REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Eighteen -"The Heaven" Departs

John's vision continues: "And the heaven departed as a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and every island were removed from their places." (Revelation 6:14)  Clearly, these are not the literal heavens or the literal mountains and islands. But what do they symbolize? 

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Eighteen - A Time of Darkness -Conclusion

 In a similar way, when the earthquake strikes, this entire world system will be engulfed in the despair  of total darkness.  The bright, shining luminaries of Satan's earthy system will send forth no ray of hope.  Already  today, earth's political leaders, especially in Christendom, are notorious  for their corruption, lying and immoral lifestyle.  (Isaiah 28:14-19)   No longer can they be trusted. Their flickering light will go into total eclipse when Jehovah executes judgment. Their moonlike influence on earth's affairs will be exposed as bloodied, earth dealing, Their worldly superstars will be extinguished like plunging meteorites and scattered like unrip figs in a howling windstorm. Our entire globe will quake  under a great tribulation such as not occurred since the world's beginning until now, no nor will occur again." (Matthew 24:21) What a fearful prospect!

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 Later, a similar darkness in the heavens signified a disaster for ancient Babylon. Of this, God prophet was inspired to write: "The day of Jehovah itself is coming, cruel both with fury and with burning anger, in order to make the land an object of astonishment, and that it may annihilate the land's sinners out of it.  For the very stars of the heavens  and their constellations of Kesil will not flash forth their light; the sun will actually grow dark at its going forth, and the moon itself will not cause its light to shine.  And I shall certainly bring home its own badness upon the productive land, and their own error upon the wicked themselves." ( Isaiah 13:9-11) This prophecy was fulfilled in 539 B.C.E.  when Babylon fell to the Medes and the Persians.  It well describes the blackness, the hopelessness, the lack of any comforting light for Babylon as she fell forever from her position from world power.

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 In a spirituals sense, such a darkness was prophesied for ancient Israel.  Jeremiah warned: "A desolate place is what the whole land will become, and shall I not carry out a sheer extermination?  On this account the land  will mourn, and the heavens above will certainly become dark." (Jeremiah 4:27, 28)  In 607 B.C. E.  when that prophecy was fulfilled, things were dark indeed for Jehovah's people.  Their capital city,  Jerusalem, fell to the Babylonians.  Their temple was destroyed, and there was not comforting light from heaven.  Rather, it was as Jeremiah mournfully said to Jehovah:  "You have killed; you have shown no compassion. You have blocked approach to yourself with a cloud mass, that prayer may not pass through."  (Lamentations 3:43, 44) For Jerusalem, that celestial darkness meant death and destruction.

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Eighteen - A Time of Darkness

 As John goes on to show, the great earthquake is accompanied by terrifying events that  involve even the heavens. He says: "And the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and entire moon became as blood, and the stars of the heaven  fell to the earth, as when a fig tree shaken by a high wind casts it unripe figs ." (Revelation 6:12b, 13)  What a striking phenomenon!  It represents the culmination  of the catastrophic situation that Jesus had earlier prophesied about at Matthew 24:29. Can you imagine the frightening darkness that would result if the prophecy were fulfilled literally?  No more warm comforting sunlight by day!  No more friendly moonlight  by night! and the myriad of stars would no longer twinkle against the velvety backdrop of the sky. Instead, there would be  cold, relentless blackness.

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Eighteen -The Great Earthquake - Conclusion

 Ezekiel too foretold that  when Gog of Magog (the debased Satan) makes his final attack upon God's people. Jehovah will cause "a great quaking" to occur "in the soil of Israel." (Ezekiel 38:18, 19)  Though literal earthquakes  may be involved, we should remember that Revelation is presented in signs.  This prophecy and the other prophecies cited are  highly symbolic.  Hence, the opening of the sixth seal appears to disclose the culmination of all shakings of this earthly system of things-the great earthquake in which all humans opposed to Jehovah God's sovereignty are destroyed.

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Eighteen -The Great Earthquake -Continue

 Some 200 years after Joel, the prophet Habakkuk said in prayer to his God: "O Jehovah, I have heard the report about you. I have become afraid, O Jehovah, of your activity.  In the midst of the years may yo make it known. During the agitation, to show mercy  may you remember."  What would that agitation be? Habakkuk goes on to give a description of the great tribulation, saying of Jehovah: "He stood still, that me might shake up the earth.  He saw, and then caused nations to leap. . . . With denunciation you went marching through the earth.  In anger you went threshing the nations. Yet, as for me, I will exult in Jehovah himself; I will be joyful in the God of my salvation." (Habakkuk 3:1, 2, 6, 12, 18)  What a mighty shaking Jehovah will cause in all the earth when he threshes the nations!

