Charles D. Alexander
Herbert W. Armstrong
William Barclay
Gregory K. Beale
James B. Coffman
John Darby
A. C. Gaebelein
George Gifford
David Guzik
E. W. Hengstenberg
H. A. Ironside
B. W. Johnson
Alonso T. Jones
Jack Kelley
William Kelly
Don Koenig
Gordon E. Ladd
Clarence Larkin
Francis Nigel Lee
David B. Loughran
John MacArthur
Henry Madison Morris
Robert H. Mounce
John H. Ogwyn
David C. Pack
Jon Paulien
J. Dwight Pentecost
Peter Pett
Bob Pickle
Vern S. Poythress
John H. Pratt & Edward B. Elliott
Ken Raggio
James Stuart Russell
Tyconius
John Walvoord
Ronald Weinland
James White
1st trumpet |
The
first sore and heavy judgment which fell on western Rome in its
downward course, was the war with the Goths under Alaric, styled by
himself, "the scourge of God." After the death of Theodosius, the
Roman emperor, in January, 395, before the end of the winter, the
Goths, under Alaric, were in arms against the empire. ...It was thus
that "hail," from the fact of the northern origin of the invaders;
"fire," from the destruction by flame of both city and country;
"blood," from the terrible slaughter of the citizens of the empire by
the bold and intrepid warriors, "were cast upon the earth." |
2nd trumpet |
It
relates to the invasion and conquest of Africa, and afterward of Italy,
by the terrible Genseric. His conquests were for the most part
naval, and his triumphs were "as it were a great mountain burning with
fire, cast into the sea." |
3rd trumpet |
Raids
by Attila in Gaul and Italy. "And the name of the star is called wormwood." These words--which are more intimately connected with the preceding verse, as even the punctuation in our version denotes--recall us for a moment to the character of Attila, to the misery of which he was the author, or the instrument, and to the terror that was inspired by his name. 'Total
extirpation and erasure,' are terms which best denote the calamities he
inflicted. |
4th trumpet |
The
power and the glory or Rome, as bearing rule over any nation, became
extinct. The name alone remained to the queen of nations.
Every token of royalty disappeared from the imperial city. She
who had ruled over the nations sat in the dust, like a second Babylon,
and there was no throne, where the Caesars had reigned. |
5th trumpet |
There
is scarcely so uniform an agreement among interpreters concerning any
part of the apocalypse as respecting the application of the fifth and
sixth trumpets, or the first and second wo, to the Saracens and
Turks. It is so obvious that it can scarcely be misunderstood.
... Like the noxious and even deadly vapor which the winds,
particularly from the south-west, diffuse in Arabia, Mahometanism
spread from thence its pestilential influence--and arose as suddenly,
and spread as widely, as smoke arising out of the pit, the smoke of a
great furnace. Such is a suitable symbol of the religion of
Mahomet, of itself, or as compared with the pure light of the gospel of
Jesus. It was not, like the latter, a light from heaven; but a
smoke out of the bottomless pit. ... Mahomet, it may be said, has
heretofore divided the world with Jesus. He rose up against the
Prince of princes. A great sword was given him. His
doctrine, generated by the spirit of fraud and enthusiasm, whose abode
is not in the heavens, as even an unbeliever could tell, arose out of
the bottomless pit, spread over the earth like the smoke of a great
furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke
of the pit. It spread from Arabia, over great part of Asia,
Africa and Europe. The Greeks of Egypt, whose numbers could
scarcely equal a tenth of the nation, were overwhelmed by the universal
defection. And even in the farthest extremity of continental
Europe, the decline of the French monarchy invited the attacks of these
insatiate fanatics. |
6th trumpet |
Amurath,
the sultan to whom the submission of Deacozes was made, and by whose
permission he reigned in Constantinople, soon after died, and was
succeeded in the empire, in 1451, by Mahomet II., who set his heart on
Constantinople, and determined to make it a prey. He accordingly
made preparations for besieging and taking the city. The siege
commenced on the 6th of April, 1453, and ended in the taking of the
city, and death of the last of the Constantines, on the 16th day of May
following. And the eastern city of the Caesars became the seat of
the Ottoman empire. |
7th trumpet |
1.
The seventh angel is the last of a series of symbols, and, for this,
and several other reasons, is not the same as the "trump of God,"
[1 Thess. 4:16,] and "last trump," [1 Cor. 15:52,] which is to
raise the just. |
Copyright © 2010 by Douglas E. Cox
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