The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, vol. 77

September 11, 1900

“The Third Angel’s Message. Its Basis in the Seven Trumpets” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 77, 37, p. 584.

“AND the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.” Revelation 9:13-15. ARSH September 11, 1900, page 584.1

In the year 1449, at the death of the emperor of the Eastern Empire of Rome, that empire had dwindled almost to the very walls of the capital itself. And so certain did it seem that the capital itself must shortly fall, that the successor to the throne would not accept the place without the knowledge and permission of Amurath, the sultan of the Turks. And thus that empire at that time really passed under the control of the Turkish power; and all that remained to complete the blotting out of the empire in every respect, was the actual taking of the capital, which was accomplished in 1453. ARSH September 11, 1900, page 584.2

Thus the time of the sixth trumpet began immediately upon the expiration of the fifth, July 27, 1449; and was to continue “an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year.” Counting 30 days to the month, according to the Scriptural mode of computing time, a year is 360 days; and taking “each day for a year” (Ezekiel 4:4-6), we have 360 years. A month—30 days—is 30 years. A day is 1 year. These, added together, give 391 years. From July 27, 1449, the 391 years reach to July 27, 1840. But there is “an hour” more. An hour is the twenty-fourth part of a day; and (a day for a year) this would be the twenty-fourth part of a year, or fifteen days. Fifteen days, from July 27, extend to August 11. Therefore Aug. 11, 1840, this period of an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, would expire. For this length of time, and to this date, the power of the Ottoman Empire was to continue. ARSH September 11, 1900, page 584.3

And as that power, in the place of Eastern Rome, was made complete by the voluntary surrender to it of the authority of Eastern Rome; so, when the end of the time had come which was marked for its continuance, that power itself, as an independency, should be expected to cease. And on that very day the actual power of the Turkish government passed into the hands of the great Powers of Europe, and from that day to this, the very existence of the Ottoman Empire has been solely dependent on the support of these great Powers. ARSH September 11, 1900, page 584.4

Before the expiration of that time, the light of this prophecy was seen; and in 1838 it was announced to the world that Aug. 11, 1840, the independence of the Turkish power would cease. For several years there had been discontent on the part of Egypt and her pasha, which were subject to the Turkish power. In 1839 actual hostilities were begun, and the forces of the pasha of Egypt were victorious, the sultan’s army was destroyed, and his fleet was captured and taken into Egypt. ARSH September 11, 1900, page 584.5

According to all regular order of human events, this matter should have ended in the breaking away of Egypt from the Turkish power, and the establishment of her independence of that power. But instead of this, the four Powers—Britain, Russia, Austria, and Prussia—entered upon the scene, interposed their united authority, and determined, themselves, to settle the controversy. And the way in which it was settled was that the pasha of Egypt must again yield himself in subjection to the defeated sultan, whose standing and authority these Powers assured, and for which they became responsible. And this arrangement, by which the authority of the Turkish Empire passed into the hands of the Powers of Europe, was completed Aug. 11, 1840, the very day to which the time marked in the prophecy continued, and the very day which, in the light of that prophecy, had, two years before, been named for this very result. ARSH September 11, 1900, page 584.6

Several times since 1840 the Turkish government would have ceased to be, had it not been upheld in this way. In a little pamphlet on the Turkish-Armenian question, published in 1895 by the Armenian Society in London, the following statement is made concerning England’s connection with this matter:— ARSH September 11, 1900, page 584.7

We are responsible for Turkey. We saved the Turk twice at least from the doom which he richly merited. The Duke of Wellington sixty years ago lamented that the Russians had not entered Constantinople in 1825 and brought the Ottoman Empire to an end. We have much more reason to lament that it was not destroyed in 1853, and again in 1878. On both these occasions we interfered to save it. But for us there would be no sultan on the Bosporus. ARSH September 11, 1900, page 584.8

On the same page is a quotation from an article by the Duke of Argyle, in the Times, in which the duke says:— ARSH September 11, 1900, page 584.9

