Thesis. Daniel and the Revelation interpret themselves: the angel names the symbols (Dan. 7:17, 23; 8:20-21; Rev. 1:20; 17:15), and Scripture supplies every other figure's receipt. Daniel's heart is the judgment — 1844, the cleansing of the sanctuary (Dan. 7:9-14; 8:14; 9:24-27 anchored at 457 BC). Revelation's heart is the trumpets: a trumpet is the Bible's alarm of war; the three woes are war-judgments on apostate Christendom; trumpet = war = plague; the third woe / seventh trumpet contains the seven last plagues and Armageddon; the third and fourth angels warn against it; the sealing decides who stands; the day of slaughter begins at the house of God — and the loud-cry time opened at the herald.

Method. After Haskell's Bible Handbook: every line is ref → gloss, Bible and pioneer/EGW alike. Each passage is walked verse by verse, and every symbol is defined the first time it appears — symbol = meaning, with the Scripture receipts that prove the equation (Miller's Rule 12: let the Bible define its own figures); later sections reference the owning section by title instead of re-proving. Both books are read by historicism (prophecy fulfilled progressively from the prophet's day to the Second Coming), the year-day principle (Num. 14:34; Eze. 4:6), and recapitulation (each book re-covers the same span in cycles). Dates are never calculated — after 1844 "there should be time no longer" (Rev. 10:6; LDE 36.2); historic events are recognized as fulfillments after they strike (Rev. 16:15). Every section closes with the DEFINITION the verses built; the appendix gathers every symbol into one dictionary.

Part I — Daniel

¶1. The Great Image — Daniel 2

The first prophecy of Daniel lays the spine the whole canon walks: four kingdoms, a fall, and a stone — and the angel names them himself.

The frame — Dan. 2:1-30:

• Dan. 2:1-13. Nebuchadnezzar dreams, then forgets, and demands the wise men recover both dream and meaning on pain of death — only true revelation can give back what the dreamer has lost.
• Dan. 2:28. "there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days" — God Himself supplies the dream, and self-interprets the prophecy that follows.
  • the method: the angel/text names its own symbols, so we read by the Bible's dictionary, not our own (Amos 3:7, "he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets"; Isa. 46:9-10, "declaring the end from the beginning").

The image described — Dan. 2:31-33:

• Dan. 2:31-33. "a great image... head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay" — one statue of descending metals, charting kingdoms that go down in value, not up.

The stone strikes — Dan. 2:34-35:

• Dan. 2:34. "a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet... and brake them to pieces" — a power not of human origin destroys the kingdoms in the era of the feet.
• Dan. 2:35. "became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away... and the stone... became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth" — the metals blow away as worthless; the stone alone grows to fill the earth.
  • mountain = a kingdom (Dan. 2:35, 44, the stone "became a great mountain" and is interpreted as the kingdom the God of heaven sets up; Jer. 51:25, "O destroying mountain... and will make thee a burnt mountain," said of Babylon).
  • chaff carried by the wind = the ungodly swept away in judgment (Ps. 1:4, "the ungodly... are like the chaff which the wind driveth away").

Babylon named — Dan. 2:37-38:

• Dan. 2:37-38. "Thou art this head of gold" — the text interprets itself: the king (and his kingdom) is the gold head — the strongest receipt there is.
  • DEFINITION begins here: image-metal = a kingdom; the king stands for the kingdom (confirmed below at Dan. 2:44; and in "The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7," Dan. 7:17, 23).
• DAR 46.2. Smith: the gold head = Babylon, "the golden kingdom of a golden age," metropolis of the first universal empire (606-538 BC, DAR 46.1; 53.1).

The next two kingdoms — Dan. 2:39:

• Dan. 2:39. "after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth" — silver and brass succeed gold, each less precious than the last.
  • silver = Media-Persia / brass = Grecia (Dan. 2:39; named by name in Dan. 8:20-21).
• DAR 48.1-3. Smith heads verse 39 with Media-Persia, the silver kingdom that overthrew Babylon under Cyrus.
• DAR 54.1-2. Smith: the brass kingdom = Grecia, decided on the field of Arbela, 331 BC, the third universal empire.

The fourth kingdom — Dan. 2:40:

• Dan. 2:40. "the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron... shall it break in pieces and bruise" — the fourth power is defined by crushing force, not by territory.
  • iron = Rome — the kingdom that succeeded Grecia and broke all the others (its papal phase is the little horn of "The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7").
• DAR 56.3. Smith: the legs of iron = Rome, the one kingdom that succeeded Grecia and "like iron, it broke in pieces and bruised."
• DAR 56.4. Smith (Gibbon): "the images of gold, or silver, or brass... were successively broken by the iron monarchy of Rome."

Iron and clay — Dan. 2:41-43:

• Dan. 2:41-42. "the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron... so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken" — Rome does not fall to a fifth empire; it fragments and stays fragmented.
• Dan. 2:43. "they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay" — the one thing post-Roman Europe has never achieved is re-unification.
• SDP 35.4. Haskell: "The clay mixed with iron also denoted the union of church and state" — a combination peculiar to the feet-and-toes era, a union that "continues until the stone smites the image" (SDP 35.5). (Haskell's church-state reading is not this section's v. 43 gloss — the failed intermarriage, above — but for the handbook's own church-state thesis, see "The Two Beasts — Revelation 13.")
• DAR 57.5. Smith: the clay = the weakness that corroded Rome's iron sinews and prepared its disruption into ten kingdoms.
• DAR 66.2. Smith (quoting another): for fourteen centuries the tenfold division has held — "Charlemagne tried it... Napoleon tried it. But none succeeded," for "a single verse of prophecy was stronger than all their hosts."

The kingdom that fills the earth — Dan. 2:44-45:

• Dan. 2:44. "in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed... it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever" — the stone strikes in the divided-Rome era of the feet, which is ours, and the fifth kingdom is never succeeded.
  • DEFINITION confirmed: the stone interprets itself as "a kingdom" the God of heaven sets up — the New Testament consistently names this stone Christ (Ps. 118:22, "the stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner"; Matt. 21:44, "on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder," Christ's own echo of this verse; the kingdom announced at Mark 1:15).
• Dan. 2:45. "the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands... and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure" — four fulfilled metals stand surety for the unfulfilled fifth.
• DAR 62.4. Smith: "in the days of these kings" requires a plurality of contemporaneous kings — the divided kingdoms of the feet — so the kingdom of God is set up in their day, not at the first advent.
• DAR 68.3. Smith: verses 44-45 reach "the climax of this stupendous prophecy... the end of human history," when the kingdom of God ends this world's changing career.

The counterfeit image — Dan. 3:1-7:

• Dan. 3:1, 5-6. "Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold... ye fall down and worship the golden image... cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace" — the king answers the dream with a rival image and enforces its worship on pain of death.
• PK 504.2. EGW: instead of reproducing the image, "he would excel the original" — "entirely of gold," symbolic of Babylon as a kingdom that "should break in pieces all other kingdoms and stand forever" — the prophecy's own verdict (Dan. 2:44) rewritten for Babylon; the enforced image-worship foreshadows "The Two Beasts — Revelation 13."
• SDP 39.2. Haskell: "he made an image of gold, patterning it as closely as possible after the image revealed to him" — yet gratifying his pride: "no trace of the other kingdoms."

DEFINITION — THE GREAT IMAGE = the canon's master timeline, self-interpreted by the text: four descending metals = four successive universal kingdoms, then division, then the kingdom of God (Dan. 2:38, 44). Every later vision of Daniel and Revelation walks this same skeleton by recapitulation.

• gold = Babylon ("thou art this head of gold," Dan. 2:38; DAR 46.2).
• silver = Media-Persia (Dan. 2:39; named Dan. 8:20).
• brass = Grecia (Dan. 2:39; named Dan. 8:21).
• iron = Rome (Dan. 2:40; DAR 56.3-4).
• feet of iron and clay = divided post-Roman Europe that "shall not cleave one to another" (Dan. 2:41-43; DAR 57.5, 66.2).
• stone → mountain = the kingdom of God, smiting at the feet — in the divided-Rome era, which is ours — and filling the whole earth (Dan. 2:34-35, 44-45; the stone is Christ, Ps. 118:22; Matt. 21:44; DAR 68.3).

Symbols defined here:

• image-metal = a kingdom; the king stands for the kingdom (Dan. 2:38, 44; confirmed Dan. 7:17, 23).
• silver = Media-Persia (Dan. 2:39; named by name in Dan. 8:20).
• brass = Grecia (Dan. 2:39; named by name in Dan. 8:21).
• mountain = a kingdom (Dan. 2:35, 44; Jer. 51:25).
• stone cut out without hands = the kingdom of God / Christ (Dan. 2:44-45; Ps. 118:22; Matt. 21:44).
• chaff carried by the wind = the ungodly swept away in judgment (Dan. 2:35; Ps. 1:4).

¶2. The Seven Times — Daniel 4

The proud tree hewn down for seven times is the Bible's own type of the longest prophetic period — the 2520-year scattering of God's people that ends, with the 2300, in 1844.

The tree and the decree — Dan. 4:10-17:

• Dan. 4:10-12. "a tree in the midst of the earth... the height thereof reached unto heaven... all flesh was fed of it" — Babylon at its zenith, a kingdom feeding the nations.
• Dan. 4:14-16. "Hew down the tree... Nevertheless leave the stump of his roots in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass... and let seven times pass over him" — the kingdom is felled but not killed; the banded stump is judgment aimed at restoration.
• Dan. 4:17. "to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will" — the decree states its own purpose verbatim: to humble pride into confessing God's sovereignty.

The text self-interprets — Dan. 4:20-22:

• Dan. 4:20-22. "The tree that thou sawest... It [is] thou, O king, that art grown and become strong" — the angel names the figure outright; this is the handbook's owner-receipt that a tree is a ruler.
  • tree = a ruler, a kingdom (Dan. 4:20-22, "It is thou, O king"; Eze. 31:3, "the Assyrian [was] a cedar"). Trees = great men, rulers — see "What Is a Trumpet?".

Fulfilled on the king — Dan. 4:25, 28-33:

• Dan. 4:25. "they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen... and seven times shall pass over thee, till thou know that the most High ruleth" — seven literal years decreed on Nebuchadnezzar.
• Dan. 4:28-30. "Is not this great Babylon, that I have built... by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?" — the boast of pride that triggers the sentence.
• Dan. 4:33. "The same hour was the thing fulfilled... he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen" — the seven times fell at once and ran their literal course.
• MWV2 261.1. Miller: Nebuchadnezzar's "seven times" was "fulfilled in seven years" "for his pride and arrogancy against God" — the literal type, "a sample only," for the prophetic antitype on God's people.
• Dan. 4:34, 37. "I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned... those that walk in pride he is able to abase" — reason returns when pride bows; the chapter's verdict.

The antitype — the same pride judged on God's people — Lev. 26:

• Lev. 26:18. "then I will punish you seven times more for your sins" — the covenant sentence of scattering, the antitype Miller reads off the type.
• Lev. 26:21. "I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins" — the cause: walking contrary to God.
• Lev. 26:24. "I... will punish you yet seven times for your sins" — the sentence repeated.
• Lev. 26:28. "I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins" — the fourfold "seven times," the rod on a proud people as it was on a proud king.
• MWV1 43.3. Miller: Moses' "seven times" of scattering (Lev. 26:14-46) are "a succession of years," not yet finished till the scattering of "the power of the holy people" is accomplished (Dan. 12:7).
• MWV1 45.1. Miller: Lev. 26:21 names the cause and Jer. 15:4 names the start — the scattering "began... in the days of Manasseh," B.C. 677.

The reckoning — a time is 360, seven times is 2520:

• Num. 14:34. "each day for a year" — the year-day measure (defined in "The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7").
• Eze. 4:6. "I have appointed thee each day for a year" — the second witness to year-day.
• PREX2 124.2. Litch: "one time being 360 days, seven times would 2520 days. Each of these days represents a year... 2520 years is the length of that dispersion" — the arithmetic verbatim.
• PREX1 92.3. Litch: "the Holy Ghost has defined it" — Daniel's "time, times, and dividing of a time" reduced to 1260 days in Rev. 11-12 fixes a time at 360, so seven times = 2520.
• TSAM 33.2. Hale lists and answers the objections to the seven times "or 2520 years," holding it a single prophetic period from B.C. 677.
• TSAM 25.1. Hale: "there being 2520 days in 7 times, understood symbolically, the period expresses 2520 true solar years" — prophetic time the measure, solar years the thing measured.

The treading itself — the two desolating powers, pagan then papal — Dan. 8:13; Luke 21:24:

• Dan. 8:13. "How long [shall be] the vision [concerning] the daily [sacrifice], and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?" — the treading down has two agents: "the daily" (the pagan desolating power) and "the transgression of desolation" (the papal); the 2520 is the whole career of that treading.
• MWV2 54.4, 55.1. Miller: "there are two abominations spoken of by Daniel. The first is the pagan mode of worship... were the sanctuary and place of worship at Jerusalem trodden down by Pagan worshippers" — then Satan "suffers the daily sacrifice abomination to be taken out of the way, and sets up Papacy," whose dominion is "given into his hand for a time, times, and a half." Pagan treads first, papal second — the same two halves the seven times runs through.
• the daily / the transgression of desolation = the pagan, then papal desolating powers — defined in "The Ram, the Goat, and the 2300 Days — Daniel 8."
  • Smith did not hold the 2520 — DAR is cited here for the daily only, never for the period.
• Luke 21:24. "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." — Christ names the whole treading "the times of the Gentiles," and that is exactly what the pioneers called the seven times.
  • the times of the Gentiles = the seven times — the whole 2520-year treading down of God's people, pagan then papal (Luke 21:24; HST October 2, 1844, page 70.6; PREX2 202.1).
• HST October 2, 1844, page 70.6. "The seven times of the Gentile domination over the church of God spoken of in Leviticus 26... From that time [autumn, B. C. 677] 2520 years reach to the autumn of A. D. 1844. Then the times of the Gentiles will be fulfilled" — the periodical welds Christ's phrase to the 2520 outright (so too Snow's TRMC, already cited in the anchor above: "Gentile domination over the church of God").

The anatomy — twice the time, times, and an half — Dan. 7:25; 12:7; Rev. 11:2-3; 12:6, 14; 13:5:

• The papal half is the most-named period in prophecy — Dan. 7:25 "a time and times and the dividing of time"; Dan. 12:7 "a time, times, and an half"; Rev. 11:2 "forty [and] two months"; Rev. 11:3 "a thousand two hundred [and] threescore days"; Rev. 12:6 "a thousand two hundred [and] threescore days"; Rev. 12:14 "a time, and times, and half a time"; Rev. 13:5 "forty [and] two months." Seven namings of one 1260.
• PREX2 202.1. Litch: the appointed time "for the enemies of the church to reign over her, is seven times, or 2520 years... One half of that period is three and a half times-forty-two months-or 1260 years" — the section's own arithmetic witness (PREX2 124.2) halves the period himself.
• PREX2 204.1. Litch: "the two periods making 2520 years, or seven prophetic times" — Rev. 11:2's forty-two months laid with Rev. 11:3's sackcloth 1260: "the general characteristics of half the time would be the desolation of the city... while the characteristic of the other half... a state of great spiritual darkness and affliction of the church." He himself notes the halves interlock — "Part of the forty-two months were filled up when the 1260 days began" — so the halving is the period's anatomy, two equal 1260s, not two separately dated blocks.
  • Litch is cited for the anatomy only; his civil-half application of Rev. 11:2 is not the handbook's — "The Two Witnesses — Revelation 11" reads it as the papal treading.
• The reckoning: the named papal half (1260) implies an equal unnamed half — 1260 + 1260 = 2520. The seven times is simply twice the time, times, and an half: pagan treading and papal treading, one continuous "times of the Gentiles" from 677 BC to AD 1844.

The anchor — Manasseh to Babylon, 677 BC:

• 2 Chron. 33:11. "took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon" — the first carrying-away of Judah, the start-point of the scattering.
• Jer. 15:4. "I will cause them to be removed into all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh" — the cause and the date-point named together: pride in Jerusalem.
• MWV2 262.2. Miller: "In the year 677 before Christ" Manasseh's captivity began the seven times; 2520 less 677 leaves "1843 after Christ," when the holy people are gathered.
• TSAM 37.1. Hale puts the question plainly — "Why commence the seven times at the captivity of Manasseh, B.C. 677?" — and defends 677 as the breaking of the people's power.
• TRMC August 22, 1844, page 2.1. Snow: "The seven times of Gentile domination over the church of God... began with the breaking of the pride of their power, at the captivity of Manasseh, king of Judah, B.C. 677."

A second witness to the anchor — Isaiah's 65 years land on 677 BC — Isa. 7:8:

• Isa. 7:1. "in the days of Ahaz... Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it" — the date-stamp: the verse fixes the prophecy in the days of Ahaz; the pioneers set that first year of Ahaz at B.C. 742 by the marginal chronology (TSAM 38.6; TSAM 39.4, "in the first year of Ahaz").
• Isa. 7:8. "within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people" — a fixed countdown: 742 − 65 = 677 BC, the very year of Manasseh's captivity. Two prophecies, one terminus.
• 2 Kings 17:24. "the king of Assyria brought [men] from Babylon... and placed [them] in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel" — the breaking of Ephraim "that it be not a people": the remnant deported, the land repeopled with foreigners.
• Ezra 4:2. "we do sacrifice unto him since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assur, which brought us up hither" — those colonists name the agent: Esarhaddon, the king who finished Ephraim.
• 2 Chron. 33:11. "the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh... and carried him to Babylon" — the same Esarhaddon takes Manasseh the same year. He held both crowns — having seized Babylon he "reigned over both," which is how a king of Assyria carries his prisoner "to Babylon" (TSAM 39.3, Prideaux as quoted by Hale) — and the capture falls in "the 22nd year of Manasseh, B. C. 677" (TSAM 39.4-40.1). One king, one year, both witnesses.
• MWV1 41.7. Miller: "Isaiah prophesied that within sixty-five years Ephraim should be broken, so that they should not be a people, Isaiah 7:8; and in sixty-five years they were broken and carried away by Esarhaddon, king of Babylon, B.C. 742-677." — the whole convergence in one line, dated.
• TSAM 38.6. Hale: "Isaiah, in the year 742 B. C., according to date in the margin, had said,—'And within three-score and five years shall ephraim be broken that it be not a people.' 7:8." — Hale shows his work: 742 is the margin's date for the prophecy, the count is 65, and the subtraction lands on 677.
• TSAM 41.2. Hale, quoting Archbishop Usher: "Before Christ 677. This year also was fulfilled the prophecy of the prophet Isaiah, (chap 7:8,)... 'Within sixty and five years, Ephraim shall be broken in pieces so that it shall be no more a people.'... and this was done by Esarhaddon, king of Assyria" — Isaiah's 65 years and the captivity of Manasseh meet on the one date, B.C. 677.

The other house, the other terminus — the scattering fell on Israel too — 2 Kings 17-18:

• 2 Kings 17:5-6. "Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria" — the northern kingdom hauled off captive; the elder sister judged first (Eze. 23:4, "Samaria [is] Aholah" — Aholah "the elder"), before Judah's throne was ever broken.
• 2 Kings 17:18. "Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only" — the scattering of Lev. 26 falls house by house; Israel went first, Judah followed.
• 2 Kings 18:9-12. "Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria, and besieged it. And at the end of three years they took it... Because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD their God, but transgressed his covenant" — the indictment in the covenant's own terms: the broken covenant is the trigger Lev. 26 names for the seven times, the sentence that breaks "the pride of your power" (Lev. 26:19) — Israel's captivity starts the same clock.
• The reckoning, the section's own (same no-year-zero rule that carried 677 BC to AD 1844): Samaria's captivity ~723 BC + 2520 years = AD 1798 — the year papal dominion fell, the very terminus of the 1260 (538-1798) defined in "Michael Stands Up — Daniel 12" and "The Two Beasts — Revelation 13."
  • The Herald's series below reckons by simple subtraction — 2520 less 722 leaves 1798 — one year shy of this rule: the same convention gap by which the pioneers first wrote 1843 on the 677 line (MWV2 262.2) before the corrected 1844 (EW 74.1).
• HST March 20, 1844, page 54.27. "We find the following able argument on the chronology of the seven times, in the prophetic writings of M. Habershon—an English writer of considerable distinction... not peculiar to Mr. Miller, and that those who are familiar with the Hebrew, do not all reject it" — the Advent Herald's own introduction to what follows: an English literalist's reckoning of the seven times, printed and owned by the pioneer press as proof the period stood on more witnesses than Miller.
• HST March 20, 1844, page 55.2. "the great national shocks which preceded, portended, and hastened Judah's and Israel's fall and captivity, have, after the lapse of 'seven times,' or 2520 years, been correctly answered... by corresponding shocks, portending and hastening their deliverance, and the downfall of the nations by which they have been oppressed" — both houses named, both falls measured by the one 2520.
• HST March 20, 1844, page 55.8. "The second siege of Samaria, by Shalmanezar B. C. 722, which corresponds with A. D. 1798, when the Pope was first taken prisoner" — item five of Habershon's numbered series: the northern-kingdom captivity joined to the 2520 and landed on 1798, the fall of the papal horn.
• HST March 20, 1844, page 55.11. "The next great event in the history of God's people, was B. C. 677, when the Jews lost their independance, and their enemies reigned over them; and we may therefore expect it will be responded to about this time" — the same series ends where this section's anchor begins: 677, awaiting its answer "about this time"; and of its author the Herald adds, "1844 is his time for the termination of the prophetic periods" (HST March 20, 1844, page 55.17).
• Two captivities, two termini: Israel's scattering measures 2520 to 1798 (papal dominion broken); Judah's, from Manasseh's 677 BC, measures 2520 to 1844 — no new dates, but the two ends already nailed down by the 1260 and the 2300.

The wall is weighed — the sum is the term — Dan. 5:25-31:

• Dan. 5:25. "And this [is] the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN." — four weight-words, and MENE is written twice; the doubled maneh is not a stammer but a sum.
• Dan. 5:26-28. "MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it... TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances... PERES; Thy kingdom is divided" — the words are themselves coin-weights: mene = the maneh (mina), tekel = the shekel (the Aramaic form of the same word, read "weighed"), peres = the half-maneh ("thy kingdom is divided") — and the interpretation reads the plural upharsin by the single peres, so one half-maneh enters the sum.
  • mene / tekel / peres = the maneh, the shekel, and the half-maneh — Babylon's verdict written in coin-weights, which reduced to gerahs sum to the number of the scattering (Dan. 5:25-28; Exo. 30:13 for the gerah).
• Exo. 30:13. "(a shekel [is] twenty gerahs:)" — the sanctuary fixes the base unit: every shekel = 20 gerahs, so every weight on the wall converts to gerahs.
• The reckoning, at the 50-shekel maneh: MENE (50 × 20 = 1000) + MENE (50 × 20 = 1000) + TEKEL (1 × 20 = 20) + PERES, the half-maneh (25 × 20 = 500) — total 2520 gerahs. The hand wrote out, in weights, the very number of the scattering the section has already proven from Lev. 26.
• The reckoning — its weights and its maneh — is the section's own, not a pioneer's; and the maneh must be owned plainly.
  • shekel = 20 gerahs is uncontested (Exo. 30:13; Eze. 45:12); but the 50-shekel maneh is the common Hebrew/Babylonian mina and the Septuagint's reading of Eze. 45:12 — the KJV there reckons "twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, fifteen shekels, shall be your maneh" = 60 shekels, which would sum the wall to 3020. The 2520 stands only on the common/LXX 50-shekel maneh.
• Dan. 5:30-31. "In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. And Darius the Median took the kingdom" — Babylon, the power that opened the seven times by carrying Manasseh to its own city (2 Chron. 33:11, above), is weighed on its last night, and the kingdom is divided and given away before morning.
• SDP 72.2. Haskell: God "uses a language which appeals forcibly to their understanding" — the idolaters' common belief that "the gods weigh deeds in balances" made the verdict "familiar to King Belshazzar" — the weighing-of-deeds idiom is his ground; he works no gerah-sum.
• MRSH 45.1. Miller: "then will be seen the fingers of a man's hand... writing on the walls of the now kingdoms of the earth, 'mene, mene tekel.' That will be the period of the 'end of these wonders'" — Miller sets the mene-tekel hand at the close of the "seven times of captivity," binding the wall-writing to the terminus of the seven times this section has measured at 2520 — though he never works the wall's weights into a sum.
• MWV2 82.3-82.4. Miller: MENE "is to count, to finish, or to destroy"; "the idolatrous and blasphemous kingdom of Babylon was numbered and finished by God... the MENE, TEKEL, of this last idolatrous Pagan beast... 'count the number of the beast'" — Miller reads the wall as a numbered, summed verdict and makes it the pattern for counting prophetic numbers — the counting, not the gerah-arithmetic, is his.

The curse borne — Christ made a curse — Gal. 3:13; Exo. 29:38-39; DA 757.1:

• Gal. 3:13. "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed [is] every one that hangeth on a tree" — the seven times of Lev. 26 are the covenant-curse (already shown); here the curse itself is laid on Christ, made a curse "on a tree" — the tree here is the literal cross, no new symbol; but where Daniel's proud tree was hewn down for its own pride, the sinless One is hewn down in our place.
• Deut. 21:23. "he that is hanged [is] accursed of God" — the written ground Paul cites; the cross is the curse's execution, so the curse-number must be Christ-shaped.
• Exo. 29:38-39. "two lambs of the first year day by day continually... The one lamb thou shalt offer in the morning; and the other lamb thou shalt offer at even" — the daily named two lambs, morning and evening, every day without break.
• Num. 28:3-4. "two lambs of the first year without spot day by day, [for] a continual burnt offering" — the same count repeated: two spotless lambs each day, the standing type of the spotless Lamb.
• The section's own reckoning, a witness not a proof: from Messiah anointed in autumn AD 27 to the cross at the midst of the week in spring AD 31 (both dates defined in "The Seventy Weeks — Daniel 9") is half a prophetic week = 3.5 years = 1260 prophetic days; 1260 days × two lambs a day = 2520 offerings spanning His ministry — the Lamb told out the curse's own number at the altar before bearing it on the tree.
  • The count stands in prophetic reckoning — the same 360-day year that makes seven times 2520 — not as a literal calendar tally; and no pioneer makes it.
• Matt. 27:46, 50-51. "about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice... yielded up the ghost... behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake" — He died at the very hour of the evening sacrifice (cf. Mark 15:34-37), and the veil rent.
• DA 756.5. EGW: "It was the hour of the evening sacrifice. The lamb representing Christ had been brought to be slain... the priest stood with lifted knife... But the earth trembles and quakes... the inner veil of the temple is torn from top to bottom by an unseen hand" — the typical evening lamb stood ready under the lifted knife at the exact hour Christ cried "It is finished."
• DA 757.1. EGW: "The priest is about to slay the victim; but the knife drops from his nerveless hand, and the lamb escapes. Type has met antitype in the death of God's Son" — the last typical lamb is never slain; on the section's reckoning the altar's count closes not with a slain lamb but at the cross — the true Lamb bearing the curse so His people's 2520-year scattering could run out to its 1844 release.
• TRMC August 22, 1844, page 4.1. Snow: "The Law of Moses contained a shadow of good things to come; a system of figures or types pointing to Christ and his kingdom... type and antitype must correspond exactly as it regards time... Jesus died on the cross, on the same day, and at the same hour" — the pioneer ground for the principle, down to the very hour: the law's lambs are types, and the type's clock binds the antitype (Snow's worked case is the Passover lamb slain at the ninth hour, citing Mark 15:33-37 — he names neither the daily's two lambs nor any 2520 count).

Two lines, one terminus — 1844:

• 677 BC + 2520 years = AD 1844 — the 2520 (from Manasseh) and the 2300 (from 457 BC, "The Ram, the Goat, and the 2300 Days — Daniel 8"; anchored by the seventy weeks, "The Seventy Weeks — Daniel 9") are two independent lines converging on one date.
• EW 74.1. White: "the 1843 chart was directed by the hand of the Lord, and that it should not be altered" — the chart that carried the 2520 at its head was Heaven-endorsed.
• Like the 2300, the 2520 ENDS at 1844 — past which there is no prophetic time (Rev. 10:6, "time no longer," defined in "The Mighty Angel and the Little Book — Revelation 10").

DEFINITION — THE SEVEN TIMES = the 2520-year scattering of God's people for their pride — Israel's covenant curse ("seven times," Lev. 26:18, 21, 24, 28), typified in Nebuchadnezzar's seven literal years (Dan. 4:16, 25, 33; MWV2 261.1); seven prophetic times = 2520 year-days (PREX2 124.2), Christ's "times of the Gentiles" (Luke 21:24), twice the time-times-and-a-half — pagan treading, then papal (PREX2 202.1). Termini: Manasseh's captivity, 677 BC, to AD 1844, converging with the 2300 (MWV2 262.2; TRMC Aug. 22, 1844; EW 74.1); from Israel's earlier captivity (~723 BC) the same measure lands on 1798 (HST March 20, 1844, page 55.8).

Symbols defined here:

• tree = a ruler, a kingdom (Dan. 4:20-22; Eze. 31:3) — see "What Is a Trumpet?".
• the seven times = the 2520-year scattering, 677 BC to AD 1844 (Lev. 26:18, 21, 24, 28; Dan. 4:16, 25; PREX2 124.2; MWV2 262.2).
• mene / tekel / peres = the maneh, the shekel, and the half-maneh — Babylon's verdict in coin-weights, summing (at the 50-shekel maneh) to 2520 gerahs (Dan. 5:25-28; Exo. 30:13).
• the times of the Gentiles = the whole 2520-year treading down of God's people, pagan then papal (Luke 21:24; HST October 2, 1844, page 70.6; PREX2 202.1).

Symbols carried: day = a year ("The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7"); the daily, the transgression of desolation ("The Ram, the Goat, and the 2300 Days — Daniel 8").

¶3. The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7

Daniel 2 told the same span in metal; here it is told in beasts, and the courtroom is added — and here the handbook's ground-symbols are first defined, because the angel defines them on the page.

The dream is given — Dan. 7:1:

• Dan. 7:1. "In the first year of Belshazzar... Daniel had a dream... then he wrote the dream" — about fifty years after the image of Dan. 2, the same prophecy is given a second time and written down.
• DAR 113.2. Smith: chronological order is set aside so the prophetic part is not interrupted by the historical — Dan. 7 belongs with the prophecies, not the court tales.

The four winds and the great sea — Dan. 7:2-3:

• Dan. 7:2-3. "the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea. And four great beasts came up from the sea" — kingdoms rise out of national strife among the crowded peoples.
  • winds = strife, political commotion, war (Jer. 25:32-33, "evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind"; Jer. 49:36-37, "the four winds from the four quarters of heaven... I will send the sword after them").
  • sea / waters = peoples, multitudes, nations (Rev. 17:15, "The waters which thou sawest... are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues"; cf. Isa. 17:12-13, the nations "rush like the rushing of many waters").
• DAR 114.1. Smith: winds in symbolic language "denote strife, political commotion, and war," proved from Jeremiah 25's whirlwind.
• DAR 114.3. Smith: "The Bible definition of sea, or waters, when used as a symbol, is, peoples, and nations, and tongues" — Rev. 17:15 expressly so declares.

The beast defined — Dan. 7:17, 23:

• Dan. 7:17. "These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth" — the angel gives the master key verbatim.
  • beast = a king or kingdom — the text's own definition: "These great beasts... are four kings" (Dan. 7:17), and "The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth" (Dan. 7:23); the same self-interpretation that names the ram and goat (Dan. 8:20-21).
• DAR 113.4. Smith: the language is symbolic by the angel's own word (v. 17, v. 23) — the four winds, the sea, the beasts, the horns, and the horn with eyes and a mouth are all to be interpreted.

The first beast — the lion (Babylon) — Dan. 7:4:

• Dan. 7:4. "The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings... the wings thereof were plucked... and a man's heart was given to it" — Babylon, the head of gold of Dan. 2.
• DAR 114.6. Smith: the first beast denotes the same as the head of gold — "the kingdom of Babylon" — the later beasts the succeeding kingdoms of the image.
• DAR 115.1. Smith: the eagle's wings denote the rapidity of Babylon's conquests under Nebuchadnezzar; the plucked wings and man's heart, the nation enfeebled in its closing years.

The second beast — the bear (Media-Persia) — Dan. 7:5:

• Dan. 7:5. "another beast, a second, like to a bear... it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it" — Medo-Persia, raised higher on the Persian side.
• DAR 115.3. Smith: the bear is Medo-Persia, the two-sided kingdom of Medes and Persians, the Persian side rising higher and last — the same fact shown by the ram's unequal horns (defined in "The Ram, the Goat, and the 2300 Days — Daniel 8").

The third beast — the leopard (Grecia) — Dan. 7:6:

• Dan. 7:6. "another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads" — Grecia, four-winged for speed, four-headed for its fourfold division.
• DAR 116.2. Smith: the third kingdom, Grecia — four wings for the unparalleled celerity of Alexander's conquests.
• DAR 117.3. Smith: "The beast had also four heads" — the empire divided among Alexander's four leading generals.

The fourth beast (Rome) and its ten horns — Dan. 7:7:

• Dan. 7:7. "a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible... great iron teeth... diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns" — Rome, the iron kingdom, breaking out into ten.
  • horn = a king or power — the text's own definition: "the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise" (Dan. 7:24).
• DAR 118.2. Smith: the fourth beast is Rome, the iron division of the image; its ten horns are "ten kings, or kingdoms" — the Huns, Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Franks, Vandals, Suevi, Burgundians, Heruli, Anglo-Saxons, Lombards (see "The Great Image — Daniel 2").

The little horn appears — Dan. 7:8:

• Dan. 7:8. "there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and... in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things" — an eleventh power, rising among the ten, religious-political, not merely military.
• DAR 118.4. Smith: "This little horn... was the papacy. The three horns plucked up before it were the Heruli, the Ostrogoths, and the Vandals" — plucked for opposing the bishop of Rome's supremacy.
• DAR 119.1. Smith: the eyes are the shrewdness and foresight of the papal hierarchy; the mouth speaking great things, the arrogant claims of the bishops of Rome.

The courtroom opens — Dan. 7:9-10:

• Dan. 7:9-10. "the Ancient of days did sit... the judgment was set, and the books were opened" — the heavenly court convenes, with thousand thousands ministering and the records on the bench.
• DAR 119.4. Smith: "the thrones were cast down" mistranslates a word meaning to set up — these are thrones of judgment placed in God's court "just before the end," not earthly thrones overthrown (cf. Rev. 4:2, a throne "set in heaven").
• DAR 120.1. Smith: the Ancient of days is God the Father; the closing of Christ's ministration in the heavenly sanctuary is the work here — "an investigative judgment. The books are opened, and the cases of all come up for examination."
• DAR 121.1. Smith: by Dan. 8:14 "this solemn work is even now transpiring in the sanctuary above" (see "The Ram, the Goat, and the 2300 Days — Daniel 8").

The horn's voice triggers the verdict — Dan. 7:11-12:

• Dan. 7:11-12. "I beheld even till the beast was slain... given to the burning flame. As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged" — the fourth beast is destroyed outright; the first three only lost dominion.
• SDP 102.1. Haskell: the horn's life "is prolonged beyond the time of the investigative judgment" — "the greatest word ever spoken against God," the 1870 decree of papal infallibility, uttered after 1844 while the court of vv. 9-10 sat.
• DAR 121.5. Smith: the fourth beast's career "ends in the lake of fire" — it is not merged into a successor as the lion, bear, and leopard were, but cast into the fire to rest till the second death.

The Son of man comes to the Ancient of days — Dan. 7:13-14:

• Dan. 7:13-14. "one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him" — Christ comes UP into the judgment, not down to earth.
• DAR 122.3. Smith: "The scene here described is not the second advent of Christ to this earth... for it is a coming to the Ancient of days" — He receives the kingdom in the heavenly temple before His return.
• GC 479.3. White: this coming "is not His second coming to the earth... It is this coming... that was foretold in prophecy to take place at the termination of the 2300 days in 1844" — the investigative judgment begins (contrast Rev. 1:7, "every eye shall see him," the Second Coming; cf. Acts 1:9-11; Heb. 9:24; Matt. 26:64).

Daniel asks; the kingdom telegraphed — Dan. 7:17-18:

• Dan. 7:17-18. "These great beasts, which are four, are four kings... But the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever" — the destination is fixed before the trial is described.
• DAR 123.2. Smith: the saints — "despised, reproached, persecuted, cast out" — "shall take the kingdom, and possess it forever"; the misrule of the wicked ends.

The fourth beast and its horn questioned — Dan. 7:19-20:

• Dan. 7:19-20. "I would know the truth of the fourth beast... even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows" — Daniel's interest, like the chapter's, concentrates on the eleventh horn.

The horn wars; the court rules; the saints possess — Dan. 7:21-22:

• Dan. 7:21-22. "the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints" — the horn wins on earth for its allotted time; the heavenly verdict reverses the record.
• DAR 125.3. Smith: "Fifty million martyrs... answer, Yes" — the papacy's war on the Waldenses, Albigenses, and Protestants shed more saintly blood than all the heathen persecutions combined.

The fourth kingdom named — Dan. 7:23:

• Dan. 7:23. "The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth... and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down" — king = kingdom restated, Rome described territorially.

The ten horns and the eleventh — Dan. 7:24:

• Dan. 7:24. "the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings... and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings" — the eleventh is later than the ten and different in kind.
• DAR 125.2. Smith: the little horn is a kingdom, but "diverse" — the only power rising among the ten since A.D. 483 yet unlike them all is "the spiritual kingdom of the papacy."

