The Revelation of Jesus Christ - The Herald

voice of the Lord is powerful . . . is full of majesty." The verses that follow in the Psalm
describe the effects of the Lord's voice, "It breaketh the cedars," etc. The summing up of the
significance of the words is that "the Lord will give [His] strength unto His people."--Psa.
29:11.
When thunders are said to proceed from the throne of God as in Rev. 4:5, they represent
God's glorious and awful majesty; but when fire comes down in connection with it as in
Rev. 8:5, it represents some judgment of God upon the world. Very frequently thunders
represent the voices of men in controversy. Sir Isaac Newton, a very reverent and godly
believer and Biblical expositor, said: "Thunder or the voice of a cloud represents the voice
of a multitude." In the vision we are now considering, the thunder-voices are described as
being a response given to the lion-like voice of the mighty angel. It would therefore seem
to represent the effects produced upon the peoples of earth by the message delivered
through the voice (messengers) of Christ at the time of the vision--that this message would
affect different classes oppositely, producing controversies. The fact that St. John was
forbidden to write the things which the seven thunders uttered would signify that it
would not be necessary to disclose what these controversial voices uttered. We would
remind the reader that all the things thus far noted in the vision had their fulfillment
before the receiving and the eating of the little book by St. John.
Has this vision yet been fulfilled? Answer by the Historian.
Having before us in the brief outline above, a general sketch of the symbols of this vision
and what they would logically be expected to teach and require in their fulfillment, we
now inquire: When did the vision begin to meet its fulfillment, and what were the events,
occurrences, and proceedings in history that accomplished it? As it seems evident that the
vision covers a long period of time, it will be interesting to discover when it began to be
unfolded in history. If it is yet future, we certainly would be assuming the role of a
prophet to even attempt to foretell the time when it will be fulfilled. This, we would not
do. If it is in the past, it should be our privilege as students of prophecy to locate it in the
records of the historian. Was there ever a period in history when there were events and
instrumentalities corresponding to the angel that appeared, uttering his voice as a lion, to
which the voices of seven thunders responded?
In our search to discover this time, it will be helpful to keep fresh in mind what we have
heretofore noted, namely that the trumpet visions touch upon all the prominent, worldwide
transactions that have occurred in connection with the Church's history from the
beginning of the Age to the end. Let the reader note again what we have found to be the
order in which these transactions occurred:
1. The overthrow of the Pagan religion about 325 AD.
2. The downfall of the Western Roman Empire (Christian, so-called), 476 AD.
3. The rise of Papacy and its polluting the channels of truth, beginning about 539 AD.