The FRENCH REVOLUTION in Prophecy!

Where is NAPOLEON Bonaparte mentioned in the Bible? Where is the FRENCH REVOLUTION revealed in Prophecy? How does God describe the influence of Voltaire and Rousseau? Why did God allow it? How did the English avoid this bloody revolution? Do children deserve the penalty of their parents' sins? (All Bible lessons are illustrated with color drawings.)

At Passover the Jews recite the ten plagues while dropping ten drops of wine onto their seder plates from the second "cup of freedom" (a.k.a. "cup of wrath" -- Rev. 14:10; 16:19; 17:4; 18:6). All of these seven cups are symbolically that second "cup of freedom" pouring out the Egyptian plagues. "For in the hand of the Eternal there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is fully mixed, and he poureth out of the same; but the dregs thereof all the wicked of the earth shall drain them, and drink them" (Ps. 75:8; Ps. 11:6). The first four Vials (Cups) in the Book of Revelation judge PAPAL Rome (16:2-8) like the first four Trumpets of Revelation chapter 8 that judged PAGAN Rome. Both are poured out respectively on 1. the "earth" 2. "sea" 3. "rivers" and 4. the "sun." The sixth Trumpet and sixth Vial (Cup) both concern the "EUPHRATES." (This article uses the historicist approach to interpreting prophecy.)

"And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials (cups) of the wrath of God upon the earth. And the first went, and poured out his vial (cup) upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous SORE upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image" (Rev. 16:1-2).

Astronomically, the seven planets (angels) Moon, Sun, Jupiter, Venus, Mars, Saturn and Mercury each rotate to a specified place where they are "poured out." Also there are seven main stars (angels) in Crater (the Cup of Wrath). The cup is turned upside down as the earth rotates on its axis causing the red sun or red moon or red stars to "drop out." The stars drop out of the cup and cover or dot the bodies of the celestial constellations giving the appearance of "SORES." Historically, from 1758 to 1770, infidel, atheistic literature flooded France. The "voices" (Rev. 11:19) of Voltaire, Diderot, Boyle and Rousseau originated and led a school of ATHEISTIC philosophers who waged a literary war agitating for APOSTASY against Roman Catholicism leading to massacres and confiscations against Catholics as well as the aristocrats and Royalty that supported them -- and later against eachother. Why? Divine retribution for two past crimes.

The first occurred about 200 years before in France. Catholics had massacred innocent Protestants in the St. Bartholemew Massacre. It is estimated that 100 thousand Huguenots were murdered. Rome was filled with great joy and a Te Deum was sung. Pope Gregory XIII called it a "glorious and joyful victory." Rome taught the people that they had the right to depose or murder Protestant rulers, close Protestant churches, and kill and confiscate their property. Papal clergy seized Protestant property and thus held one fifth of the land of France prior to the Revolution. The industry and skill of the Huguenots had contributed to the greatness of France. Without these who were the "salt of the earth," Roman Catholic France went "putrid" in infidelity and immorality. At least one million Huguenots fled France and took their skills with them. Nobody was left to restrain the people or check the faults in government.

The second occurred about 100 years before the French Revolution in 1685, Louis XIV, the Sun King, revoked the Edict of Nantes and trampled under foot civil and religious liberty of his Huguenot subjects. Their children were kidnapped. Their property confiscated. Their churches demolished and their ministers banished. The King's soldiers were billeted in their houses and used those houses as horse stables and raped their wives and daughters. Huguenot men were made galley slaves. The women imprisoned in Rome's convents. Bibles were burned. Libraries closed. Protestant universities suppressed. Rome celebrated, sang Te Deums, and a special Papal medal was struck celebrating the Revocation. The martyrs had asked, "How long, O Lord ... do you not ... avenge our blood?" (Rev. 6:10). The French Revolution was the reply.

What was the "noisome and grievous SORE"? The sixth plague against Egypt was literal "BOILS ... upon the magicians and upon all the house of Pharaoh" (Ex. 9:10) and from 1770 to 1800, a literal plague of SMALLPOX afflicted the French Royal Family. Louis XV died from the disease, while Louis XVI caught the malady on ascending the throne, and it spread to and affected many other members of the Royal Family and the Court of Versailles. The Revolutionary leader, Marat, had "open sores, often running" that pitted his countenance because he was in the last stages of Syphilis. Danton's face was "pockmarked, hideous, his mouth distorted by a scar" and Robespierre was shot in the jaw while being arrested, so had a wound. It is noteworthy that while Danton was a young boy, he sucked on a cow's udder and was attacked by a bull whose horn curled his lip and disfigured his face permanently. Later his face was trampled by a herd of pigs. Still later he contracted smallpox. All of these experiences disfigured his face and he said, "My ugliness is my strength."

