Revelation 9: 13 And the angel sounded, and I heard a Voice from the four horns of the golden [incense] altar which is before God, 14 saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, “Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates”. [These are the Babylonian destroyers.] 15 And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a and a year, for to slay the third part of men. 16 And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand [200,000,000]: and I heard the number of them. ***************(End Quote) (The number of professed Christian adherents is quoted today (2011) as 2.5 BILLION, with Islam numbered as 1.5 BILLION.) That this time prophecy be understood from history is explained in the next quote. What it means for us in the future is not as clear, but since the “day for a year” principle no longer applies we can be sure that something serious will happen over a period of little more than a year and will finish abruptly. This knowledge that this will last only a short of time may give us some consolation when it begins. ***************(Begin Quote) {Great Controversy 334.4 - 335.1} In the year 1840 another remarkable fulfillment of prophecy excited widespread interest. Two years before [in 1838], Josiah Litch, one of the leading ministers preaching the second advent, published an exposition of Revelation 9, predicting the fall of the Ottoman Empire. According to his calculations, this was to be overthrown “in A.D. 1840, sometime in the month of August;” and only a few days previous to its accomplishment he wrote: “Allowing the first period, 150 years, to have been exactly fulfilled before Deacozes ascended the throne by permission of the Turks, and that the 391 years, fifteen days, commenced at the close of the first period, it will end on the 11th of August, 1840, when the Ottoman power in Constantinople may be expected to be broken. And this, I believe,
to destroy their enemies. Everywhere there is strife and bloodshed. {GC 655.4} ***************(End Quote) John was now brought back to the heavenly scene in his vision. ***************(Begin Quote) Revelation 11: 16 And the twenty-four elders which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, 17 saying, “We give You thanks, O LORD God Almighty, which are, and were, and are to come; because You have taken to You Your great power, and have reigned. 18 “And the nations WERE angry, and Your wrath [the seven last plagues] IS come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged [Revelation 20:4], and that You should give reward to Your servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear Your name, small and great; and should destroy them which destroy the earth [the Lake of Fire]”. ***************(End Quote) They were saying, “We can go with You and collect our brethren”. It is the time for the Second Advent. Quote) Revelation 11: 19 And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and was seen in His temple the ark of His testament [the Ten Commandments]: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail. ***************(End Quote) With this scene God vindicates those who have kept the Ten Commandments when all the world had rejected the fourth one. Quote) {Great Controversy 639.1 – 640.2} Then there appears against the sky a hand holding two tables of stone folded together. Says the prophet: “The heavens shall declare His righteousness: for God is judge Himself.” Psalm 50:6. That holy law, God's righteousness, that amid thunder and flame was proclaimed from Sinai as the guide of life, is now revealed to men as the rule of judgment. The hand opens the tables, and there are seen the precepts of the Decalogue, traced as with a pen of fire.