The Seventh Vial Chapter XXII. The Fifth Vial—Darkness In The Kingdom Of The Beast
The locality the fifth vial was to smite was the “seat,” or, as it is in the original, the “throne” of the beast: Rome, the papacy.
Continue reading →The Seventh Vial Chapter XXI. The Fourth Vial—The Sun Of Fire
And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. 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. -Revelation 16:8-9
Continue reading →Luther burns the Papal Bull of His Excommunication from the Catholic Church
Luther was forcibly ejected from the Romish Church, because he had confessed the pure doctrine of God’s word. He therefore desired to show the whole world what he thought of such an excommunication. On the 10th of December, 1520, at 9 o’clock in the morning, a fire was kindled at the Elster gate of Wittenberg, and, in the presence of a large assembly of doctors, masters and students, Dr. Luther cast the bull which had been sent him, together with the papal Canon Law, into the flames, saying: “Since thou hast vexed the Holy One of God, may the everlasting fire vex and consume thee!”
Continue reading →The Seventh Vial Chapter XX. The First Three Vials
The sounding of the seventh trumpet introduces the seven vials. The particulars we have noted above form the general characteristics of that trumpet, and they strikingly agree with the historical facts of the French Revolution, the full details of which are given under the vials.
Continue reading →The Mark of the Beast
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The mark would fundamentally change those who accepted it, severing their connection to God in a way that couldn’t be undone.
Continue reading →The Seventh Vial Chapter XIX. The Seventh Trumpet
The seventh trumpet was to introduce as eminently an era of “earthquakes,” that is, of revolutions; as an era of “hail-storms,” that is, of fierce wars, originating in a quarter of Europe lying to the north of Italy; as an era of “lightnings,” that is, of sudden explosions of popular wrath; as an era of the “dead,” that is, of the vindication of the good, and the condemnation of the bad, of past ages.
Continue reading →The Seventh Vial Chapter XVIII. The Harpers On Mount Zion
“And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads.” To what occasion in the Church’s history does this appearance refer? It is exceedingly improbable that so important an epoch as the Reformation would pass unrepresented in this symbolical drama.
Continue reading →The Seventh Vial Chapter XVII The Commencement And Termination Of The Twelve Hundred And Sixty Days
We now come to discuss the question of time. There is a certain period fixed by God between the birth and death of every man. The same Providence, by an irresistible decree, has numbered the days of the Man of Sin. Between his appearance above the dark flood, and his descent into his burning grave, an interval will elapse of twelve hundred and sixty years. This number occurs in the Apocalypse, in connection with the existence of Antichrist, not less than five times.
Continue reading →The Seventh Vial Chapter XVI. The Two-Horned Beast Of The Earth
It is the ecclesiastical hierarchy which we take to be here symbolized. The vision brings the Pope again before us; in the beast of the sea he is seen as the ruling head of the ten Papal kingdoms; here he is beheld as the ruling head of the Papal clergy. This beast rose out of the earth—the symbol of the western empire in its tranquilized state had two horns like a lamb.
Continue reading →The Seventh Vial Chapter XV. The Ten-Horned And Seven-Headed Beast Of The Sea
The fourth beast of Daniel is, by the universal consent of expositors, the symbol of the Roman empire; and it is this empire, therefore, that is symbolized by the beast of the sea.
Continue reading →The Seventh Vial Chapter XIV. Resurrection Of The Witnesses
“And after three days and a half, the spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them.” – Revelation 11:11
Continue reading →The Seventh Vial Chapter XIII. Death Of The Witnesses
On May 5th, 1514, the Lateran Council declared, “There is an end of resistance to the Papal rule and religion: opposers there exist no more.” Exactly 3 and a half years later, on Oct. 31st, 1517, Martin Luther started the Protestant Reformation!
Continue reading →The Seventh Vial Chapter XII. War With The Witnesses
The slaughter by Rome of fifty millions in the space of six hundred years gives a rate of upwards of eighty thousand every year. Had Rome but once, during her career, consigned eighty thousand human beings to destruction, a deed so cruel would have been enough to stain her annals with indelible infamy, and to confer on her a terrible pre—eminence in blood.
Continue reading →The Seventh Vial Chapter XI. Avenging Power of the Witnesses
And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth and devoureth their enemies; and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed. These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy, and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues as often as they will.
Continue reading →The Seventh Vial Chapter X. The Western Witnesses, or The Waldenses
Wide Christendom around was desecrated by idolatrous temples and pagan rites; in the valleys of the Waldenses mass was never sung, and in the churches of the Waldenses no image was ever set up. Knowing that God is a Spirit, they worshipped Him in spirit and in truth.
Continue reading →The Seventh Vial Chapter IX. The Two Witnesses
“I will give power unto my two witnesses.” Two witnesses were enough in law to substantiate any fact. “At the mouth of two witnesses shall every word be established.”
Continue reading →The Seventh Vial Chapter VIII. The Measuring Of The Temple
The first and most prominent sign before us is the temple. It cannot be the literal temple which John is commanded to measure: for the “holy and beautiful house ” in which his fathers had praised God was now razed to the ground, and the Roman plowshare had been drawn across its site.
Continue reading →The Seventh Vial Chapter VII. The Oath Of The Angel
And the angel which I saw stand upon the earth and upon the sea lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by Him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven and the things that therein are, and the earth and the things that therein are, and the sea and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer.
Continue reading →The Seventh Vial Chapter VI. The Little Book
The little book naturally suggests a larger book, with which it is contrasted. Had it symbolised the Bible, as some have thought, it would have been described simply as a book. But the little book in the angel’s hand is obviously contrasted with the Lamb’s book. It is represented with great propriety as a little book, because the space of time comprehended in it is much shorter than that included in the other.
Continue reading →The Seventh Vial Chapter V. Vision Of The Mighty Angel
VISIONS of terror, symbolizing events yet more terrible, which were to desolate a wretched world, had passed before the eyes of John, but now, like the dawn breaking upon a night of thick darkness, there comes, after these symbols of woe, a vision of transcendent glory.
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