Bible Commentaries
Revelation 16

Verses 1-21

XIV

THE SEVEN PLAGUES AND THE SEVEN BOWLS OF WRATH

Revelation 15-16

We shall consider in this study the seven plagues and the seven bowls of wrath, or the divine judgment on the leopard beast, and the harlot woman, and the consequent triumph of the true church through the gospel. Revelation 17-19 will continue the same theme. Preliminary Observations

1. Revelation 15:1: by anticipation, presents the plagues as if inflicted, though the details of the infliction are given in Revelation 16.

2. Revelation 15:2-4: in like manner – i.e., by anticipation – presents the triumph of the saints when the plagues shall have been inflicted, and is given in more detail in Revelation 19:1-10, in its proper historical connection.

3. Revelation 15:5-8, also by anticipation, gives the agencies through which the plagues in Revelation 16 will be inflicted and the triumph achieved.

4. The Old Testament analogue which constitutes most of the imagery of Revelation 15-16 is Exodus 1-15. We cannot successfully interpret this lesson without an understanding of the ancient history which suggests its imagery.

5. Another historical analogue, Babylon, and the Euphrates which constituted both its defense and its weakness, suggests the imagery in Revelation 16:12. Here our historical background is Xenophon’s account of the capture of Babylon by the armies of Cyrus, through diversion of the waters of the Euphrates, and consequent drying up of its channel in the city, confirmed both by the prophecy of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 50:38) and by this passage in Revelation. The Babylon downfall as foretold by the ancient prophets, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, will suggest much of the imagery of Revelation 17-18, which will be more particularly considered in the exposition of those chapters.

6. Our interpretation will make the "seven thunders" of Revelation 10:4, uttered then but temporarily sealed up, i.e., not written, and "the seven plagues" of Revelation 15, and "the seven bowls of wrath" of Revelation 16, substantially the same, though the logical order would be this: The seven thunders called, the seven bowls of wrath responded to the call, and the seven bowls of wrath when outpoured constitute the seven plagues.

These six preliminary observations underlie the exegesis now given in detail. Revelation 15.

"And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having seven plagues, which are the last, for in them is finished the wrath of God."

The reader must note that when these plagues are called "the last," for in them is finished the "wrath of God," the import of the term "last" and "finished" must not be stretched beyond their connection. It is a relative "last" and "finished." It is the last of the divine judgment on the organized apostasy in its triple form of a "Holy Roman Empire," a papal head and an idolatrous and persecuting counterfeit church, but it cannot refer to the wrath exercised after the millennium in Revelation 20:7-10, nor the wrath of the final judgment (Revelation 20:11-15). Note next on this first verse the "seven plagues" repeated in Revelation 15:6; Revelation 15:8 and named in Revelation 16:8-21. Their number "seven" indicates their completeness, as will appear when the bowls of wrath which produce them are poured out in succession on the earth, the sea, the rivers and fountains, the sun, the Euphrates and the air. When the lightning strikes in all these places, it touches the whole circumference of environment. There is no escape from such diverse wrath. It is done. It is finished. The measure is filled up to overflowing.

We now look back to the historical analogue. We have in Exodus 1-15 the great war between Jehovah and the gods of Egypt for the redemption of his national Israel, or between Moses, the mouthpiece of God,, and Pharaoh, king of Egypt, or between the miracles wrought by Moses and the lying wonders of the magicians, Jannes and Jambres. Jehovah speaks, Moses acts, the ten plagues follow, just as here the seven thunders are God’s voices, the bowls of wrath respond and the plagues are the result. Whoever has studied the ten plagues of Egypt will see their completeness touching all the environment and degrading every god in Egypt, and all their ministers, whether king, magician, or priest. All these discriminated between Israel and Egypt; on one they fell, the other was exempt. The very form of some of these plagues is repeated here, as will appear in our exegesis of chapter 16. The conflict terminated with the complete overthrow of Pharaoh and his hosts in the Red Sea, and "Thus Jehovah saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore, and Israel saw the great work which Jehovah did upon the Egyptians; and the people feared Jehovah; and they believed in Jehovah and in his servant Moses" (Exodus 14:30-31).

"And I saw, as it were, a sea of glass mingled with fire; and them that came off victorious from the beast, and from his image and from the number of his name, standing by the sea of glass, having harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying: Great and marvellous are thy works, O Lord God Almighty; righteous and true are thy ways, thou king of the ages. Who shall not fear, O Lord, and glorify thy name? For thou only art holy; for all the nations shall come and worship before thee, for thy righteous acts have been made manifest."

This is almost an exact parallel of the analogue at Exodus 14:19-22, and the triumph song at Exodus 15:1-18, and Miriam’s response at Exodus 15:20-21. The Old Testament analogue alone enables us to explain "the sea of glass mingled with fire" which so unnecessarily perplexed commentators. You need only to conceive of the Red Sea divided standing up in walls on either side, and as Exodus 15:8, expresses it: "The floods stood upright as an heap; the deeps were congealed in the heart of the sea," then conceive Israel marching in triumph between and the pillar of fire between them and Pharaoh, shining on those ice walls which, as mirrors, reflected its light, it indeed seemed a "sea of glass mingled with fire," and so "they were baptized in the cloud [pillar of cloud overshadowing] and in the sea" (her walls on two sides encompassing them). Hence it might be called a baptism, so overwhelmed and enwrapped were they, but it was a baptism in light. So here, after the plagues have overthrown their long-time enemies with a complete overthrow, the saints, bathed in radiance, sing their song of triumph which, on account of the analogue, is called "The song of Moses, the servant of God, and of the Lamb."

