment of the seven last plagues and produces a scene of fearful agony with loud wailing cries in every direction. One or two plagues do not exhaust divine wrath and justice, for when the punishment begins there is no period of respite until the end. The plagues continue until the purposes are fully accomplished.
Cause and Prophetic Purpose
The plagues come as God's interference to vindicate His honor because men have exceeded the bounds He prescribed, made void His law and trampled it underfoot, and rushed on to outrun the limits of His grace and exhaust His forbearance. They are the reckoning of the sum of guiltiness of every nation and the punishment of the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity after centuries of ripening rebellion, hatred to God, and warfare against His law. They fall on a godless world when unrighteousness swells to a fearful pass and when going beyond the bounds of God's grace brings contempt for His law to a fearful height.
They are sent that the world may take heed, that professing Christians may be brought to their senses, and that sinners may be afraid and tremble before Him. God permits this scorching destruction and will not interfere to protect property amid transgression of His law, breaking of His covenant, and trampling upon His Sabbath by accepting a spurious rest day in its place. By sea it means vessels hurled into eternity and by land fire consuming hoarded riches and sweeping away the most costly structures as if by a breath of fire from heaven, because the end of all things is at hand.
The verse is included among the prophecies in Revelation 12-18 that are being fulfilled as the last message of warning is given, and its outpouring is part of the warning that God's wrath will be poured out upon the world. The plagues of Egypt before and at Israel's release from bondage foreshadow this sequence, which falls on the wicked just before and during the saints' deliverance. The vial judgments are solemn scenes of stupendous interest yet to transpire in the last great final contest, when trumpet after trumpet is to be sounded and vial after vial poured out one after another upon the inhabitants of the earth.
These scenes are right upon them and are signs of Christ's coming and sure indications of His presence, bringing pestilence, famine, and death upon the inhabitants of the earth. They come when all the world will be on one side or the other and the battle of Armageddon will be fought. Christ has directed in every aggressive movement, has accompanied the march of His cause through all the ages, and has pledged to be with His people in all their conflicts to the end of the world to vindicate His truth and cause it to triumph, with the Captain of the Lord's host at the head of the angels of heaven directing the battle. That day must find none sleeping but wide awake as wise virgins with oil in vessels with lamps, sustained by the power of God, grace, and the Holy Ghost, and supplied with motives and power of purpose, hope, courage, valor, and increased activity so they do not lose faith and courage.
Present Foretastes and Warnings
Drops and sprinklings from the vials are already falling upon land and sea and affecting the elements of the air. God does not restrain the powers of darkness from vitiating the air, one of the sources of life and nutrition, with deadly miasma, so vegetable life is affected and man suffers pestilences, cholera and unexplainable diseases, with diphtheria gathering its harvest of children. Unusually destructive fires, earthquakes burying cities and villages, terrible railway accidents, tornadoes and floods with great destruction of property and loss of thousands of lives are the result of these drops from the vials.
The scorching already falling includes destructive judgments by sea in vessels hurled into eternity and by land in fires that consume hoarded riches and sweep away the most costly structures as if by a breath of fire from heaven. God permits this scorching destruction and will not interfere to protect property amid disobedience to His law and Sabbath, where men transgress His law, break His covenant, and trample upon His Sabbath while accepting a spurious rest day in its place. These judgments are sent that the world may take heed, that professing Christians may be brought to their senses, and that sinners may be afraid and tremble before Him.
The disasters already occurring are only limited drops and faint representations and previews of what will be in the near future. Then there will be greater mortality, greater crimes, weeping and woe, more earthquakes, with premonitory convulsions giving way to terrible shocks, the earth's crust rent by outbursts of concealed elements, lordly palaces become heaps of ruins sweeping away the wealth of oppressors, and the religious world terribly shaken because the end of all things is at hand. The judgments now falling have special meaning and warn how fast the last great crisis is approaching, calling for putting aside strife and contention to get ready. Those who claim they have no special meaning will soon be forced to understand them, and those who cannot recognize the signs of the times in this present wicked and adulterous generation will be counted among those who perish under the plagues.
