Part VIII
We concluded last month with the death of the two witnesses at the hands of the beast which rose out of the bottomless pit—or as Dr. Thomas and the New English Bible put it—”out of the abyss”. Dr. Thomas explains that this refers to the then unexplored areas from beyond the limits of the Roman Empire. From these unknown parts arose the Franks who later spread over France and led to the formation of Charlemagne’s beast out of the earth. So, accepting that these are the same, we find that it was the French people who were responsible for the end of the witnessing of the witnesses with the massacre of the Hugenots on St. Bartholomew’s Day, 1572, and who politically killed them after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685.
The Street Of The City
Rome was the great city, and France was one of the ten-toe-kingdoms; and it was here—the “street” of the Roman City where the witnesses lay figuratively dead for three and a half days. Now, we find that the end of the three and a half days was actually in 1789, when a great Assembly of all sections of the French people—including the witnesses—was convened by the King: thus they ascended up into the political heaven. The fact that three and a half days represents 104 years (from 1685 to 1789) is explained by Dr. Thomas on the basis that it would be incongruous to describe dead bodies as lying in a public street for 104 years, or even 104 days, so the period is further telescoped by taking each moon-period of 30 days to be replaced by one day: therefore 104 days reduces to about three and a half days.
The French Revolution
The next striking event was a great earthquake, in which a “tenth of the city” fell. As we have seen, France was one tenth of the Roman City—and the French Revolution which followed in 1792 is easily recognised as the fulfillment of this prophecy.
Returning to our diagram we mark the end of the 1,260 years of witnessing at 1572, and by a dotted line show the wit by H. Hughes, Ormondness “dead” from 1685 to 1789. We draw a horizontal line across at 1792 to the earth-beast line, and label it “French Revolution”. We also note that if we count 1,260 years from the decree of Justinian in 535 we reach 1795, by which time France had turned atheist, and the Popes temporarily lost their power in France.
The Seventh Trumpet
The next event (verse 15) is the sounding of the Seventh Trumpet, bringing woe to the earth. Verses 16 to 19 of Chapter 11 constitute one of those “introductory” chapters which marks the changing of the scenes. As we have already seen, the narrative (chap. 12) then goes back in time 1,480 years to Constantine. To continue our historical sequence, we must press forward to chapter 15, where we find the effects of the seventh trumpet in the wars of Napoleon.
The Seven Bowls
These take the form of seven angels bearing seven vials or bowls as modern translations—from the Revised Version of 1881 to the New English Bible of 1961— have it.
In chapter 16 six of these are successively poured out, and we note that five of them take effect on the same features as did the trumpets. First, the earth—the inland portion of the Western Roman Empire; second, the sea (naval warfare) ; third, the rivers and fountains of waters (Northern Italy and Switzerland) ; fourth, the sun (the leading military power—here Napoleon) ; fifth, the throne of the beast—Rome and the Pope, this being a different victim from that of the fifth trumpet. The first four trumpets, and the first five bowls, take effect upon the western leg of Nebuchadnezzar’s Statue, so we put a mark alongside of the “Beast of the Earth” line, at about 1795, and draw a line from that date to about 1815, when Napoleon met his Waterloo, and label it “Bowls 1 to 5”.
The Sixth Bowl
The sixth bowl took effect upon the same locality as the sixth trumpet—the Euphrates river, which dried up, and thus represented the gradually drying up of the Turkish power. So we go to the eastern leg of the statue and mark “6th Bowl” from 1820 (about) to 1914.
The Seventh Bowl
The seventh bowl was poured out into the air—and we believe this took place in 1911, when for the first time aeroplanes were used in warfare, Italian planes being used to bomb Turkish troops in Tripoli. As the effects of this have been world wide, we mark “Seventh Vial” by a line between the left and right legs, commencing in 1911 and continuing on to the present day. In our diagram it so happens that the lines representing each leg we terminated together, at the 1914 war; we should indicate the continuation of the toe state by dotted lines into the future.
Completing The Statue
We can make our statue-lines look more realistic by extending them back beyond the time of Jesus, to the days of Daniel, and add the Babylonian head of gold, the two arms and chest of Media and Persia, the abdomen (Greece) ; and the portion of the legs and thighs covered by the tunic would represent Rome before 312 A.D. But when we look into the future we are in a quandary. Nebuchadnezzar’s Statue, standing up in its entirety as one entity–not only the feet, but the whole—iron and clay, brass, silver and gold, were all destroyed together and replaced by God’s Kingdom. It is reasonable to suppose, therefore, that sooner or later we shall see one great confederation, standing up, occupying the former territories of all those nations, but we cannot be sure when this will be. However, before this takes place we must see the fulfilment of another important sign.
Three Unclean Spirits Like Frogs
This sign appears after the outpouring of the sixth bowl, but it does not necessarily follow that it takes place before the seventh bowl. If we went into the detail, we would find that the first five take effect concurrently. The sign of the three foul spirits—as the New English Bible calls them, is inspired—or rather expired—initially by the dragon; therefore it appropriately appears under the sixth bowl, which is taking effect upon the western or dragon-leg of the statue. They issue out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. The dragon is now Turkey; the beast (of the earth) is either or both of Austria and Germany; but who is the false prophet?
