"Then Is Finished The Mystery Of God"

Chapter 17

The Blowing of the Fifth and Sixth Trumpets

Revelation 9

WHAT unfolded itself to the vision of the apostle John after the fifth heavenly angel blew his trumpet reminds us very much of the frightful plague of locusts that was prophetically described in Joel 2:1-11. In fact, a number of the ideas and comparisons in Joel's prophecy correspond with those in John's description. In vivid terms the apostle John writes:

"And the fifth angel blew his trumpet. And I saw a star that had fallen from heaven to the earth, and the key of the pit of the abyss was given him. And he opened the pit of the abyss, and smoke ascended out of the pit as the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun was darkened, also the air, by the smoke of the pit. And out of the smoke locusts came forth upon the earth; and authority was given them, the same authority as the scorpions of the earth have. And they were told to harm no vegetation of the earth nor any green thing nor any tree, but only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.

"And it was granted the locusts, not to kill them, but that these should be tormented five months, and the torment upon them was as torment by a scorpion when it strikes a man. And in those days the men will seek death but will by no means find it, and they will desire to die but death keeps fleeing from them.

"And the likenesses of the locusts resembled horses

prepared for battle; and upon their heads were what seemed to be crowns like gold, and their faces were as men's faces, but they had hair as women's hair. And their teeth were as those of lions; and they had breastplates like iron breastplates. And the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running into battle. Also, they have tails and stings like scorpions; and in their tails is their authority to hurt the men five months. They have over them a king, the angel of the abyss. In Hebrew his name is Abaddon, but in Greek he has the name Apollyon." — Revelation 9:1-11.

The star now seen by the apostle John is different from the "great star burning as a lamp" seen falling from heaven after the third angel blew his trumpet. (Revelation 8:10) Who, then, is this "star that had fallen from heaven" that John saw after the blowing of the fifth trumpet? We are helped to identify him, for "the key of the pit of the abyss" was given to him, and he unlocked this place. Also, he is "the angel of the abyss," and he is king over the terrible swarm of locusts that fly out of the abyss. In Hebrew his name is Abaddon, meaning "Destruction"; and in Greek it is Apollyon, meaning "Destroyer." All this plainly identifies the "angel" as picturing Jesus Christ, the Son of Jehovah God.

About a century before John's vision this Son of God had descended from heaven to earth to be born as the man-child Jesus. At his sacrificial death and burial he descended into the abyss. (Philippians 2: 5-8; Ephesians 4:7-10; Romans 10:6, 7) On the third day of his death God brought him up from the abyss and gave him the key of the abyss, which here corresponds with Ha'des, the common grave of dead mankind. He thus has power over dead mankind.

This is why, in Revelation 1:17, 18, the resurrected Jesus Christ says that he is now forever alive from the dead and "I have the keys of death and of Ha'des." He is also the "angel" of Revelation 20: 1-3 who comes down and binds Satan the Devil and

his demons and throws them into the abyss and shuts them up in it for a thousand years. After the end of his thousand-year reign over mankind, he will destroy Satan the Devil and his demons following their release from the abyss for a little while. In this way he will fulfill God's prophecy in Genesis 3:15. At the approaching battle of Armageddon he will also destroy the earthly enemies who then fight against God's Messianic kingdom. (Revelation 19:11-21; 20: 7-10) He will fulfill his name "Destroyer."

Who, now, are the symbolic locusts that he releases from the "pit of the abyss"? Insect locusts do not have a king over them (Proverbs 30:27); but Jesus Christ is king over these symbolic "locusts," for which reason they must be the present-day anointed remnant of his disciples who are joint heirs with him for the heavenly kingdom. That is why upon the heads of these "locusts" there were "what seemed to be crowns like gold." (Revelation 9:7) During the first world war (1914-1918 C.E.) Jehovah God had permitted them to be put by their religious, political and military enemies into the deathlike, inactive spiritual condition like that inside the "pit of the abyss"; but after World War I God used the reigning King Jesus Christ to release these symbolic locusts from this "pit of the abyss." How? By revitalizing them for worldwide Kingdom work foretold in Matthew 24:14 and Mark 13:10.

