Revelation

The Plagues Against Babylon

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Prerequisite/Law

Lesson: 14-30

Genre: Talk

Track: 182

Dictation Name: RR129G14

Location/Venue:

Year: 1960’s-1970’s

Let us begin with prayer. Unto Thee oh Lord do we give thanks for the blessings of the week past, and for Thy daily providential care. We come to Thee our Father mindful that Thou art on the throne, and the government is upon Thy shoulders. Rejoicing in this oh Lord, and casting our every care upon Thee, knowing Thou carest for us. Bless us and prosper us in the days ahead, and draw us ever closer to Thee and to Thy holy calling; in Jesus name, amen.

Our scripture is Revelation 9. The ninth chapter of Revelation, the Plagues Against Bablyon. Revelation 9.

“9 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.

2 And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.

3 And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.

4 And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.

5 And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.

6 And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.

7 And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.

8 And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.

9 And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.

10 And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.

11 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 hath his name Apollyon.

12 One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.

13 And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,

14 Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.

15 And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.

16 And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.

17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.

18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.

19 For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt.

20 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:

21 Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.”

Some years ago, the poet Robert Frost cited a proverb of New England: “Good fences make good neighbors.” But unfortunately he argued against the proverb.

Good fences do make good neighbors. Fences, boundaries, establish the extent of properties and of rights. And they are important, and they are basic to order. Law is simply another kind of fence, which establishes God-given boundaries, saying: “Thus far and no further.”

We live in a day when men are at war against fences, against boundaries, and against law. They call this, by their own designation: “The Permissive Society” and their standard is, ‘anything goes.’ This chapter has something to do with this matter of the destruction of fences.

The chapter gives us some very difficult symbolism, but the basic meaning of the chapter is very clear. In the 9th chapter of Revelation we have the fifth trumpet and the first woe. In verses 9-11 we are given a picture of a star fallen out of heaven. A star as we have seen, is a symbol of a great power or ruler, one here depicted as having fallen from authority, and to whom is given the key to the pit of abyss. This is very clearly identified as Satan in the eleventh verse, where he is termed also Abaddon or Apollyon, or the destroyer.

Satan unleashes from the pit of the abyss, from hell, a plague of locusts that covers the face of the earth for 5 months, which was the usual lifespan of locusts. This judgement echoes the 8th Egyptian plague, which is cited in Exodus 10:4-15, and it also echoes the book of Joel 1:2-11, and 2:1-11. But there is a marked difference from these literal plagues of locusts, of which Exodus speaks, and of which other portions of the Bible speak.

Because these are not literal locusts, moreover we are clearly told that they are commanded that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, neither any tree, but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.

Thus the meaning is very clear. Although Satan unleashes this host, they do damage to nothing in the way of plant life or vegetable life on the face of the earth, nor do they hurt any of Gods elect, but only those who do not have the seal of God in their forehead, who are not the elect of God. Thus the plague cannot be interpreted in terms of any physical plague. These unbelievers are tormented for their entire lifespan, so that seek death and shall not find it, and shall desire to die and death shall flee from them.

To understand this plague it is important to see that they are pictured as locusts. At the same time they are portrayed in a sense as resembling men, crowned men, having teeth like lions, riding like battle horses, so that they have all the awesomeness and fearfulness of an invading host.

When a locust plague enters an area, it strips the lush green earth of all growing things, and makes a rich green valley barren and desolate. Early in the forties, a plague of locusts of one variety, Mormon Crickets, and a similar variety, infected the northern central portion of Nevada. As these animals or creatures or insects move across an area, they stripped every tree, every brush, every blade of grass down to the ground. And when they passed through an area that was inhabited because there were a few ranch houses in that area, housewives found that when they took refuge indoors, and foolishly left their clothes on the line, their wash on the line, every last bit of the clothes was eaten so that only that which was under the clip of the clothespin remained.

