The Revelation of Jesus Christ - The Herald

4. The evil influence of the Papacy in beclouding the true hope of the Church and the
world--the hope to be realized through Messiah's Kingdom.
5. The advent of Mohammed into the religious realm, and the great judgment woes that
came upon earth's inhabitants, particularly upon those who were the followers of the
Paganized form of Christianity that prevailed in the many lands invaded by the
Mohammedan armies; as the historian has recorded, the agencies who propagated the
false Mohammedan religion by the force of armies, were in two divisions. One of these,
that under the Saracens, operated under the fifth trumpet symbol.
6. A second agency or division represented in four other Mohammedan powers, were the
Ottoman Turks, who operated under the sixth trumpet symbol. While the last of these
great powers, with its corrupt religion, has continued up to the present time, the
aggressive efforts to propagate its false religion through the force of armies ceased long
ago.
In our search to discover the time in history when the vision under consideration--the lionlike
voice of the angel--began its fulfillment, it will be well to keep in mind that the
symbols require that we look for a great movement in the interest of true Christianity, one
that is in a very special sense inspired by the great Head of the Church, and that it is at a
time when the cause of Christ has seemingly met an utter defeat.
Searching the annals of history we discover an event recorded by all historians which
fulfills every feature of the first part of this symbolic vision. This event was one that
affected in a most remarkable manner the general condition of mankind, and the Lord's
consecrated in particular. Historians have filled many large volumes in describing these
occurrences. The effects of these great transactions are seen today in not only the professed
Christian world, but in the nations and peoples of earth as well. This event began to
transpire in the early part of the sixteenth century, and is called the Great Protestant
Reformation.
Scripture expositors very generally apply this vision to this great movement. One of these
speaks of it as fulfilling certain predictions of Daniel. He calls it the beginning of a work of
"cleansing the sanctuary," the Little Flock class, from errors that had been received through
the Papacy. He refers to it as a work that has had to do with bringing back to the Church
the holy vessels (precious truths) that had been lost sight of, except by a few, for long
centuries previous.
Before noting how the events of history have unveiled this wonderful, prophetic vision,
we will first note that the conditions existing in both the civil and religious world just
previous to the great Reformation were of that nature that called for such a display of
Christ's power operating through specially chosen agencies, as is portrayed in the opening
verses of this symbolic vision. These conditions are described in the closing verse of
chapter 9 which is under the sixth trumpet. These words are: