What was the original mission of the 4 angels of Revelation 7?
Revelation 7:1 says that the angels are to hold in check the "winds", and I believe that this is a reference to the "winds of human passion".
In other words, a mechanism is required to keep human depravity in check, until everyone has received a clear presentation of the true gospel.
See the end of the quote below.
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When He leaves the sanctuary, darkness covers the inhabitants of the earth. In that fearful time the righteous must live in the sight of a holy God without an intercessor. The restraint which has been upon the wicked is removed, and Satan has entire control of the finally impenitent. God's long-suffering has ended. The world has rejected His mercy, despised His love, and trampled upon His law. The wicked have passed the boundary of their probation; the Spirit of God, persistently resisted, has been at last withdrawn. Unsheltered by divine grace, they have no protection from the wicked one. Satan will then plunge the inhabitants of the earth into one great, final trouble. As the angels of God cease to hold in check the fierce winds of human passion, all the elements of strife will be let loose. The whole world will be involved in ruin more terrible than that which came upon Jerusalem of old. {GC 614.1}
This was kind of a trick question. I'm sorry for that... someone pointed this out to me so I will pass it on.
Read carefully:
Rev 7:2 And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea,
Rev 7:3 Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.
So we can see that originally it was given to the 4 angels to hurt the earth and sea but they were stopped because God's people were not yet sealed..... Jesus was ready to come but then we back up and read rev. 7:1 where they are to hold back.
this is our problem. we are not sealed. Therefore, a delay, by God's Grace.
I often find that in reading the scriptures, it seems the first passage or two will be a summary of events to follow and then things go back and detail the accounts. So as Zafer said once before things seem to not always be in order. But if we look at it this way, it seems there is a consistency about the scriptures.
"I saw that the four angels would hold the four winds until Jesus work was done in the sanctuary, and then will come the seven last plagues. "
" I saw four angels winging their way to the gate of the city. They were just presenting the golden card to the angel at the gate, when I saw another angel flying swiftly from the direction of the most excellent glory, and crying with a loud voice to the other angels, and waving something up and down in his hand. "
"About four months since, I had a vision of events, all in the future. And I saw the time of trouble, such as never was,Jesus told me it was the time of Jacob's trouble, and that we should be delivered out of it by the voice of God. Just before we entered it, we all received the seal of the living God. Then I saw the four Angels cease to hold the four winds. And I saw famine, pestilence and sword, nation rose against nation, and the whole world was in confusion. Then we cried to God for deliverance day and night till we began to hear the bells on Jesus' garment. And I saw Jesus rise up in the Holiest, and as he came out we heard the tinkling of bells, and knew our High Priest was coming out."
My first question is: Are the "trees" and "grass" literal or figurative or both?
My 2nd question is: How can it be that the 144,000 give the Loud Cry when they haven't even been sealed?