Shelter and Required Readiness
Before that time a covering is drawn over the people of God to protect them during the plagues, and Satan works to keep them from receiving it until the sealing is past. The fourth plague is part of the seven last plagues, terrible judgments of burning wrath upon the ungodly who worship the beast and its image and receive its mark, bringing scorching heat from the sun upon those left without shelter. Those who have no shelter find no deliverance from these judgments, which fall after the voice of mercy has ceased.
The word of God teaches how to escape the seven last plagues, and those who neglect that word will be judged by it and found wanting. Understanding the Revelation and the prophecies of the plagues coming upon the world is necessary to shape one's course of action so as not to receive them. Only those sanctified through the truth in the love of God will stand, hid with Christ in God until the desolation is overpast.
Many of God's professed people will come up to the falling of the plagues unready and without a shelter because they have not received the Holy Ghost. When the plagues begin to fall they will wring their hands in anguish, and the hour will be too late to get ready, so the present burden is He is coming, get ready and receive the Holy Ghost now before the plagues soon fall. They come after the angel of mercy leaves the world, when sin, shame, sorrow, and darkness are on every side as the bolts of God's wrath fall to punish transgressors with no period of respite until the end. While God's patience and mercy still hold out the precious privilege of exchanging darkness for light, error for truth, and sin for righteousness, they will not always wait.
Reaction of the Wicked
The seven last plagues, including the scorching heat poured upon the sun, enrage the wicked against the righteous. They blame the saints for bringing the judgments of God upon the earth. Believing that ridding the earth of the saints would stay the plagues, they issue a decree to slay them. This brings the saints into the time of Jacob's trouble, when they cry day and night for deliverance. God delivers them by His voice, and the 144,000 triumph with faces lighted up with the glory of God.
Under the torment the plague scene becomes one of fearful agony with loud wailing cries in every direction. Parents bitterly reproach their children and children their parents, brothers their sisters and sisters their brothers. Each charges the other with keeping them from receiving the truth that would have saved them from that awful hour. The people turn upon their ministers with bitter hate for failing to warn them of that hour. They accuse them of telling them all the world was to be converted, of crying peace, peace to quiet every fear that was aroused, and of calling those who did warn them fanatics and evil men who would ruin them.
The ministers do not escape the wrath of God, but their sufferings are tenfold greater than their people's. The coming plagues bring torment upon false shepherds who lead their flock to death, for one or two plagues do not exhaust God's wrath and justice but continue until His purposes are fully accomplished. The hireling priests will then worship at the saints' feet and acknowledge that God loved them because they held fast to the truth and kept His commandments. Afterward all the unrighteous will be destroyed from the earth.
Before the plague sequence is poured out, ministers and people are called out from the fallen churches. Honest people will leave those churches and join the remnant.
The fourth of the seven last plagues is poured out upon the sun, and power is given to it to scorch men with fire with great and almost unendurable heat. It falls in the future after intercession ends, when every case is decided and wrath is poured out without mercy and without an intercessor. It strikes the living wicked who worship the beast and its image and receive its mark, yet the plagues are severe but not universal and are not the final execution of judgment at the second death. Before that time God draws a covering over His people to protect them, and only those sanctified through the truth and hid with Christ will stand until the desolation is overpast. Instead of repenting, the wicked are enraged against the righteous whom they blame for bringing the judgments, and issue a decree to slay them until God delivers His saints.
Words and Plague Order
The fourth vial is poured upon the sun, and power is given to the sun to scorch men with fire. Men suffer great, intense heat from that scorching. In sequence it follows the plague in which the waters are turned to blood.
It stands as the fourth of the seven last plagues. Those seven are the vials of God's wrath, poured out vial after vial one after another upon the inhabitants of the earth.
Timing and Those Struck
The scorching of men by the sun falls in the future, after priestly work in the most holy place is finished, priestly attire is laid off, garments of vengeance are put on, the place between the Father and man is left, and the kingly role to execute judgment is taken up. Then the angel of mercy leaves the world, intercession ends, every case is decided for salvation or for destruction, mercy's voice has ceased, and wrath is poured out without mercy and without an intercessor. The wrath in the plagues cannot come until that intercession is finished.
