EGW → Biblical Foundation
Select an Ellen White book from the sidebar to see each passage mapped to the Bible verses it amplifies, cites, or echoes.
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Ellen White & Bible Cross-Reference
Revelation 9:15
"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."
"For the latter chapter, under the “hour, day, month, year” prophecy, as part of the sixth trumpet, Josiah Litch worked out an application of the time prophecy, terminating Turkish independence in August, 1840. Litch's view can be found in full in his The Probability of the Second Coming of Christ about A.D. 1843 (published in June, 1838); An Address to the Clergy (published in the spring of 1840; a second edition, with historical data in support of the accuracy of former calculations of the prophetic period extending to the fall of the Ottoman Empire, was published in 1841); and an article in Signs of the Times and Expositor of Prophecy, August 1, 1840. See also article in The Signs of the Times and Expositor of Prophecy, February 1, 1841; and J. N. Loughborough, The Great Second Advent Movement (1905 ed.), pp. 129-132. The book by Uriah Smith, Thoughts on Daniel and the Revelation, rev. ed. off 1944, discusses the prophetic timing of this prophecy on pages 506-517. GC 691.2"
This EGW passage explicitly discusses Josiah Litch's interpretation of Revelation 9:15 and its connection to the fall of the Ottoman Empire. It's a direct reference and application of the verse.
"In the year 1840 another remarkable fulfillment of prophecy excited widespread interest. Two years before, Josiah Litch, one of the leading ministers preaching the second advent, published an exposition of Revelation 9 , predicting the fall of the Ottoman Empire. According to his calculations, this power was to be overthrown “in A.D. 1840, sometime in the month of August;” and only a few days previous to its accomplishment he wrote: “Allowing the first period, 150 years, to have been exactly fulfilled before Deacozes ascended the throne by permission of the Turks, and that the 391 years, fifteen days, commenced at the close of the first period, it will end on the 11th of August, 1840, when the Ottoman power in Constantinople may be expected to be broken. And this, I believe, will be found to be the case.”—Josiah Litch, in Signs of the Times, and Expositor of Prophecy, August 1, 1840. GC 334.4"
The EGW passage directly references and interprets Revelation 9:15 in the context of Josiah Litch's prediction about the Ottoman Empire. The connection is clear and intentional.
"Page 335. Fall of the Ottoman Empire.—The impact of Moslem Turkey upon Europe after the fall of Constantinople in 1453 was as severe as had been the catastrophic conquests of the Moslem Saracens, during the century and a half after the death of Mohammed, upon the Eastern Roman Empire. Throughout the Reformation era, Turkey was a continual threat at the Eastern gates of European Christendom; the writings of the Reformers are full of condemnation of the Ottoman power. Christian writers since have been concerned with the role of Turkey in future world events, and commentators on prophecy have seen Turkish power and its decline forecast in Scripture. GC 691.1"
The EGW passage directly references the interpretation of Revelation 9:15 regarding the decline of the Ottoman Empire. It's more than a thematic parallel; it's a specific application of the prophecy.