"Then Is Finished The Mystery Of God"

Chapter 16

The Blowing of the First Four Trumpets

Revelation 8

WITH the revelation concerning the earthly "great crowd" that stood before God's throne and before the Lamb Jesus Christ, the things to be disclosed by the opening of the sixth seal of the mysterious scroll were finished. One more seal, the seventh one, remained to be opened on this scroll that the Lamb had accepted from the right hand of God, who was seated on his glorious heavenly throne.

The opening of the sixth seal had revealed the "four angels" at the four corners of the earth holding back the "four winds of the earth" till God's preliminary work is finished and he gives the signal for the angels to let go and thus let the storm of worldwide destruction from him break upon the wicked earthly system of things. The time to hold back the Biblically predicted storm was evidently at the close of World War I on November 11, 1918, or, Kislev 6/7, 1918, Jewish calendar. As the historic facts show, God's tremendous pre-Armageddon work was by no means finished at that date and time as regards the sealing of the remainder of the 144,000 spiritual Israelites and the later gathering of the numberless "great crowd" of his earthly subjects and worshipers.  — Revelation 7:1-17.

Reasonably, then, the time for the opening of the seventh seal of God's mysterious scroll would be at I he start of this period of holding back the outbreak of the earth-wide storm upon all humankind. Let us

accordingly locate ourselves at the start of the postwar period at the transition of the year 1918 to 1919. From this standpoint we watch to see what the apostle John saw start occurring when the Lamb Jesus Christ broke the seventh and last seal of the revelatory scroll: "And when he opened the seventh seal, a silence occurred in heaven for about a half hour. And I saw the seven angels that stand before God, and seven trumpets were given them." — Revelation 8:1, 2.

Silence in heaven for about half an hour! But why? It was evidently a time for prayer to be heard from the earth. Whose prayers? The seven angels were not permitted to sound their trumpets until those prayers were heard by God on his throne. At the temple in earthly Jerusalem the offering of incense by the priest upon the altar of incense in the Holy of the temple took about half an hour. During this time the people worshiping outside in the court of the temple kept silence while they engaged in mental prayer to God to whom the incense was ascending. (Exodus 30:1-8; Luke 1:8-10, 21) Agreeable to this, Psalm 141:1, 2 reads: "O Jehovah, I have called upon you. Do make haste to me. Do give ear to my voice when I call to you. May my prayer be prepared as incense before you." In the transition period of 1918-1919 it was indeed a time calling for earnest prayer to God on the part of the anointed remnant on earth. Would heaven be silent to hear?

By God's mercy and forbearance the anointed remnant had survived the hardships and persecutions of World War I. Why had he preserved them and kept them on earth instead of taking them to heaven at the close of the Gentile Times, as they had expected? What was his will and his work for them in the now opening postwar period? The remnant wanted to know.* They wanted to be freed from the fear and

restraints imposed upon them by the militarized political powers and their religious concubine, Babylon the Great, the world empire of false Babylonish religion. For divine help, enlightenment, guidance and reactivation they needed to pray to the God of heaven. This is what they promptly did, along with deeper searching of the Holy Scriptures. As never before, they needed to live up to the name by which they were generally known throughout the earth, International Bible Students Association. Their prayers through Christ needed to be acceptable just like sweet incense to God in his heavenly temple. They needed to learn that God's angels were preparing to sound seven symbolic trumpets.

This historic season of prayer and the stirring things that followed upon it were forevisioned by the apostle John, according to Revelation 8:3-6, where John writes: "And another angel arrived and stood at the altar, having a golden incense vessel; and a large quantity of incense was given him to offer it with the prayers of all the holy ones upon the golden altar that was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense ascended from the hand of the angel with the prayers of the holy ones before God. But right away the angel took the incense vessel, and he filled it with some of the fire of the altar and hurled it to the earth. And thunders occurred and voices and lightnings and an earthquake. And the seven angels with the seven trumpets prepared to blow them."