These symbolic locusts are subject to the glorified Jesus Christ as their King and as Head of the Christian congregation. To point up this fact, the "locusts" are pictured as having "hair as women's hair," although "their faces were as men's faces." Women's hair, being naturally long, is a sign of having authority upon her head or exercised over her. (1 Corinthians 11:7-15; Ephesians 5:21-32; 1:22, 23) As they are followers of the "Lion that is of the tribe of Judah, the root of David," the teeth of these "locusts" are "as those of lions." Spiritually speaking, they are able as mature Christians to devour the

hard, solid food found in God's Word, particularly the truths about God's kingdom as ruled by this "Lion that is of the tribe of Judah," Jesus Christ. (Hebrews 5:14 to 6:3; 1 Corinthians 3:1, 2) Like Christ, they have a love for God's righteousness, and this love of righteousness is like a breastplate to protect their hearts.

Quite fittingly, then, the "locusts" were pictured as having "breastplates like iron breastplates." In fact, they have on the "complete suit of armor from God," and this enables them to accept their part in suffering evil as 'fine soldiers of Christ.' (Ephesians 6:11-18; 2 Timothy 2:3, 4) Like an army of Christian soldiers, they are ready to do spiritual battle with weapons that are from God against false religious reasonings and "every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God." (2 Corinthians 10: 3-5) No wonder those locusts "resembled horses prepared for battle"! — Revelation 9:7-9.

Unlike natural locusts, these symbolic locusts were told not to devour with their lionlike teeth any vegetation, green thing or tree. They were to harm "only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads." These particular men would therefore not be of the 144,000 spiritual Israelites who are sealed with the "seal of the living God" before the "four winds" are let loose from the "four corners of the earth." (Revelation 7:1-8) Evidently, because "those men" make religious professions of being spiritual Israelites in God's new covenant, people would expect these to be the sealed ones. Among all the professors of the Christian religion, such "men" who do not have the seal would be the ordained clergy, Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant, together with the commercial profiteers, politicians and military officers who are prominent members of their churches. Their not being really "sealed" proves that they are false to their claims.

How were these to be 'harmed'? The symbolic locusts were instructed "not to kill them," but to tor-

ment them. This would be in a religious sense. How? As with scorpions' stings. In their tails the locusts had "stings like scorpions," with which to strike the unsealed men of Christendom. For how long? For "five months." This would mean for their lifetime as symbolic locusts, for the insect locust gets born in springtime and dies at the end of summer, thus after about five months of life. (Revelation 9:5, 10) Now to the question, When did this tormenting begin?

THE "LOCUST" ATTACK BEGINS

In the apostle John's vision, this tormenting operation began after the fifth angel blew his trumpet. In modern fulfillment, the symbolical trumpet blowing that heralded the locust attack occurred in the spring of 1926. On May 25-31 of this year the International Bible Students Association held an international convention in London, England, the famous Royal Albert Hall being used for the two public meetings the last two days and the Alexandra Palace for the other sessions. Friday afternoon, May 28, after the speech on "The Servant and Service" based on chapter forty-nine of Isaiah, the Association's president introduced the resolution entitled "A Testimony to the Rulers of the World." Enthusiastically the convention adopted this. Also, the newly published 384-page book Deliverance was released to the convention. Sunday night, May 30, the same resolution was first read to the packed-out Royal Albert Hall, after which the president, in support of the resolution, gave the thrilling public talk on "Why World Powers Are Tottering — The Remedy." Did this get publicity?

The next morning a London newspaper with a regular circulation of 800,000 copies came put with a full presentation of the resolution "A Testimony" and the supporting public speech, and by extra copies being printed a million or more copies reached the reading public. The speech pointed to the Devilish origin of the League of Nations, which was promoted and supported by the British Government and reli-

giously advocated by the clergy of Britain and all of Christendom. According to Bible prophecy, it boldly declared the ultimate failure of such an international organization for world peace and security. The failure of the clergy to support God's true Messianic kingdom was forthrightly pointed out. The new book Deliverance called attention to similar world-important things. Likewise, the new booklet The Standard for the People, 110,000 copies of which the conventioners offered on Saturday on the streets of London on a small contribution. Later upward of fifty million copies of the resolution "A Testimony" were distributed free in tract form, in many languages, all around the globe.