In other words, locusts strip a land entirely, feast is turned unto famine, and everything is left a desolation. When Satan looses sin and all his evil into the world, hoping thereby to frustrate mans hopes concerning the kingdom of God, and to destroy the kingdom here on earth, instead of afflicting the saints of God he afflicts only sinners. And even as locusts destroy the earth and sulfur fumes darken the sun and pollute the air, so sin and demonic influences are portrayed as reducing the rich promises of life, of darkening the light of life. And sinful man, frustrated by the very things which hold so much promise, find that for themselves the hope of life is turned to desolation.

And so in place of the will to live there is a will to death, and their basic living becomes suicidal.

“One woe is passed, and behold there come two woes more hereafter. And the sixth angel sounded,”

Thus we pass on to the sixth trumpet and the seventh woe. As we analyze the sixth trumpet and the second woe, we find that here we have a geographical setting. A great army of horsemen, two hundred million, is loosed at the river Euphrates.

Now the choice of the river Euphrates is significant. The river Euphrates was, according to scripture, the ideal limit of the Promised Land. In Genesis 15:18, God indicated that the ideal limit if they were thoroughly faithful to Him, of the Promised Land, would be the great river Euphrates on the one side and Egypt on the other.

On the other side of the Euphrates were the two great enemies of the people of God, Assyria and Babylon. Now Assyria and Babylon were the two great powers that applied very literally and forcefully the dream of a one world empire without God. They moved populations, scattered them throughout the empire, in order to destroy linguistic differences and produce one language, to destroy national and racial differences, and produce on people.

This same dream was carried on with considerably more ability by Babylon. The river Euphrates therefore constituted a great natural barrier, a defense and a point of separation. When the 6th trumpet sounds, the barrier disappears. Thus the boundary between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of man is obliterated by the invading host; and this by the permission of God.

The world is continually, constantly trying to destroy the boundary between Gods people and itself. Between the church and the world, between the kingdom of God and the world, by compromise, concession and invasion, it seeks to reduce the kingdom of God and make it captive to the kingdom of man, and then to obliterate it.

And now they have destroyed the barrier, and they ride rough shod over the kingdom as lords of it. But something goes wrong with the invasion. The barrier is gone, they possess the earth; but it is no longer the horsemen that are in control, but the horses. The very evil that they set loose and that they seek to control, to destroy the Godly now becomes their own destruction. And so he says: “I saw the horses.” And he goes on to describe them as engines of destruction, and by these were the third part of men killed.

And we are told that at the very beginning, the four angels of God who set loose these tremendous hosts, and the providence of God had prepared them to slay the third part of men. Now we saw previously that the third part refers to the laws of inheritance. Thus in the case of Jacob and Esau, when Jacob became the heir he received a double portion, and the third part went to Esau who was then separated and sent out. The third part referred always to the role of the one who was separated from the family, so that the inheritance of the heir be not marred, and Christ as the executor of the kingdom, of the estate, gives unto the ungodly, unto the third part their inheritance, they claim to be the true heirs. And he gives to them their inheritance and it is judgement.

Now this matter of inheritance of course by the third part, is an important part of scripture, not only in the references of the law and elsewhere in the prophets, and here in Revelation; but we find that as we study scripture and as we study secular histories testimony, Edom, Esau, regarded itself as the true chosen people of God, even as the Arab peoples to this day through Ishmael regard themselves as the true chosen people and the rightful heirs to the Promised Land.

Edom maintained its belief that it was the true heir. And in the book of Acts we are told of the claim of one Edomite to be the legitimate messiah, as representing the king and the throne, in what he regarded as the truly prophetic line through Abraham. King Herod clothed himself in robes of gold, and appeared on the balcony and declared himself to be God. And he had the crowds hail him as God, and his words as the voice of God. And Luke tells us in Acts that he was smitten of God, and died.

The world here is portrayed as seeking to destroy the kingdom, but destroying itself instead. Whenever the world tries to destroy the boundaries of the kingdom, and to reduce all of Gods people to the level of the world, the world thereby unleashes evil against the true people of God who have a sanctuary in Christ. But they themselves have no sanctuary against their own evil, and so it becomes their destruction. They set a snare and they fall into it.