The eighth angel acted like an Aaronic priest in the temple at Jerusalem in offering incense accompanied by the prayers of God's holy ones. (In Revelation 5:8 the incense offered by the twenty-four older men is itself said to mean the "prayers of the holy ones," the twenty-four older ones themselves picturing such "holy ones.") The eighth angel thus served in behalf of the "holy ones" in order to make their prayers acceptable to God, during the heavenly silence of "about a half hour." All the evidence of that critical year of 1919 goes to show that the contrite

prayers of the anointed remnant of "holy ones" were favorably heard by Jehovah God through his "messenger [angel] of the covenant," Jesus Christ. (Malachi 3:1) The symbolic "smoke of the incense" ascended from his hand along with the prayers of the repentant anointed remnant, who sought renewed right relations with God and His guidance in doing their further work on earth. (Revelation 2:5, 16, 21, 22; 3:3, 19) However, action must now follow prayer, and promptly the eighth angel proceeded to act and stir up action.

FIRE HURLED ONTO THE EARTH

Back in the year 32 C.E. Jesus Christ on earth said: "I came to start a fire on the earth, and what more is there for me to wish if it has already been lighted?" (Luke 12:49, NW; Ro) He certainly "set fire to the earth" (NEB), raising an issue that caused great heat of controversy and resulted in the consuming of many false teachings, claims and pretensions by men and institutions.

No less so the eighth angel threw fire onto the earth when he filled the incense vessel with fire from the altar and hurled it to the earth. From being a prayer vessel the censer was converted into a starter of fire on the earth. The fire of the heated controversy over God's Messianic kingdom was to be started, for the fire was taken from God's holy altar. Indeed, the fire of the heated issue of God's kingdom was thrust upon the earthly stage by the anointed remnant in 1919, undoubtedly under angelic guidance, yes, under Christ's guidance. Testifying to that fact are the articles in issues of The Watch Tower that year, such as "Heralds of the Kingdom 'Killed' " (issue of May 1, 1919), "Kingdom of Heaven at Hand" (May 15, 1919), "The Kingdom of God" (August 1, 1919), and "Announcing the Kingdom" (September 15, 1919).

Expressions of God's supernatural power followed, as pictured in Revelation 8:5 as "thunders," "voices,"

"lightnings," and "an earthquake." There were thunderous storm warnings; there were stormy voices or sounds; lightnings of divine enlightenment and revelation flashed forth and struck at targets; and there was earthly unsettlement and upheaval. Notable that year was the week-long general convention held by the International Bible Students Association at Cedar Point, Ohio, September 1-8, which was attended by about 6,000 of these Bible students. The public talk "The Hope for Distressed Humanity" was given Sunday afternoon, September 7, by the then president of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society, J. F. Rutherford, who had been released from unjust imprisonment five and a half months earlier. Reporting the next day on this speech, the Sandusky (Ohio) Star-Journal said:

President Rutherford spoke to nearly 7,000 persons under the trees Sunday afternoon. He declared a League of Nations formed by the political and economic forces, moved by a desire to better mankind by establishment of peace and plenty would accomplish great good, and then asserted that the Lord's displeasure is certain to be visited upon the League, however, because the clergy  — Catholic and Protestant — claiming to be God's representatives, have abandoned his plan and endorsed the League of Nations, hailing it as a political expression of Christ's kingdom on earth. — The Watch Tower, under date of October 1, 1919, page 298.

Did such a declaration by voice and in print kindle a fire? A half century later the fire still burns hotly over the issue of God's Messianic kingdom and a man-made international organization for world peace and security, now the United Nations. Thunderous storm warnings from God's Word through his anointed remnant of Kingdom heirs still peal forth. There are stormy voices or sounds; divine lightnings of enlightenment flash to illuminate Bible prophecies and truths. The peoples of the earth feel themselves disturbed and shaken by the continuous preaching of God's Messianic kingdom and of the fast-approaching clay of his vengeance against mankind's earthly system of things. Now that the prayerful silence "for about

a half hour" had ended by the year 1919, it became the due time for the heavenly "seven angels with the seven trumpets" to prepare to blow them.

Among Jehovah God's ancient people trumpets were used to call the congregation and to give signals, to celebrate the beginning of the new lunar months, to blow over burnt offerings and communion offerings at the temple, to sound a war call to gain victory with Jehovah's help, and to mark their festival occasions.* Inasmuch as the trumpet sound was heard over a wide area, the trumpet sounding was a public calling to notice that something of public interest was being enacted or was to be enacted or was to be proclaimed. When "the seven angels" of heaven prepared to blow the "seven trumpets" after the eighth angel had taken action, as described in Revelation 8:1-6, the anointed remnant of Kingdom heirs on earth for whom the angels are "spirits for public service" became involved. (Hebrews 1:14) The remnant had prayed; now they must take action to harmonize with the seven heavenly trumpeters. They must proclaim the meaning of what the apostle John saw happen in symbols after each trumpet blast.

