Historical Sources — Study R.7: Trumpets 5-6 (Rev 9)¶
Search 1: "fifth trumpet locust army Saracen"¶
PFF4 78.2 (Froom) — Farnham's interpretation¶
"The Saracenic locusts of the fifth trumpet swarmed out of Arabia, with power to hurt men for five 'prophetic months,' or 150 years — from 612 to 762, when they made their great conquests in Syria, Persia, India, Egypt, Africa, and Spain."
PFF2 514 (Froom) — 150-year Saracenic woe¶
"FIFTH TRUMPET — 150-YEAR PERIOD OF SARACENIC WOE"
PFF2 585.4 (Froom) — Beverley's identification¶
"Beverley states that the 'Mahometan Saracens are the Locusts' of the fifth trumpet, with their five months. And the sixth trumpet includes the Turks and the taking of Constantinople in connection with the hour, day, month, and year period, and involving the year 1453."
PFF4 363.2 (Froom) — Combined dating¶
"The fifth trumpet unfolds the Saracenic conquests — the Mohammedan 'locusts' with their 'five months' of prophetic time, or 150 years of tormenting from 612 to 762. The sixth trumpet, or second woe, indicates the Ottoman Turks. Their hour-day-month-and-year period, or the 391 years and 15 days of Revelation 9:15, he extends from 1281 (the capture of Cutahi) to their last conquest (of Kameniec) in 1672."
PFF2 721.1 (Froom) — Wood's dating¶
"Wood applies the fifth and sixth trumpets to the Saracens and Turks — the 150 years of the Saracen locusts extending from the invasion of Syria in 630 to the defeat in Cilicia, in 780, and the Turkish period beginning in 1030."
Search 2: "sixth trumpet Euphrates Ottoman"¶
CUNINGHAME 3786 — Ottoman / VI. Trumpet identification¶
"The Ottomans — VI. Trumpet"
FABER 2063 — Euphrates = Ottoman power¶
"Under the sixth trumpet, the four Turkish sultanies, the mystic waters of the Ottoman empire, issued from the river Euphrates: under the sixth vial, the waters of the same Euphrates are to be completely dried up. We cannot therefore reasonably doubt, that the symbolical Euphrates means in both cases the same power."
PFF3 699.1 (Froom) — Turkish woe¶
"The sixth trumpet is the Turkish woe, beginning to sound on the Euphrates and Tigris with Thorgrul Beg in 1057, and continuing the hour, day, month, and year..."
Search 3: "five months 150 years trumpet"¶
SSP 172.1 (Haskell) — Calculation explained¶
"Five prophetic months is the equivalent of one hundred and fifty literal years, one day meaning a year, and counting thirty days to the month. Since the exact day for the beginning of this power is given, the expiration of the five months may be reckoned to the day. It closed July 27, 1449. It is these dates which enable the student of the trumpets, to locate the events which take place under each trumpet. These dates are 'nails in a sure place' for both the first and the second woe."
PFF4 736.4 (Froom) — Millerite dating¶
"The 150 years of the fifth trumpet are from 1299 to 1449, when the sixth trumpet begins. (Not from Miller's earlier date; and no mention is made of the specific end date of the sixth trumpet.)"
MWSV2 1322.20 (Miller) — Ottoman beginning¶
"1299 A.D. One hundred and fifty years of the Fifth Trumpet. Beginning of the Ottoman Empire, by Othman, (Gibbon, vol. 4, p.299) — or the 'five months.' Revelation 9:5."
Search 4: "hour day month year 391"¶
PFF3 637 (Froom) — Calculation¶
"HOUR, DAY, MONTH, AND YEAR IS 391 YEARS" (section heading confirming the standard historicist calculation)
PREX2 226 (Litch) — "THE DAY AND THE HOUR"¶
Search 5: "trumpets warnings before judgment"¶
EGW 25LtMs, Ms 63, 1910, par. 2¶
"The God of heaven will not send His judgments until the people are warned. He calls His watchmen to give the warning in a distinct, decided manner. His ministers are to extend the message of warning. The watchmen must give the trumpet a certain sound in messages of warning."
EGW LL 375.2¶
"In our large cities every kind of wickedness imaginable is being revealed... there are some who are listening for the trumpet to give the signal of alarm. But they listen in vain. The appropriate warnings have not been given."
Search 6: "Abaddon Apollyon destroyer angel bottomless pit"¶
ELLIOTT1 2662 — Full verse text with commentary context¶
"And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit: whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon; but in the Greek tongue he hath his name Apollyon."