The reaction that followed, in Britain, in America and elsewhere, made it manifest that the symbolic "locusts" were tormenting the foremost professing Christians "who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads." The exposure of human schemes that were devised in the name of religion and against God's kingdom stung like the sting from the tail of a scorpion. Figuratively speaking, such "men" would have liked to die in order to get away from this torment that stung their religious pride, but the "death" that they sought kept "fleeing from them." The great publicity that was being given to the stinging truths by radio, public lecture and printed literature was something they could not get away from. As the symbolic locusts winged their way about, a loud sound of publicity went along, "as the sound of chariots of many horses running into battle." The "locusts," in fact, were engaged in a real spiritual battle. — Revelation 9:5, 6, 9, 10.

Just as the insect locusts carry on their devastating work like a plague for the length of their lifetime, "five months," so the symbolic locusts carry on in this tormenting work for as long as they live and have this divine commission to do tormenting. When the deathblow was given to the League of Nations by World War II, this did not mean an end to their

commission to torment religiously the unsealed men of Christendom. The world's peace and security organization reappeared in the form of the United Nations in 1945. This called for further stinging of the unsealed "Christians" who favor and hope in the United Nations instead of the heavenly kingdom of Jehovah God by Jesus Christ.

The "locusts" had come out of the "pit of the abyss," where they had been subjected to forced inactivity during World War I, and now they were determined to make the most of their dedicated Christian lives. The opening of the abyss for them by the "angel of the abyss" meant nothing good for the unsealed "men" of Christendom. As if out of a smoking "great furnace" the symbolic locusts came up against them and were all fired up, heated up with zeal for God's kingdom.

The rising smoke was a signal in advance of the woe that was to come upon the unsealed "men" of the professed Christian world. It portended that their day was not to be brightened, for by the smoke "the sun was darkened." In the case of a very heavy swarm of locusts, "sun and moon themselves have become dark," to persons on the ground underneath the flying locust swarm.

The apostle John reports that "also the air" was darkened by the smoke from the pit of the abyss. Like smoke thickening the atmosphere that one tries to breathe, so, too, the air close to the ground could be "darkened" or be thick with flying locusts in a dense moving swarm. (Revelation 9:2; Joel 2:10) If a literal, natural locust plague could be so woeful, a plague of symbolic locusts would be no less woeful, especially when the locusts have something like a scorpion's tail with a sting and persistently go after certain men to torment them to the point of their wanting to die! Good reason there was, then, for the onlooking apostle John to call it a "woe," when he said after seeing the tableau that followed

the fifth trumpet: "The one woe is past. Look! Two more woes are coming after these things."

This was in agreement with what the eagle flying in midheaven had forewarned. (Revelation 9:12; 8: 13) Just as the locust plague down in ancient Egypt in Moses' days had not harmed God's chosen people of Israel, so the first "woe" had not hurt the remnant of the 144,000 sealed ones of spiritual Israel, neither any of the "great crowd" of God-fearing persons who worship Jehovah God at his spiritual temple. (Revelation 7:2-15) It would be expected, then, that the remaining two "woes" would not hurtfully affect these two groups either. — Exodus 8:22, 23; 9:3-19.

THE SIXTH ANGEL BLOWS HIS TRUMPET

What form would the second "woe" take to afflict "those dwelling on the earth"? The apostle John informs us as he 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.' 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 9:13-15) The expression "the hour and day and month and year" would mark a precisely definite time, and this would indicate that Jehovah God is a strict Timekeeper.

Likewise, the "voice out of the horns of the golden altar" must be speaking just at the right time, in advance of the loosing of the "four angels." Since this golden altar was used by God's angel in conjunction with offering up the incense along "with the prayers of the holy ones before God," this "voice" evidently offers a prayer, instead of a command, to the sixth angelic trumpeter for the loosing of the "four angels." (Revelation 8:3, 4) Such a voice from the four altar horns properly symbolizes prayers for a release as offered by the anointed remnant as if with "one voice" and with full strength, the power

pictured by the 'four horns.' They would pray, not for "four angels" in the invisible spirit realm to be released, but for themselves. Hence the word "angels" here takes its basic meaning of messengers.

