Chapter 9

depicts the slaughter of the idolaters of Jerusalem. It types the literal slaughter of the spiritual idolaters of Christendom in the Time of Trouble, and also their destruction as tares (Matt. 13:40) by the Word of Truth, which will manifest their true condition and cause them to cease the pretense of being Christians. The picture corresponds to the harvesting of wheat and tares by the sickle of Truth (Rev. 14:15), and the burning of the tares. There is a two‐fold significance here—those having material charge of Christendom, and those having spiritual charge (D. 527.) The first class comprises the rulers of the great nations; the second class, the feet members of the Little Flock (Luke 12:32)—“All things are yours.” (1 Cor. 3:21); “Inheritors of the Kingdom” (Gal. 5:21); “Given charge of all His goods” (Luke 12:44), the Bible truths. The first class has as weapons the armies and navies. The second has the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God.

[Illustration]

Seats Free And No Collection Was Never Babylon’s Slogan

9:2. And, behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the North, and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer’s inkhorn by his side: and they went in, and stood beside the brazen altar.—The six with earthly weapons are the rulers of the six great nations—Russia, Germany, Austria, France, England and Italy. The six with the Sword of the Spirit symbolize all the Elijah class, the six, with one other, making up the seven, the complete number. These have their commission from “the north,” from the seat of Divine Dominion, from God Himself. Practically all Bible translators and commentators agree that the one with a writer’s inkhorn by his side was not one of the six, but a seventh, garbed as a priest, or as a clerk or officer in an army of the East. The linen signifies the imputed righteousness of Christ, (Rev. 19:8.) The writer’s inkhorn symbolizes that the seventh man’s function was to write. God identified him thus: When THE WATCH TOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY was at Allegheny, Pa., an open Bible was to be painted on one of the large front window of the office. A sign painter, not in the Truth, painted the open Bible; and without instruction from any one, of his own volition, he painted the Bible as open at Ezekiel,