Meantime, the special issue, No. 27, of the new thirty-two-page magazine The Golden Age (now Awake!), as of September 29, 1920, began to be distributed to the number of 4,000,000 copies. Its feature article was " 'Distress of Nations': Cause, Warning, Remedy." (Luke 21:25, AV) It laid bare much of the ungodly persecution heaped upon the International Bible Students during World War I by the religious clergymen of Christendom and their allies, political and military. Just prior to this, in June of 1920, the book entitled "The Finished Mystery," now released from under government limitations or ban, began to be advertised and circulated again, both in magazine form and in bound-book form, to Christendom's displeasure. Late in the following year (1921) the 384-

page bound book entitled "The Harp of God," dealing with prominent fundamental doctrines of the Bible, was published and began what was to be a phenomenal circulation of 5,819,037, in 22 languages. A short interval followed, and then came an event that the first angelic trumpeter could well use — an international convention of the anointed remnant in Cedar Point, Ohio, September 5-13, 1922!

THE FIRST ANGEL BLOWS HIS TRUMPET

Prophetically the apostle John wrote: "And the first one blew his trumpet. And there occurred a hail and fire mingled with blood, and it was hurled to the earth; and a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees was burned up, and all the green vegetation was burned up." — Revelation 8:7.

A "third of the earth" was pounded with hail, causing great damage, fragile things being beaten down. Likely the fire that was thrown down was lightning; it was not for the purpose of enlightening, but for consuming combustible things. The blood accompanying the fire was nothing drinkable from heaven, drinking blood being contrary to God's law to the patriarch of all mankind, Noah. Like shed blood, it spelled death and stained up all upon which it was thrown down. It resembled the plagues of blood and of hailstones and fire upon ancient Egypt in Moses' day. (Exodus 7:15-25; 9:22-33) But upon what "third of the earth" was this destructive downpour hurled after the first trumpet peal?

In the Bible the number three is used to signify emphasis, a thing being said or done three times being thus made very emphatic. Likewise a third of anything would signify a sizable or considerable part. (Ezekiel 21:27; Revelation 4:8; Ecclesiastes 4:12) Although it was a significant, important part of the earth, that fact would not itself identify which "third of the earth" it was. However, in Isaiah 19:23-25 Jehovah God mentions a vital "third," namely, ancient Israel as taken along with Assyria, the northern

Second World Power of Bible history, and Egypt, the southern First World Power. This helps us to identify the "third," for, in Bible prophecy, unfaithful Israel, which was in the old Law covenant with Jehovah God, typifies modern-day Christendom, which claims to be spiritual Israel and to be in the new covenant with God through Christ the Mediator. Well, then, was Christendom the "third [part] of the earth" upon which the things that followed the blowing of the first of the seven trumpets were hurled? Yes, indeed.

On "The Day," Friday, September 8, 1922, at the second Cedar Point, Ohio, convention, the president of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society gave the speech on the Bible text, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand." (Matthew 4:17, AV) This stirring speech declared that Christendom is fatally smitten by God and doomed to eternal death because it had renounced God's kingdom by Christ and had recommended, approved and supported the human makeshift, the League of Nations, as "the political expression of the Kingdom of God on earth." Sunday afternoon, September 10, after his public address to an audience of 18,000, the president, J. F. Rutherford, read and moved the adoption of a resolution entitled "A Challenge." The vast audience rose to its feet, with mighty applause, in endorsement of this resolution that pointed out the disloyalty of Christendom's clergy to God in supporting the bloody World War I and thereafter repudiating God's Messianic kingdom by espousing the political League of Nations and trusting in it for world peace and security. The following month upward of forty-five million copies of this resolution and supporting material began to be distributed world wide.

From then on till now Christendom has, figuratively speaking, suffered what followed the first angel's blowing his trumpet in heaven. She, and especially her clergy, Catholic and Protestant, has been pelted, not with drops of refreshing rain of God's blessing,

but with hardened water of a pounding hail in the form of strong, heavy charges and exposes based on Bible truth and prophecy, betokening God's curse. The fiery expressions of his wrath, couched in Biblical language, have been cast at her, consuming the false Christian cloak under which she carries on her religious hypocrisy. For all the human blood that she has shed and caused to be shed so wantonly God has doused her with blood, showing her to be bloodstained and deserving of death at God's hands. He will make her drink blood in her own destruction.

