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 Jesus warned of the kind of pressures that this world, saturated with propaganda, would put on Christians. He said: "Pay attention to yourselves that your hearts never become weighed down with overeating and heavy drinking and anxieties of life, and suddenly that day be upon you as a snare . . . keep awake, then, all the time making supplication that you may succeed in escaping all these things that are destined to occur, and in standing before the Son of man." (Luke 21:34-36) "That day" is "the great day of God Almighty." (Revelation 16:14) as "that day" of the vindication of Jehovah's sovereignty approaches, it becomes ever more difficult to cope with the anxieties of life. Christians need to be alert and watchful, staying awake until that day arrives.

What, though, is implied by the warning that those found sleeping would be shamed by losing their "outer garments"? In ancient Israel, any priest or Levite on guard duty at the temple had a heavy responsibility. Jewish commentators tell that if anyone was caught sleeping on such duty, his garments would be stripped from him and burned, so that he was publicly shamed. 

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Chapter Thirty-Two/God's Anger Brought to a Finish - The Gathering to Armageddon - Continue

 With so much satanic propaganda around, the next words that John records are indeed timely: "Look! I am coming as a thief. Happy is the one that stays awake and keeps his outer garments, that he may not walk naked and people look upon his shamefulness."  (Revelation 16:15) Who is coming "as thief"?  Jesus himself, coming at an unannounced time as Jehovah's Executioner. (Revelation 3:3; 2 Peter 3:10) While still on earth, Jesus also likened his coming to that of a thief, saying: "Keep on the watch, therefore, because you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. On this account you too prove yourselves ready, because at an hour that you do not think to be it, the Son of man is coming." (Matthew 24:42, 44; Luke 12:37, 40) Echoing the warning, the apostle Paul said: "Jehovah's day is coming exactly as a thief in the night. Whenever, it is that they are saying: 'Peace and security! then sudden destruction is to be instantly upon them. "Satan even now maneuvering the nations toward making that false proclamation of "Peace and security!!" -THESSALONIANS 5:2, 3. 

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 The propaganda comes from "the dragon" (Satan) and "the wild beast" ("Satan's earthly political setup), creatures that we have already met up with in Revelation. What, though, is "the false prophet"?  This is a newcomer in name only. Previously, we were shown a wild beast with two horns like a lamb that performed great signs before the seven-headed beast. This deceptive creature acted like prophet for that wild beast, even causing an image to be built to it.  (Revelation 13:11-14) This wild beast with two horns like a lamb must be the same as "the false prophet" mentioned here. Confirming this, we read later that the false prophet like the symbolic wild beast with two horns, "performed in front of the [seven-headed wild beast] the signs with which he misled those received the mark of the wild beast and those who render worship to its image." - REVELATION 19:20. 

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Chapter Thirty-Two/God's Anger Brought to a Finish - The Gathering to Armageddon

 John tells us: "And I saw three unclean inspire expressions that looked like frogs come out of the mouth of the wild beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet. They are, in fact, expressions inspired by demons and perform signs, and they go forth to the kings of the entire inhabited earth, to gather them together for the war of the great day of the Almighty." (Revelation 16:13, 14) In Moses' day, Jehovah brought a loathsome plague of frogs on Pharaoh's Egypt, so that the land began to stink." (Exodus 8:5-15) During the Lord's day, there has also been a disgusting froglike visitation though from a different source. It consists of Satan's "unclean inspired expressions, "clearly symbolizing propaganda designed to maneuver all human rulers, "kings into opposition to Jehovah God. Satan thus makes sure that they are not swayed by the pouring out of the bowls of God's anger but are firmly on Satan's side when "the war of the great day of God the Almighty" begins.

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Chapter Thirty-Two/God's Anger Brought to a Finish -The River Euphrates Dried Up - Conclusion

 Who are these kings? In 539 B.C.E, they were Darius the Mede and Cyrus the Persian, who were used by Jehovah to conquer the ancient city of Babylon. In this the Lord's day, the false religious system of Babylon the Great will also be destroyed by human rulers. But again, this will be a divine judgment. Jehovah God and Jesus Christ, "the kings from the rising of the sun, will have put into the hearts of human rulers the "thought" to turn on Babylon the Great and destroy her utterly. (Revelation 17:16, 17) The pouring out of the sixth bowl proclaims publicly that this judgment is about to be executed! 

