The Second Woe - Armies of Calvary- Continued

 Happily, John can report: "And the four angels were untied, who have been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, to kill a third of the men." (Revelation 9:15)  Jehovah is a precise Timekeeper.  He has a timetable and is keeping it.  Hence, these messengers are released exactly on schedule and in time to accomplish what they have to do.  Imagine their joy on coming forth from bondange in 1919, ready to work!  They have a commission not only to torment but finally  "to kill a third of themen."  This is related to the plagues heralded by the first four trumpet blasts, which afflicted a third of the earth, the sea, the creatures in the sea, the fountains and rivers, and the heavenly light sources. (Revelation 8:7-12)  The four angels go further.  They "kill," exposing to a completion Christendom's  spirirually dead condition.  Trumpeted announcements, made from 1922 onward and continuing to the present time have accomplished this.

Remember, the heavenly angel has just sounded the sixth trumpet. Resounding thereto, the sixth of the series of Bible Student's annual international conventions was held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  The program there on Sunday, July 4, 1927, was aired through a chain of 53 radio stations, the most extensive broadcast network up to that time.  That spoken message went out to an audience of possibly millions. First, a forceful resolution exposed Christendom as spiritually dead and extended the invitation :  "In this hour of perplexity Jehovah God bids the peoples to abandon and for ever forsake 'Christendom' or 'organized Christianity' and to turn completely away from it . ..; [let] the peoples  give their heart's devotion and allgenience wholly to Jehovah God and to his KIng and kingdom."  "Freedom  for the Peoples" was the title for the public talk that followed.  J.F. Rutherford delivered this in his usual dynamic style, appropriate to "the fire and the smoke and the sulphur" that John next observes in his vision

"And the number of the armies of calvary was two myriads of myriads:  I heard the number of them.  And this is how I saw the horses in the vision, and those seated on them: they had  fire-red and hyacinth-blue  and sulphur-yellow breastplates; and the heads of the  horses were as heads of lions, and out of their mouths fire and smoke and sulphur issued forth.  By these three plagues a third of the men were killed, from the fire and the smoke and the sulphur which issued forth from their mouths." - REVELATIONS 9:16-18.

Next time: The Second Woe -Armies of Cavalry - Conclusion

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