Continue with The Second Woe -Armies of Cavalry

Happily, John can report:  "And the four angels were untied, who have been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, to kill a third of the men." (Revelation 9:15) Jehovah is a precise Timekeeper.  He has a timetable and is keeping to it.  Hence, these messengers are released exactly on schedule and in time to accomplish what they have to do.  Imagine their joy on coming forth from bondage in 1919, ready for work!  They have a commission not only to torment but finally "to kill a third of the men."  This is related to the plagues heralded  by the first four trumpet blasts, which afflicted a third of the earth, the sea, the creatures in the sea, the fountains and rivers, and the heavenly light sources.  (Revelation 8:7-12)  The four angels go further.  They "kill," exposing to a completion Christendom's spiritual dead condition.  Trumpeted pronouncements, made from 1922 onward and continuing to the present time have accomplished this.

Remember, the heavenly angel has just sounded the sixth trumpet. Responding thereto, the sixth of the series of Bible Students' annual international conventions was held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  The program there on Sunday, July 24, 1927, was aired through a chain of 53 radio stations, the most extensive broadcast network up to that time.  That spoken message went out to an  audience  of possibly many millions.  First, a forceful resolution exposed Christendom as spiritually dead and extended the invitation:  "In this hour of perplexity Jehovah God bids the peoples to abandon and for ever forsake 'Christendom' or 'organized Christianity' and to turn completely away from it . . .; [let] the peoples give their heart's devotion and allegiance wholly to Jehovah God and to his King and kingdom."  Freedom  for the Peoples" was the title of the public talk that followed  J.F. Rutherford, president of the Watchtower Society, delivered this in his usual dynamic style, appropriate to "the fire and the smoke and the sulphur" that John next observes in vision. 

"And the number of the armies of cavalry was two myriads of myriads:  I heard the number of them. And this is how I saw the horses in the vision, and those seated on them: they had fire-red and hyacinth-blue and sulphur-yellow breastplates; and the heads of the horses were as heads of lions, and out of their mouths fire and smoke and sulphur  issued forth.  By these three plagues a third of the men were killed, from the fire and smoke and the sulphur which issued forth from their mouths." -Revelation 9:16-18.

Next time: Conclusion of The Second Woe-Armies of Cavalry

From the Book of Revelation