Dear Roger,
Several weeks ago, I read the letter you wrote to the lady who wanted to know about the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. They were part of the seven seals that you described in Revelation.
With all that is going on in the world today, and with so many wondering about the second coming, I’d like for you to explain the seven trumpets which are blown after the seven seals are opened. By the way, do you think we’re in the last days?
Sincerely, Susan
Dear Susan,
Frankly, the first time I thought that we were in the Last Days was right after the 1967 War which was won by Israel over their Arab enemies. As we drove in an old school bus from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, we passed scores of burned-out tanks and personnel carriers. I started counting | biblical years and generations. I just knew that the return of Christ was imminent.
Now, I do not know if these are the Last Days or not. I try to live by the following guideline: “Live as if Jesus were coming in the next 10 minutes. Plan as if he were not coming for another thousand years.”
Now, let’s get down to work.
There is a haunting theme throughout the interludes of Revelation: “They refused to repent.”
The seven trumpets are all about the devastation that God brings up on mankind in the hope that they will repent and surrender to the Lord Jesus.
Before the seventh trumpet is blown, God allows the Angels to see the destruction he is about to bring upon mankind. Everything in heaven is silenced for thirty minutes as the Angels stare in shock at the destruction to come. Unfortunately, mankind will still not repent.
Revelation 8:6: Then the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to sound them.
The trumpets are divided into four and three. The first four deal with man’s environment. The second three deal directly with mankind.
THE FIRST TRUMPET
Revelation 8:7: The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down upon the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.
Hail destroys crops and also men and animals!
The food supply is devastated. The “green grass” refers to grain.
By God’s mercy only 1/3 of these things are destroyed. Hope still exists hope for the people who are left to repent and turn to God.
THE SECOND TRUMPET
Revelation 8:8-9: The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.
Could this be a falling meteor? Or, perhaps a nuclear missile spewing radioactivity?
This trumpet deals with the salt water oceans! The oceans food supply is devastated.
Edible fish and seaweed, raw oysters and raw octopus tentacles are decimated. Very little sushi remains.
THE THIRD TRUMPET
Revelation 8:10-11: The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water–the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turn bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter.
This is an attack upon the freshwater sources of the world. The great star Wormwood contaminates 1/3 of the world’s rivers and lakes. The word “Wormwood” literally means “Bitterness”! The bitter water is drinkable; however, death is the ultimate outcome. This reminds me of the personal-physical agonies as a result of the radioactivity that polluted Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Read John Hersey’s book, “Hiroshima”. It’s well worth it.).
THE FOURTH TRUMPET
Revelation 8:12: The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark. A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night.
The fourth trumpet is an attack on the atmosphere. The light of the sun and moon is diminished. This reminds me of the volcanic eruption of Krakatoa in the mid-1800s. The dust and ash circle the globe. The folks in Europe and America described it as the summer when winter never ended. Crops were stunted resulting in world-wide famine.
This trumpet has two parts. After the dust the sun’s power and intensifies. This is a picture of strengthening global warming intensified. The O3 ozone layer over Antarctica balloons and ultraviolet rays pile on.
At this point a remarkable creature appears in the Heaven’s proclaiming three great woes on mankind.
Revelation 8:13: As I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying in midair call out in a loud voice: “Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels!”
“Midair” means “at the Zenith” it’s a picture of an empty sky and one solitary eagle winging its way across the zenith of the sky, forewarning of the doom to come.
Once again God gives warning before he does anything in the way of judgment.
He warned Adam not to touch the tree or suffer the consequences.
He gave Noah’s neighbors 120 years to repent. If you’re not going to repent after 120 years then one more year probably won’t make any difference.
John the Baptist gave a warning: “Repent, Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”
It’s one thing to strike the environment. It’s another to strike at man himself.
The Woes are a warning that it’s time to come to Jesus.
There are over 600 warnings in Bible regarding Hell. It’s like God says, “Repent, Go Back, Bridge Out! Caution”! Only a fool drives over the edge of a cliff, or a blind man!
In the interlude, God says, “Beware of Hell!” Come to Jesus.
THE FIFTH TRUMPET
Revelation 9:1: The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss.
Who or what is the star fallen from Heaven? The Star is Lucifer, the Devil (Isaiah 14:12-17).
