The Revelation of Jesus Christ
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. t f the pit as the smoke of a "There ar?,se a dsmfedlu t~is refers to the "strong delu great furnace. Un ou te yd !read sion" to which we have referre ad k y. d b reason of the "The sun ~~~ ,}1ii~ ::n';ee;;ese~set~~ So~ of God, who is smoke of the pit. f I' ht in the spiritual realm. The de the supreme SourceH. ig h' Satan is "the prince of the lusion will blo~ <;>,ut is te~c m;d we see him portrayed here power of the air (Eph. 2.21, af the intellectual kingdom of as being in supreme contra o apostate Christendom. In the earl dawn of humanity the devil said to Eve, ~hen she told him tiat she and Adam were not to eat of the fru~t ~f the tree "in the midst of the garden," that they would die if they did: "Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes sh~}I be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil (Gen. 3:4, 5). From that day to this, the devil has been instillin_g lies into the very souls of men wherever he can: and by trymg to hu manize God and deify man, be has caused thousands to be lost. The gross spiritual darkness of the end-time will be no new thing: it will be only an intensified form of the darkness that has been in the world ever since sin entered. · "And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power." This plague of locusts is a symbolical picture, which represents the spreading over Christendom, of the false teaching referred to. When locusts settle down upon a terri tory, a veritable plague, they devastate completely every green_. growing thing. Just so completely will the damnable doct_rmes (?f the devil blight the minds of men, that, when Chnst returns, He will not find the faith on the earth. "It was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree: bfut only those men which have not the seal of God In their oreheads." If we were to interpret this passage literally, and believe thes~ to be locusts as we know them then we should have to btdit that they wo~ld do the very thing they are here for- 1 en to do: that 1s, eat "the grass" and growing things.
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