The study is profitable to compare the Moses song (Exodus 15) with the song here (Rev. 15), and its more elaborate form (Rev. 19).

On the closing paragraph of Revelation 15:5-8, it is necessary now to note only the following points:

1. "The temple of the tabernacle of testimony," or the sanctuary of the tent, means here the church as an institution, through which as an agent the plagues are to be inflicted.

2. The priestly garb of the angels carrying the plague also indicates human agency.

3. The "smoke" in temple or sanctuary indicates the Divine Presence, as in Exodus 40:34; Numbers 9:15; 1 Kings 8:10-11; Isaiah 6:4. While Moses nor the priests of Solomon could for a while enter the holy house, filled by the cloud, there seems to be an additional idea in the Isaiah case that as God entered for fully ripened judgments there could be no intercession allowed while the judgments were being inflicted, since probation was ended and the space for repentance was withdrawn. Such also appears to be the idea here, as we repeatedly note in Revelation 16 that no repentance followed these plagues. (See Revelation 16:9-11.) The plagues, therefore, were not chastisements designed to lead to repentance, but altogether punitive. inflicted 16

The Bowls of Wrath, and the Consequent Plagues

General Observations:

1. I restate the general idea of interpretation already suggested by the Old Testament analogue (Exodus 1-15). Before Pharaoh and his people could be induced to liberate God’s ancient Israel, all the supports of their power must be swept away by successive divine judgments. These judgments were like the flood in the days of Noah: "The windows of heaven were opened; the fountains of the deep were broken up; the waters increased; the waters prevailed and increased mightily; the waters prevailed mightily, mightily upon the earth, and all the high mountains that are under the whole heavens were covered. Fifteen cubits did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered." As the waters of the flood wiped off from the face of the earth every living being, so the ten plagues swept away all the props of Egypt, and just so here, by successive judgments, God completely sweeps away all the props of Satan’s usurped kingdom. Whatever the meaning of the symbols, "the earth, sea, rivers and fountains, sun, the throne of the beast, the great river Euphrates, the air," on which in succession the bowls of wrath were poured, they represent exhaustively the whole resources of Satan’s kingdom under its apostate forms of a Holy Roman Empire, its papal head, and its harlot counterfeit church. While we may not be dogmatic in the interpretation of these symbols, the meanings given are the expression of sincere and thoughtful judgment.

2. Any student must be struck with the correspondence, in part, between the events under the trumpets and under the bowls of wrath, particularly where the apostasy poisoned the fountains and dimmed the sun. So in just the same place here the lightning will strike.

3. "Har-Magedon" (Revelation 16:16). Literally, this compound word means "the hill of Megiddo."

Geographically, it overlooks the great plain of Esdraelon, near the middle of the Mediterranean coast of Palestine.

Historically, on account of its strategic position, it has been the decisive battleground of the ages for the fate of that country. Here Joshua conquered. Here, in the times of the Judges, Barak, and Deborah won their decisive victory over Sisera (Judges 4-5), and Gideon his signal triumph over the Midianites (Judges 7). Here Saul lost his life and kingdom (1 Samuel 31:8), and here good Josiah lost his life in battle with the Egyptians, which called forth an ordinance for lamentation by Jeremiah and the people (2 Chronicles 35:24-25). And this great mourning for Josiah suggested to Zechariah the greater penitential mourning of the Jewish people which will lead to their salvation in a later day (Zech. 12:10-13:1). This same valley was the battlefield of the Ptolemies of Egypt and Seleucids of Antioch for the supremacy of the Holy Land, and for Saracen and Crusader after their day, and the scene of many struggles since.

Prophetically, in the Old Testament is it equivalent to Joel’s great battle in the valley of Jehoshaphat: "Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision" (Joel 3:1-17), and Zechariah’s great war for the recovery of Spiritual Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:2-15), and Daniel’s great battlefield (Dan. 11:45-12:1), and Isaiah’s blood-stained hero (Isaiah 63:1-6)?

Prophetically in this book are the parallel passages, the greatvintage (Revelation 14:17-20), the war of Har-Magedon (Revelation 16:14-16), and the great victory preceding and introducing the millennium (Revelation 19:10-21)? With the literal, geographical and historical backgrounds we have no concern except to find the symbolic imagery. The prophetic meaning from the symbols we must gather from the four Old Testament passages and the three New Testament passages, cited. For the answers to these last two questions see Revelation 15 and Revelation 17 respectively. Exegesis of Revelation 16, beginning with Revelation 16:1:

"And I heard a great voice out of the temple, saying to the seven angels, Go ye and pour out the seven bowls of the wrath of God into the earth. And the first went and poured out his bowl into the earth; and it became a noisome and grievous sore upon the men that had the mark of the beast and that worshipped his image."

Note first that this judgment finds its symbol in the sixth plague on Egypt, the plague of the boils and ulcers. And also note that, as here, the wrath was poured on the "earth," and the victims are those who worshiped the beast and wore his mark. So from Revelation 13:11-17, we have learned that the earth beast with the voice of a dragon caused men to worship the image of the leopard beast and to receive his mark. In the Egyptian plague, the body was afflicted, but what means it here? Here it must mean some ulceration of mind and soul, a spiritual inflammation causing exquisite torment. One may not define too confidently just what state of mind fulfils this prophecy. But we will not be far afield if we refer it to that mental disquietude and spiritual unrest which come to all idolaters when their delusions are scattered by exposure of the false objects of worship, and the torments of remorse when seeing that they have been blinded and enslaved in turning away from the service and worship of the true God. Intense despair of spirit follows such disenchantment when the mind at last beholds the entire system of counterfeit religion to be earthly, sensual devilish. The best illustration I know is the ruined Zelica’s shriek of despair when Mokanna lifted his veil and let her see what a foul, hideous demon he was.

