Revelation 16:12

And the sixth poured out his bowl upon the great river, the river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way might be made ready for the kings that come from the sunrising.

And the sixth poured out his bowl ... upon the Euphrates ... Pieters thought that, "The interpretation of this has not been found, and probably cannot be found."[32] Despite this, he mentioned an understanding of it that might well have the key to what is meant:

Dr. Grijdamus looks upon the Euphrates as the symbolical prophetic boundary between Christendom and heathendom.[33]

This must be at least a part of the correct answer. One of the most hurtful and damaging corruptions of the spiritual environment is the breaching of barriers between the church and the world. Of course, that is not exactly what Grijdamus meant, but his comment suggested it. The extent of this breach is seen when a so-called Christian church ordains a homosexual preacher, throws a drinking party in the physical plant of the church itself, or teaches adultery and fornication under the guise of their being a "new morality." Plummer approached this view when he wrote, "It means that a barrier that wards off hostile hosts is lost."[34] The making of sin to be popular and acceptable in churches themselves would indeed be exactly that type of removing barriers. Carpenter's perceptive comment was:

There may come a time, after false principles have been taught, corrupt manners tolerated, and the light of better things darkened, when the public sentiment loses all sense of shame, and when the decorums of life, which have acted as a breakwater against the tide of outrageous evil, are swept away; then is the Euphrates dried up, and then may the hostile powers of evil, unrestrained by any considerations, unchecked by the popular conscience, cross boldly over and invade the whole sacred soil of human life.[35]

Valvoord noted that, "as many as fifty different interpretations have been advanced regarding the dried up Euphrates,"[36] but we are confident that the meaning lies somewhere within the sector indicated above.

That the way may be ready for the kings that come from the sunrising ... When the boundary between right and wrong, between the church and the world, is dried up, "the kings of the east" will come to exploit their advantage. These are not to be understood as allies of righteousness, but as enemies of it. But they come from the east, "the sunrising." In our interpretation, this merely means that they come from "beyond" the violated boundary. Forces of evil will enter and dominate what was once true religion. Their being called kings should not mislead us; their names are given in the very next verse.

[32] Albertus Pieters, op. cit., p. 244.

[33] Ibid.

[34] A. Plummer, op. cit., p. 395.

[35] W. Boyd Carpenter, op. cit., p. 608.

[36] Valvoord as quoted by Robert H. Mounce, Commentary on the New Testament, Revelation (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1977), p. 298.