The Eastern Question

THE RISE OF THE TURKISH POWER IN PROPHECY AND HISTORY

The fifth trumpet, the first woe, marks the rise and spread of the Mohammedan power; and the historical utterances that most clearly show the fulfilment of this prophecy are found in chapters 50 and 51 of Gibbon’s “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.” Any one reading together Revelation 9:1-4, 7, 8, in connection with these two chapters of the history, can not fail to see that the one is but the complement of the other, this being especially true of Revelation 9:4 and Gibbon, chapter 51, par. 10. The scripture just mentioned, it will be seen, refers to the rise of Mohammedanism. In the fifth verse of the same chapter there is appointed a period of “five months”-one hundred and fifty days, or, counting each day a year (according to the rule in symbolic prophecy, Ezekiel 4:6), one hundred and fifty years-in which they were to hurt men. And from the time when they had a king over them, they take on a specially destructive character, for the Word says, “They had a king over them, ... whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.” Revelation 9:11. The margin of the verse gives the meaning of this name in both tongues, which is “a destroyer.” As the Roman Empire is the leading thing contemplated in the prophecy, it is this, or what remained of it, which was to suffer at the hands of this destroyer. EQ 3.1

In speaking of the events preceding the time when these men “had a king over them,” the historian says:- EQ 3.2

“In this shipwreck of nations, some surprise may be excited by the escape of the Roman Empire, whose relics ... were dismembered by the Greeks and Latins.”-Chap. 64, par. 13. EQ 3.3

But when they came to have a king over them, and took upon themselves more than ever the character of a destroyer, the empire could no longer escape. Consequently, in the very next paragraph, the historian continues in the following significant words:- EQ 3.4

“It was on the twenty-seventh day of July, in the year 1299, of the Christian era, that Othman first invaded the territory of Nicomedia, and the singular accuracy of the date seems to disclose some foresight of the rapid and destructive growth of the monster.” -Chap. 64, par. 14. EQ 4.1

Several points in this quotation must he noticed. EQ 4.2

1. Othman was the man who succeeded in bringing the disjointed elements of the Mohammedan power into a compact and distinctly organized governmental shape. From him consequently comes the term which still attaches to the government of the Turks, namely, the Ottoman Empire. From him dates the time when, as never before, “they had a king over them.” EQ 4.3

2. Note the expression of the historian-“the destructive growth of this monster.” Thus he distinguishes the very characteristic which is predicted of it in the Scriptures. EQ 4.4

3. The historian emphasizes “the singular accuracy of the date.” In the original documents from which he drew his material, he found this date made so specific that he himself is forced to remark its “singular accuracy.” Yet to those who recognize God’s dealings with the nations and kingdoms, and who consider that from the time when these had a king over them a period of a hundred and fifty years is given in which to do a certain work, it is not surprising that the date should be indicated with such singular accuracy. EQ 4.5