kings of the east Archives - Pretribulation Rapture

Revelation 9:13-19
The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the horns of the golden altar that is before God.
It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.”
And the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind.
The number of the mounted troops was two hundred million. I heard their number.
The horses and riders I saw in my vision looked like this: Their breastplates were fiery red, dark blue, and yellow as sulfur. The heads of the horses resembled the heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire, smoke and sulfur.
A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur that came out of their mouths.
The power of the horses was in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails were like snakes, having heads with which they inflict injury.

Revelation 16:12
The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the East.

Just a thought…

Since I was a kid, the commonly accepted understanding was that China would be the source of the vast army which would invade the Middle East. However, in light of current events involving Islam, this understanding may not have been correct.

“And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared…”
– Revelation 16:12

In Revelation 1:1 we read,
“The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John”

The Greek word in KJV and NKJV for ‘signified’ is sēmainō which primarily means ‘to give a sign, to signify, indicate’. In other words, to use ‘symbolism’ to describe the events. As suggested by Dr. Harry Ironside of Moody Bible Institute, there are two thoughts regarding the drying up of the Euphrates River:

“The way of the kings of the East is to be prepared by the drying up of the great river that was once the eastern boundary of the Roman Empire. I am inclined to believe that this symbolizes the complete destruction of the Turkish power, which has acted as a buffer between the East and West for so long. Others think it refers to the actual drying up of the river itself, that river which was one of the four that of old went forth from Eden.”

The origin of the Euphrates River is in Turkey, runs through Syria, Iraq to the Persian Gulf.

I’m thinking both may be partially correct; that this involves Turkey and a crossing of the Euphrates River. Drawing a longitudinal line on a map from the headwaters of the Euphrates River in Turkey does put Turkey, Syria, Jordan and Iraq on the ‘East’ side of the line. Just a thought.

1. http://www.jesusisprecious.org/books/harry_ironside/The_Lamp_Of_Prophecy/03.htm

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