THE
BOOK OF REVELATION
By:
Bertrand L. Comparet
Lesson
#5 Of A Series Of 14, Transcribed From Audio Tapes
Transcribed
By:
Clifton
A. Emahiser’s
Teaching
Ministries
1012
North Vine Street
Fostoria,
OH
44830
Phone
(419) 435-2836
[Unless
in brackets, all of the message is by Bertrand L. Comparet.]
Well, we’re still going in the Book of Revelation. And as you have seen, it is
slow going because there is an awful lot in it. There are two thousand years of
history in it. In fact, three thousand, as far as that goes, because it does
cover the millennium. [At this point, your humble
transcriber disagrees with Comparet, for the so-called “thousand years”
(millennium) prophesied in Revelation is already past, but I shall not go into
detail on that here, but only reproduce on paper what Comparet said on audio
tape.] We had gotten into
the matter of opening the seven seals. You remember the only one found worthy to
open the seven seals was the Lamb slain in sacrifice, which obviously was
symbolic of Yahshua the Christ Himself. And as He opened each of these seals,
you didn’t see what was read from the scroll; what was written on it. But an
event took place which was symbolical of a great event or series of events in
history, and we saw that these seals portrayed the final collapse of the
Roman Empire – the fourth and last of the
Babylonian succession of empires. We’d finally gotten down through the sixth
seal.
Before
we come to the seventh seal there is a little parenthesis thrown in there,
because it doesn’t portray any stage in the collapse of the Roman Empire like the first six seals had. In Revelation
7, verses 1 to 3, we are told that four angels, having power to hurt the earth,
were holding back the four winds of heaven so they couldn’t blow. They were told
not to hurt the earth, the sea nor the trees till we have sealed the servants of
our Elohim in their foreheads. Now if anybody thinks that Christianity is a new
religion, that has discarded Israel, you should get your eyes
opened immediately on this. This particular group, who are the servants of our
Elohim, are Israel, as the book expressly says.
The Bible has identified Israel, and only Israel, as
Yahweh’s servants. Isaiah 41, verses 8 to 10: “But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have
chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend. Thou whom I have taken from the ends of
the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, Thou
art my servant; I have chosen thee,
and not cast thee away. Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy Elohim: I will strengthen thee;
yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my
righteousness.” [See note #1 at end of
lesson.]
And
Isaiah 44, verses 21 and 22: “Remember these, O Jacob and Israel; for thou
art my servant: I have formed thee;
thou art my servant: O Israel, thou
shalt not be forgotten of me. I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy
transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed
thee.” Now both of these passages were written after the ten-tribed northern
nation of Israel had disappeared into the
Assyrian captivity. Nobody can say Yahweh cast off the ten-tribed
Israel, because here He makes
it very clear; He has redeemed them, He has blotted out their sins, He is with
them [including many of Judah and Benjamin deported by
Assyria]. [See
note #2 at end of lesson.]
In
the Book of Revelation, the servants of our Elohim who are sealed, are entirely
of Israel. And Revelation 7, verse 4
says so: “And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of
the children of Israel.” Nothing about the Congolese
cannibals, nothing about the Chinese, just the children of Israel.
Now, verses 5 through 9 go on to enumerate the tribes; 12 thousand out of each
tribe who were sealed. Here is something which some people have had considerable
difficulty in understanding, that the number and names of the tribes don’t come
out the way you would expect. But we will see, when we look into it, that after
all, there is no real inconsistency there. All the tribes are named except the
tribes of Dan and of Ephraim – those are not mentioned.
Now actually, of course, there were 13 tribes of Israel including
the tribe of Levi, the priestly tribe; Levi, having had no territory of its own,
were scattered through all the other 12.
Looking
upon them as independent states, you might say each with its own territory,
there would be only 12, and Levi not included. But here, they’re not talking
about land areas and government, but that out of each tribe were sealed a
particular group of 12 thousand of each tribe. It doesn’t list Dan or Ephraim,
but it lists the tribe of Joseph. Well now, originally, of course, Joseph was
one of the tribes. But then on his death bed, old Israel himself
split Joseph into the two tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh. The reason why Dan is
not mentioned is cleary not that Yahweh had anything against Dan more than any
of the other tribes. But all this phase of Revelation is dealing with the
troubles and devastation that came upon the old Roman
Empire, and by this time Dan was gone, completely outside it. Dan
was in no more danger from these plagues than people on the American continent
were, for Dan was already up on the shores of the Baltic Sea in territory that
Rome had never
controlled. Now as to Ephraim – the tribe of Manasseh is mentioned by name here
as one of those from whom 12 thousand were sealed. Well, if you talk about the
tribe of Joseph, who was left out of the tribe of Joseph except the tribe of
Ephraim? Hence, actually, as it stands, Ephraim is really included in this. Dan,
as I say, was clear out of the picture as far as danger was concerned. [See note #3 at end of lesson.]
I
want to call your attention to one thing here. This chapter of Revelation speaks
of two completely different and separate groups. First is the 144 thousand out
of the 12 tribes of Israel who are sealed. Well now, you
put your seal on something as a mark of ownership. These were the servants of
Yahweh. Then it goes on, Revelation 7, verse 9: “After this I beheld, and, lo, a
great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and
people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with
white robes, and palms in their hands ...” [See note
#4A at end of lesson.]