The marks of the little horn and the 1260 years — Dan. 7:25:

• Dan. 7:25. "he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints... and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time" — blasphemy, persecution, a reach for God's law, for 1260 years.
• DAR 140.3. Smith: "think to change times and laws" — the papacy expunged the second commandment, divided the tenth, and "torn from its place the Sabbath of Jehovah," erecting a rival institution.
• DAR 141.1. Smith: a time, times, and half a time = three years and a half = 1260 prophetic days = 1260 years by the year-day rule; "538 + 1260 = 1798," when Berthier took the pope prisoner.
  • day = a year in symbolic time-prophecy (Num. 14:34, "each day for a year"; Eze. 4:6, "I have appointed thee each day for a year").
• GC 439.2. White: the forty-two months, the time-times-and-half, and the 1260 days are one period — "began with the supremacy of the papacy, A.D. 538, and terminated in 1798," the deadly wound.

The judgment removes the horn's dominion — Dan. 7:26:

• Dan. 7:26. "But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end" — the same court of v. 9-10 strips and terminates the horn.
• DAR 142.1. Smith: this judgment is the same investigative judgment of v. 10, "located by the prophecy at the close of the great prophetic period of 2300 years, which terminated in 1844."

The kingdom given to the saints — Dan. 7:27:

• Dan. 7:27. "the kingdom and dominion... shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom" — third time the kingdom is pledged to the saints (vv. 18, 22, 27); the stone of Dan. 2 fills the earth (Dan. 2:44).
• DAR 143.2. Smith: after the dark picture of papal oppression, the prophet turns to "the glorious period of the saints' rest, when they shall have the kingdom... in everlasting possession."

DEFINITION — THE LITTLE HORN = the eleventh power of Dan. 7 = the papacy, every mark converging on one system and no future individual — the same power Scripture re-draws as the leopard-beast of Rev. 13 (defined in "The Two Beasts — Revelation 13"):

• rises among the ten and after them (Dan. 7:8, 24);
• plucks up three horns — the Heruli, the Ostrogoths, and the Vandals (Dan. 7:8, 24; DAR 118.4);
• diverse — eyes and a mouth, a religious power on a political base (Dan. 7:8, 20, 24; DAR 119.1);
• speaks great words against the most High and wears out the saints (Dan. 7:25; DAR 125.3);
• thinks to change times and laws — the Sabbath (Dan. 7:25; DAR 140.3);
• holds the saints a time and times and the dividing of time = 1260 year-days = AD 538-1798 (Dan. 7:25; DAR 141.1; GC 439.2).

DEFINITION — THE JUDGMENT = the heavenly court of Dan. 7:9-10 — the Father enthroned, the books opened, the cases of the professed people of God examined (DAR 120.1; 1 Pet. 4:17); Christ comes to the Ancient of days, not to earth, at the termination of the 2300 days in 1844 (Dan. 7:13; DAR 122.3; GC 479.3); the court strips the horn's dominion and gives the kingdom to the saints (Dan. 7:26-27; DAR 142.1) — the investigative judgment — see "The Ram, the Goat, and the 2300 Days — Daniel 8" and "The Seventy Weeks — Daniel 9."

Symbols defined here:

• winds = strife, political commotion, war (Jer. 25:32-33; Jer. 49:36-37; DAR 114.1).
• sea / waters = peoples, multitudes, nations (Rev. 17:15; Isa. 17:12-13; DAR 114.3).
• beast = a king or kingdom (Dan. 7:17, 23; DAR 113.4).
• horn = a king or power (Dan. 7:24).
• day = a year in symbolic time-prophecy (Num. 14:34; Eze. 4:6; DAR 141.1).
• little horn = the papacy, every mark receipted (Dan. 7:8, 20, 24, 25; DAR 118.4, 119.1, 140.3, 141.1).
• a time and times and the dividing of time / the 1260 = 1260 year-days of papal supremacy, AD 538-1798 (Dan. 7:25; DAR 141.1; GC 439.2).
• the judgment = the 1844 investigative judgment opened in heaven (Dan. 7:9-10, 13, 26; DAR 120.1, 122.3, 142.1; GC 479.3).

¶4. The Ram, the Goat, and the 2300 Days — Daniel 8

Dan. 7 retold from the sanctuary's angle: Babylon drops out, the empires march from Medo-Persia to the end, and a 2300-year timer is set to the cleansing of the sanctuary — the longest explicitly numbered prophetic line in Scripture, ending 1844. The angel names the symbols; only the date is held back, and Gabriel must return in "The Seventy Weeks — Daniel 9" to anchor it.

The vision is given at Shushan — Dan. 8:1-2:

• Dan. 8:1-2. "In the third year of the reign of king Belshazzar a vision appeared unto me... I was at Shushan in the palace... in the province of Elam" — a third pass over the same span (Dan. 2, Dan. 7, now Dan. 8), dated ~551 BC, with Daniel set down in the seat of the empire about to rise.
• DAR 146.2. Smith: Shushan was Elam's metropolis, then in Babylonian hands, where the king had a royal palace and Daniel was about the king's business.

The ram pushes three directions — Dan. 8:3-4:

• Dan. 8:3-4. "a ram which had two horns... one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last... pushing westward, and northward, and southward... he did according to his will, and became great" — two nationalities, the dominant arriving second, conquering on three fronts.
  • ram = the kings of Media and Persia — the text names it: "The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia" (Dan. 8:20).
• DAR 146.4. Smith: the two horns are the two nationalities; the higher-and-later horn is Persia, at first only Media's ally, then the empire's leading division; the three directions are the lines of Medo-Persian conquest.

The goat comes from the west, touches not the ground — Dan. 8:5-7:

• Dan. 8:5-7. "an he goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground: and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes... smote the ram, and brake his two horns" — speed, and the overthrow of Medo-Persia by a single notable horn.
  • goat = the king (kingdom) of Grecia; the great horn = its first king — the text names it: "the rough goat is the king of Grecia: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king" (Dan. 8:21).
• DAR 147.3. Smith: the angel explains the goat as Grecia; Bishop Newton notes the Macedonians were called "the goats' people," and Alexander's successors are figured on their coins with goats' horns.
• DAR 148.3. Smith: "touched not the ground" is the celerity of Alexander's movements — the same feature as the leopard's four wings in Dan. 7.

The great horn broken; four come up — Dan. 8:8:

• Dan. 8:8. "when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven" — the conqueror broken at the height of his power, his realm splitting four ways.
  • four notable ones = four kingdoms out of the nation — the text names it: "four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not in his power" (Dan. 8:22); restated as the kingdom "divided toward the four winds of heaven" (Dan. 11:4).
• DAR 180.3. Smith: on Alexander's death the kingdom fell into fragments and consolidated into four grand divisions — the goat's four horns — none possessing the strength of the original.

Out of one of them, a little horn — Dan. 8:9-12:

• Dan. 8:9. "out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land" — a power small at first, growing beyond the kingdoms before it, expanding south, east, and toward Israel.
  • little horn (Dan. 8) = Rome, pagan then papal — the same power Dan. 7 reads as the papacy (defined in "The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7"), here seen through the sanctuary lens.
• DAR 153.3. Smith: as Rome succeeded Grecia as the fourth great power in Dan. 2 and Dan. 7, the horn that here succeeds Grecia as an "exceeding great" power is also Rome.
• DAR 153.4. Smith: the horn appeared to the prophet as coming forth "from one of the horns of the goat" — Rome conquered Macedonia in 168 BC, made it part of its empire, and entered prophecy just as it was going forth from that conquered Macedonian horn to new conquests.
• DAR 152.4. Smith: Antiochus cannot be the horn — Persia is "great," Grecia "very great," but the little horn "waxed exceeding great" and must surpass them both; the king who paid Rome tribute did not.
• Dan. 8:10. "it waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them" — the power strikes God's people and their leaders.
  • host of heaven = God's people, His hosts (Ex. 12:41, "all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt"); stars = leaders who turn many to righteousness (Dan. 12:3).
• DAR 154.4. Smith: Rome cast down the host and stars — the same act as the dragon (pagan Rome) casting a third of the stars to the ground in Rev. 12:4, the Jewish rulers.
• Dan. 8:11. "he magnified himself even to the prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down" — the horn exalts itself against Christ and obscures His continual ministry.
  • the daily = the continual; in this prophecy, the pagan desolating power, paired with the papal — "the daily (desolation) signifying the pagan form, and the transgression of desolation, the papal" (DAR 154.6); the word "sacrifice" is supplied, not in the text (Dan. 8:11 KJV italics).
  • Prince of the host / Prince of princes = Jesus Christ — the captain of the LORD's host who met Joshua (Josh. 5:14), the Messiah the Prince (Dan. 9:25).
• DAR 157.2. Smith: "daily" (Hebrew tamid) occurs 102 times in the Old Testament, almost always "continual"; "sacrifice" is wholly a supplied word — the translators' understanding, not the text.
• EW 74.2. White: the word "sacrifice" on "the daily" of Daniel 8:12 "was supplied by man's wisdom, and does not belong to the text," and the Lord gave the correct view to those who gave the judgment-hour cry.
• Dan. 8:12. "an host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practised, and prospered" — the horn is given a host through apostasy, casts truth down, and succeeds.
• DAR 158.1. Smith: three earthly oppressors are ranged under two heads — Medo-Persia, Grecia, and pagan Rome under "the daily," and papal Rome under "the transgression of desolation."

"How long?" and the answer — Dan. 8:13-14:

• Dan. 8:13. "How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?" — the question spans the whole long career of the desolating powers.
• DAR 157.1. Smith: "How long the vision?" proves the daily is not the brief Jewish daily sacrifice — the question requires a power occupying a long series of years.
• Dan. 8:14. "Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed" — 2300 prophetic days to the cleansing of the sanctuary.
  • 2300 days = 2300 years, by the year-day principle (day = year, defined in "The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7") — the longest explicitly numbered prophetic line, the date-anchor defined in "The Seventy Weeks — Daniel 9."
• DAR 156.3. Smith: two celestial beings hold this conversation in Daniel's hearing on the one point of most absorbing interest — the time — and the answer is addressed to Daniel, "the one whom it chiefly concerned."
• GC 328.2. White: the seventy weeks (490 days) cut from the 2300 leave 1810; from A.D. 34 the 1810 years reach 1844 — "the 2300 days of Daniel 8:14 terminate in 1844," when "the sanctuary shall be cleansed."

Gabriel sent to make him understand — Dan. 8:16-19:

• Dan. 8:16. "Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision" — a voice above Gabriel commissions him to explain; the same Gabriel is sent again in Dan. 9 with the same mandate.
• Dan. 8:17. "Understand, O son of man: for at the time of the end shall be the vision" — the vision reaches to the time of the end, not exhausted in any near-term local king.
• Dan. 8:19. "I will make thee know what shall be in the last end of the indignation: for at the time appointed the end shall be" — the same end-reach said twice in one verse, emphatic.

Ram named, goat named, four kingdoms named — Dan. 8:20-22:

• Dan. 8:20-22. "The ram... are the kings of Media and Persia... the rough goat is the king of Grecia... the great horn... is the first king... four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not in his power" — the angel names outright what Dan. 2 and Dan. 7 left to historical fit.
• DAR 180.3. Smith: "now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb" — the explanation is as plain as need be: two horns = Persia's union, the notable horn = Alexander, the four horns = the four divisions that did not stand in his power.

The fierce-countenance king — Dan. 8:23-25:

• Dan. 8:23-25. "a king of fierce countenance... shall destroy the mighty and the holy people... by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand" — the horn's career interpreted: it destroys God's people, strikes at Christ, and is broken at last by no human hand.
• DAR 181.2. Smith: the king of fierce countenance "is, of course, the same as the little horn of verse 9 and onward" — apply it to Rome, and all is harmonious and clear.

The vision shut up; Daniel faints — Dan. 8:26-27:

• Dan. 8:26. "the vision of the evening and the morning which was told is true: wherefore shut thou up the vision; for it shall be for many days" — Gabriel confirms the 2300 unit and seals the vision because its scope is centuries.
• Dan. 8:27. "I Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days... I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it" — the prophet is told the what (kingdoms, horn, attack, cleansing) but not the when; the time is the unexplained remainder, 2300 days from what? Gabriel must return to anchor it.

DEFINITION — THE 2300 DAYS = 2300 prophetic days = 2300 literal years (year-day, "The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7") — the longest explicitly numbered time-prophecy in Scripture, measuring the trampling of "both the sanctuary and the host" by the daily (pagan Rome) and the transgression of desolation (papal Rome), and ending in the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary (Dan. 8:13-14; DAR 156.3, 157.1). Anchored only by Dan. 9: from the decree of 457 BC, cut off the seventy weeks (490 years) and the remainder reaches 1844 (GC 328.2).

Symbols defined here:

• ram = the kings of Media and Persia (Dan. 8:20).
• goat / great horn = Grecia / its first king (Alexander) (Dan. 8:21).
• four notable ones = four kingdoms out of the nation, Alexander's successors (Dan. 8:22; Dan. 11:4).
• the daily = the continual; here the pagan desolating power, paired with the papal "transgression of desolation" — "sacrifice" is a supplied word (Dan. 8:11-13; DAR 154.6; DAR 157.2; EW 74.2).
• 2300 days = 2300 years, ending 1844 at the cleansing of the sanctuary (Dan. 8:14; GC 328.2).

Symbols carried: day = a year, little horn ("The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7").

¶5. The Seventy Weeks — Daniel 9

The only mathematically testable prophecy of Messiah in Scripture — and the key that unlocks 1844: Gabriel returns to finish what he left unexplained in Daniel 8.

The prayer that pulled the answer down — Dan. 9:1-2:

• Dan. 9:1-2. "In the first year of Darius... I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem" — Daniel reads Jeremiah's seventy-year captivity sentence (Jer. 25:11), sees the term nearly run, and turns to prayer, fasting, and confession (Dan. 9:3-19).

Gabriel returns to finish Daniel 8 — Dan. 9:20-23:

• Dan. 9:21. "even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning... touched me about the time of the evening oblation" — the same angel charged in Dan. 8:16 to make Daniel understand the vision comes back to complete the unfinished mission.
• Dan. 9:23. "understand the matter, and consider the vision" — Gabriel sends Daniel back to "the vision" of Dan. 8, the only part left unexplained being the 2300 days (the daily and the 2300 are defined in "The Ram, the Goat, and the 2300 Days — Daniel 8").
• Dan. 8:27. "I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it" — the time element of Dan. 8 was precisely what was left hanging; Dan. 9 is its explanation.
• GC 326.2. White: the angel was sent "for the express purpose of explaining... the statement relative to time — 'unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.'"

Seventy weeks cut off — Dan. 9:24:

• Dan. 9:24. "Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city... and to anoint the most Holy" — seventy weeks = 70 × 7 = 490 prophetic days = 490 years (year-day, defined in "The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7").
  • determined = cut off (Heb. chathak, H2852, "properly, to cut off, i.e. (figuratively) to decree") — the word occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible, and the 490 years are cut off from the larger 2300 of Dan. 8:14, the only time-period in view (Dan. 8:14).
  • to anoint the most Holy = the opening of Christ's heavenly priestly ministry, the heavenly sanctuary anointed as the earthly was (Exo. 40:9-10; Heb. 9:11-12).
• Dan. 8:14. "Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed" — the parent period from which the seventy weeks are cut, so the two begin together.
• GC 326.2. White: "determined" "literally signifies 'cut off'"; the 490 years "must therefore be a part of the 2300 days, and the two periods must begin together."
• DAR 192.1. Smith: "the word here rendered determined signifies 'cut off;' and there is no period from which the seventy weeks could be cut off but the 2300 days of the previous vision."

The anchor — the decree to restore Jerusalem — Dan. 9:25:

• Dan. 9:25. "from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks" — the count starts at the decree restoring the city, and runs 7 + 62 = 69 weeks = 483 years to the Anointed One.
  • the going forth of the commandment = Artaxerxes' seventh-year decree of 457 BC (Ezra 7:11-13, 25-26), which restored civil authority to Jerusalem — the complete decree, the third of three, perfected by Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes together (Ezra 6:14).
  • Messiah the Prince = the Anointed One, Christ anointed with the Holy Ghost at His baptism (Luke 3:21-22; Acts 10:38, "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost").
• Ezra 7:7. "in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king" — the decree's date, 457 BC.
• GC 326.3. White: the decree, in its "completest form... issued by Artaxerxes, king of Persia, 457 B.C.," with Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes "originating, reaffirming, and completing the decree."
• GC 327.1. White: "The decree of Artaxerxes went into effect in the autumn of 457 B.C. From this date, 483 years extend to the autumn of A.D. 27... In the autumn of A.D. 27 Christ was baptized by John and received the anointing of the Spirit."
• Mark 1:14-15. "Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel... The time is fulfilled" — at His anointing Christ declared the prophesied time fulfilled.
• DAR 196.2. Smith: the seventy weeks carry a fivefold test — decree, city restored at 7 weeks, Messiah manifested at 69 weeks, cut off in the midst of the last week, and the blessing turning to the Gentiles at its close.
• TRMC August 22, 1844, page 2.3. Snow: the 69 weeks reach "the manifestation of the Messiah" — "it has been thought by many that this was at his baptism, but this is a mistake," for only John saw the Spirit descend (John 1:26, 33-34); the terminus is Christ's public, miracle-attested ministry. (Snow's baptism-denial is not the handbook's — GC 327.1 above holds the baptism-anointing; both forms land the 69 weeks in the same autumn of AD 27, Snow's own date, at Mark 1:14-15's "the time is fulfilled.")

Messiah cut off — the covenant confirmed — Dan. 9:26-27:

• Dan. 9:26. "after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself" — after the 69 weeks reach AD 27, Messiah is slain, and not for His own sin but for others (Isa. 53:8, "cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken").
• Dan. 9:27. "he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease" — the seventieth week runs AD 27-34; at its midst, AD 31, the cross ends the typical sacrifices in heaven's reckoning.
• Matt. 27:51. "the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom" — at the cross the type meets the Antitype; the sacrificial system loses its meaning and access opens through Christ's flesh.
• DAR 204.3. Smith: thirteen authorities fix the crucifixion in the spring of AD 31; counting "back from the crucifixion... three and a half years" reaches autumn AD 27 (the 69 weeks end, ministry begins), and forward three and a half years reaches autumn AD 34.
• GC 327.2. White: "the last seven years of the period allotted especially to the Jews... extending from A.D. 27 to A.D. 34."

The seventieth week ends AD 34 — the gospel to the Gentiles:

• Acts 7:59-60. "they stoned Stephen" — the Jewish Sanhedrin sealed the nation's rejection of the gospel; AD 34, the close of the seventy weeks.
• Acts 8:4. "they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word" — the persecution scattered the disciples and broke the message beyond Jerusalem.
• Acts 13:46. "lo, we turn to the Gentiles" — national probation closed, the gospel went to all (cf. Matt. 10:5-6, the prior restriction "go not into the way of the Gentiles" now lifted).
• GC 328.1. White: "The seventy weeks... ended... in A.D. 34. At that time, through the action of the Jewish Sanhedrin, the nation sealed its rejection of the gospel by the martyrdom of Stephen."

The 2300 reach to 1844 — the judgment opened:

• GC 328.2. White: "the beginning of the seventy weeks is fixed beyond question at 457 B.C., and their expiration in A.D. 34... The seventy weeks — 490 days — having been cut off from the 2300, there were 1810 days remaining... From A.D. 34, 1810 years extend to 1844. Consequently the 2300 days of Daniel 8:14 terminate in 1844."
• Dan. 8:14. "then shall the sanctuary be cleansed" — the cleansing is the antitypical Day of Atonement (Lev. 16:30, 33), no longer in the earthly sanctuary destroyed in AD 70 but in the true tabernacle in heaven (Heb. 8:1-2).
• DAR 193.3. Smith: "Seventy weeks, then, or 490 days of the 2300, were cut off upon... Jerusalem and the Jews... the events of the seventy weeks furnish a key to the whole vision" — verify the 490, and the 2300 stands proven (the judgment scene is defined in "The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7").

DEFINITION — THE SEVENTY WEEKS = 490 years cut off (Heb. chathak) as the first segment of the 2300 days, the two beginning together at Artaxerxes' completed decree, 457 BC (Dan. 9:24-25; Ezra 7:7; GC 326.2-3; DAR 192.1). Termini: 69 weeks to Messiah anointed, autumn AD 27 (GC 327.1); the cross at the week's midst, AD 31 (Dan. 9:26-27; DAR 204.3); the week ends AD 34 with Stephen and the gospel turning to the Gentiles (GC 328.1) — and the 1810 years remaining reach 1844, the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary (GC 328.2). The chain in one line: 457 BC proves 1844.

Symbols defined here:

• determined / cut off = the 490 years severed from the 2300 (Heb. chathak, H2852) (Dan. 9:24; Dan. 8:14; GC 326.2).
• the going forth of the commandment = Artaxerxes' completed decree, 457 BC (Ezra 7:7; Ezra 6:14; GC 326.3).
• Messiah the Prince = the Anointed One, Christ anointed at His baptism, autumn AD 27 (Luke 3:21-22; Acts 10:38; GC 327.1).
• to anoint the most Holy = the inauguration of Christ's heavenly priestly ministry (Exo. 40:9-10; Heb. 9:11-12).

Symbols carried: day = a year ("The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7"); the 2300 days ("The Ram, the Goat, and the 2300 Days — Daniel 8").

¶6. The Kings of the North and the South — Daniel 10-11

Dan 10-12 is one vision: chapter 10 is the throne-room briefing, chapter 11 the field report, chapter 12 the close. Here the angel names literal kings — "now will I shew thee the truth" (Dan. 11:2) — and walks them from Persia to the willful king's fall, the longest predictive prophecy in Scripture.

The man in linen and the war behind history — Dan. 10:2-6, 13, 21:

• Dan. 10:2-3. "I Daniel was mourning three full weeks... I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth" — the prophet's three-week fast over the stalled return.
• Dan. 10:5-6. "a certain man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz... his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in colour to polished brass" — the pre-incarnate Christ in priestly linen (cf. Rev. 1:13-15, the same figure among the candlesticks; Michael = Christ, defined in "Michael Stands Up — Daniel 12").
• Dan. 10:13. "the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me" — the twenty-one days of heaven's contested journey match the prophet's twenty-one days of prayer; behind the empire stands an unseen prince (Eph. 6:12).
• Dan. 10:21. "there is none that holdeth with me in these things, but Michael your prince" — Michael, the prince of Daniel's people, the one who will "stand up" at the chapter's end (Dan. 12, defined in "Michael Stands Up — Daniel 12").
• SDP 162.1. Haskell: from Cyrus "to the end of the history of Medo-Persia, Gabriel worked with the kings"; when God's influence withdrew, "no power on earth could help them" — the unseen war drives the visible history of Dan. 11 (Dan. 10:20, "the prince of Grecia shall come").

Persia's three-plus-one — Dan. 11:2:

• Dan. 11:2. "there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia; and the fourth shall be far richer than they all... he shall stir up all against the realm of Grecia" — three kings after Cyrus, then a fourth whose riches arm Greece's invasion.
  • stand up = to rise to reign, to take the kingdom (Dan. 11:3, the mighty king who "stand[s] up" and rules; Dan. 11:21, the vile person who "stand[s] up" in his estate) — the verb that paces the whole chapter and reappears at Dan 12:1.
• DAR 222.3. Smith: the three kings after Cyrus = Cambyses, the impostor Smerdis, and Darius Hystaspes.
• DAR 222.4. Smith: "the fourth" = Xerxes, who stirred up the largest army ever assembled — over five million — against Grecia, and met with "utter failure" in that enterprise.

Alexander and the four-winds division — Dan. 11:3-4:

• Dan. 11:3. "a mighty king shall stand up, that shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will" — Alexander the Great, monarch of the known world.
• Dan. 11:4. "his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven; and not to his posterity" — the empire split four ways, none of it to his line (winds = war/strife defined in "The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7").
• DAR 223.2. Smith: the prophecy passes the nine kings after Xerxes and lands on Alexander, who "did according to his will," died in a drunken debauch (323 BC), and whose posterity were all murdered within fifteen years.

The kings of the south and north = Ptolemies and Seleucids — Dan. 11:5-15:

• Dan. 11:5. "the king of the south shall be strong, and one of his princes; and he shall be strong above him" — Ptolemy I of Egypt strong, but his prince Seleucus rises stronger and founds the northern kingdom.
  • king of the south = the power south of Palestine — Ptolemaic Egypt (Dan. 11:5, 8; the "house of bondage," Ex. 13:3) — the man-exalting axis.
  • king of the north = the power north of Palestine — at first Seleucid Syria (Dan. 11:6-15), the role that telescopes forward through Rome to the time of the end (see the DEFINITION below).
• DAR 224.2 / 225.1-2. Smith: reckoned from Palestine, Alexander's four divisions lay west, north, east, south — Lysimachus held the north, Seleucus the east; then Seleucus conquered Lysimachus, annexing Macedon and Thrace to Syria and becoming "strong above him" — thenceforth Seleucid Syria is the king of the north, Ptolemy's Egypt the king of the south.
• Dan. 11:6. "the king's daughter of the south shall come to the king of the north to make an agreement: but she shall not retain the power of the arm" — Berenice given to Antiochus II; the marriage-treaty collapses in murder (~250 BC).
• Dan. 11:7. "out of a branch of her roots shall one stand up... and shall enter into the fortress of the king of the north... and shall prevail" — Berenice's brother Ptolemy III invades Syria and carries off their gods and treasure.
• Dan. 11:15. "the king of the north shall come, and cast up a mount, and take the most fenced cities: and the arms of the south shall not withstand" — Antiochus III crushes Egypt at Panium (200 BC); the glorious land passes to northern hands.

Rome enters — the robbers of thy people — Dan. 11:14, 16, 22, 30:

• Dan. 11:14. "the robbers of thy people shall exalt themselves to establish the vision; but they shall fall" — a new power introduced on the banks of the Tiber.
• DAR 230.3 / 231.1. Smith: "the robbers of thy people" = Rome — "small and weak at first," grown "with marvelous rapidity," henceforth controlling the affairs of the world to the end of time.
• Dan. 11:16. "he that cometh against him shall... stand in the glorious land, which by his hand shall be consumed" — Rome comes against the king of the north himself: Pompey "reduced Syria to a Roman province" (65 BC, DAR 233.5); Rome treads the land where God's name is set, and the northern seat passes to Roman hands.
• Dan. 11:22. "with the arms of a flood shall they be overflown from before him, and shall be broken; yea, also the prince of the covenant" — Rome's overflowing arms; "the prince of the covenant" broken = Messiah cut off (the seventy-weeks anchor, defined in "The Seventy Weeks — Daniel 9").
• Dan. 11:30. "the ships of Chittim shall come against him" — Chittim = the coasts of the Mediterranean (Num. 24:24; DAR 253.2): Genseric's Vandal fleet out of Carthage harries Rome, the power "which has been the subject of the prophecy from the sixteenth verse" (DAR 253.2-3).

The papal turn — the daily taken away — Dan. 11:31:

• Dan. 11:31. "they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate" — the same operation Dan 8 names (the daily, defined in "The Ram, the Goat, and the 2300 Days — Daniel 8").
• DAR 254.4. Smith: "pollute the sanctuary of strength, or Rome" — the seat of empire removed from Rome to Constantinople as paganism falls and the papacy rises.
• DAR 255.1. Smith: "the daily" = paganism, the desolating power taken away; "the abomination of desolation" that succeeds it = the papacy (parallel to Dan. 8:11).

The persecuted wise of the 1260 — Dan. 11:32-35:

• Dan. 11:32. "the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits" — those who kept pure religion alive under papal tyranny.
• DAR 263.1. Smith: these are the Waldenses, Albigenses, Huguenots — heroes of faith through the dark ages.
• Dan. 11:33. "they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, many days" — the long persecution of the witnesses.
• DAR 263.3. Smith: the "many days" = the 1260 years of papal supremacy, the same period as Dan 7:25; 12:7; Rev 12:6, 14; 13:5 (the 1260 defined in "The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7").
• Dan. 11:35. "some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end" — persecution refines, not abandons, running to the time of the end.
• DAR 264.2. Smith: the papal power to punish heretics, restrained then broken, "taken entirely away" at the commencement of the time of the end — "the time of the end commenced in 1798."

The willful king — atheistical France — Dan. 11:36-39:

• Dan. 11:36. "the king shall do according to his will... and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished" — a new power, self-exalting and blasphemous, distinct from the papacy.
• DAR 264.4. Smith: "the king here introduced cannot denote... the papal power; for the specifications will not hold good" — the specifications demand a NEW power.
• DAR 265.1. Smith: three features — at the commencement of the time of the end, willful, and atheistical — answered exactly by revolutionary France, where in 1793 "the existence of the Deity [was] denied, as the voice of the nation."
• DAR 268.2. Smith: "Aug. 26, 1792, an open profession of atheism was made by the National Convention" — atheism declared by a state, alone in history.
• Dan. 11:37. "Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god" — rejecting inherited religion, marriage, and all gods at once.
• DAR 266.5 / 267.1. Smith: "the desire of women" rendered "the desire of wives" = the marriage institution trampled — France reduced marriage to "a mere civil contract of a transitory character," the "sacrament of adultery."
• Dan. 11:38-39. "in his estate shall he honour the God of forces... and he shall... divide the land for gain" — a god of military power honored; the land parceled out.
• DAR 272.1. Smith: "divide the land for gain" = the confiscated estates of the French nobility sold at auction in small parcels — the particular that identifies France "perhaps as clearly as any other."

At the time of the end — 1798: the south pushes, the north whirlwinds — Dan. 11:40:

• Dan. 11:40. "at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships" — south and north reappear against France in the last segment (whirlwind defined in "The Four Winds, the Whirlwind, the Winds").
• DAR 273.3. Smith: Egypt is "still, by common agreement, the king of the south," while the king-of-the-north territory "has been for the past four hundred years wholly included within the dominions of the sultan of Turkey."
• DAR 273.4. Smith: the application calls for a triangular war between France, Egypt, and Turkey in 1798 — "the beginning of the time of the end."
• DAR 277.1. Smith: the remaining prophecy "must, then, be fulfilled by Turkey" — "the king of the north of this prophecy," now occupying the northern division of Alexander's empire; the Euphratean seat of the second woe (the Ottoman of the sixth trumpet, in "The Six Trumpets").

He shall come to his end — Dan. 11:44-45 — the bridge:

• Dan. 11:44. "tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy" — the Ottoman troubled at his last; the Eastern Question's closing act (verified anchors DAR 280.5-282.2; see "The Seventh Trumpet").
• Dan. 11:45. "he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him" — his final stand at Jerusalem, then his fall when the powers withdraw support (DAR 282.1-2).
• PREX2 113.2. Litch: he found "the fall of Bonaparte to be the last event of the 11th chapter; and the next in order, is the reign of Michael." (Litch is leaned on for the trumpets; his Napoleon ending of Dan. 11:40-45 is not the handbook's — the Ottoman reading stands on the DEFINITION below and "The Seventh Trumpet.")
• Dan. 12:1. "at that time shall Michael stand up" — the king of the north's end is the cue: Michael rises, probation closes, the seventh trumpet sounds (see "Michael Stands Up — Daniel 12" and "The Seventh Trumpet").

DEFINITION — THE KING OF THE NORTH = the anti-covenant power on the territory north of Palestine — an office that telescopes as history advances: "whatever power at any time should occupy the territory... would be the king of the north" (DAR 224.3). At his end — the last stand at Jerusalem, "none shall help him" (Dan. 11:44-45; DAR 282.1-2) — Michael stands up and probation closes (Dan. 12:1; "Michael Stands Up — Daniel 12," "The Seventh Trumpet").

• Seleucid Syria (Dan. 11:6-15; DAR 225.2);
• Rome, entering as "the robbers of thy people," Pompey reducing Syria to a Roman province (Dan. 11:14, 16, 22; DAR 231.1, 233.5);
• Turkey at the time of the end — the Euphratean seat, the Ottoman second woe of "The Six Trumpets," coming against France like a whirlwind in 1798 (Dan. 11:40; DAR 273.3, 277.1).

Symbols defined here:

• stand up = to rise to reign, to take the kingdom (Dan. 11:2-3, 21).
• king of the south = the power south of Palestine — Ptolemaic Egypt, the man-exalting axis (Dan. 11:5, 8; Ex. 13:3).
• king of the north = the anti-covenant power north of Palestine — Seleucid Syria → Rome → Turkey, the Euphratean seat at the time of the end (Dan. 11:6, 40; DAR 224.3; 273.3; 277.1).

Symbols carried: winds, the 1260 ("The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7"); the daily ("The Ram, the Goat, and the 2300 Days — Daniel 8"); whirlwind ("The Four Winds, the Whirlwind, the Winds").

¶7. Michael Stands Up — Daniel 12

Thirteen verses close Daniel's book: Michael stands up, probation shuts, the time of trouble falls, and the great prince's people are delivered by name. The numbers are sworn under oath, the book is sealed till 1798, and then opened — and the chapter hands the thread to Revelation 10, where the little book lies open.

At that time Michael stands up — Dan. 12:1:

• Dan. 12:1. "And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was... and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book" — at the king of the north's end, the great prince rises and probation shuts.
  • Michael = Christ, the archangel-Prince who fights for His people (Jude 1:9, "Michael the archangel"; 1 Thess. 4:16, the Lord descends "with the voice of the archangel"; Rev. 12:7, "Michael and his angels fought against the dragon"); the same Prince who came to help in Daniel's earlier visions (Dan. 10:13, "Michael, one of the chief princes"; Dan. 10:21, "Michael your prince").
  • stand up = to take the kingdom, to reign — the close of probation (defined in "The Seventh Trumpet").
  • "at that time" = the moment of Dan. 11:45, the king of the north's end (defined in "The Kings of the North and the South — Daniel 10-11").
  • "a time of trouble, such as never was" = the seven last plagues, poured after the door shuts (see "The Seven Last Plagues").
  • "every one that shall be found written in the book" delivered = the sealed, decided before the trouble begins (see "The Sealing Time").
• DAR 293.2. Smith: "at that time" = the time of Dan. 11:45 — the Turk's final stand at Jerusalem, then his end; this movement on the part of Turkey is "the signal for the standing up of Michael."
• DAR 295.1. Smith: "stand up" = "to take the kingdom, to reign" — at that time "Michael shall stand up, shall take the kingdom, shall commence his reign," keyed by Dan. 11:2-3's kings who "stand up" to reign.
• DAR 295.3. Smith: at Michael's standing "the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom 'of our Lord and of his Christ'... His priestly robes are laid aside for royal vesture. The work of mercy is done, and the probation of our race is ended... All cases are decided."
• GC 490.2. White: "Probation is ended a short time before the appearing of the Lord," fixed by the irrevocable sentence of Rev. 22:11.
• EW 280.2. White: as Jesus "moved out of the most holy place" the restraint is removed — "It was impossible for the plagues to be poured out while Jesus officiated... Every case was decided, every jewel numbered."

The special resurrection — Dan. 12:2:

• Dan. 12:2. "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt" — a partial waking, not the general resurrection, both classes named in one verse.
  • many (not all) = a special resurrection before the general one of Rev. 20 — that those who pierced Christ may see Him come (Rev. 1:7, "every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him"), patterned by the saints raised at the cross (Matt. 27:52-53, "many bodies of the saints which slept arose").
• Dan. 12:2 is an Old Testament witness to the bodily resurrection of both just and unjust (John 5:28-29, "they that have done good... and they that have done evil"; Acts 24:15, "a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust").
• GC 637.1. White: "all who have died in the faith of the third angel's message come forth from the tomb glorified," to hear God's covenant of peace, raised together with "they also which pierced Him" (Rev. 1:7).

The wise shall shine — Dan. 12:3:

• Dan. 12:3. "And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever" — those who understand and who turn many, lit with the glory of the saved.

Seal the book till the time of the end — Dan. 12:4:

• Dan. 12:4. "But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased" — Daniel's prophecy is closed for a duration, then unsealed.
• DAR 305.3. Smith: the book "sealed until the time of the end... commenced in 1798"; from that point "the book would be unsealed" and prophetic students would "run to and fro... a diligent and earnest search into prophetic truth."
• The sealed book of Daniel reopens as the little book open in the angel's hand (Rev. 10:2; defined in "The Mighty Angel and the Little Book — Revelation 10") — the inverse of John's command, "Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand" (Rev. 22:10).

The double-handed oath — a time, times, and an half — Dan. 12:5-7:

• Dan. 12:5-6. Two others stand by the river, and one asks the man clothed in linen "upon the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?" — the saints' perennial cry, answered under oath.
• Dan. 12:7. "he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished" — the most solemn oath-form in Scripture seals the 1260.
  • a time, times, and an half = 1260 prophetic days = 1260 literal years (year-day) — the period of papal supremacy, 538-1798, the same span Dan. 7:25 already named "a time and times and the dividing of time" (defined in "The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7").
• DAR 310.2. Smith: the answer is in two divisions — "the period of a time, times, and a half, or 1260 years, and then an indefinite period for the continuance of the scattering of the power of the holy people," patterned on the 2300-days answer of Dan. 8:13-14.
• DAR 310.3. Smith: "the 1260 years mark the period of papal supremacy" — the little horn does "more than any other... toward scattering the power of the holy people."

I understood not — the words sealed — Dan. 12:8-10:

• Dan. 12:8. "And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?" — the aged prophet's honest confession; the answer is given, full grasp is not the condition of faithful waiting.
• Dan. 12:9. "Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end" — the seal of v. 4 sworn at the back; Daniel will not live to see it lift.
• Dan. 12:10. "Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried... and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand" — sanctuary-purity carried into the saint; understanding is a moral condition, not merely intellectual.

From the daily taken away — 1290 days — Dan. 12:11:

• Dan. 12:11. "And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days" — a second prophetic number, dating the removal of the daily.
  • 1290 days = 1290 literal years (year-day), 508-1798 — the daily (paganism; defined in "The Ram, the Goat, and the 2300 Days — Daniel 8") taken away thirty years before papal supremacy formal in 538.
• DAR 313.2. Smith: "counting back... 1290 years from 1798, we have the year 508, where... paganism was taken away, thirty years before the setting up of the papacy"; the 1290 and 1260 "terminate together in 1798, the one beginning in 538, and the other in 508."

