Jehovah's Plagues on Christendom - Like a Burning Mountain

"And the second angel blew his trumpet, and  something like a great mountain burning with fire was hurled into the sea.  And  a third of the sea became blood; and third of the creatures that are in the sea which have souls died, and thired of the boats were wrecked." (Revelation 8:8, 9) What does this frightfull scene picture? 

We may best understand it against the background of the convention of Jehovah's people held in Los Angeles, California, U.S. A.,  on August 18-26, 1923.  The featured Saturdat afternoon talk by J.F. Rutherford was on the topic "Sheep and Goats."  The "sheep" were clearly idendified as those righteously disposed persons who would inherit the earthly realm of God's Kingdom.  A resolution that followed drew attention to the hypocrisy of "apostate clergymen and 'the principal of their flocks," who are worldly men of strong financial and political influence."  It called on the "multitude  of the peace and order loving ones in the denominational churches . . . to withdraw themselves from the unrighteous ecclesiastical systems designated by teh Lord as 'Babylon"' and to ready themselves "to recieve the blessings of God's Kingdom.

Doubtless, this resolution came as a result of the sounding of the second trumpet.  Those  who would in due course respond to that messge would separate from those described by Isaiah 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 revelution.  (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 trunpet, 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 this "sea."  In the Bible, mountains very often symbolize 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. It is 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, Mussolini introduced Fascism.  Germany embraced Hitler's  Nazism, while other countries tried different forms of socialism.  A radical change occurred in Russi, where the Bolshevik revolution produced the first Communist state, with ther result of the religious leaders  of Christendom lost power and influence  in what was formerly one of their strongholds. 

Next time: Jehovah's Plagues on Christendom - Like a Burning Mountain

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