Welcome to Islam and the Bible by Dr. Francis Nigel Lee, read by W. J. Mankaro and produced with permission by Stillwaters Revival Books, the home of extensive Puritan and Reformation CD sets, Geneva Bibles, Rare Reformation, classic Covenanter and Calvinistic books, homeschooling helps, and other Puritan Presbyterian resources at great discounts and free by mail and the World Wide Web. please visit our website at www.SWRB.com and or sign up for our email super special discount mailings by emailing your address to add that is add at SWRB.com If you would like more information on the topics addressed in this tape, Stillwater's Revival Books also carries a wide selection of resources on classic Reformation eschatology, including the five-tape set and book by E.B. Eliot and other Reformers titled, Islam and Revelation, An Historic Look at Protestant Eschatological Thought on the Rise and Fall of Islam. And now to the message of tape number two from Islam and the Bible. We pray that the Lord Jesus Christ will greatly bless you as you listen. A century later, that view of Westminster Assembly theologian Thomas Goodwin was echoed also by the greatest theologian America has ever produced. In his magnificent book, A History of the Work of Redemption, Princeton's first president, Reverend Professor Dr. Jonathan Edwards explains, The two great works of the devil, which he wrought against the kingdom of Christ, are his anti-Christian, Romish or Papal, and Muhammadan, Muslim or Islamic kingdoms, which have been and still are two kingdoms of great extent and strength. Both together swallow up the ancient Roman Empire, the Papal kingdom of anti-Christ, swallowing up the Western Empire, and Satan's Muhammadan kingdom, the Eastern Empire. In the book of Revelation, chapters 16-20, it is in the destruction of these that the glorious victory of Christ at the introduction of the glorious times of the Church will mainly consist. 1260 days, or years, are so often in Scripture mentioned as the time of the continuance of Antichrist's reign. The rise of Antichrist was gradual. The bishop of Rome claimed the power of universal bishop over the whole Christian church throughout the world. He was confirmed in it by the civil power of the emperor in the year 606 AD. Muhammad was born in the year of Christ 570 in Arabia. When he was about 40 years of age, and thus around 610 AD, he began to give forth that he was the great prophet of God and began to teach his new invented religion. He published his Al-Quran, which he pretended he received from the angel Gabriel. His party gradually grew until they overran a great part of the world. First, the Saracens of the country of Arabia where Muhammad lived, about the year 700, began dreadfully to waste the Roman Empire. These are supposed to be meant by the locusts that we read of in the ninth chapter of Revelation. And then after this the Turks, who were followers of Muhammad, conquered all the Eastern Empire. They began to invade Europe 1300 and took Constantinople and so became masters of all the Eastern Empire in the year 1453. These are supposed to be prophesied of by the horsemen in the ninth chapter of Revelation. We now give details of the first woe trumpet, alias the events announced by the fifth angel. Severe as the first four judgments heralded by the first four trumpetering angels had been, the remaining three judgments of the three last trumpetering angels would be much more severe. Thus they are each described in considerably greater detail than are the first four judgments, for the latter three judgments would fill the world with a three-fold woe, Revelation 8.13. First, the initial woe would start after the blowing of the fifth trumpet. That seems to herald the Dark Ages, so-called, commencing around 600 AD. The Reverend Archdeacon Woodhouse once observed that Islam is a heresy. It is, he said, a Christian apostasy. alias a religion, quote, rising upon the basis of true religion, but corrupted even like the papal to serve the purposes of a worldly and diabolical tyranny. Wrote John, quote, the fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star fall from the sky upon earth, and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit, unquote. The prototypical or original fallen star was and is Satan. Yet, according to Rev. Prof. Dr. Philip Schaff, Rev. Dr. Albert Barnes, and also Apostolos Macracos, the particular fallen star mentioned right here was the religious leader Muhammad, 570-632 AD. So very many theologians indeed have considered the apostate religious movement started by the quote fallen star at Revelation 8 1 through 14 to be the beginning of that ongoing movement known as Islam. Some further see the movement described at Revelation 16 12 that of the so-called false prophet to mean Muhammad and those who follow him. That fallen star, or false prophet then, quote, opened the bottomless pit, and there arose a smoke out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit, unquote. Now this smoke, comments Dr. Junius' 1599 footnotes to the 1560 Calvinist Geneva Bible, represents a great abundance of heresies and errors. Indeed, such cover Christ and his gospel with darkness." This is a very good description of the views of Muhammad, for his theology was indeed an abundance of heresies and errors. Indeed, his views, while claiming to be biblical, actually do cover Christ and his gospel with darkness. Also, the 1637 Calvinist Staten Verdaling Dutch Bible, commissioned by the famous 1618 Council of Dortmund, remarks, quote, Some understand this star to be Mohammed and his followers. They, around 620, scraped together his ungodly doctrine, which was brought forth from the bottomless pit. from perversions of Judaism, Paganism, and Christianity. Explains the Westminster Assembly Calvinist Dr. Thomas Goodwin while commenting on Revelation 9.1, quote, Muhammad is that star that fell from the profession of Christianity and opened hell to bring forth that damned religion of his, making himself the prophet of God. Unto him came an innumerable company of Arabs, his countrymen, who are here called locusts for their multitudes. Bringing Arabia, Egypt, Assyria, Armenia, and much of Asia the less from out of the hands of the Eastern Empire, and extending their dominion further over Persia, East India, and a great part of Africa and Spain, they became almost as great an empire as that of Rome had been. This dominion of Muhammad extended another way, yet with all possessing the one half of the Eastern Empire, with the remaining half of the Eastern Empire to capitulate to Islam later under the Turks. This first Islamic kingdom began to be set up anno 630 and continued many hundred years." The well-known Scottish Presbyterian and Puritan James Durham, in his complete commentary upon the Book of Revelation observed in 1657, quote, This