The Revelation of Jesus Christ - The Herald

existence of this Saracenic power was five months, but rather that its power to torment
men would cover that length of time. Understanding these months to be prophetic
months, one hundred and fifty years would be the length of time of its aggressive warfare
to propagate its false doctrines. And we learn from the historians that it was within that
period that their successful conquests were made; after this time had passed they became
divided, and their success ceased. Mr. Newton in his Dissertations on the Prophecies makes
the statement:
"Read the history of the Saracens and you will find, that their greatest exploits were
performed, their greatest conquests were made between the year 612 AD, when
Mohammed first opened the bottomless pit (abyss) [put himself in contact with the powers
of darkness] and began publicly to teach and propagate his imposture, and the year 762
AD, when the Caliph Almansor built Bagdad, to fix there the seat of his empire, and called
it the city of peace. Syria, Persia, India, and the greater part of Asia; Egypt and the greater
part of Africa; Spain and some parts of Europe were all subdued in the intermediate time.
But when the Caliphs, who before had removed from place to place, fixed their habitation
at Bagdad, then the Saracens ceased from their incursions and ravages like locusts, and
became a settled nation; then they made no more such rapid and amazing conquests as
before, but only engaged in common and ordinary wars like other nations; then their
power and glory began to decline and their empire little by little to moulder away; and
they had no longer, like the prophetic locusts, one king over them. Spain having revolted
in the year 756 AD and set up another Caliph (successor of Mohammed) in opposition to
the reigning house of Abbus."
It is held by some that this vision of the fifth trumpet symbol applies to John Wesley and
the Methodist Church movement. We believe it will be clearly recognized, however, in
view of the foregoing that the Wesleyan movement did not to any extent fulfill the
conditions of this vision, but that, as is conceded generally by Historical expositors, this
fifth trumpet symbol had its fulfillment in the rise of the Mohammedan religion and the
invasions of the Saracens or Arabians.
It is worthy of note that twenty-two out of twenty-six of the most noted Historical
expositors of the Revelation are agreed in applying this fifth trumpet vision to the
Mohammedan power.
Chapter 20: Rev. 9:13-21
The Sixth Trumpet Sounded
"And 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 which had the trumpet, loose the four angels
which are bound in the great river Euphrates."--Rev. 9:13,14.
As we now study the sixth trumpet symbol, we believe that the suggestion in the
preceding exposition will be seen to be fully confirmed, namely that the three trumpets,
fifth, sixth, and seventh, refer in a very special sense to judgments or woes coming upon