TABLE OF CONTENTS |
Part
I
Why Is Our Text Mentioned
Under the Sixth Seal?
What Do We Know about
the
"Four Winds"?
|
Part
II
"I Have Spread You Abroad"
"Four Winds of Heaven"
Zechariah 6—
Spirit World's
Influence in Religion
|
Part
III
Daniel's "Four Winds" Abated
The Rulers of Darkness
"Four Corners of the Earth"
Great World Religions
Why "Winds of Earth"
Instead of "Heaven"?
|
Part
IV
THE KEYS OF THIS BLOOD
A Church Pulled in All Directions
Identifying the
"Four Winds
of Earth"
The Piggyback Globalists
|
Part
V
What or Who are the "Four
Angels" Holding the "Winds"?
"Till We Have Sealed the
Servants of Our God"
"Sealing" the Saints
|
Part
VI
"Dragon, Beast and False
Prophet"
—Revelation 16
Last Plague Poured Out
on the "Air" |
Part I
"And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the
earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth
[stable
society], nor on the sea [restless society], nor on any tree [right-hearted
and more prominent of earth—Bro. Russell included the Household of Faith]."
Revelation 7:1
 |
 |
|
"Earth"
represents
Stable Society |
"Sea"
represents
Unstable Masses |
"Trees"
represent
Mighty Ones
of Earth |
"Four angels" are assigned to "holding four winds
of the earth" which threaten three segments (earth, sea and any tree) of society. |
While the "four winds" are being held, we
do not understand there to be a great calm with no wind. Rather, the "four
winds" are held or restrained sufficiently from blowing into a whirlwind.
Already we see a Muslim wind
blowing fiercely against the Western Christian world. In Pakistan it is
blowing against the Hindu or Eastern religious world. In Africa the Muslim
powers have killed over two million Christians. The Humanist (Communists,
Socialists and Atheists) is threatening the Western Christian world in
North Korea. Some winds are blowing rather hard even now, but all winds
are not yet involved.
"Four
Winds"
Blowing Toward the "Earth"
|
1. |
Western World representing
Christianity and capitalistic governments--church and state
already confronting Islam terrorism and Iraq and Pagan Humanist
North Korea at present. |
|
2. |
Far Eastern religions
(Hindu, Shinto, Brahman, New Age, Wicca, etc.) and governments
which are spreading Eastern religion and political unrest in
India and confronting Islam Pakistan at present. |
|
3. |
Muslim religions and
governments spreading Muslim (Islam) religion and political
agendas in the form of terrorism, genocide and war almost
world-wide. |
|
4. |
Humanism (Communism,
Socialism, and Atheism) religion and government without god
confronting Western Christian powers (as in North Korea
confronting Western Powers). |
At this time the Muslim wind is being forced
to blow because it is failing as a successful economic power or as an
intellectually competitive society. It is effective in getting followers,
but not able to feed or give jobs to their followers. Economically they
are dead in the water. Oil has been their only main source of revenue.
This is being threatened by newer technology. They, therefore, must blame
the Western world for their failure, even though this is not true. It is
failing because the Muslim religion is run very much the way the Catholic
Church was run in the Dark Ages. It is bigoted, intolerant and repressive.
They do not allow open exchanges of information in religion or politics.
They are big on mind control. They are driven to convert the world to
Islam religion, just as the Christians still hope to convert the world to
Christianity. However, the Christian world is still an open society,
whereas the Muslim world is not.
Why Is Our Text Mentioned
Under the Sixth Seal?
Please notice that the "sixth seal" is opened in
Revelation 6:12 and the "seventh seal" is not opened until Revelation 8:1.
Theoretically, we would have preferred it if the Revelator had transposed verse 7:1
somewhere after 8:1. But really, this is no problem.
The "sixth seal" coincides with the Reformation period and
also takes in the French Revolution. Not stopping there the Revelator continues without
pause into the period of the last "seal" and beyond that to include the Great
Company standing triumphantly "before the throne of God" (Revelation 7:14-17).
So, in fact, without a pause the Revelator in
chapter seven passes into the seventh seal without saying so. However, the
student knows from the narrative where the sixth seal ends (with the
French Revolution) and what happens during the seventh seal (after the
saints are "sealed"). The time when this takes place is when the
"angel [Christ] from the rising of the sun [his second presence],
with the seal of the living God" (ESV) is here. This is during the seventh
seal.
There are two scene changes in Revelation 7.
The first
"after these things" (Revelation 7:1) introduces the "four winds."
The second
"after this I beheld" (Revelation 7:9) introduces the Great Company.
The story being told
under the sixth seal does not stop at the end of the sixth seal, but
follows on into the seventh seal and the Kingdom glory before the
throne. Revelation chapter eight
introduces the "seventh seal" belatedly, with many things
already described. It is under this "seal" in point of
time that both the "four winds" are held back and that then successively the Great
Company is glorified. You can do this in story telling and vision telling, just as it was
done here.
What needs to be observed is that the two events described under
the "sixth seal" actually happen under the "seventh seal." Clearly the
"winds" are not loosed, nor is the Great Company taken before the throne until
some time after the "seventh seal" is opened. We have all heard
of getting ahead of you in telling the story. This is what happened here.
What Do We Know About the
"Four Winds"?
The "four winds" have been around for a long while.
"Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four
winds of heaven strove upon the great sea.