Muhammad lived a little before the year 650. That was a little after Pope Boniface III has assumed the title of Universal Bishop. He, Muhammad, or Muhammad, was a subtle fellow and no Christian about the year 630. With the help of one Sergius, a Nestorian monk, and some Jews, he had begun to coin his blasphemous Koran. Therein he endeavoreth a mixture of paganism, Judaism, and Christianity, but of the grossest kind, Arianism and Nestorianism. He called himself the Great Prophet, and blasphemously applied some scriptures to that purpose. He allegeth that his writings were given him from heaven, and are without error, and therefore joineth the Old Testament, the Gospel, and the Al-Quran together, that the refuters of the Quran are to be persecuted with the sword. He asserteth one only true God, and denieth the trinity of persons. He is against all idols and images, and alleges himself to be specially commissioned against idol worship. And it may be that God purposed him indeed to scourge that sin, and thus to make him the more instrumental in pursuing that sin, partly more to convince and shame Christians addicted to it." Precisely in this regard, in his own commentary on the book of Revelation, the modern scholar Philip Morrow carefully notes the evil character of Islam. He comments that like Christianity, also Islam, alias Mohammedanism, has a superman and a book, Mohammed and the Koran. Yet, quote, it is a satanic imitation of Christianity. It is spread over a great part of the Christianized world. Its founder was, without doubt, devil-inspired. Muhammad, the falling star, opened the pit and let loose the darkening power of Satan, and he flooded the eastern part of the Christianized earth and considerable portions of the western also with doctrines which can justly be termed hellish in their nature. and effects." So in the wake of the false prophecies of Muhammad himself came the fearful spread of the apostate religion of Muhammadanism, alias Islam. After he foresaw how the smoking bottomless pit had been opened, John prophesied further, quote, Out of the smoke locusts came upon the earth. And to them was given power, like the scorpions of the earth have power." Indeed, that power, comments the Calvinist Geneva Bible, represents, quote, false and deceitful doctrine, which is pleasant to the flesh, unquote. Predicted John of those locust scorpions, quote, now it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree, but only those who do not have the seal of God upon their foreheads, unquote. This certainly seems to mean that in spite of the great destruction which they wrought, both to men and to property, they were not able spiritually to hurt true Christians who trusted in the Lord Jesus and who had been baptized, alias, sealed with the seal of the living God. See Revelation chapter 7 verses 2-4, chapter 9 verse 4, compare with Matthew chapter 28 verse 19. Continues John, quote, The shapes of the locusts were like horses prepared to battle, and on their heads were, as it were, crowns of gold. They had tails like scorpions, and there were stings." Locusts often come up from the Arabian deserts. Muhammad unleashed his Arab locusts to scourge the Mediterranean world and to darken a large area of nominally Christian civilization. For Muhammad's locusts, similar to those in Joel's vision, were like horses prepared to battle. Compare jihad, alias the holy warfare, of Muslims. Those horse-like locusts went forth unto conquest, in regal attire, with savage appearance and armed to the teeth. predicted John, quote, On their heads were as it were crowns of gold, but their faces were as the faces of men, and they had hair like women's hair, and their teeth were like lion's teeth, and they had breastplates like iron breastplates, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots of many horses running unto battle, unquote. Jihad. For, as from A.D. 622, Muhammad's Arabian armies of Muslim horsemen swept not only northward and eastward, but also westward across Christian North Africa, and then on into Western Europe. Thus they terrorized the previously Christianized Armenia, Cyprus, Crete, Syria, Persia, Kazakhstan, Babylonia, Arabia, Palestine, Egypt, Libya, Numidia, Mauritania, Sicily, Spain, Portugal, Sardinia, Corsica, and France, until the great Charles Martel, the Hammer, finally stopped them in AD 732 at the Battle of Tours in northern France. Writes Professor Dr. Alexander Keith, There is practically no part of the entire book of Revelation which is interpreted so uniformly as the exposition of the fifth and sixth seals. It is applied to the Saracens and the Turks." Indeed, Professor Davis, in his short history of the Near East, adds, quote, the cloud of the Saracenic invasion from the Arabian deserts rolled northward, unquote. See Revelation 9, verse 7b through 9. Comments Dr. Thomas Goodwin, quote, Then succeeds the sixth trumpet, which is the second woe trumpet, ordained to bring calamities on the other part of the Eastern Empire, which was left standing still, and professing the Christian religion in Asia the less and in Greece. Chapter 9, verses 14 through 16, saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loosen the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. Goodwin continues, Now according to all the characters and footprints which we find in the Turkish stories, no prophecy doth or can more punctually describe any nation or event than this doth the Turks and their eruption upon the Eastern Empire. Then they came first out of their native country, Turkmenistan, to the east of the Euphrates in Central Asia, about the year 1040 after Christ. They did seat themselves first by the river Euphrates. They were divided into four several governments or kingdoms known commonly by historians by these four names. First Iconian seated at Iconium, the second at Aleppo, the third at Damascus, and the fourth at Baghdad on the river Euphrates. who, having lain hovering thereabout for the space of two hundred years, did, about the year of Christ's thirteen hundred, overrun all Natolia, or Asia the less. Joining all into one kingdom under Ottoman, the forefather of the present great Turk, they did not cease to lay at one Constantinople itself and all Greece in the year 1453. God preserved, in the midst of all this Mohammedan tyranny, under both Turks and Saracens in the eastern part of the world, thousands of true believers, even 144,000. In Revelation 8.13 and 9.12, these two woe trumpets were the overrunnings by the Saracen and Mohammedan nations. That was the greatest plague in respect of outward war and bondage that ever befell the Christian world. The Holy Ghost has declared that the preservation from the hurt of these Mohammedan invasions was the aim of this sealing thus beforehand. See Matthew 28 verse 19 and Revelation 7 verses 