The Treaty of London

Remember the day-year principle used in Bible time prophecies (Numbers 14:34; Ezekiel 4:6). The sixth trumpet has another such time prophecy. Using the principle in calculating one “hour,” one “day,” one “month,” and one “year,” we arrive at a total of 391 literal years, plus 15 literal days. It was for this length of time that the Turkish reign would last. Did this happen?

Indeed, it did. In fact, a nineteenth-century minister named Josiah Litch used this exact principle to predict the dates of the rise and fall of the Ottoman Empire. Having studied the prophetic time periods in both the fifth and six trumpets, the “five months” of Revelation 9:5, 10, and “the hour and day and month and year” of today’s verse, he proposed this to mean that the Turkish power would only prevail for that combined duration of time and, thus, that the demise of the Ottomans would be on August 11, 1840.

For nearly four centuries, the Ottoman Empire had dominated Eastern Europe, beginning with its utter annihilation of the Eastern Roman Empire. “A third of mankind” aptly describes the fall of an entire nation. But by the nineteenth century, the Ottoman power was already on the decline. In particular, tensions gradually heightened between the empire and the land of Egypt, eventually exploding in 1839 in a rebellion led by Ottoman vassal Muhammed Ali. The ensuing war would ultimately prove fatal.

Not only were the Ottomans defeated, but their sultan—their king—died soon after. No longer able to hold its own, the once-great empire could only acquiesce to foreign aid when, in 1840 at the Convention of London, several nations—England, Russia, Austria, and Prussia—came to its rescue. A decision was made by the four powers to carry out a settlement previously proposed by the sultan, which allotted certain parts of the Ottoman Empire to Egypt’s new ruler, Ali.

On the exact day that Litch predicted, Rifat Bey, the Turkish emissary, unveiled to Ali this Treaty of London, thus marking the end of Ottoman independence.

Sovereign Lord, You raise up kings; You tear down kings—but You are King of all kings. May we take heart that Yours is a reign which lasts forever!

For Further Study: Psalm 33:12, 16–19; Daniel 2:21; Revelation 8:7

Key Bible Texts

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. (Revelation 9:15 KJV)