[Notice the "four winds"
strove in stirring up the sea, not the earth, sea and trees as in Revelation 7.]
"And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another."
Beast Like a Lion
|
"The
first was like a lion [Babylon], and had eagle’s wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were
plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man’s heart was given to it."
|
Beast Like a Bear
|
"And
behold, another beast, a second, like to a bear [Medo-Persia], and it raised up itself on one side, and
it had three ribs [Heruli, Eastern Exarchate and Ostrogoths] in the mouth of it between the teeth of it; and they said thus unto it:
Arise, devour much flesh."
|
Beast Like a Leopard
|
"After
this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard [Grecia], which had upon the back of it four wings of
a foul; the beast had also four heads [four generals divided the power
of Grecia after Alexander's death]; and dominion was given to it.
|
Dreadful Beast
|
"After
this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast [Rome], dreadful and terrible, and
strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and
stamped the residue with the feet of it...." Daniel 7:2-7
|
The "four winds" were found in Daniel’s time
"striving upon the sea." They were not carrying the same labels
as now. Any religion that could control the people was all that was
necessary. In yesteryear it seems the "winds" were prevented
from reaching whirlwind proportions by allowing each of the "four
winds" a turn at religious power in the successive four empires of a "lion," "bear," "leopard"
and the last dreadful "beast" of Rome.
It was not only Satan who wanted power, but the evil spirits also
wanted to try their hand at religion in world government. A compromise was
reached that allowed a certain rotation of power although Satan always
bullied them.
How the Fallen
Angels Operated
Before and After the Flood
Before the flood, the fallen angels could
materialize and were able to influence the world
through physical force and violence. After the flood, the fallen angels were placed in
chains of darkness.
The Tower of Babel |
The first scheme was to build the Tower of Babel
—
one world
—
"come ... let us make a name
for ourselves" (Genesis 11:4 ESV).
It seems this was an attempt by Satan and the fallen angels to gain
control of humankind through one universal government and probably through the start of
false religion.
|
We know how the Lord frustrated this grab for power, by confusing
the tongues of men and scattering them over the earth. This ended the one-world
government, leaving only false religion open to them.
Sacrificing Children
to Moloch |
"They
sacrificed unto devils [Leeser, evil spirits], not to God; to gods whom they knew
not." Deuteronomy 32:17
Evil spirits were behind many of those terrible religions, starting with Nimrod, then
declining to such debased gods as Moloch, Astoreth, Baal, etc., which so successfully
appealed to Israel.
Evil spirits in religion affected nearly all the nations. |
Sometimes we think evil spirits contented themselves with possessing
people, or in seances in rapping and tapping. But they also strove to control the minds of men and
nations. They enchanted the minds of people with false religion, even as Satan has done in
the development of the "mother of harlots" and her "daughters."
All false religions have appeals to various levels of people. To the
noble-minded, false religion has religious philosophy that can be very high sounding. To
the baser elements, they can appeal to sensuality. To others the appeal may be
superstition and fear.
The important thing to remember is that the demons are involved in more
than witchcraft. They are eager for power and glory and honor, just as is
Satan, and false religion is their modus operandi.
As long as Israel was God’s Kingdom on earth, the Gentile
nations had no hope of universal dominion. The nations were fragmented, and the Lord
apparently did not allow any one nation to have world dominion. After all, it was God that
confused the "tongues" to disperse the peoples.
When the Lord was about to take away Israel as His Kingdom nation,
the "four winds of heaven" (Daniel 7:2 ESV) were "stirring up the great
sea" of restless humanity. Out of this, there arose the four beastly governments
recorded in Daniel.
We think the Lord allowed each of the "four winds" some
representation in the four universal empires. The demons were represented heavily in the
first three world dominions of Babylon, Medo-Persia and Greece (especially the false
religions of these empires). Satan dominates the last dominion of the Roman Empire,
the largest and cruelest of all. The "dragon" of Rome is called the "Devil
and Satan," Rev. 12:9.
"Four winds" in Daniel 8:8:
"Therefore the he goat
[Greece] waxed very great: and
when he was strong, the great horn [Alexander the Great] was broken; and
for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven."
When Alexander died, his four generals (Ptolemy in
Egypt, Seleucus in Asia, Lysimachus in Asia Minor and Cassander in
Macedonia) took control, fragmenting the
empire of Greece to the "four winds of heaven" (to the powers of spiritual
control).
Notice that in Daniel the eighth chapter there are only
two
beasts:
|
(1)
A "GOAT"
representing GREECE. |
(2)
A "RAM"
representing MEDO-PERSIA |
Nothing is said about a "beast" to represent Rome, as in
Daniel chapter seven. That is odd. The explanation for this is that while Rome beat Greece on the battlefield,
Rome was never able to beat
the intellectual influence of Greece. Grecian philosophy, science, and culture cast
a tall shadow over Rome.
The significant thing is that a "little horn"
(papacy) arose to
dominate the "host of heaven" (Daniel 8:10). The fall of Alexander the Great did
not in chapter eight create another "beast," but fused the Grecian goat into the
Roman Empire which somehow accommodated (possibly by overpowering them) all four
"winds of heaven."
The "little horn" was a powerful influence on these
"four winds." It is this influence that amalgamates Rome into one empire. It is
not until the returned Lord gives greater liberties to the evil spirits that the
"four winds" pose a problem again. Then it is that Satan loses considerable
control over the evil spirit world.
