“And he set his right foot on the sea, but his left one on the earth, and he cried out with a loud voice just as when a lion roars. And when he cried out, the voices of the seven thunders spoke.”
– Revelation 10:2-3
No one can ignore a nearby thunderstorm. Even a distant bolt of lightning can produce a roaring rumble that can rattle windows and shake the earth. In the same way, when Jehovah speaks and wishes to be heard, no one can ignore Him.
Once, Jehovah spoke to Jesus in the temple, and some people imagined that it had thundered. When God came down onto Mount Sinai, the mountain shuddered and erupted in fire, smoke, and thunder.
A young man named Elihu contemplated God’s powerful voice, likening it to thunder: “Listen carefully to the rumbling of his voice and the thunder that comes from his mouth. He unleashes it under the entire heavens and sends his lightning to the ends of the earth. After that is a roaring sound; He thunders with a majestic voice, and he does not hold it back when his voice is heard. God thunders with his voice in a wonderful way; He does great things that are beyond our understanding.” – Job 37:1-5
That is not to say every time God speaks, it is earthshaking like thunder. Jehovah strolled through the Garden of Eden about the breezy part of the day and spoke with Adam. It was not a terrifying experience for the man. God had no reason to terrify him. In fact, God more often whispers. That is why those with ears are advised to listen carefully when the spirit speaks.
So then, what are the voices of the seven thunders?
Jehovah’s Witnesses long ago identified the strong angel as none other than Jesus Christ. There should be no dispute about that. This is confirmed for us by what is stated at Revelation 10:3. The angel “cried out with a loud voice just as when a lion roars.” And Jesus is called “the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered.”
As the Word of God—Jehovah’s spokesman from the beginning of time—it is appropriate that Jesus will express all of God’s judgments, symbolized by the voices of the seven thunders. Seven, as we know, symbolizes the totality of heaven’s judgments; hence, the seven seals, the seven trumpets, the seven bowls filled with the anger of God, and the seven thunders.
Unfortunately, Jehovah’s Witnesses have been deluded into imagining that the seven angels have sounded their trumpets and the seven thunders have already spoken, and apparently no one has even noticed. It is implied that the seven thunders have been published in the Watchtower publications over the past 100 years. What a powerful delusion!
In truth, throughout the Christian era to this moment, God has not made himself known. He has remained hidden. Jehovah explains in Isaiah: “I have kept quiet for a long time. I remained silent and restrained myself. Like a woman giving birth, I will groan, pant, and gasp all at once.” (42:14)
“SEAL UP THE THINGS THE SEVEN THUNDERS SPOKE”
John heard the thunderous announcements and was about to write them down when the angel said to him, “Seal up the things the seven thunders spoke, and do not write them down.”
The sound of the seven thunders was intelligible; otherwise, John would not have felt compelled to write down what the seven thunders spoke. The expressions of the strong angel roaring as a lion are only likened to thunder produced by lightning. It is the impact of the pronouncements that will be thunderous.
John being commanded to seal up the things the seven thunders spoke reminds us of what the angel told Daniel—“seal up the book until the time of the end.”
Obviously, Daniel did not literally seal up the book he had been inspired to write. How could he have? We can read its contents in hundreds of languages. Its sealing symbolizes that the prophecies contained therein will not be fully understood until the time of the end begins. Ironically, the Watchtower and every other would-be interpreter have demonstrated that the prophecy is sealed and that the time of the end has not begun, evidenced by their inability to interpret the book of Daniel correctly.
As already noted, Daniel not only recorded futuristic visions and dreams but also participated in what may be called a prophetic drama. Daniel unknowingly played a role—the role of a “very precious man,” as the angel called him. And as a “very precious man,” Daniel typified the holy ones who will see Christ during the parousia. Jesus said that every hair on their heads is numbered. That is how precious they are to the Father.
There is another aspect to the prophetic drama. Daniel also stood before kings and announced Jehovah’s judgments, as the chosen will during the parousia.
Besides Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel was made to stand before Babylon’s last king, Belshazzar. Although Belshazzar knew that the God of the Hebrews had humbled his grandfather, Nebuchadnezzar—inflicting him with madness for seven years and then restoring him to the throne—the last king of Babylon ill-advisedly ordered that the golden goblets that had been looted from Jehovah’s temple be brought out so the king and his party could boast and toast to their gods.
