Commentators on the Second Woe

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The Creation Concept


Introduction
Charles D. Alexander
Henry Alford
William Barclay
G. K. Beale
Henry Bechthold
I. T. Beckwith
E. W. Bullinger
William Burkitt
Adam Clarke
Augustus Clissold
Thomas Coke
James B. Coffman
John N. Darby
Austin Farrer
William Fulke
Andrew Fuller
William Brown Galloway
John Gill
James Gray
David Guzik
George Leo Haydock
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg
John Hooper
H. A. Ironside
Franciscus Junius
William Kelly
A. E. Knoch
Paul E. Kretzmann
George Eldon Ladd
John Peter Lange
Clarence Larkin
Joseph Law
John MacArthur
James M. MacDonald
William Marsh
Fredrick Denison Maurice
Heinrich Meyer
J. Ramsey Michaels
William Milligan
Henry M. Morris
William R. Newell
John H. Ogwyn
Ford Cyrinde Ottman
David C. Pack
Jon Paulien
J. Dwight Pentecost
Peter Pett
John A. Pinkston
Matthew Poole
Vern S. Poythress
James Stuart Russell
Ray Stedman
Joseph Augustus Seiss
Justin Almerin Smith
John Trapp
John F. Walvoord
Daniel Whedon
Christopher Wordsworth

Charles D. Alexander, Revelation spiritually understood part 10

THE SIXTH TRUMPET - THE SECOND WOE

This is the most devastating of all the six trumpets. Its special importance is marked by the solemnity of the voice of God coming from the horns of the golden altar of incense. The action is designed to show the connection between the intercession of the troubled and persecuted church, and the answering judgment upon those who afflict her.

"The sixth angel sounded and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God." (v.13)

It passes comprehension therefore that any commentator ancient or modern, should interpret these judgments as involving any way the sufferings of the people of God. The altar symbol in chapters 6, 8, and 9 specifically teaches that the judgments are the answer to the church's prayers. Hence the repeated charge to the powers of evil that those who are sealed unto God, that is, the whole company of the redeemed on earth, are not to be hurt by them. John is still on Patmos, the victim of Rome's persecuting power and the entire Book is the Book of the preservation of the Lord's people and their assured victory over all the power of evil which can rise against them.

This is reinforced in the case of the terrible sixth trumpet that the angel of that judgment acts only as he is instructed by the voice from the altar - the same altar where the prayers of the saints are offered and received.

There is of course no altar in heaven. The altar is part of imagery of the Book, pictorialising the inner reality of the power of prayer, and the readiness of the Lord to come to the aid of His suffering people, moving heaven and earth and hell to make way for them down the ages of their conflict.

The voice from the altar proclaims, "Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates." It is the voice of omnipotence, in grand control of all the forces for good or evil in the universe. The angels bound are evil angels, for good angels are not bound, and the hand that bound them is the same hand of sovereign power and justice, wisdom and purpose, which now looses them to let those sullen waters of Euphrates arise to overwhelm the wicked world.

No, not the ancient river which flows those thousand miles and more across the Eastern wilderness, but that great river of turbid and fallen humanity on the banks of which constantly rises the Babel of oppressive worldly power. In John's vision the great river rises again in flood, not in watery judgment but as worldly power is roused and inspired by armies of implacable spirits of evil setting the hum race against itself.

Satan and his myriads have no intention of helping God against the wicked, but they are compelled to be the agents of providence afflict the idolaters and adulterers of this world. Evil angels are as much the ministers of God as the angels of light (Psalm 78:49: "He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath and indignation and trouble, by sending evil angels among them").

They who choose the devil as their friend will have the devil as their enemy and oppressor. Satan's purpose is to destroy the people of God, but all he is able to do is prepare the ground for their deliverance and enlargement, as in the case of Israel in Egypt.