2 through 4. You may read in the 9th chapter verse 4 that when these Saracen locusts under their ringleader Mohammed were first let loose and had their commission that they should hurt only those men that were not sealed. Dr. Goodwin continues, the Christians in the West were preserved from the hurt of these incursions, in that these Mohammedans were restrained from breaking in upon the Ten Kingdoms. According to all the best interpreters, this Turkish tyranny and tribulation is to continue even till the Turk is to be overthrown, to make way for the kingdoms of the East under the sixth vial, and to be destroyed by the seventh. See Romans 11 verses 25-32, Revelation 16 verses 12-17. Sir William Muir points out in his book The Caliphate, quote, like swarms from a beehive or like locusts darkening the air, the one Arabian tribe after the other emerged and rolled into the north and then spread out in great hordes to the east and the west, unquote. Thus the Arab Muslims almost totally wiped out the Christian church all the way from northern India to northwest Africa. Reverend Dr. Albert Barnes, 19th century pastor of Philadelphia's famous First Presbyterian Church, and author of what is often called America's leading commentary, comments, quote, With surprising unanimity, commentators have agreed in regarding this as referring to the empire of the Saracens, or to the rise and progress of the religion and the empire set up by Muhammad. Muhammadan tradition speaks of locusts having dropped into the hands of Muhammad, Nothing would better represent the Saracenic hordes that came out of Arabia and the spread over the east over Egypt, Libya, Mauritania, Spain, and the threatened spread over Europe." The nature of the mission of these locusts should clearly be understood. They did not, as locusts which are insects do, go forth to destroy crops or vegetation. Instead, 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 who do not have the seal of God upon their foreheads. Nor did they go forth specifically to kill men, but rather hurtfully or through duress to convert them to a false religion and thus to torment their souls. Thus, quote, to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they, their victims, should be tormented five months. Now their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings a man, and they had tails like scorpions, unquote. Just like locusts, scorpions too are creatures of the Arabian desert, quote, from Revelation, and there were stings in their tails, and their power was to hurt men five months, unquote. This five months, when considered strictly, is the average duration of a plague of locusts in the insect world. However, construed prophetically, according to the day-year principle of interpretation, it would imply five 30-day months of day years, about 150 years or about a century and a half of sustained tormenting of their victims. That very period, interestingly, corresponds exactly to that of Islam's pressures against Christian civilization. That started at the rise of Muhammad, beginning in his first battle, when only 20 years old, in 590 AD, and ran until the final arrest of those pressures by Charles the Hammer in 732 AD. Thus, in general, the comments of leading Calvinist theologians, such as Breitman, Mead, Thomas Parker, Jurio, Matthew Henry, Sir Isaac Newton, Gill, Bacchus, John Brown of Haddington, Winthrop, Faber, Thomas Scott Fuller, Adam Clark, Gowson, Bickersteth, and Albert Barnes. Quote, In those days, of the five months, or 150 day years, men shall seek death, but shall not find it. They shall desire to die, but death shall flee away from them. Unquote. And of course from Revelation. Even the Muslims themselves would then desire to die, and thus hope to be transported into their falsely imagined ideal place of lascivious paradise. But like the living dead, before they died they were first obliged to wage their holy war, a jihad. This they did for their own destructive king, Abaddon, Apollyon, Allah. Onward surged the Muslims. They were all fired up by their battle cry of their Caliphs, Before you is paradise, behind you are death and hell. The Calvinistic Dort Dutch Bible of 1637 rightly says that at Revelation 9 verses 1 through 11, many here understand, quote, Muhammad with his followers who around the year 620 cobbled together his ungodly doctrine and was brought forth to appear from the bottomless pit. Thereafter it was propagated throughout a large part of the world by his Arabs and Saracens who looked like armed locusts, unquote. However, even throughout the rise and expansion of Islam during the first century and a half of its existence, it had no power in itself, but only God-given power. For Islam could inflict its spiritual torments only on unbaptized non-Christians, such as pagans, Jews, and apostates. It could only hurt, quote, those men who do not have the seal of God in their foreheads, unquote, and true faith in their hearts. For as Jesus Christ himself had promised, quote, he who keeps on believing and is baptized shall be saved, but he who does not keep on believing shall be condemned. Accordingly, those who truly believed in Jesus and who bore his seal of baptism on their foreheads were spared such hurt at the hands of the Muslims. For even such true Christians as were then martyred did not seek death, yet found it, and thereby entered into everlasting life. On the other hand, those non-Christians, whom the Muslims could and did hurt, desired death, but could not find it. For as non-Christians, spiritually those latter were among the living dead, just like all baptized unbelievers and unbaptized unbelievers even today. Quote, and in those days men shall seek death, but shall not find it. And they shall desire to die, but death shall flee away from them." Clearly, these locust scorpion objects are no mere insects. For ordinary locusts have no king, they wear no crown, whereas these extraordinary locusts have a leader. For they have a king over them, who is the fallen angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue has his name Apollyon, in other words, Destroyer. Again, this king strongly suggests not only Muhammad, the alleged messenger or Rasul of Allah, alias the unipersonal deity of Islam, but to many Christian theologians it also suggests that the real influence behind Muhammad and Islam is Satan himself. Satan tried to be like God. Indeed, he pretends to be that deity called Allah. Yet, he remains only the destroyer. It is significant that the Geneva Bible here calls the angel of the bottomless pit in Revelation 9-11, Satan's ambassador. This further suggests that Satan does not here act directly, but precisely through the agency of an ambassador as his representative. Strikingly, Allah is sometimes described by Muslims themselves as the one who brings damage, or the one