8:6 And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets.—“We, in common with almost all expositors, recognize that the seven trumpets of Revelation are symbolical and not literal.”—Z. '02-116; Josh. 6:4.
Prepared themselves to sound.—“Christian people in general understand that five of these trumpets have already ‘sounded’ and are in the past—we would say six. It is admitted that those that have already ‘sounded’ have not been literal blasts of a bugle on the air. But literal things are so much more easily received by the natural man that many advanced Christians, Bible students and ministers, are really expecting some day to hear what is sometimes denominated ‘Gabriel's horn,’ shrill enough and loud enough to awaken the dead.” (Z. '02-116.) As thoughtful Christians we should expect that, as this period is that in which the great sects have risen, its history should pay particular attention to them, and thus we find. The Reformation particularly affected “three parts” of the papal dominion, Germany, England and France.—Rev. 8:7-10.
8:7. And the first [angel] sounded.—The movement began, which later developed into the Lutheran General Synod, Lutheran United Synod South, Lutheran General Council, Lutheran Synodical Conference, United Norwegian Lutheran Synod, Ohio Independent Lutheran Synod, Buffalo Lutheran Synod, Hauge's Lutheran Synod, Eleisen's Lutheran Synod, Norwegian Lutheran Synod, Danish in America Lutheran Synod, Icelandic Lutheran Synod, Immanuel Lutheran Synod, Suomai Finnish Lutheran Synod, Finnish National Synod, Finnish Apostolic Synod, Norwegian Free Lutheran Synod, Danish United Lutheran Synod, Church of the Lutheran Brethren and Independent Lutheran Congregations.—1 Cor. 3:3.
And there followed hail.—Sharp, cutting, hard truth, contained in Luther's 95 theses nailed on the church door at Wittenberg.
And fire.—Destructive judgments upon the papacy. Luther sized up the Papal system of “Heads, I win; and tails, you lose” in a few words when he said, “The Romanists have with great dexterity built themselves about with three walls, which have hitherto protected them against reform. In the first place, when the temporal power has pressed [pg 147] them hard, they have affirmed and maintained that the temporal power has no jurisdiction over them—that on the contrary, the spiritual is above the temporal. Secondly, when it is proposed to admonish them from the Holy Scriptures they said, ‘It beseems no one but the pope to interpret the Scriptures,’ and thirdly, when they were threatened with a council, they invented the idea that no one but the pope can call a council.”
Mingled with blood.—Blood is a symbol of death-dealing doctrine, and this teaches that Luther did not get entirely free from error. The following illustrates this point: “There gradually developed a group of radicals who were convinced that Luther had not the courage of his convictions. They proposed to abolish the idolatry of the Mass and all other outward signs of what they deemed the old superstitions. Luther's colleague at Wittenberg, Carlstadt, began denouncing the monastic life, the celibacy of the clergy, the veneration of images; and before the end of 1521 we find the first characteristic outward symptoms of Protestantism. In January 1522, Carlstadt induced the authorities of Wittenberg to publish the first evangelical church ordinance. The service of the Mass was modified, and the laity were to receive the elements in both kinds. Reminders of the old religious usages were to be done away with, and the fast-days were to be no longer observed. These measures led Luther to return to Wittenberg in March, 1522, where he preached a series of sermons attacking the impatience of the radical party. In 1525 the conservative party, which had from the first feared that Luther's teaching would result in sedition, received a new and terrible proof, as it seemed to them, of the noxious influence of the evangelical preachers.
“The peasant movements which had caused so much anxiety at the diet of Augsburg in 1518, culminated in the Peasant Revolt in which the common man, both in country and town, rose in the name of God's justice to avenge long-standing wrongs and establish his rights. Luther was by no means directly responsible for the civil war which followed, but he had certainly contributed to stir up the ancient discontent. He had asserted that, owing to the habit of foreclosing small mortgages, ‘Any one with a hundred gulden could gobble up a peasant a year.’ The German feudal lords he pronounced hangmen, who knew only how to swindle the poor man. Yet in spite of this harsh talk about princes, Luther relied upon them to forward the reforms in which he was interested. The peasants demanded that the gospel should be taught them as a guide in life, and that each community should be [pg 148] permitted to choose its pastor and depose him if he conducted himself improperly. More radical demands came from the working classes in the towns. The articles of Heilbronn demanded that the property of the Church should be confiscated and used for the community; clergy and nobility alike were to be deprived of all their privileges, so that they could no longer oppress the poor man. The more violent leaders renewed the old cry that the parsons must be slain. Hundreds of castles and monasteries were destroyed by the frantic peasantry, and some of the nobles were murdered with shocking cruelty. Luther, who believed that the peasants were trying to cloak their dreadful sins with excuses from the gospel, exhorted the government to put down the insurrection. ‘Have no pity on the poor folk; stab, smite, throttle, who can.’ The German rulers took Luther's advice with terrible literalness, and avenged themselves upon the peasants, whose lot was apparently worse afterwards than before.”—Brit.
And they were cast upon the earth AND THE THIRD PART OF THE EARTH WAS BURNED UP.—Luther's teaching had the effect of transforming the order-loving German people into anarchists.
And the third part.—The German part.
Of trees.—Trees are symbols of saints. “St. Paul gives us the picture of a tree, the roots of which push down deep into the knowledge of the Divine Plan, while the tree of character grows higher and higher, developing and maturing the rich fruits of the Holy Spirit of God; for instruction is a form of construction.”—Z. '14-312; Isa. 61:3.