Revelation 9:1-4: Then the fifth angel sounded: And I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth. And to him was given the key to the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace. And the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit. Then out of the smoke locusts came upon the earth. And to them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. They were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree, but only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.
Here a new religion is brought to view, with some good teachings—it is a star "fallen from heaven," but it is mixed with "smoke" out of the "bottomless pit." The gospel is the sunshine of the world; but this new power darkens the gospel sun and the spiritual air which the world needs.
Islam began by condemning the evil of idolatry as wrongly practised in the apostate Christian church; and, so far, it was right. Never are we to bow down to idols. There is indeed only one God; and none are to be worshipped but Him. Only by blatant disregard of the teachings of the Bible could the theologians of the Dark Ages justify idol-worship. But the teachings of Islam which were a necessary scourge to an apostate church brought further "smoke" into the world. The rejection of the pure New Testament sunshine of the gospel has prepared the way for darkness to erupt from "the pit."
The "bottomless pit" in the Greek means any desolate wilderness, and thus fitly represents the desert of Arabia whence came the Arab Muslim invaders, in number like unto locusts.
The Greek word for "bottomless pit" is abyssos, from which we get our modern English word abyss. Modern Muslim writers use that very word in describing the Arabian society from which the power of Islam arose:
Arabia—The Abyss of Darkness
In that benighted era, there was a territory where darkness lay heavier and thicker. .. . Arabia . .. stood isolated, cut off by vast oceans of sand. Arab traders plodding great distances . . . could hardly acquire any grain of knowledge on their journeys. In their own country, they did not have a single educational institution or library. None seemed to be interested in the cultivation and advancement of knowledge. .. . How saturated were their minds with superstitions, how barbarous and ferocious were their thoughts and customs, and how uncouth and degraded were their moral standards and conceptions.. . . There was no law except the law of the jungle. Loot, arson, and murder of innocent and weak people was the order of the day. . . . Any trivial incident was enough to cause a war to blaze out in ferocious fury. . . . Whatever notions they had of morals, culture, and civilization, were primitive and uncouth. . . . They worshipped stones, trees, idols, stars, and spirits, in short, everything conceivable except God."
Out of this "abyss" arose the scourge of Christendom. King Chosroes II of Persia received a letter one day from an obscure citizen of Mecca, inviting him to recognize Mohammed as the prophet of God. The king contemptuously tore up the letter. Little did he know that soon he himself would fall utterly, and his kingdom be destroyed, and that this strange prophet from Mecca would dominate the world.
The fall of Chosroes is said by some to have been the "key of the bottomless pit," because Mohammed could not have arisen to political and military power except as the Persian kingdom should fall first. Then the Saracens from Arabia were "given power," multiplying immensely until they became as locusts for number. One writer, not thinking of the book of Revelation, said of these followers of Mohammed: "Like locusts, the Osmanlis swarmed in all directions, and no village missed their notice up to the very walls of Constantinople." 22 As a scorpion strikes, so they exacted a cruel revenge in warfare.
When Mohammed died, he was succeeded by Abubaker in A.D 632, who mobilized the Arabian tribes for conquest. He instructed them to respect the religious convictions of people who observed the law of God faithfully. His men were to scourge only those who worshipped idols. This glimpse of history reveals the early spirit of Islam. (Even today Muslims respect those who truly reverence the Word of God). He commanded his soldiers:
"Let not your victory be stained with the blood of women or children. Destroy no palm trees, nor burn any fields of corn. Cut down no fruit trees, nor do any mischief to cattle, only such as you kill to eat. . . . You will find some religious persons who live retired in monasteries, and propose, to themselves to serve God that way; let them alone, and neither kill them nor destroy their monasteries: and you will find another sort of people that belong to the Synagogue of Satan, who have shaven crowns; be sure you cleave their skulls, and give them no quarter till they either turn Mohammedans or pay tribute."
Who were the people with the "seal of God in their foreheads" that Abubaker's soldiers were commanded to spare? All through history there have been faithful observers of the Lord's true Sabbath, which has always been the "seal of God" (see chapter seven). In the days of Mohammed and Abu-baker there were some such faithful ones. It seems that a higher authority than Abu-baker overruled for the protection of His faithful people! Here we see an example of that incense of mercy still being offered during those dark ages of the trumpets.
But the wars to come of attrition and conquest were terrible enough. John now tries to describe Saracen battle scenes where guns and gunpowder are used when in his day he has never heard of such inventions:
Revelation 9:5-11: And they were not given authority to kill them, but to torment them for five months. And their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man. In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will desire to die, and death will flee from them. And the shape of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle; and on their heads were crowns of something like gold, and their faces were like the faces of men. They had hair like women's hair, and their teeth were like lions' teeth. And they had breastplates like breasplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots with many horses running into battle. They had tails like scorpions, and there were stings in their tails. And their power was to hurt men five months. And they had as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but in Greek he has the name Apollyon.
