THE SIXTH TRUMPET (Part 3) continued

We continue here with our look at Uriah Smith’s book on DANIEL AND THE REVELATION which helps us to better understand the 3 1/2 days in which the two witnesses lay dead in the streets.

(Pages 439-440)

Verse 10 “And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwell on the earth.”

“This denotes the joy those felt who hated the Bible, or were tormented by it. Great was the joy of infidels everywhere for a while. But ‘the triumphing of the wicked is short;’ so was it in France, for their war on the Bible and Christianity had well-nigh swallowed them all up. They set out to destroy Christ’s ‘two witnesses,’ but they filled France with blood and horror, so that they were horror-struck at the result of their wicked deeds, and were glad to remove their impious hands from the Bibles.”

Verse 11 “And after three days and a half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them.”

WITNESS RESTORED

“In 1793, the decree passed the French Assembly suppressing the Bible. Just three years after, a resolution was introduced into the Assembly going to supersede the decree, and giving toleration to the Scriptures. That resolution lay on the table six months, when it was taken up, and passed without a dissenting vote. Thus, in just three years and a half, the witnesses ‘stood upon their feet, and great fear fell upon them which saw them.’ Nothing but the appalling results of the rejection of the Bible could have induced France to take her hands off these witnesses.”

“On the 17th of June, 1797, Camille Jourdan, in the ‘Council of Five Hundred,’ brought up the memorable report on the ‘Revision of the laws relative to religious worship.’

It consisted of a number of propositions, abolishing alike the Republican restrictions on Popish worship, and the Popish restrictions on Protestantism.

1. That all citizens might buy or hire edifices for the free exercise of religious worship.

2. That all congregations might assemble by the sound of bells.

3. That no test or promise of any sort unrequired from other citizens should be required of the ministers of those congregations.

4. That any individual attempting to impede, or in any way interrupt the public worship should be fined, up to 500 livres, and not less than 50; and that if the interruption proceeded from the constituted authorities, such authorities should be fined double the sum.

5. That entrance to assemblies for the purpose of religious worship should be free for all citizens.

6. That all other laws concerning religious worship should be repealed.

Those regulations, in comprehending the whole state of worship in France, were, in fact a peculiar boon to Protestantism. Popery was already in sight of full restoration. But Protestantism, crushed under the burden of laws of Louis XIV, and unsupported by the popular belief, required the direct support of the state to ‘stand on its feet.’ The Report seems even to have had an especial view to the grievances of the Church; the old prohibitions to hold public worship, to possess places of worship, to have ingress, etc.

From that period the Church has been free in France. “The Church and the Bible had been slain in France from November, 1793, till June, 1797. The three years and a half were expended, and the Bible, so long and so sternly repressed before, was placed in honor, and was openly the book of free Protestantism!”

Verse 12 “And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies beheld them.”

“Ascended up to heaven.’ — To understand this expression, See Dan 4:22:

“it is you, O king, who have grown and become strong; for your greatness has grown and reaches to the heavens, and your dominion to the end of the earth.”

George Croley, The Apocalypse of St. John, pp. 181-183.

We move on to the Seventh Church when we continue.