THE SIXTH TRUMPET (Part 3) continued

Revelation Chapter 11

VERSE 14 “The second woe is past. behold, the third woe is coming quickly.”

Revelation 8:13 had informed us that the last three Trumpets would be “woes” to those dwelling on the earth — those whose roots in the present order make them enemies to changes which threaten the status quo. In Rev 11:14 we have reached the end of the Sixth Trumpet. It has caused GREAT WOES to the establishment which had functioned without basic threat for well over a millennium. The verse concludes warning that there is now the THIRD WOE coming quickly.

It came 75 years after the Revolution. But the thought of quickly is not all determined by time. The Revelator seems to be saying,

“Don’t stop to catch your breath. Don’t get so wrapped up in the ending features of the Sixth Trumpet (things like the Miller Movement, etc.,) that you are inclined to miss the SUBTLE CHANGE from stage six to stage seven.”

As outlined below the 6th period anticipates the 7th in many passages. This is one of those places. The seventh period of the Church BEGINS WITH RELATIVE OBSCURITY. In this sense it is considerably different from the periods preceding it which all seem to have begun (with the possible exception of Thyatira) with some notable events. It is clear that the Lord does not wish His saints to miss this transition. As Daniel recorded: “How blessed is he who keeps waiting and attains to the 1335 days!” But the blessing was to be INVISIBLE!

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The following pages are a copy of pages 538-540 from Uriah Smith’s book on DANIEL AND THE REVELATION, concerning Revelation 11: 7-12. Smith’s is an Adventist. He here quotes from George Storrs and from Croly and gives what seems to be the best of many answers to the meaning of the 3½ days.

Note: His explanations however of Verses 9 -10 are not so good in light of our investigations of the phrases “people and kindreds and tongues and nations” and “they that dwell upon the earth.”

DANIEL AND THE REVELATION (Page 538)

“…and in one night, fifty thousand of them were murdered in cold blood, and the streets of Paris literally ran with blood. Thus, our Lord was ‘spiritually crucified’ in His members. Again, the watch-word and motto of the French Infidels was, ‘CRUSH THE WRETCH,’ meaning Christ. Thus, it may be truly said, ‘where our Lord was crucified.” The very spirit of the ‘bottomless pit’ was poured out in that wicked nation.

“But did France ‘make war’ on the Bible?

She did; and in 1793 a decree passed the French Assembly forbidding the Bible, and under that decree the Bibles were gathered and burned, and every possible mark of contempt heaped upon them, and all the institutions of the Bible abolished; the Sabbath was blotted out, and every tenth day substituted for mirth and profanity. Baptism and the communion were abolished. The being of God was denied; and death pronounced to be an eternal sleep. The Goddess of Reason was set up, in the person of a vile woman, and publicly worshiped. Surely here is a power that exactly answers the prophecy.” This point will be further developed in the comments on the next verse.

Verse 9 “And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and a half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.”

“The language of this verse denotes the feelings of other nations than the one committing the outrage on the witnesses. They would see what war infidel France had made on the Bible, but would not be led nationally to engage in the wicked work, nor suffer the murdered witnesses to be buried, or put out of sight among themselves, though they lay dead three days and a half, that is, three years and a half, in France. No; this very attempt of France served to arouse Christians everywhere to put forth a new exertion in behalf of the Bible, as we shall presently see”.

4 George Storrs Midnight Cry, May 4, 1843, Vol. IV. Nos. 5, 6, p. 47.

5 Ibid.

Continued with next post.