Like A Burning Mountain

"And the second angel blew his trumpet. And something like a great mountain burning with fire was hurled into the sea. And a third of the sea became blood; and a third of the creatures that are in the sea which have souls died, and a third of the boats were wrecked." (Revelation 8:8,9) What does this frightful scene picture?

We may best understand it against the background of the convention of Jehovah's people held in Los Angeles, California, U.S.A., on August 18-26, 1923. The featured Saturday afternoon talk by the Watchtower Society's president was on the topic "Sheep and Goats." The "sheep" were clearly identified as those righteously disposed persons who would inherit the earthly realm of God's Kingdom. A resolution that followed drew attention to the hypocrisy of "apostate clergymen and 'the principle of their flocks,' who are worldly men of strong financial and political influence." It called on the "multitude of the peace and order loving ones in the denominational churches. . . to withdraw themselves from the unrighteous ecclesiastical systems designated by the Lord as ' Babylon' " and to ready themselves "to receive the blessings of God's kingdom."

Doubtless, this resolution came as a result of the sounding of the second trumpet. Those who would in due course respond to that message would separate from the goat like group that Isaiah described in these words: "But the wicked are like the sea that is being tossed, when it is unable to calm down, the waters of which keep tossing up seaweed and mire." (Isaiah 57:20; 17:12, 13) Thus, "the sea" well pictures restless, unsettled, and rebellious humanity that churns up unrest and revolution. (Compare Revelation 13:1) The time will come when that "sea" will be no more. (Revelation 21:1) Meantime, with the blast of the second trumpet, Jehovah pronounces judgment against the third of it-the unruly part that is in the realm of Christendom herself.

A great mountain like mass burning with fire is hurled into this "sea." In the Bible, mountains very often symbolize governments. For example, God's Kingdom is portrayed as a mountain. (Daniel 2:35, 44) Ruinous Babylon became a "burnt-out mountain." (Jeremiah 51:25) But the mountainous mass that John sees is still burning. Its being hurled into the sea will represents how, during and after the first world war, the question of government became a burning issue among mankind, especially in the lands of Christendom. In Italy, Mussolini introduced Fascism. Germany embraced Hitler's Nazism, while other countries tried different forms of socialism. A radical change occurred in Russia, where the Bolshevik revolution produced the first communist state, with the result that religious leaders of Christendom lost power and influence in what was formerly on of their strongholds.

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