And then came the disembodied hand writing on the wall. The wise men of Babylon could not interpret the writing. The aged Daniel was brought in to decipher the encryption and explain its meaning to the terrified king. It was a message of doom, not only for Belshazzar personally, but for the Babylonian Empire. The Chaldean dynasty ended that very night—October 5th, 539 BCE.
While Daniel depicted Babylon as the first of a series of empires, Babylon also symbolizes the last kingdom, the eighth king. This is evident from numerous prophecies. For example, Habakkuk portrays Babylon as the world’s conqueror, but the Chaldeans’ conquest elicits a response from Jehovah described as the battle at Armageddon. “Sun and moon stood still in their lofty abode. Your arrows went out like the light. The lightning of your spear was brilliant. You marched through the earth with indignation. You trampled the nations in anger. You went out for the salvation of your people, to save your anointed one. You crushed the leader of the house of the wicked. It was exposed from the foundation to the top. You pierced the head of his warriors with his own weapons when they stormed out to scatter me. They were overjoyed to devour an afflicted one in secret.” (3:11-14)
The crushed “leader of the house of the wicked” can be none other than Satan, the Devil. Writing to anointed Christians, Paul concluded his letter to the Romans, saying that the God who gives peace will crush Satan under your feet.
But in what sense will God save his anointed one—literally, his Christ? Obviously, Jesus Christ will not need salvation when he comes with all his angels to destroy God’s enemies, but the remaining members of the seed will. And since they will be in union with Jesus after the final sealing, it will be as though Christ were on earth himself through his presence alongside them. Their salvation will come in the twinkling of an eye as they are transformed into the image of Christ.
This was demonstrated by the three Hebrews in the fiery furnace when someone like a son of the gods came alongside them. The prophetic drama demonstrated the matter of indestructibility, as Jesus explained when he told his little flock not to fear those who can only kill the body and nothing more. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were as good as dead when they were hurled into the flaming crucible. But the flames could not extinguish their life. So it will be for those in union with the Son of man.
“KINGS FROM THE RISING OF THE SUN”
After the king of the north subjugates his longtime rival—the king of the south, symbolized by Egypt, the original king of the south —the king of the north will become the eighth king, the last king. And what is it that will so disturb the king of the north? The prophecy says: “But there will be reports that will disturb him, out of the sunrising and out of the north, and he will certainly go forth in a great rage in order to annihilate and to devote many to destruction.” – Daniel 11:44-45
A footnote in the Reference Bible references Revelation 16:12 that says: “The sixth (angel) one poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the rising of the sun.”
Jesus is the bright morning star (Rev 22:16) that heralds the dawn of a new day. For that reason, Peter advised anointed Christians to keep studying prophecy, “paying attention to it as to a lamp shining in a dark place (until day dawns and a daystar rises) in your hearts…” – 2 Peter 1:19
Contrary to the Watchtower’s artfully contrived false story that the daystar arose in 1914, it has not, because the kings from the rising of the sun have not risen.
It should be obvious that if 1914 were the genuine break of day heralding the millennial dawn, it would no longer be necessary to keep paying attention to the word of prophecy. Ironically, the fact that the Watchtower has published millions of books and magazines explaining prophecy, that the organization sponsors a study program for Jehovah’s Witnesses to consider those publications, and that it has even published a book entitled Pay Attention to Daniel’s Prophecy, repudiates their claim that the daystar has risen. The genuine coming of Christ ends Christianity as we have known it. In other words, it will no longer be necessary to pay attention to a lighted lamp in a darkened place when day has dawned in all of its glory.
The day of the Lord will dawn when God cuts short the tribulation and the sealing is concluded. That is when the daystar will arise in the hearts of the chosen, transforming each of them into the image of Christ.
That is when the seven thunders will speak. No doubt the reports from the sunrising that will disturb the king of the north, driving him into a genocidal rage, will be the witness given by the chosen.
Can you imagine the consternation of those Luciferians who seek to rise above the stars of God, hearing alarming reports that Christ walks among those who had previously been associated with Jehovah’s Witnesses as they announce Jehovah’s thunderous judgments to come?
But while those of the serpent’s offspring will seek to kill the brothers of Christ and will ultimately succeed in throwing them into the fiery furnace, as it were, there will be many who accept the revealing of the sons of God and who will support them. That is what will be considered in the concluding part.
“O kingdoms of the earth, sing to God, sing praises to Jehovah, to the one who rides the ancient heaven of heavens. Look! He thunders with his voice, his mighty voice.”
– Psalms 68:32,33
End of part twelve.