8. Who are locusts in Revelation 9:2,3?
The "locusts" appear with the sounding of the fifth "angel" in the
fifth stage of the Christian Age Church. They are called "plagues" (Revelation
9:1-11).
Plagues are what ultimately destroy Christendom called "Babylon" (Revelation
16:19).
What would ultimately destroy a system of error like Babylon? Truth, of course.
In fact, the very last plague is identified as a "plague of hail" (Revelation
16:21). And Isaiah 28:17 says, "the hail shall sweep away the refuge of
lies."
Who is the "angel"? Wycliff has been referred to as the "morning star
of the reformation." He had the "key" to open the "pit."
Although this word is the same as the abyss of dormancy in which Satan is thrown
(20:1-3), "abyss" is preceded here by the world "phrear," which
denotes a cistern, a well of water (Liddell & Scott, Strong's, Vine's.)
This prefix to "abyss" would then denote Truth, as water, which had
been suppressed was then released by Wycliff's ministry.
Wycliff's followers, the Lollards, penetrated every hamlet and
countryside and even some of the monasteries of the false church. They were, indeed, a
plague of "locusts" to Papacy!
The similarity of these locusts to
scorpions was apparently in their tails. Isaiah 9:13-15 gives a clue as to the meaning of
"tails"—"For the people turneth not unto him that smiteth them,
neither do they seek the Lord of hosts. Therefore the Lord
will cut off from Israel head
and tail. . .The ancient and honorable, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth
lies, he is the tail."
From this clue it may be deducted that
the Lollards were effective as teachers in "stinging" errors with Truth!
Why did they not "kill," but torment "five months"? (Rev.
9:5)
Instead of dying to their Catholic condition, people stayed in an unsettled,
agitated state for "five months," that is 150 years (5 x 30 = 150 days/years).
There was no ready and satisfactory alternative to the papacy until the Protestant
Reformation, more than a century later.