who leads astray, or the one who brings down, or the tyrant. See Craig's The Call of the Minaret, Oxford University Press, New York, 1956, page 43. As such, this Muslim concept of Allah is really that of a great idol opposing the triune God and oppressing those who serve the triune God. For as Calvin also himself explained, quote, the Turks in the present day proclaim with full throat that the creator of heaven and earth is their God. Yet by their rejection of the deity and saviourhood of Christ, substitute an idol in his place." That is to say, Allah is an idol substituted in the place of the one and only true and triune God. Edward Gibbons' decline and fall of the Roman Empire says of Muhammad's successors, quote, they reigned by right of conquest over the nations of the East to whom the name of liberty was unknown, and who were accustomed to applaud in their tyrants the acts of violence and severity that were performed at their own expense. Under the last of the Amidates, the Arabian Empire extended 200 days journey from east to west, from the confines of Tartary and India to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. After his own religious reorientation, Muhammad led increasingly vast armies of Unitarianized Arabs. These had subjected most of the tribes in the Arabian Peninsula even before he died. Jerusalem was conquered in 638. Iran and North Africa from 644 to 656. Spain and Northern India in 711. This also set the example for later Muslims in subsequent centuries, for Saladin and his Saracens, Islamicized Mongolians, and especially the Turks, to crusade not only against idolatry, but also against all forms of Trinitarian Christianity. So then, around 620 AD, Muhammad apostatized from his own very slender grasp, and rather inadequate understanding of some of the heavenly revelations contained in the Holy Bible. Under the misdirection of that great fallen star called Satan, and conceivably also at the promptings of demons, Muhammad perhaps even spiritistically or mediumistically opened up the bottomless pit and made smoke to rise up out of it. The scourge of Muhammad's Islam, though then arrested in its advance into Christian Western Europe in AD 732, and though subsequently expelled from Spain and the islands of the Mediterranean, still continued to spread to other areas elsewhere. One woe is past, but behold, two more woes come after that. Having already reached Central Asia between AD 700 and 730, Islam next infiltrated even Western China in AD 755, and subsequently overwhelmed Afghanistan and the lands adjacent to it. Then, from around A.D. 1000, the Central Asian Turks of Turkmenistan not only spread Islam northward into Central Western Siberia and Southern Russia and the Ukraine, they spread it also southward throughout Northern India and thence eastward through Malaysia to the Philippines and to Indonesia. Next, around A.D. 1040, the Turks started moving especially westward, across the river Euphrates, through the Holy Land, and into Asia Minor, alias the Asian part of the modern Turkey. That latter expansion wiped out the nominal remnants of the seven churches to which these very warnings in the Book of Revelation were originally addressed. So despite almost two centuries of resisting the Christian crusades in Palestine against them from 1096 to 1291, the Turks had pushed on further toward the West. During that time, all the nominally Christian armies were ultimately unsuccessful in trying to dislodge the Saracens from Palestine. Declares the Word of God, quote, the sixth angel sounded. And I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is in front of God, saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loosen the four angels which are bound to the great river Euphrates. Then the four angels were unleashed, which were prepared for an hour and a day and a month and a year to slay the third part of men." Explains Luther, quote, In chapters nine and ten of the book of Revelation, the real misery begins. For these earlier bodily and spiritual tribulations are almost a jest compared with the plagues that are to come. The first woe, the fifth angel, is Arius, who plagued the church so terribly everywhere. The second woe is the sixth angel, the shameful Muhammad, with his companions the Saracens, who inflicted a great plague on the church with their doctrines and with a sword. Now it was God and Christ himself who unleashed this Turkish scourge from the Euphrates against the West. For the voice from the four horns of the golden altar, comments the Geneva Bible, is, quote, the voice of Christ sitting at the right hand of the Father. The four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates signify the enemies of the East Country who would afflict the Church of God, as did the Arabians, Saracens, Turks, and Tartars, unquote. Also, the dork Dutch Bible comments, quote, by these four angels all expositors mostly understand the sect of the Mohammedans. They consist especially of four nations who subjugate all the others, namely the Arabs, Saracens, Tartars, and Turks. Of these, the Arabs and Saracens, and indeed from the year 620 onward, used much violence against Christians, and especially against the Roman Empire in the East and the West. About the year 1300, when the Antichrist was at its zenith and Orthodox Christians were being most suppressed, the Tartars and the Turks broke through the two Armenias which touched the Euphrates, and overran and subjugated much of Asia and Africa, and destroyed the Grecian or Eastern Empire of which Constantinople was the capital." Now this expression that the four angels were prepared for an hour and a day and a month and a year to slay the third part of men amounts to a shade more than 391 prophetic days. 1 plus 30 plus 360. For there, anciently, a month consisted of 30 and a year of 360 days. This apparently refers, in accordance with the year-day principle of prophetic interpretation, to the length of prophetic time required for the completion of this entire enterprise. It thus amounts to just over 391 natural years. Please see Genesis 1 14, 5 23, 29 18-30, Numbers 14 34, Ezekiel 4 5-8, Daniel 7.25 and 9.2.24 and 12.7.11 and Revelation 11.2-11, 12.6-14 and 13.5. As George Stanley Faber pointed out in 1806 regarding Revelation 9.13-15, quote, The accurate accomplishment of this numerical prophecy is singularly remarkable. the Turks, under Ortegrul, gained their first victory over the Greek Empire in the year 1281 by the conquest of Kudahai. In the year 1357 they crossed over into Europe. In the year 1453 they took Constantinople, and the remaining provinces of the Eastern Roman Empire soon followed the fate of the capital. In the year 1669 they made themselves masters of Crete, And in the year 1672, they wrestled Kamenice, their last conquest from the Poles. If we now compute 