The document summarizes the fulfillment of the 7 trumpets, focusing on the 5th trumpet. It describes how the fall of the Persian king Chosroes opened the way for the rise of Islam under Muhammad. After Chosroes' defeat, there was anarchy in Persia for 8 years, allowing the Arabian caliphs to conquer Persia. It then discusses how the invading Islamic armies that arose from the "bottomless pit" or wilderness of Arabia had power like scorpions for 150 "prophetic years" to torment the Roman-Byzantine world from the 7th-13th centuries AD. Their cavalry armies spread rapidly like locusts or horsemen prepared for battle, darkening
2. “And I beheld, and heard an angel
flying through the midst of heaven,
saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe,
woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by
reason of the other voices of the
trumpet of the three angels, which are
yet to sound!” Revelation 8:13
3. “…Some prophecies God has
repeated, thus showing that
importance must be given to them.
The Lord does not repeat things
that are of no great consequence.”
(Ms 107, 1897, p. 1, 2)
4. Woe = Judgments
Jeremiah 50: 26, 27
“Come against her from
the utmost border, open
her storehouses: cast her
up as heaps, and destroy
her utterly: let nothing of
her be left. Slay all her
bullocks; let them go
down to the slaughter:
woe unto them! for their
day is come, the time of
their visitation.”
See also:
Isaiah 3:11; Ezekiel 16; 23-27
Hosea 7:12-14
5. “The ‘woe, woe, woe!’
was pronounced upon a
church who walked in
the sparks of their own
kindling…” (Pamphlets
28, 1890, p. 3)
6. “…These visitations upon Papal Rome were
judgments of God, as also were the four
previous trumpets upon Pagan Rome.”
(Cunningham, 1892, p. 362)
7. “And the fifth angel sounded,
and I saw a star fall from heaven
unto the earth: and to him was
given the key of the bottomless
pit.” Revelation 9:1
9. Falling Star denotes an apostate power
Luke 10:18; Isaiah 14:12; Revelation 12:9; Jude 1:10-13
10. Bottomless pit = confusion and
darkness, desert, wilderness
Genesis 1:2; Jeremiah 4:23-26; Deuteronomy 8:15
Jeremiah 2:6 “Neither said
they, Where is the LORD that
brought us up out of the land
of Egypt, that led us through
the wilderness, through a land
of deserts and of pits, through
a land of drought, and of the
shadow of death, through a
land that no man passed
through, and where no man
dwelt? “
Jeremiah 3:2 “Lift up thine
eyes unto the high places,
and see where thou hast not
been lien with. In the ways
hast thou sat for them, as
the Arabian in the
wilderness; and thou hast
polluted the land with thy
whoredoms and with thy
wickedness.”
12. “‘The spirit of fraud and enthusiasm,
whose abode is not in the heavens,'
was let loose on earth. The
bottomless pit needed but a key to
open it, and that key was the fall of
Chosroes.” (Keith, 1833, p.298)
13. “The fall of Chosroes II the Persian king may
well be represented as the opening of the
bottomless pit, inasmuch as it prepared the way
for the followers of Mohammed to issue from
their obscure country and propagate their
delusive doctrines with fire and sword until
they had spread their darkness over all the
Eastern Empire.” (Smith, 1944, p. 496)
14. “The military force of Persia was wasted by the
marches and combats of twenty years and
many of the veterans who had survived the
perils of the sword and the climate were still
detained in the fortresses of Egypt and Syria.
But the revenge and ambition of Chosroes
exhausted his kingdom.” (Gibbon & Milman,
1899, p. 475)
15. “During the conflict between the Persian and
Roman Emperors, a power was rapidly growing
up in the secret deserts of Arabia which was to
erect its throne upon the ruins of both.
Mohammed had already announced his
religious doctrine, -- ‘There is but one God and
Mohammed is His prophet’-- and the valleys of
Arabia had echoed with the triumphant battle
cry of his followers, ‘The Koran or death!’”
(Milman, 1871, p. 94)
16. “…Chosroes…had subjugated a large part of the
empire of Rome, and levied an annual tribute upon it
of a fourfold thousand, in talents of gold and silver, silk
robes, and horses, besides a thousand virgins. ‘To
prevent the immediate dissolution of his empire,
Heraclius subscribed to these terms of ransom.’ But
the time which he obtained from Chosroes to collect
treasures from the poverty of the East he used in
preparing for a bold and desperate attack upon
Chosroes. In the interval Chosroes received an epistle
from Mecca inviting him to acknowledge Mahomet as
17. the apostle of God. This he rejected with disdain. And Mahomet
retorted, ‘God will tear the kingdom, and reject the supplication
of Chosroes.’ With secret joy Mahomet beheld the raging
conflict between Chosroes and Heraclius”
“…Heraclius having completed his preparations, transported his
forces over the Black Sea into central Asia. Thus having
intercepted Chosroes, he caused his immediate recall to defend
his bleeding country that was being rapidly overrun by the army
of Heraclius. The battle of Nineveh, of eleven hours, fiercely
fought, resulted in the complete route of the Persians, and the
star rapidly fell to the earth. A period of anarchy succeeded
among the Persians for about eight years, then factions were
silenced and Persia fell under the yoke of the Arabian caliphs.