Since the Papacy is called "spiritual Egypt" (Rev. 11:8), there is also a spiritual symbolic SORE. Isaiah likens a variety of SINS to "wounds, and bruises, and putrefying SORES: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment" (Isaiah 1:6). Then he specifically defines the SORES as a "country ... desolate ... cities ... burned with fire ... land ... overthrown by strangers ... a besieged city ... like Sodom and ... Gomorrah ... incense is an abomination ... your appointed feasts my soul hateth ... your hands are full of blood.... How is the faithful city become an harlot ... murderers ... Thy silver has become dross ... Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves; every one loveth bribes" (Isa. 1:7-23), etcetera. This is a description of the French Revolution (1789-1793) which began within the French political body and spread to all other Roman Catholic nations by means of the printing press and revolutionary agents. In 529 A.D. Justinian's Imperial Code confirmed Papal supremacy. Adding 1260 years (Dan. 7:25; Rev. 11:2-3; 13:5-7) we come to 1789 A.D. when the French Revolution occurred. In 533 A.D. a Decretal letter recognized the Pope as "Head of all the Churches." Adding 1260 years to this date we come to 1793 A.D. when the Reign of Terror occurred in France. Roman Catholic Churches were burned and thousands of priests, monks and nuns were slain. It was the plague of INFIDELS. In other words, general LAWLESSNESS which ran wild and unrestrained into APOSTASY. The Sunday-Sabbath was abolished. Scriptures were trampled under foot. God and Christianity renounced publicly. A donkey was made to drink the wine out of the Communion Cup. A prostitute was worshiped as the Goddess of Reason, with all its subsequent orgies. King Louis XVI (of the French Royalty who had initiated the Bartholemew Massacre and Revocation of the Edict of Nantes and Dragonnades against Protestants) and Queen Marie Antoinette (of the Hapsburgs who had persecuted Bohemian and Netherlands Protestants) were guillotined. It is estimated by historians that in five years 2,000,000 people were roasted alive, drowned, guillotined or shot; that 24,000 priests (like the magicians of Egypt who were afflicted) were murdered, and 40,000 churches turned into stables and 4,000 monasteries and nunneries were suppressed. Church and State were separated and the Pope stripped of his temporal sovereignty. The atheistic Revolutionaries cried "Ecrasez l'infame" or "Crush the Wretch" (Roman Catholicism). The purchasing power of the money in circulation was diluted by printing unlimited amounts of currency known as "assignats" causing inflation ("Thy silver has become dross"). Many contemporary historians likened the French Revolution to a DISEASE. Edmunde Burke described it as "An infectious PLAGUE requiring the most severe quarantine." Sir Walter Scott in his "Life of Napoleon" described French affairs during this time as "wasting SORES." Lambert, the French Dominican monk, described it as "A sick man covered with ULCERS." The great historian Niebuhr, who was ambassador at one time to the Papal Church, said, "The Revolution of 1789 was the breaking out of a local DISEASE peculiar to the Roman Catholic nations and governments of southern Europe.... owing to the despair created by an effete aristocracy and a hypocritical priesthood." Britain, like ancient Israel, was spared this plague of Egypt because of the open Bible as antidote. Voltaire once boasted that "It took twelve ignorant fishermen to establish Christianity, I will show the world how one Frenchman can destroy it." But within thirty years of his death, his home was purchased by the Geneva Bible Society and became a Bible storage building, while his infidel printing press was used to print an entire edition of the Bible.

"And the second angel poured out his vial (cup) upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea" (Rev. 16:3).

How does the sea become like the "BLOOD of a DEAD man"? We know that the sea would have to CONGEAL and STOP CIRCULATING. Britain STOPPED all TRADE by SEA. The first plague against Egypt was also "waters ... turned to blood" (Ex. 7:20). In 1793 France declared war on Great Britain, the strongest naval power in history. Truly the years 1793-1813 saw terrible naval warfare in which hundreds of ships and their crews, belonging to France and Spain, were destroyed. To mention a few of the sea battles, in 1793 almost the whole of the French Fleet at Toulon was destroyed by Lord Hood. In 1794, Lord Howe defeated the French off Ushant. In 1797 the Spanish Fleet was beaten by the British off Cape Saint Vincent. Then came Lord Nelson's mighty victories such as the Nile (1798) and Trafalgar (1805), against Spain and France. At Trafalgar the French fleet was nearly annihilated, and England was rescued from all chance of invasion. It was a period of naval warfare and bloodshed unique in history. The maritime powers of the Papal nations were SWEPT OFF the seas by the British victories. This was God's retribution. Huguenots were persecuted as galley-slaves in these Papal ships. Therefore, these Papal fleets were "persecuted" by the British. Also the spirit of the French Revolution spread to the Latin colonies overseas resulting in Spain and Portugal LOSING their South American possessions which REVOLTED and finally became INDEPENDENT. For instance, the island of San Domingo experienced a bloody civil war from 1792-1804 where 60,000 blacks were killed and all white French colonials were exterminated. Then it became lost to France and was known as the Republic of Haiti. This, coupled with Britain's victories in the colonial warfare, is probably the meaning of the symbolism in the prophecy that "every living soul died in the sea" -- it was the death of the sea-power and overseas colonies of Papal Europe. This is when Britannia began to rule the waves.