Blessed is he that waiteth — 1335 days — Dan. 12:12:

• Dan. 12:12. "Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days" — a third number, and a blessing on those who reach its end.
  • 1335 days = 1335 literal years, 508-1843 — from the same start as the 1290; the blessing = the judgment-hour message, the Advent awakening.
• DAR 314.2. Smith: the 1335 dates "from the same point... as that from which the 1290 date; namely, 508... From this point they would extend to 1843; for 1335 added to 508 make 1843."
• DAR 314.3. Smith: at 1843 "a remarkable fulfillment of prophecy in the great proclamation of the second coming of Christ... New life was imparted to the true disciples" — the blessing of those who waited and reached that hour.
• MWV2 296.2. Miller: the original expectation — "another evidence is Daniel's resurrection at the end of the 1335 days," enumerated among his proofs for 1843; the terminus stood, the event proved to be the awakening, not the rising (DAR 314.3).

Go thy way; rest; stand in thy lot — Dan. 12:13:

• Dan. 12:13. "But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days" — three movements: go, rest, stand — life, death, and the assigned portion in the kingdom.
• SDP 265.1. Haskell: "in the last days he stands in his lot as a prophet" — Daniel's unsealed words, "together with the Revelation given to John," and the spirit of prophecy guiding believers through the time of trouble (a reading distinct from Smith's Advocate below).
• DAR 316.1. Smith: "the end of the days" reaches back over the whole vision to its principal period, the 2300 days, "rather than to any of its subdivisions."
• DAR 316.2. Smith: the 2300 days "terminated in 1844, and brought us to the cleansing of the sanctuary"; Daniel stands in his lot "in the person of his Advocate, our great High Priest," when his case is judged and "he is found righteous."

DEFINITION — MICHAEL = Christ, the archangel-Prince who "standeth for the children of thy people" (Dan. 12:1; Jude 1:9; 1 Thess. 4:16; Rev. 12:7; Dan. 10:13, 21). His standing up = His passage from priestly intercession to royal reign — He takes the kingdom, and "all cases are decided" (Dan. 7:14; DAR 295.1, 295.3; GC 490.2; EW 280.2) — the close of probation, opening the time of trouble in which His sealed people are delivered by name.

DEFINITION — THE 1260 / 1290 / 1335 CHAIN = three prophetic numbers (year-day) converging on the time of the end, at which Daniel's sealed book (Dan. 12:4, 9; DAR 305.3) is opened — reappearing as the little book open in Revelation 10:

• 1260 ("a time, times, and an half," Dan. 12:7, sworn under the double-handed oath) = papal supremacy, 538-1798, scattering the power of the holy people (DAR 310.3; the same span as Dan. 7:25);
• 1290 (Dan. 12:11) = 508-1798, the daily taken away thirty years before papal supremacy formal (DAR 313.2);
• 1335 (Dan. 12:12) = 508-1843, ending in the Advent awakening, the blessing on those who waited (DAR 314.2, 314.3).

Symbols defined here:

• Michael = Christ, the archangel-Prince who stands for His people (Jude 1:9; 1 Thess. 4:16; Rev. 12:7; Dan. 10:13, 21).
• 1290 days = 508-1798, the daily taken away to 1798 (Dan. 12:11; DAR 313.2).
• 1335 days = 508-1843, the Advent awakening's blessing (Dan. 12:12; DAR 314.2, 314.3).

Symbols carried: stand up (of Michael) ("The Kings of the North and the South — Daniel 10-11"); a time, times, and an half / the 1260 ("The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7"); the daily ("The Ram, the Goat, and the 2300 Days — Daniel 8").

¶8. The Six Thousand Years

The creation week is the calendar of the world: six days of labor, then a Sabbath of rest — six thousand years of sin's toil, then the millennial Sabbath; the Millerite chronology placed the world at that threshold in 1843-44, a converging witness, not a new prophetic clock.

The key — a day is a thousand years — 2 Pet. 3:8:

• 2 Pet. 3:8. "one day [is] with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" — the Lord measures the world's history by a divine scale, a millennium to His day.
  • day (with the Lord) = a thousand years (2 Pet. 3:8; Ps. 90:4) — this section's own equation; the prophetic day = a year is defined in "The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7."
• Ps. 90:4. "a thousand years in thy sight [are but] as yesterday when it is past" — Moses sets the same proportion: God's yesterday is man's millennium.

The type — six days' labor, the seventh rest — Gen. 2:2-3; Exo. 20:9-11:

• Gen. 2:2-3. "on the seventh day God ended his work... And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it" — six days of creating, then the Creator's rest; the week is stamped with the pattern.
• Exo. 20:9-11. "Six days shalt thou labour... But the seventh day [is] the sabbath of the LORD" — the fourth commandment writes the same proportion into the moral law: six of work, one of rest.
• Heb. 4:4-9. "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God" — the seventh-day rest still has a future antitype, the rest God's people enter at the end of their labor.
• Heb. 4:10. "he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God [did] from his" — the rest is keyed to the creation-Sabbath: cease as God ceased (the millennial Sabbath is defined in "The Millennium and the Great White Throne — Revelation 20").
• MWV1 40.1. Miller: as God created in six days and rested the seventh, "so Christ would be six thousand years creating the new heavens and earth, and would rest on the seventh millennium" (the Heb. 4:10 analogy).
• MWV1 158.2. Miller: the Sabbath "is a sign of the rest which remains for the people of God" — Christ "will have been six thousand years creating his bride," then the seventh-thousand rest, echoing the fourth commandment and 2 Pet. 3:8.
• LJL 44.3. Fitch to Litch: each creation day "a sign of a thousand years... God will be six thousand years in completing his new creation in Christ Jesus, and that the seventh thousand years will be the rest that remaineth for the people of God."
• TRMC August 22, 1844, page 1.3. Snow: "The period of time allotted for this world, in its present state, is 6000 years, at the termination of which commences the great millennial Sabbath, spoken of in Revelation 20" — citing Isa. 46:9-10; Gen. 2:1-3; Heb. 4:4-9; 2 Pet. 3:8.
• Isa. 46:9-10. "Declaring the end from the beginning... My counsel shall stand" — Snow's lead text: the God who fixed the end at the beginning measured the world's span.

The genealogy chain — creation to the captivity — Miller's Bible chronology (MWV1 36-39):

The method — Miller's table carries a Scripture column for every link; each begetting and reign supplies its own span, summed from Adam to the fixed 457 BC anchor.

• Gen. 5:3-32. "Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat... Seth" — the begettings of Genesis 5 chain Adam to Noah by the age of each father at his son's birth (MWV1 36).
• Gen. 7:6. "Noah [was] six hundred years old when the flood... was upon the earth" — the begettings plus Noah's 600 set Adam-to-flood at 1656 years (A.M. 1656, MWV1 36).
• Gen. 11:10-26. "Shem [was] an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood" — the second genealogy chains the flood to Terah by the same begetting method (MWV1 36-37).
• Gen. 11:32; 12:4. "the days of Terah were two hundred and five years" / "Abram [was] seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran" — the Exode (the sojourn count) begins at Terah's death when Abram leaves Haran (MWV1 37, per Acts 7:4).
• Gen. 21:5. "Abraham was an hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born" — Abraham to Isaac, 100 years.
• Gen. 25:26. "Isaac [was] threescore years old when she bare them" — Isaac to Jacob, 60 years.
• Gen. 47:9. "an hundred and thirty years" — Jacob's age entering Egypt fixes the patriarch into the sojourn.
• Exo. 12:40-41. "the sojourning of the children of Israel... [was] four hundred and thirty years" — the sojourn from Abraham to the exodus, 430 years (MWV1 37).
• 1 Kings 6:1. "in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of... Egypt... he began to build the house of the LORD" — exodus to the temple's founding; Miller weighs this against the Judges and Paul.
• Acts 13:20. "he gave... judges about the space of four hundred and fifty years" — Paul's 450 for the Judges is Miller's "two witnesses" correction; from Judges plus Josephus' 18, 448 years, agreeing with Paul in round numbers (the heart of the dispute with Usher).
• Jer. 25:11; 2 Chron. 36:21. "these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years" / "to fulfil threescore and ten years" — the captivity's seventy years carry the chain to the Persian kings.
• 457 BC anchor. Artaxerxes' seventh year, "Ezra 7:10-13," closes the table at the same decree that anchors the 2300 days (the 457 BC anchor is defined in "The Seventy Weeks — Daniel 9").
• MWV1 39. Miller's table sums the segments: A.M. 4157 at the Christian era, "Add present year, 1840... 5997... To 1843... 6000" — creation reckoned at ~4157 BC, so six thousand years close ~AD 1843.
• MWV1 170.2. Miller: the Bible chronology "makes our present year, from the creation of Adam, 5997... we live within three or four years of the great sabbath of rest."
• MWV1 170.1. Miller: "six thousand years from the first creation the new one must be formed... then the seventh thousand years would be a sabbath of rest for Christ and his people."

Convergence and discipline — one terminus, 1843-44 — Matt. 24:36:

• TSAM 13.3. Hale: Miller's time before Christ was 4157 years against Usher's 4004; "the time given for that period by Paul, Acts 13:20, is very strongly in favor of Mr. Miller's chronology" — the difference is the Judges, and Paul settles it.
• HST October 2, 1844, page 70.5. The Advent Herald reprints "The Six Thousand Years": deducting 4156-and-a-fraction from 6000 leaves 1843-and-a-fraction, "Therefore the period will end within A. D. 1844."
• Convergence. The 6000 years end where the 2300 days (see "The Ram, the Goat, and the 2300 Days — Daniel 8") and the seven times (see "The Seven Times — Daniel 4") converge — independent lines, one terminus, 1843-44.
• GC 518.1. White: the great controversy "carried forward for nearly six thousand years, is soon to close" — the six-thousand-year frame marks the nearness of the end.
• GC 659.3. White: "For six thousand years, Satan's work of rebellion has 'made the earth to tremble'" — the span of sin's toil is the span of his prison house over God's people.
• GC 673.2. White: "For six thousand years he has wrought his will, filling the earth with woe" — at the close "the whole earth is at rest," the millennial Sabbath entered.
• Matt. 24:36. "of that day and hour knoweth no [man]... but my Father only" — the chronology dates the world's threshold, not the hour of the Advent; the day and hour stay with the Father.
• LDE 36.2. White: "After this period of time, reaching from 1842 to 1844, there can be no definite tracing of the prophetic time" — after 1844 there is no prophetic time ("time no longer," see "The Mighty Angel and the Little Book — Revelation 10").

The verdict — the Millerites read the 6000 as dating the Advent; the date was right, the EVENT misunderstood — Christ began the cleansing of the sanctuary in heaven, not the burning of the earth. Miller's sum stands not as a failed prediction but as the pioneer reckoning that placed the world at the threshold of the seventh millennium in 1843-44 — a converging WITNESS to the terminus the 2300 days and the seven times had already fixed.

DEFINITION — DAY (WITH THE LORD) = a thousand years; the Lord measures the world's history by a divine scale, one of His days to a millennium of man's (2 Pet. 3:8; Ps. 90:4).

DEFINITION — THE SIX THOUSAND YEARS = the appointed span of this world in its fallen state, typed by the six labor-days of the creation week before the Sabbath rest (Gen. 2:2-3; Exo. 20:9-11; Heb. 4:4-10); counted from creation by the genealogies and reigns of Scripture (Gen. 5; 7:6; 11; 21:5; 25:26; 47:9; Exo. 12:40; Acts 13:20; Jer. 25:11) the Millerite chronology placed creation at ~4157 BC and the six-thousand-year terminus at ~AD 1843, converging with the 2300 days and the seven times on 1843-44 — the threshold of the millennial Sabbath, a witness to the terminus, not a prophetic clock for the Advent (Matt. 24:36).

Symbols defined here:

• day (with the Lord) = a thousand years (2 Pet. 3:8; Ps. 90:4).
• the six thousand years = this world's appointed span of toil, typed by the creation week, counted from creation to ~AD 1843 (Gen. 2:2-3; Exo. 20:9-11; Heb. 4:4-10; 2 Pet. 3:8).

Part II — Revelation

¶9. The Revelation of Jesus Christ — Revelation 1

Daniel's book was sealed; John's is commanded open — and its first verse tells you how to read it: God "signified" it, gave it in signs, expecting decoding by Scripture.

Given in signs — Rev. 1:1-3:

• Rev. 1:1. "The Revelation of Jesus Christ... and he sent and signified [it] by his angel unto his servant John" — the book is named for the Person it unveils, and it comes signified, encoded in symbol for Scripture to decode.
  • signified = shown in signs/symbols (Gk. esēmanen, to make known by a sign) — the book is symbolic prophecy by its own first verse; where the angel later defines a symbol, that definition governs every later use.
• DAR 323.3. Smith: Jesus Christ is the Revelator, not John; John is "but the penman" Christ employed to write the Revelation for the church.
• Rev. 1:2. "the word of God, and... the testimony of Jesus Christ" — the twofold witness John bears, the fingerprint phrase that will mark the persecuted remnant (defined in "The Three Angels — Revelation 14").
• Rev. 1:3. "Blessed [is] he that readeth... for the time [is] at hand" — the only Bible book that opens with a blessing on its own reading; the book God blesses men for reading is not a book He meant to lock.
• DAR 326.1. Smith: so direct a benediction is pronounced on no other portion of the word; God has "set the seal of his approbation to an earnest study of its marvelous pages."
• Dan. 12:4, 9. "seal the book, [even] to the time of the end... the words [are] closed up and sealed till the time of the end" — Daniel was sealed; Rev. 22:10, "Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book," is the answer — sealed Daniel plus open Revelation marks the unsealing era.

The thesis verse — Rev. 1:7:

• Rev. 1:7. "Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they [also] which pierced him" — the literal, visible, personal Second Coming set at the front of the book; it stitches Dan. 7:13 ("clouds") and Zech. 12:10 ("whom they have pierced") into one verse.
• DAR 333.2. Smith: here John carries us forward to "the second advent of Christ in glory, the climax and crowning event"; He comes in clouds as He ascended (Acts 1:9, 11).
• DAR 333.3. Smith: "Every eye shall see him" — no secret, midnight, desert, or secret-chamber coming; to teach a private and a public advent is "wholly unwarranted in the Scriptures."

The Son of man among the candlesticks — Rev. 1:10-20:

• Rev. 1:10. "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet" — John is taken into prophetic vision; the Lord's day is the day Christ called His own, "the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day" (Matt. 12:8).
• HSFD 209.1. Andrews: the Lord's day "must be a day which the Lord had set apart for himself, and which he claimed as his" — "all true" of the seventh day, "not in any respect true" of the first.
• Rev. 1:11. "What thou seest, write in a book, and send [it] unto the seven churches... unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna" — seven real congregations in Roman Asia, named in postal order, which become the seven eras (defined in "The Seven Churches — Revelation 2-3").
• Rev. 1:12-13. "I saw seven golden candlesticks; And in the midst of the seven candlesticks [one] like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle" — Christ in His high-priestly robe and girdle, standing among His churches, not outside them.
  • candlestick = a church (Rev. 1:20, "the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches").
• DAR 342.3. Smith: these seven distinct lamp-stands are not the one seven-branched temple candlestick — they stand so separated "that the Son of man is seen walking about in the midst of them."
• Rev. 1:14-16. "his eyes [were] as a flame of fire... his feet like unto fine brass... he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword" — the same Person Daniel met by the Tigris (Dan. 10:5-6), now disclosed conducting His priestly work; the sword is the word of God (Heb. 4:12).
  • star = the angel/messenger of a church, its ministry (Rev. 1:20, "The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches"; cf. Mal. 2:7, the priest "is the messenger of the LORD of hosts"; Dan. 8:10, the host and stars cast down).
• DAR 342.4. Smith: "one like the Son of man, representing Christ" — the central, all-attractive figure; John fell at his feet as dead, but a comforting hand is laid on him and a voice says, "Fear not."
• Rev. 1:17-18. "Fear not; I am the first and the last... he that liveth, and was dead... and have the keys of hell and of death" — the YHWH first/last claim (Isa. 44:6), the resurrection certified, and absolute control of the grave.
• DAR 343.1. Smith: the most cheering assurance — the exalted One "alive forevermore" is "the arbiter of death and the grave"; the key to death's prison-house has been wrenched from his grasp.
• Rev. 1:19. "Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter" — the book's three-tense outline, given by Christ Himself: the vision (Rev. 1), the churches now (Rev. 2-3), things to come (Rev. 4 onward).
• Rev. 1:20. "The mystery of the seven stars... The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches" — Christ decodes His own symbols; this is the interpretive key for the whole book.
• DAR 328.3. Smith: "the angels of the seven churches... are the ministers of the churches," held in the right hand to denote "the upholding power, guidance, and protection vouchsafed to them."
• DAR 343.4. Smith: prints the verse-20 self-interpretation entire — the stars are the angels, the candlesticks are the churches.

DEFINITION — SIGNIFIED = Revelation interprets itself. Its first verse declares it was "signified," given in signs (Rev. 1:1); its last vision-detail decodes itself outright (Rev. 1:20). Therefore where the angel defines a symbol — candlestick, star, and every figure after — that definition is binding and governs every later use (the method of Dan. 7:17; Dan. 8:20; Rev. 17:15; Rev. 19:8).

DEFINITION — CANDLESTICK = a church (Rev. 1:20, the text's own decoder: "the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches").

DEFINITION — STAR = the angel/messenger of a church — its ministry, the responsible human leadership (Rev. 1:20, "The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches"; cf. Mal. 2:7, the priest as "the messenger of the LORD"; Dan. 8:10, host-and-stars as persons cast down).

Symbols defined here:

• signified = shown in signs — the book is symbolic and self-decoding (Rev. 1:1, 20).
• candlestick = a church (Rev. 1:20).
• star = the angel/messenger of a church, its ministry (Rev. 1:20; Mal. 2:7; Dan. 8:10).

¶10. The Seven Churches — Revelation 2-3

The candlestick-Christ of Revelation 1 begins to speak: seven letters that are seven successive eras of the one church, from the apostles to the close of probation — each named, dated, and diagnosed by the prophecy itself.

The scheme — seven letters = seven eras:

• Rev. 1:20. "The seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches" — the vision interprets its own figure (candlestick = church, star = messenger, defined in "The Revelation of Jesus Christ — Revelation 1").
  • the seven churches = seven successive periods of the one church across the Christian age (DAR 329.3; the era-order matches church history — first love first, lukewarm self-satisfaction last).
• DAR 329.3. Smith: "the seven churches" mean "not merely the seven literal churches of Asia... but seven periods of the Christian church, from the days of the apostles to the close of probation."
• DAR 345.3. Smith: the seven-period reading "is neither new nor local" — historicist expositors from before the pioneers read the seven epistles as "so many successive periods... of the church, from the beginning to the conclusion of all."

Ephesus — the apostolic church (~A.D. 31-100) — Rev. 2:1-7:

• Rev. 2:1. "he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks" — Christ addresses the first era as the One who holds her ministers and walks among the churches.
• Rev. 2:4. "thou hast left thy first love" — the apostolic era's doctrine stayed sound while its first warmth cooled.
• Rev. 2:5. "repent... or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place" — a church can forfeit its standing; Ephesus is ruins today.
• Rev. 2:7. "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life" — Eden's tree, barred at the fall, reopened to the overcomer.

Smyrna — the persecuted church (~A.D. 100-323) — Rev. 2:8-11:

• Rev. 2:9. "I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich)" — the church under Rome, materially poor and bleeding, counted rich by Christ.
• Rev. 2:10. "ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death" — by the year-day rule (defined in "The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7"), ten days = ten years: the Diocletian persecution, the last and bloodiest, A.D. 302-312.
  • ten days = ten years — "the last and most bloody of the ten persecutions continued just ten years, under Diocletian" (DAR 352.3).
• DAR 352.3. Smith: the time is prophetic, so "ten days" = ten years, and the Diocletian persecution "continued just ten years... from A.D. 302 to A.D. 312."
• DAR 354.2. Smith: the Smyrnian church dates A.D. 100-323 — against it "there was no word of condemnation uttered," for "persecution is ever calculated to keep the church pure" (DAR 354.4).

Pergamos — the church-state compromise (~A.D. 323-538) — Rev. 2:12-17:

• Rev. 2:13. "where Satan's seat is... where Satan dwelleth" — the era when the church wedded the imperial throne after Constantine's settlement.
• Rev. 2:14. "them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock" — the era's sin is syncretism: what persecution could not destroy, accommodation nearly did.
  • doctrine of Balaam = teaching God's people to mix pagan worship with His — Balaam taught Balak to seduce Israel into idolatry and fornication (Num. 31:16, "through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the LORD").
• DAR 354.5. Smith: Pergamos runs "from his [Constantine's] professed conversion... A.D. 323, to the establishment of the papacy, A.D. 538" — the era that bred "the full development of the papal man of sin."

Thyatira — the papal midnight (~A.D. 538-1798) — Rev. 2:18-29:

• Rev. 2:18. "the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire" — the church entering the long medieval night sees Christ as judge.
• Rev. 2:20. "that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants" — an apostate religious authority that teaches false doctrine and seduces into spiritual fornication, the same power named by the little horn (defined in "The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7").
• Rev. 2:26-27. "to him will I give power over the nations: And he shall rule them with a rod of iron" — the overcomer inherits Christ's Psalm-2 dominion.
• Rev. 2:28. "I will give him the morning star" — Christ promises the saint Himself, "the bright and morning star" (Rev. 22:16).
• DAR 358.5. Smith: Thyatira covers "the 1260 years of [the papacy's] supremacy, or from A.D. 538 to A.D. 1798" — the era of the 1260 (defined in "Michael Stands Up — Daniel 12").
• DAR 362.1. Smith: the morning star is "the immediate forerunner of the day" — Christ Himself given to the overcomer, who then needs the prophetic word no longer.

Sardis — post-Reformation formalism (~A.D. 1798 onward) — Rev. 3:1-6:

• Rev. 3:1. "thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead" — the sharpest line in the seven letters: a church with a reputation for life but dying at the core.
• Rev. 3:2. "I have not found thy works perfect before God" — the Reformation began but did not finish; the sanctuary, the Sabbath, the state of the dead, and the Second Coming were left where Rome left them.
• Rev. 3:5. "I will not blot out his name out of the book of life" — the book is an open record under judgment; names can be blotted out.
• DAR 363.2. Smith: the Sardis period "must commence about the year 1798" — the reformed churches grown into formalism, "churches of Christ only in name" (DAR 363.4).

Philadelphia — the advent movement, the opened Most Holy Place (~A.D. 1798-1844) — Rev. 3:7-13:

• Rev. 3:7. "he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth" — Christ identifies Himself by the keyholder name (Isa. 22:22, "the key of the house of David... so he shall open, and none shall shut").
• Rev. 3:8. "I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength" — the small advent movement, given a door no power on earth can shut.
  • the open door = the opening of Christ's ministry in the Most Holy Place of the heavenly sanctuary in 1844, when He shut the door of the Holy Place and opened the door no man can shut (EW 42.2; DAR 367.2; the 2300 days and the cleansing of the sanctuary defined in "The Ram, the Goat, and the 2300 Days — Daniel 8").
• Rev. 3:11. "Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown" — Philadelphia is the era oriented toward the Coming.
• DAR 366.3. Smith: Philadelphia "expresses the position and spirit of those who received the Advent message up to the autumn of 1844" — the pioneers' open door, brotherly love, sacrifice, the Spirit upon every true believer.
• DAR 367.2. Smith: "the time did come for this service to commence at the close of the 2300 days, in 1844" — the open door is the opening of the Most Holy ministration; what He opens "no man can shut."
• EW 42.2. EGW: Christ "had opened the door into the most holy, and no man can shut it (Revelation 3:7, 8)" — and since then the commandments shine out and God's people are tested on the Sabbath.

Laodicea — the church of the judgment hour (1844 onward; the church tips Laodicean after 1888) — Rev. 3:14-22:

• Rev. 3:14. "the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God" — Christ identifies Himself to the church of the judgment hour as the truth confirmed and the Beginner of creation.
  • Laodicea = "the judging of the people" — the church living "while the great day of atonement is transpiring, and the investigative Judgment is going forward upon the house of God" (DAR 371.1).
• Rev. 3:15-16. "thou art neither cold nor hot... I will spue thee out of my mouth" — cold and hot are both useful; lukewarm is rejected with the strongest verb in the seven letters.
• Rev. 3:17. "thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked" — the church cannot feel its own condition; that is its danger.
• Rev. 3:18. "buy of me gold tried in the fire... white raiment... eyesalve" — three remedies for the three lacks: faith for poverty, Christ's righteousness for nakedness (Rev. 19:8, "fine linen is the righteousness of saints"), discernment for blindness.
• Rev. 3:20. "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock" — Christ outside His own church, the address shifting from the corporate to the individual ("if any man").
• Rev. 3:21. "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne" — the highest promise of the seven, given to the weakest church; mercy outruns diagnosis.
• DAR 371.1. Smith: Laodicea = "the judging of the people"; the last stage of the church, applying "to believers under the third message... while the great day of atonement is transpiring" — the pioneer variant dates the era from 1844.
• DAR 372.1. Smith: three states (cold, lukewarm, hot), conditions "which pertain to the church, not to the world" — and "the most discouraging feature of the lukewarm is that they are conscious of no lack, and feel that they have need of nothing" (DAR 373.1).
• TM 533.4. The appendix note: the message of righteousness by faith was "slighted, spoken against, ridiculed, and rejected... at and following the General Conference session of 1888" — the hinge at which the 1844-1888 open-door era closes.
• 1888 955.1. EGW: "the only religion of the Bible... that advocates righteousness by the faith of the Son of God, has been slighted, spoken against, ridiculed, and rejected" — the departure that tipped the church from Philadelphia's open door into Laodicea's lukewarmness.

DEFINITION — THE SEVEN CHURCHES = seven successive eras of the one church, named and dated by the prophecy from the apostles to the close of probation (Rev. 1:20; DAR 329.3, 345.3):

• Ephesus — apostolic, first love left (Rev. 2:4).
• Smyrna — persecuted, the ten years of Diocletian by year-day (Rev. 2:10; DAR 352.3).
• Pergamos — the church-state compromise after Constantine, the doctrine of Balaam (Rev. 2:13-14; DAR 354.5).
• Thyatira — the papal midnight of the 1260, A.D. 538-1798 (Rev. 2:20, 28; DAR 358.5).
• Sardis — post-Reformation formalism from 1798 (Rev. 3:1; DAR 363.2).
• Philadelphia — the advent movement to the autumn of 1844, the open door of the Most Holy Place (Rev. 3:7-8; EW 42.2; DAR 367.2).
• Laodicea — "the judging of the people," the church of the judgment hour (Rev. 3:14-21; DAR 371.1).
• BINDING POSITION: the pioneer 1844-1888 era is Philadelphia's open door; the 1888 rejection of righteousness by faith tipped the church into Laodicea (TM 533.4; 1888 955.1); Smith's variant dates Laodicea from 1844 (DAR 371.1).

Symbols defined here:

• the seven churches = seven successive eras of the one church, apostles to close of probation (Rev. 1:20; DAR 329.3).
• ten days (Smyrna) = ten years — the Diocletian persecution, A.D. 302-312 (Rev. 2:10; DAR 352.3).
• doctrine of Balaam (Pergamos) = teaching God's people to mix pagan worship with His (Num. 31:16; Rev. 2:14).
• the open door (Philadelphia) = the opening of Christ's Most Holy Place ministry in 1844, "no man can shut it" (Rev. 3:8; EW 42.2; DAR 367.2).
• Laodicea = "the judging of the people" — the church of the investigative-judgment hour (Rev. 3:14; DAR 371.1).

¶11. The Throne and the Lamb — Revelation 4-5

The seven letters end; a door opens above. Before a single seal is broken, John is shown WHO holds the roll of futurity — and that only the slain Lamb can open the future.

The open door — Rev. 4:1:

• Rev. 4:1. "a door was opened in heaven... Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter" — an apartment in heaven is opened to John, and he is summoned to see what is yet to come.
  • the door / the apartment = the heavenly sanctuary, the true tabernacle above (Heb. 8:1-2, "A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man"; Heb. 9:24, "into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us").
• DAR 384.3. Smith: John says "a door was opened in heaven," not into heaven — an apartment in heaven is opened, and "this apartment which John saw open was the heavenly sanctuary."

The throne, the rainbow, the elders — Rev. 4:2-4:

• Rev. 4:2-3. "a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne... a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald" — the Father is enthroned, encircled by the covenant sign.
• DAR 385.3. Smith: the jasper-and-sardine monarch is "an almighty and absolute ruler," yet the encircling rainbow shows "he is nevertheless the covenant-keeping God."
• Rev. 4:4. "four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold" — twenty-four redeemed ones, robed and crowned, already seated around the throne.
  • the four and twenty elders = a company of redeemed men, raised at the cross as firstfruits ahead of the great multitude (Matt. 27:52-53, "many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection"; Eph. 4:8, "When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive"; their own song, Rev. 5:9, "thou... hast redeemed us to God by thy blood").
• DAR 386.1. Smith: the white robes and gold crowns are "tokens both of a conflict completed and a victory gained"; their own song (Rev. 5:9) proves them "a class of redeemed persons, — redeemed from this earth... by the precious blood of Christ."
• DAR 386.2. Smith: Paul names the same company (Eph. 4:8, a "multitude of captives") and Matthew their resurrection (Matt. 27:52-53) — "Matthew records their resurrection, Paul their ascension, and John beholds them in heaven."

The seven lamps — Rev. 4:5:

• Rev. 4:5. "seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God" — the text names its own figure: the lamps are the Spirit in His sevenfold fulness.
  • the seven lamps / seven Spirits = the one Holy Spirit in His sevenfold completeness (Rev. 4:5, self-interpreted, "which are the seven Spirits of God"; Isa. 11:2, the sevenfold "spirit of the LORD" resting on Messiah).
• DAR 388.1. Smith: the seven lamps are "an appropriate antitype of the golden candlestick of the typical sanctuary," set in "the first apartment" — proof John is "looking into the first apartment of the sanctuary above."

The four living creatures — Rev. 4:6-11:

• Rev. 4:6. "a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind" — four living creatures of total awareness attend the throne.
• DAR 388.5. Smith: "beasts" here is "a very unhappy translation"; the Greek zoon is a living creature, "very different from" the therion (beast) of Rev. 13 — these worship, those blaspheme.
• Rev. 4:8. "they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come" — ceaseless, unbroken praise frames the whole scene.
• Rev. 4:11. "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things" — the elders ground their worship in creation, the very call of the first angel (Rev. 14:7, "worship him that made heaven, and earth").

The sealed book — Rev. 5:1:

• Rev. 5:1. "a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals" — in the Father's hand is the roll of futurity, locked with the maximum legal seal.
  • the sealed book = the roll of the future, the scenes of the church's history to the end of time, locked until the worthy One opens it (Dan. 12:4, "seal the book, even to the time of the end"; Rev. 5:9, the book the slain Lamb alone "art worthy to take"; opened seal by seal, Rev. 6:1).
• SSP 101.2. Haskell: "the right hand of the Father holds the record of our lives" — within, "the life which is known only to God"; without, the outward life open to others (Haskell's record-of-lives reading is not the handbook's — the DEFINITION below stands on Smith's roll of the church's history, DAR 391.2 — but it joins Rev. 5 to the open record-books of the judgment, Dan. 7:10).
• DAR 391.2. Smith: "the book which John here saw, contained a revelation of scenes that were to transpire in the history of the church to the end of time" — held in the right hand, which "may signify that a knowledge of the future rests with God alone."

The universal search — Rev. 5:2-4:

• Rev. 5:2-3. "Who is worthy to open the book...? And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book" — every region of the universe is canvassed; not one creature is worthy.
• DAR 392.4. Smith: God "holds forth this book to the view of the universe," and "in silence the universe owns its inability and unworthiness to enter into the counsels of the Creator."
• Rev. 5:4. "I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book" — John weeps a Daniel-like weeping; if no one can open the roll, history has no Administrator.
• DAR 393.1. Smith (citing Benson): John wept fearing "the divine counsels... would still remain concealed from the church" — "the Revelation was not written without tears."

The Lion who is a Lamb — Rev. 5:5-7:

• Rev. 5:5. "Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book" — a Worthy One is found; the conquest is already past tense.
  • the Lion of the tribe of Juda = Christ in kingly strength, the long-promised Shiloh of Judah (Gen. 49:9-10, "Judah is a lion's whelp... The sceptre shall not depart from Judah... until Shiloh come").
  • the Root of David = Christ as David's source and Lord, the shoot from Jesse's stem (Isa. 11:1, "a rod out of the stem of Jesse"; Isa. 11:10, "a root of Jesse... an ensign of the people").
• DAR 393.3. Smith: He is called Lion "to denote his strength... a fit emblem of kingly authority and power," and "of the tribe of Juda" from the prophecy of Genesis 49:9, 10.
• DAR 394.2. Smith: "hath prevailed" means "the right to open the book was acquired by a victory gained" — He "bore the agonies of the cross, rose a victor over death and the grave... triumphed!"
• Rev. 5:6. "in the midst of the throne... stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God" — John looks for a Lion and sees a slaughtered Lamb at the throne's center; only the Crucified opens history.
• DAR 395.3. Smith: "Horns are symbols of power, eyes of wisdom; and seven is a number denoting completeness" — "perfect power and perfect wisdom inhere in the Lamb."
• Rev. 5:7. "he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne" — the Lamb takes administration of the future from the Father's hand (Heb. 1:3, He "sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high"; Heb. 9:24, entered "into heaven itself").

The new song and the widening worship — Rev. 5:9-13:

• Rev. 5:9. "Thou art worthy to take the book... for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation" — the right to open the future rests on the blood: redemption alone qualifies the Opener.
• Rev. 5:10. "hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth" — the redeemed inherit the destiny first named at Sinai (Ex. 19:6, "a kingdom of priests"; Rev. 1:6, "made us kings and priests").
• Rev. 5:11-12. "ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands... Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom" — the same myriads of the Daniel courtroom (Dan. 7:10) join the sevenfold acclamation.
• Rev. 5:13. "every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth... Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb" — the whole creation closes the doxology on the Father and the Lamb together.

DEFINITION — THE SEALED BOOK = the roll of futurity in the Father's right hand — the scenes of the church's history to the end of time (Rev. 5:1; DAR 391.2) — which no creature can open (Rev. 5:3); only the Lion of Judah seen as a slain Lamb is worthy through His blood to take it and break the seals (Rev. 5:5-7, 9; Rev. 6:1). The future opens to the church only in the hand of the Crucified.

Symbols defined here:

• the door / the apartment = the heavenly sanctuary, the true tabernacle above (Heb. 8:1-2; Heb. 9:24).
• the four and twenty elders = redeemed men raised at the cross as firstfruits, ahead of the great multitude (Matt. 27:52-53; Eph. 4:8; Rev. 5:9).
• the seven lamps / seven Spirits = the Holy Spirit in His sevenfold fulness (Rev. 4:5; Isa. 11:2).
• the sealed book = the roll of futurity, opened only by the slain Lamb (Rev. 5:1, 5-7, 9; Dan. 12:4).
• the Lion of the tribe of Juda = Christ in kingly strength, the Shiloh of Judah (Gen. 49:9-10).
• the Root of David = Christ as David's source and Lord, the shoot of Jesse (Isa. 11:1, 10).

¶12. The Seven Seals — Revelation 6-8:1

The Lamb who took the book (defined in "The Throne and the Lamb — Revelation 4-5") now breaks its seals: the seals are the church's course from the apostles to the Coming — the same span the seven churches walked (defined in "The Seven Churches — Revelation 2-3"), seen now from outside.

The book opened — the seals are the church's history — Rev. 6:1:

• Rev. 6:1. "when the Lamb opened one of the seals... one of the four beasts saying, Come and see" — the slain Lamb of Rev. 5 administers history, and the four living creatures announce each horseman in turn.
• DAR 402.2. Smith: "The seals denote events of a religious character, and contain the history of the church from the opening of the Christian era to the coming of Christ" — the seven seals span the whole gospel age (the trumpets, a war-series, run alongside them — defined in "What Is a Trumpet?").

The first seal, the white horse — apostolic purity and conquest — Rev. 6:2:

• Rev. 6:2. "behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer" — the church rides out in purity and gospel victory in the apostolic age.
  • horse = the church in motion through an era, its color the church's spiritual condition — the colored horses sent "to and fro through the earth" (Zech. 6:2-3, 7, "red horses... black horses... white horses"; Zech. 1:8), the rider's tint marking the era's purity or corruption.
  • white = purity, righteousness, victory (Rev. 19:14, the armies of heaven "upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean"; Rev. 3:5; Rev. 7:9).
• DAR 403.1. Smith: the white horse and crowned rider going "conquering and to conquer" is "a fit emblem of the triumphs of the gospel in the first century," "the whiteness of the horse" denoting "the purity of faith in that age."

The second seal, the red horse — the persecuted era — Rev. 6:3-4:

• Rev. 6:3-4. "another horse that was red... power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword" — peace is removed, the church bleeds.
  • red = the era when purity began to be corrupted and blood was spilt — the color of "troubles and commotions," the sword era (the OT chariot-red of Zech. 6:2).
• DAR 404.2. Smith: "If the whiteness of the first horse denoted the purity of the gospel... the redness of the second horse would signify that in this period that original purity began to be corrupted" — the union of church and secular power, reaching its climax toward Constantine.

The third seal, the black horse — the era of compromise and darkness — Rev. 6:5-6:

• Rev. 6:5-6. "a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand... A measure of wheat for a penny... see thou hurt not the oil and the wine" — truth weighed out and rationed while the church is wedded to empire.
  • black = great darkness and moral corruption in the church — the very opposite of white.
• DAR 405.2. Smith: "A black horse — the very opposite of white! A period of great darkness and moral corruption in the church must be denoted by this symbol" — the span from Constantine to A.D. 538, when "the darkest errors and grossest superstitions sprung up."
• DAR 407.5. Smith: the protected "oil and wine" are "the graces of the Spirit, faith and love," which "the prosperity of the church in this age" endangered — ceremony plentiful, the Spirit's graces nearly hurt.

