Part II — Revelation

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.
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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).
• WitnessDAR 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).
• WitnessHSFD 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").
• WitnessDAR 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).
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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."
• WitnessDAR 343.4. Smith: prints the verse-20 self-interpretation entire — the stars are the angels, the candlesticks are the churches.

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).
• WitnessDAR 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."
• WitnessDAR 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).
• WitnessDAR 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."
• WitnessDAR 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").
• WitnessDAR 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).
• WitnessDAR 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”).
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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."
• WitnessEW 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.
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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).
• WitnessTM 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.

• 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).

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").
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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").
• WitnessDAR 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."
• WitnessDAR 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).
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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).
• WitnessSSP 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).
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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").
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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.

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.
• WitnessDAR 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).
• WitnessDAR 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).
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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."
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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”).
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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").
• WitnessSSP 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.
• WitnessDAR 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."
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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:

• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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).
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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").

• 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).

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.
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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."

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?”
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 457.5. Smith: "The Roman empire, after Constantine, was divided into three parts; and hence the frequent remark, 'a third part of men.'"

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").
• WitnessDAR 472.2. Smith: the bottomless pit = "the unknown wastes of the Arabian desert," and Chosroes' fall = its opening, loosing Islam.
• WitnessDAR 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").
• WitnessSSP 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).
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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").
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessSSTR 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.

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.
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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").
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessGC 335.1. "The event exactly fulfilled the prediction... a wonderful impetus was given to the advent movement" of 1840-44.
• WitnessPREX2 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.

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").
• WitnessCTr 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."
• WitnessDAR 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."
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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."
• WitnessGSAM 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.
• WitnessDAR 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."
• WitnessCTr 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."
• WitnessLDE 36.2. White: "there can be no definite tracing of the prophetic time. The longest reckoning reaches to the autumn of 1844."
• WitnessMWV2 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).
• WitnessDAR 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."
• WitnessGSAM 185.1. Loughborough titles the scene "The Book Sweet, then Bitter" and joins verse 10 straight to verse 11's commission to "prophesy again."
• WitnessGC 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.
• WitnessGC 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").
• WitnessDAR 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”).

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).
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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”).
• WitnessDAR 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).
• WitnessDAR 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."
• WitnessDAR 499.5. Smith: the Old and New Testaments, "one given in one dispensation, and the other in the other, are Christ's two witnesses."
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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."
• WitnessDAR 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").
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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."
• WitnessDAR 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").
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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”).

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."
• WitnessTMR 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.
• WitnessTMR 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).
• WitnessPREX2 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.
• WitnessDAR 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.

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.
• WitnessGC 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."
• WitnessGC 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.
• WitnessGC 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.
• WitnessGC 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."
• WitnessPREX1 176.2. Litch saw the same rule: "the Saviour took care to deliver those that trusted in him... and not a Christian perished there."
• WitnessGC 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.
• WitnessLuke 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."
  • WitnessCL 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."
  • WitnessCL 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.

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.
• WitnessTMR 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."
• WitnessTMR 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).
• WitnessTMR 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.
• WitnessTMR 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."
• WitnessTMR 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.
• WitnessGC 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."
• WitnessDAR 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."
• WitnessTMR 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."
• WitnessTMR 125.1. Andrews: Isaiah 34 is "a complete parallel to that of the third angel" — same fire, brimstone, smoke, same final judgment.
• WitnessTMR 125.2. Andrews quotes the parallel itself — "the day of the Lord's vengeance," dust to brimstone, "the smoke thereof shall go up forever."

• 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).

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.
• WitnessGC 603.1. EGW quotes Rev 18:1, 2, 4 entire as "The Final Warning" — the loud cry is the fourth angel of Revelation 18.
• WitnessGC 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.
• WitnessEW 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.
• WitnessEW 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.
• WitnessEW 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.
• WitnessTM 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.
• WitnessEW 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.

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.
• WitnessGC 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.
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessTM 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.
• Witness3T 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.
• Witness5T 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:

• WitnessEW 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.
• WitnessEW 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.
• WitnessEW 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.
• WitnessGC 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.

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.
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessSSP 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).
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessEW 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.
• WitnessEW 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.
• WitnessEW 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).
• WitnessEW 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.

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.