Thus the fall of Chosroes opened an inroad for the Saracens in
their mighty work of devastation and conquest.” (Cunningham,
1892, p. 363, 364)
18. “In 629 Heraclius returned in triumph to Jerusalem
and almost at the same moment the Roman
territories were first attacked by the followers of
Mahomet. The Prophet had no doubt been
diligently watching the course of the war which is
once at least directly alluded to in the Koran. He
could not but see the immense advantage which
he gained by finding the two greatest powers of
the world utterly exhausted by this tremendous
struggle. In such circumstances it seemed hardly
possible that either could resist a new enemy full
of such vigor and enthusiasm as the early
Saracens.” (Freeman, 1876, p. 20)
19. “Although a victorious army had been formed
under the standard of Heraclius, the unnatural
effort appears to have exhausted rather than
exercised their strength. While the emperor
triumphed at Constantinople or Jerusalem, an
obscure town on the confines of Syria was
pillaged by the Saracens,…These robbers were
the apostles of Mahomet; their fanatic valor
had emerged from the desert; and in the last
eight years of his reign, Heraclius lost to the
Arabs the same provinces which he had rescued
from the Persians.” (Gibbon, 1837, p. 777)
20. And he opened the bottomless pit; and there
arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of
a great furnace; and the sun and the air were
darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
Revelation 9:2
21. “…and the
sun and the
air were
darkened by
reason of the
smoke of the
pit.”
Revelation
9:2b
“But unto you
that fear my
name shall
the Sun of
righteousness
arise with
healing in his
wings; and ye
shall go forth,
and grow up
as calves of
the stall.”
Malachi 4:2
22. Smoke arising out of the pit/smoke of a
great furnace = Judgment of God;
Wickedness, Works of Wickedness, Prayers
Genesis 19:28-29; Isaiah 9:18;
Hosea 13:1-3; Revelation 8:4
23. “And there came out of the smoke locusts
upon the earth: and unto them was given
power, as the scorpions of the earth have
power.” Revelation 9:3
24. "The swarms of these insects darken the air
and appear at a distance like clouds of
smoke." ‘Niebuhr Travels' Vol. II. p 337.
26. "Like locusts, the Osmanlis swarmed in all directions
and no village missed their notice up to the very
walls of Constantinople" (Herbert Adams Gibbons
'The Foundation of the Ottoman Empire'). "Onward
and still onward, like swarms from the hive, or
flights of locusts darkening the land, tribe after tribe
issued forth, end hastening northward, spread in
great masses to the east, and to the west" ('The
Caliphate', Sir William Muir page 44).
27. Proverbs 30:27 “The locusts have no king,
yet go they forth all of them by bands”
“...Rome was only saved from the yoke of the prophet of
Mecca by the divisions of the Saracens.” (Cunningham,
1892, p. 366)
The Saracens were “divided into various factions under
several leaders. These continued to harass the Romans
for centuries and also civil war raged most murderously
among the several caliphates of the Saracens who
continued to exhaust or overthrow each other and to
make occasional invasions of Constantinople.”
(Cunningham, 1892, p. 366)
28. “And there came
out of the smoke
locusts upon the
earth: and unto
them was given
power, as the
scorpions of the
earth have power.”
Revelation 9:3
Scorpion, Very much a Fitting Symbol for the Desert/Wilderness
& Denotes Judgment/Chastisement.
Deuteronomy 8:15; 1 Kings 12:11
29. “And they had tails like
unto scorpions, and
there were stings in their
tails…” Revelation 9:10
Revelation 12:3, 4a “And there appeared another
wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon,
having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns
upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of
the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth...”
30. “The ancient and
honourable, he is
the head; and the
prophet that
teacheth lies, he is
the tail.” Isaiah 9:15
Tail = False Prophet
Muhammad
31. “And it was commanded them that they
should not hurt the grass of the earth,
neither any green thing, neither any
tree; but only those men which have
not the seal of God in their foreheads.”