You
remember, the four winds of heaven that were to bring disasters were held back
until the servants of Yahweh were sealed, so they would be protected. In other
words, they do not go through plagues. But, of these people in this great
multitude out of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues, the remainder
of chapter 7 speaks of these and says, “These are they which came out of the
great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood
of the Lamb.” Therefore, they are before the throne of Yahweh and serve Him day
and night in His temple, and He that sits on the throne shall dwell among them.
That’s particularly verses 14 and 15. Now, these have not been sealed to be
protected from any plagues. These are people of this area of the Roman Empire who are going through these terrible
judgments, and it will include those within the worldwide judgment that we are
all about to enter. Not kept out of it, not saved from it, but they have gone
through it without weakening in their faith. They have remained loyal. Thus, you
can see how these are treated differently. In other words, people not of the
Israel group have salvation opened to
them. All that Christianity promises, in that way, is opened to them, but it
still does not make them members of Israel with the particular job, and the pay for
it, that is given to Israel. [Again see note #4A at end of
lesson.]
[At
this point, I am going to interrupt this message by Bertrand L. Comparet for a
moment. Comparet has just unwittingly contradicted himself where he said,
“Nothing about the Congolese cannibals, nothing about the Chinese, just the
children of Israel.” Now I have to agree with him
on about everything he has to say in these series of messages, but I take
exception and object to the remark that he just said concerning Revelation 7:9
as being about non-Israelite peoples. Yes, it would appear that the terms “all
nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues” would seem to include all of the
people upon the earth. Again, it is a matter of translation that is the problem.
Now these “all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues” are the many
nations of Israel, and
Israel only. Other than this, the
only “nations” which could be included in resurrection would be the Genesis 10
nations descended only from the White sons of Noah; Ham, Shem and Japheth. That
is not the context here. Revelation 7:9 just simply means dispersed
Israel nations, or
Israel people, with different customs
and manners and languages. The Bible
Knowledge Commentary by J. F. Walvoord: “This is the same group mentioned in
6:9, but here they were wearing white
robes and holding palm branches,
apparently signifying righteous triumph.” And as Comparet implied in his
Lesson #3, the “souls under the altar” were Israelites. End of transcriber’s
comment.]
So
that takes up the little parenthetical seventh chapter of Revelation. When we
have gone into eight, we get back into the historical preview here. Revelation
8:1-4: “And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven
about the space of half an hour. And I saw the seven angels which stood before
Yahweh; and to them were given seven trumpets. And another angel came and stood
at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense,
that he should offer it with the
prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the
smoke of the incense, which came with
the prayers of the saints, ascended up before Yahweh out of the angel’s hand.”
[Again see note #4A at end of
lesson.]
In
the tabernacle in the wilderness, and in the temple in Jerusalem, you had, out in the court of the Temple, the bronze altar
(your King James Version says brass,
but that’s a different alloy, it was bronze), the bronze altar on which the
sacrifices were burned. But then, in the Holy of Holies there was the golden
altar upon which incense – not sacrifices, but incense – was burned. Thus, you
have here the same thing, the golden altar which was before the throne. Again,
pure Israel symbolism right straight
through. So when the seventh seal was opened, nothing in and of itself happened.
It’s getting into a pretty solemn situation and there is silent consideration of
this thing for about half an hour before any of these things start to happen.
Then you see the seven angels, each given his trumpet, and this other angel who
is offering up incense and the prayers of the saints. Then it goes on: “And the
angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were
voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an
earthquake.”
This
is the start of something even more serious in the way of trouble than what you
had out of the first six seals. This is leading up to something big. The voices
and thunderings and lightnings, of course, are the battle against what’s coming,
and the earthquake, a great shake up of earthly institutions. Revelation 8:6:
“And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to
sound.” So you see, you’re going now from the mere opening of a seal to the
seven new stages, each of which is brought on by the blowing of a trumpet.
Revelation 8, verse 7: “The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and
fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part
of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.” You remember that
among the plagues brought upon Egypt when Moses was trying to do a
little salesmanship job with Pharaoh, it included hail mingled with fire and it
was destructive. It destroyed the crops of the Egyptians. Hence, here you have
again one of Yahweh’s plagues coming upon the “ungodly.” What does “the third
part of the trees burnt up and all green grass burnt up” mean? Now the fall of
the Roman Empire was in thirds – separate
historical periods occupying separate thirds of the empire. The western third
took in west Germany,
Gaul, Italy, Spain and Carthage
in North Africa. The southeastern third took in
North Africa, generally Egypt, Palestine
and Syria. And the northeastern third
took in Asia Minor and the Balkans. Therefore,
these three thirds of the Roman Empire were
dealt with separately.
Of
course, the start of the empire was with the city of Rome, and naturally it came to its judgment before the
easterly part, with its capital at Constantinople, it got its judgment. First, the Franks,
who were a mixture of seven Germanic tribes of Israel, overran all of Gaul and then
Spain. In Spain they
seized ships in the ports and spread all over the Mediterranean shores,
scattering their power in little colonies here and there, too small to do
anything substantial. They only kept their power closely organized really in
Gaul (France). Nevertheless, while they
didn’t become a force in the Mediterranean
itself, they did emphasize the weakening of the Roman fleets which were unable
to stop it. Then, the German tribe of the Alemania overran northern
Italy in 272 A.D. Another group of
Germanic tribes, the Suevi, the Alemania, the Vandals and the Alans invaded
northern Italy as far down as
Florence in 406
A.D. Then they retreated back to Gaul and into Spain. The Alans
were the first to be driven westward before the invasion of the Huns. [See note #12B at Lesson #4.]
