Chapter Twenty-One/Jehovah's Plagues on Christendom - Darkness! - Continue

 Jesus said that Christians would be recognized by their fruits and that many claiming to be his followers would "workers of lawlessness." (Matthew 7:15-23) No one looking at the fruits  of the third of the world occupied by Christendom can deny that she is groping in spiritual darkness. (2 Corinthians 4:4) She is most blameworthy, for she claims to be Christian. Hence, it is only proper that the fourth angel should trumpet the fact that Christendom's "light" is, in fact, darkness, and her sources of  "light" are Babylonish-non-Christian. - MARK 13:22, 23; 2 TIMOTHY 4:3, 4. 

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Chapter Twenty-One/Jehovah's Plagues on Christendom -Darkness!

 "And the fourth angel blew his trumpet. And a third of the sun was smitten and a third of the moon and a third of the stars, in order that a third of them might be darkened and day might not have illumination for a third of it, and the night likewise." (Revelation 8:12) The ninth plague on Egypt was a plague on literal darkness. (Exodus 10:21-29) But what is this symbolic darkness that come to the plague of men in our 20th century ?

The apostle Peter told fellow believers that they had been in darkness, spiritually speaking, before they became Christians.  (1 Peter 2:9) Paul too, used the word "darkness" to describe the spiritual state of those outside the Christian congregation.  (Ephesians 5:8; 6:12; Colossians 1:13; 1 Thessalonians 5:4, 5) But what about those in Christendom who claim to believe in God and who say they accept Jesus as their savior? 

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Chapter Twenty-One/Jehovah's Plagues on Christendom -A Star Falls From Heaven - Conclusion

 Since the third angel started to blow his trumpet, the clergy's position of dominance among mankind has been slipping until, in this day and age, very few of them retain the godlike powers they enjoyed in former centuries. Because of the preaching of Jehovah's Witnesses, great numbers of people have to realize that many doctrines taught by the clergy are spiritual poison-"wormwood." Furthermore, the clergy's power in northern Europe is almost spent, while in most Eastern European lands, as well as China, the government strictly curtails their influence. In Catholic parts of Europe and in the Americas, the clergy's scandalous behavior in financial reputation. From now on, their position can only get worse, since soon they will suffer the same fate as all other false religionists. -REVELATION 18:21; 19:2. 

Jehovah's plaguing of Christendom is not yet finished. Consider what happens after the fourth trumpet blast. 

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Chapter Twenty-One/Jehovah's Plagues on Christendom - A Star Falls From Heaven - Continue

 Outstanding in this connection was the proclamation made at what the Golden Age magazine described as "the greatest convention of Bible Students held during the age4s." This convention assembled in Columbus, Ohio, July20-27, 1924. No doubt at the direction of the angel that sounded the third trumpet, a forceful resolution was there adopted and later 50 million copies were distributed as a tract. It was published under the title Ecclesiastes Indicted. A subheading presented the issue: "The Seed of Promise Versus the Seed if the Serpent." The indictment their taking of high-sounding religious titles, their commercial giants and professional politicians the principal ones of their flocks, their desiring to shine before men, and their refusing to preach to the people the message of the Messiah's Kingdom. It emphasized that every dedicated Christian is commissioned by God to proclaim: "the day of vengeance of our God to comfort all that mourn. - ISAIAH 6:12, KJ. 

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Chapter Twenty-One/Jehovah's Plagues on Christendom - A Star Falls From Heaven - Continue

 When the clergy of Christendom apostatized from true Christianity, they fell from the lofty "heavenly " position described by Paul at Ephesians 26:7. Instead of offering fresh waters of truth, they served up "wormwood," bitter lies such as hellfire, purgatory, the Trinity, and predestination; also they led the nations into war, failing to build them up as moral servants of God. The result? Spiritual poisoning of those who believed the lies. Their case was similar to that of unfaithful Israelites of Jeremiah's day, to whom Jehovah said: "Here I am making them eat wormwood, and I will give them poisoned water to drink. For from the prophet of Jerusalem apostasy has gone forth to all the land." - JEREMIAH 9:15; 23:15. 