390 years from the year 1281, they will exactly bring us down to the year 1672. The above view was widespread both before and after Faber. Generally, it is that also of Downingham, Brightman, Meade, Parker, Durham, Goodwin, Increase, Mather, Sherwin, Jurio, Fleming, Cotton, Mather, Daubetz, Sir Isaac Newton, Jonathan Edwards, Bishop Thomas Newton, John Gill, John Brown of Haddington, Winthrop, Thomas Scott, Fuller, James Angel Brown, Alexander Keith, Bickerstaff, Lewis Gowson, Bishop Elliot, Albert Barnes, and J.P. Lang. Comments Meade The second woe coming up summons the Turks against the Roman world with many horsemen from the Euphrates where they had long been resisted." And Barnes says, quote, The reference to the Turkish power was extending from the time of their first appearance in the neighborhood of the Euphrates to their final conquest of Constantinople in 1453. Continues John, Now the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand. So I heard the number of them, and thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them who sat on them having breastplates of fire and of jacinth and brimstone. And the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions, and from their mouths fire and smoke and brimstone went forth. By these three plagues the third part of mankind was killed, by the fire and by the smoke and by the brimstone which went forth from their mouths. for their power is in their mouth and in their tails, for their tails were like serpents and had heads with which they keep on causing pain." John foresaw that the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred thousand thousand, and that these Turks and Tartars know how to take the field with several hundred thousand, the Dutch Bible comments here, is sufficiently known from the histories. John also foresees how out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. It needs to be asked at this point whether the fire and the smoke and the brimstone, alias the sulfur, which went forth from the mouths of these terrible attackers, is a prediction of the Turks shooting shells propelled by gunpowder out of the mouths of their cannons. As the knowledgeable Lord Byron notes in his book The Byzantine Achievement, Quote, the fall of Constantinople was the first event of historic importance engineered with the most important weapon of modern warfare, gunpowder. If it was not for gunpowder, the siege of Constantinople in 1453 would have failed. Nevertheless, not one of God's elect lost his salvation at the hands of the Turks, nor indeed could do so. And very few of God's elect were killed by them. On the other hand, scores of unsaved and purely nominal church members were exterminated. Now, similar as the Turks indeed were to the previous plague of Arabian locusts, in fact, essentially an Islamic extension of that earlier Muslim scourge, there were also certain differences. For the Islamic Turks did not merely hurt men without killing them, as did the Islamic Arabians, but they actually slew fully one third, or the third part of men, in the eastern part of what was indeed at least a nominally Christian Eastern Orthodox civilization. Even here there is no question of these Islamic Turks completely destroying genuine Christians. Most then destroyed by Islam were nominal hangers-on and lifeless members of the deformed Eastern Church, itself infected with the principles of Babylon on the Euphrates. It is true that the Turks, helped by Mohammedan Mongols from 1250 onward, conquered Constantinople in 1453, and then overran parts of Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Hungary, and Austria, and the whole of the Crimea, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, Wallachia, Albania, and Greece. It is also true that Islam, by means of its slave traders, continued to march southward, first through West Africa, then through East Africa, and thereafter into southern Africa. Comments Reverend Dr. Matthew Henry of the Four Angels Bound in the River Euphrates, quote, These four messengers of divine judgment lay bound in the River Euphrates, a great way from the European nations. Here the Turkish power had its rise, which seems to be the story of this vision. It tells us the armies of the Mahomedan Empire will be vastly great, and so it is certain they were. Their artillery, by which they made such slaughter, is described by fire, smoke, and brimstone issuing out of the mouth of their horses and the stings that were in their tails. It is Mr. Meade's opinion that this is a prediction of great guns, those instruments of cruelty which make such destruction. He observes these were first used by the Turks at the siege of Constantinople. As Antichrist had his forces of a spiritual nature, like scorpions poisoning the minds of men with error and idolatry, so the Turks, who were raised up to punish the anti-Christian apostasy, had their scorpions and their stings too, to hurt and kill the bodies of those who had been the murderers of so many souls. It might certainly have been hoped that the fall of Constantinople to the plague of Islamic Turks in A.D. 1415 would have brought the nominally Christianized yet still unreformed Europe to her senses. If only Christendom, if only the Eastern Orthodox, but especially the then unharmed but nevertheless threatened Papal West, had then repented. The rest of the men who were not killed by those Islamic plagues still did not repent of the works of their hands so as to cease worshipping demons and idols of gold and silver and brass and stone and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. Neither did they repent of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts." As Philip Morrow remarks, quote, it is twice stated that they repented not. And to this agrees the voice of history, which shows that the nations which suffered under Saracenic and Ottoman scourges did not repent of their evil works, their idolatries, and their worse than pagan practices, unquote. For even the Christian Church in Western Europe had become deformed by the tyranny of the Romish papacy, as described by John in the subsequent chapters. The nominal church, both Eastern and Western, had become infested with the worship of fallen angels and icons, and with violence and witchcraft and lasciviousness and simonies. Also the Eastern Orthodox Church, even one under the tyranny of Islam, did not repent of those sins. comments Durham, quote, how mad the papal and eastern orthodox anti-christian world was upon their idols. They are said not to repent. Notwithstanding these plagues, neither were these idolatrous Christians quote, inwardly brought to loathe these sins or to be humble for them before God. Even after this plague which fully came to pass also, Papists were being never more drunk with their superstitions and profane in their carriages than since