Thus
you can see here, the Alans, coming ahead of any of the others, were moving into
the Roman Empire. Some of the Visigoths under
Alaric besieged Rome in 408 and were bought off with a big
ransom. They took it in 409, and it was of so little consequence that Alaric,
instead of calling himself emperor, now merely appointed one of his officers
emperor. Then in 410 Alaric captured it again and allowed his troops six days to
plunder in the city. Now if you think the things happening to Rome were rough on it,
they were. But remember how many cities Rome had plundered and looted in the past
centuries. Chickens come home to roost, and Rome was reaping a fair harvest of the crops
she had sowed. The successor of Alaric, Adolph, led the Visigoths out to south
Gaul and into Spain, where
they set up the Visigothic Kingdom. That was the dominant one in
Spain until they were overcome by the
Moorish invasion in 711 A.D. The Suevi, the Alans, the Vandals and the
Burgundians moved on out again, crossed through Spain, and settled in southern
Spain. From there the Vandals, under
Genseric, crossed to Africa, or specifically to Carthage in 429, and immediately commenced
building themselves a powerful fleet.
Rome
couldn’t do a thing about it, and five years later, 434 A.D., the emperor
formally ceded North Africa to the Vandals, and
there Genseric built up an enormous navy. Well, he just took over the whole
Mediterranean Sea, was what he did. He harassed
even the coasts of Italy and
Greece. In 455 A.D., a Vandal fleet
sailed up the Tiber river, captured and pillaged Rome, with fourteen days of looting. The Suevi,
under their king Ricimer, also pillaged Rome in 472 A.D., and the last emperor of the
western Roman Empire was deposed in 476 A.D. After that there never was an
emperor in Italy anywhere. You’ll now remember
this says “the third part of the trees and the green grass was burnt up.” Now
these Israel tribes had an awful lot to
avenge, and they did it thoroughly. They really devastated the land when they
went through. That was one of the bitter complaints of the conquered about them,
that in the course of the siege they cut down trees and all that kind of thing.
Well, they left a fairly devastated land when they were through, but that was
their job. Who was supposed to break the Babylonian succession of kingdoms? Who
else but Israel? Jeremiah 51, verses 20 and 21
gives it: “Thou art my battle axe and weapons of war: for with thee will I
break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms; And with
thee will I break in pieces the horse and his rider; and with thee will I break
in pieces the chariot and his rider.” Nations, powerful armies, all this would
not stand against them. [Check also Daniel 2:44, which
might even be better in describing these events.]
So,
in a third part of the empire you had this devastation and the destruction of
the western part of the Roman Empire. Then we
come to the second trumpet, Revelation 8, verses 8 and 9: “And the second angel
sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the
sea: and the third part of the sea became blood; And the third part of the
creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the
ships were destroyed.”
Now
here again, you remember that one of the plagues visited upon
Egypt was that the water of
the river Nile and the water in the wells and
cisterns turned to blood. Hence, here you can see consistent Israel
symbolism going on in the last book of the Bible, the same as the second book
[Exodus] of the Bible. Well, the Vandals, under
Genseric, really took over the sea. You may be sure of that. They destroyed the
western Roman navy. They laid waste the peninsula of Greece and Dalmatia, which is the eastern shore
of the Adriatic Sea. They even threatened
Constantinople. Genseric went there and
threatened to besiege Constantinople – oh, he
didn’t make any very serious attempt at a siege, and it wouldn’t have done much
good if he had, because he didn’t know siege warfare. But anyway, the emperor
Zeno, in Constantinople, had to make a treaty of peace with him, respecting his
authority over most of the Mediterranean Sea –
this was in 476 A.D. Therefore, the third part of the sea became blood, the
third part of the ships were destroyed. Constantinople maintained a big and important navy, but
they just about had to keep it in port to keep it from being
destroyed.
Then
you come to the third trumpet, Revelation 8, verses 10 and 11: “And the third
angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a
lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of
waters (that is the headwaters of rivers): And the name of the star is called
Wormwood (as your King James Version
says, it’s the word apsínthon): and
the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters,
because they were made bitter.” From a plant called “wormwood” they get a highly
poisonous substance called absinthe, and a drink is made of this absinthe. It
acts somewhat like LSD and produces all sorts of wild hallucinations, and like
LSD, if you use too much of it, it does very serious and permanent brain damage.
Well, what is this which took over a third part of the rivers and the fountain
of waters? The Huns occupied the valleys of the Danube, the Rhine and the
Po. About 200 B.C., the Huns who were nomads –
Mongol nomads – these Mongol nomads on the Steppes of central Asia overran the Chinese Empire, and for a time held it
and ruled it. But it was too soft living, and their power weakened in the next
century and it became evident that they weren’t going to be able to hold the
Chinese Empire in subjection, so they migrated on to the Steppes near the
Caspian Sea. [See note
#4B at end of lesson.]
After
settling there a while, they were too numerous for that area to take care of
their flocks and herds, so they separated. One group went southward through
Scythia, which had previously been vacated by the Israel tribes.
