The Seventh Seal,
Chapter 9
The Sixth Angel
This is an indication of another war, but this one is not
limited as was the one revealed under the action of the fifth
angel. In this war there is much more killing "By
these three was the third part of men killed" (Revelation
9:18), so these events precede those of the fifth angel (see my
discussion on Prophecy
for an explanation of the chronological reversal). We also have an indication
that this war precedes the great earthquake at the end of time because
it is said "And 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, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk. Neither
repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication,
nor of their thefts" (Revelation 9:20-21), that is, life
carried on as normal after the war despite the killing.
Again we see imagery of war machines:
-
And thus I saw the horses in the vision
(Revelation
9:17).
These 'horses', like the 'locusts' of the fifth
angel, are not animals, but tanks. Like horses they proceed on
the ground and move themselves.
-
Like horses, the tanks have pilots who ride exposed "I
saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them" (Revelation
9:17).
-
The headlights and grill of the tank are seen as the head
of a lion "the heads of the horses were as the heads
of lions" (Revelation 9:17).
-
The long gun of the tank is called the tail "their
tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt"
(Revelation 9:19).
-
From a machine gun on the turret and the long gun come fire,
machine gun fire, and mortar fire "By these three
was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by
the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. For their power is in
their mouth, and in their tails" (Revelation 9:18-19).
-
The tanks are armored, but St. John confuses the power of
the tanks to repel firepower with their being made of the firepower itself,
and views the turret as the breastplate of the soldier whose head shows
at the top "having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth,
and brimstone" (Revelation 9:17).
-
Blasts, fiery shards of shrapnel, and gunpowder are meant
by "fire...jacinth, and brimstone" (Revelation
9:17).
-
Again, a picture is worth a thousand words:
Since we know that these events precede those that take place
under the fifth angel, and that life returns to 'normal' after the war,
we know that the war has a limited time span. The vast number of persons
killed "the third part of men" (Revelation
9:15,
18) and the huge size of the armies "the number of
the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand" (Revelation
9:16)
suggests a world war. The Twentieth Century has seen two wars which it
calls 'World Wars' which were actually one war with a lull, like the eye
of a hurricane. Immediately following that, there was the 'Cold War'
which grew out of it and served as the underpinning for continued conflicts
around the world. Thus the entire period from approximately 1914 to about
1989 can be seen as one continuous Global war. This is a period of roughly
75 years. Seventy-five is an interesting number. It is composed of a string
of addends each of which is double its predecessor: 75=5+10+20+40. The
period for the war is determined, "And the four angels
were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and
a year, for to slay the third part of men" (Revelation 9:15).
This suggests a coding for the equation: 5 = an hour,
10 = 2(5) = a day, 20 = 2(10) = a
month, and 40 = 2(20) = a year. The
tank and the airplane have been the decisive weapons of this period; and,
despite all the grand rhetoric of the politicians, nothing has changed
as regards the piety or morality of mankind.
It is safe to say, then, that the Earth has already been
visited by this sixth angel. The day of the fifth
angel can not be far behind.