TODAY'S TECHNOLOGY IN BIBLE PROPHECY
Lesson 25: The prophetic significance of four twentieth century
super dams built astride the Euphrates river.
I The sixth trumpet sounds.
13 And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from
the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,
14 Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose
the four angels which are bound in the great river
Euphrates.
15 And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for
an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay
the third part of men.
16 And the number of the army of the horsemen were two
hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them
(Rev. 9:13-16).
A The sounding of the sixth trumpet begins a time of
trouble referred to as the second woe.
B The prophecy opens with a description of a 200-million
man army that will kill one third of the people on the
Earth over the course of a violent world war.
C Albert Barnes, (who published his Notes on the New
Testament in 1848), was convinced that an army of this
immense size would never be amassed: "This would be a
larger army than was ever assembled, and it cannot be
supposed that it is to be taken literally."
D Yet, less than 140 years later, the supposed improb-
ability of assembling such a huge army disappeared when
Red China's population exceeded one billion in the early
1980's.
E The presence of China's growing ability to field an army
of this magnitude coupled with John's meticulous
documentation of what he heard and saw--
1 "And the number of the bodies of soldiers of the
calvary (IGENT) was two hundred million (NIV): and I
heard the number of them.
2 And thus I saw the horses in the vision and the (ones)
sitting on them" (IGENT), (Rev. 9:16-17).
F --serves to demonstrate that a 200-million man army will
literally "kill a third of mankind" (Rev. 9:15, RSV).
II The process of determining what the four objects,
represented by four "bound" angels, might be.
A First note that the command to "loose the four angels
having been bound at the great river Euphrates" (Rev.
9:14, IGENT), precedes the introduction of the
200-million man army.
B This means that well before the Sixth Trumpet War
begins, whatever the four-angel team symbolically
represents will be in place in the form of four very
visible, identifiable objects, "at the Euphrates river."
C Further, the four powerful objects' presence will act as a
deterrent to a potential regional conflict in the Euphrates
basin, during the years preceding the outbreak of the Sixth
Trumpet World War.
D However, the day the four powerful objects are unbound,
the effect will be to loose the 200-million man army
that will then proceed to unleash its destructive war.
E The original Greek "epi to potamo" can be translated to
"on," or "at the great river."
- Therefore, the text dictates that a key feature of the
fulfillment of this prophecy, will literally take place
"on" the Euphrates river.
F Other than boats, there had not been anything of note on
the Euphrates in the intervening centuries since the
writing of the book of Revelation, until two large
hydro-electric dams were completed in the mid-1970's.
1 The Keban was built in Turkey.
2 The other was constructed by the Soviets, farther
downstream, at Tabqa, Syria.
3 Now inasmuch as both dams were built "in [or 'on'] the
great river Euphrates," both qualify as potential
candidates for the fulfillment of this prophecy.
G In the spring of 1975 Syria blocked the flow of the
Euphrates by a significant amount in an effort to
quickly fill the Tabqa dam.
1 Downstream in Iraq the Euphrates shrank from its 400
yard width to about 100 yards and only 7 feet deep.
2 Syria's action endangered the drinking water supplies
of about 3 million Iraqis living in the arid southern
region and destroyed $60 million worth of crops.
H A Syrian-Iraq war was averted when Syria accepted a
Saudi Arabian sponsored formula on August 14, 1975,
which allowed more water to flow downstream into Iraq.
I The agreement was implemented when Syria literally
"bound" the dam's water-flow regulating intake gate
machinery at the diplomatically determined open position,
which would let more water flow downstream.
J Since the binding of Tabqa's physical intake gates kept
the peace between Syria and Iraq, severance of this
agreement after AWWI, could ignite a conflict with the
downstream state of Iraq, which, in turn, could escalate
into the Sixth Trumpet World War.
1 In short, the four-angel team may have bound them-
selves in the Euphrates to demonstrate how the water
regulating intake gates of modern super dams could be
abruptly "loosed" from an open "bound" position and
lowered to a closed position over a dam's water
intake tunnels.
2 This interpretation requires the presence of three
more super dams astride the Euphrates to represent the
three other members of the Sixth Trumpet's four-angel
team.
3 Each additional dam would also need to have the water
flowing through them bound by some similar
international agreement.
K Three other super dams have been built by Turkey on the
Euphrates as part of the ambitious Turkish dam
construction and irrigation program, termed the South
East Anatolian Project (SEAP).
1 The Keban and Karakaya were completed in 1974 and
1987, respectively.
2 The biggest, the Ataturk, was completed in 1993.
L Prior to the completion of the SEAP project, experts
predicted that there would not be enough water for Syria
and Iraq.
M To avoid a possible conflict Syria and Turkey signed a
Euphrates protocol in 1987 that centered on an equitable
formula for water-flow levels after the completion of
the Ataturk Dam.
N What evidence supports the position that Turkey's three
SEAP dams and Syria's Tabqa dam are the correct fulfill-
of the four bound angels imagery?
1 The presence of the four super dams, "in the great
river Euphrates," fits the first specification to
look for in the Sixth Trumpet prophecy's fulfillment.