HENRY 64434 — Matthew Henry's commentary¶
"(8.) The king and commander of this hellish squadron is here described: [1.] As an angel; so he was by nature an angel, once one of the angels of heaven. [2.] The angel of the bottomless pit; an angel still, but a fallen angel, fallen into the bottomless pit... [4.] Abaddon, Apollyon — i.e., the Destroyer."
SSTR 47.4 / PREX2 179.1 (Litch) — Dating via Abaddon¶
"When were they to begin their work of torment? The 11th verse answers the question: 'They had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek hath his name Apollyon.'"
MEDE 646 (Mede) — Abaddon as the Destroyer¶
"His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he has the name of Apollyon, that is, the Destroyer."
BARNESREV 701 — Barnes on Rev 9:11¶
Full verse citation with cross-reference markers to commentary discussion.
Search 7: "Rev nine locust scorpion torment five months"¶
TNEWTON 3518 (Thomas Newton) — Five months explained¶
"One difficulty, and the greatest of all, remains yet to be explained; and that is the period of five months assigned to these locusts... They tormented men five months (ver. 5.) and (ver. 10.) their power was to hurt men five months. It is said without doubt in conformity to the type; for locusts are observed to live about five months, that is from April to September. Scorpions too, as Bochart asserts, are noxious for no longer..."
KPC 43.1 (Uriah Smith) — Key to the Prophetic Chart¶
"And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven to the earth... And there came out locusts upon the earth, and the shape of the locusts was like horses prepared unto battle and their power was to hurt men five months [150 prophetic days]."
MWV2 118.1 (William Miller) — Five months = 150 years¶
"Five months is in prophecy 150 years. To torment as a scorpion, etc., is to make sudden incursions and irruption into the country, etc. Then this is the sentiment to me conveyed in the text: And the Turkish armies would not have power to destroy the Papal powers for 150 years..."
LJL 46.1 (Charles Fitch) — Full imagery¶
"John, in the Revelation 9th chapter, saw locusts, in shape like unto horses prepared unto battle, with crowns of gold on their heads, their faces as the faces of men, and their hair as the hair of women, with breastplates of iron, their sound as of chariots and many horses rushing to battle, with tails like unto scorpions, and stings in their tails, and power to hurt men five months; (150 days, i.e., years.)"
Search 8: "Ottoman independence 1840 August Josiah Litch prediction"¶
HF 209.3 (EGW — Heading for the Future)¶
"In 1840 another remarkable fulfillment of prophecy excited widespread interest. Two years before, Josiah Litch published an exposition of Revelation 9, predicting the fall of the Ottoman Empire 'in A.D. 1840, sometime in the month of August.' Only a few days previous to its accomplishment he wrote: 'It will end on the 11th of August, 1840, when the Ottoman power in Constantinople may be expected to be broken.'"
GC 334.4 (EGW — Great Controversy, 1888/1911)¶
"In the year 1840, another remarkable fulfillment of prophecy excited widespread interest. Two years before, Josiah Litch, one of the leading ministers preaching the second advent, published an exposition of Revelation 9, predicting the fall of the Ottoman Empire. According to his calculations, this power was to be overthrown 'in A.D. 1840, sometime in the month of August'; and only a few days previous to its accomplishment he wrote: 'Allowing the first period, 150 years, to have been exactly fulfilled...'"
Mar 152.4 (EGW — Maranatha)¶
"Josiah Litch... published an exposition of Revelation 9, predicting the fall of the Ottoman empire. According to his calculations, this power was to be overthrown 'in A.D. 1840, sometime in the month of August'..."
WWPGC 28.3 (EGW — Working Papers GC)¶
"The statement is made that Josiah Litch, in interpreting the prophecy of Revelation 9, specified 'not only the year but the very day on which' the Ottoman empire would fall. It appears from one of Litch's pamphlets... that he did not name the definite day until after the event, but simply claimed that the prophecy would be fulfilled 'in August, 1840.'"
GSAM 129 (Loughborough)¶
"Dr. Josiah Litch Predicts the Fall of the Ottoman Empire" (section heading)
Search 9: "Mohammed Islam false prophet Arabia conquest"¶
GIBBON5 80 — Conquest of Mecca¶
"The conquest of Mecca determined the faith and obedience of the Arabian tribes... Yet an obstinate remnant still adhered to the religion and liberty of their ancestors, and the war of Honain derived a proper appellation from the idols of the ancient Arabs."