Now one thing may puzzle you a bit, if you read the works of various historians,
written over a period of many centuries, you don’t stop to realize that changes
take place in the course of centuries. There are a few of the later historians
who talk about the Scythians as a very low type of Mongol people, but it was the
Huns who were in Scythia long after all the Israel tribes had migrated out into
Europe. Hence, [it seems to be] a case of a
mix-up [on the part of the historians] as to
what the Scythians were like during the period of the Israelite occupation of
Scythia [and the later
Mongols occupying that same area], for [the
Israelites] were white men like ourselves. These Huns didn’t get in there
until all the Israel people were gone. [See note #5 at end of lesson.]
Well,
the other group [of Huns] went on to the basin
of the Volga river and settled there for a
considerable time. In the later three hundreds A.D. they drove out the tribe of
the Alans who had lived between the Volga and
Don rivers. And you remember, that in the four hundreds you had the Alans
invading Italy, along with several of the
other Germanic tribes. Thus they took over the space the Alans [had occupied], between the Volga and Don rivers. Then they pushed on west, later,
driving the Ostrogoths and Visigoths westward before them to the Danube river,
and you first pick up the Goths entering the Roman Empire when they moved in and
took over most of the Danube valley. Rome tried in vain to hold
it, but the Roman armies were just smashed. And so, Rome ceded to the Visigoths quite a territory in the
Danube valley on condition they would stay
there and give up their warfare. They made it part of the treaty that the Goths
were to lay down their arms. So, of course, any time a people is disarmed
invariably, the same thing happens. The Romans didn’t respect their word at all.
They badly mistreated the Goths, and of course, in those days, it didn’t take
much of a forge to produce weapons of war. You didn’t need a big hundred and
fifty million-dollar factory to turn them out. Any blacksmith with a bit of iron
and an anvil could turn out as good a sword as the next fellow had. Thus you
find the Goths, then, pushed forward by the Huns behind them, moving on into the
home of the Roman Empire in the early
400s.
The
Huns kept moving in and spreading out. By 432 A.D. they were collecting a large
annual tribute from Rome as a bribe to keep them from coming
further west. When Attila came to power in 444 A.D., he spread out to the
southward. He devastated an area from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. He defeated the Byzantine emperor,
Theodosius the 2nd, in three terrific, desperate battles. He even besieged
Constantinople, but he wasn’t trained in siege
warfare and he had none of the weapons necessary for besieging a walled city, so
he finally had to abandon the siege. Theodosius, however, ceded to him a large
amount of territory south of the Danube river, which put it on the southwestern
side, and Theodosius also paid a large annual tribute to the Huns to keep them
from coming back to Constantinople. Then in 451
A.D., in an alliance with Genseric, the king of the Vandals, he resumed his
march westward. He invaded Gaul. Remember, in
those days you didn’t have so much of a national identity as we understand it
today. It wasn’t a nation, it was a kingdom. It was ruled by a king and it did
what the king wanted to do. If the king decided to make war against some of
their blood relatives, he led his nation out to war against them. Now here,
Genseric had led his Vandals out of Gaul through Spain into Africa, and he knew that some of his fellow Germanic
tribes were there. But that didn’t matter. He was out for loot. As long as he
could reward his warriors with the loot of conquered places, he kept the army
loyal to him.
They
invaded Gaul and got as far as Chalons in France, where
the Romans were assisted at this time by the Visigoths, and the Visigoth king
Theodoric the 1st. The combined Roman and Visigoth force engaged in probably the
most terrific battle in all history. Historians of that day say that over 200
thousand Huns were killed in that battle. Now I’ll admit that that was probably
an exaggerated estimate, but even so, it ranks as one of the greatest, if not
the greatest of all the battles of ancient history. So in 451 they were turned
back, and the Visigoth and Roman forces pursued them back to the Rhine river. They had not only a good deal of the area of
the Rhine, but of course they occupied all the way south, up to the headwaters
of the Rhine, up near Switzerland. In the mountains that
have their start up in that region, you come into the headwaters of the Danube,
and then, as they poured down into Italy, you come to the river Po. The river Po has its headwaters in the great mountain
ridge that runs north-south, down Italy, and it flows in a generally easterly
direction until it empties into the Adriatic
sea. So here, these three great rivers, with their sub-waters, the
fountains of water, were covered by this terrible blight of the Hun invasion. A
blight it was. It was Attila’s boast that “the grass never grew again where his
horses’ hooves have trod.” And that’s about what he did to the land that he went
through – total devastation – senseless. They didn’t know whether they wanted to
stay and keep the land or whether they wanted to move on, so they devastated it
until it was in such a condition that there was no point in their trying to stay
there. [See note #13 at Lesson
#4.]
Well,
in 452 Attila invaded Italy
and advanced on the city of Rome. But before he got there, the Romans sent
a deputation out to meet him. The emperor offered an enormous tribute bribe to
spare the city, and Pope Leo the 1st went along as part of the embassy. His
diplomatic efforts are credited with probably being the persuasive thing that
caused Attila to turn back. Anyway, Rome was spared from being occupied by the
Huns. But the next year, 453, Attila died while he was preparing another attack
on Rome, and the
death of Attila broke up the Hun invasion. He was the one chieftain who could
hold them all together. When he was gone, the other chiefs who were willing to
serve under him were not willing that one of their own numbers should rise to a
position of supremacy. Each one said, “well, I’m as important as he is. I should
be the leader”, with the result, nobody was able to be a leader, and the Huns
finally moved back into the Steppes of Central Asia. Not all of them, though.
