Revelation Chapter 18 THE DECLINE AND FALL OF BABYLON (Rev 18:1-24) Introduction to This Chapter It should be said from the outset that Chapter 18 of Revelation has an uncanny resemblance to Volume Four of Studies in the Scriptures. It seems most probable that the “voice from heaven” in Rev 18:4 is the Seventh Messenger to the Church, Charles T. Russell — the same as is symbolized in Rev 17:1 as “one of the seven angels who had the…
As stated in our previous study, nothing in the Scriptures positively assures us that Elisha was a type; but if his experiences from the time Elijah was taken away were typical, it would appear to us that they were in some sense double – that he represented two classes. (1) He would seem in the first part of his experience, accompanying Elijah and serving him and yet being separate from him, to represent what we designate as the second company, the…
2 KINGS 2:12-24 Golden Text: – “Let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.” – 2 Kings 2:9 That Elisha was the son of a wealthy Israelite is evidenced by the fact that his father’s farming was done on a large scale. At the time that Elijah, under divine direction, first approached him and indicated his call to special service by symbolically laying his mantle upon Elisha’s shoulders, the latter was plowing his father’s fields with twelve separate yokes…
The following is the most important aspect I found here in this discourse, as many, myself included have fallen prey to it, and more than once. But “let him that thinketh he stands take heed lest he fall;” for sudden and sharp will be many of the tests applied to prove our continued faithfulness. The world, the flesh and the devil all conspire to allure, ensnare and overcome us. The world will present its allurements through friends or wife or…
In the visions of the Apocalypse (Revelation) we read of a wonderful scroll in the right hand of the great King who sits upon the throne of universal dominion. This scroll is a forceful representation of the divine plan, originally existing only in the mind of God, and which could not be made known to men until someone was found worthy to open the seals and display it to view. But “no one in heaven nor in earth was able…
THE VOICE OF THE THIRD SIGN. (5) Another sign was to be given, the Lord clearly intimating that it would be necessary, and that all of his true people would not hear or heed the “voice” of the first two testimonies. To natural Israel the third sign was the taking of the water from the river, and pouring it upon the earth, where it became blood. They saw merely the sign, the miracle; they read not its meaning, as the spiritual…
THE VOICE OF THE SECOND SIGN. (4) The second sign to be given to the Israelites was that of the leprous hand. Hidden in the bosom, when revealed it was leprous; but when hidden again, and revealed a second time, it was whole. Again, we say that the natural Israelite discerned nothing but the natural sign, but it was intended of God that the spiritual Israelite should discern a much grander lesson, and that a testimony through this grander lesson would…
THE VOICE OF THE FIRST SIGN. (2) At Moses’ second presentation to Israel, he did not address them personally and directly, as at the first, God having said to him, “Aaron shall be thy prophet or mouthpiece, and thou shalt be a god unto Aaron.” This item of the type would seem to imply just what we see to be the fact of the case now, viz., that the Lord Jesus does not address himself to the true Israelites in person…
“When preparing the lessons relating to Moses and his two presentations of himself to the Israelites, as their deliverer from Egyptian bondage (as shown in our previous two blog post), we noted the fact that “these things were written aforetime for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages are come.” (1 Cor 10:11.) And, considering the matter from this standpoint, we perceived, as we had never done before, that the three signs by which the Israelites were convinced that God’s…
Some questions concerning our subject: Sister Debbie stated, I thought all Arabs were descendants of Ishmael son of Abraham and Hagar… In Reply, The Arabs are descendants of Ishmael (Abraham’s son through Hagar, who was not Abraham’s wife but his wife’s handmaid—Gen 16:1–16) who founded the Ishmaelites; and Esau (Abraham’s grandson and Isaac’s eldest son, who sold his birthright to his twin brother, Jacob—Gen 25:19–34) who founded the Edomites. Most of the Arab nations have sprung from one of four…