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 Others of Jehovah's prophets foretold such an earthquake and its catastrophic consequences.   For example, about 820 B.C.E., Joel spoke of "the coming of the great and fear-inspiring days of Jehovah, stating that  then, "the sun itself will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood."  Later, he adds these words:  "Crowd, crowds are in the low plain of the decision.  Sun and moon themselves will certainly become dark, and the very stars will actually withdraw their brightness. And out of Zion Jehovah himself will roar, and out of Jerusalem he will give forth his voice. And heaven and earth certainly will rock; but Jehovah will be a refuge for his people,, and a fortress for the sons of Israel." (Joel 2:31; 3:14-16)  This rocking could only apply to Jehovah's execution of judgment during the great tribulation.  (Matthew 24:21)  So the  parallel account at Revelation 6:12, 13 would logically have the same application. - see also Jeremiah 10:10; Zephaniah 1:14, 15. 

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Eighteen -The Great Earthquake!

 Yes, these critical hard days have been a time of earthquakes-literal and figurative.  (2 Timothy 3:1)  But not one of these quakings  is the final great quaking that John sees at the opening of the sixth seal.  The time for advance tremors  is ended.  There now comes a great earthquake  that is totally new to human experience.  It is an earthquake that the upheavals and convulsions  it causes cannot be measured by the Richter scale or by any other human gauge.  This is no mere local shock but cataclysmic  shaking that devastates the entire "earth," that is, all depraved human society. 

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REVELATIION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Eighteen -Jehovah Does Some Shaking - Conclusion

 Are you one who has started to respond to that preaching? Are you perhaps among the eight million and more who in recent years have attended the Memorial celebration of Jesus' death?  If so, keep on progressing in your study of the Bible truth.  (2 Timothy  2:15; 3:16, 17)  Abandon   completely the corrupt  life-style of Satan's doomed earthly society!  Come right on into the Christian new world society  and share fully in its activity before the final catastrophic "earthquake" smashes all of Satan's  world to pieces.  But what is that great earthquake? Let us now see.

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At Haggai 2:6, 7 we read:  "For this is what Jehovah of armies has said: 'Yet  once -it is a little while- and I am rocking the heavens and the earth and the sea  and the ground.  And I will rock all the nations  and the desirable things of all the nations  must come in; and I will fill this house with glory," Jehovah of armies has said:" Since the year 1919 in particular, Jehovah has caused his witnesses to proclaim his judgments among all elements of human society on earth. Satan's world system has been rocked and shaken by this global warning.  As the warning intensifies, God-fearing humans, "the desirable things," have been stirred  to separate themselves from the nations.  It is not that they are shaken out by the quaking in Satan's organization. But as they discern the situation, they make their own decision th share with the anointed John class in filling Jehovah's house of worship  with glory.  How is this accomplished? By the zealous work of preaching the good news of God's established Kingdom. (Matthew 24:14)  This Kingdom made up of Jesus and his anointed followers will ever keep standing to Jehovah's glory as "a kingdom that cannot be shaken." - Hebrews 12:26-29.

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Eighteen -Jehovah Does Some Shaking

Such tremors in human affairs are the result of man's inability to direct his own step.  (Jeremiah 10:23) Moreover, that old Serpent, Satan, "who is inflicting woes in his last-ditch effort to turn all mankind away from the worship of Jehovah.  Modern  technology has caused the earth to shrink into a single neighborhood, where nationalistic and racial hatreds are shaking human society to its foundations, and the United Nations, so-called can find no effective cure.  As never before, man  is dominating man to his injury.  (Revelation  12:9, 12; Ecclesiastes 8:9) Nevertheless, the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, Maker of heaven and earth has doing his own kind shaking over the past 70 years, in preparation for solving earth's problems once and for all.  How so?

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Eighteen - Tremors in Human Society - Conclusion

 Earlier, economic troubles had opened the way for Mussolini and Hitler to seize power. Babylon the Great lost no time in courting their favors, and the Vatican entered into concordats with Italy in 1929 and Germany in 1933.  (Revelation 17:5) The dark days that followed were surely a part of the fulfillment of Jesus' prophecy that the sign of his presence would include "anguish of nations, not knowing the way out . . . While men became faint out fear and expectation of the things coming upon the inhabited earth." (Luke 21:7-9, 25-31)  Yes, the quakes that began to shake human society in 1914 have continued with powerful aftershocks. 