Christendom, the population of which is today reported to be 977,383,000 members, almost a third of the total population of the earth, is the "third of the earth" that has been spiritually "burned up" by that symbolic fire from heaven. Her religious organization, long thought to be so stable and reliable, is blackened from the scorching heat and proved to be pagan, not Christian. She is under God's fiery wrath and not his reviving blessing. Her prominent ones, the clergy, Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant, are the "third of the trees" that are "burned up" as being no ordained Christian ministers of His. Her hundreds of millions of church members, multitudinous like the blades of green grass, are the vegetation, "all the green vegetation," that was "burned up" as not being real followers or imitators of Jesus Christ, practicers of true Christianity.

The result of the downpour of symbolic hail, fire and blood upon Christendom shows her to be barren of Christian fruitage to God. Her appearance reminds us of the soil that is described in Hebrews 6:8, that is "rejected and is near to being cursed; and it ends up with being burned." This religiously burned-up condition is becoming more and more manifest in Christendom all the time.

THE SECOND ANGEL BLOWS HIS TRUMPET

Was that shocking — calculated to hurt religious feelings? But brace yourself to look at what is next

portrayed. The apostle John writes: "And the second angel blew his trumpet. And something like a great mountain burning with fire was hurled into the sea. And a third of the sea became blood; and a third of the creatures that are in the sea which have souls died, and a third of the boats were wrecked." — Revelation 8:8, 9.

Catching up, as it were, the loud peal of the trumpet blown by the second angel, the members of the anointed remnant on earth echoed forth ear-tingling pronouncements as "faithful witnesses" during the year 1923 and into the early part of 1924. These Biblically supported proclamations did have an important impact upon the symbolic "sea." Not stable like the earth, the sea symbolizes the fluid-like, heaving, radical, revolutionary and aggressively militaristic elements of humankind. Although dissatisfied and in revolt against the long-established system of things, this element does not look to God for his promised Messianic kingdom as the cure-all for humanity's ills but is against that theocratic government. Lacking Bible faith, it is ungodly and is foaming forth its own worldly propaganda and schemes, with threats of force and violent measures. (Isaiah 57:20; 17:12, 13) But what was the fiery thing that was hurled into this symbolic sea?

It was not a mountain, but was "something like a great mountain burning with fire." It was a large earth-mass of the size of a "great mountain." It was hurled, not from heaven, but from the symbolic earth, it being wrenched from this "earth" and moved with a swift pitch into the "sea." Since in the Bible a mountain is used to symbolize a political government of the stable earth, this burning earth-mass of mountainous proportions pictures the issue of radical, socialistic, revolutionary government that was hurled into the sea of restless, revolt-minded people, a considerable part of mankind, forasmuch as a "third of the sea" became affected.

At this particular time this political issue was

being thrust upon the people. On November 7, 1917, the radical Bolsheviki overthrew the Russian government and set up an ungodly communist government. On October 30, 1922, Benito Mussolini and his radical party (founded in Milan, Italy, March 23, 1919) made their "march on Rome" and established a Fascist corporative state. On November 8, 1923, in Munich, Germany, Adolf Hitler, assisted by General Erich Von Ludendorff, organized the revolt known as the Hitler putsch, in favor of Nazism. How was all this going to affect the unstable, restless elements of humankind — for good or for ill?

A THIRD OF THE "SEA" BECOMES BLOOD

What did God foresee and foreshow? To him this great mass of mountainous proportions, wrested from the stable earth, was not to be a blessing. True, it was a fiery issue and still is, but to God it was like a self-consuming mountain; it was, like ancient Babylon, a "ruinous mountain," a "burnt-out mountain." (Jeremiah 51:25) So, in Revelation 8:8, God pictured this issue and political movement for radical, revolutionary government as "something like a great mountain burning with fire." It was very different from the symbolic mountain of his Messianic kingdom described in Isaiah 11:9; 25:6-8. That this violent thrusting of this revolutionary, socialistic, communistic type of government would bring no blessing is portrayed by the effect that the 'burning mountain' mass had upon the symbolic sea into which it was hurled: "A third of the sea became blood."