Some of them enlisted in the Roman army. Remember, by this time Rome was entirely unable
to maintain an effective army made up of Roman citizens, and she was hiring
mercenary soldiers, mostly from the various Germanic tribes. But when some of
the Huns were willing to enlist in the Roman forces, they were taken in. [See note #14
at Lesson #4.]
Thus,
the third part of the rivers and the third part of the fountains of waters were
occupied, and if ever an invasion was a bitter thing, this was it. The loss of
life was extremely heavy. Many men died of the waters because they were made
bitter. Now we go on to the fourth trumpet, Revelation 8, verse 12: “And the
fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third
part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them
was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night
likewise.” [See note #6 at end of
lesson.]
This
pictures the extinguishment of all the power and glory of the western Roman
Empire within one century. In 379 A.D. the empire was first split into eastern
and western portions. The western ruled from Rome
and the eastern from Constantinople. Theodosius
the Great ruled both halves from Constantinople between 392 and 395 A.D., but,
thereafter there were always the two separate portions of the Roman Empire. From about 400 A.D. the provinces simply
disintegrated into chaos and anarchy from the combination of the excessive
taxation from Rome and the barbarian invasions. In History Of Nations, volume 4, page 116,
it says of the condition during this period: “Gaul had suffered much from the incursions of the
barbarians and from civil wars during the last half century. And this distress
led to the insurrection of the Burgundians, or rustic banditi.” [See note #11 at Lesson #4.]
For
several years the country was overrun with troops of famished and furious
marauders who attacked all property, and in the case of Autun, sacked and destroyed one of the
chief centers of Gaulish civilization. The insurrection at length died out, but
the imperial government failed to learn from it the urgent necessity of devising
some less exhaustive system of taxation. It has been the history of all
important nations that they were not truly conquered by force from without. They
collapsed from internal rottenness to the point where it wasn’t too big a job to
invade and conquer them from without. For a good century, in the provinces,
there was very little law or authority existing outside of the walled cities
themselves. The power of Rome was shrinking from
the great boundaries of the empire, to just in and near the city of Rome. Out in the
provinces, such power as did exist became simply that of these Germanic tribes
who occupied the provinces. Odoacer, a chief of an alliance of tribes, had
deposed the last Roman emperor of the west, Romulus Augustulus, in A.D. 476.
Instead of claiming the title of emperor for himself, he was acclaimed king of
Italy by his soldiers, and that title
he took. Consequently, there is the final, total end of the western portion of
the Roman Empire. This northwestern third of it
had reached extinction. Thus, a third of the sun (the empire itself) was
darkened, a third of the moon (the ruling power, the emperor) was lost, a third
of the stars (the important people, the princes and generals and those in
authority) had lost that authority. [See note #5 at
Lesson #4.]
Now
there remained roughly two-thirds, in area, of the empire still under the
control, nominally at least, subordinate to Constantinople. But here, one third, as it points out, had
simply reached total destruction. [This western part
of] the empire completely ceased to be in that period. Thus, you can see
that the symbolism of it portrays accurately what actually happened. Now in the
Old Testament, very little of prophesy was given in that form. Mostly it was a
plain statement of what was going to happen. Here the prophesy is given in
symbolic form, but as you can see that symbolism was accurate – it was true
prophesy. Does anybody have any questions? [See note #7
at end of lesson.]
[At
this time there is a question from the audience:]
“This question of a 144,000, does that refer to those that are to rise up when
Christ is to return, when He comes with a shout and the voice of a trumpet?”
[Answer:] Yes, evidently so. Now whether 144,000
should be taken as a literal number or not is open to question. There’s nothing
else in the Book of Revelation that is to be taken literally, and so this 12,000
in each of 12 tribes makes 144,000. 12 multiplied by a thousand multiplied by 12
again to emphasize the 12 symbolism, which extends through the tribes of
Israel. However, if it is to be taken
literally, which could be, consider that the people who are to rule in the
millennium under the Kingship of Yahshua the Christ, these who will be the
administrative staff, are going to have powers such as no tyrant or dictator in
all history ever had. Because they won’t be limited to sending out some soldiers
to compel what they say to be done, they’ll have control over the forces of
nature even. You remember the prophet Elijah, saying to Ahab, “There will be no
rain in Israel these next three years, except when I give the word.” And he made
good. He brought the nation to its knees through famine. Now, power of that sort
cannot be trusted to people who are arrogant by nature and want to throw their
weight around and “show how terrible and important I am.” On the other hand,
that power is given because, at times, it has to be used drastically. And, if
you put it into the hands of some timid Casper milk-toast, you have accomplished
nothing at all. There are plenty of people who wouldn’t abuse that power. Some
simply wouldn’t have the moral courage to use it at all and would be totally
unfit, or morally unfit, to have that power entrusted to them. They’d be every
bit as bad as the arrogant who would abuse it because they’d produce equal
trouble. Now, starting with Adam and coming down to our own day, if you can find
144,000 thousand men out of all who lived in that time who are fit to be trusted
with that sort of power, I’d say you are doing quite well. [See note #’s 1 & 8 at end of
lesson.]
[Comment
from the audience:]
“You were saying some denominations like Jehovah’s Witnesses, they’re saying the
144,000 are the ones that are to be brought up to heaven to rule the kingdom on
earth from heaven.” [Answer:] Well, the
Jehovah’s Witnesses started out by saying that, of course, the 144,000 were
entirely members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses Kingdom Church. Then, after a while, their own
numbers exceeded 144,000 and they had the embarrassing concession that a great
many thousands of their people weren’t fit.