The fourth seal, the pale horse — the papal 1260's slaughter — Rev. 6:7-8:

• Rev. 6:7-8. "behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him... power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth" — Death rides openly over the medieval church.
  • pale = the unnatural sickly hue of "blighted or sickly plants" — the color of spiritual mortality, the only horseman that is named.
• DAR 408.2. Smith: the pale color "is unnatural," denoting "a strange state of things in the professed church"; the seal covers "the time in which the papacy bore its unrebuked, unrestrained, and persecuting rule, commencing about A. D. 538" (the little horn's 1260 — defined in "The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7").
• DAR 408.3. Smith: by "the fourth part of the earth" is meant the papacy's territory, and sword, hunger, death, and beasts are "the means by which it has put to death its martyrs, fifty million of whom... call for vengeance from beneath its bloody altar."

The fifth seal, the martyrs cry "How long?" — Rev. 6:9-11:

• Rev. 6:9-10. "I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God... How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood" — the martyrs' blood pleads from the base of the altar of sacrifice.
  • the souls crying = the martyrs' poured-out blood pleading for justice, as Abel's did — "the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground" (Gen. 4:10; Heb. 11:4, "he being dead yet speaketh"); not the conscious dead.
• DAR 409.4. Smith: "The Altar. — This cannot denote any altar in heaven... the altar of sacrifice... The souls are represented under the altar, just as victims slain upon it would pour out their blood beneath it" — the image is sacrificial blood, the martyr-cry of the Reformation era.
• Rev. 6:11. "white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled" — the verdict of righteousness is given now; the martyr-roll is not yet full.

The sixth seal, the cosmic signs — Rev. 6:12-13:

• Rev. 6:12. "there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood" — the historicist anchors of the last days, in plain language.
• Matt. 24:29. Jesus gives the same list "after the tribulation of those days" and before His coming — "the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven" (Joel 2:31, "before the great and the terrible day of the LORD").
• SSP 120.1. Haskell: "eight writers of the Bible give the signs in the sun, moon, and stars" (Joel, Amos, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John), pointing out "at least thirteen peculiarities" that fix "the time and nature of their occurrence" — Scripture itself names which earthquake, which dark day, which star-fall.
• DAR 414.3. Smith: "The Great Earthquake. — The first event under this seal, perhaps the one which marks its opening... the great earthquake of Nov. 1, 1755, known as the earthquake of Lisbon."
• DAR 429.5. Smith, citing Webster's: "Dark Day, The. May 19, 1780; so called on account of a remarkable darkness on that day, extending over all New England" — the sun "black as sackcloth," the moon that night "as blood" (DAR 422.1, "The darkness of the following night, May 19, 1780, was as unnatural as that of the day had been").
• Rev. 6:13. "the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind" — the meteor storm of Nov. 13, 1833.
• DAR 431.2. Smith: "The sun and moon were darkened together in 1780... the stars fell in 1833" — the sun and moon within the days, the stars after they ended, the three signs in their order.

The sealing pause — between the signs and the wrath — Rev. 7:

• DAR 452.3. Smith: "the seventh chapter stands parenthetically between the sixth and seventh seals... the sealing work of that chapter belongs to the sixth seal" — Revelation 7's four angels, four winds, and sealing of the 144,000 stand here (defined in "The Sealing Time" and "The Four Winds, the Whirlwind, the Winds").

The sixth seal closes at the threshold of wrath — Rev. 6:14-17:

• Rev. 6:14. "the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places" — the visible Coming, still future.
• DAR 432.2. Smith: "Here is our position, unmistakably defined. We stand between the 13th and 14th verses of this chapter" — the signs are past; we wait for the heavens to depart as a scroll.
• Rev. 6:15-17. "the kings of the earth... hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks... Fall on us, and hide us... from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?" — every class of the lost flees the Lamb's face (see "The Day of the LORD").
  • the lost "go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the LORD... when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth" (Isa. 2:19).
• DAR 433.1. Smith: at that day "all classes of the wicked, from the highest to the lowest... raise an agonizing prayer to rocks and mountains to bury them" — the question "who shall be able to stand?" is answered only by the sealed.

The seventh seal, silence in heaven — Rev. 8:1:

• Rev. 8:1. "when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour" — heaven emptied as Christ comes.
• DAR 452.4. Smith: when the Lord appears "he comes with all the holy angels with him. Matthew 25:31. And when all the heavenly harpers leave the courts above to come down with their divine Lord... will there not be silence in heaven?" — the seventh seal opens on the Second Coming itself (Matt. 25:31, "all the holy angels with him").

DEFINITION — THE SEVEN SEALS = the church's course from the apostles to the Coming, read from outside under the Lamb's permitting hand — the same span the seven churches walked from inside (DAR 402.2; defined in "The Seven Churches — Revelation 2-3"); the four horses are the church in motion, the rider's color its spiritual condition (Zech. 6:2-3):

• white — apostolic purity and gospel conquest (Rev. 6:2; DAR 403.1).
• red — purity corrupted, the sword era (Rev. 6:3-4; DAR 404.2).
• black — compromise and darkness, truth rationed (Rev. 6:5-6; DAR 405.2).
• pale — the papal 1260's slaughter, Death named and riding (Rev. 6:7-8; DAR 408.2-3).
• fifth seal — the martyrs' poured-out blood pleading "How long?" (Rev. 6:9-11; Gen. 4:10; DAR 409.4).
• sixth seal — the signs in order: Lisbon 1755, the Dark Day 1780, the falling stars 1833 — "we stand between the 13th and 14th verses" (Rev. 6:12-13; DAR 414.3, 429.5, 431.2, 432.2).
• seventh seal — silence in heaven as Christ comes with all His angels (Rev. 8:1; Matt. 25:31; DAR 452.4).

Symbols defined here:

• horse = the church in motion through an era, the color its spiritual condition (Zech. 6:2-3, 7; Zech. 1:8).
• white = purity, righteousness, victory (Rev. 19:14; Rev. 3:5).
• red = corruption begun, blood and the sword (Rev. 6:4; DAR 404.2).
• black = darkness and moral corruption in the church (Rev. 6:5; DAR 405.2).
• pale = spiritual death, the named horseman (Rev. 6:8; DAR 408.2).
• the souls under the altar = the martyrs' poured-out blood pleading for justice (Rev. 6:9; Gen. 4:10; DAR 409.4).
• the sixth-seal signs = Lisbon 1755, the Dark Day and blood moon 1780, the falling stars 1833 (Rev. 6:12-13; DAR 414.3, 422.1, 429.5, 431.2).
• silence in heaven = the Coming, heaven emptied as Christ descends with all His angels (Rev. 8:1; Matt. 25:31; DAR 452.4).

¶13. What Is a Trumpet?

Let Scripture define its own figure (Rule 12): the trumpet is the Bible's standing alarm of war and of coming judgment. Fix that, and every trumpet of Revelation reads as a war.

Scripture's settled use — trumpet = alarm of war:

• Num. 10:9. "If ye go to war in your land against the enemy... then ye shall blow an alarm with the trumpets" — God's own definition, the trumpet is the war-signal.
  • trumpet = a war-alarm, hence the war/judgment it announces (Num. 10:9; Amos 3:6; Jer. 4:19).
• Amos 3:6. "Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?" — the trumpet warns of judgment, and the judgment is God's doing.
• Jer. 4:19-21. "the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war... Destruction upon destruction is cried" — the prophet hears the trumpet and names it outright: the alarm of war.
• 1 Cor. 14:8. "if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?" — Paul takes trumpet = battle-call as a thing already understood.

The trumpet of the day of the LORD:

• Joel 2:1. "Blow ye the trumpet in Zion... let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh" — the trumpet is the alarm that the day of the LORD is at hand.
• Zeph. 1:14-16. "The great day of the LORD is near... A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers" — the day of the LORD is itself a day of the trumpet, a war on walled cities.
• Hos. 8:1. "Set the trumpet to thy mouth. He shall come as an eagle against the house of the LORD" — the heathen power is loosed as God's rod against apostate Israel; the pattern of the woes.

The watchman's trumpet — warning before the sword:

• Eze. 33:2-3. "When I bring the sword upon a land... if when he seeth the sword come... he blow the trumpet, and warn the people" — the trumpet is the watchman's warning that the sword is coming.
• Eze. 33:6. "if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet... his blood will I require at the watchman's hand" — the silent watchman is guilty of the slaughter he did not announce.

The seven trumpets sound — history fills the figure:

• Rev. 8:2. "the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets" — seven war-alarms committed to seven angels.
• Rev. 8:6. "the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound" — war after war, in sequence, against Rome.
• Rev. 8:7. "there followed hail and fire mingled with blood... and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up" — the first trumpet: the Goths under Alaric break on Rome from the north.
  • hail = sweeping destruction (Isa. 28:17, "the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies") — the Goths' northern, Baltic origin.
  • fire = devouring war (Joel 2:3, "A fire devoureth before them").
  • blood = slaughter (Eze. 14:19, "pour out my fury upon it in blood").
  • trees = great men, rulers (Eze. 31:3, "the Assyrian was a cedar"; Dan. 4:20-22, "the tree... it is thou, O king").
  • green grass = the common people (Isa. 40:6-7, "the people is grass").
• Rev. 8:13. "Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet" — the last three trumpets are named WOES, the heaviest war-judgments yet.
• DAR 455.5. Smith: "The first sore and heavy judgment which fell on Western Rome... was the war with the Goths under Alaric" — the pioneer reads the trumpet as a literal war, a literal judgment.
• DAR 455.6. Smith: the invasion is "hail," from "the northern origin of the invaders"; "fire," from "destruction by flame of both city and country"; "blood," from "the terrible slaughter of the citizens" — history fills every symbol of the first trumpet.
• DAR 456.1. Keith, rehearsing Gibbon (quoted by Smith): "The Gothic nation was in arms at the first sound of the trumpet" — Gibbon's "deluge of barbarians" matches the prophecy word for word, even "the third part of trees was burned up."

DEFINITION — TRUMPET = the Bible's own alarm of war and of coming judgment (Num. 10:9; Amos 3:6; Jer. 4:19; Joel 2:1; Zeph. 1:16; Hos. 8:1; 1 Cor. 14:8) — the watchman's warning that the sword is at the door (Eze. 33:2-3, 6). The seven trumpets of Revelation are therefore seven successive wars sent of God as judgment against Rome (Western Rome under the first four, apostate Christendom under the three woes, Rev. 8:13), the figure proved "war" by Rule 12 and the history fitting every word by Rule 13.

Symbols defined here:

• trumpet = a war-alarm, hence the war/judgment it announces (Num. 10:9; Amos 3:6; Jer. 4:19).
• hail = sweeping destruction (Isa. 28:17).
• fire = devouring war (Joel 2:3).
• blood = slaughter (Eze. 14:19).
• trees = great men, rulers (Eze. 31:3; Dan. 4:20-22).
• green grass = the common people (Isa. 40:6-7).

¶14. The Six Trumpets

Walk Rev. 8 and 9 verse by verse, letting each symbol define itself as it first appears — and the seven trumpets read as seven literal wars (Rule 13: the Bible is its own expositor).

The seven angels prepare — Rev. 8:6:

• Rev. 8:6. "the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound" — seven trumpet-blasts, sounded in sequence.
  • trumpet — defined in "What Is a Trumpet?" — each trumpet announces a war.

The first trumpet — Rev. 8:7:

• Rev. 8:7. "hail and fire mingled with blood... the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up" — the Goths under Alaric break on Rome from the north.
  • hail / fire / blood / trees / green grass — defined in "What Is a Trumpet?"
• DAR 456.1. Smith: Gibbon's "deluge of barbarians" fills the first trumpet word for word — Claudian's trees that "must blaze in the conflagration" answer "the third part of trees was burned up."

The second trumpet — Rev. 8:8-9:

• Rev. 8:8-9. "a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood... the third part of the ships were destroyed" — Genseric and the Vandals, a naval war on the maritime coasts.
  • mountain = a kingdom or seat of power (Jer. 51:25, "O destroying mountain... and will make thee a burnt mountain," said of Babylon; Dan. 2:35, 44, the stone "became a great mountain" = "a kingdom").
  • sea / waters = peoples, nations (Rev. 17:15, "The waters... are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues") — the maritime peoples.
• DAR 458.1. Smith: "Nothing but a fierce maritime warfare would fulfill the prediction" — Genseric's Vandal fleet preying on Roman commerce.

The third trumpet — Rev. 8:10-11:

• Rev. 8:10. "there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp" — Attila and the Huns, "the Scourge of God."
  • star — defined in "The Revelation of Jesus Christ — Revelation 1" — here Attila, the meteor-king.
• DAR 461.3. Smith: this trumpet is "the desolating wars and furious invasions of Attila against the Roman power."
• Rev. 8:11. "the name of the star is called Wormwood... many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter" — bitterness and ruin; Attila styled himself the desolating scourge.
• DAR 462.2. Smith: "'Total extirpation and erasure'... He styled himself, 'The Scourge of God'" — the figure named.

The fourth trumpet — Rev. 8:12:

• Rev. 8:12. "the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars... the day shone not for a third part of it" — the extinction of the Western emperors under Odoacer, A.D. 476.
  • sun, moon, and stars = the great luminaries of a government — its emperors, senators, consuls (Gen. 37:9-10, the sun, moon, and stars = Jacob's family, the ruling household) — Rome's offices put out.
• DAR 463.2. Smith: the smitten sun/moon/stars "denote the great luminaries of the Roman government — its emperors, senators, and consuls... Western Rome fell A. D. 476" under Odoacer.
• Rev. 8:7-12. "the third part," repeated every trumpet — the empire split in three among Constantine's sons (Constantius, Constantine II, Constans), the scourge falling on one division at a time.
• DAR 457.5. Smith: "The Roman empire, after Constantine, was divided into three parts; and hence the frequent remark, 'a third part of men.'"

DEFINITION — FIRST FOUR TRUMPETS = four barbarian wars that destroyed Western Rome — Goths (Alaric), Vandals (Genseric), Huns (Attila), Heruli (Odoacer) — each prophetic word met by a real campaign; trumpet = war, four times over.

The three woes announced — Rev. 8:13:

• Rev. 8:13. "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" — the last three trumpets re-named woes: God's rod now on apostate Christendom, not pagan Rome.

The fifth trumpet (first woe) — Rev. 9:1-12:

• Rev. 9:1-2. "a star fall from heaven... the key of the bottomless pit... there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace" — the rise of Mohammedanism out of the Arabian desert; the fall of Chosroes the Persian opened the pit.
  • a fallen star = an apostate power cut down yet armed with a key (Isa. 14:12, "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer... cut down to the ground").
  • the bottomless pit = a deep, waste region a dark power rises from (Gen. 1:2, the "deep" is the earth "without form, and void"; Rev. 9:2) — the desert wastes.
  • smoke = the rising token of error and torment (Rev. 14:11, "the smoke of their torment ascendeth up"; Gen. 19:28, Sodom's "smoke... as the smoke of a furnace").
• DAR 472.2. Smith: the bottomless pit = "the unknown wastes of the Arabian desert," and Chosroes' fall = its opening, loosing Islam.
• DAR 473.2. Smith (Keith): smoke from the pit, not gospel light — "not... a light from heaven, but a smoke out of the bottomless pit."
• Rev. 9:3. "there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth... as the scorpions of the earth have power" — the Arabs (Saracens) swarming out of Arabia.
  • locusts = an innumerable invading army God commissions (Joel 2:25, "the locust... my great army which I sent among you"; Joel 1:6, "a nation... strong, and without number," with "the teeth of a lion") — identified with the children of the east, the only people-group Scripture lays "like grasshoppers for multitude" (Judg. 6:3-5; Judg. 7:12, Midian, Amalek, "the children of the east," camels "without number"; cf. Nah. 3:17, "Thy crowned are as the locusts").
  • scorpions = power to sting and chastise, not yet to slay (1 Kgs. 12:11, "I will chastise you with scorpions"; Luke 10:19, "to tread on serpents and scorpions").
• SSP 165.1. Haskell: the Saracens "are called locusts by the prophet John," their doctrine "as a dense smoke," and their work "is described in the eighth plague, sent upon the land of Egypt" — Scripture's own plague-of-Egypt template for a trumpet-war (trumpet = plague).
• DAR 473.4. Smith (Keith): "the locusts (the fit symbol of the Arabs) issued from Arabia, their native region... as destroyers, propagating a new doctrine."
• Rev. 9:4. "they should not hurt the grass... neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God" — Islam commissioned against apostate Christendom, sparing God's sealed.
• Rev. 9:5. "they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months" — torment, not conquest, for 150 prophetic years (1299-1449).
  • day = year — defined in "The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7" — five months = 150 days = 150 years.
• DAR 479.5. Smith: "thirty days to a month... one hundred and fifty days... signify one hundred and fifty years," from July 27, 1299, to 1449 — torment without conquest.
• Rev. 9:6. "in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it" — the affliction without the kill, fitting the torment-commission.
• Rev. 9:7-9. "like unto horses prepared unto battle... crowns like gold... faces of men... hair of women... teeth of lions... breastplates of iron... the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots" — Arab cavalry: turbans, beards, long hair, cuirasses, swift horses.
  • horses = strength armed for the day of war, the mounted war-power (Prov. 21:31, "The horse is prepared against the day of battle"; Joel 2:4, "The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses... so shall they run"; Jer. 4:13, "his horses are swifter than eagles").
• DAR 477.1. Smith (Keith): "crowns like gold" = the Saracen turban — "a turban was unfurled before him to supply the deficiency of a standard" when Mohammed entered Medina.
• DAR 477.7. Smith (Keith): the sound of wings = the Arab charge — "the Arab horses darted away with the swiftness of the wind."
• Rev. 9:10. "tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months" — the scorpion-commission to sting, repeated.
• Rev. 9:11. "they had a king over them... Abaddon... Apollyon" — natural locusts "have no king" (Prov. 30:27), so the text's own signal that the symbol is men, not insects.
• SSTR 47.5. J. White: the king is Othman — "near the close of the 13th century, Othman founded" the Ottoman government, consolidating the Mahometan tribes "into one grand monarchy" — a king over the locusts before the 150 years run from 1299; Abaddon/Apollyon = "a destroyer," that government's standing character (SSTR 48.3).
• Rev. 9:12. "One woe is past... there come two woes more hereafter" — the woes counted off in sequence; one kind of event.

DEFINITION — WOE = a trumpet (war) by which God scourges apostate, idolatrous Christendom, not merely pagan Rome. FIRST WOE = the Saracens (Arab Islam) — the children of the east, the locust-people (Judg. 6:5; 7:12) — commissioned to torment 150 years (1299-1449).

The sixth trumpet (second woe) — Rev. 9:13-21:

• Rev. 9:13-14. "Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates" — the four Turkish sultanies (Aleppo, Iconium, Damascus, Bagdad), restrained till loosed in 1449.
• DAR 480.3. Smith: the four angels = "the four principal sultanies of which the Ottoman empire was composed... Previously they had been restrained; but God commanded, and they were loosed."
• Rev. 9:15. "prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men" — an enlarged commission to slay, on a dated prophetic clock: 391 years 15 days.
• DAR 481.1. Smith: hour + day + month + year = "three hundred ninety-one years and fifteen days," during which Ottoman supremacy was to exist in Constantinople.
• Rev. 9:16. "the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand" — a real, vast army of mounted war.
• Rev. 9:17. "out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone" — gunpowder and firearms, then newly introduced, discharged from horseback.
  • brimstone = the fire of divine judgment (Gen. 19:24, "the LORD rained upon Sodom... brimstone and fire").
• DAR 482.2. Smith: fire/smoke/brimstone from the horses' mouths = "gunpowder and firearms... then but recently introduced," discharged by the Turks "on horseback," "accurately fulfilling the prophecy."
• Rev. 9:18. "By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone" — the 1453 fall of Constantinople by Ottoman artillery.
• DAR 483.3. Smith (Elliott): the third part slain = the fall of the Greek empire, Gibbon crediting "the Ottoman artillery."
• Rev. 9:19. "their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt" — the slaying power now in the tail as well as the mouth.
• Rev. 9:20. "the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone" — the Holy Ghost names the sixth-trumpet slaughter a "plague," and shows God scourging an idolatry that will not repent.
• Rev. 9:21. "Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries" — the woe's purpose was repentance; it was refused.
• Rev. 16:9, 11. "power over these plagues... repented not" — identical wording in the vials: vial-men = trumpet-men, plague = plague.
• Rev. 11:14. "The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly" — the third follows straight from the second, next on the prophetic clock.
• DAR 485.1, 485.2. Smith: the 391 years 15 days, begun July 27, 1449, end "Aug. 11, 1840," when "the sultan would voluntarily surrender his independence into the hands of the Christian powers" — Litch calculated it in 1838, two years before.
• GC 335.1. "The event exactly fulfilled the prediction... a wonderful impetus was given to the advent movement" of 1840-44.
• PREX2 199.1. Litch: "the second wo is past," the sixth trumpet "has ceased its sounding," the third woe comes quickly, and the seventh angel brings the wrath, judgment, and consummation.

DEFINITION — SECOND WOE = the Ottoman Turks, loosed 1449 to slay 391 years 15 days, ending August 11, 1840 — fulfilled to the day, verifying the prophetic clock.

DEFINITION — TRUMPET = PLAGUE = WAR. The sixth trumpet's own word names its slaughter a "plague" (Rev. 9:18, 20), inflicted by real armies (Rev. 9:16-18); the vials wear the same word and the same "repented not" (Rev. 16:9, 11). So trumpet and vial are the same kind of judgment — a stroke of war — and the seven last plagues are the executing-wrath phase of the seventh trumpet, the third woe, by a real rod (cf. Jer. 25:9, God sends the war-army from the north to "utterly destroy").

Symbols defined here:

• mountain = a kingdom (Jer. 51:25; Dan. 2:35, 44).
• sea / waters = peoples, nations (Rev. 17:15).
• sun / moon / stars = a government's luminaries — emperors, senators, consuls (Gen. 37:9-10).
• a fallen star = an apostate power armed with a key (Isa. 14:12).
• bottomless pit = a deep, waste region a dark power rises from (Gen. 1:2; Rev. 9:2).
• smoke = the rising token of error and torment (Rev. 14:11; Gen. 19:28).
• locusts = an innumerable invading army = the children of the east (Joel 2:25; Judg. 6:5; 7:12; Nah. 3:17).
• scorpions = power to sting and chastise (1 Kgs. 12:11; Luke 10:19).
• horses = the mounted war-power, strength for the day of battle (Prov. 21:31; Joel 2:4).
• brimstone = the fire of divine judgment (Gen. 19:24).
• woe = a trumpet (war) scourging apostate Christendom to repentance (Rev. 8:13; 9:12, 20-21).

Symbols carried: trumpet, hail, fire, blood, trees, green grass ("What Is a Trumpet?"); star ("The Revelation of Jesus Christ — Revelation 1"); day = year ("The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7").

¶15. The Mighty Angel and the Little Book — Revelation 10

Between the sixth and seventh trumpets the chronology pauses, and a scene is inserted that interprets the prophetic moment: the covenant Christ descends with Daniel's book open in His hand, swears the prophetic clock has run out, and the book eaten turns the sweet hope of 1844 bitter.

The mighty angel descends — Rev. 10:1:

• Rev. 10:1. "another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire" — the descriptors stack Christ's own Revelation-1 vocabulary onto this messenger: the covenant Christ in judgment-glory.
  • clothed with a cloud = the cloud-robe of deity (Dan. 7:13, "one like the Son of man came with the clouds"; Rev. 1:7, "he cometh with clouds").
  • rainbow upon his head = the covenant-sign carried over from the throne (Rev. 4:3, "a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald").
  • face as the sun, feet as pillars of fire = the glorified Son of man of the first vision (Rev. 1:15-16, "his feet like unto fine brass... his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength").
• CTr 344.2. White: "The mighty Angel who instructed John was no less a personage than Jesus Christ" — His position on sea and land "denotes His supreme power and authority over the whole earth."

The little book open, one foot on sea, one on earth — Rev. 10:2:

• Rev. 10:2. "he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth" — the book Daniel was told to seal is now open, and the angel claims the whole earth for the message.
  • the little book = Daniel's prophecy, sealed "to the time of the end" and now unsealed (Dan. 12:4, "shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end"; Dan. 12:9, "the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end") — for Michael standing up and the sealing of the book, see "Michael Stands Up — Daniel 12."
  • right foot upon the sea... left foot on the earth = universal jurisdiction; the message covers sea and land alike — for waters / sea = peoples, multitudes, nations, see "Mystery, Babylon the Great — Revelation 17."
• DAR 489.1. Smith: the book is open because the angel proclaims "this side of the commencement of the time of the end" — the 1260 years ended A.D. 1798, "there the time of the end commenced, and the book was opened."
• DAR 309.4. Smith ties the open book of Rev. 10:1-2 directly to the close of the sealing in Daniel — "the time of the end, when the book of this prophecy should no longer be sealed, but be open and understood."

The lion's cry and the sealed thunders — Rev. 10:3-4:

• Rev. 10:3. "cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices" — the King's roar claims His territory across sea and land (Amos 3:8, "the lion hath roared, who will not fear?").
• Rev. 10:4. "Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not" — the one place in Revelation where John is told to seal rather than record: revelation has limits even in the chapter that opens Daniel's book.
• DAR 491.2. Smith: "It would be vain to speculate" on the seven thunders; we "leave them where he left them, sealed up, unwritten, and consequently to us unknown" — the conjecture that they hold the Advent movement's own coming disappointment, withheld lest an inspired record "defeat that movement."
• GSAM 128.1. Loughborough: the message "was to increase to its 'loud cry'" in the span "from the close of the sixth trumpet to the end of... the twenty-three hundred days" — the lion-roar of verse 3 is loud-cry language, on the trumpet clock from 1840 to 1844.

The oath: time no longer — Rev. 10:5-7:

• Rev. 10:5. "lifted up his hand to heaven" — the gesture of the solemn oath (Gen. 14:22, "I have lift up mine hand unto the LORD"; Deut. 32:40, "I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever"), reproducing the man in linen above the river (Dan. 12:7, "he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever").
• Rev. 10:6. "sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven... and the earth... and the sea... that there should be time no longer" — the Creator-oath ends the prophetic clock: no inspired time-reckoning reaches past 1844, where the great lines terminate together — the 2300 days and the seven times (see "The Seven Times — Daniel 4") (Dan. 8:14, "Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed" — defined in "The Ram, the Goat, and the 2300 Days — Daniel 8").
  • time no longer = prophetic time, not the end of the world nor of probation — the angel forecloses further date-setting, the textual ground of the handbook's fulfillment-recognition discipline.
• DAR 492.2. Smith: "time no longer" cannot mean world-time (the seventh angel still sounds afterward) nor probationary time (Christ's priesthood closes later) — "It must therefore mean prophetic time... no prophetic period should extend beyond this message."
• CTr 344.5. White: the oath marks "not the end of this world's history, neither of probationary time, but of prophetic time... After this period of time, reaching from 1842 to 1844, there can be no definite tracing of the prophetic time."
• LDE 36.2. White: "there can be no definite tracing of the prophetic time. The longest reckoning reaches to the autumn of 1844."
• MWV2 124.1. Miller: the angel is "the angel of the covenant, the great Mediator" — the pioneer corroboration that the figure is Christ — yet he read the oath as "gospel or mediatorial time should cease. No more time for mercy." (Miller is cited for the identification; his probation-close reading of "time no longer" is not the handbook's — DEFINITION — TIME NO LONGER below reads it as prophetic time, the divergence DAR 492.2 and CTr 344.5 above are answering.)
• Rev. 10:7. "in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets" — the gospel-mystery the prophets foretold consummates when the last trumpet sounds (see "The Seventh Trumpet").

Eat the book: sweet, then bitter — Rev. 10:8-10:

• Rev. 10:8-9. "Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey" — to eat the book is to internalize the prophetic message before proclaiming it (Eze. 3:3, "Then did I eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness"; Jer. 15:16, "I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart").
• Rev. 10:10. "in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter" — the 1844 experience exactly: the sweet judgment-hour hope, then the Great Disappointment when the date came and Christ did not visibly appear.
  • sweet then bitter = the Advent hope received with joy, then the bitterness of October 22, 1844 — the date was right (the 2300 days ran out), the event misunderstood (the opening of the heavenly sanctuary, not the Second Coming; Heb. 9:23-24; Rev. 11:19).
• DAR 495.3. Smith: many then living met "a striking fulfillment of these verses" — "the honey-like sweetness of the precious truths," then "the sadness and pain that followed, when at the appointed time in 1844 the Lord did not come, but a great disappointment did"; "the mistake was only in the event, not in the time."
• GSAM 185.1. Loughborough titles the scene "The Book Sweet, then Bitter" and joins verse 10 straight to verse 11's commission to "prophesy again."
• GC 374.1. White: "The time of expectation passed, and Christ did not appear... Those who with sincere faith and love had looked for their Saviour, experienced a bitter disappointment" — the belly's bitterness, not a failed prediction.
• GC 423.1. White: "The subject of the sanctuary was the key which unlocked the mystery of the disappointment of 1844" — "though... they themselves had failed to understand the message which they bore, yet it had been in every respect correct": right date, misunderstood event.

The recommission — Rev. 10:11:

• Rev. 10:11. "Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings" — after the bitterness, the same movement is recommissioned, the fourfold formula that returns with the everlasting gospel (Rev. 14:6, "to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people").
• DAR 496.2. Smith: this is "another commission... a prophecy of the third angel's message, now, as we believe, in process of fulfilment" — to go "before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings" (see "The Third Angel's Message").

DEFINITION — THE LITTLE BOOK = the book of Daniel, sealed "to the time of the end" and unsealed when the 1260 years closed in 1798, held open in the hand of the covenant Christ (Dan. 12:4, 9; Rev. 10:2; DAR 489.1) — eaten sweet (the judgment-hour hope) then bitter (the Great Disappointment of October 22, 1844 — right date, misunderstood event), and the recommission "prophesy again" carries the corrected message to the world (Rev. 10:9-11; GC 423.1; DAR 496.2).

DEFINITION — TIME NO LONGER = the close of prophetic time, not of the world nor of probation (Rev. 10:6; DAR 492.2; CTr 344.5) — the prophetic lines — the 2300 days and the 2520-year seven times alike — ran out in 1844, and no inspired date-reckoning reaches past it (LDE 36.2); after it the church recognizes fulfillments as they strike rather than calculating them in advance.

Symbols defined here:

• the little book = Daniel's sealed prophecy now opened, sweet then bitter, the 1844 experience (Rev. 10:2, 9-10; Dan. 12:4, 9; DAR 489.1, 495.3).
• time no longer = prophetic time, not world-time or probation, closed at 1844 (Rev. 10:6; DAR 492.2; CTr 344.5; LDE 36.2).

¶16. The Two Witnesses — Revelation 11

The interlude of Rev 10 continues: the sanctuary is measured for the judgment, and the two Testaments witness through the papal night, are slain by atheist France, and rise in the Bible societies.

Measure the temple — Rev. 11:1-2:

• Rev. 11:1. "Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein" — a reed like a rod surveys the sanctuary and its worshipers; a judicial assessment, the same Day-of-Atonement work Daniel dates (see "The Ram, the Goat, and the 2300 Days — Daniel 8," Dan. 8:14, "then shall the sanctuary be cleansed").
  • measure = to examine by a standard, the judgment-test (Dan. 8:14; the temple here is the literal sanctuary in heaven, the worshipers the church on earth — measured by character).
• DAR 497.2. Smith: the temple is "the literal temple in heaven," the worshipers "the true church on earth" — measured not in feet but as worshipers, by the standard of the law.
• DAR 498.1. Smith: the measuring-rod is the third angel's message embracing the ten commandments, calling the church to examine "the sanctuary on high" and the ministration of the great High Priest.
• Rev. 11:2. "the court which is without the temple leave out... it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months" — the outer court left to the nations; the 1260-year tread of papal supremacy (defined in "The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7").
• DAR 498.2. Smith: the court is this earth, where the antitypical Victim died; the attention now turns to the inner temple, and back to the papal treading of the holy city.

The two witnesses in sackcloth — Rev. 11:3-4:

• Rev. 11:3. "I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth" — the Word witnessing through the 1260-year papal era, but in mourning-obscurity.
  • two witnesses = the Old and New Testaments, the written Word of God (Luke 24:44, "the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms"; John 5:39, "the scriptures... they are they which testify of me"; Ps. 119:105, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet").
  • sackcloth = the garb of mourning and suppression — the Word prophesying under restriction.
• Rev. 11:4. "These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth" — the text names its own symbol, quoting Zechariah's vision (Zech. 4:2-3, the candlestick and the two olive trees; Zech. 4:11-14, "the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth," that empty the golden oil through the pipes).
• DAR 499.4. Smith: the two olive trees represent the word of God; written testimony is stronger than oral, and Jesus said of the Old Testament, "they are they which testify of me."
• DAR 499.5. Smith: the Old and New Testaments, "one given in one dispensation, and the other in the other, are Christ's two witnesses."
• DAR 499.2. Smith: during the 1260 years the witnesses are "in a state of sackcloth, or obscurity," and God gives them power to maintain their testimony through that dark period.

The powers of the witnesses — Rev. 11:5-6:

• Rev. 11:5. "if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies" — the Word's own threatenings consume those who corrupt it (Jer. 5:14, "I will make my words in thy mouth fire... and it shall devour them").
• Rev. 11:6. "power to shut heaven, that it rain not... and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues" — Elijah's power to shut heaven (1 Kings 17:1) and Moses' power over the waters (Exo. 7:17); the law and the prophets, armed alike.
• DAR 500.4. Smith: as Moses and Elijah did these by the word of the Lord, so every judgment recorded in the witnesses' pages "as often as they will" surely comes — including "the seven last plagues" yet to be experienced.

The beast from the bottomless pit slays them — Rev. 11:7-8:

• Rev. 11:7. "the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them" — at the 1260 years' close, an atheist power makes war on the Word (cf. Rev. 17:8, the beast that ascends "out of the bottomless pit").
  • beast — defined in "The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7."
• DAR 500.6. Smith: a beast denotes a kingdom (Dan 7:17, 23); the 538-1798 period closes about 1798, and this beast "is out of the bottomless pit; it has no foundation, is an atheistical power, is 'spiritually Egypt'" — France, who "denied the being of God."
• Rev. 11:8. "the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified" — the city named for Sodom's licentiousness and Egypt's atheism, where Christ is rejected.
  • Sodom = open licentiousness and luxury (Eze. 16:49, "pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness"); Egypt = atheistic defiance (Exo. 5:2, "Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice...? I know not the LORD").
• DAR 501.1. Smith: Sodom's sin was licentiousness, established by law in France; the infidels' motto was "CRUSH THE WRETCH," meaning Christ — so it was "where our Lord was crucified."

The witnesses dead three days and a half — Rev. 11:9-10:

• Rev. 11:9. "shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves" — by the year-day rule (see "The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7"), three and a half years: 1793-1797, the Bible legally suppressed.
• DAR 501.2. Smith: in 1793 a decree of the French Assembly forbade the Bible; the Bibles were gathered and burned, and "all the institutions of the Bible were abolished."
• DAR 502.2. Smith: other nations saw the war France made on the Bible but would not suffer the witnesses to be buried among themselves, "though they lay dead three days and a half, that is, three years and a half, in France."
• Rev. 11:10. "they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another" — the unconverted celebrate the Word's silencing, freed of its torment.

The Spirit of life; they ascend — Rev. 11:11-12:

• Rev. 11:11. "after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet" — the dry bones live (Eze. 37:10, "the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet").
• DAR 502.6. Smith: in 1793 the Assembly suppressed the Bible; "just three years after" a resolution restoring toleration was introduced, lying on the table six months — "in just three years and a half, the witnesses 'stood upon their feet.'"
• Rev. 11:12. "they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them" — not removal but exaltation; the Word lifted to unparalleled worldwide circulation.
• DAR 503.2. Smith: "ascended up to heaven" signifies great exaltation; shortly after, the British Bible Society was organized (1804), then the American Bible Society (1817), "scattering the Bible everywhere."

The earthquake and the tenth part — Rev. 11:13-14:

• Rev. 11:13. "the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand" — the revolutionary upheaval; France, one of the ten kingdoms, falls.
• DAR 504.2. Smith: the great city is the papal power (Rev 17:18); France is "a tenth part of the city," one of the ten horns (Dan. 7:24); the "seven thousand" are the titles of men abolished in the Revolution of 1793-98.
• Rev. 11:14. "The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly" — the sixth trumpet closed; the seventh trumpet, the third woe, now sounds (defined in "The Seventh Trumpet").

DEFINITION — THE TWO WITNESSES = the Old and New Testaments, the written Word of God — Zechariah's two olive trees and two candlesticks (Rev. 11:4; Zech. 4:2-3, 11-14; John 5:39; DAR 499.4-5) — prophesying in sackcloth through the 1260-year papal era (Rev. 11:3; DAR 499.2), slain by atheist France three days and a half = three and a half years, 1793-1797 (Rev. 11:7-9; DAR 501.2; 502.6), then raised and exalted worldwide in the Bible societies (Rev. 11:11-12; DAR 503.2).

Symbols defined here:

• measure = to examine by a standard, the judgment-test (Dan. 8:14; DAR 497.2; 498.1).
• two witnesses = the Old and New Testaments, the written Word (Rev. 11:4; Zech. 4:11-14; John 5:39; Luke 24:44).
• sackcloth = mourning, suppression — the Word prophesying under restriction (Rev. 11:3; DAR 499.2).
• Sodom = open licentiousness and luxury (Eze. 16:49; DAR 501.1); Egypt = atheistic defiance (Exo. 5:2; DAR 500.6).

Symbols carried: beast ("The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7").

¶17. The Day of the LORD

Gather every prophet on one subject (Rule 4): the "day of the LORD" is named in the exact plague-and-war vocabulary of the trumpets — it IS the seventh trumpet, the seven last plagues, literal and global.

The prophets name the day in trumpet-language — Joel 2:1, 10-11, 30-31:

• Joel 2:1. "Blow ye the trumpet in Zion... for the day of the LORD cometh" — the day opens on the trumpet-alarm, and the last trumpet is the seventh.
  • trumpet — defined in "What Is a Trumpet?"
• Joel 2:10-11. "the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining... for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible" — the LORD's army loosed for the day.
  • sun / moon / stars — defined in "The Six Trumpets."
• Joel 2:30-31. "blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke... before the great and the terrible day of the LORD" — the trumpets' own triad set before the day.
  • fire — defined in "What Is a Trumpet?"
  • smoke — defined in "The Six Trumpets."

