Things Which Must Come To Pass Hereafter

by J. Miller, Ayr | Category: Things Which Must Come To Pass Hereafter | Aug 1967

We now come to the seven angels with the seven golden bowls containing the seven last plagues to be poured out on the earth (Revelation 16). These plagues are the wrath of God upon men on earth.

The first angel poured his bowl into the earth and it became a bad and evil sore on the men that had the mark of the beast and worshipped his image. Though such men had the advantage of buying and selling, and no doubt many other favours from the beast, on the other hand they had punishments from God for their grievous idolatry. The second poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became blood as of a dead man, and such was the universal effect of this, that every living soul died, even the things in the sea. We can hardly conceive of such a judgement, as that every living thing in the sea died.

The third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the fountains of waters, and it (or they) became blood. And the angel of the waters is heard saying, "Righteous art Thou, which art and which wast, Thou Holy One, because Thou didst thus judge: for they poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and blood Th6u hast given them to drink: they are worthy". "They are worthy" seems to refer to the wicked who slew God's saints and prophets, for as they shed the blood of God's servants, so God gave them blood to drink. God is righteous in so acting towards them. Then the altar said, "Yea, 0 Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are Thy judgements". The psalmist David wrote long ago, "The judgements of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether" (Psalm 19.9).

The fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun, and there was given unto it to scorch men with fire. In consequence of this scorching heat men blasphemed the name of God, and repented not to give Him glory. The plagues hardened the wicked rather than softened them. "The fifth poured out his bowl upon the throne of the beast; and his kingdom was darkened." Then we have the remarkable statement, "and they gnawed their tongues for pain". Can this mean that darkness will cause physical or nervous disease in men's mouths so that they gnaw their tongues? Those of a coming day will learn what this means; we cannot know now.

"The sixth poured out his bowl upon the great river, the river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way might be made ready for the kings that come from the sun-rising." We have here the action of the Holy Trinity in the drying up of the river Euphrates, so that the kings from the east may have an easy passage of that great river for themselves, their armies and their armaments. On the other hand we have three spirits of demons like frogs "working signs; which go forth unto the kings of the whole world, to gather them unto the war of the great day of God, the Almighty". It may well be the same drying of the River (Euphrates) as mentioned in Isaiah 11.15, "And with His scorching wind shall He shake His hand over the River, and shall smite it into seven streams, and cause men to march over dryshod". Though this is associated in the following verse (16) with a high way for His people, it could well be used by the armies of the east first, and after their utter defeat by the Lord at Har-Magedon, they with others of His people will set their faces towards Zion. Blessed will those of His people be that watch and keep their garments, which are indicative of their habits or ways. This great battle of the armed forces of the world against the Lord at His coming again to earth is told in 19.11-21.

Then the seventh angel, the last, poured out his bowl upon the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple (in heaven), from the throne, saying, It is done: and there were lightnings, and thunders; and there was also a great earthquake, and this earthquake was so great that the like had never been before on earth. There is to be a previous earthquake in Jerusalem, at the time that the beast which comes up from the abyss slays the two witnesses, who testify in that city where also their Lord was crucified. In that earthquake a tenth part of the city will fall and 7,000 persons be killed. But this earthquake is much worse, for the great city of Babylon will be divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations will fall, and every island flee away, and the mountains will not be found. These things are followed by a hailstorm of such violence, that every stone is the weight of a talent. This must surely kill multitudes and flatten many buildings. It may well be that this hail is that which the LORD referred to, which is prepared against the day of battle and war (Job 38.22,23).

In chapter 17 one of the seven angels which had the seven last plagues came to John and said, "Come hither, I will show thee the judgement of the great harlot that sitteth upon many waters; with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and they that dwell in the earth were made drunken with the wine of her fornication".

This great city, Babylon, which is yet to appear, is first of all the centre of the world's idolatry and of every abominable and apostate religion. Following the Flood at Babel, God confounded men's language so that they did not know' what they were saying to each other. At the end of the times of the Gentiles there will be another Babel, not only in language, but more especially in religion. In the world today there are all kinds and varieties of religions, some ancient and some modern, but all different from the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ and His apostles. These apostate religions will yet find a place within the walls of Babylon.

This city will also be the centre of world government. The angel said to John, "And the woman whom thou sawest is the great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth" (Revelation 17.18). Chapter 18 views the city of Babylon as the great world market (see verses 12,13), in which is sold and bought a list of world commodities. The thoughts of men travel along three avenues, that of religion, that of reigning and ruling, and that of buying and selling.

Babylon is set forth under the sign of a woman sitting on a scarlet beast full of the names of blasphemy. The beast has seven heads and ten horns. This sets forth the beast as a world system of government, the heads being seven kings and the ten horns being ten kings. The woman is arrayed in purple (the colour of royal garments) and scarlet, and gilded with gold and precious stone and pearls, all very magnificent, but alas, she holds in her hand a golden cup for men to drink, even of the unclean things of her fornication, her idolatry. On her forehead is her name written, "Mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of the harlots and of the abominations of the earth". She who made others drunken with the wine of her fornication is herself drunken; in her case with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus (those who sealed their testimony with their blood). John said that when he saw her, he wondered with great wonder. Then the angel told him that he would tell him the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carried her. From verse 8 to the end of chapter 17 is the angel's explanatibn, but with this difference, the beast now referred to is the man who is called the beast, otherwise, the last king of the north of Daniel 11, the antichrist of 1 John, and the man of sin, the son of perdition, of 2 Thessalonians 2. The system of government called the beast, which has seven heads, these heads are kings that follow one another in succession. One of first five is the person of the beast, perhaps the first of the five who would be responsible for what would become the revival of the Roman Empire. (This last sentence is made suggestively, not dogmatically.) He received the death-stroke of a sword (13.3,14) and went down into the abyss, and came up from the abyss at the end of the time of the testimony of the two witnesses in Jerusalem which was for the first half of Daniel's seventieth week (Daniel 9.27; Revelation 11.3). Then the beast is given authority to continue for 42 months, which is the last half of Daniel's seventieth week (Revelation 13.5) and the time of the great tribulation At the end of this 42 months is the battle of Har-Magedon; then the beast and his confederate, the false prophet, are cast into perdition, that is, the lake of fire (Revelation 19.20,21), and there they will be tormented for ever.