"And the third angel poured out his vial (cup) upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood. And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy. And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments" (Rev. 16:4-7).

Just as the third trumpet was Attila the Hun, so the third vial was Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon, who was unaware of this type and anti-type, exclaimed, "I will prove to be an Attila to Venice." In 1795 France declared war against the ruling classes of the other nations. The revolutionary armies carried the revolution everywhere by military force. Europe was then plunged into the bloodiest war history records since the fall of Rome. The Revolutionary Wars merged into the Napoleonic Wars. From 1796-1799, the revolutionary armies invaded and fought Germany, Piedmont, Sardinia, Lombardy and Austria -- all persecutors of Waldensians. The rivers separating these countries became the natural positions around which the battles raged. In the whole history of Papal Europe there has never been any one war in which the valleys of the Rhine, Danube and the Poe were so filled with bloodshed. These same lands which witnessed such carnage were also the "fountains" or sources of the rivers of Europe. John heard two angels testify that these disastrous battles were the judgments of a righteous God on these Papal nations because they had shed the blood of his saints.

The children deserved the penalty for their parents' sin because they supported their parents' deeds. God visits "the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me" (Ex. 20:5). In the same way, Jesus told the Jews of his generation that upon them would come all the righteous blood shed upon earth from "the blood of righteous Abel" to that day (Matt. 23:35), because "ye allow the deeds of your fathers" (Luke 11:48). Therefore "The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on edge" (Jer. 31:29) when they approve."Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap" (Gal.6:7) immediately individually (Judges 1:6-7; Job 15:31; Matt.10:10) and delayed nationally as here shown.

"The waters ("peoples" -- Rev. 17:15) became blood." Truly the valleys of the Rhine, Danube and Alpine streams of Italy had witnessed the martyrdom of hundreds of thousands of Waldensians, Albigenses, Vaudois, Hussites, Moravians, Lutherans, Reformers and Hugenots. Thus the "altar" of martyrs sacrificed under the fifth Seal (Rev. 6:10) is now mentioned again as being satisfied with the vengeance. An estimated ten million men fell on all sides or died of wounds or disease between 1792 and 1815.

"And the fourth angel poured out his vial (cup) upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory" (Rev. 16:8-9).

Who is the "SUN"? The SUN represents the head of the family (Gen. 37:9-10) or Byzantine ruler (Rev. 9:2) or Holy Roman Emperor (Rev. 8:12) and this imagery was commonly used in the Middle Ages. A halo behind the head of these leaders emphasized this point. Those who REIGN "SHINE as the brightness of the firmament" (Dan. 12:3). After the tribulation "shall the sun be darkened" (Matt. 24:29) as all human government collapses. In 1799 a young artillery officer named Napoleon, already famous as a military leader, overthrew the revolutionary government and established himself as a military DICTATOR or "SUN." Thenceforth the French "liberating" armies became, under Napoleon, the scourge of Europe. In 1801 his armies defeated the imperial armies in Germany and northern Italy. Napoleon then replaced the Imperial Code of Justinian, which had given legal recognition to the Papal supremacy of Christendom with his own Code. In 1804 Napoleon was crowned EMPEROR of the Holy Roman Empire, and was "sanctified" by the presence of the Pope. During his Egyptian campaign, Napoleon earned the title "Sultan of Fire" due to his aggressive use of artillery in warfare. Within the space of eight years, the Napoleonic "SUN" SCORCHED every kingdom in Europe, from Naples to Berlin, and from Lisbon to Moscow by means of oppressive wars and grinding taxation. Ancient kingdoms withered before the intense BLAZE of his power. Plagues accompanied his progress. He established a system of spoilation, extortion and oppression to enslave subjected nations to the will of one man. Like the sun, there was nothing hidden from his great HEAT; and the exercise of his power caused misery to millions (Keith's Signs of the Times p.191).

Great Britain, as Protestant Israel, was never invaded. She alone feared God. Norway, Sweden, Holland and Denmark were all either allies or part of Napoleon's Empire. Moreover, Britain's navies helped in this judgment on the Papal nations by blockading Europe's trade. Britain's armies under the Duke of Wellington finally defeated Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815. In spite of all these judgments, the hearts of the Latin-German nations were only further hardened and they refused to repent of the Papal sorceries and infidelity. At the Congress of Vienna, the Papal kingdom was restored, the Church of Rome reinstated, and the wicked Roman Catholic kings of France, Spain and Naples returned to their thrones. The Papacy continued to boast that it was "Semper Eadem" or never changes...

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