A Sweet-and-Bitter Message - The Finish of the Sacred Secret

 Meantime, Jehovah has another commissio for John:  "And  the angel that I saw standing on the sea and on the earth raised his right hand to heaven, and by the One who lives forever and ever, who created the heaven adn the things in it and the earth and the sea and things in it, he swore:  'There will be no delay any longer." (Revelation 10:5, 6)

The Greek word here translated "delay" is  khro'nos which literally means "time."  Some have thus felt that declaration of the angel should be translated "There will be no more time."  As though time as we know it will end.  But the word khro'nos here is  used without a definite article. So it does not mean time in general but, rather, "a timer" or "a period pf to,e."  In other words, there will be no further period of time (or, delay)  by Jehovah. A Greek verb derived from khro'nos is also used at Hebrews  10:37, where Paul, quoting from Habakkuk 2:3, 4 writes that "He who is coming . . . will not delay." 

"No delay any longer"- how those words appeal to the aging John class today!  In what respect is there no delay?  John informs us: "But in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to blow his trumpet, the sacred of GOd according to the good news, which he declared to his own slaves  the prophets is indeed brought to a finish." (Revelation 10:7) Jehovah's time is here for bringing his sacred secret to its happy climax, with glorious success!

What is this sacred secret?  It involves the seed first promised in Eden, which proved primarily to be Jesus Christ.  (Genesis 3:15; 1 Timothy 3:16)  It also has to do with the identity of the woman out of whom the Seed comes.  (Isaiah 54;1; Galatians 4:26-28)   Further,  it takes in the secondary members of the seed class and the Kingdom in which the Seed reigns. (Luke 8:10; Ephesians 3:3-9; Colossians 1:2, 27; 2:2; Revelation 1:5, 6)  The good news about this unique  heavenly Kingdom must be preaced in all the earth during the time of the end. -MATTHEW 24:14.  

Surely, this is the very best of news.  Yet at Revelation 11:24, 15,  the third woe is linked with the Kingdom.  Why?  Because for those of mankind who prefer Satan's system of things, the trumpeting forth of the good news that the sacred secret of God is brought to a finish-that is God's Messianic Kingdom is  here-is woeful news.  (Compare 2 Corinthians 2:16.)   It means that the world arrangement that they like so well is near to being destroyed.  The voices of the seven thunders, containing such ominous storm warnings, become clearer and  louder with the approach of Jehovah's great day of vengeace. - ZEPHANIAH 1:14-18.

Next time: A Sweet-and-Bitter Message - The Opened Scroll

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A Sweet-and-Bitter Message - The Seven Thunders

 John's contemplation of this strong angel is interrupted by the angel himself: "And he [the angel] cried out with a loud voice just as when a lion roars. And when he cried out, the seven thunders uttered their own voices." (Revelation 10:3) Such a powerful shout would catch John's attention, confirming that Jesus is truly "the Lion that is of the tribe of Judah." (Revelation 5:5)  John would also be aware that Jehovah, too, is sometimes said to "roar." Jehovah's roaring prophetically heralds the regathering of spiritual Israel and the coming of the destructive  "day of Jehovah." (Hosea 11:10; Joel 3:15; Amos 1:2; 3:7, 8)   Clearly, then, the lionlike cry of this strong angel forebodes similar great events for the sea and the earth.  it calls on the seven thunders to speak.

John has previously heard thunders proceeding from the very throne of Jehovah.  (Revelation 4:5) Back in David's day, literal thunder was at times spoken of as " the voice of Jehovah." (Psalm 29:3) When Jehovah audibly proclaimed his purpose to glorify his own name in the days of Jesus' earthly ministry, to many it sounded like thunder.  (John 12:28, 29) Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that the "voices of the seven thunders' are Jehovah's own  expression of his purposes.  The fact that there were "seven" thunders suggests the completeness of what John heard.