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 Other things besides wars, though, have shaken human society to it foundations since 1914.  One of the most traumatic upheavals was triggered  by the U.S. stock-market crash of October 29, 1929. This brought on the Great Depression, which affected all capitalist countries.  That depression bottomed  out between  1932 and 1934, but we are still feeling its effects. Since    1929 an economically  sick world has been patched up by makeshift schemes .  Governments indulge  in deficit financing.  The oil crisis of 1973 and the stock market plunge of 1987 added to the shakings of the financial empire. Millions of people buy largely on credit. Countless numbers are  victimized by financial gimmicks, pyramid schemes, and lotteries and other gambling subterfuges, many of which are sponsored by governments that should be protecting the people. Even Christendom's television evangelists stretch their hands out for their multimillion-dollar share! - Compare JEREMIAH 5:26-31. 

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 World War II brought another wave of upheavals. And smaller wars continue to shale the earth as we approach the end of this century. But will the present system make it that far? The fearful threat of a nuclear holocaust  has many people wondering.  Happily, the answer rests not with man but his Creator.  - JEREMIAH 17:5.

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 Historians, philosophers, and political leaders have pointed  to the year 1914 as the start of a new and momentous epoch. Seventeen years into that epoch, historian H.G. Wells commented: "Gladly would the prophet prophesy pleasant thing. But  his duty is to tell what he sees.  He sees a world still controlled by soldiers, patriots, usurers, and financial adventurers, a world surrendered  to suspicion and hatred, losing what is left of private liberties very rapidly, blundering toward bitter class conflicts, and preparing for new wars.  In 1953 philosopher Bertrand Russell wrote:  "Ever since  1914, everybody conscious of trends in the world  has been deeply troubled by what ha seemed like a fated an predetermined march toward ever greater disaster. . . . They see the human race, like the hero of a Greek tragedy, driven on by angry gods and no longer  the master of fate. "In 1980statesdman Harold MacMillan, reflecting on the peaceful start of our 20th century, said: "Everythin gwould get better and better.  This was the world I was born in. . . Suddenly, unexpectedly, one morning in 1914 the whole thing came to an end." 

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 Thus when C.T. Russell, first president of the Watch Tower Society, appeared for morning worship with the Brooklyn New York, Bethel family on the morning of October 2, 1914, he made the dramatic announcement:  "The Gentile Times have ended; their kings have had their day."  Indeed, the worldwide upheaval that began in 1914 was so far-reaching that many long-standing monarchies disappeared.  The overthrow of czardom in the  Bolshevik revolution of 1917 led to the current confrontation between Marxism and capitalism.  Tremors of political change continue to disturb human society earth wide.  Today, many governments fail to survive more than a year or two.  Lack of stability in the political world is illustrated in the case of Italy, which had 47 new governments  in just 42  years following World War II. But such advance tremors  are only preliminary to a climatic governmental upheaval. The result?  God's Kingdom will take over sole rulership of the earth. - ISAIAH 9:6,7.

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Eighteen -Tremors in Human Society

 From the mid-1970's,  Jehovah's people  had been anticipating that catastrophic events would start in 1914 and would mark the end of the Gentile Times.  This is the period of  "seven times"  (2,520 years) running from the  overthrow of the Davidic kingdom in Judah in Jerusalem in 607 B.C.E. to Jesus' enthronement in heavenly  Jerusalem in 1914 C.E.  - DANIEL 4:24, 25; LUKE 21:24, King James Version.

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HABD !/Chapter Eighteen -Earthquakes in the Lord's Day -Conclusion

 Literal and figurative quakings of the earth are mentioned a number of times in the Bible.  In this great prophecy about the sign of his presence in Kingdom power, Jesus forecasts "earthquakes in one place after another."  These would be a part of "a beginning of pangs of distress."  Since 1914, with earth's population exploding into the thousands of millions, little tremblors have contributed significantly to the distresses of our times. (Matthew 24:3, 7, 8) Nevertheless even thoughthey fu;fill the prophecy. Those earthquakes have been natural, physical disasters.  They are preliminary to the great symbolic earthquake of Revelation 6:12.  This indeed comes as the devastating finale to a series of advance tremors that shake Satan's  human earthly system of things to its foundations.

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Eighteen - Earthquakes in the Lord's Day -Continue

Having this in mind, consider what John describes as the 0pening of the sixth seal: "And I saw when he opened the sixth seal, and a great earthquake occurred." (Revelation 6:12a) This must fall within the same time frame as the opening of the other seals. Just when in the Lord's day does this earthquake occur, and what kind of quake  is it? - REVELATION 1:10. 

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Eighteen -Earthquakes in the Lord's Day

 HAVE you ever lived through a severe earthquake? It is not a pleasant experience. A big tremblor may start with a sickening roll and rumbling noise.  The swaying may worsen by fits and starts  while you dash for safety-perhaps under a desk. Or it may come as a sudden shattering jolt, followed by the crashing of crockery, furnishings, even buildings. Damage may be catastrophic, with frequent aftershocks inflicting further damage and adding to the misery. 