The world tries to destroy the fence around the church, but the Lord deepens the fence within. So that the saints of God stand more firmly. And this we can all of us testify from our own experience. Certainly in the past 5 and ten, an twenty years we have seen the fence outside progressively destroyed as the world invades and conquers vast segments of the church, so that the true church today is but a small remnant. And certainly all around us as we see the fences broken with respect to law and order we see less and less in the way of any fences in the world. But we are all conscious of one thing; that by the grace of God in this same period of time there has been a greater and a deeper, and stronger and a higher fence established within our own souls. So that we become more and more conscious of this invisible fence, a fence within us and a fence around us, like unto that which God showed unto His prophet of old, when he opened his eyes to see the chariots of fire round about him.

This chapter also echoes the words cited by Luke 10:19, when our Lord declares He saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven and declared: “I give you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy. Nothing shall by any means hurt you.”

This chapter is an exposition of that promise. The promise is not one of freedom from danger, pain, or death. Our Lord indeed made it clear that: ‘ye shall be hated of all men for my names sake.’ But the promise is clearly one of victory over sin, and preservation from its power. In peril, nakedness and sword we are told that we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.

Let us pray. Almighty God our heavenly Father we give thanks unto Thee, that Thou hast established thy protecting wall around us. That Thou hast fenced us and hedged us in by Thy grace, and hast made us Thy people. We thank Thee that by Thy grace the fence has been built within our hearts, and separated us from sin, and made us Thy people. Our Lord and our God we thank Thee. Make us bold therefore in faith, unto the end that we may be more than conquerors through Him that loved us, even Jesus Christ our Lord. In His name we pray, amen.

Are there any questions now? Yes.

[Audience Member] ...?...

[Rushdoony] No I haven’t.

[Audience Member] ...?...

[Rushdoony] Well, you hear considerable talk of that in every decade. You see, there are a number of branches of Buddhism and Hinduism that believe that there are periodic incarnations of divinity in every age. So that according to their various astrological and other calculations, there are these periodic births. So that this is not an unusual thing, there is continual belief in this and talk of this in far Eastern circles.

[Audience Member] ...?...

[Rushdoony] I am not surprised, there will be more and more attention given to these Eastern religions, and the purpose of it is to give people the idea that there is nothing exclusive about Christ. Yes?

[Audience Member] ...?...

[Rushdoony] The question is with respect to the order of allegiance, God then country, second. I do not believe that as Christians we can subscribe to that. We have an obligation to be good patriots, this is Godly. We have an obligation to render authority where authority is due. But I believe that the family has a far greater place in the providence and plan and word of God than does the country. For example, in the law of God there is no death penalty for treason. There is a death penalty for adultery which was later changed in the New Testament to divorce. But this indicates the seriousness of any offense against the family, and there are a number of laws which indicate the seriousness of any offence against the family as a central institution in the plan and purpose of God, so that the family clearly has a priority. And the state as well as the church should be family oriented, rather than individual in their orientation. That is, I think the old Reformed method of counting church membership by families rather than by individuals is the Godly form. Because counting by individuals is an atomistic approach.

Again, the suffrage or voting should be by families, not by individuals. And it should be by the head of the family. So that, a man who is not married should not have a vote. He does not have a stake in the future in the way that a married man does.

Now the family clearly in terms of everything in scripture has a priority, and I think it is highly regrettable that so many churches, and it is a sign of their waywardness and apostasy, try to downgrade the family and place the church in a position of preeminence over it. And the same is true of nations.

Now consider this significant fact. Here I recognize that there is a point of disagreement among various scholars but the ten commandments are divided into two tables. The first table, the first five commandments with reference to the duties toward God, the second, the second five, duties towards our neighbor.

Now the fifth commandment, to honor our Father and mother, is in the first table. Now there are some who insist upon putting it in the 6th table, so that there are four in the first and six in the second table. However the argument against this is that in a number of the Mosaic laws, blasphemy and rebellion against father and mother are cited in the same sentence, indicating that they are alike a rebellion against God, in that the parents are a God given authority. So that the superior position of the family to church and state I think is very clearly indicated.