Some have suggested Mahomet, but this would simply be a repetition of Turkey. In 1848 the Pope was in difficulties, and was shorn of some of his power, and Dr. Thomas in “Eureka” considered that as from 1848 the Pope was the False Prophet, However, Brother Thomas thought that Jesus would return in 1868 and so he telescoped the future—to fit. He fixed the Spirit of the Dragon as the Crimean War (1854), the Spirit of the Beast as the Austro-Sardinian war of 1859, and thought that the events in Italy of 1868-70 were the Spirit of the False Prophet. Looking back 100 years, we can now see that these interpretations were probably incorrect.
Frogs
The three foul or unclean spirits are described as being like frogs. Dr. Thomas, living in the days when the French power was the mightiest in Europe, assumed that “frog-like” indicated French inspiration. This is very problematical. In “Elpis Israel” and “Eureka” he publishes evidence which he claims shows that the frog was the old arms of France.
However, the French writing which he quotes does not say that the symbols were frogs, but toads. Frogs live in water; toads on the ground. The writer has found toads in long but moist grass on a hill top. The frogs of the Revolution were apparently forced out of the River Euphrates when it dried up, and may not have been French. However, all this is the writer’s own personal speculation, which is offered simply as a suggestion.
Whereas it was formerly thought that the frog-like spirit indicated French militarism, the eclipse of the latter since 1870 has necessitated another line of thought. The favourite one has been that it is the spirit of Communism, which originated in the French Revolution.
One difficulty has been that in the wars of the past perhaps less than a quarter of a million men—or even less than 100,000— would represent the total forces engaged. If these find such an important place in the first 5 bowls, surely the two world-wars of
1914 and 1939 should at least get a mention. One suggestion has been that the 1914 war was “out of the mouth of the Dragon”, because it originated in the Balkans as a result of drying-up of Turkey in the Balkan wars of 1912; and that the 1939 war was “out of the mouth of the Beast”, which indeed it was.
However, this interpretation of the 1914 war is not entirely satisfactory. But if we accept it, then we look forward to a third world war, out of the mouth of the Papal system.
Four Armageddons
These three frog-like spirits have the effect of gathering the kings of the world together for the great day of battle of God, the sovereign Lord (N.E.B.), and the kings were assembled unto a place called, in Hebrew, “Armageddon”. Dr. Thomas has shown that this is really two Hebrew words, Har Meggidon, or the Mountain of Megiddo. In his day, when, as we have said, the total forces in a war including both sides would be less than a quarter of a million, it was quite conceivable that a literal war would take place with the whole of the armies gathered within a few square miles. With our experience of two world wars, this is hard to visualise now, although a local conflict between Israel and the Arab kingdoms could well be limited to this magnitude but would not fit the specification of Rev. 16. 16.
The writer has for some time wondered whether—like the rest of the Revelation—the term “Armageddon” was not literal but symbolic. The first battle of Armageddon of which archeologists have dug up records took place between Thothmes III of Egypt and the Canaanites, during the 40 years of the Exodus. The result was that the Canaanites were so weakened that Israel was able to overcome them. The writer (like Garstang) thinks that Thothmes was the “hornet” of Exodus 23. 25 and Jos. 24. 12. His symbol was indeed a hornet.
At another Battle of Armageddon (Judges 5. 19), Deborah and Barak won freedom for Israel.
A third Battle of Armageddon took place on 19th September, 1918, when Allenby led his troops up the coastal plains, and then, after studying the second Armageddon in his Bible, surprised the Turks by cutting through the Pass of Megiddo and completely routed them. Thus, for the third time, a Battle of Armageddon resulted in the rescue of Israel from her enemies.
The writer therefore offers a tentative suggestion that maybe Armageddon is a symbol for the great war of the future, which will result in the final defeat of Israel’s enemies; one in which Jesus is the victor. It need not be confined to the hills of Megiddo.
Yet, on the other hand, Zechariah (chaps. 12 and 14) clearly teaches that a siege of Jerusalem will be relieved by the Almighty.
This, however, will not be the final conflict, which corresponds to the destruction of Nebuchadnezzar’s statue; it is a separate event.
Ezekiel 38
All readers will be familiar with this chapter, in which a northern federation (which Bro. Thomas has shown to be led by Russia) invades Palestine and is opposed by Sheba, Dedan, the merchants of Tarshish and all the young lions, but it is God who comes to the rescue. Zechariah in chapters 12 to 14 appears to refer to this event, and it is not difficult to see that it is the coming of the Messiah which brings salvation. These two prophecies harmonize with the impression we gather from Rev. 16 that the coming of our Lord is associated with Armageddon. Hence it could well be that Armageddon is not a world wide conflict, but something relatively local. Let us turn to Daniel XI and see how his prophecy fits. Verses 36 to 39 almost certainly refer to the Papal power, or the military power which supports him. In anticipation, we are told in verse 36 that he will prosper until the “indignation”, of which we will have more to say later.
Daniel The Prophet – (Part 3)