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Three unclean spirits, demon spirits working miracles, proceed from the mouth of the
dragon, the beast, and the false prophet, with the express object of gathering the Kings of
the habitable world to the battle of that great day of God, the Almighty. East and West
(for the oikoumenē signifies the "civilized" world) meet together in joint opposition to the
Lamb. At this critical period the Lord speaks to His own enjoining watchfulness. The
"blessedness" of watchfulness here is to be compared and contrasted with the
"blessedness" of a martyr's death "from henceforth" in chapter 14:
Armageddon, or more correctly Har-mageddon, means "The mount of Meggido".
Judges 5: 19, II Kings 23: 29, II Chron. 35: 22-25, Zech. 12: 11 and Septuagint
version of Isa. 10: 28 give a foreshadowing of the Har-mageddon of the Apocalypse.
THE 7TH VIAL.--This introduces the judgment upon Babylon, and we must leave this
over to our next paper.
#48.
The Seventh Vial (16: 17-21).
pp. 167 - 169
The seventh angel will pour his vial on the air. Why the air? We are not told that men
were suffocated as a result--indeed, no result is actually mentioned. Yet the outpouring
of this vial, reserved to the end, must be the climax. The fifth vial will be poured out
upon the throne of the beast, the seventh will be directed against Satan himself. Unless
we mistake the reference, Eph. 2: speaks of Satan as "The prince of the authority of the
air". The casting out of the dragon, called the Devil and Satan, from the heavens to the
earth is followed by the words:--
"Now is come salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of
His Anointed" (Rev. 12: 10-12).
The casting down of the Devil speaks woe to the inhabitants of the earth:--
"Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto
you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time" (Rev. 12: 12).
When therefore the seventh vial falls upon the air, a great voice is hear out of the
temple from the throne saying "ACCOMPLISHED". The word here ranks in sacred
importance with the word "FINISHED' of John 19: 30. The state of the text renders
Rev. 21: a little uncertain, but many feel that the A.V. should be retained. If so, this is a
blessed counterpart of Rev. 16: 17. One of the features that follows this vial is an
unprecedented earthquake:--
"Such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty and so great" (Rev. 12: 18).
Seeing that this earthquake must be akin to the mighty geological upheavals that have
left their mark upon the crust of the earth, when mountains were formed and islands rose