FABER 830 — Mohammed as prophetic horn¶
"The religion of Mohammed was originally small in the number of its proselytes; but it soon waxed exceeding great... Its conquests extended southward over the peninsula of Arabia; eastward, over Persia and in after ages over Hindostan; and northward, over Palestine, Asia Minor, and Greece."
FABER 1193 — The fallen star as Mohammed¶
"In the year 606, Mohammed committed the first overt act of his imposture by retiring to the cave of Hera: consequently then it was, that the fallen star Sergius opened the door of the bottomless pit. The locusts however and their leader did not immediately issue forth, or publicly disclose themselves: their open manifestation was to be preceded by the smoke and fumes of the false religion which they were about to propagate."
SCHAFF4 1542 — Califs' battle-cry¶
"The Califs, Mohammed's successors, who like him united the priestly and kingly dignity, carried on his conquests with the battle-cry: 'Before you is paradise, behind you are death and hell.' Inspired by an intense fanaticism... the wild sons of the desert... subdued Palestine, Syria..."
Search 10: "four angels bound Euphrates released sultan Ottoman Turkish"¶
TBI 264.2 (Uriah Smith — Biblical Institute)¶
"The river Euphrates must here be taken for a symbol of that kingdom of which it was the principal river, which was the Ottoman or Turkish Empire. The four angels are supposed to mean the four chief Sultans of which that Empire was composed. These were Iconium, Aleppo, Damascus, and Bagdad."
DAR1909 508.1 (Uriah Smith)¶
"The Four Angels. — These were the four principal sultans of which the Ottoman empire was composed, located in the country watered by the great river Euphrates. These sultans were situated at Aleppo, Iconium, Damascus, and Bagdad."
MEDE 662 (Joseph Mede)¶
"The four angels signify so many sultanies, or kingdoms, into which the Turks were divided, when, after crossing the Euphrates, they poured themselves on the neighbouring tracts of Asia and Syria. These, Christopher Richer, from Scilex, a Greek author, thus enumerates: The Asian, the Aleppian, the Damascene, and the Antiochian."
SSP 172.2 (Haskell)¶
"A voice was heard from the four horns of the altar... saying, 'Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.' During the one hundred and fifty years, the Turks had power to torment, but when their armies seemed on the very verge of victory over the Greek Empire, their force was abated by troubles from the regions of the Euphrates."
PSC 155.1 (Josiah Litch)¶
"The four angels denote ministers of judgment. They refer to the four nations of the Seljukan Turks of which the Ottoman empire was composed, located near the Euphrates."
Search 11: "two hundred thousand horsemen fire brimstone gunpowder"¶
ESH 41.2 (William Miller) — 400,000 horsemen¶
"'The number of the army of horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand'... This army is equivalent to the four angels, when they were let loose, and two hundred thousand thousand, is 200,000 twice told or repeated; making 400,000. This agrees with the history of the taking of Constantinople. 'After a long siege Mahomet II took Constantinople in 1453,' having an army of 400,000 and almost all of them horsemen."
CUNINGHAME 1272 — Red, blue, yellow = fire, hyacinth, brimstone¶
"The forces of the angels are afterwards described as consisting of two hundred thousand thousand horsemen, by which an indefinitely great multitude is intended... It is said that they had breastplates of fire, and hyacinth, and brimstone; or in other words, red, blue, and yellow. 'This,' says Bishop Newton (from Daubuz), 'had a literal accomplishment, for the Ottomans...'"
DAR 482.2 (Uriah Smith) — Turkish uniform colors¶
"The first part of this description may have reference to the appearance of these horsemen. Fire, representing a color, stands for red... jacinth, or hyacinth, for blue; and brimstone, for yellow. And these colors greatly predominated in the dress of these warriors; so that the description... would be accurately met in the Turkish uniform, which was composed largely of red, or scarlet, blue, and yellow."
Search 12: "star fall heaven bottomless pit key smoke"¶
ELLIOTT1 2766 — Full fifth trumpet text¶
"The fifth angel sounded: and I saw a star fallen from the heaven to the earth; and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit..."
SSTR 31.2 (EGW compilation)¶
"Chap. 9:1. 'And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.'"
HENRY 64430 — Matthew Henry on the star¶
Full verse text with commentary noting the sequence: star falls, key given, pit opened, smoke ascends, locusts emerge.
Search 13: "repented not idols gold silver brass stone wood"¶
HENRY 64437 — Matthew Henry on Rev 9:20-21¶
"And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues, yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts."
BARNESREV 731 — Barnes on Rev 9:20¶
Full verse text with reference markers [307], [308], [309] pointing to commentary notes.