[Another
comment from the audience:]
“It also excludes women because it is perfectly plain that these are male
virgins, and if there are any Jehovah’s Witnesses who are women, they’ll be left
out altogether.”
[Another
comment from the audience:]
“I don’t think so, because I know a woman who is supposed to be one of those
144,000.”
[Another
comment from the audience:]
“Unless she expects to become a male virgin.” [At this
time there is a round of laughter. Answer:] Well, I don’t think there is
any reason to believe they are two separate groups. That theory, it seems to me,
if you are going to apply it, and say every time you come to another mention of
the same number, or the same size, or people doing the same thing or something,
it’s always a different one, it becomes destructive. You take this blasphemous
thing called the Bible In The Hands Of
Its Creators by the Jew Rabbi Moses Giborie [or
something that sounds like that] (who by the way is living in Tel Aviv at
present). He uses the typical Talmudic Rabbinical analysis of the Bible. He
tries to prove that there are a practically infinite number of Yahwehs, or as he
calls it “Jehovahs”, each of whom is a one and only God, because the way he
analyzes it, every time the name is used it always is a different one. You
notice how often in the Old Testament, especially in the books of Moses where
the law is being given, Yahweh keeps emphasizing these commandments, “thou shalt
do this”, or “thou shalt not do that”, I Am Yahweh thy Elohim. So two verses on,
where He says the same thing again, Moses Giborie says “Well, you see, the two
couldn’t be the same person, so it has to be the next in succession of these
Yahweh Gods.” So, there is almost an infinite number of them, according to him.
Well now, actually, if you accept the validity of that kind of reasoning, to get
these two different groups of 144,000, you really haven’t much grounds for
criticizing Moses Giborie, because he is using the same line of
reasoning.
[At
this time there is a question from the audience about the names of the various
Israel people after they
settled in their new homes in Europe.
Answer:]
Well, remember that in their march from Scythia – in fact, in Scythia we had no adequate indication that they really
preserved their separate tribal identity. They very probably were somewhat
mixed-up [by tribe]. The tribe of Dan
undoubtedly left by sea, because it wasn’t too hard a job to move on to the
Black Sea, and from there in ships go on out into the Mediterranean and around
the coasts of Europe to Denmark. Probably some of them did
not go that way and went overland. You’ll notice that there are a number of
place names, particularly in the Slavic languages because they are mostly in the
area that later was overrun and settled by the Slavs. They include Dan as part
of a name like Danube, and so on, and there’s
been speculation the name came from the fact that it was people of the Tribe of
Dan who named it. There isn’t clear conclusive proof of the overland march of
the Tribe of Dan, but certainly when they did get to what we call
Denmark, which they called Dansmark,
they still had the name, and evidently knew who they were. But the rest of them,
coming around the north shore of the Mediterranean then up the Danube valley on
into Germany, very probably were pretty
badly mixed-up [not knowing their tribe]. Now
they would break into smaller sub-tribes, unquestionably, because there had to
be leadership in government. But they were unable to, I would say, organize on a
great scale that would account for an entire tribe like Manassah or Ephraim or
something of that sort. These were undoubtedly smaller groups, so that you have
of these various Germanic sub-tribes. You’ll find they add up to more than the
number of the tribes of Israel because they were sub-tribes
rather than complete tribes. [See note #3 at end of
lesson.]
[Question
from the audience:]
“Well, Frederick Haberman, in his book Tracing Our White Ancestors, who
mentions that great numbers of Israelites left Palestine even before the
Assyrian captivity and deportation, and also even before the Exodus, some of
them migrated.” [Answer:] Oh yes, you had some
of them that left Egypt before the Exodus. They moved
on up the eastern shore of the Mediterranean and they founded the city of
Troy, and
another city that I can’t recall just now. So they did get out ahead of the
general exodus of the rest of the tribes on several occasions. [See note #9 at end of lesson.]
[Another
question:]
“Was there a tribe of Greeks that were called Danoi?” [Answer:] Yes, the Danoi. Incidentally, their coming
there was the civilization to Greece. What few inhabitants they had
were evidently of a rather uncivilized sort, until suddenly Greek culture
appears with the Danoi and a full blown civilization. The Greek story of these
Danoi is that they had come from Egypt. Now the timing of it would be
just shortly before the Exodus. (Miletus is the
name of that city they founded in Asia Minor, I
was trying to think of.) [See note #10 at end of
lesson.]
[At
this time there is a comment from the audience about these people being blue
eyed, blond people. Answer:]
Yes, undoubtedly they were our people, because Miletus founded a fair sized empire of its own.
They occupied a large portion of Spain, and Milesian mercenary troops were hired
by Egypt as border guards. Miletus had its own gold coinage with the lion of
Judah stamped on it, by the way. And
from Spain the Milesians
moved on into Ireland, which they conquered. And,
the Milesians were the ruling people in Ireland up until the conquest by the
Norman English. Let’s see, that was around, oh, a little before or a little
after 1,200 A.D. The Irish today, whose names begin with “Mac” or with “O”, are
descendants of the Milesians. That’s where those names came from.
[At
this time there is some comment from the audience as to someone’s argument
against the British being Israelites, in particular being of the tribes of
Ephraim and Manasseh. Answer:]
It never occurred to him that there might have been both Ephraim and Manasseh in
the British Isles together for a while. [See note #11 at end of lesson.]