2 The present Syrian-Turkish and Syrian-Iraqi agree-
ments governing the volume of water flowing through
the four super dams, provide a recognizable literal
reflection of the imagery of four angels bound in
advance of the coming Sixth Trumpet World War.
III The prophecy indicates that the Sixth Trumpet War will
break out suddenly.
A The original Greek refers to the timing of this event
with the words: "and were loosed the four angels having
been prepared for the hour and day and month and year"
(Rev. 9:15, IGENT).
1 This means there will be a specific hour, of a
particular day, of a certain month, of a unique future
year, when the four powerful objects will be loosed.
2 Thus, the intake gates of the four super dams astride
today's Euphrates will be "loosed" on short notice
from their present "treaty bound" open positions and
quickly lowered over their respective intake tunnels,
within a period of one sixty minute hour.
B What might prompt Turkey and Syria to abrogate the long-
standing Euphrates super dam water-flow agreements that
had been essential to keeping the peace, and accept the
risk of a destructive war with their neighbors in the
region?
1 A larger danger that would make it a far greater risk
for Turkey and Syria not to stop the river's flow.
2 According to Rev. 11 that greater risk will be famine
brought on by an unrelenting, post-AWWI drought.
3 Mention of this drought late in the sixth trumpet
narrative indicates that it will be a delayed
negative consequence of AWWI which will not reach its
full force until sometime after the Sixth Trumpet
World War is over.
4 At its worst "it will not rain" (Rev. 11:6, NIV) for
1,260 consecutive days.
C This prophetic information implies that once the persis-
tent character of the post-AWWI drought is understood,
Syria and Turkey will order the intake gates on their
respective Euphrates dams "loosed" from their "treaty
bound" open positions, to conserve water supplies.
1 The lowered gates will effectively stop the river's
flow.
2 In the face of desperate water shortages, it is hard
to imagine that Iraq would not go to war.
D According to the continuing sixth trumpet narrative, war
will erupt in the Euphrates basin and subsequently
escalate into a major world war involving the largest
army ever assembled on the planet.
IV John's description of the modern weapons of war that will
be used in the fighting on the ground.
17 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.
18 A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of
fire, smoke and sulfur that came out of their mouths.
19 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 (Rev. 9:17-19, NIV).
A The horses the Apostle John saw were modern weapons of
war and the riders the crews that operate them.
B The sum of John's descriptive language draws a surpris-
ingly crisp picture of a modern battle tank.
1 The word rendered breastplate denotes a protective
coat of mail covering the whole body.
- The breast plates, therefore, correspond to a modern
tank's armor-plated steel body.
2 "The heads of the horses resembled the heads of lions"
describes the tank's turret, which in some respects
resembles the prominent head of a male lion.
3 The fire, smoke, and sulfur proceeding out of the
horses' mouths corresponds to the exhaust emissions
from burning gunpowder, which come out of a tank's
main cannon when a shell is fired from it.
4 Note that the cannon is attached to the bottom of the
turret, right where a mouth would be expected to
reside in an analogy between a lion's head and a
tank's turret.
5 The tails, likened to "snakes having heads with which
they inflict injury," correspond to smaller automatic
machine guns that are part of a modern tank's
standard offensive weapons package.
6 The head of the snake-like tail refers to the flash
suppressor on the muzzle of a machine gun's barrel.
7 John included the colors of the breastplates--"fire-
coloured" IGENT, "sapphire" RSV (a bluish purple
gem), and "brimstone" (a stone with a yellow hue due
to its high sulfur content)--simply because a
camouflage paint job is essential to the overall
combat effectiveness of a modern battle tank.
C Does John's description of the Sixth Trumpet War
indicate that nuclear weapons will not be used?
1 Yes, John only described weapons used in a ground
war--"A third of mankind was killed by the three
plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur that came out of
their mouths" (Rev. 9:18, NIV).
2 If nuclear weapons were shown to John in the vision,
he would have recorded that fact for posterity.
V John's report describes the defiant attitude of many of the
people who will survive the Sixth Trumpet World War.
20 And the rest of the men which were not killed by these
plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that
they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and
silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither
can see, nor hear, nor walk:
21 Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their
sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts
(Rev. 9:20-21).
A Many of the survivors will continue to embrace evil,
materialism, violence, and a rebellious lifestyle.
B John's description of the post-Sixth Trumpet War period
indicates a major breakdown in law and order.
1 The text lists murder as the number one crime of the
day at this point in the history of man.
2 The Greek word for sorceries is pharmakeia, which
means enchantment with drugs.
- The word as used in this passage identifies the use of
mind expansion drugs as the second most commonly
committed crime.
3 Fornication and thefts are named as the lesser
crimes of the post-war period.
C In the days following the Sixth Trumpet War who will
benefit the most from the escalating crime wave?
1 The people who will be working to set up a powerful
world government.
2 The unprecedented increase in violent crime will make
it easier to sell the idea of an international
government, that will take away the rights of the common
man, on the promise of restoring law and order.