This description may seem fantastic to us today, but to the people living within the "security" of the Eastern Roman Empire, reports of the Saracen hordes of conquest sounded much like this. Like reports of a plague of locusts on its way, citizens of the empire lived under the constant shadow of the Islamic scourge.
The Arabians used horses extensively in their wars of conquest. The "crowns" may be the turban, which was for a long time a distinctive national head-dress of the Arabians. The soldiers had long hair.
Here we have a test of the accuracy of the prophecy and the historical fulfilment of the "five months." In Bible prophecy a day is a symbol of a year (see notes on chapter 2:10). There are 30 days to a month in Bible prophecy (compare Genesis 7:11; 8:4; and 7:24; also compare the 42 months of Revelation 11:2, and the 1,260 days of 11:3 and 12:6). Thus "five months" of prophetic time would equal 150 years.
The Saracens (Muslims) were "given authority" to "torment" the civilized Eastern Roman Empire for these 150 years, but not to "kill them," that is, not to conquer them. The 150 years should begin from the time that "they had a king over them." The book of Proverbs says "the locusts have no king, yet they all advance in ranks" (Proverbs 30:27). But the "locusts" of the Muslim invaders were highly organized in a destructive work, for they had a ruler whose commands they followed.
For hundreds of years after Mohammed's death, his followers were divided into various groups and factions with no central government or king. But near the end of the 13th century, Othman founded an organized government which has been known as the Ottoman Empire. "The angel of the bottomless pit" is called an "angel" in the sense of the Greek word which also means "messenger" or "minister." The Sultan became chief minister of the Muslim religion. The names in Hebrew, "Abaddon," and in Greek, "Apollyon, "mean "one who destroys." Such was always the character of the Ottoman rulers.
Earnest students of the Bible 150 years ago searched out fulfilment of this prophecy in history, and found that Othman, first "king" of the Muslims, made his initial attack to "torment" the civilized world of the Eastern Roman Empire in A.D. 1299- These prophecy students depended on Edward Gibbons' positive statement that the attack occurred on July 27 of that year.
We ask, did the Ottoman Turks "torment" the Eastern Roman Empire for 150 years? History tells us that they maintained an almost constant war of harassment and torment from A.D. 1299 through 1449, exactly 150 years, without completely dominating them. Then a great change came.
The Eastern Roman emperors had become gradually weaker and more corrupt until it became clear to everyone that they would soon lose their independence. When the Emperor John died on October 31, 1448, his brothers humbly sought the consent of the Turkish Sultan, Murad II, to choose their elder brother to be crowned as the new emperor in January 1449. Thus, in bowing to the Sultan of Turkey, they acknowledged that their independence was at an end. Remember this; it is an important detail.
Revelation 9:12-15. One woe is past. Behold, still two more woes are coming after these things. Then the sixth angel sounded: And I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, "Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates." 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 "one woe" was the rise of the Muslim power. The second "woe" to follow is the triumph of that power. It was to apply the coup de grace to the last vestige of the Roman Empire and henceforth terrorize Europe for hundreds of years. The "third woe" is to be the final frightful anger of the nations, with God's judgment-wrath which will bring a close to our world's history (see chapter 11:18).
Now, in A.D. 1449, the "sixth angel" looses the restraint which had heretofore prevented the Muslims from actually conquering the wealthy and powerful Eastern Empire. The "four angels . . . bound at the great river Euphrates" can refer to the four separate Muslim provinces of Aleppo, Iconium, Damascus, and Baghdad. The way was opened, the obstacles removed, for the Sultan later to wage successful war against Europe.
Constantinople actually fell to the Turkish armies in A.D. 1453. But note this: In 1449, when the "five months" of prophetic time, 150 years, came to an end, the independence of the European empire was lost not by force of arms, but by the emperor meekly and voluntarily surrendering his independence into the hands of the Turks. In effect he said, "I cannot reign unless you first permit." Remember this, as we proceed, for we will shortly see something most important.
How long was the Ottoman Moslem empire to continue ruling in independence? The text says: for a period designated as "the hour and day and month and year." The article "the" appears in the Greek only once at the beginning of the phrase, indicating that it is a linear period. In Bible prophecy:
One "year" of 360 days is 360 literal years.
One "month" of 30 days is 30 years.
One "day" of 24 hours is 1 year.
One "hour" 1 x 24th of a year, or 15 days literally.
Add up the totals and we have 391 years and 15 days.