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Seventeen - "Those Who Are Dead Rise First' -Conclusion

 The opening of the fifth seal of the scroll has provided good news concerning anointed integrity keepers who have conquered, faithful to the death.  But  it provides no good news for Satan and his seed.  The ride of the Conqueror on the white horse continues irresistibly and culminates in a time of reckoning for the world that "is lying in the power of the wicked one." (1 John 5:19) This is made clear when the Lamb opens the sixth seal.

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Seventeen -'Those Who Are Dead Rise First -Continue

What a stirring story these verses tell!  Those of Jesus' anointed brothers who survive to Jesus' presence, that is, who are still alive on earth during his presence, are preceded into heaven by those who have  already died. Such ones, dead in union with Christ, rise first. Jesus descends, that is, turns his attention to them, and resurrects them to spirit life, giving them "a white robe." Afterward, those who are still alive as humans finish their earthly course, many of them dying violently at the hands of opposers.  They do not, however,  sleep in death as their predecessors did. Rather, when they die, they are instantly changed-"in the twinkling of an eye"-caught away to the heavens to be with Jesus   and fellow members of the body of Christ.  (1 Corinthians 15:50-52; compare Revelation 14:13)  Thus, the resurrection of anointed Christians  starts soon after the four horsemen of Apocalypse begin their ride. 

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Seventeen - 'Those Who Are Dead First'

 The insight granted by the opening of the fifth seal agrees completely with other scriptures that have to do with heavenly resurrection. For example, the apostle Paul wrote:  "For this is what we tell you  by Jehovah's Word, that we the living who survive to the presence of the Lord shall in no way precede those who have fallen asleep in death; because the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a commanding call, with an archangel's voice and with God's trumpet, and those who are dead in union with Christ will rise first. Afterward we the living who are surviving will, together with them, be caught away in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and thus we shall always be with the Lord." - 1 THESSALONIANS 4:15, 17.

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Seventeen - A White Robe -Conclusion

 All the evidence indicates  that this heavenly resurrection began in 1918m after Jesus' enthronement in 1914 and his riding  forth to start his kingly conquest by cleansing the heavens of Satan

d his demon, yet, those resurrected anointed ones are told that they must "rest a little longer, until the number . . . also of their fellow slaves" is filled. Those of the John class still on earth must prove their integrity under trial and persecution, and some of these may yet be killed. Finally, though, all the righteous blood shed by Babylon the Great and her  political paramours will be avenged.  In the meantime, resurrected ones  are doubtless busy with heavenly duties. They rest, not by relaxing in blissful  inactivity, but in that they patiently await the day of Jehovah's vengeance. (Isaiah 34:8; Romans 12:19)  Their rest will end when they witness the destruction of false religion and, as "called the chosen and faithful" ones, they accompany the Lord Jesus Christ in executing judgment on all parts of Satan's wicked seed here on earth.- REVELATION 2:26, 27; 17:14; ROMANS 16:20.

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Seventeen - A White Robe

 After documenting the faith integrity keepers of ancient times, the apostle Paul said: "And all these, although they had witness borne to them through their faith, did not get the fulfillment of the promise, as God saw something better for us, in order that they might not be made perfect apart from us." (Hebrews 11:39, 40)  What is that "something better that Paul and other anointed Christians anticipate? John sees it here in vision: "And a white robe was given to each of them; and they were told to rest a little while longer, until the number was filled also of their fellow slaves and their brothers who were about to be killed as they also had been." (  Revelation 6:11)   Their receiving "a white robe" has to do with their resurrection to be immortal spirit creatures.  No longer do they lie as slaughtered souls underneath the altar, but they are raised to be part of the group of 24 elders that worship before the heavenly throne of God. There, they themselves have given thrones, showing that they are "dressed in white outer garments," signifying that they have been adjudged righteous, worthy of an honored place before Jehovah in that heavenly court.  This is also in fulfillment of Jesus' promise to faithful anointed Christians in the congregation in Sardis:  "He that conquers  will thus be arrayed in white outer garments." -REVELATION 3:5; 4:4; 1 PETER 1:4.

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Seventeen - 'Slaughtered Souls' Rewarded - Conclusion

 Since 1935 faithful  young men of the great crowd have borne the brunt of persecution in many lands.  (Revelation 7:9) Even as World War II ended in Europe, in just one town 14 young witnesses of Jehovah were executed by hanging.  Their crime? Refusal to  'learn war anymore." (Isaiah 2:4)  More recently  young men in the Orient and in Africa have been beaten to death or executed by firing squad  over the same issue.  These youthful martyrs, worthy of supporters of Jesus's anointed brothers will surely have resurrection into the promised new earth.  - 2 PETER 3:13; compare PSALM 110:3; MATTHEW 25:34-40; LUKE 20:37, 38. 