Despite the claims made for human blood transfusions in this twentieth century, no creatures could live in that large sea area that had been turned to blood. During the plague of blood upon ancient Egypt in Moses' day, the fish in the bloodied waters died, the Nile River began to stink, and the Egyptians were unable to drink from their deified Nile River. (Exodus 7:20, 21) Likewise, with the symbolic "third of the sea" that was turned to blood by the plunging

in of the mountainlike fiery mass: "A third of the creatures that are in the sea which have souls died." (Revelation 8:8, 9) Thus God portrayed that life in a materialistic paradise on earth was not possible through any of these radical, revolutionary political movements. By Communist aggressions since 1917 across many countries, and with the establishing of Communist China on the Asian mainland in 1949, a third of the world's population have now been brought under atheistic Communist rule. Now, after all these years of Communist rule, what is the condition, what is the future outlook, of this "third of the sea" of humanity? Just like God's prophetic portrayal after the second angel trumpeted. Like dead men's blood!

Fulfillment of Bible prophecy indicates that, since the year 1918 C.E., Jesus Christ has been present in the spiritual temple of God and dividing the peoples of all the nations the same as a shepherd of the Mideast divides the sheep of his flock from the goats. (Matthew 25:31-46) Certainly the violent, aggressive, radical, revolutionary movements and governments have so functioned as to shove their subjects over onto the side of symbolic goats, namely, those who are to be destroyed in the coming war of Arma-

geddon for their faulty treatment of the anointed remnant of Christ's spiritual brothers. Quite appropriately, then, and manifestly under the guidance of the second angelic trumpeter, the International Bible Students Association held a regional convention in Los Angeles, California, U.S.A., August 18-26, 1923. On Saturday, August 25, the president of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society, J. F. Rutherford, spoke on the closing parable in Jesus' prophecy on the "conclusion of the system of things." It was the parable of the sheep and the goats. — Matthew 24:3 to 25:46.

Then the speaker presented to his audience of 2,500 a historic resolution entitled "A Warning." By an overwhelming response the audience expressed their approval of the resolution, which exposed the failure of the clergy of Christendom to aid Christ's spiritual brothers in proclaiming world wide the good news of God's kingdom, the religious clergy thereby showing goatish qualities. In conclusion the resolution appealed to the sheeplike people to turn, not to the clergy-supported League of Nations, but to God's kingdom as the "only remedy for national and individual ills." On Sunday, August 26, this same resolution was adopted at the convention's public meeting attended by 30,000. In the October 15, 1923, issue of The Watch Tower appeared the eight-page article entitled "The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats." Later, in December of the same year the manufacture began on the tract entitled "Proclamation — A Warning to All Christians" and containing the convention resolution. In the United States alone 13,478,400 copies were printed for circulation. Other millions were published abroad.

It has been publicly admitted by religious clergymen that the failure of the clergy of Christendom was largely responsible for the growth and spread of communism in eastern Europe, in Russia and neighboring lands that had been for centuries a powerful part of Christendom. It is well known that till now the Russian Orthodox Church has been acting as the handmaid of the Communist regime, but the dedi-

cated Christian witnesses of Jehovah have been driven underground. By the banning and persecuting of these Christian witnesses the radical, revolutionary ruling elements of this world are acting anything but like the "sheep" of Jesus' parable. The parable sets out that the symbolic "goats" are cursed by the God of heaven. (Matthew 25:41-46) In agreement with this divine curse the radical, revolutionary, socialistic, communistic movement is death-dealing; it is lifeless, like the shed blood of a dead man. Being cast into the vast sea of mankind, it has caused a considerable part, "a third of the sea," to be turned to blood. Proportionately, a "third of the creatures that are in the sea which have souls" face death at Armageddon's war.

The inability of the "red" socialistic and communistic movement to give life, happiness and peace to the people was further emphasized even while the tract "Proclamation — A Warning to All Christians" was being circulated. On February 15, 1924, the sixty-four-page booklet bearing the name "A Desirable Government" was published by the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society, and before the year was ended the Society had sent out 741,449 copies of this revealing booklet. It pointed forward to the approaching death of all worldly man-made governments, especially following the subheading "Government Failure — A Malady."

Though Russia was then in only the seventh year of Bolshevik, Communist, Red rule, page 5, paragraph 2, of A Desirable Government said: "Leading men of the world have advanced various schemes or methods for governmental reform. But these all have proven abortive." This included the attempted political reform in Russia, for page 23 took note of the "great revolution in Russia, Germany, Austria, and other European countries." Page 54 was quite correct in speaking of more trouble "similar to what Russia has already undergone."

