Revelation Chapter 16

Verse 3 continued “And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea.”

(As explained in “The Keys of Revelation” by Brother Shallieu)

The “sea” of Verse 3 is the same as the “earth” of Verse 2; the earth is not one class of professed churchianity and the sea another. Subsequent plagues mention “rivers and fountains of waters,” the “sun,” the “seat of the beast,” the “great river Euphrates,” and the “air.”

All of these symbols represent Christendom, but instead of the plagues being of repetitive likeness, the pictures vary—perhaps also to add to the difficulty of the interpretation.

In other words, even though the “earth” represents that element of society under religious restraint, and the “sea” that element not under the same, nevertheless both elements are part of Christendom, Great Babylon.

The second plague was the second volume of Studies in the Scriptures, entitled The Time Is at Hand, written in 1889.

In the narration of the pouring of the plagues, no clue is furnished as to the substance or purport of the message itself, or as to the material content or detailed composition of each plague, except that all in one way or another are expressions of Jehovah’s displeasure over the improper stewardship of those who claim to be His representatives before men yet misrepresent His purposes and malign His character—or His displeasure over those who remain in association with such.

The sea “became as the blood of a dead man.” Down through history in times of great carnage involving horrendous bloodshed, there has been the characteristic sickeningly sweet odor of fresh blood. However, the untreated blood of a dead man quickly develops a stench. For this reason and for health reasons, embalming is compulsory today (unless of course the deceased person is a Jew and is buried the same day he dies). Embalming is the practice of draining the blood out of the body and replacing it with embalming fluid, such as formaldehyde, which is a sweet-odor preservative. When the account states that the sea “became as the blood of a dead man,” both the gruesome color and the odor of blood are involved.

The expression “every living soul” refers to those who, in God’s sight, possess the potential to make their calling and election sure in their quest for the crown of life promised to those who love the Lord supremely.

Remember: “He that hath the Son hath life, he that hath not the Son shall not see life.” (1 John 5:12)

Thus “every living soul” refers to the worthwhile ones, the rooftop saints (Matt 24:17), who are taken out of the system (Babylon) by the message of truth. They might have been earnest Sunday school teachers or humble, energetic workers who formerly gave physical, mental, moral, and financial support to the nominal Church systems. These die (symbolically) to their former alliance and are baptized into Christ’s death, arising to walk in newness of life elsewhere.

Former associates (friends, family and former church associates), who see them leave the sectarian sea of fellowship consider the truth a terrible thing, a calamity, a plague.

The Israelite’s in the type are a good illustration. Under the conditions of bondage and drudgery that preceded the Exodus, their lives seemed unbearable. Thus, when the plagues befell the Egyptians, the Israelite’s rejoiced in their realization that God was working on their behalf. From the perspective of churchianity, the first plague produced grievous sores upon those who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped its image; now (with the second plague) their sea became contaminated with putrefied blood.”

We move on to the Third Plague in our next post.