It is not too much to say that England has twice saved Turkey from complete subjection since 1853. It is largely—mainly—due to our action that she now exists at all as an independent Power. On both these occasions we dragged the Powers of Europe along with us in maintaining the Ottoman government. ARSH September 11, 1900, page 584.10

We do not reproduce these statements for the purpose of attaching blame to England, or to any other Power; but solely for the purpose of making clear the fact that the Ottoman Empire, since 1840, has not existed by its own power, but wholly by the action of other Powers. In accordance with this fact, the pamphlet truly says:— ARSH September 11, 1900, page 584.11

It is impossible to talk of the Ottoman Empire as it if were a nation, like the United States, or like Holland. It is an artificial... creation of treaties, that is kept in existence by the Powers for their own convenience. ARSH September 11, 1900, page 584.12

Thus, Aug. 11, 1840, the time set by the Scripture for the existence and work of the Ottoman Empire, as such, expired; on that day the sixth trumpet ceased to sound, and the second woe ended; and of the seventh trumpet—the third woe—we read: “The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly.” ARSH September 11, 1900, page 584.13

Note the expression as to the coming of the third woe—it “cometh quickly.” It did not come immediately upon the expiration of the sixth, as the sixth came immediately on the expiration of the fifth: there was a little space between the expiration of the sixth trumpet and the beginning of the seventh, which space is announced, and its shortness signified, by the word “quickly.” And in this short space between the sixth and seventh trumpets, that mighty angel of Revelation 10 came in with his message, which was to sound over sea and land. ARSH September 11, 1900, page 584.14

And that this is the place of that angel, is made certain by the fact that he refers to the beginning of the trumpet of the seventh angel as future. For that angel which stood “upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth forever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer: but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.” Revelation 10:5-7. ARSH September 11, 1900, page 584.15

And when that mystery of God shall be finished, the kingdoms of this world “become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ.” This is at the coming of Christ; and the coming of Christ brings the end of the world. The first four trumpets mark the downfall of the Western Empire of Rome; the fifth and sixth mark the destruction of the Eastern Empire of Rome; and the seventh trumpet marks the downfall of all empires, all kingdoms, and all nations; for when the God of heaven sets up his kingdom, “it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms.” Daniel 2:44. ARSH September 11, 1900, page 584.16

The woe of the fifth trumpet was called by Gibbons the “shipwreck of nations;” but the woe of the seventh trumpet will be not only the shipwreck of nations, but of the great globe itself; for, in Revelation 11:19, among the events of the seventh trumpet—the third woe—are that earthquake by which every mountain and island are moved out of their places, and that great hail, both of which come in the seventh plague, when God “ariseth to shake terribly the earth,” and the great voice is heard out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, “It is done.” Revelation 16:17-21. ARSH September 11, 1900, page 584.17

The events of the seventh trumpet will be considered next week. ARSH September 11, 1900, page 584.18

“Studies in Galatians. Galatians 5:7-15” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 77, 37, pp. 584, 585.

“YE did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you.” ARSH September 11, 1900, page 584.1

Verse 8 here ought to make plain to all who is the one, in chapter 1, verse 6, that called them into the grace of Christ. Some are inclined to hold that Paul refers to himself in that scripture, in the words, “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel.” They think that Paul is marveling that the Galatians should be so soon removed from himself, because they think that Paul was the one who called the Galatians into the grace of Christ. But this is a mistake. Paul did not draw men to himself: and this for the simple reason that he did not preach himself. He preached Christ—Christ and him crucified, and Christ crucified in every place where Paul preached. Consequently, men saw Christ instead of Paul—Christ with themselves, just where they were. And Christ, being thus lifted up in person, drew men to himself. And since, even in that, it is forever true that no man can come to Christ except the Father draw him, it is evident that in this work of the grace of Christ it is God who called these people into the grace of Christ. And when men come to them, preaching another gospel, which was not another, but was a perversion of the gospel of Christ, as many as trusted in that false gospel were, by that, removed, not from Paul, but from Christ, who had drawn them to himself; and from God, who had called them into the grace of Christ, which drew them to himself. ARSH September 11, 1900, page 584.2

