A Third Part Of Men

Rev 9:15 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.

Rev 9:16 And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.

Rev 9:17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.

Rev 9:18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.

The Twelfth Chapter of Revelation - Armageddon

A Third Part of Men

In the morning of the day of the Lord, when the two witnesses of Jesus with many of the lambs, belonging to the Good Shepherd, are slain, then comes the Revenger to carry out the act correspond ing with that one that gave rise to the Passover. The innocent blood on the doorposts to the sheepfold will then be a sign for the Revenger to pass by.

Everything in the new dispensation developes in personal objects, so also with regard to the Revenger. According to Rev. 9th chapter it will be the Mohammedans that now will carry out that terrible act. Up to the present they have been divided in their religious views and, besides, they have had no implements of war to compete with the nations. But the world war has wroth a won- derful change among them. The following excerpt from an histor ian throws some light on the present situation among them.

"For centuries there has been bitter factions and strife be tween the two major groups of Moslems, the Sunnites and the Shiahs. The former consider themselves the "Ortodox" branch and to their creed the Turks all subscribe. They have been ac customed to despise and persecute the Shiah Moslems, who have their strong following in Persia and India. Practically all Persians are adherents of the Shiah sect, who accept Ali, the son-in-law of Mohammed, as the true Caliph, and who commemorate the martyr dom of Hussein, the grandson of the prophet, as their most moving religious anniversary. There are various lesser points of disagree ment between the two sects, but the schism is primarily upon the historical point indicated.

Ominously, the friction between Shiahs and Sunnites seems for the moment in abeyance. The people of Persia are newly stirred as Moslems rather than as Shiahs. They show a sinister sympathy with the Turks, due in part to the hostility to the course of other nations in Persia. One of the sensitive spots of the world's organism at the moment is this decrepit old land of Persia on whose soil and about whose borders the world war rages.

Ancient Persia may be the land of Mysticism and subtle speculation, but the present religious unrest is not taking exactly that form. Instead, every Moslem is getting a gun and making ready for the day when he can show his ortodoxy toward the Christians, and the Armenians in particular."

The historian concludes his article with the following worth: "The popular form of argument (among the Mohammedans) is a knife or a gun. I am obliged to give credence to the gravity of the situation."

As a consequence of the world war the part of Russia called Ucrania, has become friendly to Germany. In that part of the country are a great amount of Mohammedans and they will now have access to get all the war implements they desire. And by the time the prophecy is to be fulfilled they stand ready to carry out the part they are assigned to do. The prophecy says that they shall kill them that has not the seal of God on their forehead and that one third part of men, where they carry on the act of revenge, will be killed.

That terrible act, as said, belongs to the last Passover and comes as a consequence of the slaughter the nations have done among the people of the new covenant. They, by slaying the wit nesses of Jesus and a great many of the same faith, believe that they serve God and drive satan and his agents out from the earth. But they soon will find out, like the Egyptians did, that they thereby prepare for themselves a most terrible vengeance.

Christ as the Lord of the prophecy gives the following admonition :

"Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the say ings of the prophecy of this book."

The Book of the Revelation which God gave His Son "to shew unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass" (be carried out in a comparatively short time), contains the description of the Joshuah movement belonging to the New Covenant. Some of our theologians at our time consider the book of the Revelation as an apocryphal or spurious book, which has no harmony with the rest of the Bible. The main reason for such conclusion is that they can not understand it. And why is it so obscure to them? Because their theological mind is controlled by the doctrine of Mithras, and in that theory a prophet or leader like Moses or Joshua has no place. The way to the kingdom according to that is by the way of the air.

By Acts 3. 19-24 we see that Christ returns from heaven as a prophet like Moses, and that means that He gathers the tribes of Jacob about Him to lead them onward toward the kingdom. When He was here the first time He commenced that movement with the class that then followed Him but the movement was cut off by the crusifixion and remains in that shape until He returns.

The Four Winds of the Earth Armageddon

Now we read the proclamation of the sixth angel, v. 13-16:

"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. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them."

The four angels bound in the great river Euphrates symbolizes the military powers indicated by the four winds of the earth. The river Euphrates was running through the old Babylon, the mother to the mystical Babylon of the Revelation, which signifies the kingdom of the gods of the sun christianized. The mohammedan people symbolizes that stream running through the daughter of Babylon, and by the four great European nations the military power of Ishmael in the four parts of the earth has been bound or hindered to accomplish the work assigned to it by the prophet Mohammed, namely to conquer the world.

The bound angels or representatives of the military power of Ishmael have been prepared but hindered in one hour, one day, one month and one year (profetic reckoning; one day for a solar year), namely 391 years. Then we may ask: When was the military power of the mohammedan stream tied up and hindered to carry on its prophetic mission?

The history tells us that at the time the Reformation by Mar tin Luther had worked its way so that the princes of the Prussian kingdom were actuated by it, the military power of Ishmael was operating in Hungary and on its way to the very gates of the Em pire of Austria.

Charles V, then the king of Spain and Emperor of Austria, appealed to the princes of Prussia to come to his aid, and they would drive the turks out of Europe. Luther, on account that the Emperor had refused to sanction the appeal the leaders of the Reformation had laid before him concerning certain religious rites, then advised the princes not to sustain him. This occured about the time the Pope sent Luther the anathema which then so stirred the world. That happened in the year 1520. And about the same time the mohammedan army was withdrawn and the war ended as by a magic power.