Zephaniah's own name for the day — Zeph. 1:14-18:

• Zeph. 1:16. "A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers" — Zephaniah names the day a trumpet-day.
  • tower = the lofty and proud brought low in the day of the LORD (Isa. 2:15, "every high tower, and upon every fenced wall"; Isa. 30:25, "when the towers fall") — the high places felled.
• Zeph. 1:17. "their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung" — slaughter poured out on the land.
  • blood — defined in "What Is a Trumpet?"
• Zeph. 1:18. "Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath" — riches cannot ransom in that day; "the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy."

Isaiah and Amos name it flatly — Isa. 13; 34:8-10; Amos 5:18-20:

• Isa. 13:6. "Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty" — the day met with a howl.
  • howl = the cry of the day of the LORD (Isa. 13:6; Jer. 25:34, "Howl, ye shepherds... for the days of your slaughter"; Zeph. 1:11).
• Isa. 13:9-13. "the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate... I will punish the world for their evil" — universal scope: the world, the wicked, the proud.
• Isa. 34:8-10. "the day of the LORD'S vengeance... dust thereof into brimstone... the smoke thereof shall go up for ever" — the sixth-trumpet/third-angel triad named the day of the LORD.
  • brimstone — defined in "The Six Trumpets."
• TMR 125.1. Andrews: Isaiah 34 describes the final conflagration "in language which is a complete parallel to that of the third angel" — the prophets' day-language IS the seventh-trumpet plague.
• TMR 125.2. Andrews quotes it whole: "the day of the Lord's vengeance... brimstone... the smoke thereof shall go up forever" — the third-angel triad verbatim.
• Amos 5:18-20. "the day of the LORD is darkness, and not light... a man did flee from a lion... a serpent bit him" — darkness plus the lion-tooth and serpent-sting of the fifth and sixth trumpets.
  • lion = a roaring conqueror, God's deploying rod (Amos 3:8, "The lion hath roared, who will not fear?"; Jer. 50:17, Assyria and Babylon both "lions") — God's rod wears the prophets' lion (Rev. 9:8, 17).

The day is set on the Euphrates — Jer. 46:10:

• Jer. 46:10. "the day of the Lord GOD of hosts, a day of vengeance... a sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates" — the one verse reading "the day of the Lord GOD of hosts," fixed by name on the Euphrates.
  • sword = war, the slaying stroke of judgment (Jer. 46:10, "the sword shall devour") — the devouring rod, set on the Euphrates (Isa. 66:16).
  • Euphrates = the river of the eastern power, the sixth-trumpet ground (Rev. 16:12, "the great river Euphrates... the way of the kings of the east") — the day's eastern question.
  • north = the quarter the invading rod comes from, tied to the Euphrates (Jer. 1:14, "Out of the north an evil shall break forth") — Ezekiel 9's slaughter-weapons and the eastern rod.

The slain of the LORD from end to end — Jer. 25:15-17, 29-33; Isa. 66:15-16:

• Jer. 25:15-17. "the wine cup of this fury... cause all the nations... to drink it... because of the sword that I will send" — the cup is the sword, served to all nations.
  • cup / wine of wrath = the sword-judgment God serves the nations (Jer. 25:15-16; Isa. 51:17, "the cup of his fury... the dregs of the cup of trembling") — the unmixed cup of the third angel (Rev. 14:10).
• Jer. 25:29. "I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name... a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth" — judgment begins at God's own city, then all the earth.
• Jer. 25:30-33. "The LORD shall roar from on high... a shout, as they that tread the grapes... a great whirlwind... the slain of the LORD... from one end of the earth even unto the other" — the day's lion-roar, winepress, whirlwind, and universal slain.
  • winepress = the treading-out of the wrath of God (Jer. 25:30, "a shout, as they that tread the grapes") — the seventh trumpet's vials (Rev. 14:10, 19).
  • whirlwind = the storm-rush of God's judgment-army (Jer. 25:32, "a great whirlwind... raised up from the coasts of the earth") — the four winds loosed for the day of slaughter (Rev. 7:1).
• PREX2 230.2. Litch: God punishes nations as nations "by fire, sword, plague"; Jerusalem has been given "the wine-cup of his fury; and he will give it to all the nations" — and he cites Jer. 25:15-33 by name as the proof.
• Isa. 66:15-16. "the LORD will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind... by fire and by his sword will the LORD plead with all flesh: and the slain of the LORD shall be many" — same day, fire, whirlwind, sword, slain.

Day-of-the-LORD texts unnamed but universal:

• Ezek. 30:2-3. "Howl ye, Woe worth the day!... the day of the LORD is near... the time of the heathen" — the day aimed at Egypt is the nations' hour.
• Obadiah 1:15. "the day of the LORD is near upon all the heathen" — one day, upon all.
• Zech. 14:1. "Behold, the day of the LORD cometh" — same day, same vocabulary.
• Mal. 4:5. "Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD" — the messenger sent before the day; the loud cry's type.

The rod of His indignation is a heathen power — Isa. 10:5-6, 12:

• Isa. 10:5. "O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation" — a heathen empire is God's rod.
• Isa. 10:6. "I will send him against an hypocritical nation... to take the spoil... to tread them down" — the rod sent against an apostate people.
• Isa. 10:12. "I will punish... the king of Assyria" — the rod, having served, is itself judged.
• DAR 473.4. Smith, quoting Keith: "swarms of Saracens, like locusts... the locusts (the fit symbol of the Arabs) issued from Arabia" — the same heathen rod fills the fifth trumpet.

DEFINITION — THE DAY OF THE LORD = the prophets' "day of the LORD" = Revelation's seventh trumpet / third woe / seven last plagues — one event, three names, described in the trumpets' and vials' own vocabulary (Joel 2:1, 10-11, 30-31; Zeph. 1:14-18; Isa. 13:6-13; 34:8-10; Amos 5:18-20). Literal, global, all nations (Isa. 13:11; Jer. 25:29-33; Obad. 1:15; Isa. 66:16); set on the Euphrates, in the north country (Jer. 46:10); waged by a heathen rod that is afterward judged itself (Isa. 10:5, 12). Where the label is absent, the SIGNATURE identifies it: universal scope plus the trumpet-and-vial kit.

Symbols defined here:

• howl = the cry of the day of the LORD (Isa. 13:6; Jer. 25:34; Zeph. 1:11).
• tower = the lofty and proud brought low in the day of the LORD (Isa. 2:15; 30:25).
• lion = a roaring conqueror, God's deploying rod (Amos 3:8; Jer. 50:17).
• sword = war, the slaying stroke of judgment (Jer. 46:10).
• Euphrates = the river of the eastern power, the sixth-trumpet ground (Rev. 16:12).
• north = the quarter the invading rod comes from (Jer. 1:14).
• cup / wine of wrath = the sword-judgment God serves the nations (Jer. 25:15-16; Isa. 51:17).
• winepress = the treading-out of the wrath of God (Jer. 25:30).
• whirlwind = the storm-rush of God's judgment-army (Jer. 25:32).
• rod of His indignation = a heathen power God raises to punish His apostate people, then judges (Isa. 10:5-6, 12; Jer. 50:17).

Symbols carried: trumpet, fire, blood ("What Is a Trumpet?"); sun / moon / stars, smoke, brimstone ("The Six Trumpets").

¶18. The Day of Slaughter

The day of slaughter is named by its work; it has a beginning and a full extent. It BEGINS at the house of God — sealing first, then the stroke on the unsealed, the false watchmen first — and spreads outward to all nations.

Sealed first, then slain — Eze. 9:1-7:

• Eze. 9:1-2. "Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near, even every man with his destroying weapon" — "six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the north, and every man a slaughter weapon"; "one man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer's inkhorn" — the sealer stands among the slayers; the rod comes from the north.
  • slaughter weapon = war / the slaying stroke of judgment (Eze. 14:21, the LORD's "four sore judgments... the sword, and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence"; Jer. 25:31, "he will give them that are wicked to the sword") — war is the instrument.
  • north — defined in "The Day of the LORD."
• Eze. 9:3-4. "Set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations" — the mark goes on FIRST, before the stroke; the dividing line is laid down before the sword moves.
  • mark in the forehead = the seal of God set on those who grieve over sin and keep His covenant (Rev. 7:3, "till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads") — its opposite is the beast's mark in the forehead or hand (Rev. 13:16-17).
• Eze. 9:5-6. "Smite: let not your eye spare... but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary" — only the marked are spared; the slaughter STARTS at the sanctuary, "at the ancient men which were before the house."
• Eze. 9:7-10. "Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain" — because "the land is full of blood, and the city full of perverseness," and they say "the LORD seeth not" — the stroke falls on professed Israel for its abominations.
• Eze. 9:11. "I have done as thou hast commanded me" — the sealing is reported COMPLETE before the slaughter runs its course; order is fixed: seal, then slay.
• 1 Pet. 4:17. "Judgment must begin at the house of God" — the same fixed order, inward first; Ezekiel 9 is the judgment of the living, begun at the sanctuary.
• Jer. 25:29. "I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name... I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth" — inward (His house) → outward (all nations); the day of slaughter is the inner face of the day of the LORD.
• GC 656.2. EGW reads Ezekiel 9 as the close: "The mark of deliverance has been set upon those that sigh and that cry... begin at My sanctuary... The false watchmen are the first to fall."
• GC 656.1. Before the sword moves, "now all have made their decisions" — every case is settled; there is no third class left to seal.

Dated by the falling towers — Isa. 30:25:

• Isa. 30:25. "In the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall" — the day of slaughter is dated by falling towers.
  • tower — defined in "The Day of the LORD."

No neutral ground — Rev. 7:3 vs. Rev. 13:16-17:

• Rev. 7:3. The four winds are held "till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads" — one company receives God's seal.
• Rev. 13:16-17. The beast "causeth all... to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads... that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark" — the other company receives the beast's mark; between them there is no third option.
• Rev. 14:9-10. He that worships the beast and receives "his mark in his forehead, or in his hand... shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God" — the marked are the appointed victims of the wrath.
• GC 605.1. "Not one is made to suffer the wrath of God until the truth has been brought home to his mind and conscience, and has been rejected" — the line is drawn only after the warning comes; everyone has "sufficient light to make his decision intelligently."

The escape is by obedience to the warning — three witnesses, one rule:

• Luke 21:20-21. "When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies... let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out" — Christ gave a literal sign, and obedience to it was life.
• Matt. 24:15-16. "When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation... stand in the holy place... then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains" — the same warning, the same flight.
• GC 30.2. "Not one Christian perished in the destruction of Jerusalem... all who believed His words watched for the promised sign... Without delay they fled to a place of safety — the city of Pella."
• PREX1 176.2. Litch saw the same rule: "the Saviour took care to deliver those that trusted in him... and not a Christian perished there."
• GC 30.1. The herald of that doom was a four-winds woe-cry "against Jerusalem and against the temple... Woe, woe to Jerusalem!" — the day-of-slaughter warning in its type.
• Jer. 21:8-10. "I set before you the way of life, and the way of death. He that abideth in this city shall die by the sword... but he that goeth out, and falleth to the Chaldeans... he shall live" — before Babylon, surrender and live or stay and die.
• Jer. 38:2. "He that remaineth in this city shall die... but he that goeth forth to the Chaldeans shall live" — the same terms repeated.
• Jer. 38:17-18. "If thou wilt assuredly go forth... then thy soul shall live, and this city shall not be burned... but if thou wilt not go forth... they shall burn it with fire" — obey the word and live; refuse and be taken.
• Rev. 18:4. "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues" — the same escape-by-warning, the come-out-of-the-cities call (defined at the loud cry).

The city/mark connection — an evidence-of-unbelief chain (symptom, never cause):

• Rev. 7:3 vs. 13:16-17; Eze. 9:4-6. (1) No neutral ground — all are sealed of God or marked of the beast, and Ezekiel 9 spares ONLY the marked-of-God; there is no unmarked-and-spared class.
• Luke 21:20-21; Jer. 21:8-10; CL 30.4. (2) The sealed are those who BELIEVE and OBEY the warning, whose present form is the flee-the-cities counsel — "As God's commandment-keeping people, we must leave the cities. As did Enoch, we must work in the cities but not dwell in them."
  • CL 24.4. "More and more, as time advances, our people will have to leave the cities... families with children, should plan to leave the cities as the way opens."
  • CL 19.4. "Believers who are now living in the cities will have to move to the country, that they may save their children from ruin."
• Eze. 9:5-6; Jer. 38:2. (3) Therefore, being found in the cities when the day opens EVIDENCES the unbelief that leaves one unsealed — i.e. marked. The city address is the SYMPTOM of unbelief, never its cause; the one who would not heed the warning is the one the sword finds.

DEFINITION — THE DAY OF SLAUGHTER = the judgment named by its work — the stroke that BEGINS at the house of God, sparing only the marked, then spreads outward to all nations (Eze. 9:4-6, 11; 1 Pet. 4:17; Jer. 25:29; GC 656.2), dated by the falling towers (Isa. 30:25). No neutral ground — all are sealed of God or marked of the beast (Rev. 7:3 vs. 13:16-17; GC 605.1); escape is by OBEDIENCE to the warning, whose present form is the come-out-of-the-cities call (Luke 21:20-21; Jer. 21:8-10; Rev. 18:4; CL 30.4) — so the city address EVIDENCES the unbelief that leaves one unsealed, the symptom of that unbelief, never a flat equivalence with the mark. Who is sheltered is decided by the sealing (see "The Sealing Time").

Symbols defined here:

• slaughter weapon = war / the slaying stroke of judgment (Eze. 14:21; Jer. 25:31).
• mark in the forehead = the seal of God on those who grieve over sin (Rev. 7:3); its opposite, the beast's mark (Rev. 13:16-17).

Symbols carried: north, tower ("The Day of the LORD").

¶19. The Third Angel's Message

The third angel's penalty wears the very words of the sixth trumpet: fire, brimstone, smoke. Read it whole, and the message warns BOTH questions — the Western (beast, image, mark) and the Eastern (the woe, the day of the LORD).

The warning and its penalty — Rev. 14:9-12:

• Rev. 14:9. "If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand" — the third angel cries with a loud voice against beast-worship.
  • beast — defined in "The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7"; here papal Rome, the first beast of Rev. 13.
  • mark in forehead or hand = a public profession, not a literal brand — "a public profession, or act, that all may see or know" (TMR 108.3).
• Rev. 14:10. "The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone" — beast-worshippers drink unmixed wrath.
  • cup / wine of wrath — defined in "The Day of the LORD."
  • brimstone — defined in "The Six Trumpets."
  • without mixture = wrath with no mercy mingled in — "wrath without mercy," withheld while the High Priest intercedes (TMR 116.1).
• Rev. 14:11. "And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever" — no rest day nor night for beast-worshippers.
  • smoke — defined in "The Six Trumpets."
• Rev. 14:12. "Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus" — over against the mark stands a sealed, commandment-keeping people.
• TMR 116.1. Andrews: the plagues and the wrath without mixture are the same — "wrath without mercy," and "when the plagues are poured out, mercy has given place to vengeance."

The penalty named — the seven last plagues = the third woe = the seventh trumpet — Rev. 15:1; 16:1-2:

• Rev. 15:1. "Seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God" — the same wrath the third angel threatened.
• Rev. 16:1-2. "Pour out the vials of the wrath of God... there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast" — the plagues strike the exact persons the third angel warned.
• Rev. 8:13. "Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth" — three trumpet-woes yet to sound.
• Rev. 9:12. "One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter." — the woes counted in sequence; the third stands next.
• Rev. 11:14-15. "The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly" — then "the seventh angel sounded."
  • woe — defined in "The Six Trumpets."
• TMR 116.2. Andrews: the seven plagues are poured out under the seventh angel — "the third woe is by reason of the voice of the seventh angel... hence the plagues are future, and constitute the third woe" (Rev. 11:15-19 = 16:1-21).
• TMR 124.1. Andrews calls the seven last plagues by their other name — "the seven last plagues, — the third woe!"

The Western question — beast, image, mark — Rev. 13:11-17:

• Rev. 13:11. "Another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon" — a lamb-like power that speaks as the dragon.
• Rev. 13:12. "Causeth the earth... to worship the first beast" — enforces Rome-worship.
• Rev. 13:14. "That they should make an image to the beast" — bids set up the image.
• Rev. 13:16-17. "Causeth all... to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads... that no man might buy or sell" — forces the mark on all.
• TMR 74.2. Andrews: the two-horned beast's image-worship "certainly pertains to the future," and the third angel "is a warning to prepare the church for this fearful scene."
• TMR 112.3. Andrews: "whenever they obey the requirements of the beast, in the place of the commandments of God, they worship the beast" — the enforced Sunday is the mark.
• GC 605.2. White: the Sabbath is "the great test of loyalty" — false-sabbath compliance receives "the mark of the beast," true-Sabbath obedience "the seal of God."

The Eastern question — the same fire, brimstone, smoke of the sixth trumpet — Rev. 9:2, 17-18; 14:10-11:

• Rev. 9:2. "There arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace" — first woe.
• Rev. 9:17-18. "Out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone... by these three was the third part of men killed" — second woe, the same three agents.
• Rev. 14:10-11. The third angel's penalty wears the same three words — "tormented with fire and brimstone," the "smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever."
• DAR 482.2. Smith: the sixth-trumpet "fire, smoke, and brimstone" is the Turks' gunpowder and firearms fired on horseback — the rod God used as a war-judgment.
• Isa. 34:8-10. "It is the day of the LORD'S vengeance... the dust thereof into brimstone... the smoke thereof shall go up for ever" — the day-of-vengeance parallel, same three words.
  • fire — defined in "What Is a Trumpet?"
  • day of the LORD's vengeance — defined in "The Day of the LORD."
• TMR 124.3. Andrews: of the third angel's fire/brimstone/smoke — "the final perdition of ungodly men in the lake of fire is without doubt the subject of these awful words."
• TMR 125.1. Andrews: Isaiah 34 is "a complete parallel to that of the third angel" — same fire, brimstone, smoke, same final judgment.
• TMR 125.2. Andrews quotes the parallel itself — "the day of the Lord's vengeance," dust to brimstone, "the smoke thereof shall go up forever."

DEFINITION — THE THIRD ANGEL'S MESSAGE = the loud warning that unmixed wrath — the seven last plagues = the third woe = the seventh trumpet — falls on all who worship the beast and receive his mark, announced before it falls (Rev. 14:9-12; 15:1; 16:1-2; TMR 116, 124). It deals with BOTH questions:

• Western — beast from earth (US), image, enforced false sabbath as mark, counterfeit of the seal of God (Rev. 13:11-17; GC 605.2; TMR 74, 112).
• Eastern — the day of the LORD's vengeance, executed in the very fire-brimstone-smoke woe of the sixth trumpet (Rev. 9:17-18; Isa. 34:8-10; TMR 124-125; DAR 482.2).

Symbols defined here:

• mark in forehead or hand = a public profession or act, not a literal brand (TMR 108.3).
• without mixture = wrath with no mercy mingled in (TMR 116.1).

Symbols carried: beast ("The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7"); fire ("What Is a Trumpet?"); brimstone, smoke, woe ("The Six Trumpets"); cup / wine of wrath, day of the LORD's vengeance ("The Day of the LORD").

¶20. The Fourth Angel's Message

The fourth angel brings no new message — it gives strength to the third, and by naming "her plagues" presses the warning home: the third woe / seventh trumpet / day of slaughter is at hand. This is the loud cry.

Another angel lightens the earth — Rev. 18:1-5:

• Rev. 18:1. "another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory" — the fourth angel, the loud cry, floods the whole earth with light.
  • glory / light = the glory of the LORD risen as truth poured out, when "darkness shall cover the earth" (Isa. 60:1-2; "the law is light," Prov. 6:23) — the message of truth, not a light-show.
• Rev. 18:2. "Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen" — the second angel's cry (Rev. 14:8) repeated and swelled by the fourth.
• Rev. 18:3. "all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication" — Babylon's false doctrine, the cup she made the nations drink (cup / wine of wrath defined in "The Day of the LORD").
• Rev. 18:4. "Come out of her, my people... that ye receive not of her plagues" — names the PLAGUES (the eastern question, by the study's thesis) and calls God's people to escape them.
• Rev. 18:5. "her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities" — the cup is full; judgment is at the door.
• Rev. 18:8. "her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire" — the very plagues Rev 18:4 says to flee; the day of slaughter falls.
• GC 603.1. EGW quotes Rev 18:1, 2, 4 entire as "The Final Warning" — the loud cry is the fourth angel of Revelation 18.
• GC 611.1. "The angel who unites in the proclamation of the third angel's message is to lighten the whole earth with his glory" — a worldwide work exceeding the 1840-44 movement.

The third angel's penalty is the plague the fourth angel warns to flee — Rev. 14:9-10:

• Rev. 14:9-10. The third angel: worship the beast and his mark, and "drink of the wine of the wrath of God... poured out without mixture" — the unmixed cup, the plagues.
• The fourth angel amplifies this same plague-warning (Rev 18:4 "her plagues") — same penalty, same escape: come out, or partake.

The loud cry is the watchman's war-trumpet — Num. 10:9; Joel 2:1; Amos 3:6; Eze. 33:3-6:

• Num. 10:9. "blow an alarm with the trumpets... and ye shall be saved from your enemies" — the trumpet is a war-alarm sounded to deliver (trumpet = war-alarm, the study's foundation).
• Joel 2:1. "Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm... for the day of the LORD cometh" — the alarm is sounded because the day of the LORD is nigh.
• Amos 3:6. "Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid?" — the alarm is meant to make men flee; that fear-then-flight is mercy.
• Eze. 33:3-5. The watchman sees the sword, blows the trumpet, "and warn the people"; he that heareth and "taketh not warning... his blood shall be upon his own head."
• Eze. 33:6. Watchman silent, "the people be not warned" → the slain "taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand" — to blow is to deliver; to be silent is to share the blood.
• Eze. 9:4. "Set a mark upon the foreheads" of those who sigh and cry — the marked are spared; the loud cry is the call to be marked before the slaughter.
• Rev. 7:1-3. The four winds held "till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads" — the loud cry's window: warn and seal before the winds loose (four winds = day of slaughter, defined below).
• Rev. 9:4. Hurt only those "which have not the seal of God in their foreheads" — the unsealed are the slain; to warn is to seal.
• Rev. 16:15. "Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments" — the loud cry calls the watcher to stand ready in the day the thief comes.

The loud cry hurries God's people out before the plagues — Gen. 19:15-17; EW 277-279:

• Gen. 19:15-17. "the angels hastened Lot... Escape for thy life... lest thou be consumed" — the type: God's people hurried out of the doomed city before fire falls.
• EW 277.1. The fourth "mighty angel" descends "to unite his voice with the third angel, and give power and force to his message" — the earth lightened with his glory; the third angel's message swells to a loud cry.
• EW 278.2. The precious "were hurried out of the doomed churches, as Lot was hurried out of Sodom before her destruction" — Babylon falls; God's people come out.
• EW 279.1. At the close, "They had received the latter rain... The last great warning had sounded everywhere" — loud cry and latter rain named together, one moment.

The latter rain is the fulness of doctrine — rain = doctrine: Deut. 32:2; Isa. 55:10-11; Hos. 6:3:

• Deut. 32:2. "My doctrine shall drop as the rain... as the small rain upon the tender herb" — Moses sets it plain: rain = doctrine.
  • rain = doctrine, the word of God taught and received (Deut. 32:2; Isa. 55:10-11; Hos. 6:3).
• Isa. 55:10-11. As the rain waters the earth, "So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth" — the figure interpreted in the text: rain = God's word.
• Hos. 6:3. "he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain" — tied to "follow on to know the LORD": rain = truth received into a heart that knows Him.
• Joel 2:23. "the former rain, and the latter rain" — truth that began the work and truth that finishes it.
• James 5:7. The husbandman waits for the "early and latter rain" to ripen the fruit "unto the coming of the Lord" — the latter rain is the closing-of-the-crop rain, set at His coming.
• James 5:5. "nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter" — two verses from the latter rain (5:7), same harvest scene: rain that ripens, slaughter that reaps — one closing moment.
• TM 507.1. The latter rain "may be falling on hearts all around us, but we shall not discern or receive it" — a supernatural display would compel every eye; truth received falls unrecognized, so it is doctrine, not a light-show.
• EW 71.2. The "refreshing" and "latter rain" fit God's people "to stand in the day of the Lord" — but conditional: those who neglect the preparation "come up to the time of the falling of the plagues" without a shelter.

DEFINITION — THE FOURTH ANGEL'S MESSAGE / LOUD CRY = the watchman's war-trumpet (Num. 10:9; Eze. 33:3-6) — the fourth angel of Revelation 18 that unites with and gives power to the third angel's message, crying "Babylon is fallen" and "Come out of her, my people, that ye receive not of her plagues" (Rev. 18:1-4; EW 277.1; GC 611.1) — the warning that the third woe / seventh trumpet / day of slaughter is at hand, hurrying God's people out before the plagues fall as Lot from Sodom (Gen. 19:15-17; EW 278.2). To warn is to seal (Rev. 7:1-3; Eze. 9:4); the silent watchman bears the blood of the slain (Eze. 33:6).

DEFINITION — THE LATTER RAIN = the fulness of doctrine — rain = doctrine, the word of God taught and received (Deut. 32:2; Isa. 55:10-11; Hos. 6:3) — the completing truth poured out to ripen God's people for the harvest at the coming of the Lord (Joel 2:23; James 5:7); truth RECEIVED, not display, so it falls unrecognized (TM 507.1); the inward side of the loud cry, fitting the prepared to stand in the day of slaughter (James 5:5; EW 71.2; 279.1).

Symbols defined here:

• glory / light = the glory of the LORD risen as truth poured out, when darkness covers the earth (Isa. 60:1-2; Prov. 6:23).
• rain / latter rain = doctrine, the word of God taught and received — the latter rain its fulness (Deut. 32:2; Isa. 55:10-11; Hos. 6:3).

Symbols carried: trumpet ("What Is a Trumpet?").

¶21. The Sealing Time

Set the two visions side by side: Revelation 7 IS Ezekiel 9 — the seal goes on before the slaughter goes out, and the seal is the Sabbath.

What the seal is — the Sabbath, the sign that He sanctifies:

• Exo. 31:13. The sabbaths "a sign between me and you... that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you" — the Sabbath is the appointed sign of sanctification.
  • seal / sign = an owner's mark of name, authority, and ownership set on his own (Eze. 20:12, 20; Rev. 14:1) — the fourth commandment alone carries the Lawgiver's name, title, and dominion.
• Exo. 31:17. "a sign... for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth" — the sign rests on Creation, the badge of the Creator.
• Eze. 20:12. "my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD that sanctify them" — the same sign, repeated to a later generation.
• Eze. 20:20. "Hallow my sabbaths... a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the LORD your God" — keeping the day is the knowing-token.
• Isa. 8:16. "Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples" — the law itself is the thing sealed in God's people.
• Rev. 14:1. The 144,000 have "his Father's name written in their foreheads" — the seal = the Father's name and character, the exact opposite of the mark.
• GC 605.2. EGW: "the keeping of the true Sabbath, in obedience to God's law, is an evidence of loyalty to the Creator" — the true Sabbath is the seal, the false sabbath the mark.

The seal strikes the dividing line — Rev. 9:4:

• Rev. 9:4. The locusts hurt "only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads" — even in the fifth-trumpet history the rod fell on the unsealed alone.
• DAR 475.1. Smith: Rome, "the very church which has robbed the law of God of its seal," had it not and "were put to the sword," while "none of those who had the seal of God were molested" — the rule already ran literally in history.

The two visions side by side — Rev. 7 IS Eze. 9:

• Rev. 7:1. "four angels... holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow" — the strife is held back, not yet loosed.
  • four winds — defined in "The Four Winds, the Whirlwind, the Winds."
• Rev. 7:2. "another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God" — the sealing angel comes before the winds blow.
• Rev. 7:3. "Hurt not the earth... till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads" — no hurt until the sealing is complete; the seal is on them BEFORE the stroke.
• Rev. 7:4. "an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes" — the sealed are a numbered, completed roll.
• Eze. 9:2. "six men... a slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man... clothed with linen, with a writer's inkhorn" — the marking angel and the slaughter weapons stand ready together, the same scene as Revelation 7.
• Eze. 9:4. "set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations" — the marking of the faithful first, exactly as the sealing.
• Eze. 9:6. "come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary" — the slaughter spares the marked and opens at the church.
• Eze. 9:11. "I have done as thou hast commanded me" — the inkhorn angel reports the marking finished, the sealing complete.
• TM 445.2. EGW: "This sealing of the servants of God is the same that was shown to Ezekiel in vision" — her own identity-statement: Revelation 7 IS Ezekiel 9.
• 3T 267.1. EGW: the pure mark of truth, set by the Holy Ghost only on those who "sigh and that cry" — "Read the ninth chapter of Ezekiel."

The sealing IS the judgment of the living — Dan. 7 / 1 Pet. 4:17:

• Dan. 7:9-10. "the judgment was set, and the books were opened" — the closing judgment is now in session in the heavenly sanctuary.
• 1 Pet. 4:17. "judgment must begin at the house of God" = Ezekiel's "begin at my sanctuary" — the mark-then-slay IS that judgment, opening at the church.
• 5T 212.3. EGW: "The day of God's vengeance is just upon us. The seal of God will be placed upon the foreheads of those only who sigh and cry" — the sealing decides the living before the day strikes.

The sequence — winds held, servants sealed, probation closed, slaughter loosed:

• EW 38.1-2. EGW: the four angels "had power from God to hold the four winds," and the cry went forth, "Hold! Hold! Hold! Hold! until the servants of God are sealed in their foreheads" — the hold is the sealing-interval.
• EW 279.2. EGW: the inkhorn angel returned, "the saints were numbered and sealed," then Jesus threw down the censer and said, "It is done" — Ezekiel 9:11's report, and probation closes on the sealed roll.
• EW 280.2. EGW: "It was impossible for the plagues to be poured out while Jesus officiated... but as His work there is finished... it breaks with fury" — mediation must end before the slaughter falls.
• GC 656.2. EGW: the marked spared, the unmarked slain, "begin at My sanctuary" — "The false watchmen are the first to fall."

The sealing stands at the day's threshold — Zeph. 2 / Jer. 25:

• Zeph. 2:1-2. "Gather yourselves together... before the day of the LORD'S anger come upon you" — the gathering-sealing work belongs to the day's eve.
• Zeph. 2:3. The meek who seek righteousness, "it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD'S anger" — sealed = hid in the day; the rest are exposed.
• Jer. 25:29. "I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name," then "a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth" — same order: house of God first, then all the earth.
• Jer. 25:33. "the slain of the LORD shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other" — the slaughter that the loosed winds become.

DEFINITION — SEALING TIME = the held-winds interval of Rev. 7:1-3, which IS the marking of Ezekiel 9 (TM 445.2) — the closing judgment of the living (Dan. 7:9-10; 1 Pet. 4:17), in which the seal of God, the true Sabbath (Exo. 31:13, 17; GC 605.2), is set on those only who sigh and cry (Eze. 9:4; 5T 212.3). The sequence is fixed: winds held → servants sealed → the work reported done (Eze. 9:11; EW 279.2) → probation closes (EW 280.2) → the slaughter begins at the sanctuary (Eze. 9:6; GC 656.2). Sealed = hid in the day (Zeph. 2:2-3); the rod strikes only the unmarked (Rev. 9:4).

Symbols defined here:

• seal / sign = an owner's mark of name, authority, and ownership — the true Sabbath (Exo. 31:13, 17; Eze. 20:12, 20; Rev. 14:1).

Symbols carried: four winds ("The Four Winds, the Whirlwind, the Winds").

¶22. The Four Winds, the Whirlwind, the Winds

Winds are strife and war loosed; the four winds held back are the day of the LORD waiting on the sealing.

Winds = strife, commotion, war among nations:

• Dan. 7:2. "The four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea" — the Bible's own definition: winds set the nations striving.
  • wind / four winds = political commotion, strife, and war among nations (Dan. 7:2; Jer. 49:36-37, the four winds brought on Elam with "the sword after them"; Zech. 7:14, "I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations").
  • sea / great sea — defined in "The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7."
• Jer. 49:36-37. "Upon Elam will I bring the four winds... and will scatter them toward all those winds... I will send the sword after them" — the four winds are the sword sent to consume a people.
• Jer. 4:11-13. "A dry wind... a full wind... his chariots shall be as a whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us!" — the invading war comes up as a wind, a whirlwind of horses and chariots.
• DAR 436.3. Smith: "Winds, in the Bible, symbolize political commotion, strife, and war. Daniel 7:2; Jeremiah 25:32" — and the four winds held by the four angels "denote all the elements of strife and commotion that exist in the world."

The whirlwind = the LORD's wind of judgment loosed on the wicked — the day of the slain:

• Jer. 23:19. "A whirlwind of the LORD is gone forth in fury... it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked" — the whirlwind is the LORD's stroke aimed at the wicked.
  • whirlwind — defined in "The Day of the LORD."
• Jer. 30:23. "The whirlwind of the LORD goeth forth with fury, a continuing whirlwind: it shall fall with pain upon the head of the wicked" — the same continuing whirlwind-stroke of judgment.
• Jer. 25:30-31. "The LORD shall roar from on high... he will plead with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked to the sword" — the controversy is with all the nations, the wicked given to the sword.
  • sword — defined in "The Day of the LORD."
• Jer. 25:32-33. "A great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth. And the slain of the LORD shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end" — the loosed whirlwind IS the day of the slain, global from end to end.

The four winds held back until the sealing is done — Rev. 7:1-3:

• Rev. 7:1. "Four angels... holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree" — the strife of all nations restrained, not yet loosed.
• Rev. 7:2-3. "Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads" — the winds wait on the sealing; the holding is the seal of probation.
• SSP 132.1. Haskell: in 1848 "came a sudden calm" no man could explain — the four angels "hold the winds of strife till the servants of God could be sealed"; "the sealing work is now going on" — the holding recognized after it struck (since 1848 the Sabbath light has gone to every nation, SSP 136.1).
• DAR 436.3. Smith: when the four winds "are all loosed, and all blow together, it will constitute the great whirlwind" of Jeremiah — the held winds and Jeremiah's whirlwind are one scene.
• EW 36.2. White: "the four angels would hold the four winds until Jesus' work was done in the sanctuary, and then will come the seven last plagues," after which "a decree went forth to slay the saints" — held winds = the seven last plagues + slaughter restrained.
• EW 38.1. The commission to the four angels: "Hold! Hold! Hold! Hold! until the servants of God are sealed in their foreheads" — the holding command is the sealing-deadline.
• EW 38.2. "It was God that restrained the powers... the four angels had power from God to hold the four winds, and that they were about to let them go" — the held winds are political powers God restrains.

The winds loosed = the day of slaughter = the day of the LORD opening:

• Isa. 30:25. "Rivers and streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall" — the loosed winds open the day of the great slaughter.
• Eze. 9:1-2. "Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near, even every man with his destroying weapon... every man a slaughter weapon" — the slaughter begins at the city, against all not sealed (the man with the inkhorn marks the spared).
• EW 44.1-44.2. White: now "in this sealing time" the covering is being drawn, and "it will soon be drawn over all who are to have a shelter in the day of slaughter" — the unsealed left "without a shelter from the burning wrath of God." The sealing is the only shelter when the winds blow.

DEFINITION — THE FOUR WINDS = the strife, commotion, and war of all the nations (Dan. 7:2; Jer. 49:36-37; DAR 436.3), held back by the four angels until the sealing is finished (Rev. 7:1-3; EW 38.1-38.2), then loosed all together as one great whirlwind — the day of the slain of the LORD from end to end, the day of the great slaughter (Jer. 25:32-33; Isa. 30:25). Winds held → sealing finishes → winds loose → slaughter falls: sealed sheltered, unsealed slain (EW 44.2).

Symbols defined here:

• wind / four winds = political commotion, strife, war among nations (Dan. 7:2; Jer. 49:36-37; Zech. 7:14).

Symbols carried: sea / great sea ("The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7"); whirlwind, sword ("The Day of the LORD").

¶23. When Did the Loud Cry Begin? — The Herald

Every term is already defined — howl, day of slaughter, whirlwind, four winds, towers, riches, the north, latter rain. Here we cash them in: they are not similar themes but ONE point in time, and the watchman recognizes its herald after it strikes.

A. One scene, one moment — howl + day of slaughter + latter rain held together (James 5:1-7):

• James 5:1. "Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come" — the rich howl as the day breaks.
• James 5:3. "Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days" — the scene is the end, not a first-century local.
  • riches = trust in wealth that cannot deliver in the day of wrath (Prov. 11:4, "Riches profit not in the day of wrath"; Zeph. 1:18).
• James 5:5. "ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter" — the same day of slaughter defined above (Eze. 9; Isa. 30:25), naming the harvest.
• James 5:7. "until he receive the early and latter rain" — the latter rain (fulness of doctrine) ripens the very grain the day of slaughter reaps; two verses apart, one harvest.
• Howl, day of slaughter, and latter rain stand in seven verses: they are not three subjects but one moment.

The howl IS the day of the LORD — the prophets fix the word (Isa. 13:6):

• Isa. 13:6. "Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty" — the howl is dated to the day of the LORD itself.
• The same "howl" that opens James 5 is Isaiah's signal of the day of the LORD: same cry, same day.

The howl, the whirlwind, and the slain stand in one oracle (Jer. 25:32-34):

• Jer. 25:32. "a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth" — the whirlwind (the storm-rush of God's judgment-army = the four winds loosed, defined above).
• Jer. 25:33. "the slain of the LORD shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other" — the day of slaughter, global, end to end.
• Jer. 25:34. "Howl, ye shepherds... for the days of your slaughter... are accomplished" — howl and day of slaughter named in the same breath.
• Whirlwind (= four winds) + howl + slain of the LORD = one oracle; Jeremiah collapses the three terms into the one day.