But listen!  Another voice sounds forth.  It brings a command that must seem strangge to John: "Now when the seven thunders spoke, I was at the point of writing; but I heard a voice out of heaven say: 'seal up  the things the seven thunders spoke, and do not write them down."' (Revelation 10:4)  John must have been anxious to hear and record those thunderous messages, just as the John class today has waited eagerly for Jehovah to disclose  his divine purposes for publication. Such revelations come only at Jehovah's  appointed time. - LUKE 12:33-42; see also DANIEL 122:8, 9. 

Next time: A Sweet-and-Bitter Message - The Finish of the Sacred Secret

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A Sweet-and-Bitter Message

 The face of the strong angel was "as the sun."  Earlier, in his vision of Jesus at the divine temple, John had noted that Jesus' countenance was "as the sin when it shines in its power."  (Revelation 1:16)  Jesus, as "the sun of righteousness," shines forth with healing in his wings for the benefit of those who fear Jehovah's name. (Malachi 4:2) Not only the face but also the feet of this angel are glorious "as fiery pillars."  His firm stance is that of the One to hwhom Jehovah has given all authority . . .in heaven and on the earth." -MATTHEW 28:18; REVELATION 1:14, 15.

John observes further:  "And he had in his hand a little scroll opened. And he set his right foot upon the sea, but his left one upon the earth." (Revelation 10:2)  Another scroll?  Yes, but this time it is not sealed.  With John we can expect  soon to see further thrilling disclosures.   First, though, we are given the setting for is to follow.

Let us return to the description of Jesus.  His fiery feet are upon the earth and the sea, over which he now exercises full authority.  It is just as statedin the prophetic psalm: "You [Jehovah]also proceeded to make him [Jesus] a little less godlike ones, and with glory and splendor you then crown him.  You make him dominate over the works of your hands; everything you have put under his feet; small cattle and oxen, all of them, and also the beast of the open field, the birds of heaven and the fish of the sea, anything passing through the paths of the seas." (Psalm 8:508; see also Hebrews 2:5-9.)   This psalm was completely fulfilled in 1914, when Jesus was installed as King of God's Kingdom and the time of the end began.  Thus, what John sees here in vision applies since that year. -  PSALM 110:1-6; ACTS 2:34-36; DANIEL 12:4.

Next time: A Sweet-and-Bitter Message - The Seven Thunders

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A Sweet-and-Bitter Message

 Vision 6 - REVELATION 10:1-11:19

Subject: The vision of the little scroll; temple experiences; the blowing of the seventh trumpet

Time of fulfillment:  From the enthronement of Jesus in 1914 to the great tribulation

THE second woe has been devastating.  It has plagued Christendom and her leaders,  "a third of the men," who are thus exposed  as being spiritually dead.  (Revelation 9:15) John must have wondered after that what the third woe could possibly bring.  But wait! The second woe is not yet finished - Not until we reach the point recorded at  Revelation 11:14.  Before then, John is to witness a turn of events in which he himself take an active part.  It begins with an aweinspiring sight:

"And I saw  another strong angel descending from heaven, arrayed with a cloud, and a rainbow was upon his head, and is face was as the sun, and his feet were as fiery pillars." - REVELATION 10:1.

Who is this "strong angel"?  It is evidently the glorified Jesus Christ in another role.  He is arrayed with a cloud of invisibility, which reminds us of John's earlier  words about Jesus:  "Look!  He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, and those pierced him."  (Revelation 1:7; compare Matthew 17:2-5.)  The rainbow  upon his head reminds us of John's earlier vistion of Jehovah's throne, with  its "rainbow like an emerald in appearace."  (Revelation 4:3; compare  Ezekiel 1:28)  That rainbow suggested the serenity and peace surrounding God's throne.  In the same way, this rainbow  on the angel's head would identify him as a special peace messenger;  Jehovah's foretold  "Prince of Peace." - ISAIAH 9:6, 7.