"And the second poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became blood as of a dead man; and every living soul died, even the things that were in the sea."

Out of the "sea" came the leopard beast (Revelation 13:2). "The many waters" upon which the harlot sat are defined as "peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues" (Revelation 17:1-15). Wrath poured on the sea then must mean God’s judgment on a politico-religious government, a union of church and state whose ecclesiastical head dominates the many subject nations. That kind of a government is Satan’s masterpiece. It is essential to the prevalence of the papal power. It is the water of life in the papal garden; turn it into blood and the garden becomes a desert. If this line of thought be correct, the interpretation may be applied to the action of all nations that finally repel the supremacy of the Romanist hierarchy over either their national or ecclesiastical affairs. For example, one emperor of Germany went, on Papal demand, to Canossa and put his neck under the foot of the Pope, but Bismarck, referring to William III, said, "This emperor will not go to Canossa." Or, it would apply to the weakening of the nations strictly Romanist, as Spain is and France was, compared with the increase in power and influence of non-Romanist nations.

In other words, as expressed in Revelation 17:13; Revelation 17:16, the ten kingdoms which at first had "one mind," to give their power and authority unto the beast, "to make war on the Lamb," these later "shall hate the harlot and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire."

John Bunyan, in Pilgrim’s Progress, represents his pilgrims as passing by the mouth of a cave from which two old, decrepit giants, "Pagan and Pope," glared at them in impotent rage, saying, "You will never stop this going on a pilgrimage until more of you be burned," but their powers to burn bad passed away. The nations now refused to be the executors of ecclesiastical anathemas.

As in the analogue the turning of the Nile – the very life of Egypt – into blood broke for the time being the power of Pharaoh, so when this unholy alliance of church and state becomes as a dead man’s blood, blood that would no longer flow, governmental persecution for conscience’ sake received a shock from which it has never fully recovered. The ecclesiastical disposition to burn "heretics" still remains, but the states are no longer subservient. So far as the principle is involved, this applies to all persecuting states, whether Pagan, Papal, Greek, Protestant, or Mohammedan. The divine judgment is on the whole business, no matter under what name. The class will note the power of the expression, "the blood of a dead man"; the outward form remains, but the inward arterial current has congealed."

And the third poured out his bowl into the rivers and the fountains of the waters, and it became blood. And I heard the angel of the waters saying: Righteous art thou who art and who wert, thou Holy One, because thou didst thus judge; for they poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and blood thou hast given them to drink: they are worthy. And I heard the altar saying: Yea, O Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments."

Here we must recall, from Revelation 8:10-11, that the second effect of the apostasy, under the symbol of a star called wormwood, representing an apostate clergy, yet burning as a lamp, representing an apostate church, was the poisoning of a third part of the rivers and fountains, which was there interpreted to mean the sources of thought and life. The judgment now follows the poison. The imagery again comes, but in a different direction, from the first plague on Egypt. That miracle worked in two directions: (1) The Nile, worshiped as a god, became corrupt and death-breeding through conversion to blood; (2) All drinking water in the canals, reservoirs and house vessels became unusable.

The thought of this bowl of wrath, following the second direction of the miracle, is that as by corruption of religious thought, the minds of men have been turned to persecutions, then by so much as they have shed blood shall they be made to drink blood. The punishment comes in kind.

"And the fourth poured out his bowl upon the sun, and it was given unto it to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and they blasphemed the name of God who hath the power over these plagues, and they repented not to give him glory."

Recalling the fourth trumpet (Revelation 8:12) we there found the third effect of the apostasy was to dim the sources of light, particularly the third part of the sun. We there interpreted the sun to be the symbol of Christ, and the dimming of the light to be a substitution for Christ in his expiation (by the mass) and in his mediation (by the virgin Mary), and in his vicar (by the Pope). Now again the judgment follows the form of the apostasy. God in Christ is salvation. God out of Christ is a consuming fire. If his light be rejected, his heat scorches. Moses very vividly presents the thought in his farewell address to Israel. If you turn away from Jehovah, everything intended for a blessing will become a curse: "Jehovah will smite thee with consumption and with fever and with inflammation and with fiery heat and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew: and they shall pursue thee until thou perish. And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron. Jehovah shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust; from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed. . . And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear night and day and shalt have no assurance of thy life. In the morning thou shalt say, Would it were even, and at even thou shalt say it, Would it were morning; for the fear of thy heart which thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see." (Deuteronomy 28:22-24; Deuteronomy 28:66-67.) Indeed, all of that great chapter of Deuteronomy from v. 15 to the end makes good collateral reading for this sixteenth chapter.

"And the fifth poured out his bowl upon the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was darkened, and they gnawed their tongues for pain and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores; and they repented not of their works."

As Christ reigns from Mount Zion symbolic of the true church, so Satan reigns from Babylon, symbolic of the counterfeit church. We see in the next chapter the harlot woman riding the beast, and her mystic name is Babylon. The judgment here falls on the hierarchy resting on a union of church and state. Its ancient power is stripped away; confidence in its holiness is lost; the world marvels that it was once so glorified and its blasphemous pretensions recognized.

"And 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 sunrise."

Here we must recall the historical background which suggests imagery. There was a real Babylon, ancient foe to national Israel. It was situated on both sides of the Euphrates, which constituted its reliance for defense. Your attention has been called in the preliminary observations to the method employed by the armies of Cyrus in diverting the waters through canals reaching around the city on both sides, so that through its empty channel they might enter the city and capture it. Both Jeremiah and Revelation confirm the disputed account of Xenophon. But our concern just now is to interpret the mystic Euphrates.