The radical, revolutionary organizations that ride

the waves of this bloodied "sea" and that exploit the creatures in such symbolic sea are likewise doomed to be destroyed in the storm of Armageddon. This is what was prophetically pictured after the second angel trumpeted: "And a third of the boats were wrecked." (Revelation 8:9) The radical, revolutionary, socialistic, communistic rulerships will not succeed, for they hate and are working against the long-prayed-for kingdom of God by his Christ. Today there is no reason to think differently from what the Watch Tower Society's book, entitled "Government" and published in 1928, said:

The soviet government has not been a success and never can be, and is far from being satisfactory to the people who have tried it. As in all other forms of government where the people are supposed to have a voice, the demagogues and party men dominate the various councils; and therefore the government has presented no advantages over any other government. In fact, bolshevism has resulted in great suffering of the people, and it is feared by many of the other nations and governments of the earth.

Every form of government man has tried, whether that be monarchy, aristocracy, democracy, republic or social, has been unsatisfactory. — Pages 244, 245.

To this day Jehovah's Christian witnesses, the worldwide advocates and proclaimers of God's kingdom, continue to sound out everywhere the information that was pictorially disclosed after the second heavenly "angel" blew his trumpet back in 1923.

THE THIRD ANGEL BLOWS HIS TRUMPET

The time for the sounding of the third trumpet arrives, and what the apostle John sees in vision is a "star," but not one of the "seven stars" in the right hand of the glorified Jesus Christ and which stars symbolize the seven "angels of the seven congregations." (Revelation 1:16-20) Writes John: "And the third angel blew his trumpet. And a great star burning as a lamp fell from heaven, and it fell upon a third of the rivers and upon the fountains of waters. And the name of the star is called Wormwood [Greek,

The Absinthe]. And a third of the waters turned into wormwood, and many of the men died from the waters, because these had been made bitter." — Revelation 8:10,11.

Here not the salty sea, but the fresh waters, the rivers and the fountains of waters, were affected. The "great star" that plunged from heaven into these fresh waters evidently pictures a class of persons who enjoyed religious privileges like those of the symbolic ''seven stars" but who fall from the high level of privilege and opportunity that the Bible assigns to religious "stars." True dedicated, baptized, spirit-begotten Christians are said to be raised up and seated together "in the heavenly places in union with Christ Jesus." (Ephesians 2:1-6) But this symbolic "great star" does not live up to its profession of being up there. Instead, by its course of action it falls and comes short of being on such a high spiritual elevation. It could have been a spiritual illuminator, but, as it drops from heaven, it is "burning as a lamp" or like a torch, ablaze, on fire to its own destruction. So its name is Wormwood, literally, Absinthe, that name of a bitter plant of which there are several varieties in the Middle East. Its effect upon the fresh waters into which it falls is not sweetening, but is embittering, turning them into wormwood.

In view of these features about it, what religious class of people could this blazing, falling "great star" picture but the apostate Christian clergy of Christendom, Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant and otherwise sectarian? Especially since the days of Roman Emperor Constantine the Great of the fourth century C.E., the religious clergy of Christendom have pretended to offer to the people in their churches the fresh water of the truth that is life-giving, life-sustaining. But what has been the effect of the clergy's fall from true Christianity into apostasy upon the symbolic rivers and water springs of Christendom, the area of which has embraced a large section of the world's population? The people need fresh water from

rivers and fountains in order to live. But what should have been spiritual "water" to sustain the spiritual life of the peoples, the apostate Christian clergy have turned into undrinkable, deadly, bitter wormwood waters. How? By teaching their church members false, pagan, unchristian, unbiblical doctrines, such as eternal torment in hellfire, and by leading the peoples into unchristian practices such as bloody, carnal warfare.

How embittering, how death-dealing the doctrines and religious course of the apostate Christian clergy have been to the peoples of Christendom was specifically emphasized in the year 1924 C.E. As though it was designed to proclaim publicly the facts about this by an ear-splitting trumpet blast, the International Bible Students Association held a general convention in Columbus, Ohio, U.S.A., July 20-27, 1924. On Friday, July 25, the president of the Association delivered the address on "The Temptation — Fall and Victory." At its close he introduced a resolution designated "The Indictment," which was overwhelmingly adopted by the conventioners. The following Sunday, July 27, the president delivered the public address entitled "Civilization Doomed," this doomed civilization including outstandingly Christendom.