Next time: A Sweet-and-Bitter Message 

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The Second Woe - Armies of Cavalry -Myriads of Myriads -Conclusion

 A most zealous division of this cavalry is made  up of brothers in lands where the work of Jehovah's Witnesses is under ban.  Like sheep amidst wolves, these have to be "cautious as serpents and yet innocent as doves."  In obedience to Jehovah, they cannot stop speaking about the things they have seen and heard.  (Matthew 10:16; Acts 4:19, 20;  5:28, 29, 32)  Since they have little or no printed material to distribut publicly, must we conclude thaty have no share in the cavalry?  Not at all!   They have their mouths and authorty from Jehovah to use them to express Bible truth.  This they  do, informally and persuasively, establishing studies in the Bible and "bringing the many to righteousness."  (Daniel 12:3)   Though they may not sting wiht their tails in the sense of leaving behind hard-hitting literatrue, symbolic fire, smoke, and sulfur issue forth from their mouths as they witness tactfully and with discretion concerning Jehovah's approaching day of vindication.

In other places, the Kingdom literature continues to expose Christendoms's Bablonish doctrines and ways, bringing her deserved harm in a figurative way. By using updated printing methods, this numerous cavalry in the 68 years before 2005 was able  to distribute, in upwards of 450 of earth's languages,  billions of Bibles, books, magazines, and brochures-many times more than a literal two myriads of myriads.  What a sting those tails have inflicted!

Jehovah purposed that this plaguing message should "kill a third of the men."  Hence,  its specific target  has been Christendom.  But it has reached langs far beyond Christendom, including many where hypocrisy of Christendom's religions  is well known .  Have the people of these lands drawn closer to Jehovah as a result of seeing the plaguing of this corrupt religious organization?  Many have!  There has been a ready response among the meek and lovable people who live in areas outside Christendom's immediate  sphere of influence.  But as for the people in general, John describes their reaction:  "But the rest o fthe men who were not killed by these plagues did not repent of the works of their hands, so that they  should  not worship  the demons and the idols of gold and silver and coper  and stone and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk; and they did not repent of their murders not of their  spiristic practices not of their  fornication nor of their thefts." (Revelation 9:20, 21)  There will be no world conversion of such unrepentant ones.  Alll who persist in their wicked ways will have to face adverse judgment from Jehovah in the great day of his vindication.  But everyone who calls on the name of Jehovah will get away safe." - JOEL 2:32; PSALM 145:20; Acts 2:20, 21.

What we have discussed is a part of the second woe.  There is more to come before this woe runs its course, as we shall see in the chapters that follow.

Next time: The Second Woe - Armies of Cavalry - A Sweet and Bitter Message

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The Second Woe - Armies of Cavalry - Two Myriads of Myriads -Continue

 Has this great crowd had a part in the cavalry charge that got underway ub 19922 and that received particular emphasis at the Toronto convention in 1927?  Under the direction of the four angels, the anointed John class, it certainly has!  At the world-circling "Everlasting Good News" Assembly of 1963, it joined with the John class in a rousing resolution. This declared that the world "faces and earthquake of world trouble the life of which it has never known, and all its political instituions and its modern religious Babylon will shaken to bits."  The resolve was expressed that "we will continue to declare to all peoples without partiality the 'everlasting good news' concerning God's Messianic Kingdom and concerning his judgments, which are like plagues to his enemies but which all will be executed for the lliberation of all persons who desire to worship God the Creator acceptably with spirit and truth."  This resolution was adopted enthusiastically at 24 assemblies around the globe by a grand total of 454,977 conventioners, of whom over 95 percent were of the great crowd.

The great crowd has continued to declare its unqualified unity with the John class in pouring out the plagues on Christendom.  In 2005 this great crowd made up more than 99.8 percent of the workforce that Jehovah is using in the field.  Its members are wholeheartedly  in accord with the John class, concerning whom Jesus prayed at  John 17:20, 21: "I make a request, not conerning these only, but also concerning those putting faith inme through their word; in order that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in  union with me and I am in union with you, that they may be in union with us, in order that  the world may believe that you sent me forth." As the anointed John class takes the lead under Jesus, the zealous great crowd shares with them in the most devastating cavalry charge of all human society!"