[At
this time there is some more comment from the same person in the audience. The
sound reproduction on the tape is so bad that it is not possible to understand
the question, but here is the answer:]
Well, all I know is, I’ve heard Dr. Swift say that. I wasn’t present at the
time, but I’ve heard him say that.
[At
this time there is more comment from the audience:]
“Now you can get these National
Geographic magazines. They’re a wealth of information if you know what you
are looking for.” [Then this person speaks of something
in Pompeii,
Italy, and how it
shows a ruling class, and how this ruling class is a fair skinned and blue-eyed
Caucasian people. He also refers to the Grecian ruling class. Answer:]
Yes, you found in almost any of the empires of that day, two layers to the cake.
You had a ruling class and you had the general peasant type who were ruled by
them, and they were often distinctly of a different race. [See note #12 at end of lesson. – End of Comparet’s Lesson
#5.]
CRITICAL
NOTES ON LESSON #5
Comments
by William Finck initialed W.R.F.
Comments
by Clifton A. Emahiser in brackets in lesson text as “your
transcriber”
or
initialed C.A.E. in critical notes.
Note
#1:
The majority of the people of the oikoumenę – the Greco-Roman world, were
either Adamic Japhethites, Shemites, and probably some descendants of Ham, and
surely the Canaanites were present in many places, and the majority of all these
were of the children of Israel who settled in these places as
Danaans, Dorians, Trojans and Phoenicians. So the Roman
empire, while made up of Israelites and other Adamites, was still to
suffer the judgment of Yahweh for its sins (Rev. 6:17).
The
first 6 seals have already been opened – and these all represented internal
strife within the Greco-Roman empire. The 7th seal will bring down the empire
for good, and it is the children of Israel who are destined to do this
thing (i.e. Daniel 2:44-45, 7:18). So just before the “barbarian” Israelites
invade the empire (which also consists of many of their own brethren), 144,000
of these “barbarian” Israelites are “sealed” – a guarantee that they would
suffer no harm through the coming battles and tribulations. That these are
Israelites of the deportations, “barbarians”, and not Greco-Romans who are
spared, compare Isaiah 49 in general, but specifically Rev. 7:16 to Isaiah
49:10. As soon as the 144,000 are “sealed”, the seventh seal is opened and the
destruction of the Greco-Roman empire from the outside
begins.
The
“numberless multitude” are all of the other Israelites, aside from the 144,000,
who did suffer through those tribulations but who “washed their robes and made
them white”, and Yahweh has promised to “dwell among” none other but
Israel (i.e. Jer. 31:33), so “all nations” must here be limited to all of the
Israelite nations (Greek, Roman, Phoenician, Germanic, etc.) of the oikoumenę, and none
other.
The
white robes (Rev. 6:11, 7:9), the quote of Psalm 3:8 (Rev. 7:9), the mention of
the elders and the four “beasts” or “living creatures”, symbolic of Israel (Rev.
7:11), all indicate that the great multitude here are only of Israel, and not
even the other Adamic nations. Only men are counted here, because only men are
ever counted in any census of Israel. Women are never counted in a
census in Israel. Of course it can be safely
inferred that there are women appropriate for all the men
counted.
The
idea that the 144,000 is some future “administrative staff” of the kingdom, or
that these are select men from throughout our history is silly. Dead men
don’t need to be sealed! Yahweh rules in heaven! We need to make things “on
earth as they are in heaven.” These 144,000 must represent a historical entity,
which I have discussed above. W.R.F.
Note
#2:
Comparet makes the same tired old mainstream error made since the days of Ezra,
to consider the Israelites deported by Assyria,
“ten-tribed” when actually it was most of all twelve tribes! W.R.F.
Note
#3:
Dan was not sealed because Dan never was deported by the Assyrians. Dan was in
Ireland before they were in
Denmark, and I doubt if they
ever crossed northern Europe by land, but
probably attained it by sea. The rivers of eastern Europe may have acquired
their names from the earlier Danaans who came to Greece from Egypt, who were
also colonists and travelers (The Argonauts, The Odyssey, tales about Danaans!)
The Greeks traveled and had settlements on many European rivers and on the
Black Sea long before any Scythian appeared in
those places.
W.R.F.
Note
#4A:
See note #1, Lesson 5 (above). A great many “Israelite” nations were destroyed
in the time of the seven trumpets, overrun in Europe by the Israelite
“barbarians”, but in the East, in Africa, and then the Balkans and southern
Europe by the Arabs & Turks. These are the nations from whom came the great
multitude who were not “sealed” (ensured survival to carry on our race here on
earth) in Rev. chapter 7. Among these nations are: Parthia, Armenia, Iberia,
Anatolia (Greeks & Kelts), Syria & Palestine (Greeks & Romans),
Egypt & Cyrene (Greeks & Romans), Greece, southern Italy, Thrace,
Macedonia, Illyria, Dalmatia, Carthage & Libya (Phoenicians & Romans
& later Vandals), and Spain. All of these and others were Israelites or
Israelite/Japhethite or Shemite nations overrun and destroyed during the
seven-trumpet period! W.R.F.