That resolution, which featured the Columbus convention — what an "indictment" indeed it was against the apostate religious clergy of all Christendom! How the section thereof under the subheading "Doctrines" exposed the false, God-defaming doctrines of the clergy. It showed the deadliness of the religious course in which the clergy, along with their comrades in politics, were leading the people of Christendom! The clergy were making the people drink what was religiously bitter to them, like wormwood, yes, drink what meant spiritual death to them now and, at Armageddon, eternal physical destruction.

The extent of the damage done by the starlike clergy was well portrayed by what the apostle John saw in the vision, namely, that "many of the men died from the waters, because these had been made

bitter." (Revelation 8:11) What misleading "stars" these clergy have been to Christendom, which claims to be most civilized! Instead of guiding people to God's kingdom, they have steered the people into the League of Nations and the United Nations. In contrast with Bible-student Christians who are true "ambassadors substituting for Christ," what a fall the clergy have had! — 2 Corinthians 5:20.

As if by a trumpet this indictment of the clergy of Christendom was pealed throughout the earth, including Australia. In the United States alone 13,545,000 copies of the resolution "The Indictment" were printed for circulation. Other millions of copies, in foreign languages, were printed abroad. Worldwide distribution began in the following October, over 50,000,000 copies being distributed finally. The Indictment also went out through the columns of The Watch Tower in its issue of September 1, 1924. That was only a beginning of the proclamation of the things that were disclosed after the trumpet blast by the third heavenly angel. Again and again thereafter, by radio stations, singly and in chains, by public lectures, by books, booklets, magazines and tracts, the proclamation of the apostasy of Christendom's clergy and its effects upon the people has been unsparingly made. In 1963 was published the 704-page book "Babylon the Great Has Fallen!" God's Kingdom Rules!, and by 1968 2,803,296 copies had been printed. In 1969 appears the book Is the Bible Really the Word of God? in eleven principal languages, its first edition being three million copies. This book further exposes the falling away of the clergy from true Christian faith.

However, the overall panoramic picture of things in this present system of things is not yet complete. There are four more heavenly angels yet to be heard from. Let us not be afraid to see the whole picture presented, and so let us continue to look with the apostle John at the continuing vision as it is unveiled.

THE FOURTH ANGEL BLOWS HIS TRUMPET

"And the fourth angel blew his trumpet. And a third of the sun was smitten and a third of the moon and a third of the stars, in order that a third of them might be darkened and the day might not have illumination for a third of it, and the night likewise."  — Revelation 8:12.

From such an unusual happening as this in outer space, a third of the earth or its inhabitants would not have any light from heaven either by day or by night. This would cover an area of the earth greater than ancient Egypt, which, in the days of the prophet Moses, was smitten with three days of complete darkness day and night, so intense that it could be felt. That ancient affliction on Egypt was considered to be a blow, a plague, its ninth in a series of ten plagues from the hand of Jehovah God. (Exodus 10:21-23) However, Jehovah's oppressed people in Egypt were made an exception; they did have "light in their dwellings." Today the faithful remnant of anointed Christians, together with the "great crowd" of companion worshipers of Jehovah God, do have spiritual light from heaven in their dwellings. They point to the darkness upon the "third" of the earth.

The Holy Scriptures have been outspoken in declaring that all the Gentile peoples of the earth, those not belonging to Jehovah's chosen people, were in religious darkness, these being alienated from the true God. (Ephesians 5:8; 6:12; Colossians 1:13; 1 Thessalonians 5:4, 5; 1 Peter 2:9; Isaiah 60:1, 2) So it would be nothing strange to portray the so-called pagan peoples as being in spiritual darkness. But what about Christendom, which distinguishes herself from the "pagans"?

Christendom, which now comprehends about one-third of the world's population, claims to be basking in spiritual light from heaven day and night. She has the Holy Scriptures circulated throughout her realm to the number of two billions of copies, in 1,337 tongues. She boasts of having the clergy, Catholic,

Orthodox and Protestant, as being the only duly ordained ministers of Christian religion and as being the only ones authorized to explain the Holy Bible. She assumes to have the light of divine favor because she can brag of having the prominent politicians, the top-ranking military men and the wealthy businessmen as the leading men of her churches. She has the protection of the political state. From Christendom's viewpoint, she enjoys alone the spiritual light from the heavens, as represented by the sun, the moon and the stars. But what does the "fourth angel" reveal to be the facts?