The four angels hold the four winds until that sanctuary work is done, and only then are the seven last plagues poured out. The anger of the nations, the wrath of God, and the time to judge the dead are separate events following one after another. Michael has not yet stood up and the time of trouble such as never was has not yet commenced.
It falls on the living wicked who worship the beast and its image and receive its mark. They are those who rejected truth, transgressed the law, broke the covenant, and trampled the Sabbath while accepting a spurious rest day in its place. Before that time a covering is drawn over God's people to protect them during the plagues, while those left without shelter find no deliverance from the burning wrath.
The plagues are severe but not universal and do not destroy every inhabitant of the earth. They are not the final execution of judgment, which comes at the second death.
Some who were alive in May 1856 would live to be subjects of the plagues. They are distinct from those who would die beforehand as food for worms and from those who would remain alive to be translated at Jesus' coming without seeing death.
Severity and Physical Effects
The plague follows the turning of the waters to blood, when power is given to the sun to scorch people with fire and they suffer great heat. That scorching brings severe devastation with withered vegetation, failed crops, drought, and widespread distress. The withering judgments fall on all people, from kings and nobles to the rich and poor.
The heat will be almost beyond endurance, with air so hot it seems to burn flesh. It makes the blood rush to the head and the face feel burned. It is part of the torment of the seven last plagues and produces a scene of fearful agony with loud wailing cries in every direction. One or two plagues do not exhaust divine wrath and justice, for when the punishment begins there is no period of respite until the end. The plagues continue until the purposes are fully accomplished.
Cause and Prophetic Purpose
The plagues come as God's interference to vindicate His honor because men have exceeded the bounds He prescribed, made void His law and trampled it underfoot, and rushed on to outrun the limits of His grace and exhaust His forbearance. They are the reckoning of the sum of guiltiness of every nation and the punishment of the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity after centuries of ripening rebellion, hatred to God, and warfare against His law. They fall on a godless world when unrighteousness swells to a fearful pass and when going beyond the bounds of God's grace brings contempt for His law to a fearful height.
They are sent that the world may take heed, that professing Christians may be brought to their senses, and that sinners may be afraid and tremble before Him. God permits this scorching destruction and will not interfere to protect property amid transgression of His law, breaking of His covenant, and trampling upon His Sabbath by accepting a spurious rest day in its place. By sea it means vessels hurled into eternity and by land fire consuming hoarded riches and sweeping away the most costly structures as if by a breath of fire from heaven, because the end of all things is at hand.
The verse is included among the prophecies in Revelation 12-18 that are being fulfilled as the last message of warning is given, and its outpouring is part of the warning that God's wrath will be poured out upon the world. The plagues of Egypt before and at Israel's release from bondage foreshadow this sequence, which falls on the wicked just before and during the saints' deliverance. The vial judgments are solemn scenes of stupendous interest yet to transpire in the last great final contest, when trumpet after trumpet is to be sounded and vial after vial poured out one after another upon the inhabitants of the earth.
These scenes are right upon them and are signs of Christ's coming and sure indications of His presence, bringing pestilence, famine, and death upon the inhabitants of the earth. They come when all the world will be on one side or the other and the battle of Armageddon will be fought. Christ has directed in every aggressive movement, has accompanied the march of His cause through all the ages, and has pledged to be with His people in all their conflicts to the end of the world to vindicate His truth and cause it to triumph, with the Captain of the Lord's host at the head of the angels of heaven directing the battle. That day must find none sleeping but wide awake as wise virgins with oil in vessels with lamps, sustained by the power of God, grace, and the Holy Ghost, and supplied with motives and power of purpose, hope, courage, valor, and increased activity so they do not lose faith and courage.
Present Foretastes and Warnings
Drops and sprinklings from the vials are already falling upon land and sea and affecting the elements of the air. God does not restrain the powers of darkness from vitiating the air, one of the sources of life and nutrition, with deadly miasma, so vegetable life is affected and man suffers pestilences, cholera and unexplainable diseases, with diphtheria gathering its harvest of children. Unusually destructive fires, earthquakes burying cities and villages, terrible railway accidents, tornadoes and floods with great destruction of property and loss of thousands of lives are the result of these drops from the vials.
