"Man has been trying to understand the book of Revelation for two thousand years and the reason so few understood is because they applied the natural, carnal mind to it. They tried by human reasoning to analyze it, work it out, and make it fit some events in the outer world, past, present, or imagined future. Throughout the centuries of history since John penned his words on Patmos men have made the visions of the book “fit” with just about everything there is in the world. Some supposed that it applied to events in Israel and the Roman Empire in the days of the early church, climaxing with the destruction of Jerusalem, the Jewish temple, and the priesthood in A.D. 70, followed by the gospel spreading throughout the earth. Martin Luther made the book fit the events of his day. Emanuel Swedenborg applied the book to events of his day. The Seventh Day Adventists' interpreted the book in the light of events of their early days. Charles T. Russell found the great world-shaking events leading up to and including the First World War in the Revelation. When I was a child, Adolph Hitler, Benito Mussolini, the Pope, and Emperor Hirohito of Japan were believed to be, in differing interpretations, the beast, the false prophet, or the image of the beast. In this view the book of Revelation was being fulfilled by these world leaders and the events they precipitated, they were going to take over the world, and if you did not take the mark of the beast which they would impose, you would be killed. And in our day people are literally sitting on the edge of their seats, listening to prophecy teachers, reading news magazines, watching CNN and Fox News, expecting the book of Revelation to fit the dramatic events unfolding before our very own eyes. I am confident in saying, however, that all these prognosticators, prophecy mongers, and eschatological soothsayers will be just as disappointed and disillusioned, when proven wrong, as were all the other commentators throughout the centuries!"
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"It should now be plain that chapters fifteen and sixteen belong together, and that chapter fifteen constitutes a mighty prelude to the events pictured in the sixteenth chapter of the Revelation. There we saw the overcoming company standing victorious upon the crystal sea of glass, having the harps of God, and singing the song of Moses and the Lamb. We found that song was sung at the occasion of the eve of the pouring out of the seven last plagues. Seven angels stood in priestly attire, ready to receive the command out of the temple of God to go and pour out the last of the plagues, or chastisements and corrections, of God. This is not an ominous or frightening scene at all, for the seven messengers are not only in priestly attire, they are also beautifully arrayed with costly, precious stones; and there is a reflection of both the mercy and reconciliation of God and of His holiness in their very appearance."