The howl is dated "in that day" of the merchants cut off (Zeph. 1:10-11):

• Zeph. 1:10. "in that day... an howling from the second, and a great crashing from the hills" — the howl set "in that day," the day of the LORD.
• Zeph. 1:11. "Howl, ye inhabitants of Maktesh, for all the merchant people are cut down; all they that bear silver are cut off" — the howl falls on the merchants and the silver-bearers, the riches that cannot deliver.
• The day-of-the-LORD howl strikes the merchant-riches (defined above) — the same cluster as the herald below.

And it is the four winds held until the sealing (Rev. 7:1-3):

• Rev. 7:1. "four angels... holding the four winds" — the whirlwind of Jeremiah 25, held back.
• Rev. 7:3. "Hurt not the earth... till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads" — the winds wait for the sealing; loosed, they are the day of slaughter on the unsealed.
• Four winds = whirlwind = day of slaughter = the howling day of the LORD; their loosing and the close of the sealing are one moment.

DEFINITION — THE ONE MOMENT = the day of slaughter = the howling day of the LORD = the whirlwind = the loosing of the four winds at the close of the sealing — not parallel themes but a single point in time (James 5:1-7; Isa. 13:6; Jer. 25:32-34; Zeph. 1:10-11; Rev. 7:1-3). The loud cry is the warning that THIS moment — the seventh trumpet / third woe — is at hand.

B. When? — No new prophetic date; a fulfillment recognized after it strikes:

• Rev. 10:6. the angel sware "that there should be time no longer" — prophetic time closed at 1844; no further date is given to be set.
• LDE 36.2. "After this period... reaching from 1842 to 1844, there can be no definite tracing of the prophetic time. The longest reckoning reaches to the autumn of 1844" — the rule: no new dates.
• Rev. 16:15. "Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth" — therefore the marker is not a calculation but watchfulness: the watchman names an event a fulfillment AFTER it strikes.
• The herald is not predicted by a prophetic period; it is recognized by the watchman who sees the cluster fall.

The herald cluster — the prophets' fixed marks of the day of slaughter, all in one event:

• Isa. 30:25. "in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall" — the day of slaughter dated by falling towers (tower = the lofty and proud brought low, defined above).
• Isa. 2:15. "upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall" — the day of the LORD upon the high towers.
• Zeph. 1:18. "Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath" — riches cannot deliver (defined above).
• James 5:1-3. "ye rich men, weep and howl... ye have heaped treasure together for the last days" — the hoarded riches a witness in the day of slaughter.
• Rev. 18:8. "her plagues come in one day... she shall be utterly burned with fire" — the merchant-city struck and burned in one day.
• Rev. 18:9-11, 15-19. kings and merchants "see the smoke of her burning, Standing afar off... for in one hour is thy judgment come" — burned, watched afar, riches "come to nought."
• Eze. 27:27-32. Tyre's "riches... merchandise... men of war... shall fall... in the day of thy ruin," mariners "cast up dust upon their heads... What city is like Tyrus" — the merchant-city's fall, the Old-Testament type of Revelation 18.
• TMR 42.3. Andrews: in Revelation 18 Babylon "is represented as the great center of commerce, and its destruction causes universal mourning among the merchants and sailors of the world" — the commerce-and-mourning signature isolated. (Andrews is cited for the signature; he wields it to prove Babylon no literal city but the church — the identification "Mystery, Babylon the Great — Revelation 17" also holds; the figure-transfer of the merchant-city marks onto one literal burning is this section's own reading.)
• Jer. 46:10. "a day of vengeance... the Lord GOD of hosts hath a sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates" — the slaughter-weapons from the north by the Euphrates (the eastern rod, defined above).
• Jer. 1:14. "Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land" — the quarter the invading rod comes from.
• Towers fall, riches fail, the merchant-city burns in one hour and is watched afar, the weapons come from the north by the Euphrates: the four standing marks of the day of slaughter, gathered in one event.

The EGW herald — New York's "fireproof" towers consumed:

• 9T 11.1. "Plagues and judgments are already falling... the alarms of war" — the day of slaughter already at the door.
• 9T 12.1. New York's buildings "warranted to be fireproof," reared "to glorify their owners," "The Lord was not in their thoughts" — the merchant-tower cluster, the proud lifted up.
• 9T 13.1. "supposedly fire-proof buildings... consumed as if made of pitch. The fire engines could do nothing... The firemen were unable" — the towers fall, the powers of man powerless.
• 9T 13.2. "No material... will preserve them from destruction when God's appointed time comes to send retribution on men for their disregard of His law" — the burning is judgment, not accident.
• EGW saw New York's "fireproof" towers consumed by a fire firemen could not stop — the herald cluster in vision.

September 11, 2001 fits the cluster — a recognized fulfillment, not a new date:

• Rev. 16:15. "Blessed is he that watcheth" — the marker belongs to watchfulness: the World Trade CENTER (commerce), its towers, New York, burned in an hour, watched worldwide, publicly attributed to an eastern force — the proven symbol-chain met in one event.
• Certainty belongs to the chain (day of slaughter = day of the LORD = Eze. 9 = the judgment of the living); the marker belongs to the watchman. The loud-cry time OPENED at the herald — no text dates it as the past woes are dated; it is recognized after it strikes.

C. The Great Controversy objection — answered as a both-questions block:

• GC 611.1. "The angel who unites in the proclamation of the third angel's message is to lighten the whole earth with his glory... the mighty movement under the last warning of the third angel" — the loud cry, foretold to exceed 1840-44.
• GC 606.2. "the message of the third angel will be proclaimed... with greatest power... The fearful results of enforcing the observances of the church by civil authority... all will be unmasked" — EGW ties the loud cry's swelling to the Sunday-law crisis.
• No contradiction: the third angel deals with BOTH questions. The herald (Eastern) OPENED the loud-cry time; the Sunday-law crisis (Western) MATURES it — and both converge on the same closing moment.
• Rev. 18:4. "Come out of her, my people... that ye receive not of her plagues" — the loud cry's burden the whole way: escape before the plagues fall.
• Eze. 9:6. "come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary" — the slaughter spares the sealed and begins at the house of God; the warning is to be sealed before the winds loose.
• TM 507.1. "It may be falling on hearts all around us, but we shall not discern or receive it" — the latter rain (fulness of doctrine) has been falling, undiscerned, since the herald; the loud cry has already opened, unrecognized by the unprepared.
• EW 279.1. "They had received the latter rain... The last great warning had sounded everywhere" — loud cry proclaimed and latter rain received, named together at the close of the third angel's message.
• The loud cry began at the herald and matures through the Sunday-law crisis; the watchman who is "living up to the light" discerns it now, while it falls on hearts all around.

DEFINITION — THE HERALD / WHEN THE LOUD CRY BEGAN = the loud cry began NOT at a newly-set prophetic date (time closed at 1844: Rev. 10:6; LDE 36.2) but at a herald recognized after it struck by the watchman (Rev. 16:15) — the day-of-slaughter cluster fulfilled in one event: towers fall, riches fail, the merchant-city burned in one hour and watched afar, the weapons from the north by the Euphrates (Isa. 30:25; Zeph. 1:18; Rev. 18:8-19; Jer. 46:10), matching EGW's vision of New York's "fireproof" towers consumed (9T 11-13) — by the study's figure-transfer thesis, September 11, 2001. Opened at the herald (Eastern question), it MATURES through the Sunday-law crisis (GC 606.2; 611.1); the latter rain has been falling undiscerned ever since (TM 507.1).

Symbols defined here:

• riches = trust in wealth that cannot deliver in the day of wrath (Prov. 11:4; Zeph. 1:18).

Symbols carried: howl, tower, north, whirlwind ("The Day of the LORD"); day of slaughter ("The Day of Slaughter"); four winds ("The Four Winds, the Whirlwind, the Winds"); latter rain ("The Fourth Angel's Message").

¶24. The Seventh Trumpet

The alarm now fulfilled as the stroke: the trumpet that for six soundings only warned of war becomes the war itself — the third woe, under which fall the seven last plagues and Armageddon.

The second woe past, the third cometh quickly — Rev. 11:14:

• Rev. 11:14. "The second woe is past; [and], behold, the third woe cometh quickly" — the sixth trumpet (the Ottoman second woe, the eastern question) is closing; the seventh stands next in order.
  • trumpet — defined in "What Is a Trumpet?"
  • woe — defined in "The Six Trumpets."

The king of the north comes to his end — Dan. 11:44-45:

• Dan. 11:44. "Tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy" — the Ottoman of the sixth trumpet, troubled at his last.
• Dan. 11:45. He plants "the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him" — his final stand at Jerusalem, then his fall.
  • the glorious holy mountain = Jerusalem; between the seas = the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean (DAR 282.1) — Palestine, a Turkish province, his temporary seat.
• DAR 281.1. Smith: Clarke (1825) held this "yet unfulfilled" — Persia (east) and Russia (north) embarrass the Ottoman.
• DAR 281.2. Smith: the Crimean war (1853-56) fit it — Persia east, Russia north instigated it; "the Sick Man of the East" went forth with "great fury."
• DAR 282.2. Smith: "come to his end, and none shall help him" = the great powers that propped Turkey since 1840 withdraw support; she comes to the ground.

Michael stands up — Dan. 12:1 — the close of probation:

• Dan. 12:1. "And at that time shall Michael stand up... and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was... thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book" — at the king of the north's end, Michael rises.
  • stand up = to take the kingdom, to reign (Dan. 11:2-3, the kings who "stand up" to reign; Dan. 7:14, dominion given that all should serve Him) — Michael takes the kingdom.
• DAR 293.2. Smith: "At that time" = the time of Dan 11:45 — the Turk's final stand at Jerusalem, then his end; THEN Michael stands.
• DAR 295.1. Smith: "stand up" = "to take the kingdom, to reign" — Michael "shall commence his reign."
• DAR 295.3. Smith: "His priestly robes are laid aside for royal vesture. The work of mercy is done, and the probation of our race is ended... All cases are decided."
• GC 490.2. White: "Probation is ended a short time before the appearing of the Lord," sealed by Rev. 22:11.
• EW 280.2. White: as Jesus leaves the most holy place the restraint is removed — "It was impossible for the plagues to be poured out while Jesus officiated... Every case was decided, every jewel numbered."
• Rev. 22:11. "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still... he that is holy, let him be holy still" — probation's irrevocable close, every case fixed.

The seventh angel sounds — Rev. 11:15-18:

• Rev. 10:6. The angel swears "that there should be time no longer" — after 1844 no prophetic time remains to herald the sound; recognition, not date-setting.
• Rev. 10:7. "In the days of the voice of the seventh angel... the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets" — the seventh sounding consummates all the prophets foretold.
• Rev. 11:15. "The seventh angel sounded... The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ" — kingdom-transfer from earthly to heavenly rule = Michael taking the kingdom (cf. Dan. 12:1).
• DAR 295.3. Smith: at Michael's standing "the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom 'of our Lord and of his Christ'" — the standing up and the trumpet's kingdom-transfer are one act.
• Rev. 11:18. "the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come... that thou shouldest... destroy them which destroy the earth" — the wrath under the seventh trumpet: judgment, reward, and destruction in one sounding.
  • wrath = the executing judgment poured without mercy mingled, the seven last plagues (Rev. 15:1, "in them is filled up the wrath of God").
• DAR 507.4. Smith: the seventh trumpet's internal order — kingdom-transfer, then judgment on the nations, then "the close of the priesthood of Christ" in the holy of holies, opened at the 2300 days' end when the seventh angel "commenced to sound"; probation shuts WITHIN the trumpet.
• DAR 507.1. Smith: "the seventh trumpet reaches over to the end of the one thousand years" — it spans from the mystery finished to the final destruction of the wicked.

The temple opened — Rev. 11:19:

• Rev. 11:19. "the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail" — the most holy place opened, and the storm-signature of the day of the LORD.

The seven last plagues poured — after probation — Rev. 15-16:

• Rev. 15:1. "seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God" — the wrath of Rev. 11:18 named.
• Rev. 16:1. "Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth" — the vials poured AFTER probation closes.
• EW 280.2. White: as Jesus steps from the most holy place the restraint is removed — "It was impossible for the plagues to be poured out while Jesus officiated."
• Rev. 16:12. Sixth vial — Euphrates dried, "the way of the kings of the east" — the eastern question consummated; the sixth vial's Euphrates answers the sixth trumpet's (cf. Rev. 9:14).
• Rev. 16:16. "gathered them together into a place called... Armageddon" — the nations mustered for the final war.
• Rev. 16:17-19. Seventh vial — "It is done... great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath" — the cup drained, Babylon remembered, the stroke complete.

Trumpets vs. vials — the same blows, now without mixture:

• Rev. 14:10. "the wine of the wrath of God... poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation" — the vials' wine is unmixed because probation has closed.
• Rev. 11:19 ‖ Rev. 16:18. Both seventh angel: "lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake" ‖ "voices, and thunders, and lightnings... a great earthquake" — the seventh trumpet and seventh vial are one event.

The Jericho pattern — seven within the seventh — Josh. 6:

• Josh. 6:3-5. Seven priests, seven trumpets; six days single circuits, but the seventh day seven circuits; long blast, all shout, "the wall of the city shall fall down flat" — a seven held within the seventh.
• Josh. 6:15-16. Seventh day, seven circuits; at the seventh, "Shout; for the LORD hath given you the city" — the seventh circuit is the moment of conquest.
• Josh. 6:20. Trumpet, shout, "the wall fell down flat" — the city taken.
• PP 491.1. White: the seventh circuit's "blast that shook the very earth" topples the walls and "massive towers."
• MWV2 115.3. Miller: "the sounding of trumpets is always used to denote the downfall" of empires; "at the fall of Jericho, the trumpet... cast down her walls."
• SSTR 2.1. J. White: the empire fell by parts under the trumpets, but "under the seventh trumpet great Babylon entire will sink to rise no more at all."
• Lev. 26:21. "I will bring seven times more plagues upon you" — the covenant rod is sevenfold on the unrepentant.
• Lev. 26:28. "I, even I, will chastise you seven times" — the same sevenfold rod in fury; so the seventh trumpet rightly contains the seven last plagues.
• Isa. 30:25. "the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall" — Jericho's antitype, the high and proud felled in the day of the LORD.
• Rev. 18:2. "Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen" — the loud cry's announcement, the shout before the wall.
• Rev. 18:4. "Come out of her, my people... that ye receive not of her plagues" — God's people called out before the wall falls.

DEFINITION — THE SEVENTH TRUMPET / THIRD WOE = the last and greatest war-alarm fulfilled as the executing stroke "without mixture" (Rev. 11:14-19; 14:10) — the third woe, under which fall the seven last plagues and Armageddon. It opens at the king of the north's end (Dan. 11:44-45; DAR 282.2) and Michael's standing up — the close of probation, "all cases are decided" (Dan. 12:1; DAR 295.3; GC 490.2; Rev. 22:11); the kingdoms become Christ's, the temple opens, and the vials pour after the mercy-seat is left (Rev. 11:15-19; 15:1; 16:1-19). By the Jericho pattern it is a seven within the seventh — the sevenfold covenant-rod at whose shout the wall of Babylon falls flat (Lev. 26:21, 28; Josh. 6:20; SSTR 2.1).

Symbols defined here:

• the glorious holy mountain / between the seas = Jerusalem, set between the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean (Dan. 11:45; DAR 282.1).
• stand up = to take the kingdom, to reign (Dan. 11:2-3; 7:14; DAR 295.1).
• wrath = the executing judgment poured without mercy mingled — the seven last plagues (Rev. 15:1; 14:10).

Symbols carried: trumpet ("What Is a Trumpet?"); woe ("The Six Trumpets").

¶25. The Seven Last Plagues

The third angel threatens the cup; let the Bible say what is in it. The cup is the sword — filled up unmixed, it is the seven last plagues, and it falls vial by vial on the very targets the trumpets struck.

The cup is the sword — Jer. 25:15-17, 27:

• Jer. 25:15. "Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations... to drink it" — the wine of God's wrath is a cup He serves to the nations.
  • cup / wine of wrath — defined in "The Day of the LORD"; the next verse self-defines it.
• Jer. 25:16. "they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them" — the figure self-defines: to drink the cup is to take the sword.
  • sword — defined in "The Day of the LORD."
• Jer. 25:27. "Drink ye, and be drunken... and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you" — the cup is war, twice named.

Isaiah names the contents and shows the cup is transferable — Isa. 51:17-23:

• Isa. 51:17. Jerusalem "hast drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury" — the cup is covenant history, not mystery; God's own people drank it first.
• Isa. 51:19. The inventory of the cup: "desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sword" — the war-judgment quartet is what is in the cup.
• Isa. 51:22-23. The cup is "taken out of thine hand" and "put... into the hand of them that afflict thee" — the cup transfers from the afflicted to the afflicter (the seed of Rev. 18:6).
• Jer. 51:7. "Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD'S hand, that made all the earth drunken" — the conquering empire is itself the cup by which the nations drink the fury.
  • golden cup = the conquering rod in the LORD's hand, by which others drink (Jer. 51:7) — the instrument that serves the wine.
• Hab. 2:16. "the cup of the LORD'S right hand shall be turned unto thee" — the server must drink in turn; the cup comes back on Babylon (root of Rev. 16:19; 18:6).

The same wrath trodden out — the winepress — Isa. 63; Rev. 19:

• Isa. 63:3-4. "I have trodden the winepress... for the day of vengeance is in mine heart" — the wrath of the cup is trodden out as a winepress on "the day of vengeance."
  • winepress — defined in "The Day of the LORD."
• Rev. 19:15. "out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword... and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God" — sword and winepress fused in one verse at the Coming; Revelation's own concordance of Jeremiah and Isaiah.

Filled up unmixed = the seven last plagues — Rev. 14:10; 15:1:

• Rev. 8:7. The trumpet struck "the third part" — a third, not the whole; warning mingled with mercy.
  • the third part = one division of the empire under the scourge, not the whole (Rev. 8:7-12; 9:15, 18) — the trumpets fell on a third only.
• Rev. 9:18. "By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone" — again a third only; the trumpets withhold the full stroke.
• Ps. 75:8. The historical cup is "full of mixture" — through the ages judgment is poured out mingled with mercy, by measure.
• Rev. 14:10. The third angel's cup is "poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation" — the same wine, now with mercy withdrawn.
• Rev. 15:1. Where the wrath is "filled up": "seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God" — the Bible's own answer to "what is the wine?"
• TMR 115.1. Andrews: the next chapter explains the wine — "the wine of the wrath of God is the seven last plagues."
• TMR 116.1. Andrews: "without mixture" = "wrath without mercy," impossible "while our great High Priest ministers in the heavenly Sanctuary" — so the plagues fall only after probation closes.
• DAR 642.3. Smith concurs: the plagues are "the wine of God's wrath without mixture, threatened by the third angel," locatable only "when probation shall have closed."
• EW 280.2. As Jesus leaves the most holy place the restraint is removed — "It was impossible for the plagues to be poured out while Jesus officiated in the sanctuary... Every case was decided, every jewel numbered."

The plagues are not new judgments — they fall on the trumpets' own targets, in order — Rev. 16:

• Rev. 16:1. "pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth" — the vials poured after probation closes.
• Rev. 16:2 ‖ Rev. 8:7. 1st vial / 1st trumpet — the earth; the sore falls "upon the men which had the mark of the beast" — the first plague hits the very mark-receivers the third angel threatens.
• TMR 115.2. Andrews: the first plague is "inflicted on the very class that the third angel threatens" (Rev 14:9-10 ‖ 16:1-2) — proving the wrath without mixture and the seven plagues are one.
• Rev. 16:3 ‖ Rev. 8:8. 2nd vial / 2nd trumpet — the sea, become blood.
• Rev. 16:4 ‖ Rev. 8:10. 3rd vial / 3rd trumpet — the rivers and fountains of waters.
• Rev. 16:8 ‖ Rev. 8:12. 4th vial / 4th trumpet — the sun.
• Rev. 16:10 ‖ Rev. 9:2. 5th vial / 5th trumpet — darkness on the beast's seat / the pit; the match is in effect, not target.
• Rev. 16:9, 11. Men "blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues" and "repented not" — the vials are named "plagues" and meet the same impenitence as the sixth trumpet (Rev. 9:20).

The sixth vial dries the river the sixth trumpet loosed — the eastern question consummated — Rev. 16:12:

• Rev. 16:12 ‖ Rev. 9:14. 6th vial / 6th trumpet — the great river Euphrates; the vial dries the very river in which the trumpet loosed "the four angels," "that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared."
  • rivers / the Euphrates — Euphrates defined in "The Day of the LORD."
• SSP 284.1. Haskell: "the Turkish power designated as the River Euphrates," the divider of East and West, "gives way"; and Armageddon is Megiddo, "the place of the troops" — the old battle-plain (Deborah, Josiah) naming the last contest of the nations.
• DAR 647.1. Smith: the Euphrates is "a symbol of the nation occupying the territory," not the literal stream — dried up to prepare the way of the kings of the East, the eastern question at its climax.
• Rev. 16:14. "the spirits of devils... go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty" — all nations mustered; the day of the LORD is global.
  • all nations = the scope-signature of the one complete, universal fulfillment — the day of the LORD (Isa. 34:2; Jer. 25:31-33).
• Isa. 34:2. "the indignation of the LORD is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies... he hath delivered them to the slaughter" — the prophets' day of the LORD is this same all-nations slaughter.
• Rev. 16:16. "he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon" — the final war, not a private spiritual contest.

"It is done" — the cup drained, Babylon served her own cup double — Rev. 16:17-19:

• Rev. 16:17. Seventh vial: "there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven... saying, It is done" — the stroke complete.
• Rev. 16:19. "great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath" — the cup of Rev. 14:10 finally drained, Hab. 2:16 fulfilled.
• Rev. 18:6. "in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double" — the Isa. 51:23 / Jer. 51:7 transfer-principle executed; the cup turned back on the server.

Two cups — never conflate them:

• Rev. 14:8. Babylon's wine is doctrine: she "made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication" — false teaching that intoxicates.
• TMR 51.3. Andrews: her wine is "false doctrine" — her unlawful union with the kings of the earth corrupting Bible truth to intoxicate the nations.
• Rev. 16:19. God's wine is the sword: "the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath" — the literal plague-judgment returned into her own cup. One is the deceit; the other is the stroke.

DEFINITION — SEVEN LAST PLAGUES = the wine of God's wrath "filled up" and poured "without mixture" — the same sword-cup God has served the nations through history, drained to the dregs after probation closes (Jer. 25:15-16, 27; Rev. 14:10; 15:1; TMR 116.1; EW 280.2). Not new judgments: the trumpets' own blows in full, vial by vial on the trumpets' own targets in order (Rev. 16:2-12 ‖ Rev. 8:7-9:2), the sixth drying the very river the sixth trumpet loosed for "the kings of the east" (Rev. 16:12 ‖ 9:14; DAR 647.1); Armageddon gathers all nations, and Babylon drinks her own cup double (Rev. 16:14-19; 18:6; Isa. 34:2).

Symbols defined here:

• golden cup = the conquering rod in the LORD's hand, by which others drink (Jer. 51:7).
• the third part = one division of the empire under the scourge, not the whole (Rev. 8:7-12; 9:15, 18).
• all nations = the scope-signature of the one universal fulfillment, the day of the LORD (Isa. 34:2; Jer. 25:31-33).

Symbols carried: cup / wine of wrath, sword, winepress, the Euphrates ("The Day of the LORD").

¶26. The Woman and the Dragon — Revelation 12

The curtain pulls back: behind every persecution the seals and trumpets traced stands one enemy, and against him one faithful woman — the church across both Testaments, down to her last remnant.

The woman clothed with the sun — Rev. 12:1-2:

• Rev. 12:1. "a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars" — the true church, robed in gospel glory, resting on the typical system, crowned with the apostolic foundation.
  • woman = the church, God's covenant people (Jer. 6:2, "I have likened the daughter of Zion to a comely and delicate woman"; 2 Cor. 11:2, "I have espoused you... as a chaste virgin to Christ"; Isa. 54:5, "thy Maker is thine husband") — the pure woman is the faithful church, the corrupt woman the apostate one (Eze. 23:2-4; the harlot defined in "Mystery, Babylon the Great — Revelation 17").
  • clothed with the sun = the light and glory of the gospel, Christ's righteousness upon her (Mal. 4:2, "the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings"; Rev. 19:8, "the fine linen is the righteousness of saints").
  • moon under her feet = the former dispensation, the type and shadow that shone by reflected light, now beneath her, fulfilled and superseded (the typical sacrifices' substance is Christ).
  • crown of twelve stars = the twelve apostles, the church's foundation (Rev. 21:14, "the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb").
• DAR 509.3. Smith: "A woman, the true church... a pure woman, as in this instance, would represent the true church."
• DAR 509.4-509.6. Smith: the sun = "the light and glory of the gospel dispensation"; the moon = the Mosaic dispensation shining "with a borrowed light derived from the sun"; the crown of twelve stars = "the twelve apostles."
• Rev. 12:2. "she being with child cried, travailing in birth" — the long OT waiting for the promised Seed, Eden's first prophecy on its way to fulfillment (Gen. 3:15, "I will put enmity... between thy seed and her seed").
• DAR 510.1. Smith: verses 1-2 cover "a period of time commencing just previous to the opening of the present dispensation, when the church was earnestly longing for... the advent of the Messiah."

The great red dragon — Rev. 12:3-4:

• Rev. 12:3. "a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads" — the same beast-imagery of Daniel's fourth kingdom (defined in "The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7"), red with the blood of the saints, here the political instrument the enemy wields.
  • dragon = Satan, self-interpreted — quote verbatim: "that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan" (Rev. 12:9; repeated Rev. 20:2) — working through pagan Rome, the empire whose standard was a red dragon.
• DAR 509.7. Smith: "A great red dragon, pagan Rome" — the image is the empire; the identity (v. 9) is Satan behind it.
• DAR 513.3. Smith: the Devil-and-Satan of verse 9 "is not the same as the dragon of verses 3 and 4"; the seven heads, ten horns, and seven crowns are "very appropriate as applied to pagan Rome" — image and identity, double-framed.
• Rev. 12:4. "the dragon stood before the woman... for to devour her child as soon as it was born" — Herod's slaughter at Bethlehem, the most visible stroke of a pursuit running from Eden (Mt. 2:16, Herod "slew all the children that were in Bethlehem").
• DAR 511.3. Smith: Herod "sent forth and slew all the children in Bethlehem... But who was Herod? — A Roman governor"; Rome was the responsible power, the dragon at the manger.

The man child caught up — Rev. 12:5:

• Rev. 12:5. "she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne" — Christ, His whole earthly mission compressed into one line: born, victorious, ascended.
  • man child = Christ, self-evidenced by the receipt quoted — "rule all nations with a rod of iron" is the messianic decree (Ps. 2:7-9, "Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron"; applied to Christ at His return, Rev. 19:15, "he shall rule them with a rod of iron"); only He was "caught up unto God, and to his throne" (Rev. 3:21, "am set down with my Father in his throne").
• DAR 511.1. Smith: the man child "is applicable to only one being... that is our Lord Jesus Christ. No other one has been caught up to God and his throne."

War in heaven — Rev. 12:7-9:

• Rev. 12:7-8. "there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon... And prevailed not" — the dragon, ever the inferior party, loses his standing; on Michael's identity as the pre-incarnate Christ see "Michael Stands Up — Daniel 12."
• DAR 513.2. Smith: this war carries us "to the commencement of Christ's ministry here upon earth... To prove that Michael is Christ, see Jude 9; 1 Thessalonians 4:16."
• Rev. 12:9. "the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world" — the most explicit identification in Scripture: serpent of Eden, devil of the Gospels, accuser, dragon of Revelation, one being named in one verse (cf. Jude 9, "Michael the archangel... contending with the devil").
• DAR 514.4. Smith: the casting-out is "this side of the Christian era," at the first advent — not the pre-creation fall — for "as soon as the Devil saw that he was cast out, he turned his wrath against the woman."

The song of victory — Rev. 12:10-12:

• Rev. 12:10. "the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night" — the prosecutor's case is broken; salvation, strength, and the kingdom are sung as sure.
• Rev. 12:11. "they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death" — the three weapons by which every faithful generation, and the remnant, overcomes the dragon.
• DAR 516.1. Smith: the song "was sung prospectively. These things were made sure. The great victory had been won by Christ which put the question of their establishment forever at rest."
• Rev. 12:12. "Woe to the inhabiters of the earth... for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time" — the dragon's earth-rage escalates because his defeat is certain and his window is closing.

The woman in the wilderness — Rev. 12:6, 13-14:

• Rev. 12:6. "the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God... a thousand two hundred and threescore days" — the true church hidden during the medieval persecution; by the year-day rule (defined in "The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7"), 1260 years, A.D. 538-1798.
  • wilderness = a place of God-prepared preservation, not abandonment — concealment from the foe while God nourishes His own.
• DAR 517.1. Smith: "in the wilderness... must denote a state of seclusion from the public gaze, and of concealment from her foes... the caves and the hidden recesses of the valleys of the Piedmont may be taken as representative places, where the truth of the gospel was sacredly cherished."
• Rev. 12:13. "he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child" — failing to devour the Child, the dragon turns on the church.
• Rev. 12:14. "to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle... for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent" — the same 1260 stated again in Daniel's formula, the same A.D. 538-1798 (Dan. 7:25, "until a time and times and the dividing of time").
  • two wings of a great eagle = God's swift deliverance, the same He gave Israel (Ex. 19:4, "I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself").
• DAR 517.2. Smith: the eagle's wings "signify the haste with which the true church was obliged to provide for her own safety... The like figure is used to describe God's dealings with ancient Israel."
• DAR 517.3. Smith: "a time and times and half a time," the phrase of Daniel 7:25, equals verse 6's "thousand two hundred and threescore days" — "this, being symbolic, signifies 1260 literal years."

The flood and the earth's help — Rev. 12:15-16:

• Rev. 12:15. "the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman" — the papacy's coordinated flood of persecution loosed to sweep the church away.
• Rev. 12:16. "the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood" — Protestant soil, and beyond it the New World's religious-liberty space (the earth-beast's land defined in "The Two Beasts — Revelation 13"), absorbed the flood where Europe's church-state writ could not run.
• DAR 518.2. Smith: "The earth helped the woman... The Reformation of the sixteenth century began its work... soon there was enough Protestant soil found in Switzerland, Germany, Holland, England, Norway, and Sweden, to swallow up the flood of papal fury."

The remnant of her seed — Rev. 12:17:

• Rev. 12:17. "the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ" — having failed at the Child and the woman, the dragon turns on her last children, marked by two things he cannot counterfeit.
  • remnant = the last generation of the faithful, after the wilderness period closes (after 1798), bearing two identifying marks.
  • commandments of God = all ten, including the fourth that Christendom set aside (Rev. 14:12, "they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus").
  • testimony of Jesus = the prophetic gift, self-interpreted — quote verbatim: "the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy" (Rev. 19:10; cf. Rev. 22:9, "thy brethren the prophets").
• DAR 516.2. Smith: from verse 9 to 17 "Satan, personally, is the chief agent," though "working through earthly powers" — the dragon's war on the remnant is his last, waged through the beasts of Revelation 13.

DEFINITION — THE WOMAN = the true church, God's one covenant people across both Testaments — clothed with the gospel sun, resting on the moon of the typical system, crowned with the twelve apostles (Rev. 12:1; Jer. 6:2; 2 Cor. 11:2; Isa. 54:5; Rev. 19:8; Rev. 21:14; DAR 509.3-509.6). The pure woman is faithful; the corrupt woman is apostate Babylon (Eze. 23:2-4; defined in "Mystery, Babylon the Great — Revelation 17").

DEFINITION — THE REMNANT = the last generation of the woman's seed after the 1260 years close — those who "keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ" (Rev. 12:17). Two marks the dragon makes war against: obedience to all God's commandments, including the fourth (Rev. 14:12), and the testimony of Jesus, defined verbatim as "the spirit of prophecy" (Rev. 19:10).

Symbols defined here:

• woman = the true church across both Testaments (Jer. 6:2; 2 Cor. 11:2; Isa. 54:5; DAR 509.3).
• clothed with the sun = gospel glory, Christ's righteousness (Mal. 4:2; Rev. 19:8).
• moon under her feet = the typical/Mosaic system, reflected light now superseded (DAR 509.5).
• crown of twelve stars = the twelve apostles, the church's foundation (Rev. 21:14; DAR 509.6).
• dragon = Satan, working through pagan Rome (Rev. 12:9; Rev. 20:2; DAR 509.7; DAR 513.3).
• man child = Christ, caught up to the throne (Ps. 2:7-9; Rev. 19:15; Rev. 3:21; DAR 511.1).
• wilderness = God-prepared preservation, not abandonment (DAR 517.1).
• two wings of a great eagle = God's swift deliverance (Ex. 19:4; DAR 517.2).
• remnant = the last faithful generation, two-marked (Rev. 12:17; Rev. 14:12; Rev. 19:10).

¶27. The Two Beasts — Revelation 13

Rev. 12 named the dragon; Rev. 13 shows the two beasts he raises to wage his last war on the woman's seed — and it is the chapter the third angel's warning names.

The sea beast rises — Rev. 13:1-2:

• Rev. 13:1. "saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy" — a kingdom rises out of the crowded peoples, crowned over the divided fragments of Rome.
  • beast — defined in "The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7."
  • sea / waters — defined in "The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7."
• Rev. 13:2. "like unto a leopard... feet... of a bear... mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority" — the composite heir of all Daniel's beasts (leopard-bear-lion, Dan. 7:4-6), to whom Rome hands its capital.
  • dragon — defined in "The Woman and the Dragon — Revelation 12."
• DAR 525.3. Smith: the wounded head is the papal head — the dragon is "Rome only in its pagan form," the leopard beast "Rome only in its professedly Christian form."
• DAR 523.2. Smith: "the dragon gives his seat, his power, and great authority" — "by what power was pagan Rome succeeded? We all know that it was by papal Rome," the seat passing in Rome itself.

The deadly wound and the healing — Rev. 13:3:

• Rev. 13:3. "one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast" — a governmental phase is struck dead, then revives, and the world follows in awe.
• DAR 525.3. Smith: "This wounding is the same as the going into captivity... when the pope was taken prisoner by Berthier, the French general, and the papal government was for a time abolished, in 1798."

Worship, blasphemy, and the forty and two months — Rev. 13:4-8:

• Rev. 13:4. "they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast?" — the beast usurps the very question that is Michael's own name (mi-ka-el, "Who is like God?"; the dragon's old boast, Isa. 14:14, "I will be like the most High").
• Rev. 13:5. "power was given unto him to continue forty and two months" — forty-two months of thirty days = 1260 days = 1260 years (year-day, Num. 14:34; Eze. 4:6), A.D. 538-1798, the little horn's "time and times and the dividing of time" (Dan. 7:25; chain defined in "Michael Stands Up — Daniel 12").
• Rev. 13:6. "he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle" — the system claims the prerogatives of God Himself.
  • blasphemy = a man claiming what belongs to God alone — to forgive sins (Mark 2:7, "who can forgive sins but God only?") and to be God (John 10:33, "thou, being a man, makest thyself God"; 2 Thess. 2:4, "shewing himself that he is God").
• DAR 526.1. Smith: he blasphemes God's name by the "presumptuous titles assumed by the popes."
• DAR 526.2. Smith: he blasphemes the tabernacle "by turning the attention of his subjects to his own throne and palace instead of to the tabernacle of God," and them that dwell in heaven "by assuming to exercise the power of forgiving sins."
• Rev. 13:7. "to make war with the saints, and to overcome them" — the very work charged to the little horn (Dan. 7:25, "wear out the saints of the most High").
• Rev. 13:8. "all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb" — none escape but those written in the Lamb's book.

The patience of the saints — Rev. 13:10:

• Rev. 13:10. "He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints" — the recompense law; the captor is taken captive (1798 down-payment; full execution at Rev. 19:20, "the beast was taken").

The earth beast rises — Rev. 13:11:

• Rev. 13:11. "another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon" — where the sea is peoples, the earth is the unpeopled place: a new power, lamb-mild in look, dragon in voice.
  • earth (vs. sea) = a new and previously unoccupied territory — the contrast the chapter itself draws (DAR 534.2).
• SSP 240.1. Haskell: the forming already underway in 1905 — "America has already repudiated her first principles of liberty," the professed Protestant nation "imitating the papal power of Rome, thus forming the image to the beast" (the completion is future, GC 445.1; the forming is recognized as it proceeds, Rev. 16:15).
• DAR 534.2. Smith: since the sea is peoples (Rev. 17:15), "the earth would suggest, by contrast, a new and previously unoccupied territory."
• DAR 528.1. Smith: "it does apply to Protestant America, or the government of the United States" — the only Protestant nation answering the symbol.
• DAR 537.2. Smith: the lamb's two horns = "youthfulness" and "innocence and gentleness" — a land founded to be "a church without a pope, and a state without a king," civil and religious liberty.
• DAR 538.2. Smith: the republican form is shown "by the absence of crowns both upon its head and its horns" — power "lodged in the hands of the people."
• TBUS 19.1. Loughborough: the 1798 timing-test — the United States, "the only organized government in 1798 aside from the first beast" and "existing itself as an independent government," is "the very territory viewed by the prophet" for the two-horned beast's work.
• GC 442.1. White: the "speaking" of the nation "is the action of its legislative and judicial authorities" — when it speaks "as a dragon" it gives the lie to its own liberal professions by intolerance and persecution.