The author believes it to signify all that mighty conflux of sentiment, superstition and false doctrine erected to support the Romanist pretensions. Through many centuries by schools, monasteries, nunneries, diplomacies, and other means, this sentiment had been created and had supported the mystic city. It was the counter-teaching, culminating in the Reformation, which dried up this Euphrates.

"And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet three unclean spirits, as it were frogs; for they are spirits of demons, working signs; which go forth to the kings of the whole world, to gather them together unto the war of the great day of God the Almighty."

If we have been correct in our interpretation in the drying up of the Euphrates by the Reformation teaching, then those symbolic frogs represent in some way the expedients adopted by the Romanist hierarchy to counteract the Reformation and enable it once more to make a world fight for the supremacy. From history we will know what these expedients have been.

There was first of all the pretended ecumenical Council of Trent for a definite statement of the Romanist faith. Ecumenical and Catholic mean literally about the same thing, that is, universal as opposed to local. This council was not ecumenical in fact or in spirit. The vast Greek ecclesiasticism, nor Protestant denominations, nor any of the age-long dissidents from the Romanist idea of the church, were represented. Over those actually present and participating, the Italian representatives of the Pope completely dominated. This Tridentine confession of faith, while divisive in some respects, was yet consolidating in another direction. It drew a distinct line of cleaveage and set up a definite standard around which its followers might rally, and did, with its attendant catechism, erect a strong barrier against further Protestant conquest. This was followed up later by papal encyclicals, resulting in a complete system of Mariolatry, and in 1870 by the Vatican Council declaring the absolute supremacy and infallibility of the Pope.

Now, we might fairly identify as the three frogs: (1) The declaration of the Council of Trent; (2) the declarations of the Vatican Council; (3) the papal encyclicals and syllabuses, particularly those completing the system of Mariolatry. To those doctrinal declarations we may add as enforcers of the decrees two mighty factors:

1. The Inquisition, which long preceded the Reformation as a heresy court, tending to prevent the very spirit of the Reformation, became afterward in some countries, particularly Belgium and Holland, the bloodiest tribunal known in the annals of history. The tools of the Inquisition have become rusty now.

2. But by far the most persistent and aggressive factor of Romanism, defined above, was the organization, under Papal sanction, of the Jesuits, founded by Ignatius Loyola. This compact, secret, iron organization, obeying only the Pope and its general, followed the outbreak of the Reformation, and has not only proved to be the strongest buttress of Romanism, but its most potential propagandist. Its greatest fields of operation have been: (1) missions; (2) diplomacy; (3) tutoring the children of the great. I repeat that modern Romanism, defined in three particulars above, and led by the Jesuits, has aligned its forces for a worldwide conflict, here symbolically called the "war of Har-Magedon," the consideration of which must be left to a subsequent chapter.

QUESTIONS ON THE PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS

1. How does Revelation 15:1, present the plagues, and Revelation 15:2-4, present the triumph of the saints; and Revelation 15:5-8, present the agencies employed?

2. What Old Testament analogue suggests most of the imagery in Revelation 15 and Revelation 16?

3. What Old Testament analogue of Revelation 16:12, and what historian gives the account of using the Euphrates for conquests of Babylon? And what Old Testament prophecy had forecast the history?

4. What is the relation between the "seven thunders" (Revelation 10:4); the "seven plagues" of Revelation 15, and the "seven bowls of wrath" of Revelation 15:7 and Revelation 16?

EXEGESIS

5. At Revelation 15:1, in what sense are these plagues "the last," and in them "the wrath of God finished"?

6. Give briefly the Old Testament history which furnishes the symbols of these plagues.

7. Explain from Old Testament history the imagery of the "sea of glass mingled with fire," at Revelation 15:2.

8. As this triumph of the saints, at Revelation 15:2-4, is here given by anticipation, where does it appear in detail?

9. Explain the collection of the Song of Moses with the Song of the Lamb at Revelation 15:3, What the resemblance between the Song of Moses, Exodus 15, the song here and the later song in chapter 19?

10. At Revelation 15:5, explain the words "temple" and "testimony," and then tell what they symbolize and what the relation to the seven plagues.

11. How does it appear that angels carrying the plagues and bowls of wrath indicate human agency?

12. Explain the "smoke" that filled the sanctuary, and why in this particular case none might enter the sanctuary until the plagues were finished, and prove this from the next chapter, and thereby show the plagues are punitive and not chastisements.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON REVELATION 16

13. Repeat the general idea of interpretation suggested by the analogue Exodus 1:15.

14. Show how a great preceding judgment is like in its completeness to the Egyptian plagues, and apply both to the case in hand.

15. What symbolic words in Revelation 16 show that these plagues strike the whole circle of environment?

16. What correspondence, in part, do you find between the trumpets of Revelation 8 and the bowls of wrath in Revelation 16, and why?

17. The Har-Magedon of Revelation 16:16 – explain it literally, geographically, historically, and prophetically.

18. With what part of this have we present concern? (N. B. – The exegesis of the war of Har-Magedon reserved till next lecture.)

EXEGESIS OF CHAPTER Revelation 16:1-14

19. Revelation 16:1-2, what plague of Egypt the symbol here?

20. Explain pouring this bowl of wrath on the earth.

21. The Egyptian plague afflicted the body: give the meaning here and illustrate from Tom Moore’s "Lalla Rookh,"

22. Revelation 16:3: Explain at some length the pouring of this bowl of wrath on the sea: apply and illustrate the interpretation.