And thus verse 8 of the present study—“This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you”—shows that it could not refer to Paul, because he had not been near to them, so that the persuasion could be an alternative between them and the others. But God was present with them, with his persuasion and his calling, so that whatever persuasion and calling were against that gospel which they had at first heard, could not possibly come from him who had called them, who was God. ARSH September 11, 1900, page 584.3

“A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. I have confidence in you through the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise minded: but he that troubleth you shall bear his judgement, whomsoever he be. And I, brethren, it I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? Then is the offense of the cross ceased. I would they were even cut off which trouble you.” ARSH September 11, 1900, page 584.4

As we saw in last week’s study, if he had preached circumcision, it would have been but to put circumcision in the place of Christ; and that, in itself, would have been to reject the grace of Christ, Christ and him crucified; and so the offense of the cross would have ceased, and the persecution with it, in the preaching of circumcision. ARSH September 11, 1900, page 584.5

“For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not the liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” ARSH September 11, 1900, page 584.6

Every soul, in being called unto Christ, is called to liberty; and every soul who receives Christ is delivered from bondage, in to the glorious liberty of the sons of God. Jesus Christ came into the world only to set men free, and to plant in their souls the genuine principle of liberty. And this liberty with which Christ made men free is liberty actuated only by love. It is a liberty too honorable to allow itself to be used as an occasion to the flesh, or as a cloak of maliciousness. It is a liberty led by a conscience enlightened by the Spirit of God. It is a liberty in which he who has it, is made free from all men, yet it makes him who receives it so gentle by love that he willingly becomes the servant of all, in order to bring them to the enjoyment that same liberty. This is freedom indeed: this is the freedom which Christ gives to whomsoever believes in him: for “whom the Son makes free is free indeed.” ARSH September 11, 1900, page 584.7

And thus “all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” This, because all that law, of which this “one word” is but one of the two great principles upon which the whole hangs,—that law is itself “the law of liberty.” ARSH September 11, 1900, page 585.1

This is Christianity: this is the gospel and the liberty of the gospel. “But if ye bite and devour one another,“—if so ye repudiate the gospel and deny the liberty which it brings: if ye be critical, narrow, and intolerant,—“take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.” For that is the only consequence that can come of such a course, with utter destruction at the last. ARSH September 11, 1900, page 585.2

“Back Page” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 77, 37, p. 592.

A DISPATCH from Manila, August 5, says: “On September 1 the commission headed by Judge Taft will become the legislative body of the Philippines, with power to take and appropriate insular moneys, to establish judicial and educational systems, and to make and pass all laws.” And yet that commission is “the personal representative of the President of the United States,” who of right has no legislative power at all. How can the commission represent the President in making laws, when the President has no authority whatever to make any law?—It simply can not be done. Then, instead of representing the President, the commission merely represents the person who is President. And since the commission represents this person, who is not present, in things in which he would have no authority but his own personal will if he were present, the sum of it is that the commission represents merely its own will. And all this under the jurisdiction of the United States! Where in that is there any recognition of the Constitution?—It would be impossible to abandon the Constitution more completely than is done in this arrangement. ARSH September 11, 1900, page 592.1

THE international problem in China is as perplexing as ever. Not one of the Powers knows what is the best thing to do. And only one of the Powers—Germany—seems to know certainly what she will do. Germany knows that she is going to stay in Peking, for the present anyhow. Russia presented a proposal that she would leave—not China, but—Peking, if the other Powers would do so. The United States caught this as a cue, and presented to the world the proposition; but neither Germany nor Britain would trust Russia, and so the scheme could not carry. It is therefore settled just now that the Powers will all stay in Peking; but what for, and what they shall do there, no one of them knows. The pretense presented by the United States for staying is “to protect her interests and the native Christians.” But what call she has to protect native Christians in China, any more than in Russia or the Philippines, nobody has explained. But the United States setting herself up as the special champion of Christians in China, or anywhere else, is another distinct and long stride in the making of the Image of the Beast. For how long shall she be the special champion of Christians abroad before she will be the same thing at home? ARSH September 11, 1900, page 592.2