The First Woe - Locusts - World Rulers Put on Notice

 The  modern-day locusts had a job to do.   The Kingdom good news had to be preached.  Errors had to be exposed.  Lost sheep had to be found.  As the locusts went about these tasks, the world was forc3ed to sit up and take notice.  In obedience to the angel's trumpet blasts, the John class has continued to exposes  Christendom as deserving of Jehovah's judgments.  In response to the fifth trumpet, a particular aspect of these judgments was emphasized at a covention of the Bible Students in London, England, May 25-31,  1926.  This featured a resolution,  "A Testimony of the Rulers of the Word," and a public talk at the Royal Albert Hall on "Why World Powers Are Tottering-The Remedy," the complete text of both of these  being printed in a leading London newspaper the following day.  Later, the locust band distributed worldwide, as a tract, 50 million copies of that resolution-a torment indeed to the clergy!  Years later, people in England still spoke of this stinging expose.

At this convention, the symbolic locusts received further fighting equipment, notably a new book entitled Deliverance.  It included a Scriptural discussion of the sign proving that the 'man child' government, Christ heavenly Kingdom, had been born 1914.  (Matthew 24:3-14; Revelation 12:1-10)  Thereafter, it quoted the manifesto published in London in 1917 and signed by eight clergymen, who were described as being "among the world's greatest preachers."  They represented the leading Protestant denominations-Baptist, Congregational, Presbyterian, Episcopaliian, and Methodist.  This manifesto proclaimed that  "the presents crisis points  toward the close of the times of the Gentiles" and that  "the revelation of the Lord may be expected any moment."  Yes, those clergymen had recognized the sign of Jesus' presence.  But did they want anything about it?  The book Deliverance informs us:   The most remarkable  part of the affair is that the very men who signed the manifesto subsequently repudiated it and rejected the evidence which proves that we are at the end of the world and in the day of The Lord's second presence."

Rather than announce the incoming Kingdom of God, Christendom's  clergy have chosen to remain with Satan's world.  They want no part with the locust band and their King, concerning whom John now observes:  "They have over them a king, the angel of the abyss.  In Hebrew his name is Abaddon [meaning "Destruction"]. but in Greekhe has the name Apollyon [meaning "Destroyer"]. "  (Revelation 9:11)  As "angel of the abyss" and Destroyer," Jesus had truly releasing a plaguing woe on Christendom. But more is to follow!

Next time: The Second Woe-Armies of Cavalry

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