23. Quote and show application of passage from John Bunyan.

24. What Egyptian plague the analogue here? Apply the meaning broadly and explain the significance of "the blood of a dead man."

25. What the first effect of the apostasy smitten by this plague?

26. Revelation 16:4-7: What the second effect on the apostasy given in Revelation 8:10-11, and show how the judgment here corresponds.

27. In what two directions did the first Egyptian plague work, and which one considered here in the meaning of the symbol?

28. Revelation 16:8-9: Recalling the fourth trumpet (Revelation 8:10), what the third effect of the apostasy, the meaning of the symbol there, and the nature and fitness of the corresponding judgment here?

29. Illustrate from farewell address of Moses.

30. Revelation 16:10-11: Explain the throne of the beast.

31. Revelation 16:12: What is the historic background furnishing this symbolism, and what is the meaning of the Euphrates here, and how brought about, and how long unshaken, and then by what dried up?

32. Revelation 16:13-14: In general terms the meaning of the three frogs? And the purpose?

33. In specific terms?

34. What two factors greatly helped to enforce these decrees?

36. In what ways have the Jesuits most helped Rome?

Verses 14-21

XV

THE WAR OF HAR-MAGEDON

Revelation 16:14-21, with a Brief Survey of Chapter 17

Ordinarily it would be out of proportion to devote a whole chapter to a few verses, but occasionally we find a single paragraph so pregnant with meaning that it cannot be unfolded in a few words. Particularly is there a call for careful and extended treatment when the imagery of the paragraph makes such an appeal to the imagination that the ignorant and unwary, without helm, chart, or compass, drift away into seas of fanciful interpretation, losing all practical benefit in the sonorous roll of words, or in the highly wrought figures of speech. Many a preacher, beguiled by the sound of words, has made shipwreck of a sermon and bewildered his congregation by attempting to expound, without understanding them, texts like these: "Garments rolled in blood," "Blood up to the bridles of the horses," "War of the great day of the Almighty God at Har-Magedon," "Multitudes, multitudes in the Valley of Decision," and certain people like to hear sermons on these blood and thunder texts. I am quite sure that none of Creasy’s Decisive Battles of the World, nor all of them put together, have taken such a hold upon the imagination of the people as the battle at Har-Magedon. Even Theodore Roosevelt, in a presidential campaign, insisted that he was fighting the battle of Har-Magedon.

2. My second observation is that, whatever the passage means, the context limits the application to the final struggle between the true church and the counterfeit church. It has no other application.

3. Whatever the passage means, it must precede the millennium, and prepare the way for it, and consequently it has no reference to Satan’s last struggle for supremacy as set forth after the millennium in Revelation 20:7-10. Nor is it a reference to the great judgment day described in Revelation 20:11-15.

4. Particularly I would have you know that this gathering of the nations together in the war of the great day of God the Almighty, at the place called Har-Magedon, results, as expressly stated, from the three unclean spirits that went forth out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. It is a gathering under their influence; another gathering under some other influence is not to be considered.

5. You must know, if there be any truth in the interpretation given in a preceding chapter, that the general purpose of sending forth of these three unclean spirits was to rally and solidify the Romanist hosts after they were shattered by the outbreak of the Reformation, and to establish a bar to the further progress of that Reformation, and to supply means of war with which to regain for Rome absolute supremacy over all states and all religions. That was the purpose. It is not, indeed, the last battle between Satan’s kingdom and the kingdom of our Lord, as we shall see later, but it is the last war between the true church and the counterfeit church. So stated and limited, it is a fight to the finish. And when this war is over, never more will the woman in purple and scarlet reappear in the history of mankind. Satan will come again in two more wars, but that harlot, drunk with the blood of the saints, will disappear forever.

6. The next observation is that while the imagery of war supplies the symbols, we must be careful not to interpret the symbol literally. It is a spiritual conflict, figuratively set forth in the terms of war and blood, as when Paul uses the terms of the Isthmian games and conflicts in the arenas of the Greek and Roman amphitheaters to set forth spiritual conflicts. No sane expositor would interpret Paul’s language literally.

The interpretation of the preceding chapters give us the wilderness period of the church, from A.D. 250-1510, and that the outbreak of the Reformation commencing early in the sixteenth century gave a severe and lasting shock to the papal hierarchy. And the sending out of these three unclean spirits now is to recover from that shock of the Reformation. If the nations are to be gathered together for that purpose, and if you lose sight of the end in view, you fail to interpret the three unclean spirits. We found in that chapter that three expedients were adopted by the Romanists to rally and solidify their own people, to bar the further progress of the Reformation and to re-establish their former claims to absolute supremacy over civil governments and all religions, and when we look in history to find some fulfilment of the work done by these unclean spirits, we find just three things; I confess I am able to find no other things as the result of their work.

First, the declaration of the Council of Trent, with its attendant profession of faith drawn up by the Pope, and its catechism on the doctrines, drawn up under his direction. That is the first thing they did to bar the further progress of Protestantism that broke out earlier in the century. Now in 1563 the first unclean spirit, the first frog, brought out his work.

Second, the dogmatic decrees of the Vatican Council, held in A.D. 1870, setting forth the infallibility of the Pope.

Third, the ex-cathedra utterances of the so-called infallible Pope, particularly in the various utterances concerning the virgin Mary, who is declared to be free from the taint of original sin, and second, from actual sin; third, her assumption in heaven; and fourth, her being made the Queen of Heaven. As the Pope expressed in one of his encyclical letters: "Mary is the fountain of all grace, and the only hope of salvation."