the Turks destroyed a great part of that anti-Christian kingdom. The trumpet describeth Antichrist's kingdom, and setteth out God's severe judging of a great part of the Christian world by letting loose the Turks upon it, which, with great armies, destroyed many, and overcame a great part of the empire. Yet these that were spared did not repent, nor forsake their idolatry and superstitions for all that. But potpourri grew in its corruption, even as the Turks in their dominion." the deformed church still needed to be reformed. There would have to be a progressive destruction not only of Eastern Orthodox idolatry but also of the papal tyranny by a Protestant Reformation. To Luther, as we have seen, Revelation chapter 9 predicts the shameful Muhammad with his companions the Saracens who inflicted a great plague on the church. Those are Luther's words. Yet Along with this, at Revelation 10.1, continues Luther, quote, is the holy papacy with its great spiritual show in the mass, which the Protestant Reformation would soon challenge. In Revelation 10, verses 1 and 2, we are told that a mighty angel with a rainbow over his head, apparently Christ himself, according to most expositors, was at this point foreseen by John. That angel, quote, had in his hand a little book open, unquote. This suggests, after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, the revolution in printing, and the resultant vast multiplication of copies of the Bible, which led to the Protestant Reformation. The Dort Dutch Bible applies this to the time of the Protestant Reformation. It comments that, quote, others take it as the book of the gospel, which at the time the Antichrist, of the papacy, was at its zenith, had been a closed book for the church. But starting from the time that the Islamic Turks broke loose against Christendom, as indicated in the previous chapter, Revelation 9, it was once again opened up for the Church by several exceptional men of God, such as Luther, Calvin, etc. That Protestant Reformation of the deformed Western Church to liberate it from its papal Babylonish captivity, commenced in 1517 between the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453 and the defeat of the Turks at Vienna in 1683. That Protestant Reformation was firmly established by the middle of the 16th century, as the Turkish power was reaching its zenith. Indeed, the Protestant Reformation was and is predestinated to reform the Church and to destroy the works of the false prophet Mohammed and of all other false prophets, even down through all the subsequent centuries. For the Protestant Reformation, in spite of all setbacks, will continue to advance and to triumph during the remaining time of earth's history. The power of Islam peaked in the 16th century, at the advent of the Protestant Reformation. For its new advance into Central Europe from the East was checked, not only by the rise of Protestantism, but also by the resulting semi-reformation, even of the Romish Church, at the so-called Counter-Reformation, which did indeed somewhat check its grosser sins. In 1683, the Turks were defeated decisively at the Battle of Vienna. Subsequently, and especially after the French Revolution of 1789, see Revelation 11 verse 13, Islam slowly began to recede even in the Muslim parts of Eastern Europe and elsewhere. That occurred particularly at the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in Turkey and in the Near East during the First World War. Sadly, however, since the weakening of the West during the Second World War, there are again signs of a revival and extension of Islam. Even before the 20th century, many commentators on Revelation 16 verses 15 through 17 and 19 verse 20 predicted such a revival of Mohammedanism that will, however, later be followed also by its downfall and the conversion of many Muslims to Christ. All this seems to be adumbrated in Revelation chapters 10 and 11. These appear to be predicting the Protestant Reformation and its consequences as the very turning point of church history. In a very real sense, Revelation chapter 11 is the bridge between the seal prophecy of the Islamic chapters 8 through 9 and the book prophecy of the papal Romish chapters 13 through 17. We shall at this time therefore spend a little time presenting the Westminster Assembly Calvinist Dr. Thomas Goodwin's understanding of this important bridge of Revelation chapter 11. Very interestingly he links it in also with Daniel chapter 12. After the mention of the 1260 days in Revelation 11.3, in verse 7, explains Godwin, the words, and when they shall have finished their testimony, are there, quote, held out to testify during that whole time of 1260 years. Here is the same period of time twice mentioned under several computation, the one of 42 months, the other of 1260 days, both of which come all to one. The one is mentioned as the time that the Pope and his company shall reign, and the other as the time for the witness to prophecy. These are not solitary days, that is, natural days consisting of day and night, but prophetical days, as in Daniel 9.24 and 12.7-12. A day is put for a year, and a week for seven years, and so 30 days for 30 years, and 1260 days for 1260 years. 1260 years are to be allowed the Beast, the Pope, from his beginning to his end. See Revelation 11.2-7. Nor does Goodwin differ here from the first great Protestant reformer. Indeed, in Revelation 11.7, the beast from the pit insists Luther is the worldly pope. Continues Goodwin, quote, The days of Christ's kingdom to come are called the days of the seventh angel. See Revelation 10.7 and 11.5. And so the times before it are called the days of the sixth angel, or the sixth trumpet, under which the Turk reigns. Revelation 9.13. If these occurrences have any affinity with the sixth trumpet, it rather lies in this, that whereas the fifth and sixth trumpets have contained two woes on the Christian world in the East for their idolatry from the Turks and Saracens in chapter 9, this situation described in Revelation 11 contains a like woe on the churches in the West by the Papists overrunning their outward court as a punishment of their carnal gospelling. This, added to those woes brought upon those Grecian churches by the Turks, should make the woe of the sixth trumpet complete, the vials being upon the Turk and Pope only, Revelation 16, 10-16. But these other woes upon those other professors of Christ and His name, after a fleshly way, both Grecian and Protestants, chapters 9-11. the one by the Turk, chapter 9, the other by the Papist, here in this eleventh chapter." That will keep on occurring through the faithful preaching and application of the Word of God. It will continue until the kingdom of the world has become that of our Lord and of His Christ. Both then and thereafter, too, He shall keep on reigning forever