When did this period of 391 years and 15 days begin? Clearly, at the end of the 150 years when the Moslems should cease "tormenting" the Eastern Empire and proceed to conquer it. Bible students added the 150 years to Gibbon's beginning date of July 27,1299 and came to July 27, 1449; then they added the 391 literal years and came to July 27, 1840. Then they added the remaining 15 days, which brought the end of the prophetic period to August 11, 1840.
Did the Turkish Sultan lose his independence on that very day by meekly and voluntarily surrendering it to the European rulers in the same way that the Eastern Roman Emperor lost his to the Sultan in 1449?
Bible students of prophecy boldly predicted in 1838 that the Sultan of Turkey would lose his independence in August 1840. This was a public test of the year-day principle of interpreting prophecy.
The fulfillment would also establish that the Book of Revelation is pointing to something vastly more important than the rise and fall of the Muslim empire. Revelation is the key that God places in our hands to unlock the mystery of His judgment on our modern rebellious world Where the careless reader sees nothing but desert wastes without meaning, we find in Revelation hidden riches of vast importance to the people of God.
In a moment we shall see what history says happened on August 11, 1840.
First, let us look briefly at what John says as to how the Turkish Muslim armies once terrified the Europeans for centuries. John is intrigued by the use of gunpowder, and may allude to the frightful loss of life that has followed this invention:
Revelation 9:16-19: Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million, and I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision: those who sat on them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow; and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone. By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed—by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths. For their power is in their mouth and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents, having heads; and with them they do harm.
This description is highly figurative. John is describing what he saw in the best language available to him at the time he lived. He knew nothing, had never even dreamed, of gunpowder or firearms.
There never has been an army of 200 million horsemen; either this is a Greek expression denoting vast numbers in general, or it includes all the soldiers and their supporters in all the armies of the Ottoman empire during the four centuries of its power. As verses 15 and 16 go together, this would seem to be the meaning. It figuratively denotes vast hordes.
It is here that history records the use of gunpower for the first time in human history. To John the sight of fierce Muslim warriors on horseback shooting their guns would look as if the "fire, smoke, and brimstone" issued out of the horses' mouths.
Until A.D. 1453, the walls of Constantinople had resisted attack by many armies. Thus the empire had survived. But now the Ottoman Turks used the newly-invented massive gunpowder cannon to demolish those once-impregnable walls. Thus was razed the last defence of the proud Roman Empire. The old thousand-year civilization was now in ruins.
But at last in 1840 selfishness and corruption had paralyzed the once-proud Muslim empire. In 1838 there was war between the Sultans of Turkey and Egypt, with Egypt victorious. In 1840, four powerful European nations interfered for fear that Egypt might take the Sultan's throne. In his distress, the weak Sultan voluntarily surrendered his independence into the hands of these four European nations, leaving them to manage his affairs. He sent an envoy to the ruler of Egypt to deliver a message from the four European nations, which message placed his affairs in their hands.
The date? It was on the 11th of August, 1840, that this messenger arrived in Alexandria, and on that day placed the message in the hands of the ruler of Egypt!
On that day, the Sultan had meekly surrendered his independence in the same way that Murad II of the Eastern Roman Empire had surrendered his to the Sultan in 1449. The once vast Ottoman Empire is today splintered into the Balkan states. And since that day, Muslim Turkey in Europe has existed only at the sufferance and with the support of the European nations.
When this fact became known, multitudes of Bible readers were convinced of the correctness of the year-day principle of interpreting Bible prophecy. What seemed to be unimportant history in reality provided the most convincing proof that the books of Daniel and the Revelation are inspired of God, and present a message of the utmost importance to all the inhabitants of the earth today. An apparently insignificant event became a key in unlocking Revelation.
Modern researchers and scholars may differ on precise details of the exact chronology that marked the beginning and the end of this 391 year period. The amazing thing is that the principal events of the long Ottoman history are so accurately foretold. As we saw in Daniel, the response of history is like one half of a broken stone fitting the other. Many infidels were converted in the 1840's by witnessing the fulfilment of this prophecy which sustained the year-day principle; and the faith of untold millions of people since has been strengthened by it. Surely the Lord directed in those events as a fulfillment of prophecy.
Revelation 9:20, 21: But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk; and they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.
Although the hordes of Muslims were let loose on the apostate Christian world, people refused to learn the lesson of repentance. European history during the time of the six trumpets is an almost unbroken record of vanity, arrogance, pride, and cruelty. Thus we see that God permits "woes" to come upon the world to bring sinners to their senses, and to lead them to respond to the gospel. Woe after woe comes; yet still they love their sin. Will the "third woe" lead them to repentance? When that time comes, it will be too late!