Fourth, another one of these documents, issued by the Pope in 1863, entitled the "Syllabus of Errors," that which he called errors in the teaching of science) errors in statesmanship, errors in doctrines, enumerating them and denouncing them with anathemas. Then, again in 1885, he sent out another encylical letter concerning the Christian constitution of states, making all states and all governments subordinate to the Pope. Then another encyclical letter in 1888, in which he expressly condemns what he calls "modern Liberties": liberty of worshiping according to the dictates of the conscience, liberty of speech, liberty of the press, the liberty of teaching by the states – for instance, having a free school system – the liberty of conscience – that your conscience must be put under the guidance of the Pope and the confessors. These are the distinguishing characteristics of modern Romanism, commencing in that Council of Trent held in 1563 and culminating in 1888, I say, that make modern Romanism, to wit: Papal infallibility, Mariolatry, supremacy over nations.

Fifth, the worship of Mary, making her, instead of the Holy Spirit, the mediator between the sinner and the Saviour. They have drawn pictures of Christ in the background, angry, with Mary standing between him and the sinner, and softening his wrath toward the sinner. I repeat: The decrees of the Council of Trent, the dogmatic decrees of the Vatican Council, and the various papal encyclical letters whose authority rests on his own declared infallibility, these did rally the Roman forces; they did bar, in certain states, the progress of the Reformation; they did make the battle line upon which Rome seeks to regain absolute supremacy over all states, religions, and all consciences.

We have seen in a previous chapter that for quite a while the Inquisition, established long before this time, was a mighty factor in enforcing these decisions. And we have found that the Society of Jesus, or the Jesuits, was the next mightiest factor in the propagandism of this new declineation of doctrines. Now, I say that the object of all these expedients was to gather the nations in hostile array against what has been set forth as the true church and the pure gospel, and the result is a conflict, not a single battle, but a war. The Greek word is not "battle," but is "war," called here the war of the great day of God the Almighty, at the place called in Hebrew Har-Magedon.

The interposition of God is said here in our lesson to be a coming of the Lord: "Behold, I come as a thief in the night" (Revelation 16:15). It is not his final advent, but it is his coming in judgment upon this counterfeit church. Now, your lesson shows that the expression of his judgment in this outpouring of this seventh bowl of wrath, and the symbols which set forth the decree of the wrath are various: Lightnings, voices, and thunders, a great earthquake such as was not since there were men upon the earth; a great hail, every hailstone weighing about a talent (a hundred pounds). Maybe some of you think that is too big for a hailstone, but I will tell you that hailstones have fallen as big as a small house) weighing many tons. Hailstones fell near Lisbon, one of which would sink a ship in the harbor. So you need not get scared at a hundred pound hailstone.

Now, the results of the wrath are said to be:

First, the utter overthrow of the mystic city of Babylon the Great. When the Reformation broke out it received a shock, that was the earthquake, and a tenth part of the city was destroyed. But here ah the parts fell away from each other; that is total destruction.

Second, the downfall of the cities of the states of the supporting nations.

Third, the falling away of every island and mountain stronghold.

I am just giving you the symbols here. The completeness of the overthrow is expressed in a voice from the throne: "It is done." "He said: Let there be light, and there was light." Or they recall the words of Christ on the cross: "It is finished"; the expiation is finished; nothing more to be done to it throughout eternity. So, when this last bowl of wrath is poured out on this mystic city of Babylon, it is done; that lightning never has to strike again. Our paragraph puts into compact sentence the downfall of the mystic city of Babylon, but both of the following Revelation 17-18, are employed to identify this great city, what it is, and then to give the detail of its destruction. We may look to the exposition of these chapters for many things omitted here, and content ourselves for the present with this observation:

First, the lightning, the thunders, the earthquake, the hail, are all natural phenomena used figuratively to express the overpowering spiritual forces.

Second, the weapons of warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of the strongholds.

Third, the blood and carnage are symbols of spiritual results; it is a war of light against darkness, of truth against error, of a pure gospel against a false gospel.

Fourth, the inner meaning of the whole paragraph is that no millennial triumph can ever come to this earth until that great apostasy, in its persecuting union of church and state, in its persecuting idolatrous hierarchy) in its blasphemous assumption, has passed away.

The confusion among the commentators in their interpretation of the war of the great day of God the Almighty, arises largely from a disregard of the context. Our interpretation puts into one section everything from Revelation 12:1-19:10, and the theme of that entire section is the conflict between the true church of our Lord, regarded as an institution, and Satan’s counterfeit church, regarded as an institution. This conflict does not last until the end of the world, but its culmination does prepare the way for the introduction of the millennium. The wrath of God poured out on the apostate church, while complete in itself, is not the wrath which falls on Satan and his followers after the millennium (Revelation 20:7-10), nor is it the final wrath of the general judgment (Revelation 20:11-15).

In general terms this book discusses four wars conducted by Satan against the kingdom of God. First, he uses the pagan Roman Empire by its persecutions to drive the true church into the wilderness, culminating about A.D. 250; and he was defeated because, as you will recall, the pagan Roman Empire like a burning volcano was turned over into the sea. His second war was from the same center, the city of Rome. He constructs a so-called Holy Roman Empire, a politicoreligious persecuting empire, with a Pope instead of a Caesar as the head, and with the woman in purple and scarlet as the counterfeit church.

Now, we followed that war in the first campaign, up to the Reformation in the beginning of the sixteenth century, and the second campaign commences with our lesson here with the sending forth of the three unclean spirits to break the force of the Reformation and to gather together the nations against the true church. By looking into history as I have told you, we are unable to find but three expedients that those three unclean spirits or demons could have devised for that purpose. These three I have described to you as the so-called ecumenical Council of Trent, the dogmatic decrees of the so-called ecumenical Vatican Council, and the several papal utterances whose authority rested on the claimed papal infallibility. These are the three things in history that constitute modern Romanism; nothing else in history can be found to fulfil Revelation 16:13-14 about the three unclean spirits going forth.

