Revelation Chapter 9
VERSE 15 “So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind.”
The implications of this verse must be viewed carefully. These angels are prepared for a very specific time and work, but they are released to accomplish something additional. In other words, the PRIMARY prophetic work will be for the hour, day, month, and year, but, before that, they are released to “kill a third of men.” This two-fold function must be recognized in the interpretation.
Many suggestions have been made regarding the chronological implications of this verse. Each seems to be forced. We offer an alternative which is derived from within the symbolism of the sixth trumpet. First, it is imperative to note that the Greek text uses the definite article "THE"— only before the word HOUR.
Thus these angels were prepared for:
THE Hour,
A day,
A month,
And A year.
If we look during the period of the Philadelphia Church, what can we find that might be called THE hour?
Nearly all Bible students would conclude that the TIME OF THE END — marked by the close of the French Revolution — is the singular most important “HOUR” in Philadelphia.
Because of this, Verse 15 seems to be saying, the release of the four angels from the power of the Euphrates is so that they will be contributors to the events of the French Revolution. That Revolution could not have happened except that social, financial, religious, and political philosophies and liberties had reached such a degree of development and expression that all fury broke loose because of them — the flood of “waters”, ideas mentioned in Rev 12:15.
But they are also released for A day, A month, and A year.
Which day, month, and year?
The answer seems clear BOTH in the Revelation account of the sixth trumpet AND in Daniel’s prophecy of the event.
It will be the 1260th day (Rev 11:3); it will be the 42nd month (Rev 11:2); and it will be (pardon the strange English) the 3 1/2 year (Rev 11:6; Dan 12:7 and Rev 10:6). Thus, from the sixth-trumpet account alone it is possible to account for THE hour, and one each (the last of each) of the days, months, and years (reaching to THE TIME OF THE END).
But before we reach that special “HOUR,” (The Time of the End), the release of these four angels progresses so that a third of men might be killed. Once Luther had begun the Reformation, there were three basic parts of the Christian world: (1) the civil powers, (2) the Roman Catholic Church, and (3) the new Protestantism.
These angels didn’t kill Protestants! In actuality, they made Protestants. They didn’t kill the civil power. They didn’t kill the Roman Catholic Church either except that those who made up the New Protestantism used to be Roman Catholic members.
Here is the third that were slain. They were KILLED AS ROMAN CATHOLICS; they were REBORN as Protestants. This division of Christianity would be one of the factors leading to the French Revolution — the time for which the four angels were especially prepared.”
VERSE 16 “Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them.”
Suddenly, out of nowhere, we have mentioned armies of horsemen numbering 200,000,000, the context just about demands that this verse be connected with the previous verse. These “armies” are, apparently, the third of mankind which have become Protestant. [Editor: We are using the word “Protestant,” in this monograph, not in the sense of a Church, but in its generic sense, that is, as opposed to Roman Catholicism] They are horsemen because they are being carried foreword by their new and exciting doctrines (Remember symbolically speaking horses represent doctrines).
This verse says that the John Class “heard the number of them.” This statement is true as witnessed by the chart above. This chart, published by the London Missionary Society, shows us that at the beginning of the Laodicean period (1874 A.D.), the world numbers approximately 116 million Protestants. Adding the number since the days of Luther, 200 million of them during the Philadelphia period is a reasonable estimate — still vastly outnumbered by Roman Catholics, but definitely a vast number.
Note: This is what the “John Class” heard, what they were told was the number of horsemen during the sixth stage of the church. These numbers reflect only those amassed during the sixth or Philadelphian stage of the church up until the beginning of the Laodicean period not as they are today, today there are an estimated 800 million Protestants representing 37 percent of the professing church.
We will move on to Verse 17 in our next post.