In the apostle John's day the "great river Euphrates" was the eastern border of the Roman Empire. It was also the northeastern border of the land that Jehovah God promised to the patriarch Abraham. (Genesis 15:18, 19) However, in the Bible the principal association of this river was with ancient Babylon as founded by the "mighty hunter" Nimrod. (Genesis 10:8-10) In the year 607 B.C.E, the Babylonian Empire destroyed Jerusalem and its glorious temple and carried off most of the surviving Jews into exile in Babylon. Thereafter these Jews and their descendants were held bound in exile at the Euphrates River for seventy years. The prayers of the faithful, God-fearing ones ascended to Jehovah God for release at his due time, in the appointed year, the seventieth year of the utter desolation of the territory of Judah and Jerusalem. At the foretold seventieth year, 537 B.C.E., God answered their prayers and released them by the new Aryan king of Babylon, Cyrus the Conqueror. (Psalms 102:13-22; 126:1-4; 137:1-9; 2 Chronicles 36:20-23; Daniel 9:1-4) An experience similar to this was had by modern-day spiritual Israel.

During World War I the remnant of spiritual Israel was brought into bondage to Babylon the Great, the world empire of false religion, and her political and military paramours. After the end of the first world war on November 11, 1918, the faithful anointed remnant, held "bound" at the antitypical "great river Euphrates," prayed for release. To their surprise and joy, their being loosed or untied came in the first postwar year, 1919. In grateful devotion to the great God of their deliverance they now presented themselves as ready to do His will and work at any hour, day, month and year whatsoever. When the time came for Him to have the sixth trumpet sounded, to be

followed by any action then due, they showed themselves ready and willing. They were indeed "prepared for the hour and day and month and year, to kill a third of the men." — Revelation 9:14, 15.

KILLING THE "THIRD OF THE MEN"

At the time for the killing to take place the mass of mankind was expected to be worshiping demons, idolizing images of various materials, committing murders, carrying on spiritistic practices and indulging in sexual immorality. (Revelation 9:20, 21) Yet not all of these were to be "killed," only a "third of the men." Population calculators figure that in the first century of our era, in the apostle John's day, the population of the whole world was 250,000,000, or only 50,000,000 more than the number of "horses" that John next saw. Today the world population is calculated as over 3,419,420,000 persons, whereas by the year 1930 it had reached only 2,000,000,000. A third of these would be a large number, but that is about the number of those who profess to be members of the churches of Christendom, Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant and other sectarians. No war of human history down to this very year has killed off so many persons, not even all human wars put together. So it is apparent that the killing of a "third of the men" is a symbolic or spiritual kind of killing. How was it done?

The "four angels" that were loosed from their bonds at the "great river Euphrates" appear to be the leaders of the 'killers.' The apostle John describes them after telling of the loosing of the "four angels," saying: "And the number of the armies of cavalry 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. 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 they do harm." — Revelation 9:16-19.

The number of the horsemen that the apostle John heard was "two myriads of myriads," that is to say, two hundred million, or twenty thousand times ten thousand. That was only 50,000,000 short of the estimated world population of John's day. And yet these 200,000,000 horsemen would kill only "a third of the men" by means of the plagues! Of course, a third of the world population by the year 1930 would be around 700,000,000. What, then, is pictured by these 200,000,000 horses and their riders? They were indeed a tremendous reinforcement to the "four angels" who had been released from bondage at the "great river Euphrates" to accomplish this tremendous killing in a spiritual sense. And evidently the "horses" were directed against the great world empire of false religion, Babylon the Great, prefigured by ancient Babylon on the river Euphrates. (Revelation 16:12-19) At the time of the blowing of the sixth trumpet the dominant part of Babylon the Great was under attack, namely, Christendom. Quite properly so, for Christendom is most hypocritical religiously, most reprehensible.

In the language in which the apostle John wrote (the common Greek) the expression "they had . . . breastplates" could apply both to the horses and to "those seated on them." Probably, though, it applies to only the riders, in which case this is the only feature that is described about those seated on the horses. The most description is given to the horses themselves. As the horses were pictured as having riders, this would indicate that these symbolic horses had human intellect controlling them and guiding them. Since the riders acted for or under the loosed "four angels" who are commissioned "to kill a third

of the men," this signifies that the symbolic horses are under the intellectual control and guidance of these four "angels" or messengers, namely, the anointed remnant that was released from Babylon the Great in the year 1919. Only their "breastplates" come foremost to view.