This fall from the spiritual heavens became apparent in the year 1919 when, rather than Christendom's clergy, the small remnant of anointed Christians was appointed over Kingdom interests. (Matthew 24:45-47) And from 1922 that fall was dramatized when this group of Christians renewed their campaign of frankly exposing the failings of the clergy of Christendom. 

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 John sees this particular star falling from heaven. How? The experiences of an ancient king help us to understand. Speaking to the king of Babylon, Isaiah said "O how you have fallen from heaven, you are shining one, son of the dawn! How you have been cut down to the earth, you who were disabling the nations!" (Isaiah14:13) This prophecy was fulfilled when Babylon was overthrown by the armies of Cyrus, and its king made an abrupt descent from world rulership to shameful defeat. Thus, a fall from heaven can refer to losing a high position and falling into ignominy. 

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Chapter Twenty-One/ Jehovah's Plagues on Christendom - A Star Has Falls From Heaven

"And a third angel blew his trumpet. And a great star burning as a lamp fell from heaven, and it fell upon a third of the rivers and upon the fountains of waters. And the name of the star is called Wormwood. And a third of the waters turned into wormwood, and many of the men died from the waters, because these had been made bitter." (Revelation 8:10, 11) Once again other parts of the Bible help us to see how with scripture applies in the Lord's day. 

We have already met the symbolism of a star in Jesus messages to the seven congregations, in which the seven stars symbolize the elders in the congregations." (Revelation 1:20) Anointed "stars" along with all others of the anointed, inhabited heavenly places in a spiritual sense from the time that they are sealed with the holy spirit as a token of their heavenly inheritance. (Ephesians2:6, 7) However, the apostle Paul warned that from among such starlike ones would become apostates, sectarians, who would mislead the flock. (Acts 20:29, 30) Such unfaithfulness would result in a great apostasy, and these fallen elders would come to make up a composite man of lawlessness that would elevate himself to a godlike position among mankind. (2 Thessalonian 2:3, 4) Paul's warning were fulfilled when the clergy of Christendom appeared on the world scene. This group is well represented by the symbol of "a great star burning as a lamp." 

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Chapter Twenty-One/Jehovah's Plagues on Christendom - Like a Burning Mountain - Conclusion

 The second trumpet blast reveals that those of mankind who got involved in revolutionary conflicts over government rather than submit to God's Kingdom are bloodguilty. Particularly Christendom's "third of the sea" has become as blood. All living things therein are dead in God's eyes. None of the radical organizations floating like boats in the third of the sea can avoid ultimate shipwreck. How happy we are that millions of sheeplike people have now heeded the trumpetlike call to separate from those who are still wallowing in the narrow nationalism and bloodguilt of that sea!

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 The Fascist and Nazi experiments were snuffed out by the second world war, but government continued to be a fiery issue, and the human sea continued to churn and throw up new revolutionary governments. In the decades since 1945, these have been installed in many places, such as China, Vietnam, Cuba, and Nicaragua. In Greece an experiment in military dictatorship failed. In Kampuchea (Cambodia) an excursion into fundamentalism communism resulted in a reported two million and more deaths. 

That "mountainlike burning with fire" continues to make waves in the sea of mankind. Ongoing struggles over government are reported in Africa, the Americas, Asia, and the Pacific islands. Many of these struggles are taking place  in lands of Christendom or where Christendom's missionaries have become activists. Roman Catholic priests have even joined up with and fought its members of communist guerilla bands. At the same time, Protestant evangelical groups have worked in Central America to counter what they call communist' vicious and relentless thirst for power." But none of these convulsions in the sea of mankind can bring peace and security. -Compare ISAIAH 25:10-12; 1 THESSALONIANS 5:3.

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Chapter Twenty-One/Jehovah's Plagues on Christendom - Like a Burning Mountain -

 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 Israel 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 a third of it-the unruly part that is in the realm of Christendom herself. 

A great mountainlike mass burning with fire is hurled into the "sea." In the Bible, mountains very often symbolized 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 well 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, Muss0lini introduced fascism. Germany embraced Hitler's Nazism, while other countries tried different forms of socialism. A radical changed 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 one of their strongholds. 

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