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Seventeen - 'Slaughtered Souls' Rewarded - Continue

 By the fourth century C.E. , that old Serpent, Satan the Devil, had brought forth his masterpiece of deception, the apostate religion of Christendom -a Babylonish system hidden under a "Christian veneer.  It is the principal part of the seed of the Serpent and has developed into a multitude of conflicting sects.  Like  unfaithful Judah of old, Christendom carries a heavy bloodguilt, having been deeply involved in both sides in World War I and II.  Some political rulers  in Christendom even used these wars  as a pretext for slaughtering  anointed servants of God.  Reporting on Hitler's persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses, a review of Friedrich Zipfel's book  Kirchenkampf in Deutschland (Fight of the Churches in Germany) stated: One third of them [the Witnesses] were killed, either by execution or slave labor. The severity of this subjection was without precedent and was the result of uncompromising faith that could not be harmonized with National Socialistic ideology." Truly, it can be said of Christendom, including its priesthood:  "In you skirts there been found blood marks of the souls of the innocent poor ones." - Jeremiah 2:3, 4. 

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Seventeen - 'Slaughtered Souls' Rewarded- Continue

 John  himself witnessed martyrdom in the first century as the cruel Serpent and his earthly seed waged war on the growing congregation of anointed Christians.  John had seen our Lord impaled and had survived through the slayings  of Stephen, of his own brother James, and of Peter, Paul, and other close associates. (John 19:26, 27' 21:15. 18, 19; Acts 7:59 60; 8:2: 12:22; 2 Timothy 1:1; 4:6, 7) In 64 C.E., Roman emperor Nero had made a scapegoat  of the Christians, accusing them of burning the city, to counteract a rumor that he was the guilty one. The historian Tacitus  reports:?  "They [Christians]died by methods  of mockery, some were covered with the skins of wild beasts and then torn by dogs, some were [impaled], some were burned as torches to light at night." A further wave of persecution under Emperor Domitian  (81-96 C.E.) Had resulted in John's being exiled to the island of Patmos.  As Jesus said; "If they have persecuted me, they will persecute you also." - JOHN 15:20; MATTHEW 10:22.

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Seventeen - 'Slaughtered Souls' Rewarded - Continue

 As in Bible times, so today many of he individuals  who killed God's witnesses may be long dead. But the organization that caused their martyrdom is still very much alive and bloodguilty.  It is Satan's earthly organization, his earthly seed. Prominent therein is Babylon the Great, the world empire of false religion. She is described  as being 'drunk with the blood of the holy ones and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus." Yes, "in her was found the blood of prophets and of holy ones and of all those who have been slaughtered on the earth." (Revelation 17:5, 6;  18:24; Ephesians 4:11; 1 Corinthians 12:28) What a load of bloodguiltiness!  As long  as Babylon the Great exists, the blood of her victims will cry out for justice. - REVELATION 19:1, 2.

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 The situation may also be likened to that in apostate Judah when King Manasseh came to the throne in 716 B.C.E.  He shed so much innocent blood, probably 'sawing asunder' the prophet Isaiah.  (Hebrews 11:37; 2 Kings 21:16)   Although Manasseh  later repented and reformed, that bloodguilt remained In 607 B.C.E., when the Babylonians desolated the kingdom of Judah, "it was not only by the order of Jehovah that it took place against Judah, to remove it from his sight for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done; and also for the innocent blood that he had shed, so he he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and Jehovah did not consent to grant forgiveness.." -2 KINGS 24:3, 4.

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Seventeen - 'Slaughtered Souls ' Rewarded - Continue

 The scenario begins to unfold: "And they cried with a loud voice, saying: 'Until when, Sovereign Lord holy and true, ae you refraining from judging and avenging our blood upon those who dwell on the earth?'" (Revelation 6:10) How can their souls, or blood cry out  for vengeance, since the Bible shows that the dead  are unconscious?  (Ecclesiastes 9:5) Well, did not righteous Abel's blood cry out after Cain murdered him?  Jehovah then said to Cain:  "What have  you done? Listen! Your brother's blood is crying out to m from the ground." (Genesis 4:10, 11; Hebrews 12:24) It was not that Abel's blood was literally uttering words. Rather, Abel had died  as an innocent victim, and justice called out for his murderer to be punished. Similarly, those Christian martyrs are innocent, and in justice they must be avenged. (Luke 18:7, 8)  The cry for vengeance is loud because many thousands have thus died. - Compare Jeremiah 15:15, 16.