"They had fire-red and hyacinth-blue and sulphur-yellow breastplates." Their breastplates in having such colors suggest three destructive things, fire, dark smoke, and sulphur. Thus these messengers or "four angels" would have a message of destruction in their hearts for the "third of the men" who were to be killed. It was a message of destruction like that which anciently befell Sodom and Gomorrah, upon which cities God rained down fire and sulphur from heaven and from the burning of which a smoke ascended "like the thick smoke of a kiln." (Genesis 19:23-28; Luke 17:28-30) Like Sodom and Gomorrah, so ancient Babylon was foretold to become a deserted ruin.  — Jeremiah 50:40.

As foretold in Revelation 14:9-11, in the present "time of the end" of this system of things those persons who worship and serve the Devil's earthly political institutions are being tormented with fire and sulphur to the death and are having the "smoke of their torment" ascend forever and ever. Those political systems themselves will be thrown into the "fiery lake that burns with sulphur," which lake symbolizes destruction, "the second death." (Revelation 19:20; 20:10, 14, 15; 21:8) The divine message setting forth such destructive elements as these is what the anointed remnant keep to the front like a breastplate. In this way, just like the released "four angels," the released remnant forewarn the "third of the men" of their impending destruction at the coming execution of God's just judgment. They can pronounce such Babylonish "men" of Christendom to be already spiritually dead, awaiting destruction at God's hands. Thus these messengers like the "four angels" kill such "third of the men."

PUBLICITY "HORSES"

However, more attention is devoted to the horses than to their riders. More description is made of the horses as being the main thing in this prophetic tableau. Well, now, what do such symbolic "horses" picture? Symbolic cavalrymen rode these horses. So, too, the anointed remnant of messengers use symbolic horses, namely, the vehicles by means of which the remnant present their terrifying message. It is the vehicle that bears them to the people. (Esther 8: 10, 14) Armed with it they proceed against the "third of the men" who are to be "killed," spiritually speaking. That is to say, the symbolic "horses" picture the means of publicizing the judgment message that the anointed remnant use, particularly the printed page. Since in the Revelation (6:2, 4; 9:9; 19:11-21) as well as in the rest of the Bible horses imply warfare (except in Isaiah 28:28), the means of publicity used by the breastplated remnant have to do with spiritual warfare.

"And the heads of the horses were as heads of lions." This fact recalls that the first of the four living creatures that John saw around God's throne was like a lion, which pictured courageous justice. Also, the self-sacrificing Lamb of God was called "the Lion that is of the tribe of Judah, the root of David." (Revelation 4:6, 7; 5:5) Accordingly, the publicity means used by the anointed remnant since the blowing of the sixth trumpet show great courage and are justly used. Also, they have to do with the established heavenly kingdom of Jesus Christ, the symbolic Lion of the tribe of Judah, to which his forefather David belonged. That kingdom is God's agency by which he deals out destruction to the "third of the men" in His due time. That is why the description of the symbolic horses says: "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." — Revelation 9:17, 18.

This multitudinous means of publishing the destruction coming to the foes of God's Messianic kingdom also has a painful sting. This feature of the symbolic horses is called attention to in the words: "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 they do harm." (Revelation 9:19) The serpentlike tail was thus just as destructive as what issued out of the mouths of the symbolic horses. The bite from such a serpentlike tail was poisonous, and it produced a burning sensation preliminary to the death of the one bitten. The symbolic horses had death-dealing power in a double way, both when approaching and when leaving their victims behind. There was no escaping it; the deadly message was bound to take effect, to indicate that the execution of God's judgment of destruction on the Kingdom's enemies is sure. What is announced by the symbolic horses of Kingdom publicity is certain to be carried out. What a woe such publicity is to the enemies! It is nothing invisible in the spirit world! It is visible, tangible!

Such symbolic horses were sent into action in modern times after the sounding of the sixth trumpet. This action began with the notable public event of importance to God's kingdom in the year 1927 C.E. On July 18-25 an international assembly was held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, by the International Bible Students Association. On Sunday, August 24, 1927, the high point of this convention was reached, at the widely advertised public meeting. A visible public audience of 15,000 gathered to the convention auditorium, but there was an invisible audience of countless millions tied in with the speaker's stand by a radio network of fifty-three stations. This was the greatest radio

chain ever forged up to that time, through the agency of the National Broadcasting Company of America. The subject of the hour's public address was "Freedom for the Peoples." First the speaker, the then president of the International Bible Students Association, read a resolution of ten paragraphs addressed "To the Peoples of Christendom." In the public address that followed he spoke in elucidation and support of the stirring resolution.