and ever. At Revelation 11.5, John foresees the final situation when the seventh angel trumpeteers, and great voices in heaven say, The kingdoms of this world have become our Lord's and His Christ's, and He shall keep on reigning forevermore. There the Geneva Bible comments, Quote, Albeit Satan by the Pope, Turk, and other instruments troubleth the world never so much, yet Christ shall reign. Thus, the 1643 Westminster Assembly's larger catechism expects that, quote, the kingdom of sin and Satan be destroyed, the gospel propagated throughout the world, the Jews called, the fullness of the Gentiles brought in, and Satan trodden under our feet. That, it says, should be what we mean when we daily pray, Thy kingdom come. Therefore also the Westminster Assembly's Directory for the Public Worship of God urges congregations to pray thus. That, it says, means to, quote, pray for the propagation of the gospel and kingdom of Christ to all nations, for the conversion of the Jews, the fullness of the Gentiles, the fall of Antichrist, and the deliverance of the distressed churches abroad from the tyranny of the anti-Christian faction of Romanism, and from the cruel oppressions and blasphemies of the Turk, etc. On the resurrected beast in Revelation chapter 13, Luther insists that, quote, the Roman Empire left in the lurch by the Greeks is conveyed by the Pope. The Pope accepted Charlemagne, Revelation 13.2. The Pope re-erects the Empire, Revelation 13.11. His number is 666, Revelation 13.18. These are 666 years. Thus long does the worldly papacy stand." 666 A.D. was right after the Synod of Whitby, which rejected Proto-Protestantism for Papal Romanism in the days of the Italian Pope Battalion, who introduced organs into the churches. And the next 666 years noted by Luther would last till 1332 Black Death, and John Wycliffe. Here now, explains Luther, the devil's final wrath gets to work. There in the east, the second woe, Muhammad and the Saracens. Here in the west, papacy and empire. With the third woe. To these is added, for good measure, the Turk, Gog and Magog, as will follow in chapter 20. Explains Goodwin, This beast, the 13th chapter describes, Christ yet preserves another like company of 144,000, chapter 14. Even the like number of virgins who are sealed Christians in the West, as under the tyranny of the Turks and Saracens, he had done the like in the East. These two, the Pope and Turk, are both enemies to Christ, for Mohammedanism tyrannizes in the one. Idolatry overspreads the other, as heathenism had done the empire. Luther continues, quote, In Revelation chapter 14, Christ first begins to slay his Antichrist with the breath of his mouth, alias the spirit-filled preaching of his word. As Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 2, the angel, or the messenger, alias the preacher, with the gospel comes. The saints stand again around the Lamb and preach the truth. The harvest shall come, but those who cleave to the papacy against the gospel shall be cast outside the city of Christ, alias the true church. Luther explains further. After this, in chapters 15 and 16, come the seven angels with the seven bowls, or vials, with the seven last plagues of the wrath of God. The gospel increases and attacks the papacy on all sides by means of many learned and pious preachers. At the throne of the beast, the Pope's power becomes dark and wretched and despised. The Westminster Assembly's Calvinist Dr. Goodwin states, quote, in chapters 15 and 16, Christ hath seven vials which contain the last plagues to dispatch the Pope and Turk. The first five vials do dissolve and ruin the Pope's power by degrees in the West, then the sixth vial breaks the power of the Turk in the East. By these six vials, their power and kingdom not being wholly ruined and removed, both Turk and Popish party join and put to the utmost their forces, and together with them all opposite kings of the whole world against the Christians both East and West. The book prophecy, Revelation 10.2 through 19.21, is taken up with the Western oppositions to the great Antichrist of the West. Most fitly, in this seal prophecy, wherein the Mohammedan oppressors bear so great a part, comes in the representation of the state of those Eastern Christians under Mohammed, Revelation 8 and 9. Nevertheless, here and there, even in the book prophecy at Revelation 19.16 and 12 and 1920 and 20 and 10, there is mention not only of the Western Papal Antichrist, but also the Eastern False Prophet. As the Curate in James Durham rightly remarks, the four first vials in chapter 16 carry on Antichrist's ruin. The fifth vial overturns Rome his seat. The sixth overturns the Turks. The sixth angel poured out his vial containing the sixth plague upon the great river Euphrates. Then its water became dried up so that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. This vial held the Puritans, John Cotton, and Thomas Goodwin will destroy the Turks or Muslims and convert the Jews to Christianity. First, however, there would apparently be an Oriental and possibly even a Pan-Muslim thrust westward. Comments the 1637 Calvinist Dort Dutch Bible, quote, Some here understand the thus named actual River Euphrates, on both sides of which the Turks and the Persians or Iranians and similar nations of the East have their territory, as noted in chapter 9, verse 14. They would still unite with one another. in a pan-Islamic jihad or holy war apparently against the West. Even the arch-dispensationalist C.I. Schofield noted in his reference Bible, quote, this is precisely what has come to pass with the Republic of France and the despotism of Turkey, unquote. Indeed, it is precisely the infidel aftermath of the 1789 French Revolution which has weakened the West. The drying up the waters of Babylon seems to have a further meaning, too. It refers inter alia also to an event prior to the final fall of papal Rome. As such, the result of the outpouring of the sixth vial seems to relate to the diminishing power of Rome on the Tiber, and also to the diminishing power of Islam on the Euphrates. On the latter point, the famous independent Greek Orthodox scholar Apostolos Macrocos says, quote, The Greek river Euphrates of Revelation 16.12 is taken as a symbol of the barbarian peoples of Asia from which the beast received new and fresh strength. At the time when the Arab race became emasculated, the beast was reinforced by Turkish and Tartar tribes. And the Osmanli power was advanced by the Tartars and the Asiatic hordes, to which the scriptures refer as the waters of the river Euphrates. Thus the sixth vial rendered this spring of Turkish power dry, so that Mohammedanism might vanish in Europe." Because of that diminished power of Islam, the kings of the East shall come to Christ, Revelation 15.4, Revelation 16.12. Thus says Brightman, John