The image to the beast — Rev. 13:12-15:

• Rev. 13:12. "causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed" — the earth beast's mission is the first beast's restoration.
• Rev. 13:13. "he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men" — a counterfeit of Elijah's sign, the deception's instrument.
• Rev. 13:14. "that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live" — the lamb-like power bids the people set up a likeness of the first beast.
  • image to the beast = an ecclesiastical body clothed with civil power — what the papacy was, reproduced: a church controlling the state to enforce its dogmas by law (DAR 546.3; GC 443.2; GC 445.1).
• DAR 546.3. Smith: the papacy was "a church clothed with civil power"; its image is "another ecclesiastical establishment clothed with similar power... to enforce their dogmas under the pains and penalties of the civil law."
• GC 443.2. White: "the religious power must so control the civil government that the authority of the state will also be employed by the church to accomplish her own ends."
• GC 445.1. White: when the leading churches "influence the state to enforce their decrees... then Protestant America will have formed an image of the Roman hierarchy."
• Rev. 13:15. "power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed" — the church-state alliance is animated, and a death decree issued against dissent.

The mark in the right hand or forehead — Rev. 13:16-17:

• Rev. 13:16. "causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads" — every class is pressed, none exempt, in the seat of belief or of mere compliance.
  • mark of the beast = the sea-beast's claimed badge of authority — the Sunday institution, the counterfeit sabbath, set over against the seal of God, the true Sabbath (defined in "The Sealing Time"); the papacy's own claim to have changed the day (DAR 557.2; GC 449.1; GC 578.3).
  • forehead vs. hand = conviction vs. compliance — the forehead the seat of reasoned assent (Deut. 6:8, "frontlets between thine eyes"), the hand the seat of action; the mark takes both, where the seal of God is set in the forehead only (Rev. 7:3).
• DAR 557.2. Smith: Rome "claim[s] it as a token, or mark, of the authority of that church; the 'very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday' being set forth as proof of its power."
• GC 449.1. White: when Sunday-keeping is enforced by law against the light of the true Sabbath, men "accept the sign of allegiance to Rome — 'the mark of the beast.'"
• GC 578.3. White: "this prophecy will be fulfilled when the United States shall enforce Sunday observance, which Rome claims as the special acknowledgment of her supremacy."
• TMR 108.3. Andrews: the mark "in the forehead or hand... signifies not a literal mark, but a public profession, or act, that all may see or know."
• Rev. 13:17. "that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast" — the economic siege, the first stage of pressure before the death decree (the slaughter that follows is defined in "The Day of Slaughter").
• Rev. 14:12. "Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus" — over against the marked stands the sealed, commandment-keeping remnant (warning defined in "The Third Angel's Message"; Rev. 14:9-10).

The number of the beast — Rev. 13:18:

• Rev. 13:18. "count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six" — a name a man bears, to be reckoned, not guessed.
• DAR 580.1. Smith: the pope's own title Vicarius Filii Dei, "Vicegerent of the Son of God," sums in Latin numerals to "just 666."

DEFINITION — THE TWO BEASTS = the dragon's two instruments for his end-time war on the woman's seed (Rev. 12:17):

• sea beast = papal Rome — composite heir of all Daniel's beasts, given the dragon's seat (Rev. 13:1-2; DAR 523.2), blaspheming and warring on the saints forty-two months = 1260 years, A.D. 538-1798 (Rev. 13:5-7; Dan. 7:25), wounded to death in 1798 and now healing (Rev. 13:3; DAR 525.3).
• earth beast = the United States — risen from unpeopled territory, two crownless lamb-like horns = civil and religious liberty (Rev. 13:11; DAR 528.1; 534.2; 537.2; 538.2), yet speaking as a dragon and bidding men make an image to the beast: a church clothed with civil power (Rev. 13:12-15; GC 442.1; 443.2; 445.1).

DEFINITION — THE MARK OF THE BEAST = the enforced Sunday institution — Rome's claimed token of authority, the "very act of changing the Sabbath" its proof (DAR 557.2) — the counterfeit of the seal of God, the true Sabbath (defined in "The Sealing Time"); no literal brand but "a public profession, or act" (TMR 108.3), received in forehead (conviction) or hand (compliance) when Sunday-keeping is enforced by law against known light (GC 449.1; 578.3). Its first stage is economic, its end the death decree (Rev. 13:15-17); 666 = the number of a man, read by the pioneers as Vicarius Filii Dei (Rev. 13:18; DAR 580.1).

Symbols defined here:

• mark of the beast = the enforced Sunday institution, the counterfeit sabbath, badge of Rome's claimed authority (DAR 557.2; GC 449.1; 578.3; Rev. 13:16-17).
• image to the beast = a church clothed with civil power, enforcing its dogmas by law (Rev. 13:14; DAR 546.3; GC 443.2; 445.1).
• earth (vs. the sea = peoples) = new, previously unoccupied territory — the New World (Rev. 13:11; DAR 534.2).
• blasphemy = a man claiming what belongs to God alone (Mark 2:7; John 10:33; 2 Thess. 2:4).

Symbols carried: beast, sea / waters ("The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7"); dragon ("The Woman and the Dragon — Revelation 12").

¶28. The Three Angels — Revelation 14

Revelation 13 ended in a coerced mark, an animated image, and the number of a man; Revelation 14 answers it with a sealed company, the everlasting gospel, and the harvest — the remnant's message in Revelation's own words.

The sealed company on mount Sion — Rev. 14:1:

• Rev. 14:1. "a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads" — the sealed company of Rev. 7 now standing, after the conflict, on the holy hill (defined in "The Sealing Time").
  • mount Sion = the heavenly Zion, the city of the living God (Heb. 12:22, "ye are come unto mount Sion... the heavenly Jerusalem") — not earthly Jerusalem.
  • The 144,000, the Father's name in the forehead, and the seal = the Sabbath are defined in "The Sealing Time" — Rev. 14:1's forehead-name is the exact opposite of Rev. 13's forehead-or-hand mark (Rev. 7:4; Rev. 22:4, "his name shall be in their foreheads").

The firstfruits without guile — Rev. 14:4-5:

• Rev. 14:4. "being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb" — the dedicated first portion of the great harvest, gathered before the rest is reaped (Exo. 23:19; Lev. 23:10).
  • firstfruits = the first sheaf brought to God before the whole harvest is gathered (Exo. 23:19; Lev. 23:10-11) — the great multitude of Rev. 7:9 follows.
• Rev. 14:5. "in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God" — the cleansing of the sanctuary finished in a consenting people, blameless under the dragon's full pressure.

The everlasting gospel — the frame of all three — Rev. 14:6:

• Rev. 14:6. "another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people" — the one eternal gospel, freshly proclaimed for the final hour, going everywhere the dragon reached.
• TMR 22.1. Andrews: the three supper-calls of Luke 14:16-24 are "the same as the three messages of Revelation 14:6-12" — "not the general work of the gospel, but special warnings" given as the great work of our High Priest is closing up.
• GC 311.3. White: Rev. 14 is "a threefold message... immediately followed by the coming of the Son of man to reap 'the harvest of the earth.'"

First angel — the hour of his judgment — Rev. 14:7:

• Rev. 14:7. "Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come" — the judgment-hour message, announcing the courtroom that opened at the close of the 2300 days in 1844 (defined in "The Seventy Weeks — Daniel 9" and "The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7").
• GC 355.1. White: the first angel's message foretells "a great religious awakening under the proclamation of Christ's soon coming" — the advent movement.
• GC 368.1. White: "To William Miller and his colaborers it was given to preach the warning in America. This country became the center of the great advent movement" — the first angel's "most direct fulfillment."
• GC 424.1. White: the first angel's "hour of His judgment is come" pointed to "the investigative judgment, and not to the coming of Christ" — "The mistake had not been in the reckoning of the prophetic periods, but in the event to take place at the end of the 2300 days."
• DAR 490.1. Smith: the angel of Rev. 14:6 "must have its application in the last generation," its full accomplishment "from 1840 to 1844" — Paul and Luther could not preach the judgment-hour come; only the time of the end could.
• Rev. 14:7. "worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters" — the fourth commandment's creation-signature, the Sabbath call into the final hour: "For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day" (Exo. 20:11) — the seal = the Sabbath (defined in "The Sealing Time").

Second angel — Babylon is fallen — Rev. 14:8:

• Rev. 14:8. "Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication" — the verdict on apostate Christendom, quoting literal Babylon's fall and applying it to the spiritual city (Isa. 21:9; Jer. 51:7; defined in "Mystery, Babylon the Great — Revelation 17").
  • Babylon — defined in "Mystery, Babylon the Great — Revelation 17."
  • the wine of wrath is defined in "The Day of the LORD".
• GC 389.2. White: "The second angel's message of Revelation 14 was first preached in the summer of 1844," with direct application to the churches of the United States "where the warning of the judgment had been most widely proclaimed and most generally rejected."
• DAR 600.3. Smith: the second message, "following the first," is "a part of that religious movement which takes place in the last days with especial reference to the coming of Christ."
• MWV1 136.1. Miller: verse 8 "shows the downfall of the papal power, or mystical Babylon," "fulfilled in 1798, when she lost her power to rule over the kings of the earth" (Miller is cited as the first angel's own preacher, GC 368.1; his 1798 application of verse 8 is not the handbook's — the second message was first preached in the summer of 1844, of the churches that rejected the judgment cry, GC 389.2).

Third angel — the mark-warning — Rev. 14:9-12:

• Rev. 14:9-11. "If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark... The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God" — the most solemn warning in Scripture (fully defined in "The Third Angel's Message").
• Rev. 14:12. "Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus" — the third angel's fruit: the remnant's two marks, the exact two the dragon attacked (Rev. 12:17, "which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ").

Blessed are the dead — Rev. 14:13:

• Rev. 14:13. "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth... they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them" — a specific blessing on those who die under the closing pressure; they rest, their works follow.
• DAR 634.1. Smith: those who die "from henceforth" escape "the time of fearful peril," numbered "as a part of the 144,000; for this message is the same as the sealing message of Revelation 7."

The harvest — the Son of man on the cloud — Rev. 14:14-16:

• Rev. 14:14. "upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle" — the figure of Dan. 7:13 now reaping (Dan. 7:13, "one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven").
• Rev. 14:15-16. "Thrust in thy sickle, and reap... for the harvest of the earth is ripe... and the earth was reaped" — the righteous gathered at the Second Coming: "the harvest is the end of the world" (Matt. 13:39; Joel 3:13).

The vintage — the winepress of wrath — Rev. 14:17-20:

• Rev. 14:18-19. "gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe... and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God" — the wicked, ripe when iniquity is full, trodden in the wrath that the seven plagues administer (defined in "The Seven Last Plagues").
• Rev. 14:20. "the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs" — judgment outside the holy city, its bloodshed universal (1600 = 4 × 4 × 100).
• DAR 636.1. Smith: "The last two angels have to do with the wicked... most fitly represented by the bloated and purple clusters of the vine of the earth."

DEFINITION — THE THREE ANGELS = one cumulative, layered message — none superseding another, all three still flying as the chapter closes — carrying the everlasting gospel to all nations in the final hour (Rev. 14:6), and ending in two harvests: the earth reaped at the Coming, the vintage cast into the winepress (Rev. 14:14-20; Matt. 13:39; see "The Seven Last Plagues").

• first angel — "the hour of his judgment is come": the 1844 investigative judgment, preached by the advent movement, calling men to worship the Creator on His blessed day (Rev. 14:7; Exo. 20:11; GC 355.1; 424.1; DAR 490.1).
• second angel — "Babylon is fallen, is fallen," first preached in the summer of 1844 of the churches that rejected the judgment cry (Rev. 14:8; GC 389.2; see "Mystery, Babylon the Great — Revelation 17").
• third angel — the mark-warning, its fruit the commandment-keeping remnant of Rev. 12:17 (Rev. 14:9-12; fully defined in "The Third Angel's Message").

Symbols defined here:

• mount Sion = the heavenly Zion, the city of the living God (Heb. 12:22).
• firstfruits = the dedicated first sheaf of the harvest, brought to God before the rest is reaped (Exo. 23:19; Lev. 23:10-11).
• the three angels = one cumulative message — judgment-hour, Babylon-fallen, mark-warning — all still sounding, none superseded (Rev. 14:6-12).

Symbols carried: Babylon ("Mystery, Babylon the Great — Revelation 17").

¶29. Mystery, Babylon the Great — Revelation 17

One of the angels of the seven vials unmasks the great whore — the system named, the symbols decoded, the destruction foretold; and here the handbook's owner-receipt for waters is read out of the angel's own mouth.

Come see the judgment of the great whore — Rev. 17:1-2:

• Rev. 17:1. "one of the seven angels which had the seven vials... Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters" — the angel of the plagues now decodes the Babylon his vial struck (see "The Seven Last Plagues").
  • woman — defined in "The Woman and the Dragon — Revelation 12"; there the pure woman, here the apostate.
  • waters — defined in "The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7"; the chapter self-interprets at v. 15 below.
• Rev. 17:2. "the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication" — church-and-state adultery; her wine is false doctrine, not yet the wine of wrath (for the two cups, see "The Seven Last Plagues").
• Jer. 51:7. "Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD'S hand, that made all the earth drunken... therefore the nations are mad" — the OT Babylon-on-the-waters is the verbal source of the figure.
• DAR 657.2. Smith: this apostate woman is "a symbol of the Roman Catholic Church," and "with the wine of her fornication, or her false doctrines, the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk."

A woman on a scarlet beast — Rev. 17:3:

• Rev. 17:3. "I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns" — a religious power rides the political beast it controls but does not become.
  • beast — defined in "The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7"; here scarlet for its blood-stained, persecuting nature (Rev. 13:1).
• DAR 657.3. Smith: "the woman, the church, seated upon a scarlet-colored beast, the civil power, by which she is upheld, and which she controls and guides to her own ends, as a rider controls the animal upon which he is seated."

Purple and scarlet, the golden cup, the forehead name — Rev. 17:4-5:

• Rev. 17:4. "arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations" — imperial purple and ecclesiastical scarlet fused; the cup that should hold pure doctrine holds abominations (Babylon's wine is doctrine, not the wine of wrath — see "The Seven Last Plagues").
• DAR 658.1. Smith: "purple and scarlet are the chief colors in the robes of popes and cardinals," and the golden cup, "symbol of purity of doctrine," holds "only abominations, and wine of her fornication, fit symbol of her abominable doctrines."
• Rev. 17:5. "upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH" — the papacy the mother; "mother" implies daughters, a multi-church system.
• DAR 601.3. Smith: "the name which she bears on her forehead... reveals other family connections. If this church is the mother, who are the daughters?" — Babylon is not confined to Rome.

Drunken with the blood of the saints — Rev. 17:6:

• Rev. 17:6. "the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus" — the 1260-year persecution, the little horn that "made war with the saints" (Dan. 7:21, 25; defined in "The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7").

The beast that was, and is not, and yet is — Rome in three phases — Rev. 17:8-11:

• Rev. 17:8. "The beast that thou sawest was, and is not... and yet is" — Rome's three phases: pagan-persecuting (was), the transition that lost the persecuting character (is not), degenerated into popery and persecuting again (yet is).
• DAR 659.2. Smith: "Rome in its pagan form was a persecuting power... the beast that was; the empire was nominally converted... it lost its ferocious and persecuting character... the beast that it was not; it degenerated into popery, and again assumed its bloodthirsty... character... the beast that 'yet is.'"
• Rev. 17:9. "The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth" — the city on seven hills, Rome; the heads do double duty as seven kings.
• Rev. 17:10. "there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is... the other is not yet come" — Smith reads the seven heads as forms of Roman government, not empires.
• SSP 298.1. Haskell: paganism "the prevailing element" through the first five heads, "still the ruling principle" in the sixth, the controlling power under the seventh — "the papacy is baptized paganism" (a reading distinct from Smith's seven-forms scheme below; SSP 298.2 carries it to the end: paganism stands forth again in Spiritualism, confederate with papacy and daughters at Armageddon — the threefold union of Rev. 16:13).
• DAR 659.3. Smith: the seven heads are "seven kings, or forms of government" — "(1) kingly; (2) consular; (3) decemvirate; (4) dictatorial; (5) triumvirate; (6) imperial; and (7) papal" — the papal head is the eighth, the Exarch of Ravenna the short-lived link between imperial and papal.

Ten horns, one mind, war with the Lamb — Rev. 17:12-14:

• Rev. 17:12. "the ten horns... are ten kings... receive power as kings one hour with the beast" — the ten kingdoms of divided Rome (Dan. 7:24; defined in "The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7"), reigning their era alongside the beast.
• DAR 660.2. Smith: the ten horns "represent the ten kingdoms that arose out of the Roman empire," reigning "contemporaneously with the beast, during which time they give to it their power and strength."
• Rev. 17:13. "These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast" — the kings' confederacy with Rome, of one mind to uphold her.
• DAR 661.2. Smith: this refers "to the past, when the kingdoms of Europe were unanimous in giving their support to the papacy, and upholding it in all its pretensions."
• Rev. 17:14. "These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings" — the final battle, the titles the Rider wears (Rev. 19:16, "KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS"; the Lamb slain that overcomes, Rev. 5:6; see "The Marriage and the Rider — Revelation 19").
• DAR 661.3. Smith: verse 14 carries us "into the future, to the time of the great and final battle; for at this time the Lamb has assumed the title of King of kings and Lord of lords, a title which he does not assume till his second coming."

Waters are peoples — the angel defines the symbol — Rev. 17:15:

• Rev. 17:15. "The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues" — the angel's own decoder, the strongest receipt there is; the harlot rides global humanity itself.
• DAR 662.1. Smith: "In verse 15 we have a plain definition of the Scripture symbol of waters; they denote peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues."

The ten horns burn the whore — Rev. 17:16-18:

• Rev. 17:16. "the ten horns... shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire" — her own paramours execute her sentence (the close-up of the fall is "The Judgment of Babylon — Revelation 18").
• DAR 661.2. Smith: "they shall hate the harlot, make her desolate and naked, eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. A part of this work the nations of Europe have been doing for years. The completion of it, burning her with fire, will be accomplished when Revelation 18:8 is fulfilled" (Rev. 18:8).
• Rev. 17:17. "God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will... until the words of God shall be fulfilled" — the horns' violence is bracketed by God's word; He turns their independence into His justice (cf. Dan. 7:26, the judgment takes away his dominion).
• Rev. 17:18. "the woman... is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth" — concrete identification: Rome at the time of writing, the same throne carried from emperor to pontiff.
• TMR 41.3. Andrews: "Rome was and is 'the seat of the beast;' therefore the city of Rome cannot be the woman seated upon the beast" — the woman symbolic church only, the heads successive governments, not literal hills. (Andrews is cited for the dissent; his no-literal-city reading of vv. 9 and 18 is not the handbook's — the glosses above keep Smith's seven-hilled Rome.)

The daughters — Babylon is not Rome alone — Rev. 17:5 enlarged:

• DAR 658.2. Smith: "she is called the mother of harlots... which shows that there are other independent religious organizations that constitute the apostate daughters, and belong to the same great family."
• DAR 664.2. Smith (quoting the Tennessee Baptist): "Who are the daughters? The Lutheran, the Presbyterian, and the Episcopalian churches... hold the distinctive principles of papacy in common with papists."
• Rev. 14:8. "Babylon is fallen, is fallen... because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication" — the second angel's cry that Rev. 17-18 answer (defined in "The Three Angels — Revelation 14").
• Rev. 16:13, 19. "three unclean spirits like frogs... out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet"; "great Babylon came in remembrance before God" — the threefold union (dragon + beast + false prophet) is Babylon the great in one body, mother and daughters confederate.

DEFINITION — BABYLON THE GREAT = the apostate woman of Revelation 17, a fallen church riding the civil power she controls (Rev. 17:3; DAR 657.3) — the papacy the mother, the churches holding her doctrines the daughters (Rev. 17:5; DAR 601.3; 658.2; 664.2), seated on waters = peoples (Rev. 17:1, 15). She is Rome in three phases, "was, and is not, and yet is" (Rev. 17:8; DAR 659.2), her seven heads the seven forms of Roman government, the papal head the eighth (Rev. 17:9-11; DAR 659.3); the ten kings uphold her with one mind, then turn and burn her (Rev. 17:12-17; Rev. 18:8). Her final form is the threefold union — dragon, beast, and false prophet in one body (Rev. 16:13, 19).

Symbols defined here:

• Babylon the great = the apostate church mother-and-daughters: the papacy and the churches holding her doctrines (Rev. 17:5; DAR 601.3, 658.2, 664.2).

Symbols carried: woman ("The Woman and the Dragon — Revelation 12"); beast, waters ("The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7").

¶30. The Judgment of Babylon — Revelation 18

Revelation 14:8 announced the fall; Revelation 18:1-5 swells it to the loud cry; Revelation 18:6-24 executes it — sudden, total, and by fire, under the plagues.

The come-out call — Rev. 18:1-5 (the loud cry; defined elsewhere):

• Rev. 18:1-5. "Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen... Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues" — the fourth angel lightens the earth and calls God's people out before the plagues fall (defined in "The Fourth Angel's Message").
• EW 304.1. EW appendix note: when the three angels' messages come prominently before the world again just before the second advent, "the angel of Revelation 18:1 joins in the proclamation of the second angel" — "Babylon is fallen... Come out of her, my people."

Heaven's sentence — double unto her double — Rev. 18:6-8:

• Rev. 18:6. "Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double" — the saints' centuries of suffering are repaid into Babylon's own cup of wrath (the cup/wine of wrath is defined in "The Day of the LORD").
  • Jer. 50:29. "recompense her according to her work... for she hath been proud against the LORD" — the same lex-talionis sentence pronounced over old Babylon; Rev. 18:6 is its antitype.
• Rev. 18:7. "How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow" — her self-exaltation is the exact measure of her torment.
  • Isa. 47:7-8. Babylon's boast: "I shall be a lady for ever... I am, and none else beside me; I shall not sit as a widow" — Rev. 18:7 echoes the old harlot-city's confidence; the same untouchable boast in both ages.
• Rev. 18:8. "Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her" — the system that took centuries to build is consumed in one day, by fire, by name.
  • the executed fall = the destruction of Babylon, distinct from her moral fall — announced at Rev. 14:8, the come-out call at Rev. 18:4 follows the fall, but the plagues, the millstone, and the burning are still future after it (Rev. 14:8; Rev. 18:4, 8, 21).
  • Rev. 17:16. "the ten horns... shall make her desolate and naked... and burn her with fire" — the same fiery end, executed by the powers that carried her (defined in "Mystery, Babylon the Great — Revelation 17").
• DAR 607.2. Smith: "Babylon 'falls' before it is with violence 'thrown down,' as a millstone cast into the sea, and 'utterly burned with fire'" — the fall is moral; the destruction is still future, "after the fall."

The three laments — watched afar off — Rev. 18:9-19:

• Rev. 18:9-10. the kings "shall see the smoke of her burning, Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon... for in one hour is thy judgment come" — the political partners who shared her bed cannot save her, and watch from a distance.
  • one hour = the compressed, sudden moment of her collapse — repeated three times over the three laments (Rev. 18:10, 17, 19).
• Rev. 18:11. "the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more" — the second lament; the suppliers mourn their lost market, not her wickedness.
• Rev. 18:12-13. "The merchandise of gold, and silver... and slaves, and souls of men" — a catalog of twenty-eight commodities, climaxing in the trafficking of human bodies and human souls.
  • Eze. 27:13. Tyre's merchants "traded the persons of men and vessels of brass in thy market" — the merchant-city catalog Rev. 18 reuses; Revelation adds "souls of men" to Ezekiel's pattern.
• DAR 676.2. Smith: "slaves and souls of men" may pertain "more particularly to the spiritual domain... slavery of conscience by the creeds of these bodies, which in some cases is more oppressive than physical bondage."
• Rev. 18:14-16. "the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee... Alas, alas, that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold" — the merchants name the harlot's own wardrobe (Rev. 17:4), confirming the city they mourn is the harlot Rev. 17 unmasked.
• Rev. 18:17-19. "in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster... stood afar off... And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas, that great city... for in one hour is she made desolate" — the third lament; the maritime traders mourn from afar in the old mourning-gesture.
  • Eze. 27:27-32. Tyre's "riches... merchandise, thy mariners... shall fall into the midst of the seas in the day of thy ruin," the pilots "shall cast up dust upon their heads... saying, What city is like Tyrus" — the trading-city lament Rev. 18:17-19 reproduces, type and antitype.
  • The burned merchant-city watched afar off in one hour is the herald-cluster of the day of slaughter (see "When Did the Loud Cry Begin? — The Herald").
• DAR 678.2. Smith: imagine "their traffic gone, and their silver and gold unable to deliver them, and we need not wonder at their exclamations of distress, nor that shipmasters and sailors join in the general wail."

Heaven answers — Rev. 18:20:

• Rev. 18:20. "Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her" — earth's three laments are answered by one heavenly rejoicing; the same event divides the mourners from the rejoicers.
  • Rev. 6:10. "How long, O Lord... dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" — the fifth-seal martyr-cry, now answered; the verdict is rendered (defined in "The Seven Seals — Revelation 6-8:1").
• DAR 678.4. Smith: the apostles and prophets rejoice over Babylon's destruction "as it is in close connection with this destruction that they will all be delivered from the power of death and grave by the first resurrection."

The millstone — thrown down to rise no more — Rev. 18:21-24:

• Rev. 18:21. "a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all" — the sign-act that seals the sentence: a great weight cast down to sink and never rise.
  • the millstone = the prophetic sign that Babylon sinks and does not rise — the same act Jeremiah commanded against old Babylon (Jer. 51:63-64).
  • Jer. 51:63-64. "thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of Euphrates: And thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her" — one fall-liturgy, type and antitype; Rev. 18:21 enacts Jeremiah's gesture at the end.
• Rev. 18:22-23. "the voice of harpers... no craftsman... the sound of a millstone... the light of a candle... the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee" — a five-fold silence; music, industry, household, light, and wedding all cease in the abandoned city.
  • Jer. 25:10. "the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle" — the exact silenced-city litany, pronounced over Judah and the nations at Babylon's hand (Jer. 25:9-11), now turned back on Mystery Babylon herself.
• Rev. 18:23. "for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived" — her traders were the world's elite, and her deception was sorcery, not mere persuasion.
• Rev. 18:24. "And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth" — Babylon is named the responsible party for every martyr-blood across history; the indictment that justifies the sentence of v. 8.
• SSP 304.2. Haskell: "every detail preserved in the record of ancient Babylon and its destruction, is to be fulfilled a second time in, and for, modern Babylon" — Jeremiah's stone-cast (Jer. 51:63-64) re-enacted on the church that became a whore.
• DAR 679.1. Smith: "Like a great millstone, Babylon sinks to rise no more. The various arts and crafts... The pompous music... dies away forever."
• DAR 679.2. Smith: "ever since the introduction of a false religion into the world, Babylon has existed. In her has been found, all along, opposition to the work of God, and persecution of his people."

DEFINITION — THE FALL OF BABYLON = judgment in two stages — a moral fall announced by the second angel and swelled to the loud cry (Rev. 14:8; 18:1-5; EW 304.1; defined in "The Fourth Angel's Message"), then her execution "after the fall" (DAR 607.2): repaid double into her own cup, burned in one day, thrown down like a millstone to rise no more (Rev. 18:6-8, 21; Jer. 51:63-64), the fifth-seal cry avenged (Rev. 18:20; Rev. 6:10) while kings, merchants, and shipmasters watch her burn from afar in one hour (Rev. 18:9-19; Eze. 27:27-32).

Symbols defined here:

• the executed fall = Babylon's destruction, distinct from her moral fall — the plagues, millstone, and burning still future after the fall (Rev. 14:8; Rev. 18:4, 8, 21; DAR 607.2).
• one hour = the compressed, sudden moment of her collapse, repeated three times (Rev. 18:10, 17, 19).
• the millstone = the prophetic sign that Babylon sinks and does not rise — Jeremiah's act against old Babylon, re-enacted (Jer. 51:63-64; Rev. 18:21).

¶31. The Marriage and the Rider — Revelation 19

Babylon is fallen (Rev. 17-18); heaven answers with its only Hallelujah-chorus, the Lamb's wedding is announced, and the Lamb who was slain rides out as King to execute the verdict of Rev. 17:14 on the battlefield.

The Alleluia over Babylon — Rev. 19:1-3:

• Rev. 19:1. "a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God" — heaven's answer to Babylon's fall is praise, not mourning.
• Rev. 19:2. "true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore... and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand" — the verdict on Babylon (defined in "Mystery, Babylon the Great — Revelation 17") is vindicated, and the fifth-seal cry "how long?" (Rev. 6:10) is answered.
• Rev. 19:3. "And again they said, Alleluia. And her smoke rose up for ever and ever" — the permanence of Babylon's destruction (cf. Isa. 34:9-10, Edom's smoke; the executed fall is defined in "The Judgment of Babylon — Revelation 18").

The Lord God omnipotent reigneth — Rev. 19:4-6:

• Rev. 19:4. "the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen; Alleluia" — the throne-room company of "The Throne and the Lamb — Revelation 4-5" closes the arc it opened.
• Rev. 19:5. "Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great" — a single voice from the throne calls the servants to praise.
• Rev. 19:6. "the voice of a great multitude... Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth" — the great-controversy verdict: God reigns, echoing the seventh trumpet's "thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned" (Rev. 11:17; the seventh trumpet is defined in "The Seventh Trumpet").

The marriage of the Lamb — Rev. 19:7-9:

• Rev. 19:7. "the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready" — the marriage is Christ's reception of His kingdom; the bride is the city, the New Jerusalem, not the church.
  • the marriage = Christ's reception of His kingdom and its capital city (Dan. 7:14, He receives "dominion, and glory, and a kingdom"; Rev. 21:2, 9-10, the bride = "that great city, the holy Jerusalem"; the bride-city is defined in "The New Heaven and the New Earth — Revelation 21-22").
• GC 426.2. White: the marriage represents Christ's reception of His kingdom, the New Jerusalem is the bride, and the people of God are the GUESTS at the supper (Rev. 19:9) — guests cannot also be the bride.
• DAR 682.1. Smith: "The Lamb's wife is the New Jerusalem which is above... The marriage of the Lamb is his reception of this city" as the metropolis of His kingdom.
• Rev. 19:8. "to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints" — the text interprets its own symbol verbatim.
  • fine linen = the righteousness of saints (Rev. 19:8, self-interpreted) — the priestly Day-of-Atonement white (Lev. 16:4, "holy linen"), worn for the cleansing of the sanctuary; the same byssinon clothes the heavenly armies (Rev. 19:14).
• Rev. 19:9. "Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God" — the saints are guests called to the supper (cross Matt. 22:1-14, the wedding-garment parable).

The testimony of Jesus — Rev. 19:10:

• Rev. 19:10. "I am thy fellowservant... worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy" — the angel refuses worship and names the remnant's second mark verbatim.
  • the testimony of Jesus = the spirit of prophecy (Rev. 19:10, self-interpreted) — the second mark of the remnant who "keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ" (Rev. 12:17; the remnant is defined in "The Woman and the Dragon — Revelation 12").
• DAR 683.3. Smith: the worship-refusing speaker is a created angel and "fellow servant" of John and the prophets, not a returned spirit of the dead.

Heaven opened — the white-horse Rider — Rev. 19:11-13:

• Rev. 19:11. "I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and MAKE WAR" — the Second Coming is a war-scene, the Rider is Christ Himself.
  • the Rider on the white horse = Christ coming as warrior-King to execute judgment (Rev. 19:11-16; "Faithful and True" = the title to Laodicea, Rev. 3:14; cf. Isa. 63:1-4, the lone winepress-treader); not the first-seal white horse of the gospel age (defined in "The Seven Seals — Revelation 6-8:1").
• DAR 684.2. Smith: "a new scene is introduced. We are here carried back to the second coming of Christ... under the symbol of a warrior riding forth to battle... His vesture is dipped in blood. (See... Isaiah 63:1-4.)"
• Rev. 19:12. "His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself" — the judging eyes of Rev. 1:14, and crowns more than the dragon's seven or the beast's ten.
• Rev. 19:13. "clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God" — the blood of the winepress-treader (Isa. 63:3), and the Logos who created (John 1:1) now consummates.

Sharp sword, rod of iron, the winepress — Rev. 19:14-16:

• Rev. 19:14. "the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean" — the heavenly hosts wear the bride's same garment (cf. Jude 14-15, "ten thousands of his saints").
• Rev. 19:15. "out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword... and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God" — the verbal weapon (Isa. 11:4), the Messianic rod (Ps. 2:9), and the winepress fused with the sword at the Coming.
  • winepress — defined in "The Day of the LORD."
• Rev. 19:16. "on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS" — the title Rev. 17:14 named, now inscribed; "Lord of lords" is a Yahweh-title (Deut. 10:17).
• DAR 685.1. Smith: Christ "has at this time closed his mediatorial work, and laid off his priestly robes for kingly attire," the warrior's title inscribed on His vesture and thigh.
• DAR 661.3. Smith: this is "the time of the great and final battle; for at this time the Lamb has assumed the title of King of kings and Lord of lords, a title which he does not assume till his second coming."

The supper of the great God — Rev. 19:17-18:

• Rev. 19:17. "an angel standing in the sun... saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God" — the inverse of the marriage supper of v. 9.
  • the supper of the great God = the fowls' feast on the corpses of the slain wicked (Rev. 19:17-18) — the same supper Ezekiel saw, where the carrion-birds "eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth... ye shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men" (Eze. 39:17-20).
• Rev. 19:18. "That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses... and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great" — six categories of the slain, climaxing in the universal small-and-great.
• Eze. 39:17-20. "gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice... eat flesh, and drink blood... Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty... ye shall be filled at my table" — the literal battlefield-supper, John's verbatim pattern.
• Jer. 25:33. "the slain of the LORD shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried" — the day of the LORD ends on a literal, global battlefield of the unburied slain (the day of slaughter is defined in "The Day of Slaughter").
• DAR 685.1. Smith: the angel in the sun shows the call goes "wherever the sun's rays fall," and "while the saints are partaking of the marriage supper of the Lamb, the wicked in their own persons furnish a great supper for the fowls of heaven."

The beast and false prophet taken — Rev. 19:19-21:

• Rev. 19:19. "the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse" — the Armageddon-gathering of the frog-spirits (Rev. 16:13-14) met at the Rider's arrival.
• Rev. 19:20. "the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him... These both were cast alive into a lake of fire" — the false prophet is the two-horned earth-beast (defined in "The Two Beasts — Revelation 13"), identified by its miracle-working and the mark.
• DAR 685.2. Smith: the false prophet "works miracles before the beast. This proves him to be identical with the two-horned beast of chapter 13," and the two are living powers cast alive into the lake.
• Rev. 19:21. "the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse... and all the fowls were filled with their flesh" — the rest of the gathered army is slain by the Word's speech (cf. 2 Thess. 2:8), and the supper of v. 17 is consumed.

DEFINITION — THE RIDER ON THE WHITE HORSE = Christ at His Second Coming — no longer the slain Lamb but the warrior-King who "in righteousness he doth judge and MAKE WAR" (Rev. 19:11), vesture dipped in blood (the winepress-treader of Isa. 63:1-4), named The Word of God and KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS (Rev. 19:13, 16; Rev. 17:14; Deut. 10:17). His weapon is the sharp sword of His mouth (Rev. 19:15, 21; 2 Thess. 2:8); He is NOT the first-seal white horse of the gospel age (defined in "The Seven Seals — Revelation 6-8:1"). His coming spreads two suppers: the marriage supper for the guest-saints (Rev. 19:9) and the supper of the great God for the fowls upon the slain (Rev. 19:17-18).

Symbols defined here:

• the marriage = Christ's reception of His kingdom and its capital city (Dan. 7:14; Rev. 21:2, 9-10; GC 426.2; DAR 682.1).
• fine linen = the righteousness of saints (Rev. 19:8, self-interpreted; Lev. 16:4; Rev. 19:14).
• the testimony of Jesus = the spirit of prophecy (Rev. 19:10, self-interpreted; Rev. 12:17).
• the Rider on the white horse = Christ the warrior-King at the Second Coming (Rev. 19:11-16; Isa. 63:1-4; Rev. 3:14; Rev. 17:14; Deut. 10:17; DAR 684.2; 685.1).
• the supper of the great God = the fowls' feast on the slain wicked (Rev. 19:17-18; Eze. 39:17-20; Jer. 25:33; DAR 685.1).

Symbols carried: winepress ("The Day of the LORD").

¶32. The Millennium and the Great White Throne — Revelation 20

The beast and the false prophet are in the lake (Rev. 19:20); now the dragon, the wicked dead, and death itself are finished — but in two waves a thousand years apart.

The angel, the chain, the pit — Rev. 20:1-3:

• Rev. 20:1. "an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand" — heaven holds the key; the same key that opened the pit at the fifth trumpet now shuts it.
  • the bottomless pit = the desolate, depopulated earth, reduced to its pre-creation chaos (Jer. 4:23-27, "without form, and void... there was no man... The whole land shall be desolate"; Gen. 1:2, "without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep") — Satan's thousand-year prison; distinct from the Rev. 9 desert wastes (same Greek abyssos; "The Six Trumpets").
• Rev. 20:2. "he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years" — the four-fold name of Rev. 12:9 (defined in "The Woman and the Dragon — Revelation 12"), now finally placed under restraint.
• Rev. 20:3. "cast him into the bottomless pit... that he should deceive the nations no more... and after that he must be loosed a little season" — the deceiver is sealed in, because the nations he deceives are dead and gone.
  • the binding = a chain of circumstance, not of metal — every wicked man slain (Rev. 19:21), every saint caught up (1 Th. 4:16-17, "caught up together... to meet the Lord in the air"), none left to tempt.
• DAR 687.1. Smith heads the chapter "The First and Second Resurrections" and frames vv. 1-3 as the binding of Satan a thousand years.
• DAR 691.1. Smith: Satan must have subjects to work on; with all saints in heaven and all the wicked in their graves, his sphere is circumscribed to a "state of hopeless inactivity" — that is the binding.
• DAR 691.2. Smith: the "binding" is a combination of circumstances that renders him unable to act, like a man whose "way was completely hedged up"; the ruined earth "now becomes his gloomy prison-house, till he is led out to execution."
• GC 660.2. White: "For a thousand years, Satan will wander to and fro in the desolate earth to behold the results of his rebellion against the law of God."