Listening supporters of Christendom must have felt the fiery, sulphurous heat when the opening resolution said:

. . . Therefore God has decreed and declared that there shall come upon the world a time of tribulation such as never was known and that during that trouble "Christendom" or "organized Christianity," so-called, and all of Satan's organization shall be destroyed; and that Christ Jesus, the righteous King, will assume complete authority and control and will bless the peoples of earth.

SIXTH: That it must be now apparent to all thoughtful peoples that relief, comfort and blessings so much desired by them can never come from the unrighteous system of "Christendom" or "organized Christianity," and that there is no reason to give further support to that hypocritical and oppressive system. 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, because it is the Devil's organization, and to give it no support whatsoever; and that the peoples give their heart's devotion and allegiance wholly to Jehovah God and to his King and kingdom and receive full freedom and the blessings God has in store for them. . . .

At the close of the public address that enlarged upon the resolution the visible audience rose to its feet in support of the resolution, and doubtless many of the invisible audience of millions did the same, except those of the "third of the men" who were to be killed, spiritually speaking. To these latter ones it was the beginning of a frightful "woe."

Now for the first time such an international convention resolution and its supporting speech were printed in booklet form for distribution, this booklet

being entitled "Freedom for the Peoples." It was also translated into a number of languages.

On October 1, 1927, distribution of this Freedom booklet began. In course of time millions of copies were placed in the hands of the common people as well as their rulers. To use the symbolic illustration of Revelation 9:16-19, myriads of "horses" having lions' heads and breathing out fire, smoke and sulphur began dashing out, especially against Christendom, and under the intellectual driving and control of the anointed remnant, the released "four angels." These myriads of "horses" were only forerunners of what was to come. On March 1, 1927, the printing establishment of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society had moved into its new and larger eight-story factory in Brooklyn, New York, to carry on a greater offensive against the foes of God's kingdom by publishing and shipping out more Bibles, books, booklets, magazines and tracts, like sending out charging "horses."

But what about "two myriads of myriads" of such "horses"? Well, this new factory built and owned by the Watchtower Society, Incorporated, of New York, printed and shipped out millions of pieces of Bible literature during its first year, hundreds of myriads of copies of such. However, this factory became the nucleus of a grand factory complex that today occupies four city blocks, the latest addition being a ten-story factory that was dedicated January 31, 1968. To all this there have been added printing establishments connected with a number of the ninety-four branches of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society of Pennsylvania around the globe. These are all turning out enormous quantities of Bible literature. Together, throughout the years since 1927, they have printed and shipped out "two myriads of myriads" of pieces of Bible literature, and then some. The charging of these symbolic "horses" increased greatly when the Watch Tower's magazines began to be offered on the streets, from house to house, from store

to store. Today 5,800,000 copies of each issue of The Watchtower are printed, twice a month. In 1968 there were 138,615,041 copies printed in 72 languages. Its companion magazine Awake! had a printing of 135, 689,298 in 26 languages. This sums up to 274,304,339 magazines printed in just one year.

Thus the charge of these symbolic "horses" against the doomed "third of the men" has increased from year to year, all such "horses" being under the guidance of the anointed remnant, the released "four angels." That is why all these hundreds of millions of pieces of Bible literature are not handled by and distributed through commercial bookstores, but are circulated by Jehovah's Christian witnesses, who go from house to house. From a spiritual standpoint, these symbolic "horses" continue killing off the "third of the men," but what about all the rest of mankind? Have they responded to the call to liberty, to Christian freedom from religious Babylon the Great?

A "great crowd" of God-fearing persons have done so throughout the earth, as foretold at Revelation 7:9-17. To them the religious priests and clergy of Babylon the Great have become as dead, without religious domination over these freed members of the "great crowd." But otherwise, comparatively speaking, it has been as the apostle John foresaw: "But the rest of the 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 copper and stone and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk; and they did not repent of their murders nor of their spiritistic practices nor of their fornication nor of their thefts." (Revelation 9:20, 21) The hopes of the "third of the men" for world conversion to Christendom's religion are therefore doomed. The fiery-sulphurous, plaguing messages of the symbolic "horses" continue to point out the coming disaster to Christendom as the dominant part of Babylon the Great. The second "woe" must continue to its full realization!