The scorching already falling includes destructive judgments by sea in vessels hurled into eternity and by land in fires that consume hoarded riches and sweep away the most costly structures as if by a breath of fire from heaven. God permits this scorching destruction and will not interfere to protect property amid disobedience to His law and Sabbath, where men transgress His law, break His covenant, and trample upon His Sabbath while accepting a spurious rest day in its place. These judgments are sent that the world may take heed, that professing Christians may be brought to their senses, and that sinners may be afraid and tremble before Him.
The disasters already occurring are only limited drops and faint representations and previews of what will be in the near future. Then there will be greater mortality, greater crimes, weeping and woe, more earthquakes, with premonitory convulsions giving way to terrible shocks, the earth's crust rent by outbursts of concealed elements, lordly palaces become heaps of ruins sweeping away the wealth of oppressors, and the religious world terribly shaken because the end of all things is at hand. The judgments now falling have special meaning and warn how fast the last great crisis is approaching, calling for putting aside strife and contention to get ready. Those who claim they have no special meaning will soon be forced to understand them, and those who cannot recognize the signs of the times in this present wicked and adulterous generation will be counted among those who perish under the plagues.
Shelter and Required Readiness
Before that time a covering is drawn over the people of God to protect them during the plagues, and Satan works to keep them from receiving it until the sealing is past. The fourth plague is part of the seven last plagues, terrible judgments of burning wrath upon the ungodly who worship the beast and its image and receive its mark, bringing scorching heat from the sun upon those left without shelter. Those who have no shelter find no deliverance from these judgments, which fall after the voice of mercy has ceased.
The word of God teaches how to escape the seven last plagues, and those who neglect that word will be judged by it and found wanting. Understanding the Revelation and the prophecies of the plagues coming upon the world is necessary to shape one's course of action so as not to receive them. Only those sanctified through the truth in the love of God will stand, hid with Christ in God until the desolation is overpast.
Many of God's professed people will come up to the falling of the plagues unready and without a shelter because they have not received the Holy Ghost. When the plagues begin to fall they will wring their hands in anguish, and the hour will be too late to get ready, so the present burden is He is coming, get ready and receive the Holy Ghost now before the plagues soon fall. They come after the angel of mercy leaves the world, when sin, shame, sorrow, and darkness are on every side as the bolts of God's wrath fall to punish transgressors with no period of respite until the end. While God's patience and mercy still hold out the precious privilege of exchanging darkness for light, error for truth, and sin for righteousness, they will not always wait.
Reaction of the Wicked
The seven last plagues, including the scorching heat poured upon the sun, enrage the wicked against the righteous. They blame the saints for bringing the judgments of God upon the earth. Believing that ridding the earth of the saints would stay the plagues, they issue a decree to slay them. This brings the saints into the time of Jacob's trouble, when they cry day and night for deliverance. God delivers them by His voice, and the 144,000 triumph with faces lighted up with the glory of God.
Under the torment the plague scene becomes one of fearful agony with loud wailing cries in every direction. Parents bitterly reproach their children and children their parents, brothers their sisters and sisters their brothers. Each charges the other with keeping them from receiving the truth that would have saved them from that awful hour. The people turn upon their ministers with bitter hate for failing to warn them of that hour. They accuse them of telling them all the world was to be converted, of crying peace, peace to quiet every fear that was aroused, and of calling those who did warn them fanatics and evil men who would ruin them.
The ministers do not escape the wrath of God, but their sufferings are tenfold greater than their people's. The coming plagues bring torment upon false shepherds who lead their flock to death, for one or two plagues do not exhaust God's wrath and justice but continue until His purposes are fully accomplished. The hireling priests will then worship at the saints' feet and acknowledge that God loved them because they held fast to the truth and kept His commandments. Afterward all the unrighteous will be destroyed from the earth.
Before the plague sequence is poured out, ministers and people are called out from the fallen churches. Honest people will leave those churches and join the remnant.