That cavalry needs equipmetn for the warfare. And how wonderfully Jehovah has provided this!  John describes it:  "For the authority of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents and have heads, and with these do harm." (Revelation 9:19)   Jehovah has ordained his dedicated, baptized ministers for this service.  Through the Theocratic Ministry School and other congregation meetings and schools, he has taught them how to preach the word, so they are able to speak authoritively with "the tongue of the taught ones."  He has put his words in their mouths and sent them forth to make known his judgments "publicly and from house to house." ( 2 Timothy4:1; Isaiah 50:4;61:2; Jeremiah 1:9 , 10; Acts 20:20) The John class and the great crowd have left behind a stinging message, corresponding to "tails," in the thousands of millions of Bibles, books, brochures, and magazines distributed over the years.  To their opponenrts, who are advised of the coming of "harm" from Jehovah, these armies o cavalry truly seem like two myriads if myriads. - Compare Joel 2:4-6.

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

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The Second Woe - Armies of Cavalry - Two Myriads of Myriads

 How can there be two myriads of myriads of this cavalry?  A myriad is literally 10,000. So two myriads of myriads come to 200 million.  Happily, there now millions of Kingdom proclaimers, but their number is far short of hundreds of millons!  Remember, though, Moses' words at Numbers 10:36:  "Do return, O Jehovah, to the myriads of thousands of Israel." (Genesis 24:60) That would mean, literally, 'Do return to the tens of millions of Israel.'  Israel, however,  numbered only about two to three million in Moses' day.  What, then, was Moses saying?  No doubt he had in mind that the Israelites should be unnumbered as "the stars of the heavens and like the grains of the sand that are on the seashore," Rather  than be counted. (Genesis 22:17; 1 Chronicles 27:23) So he used the word for "myriad" to indicate a large but unspecified number.  Thus, the New English Bible renders this verse:  "Rest, LORD of the countless thousands of Israel."  This agrees with a second definition of the word for "myriad" found in Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament; Gesenius' a A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testaent, translated by Edward Robinson.  

Nevertheless, those of the John class still remaining on earth number fewer than 10,000 -less tha one literal myriad.  How could they be likened to countless thousands of cavalry?  To become myriads even in a symbolic sense, would they not need reinforcements?  That is what they have neededm, and by Jehovah's undeserved kindnes, that is what they have received!  From where have these come?

From 1918 to 1922, the John class began to hold out to distressed humanity the happy prospect that "millions now living will never die." In 1923 it was also made known that the sheep of Matthew 25:31-34 would inherit the earth under God's Kingdom.  A similar  hope was held out in the booklet Freedom for the Peoples, released at the international covention in 1927.  In the early 1930's  the upright Jehonadab  class and the 'men sighing and groaning over Christendom's sorry spiritual condition were show to be identical with the symbolic  sheep having earthly prospects.  (Ezekiel 9:4; 2 Kings 10:15, 16)  Directing such ones to the modern-day  "cities of refuse," the Watchtower of August 15, 1934, stated:  "Those of the Jonadab class have heard the sounod of God's trunpet and have heeded the warning by fleeing to God's organization and associating with God's people, and there they must abide." - NUMBERS 35:6.

In 1935 those of this Jonadab class were specially invited to attend the conventi9on of Jehovah's Witnesses in Washington, D.C., U.S.A. There, on Friday, May 31, J.F. Rutherford  gave his famous talk "The Great Multitude," in which he clearly showed that this group of Revelation 7:9 (King James Version) was the same  as the sheep of Matthew 25:33 - a dedicated group with earthly hopes.  As a harbinger of things to come, a that covention 840 new Witnesses were baptized, most of them being the great crowd."

Next time: The Second Woe - Armies of Cavalry - Two Myriads of Myriads

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The Second Woe -Armies of Cavalry- Conclusion

 Apparently, ths cavalry thunders forth under the guiding direction of the four angels.  What a fearsome spectacle!  Imagine your reaction if you were to be the target of such a cavalry charge!  Its very appearance would strike terror in your heart.  Did you notice, though, how similar this cavalry is to the locusts that preceded it?  The locusts were like horses;  in the cavalry there are horses.  Both, then,  are involved in theocratic warfare.  (Proverbs 21:31) The locusts had teeth like those of lions; the horses of the cavalry have heads like those of lions.  Both are therefor tied with the courageous Lion of the trie of Judah, Jesus Christ, who is their Leader, Commander, and Exemplar.  -REVELATION 5:5;  PROVERBS 28:1.