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Seventeen - 'Slaughtered Souls' Rewarded -Continue

 All those who are begotten as spirit sons of God die a sacrificial death. Because of the role they are to play in Jehovah's heavenly Kingdom, it is God's will  that  they renounce and sacrifice any hope of life everlasting on earth.  In this respect, they submit to a sacrificial death in behalf of Jehovah's sovereignty.  (Philippians 3:8-11; compare 2:17) This is true in a very real sense  of those whom John saw under the altar.  They are anointed ones who in their day were martyred for their zealous ministry in upholding Jehovah's Word and sovereignty.  Their "souls [were] slaughtered because of the word of God and because of the witness work [mar-ty-ri'an] that they use to have."

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Seventeen - 'Slaughtered Souls' Rewarded - Continue

 Underneath the altar are "the souls of those slaughtered because of the word of God and because of the witness work that they used to have." What does this mean? These could not be disembodied souls-like those believed by the pagan Greeks. (Genesis 2:7; Ezekiel 18:4)  Rather, John knows that the soul, or life, is symbolized  by the blood, and when the priests at the ancient Jewish tabernacle slaughtered  a sacrificial animal, the sprinkled the blood "round about upon the altar of burnt offering." (Leviticus 3:2,  8, 13; 14:7; 17:6, 11, 12)  Hence the animal's soul was closely identified with the altar of the sacrifice./  But why would the souls, or blood of of these particular servants of God be seen underneath a symbolic altar in heaven? Because their deaths are viewed as sacrificial.

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Seventeen - 'Slaughtered Souls' Rewarded -Continue

 John describes a moving scene: "And when he opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those slaughtered   because of the Word of God and because of the witness work they used to have."(Revelation 6:9)   What is that?  A sacrificial altar  up in heaven?  Yes! it is the first time that John mentions an altar. Already, though, he has described Jehovah on His throne, the surrounding cherub the glassy sea, the lamps, and the 24  elders carrying -incense-all of these resembling features of the earthly tabernacle, Jehovah's sanctuary in Israel.  (Exodus 25:17, 18; 40:24-27, 30-32; 1 Chronicles 23:4)  Should it, then, surprise us to find a symbolic altar of sacrifice also in heaven? - EXODUS 40:29.

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Seventeen - 'Slaughtered Souls" Rewarded

 GOD"S kingdom rules!  The Rider of the white horse is about to complete his conquest!  The red horse, the black horse, and the pale horse are galloping through the earth! Indisputably Jesus' own prophecies concerning his royal presence are being fulfilled.  (Matthew,  chapters24. 25; Mark, chapter 13; Luke, chapter 25)   Yes, we are living in the last days of this system of things.  (2 Timothy 3:1-5)  That being so, let us pay close attention as the Lamb, Jesus Christ, breaks open the fifth seal of that scroll. In what further revelation are we now to share?

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Sixteen -The Pale Horse and Its Rider - Conclusion

 The opening of each of the first four seals has been followed by the summons "Come!" Each time, a horse and its rider come charging forth. Starting with the fifth seal, we no longer hear such a summons. But those horsemen are still riding, and they will continue at the gallop throughout the conclusion of the system of things.  (Compare Matthew 28:20)  What other momentous events does Jesus reveal as he opens the remaining three seals?  Some of the happening are invisible to human eyes.  Others though visible, are yet future. Nevertheless, their fulfillment is certain. Let us see what they are.

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Sixteen - The Pale Horse and Its Rider - Continue

 The information revealed  by the opening of the first four seals reassures us because it teaches us not to despair at the warfare, hunger,  disease, and other causes of untimely death that are so rampant today; neither should we lose hope because human leaders have failed to solve current problems.  If world conditions make it evident  that the riders of the red, black, and pale horses are abroad, do not forget the Rider of the white horse was first to begin his ride.  Jesus has become King, and he has already conquered to the extent of casting Satan out of the heavens.  His further conquests have included his gathering out the remaining ones of the sons of spiritual Israel and the international great crowd, numbering into the millions, for survival through the great tribulation.  (Revelation 7:4, 9, 14)  must continue until he completes his conquest. 

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 Death by wild beasts has seldom made headlines in modern times, though in tropical countries wild animals have  steadily claimed victims throughout  the 20th century.  In  the future, they may claim even more if lands become desolate because of warfare or people become too emaciated by famine to fight off hungry animals. Additionally, there are many humans today who, like  unreasoning animals display beastly, dispositions quite contrary   to those described at Isaiah 11:6-9. These people are largely responsible for the global expansion of sex-related crimes, murder, terrorism, and bombings in the modern world. (Compare Ezekiel 21:32; Romans 1:28-31; 2 Peter 2:12)  The fourth horseman reaps their victims too.  Indeed, the  main point of this prophetic scene appears to be that the rider of the pale horse harvests untimely death of mankind in many ways. 