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.
• WitnessLDE 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.
• WitnessTMR 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:

• Witness9T 11.1. "Plagues and judgments are already falling... the alarms of war" — the day of slaughter already at the door.
• Witness9T 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.
• Witness9T 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.
• Witness9T 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:

• WitnessGC 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.
• WitnessGC 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.
• WitnessTM 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.
• WitnessEW 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.

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.
• WitnessDAR 281.1. Smith: Clarke (1825) held this "yet unfulfilled" — Persia (east) and Russia (north) embarrass the Ottoman.
• WitnessDAR 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."
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 295.1. Smith: "stand up" = "to take the kingdom, to reign" — Michael "shall commence his reign."
• WitnessDAR 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."
• WitnessGC 490.2. White: "Probation is ended a short time before the appearing of the Lord," sealed by Rev. 22:11.
• WitnessEW 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).
• WitnessDAR 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").
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessEW 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.
• WitnessPP 491.1. White: the seventh circuit's "blast that shook the very earth" topples the walls and "massive towers."
• WitnessMWV2 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."
• WitnessSSTR 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.

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?"
• WitnessTMR 115.1. Andrews: the next chapter explains the wine — "the wine of the wrath of God is the seven last plagues."
• WitnessTMR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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."
• WitnessEW 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.
• WitnessTMR 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."
• WitnessSSP 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.
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessTMR 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.

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").
• WitnessDAR 509.3. Smith: "A woman, the true church... a pure woman, as in this instance, would represent the true church."
• WitnessDAR 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").
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 509.7. Smith: "A great red dragon, pagan Rome" — the image is the empire; the identity (v. 9) is Satan behind it.
• WitnessDAR 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").
• WitnessDAR 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").
• WitnessDAR 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."
• WitnessDAR 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").
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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").
• WitnessDAR 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."
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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").
• WitnessDAR 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.

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."
• WitnessDAR 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."
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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").
• WitnessDAR 526.1. Smith: he blasphemes God's name by the "presumptuous titles assumed by the popes."
• WitnessDAR 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).
• WitnessSSP 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).
• WitnessDAR 534.2. Smith: since the sea is peoples (Rev. 17:15), "the earth would suggest, by contrast, a new and previously unoccupied territory."
• WitnessDAR 528.1. Smith: "it does apply to Protestant America, or the government of the United States" — the only Protestant nation answering the symbol.
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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."
• WitnessTBUS 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.
• WitnessGC 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).
• WitnessDAR 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."
• WitnessGC 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."
• WitnessGC 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).
• WitnessDAR 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."
• WitnessGC 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.'"
• WitnessGC 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."
• WitnessTMR 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.
• WitnessDAR 580.1. Smith: the pope's own title Vicarius Filii Dei, "Vicegerent of the Son of God," sums in Latin numerals to "just 666."

• 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).

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.
• WitnessTMR 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.
• WitnessGC 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").
• WitnessGC 355.1. White: the first angel's message foretells "a great religious awakening under the proclamation of Christ's soon coming" — the advent movement.
• WitnessGC 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."
• WitnessGC 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."
• WitnessDAR 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”.
• WitnessGC 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."
• WitnessDAR 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."
• WitnessMWV1 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.
• WitnessDAR 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).
• WitnessDAR 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."

• 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”).

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.
• WitnessDAR 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).
• WitnessDAR 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”).
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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).
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessSSP 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).
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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”).
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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").
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessTMR 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:

• WitnessDAR 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."
• WitnessDAR 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.

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”).
• WitnessEW 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”).
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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”).
• WitnessDAR 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”).
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessSSP 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.
• WitnessDAR 679.1. Smith: "Like a great millstone, Babylon sinks to rise no more. The various arts and crafts... The pompous music... dies away forever."
• WitnessDAR 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."

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”).
• WitnessGC 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.
• WitnessDAR 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”).
• WitnessDAR 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”).
• WitnessDAR 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).
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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”).
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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.

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.
• WitnessDAR 687.1. Smith heads the chapter "The First and Second Resurrections" and frames vv. 1-3 as the binding of Satan a thousand years.
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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."
• WitnessGC 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").
• WitnessGC 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."
• WitnessDAR 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."
• WitnessMWV1 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.
• WitnessGC 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.
• WitnessGC 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."
• WitnessGC 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."
• WitnessGC 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.
• WitnessGC 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."
• WitnessGC 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."

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).
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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”).
• WitnessSSP 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.
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessDAR 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.
• WitnessGC 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."