Cotton, Hute, Hook, John Owen, Goodwin, Fleming, Noyes, Matthew Henry, Lohmann, Jonathan Edwards, Lampe, Gill, John Brown of Haddington, Faber, Farnham, Robert Scott, Fuller, E. Allen, W.C. Davis, the D'Oyly and Mant Bible, Mason, McCorkle, A. Armstrong, T.H. Horn, Junkin, J. Wilson, Burwell, Albert Barnes, McFarlane, U. Smith, McCrackus, and William Symington. Most expositors see the Euphrates in Revelation 16.12 as being a barrier against Islam. Thus says Hewitt, Hutchinson, Hook, Goodwin, Whitby, Matthew, Henry, Cheever, Faber, Fuller, Mason, Fry, Vaughn, Begg, Hoare, Leslie, Thorpe, Cox, Dowling, Cumming, Pond, Elliott, Bailey, Barnes, and McCrackis. Many also see Revelation 16.12 as predicting many converts from Islam to Christianity. For example, Matthew Henry, Gil, Barnes, Macracus, and Macfarlane. Explains the Westminster Assembly Calvinist Dr. Thomas Goodwin at Revelation 16.12, quote, Now the sixth vial is poured out by the angry triune God upon the great river Euphrates, that is, the Turk. The relics both of Turk and Pope, and of all the Church's enemies throughout the world at verse 14, mustering up all their forces against the Christians in the West and the then converted Jews in the East, are to be overthrown." The Westminster Assembly's own directory for the public worship of God urges Christians to pray, quote, for the propagation of the gospel and kingdom of Christ to all nations. for the conversion of the Jews, the fullness of the Gentiles, the fall of Antichrist, and the deliverance of the distressed churches abroad, from the tyranny of the Romish anti-Christian faction, and from the cruel oppressions and blasphemies of the Turk, etc. James Durham comments on Revelation 16.13, such would be instrumental in this plague as was neither within the Church nor the Roman Empire. but such as would have their residence beside this river Euphrates, Revelation 9.14 and 16.12, as the Turks are observed to have had before their dominion spread. They are said to be loosed from that place to destroy the waste part of the Christian world, which accordingly came to pass very speedily when the Turks, having prevailed over the Saracens, did with them combine in one dominion under the Ottomanian family. That was about 1,000 years A.D. and some more, from which time their power grew till a great part of Europe was overrun by them. The Turks have led the greatest armies, especially horsemen, unto Europe. A great part of Europe being destroyed and overrun by the Turks are sufficient evidences of the truth of this. The Turks also are not more terrible in their armies to the bodies of men than the pestiferous delusion of Mahomet is of itself hurtful and destructive to souls." John foresaw, quote, three unclean spirits, like frogs, come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they, the unclean spirits, are the spirits of demons, working miracles, or pseudo-miracles, unquote. Neither Rome nor Islam will ever completely relinquish her power, however, without a final fight. That fight will be furious and fanatical, even though undertaken in frustration, for that fight is doomed to failure. Thus, ultimately, Roman Islam will employ even demonic influences, and to some extent do so even today on the foreign mission field, in order to try to stop the slow but steady and world-conquering advance of the Protestant Reformation. The spirits of demons too, predicts John, go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world. They do so to gather them to that battle of that great day of God Almighty. These demon spirits go forth to stir up the political leaders of the whole world against the Lord Jesus and his people. The frog-like, unclean spirits are here declared to be the spirits of devils, alias demons, whether operating in or through Roman Catholic emissaries, thus says the Calvinistic Dutch Bible. The papacy and or paganism, thus says Albert Barnes. The false prophet of Islam, thus says Breitman and Barnes and Symington. Spiritism, says Elie Froome. Or all of these, says Francis Nigel Lee. Together they constitute a syncretism," says Arethas, Brightman, Goodwin, Owen, Matthew Henry, Lohmann, Jonathan Edwards, Hopkins, Faber, John Brown, Hengstenberg, Albert Barnes, Fairbarn, and Macracus. Yet they are to be under the leadership of the papacy, says John Calvin and Jonathan Edwards. Indeed, also the Barnes and, too, Fairbarn, the papacy and Islam and paganism will then constitute, as it were, a false and an accursed trinity of evil. Especially the famous independent Greek Orthodox scholar Macracus is well worth quoting on this point. Quote, the spirit of the mouth of the false prophet is the spirit of pseudo-religion, which fires the Pope and the Jesuits, Muhammad and the Ulemas, or interpreters of the Koran, and these symonical high priests who have gained control of the holy temples and altars of the Eastern Orthodox Church. This spirit is the third power of Satan. In reality, the system of Satan is inimical only to that of Christ. Hence, the three unclean spirits of Satan's system go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, and persuade them by means of deceitful words and signs to oppose with all their strength Christ's new social order, which fundamentally destroys and exterminates the old. What is the religion of all Europe today? Islamism in the East? Popery in the West? Simony, the ally of Islamism? And in the midst of these, wandering Judaism? And last but not least is Freemasonry, that lurking yet obvious enemy of all religions. The worldwide kingdom of Satan is today threatened and endangered by the emerging kingdom of Christ. All this is announced by the divine for our sake so that we may also make ready for this great battle by mustering our forces, by organizing ourselves in accordance with the spirit of Christ's religion, government, and philosophy, and by abolishing and destroying as much as we can Satan's false religion, false governmental systems, and false philosophies. This ends take two of Islam and the Bible by Dr. Francis Nigel Lee, read by W. J. Mancaro and produced by Stillwater Survival Books. Thank you for listening and we hope you will go on to the next tape in this series. If you would like more information on the topics addressed in this tape, Stillwater's Revival Books also carries a wide selection of resources on classic Reformation eschatology, including the five tapes set in book by E.B. Eliot and other reformers titled Islam and Revelation, an historic look at Protestant eschatological thought on the rise and fall of Islam, as well as numerous other resources, some free, on just about every topic of interest to the contemporary Christian. please visit our website at www.swrb.com and or sign up for our email super special discount mailings by emailing us at add, A-D-D, at swrb.com if you would like to learn more.