The Revelation of Jesus Christ - The Herald

the four winds will be loosed (Rev. 7:1-3), and will produce the great 'whirlwind' of
trouble in the midst of which the remnant of the Elijah class will be 'changed,' and exalted
to Kingdom glory."
Concerning the whirlwind in connection with which the Prophet Elijah was taken away,
which, if a type, seems evidently to have reference to the same scenes described in this
vision of St. John, the same writer says:
"The whirlwind in the type should be interpreted, in harmony with general Scripture
usage, as signifying a fierce trouble--a trouble, too, which would agitate the heavens or
ecclesiastical powers as an earthquake would represent disturbances of the social
conditions. Thus read in advance of the fulfillment the type seems to imply that the end of
the Elijah class will occur amidst great ecclesiastical commotions, accompanied by fiery
trials--thus we think probably the change will come to the last members of the elect
'body.'"
It would seem, therefore, that the great whirlwind of this vision, relates to the "great day of
God's wrath," the period in which the present world order, civil and religious, will be
swallowed up in anarchy. In the language of another, these symbolic winds represent . . .
". . . combinations and masses of men under the influence of new and exciting opinions;
multitudes and nations roused to passion and uniting in a violent demolition of social and
political institutions, and the destruction of those who obstruct their ambition or repress
their madness, like the whirlwinds driving in every direction over land and sea, stripping
the trees of leaves and boughs, and whirling them into the air, prostrating dwellings,
wrenching the sturdy forests from their seats, and strewing the earth with ruin and the
ocean with wrecks."
The four winds denote that in the climax of the trouble all the various combinations and
masses of men will be acting at one time.
But who or what is represented by the four angels standing on the four corners of the earth
who are commanded by the angel from the sun-rising to hold back the symbolical winds
from blowing, and who, after the sealing work is accomplished, were given power to let
them loose? Some endeavor to interpret them as representing the "little flock" of Christ's
faithful followers. Let us examine this interpretation. First, we inquire, Is the "little flock"
anywhere else represented in the vision? The answer is, They are referred to in plain literal
language as "the servants of God" on the earth who are to be sealed. It is further noted that
after the advent of the angel from the sun-rising, these servants become associated with
him in the work of sealing also: "And he [the angel from the sun-rising] cried with a loud
voice . . . saying, Hurt not the earth, . . . till we [plural] have sealed the servants of our God
in their foreheads." On this point Mr. Russell has remarked that "it is their mission [the
mission of the servants] to gather together the elect and to seal them in the forehead
(intellectually) with the knowledge of the Truth."