Revelation 9:4
32. GRASS & TREES = BOTH PEOPLE & FOOD SUPPLY
1 Peter 1:24; Isaiah 40:7;
Mark 8:24; Genesis 1:29;
Deuteronomy 20:19
33. “It is remarkable that when the Saracen army was
marching to invade Syria it was charged by its leaders
‘to destroy no palm trees, nor hurt any fields of corn; to
cut down no fruit trees,’ &c. It is also to be noted that
the Saracens extended their conquests principally in
those countries where the corruptions of Popery were
most prevalent whilst places where religion was
preserved in some degree of purity were protected
from the fearful scourge.” (Nangle, 1859, p. 43)
34. “…the Roman Church still pursued its work of
suppressing the Sabbath during the fifth, sixth, seventh,
eighth and following centuries, and elevating the
Sunday in its place, by decrees of councils, curses of
popes, crusades of extermination, tortures of the
inquisition, lying miracles, and rolls said to come from
heaven, but really originating in the pope's palace.
Wherever the papacy had the power, Sunday was
established, and the Sabbath of the Lord condemned.”
(1904 GIB, CHS, p 165)
35. “And to them it was given that they should
not kill them, but that they should be
tormented five months: and their torment
was as the torment of a scorpion, when he
striketh a man. And in those days shall men
seek death, and shall not find it; and shall
desire to die, and death shall flee from
themshapes of the locusts were like unto
horses . And the prepared unto battle; and
on their heads were as it were crowns like
gold, and their faces were as the faces of
men. And they had hair as the hair of
women, and their teeth were as the teeth of
lions. And they had breastplates, as it were
breastplates of iron; and the sound of their
wings was as the sound of chariots of many
horses running to battle.” Revelation 9:5-9
36. “And to them it was given that they should
not kill them, but that they should be
tormented five months…”
“Evidently alluding to the time during which locusts commit their
devastations and after which they die. They are hatched as Bochart
observes about the spring and die at the latter end of summer thus
living about five months… It is again mentioned at ver. 10 that their
power was to hurt men five months….these months designate
each a space of thirty prophetick [sic] days or years then the whole
period denoted is one hundred and fifty years. And accordingly we
shall find that though the empire of the Saracens had a longer
duration yet within that period they made their principal
conquests and their power of tormenting men was chiefly exerted.
--Bp Newton” (D’oyly & Mant, 1839, comments on Revelation 9:5)
37. “And to them it was given that they should
not kill them, but that they should be
tormented five months…”
“When were they to begin their work of torment? The 11th verse
answers the question. They had a king over them which is the
angel of the bottomless pit whose name in the Hebrew tongue is
Abaddon but in the Greek hath his name Apollyon.…From the
death of Mahomet until near the close of the 13th century the
Mahommedans were divided into various factions under several
leaders with no general civil government extending over them all.
Near the close of the 13th century Othman founded a government
which has since been known as the Ottoman government or
empire extending over all the principal Mahommedan tribes
consolidating them into one grand monarchy.” (Litch, 1838, p. 179)
38. “And the shapes of the locusts
were like unto horses prepared
unto battle…and the sound of
their wings was as the sound of
chariots of many horses running
to battle.”
“The Arabian horse takes the lead throughout
the world; and skill in horsemanship is the art
and science of Arabia. And the barbed Arabs,
swift as locusts and armed like scorpions, ready
to dart away in a moment, were ever prepared
unto battle…” (Keith, 1833, p. 311-312)
39. “And the shapes of the locusts
were like unto horses prepared
unto battle…and the sound of
their wings was as the sound of
chariots of many horses running
to battle.”
“…their military force was chiefly formed of cavalry and
archers . . . With a touch of the hand, the Arab horses
dart away with the swiftness of the wind. ‘The sound
of their wings was as the sound of many horses running
to battle.’ Their conquests were marvelous both in
rapidity and extent, and their attack was
instantaneous. Nor was it less successful against the
Romans than the Persians.” (Keith, 1833, p. 313)
40. “…and on their heads were as it were
crowns like gold…”
“…When Mahomet entered Medina (AD 622), and
was first received as its prince, 'a turban was
unfurled before him to supply the deficiency of a
standard.' The turbans of the Saracens, like unto a
coronet, were their ornament and their boast…And
the Arabs were anciently distinguished by the miters
which they wore.” (Keith, 1833, p. 311-312)
“And a voice of a multitude being at ease was
with her: and with the men of the common sort
were brought Sabeans from the wilderness,
which put bracelets upon their hands, and
beautiful crowns upon their heads.” Ezekiel 23:42
41. “…The gravity and firmness of the mind [of the Arab] is conspicuous
in his outward demeanor; . . . his only gesture is that of stroking his
beard, the venerable symbol of manhood. . . . The honor . . . of their
beards is most easily wounded.” (Gibbon, 1788, p. 86, 88)
“Long hair is esteemed an ornament by women. The Arabs, unlike to
other men, had their hair as the hair of women, or uncut, as their
practice is recorded by Pliny and others. But there was nothing
effeminate in their character; for, as denoting their ferocity and
strength to devour, their teeth were as the teeth of lions.” (Keith,
1833, p. 312)
“…faces were as the faces of men.