From that time then we reckon the beginning of the 391 years, and, added to 1520, they would end in the year 1911. That year the power of Italy sent its army to Tripolis and declared war on Turkey. Then in 1912 the Balkan war broke out, and in 1914 the world war was declared. The loosening process of the mohammedans have continued ever since 1911, but it takes the blowing of the four winds to reach that great mass in all parts of the world. It takes time and circumstances to bring them on a general war path. But surely they are coming.

The world war with its present united powers is finally com plete in the fulfillment of the prophecy about the four winds. From all the quarters of the world it draws its supply in order to con tinue the lenght of time set apart for its destructive work. But finally the sealing time sets in and with that movement the command goes forth that the winds shall not blow, while the servants of God are sealed.

From Rev. 9. 4 we see that the military power of Ishmael shall not hurt those that are sealed with the seal of God.

We are now living in the loosening time, a period of dissolu tion, where the tying chains that have held the people down under the bonds of military power, are link by link loosening their hold on the masses in every country. The war-winds will yet accomplish a great deal in the work of dissolution.

The Tripoli War—A Great Sign Of The Time

The first cry of woe dates from the time Osman (Ottoman) organized the Mohammedan hordes under a civilian head and set up among them a governmental system. This was in the latter part of the 13th century. He marched to war against the Roman empire on the 27th of July, 1299, and the prophecy shows that this war would continue five prophetic months—150 years. At the end of this period the Roman imperial power was so shattered that the throne ascended only by the consent of the sultan.

After this rose up Mohammed II, who continued the war, which terminated by leaving the mighty imperial city of Constantinople completely in the hands of the Mohammedan hordes, they making it their capital city.

There we see how the Ishmaelitic sword, inspired by the Koran, cleared away the imperial power, with its oppressive vassal representatives. But there remained still another sword, namely, the religious, in order to blast away the papal oppression. This sword was lifted through the Reformation.

The first woe-period came to an end where the Reformation began. And let us look at the condition existing in the Roman empire at that time. Through the Pope's political power the Catholic Church then controlled every country, and the religious oppression was even worse than the political. Everywhere the people were taxed under the pretext that churches and religious institutions had to be built, and the voice of the Pope was as if it had come from heaven. The rulers were Catholics, and they received great privileges and titles of honor through the manipulations of the Pope. And the priesthood controlled the people by means of the religious influence.

Such was the situation when the monk Luther appeared on the scene. His mind was especially aroused by the sales of indulgences. The entire so-called Christian world was then trembling before the mighty Pope, who demanded obedience and complete submission. The bull of excommunication constituted an invincible sword which neither priest nor king dared to defy. It was linked to the stake, and the defiant soon became the prey of the flames.

And then when Luther publicly burned the bull of excommunication issued by the Pope, this acted like a declaration of war that never had seen its equal. The bull was burned in the autumn of 1520, and this event just about paralyzed all who belonged to or knew the papal power. The Thirty-Year War followed on this burning of the bull of excommunication.

Emperor Charles V, of Austria, who also was king of Spain, was the highest political leader, to whom all turned for defense and assistance. The German princes took more or less part in the Reformation, and the Elector Frederick, of Saxony, was the most influential, sided in with Luther.

The Arabian warring hordes continued their forward march, having at this time entered into Hungary and threatened the Austrian capital. The emperor appealed to the German princes to come and help him drive the Turk out of Europe. But because he had refused to recognize the Protestant confession, Luther and the other reformers rose up against the emperor, advising the princes to reject the appeal of the emperor. Luther then uttered the historically known words: "The worst Turk is seated in Rome, let us drive him away first." He then added: "If we drive away the Turks, then Daniel's prophecy will be fulfilled, and then, be certain of this, the day of judgment is at hand."

Under the circumstances quoted the first woe-period terminated. It was the Mohammedans who paved the way for the Reformation to be able to get through. The once so powerful Constantinian imperial throne was now in the hands of the Turks, and their caliph was now, according to the word of prophecy, seated as victor on the throne in Constantinople.

The second woe-period is prophetically designated as follows:

"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. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them." (Rev. 9:13 16.)

We notice that it says in the preceding verse that, "One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter." Hence the sixth woe belongs exclusively to the second period of woe. This period begins with the loosening of the bound angels—the representatives of the powers—who are bound in the river Euphrates. Between the termination of the first period of woe and the beginning of the second, there is a period of 391 years, signified by a day, and a month, and a year, thus 391 days according to the lunar system of reckoning, and a prophetic day signifies an ordinary solar year, having 360 days.

Loosen the four angels, who have been bound for 391 years. We are of the opinion that the angels, in the first place, represent the principal quarters within the Mohammedan world. The Mohammedans are scattered in Asia, Africa and Europe, great many of them in Arabia. Everywhere they have been bound by the great powers of Europe, who have held their armed fist over them, as in Egypt, India, Morocco, Persia, Tunis, and wherever they are found, even in Turkey and on the Balkan peninsula.

"Loose them," is the decisive message which now goes forth. When Luther burned the Pope's bull of excommunication, that public act, terrifying the whole world, signalized that a new era had been ushered in, and that God now had a special work to carry out against the religious part of the Babylonian power. But while this work is developing to its full maturity according to God's plan, the four angels, with their swords, are bound. Through the bold aggression and defiant stand of the Reformation, it was signaled to the entire world that Europe's unity was broken, and, as a natural result, that its power of opposition was weakened. The aim of the Mohammedans was to conquer the world, and they had then already vanquished the armies of both the Western and Eastern Rome and had made the imperial city the center of the caliph. And when Emperor Charles V was unable to gather the German princes to wage war on the Mohammedan hordes, it appeared that the road was open for these military hosts to proceed onward to their goal.