As can be appreciated today, under the guidance of the fourth heavenly angel a regional convention of the International Bible Students Association was held in Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.A., August 24-31, 1925. Friday afternoon, August 29, the then president of the Association delivered to the thousands of conventioners the speech on the theme "A Call to Action," based on the prophecy of Isaiah 62:10. At the close he introduced the resolution that came to be called "Message of Hope." This resolution dealt principally with Christendom, which claims to be the spiritual light of the world. But note what paragraphs 6, 7 say:

Catholicism claims and assumes that which justly belongs exclusively to God. Modernists deny God, deny His Word and His plan of redemption, and offer blind force as a remedy for man's undone condition. Fundamentalists, while professing to believe the Bible, by their course of action deny the same. They teach false and God-dishonoring doctrines, and together with Catholics and Modernists are allied with the political and commercial powers, of the world in blasphemously claiming the ability to establish God's kingdom on earth. All of these have combined under Satan their superlord to push God into a corner and to dishonor his name.

The results are that the people are smarting under the oppressive weight of commercial profiteers and their allies, have lost faith in the political leaders, and no longer have respect for the religionists who have misled them. Being guided by the false light of such an ungodly and unholy alliance, the peoples have fallen into darkness. . . .

By a rising vote the conventioners adopted the resolution that proclaimed such revealing facts as these. Sunday afternoon, August 31, the president delivered the public address on the subject "Lifting Up a Standard for the People," which was attended by around 10,000 persons. Before this address was delivered, the resolution "Message of Hope," previously adopted by the convention, was read to the public. At the close of the public talk the great audience rose in approval of the Resolution and the supporting argument. The resolution was also published in the magazines The Watch Tower and The Golden Age, but on Saturday, October 31, 1925, the distribution of this "Message of Hope" in tract form began in a number of English-speaking countries of Christendom. Finally around 50,000,000 copies in various languages were circulated. Thus, far and wide it was disclosed to the people that in the case of Christendom as a religious third of the population, "the day might not have illumination for a third of it, and the night likewise." (Revelation 8:12) She was not enjoying the light of heaven's truth and favor.

Christendom's floundering around helplessly in the chaos of world affairs painfully plays up the utter religious darkness in which she finds herself. The anointed remnant of Christian witnesses of Jehovah has fearlessly kept on pointing out the bedarkened situation that was symbolically disclosed after the blowing of the fourth trumpet. Attention was specially focused on the deepening darkness of Christendom by the publishing, in 1955, of the thirty-two-page booklet entitled "Christendom or Christianity — Which One Is 'the Light of the World'?" This was given wide circulation in a number of languages. But the contrast between true Christianity and Christendom continues till now to be exposed by the faithful anointed remnant and the associated "great crowd" of God's "men of good will." More and more people see it!

"AN EAGLE"

The people who were adversely affected might have thought that the fulfillment of the tableaus that followed the blowing of the first four trumpets by the heavenly angels was woeful enough. But more and worse things of this kind were to come, and they did, according to the full purpose of God. This was pictured by the interruption that the apostle John saw take place between the sounding of the fourth trumpet and that of the fifth. He writes: "And I saw, and I heard an eagle flying in midheaven say with a loud voice: 'Woe, woe, woe to those dwelling on the earth because of the rest of the trumpet blasts of the three angels who are about to blow their trumpets!'" — Revelation 8:13.

As an eagle flies so high, it can be seen by people over a large area above which it flies and can also be heard widely. It being far-visioned, it could see well ahead of itself with sharp distinctness. (Job 39: 29) It will be remembered that one of the "four living creatures" that John saw about God's heavenly throne included one, the fourth one, "like a flying eagle." (Revelation 4:6, 7) This eagle-like "fourth living creature" invited John to come and see the fourth apocalyptic horseman, Death, riding on a pale horse and followed by Ha'des. (Revelation 6:7, 8) Whether the symbolic "eagle" that John saw flying in mid-heaven pictured one of God's heavenly cherubs making an announcement of world importance, we cannot be sure. At least, this eagle represents some servant or servant class whom God favors with a prevision of things immediately ahead and who informs the anointed remnant on earth, just as the "eagle" advised the apostle John in advance. The remnant was thus reminded that three more trumpets were yet to be blown, preceding the bold disclosure of further woeful things. This meant more work for the remnant, calling for great courage. Accordingly, further international assemblies were planned and announced by the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society.