These first six bowls of Jehovah's anger carry a sobering message. God's earthly servants, supported by the angels, have been busy publicizing their contents on an earth-wide scale in this way, due warning has been served on all sectors of Satan's world system. And Jehovah has provided individuals an opportunity to turn to righteousness and keep living. (Ezekiel 33:14-16) Still, one more bowl of God's anger remains. But before telling us about it, Revelation reveals how Satan and his earthly agents are trying to counteract the publicizing of Jehovah's judgments. 

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 Babylon the Great "sits on many waters." According to Revelation 17:1, 15, these symbolize "peoples and crowds and nations and tongues"-hordes of adherents that she has regarded as protection. But the "waters" are drying up! in Western Europe, where formers she had great influence, hundreds of millions have openly ignored religion. In some Eastern European lands, there is a declared policy to try to destroy the influence of religion. The masses in those lands have not risen up on her behalf. Similarly, when the time comes for Babylon the Great to be destroyed, the dwindling number of her adherents will prove to be no protection at all. (Revelation 17:16) Though she claims a membership of thousands of millions, Babylon the Great will herself defenseless against "the kings of the rising of the sun." 

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Chapter Thirty-Two/God's Anger Brought to a Finish - The River Euphrates Dried Up

 The sixth trumpet blast heralded the releasing of the "four angels that are bound at the great river Euphrates." (Revelation 9:14) Historically, Babylon was the great city that sat of the river Euphrates. And in 1919 the real release of the symbolic four angels accompanied a significant fall of Babylon the Great. (Revelation 14:8) It is noteworthy, then, that the sixth bowl of God's anger also involves the river Euphrates: "And the sixth one poured out his bowl upon the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, that the way might be prepared from the kings of the rising of the sun." (Revelation 16:12) This too is bad news for Babylon the Great!

In ancient Babylon's heyday, the abundant waters of the Euphrates were a major part of her defense system. In 539 B.C.E. those waters dried up when they were diverted from their course by the Persian leader Cyrus. Thus, the way was open for Cyrus the Persia and Darius the Mede, the kings from "the rising of the sun" (that is, the east), to enter into Babylon and conquer it. In the hour of crisis, the river Euphrates failed in the defense of that great city.  (Isaiah44:27-455:7; Jeremiah 51:36) Something similar is due to happen to modern Babylon, the worldwide system of false religion.

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Chapter Thirty-Two/God's Anger Brought to a Finish -Darkness and Gnawing Pain

 As world ruler, Satan has caused much unhappiness and suffering. Famine, wars, violence, crime, drug abuse, immorality, sexually transmitted diseases, dishonesty, religious  hypocrisy-these and more are the hallmarks of Satan's system of things. (Compare Galatians 5:19-21.) Even so, the public exposure of Satan as the god of this system of things caused pain and embarrassment to those who live by his standards. "They began to gnaw their tongues for their pain," especially in Christendom. Many resent that the truth exposes their lifestyle., Some find it threatening, and they persecute those publish it. They reject God's Kingdom and revile Jehovah's holy name. Their religiously diseased, ulcerous condition is laid bare, so that they blaspheme the God of heaven. No, they do "not repent of their works." So we cannot expect a mass conversion before the end of this system of things. - ISAIAH 32:6.

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 The fifth trumpet blast is not exactly the same as the fifth bowl of God's anger, since the trumpet blasts heralded a plague of locusts. But notice that at the release of that plague of locusts, there was a darkening of the sun and the air.  (Revelation 9:2-5) And at Exodus 10:14, 15, we read concerning the locusts with which Jehovah plagued Egypt: 'They were very burdensome. Before them there had never turned up in this way locusts like them, and there will never turn up any in this way after them. And they went covering the visible surface of the entire land, and the land grew dark." Yes, darkness! Today, the world's spiritual darkness has become all too evident as a result of the sounding of the fifth trumpet and the pouring out of the fifth bowl of God's anger. The stinging message proclaimed by the modern-day locust swarm brings torment and pain to those wicked ones who "have loved the darkness rather than the light." - JOHN 3:19. 

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Chapter Thirty-Two/God's Anger Brought to a Finish - Darkness and Gnawing Pain

 The kingdom of this wild beast has been in spiritual darkness ever since its beginning.  (Compare Matthew8:12; Ephesians 6:11, 12.) The fifth bowl brings intensified public announcement of this darkness. It even dramatizes it, in that this bowl of God's anger is poured out upon the very throne of the symbolic wild beast. "And the kingdom became darkened, and they began to gnaw their tongues for their pain, but they blasphemed the God of heaven for their pains and for their ulcers, and they did not repent of their works." - REVELATION 16:10b, 11. 

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