“And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air ; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne saying, It is done” (Rev. 16:17).
In last month’s Tidings it was pointed out that the “air” in which the seventh vial was poured, though unquestionably having reference to the political aristocrats of our day, could possibly contain a note of literality which, understood in its proper perspective, serves to enrich and enhance the prophecy.
Though the Book of Revelation is indeed a book of symbols, there are, scattered through its pages, just enough literal references to make the whole intelligible. A brief consideration of two or three of the other vials will suffice to establish this practice in our minds.
In verse 3, John tells us that the second vial was poured out upon the sea, a recognizable allusion to the maritime conquests of Great Britain during the period from 1793 to 1815. In this period a total of 1110 ships were destroyed, and the sea was filled with dead bodies, or, as John states, “It became as the blood of a dead man.”
These vials depicted the wrath of God (His judgments) upon the inhabitants of the world. Sea, though symbolically representing peoples, in this instance also had reference to the literal sea, upon which the battles took place.
The third vial (verse 4) was fountains of waters ; and they became blood.” We understand this to allude to the conflict of those nations lying adjacent to the Rhine and Danube Rivers, and in the vicinity of the lakes of Italy.
This apocalyptic language describes the extremely successful feats of battle of Napoleon against Austria, Sardinia and Ve nice. If we should take away these touchstones of reality, with which the vision is salted, one would be at a complete loss to understand any of the prophecy, and would place us in the same position as those who understand not the promises of God.
The finest illustration of this use of the literal is to be found in the pouring out of the 6th vial (verse 12) upon the River Euphrates, to effect its drying up that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. Historians, as well as Christadelphians, have understood for centuries that the nation of Turkey was indicated in this prophecy. Indeed, one can easily convince himself of this fact by looking into the history of this once powerful dominion, and noting that just as a river dries up, first along its banks, so Turkey has declined, until at the present day there is but a skeleton of its former might.
The Euphrates River flowed through the midst of Turkey, hence the reference to the vial being poured out upon it. Turkey was violently opposed to the Zionist movement, a program that had to be effected before the appearance of Christ in the earth.
It will be noted that the seventh vial is to be poured out after the thief-like advent of Christ, and subsequent to the gathering of the nations to Armageddon. We may reasonably assume from this that this vial, unlike the others, symbolizes direct judgment of God upon the nations. Here, we have described forces of God directed upon the contemporaneous nations under the direction of Christ and His saints. These forces are directed against the air inasmuch as it is this arena that the multitudinous saints will combat the foe.
A few years ago the world entered the age of airplanes. Today, we stand on the threshold of space itself. The military strength of a nation today is measured by its ability to project a ballistic missile through the rarified atmosphere at a speed several times that of sound and have it land on target.
One of the greatest problems facing the two great powers in the earth today is the task of keeping up with each other in the development of nuclear arms. Last month Defence Secretary McElroy said that by early 1960’s the U.S.S.R. could have as much as a 3 to 1 lead in operational Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles over the United States unless America surges ahead in her own development.
It was also pointed out that Russia was definitely ahead in space exploration with her superior rocket thrust engines. Both nations recognise that superiority in this field will determine the outcome in case of war.
The problem confronting the United States is not the speed of development of the ICBM but rather the ever-present threat of obsolescence. It is now recognised that by the time the liquid propellant type missiles are perfected, they will be obsolete. This has proved the greatest deterrent to the perfection of this type of projectile, i.e., Atlas, Thor and Jupiter.
Even the mighty Titan, also a liquid propellant (similar to the Atlas, but larger), not scheduled for completion until the early 1960’s, is vulnerable to obsolescence. The administration, consequently, has vetoed any full scale development effort on liquid missiles, and will apparently depend on the solid fuel Polaris and Minuteman to effect an adequate deterrent-retaliatory power in mid-1960’s.
The present chief defence of this country, therefore, lies not in ICBM’s but rather in the Strategic Air Command ; bombers carrying nuclear air-to-ground missiles, in the air 24 hours a day. The missiles capable of being launched from an airplane are effective for 500 miles, and will soon be increased to 1000 miles.
Nikita Khrushchev boasts that Russia is even now engaged in “mass production” of ICBM’s, possessing “pinpoint” accuracy to “any part of the globe.” If this is true, his Christmas day threat of “showering” the U.S.A. with atomic bombs may not be so remote.
It is quite apparent that in the event there is an all out war, the decisive battles will be fought in, or by means of, the air. Those nations who choose to oppose Christ when his word goes forth into all regions of the earth, will unleash against Him their most devastating weapons, ballistic missiles vainly projected through the atmosphere, and doomed to failure. The seventh vial poured out into the air must surely depict the judgment of God upon the puny defences of Godless men, as he clears from the firmament their polluting and defiling presence.
The destruction of their military might well lead to the dissolution of their atheistic form of government, and will thus result in a two-fold fulfilment of Rev. 16:17.
Before this happens, however, the saints will have been ushered away to judgment, an event that is included in the period depicted by the sixth vial. After the judgment of the household and the perfection of the accepted, the glorified saints will assist and accompany Christ in his punishment of the high ones of the earth.
A great deal of the sixth vial has already been fulfilled, and the household of God anxiously await the call of the angel, who will transport them to the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One