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Sixteen - The Pale Horse and Its Rider - Continue

 John's vision mentions wild beasts as a fourth cause of untimely death.  Indeed, the four things featured by the opening of the fourth seal-warfare, famine, disease, and wild beasts-were in ancient times viewed as predominant causes of untimely death. So they could foreshadow all causes of death today.  It is just as Jehovah warned Israel: "So, too, it will be when there will be my four injurious acts of judgment-sword, and famine are injurious wild beast and pestilence-that I shall actually send upon Jerusalem in order to cut off from it earthling man and domestic animal." -EZEKIEL 14:21. 

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Sixteen -The Pale Horse and Its Rider - Continue

 Of current importance  here is "deadly plague." Following in the wake of the ravages of World War I, the Spanish flue reaped over 20 million human lives in just a few months 0f 1918-1919. The only territory on earth to escape this scourge was the small island of St. Helena. In places where th population was decimated, funeral pyres were lit to burn the piles of bodies. And today there is a frightful incidence of heart disease and cancer, much of which is caused by tobacco pollution.  In what has beendescribed as "the ugly decade" of the 1980's, a way of life that is lawless by Bible standards has added the scourge of AIDS to the "deadly plague."  At the same time of this writing, all who contract this disease die,   and it is estimated that in the United States alone 270,000 will be sick with AIDS by 1991, millions appear to be doomed in Africa. How thankful Jehovah's people are that the wise counsel of his Word keeps them away from fornication and misuse of blood, through which so many diseases are transmitted today! - ACTS 15:28, 29; compare 1 CORINTHIANS 6:9-11.

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/ Chapter Sixteen - The Pale Horse and Its Rider -Continue

The vision enumerates some of the ways: "And authority was given them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with a long sword and with food shortage and with deadly plague ad the wild  beasts of the earth." (Revelation 6:8b) Not necessarily a fourth of earth's population but a large portion of the earth, whether densely or  sparsely  inhabited, would be affected by this ride.  This horseman and the famines and food shortages of the third. He reaps his own harvest, too, from deadly plague and also a harvest from earthquakes as described at LUKE 21:10, 11. 

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  What new horrors are unleashed, then, as the fourth horseman responds  to the call?  John tells us: "And I saw, and, look! a pale horse; and the one seated upon it had the name Death. And Hades was closely following him." (Revelation 6:8a)  The rider of the last horse has a name. Death. He is the only one  of the four horsemen of  Apocalypse to reveal his identity so directly.  Fittingly, death rides a horse that is pale, since the word pale (Greek, khlo-ros')  is used in Greek literature to describe faces that are blanched, as if by disease. Also fittingly, death is closely  followed in some unexplained manner  by Hades (gravedom, since Hades receives to itself the greater number of those who fell victim to the ravages of the fourth horseman.  Happily, for these there will be a resurrection, when 'death and Hades give up those dead in them.' (Revelation 20:13) But how does Death claim those victims?

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Sixteen -The Pale Horse and Its Rider

 The story is not yet completely told. Jesus opens the fourth seal, and John tells us the result: "And when he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say: 'Come!' " (Revelation 6:7) This is the voice of the cherub that resembles a flying eagle. Farsighted wisdom is indicated, and truly Joh, the John class, and all other earthly servants of God have needed to observe and act with insight in view of what is here depicted. So doing, we may find a measure of protection from the scourges of today's proud, immoral generation. - 1 CORINTHIANS 1:20, 21.

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Sixteen -A Black Horse Plunges Forth -Conclusion

 How happy we can be that the Rider of the white horse will soon reign in that galloping black horse!  For it is written concerning His loving provision for the new world:  "In his days the righteous one will sprout, and the abundance of peace until the moon is no more. . . . There will come to be plenty of grain on the earth on the top of the mountains there will be an overflow." - PSALM 72:7, 16;  see also ISAIAH 25:6-8. 

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 What is implied by the statement, "Do not harm the olive oil and the wine? Some have viewed it as meaning that while many would be short of food and even starving, the luxuries of the rich  would not be harmed. But in the Middle East, oil and wine are not really luxuries.  In Bible times, bread, oil, and wine were viewed as staples. (Compare Genesis 14:18; Psalm 104:14, 15) Water was not always good, so wine was widely used for drinking  and sometimes for medicinal purposes.  (1 Timothy 5:23)  With regard to oil, in Elijah's day, the widow of Zarephath. poor as she was, still  had some oil left with which to cook her remaining flour.  (1 Kings 17:12)  Therefore, the command "do not harm the oil or the wine" appears to be advice not use up these basic commodities too quickly but to be sparing in their use.  Otherwise, they will be 'harmed,' That is, they will run out before the famine ends.