Both the locusts and the cavalry share in Jehovah's work of judgment.  The locusts emerged from smoke that portended woe and destructive fire for Christendom; from the mouths of the horses, there issued forth fire, smoke and sulfur.  The locusts had breastplates of iron, signifying  that their hearts were protected by unbending devotion to righteousness; the cavalary wear breasplates colored red, blue, and yellow, reflecting the fire, smoke and sulfur of the lethal judgment messages that gush from the mouths of the horses.  (Compare Genesis 19:24, 28; Luke 17:29, 30.)  The locusts had tails like scorpions for tormenting; the horses  have tails like serpents for killing!   It seems that what was started by the locusts is to be pursued by the cavalry with greater intensity to a completion. 

So, what does this cavalry symbolize?  Just as the anointed John class started the trumpetlike proclamation of Jehovah's judgment of divine vengeance against Christendom, with authority to 'sting and hurt,' so we would expect the same living group to be used in the 'killing,' that in making known that Christendom and its clergy are completely dead spiritually, cast off by Jehovah and ready for"the fiery furnace" of everlasting destruction.  Indeed, all of Babylon the Great must perish.  (Revelation 9:5, 10; 18:2, 8; Matthew 13:41-43)  Peliminary to her destruction, however, the John class uses "the sword of the spirit, that is God's Word," in exposing Christendom's dreamlike condition.   The four angels and the riders of the horses give direction to this figurative killing of "a third of the men."  (Ephesians 6:17; Revelation 9:15, 18)  This indicates proper organization and theocratic direction under the oversight of the Lord Jesus Christ as the awesome band of Kingdom proclaimers charges forth to the battle.

Next time: The Second Woe - Armies of Cavalry - Two Myriads of Myriads

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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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The Second Woe - Armies of Cavalry

 From 1919 onward, the symbolic locusts' invasion of Christendom has caused the clergy much discomfort.  They have tried to stamp out the locusts, but these have kept coming on stronger than ever.  (Revelation 9:7) And  that is not all!  John writes:  "The first woe is past. Look! two more woes are coming after these things." (Revelation 9:12) Furthermore tormenting plagues are in store for Christendom.

What is the source of the second woe?  John writes: "And the sixth angel blew his trumpet.  And I heard one voice out of the horns of the golden altar that is before God say to the sixth angel, who had the trumpet: 'Untie  the four angels that are bound at the great river Euphrates."' (Revelation 9:13, 14)   The angels' release  is in answer to the voice that comes out from the horns of the altar.  This the golden incense altar, and twice previously the incense of the golden bowls from this alter has been associated  with the prayers of the holy ones.  (Revelation 5:8; 8;3, 4) Therefore, this one voice represenrs the united prayers of the holy ones on earth.  They petition that they themselves be deliverd for further  energetic service as Jehovah's "messengers,"  this being the basic meaning of the Greek word here translated  "angels."  Why are there four angels?  This symbolic number seems to indicate that they would be so organized as to cover the earth in its entirety. - REVELATION 7:1; 20:8.

How had these angels been "bound at the greater river Euphrates"?  The river Euphrates in ancient times was the northeaster border  of the land that Jehovah promised to Abraham.  (Genesis 15:18; Deuteronomy 11:24)  Apparently, the angels had been restrained at the border of their God-given land, or earthly realm of activity, held back from  entering fully into the service that Jehovah had prepared for the.  The Eurphrates was also prominently associated  with the city of Babylon, and after the fall of Jerusalem in 607 B.C.E., fleshly Israelites spent 70 years there in captivity,  'bound at the great river Euphrates." (Psalm 137:1)  The year 1919 found the spiritual  Israelites bound in a similar restraintm diconsolate and asking Jehovah for guidance.

Next time: The Second Woe - Armies of Cavalry

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