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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