When it is rolled together.—“It will be impossible to re-establish the present order, (1) because it has evidently outlived its usefulness, and is inequitable under present conditions; (2) because of the general diffusion of secular knowledge; (3) because the discovery that priestcraft has long blinded and fettered the masses with error and fear will lead to a general disrespect for all religious claims and teachings as of a piece with the discovered frauds; (4) because religious people in general, not discerning that God's time has come for a change of dispensation, will ignore reason, logic, justice and Scripture in defending the present order of things. It will be of little consequence then that the ecclesiastical heavens (the religious powers, Papal and Protestant) will have rolled together as a scroll. (See Isaiah 34:4.) The combined religious power of Christendom will be utterly futile against the rising tide of anarchy when the dread crisis is reached. Before that great army ‘all the host of heaven [the church nominal] shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll.’ ”—D. 551.
And every mountain.—Kingdom.
And [island] HILL.—“Little hills” refer to governments less autocratic than monarchies; but “hills” sometimes refer to the sharpest, highest, most jagged mountain peaks, and then mean the most autocratic of all governments. This is evidently what is meant here.
Were moved out of [their] THE places.—Did not occupy the same position as before with reference to the people. The places were never “theirs,” but belong “to Him whose right it is.” (Z. '05-253.) In recent years Turkey and Persia have been granted parliaments; China, Russia and Portugal have become republics; and other countries have become vast socialist communities.—Rev. 16:20.
6:15. And the kings of the earth.—The aristocracy.
And the great men.—The clergy. (Rev. 18:23, comment.) Rendered “lords” in Mark 6:21. See Job 12:2.
[And the rich men,] and the chief captains, AND THE RICH MEN.—The high military officers. Rendered “high captains” in Mark 6:21. The magnates and financiers.
And the mighty men.—The labor organizers.
And every bondman.—Member of a labor organization.
And every free man.—Other worker (if not a bond-slave of Christ).