Dennis Pumford’s Revelation Decoded Weekly – It’s Later then you Think

It’s later than you think. 

Last week we studied about how the Ottoman Empire  with its center in Constantinople, could be the seventh  head on the dragon, and the beasts of Revelation 12, 13  and 17. It certainly fits in that it was the last of the  empires that ruled the area of Palestine. It also fits well  into the last verses of Daniel 11 as Uriah Smith and S. N.  Haskell pointed out in their commentaries on Daniel.  Both of their commentaries were written before the  Ottoman Empire “came to its end.” Revelation 17 says  that “it must remain a little while.” If the emphasis is on  “it must remain,” rather than on “a little while,” than we  could look for some reason for an extension of its life—  some reason for it to be put on life support. We pointed  out that the Ottoman Empire was known as the “Sick  Man of the East.” It survived well beyond its zenith,  which came about in the 16th century when it was the  mightiest empire in the world. So why would it need to  be kept alive? Because in Daniel 12:1 (the next verse  which should flow without a break), it says, “At that  time Michael, the great Prince who stands guard over the  sons of your people, will arise. And there will be a time  of trouble such as has not occurred since there was a  nation until that time.”   

Question: If the Ottoman Empire fulfills the last verses  on Daniel 11, and the 7th head of the beasts of  Revelation, what happened in the big scheme of things  when that Empire came to an end in World War I? What  does the Bible mean when its says that Michael will  arise and there would be a time of trouble such as never  was?   

Now we move into speculation. We are not merely  guessing, but doing what is known as “educated  guessing.” In other words, speculation should always be  based on bringing together what is known. All prophetic  understanding went first through the stage of educated  guesswork.   

Could it be that the “time of trouble such as never was”  began about the time of World War I? We know that it  will get worse, because according to Matthew 24:21,  God is going to cut time short or “no flesh would  survive.” Let’s consider what it would mean if the “time  of trouble” began in the early years of the last century.  Maybe a quotation written in 1909 from the well known  author, Ellen White, would be appropriate first: “The  world is stirred with the spirit of war. The prophecy of  the eleventh chapter of Daniel has nearly reached its  complete fulfillment. Soon the scenes of trouble spoken  of in the prophecies will take place.” 9T14.   

There are certain obvious facts that come to mind about  the last century—WWI, WWII, the Bolshevik  Revolution, the Holocaust, weapons of mass destruction,  ethnic cleansing, multiple genocides, and the list could  go on. I did some research that anyone could do  concerning the losses of life in the twentieth century.  The results were startling: Approximately 200,000,000  people died as a result of war and inhumanity in the 20th  century (conservative figures put the # at 170  million, and more liberal estimates at about 223 million).  This figure includes combat, civilian deaths in war,  famine brought on by humans, massacres and genocide.  War related deaths in the 20th century were 111 million.  Deaths from war prior to 1900 are estimated to be at less  than 41 million! As the prophets looked down through  the centuries toward the end, you can see why they could  call these times a “time of trouble since has never been  before.”   

The British novelist and Nobel laureate William Golding  said, “I can’t help thinking that this has been the most  violent century in human history.”   

Eric Hobsbawn said, “The 20th century was the most  murderous in recorded history…Taken as having begun  in 1914, it was a century of almost unbroken war, with  few and brief periods without organized armed conflict  somewhere.”   

In the book, Humanity: A Moral History of the 20th  Century, Jonathan Glover says, “It is almost certain that  as you read this sentence, in some places people are  being killed and in others people are being tortured.”  Glover concludes by saying that 20th Century wars,  massacre and genocide came from combining the  psychology of human beings who have “a strong  propensity both for getting trapped into conflict and also  for cruelty and mass killing” with modern technology.   

In early times, when the potential for technological  advances was strong, God confused the languages of the  people and scattered them around the world. This was  shortly after the flood (Genesis 11). He deliberately  slowed down progress. Notice the reason God gave for  scattering them: “Behold, they are one people, and they  all have the same language. 

And this is what they began 

Dennis 
dennispumford.com 

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