When Israel in turn gave themselves over to idols that was their destruction too: "They tempted and provoked the Most High God and kept not his testimonies. They ... moved him to anger with their graven images." (Ps. 78:56-64) But always the eye of God is on that remnant of the flock, the true elect people of the covenant, the nation within the nation whom He preserves and delivers. Of them He speaks in the remaining verses of the 78th psalm: He refuses the tribe of Joseph and chooses the tribe of Judah, 'the Mount Zion which He loved', builds His sanctuary and calls for the heavenly David, the Prince of heaven to feed His flock.

THE KING of the BOTTOMLESS PIT

The agents of God's justice, even though they be evil angels, are irresistible in battle, because they are urged on by divine decree. Their number is overwhelming. Their armoury is invincible. Their defence is impenetrable. Their armour and equipment show them to be other than human. Their scorpion tails (the horse-tails borne by, the Turkish pashas as symbols of authority, says one eminent Historicist!) -- tails with serpent heads - indicate that they are hellish squadrons led by the great Serpent himself - the devil and Satan. See him here at the head of them, directing operations. He is the fallen star who opens up the abyss and from its smoky depths sends those destructive, demonic forces which plague mankind by driving them to self-destruction and despair. He is the king of the Bottomless Pit (for he was the creator of it), Abaddon, Apollyon, the Destroyer, the overlord of death and the grave by which mankind is held in bondage and fear. The grave is the symbol of death and destruction, and this is the devil's business. He who aspired to rule creation, has gotten to himself an empire indeed - but finds it to be an empire of darkness and death, of gloom and despair. What a territory to rule! What a hellish fate for one who was created in the beauty of the divine holiness, and dedicated to life, light, truth and love - now he has only death, darkness, the lie, and hate as his chosen sphere.

SATAN'S BINDING AND LOOSING

Over all presides the wisdom of the Eternal, whose decree has bound the hosts of darkness and releases them only to serve the holy purpose of His glorious throne. Hence the Voice which commands, "Loose the four angels bound in Euphrates ...." Satan himself is bound (Rev. 20:2), for 'a thousand years'. In our chapter 9 is a valuable clue to the understanding of that mystery of Satan's binding, which according to our theory is a restraint imposed upon Satan for the duration of the gospel testimony in the earth. The binding of the four Euphrates angels means that their liberty is reserved for specific season, which is expressed very significantly in verse 15 - "And the four angels were loosed which are prepared for an hour a day, a month, and a year, to slay the third part of men."

They are bound in the Euphrates river, not because angels are or can be actually located in the waters of a river, but because the action is symbolic of a releasing of an evil power the identity of which is figured by the Euphrates river. The attempts by Historicist and Futurists alike to prove that the actual river is meant is sufficiently refuted by the fact that angels are said to be bound therein - an impossible conception. As the angels and their releasing are symbolic, so must be the river in which they are said to be bound. Likewise the number of the angels is of great significance. Four in the Bible is ever the prophetic number of the world, as in chapter 7:1.

This use of the figure four is seen by Hengstenberg to denote comprehensiveness and intensity in the nature of the judgment about to break in answer to the prayers of the saints. Some have seen in it the FOUR MONARCHIES of DANIEL'S prophecies, symbolic here of the united power of this world urged on by Satan to its own destruction.

The literal view of this Woe is clearly impossible, whether we take it from the Historicist with his Turkish tale, or the Futurist with his army of Chinese. There is not room on the earth for the maneuvering of an army of 200,000,000 horsemen, even if sufficient warriors could be found to mount this unobtainable number of horses And if all is to be taken literally, let us be consistent and have literal horses breathing fire and brimstone and biting with their serpent tails! The best our Futurist friends can do is to tell us that these are not really horses but monstrous tanks exploding with murderous fire. Indeed! Then away goes their literalism and the, must treat the entire Book as a symbolic Book. They admit the horses are not horses, and later on they confess that their antichrist does not in fact have seven heads and ten horns (chap. 13. 1), nor does there sit on his back, or the devil's back, a harlot woman who is the paramour of all the kings of the earth. (chap. 17:1-2)

"LATE GREAT PLANET EARTH"

The author of the latest boasted 'best seller' "The Late Great Planet Earth" tells us the 200,000,000 army is literal, and that China will supply that number of 'militiamen', and that they will wipe out one third of the earth's inhabitants, by 'fire, smoke and brimstone' which he associates with thermo-nuclear warfare, but says nothing of the horses which in the prophecy are even more prominent than the riders. It is not the only place by any means where this author, happy no doubt with the colossal sale of 1,600,000 copies of his sensational book, departs from the strict text of Revelation, avoiding the impossible and symbolising where he can - or must - while claiming all the time to be a Literalist.

