Jehovah's Plagues on Christendom

 Vision 5-REVELATION  8:1-9:21

Subjec: The sounding of six of the seven trumpets

Time of fulfillment:  From the enthronement of Christ Jesus in 1914 to the great tribulation

The four winds have been held back until the 144,000 of spirtual Israel are sealed and the great crowd is approved for survival.   (Revelation 7:1-4, 9)  However, before that tempestuous storm breaks out over the earth, Jehovah's adverse judgments  against Satan's world  must also be made known!  As the Lamb proceeds  to open the seventh and final seal, John must be watching keenly to see what will unfold.  Now he shares his experience with us: " And when he [the Lamb] opened the seventh seal, a silence occurred in heaven for about a half hour.  And I saw the seven angels that stand before God, and seven trumpets were given them." - REVELATION 8:1, 2.

A Time for  Fervent Prayer

A significant silence this Half and hour can seem a long time when you are waiting for something to happen. Now the constant heavenly chorus of praise is no longer heard.  (Revelation 4:8)  Why?  John sees  the reason in vision:  "And another angel arrived and stood at the altar, have a golden incense vessel; and a large quanity  of incense was given him to offer it with the prayers of all the holy ones upon the golden altar that was before the throne.  And the smoke of the incense ascended from the hand of the angel with the prayers of the holy ones before God." - REVELATION 2:3, 4. 

This reminds us that under the Jewish system of things, incense was burned daily  at the tabernacle and, in later years, at the temple of Jerusalem.  (Exodus 30:1-8)  During such incense burning, the nonpriestly Israelites waited outside the sacred aream praying-no doubt silently in their hearts-to the One to whom the incense smokke was ascending.  (Luke 1:10) John now sees something similar happening in heaven.  The incense offered by the angel is associated wut "the prayers of the holy ones."  In fact, in an earlier vision, incense is said to represent such prayers.  (Revelation 5:8; Psalm 141:1, 2)   Evidently, then, the symbolic silence in heaven is to allow the prayers of the holy ones on earth to be heard.

Can we determine when this happened?  Yes, we can, by examing the context, together with historical developments early in the Lord's day.  (Revelation 1:10)  During 1918 and 1919, events on earth harmonized remarkably with the scenario described at Revelation 8:1-4.  For 40 years before 1914, the Bible Students -as Jehovah's Witnesses were than callled -had been announcing boldly that the time of the Gentiles would end in that year.  The distressful events of 1914 proved them correct.  (Luke 21:24,  King James Version; Matthew 24:3, 7, 8)  But many of them also believed tha tin 1914 they would be taken from this earth to their heavenly  inheritance.  That did not happen. Instead, during the first world war, they endured a time of severe persecution.  On October 32  1916 the first president, Joseph F. Rutherford, and seven other representatives  of the Society were  transported to Atlanta, Georgia,  penitentiary, wrongly sentenced to long years in prison.  

The sincere Christians of the John class were perplexed. What did God want them to do next?  When would they be taken uyp to heaven?  And article entitled  "The Harvest Ended-What Shall Follow?" appeared on May 1, 1919, issue of The Watch Tower.  It reflected this state of uncertainty and encouraged the faithful to continue  endurance, adding:  "We believe it is now a true saying that the harvest of the kingdom class is an accomplished fact, that all such  are duly sealed and that the door is closed."  During this difficult period, the fervent prayers of  of the John class were ascending, as though in a smoke of a large quanity of incense.  And their prayers  were being heard! 

Next time: Jehovah's Plague on Christendom - Hurling Fire to the  Earth

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