Chapter Thirty-Two -God's Anger Brought to a Finish

JOHN has already introduced the angels commissioned to pour out the seven bowls. He tells us that "these are the last ones, because by  means of them the anger of God is brought to a finish." (Revelation 15:1; 16:1) These plagues, revealing Jehovah's sanctions for wickedness in the earth,  must be poured out to a finality.  When they are over, God's judgment  will have been executed. Satan's world will be no more!  What do these plagues  portend for mankind and the rulers of the present wicked system? How can Christians avoid  being plagued along with this doomed world?  Vital questions, these, and now they are to be answered. All who long for the trumpet of righteousness will have keep interest in what John sees next.

Jehovah's Wrath Against "the Earth" 

The first angel goes into action:  "And the first one went off and poured out his bowl into the earth.  Ans a hurtful and malignant ulcer came to be upon the men that had the mark of the  wild beast and that were worshiping its image."  (Revelation 16:2) As in the case of the first trumpet blast, "the earth" here symbolizes the stable-looking political system that Satan began to build here on earth back in Nimrod's time.  Over 4,000 years ago. -Revelation 8:7.

In these last days, many governments have  demanded what amounts to worship from their subjects, insisting the State must be exalted above God or any other loyalty.  (2 Timothy 3:1; compare Luke 20:25; John 19:15)  Since 1914 it has become common for nations to conscript their youth in order for them to fight, the kind of total warfare that has so bloodied the pages of modern history.  During the Lord's day, the nations have also produced, as a substitute for God's Kingdom, the image of the beast-the League of Nations and its successor, the United Nations. What blasphemy to proclaim, as recent popes have done, that this man-made body is the nation's sole hope for peace!  It staunchly opposes God's Kingdom.  Those who worship it become spiritually unclean, ulcerated, just as the Egyptians who opposed Jehovah in Moses' day were plagued by  literal sores and ulcers. -Exodus 9:10, 11. 

The contents of this bowl strongly emphasize the choice that lies before humans. They must suffer either the world's disapproval or Jehovah's indignation. Mankind has been put under compulsion to accept the mark of the wild beast, with the intent that "nobody might be able to buy or sell except a person having the mark, the name of the wild beast or the number of its name."  (Revelation 13:16, 17)  But there is a price to pay for this!  Jehovah regards those who accept  the mark as being stricken with "a hurtful and malignant ulcer."  Since 1922 they have been marked in public as having rejected the living God. Their political schemes have no success,  and they suffer anguish. Spiritually, the are unclean. Unless they repent, this "hurtful" illness  will become terminal, for it is now Jehovah's day of judgment. There is no neutral ground between being a part of the world's system of things and serving Jehovah on the side of his Christ. -Luke 11:23; compare James 4:4. 

Next time: Chapter Thirty-Two -God's Anger Brought to a Finish -The Sea Becomes Blood

From the book of Revelation