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 John has more to tell us: "And I heard a voice as if in the  midst of the four living creatures say: 'A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the olive oil and the wine.'" (Revelation6:6)   All four cherubs are united in expressing a need to watch food supplies carefully-just as the people had to "eat bread by weight and in anxious care" prior to Jerusalem's  destruction in 607 B.C.E.  (Ezekiel 4:16) In John's time, a quart of wheat was reckoned to be daily ration  for a soldier.  How much would ration cost? One denarius -a whole day's wage! ( Matthew 20:2)  What if a man has a family? Well, he could buy three quarts of unpolished barley  instead.  Even that would feed only a small family. And barley was not viewed as a quality food such as wheat. 

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Sixteen - A Black Horse Plunges Forth - Continue

 What does John see, then, as the third summons to "Come!" is answered? "And I saw, and look! a black horse; and the one seated upon it had a pair of scales in his hand." (Revelation 6:5b)  Stark famine! That is the dire message of this prophetic scene. It points forward to situations early in the Lord's day when food must be rationed out by scales.  Since  1914 famine has been a continuing worldwide problem. Modern warfare brings famine in its wake, for resources normally  used in feeding the hungry are often diverted to supplying weapons. Farm workers are conscripted , and battle-scarred fields and scorched-earth  policies curtail food production. How true this was during the first world war, when millions suffered from  hunger and died!  Moreover , the rider of the black horse of hunger did not relent with the end of the war. During the 1930's, five million perished in just one famine in the Ukraine.  The second world war brought  in its wake more food shortages and famines. As the black horse continued its gallop, The World Food Counsel reported in mid-1987 that 512 million humans were starving and that 40,000 children die of hunger-related causes every day. 

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Sixteen - A Black Horse Plunges Forth

Jesus now opens the third seal! John, what do you observe? "And when he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say: 'Come!' " (Revelation 6:5a) Happily, this third cherub "has a face like a man's," depicting the quality of love.  Principled love will abound in God's new world, even as that fine quality permeates all of Jehovah's organization today. (Revelation 4:7; 1 John4:16) We can be sure that the Rider of the white horse, who "must rule as king until God has put all enemies under his feet," will lovingly remove the calamitous situation that is next brought to John's scrutiny. -1 CORINTHIANS 15:25.

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Sixteen - Behold, the Fiery-Colored Horse! -Conclusion

As long as society is based on nationalistic pride and hatred, mankind must continue to sit on a keg of nuclear peril.  Even it the nations, out of desperations, should scrap all nuclear firepower, they would retain the know-how.  In short order, they could reproduce their murderous nuclear devices; hence, any war with conventional weapons could mushroom into holocaust.  The pride and hatred that envelop the nations today must lead to humankind's suicide, unless-ah, yes, unless the Rider of the white horse should head off at a mad gallop of the fiery-colored mount.  Let us be confident  that Christ the King will ride,  both to complete his conquest over the world controlled by Satan and to establish a new earthly society based on love-love of God and neighbor-a force for peace far, far superior to the shaky nuclear deterrents of our maddened times. - PSALM 37:9-11; MARK 12:29-31; REVELATION 21:1-5.

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 Could we call this a triumph for military technology?  It is, rather a testimony that the merciless red horse is at the gallop. And and where will that gallop end? Some scientists forecast mathematically that an accidental nuclear war is is virtually certain to take place within  the next 25 years-let alone a planned nuclear conflagration! But happily the conquering Rider of the white horse has other thoughts about this.

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 Then, with a thirst for blood whetted the rider of the red horse plunged into World War II. Instruments of slaughter became even  more fiendish, and casualties skyrocketed to four times those of World War I.  In 1945 two atom bombs burst over Japan, each one annihilating-in a flash-tens of thousands of victims. During the second world war, the rider of the red horse reaped a huge harvest of some 55 million lives, and even then he was not satisfied. It is reliably reported that at least 19 million souls  have fallen under the "great sword' since World War II.

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REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Sixteen - Behold, the Fiery-Colored Horse! - Continue

 There had been many wars since 1914, the year when the Rider of the White Horse received his crown.  But now the rider of the red horse is given "a great sword." What does this imply?  With the eruption of World War I, human warfare becomes more sanguinary, more destructive than ever  before. During the 1924-1918 bloodbath, tanks, poisonous gas, airplanes, submarines, huge cannons, and automatic weapons were used either for the first time or on an unprecedented scale.  In some 28 nations, whole populations, not just  professional soldiers, were pressed into the war effort. Casualties were horrendous.  More than nine million soldiers were slaughtered and civilian casualties were astronomical. Even with the end of the war, there was no return to peace on earth. More than 50 years after that war, German statesman Conrad Adenauer commented: "Security  quiet have disappeared from the lives of men since 1914."  It was, indeed, granted  to the rider of the fiery-colored horse to take peace away from the earth! 

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