If Mr. Lindsey's book really had been fulfilling some sanctifying purpose, one could be lenient with the absurdities, but sad though it may be to say it, he has given us nothing to satisfy the hunger of our hearts for Christ and holiness and evangelical truth, whereas John wrote (and this Mr. Lindsey appears to overlook) that those who read should keep the sayings of the Book and by that means obtain blessing. But Mr. Lindsey is only the latest of a long line of authors who succeed in writing books exceedingly profitable for themselves (1,600,000 sale) but only sensationalising the Book of Revelation without any awareness of any spiritual or sanctifying purpose. The blurb on the cover reads, "A penetrating look at incredible prophecies involving this generation." So say they all, for hundreds of years past - everything is always for 'this generation'. But no doubt we shall see.

ROME IMPERIAL AND ROME PAPAL

We cannot exclude from these woes a foreshadowing of the rise and establishment of a great Christian apostasy. Rome Imperial is swept away by the besom of history. Rome Papal rises upon its ruins. We see the great falling away, the great delusion, first foretold by the apostle Paul in 2 Thess. 2 - the revealing of the MAN OF SIN who exalts himself above God, and sits in the temple of God (which we hope to prove from Rev. 11, verses 1 and 2, is the sphere of the visible church) showing himself that he is God. This masquerade of Christianity, which has become one of the fundamental facts of Christian history, is a mystery of iniquity which arose to oppress the church over a longer period of time and with greater danger to the soul, than was allotted by divine providence to the imperial Caesars.

This religious fraud was fabricated in hell itself, but it could not have succeeded without the permission of God who, as the great Ruler and Arbiter of all, reserves to Himself the righteous prerogative of giving over to delusion and deception those who refuse the light of truth. "For this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." (2 Thess. 2:10-11). This is a principle of the divine government which must not be ignored, for it works out not only in the history of the ages, but in the individual soul in any and every age, where light is given, and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. Hence there is a point where the divine justice hands over to Satan individual souls, nations, generations, ages (Romans 1:28: "even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which were not convenient"). There is a restraint which God exercises even upon the wicked, but there is a point where rejected mercy passes into punitive and exact justice. The western races are even now treading perilously near the brink of that pit.

EUPHRATES

EUPHRATES is the symbol of the flowing stream of fallen humanity. On its banks, rise Babel and Babylon, Satan's empire of confusion and ignorance. The unbinding of the four angels imprisoned in its waters means the unleashing of fearful spiritual powers in the human race, hitherto restrained. Satan's masterpiece of fraud and deception reaches its zenith and the way for the appearance of antichrist is ready. A locust swarm of plausible preachers of human merit and the righteousness of works arises to insult the righteousness of Christ: the disguise falls away and the devil's troopers of a vile spiritual and ecclesiastical tyranny ride booted and spurred over the conscience.

"Dreadful spiritual powers were claimed by these priests. Every priest, however humble his origin, was invested with superhuman dignity. His consecration enabled him to perform the supposed miracle of changing bread and wine into the body and blood of God. The church claimed to hold in its power the destiny of every soul." Frank C. Raynor ("THE GIANT MASQUERADE")

AGE OF RATIONALISM

Again, however, we may not commit the error of maintaining that the papacy is alone in the fulfillment of these woes. As the locusts give way to the horsemen; as breastplates of iron give way to armour of lurid fire, and jacinth, and brimstone; as faces of men give way to heads of lions; as death despaired of, gives way to spiritual slaughter, so we have seen in history (and are seeing now) how this principle is ever at work. The papal tyranny no longer claims so wide an empire. It has lost much of its power to deceive and destroy, but the Age of Rationalism, a new thing in human history, now bears down upon us, sweeping away all religious lies and delusions, and in place thereof banishes God entirely from creation, destroys all principles of morality and righteousness, and substitutes the mind of man for the wisdom and the throne of God.