What, then, is the war of the great day of God the Almighty culminating at "the place called in Hebrew Har-Magedon"? Laying aside all figures of speech, it is the war against the declarations of the Council of Trent, against the dogmatic decrees of the Vatican Council, against the various papal utterances embodied in various encyclial letters, and in the Syllabus of Errors.

In Schaff’s "Creeds of Christendom," partly in Vol. I, but mainly in Vol. II, you may find both the history, the exposition, and the text of all these documents, and they do define modern Romanism. They draw the line of cleavage, and statesmen of Europe and America recognize them today &a the hardest problems of statecraft. Bismarck found it so; Gladstone found it so, and wrote one of the most remarkable books of the age, to wit: "Vaticanism." Our presidents find it so, and in my opinion our last two presidents tripped right on that point, as I think I could prove. These United States, with all their territorial possessions, are today at the place "called in Hebrew Har-Magedon."

The war is now on, in the press, in the schools, in the municipal, county, state, and national elections, in the pulpits, in the Congress and before the courts. There can be, I repeat, no millennium until the war, on these definite lines drawn by Romanism, is fought to a finish. The preacher, the politician, the statesman, who has not these books that I have named should sell his coat, if need be, and buy them, and when he has bought them should study them profoundly, should study Vol. I of Schaff’s "Creeds of Christendom" from page 83-191, and Vol. II from page 96-271, and then from page 555-602. It would take up twenty chapters to go over and give you the details of it, and you will never understand HarMagedon, you will not even know the nature of the war, you will not know the chief obstruction in the way of the coming of the millennium, unless you study them.

The issue of that war closes up the second war of Satan. I told you that our book treated of four wars; that is the close of the second war. The third one will be found to commence with Revelation 19:11, and going on through that chapter. And in that war there will be fulfilled the remarkable prophecy of Isaiah 63:1-6; Ezekiel 36-37; Daniel 11:45-12:1; Joel 3:1-21; Zechariah 12:1-13:1; Romans 11:11-31. And we must have a chapter on that because in it is involved the conversation of the whole Jewish nation in one day, which must come before the millennium.

Now, the fourth and last war of Satan in this book is the one described in Revelation 20:7-10. Will you keep those wars distinct in your mind? First, the war using pagan Rome as a persecutor; second, the war using papal Rome as a persecutor; third, the war culminating in the salvation of the Jews; fourth, the war after the millennium. They are all in this book.

As the whole of the following chapter simply identifies and defines the scarlet woman, and the next chapter gives the details of the downfall, I will put the questions:

1. Who is the woman in purple and scarlet riding upon the beast in this chapter? That is the Roman hierarchy, the counterfeit church as an institution.

2. What is meant by the many waters upon which she sits? The last of the chapter tells you that the waters mean many nations, tongues, kindred, and people.

3. What is the meaning of this woman being found in the wilderness? We found that radiant woman in the wilderness several chapters back, and this woman was not in the wilderness. It is the scarlet woman that is in the wilderness now. That means that her power is taken away, and she is ready to receive her doom.

4. What is meant by being full of the names of blasphemy? In a previous chapter I described them: It is blasphemy for a man to assume to be infallible; it is blasphemy for a man to claim to be the head of the church; it is blasphemy for a man to claim to be Christ’s vicar on earth; it is blasphemy to say that the prayers and manipulations of the officiating priest actually create God in changing the bread and wine into the real flesh and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ; it is blasphemy to worship the wafer as it is carried along in a procession, called the "Procession of the Host"; it is blasphemy to address a woman as the "fountain of all grace and the only hope of salvation," and so I could go on for hours telling you the blasphemies.

5. What is meant by the cup of abomination, the unclean things of her fornication? I have told you that fornication, spiritual fornication or adultery, means idolatry. It was idolatry for the national Israel, claiming to be the wife of Jehovah, to worship idols. Now this woman mixes in her cup various abominations, and she makes the kings of the earth drink out of this cup.

6. What is the mystic name of this woman? "Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of the harlots and the abominations of the earth." As there was a historic Babylon on the Euphrates, here this woman in the last verse of the chapter is expressly declared to be a city. There is a mystic Babylon, this woman in purple and scarlet, who is also a city.

7. What is meant by her being drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the martyrs? It means that from the constitution of that hierarchy to the present time she has used the thumbscrew, the rack, the dungeon, and the ax, and other forms of torture in putting to death the people who worship God according to the dictates of their consciences. The bloodiest pages in the annals of time record the martyrdoms done under the directions of this church. When on St. Bartholomew’s Eve, Admiral Coligny of France and so many thousands of other Huguenots were put to death in the city of Paris, as soon as the news got to Rome the bells of the Cathedral were set to ringing, and the whole city was full of the chimes because the streets of Paris were reeking with red blood of the martyrs. They sang a "Te Deum Laudamus" to celebrate this atrocious wholesale murder.

8. What is the beast upon which she sits? I told you that beast was the new government that Satan caused to rise up to take the place of Pagan Rome, the Holy Empire. That is the beast.

9. What is meant by saying that the beast had seven heads? The explanation is this, as you will see lower down, that five of these heads have fallen, one is, and another is to be, and the eighth will be of the seventh. Now, what are these seven heads? I have already given them to you, Egypt and Assyria, that had passed away before Daniel’s time, and then four, Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome. As he saw them, that makes six. Five of them had passed away, but in John’s time the sixth had not passed away. When it did soon pass away came the seventh, the union of church and state in the Holy Roman Empire, and the eighth was of the seventh, that was the papal head, which was part of the seventh.