While we are on the subject of the family I think it might be good here to discuss briefly a book that I read recently, and I have at other times referred to another book by the same author, Robert Ardrey. Ardrey is very, very clearly an evolutionist, in fact he is a very eloquent champion of evolution. But his book the African Genesis published about six years ago, and the Territorial Imperative just recently published have created quite a stir and a great deal of opposition because of what they have to say.

Now, in the African Genesis Ardrey pointed out that there were two basic instincts in animals. That recent biological studies have revealed that animals move in terms of first the territorial instinct. They have a strong sense of property. So that a particular area will be the property of a particular herd and of a particular animal, and that these lines are clearly marked out; to a tree to a rock, or with birds, to a branch. So that a sense of property is common to animals, virtually all animals. Second, a sense of statist, so that there is a rank among animals.

Now this of course is well known to anyone who has grown up on a farm. There is a pecking order among the chickens, so that there is a distinct rank among the chickens, from the top hen down to the hen that gets pecked by everybody, and among the roosters from the top rooster down to the lowest. In the same way any of you who have grown up on a farm know that there is a butting order among the cows. The top cow goes into the barn first and takes her stall, and then the second and the third, and none of them dare get out of order or there will be a fight. There is a strong sense of status.

Now, in Territorial Imperative Ardrey reports on more recent studies of the territorial aspect. And he points out that they have discovered that in a herd of say, antelope or a similar variety of animal the herd will have a particular area as its property. But the male of the species will either have a particular piece of property in the breeding ground or he will be impotent. And there will be no sexual response by any female to an un-propertied male. Which is quite an interesting point.

Then he also points out that while there are a few varieties of animals that are not territorial, they do have a sense of status, all do. It is not the territorial animals that are facing extinction. In other words, the non-territorial animals, the few varieties across the face of the earth that do not have a sense of property are the ones who are facing extinction.

Then another interesting thing is that, among the territorial animals there is a strongly protective instinct towards females. But among the non-territorial species, the attitude towards the female is very aggressive, even brutal. It is a very interesting book although his biological premises are not tenable, and one cannot agree as he tries to read all history in terms of just the biological motivation. But there is a great deal here of importance, and it does indicate something of Gods design and purpose throughout creation.

One of the things that he brings out in the course of discussing the Territorial Imperative which I thought was very interesting was this:

“The smallness of American farmers is among the best-kept secrets in the arsenal of American power. The Soviet Union's collective farms, in which workers shared until 1966 nothing but surplus earnings, average 15,000 acres, each with about 400 families. The state farm, hiring all workers at a fixed wage, averages 70,000 acres and employs 800 workers. Yet of America's two and one half million commercial farms, only one in ten is over 500 acres. The average number of workers, including the farmer and his sons if he has any, is five. Despite those advances in farm machinery which permit a worker to cultivate an acreage far greater than in Lincoln's day, still half of our farms are no larger now than then. The factory-in-the-field exists, but it is of minor significance. The American agricultural miracle has been produced by a man and his wife with a helper or two on a pair territory.

Many years ago I visited an enormous corporation cotton farm in California's Central Valley. Water was drawn from wells 2000 feet deep, each costing $65,000. The resident manager shrugged off the entire giant enterprise.”

And he went on to say, I am not quoting all of it, “Nobody can compete with a farmer on his 160 acres. I had never heard of territory in those days, and I did not believe him.”

The point I think is very well taken. The best production is on the small farm operated by a man and his family, with a strong sense of private property. Yes?

[Audience Member] ...?...

[Rushdoony] I didn’t quite get the question…

[Audience Member] ...?...