In Luke 10 the disciples return from a preaching mission and say, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us!” Jesus replied, “I saw Lucifer, fall like lightning from Heaven.”
Lucifer is a fallen archangel (Revelation 12:7-9) who is hurled to earth.
What is the Abyss?
The abyss is the prison for the worst fallen angels of all (Jude 6).
Luke 8:26-31 describes the story of Gadarene Demoniac. In Luke 8:31 the demons plead: “Please don’t cast us into the abyss. Send us to the pigs instead.”
Revelation 9:2-4: When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss. And out of the smoke locusts came down upon the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads.
When the Abyss opens, filthy, dirty demonic spirits who’ve been chained for centuries emerge.
The smoke most likely pictures the veritable soot of Hell which comes forth to cover the earth.
God seals His believers with the Holy Spirit. They are protected from the onslaught of Satan. This sealing is described in Ephesians Chapter Four.
Satan seals his followers with the sign of the beast, 666 in forehead or in the right hand.
Those who do not have the seal of the Holy Spirit will be tormented.
Revelation 9:5-6: They were not given power to kill them, but only to torture them for five months. And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes a man. During those days men will seek death, but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.
This passage describes demonic torment. Imagine what it will be to long for suicide and God will not allow it until five months in past! Finally, suicide is allowed and the gate to hell opens.
Revelation 9:7-8: The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold, and their faces resembled human faces. Their hair was like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth.
“Like women’s hair” is equivalent to seduction. I remember reading, Susan, in the LA Times, about a young man who picked up a female hitchhiker. He propositioned her and drove to a secluded place. As he leaned over to kiss her she had a razor blade in her teeth…Slit…Slit. She cut off both of his lips.
This is a graphic picture of seductiveness of Satan. His promises look so good, then slit… slit…
Revelation 9:9-12: They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing into battle. They had tails and stingers like scorpions, and in their tails they had power to torment people for five months.
Does this sound like helicopters and battle tanks or what?
The first woe is past; two other woes are yet to come.
Five months may give us indication as to when they appear on the scene: five months before Armageddon.
THE SIXTH TRUMPET
Revelation 9:13: The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the horns of the golden altar that is before God.
The horns of the golden altar refers to the voice of Christ calling for judgment! What a change! The very altar where Christ has been pleading for souls now becomes the place where He orders judgment! No more mercy!
Revelation 9:14-16: It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” And the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind. The number of the mounted troops was two hundred million. I heard their number.
The Euphrates River (modern day Iraq) has significance all through the Bible.
The first sin was committed here.
The first murder took place here.
The first rebellion against God took place here.
Nimrod, the father of idolatry built a blasphemous tower in Babylon here.
Two-hundred million soldiers is a demonic empowered army. China now has a 200 million soldier standing army.
China will come to Israel’s border and be supernaturally held up until God allows them to cross the Euphrates and invade Israel in preparation for battle of Armageddon.
Revelation 9:17-19: 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.
A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur that came out of their mouths. 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.
How might John describe Jet Planes and Tanks and Anti-Tank Missiles?
John sees a giant war machine moving from the East to Jerusalem. It’s a nuclear Army, under demonic control, which leaves behind a trail of nuclear destruction.
The smoke from the Abyss may well describe germ or chemical warfare or nuclear clouds of radioactive fallout and debris.
Zechariah describes this event: “People’s tongues cleave to roof of mouths, skeletons stand and flesh falls from their bones.”
Yet, the people refused to repent.
Revelation 9:20-21: The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood– idols that cannot see or hear or walk. Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR US TODAY?
1. The love of God brings many to repentance. We need to show the love of Christ.
2. The judgment of God brings others. We need to declare the coming judgment (John 16:8-11).
3. Jesus told us to pray, “Even so, Lord Jesus.” So we will.
4 the Bible says that there is a crown for those who love, and are looking forward to his return. Let’s earn it (2 Timothy 4:8)!
Most people come to Christ with some sort of combination of love and the fear of judgment. Unfortunately, some respond to neither love nor judgment. Their hearts have grown so hardened that they won’t repent under any circumstance!
Well, Susan, I hope that you find this short exegesis is helpful in understanding what’s ahead for the people of this world. Whatever, I’m looking for the rapture. I’m sure you’re looking there, too!
Love, Roger