The first resurrection; the saints judge — Rev. 20:4-6:

• Rev. 20:4. "I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them... they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years" — the redeemed are not on trial; they are seated as judges.
  • judgment given unto them = the saints judge the world and the fallen angels during the millennium (1 Cor. 6:2-3, "the saints shall judge the world... we shall judge angels"; Dan. 7:22, "judgment was given to the saints of the most High" — defined in "The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7").
• Rev. 20:5. "the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection" — the wicked dead stay in their graves a full thousand years; the righteous rose at the Coming.
• Rev. 20:6. "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power" — the fifth beatitude; the raised saints can never be touched by the lake of fire.
  • the second death = the final, irreversible extinction of the lost in the lake of fire — self-defined at Rev. 20:14 (Rev. 2:11, "shall not be hurt of the second death"; Rev. 21:8, the lake "which is the second death").
• GC 660.4. White: "During the thousand years... the judgment of the wicked takes place... 'the saints shall judge the world.'... In union with Christ they judge the wicked, comparing their acts with the statute book, the Bible."
• DAR 693.4. Smith: "no language could more plainly prove two resurrections" — the righteous first, the wicked at the end; on such as share the first, "the second death will have no power."
• MWV1 154.1. Miller: against the objectors who say judgment waits "until we have enjoyed one thousand years of peace and prosperity, and the world be converted" — the little horn wars on the saints until the Ancient of days comes (Dan. 7:21-22; 2 Thess. 2:8; MWV1 154.2-155.1), so no converted-world golden age precedes the advent.
• GC 661.2. White: at the close of the thousand years "the second resurrection will take place," the wicked raised "for the execution of 'the judgment written'" — citing Isa. 24:22 ("shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited").

Satan loosed; Gog and Magog; the fire — Rev. 20:7-9:

• Rev. 20:7. "when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison" — the second resurrection of the wicked gives him an audience again, and the chain of circumstance breaks.
• Rev. 20:8. "deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog... the number of whom is as the sand of the sea" — every wicked man ever raised, gathered for one last assault.
• Rev. 20:9. "compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them" — the New Jerusalem stands with the saints inside; the wicked surround it; the fire falls and consumes.
• GC 662.3. White: as the New Jerusalem "comes down out of heaven, it rests upon the place... to receive it, and Christ, with His people and the angels, enters the Holy City."
• GC 663.1. White: Satan, seeing the risen wicked multitudes, "will marshal all the armies of the lost under his banner" and "lead them against the camp of the saints and to take possession of the City of God."
• GC 672.2. White: "Fire comes down from God out of heaven. The earth is broken up... The earth's surface seems one molten mass — a vast, seething lake of fire."

The great white throne; the second death — Rev. 20:10-15:

• Rev. 20:10. "the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are" — the third member of the trinity of Rev. 16:13 meets the lake the other two entered at Rev. 19:20.
• Rev. 20:11. "a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away" — supreme jurisdiction, unimpeachable purity; the present cosmos cannot stand before it.
• Rev. 20:12. "the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened... and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works" — the same books opened before the Ancient of Days (Dan. 7:10), in their terminal session.
• Rev. 20:13. "the sea gave up the dead... and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works" — no grave hides anyone; each life is its own case.
• Rev. 20:14. "death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death" — death itself dies, the last enemy destroyed (1 Cor. 15:26); the text glosses its own term.
• Rev. 20:15. "whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire" — one criterion only: the name written, or not.
• GC 673.1. White: "In the cleansing flames the wicked are at last destroyed, root and branch — Satan the root, his followers the branches"; the full penalty met, heaven and earth "declare the righteousness of Jehovah."
• GC 673.3. White: "Upon those that had part in the first resurrection, the second death has no power... while God is to the wicked a consuming fire, He is to His people both a sun and a shield."

DEFINITION — THE MILLENNIUM = the thousand years between the two resurrections (Rev. 20:2-7): the saints reign and judge with Christ in heaven (Rev. 20:4; 1 Cor. 6:2-3; Dan. 7:22), while the desolate earth — reduced to the chaos of Gen. 1:2 (Jer. 4:23-27) — holds Satan bound by circumstance, none left to deceive (Rev. 20:1-3; 1 Th. 4:16-17); at its close the wicked rise, Gog and Magog compass the beloved city, fire from God devours them at the great white throne, and death and hell are cast into the lake of fire — the second death (Rev. 20:7-15).

Symbols defined here:

• bottomless pit = the desolate, depopulated earth, in pre-creation chaos (Jer. 4:23-27; Gen. 1:2).
• the binding = a chain of circumstance — none left to tempt (Rev. 20:3; 1 Th. 4:16-17).
• the second death = the final, irreversible extinction of the lost in the lake of fire — self-defined at Rev. 20:14 (Rev. 2:11; Rev. 21:8).

¶33. The New Heaven and the New Earth — Revelation 21-22

The handbook closes where Eden began: God dwelling with His people, the inheritance restored — for the trumpet-alarm was mercy all along, the sound that brings the saints home.

A new heaven and a new earth — Rev. 21:1:

• Rev. 21:1. "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea" — the renewed planet, the curse-world gone, is the saints' literal eternal inheritance.
  • new earth = this present earth, purged by the fire of the day of judgment and made new, given to the saints as their everlasting kingdom (Isa. 65:17, "I create new heavens and a new earth"; 2 Pet. 3:13, "we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness"; Mt. 5:5; Rom. 8:17).
• DAR 702.2 / 703.1. Smith: opens Revelation 21 on "a new heaven and a new earth," and notes "the sea was no more" means the old sea passed away — the new earth is real, restored, not abolished.
• DAR 609.3. Smith: against the spirit-realm error — "this present earth... from its ashes the voice of Omnipotence will evoke a new earth, which will be the future everlasting kingdom of glory... the saints will possess as their eternal inheritance."

The holy city, the bride, descending — Rev. 21:2, 9-10:

• Rev. 21:2. "I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband" — the city descends TO the new earth; the saints do not float off to a far region, they receive the city here.
• Rev. 21:9-10. The vial-angel SELF-INTERPRETS the bride: "I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. And he... shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God" — the bride and the city are one; the redeemed and their dwelling are inseparable.
  • bride-city = the New Jerusalem, the dwelling-place of the redeemed who made themselves ready (Rev. 19:7-8, the marriage; fine linen = the righteousness of saints, defined in "The Marriage and the Rider — Revelation 19") — the exact counterpart of the harlot-city Babylon, shown by the same vial-angel with the same words (Rev. 17:1, "Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore"; Babylon defined in "Mystery, Babylon the Great — Revelation 17").
• SSP 340.1. Haskell: Christ ascended to prepare the New Jerusalem as "the capital of the universal kingdom," and it "will be located on the precise spot where the city once stood" — the Mount of Olives parting to receive it (Zech. 14:4; the redeemed receive it as the trophy of His struggles, SSP 341.1).

The tabernacle of God with men — Rev. 21:3-8:

• Rev. 21:3. "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them... and God himself shall be with them, and be their God" — the goal of every sanctuary from Eden onward, God dwelling with His people, is reached forever.
  • the dwelling restored = the covenant promise kept — "I will set my tabernacle among you... and will be your God, and ye shall be my people" (Exo. 25:8; Lev. 26:11-12; Eze. 37:27).
• Rev. 21:4. "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying" — the curse-world's whole inventory of grief is ended.
  • Isaiah's promise fulfilled: "He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces" (Isa. 25:8; Rev. 7:17; Isa. 35:10).
• Rev. 21:5. "Behold, I make all things new... these words are true and faithful" — the throne-occupant restores the creation, not replaces it.
• Rev. 21:6. "It is done. I am Alpha and Omega... I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely" — restoration finished, the gospel's free offer made good (Isa. 55:1).
• Rev. 21:7-8. "He that overcometh shall inherit all things" — but "the fearful, and unbelieving... shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire... which is the second death"; the first excluded is the coward who would not take his stand (second death defined in "The Millennium and the Great White Throne — Revelation 20").

The city measured — the inheritance marked out — Rev. 21:12-21:

• Rev. 21:12-14. "Twelve gates... names of the twelve tribes" and "twelve foundations... the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb" — the whole Bible's people, Old Testament at the gates, New Testament in the foundations; one continuous covenant people.
• Rev. 21:15-17. A golden reed measures the city "foursquare," "the length and the breadth and the height of it are equal" — the cube of the inheritance, the whole city a Most Holy Place; the wall "an hundred and forty and four cubits," the redeemed multitude's number built into the stone.
• Rev. 21:18-21. Jasper wall, "the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass," twelve foundation-stones, "the twelve gates were twelve pearls" — the measured, gem-built inheritance is a real place prepared for a real people.

No temple — God Himself the sanctuary — Rev. 21:22-27:

• Rev. 21:22. "I saw NO TEMPLE therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it" — the sanctuary line of the whole handbook ends here: no structure needed, for God dwells among His people unmediated.
• DAR 714.1 / 714.2. Smith: with the temple "is connected the idea of sacrifices and a mediatorial work; but when the city is located upon the earth, there will be no such work to be performed" — the mediatorial sanctuary is done; God and the Lamb ARE the temple.
• Rev. 21:23. "The city had no need of the sun... for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof" — Isaiah fulfilled, the LORD their everlasting light (Isa. 60:19).
• Rev. 21:24-26. "The gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there" — no danger, no closing-time; the gates that were shut against Babylon stand open to the redeemed nations (Isa. 60:11).
• Rev. 21:27. "There shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth... but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life" — the entrance-register is the same roll the sealing decided; only the sealed enter (book-of-life register and the seal of God = the Sabbath, defined in "The Sealing Time").

Eden restored — the river, the tree, no curse — Rev. 22:1-3:

• Rev. 22:1-2. "A pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb... the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits... and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations" — the river and tree of Eden restored, the throne now the fountain of life.
  • the tree of life = the Eden tree, lost at the fall, given back to the redeemed (Gen. 2:9, "the tree of life also in the midst of the garden"; Gen. 2:10, the river; Gen. 3:22-24, the cherub-guarded exile reversed; Eze. 47:12, "the leaf thereof for medicine").
• Rev. 22:3. "And there shall be no more curse" — the curse of Genesis 3 is undone; what Eden lost, the New Jerusalem holds forever.

The seal consummated — they shall see his face — Rev. 22:4-5:

• Rev. 22:4. "They shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads" — the face-to-face fellowship that sin broke is restored, and the seal of God in the forehead becomes the eternal mark of the redeemed (seal of God in the forehead defined in "The Sealing Time"; the open vision that no man could see and live, Exo. 33:20, now granted the pure in heart, Mt. 5:8; 1 Cor. 13:12).
• Rev. 22:5. "There shall be no night there... and they shall reign for ever and ever" — the inheritance is endless reign in unbroken light.

Behold, I come quickly — the call and the canon's close — Rev. 22:7, 12-20:

• Rev. 22:7. "Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book" — the first of three "I come quickly" promises sealing the prophecy.
• Rev. 22:12. "And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be" — the second; the Judge brings the inheritance with Him.
• Rev. 22:14. "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city" — commandment-keeping, the same mark as the sealed remnant, is the qualification for tree-access and city-entrance.
• DAR 721.1 / 724.2. Smith: quotes verse 14, and answers — "if we keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, we shall have right to the tree of life, we shall enter in through the gates into the city... at home in our Father's house."
• Rev. 22:17. "The Spirit and the bride say, Come... whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely" — the gospel's last open invitation, the bride calling until the Bridegroom comes.
• DAR 724.1. Smith: the bride's "Come" — "Come, if you would inherit mansions where sickness, sorrow, pain, and death can never enter; if you would have a right to the tree of life... this is your eternal home."
• Rev. 22:18-19. "If any man shall add... If any man shall take away" — the handbook's own method receipted: Scripture defines Scripture, nothing added, nothing taken (the same canon-fence Moses set, Deut. 4:2).
• Rev. 22:20. "Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus" — Christ's last word and the bride's reply; the longing the whole prophecy was given to kindle.
• GC 678.3. White: the close of all things — "The great controversy is ended. Sin and sinners are no more. The entire universe is clean... all things... declare that God is love."

DEFINITION — THE NEW EARTH = this present earth, purged by fire and re-created into the everlasting kingdom the saints possess as their eternal inheritance (Isa. 65:17; 2 Pet. 3:13; DAR 609.3) — the curse removed, Eden's river and tree of life restored, death and sorrow ended, God dwelling with His people without temple or mediator (Rev. 21:3-4, 22; 22:1-3; DAR 714.2). The trumpet-alarm was mercy all along — the sound that gathers the bride home before "Surely I come quickly" (Rev. 22:14, 17, 20; GC 678.3).

DEFINITION — THE BRIDE-CITY = the New Jerusalem, named by the vial-angel's own words "the bride, the Lamb's wife" (Rev. 21:9-10) — the redeemed and their dwelling one (Rev. 19:7-8) — the exact counterpart of the harlot-city Babylon, shown by the same angel with the same formula (Rev. 17:1; defined in "Mystery, Babylon the Great — Revelation 17"): two women, two cities, two destinies (Rev. 21:8 vs. 21:3).

Symbols defined here:

• new earth = this present earth purged by fire and re-created, the saints' eternal inheritance (Isa. 65:17; 2 Pet. 3:13; DAR 609.3).
• bride-city = the New Jerusalem, the redeemed and their dwelling as one, counterpart of Babylon (Rev. 21:9-10; Rev. 19:7-8).
• the dwelling restored = God tabernacling with His people, the covenant kept, no temple needed (Rev. 21:3, 22; Exo. 25:8; Lev. 26:11-12).
• the tree of life = Eden's tree given back, the curse-exile reversed (Rev. 22:2; Gen. 2:9; Gen. 3:22-24; Eze. 47:12).

¶Appendix — Symbol Dictionary

Every symbol defined in this handbook, alphabetically (leading articles ignored), with its receipts and owning section; "also used in §§ ..." lists the sections that carry the symbol forward.

• 1260, the / a time and times and the dividing of time = 1260 year-days of papal supremacy, AD 538-1798 (Dan. 7:25; DAR 141.1; GC 439.2) — defined in "The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7" (§3); also used in §§2, 6, 7, 16, 26.
• 1290 days = 508-1798, the daily taken away to 1798 (Dan. 12:11; DAR 313.2) — defined in "Michael Stands Up — Daniel 12" (§7).
• 1335 days = 508-1843, the Advent awakening's blessing (Dan. 12:12; DAR 314.2, 314.3) — defined in "Michael Stands Up — Daniel 12" (§7).
• 2300 days = 2300 years, ending 1844 at the cleansing of the sanctuary (Dan. 8:14; GC 328.2) — defined in "The Ram, the Goat, and the 2300 Days — Daniel 8" (§4); also used in §5.
• all nations = the scope-signature of the one universal fulfillment, the day of the LORD (Isa. 34:2; Jer. 25:31-33) — defined in "The Seven Last Plagues" (§25).
• Babylon the great = the apostate church mother-and-daughters: the papacy and the churches holding her doctrines (Rev. 17:5; DAR 601.3, 658.2, 664.2) — defined in "Mystery, Babylon the Great — Revelation 17" (§29); also used in §28.
• beast = a king or kingdom (Dan. 7:17, 23; DAR 113.4) — defined in "The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7" (§3); also used in §§16, 19, 27, 29.
• binding, the = a chain of circumstance — none left to tempt (Rev. 20:3; 1 Th. 4:16-17) — defined in "The Millennium and the Great White Throne — Revelation 20" (§32).
• black = darkness and moral corruption in the church (Rev. 6:5; DAR 405.2) — defined in "The Seven Seals — Revelation 6-8:1" (§12).
• blasphemy = a man claiming what belongs to God alone (Mark 2:7; John 10:33; 2 Thess. 2:4) — defined in "The Two Beasts — Revelation 13" (§27).
• blood = slaughter (Eze. 14:19) — defined in "What Is a Trumpet?" (§13); also used in §§14, 17.
• bottomless pit — (a) a deep, waste region a dark power rises from (Gen. 1:2; Rev. 9:2) — defined in "The Six Trumpets" (§14); (b) the desolate, depopulated earth, in pre-creation chaos (Jer. 4:23-27; Gen. 1:2) — defined in "The Millennium and the Great White Throne — Revelation 20" (§32).
• bride-city = the New Jerusalem, the redeemed and their dwelling as one, counterpart of Babylon (Rev. 21:9-10; Rev. 19:7-8) — defined in "The New Heaven and the New Earth — Revelation 21-22" (§33).
• brass = Grecia, the third kingdom (Dan. 2:39; named by name in Dan. 8:21) — defined in "The Great Image — Daniel 2" (§1).
• brimstone = the fire of divine judgment (Gen. 19:24) — defined in "The Six Trumpets" (§14); also used in §§17, 19.
• candlestick = a church (Rev. 1:20) — defined in "The Revelation of Jesus Christ — Revelation 1" (§9).
• chaff carried by the wind = the ungodly swept away in judgment (Dan. 2:35; Ps. 1:4) — defined in "The Great Image — Daniel 2" (§1).
• clothed with the sun = gospel glory, Christ's righteousness (Mal. 4:2; Rev. 19:8) — defined in "The Woman and the Dragon — Revelation 12" (§26).
• crown of twelve stars = the twelve apostles, the church's foundation (Rev. 21:14; DAR 509.6) — defined in "The Woman and the Dragon — Revelation 12" (§26).
• cup / wine of wrath = the sword-judgment God serves the nations (Jer. 25:15-16; Isa. 51:17) — defined in "The Day of the LORD" (§17); also used in §§19, 25.
• daily, the = the continual; here the pagan desolating power, paired with the papal "transgression of desolation" — "sacrifice" is a supplied word (Dan. 8:11-13; DAR 154.6; DAR 157.2; EW 74.2) — defined in "The Ram, the Goat, and the 2300 Days — Daniel 8" (§4); also used in §§2, 6, 7.
• day = a year in symbolic time-prophecy (Num. 14:34; Eze. 4:6; DAR 141.1) — defined in "The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7" (§3); also used in §§2, 4, 5, 14.
• day (with the Lord) = a thousand years (2 Pet. 3:8; Ps. 90:4) — defined in "The Six Thousand Years" (§8).
• determined / cut off = the 490 years severed from the 2300 (Heb. chathak, H2852) (Dan. 9:24; Dan. 8:14; GC 326.2) — defined in "The Seventy Weeks — Daniel 9" (§5).
• doctrine of Balaam (Pergamos) = teaching God's people to mix pagan worship with His (Num. 31:16; Rev. 2:14) — defined in "The Seven Churches — Revelation 2-3" (§10).
• door / the apartment, the = the heavenly sanctuary, the true tabernacle above (Heb. 8:1-2; Heb. 9:24) — defined in "The Throne and the Lamb — Revelation 4-5" (§11).
• dragon = Satan, working through pagan Rome (Rev. 12:9; Rev. 20:2; DAR 509.7; DAR 513.3) — defined in "The Woman and the Dragon — Revelation 12" (§26); also used in §27.
• dwelling restored, the = God tabernacling with His people, the covenant kept, no temple needed (Rev. 21:3, 22; Exo. 25:8; Lev. 26:11-12) — defined in "The New Heaven and the New Earth — Revelation 21-22" (§33).
• earth (vs. the sea = peoples) = new, previously unoccupied territory — the New World (Rev. 13:11; DAR 534.2) — defined in "The Two Beasts — Revelation 13" (§27).
• Egypt = atheistic defiance (Exo. 5:2; DAR 500.6) — defined in "The Two Witnesses — Revelation 11" (§16).
• Euphrates = the river of the eastern power, the sixth-trumpet ground (Rev. 16:12) — defined in "The Day of the LORD" (§17); also used in §25.
• executed fall, the = Babylon's destruction, distinct from her moral fall — plagues, millstone, and burning still future after the fall (Rev. 14:8; Rev. 18:4, 8, 21; DAR 607.2) — defined in "The Judgment of Babylon — Revelation 18" (§30).
• fallen star, a = an apostate power armed with a key (Isa. 14:12) — defined in "The Six Trumpets" (§14).
• fine linen = the righteousness of saints (Rev. 19:8, self-interpreted; Lev. 16:4; Rev. 19:14) — defined in "The Marriage and the Rider — Revelation 19" (§31).
• fire = devouring war (Joel 2:3) — defined in "What Is a Trumpet?" (§13); also used in §§14, 17, 19.
• firstfruits = the dedicated first sheaf of the harvest, brought to God before the rest is reaped (Exo. 23:19; Lev. 23:10-11) — defined in "The Three Angels — Revelation 14" (§28).
• four and twenty elders, the = redeemed men raised at the cross as firstfruits, ahead of the great multitude (Matt. 27:52-53; Eph. 4:8; Rev. 5:9) — defined in "The Throne and the Lamb — Revelation 4-5" (§11).
• four notable ones = four kingdoms out of the nation, Alexander's successors (Dan. 8:22; Dan. 11:4) — defined in "The Ram, the Goat, and the 2300 Days — Daniel 8" (§4).
• glorious holy mountain / between the seas, the = Jerusalem, set between the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean (Dan. 11:45; DAR 282.1) — defined in "The Seventh Trumpet" (§24).
• glory / light = the glory of the LORD risen as truth poured out, when darkness covers the earth (Isa. 60:1-2; Prov. 6:23) — defined in "The Fourth Angel's Message" (§20).
• goat / great horn = Grecia / its first king (Alexander) (Dan. 8:21) — defined in "The Ram, the Goat, and the 2300 Days — Daniel 8" (§4).
• going forth of the commandment, the = Artaxerxes' completed decree, 457 BC (Ezra 7:7; Ezra 6:14; GC 326.3) — defined in "The Seventy Weeks — Daniel 9" (§5).
• golden cup = the conquering rod in the LORD's hand, by which others drink (Jer. 51:7) — defined in "The Seven Last Plagues" (§25).
• green grass = the common people (Isa. 40:6-7) — defined in "What Is a Trumpet?" (§13); also used in §14.
• hail = sweeping destruction (Isa. 28:17) — defined in "What Is a Trumpet?" (§13); also used in §14.
• horn = a king or power (Dan. 7:24) — defined in "The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7" (§3).
• horse / horses — (a) the church in motion through an era, the color its spiritual condition (Zech. 6:2-3, 7; Zech. 1:8) — defined in "The Seven Seals — Revelation 6-8:1" (§12); (b) the mounted war-power, strength for the day of battle (Prov. 21:31; Joel 2:4) — defined in "The Six Trumpets" (§14).
• howl = the cry of the day of the LORD (Isa. 13:6; Jer. 25:34; Zeph. 1:11) — defined in "The Day of the LORD" (§17); also used in §23.
• image-metal = a kingdom; the king stands for the kingdom (Dan. 2:38, 44; confirmed Dan. 7:17, 23) — defined in "The Great Image — Daniel 2" (§1).
• image to the beast = a church clothed with civil power, enforcing its dogmas by law (Rev. 13:14; DAR 546.3; GC 443.2; 445.1) — defined in "The Two Beasts — Revelation 13" (§27).
• judgment, the = the 1844 investigative judgment opened in heaven (Dan. 7:9-10, 13, 26; DAR 120.1, 122.3, 142.1; GC 479.3) — defined in "The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7" (§3).
• king of the north = the anti-covenant power north of Palestine — Seleucid Syria → Rome → Turkey, the Euphratean seat at the time of the end (Dan. 11:6, 40; DAR 224.3; 273.3; 277.1) — defined in "The Kings of the North and the South — Daniel 10-11" (§6).
• king of the south = the power south of Palestine — Ptolemaic Egypt, the man-exalting axis (Dan. 11:5, 8; Ex. 13:3) — defined in "The Kings of the North and the South — Daniel 10-11" (§6).
• Laodicea = "the judging of the people" — the church of the investigative-judgment hour (Rev. 3:14; DAR 371.1) — defined in "The Seven Churches — Revelation 2-3" (§10).
• lion = a roaring conqueror, God's deploying rod (Amos 3:8; Jer. 50:17) — defined in "The Day of the LORD" (§17).
• Lion of the tribe of Juda, the = Christ in kingly strength, the Shiloh of Judah (Gen. 49:9-10) — defined in "The Throne and the Lamb — Revelation 4-5" (§11).
• little book, the = Daniel's sealed prophecy now opened, sweet then bitter, the 1844 experience (Rev. 10:2, 9-10; Dan. 12:4, 9; DAR 489.1, 495.3) — defined in "The Mighty Angel and the Little Book — Revelation 10" (§15).
• little horn = the papacy, every mark receipted (Dan. 7:8, 20, 24, 25; DAR 118.4, 119.1, 140.3, 141.1) — defined in "The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7" (§3); also used in §4.
• locusts = an innumerable invading army = the children of the east (Joel 2:25; Judg. 6:5; 7:12; Nah. 3:17) — defined in "The Six Trumpets" (§14).
• man child = Christ, caught up to the throne (Ps. 2:7-9; Rev. 19:15; Rev. 3:21; DAR 511.1) — defined in "The Woman and the Dragon — Revelation 12" (§26).
• mark in the forehead / hand — (a) the seal of God on those who grieve over sin, opposite the beast's mark (Rev. 7:3; Rev. 13:16-17) — defined in "The Day of Slaughter" (§18); (b) a public profession or act, not a literal brand (TMR 108.3) — defined in "The Third Angel's Message" (§19).
• mark of the beast = the enforced Sunday institution, the counterfeit sabbath, badge of Rome's claimed authority (DAR 557.2; GC 449.1; 578.3; Rev. 13:16-17) — defined in "The Two Beasts — Revelation 13" (§27).
• marriage, the = Christ's reception of His kingdom and its capital city (Dan. 7:14; Rev. 21:2, 9-10; GC 426.2; DAR 682.1) — defined in "The Marriage and the Rider — Revelation 19" (§31).
• measure = to examine by a standard, the judgment-test (Dan. 8:14; DAR 497.2; 498.1) — defined in "The Two Witnesses — Revelation 11" (§16).
• mene / tekel / peres = the maneh, the shekel, and the half-maneh — Babylon's verdict in coin-weights, summing (at the 50-shekel maneh) to 2520 gerahs (Dan. 5:25-28; Exo. 30:13) — defined in "The Seven Times — Daniel 4" (§2).
• Messiah the Prince = the Anointed One, Christ anointed at His baptism, autumn AD 27 (Luke 3:21-22; Acts 10:38; GC 327.1) — defined in "The Seventy Weeks — Daniel 9" (§5).
• Michael = Christ, the archangel-Prince who stands for His people (Jude 1:9; 1 Thess. 4:16; Rev. 12:7; Dan. 10:13, 21) — defined in "Michael Stands Up — Daniel 12" (§7).
• millstone, the = the prophetic sign that Babylon sinks and does not rise — Jeremiah's act against old Babylon, re-enacted (Jer. 51:63-64; Rev. 18:21) — defined in "The Judgment of Babylon — Revelation 18" (§30).
• moon under her feet = the typical/Mosaic system, reflected light now superseded (DAR 509.5) — defined in "The Woman and the Dragon — Revelation 12" (§26).
• mount Sion = the heavenly Zion, the city of the living God (Heb. 12:22) — defined in "The Three Angels — Revelation 14" (§28).
• mountain = a kingdom (Dan. 2:35, 44; Jer. 51:25) — defined in "The Great Image — Daniel 2" (§1); also used in §14.
• new earth = this present earth purged by fire and re-created, the saints' eternal inheritance (Isa. 65:17; 2 Pet. 3:13; DAR 609.3) — defined in "The New Heaven and the New Earth — Revelation 21-22" (§33).
• north = the quarter the invading rod comes from (Jer. 1:14) — defined in "The Day of the LORD" (§17); also used in §§18, 23.
• one hour = the compressed, sudden moment of Babylon's collapse, repeated three times (Rev. 18:10, 17, 19) — defined in "The Judgment of Babylon — Revelation 18" (§30).
• open door, the (Philadelphia) = the opening of Christ's Most Holy Place ministry in 1844, "no man can shut it" (Rev. 3:8; EW 42.2; DAR 367.2) — defined in "The Seven Churches — Revelation 2-3" (§10).
• pale = spiritual death, the named horseman (Rev. 6:8; DAR 408.2) — defined in "The Seven Seals — Revelation 6-8:1" (§12).
• rain / latter rain = doctrine, the word of God taught and received — the latter rain its fulness (Deut. 32:2; Isa. 55:10-11; Hos. 6:3) — defined in "The Fourth Angel's Message" (§20); also used in §23.
• ram = the kings of Media and Persia (Dan. 8:20) — defined in "The Ram, the Goat, and the 2300 Days — Daniel 8" (§4).
• red = corruption begun, blood and the sword (Rev. 6:4; DAR 404.2) — defined in "The Seven Seals — Revelation 6-8:1" (§12).
• remnant = the last faithful generation, two-marked (Rev. 12:17; Rev. 14:12; Rev. 19:10) — defined in "The Woman and the Dragon — Revelation 12" (§26).
• riches = trust in wealth that cannot deliver in the day of wrath (Prov. 11:4; Zeph. 1:18) — defined in "When Did the Loud Cry Begin? — The Herald" (§23).
• Rider on the white horse, the = Christ the warrior-King at the Second Coming (Rev. 19:11-16; Isa. 63:1-4; Rev. 3:14; Rev. 17:14; Deut. 10:17; DAR 684.2; 685.1) — defined in "The Marriage and the Rider — Revelation 19" (§31).
• rod of His indignation = a heathen power God raises to punish His apostate people, then judges (Isa. 10:5-6, 12; Jer. 50:17) — defined in "The Day of the LORD" (§17).
• Root of David, the = Christ as David's source and Lord, the shoot of Jesse (Isa. 11:1, 10) — defined in "The Throne and the Lamb — Revelation 4-5" (§11).
• sackcloth = mourning, suppression — the Word prophesying under restriction (Rev. 11:3; DAR 499.2) — defined in "The Two Witnesses — Revelation 11" (§16).
• scorpions = power to sting and chastise (1 Kgs. 12:11; Luke 10:19) — defined in "The Six Trumpets" (§14).
• sea / waters = peoples, multitudes, nations (Rev. 17:15; Isa. 17:12-13; DAR 114.3) — defined in "The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7" (§3); also used in §§14, 22, 27, 29.
• seal / sign = an owner's mark of name, authority, and ownership — the true Sabbath (Exo. 31:13, 17; Eze. 20:12, 20; Rev. 14:1) — defined in "The Sealing Time" (§21).
• sealed book, the = the roll of futurity, opened only by the slain Lamb (Rev. 5:1, 5-7, 9; Dan. 12:4) — defined in "The Throne and the Lamb — Revelation 4-5" (§11).
• second death, the = the final, irreversible extinction of the lost in the lake of fire — self-defined at Rev. 20:14 (Rev. 2:11; Rev. 21:8) — defined in "The Millennium and the Great White Throne — Revelation 20" (§32).
• seven churches, the = seven successive eras of the one church, apostles to close of probation (Rev. 1:20; DAR 329.3) — defined in "The Seven Churches — Revelation 2-3" (§10).
• seven lamps / seven Spirits, the = the Holy Spirit in His sevenfold fulness (Rev. 4:5; Isa. 11:2) — defined in "The Throne and the Lamb — Revelation 4-5" (§11).
• seven times, the = the 2520-year scattering, 677 BC to AD 1844 (Lev. 26:18, 21, 24, 28; Dan. 4:16, 25; PREX2 124.2; MWV2 262.2) — defined in "The Seven Times — Daniel 4" (§2).
• signified = shown in signs — the book is symbolic and self-decoding (Rev. 1:1, 20) — defined in "The Revelation of Jesus Christ — Revelation 1" (§9).
• silence in heaven = the Coming, heaven emptied as Christ descends with all His angels (Rev. 8:1; Matt. 25:31; DAR 452.4) — defined in "The Seven Seals — Revelation 6-8:1" (§12).
• silver = Media-Persia, the second kingdom (Dan. 2:39; named by name in Dan. 8:20) — defined in "The Great Image — Daniel 2" (§1).
• six thousand years, the = this world's appointed span of toil, typed by the creation week, counted from creation to ~AD 1843 (Gen. 2:2-3; Exo. 20:9-11; Heb. 4:4-10; 2 Pet. 3:8) — defined in "The Six Thousand Years" (§8).
• sixth-seal signs, the = Lisbon 1755, the Dark Day and blood moon 1780, the falling stars 1833 (Rev. 6:12-13; DAR 414.3, 422.1, 429.5, 431.2) — defined in "The Seven Seals — Revelation 6-8:1" (§12).
• slaughter weapon = war / the slaying stroke of judgment (Eze. 14:21; Jer. 25:31) — defined in "The Day of Slaughter" (§18).
• smoke = the rising token of error and torment (Rev. 14:11; Gen. 19:28) — defined in "The Six Trumpets" (§14); also used in §§17, 19.
• Sodom = open licentiousness and luxury (Eze. 16:49; DAR 501.1) — defined in "The Two Witnesses — Revelation 11" (§16).
• souls under the altar, the = the martyrs' poured-out blood pleading for justice (Rev. 6:9; Gen. 4:10; DAR 409.4) — defined in "The Seven Seals — Revelation 6-8:1" (§12).
• stand up = to rise to reign, to take the kingdom (Dan. 11:2-3, 21) — defined in "The Kings of the North and the South — Daniel 10-11" (§6); also used in §§7, 24.
• star = the angel/messenger of a church, its ministry (Rev. 1:20; Mal. 2:7; Dan. 8:10) — defined in "The Revelation of Jesus Christ — Revelation 1" (§9); also used in §14.
• stone cut out without hands = the kingdom of God / Christ (Dan. 2:44-45; Ps. 118:22; Matt. 21:44) — defined in "The Great Image — Daniel 2" (§1).
• sun / moon / stars = a government's luminaries — emperors, senators, consuls (Gen. 37:9-10) — defined in "The Six Trumpets" (§14); also used in §17.
• supper of the great God, the = the fowls' feast on the slain wicked (Rev. 19:17-18; Eze. 39:17-20; Jer. 25:33; DAR 685.1) — defined in "The Marriage and the Rider — Revelation 19" (§31).
• sword = war, the slaying stroke of judgment (Jer. 46:10) — defined in "The Day of the LORD" (§17); also used in §§22, 25.
• ten days (Smyrna) = ten years — the Diocletian persecution, A.D. 302-312 (Rev. 2:10; DAR 352.3) — defined in "The Seven Churches — Revelation 2-3" (§10).
• testimony of Jesus, the = the spirit of prophecy (Rev. 19:10, self-interpreted; Rev. 12:17) — defined in "The Marriage and the Rider — Revelation 19" (§31).
• third part, the = one division of the empire under the scourge, not the whole (Rev. 8:7-12; 9:15, 18) — defined in "The Seven Last Plagues" (§25).
• three angels, the = one cumulative message — judgment-hour, Babylon-fallen, mark-warning — all still sounding, none superseded (Rev. 14:6-12) — defined in "The Three Angels — Revelation 14" (§28).
• time no longer = prophetic time, not world-time or probation, closed at 1844 (Rev. 10:6; DAR 492.2; CTr 344.5; LDE 36.2) — defined in "The Mighty Angel and the Little Book — Revelation 10" (§15).
• times of the Gentiles, the = the whole 2520-year treading down of God's people, pagan then papal (Luke 21:24; HST October 2, 1844, page 70.6; PREX2 202.1) — defined in "The Seven Times — Daniel 4" (§2).
• to anoint the most Holy = the inauguration of Christ's heavenly priestly ministry (Exo. 40:9-10; Heb. 9:11-12) — defined in "The Seventy Weeks — Daniel 9" (§5).
• tower = the lofty and proud brought low in the day of the LORD (Isa. 2:15; 30:25) — defined in "The Day of the LORD" (§17); also used in §§18, 23.
• tree / trees = a ruler, a kingdom; great men (Dan. 4:20-22; Eze. 31:3) — defined in "The Seven Times — Daniel 4" (§2); also used in §§13, 14.
• tree of life, the = Eden's tree given back, the curse-exile reversed (Rev. 22:2; Gen. 2:9; Gen. 3:22-24; Eze. 47:12) — defined in "The New Heaven and the New Earth — Revelation 21-22" (§33).
• trumpet = a war-alarm, hence the war/judgment it announces (Num. 10:9; Amos 3:6; Jer. 4:19) — defined in "What Is a Trumpet?" (§13); also used in §§14, 17, 20, 24.
• two wings of a great eagle = God's swift deliverance (Ex. 19:4; DAR 517.2) — defined in "The Woman and the Dragon — Revelation 12" (§26).
• two witnesses = the Old and New Testaments, the written Word (Rev. 11:4; Zech. 4:11-14; John 5:39; Luke 24:44) — defined in "The Two Witnesses — Revelation 11" (§16).
• whirlwind = the storm-rush of God's judgment-army (Jer. 25:32) — defined in "The Day of the LORD" (§17); also used in §§6, 22, 23.
• white = purity, righteousness, victory (Rev. 19:14; Rev. 3:5) — defined in "The Seven Seals — Revelation 6-8:1" (§12).
• wilderness = God-prepared preservation, not abandonment (DAR 517.1) — defined in "The Woman and the Dragon — Revelation 12" (§26).
• wind / four winds = political commotion, strife, war among nations (Dan. 7:2; Jer. 49:36-37; Zech. 7:14) — defined in "The Four Winds, the Whirlwind, the Winds" (§22); also used in §§21, 23.
• winds = strife, political commotion, war (Jer. 25:32-33; Jer. 49:36-37; DAR 114.1) — defined in "The Four Beasts and the Judgment — Daniel 7" (§3); also used in §6.
• winepress = the treading-out of the wrath of God (Jer. 25:30) — defined in "The Day of the LORD" (§17); also used in §§25, 31.
• without mixture = wrath with no mercy mingled in (TMR 116.1) — defined in "The Third Angel's Message" (§19).
• woe = a trumpet (war) scourging apostate Christendom to repentance (Rev. 8:13; 9:12, 20-21) — defined in "The Six Trumpets" (§14); also used in §§19, 24.
• woman = the true church across both Testaments (Jer. 6:2; 2 Cor. 11:2; Isa. 54:5; DAR 509.3) — defined in "The Woman and the Dragon — Revelation 12" (§26); also used in §29.
• wrath = the executing judgment poured without mercy mingled — the seven last plagues (Rev. 15:1; 14:10) — defined in "The Seventh Trumpet" (§24).