Note
#4B:
Now if we identify the star “wormwood” as Attila, which surely seems to make
sense considering the first two trumpets and the progression of encroachments
upon the empire first by the Goths and Vandals, and if Attila was a “mongol”, or
rather – which I would think is more probable – led a mixed army of Japhethites
and other Aryans – perhaps some of them Israelites – perhaps some of them
mixed-race Tartars (very few such commanders of large, conquering &
marauding armies have armies which are homogenous), or Turks or other aliens,
then that would account for the “bitter waters” here which killed many men. The
“bitter waters” are not literal waters, but perhaps mixed races of men – sort of
like “bad figs” – which should not be “drunk”! [See
notes #s 12-B and 14 at Lesson #4; and note 6 at Lesson #5 (below). W.R.F.]
[Special
note by Clifton A. Emahiser: Again, I repeat the note I made in lesson #4: There
may be some who, when they read William Finck’s critical note #’s 12A & 12B
at lesson #4 and note #’s 4B & 6 at lesson #5 pertaining to Attila, may
think they see a conflict in what Finck is saying. But if one can grasp the
context of his notes, there is no discord. Finck’s purpose in all these
mentioned notes is to present a balanced view of Attila, as opposed to
Comparet’s unbalanced opinion, since there are certainly two entirely different
views of Attila’s character to consider, and therefore, it may be quite
difficult to determine the truth of his identity, ethnographically speaking.
What it all boils down to is this; Finck is endeavoring to present both sides
fairly, hesitating to leap into false conclusions. Finck believes that once the
facts are placed before the reader, it then becomes the reader’s responsibility
to sort out the truth from the fiction. Above all, I would highly recommend that
each reader seriously consider William Finck’s note #4B at lesson #5 concerning
the term “wormwood.”]
Note
#5:
We have no idea of half of the things that went on in far eastern Europe and
western Asia through most of history, because
most of it is barely or was never recorded. The mongol states of Asia were all
“islamized”, but these are all east of the Caspian
Sea. Mongols under Genghis Khan captured much of the
Ukraine and southern
Russia – and held that land for over
two centuries, but it wasn’t until after the first millennium. Comparet should
have qualified his statement concerning “later historians”, i.e. How much later?
Later than whom? W.R.F.
Note
#6:
Like “beasts of the earth” (see note 4, Lesson #4), Comparet here implies that
the term “bitter waters” should be taken literally, an interpretation found to
be quite wanting, or deficient, and also disappointing. W.R.F.
Note
#7:
Whenever it would reveal the identity of true Israel if
literal language were used, the Old Testament prophets instead used symbols.
Ezekiel 17 is an example of this. There is much prophecy with symbolism in the
Old Testament, but enough using literal language to enable one to piece together
the truth! W.R.F.
Note
#8:
See end of note #1, Lesson #5 (above). Comparet has no basis for connecting the
144,000 to some “administrative staff” in some “millennium”, at least not
anywhere in Scripture! W.R.F.
Note
#9:
It is evident, even in Diodorus Siculus, that many Hebrews left
Egypt for
“Greece and certain other regions”
(40.3.2), and in the tales of the Danaans (Danae) told by so many Greek poets.
Yet the Greeks did not consider the inhabitants of Greece before the Danoi – the Pelasgians,
Ionians, etc. – to be “uncivilized”, but described them as civilized and much
like themselves, though it is the Phoenicians who were credited with bringing
many arts and letters to Greece. W.R.F.
Note
#10:
While Strabo tells us that Neleus, the father of Nestor of Pylos, founded
Miletus (14.1.3), and Nestor was a Danaan – one of the warriors who fought at
Troy (see Homer’s Iliad) – the Iliad has Miletus under the control of
the Carians, and the men of Miletus as fighting in aid of the Trojans, which is
quite a contrary set of circumstances to that presented by Strabo. The Milesians
did have colonies in Spain,
and also had invaded Ireland,
– but by accounts I’ve read are reckoned as a different people, other than the
Tuatha de Danaan, who arrived in Ireland before the Milesians. There
are a whole list of cities founded by Israelites who left Egypt, and by Israelites who left before the
Assyrian deportations, besides just Troy and
Miletus, and Troy was not founded by Danaans! Comparet has
over-generalized this discussion. W.R.F.
Note
#11:
Something has occurred to me concerning Manasseh that I could probably never
“prove”, of course, but may become evident to you also. The original settlers,
by which I mean pre-Revolution Europeans, of America were as much German in New England and
Pennsylvania
as they were English. In Palestine, Manasseh
remained half on the far side of the Jordan, and half crossed the Jordan into the “promised land” of Canaan. Could it be that when England was settled, half of Manasseh stayed in
Germany? And so, 1200 years later –
if we are to read “America”
onto Genesis 48:19 – our original colonists were drawn primarily from
England and
Germany. W.R.F.
[Comment
by Clifton A. Emahiser: It is also interesting to note that America is divided by a major river as
Jordan divided Manasseh in
Palestine.]
Note
#12:
It is not true of the ancient nations, that a “fair-skinned and
blue-eyed” ruling class ruled over lower classes of an alien race. This is not
the normal progression of the nation. Rather, as an ancient nation waxed strong
and became an empire, conquered alien peoples were eventually freed, given
citizenship, and gained an equal status with the lower classes of the nation’s
original citizens. This happened in America after the Civil War.
Eventually, these former slaves would increase in stature – and this is what is
seen in late Roman art such as that of Pompeii,
and also in Egypt. This has been happening in
America since perhaps the mid-1950’s.
Nations rely upon ethnic nationalism for survival. Empires consider ethnic
nationalism anathema. The process evident in America is the
same process which happened in all former White nations–turned–empires,
to varying degrees. W.R.F.