Some Early Premillennialists Who, On The Basis Of Literal Interpretation, Predicted Future Sun Scorching – KAU#075

The year 2000 has not yet brought the Tribulation plagues. Yet, it has certainly brought the sound of their footsteps arriving at the door! The following verses are not yet fulfilled. But one would not know it reading the daily news! Surely the rapture is near.

Isaiah 24:6 Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth ARE BURNED,and few men left.

Revelation 7:14 And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of GREAT TRIBULATION, and have washed their robes,and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the SUN LIGHT ON THEM, nor any HEAT.

Revelation 16:8 And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.
9 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.

In regard to Rev.16, Walter Scott has written:

“The power of the sun is increased to such an intense degree that men are scorched or burnt with its fire. It is not, of course, a physical judgment…we must therefore seek to ascertain what is the moral significance and symbolic meaning of the sign. The sun is a symbol of
supreme government.”

There is no reason at all in the context or in the Bible to take this passage symbolically. It is therefore wrong to do so. Notice how the following writers show forth a more consistent approach to prophetic interpretation:

“The sun belongs to God; He can make it burn as well as warm and shine. He makes it now to arise alike on the evil and on the good. But then He bids him scorch. This is to be interpreted literally…This is one of the predicted ‘signs in the sun’…”
-Robert Govett, (1813-1902), “The Apocalypse”

“Some say, ‘It is not of the natural scorching of the sun’s rays…and of the injurious effects flowing from it, such as excessive heats, drought and famine, that we are here to think;’ but of what else can we think? It is the sun that is smitten; that smiting causes the emission of rays that scorch and burn to a degree that John says they are fire…Men are scorched by an extraordinary power of the sun, oppressed, burned, killed by its fiery rays, smitten with sun stroke…Here is one of the last plagues…and it is nothing less than God’s glorious sunshine, intensified with fiery heat, so that it burns and scorches earth and man, decimating the inhabitants of city and country alike.”
J.A. Seiss (1865), “Lectures on the Apocalypse”

Seiss, also in 1865, stated the following:

“In what year of the world’s age we are living, it is not possible at this day to accurately ascertain. According to the COMMON RECKONING, it will yet be about one hundred and thirty-five years to the end of the six thousand.”

At the end of the 6000 years (the year 2000), Seiss expected all the prophecies to be fulfilled. This interpretation was the common interpretation of ALL LEARNED MEN:

“The world was ordained to endure, AS ALL LEARNED MEN affirm and prove it with Scripture, six thousand years. Now, of that number there be past five thousand five hundred and fifty-two (years); so that there is no more left but four hundred and forty-eight.”
-Hugh Latimer (1490-1555)

“The great period of a thousand years, in which the church shall enjoy unexampled peace and felicity, is yet to begin. Its commencement is expected by THE MOST JUDICIOUS COMMENTATORS, at a time, near the year 2000.”
-Timothy Dwight (1752-1817)

Now that it is the year 2000, even though the rapture has not yet occurred, it is significant that we see record breaking, sun scorching temperatures. In fact, for almost every prophesied Tribulation plague, we can begin to see the stage-setting for its fulfillment.

Time always proves who is right. I think it is obvious from reading the daily news that men such as Govett and Seiss were correct all along in regard to the literal fulfillment of the Revelation’s prophecies.

From KAU #75p.2 (7-22-00)