10. What is meant by the ten horns? The chapter tells you that the ten horns are ten kingdoms that had not yet risen in John’s time. Pagan Rome was not yet disintegrated, but it will be disintegrated in a few centuries, and out of its ruins will come up the ten kingdoms. And these kingdoms for quite a while will support the woman in purple and scarlet and then these kingdoms will turn and rend the woman in purple and scarlet.

All the latter half of this chapter tells exactly what the first half means and in the next discussion we will take up the details of the fall of Babylon.

QUESTIONS

1. Why devote a chapter to the paragraph Revelation 16:14-21

2. Does the paragraph describe a war or a battle?

3. What is the name of the war?

4. What was the cause of the war? (Read Revelation 16:13-14.)

5. What was the date and occasion of the beginning of the war?

6. What the expedients devised by the three unclean spirits to restore Romanist supremacy, and in what books do you find the history, exposition, and text of these documents, giving volume and pages?

7. What, then, is this war?

8. How do you account for the confusion of commentators in interpreting the paragraph?

9. What the symbolic name of the place of the conflict, and why that name chosen as a symbol?

10. Is it on in this country, and if so in what arenas?

12. What, then, the real place of conflict symbolized by Har-Magedon? Answer: Anywhere in the world where the battle rages.

13. Are the weapons carnal or spiritual?

14. Between what two institutions the war, and to what must the interpretation of the paragraph, whatever its meaning, be strictly limited?

15. How is the divine interposition represented, and does that refer to our Lord’s final advent? (See Revelation 16:15.)

16. What symbol represents the divine wrath?

17. What is meant by "the air" on which the wrath is poured? Answer: The air represents general public opinion and thought concerning the expedients devised by the unclean spirits, and implies that the judgment of the world condemns and rejects them.

18. What symbols express results of pouring out the bowl of wrath on the air? Answer: (1) Lightnings, voices and thunders; (2) a great earthquake such as the men of earth never saw before; (3) a great hail-storm.

19. What one symbol expresses the wrath on the mystic Babylon, or counterfeit church? Answer: "The cup of the wine of God’s wrath."

20. In the first campaign of the war between the two ecclesiastical institutions, what the result of the earthquake to the counterfeit church occasioned by the Reformation, and the result of this earthquake? Answer: (For answer compare Revelation 11:13 and Revelation 14:13, first clause Revelation 14:20.)

21. Concerning the hailstones, how much avoirdupois weight each hailstone?

22. What the largest hailstones known to history?

23. Where the true church when the counterfeit church commences the war on it, and where the counterfeit church at the close of the war, just before the final judgment falls? And what does this imply? (For answer consult Revelation 12:6 and Revelation 17:3, which imply a complete reversal of public opinion concerning the two institutions.)

24. Describe the counterfeit church. Answer: A great harlot (Revelation 17:1 and all of Revelation 17:4-6).

25. What the meaning of the symbol "a harlot"? Answer: One claiming to be the spouse of the Lamb, who turns to the worship of idols.

26. What the meaning of "mother of harlots"? Answer: Her children also worship idols.

27. What the meaning of "abominations"? Answer: Another name for the perversions of the true worship of God.

28. What the meaning of the "golden cup in her hand"?

29. What the meaning of her gorgeous array in Revelation 17:4? Answer: This implies the great wealth occurred from the world, by Peter’s pence, gifts of the states, bequests of the dying, sale of indulgences, charges exacted for services at birth, marriage, death, and purgatorial intercession, etc., and her pompous state and imposing ritual.

30. Relate a pertinent and illustrative incident. Answer: It is related that one of the popes, after exhibiting his treasures to a friend, remarked: "Great change this from Peter’s day, who said, ’Silver and gold have I none’ "; to whom the friend replied: "We have the gold which Peter had not, but have we Peter’s power to make the lame walk?" (See Acts 3:6-7.)

31. What the meaning of "many waters" on which the harlot of Revelation 17:1, sitteth? (For answer see Revelation 17:15.)

32. What the meaning of the beast on which the woman rides in Revelation 17:3? Answer: The governmental union of church and state, with the church on top.

33. Cite historical proof of the blasphemies of the names of which this beast (Revelation 17:3) is full.

34. Explain the historical seven heads of the beast (Revelation 17:3), why Daniel mentions only four, how five had fallen before John’s time, what the seventh and what the eighth, and how the eighth is one of the seventh.

35. Explain the first clause of Revelation 17:8. Answer: Pagan Rome, the sixth, was but will soon cease with its Caesar head, but will re-appear as the Holy Roman Empire with a Papal head, and it too will go into perdition.

36. Explain the "ten horns," Revelation 17:3. (See Revelation 17:12.) Answer: These are the ten kingdoms formed out of the disintegrated elements of Pagan Rome, but all united in supporting the union of church and state.

37. How do you account for the change of attitude in these kingdoms toward the counterfeit church as set forth in Revelation 17:3; Revelation 17:13; Revelation 17:16? Answer: Kings are willing to support the beast, i.e., the union of church and state with the king on top as head of church and state in his own realm, but will resist a Papal head of state and church in his realm.

38. What the mystic name of the harlot?

39. What the real meaning of the woman? (See Revelation 17:18.)

40. What classic authors refer to Rome as the "seven-hilled city"?

41. These historic seven hills on which Rome is built symbolize, according to the interpretation, seven world-empires: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Pagan Rome, Papal Rome. Why connect so far back in interpretation? Answer: Because all fought the kingdom of God and the underlying principles were the same in every case; because our lesson tells us that in John’s time five had fallen.