They that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names are not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast, how that he was, and is not (that he is in the abyss), and shall come (or, be present). We accept by faith what is said about the beast although his case is unique in human experience. We know it will be so because we believe in the inspiration of Holy Scripture. There are many things in the Scriptures of which only God knows the answer.

We are told in 17.9, "Here is the mind which hath wisdom". In the symbolic language used we are told that the seven heads of the beast are seven mountains on which the woman sits, and they are seven kings. "They are" is the R.V. rendering of the Greek verb eisin (present tense). The kings are mountains, and they are heads of the symbolic beast. Five had fallen when the vision was seen by John; how they fell, whether they died, were killed, or were deposed, we are not told, save in the case of the beast who received a death-stroke by a sword. One was reigning, and another was to follow for a short time. Of him Daniel 11.20 says, "Then shall stand up in his place (or office) one that shall cause an exactor to pass through the glory of the kingdom; but within few days he shall be destroyed, neither in anger, nor in battle". Then the next king of the north, the beast, is the contemptible person who fills the rest of Daniel 11. This is the king who is of the seven, but is an eighth, he having a second term of office. For in the second time we are told that he goeth into perdition (17.8,11).

Then we are told that "the ten horns that thou sawest are (Greek eisin) ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but they receive authority as kings, with the beast, for one hour". "One hour" is not 60 seconds, but 42 months, the length of the beast's second term of office. We have drawn attention already to the fact, that at the time of the revival of the Roman Empire, in chapter 13.1,2, the diadems are on the horns, whereas in 12.3 the diadems are on the heads. These ten kings have one mind, and they give their power and authority unto the beast. These will war against the Lamb, as we have already seen, in 16.12-14, the gathering together of the kings of the earth to do battle with the Lord. This battle is given in detail in 19.11-21. Special mention is made of some who shall be with the Lamb in that great battle, such as are "called and chosen and faithful". It will be an honour to be with the Lamb on that day of victory. Here earth will battle with heaven, the beast against the Lamb.

Then we are told the meaning of the symbolic waters where the harlot sitteth, that they are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. We are also told that the ten horns (kings) hate the woman, and the beast also, for though in his first term of office he upheld the woman (Babylon) he now hates her. They turn upon her, which by the earthquake of 16.18,19 was divided into three parts, and make her desolate and naked, and eat her flesh and burn her with fire, that is, they sack the city of its vast riches, and then set fire to it. "God did put in their hearts to do His mind, and to come to one mind, and to give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God should be accomplished." About this time the beast will go up to Jerusalem, "and he shall plant the tents of his palace between the sea and the glorious holy mountain" (Daniel 11.45), and shall exalt "himself against all that is called God or that is worshipped; so that he sitteth in the temple [the naos, the shrine] of God, setting himself forth as God" (2 Thessalonians 2.4). Then we are told what the woman (Babylon) is. "And the woman whom thou sawest is the great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth."

We come now to chapter 18, and John says that he "saw another angel coming down out of heaven, having great authority; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried with a mighty voice, saying, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, and is become a habitation of demons, and a hold of every unclean spirit, and a hold of every unclean and hateful bird". The city which had seen such wealth and grandeur and sin, is now become in her fallen state a place of horror and uncleanness. She reaps the fearful recompense of her actions, "For by the wine of the wrath of her fornication all the nations are fallen; and the kings of the earth committed fornication with her [that is, idolatry], and the merchants of the earth waxed rich by the power of her wantonness". By her idolatry she helped the nations to descend to that low level at the end, as to acknowledge the beast to be God and to join in his universal worship.

Then John hears another voice from heaven, saying, "Come forth, My people, out of her, that ye have no fellowship with her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues: for her sins have reached even unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities". I do not believe that the church of Rome is the Babylon of Revelation 17 and 18. That city will arise in the future, but Rome has a form of Babylon in which there is no room for the word of God. Rome has many daughters which also make no room for the word of God. To God's saints today the call of God is clear and definite:

"Come ye out from among them, and be ye separate,

saith the Lord" (2 Corinthians 6.17).

God will render to the city of Babylon of the future double according to her works. She thought that she was a queen and no widow, but in one day, death, mourning, and famine will come, and she will be utterly burned with fire The kings who lived wantonly with her shall weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning, and shall say, "Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city!" Merchants, too, shall mourn and weep over her, for no man buyeth her merchandise any more. Think of the list of commodities that they bought and sold in Babylon, a list beginning with gold and silver down to the bodies and the lives of men (18.12,13). The shipmasters, too, casting dust on their heads joined in the weeping and mourning, saying, "Woe, woe, the great city". For them there was no more enrichment. Then a "strong angel took... as it were a great millstone, and cast it into the sea". Such would be like the end of Babylon. It would be no more found, nor would the voices of musicians, nor of brides and bridegrooms be heard in her. But in her was found the blood of prophets and saints, and of all that have been slain upon the earth. So shall end wicked and bloodthirsty Babylon.

J. Miller, Ayr | Aug 1967
Things Which Must Come To Pass Hereafter