[Rushdoony] Yes… no, except that of course, when they marry, the Biblical commandment is forsake Father and mother to establish a home. In other words, he goes from one authority to establish another authority, he leaves them and cleaves unto his wife to establish a new authority and a new unit. Now, there is no commandment with regard to children when they reach maturity leaving, but it is not the Biblical pattern. Because there the children remained in the home until they were married and were prepared to go out with the blessing of the parents to establish their own home. And that blessing was conditional upon marrying the right kind of person, a godly man or woman.

I was very deeply moved on my recent trip about a month or so ago to Colorado, when I had contact with some of the German Reformed people there, in some of the farming communities. A handful of churches some few years ago made a break with the old German Reformed church which went into union with the Evangelical church, and then with the Congregation church to form the United Church of Christ. And these people, just scattered cross-roads churches way out in nowhere, I think the biggest towns they had until just the last year or two were towns of one or two hundred people. Most of the churches were out on the crossroads in the country, just a handful of people. But they made a break in terms of the faith, they have gradually increased their churches so that now they have about twenty two fine, strong churches.

But this moved me, how strongly they feel about godly marriage. In one little congregation out in the Dakota’s, one German family with 10 children, all very attractive, fine looking young people, only four have married. Because there was no one for miles around who could share their faith. And so, although the girls in that family were courted by a number of the German boys in the neighborhood, and the boys were very popular, when it came to a decision each of them said: “Will you go along with us in our faith?” and when they prospective bride or groom refused they did not marry.

That is taking your faith seriously.

Another item that I think is of interest, this is a quotation from the Toronto Globe and Mail for August 11, 1967. “London. Scotland Yard is preparing a report for Attorney General Sir Elwin Jones, on whether to prosecute Dunkin Sanders, a conservative former cabinet minister, for incitement to racial hatred. Mr. Sanders informed his son in law of Winston Churchill, who has become the champion of Rhodesian Leader Jan Smith and those who believe in a white, British Britain policy, said in a television interview on July 24, that Britain faced racial violence if colored immigration were not stopped.

He went on to say that the government was urging the country to accept a large increase in mixed marriages, and warned that the breeding of millions of half-cast children would merely produce a generation of misfits and create increased tensions. The remarks were immediately seized on as constituting a violation of section six of Britain’s 1965 Race Relations act. Under this section a penalty of up to two years in prison and three thousand dollars may be imposed on anyone convicted of stirring up hatred against any section of the public in Great Britain distinguished by color, race, ethnic or national origin.”

Now this is the British Civil Rights act. It forbids anything that would incite to racial hatred or antagonism. So a very prominent politician, former cabinet member of the Conservative party, simply because he said that immigration should be stopped as far as those of African origin were concerned, is now facing indictment and possibly prison. Yes?

[Audience Member] ...?...

[Rushdoony] If you can find out the title of that book I would be interested. This excerpt that I just quoted of course is a good indication of what we were talking about in our lesson today, the attempt of the world to break down all fences, to create a totally humanistic world order. And our line of defense against this must be first and last Biblical, Christian. Because, on any other ground we really have no defense.

I think one of the most pathetic of things that I have seen lately is in the current American Opinion. As usual it is a very fine issue. Two or three of the articles are truly outstanding, the first one by Gary Allen on the underground press, and then the one by George (Styler?) on out Filthyopolis, our Filthyopolis being the modern city, are excellent.

But the one on contemporary science I thought was pathetic to the nth degree, because the writer cited the statement of some scientists recently that because of the population explosion, so called, as we dabble with the genetic code we had better plan to make the children of the future different, so that they will only be a few inches high, and then we can have an unlimited future for history, population wise.

Now the saddest fact of the article was not the statement of these scientists who believe they can play God, and play with the genes to create children in the future that will only be a few inches high, but that of the writer of the magazine, and the editors who publish it, in that they believe it can be done.

Now if you are a humanist you will believe that man can accomplish almost anything. You may not like what he is going to accomplish, and you may do as this writer did, argue against it; but you are going to believe in man’s power, and you are going to be terrified. But if you believe in the sovereignty of God you will believe an article like that and both be amused and dismayed at the stupidity of man, because the whole thing is utterly stupid.