And they had hair as the hair of
women…”
42. “The cuirass (or breastplate) was in use among
the Arabs in the days of Mahomet. In the battle
of Ohud (the second which Mahomet fought)
with the Koreish of Mecca (AD 624), ‘seven
hundred of them were armed with cuirasses.’”
(Keith, 1833, p. 312)
“…And they had breastplates, as it
were breastplates of iron…”
43. “And they had tails like unto scorpions,
and there were stings in their tails: and
their power was to hurt men five months.
And they had a king over them, which is
the angel of the bottomless pit, whose
name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon,
but in the Greek tongue hath his name
Apollyon.” Revelation 9:5-11
“...Near the close of the 13th century
Othman founded a government which
has since been known as the Ottoman
government or empire extending over
all the principal Mahommedan tribes
consolidating them into one grand
monarchy.” (Litch, 1838, p. 179)
44. “And they had tails like unto scorpions, and
there were stings in their tails: and their
power was to hurt men five months. And
they had a king over them...” Revelation 9:5-11
5 months = 5 X 30 prophetic days = 150 prophetic days
1 day in prophecy = 1 prophetic year
Numbers 14:34; Ezekiel 4:6
150 years
45. “And they had tails like unto scorpions, and
there were stings in their tails: and their
power was to hurt men five months. And
they had a king over them...” Revelation 9:5-11
“And this period relating to the Turks dates from the time they
had a king over them to within four years of the fall of
Constantinople and the overthrow of the Greek empire. Says
Gibbon (chap. 64), ‘It was on the 27th of July, A.D. 1299, that
Othman first invaded the territory of Nicomedia; and the
singular accuracy of the date seems to disclose some foresight of
the rapid and destructive growth of the monster.’ ‘They have
over themselves a king, the angel of the abyss, whose name in
Hebrew is Abaddon, but in the Greek he has the name
Apollyon.” (Cunningham, 1892, p. 367)
46. “And they had tails like unto scorpions, and
there were stings in their tails: and their
power was to hurt men five months. And
they had a king over them...” Revelation 9:5-11
“Thus far their commission extended torment by constant
depredations but not to kill them. Five months that is hundred
and fifty years. Commencing July 1299 the one hundred and fifty
years reach 1449. During that whole period the Turks engaged in
an almost perpetual war with Greek empire but yet without
conquering it seized upon and held several of the Greek
provinces, but still Greek independence was maintained in
Constantinople. But in 1449, the termination of the one hundred
and fifty years, a change came.” (Litch, 1838, p. 181)
47. Papal Power Still Grows
Invasions of the Saracens, left Rome’s
imperial power only at Constantinople,
thereby the bishop of Rome had no other
rivals and spoke as the intact imperial
power. (Sheppard, 1861)
48. Papal Power Still Grows
“…The first exemplification, on a great scale, of her office which
she gave mankind was the crusades. As the professors of an
impure creed, she pronounced sentence of extermination on the
Saracens of the Holy Land; she sent thither some millions of
crusaders to execute her ban; and the lands, cities, and wealth of
the slaughtered infidels she bestowed upon her orthodox sons. If it
was right to apply this principle to one pagan country, we do not
see what should hinder Rome - unless indeed lack of power - from
sending her missionaries to every land where infidelity and heresy
prevailed, emptying them of their evil creed and their evil
inhabitants together, and re-peopling them anew with a pure race
from within her own orthodox pale.” (Wylie, 18??, p. 38)
49. One woe is past; and, behold,
there come two woes more
hereafter. Revelation 9:12
Notas del editor
These woes brought about are judgments against the Apostate Catholic Church, who during the time of these woes is the next power along the prophetic line
These woes brought about are judgments against the Apostate Catholic Church, who during the time of these woes is the next power along the prophetic line
Pronounced “kos-row” (Khusro, Khosrau, Khusrau, Khosro, or Khusraw (Kasrâ in Modern Persian; Osroes or Chosroes in Greek; Hüsrev in Turkish)
Scorpion, Very much a Fitting Symbol for the Desert/Wilderness.
Scorpion, Very much a Fitting Symbol for the Desert/Wilderness.
We will come back to Verse 11 in more detail, after discussing some more of the symbols
Papacy gained supremacy not just via conquest, but through a legal decree, declaring the pope the head of all churches. This decree, ecclesiastical in nature, did not assert Catholicism, but it asserted the primacy of the Pope.
Although the crusades, as hitherto waged, were now ended, they continued under the more dreadful form of the Inquisition