Science, art, philosophy, music, letters - all are corrupt by the spirit of atheism which now controls the human mind. The squadrons of an invincible and hellish delusion ride roughshod over fallen and revolted humanity - and only the elect are immune and preserved. The true church of the redeemed Satan cannot touch, but all the rest is given into his hand.

His are the 200,000,000 demon horsemen who rush upon the human race. Even the papacy has only a limited number of sacerdotal troops, but the unseen armies which beset our fallen humanity are beyond computation. Let them be what they will however, their liberty to act is prescribed and limited by One who has overcome the darkness and death which are their chief weapons of fear. Likewise their eventual and eternal ruin is as certain as the throne of Him who declares -

"I am he that liveth, and was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death."- Rev. 1:18.

v.15: An hour a day a month and a year.

Endless speculations by the Historicists have been woven around these enigmatic words. They have calculated 396 days or thereabout (how baffling that hour is to the year-day theory!) Carrying the calculation to the history books to see what might correspond with it! But the enigma is simply solved, and the Old Testament holds the key: It simply means that judgment will begin at the appointed time fixed by the unerring wisdom of God from the beginning, as in the case of Genesis 7:11:

"In the 600th year of Noah's life, in the second month, the 17th day of the month ..."

Num. 1:1 - "On the first day of the second month in the second year after they were come up out of the land of Egypt". All is under God's control. Judgment is restrained until His moment comes. Hengstenberg quotes Bossuet: "The time being so precisely marked by the prophet, lets us see how exactly God determines the periods."

v.19: Power in mouth and tail.

False doctrine in the mouth, reinforced by absolute power over the soul, the tail being like unto the serpent's head.

v. 20-21:

"And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts."

The human race in its apostasy chooses the gods of gold and silver, wood and stone, and continues in its course of murder , sorcery (taking the devil as its master), of adultery and theft - as we see today in modern society - and must pursue its chosen road till the time of the final judgment comes. The Seventh Trumpet is yet to sound.

The grosser forms of idolatry which prevailed in John's day, have given way to more subtle forms, but the principle remains ingrained in the unregenerate human heart. Wherever man departs from revealed religion regulated by the Word of God, he falls into idolatry, and the gate is opened to all violence, deception and shame.

Incorporated in the judgments of these chapters we see all the ills and penalties suffered by THE MAN OF JAPHETH (the "third part of men" - verse 18) throughout Christian history. Again and again these judgments are verified by historic events, yet they recur down the centuries in changing forms which are the same in principle. They are at work now. A false science has now arisen, which not only darkens the mind but defiles the soul, and thus fulfils Satan's ultimate aim: to destroy the image of God in the human race.

But inasmuch as it is the Lord Himself who warns us of these things many ages in advance, this is yet another sure indication of the divine control. What God foreknows He has foreordained for it is unthinkable that God should have prior knowledge of such developments in history, yet remain powerless and impotent, unable or unwilling to intervene successfully so as to prevent and thwart the plot.

But God has thwarted all that Satan will ever do - as He thwarted Satan at the Cross, which Satan thought was his greatest victory, the crowning triumph of his warfare against God - only to find that he had destroyed himself by his own seeming triumph: "Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and with wicked hands have crucified and slain." (Acts 2:23)

"For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together, for to do whatsoever thy hand and counsel determined before to be done." (Acts 4:27-28)

Satan's greatest weapon is death and all its accompanying terrors and despair. By yielding Himself into the hand of Satan for Satan to work his will upon Him in awful death, He who was God, being the Son of God, destroyed death, and brought life and immortality to light.

This is how God foreordains. This is how He overcomes: not by power but by weakness; by submission and humility; by meekness and yielding. This is the way of eternal wisdom, which is ETERNAL LOVE. All else is idolatry and sin and death. THIS is life - LIFE ETERNAL - LIFE MORE ABUNDANT.



Copyright © 2013 by Douglas E. Cox
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