Revelation Chapter 16

Verse 8: And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.

Verse 9: 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.

The fourth plague-bearing angel represents the message of the fourth volume of Studies in the Scriptures, entitled The Day of Vengeance or The Battle of Armageddon, written in 1897.

As soon as it was published, the volume was sent free to all clergy whose names could be obtained. The clergy are taught, and teach others, that they are important luminaries in the heavens, rivaling in brilliancy and wisdom the Lord himself, whose place they take in the minds of the people by setting forth their own views on every subject rather than God’s Word. Repercussions burst forth like a storm soon after the fourth volume was published.

The word “men” is prefaced by the Greek article in Verses 8 and 9. The thought is “THE men,” that is, the worshipers of the beast and its image (Verse 2). The professed Christian Church comes into prominence for criticism, and the scrutinizing gaze of the public is turned upon her. Her claim to uphold the standard of doctrine, the Bible, is found in disparity with the easy-to-understand gospel of Jesus Christ. Her inconsistent teachings and her conflicting and, in many respects, absurd creeds, particularly the blasphemous God-dishonoring doctrine of literal hellfire and eternal torment, are examined and found to be no longer held in the rigorous esteem of the Dark Ages.

Those who dwell under the very rays of the doctrinal light of their own church (the tenets and practices now under investigation), those who continue to adhere to church dogma, and those who refuse to acknowledge their guilt by continued association—all such are made to experience a “great [twofold] heat” (the added fourth plague) of excruciating embarrassment, not to mention God’s displeasure in their action—or their lack of action.

The statement “they repented not to give him glory” indicates that their agony of mind and conscience would cease if a manifestation of remorse and true repentance were followed by a baptism into Christ’s death and the acceptance of Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. As such they would die to their former erroneous beliefs and practices.”

A bit more insight as taken from, The Revelation of Jesus Christ, Streeter S Vol. 2 p. 295

The Effects of Increasing Light

“The effects produced in the world by the darkening of the Truth by Papacy was the bringing in of what is generally called the Dark Ages a period of ignorance and superstition, affecting both nations and individuals. The Reformation of the sixteenth century caused the Gospel sun to shine in a measure; but the formation of the Protestant sects prevented it from shining in its fullness.

There was a sufficiency of light, however, shed by the Reformation to liberate to a large extent the nations from the yoke of Papal bondage, bringing in as the nineteenth century dawned a gradual increase of knowledge. In the opening years of the nineteenth century the Bible began to come into the possession of the people in general.

It was not, however, until about A.D. 1874 that the full blaze of Gospel sunlight began to shine for the benefit of the Lord’s consecrated. About this time also the masses of mankind, because of a more general diffusion of knowledge, were aroused to more independent thinking. Matters pertaining to the rights and wrongs of man then began to be discussed, and this has gone on increasingly up to the present time. The various organizations of labor and capital, etc., existing today began to be formed in those days.

This increase of knowledge has caused discussions and contentions over the rights and wrongs of the classes and has become more and more heated as the days have come and gone. The tendency is at the present time towards a concentration of all these organizations into two classes, in opposition one to the other. The shaking and unsettling of the present order of things is causing conditions that are bringing great trouble and disturbance of mind to mankind in general as the various remedies provided by legislators are tried and fail to bring the hoped-for cure.

All this, it is generally admitted, has been caused by an increase of knowledge, described in this symbol as an unusual increase and diffusion of sunlight. This seems to be what is portrayed in this fourth plague symbol.”

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