Revelations - The Trumpets

Like I said before, I think that these trumpets are the creation reacting to the wickedness of mankind.

⁶ And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.

⁷ The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.

⁸ And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood;

⁹ And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.

¹⁰ And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;

¹¹ And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.

¹² And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.

¹³ And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!
Revelation 8:6:13

When we read from Ezekiel 8 earlier, I said that I would put a bit more details upon it. Lets reread Ezekiel 8:14-18.

¹⁴ Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord's house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.

¹⁵ Then said he unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these.

¹⁶ And he brought me into the inner court of the Lord's house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.

¹⁷ Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? for they have filled the land with violence, and have returned to provoke me to anger: and, lo, they put the branch to their nose.

¹⁸ Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.

Why is it that the sun goes dark? It is because the sun is being worshiped. Now, if you think that sun worship is not around today, then you probably don’t know too much about the Lucifarian doctrine. Satanists view the devil as the one that enlightens the world with hidden knowledge. Therefore, the sun gods (such as Ra) are depicted as Satan. They worship the sun gods as Lucifer, the light bearer.

This isn’t a prophecy that I am saying the people of Israel will worship Satan. However, to worship the beast is to worship Satan, for the beast receives his power from the devil. Also, that statue that is set up is the image of a dragon. We know that a dragon is the ancient serpent referred to as Satan.

¹And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.

² And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.

³ And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.

⁴ And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.

⁵ And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.

⁶ And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.

⁷ And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.

⁸ And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.

⁹ And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.

¹⁰ And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.

¹¹ And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.

¹² One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.
Revelation 9:1-12

How much of that did you get? I would like to start by saying that these “locusts” have power to hurt/torment men for 5 months. That does not mean that the other trumpets are not blown until after the 5 months. It might be that way. But you can have another trumpet blast while the locusts are still tormenting people. It is possible that this trumpet is blown 5 months before Jesus returns and so the judgment lasts until the Second Advent.

Also, there are a lot of details given in this that fit well with Old Testament prophecy. For example, the book of Joel discusses an End Time plague of locusts.

¹Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand;

² A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.

³ A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.

⁴ The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run.

⁵ Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array.

⁶ Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness.

⁷ They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks:

⁸ Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk every one in his path: and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded.

⁹ They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief.

¹⁰ The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining:

¹¹ And the Lord shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?

¹² Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning:

¹³ And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.

¹⁴ Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the Lord your God?

¹⁵ Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly:

¹⁶ Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet.
Joel 2:1-16

Isaiah 33 also seems to give a bit more insight:

¹Woe to thee that spoilest, and thou wast not spoiled; and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with thee! when thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled; and when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee.

² O Lord, be gracious unto us; we have waited for thee: be thou their arm every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble.

³ At the noise of the tumult the people fled; at the lifting up of thyself the nations were scattered.

⁴ And your spoil shall be gathered like the gathering of the caterpiller: as the running to and fro of locusts shall he run upon them.

⁵ The Lord is exalted; for he dwelleth on high: he hath filled Zion with judgment and righteousness.
Isaiah 33:1-5

Lets check out our timeline with Daniel. If this plague happens somewhere around the end of the last year to 5 months before the return of Christ, then what is happening with the Antichrist? This would probably be the time when the Antichrist is going off to fight the king of the south the last time before hearing the news that concerns him.

In Daniel 11:40-41 we read:

⁴⁰ And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.

⁴¹ He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.

I’ll admit that there isn’t anything concrete about this. It is a total guess, but it seems to fit. Somewhere around this time in the narrative of Daniel 11 is when the 5^th trumpet is sounded. Now, we read in Joel about a trumpet. Many times in the Old Testament, and even Paul reiterates in the New Testament that Jesus returns at the last trump.

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

1 Corinthians 15:52

¹⁵ For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

¹⁶ For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

¹⁷ Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
1 Thessalonians 4:15-17

³⁰ And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

³¹ And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
Matthew 24:30-31

If Jesus returns at the final trumpet, then we know that these last woes are getting close. With the 5^th trumpet sounded, we are coming increasingly closer to seeing the Lord return in glory. I don’t know if we’ll be able to hear these trumpets go off or not. It might be that those who have the Spirit within them can hear the trumpets. It might be that we won’t hear any until that final trumpet blast from Heaven when all mankind turns their head upward to view the rider upon the white horse.

¹³ And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,

¹⁴ Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.

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.

¹⁶ And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.

¹⁷ And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.

¹⁸ By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.

¹⁹ For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt.

²⁰ And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:

²¹ Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.
Revelation 9:13-21

Keep in mind that these angels come from the Euphrates. We’ll see that again in the 6^th bowl of God’s wrath. There are a lot of Scriptures that fall within this timeframe. For understanding of where we are in the Tribulation, I’ll quote Daniel 11:

⁴⁴ But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.
Daniel 11:44

Is it possible that while the Antichrist is at war with the king of the south that he hears reports of these angels loosed from the Euphrates? It would be hard to not hear reports about 1/3 of mankind being killed by this army. Thus, the Antichrist turns and heads back to Israel for the final battle of Armageddon.

And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel.
Isaiah 27:12

If you read Isaiah 27, you will find a ton of Scriptures about what is happening around this time. God sends judgment on the serpent that comes out of the sea (known in Old Testament as Leviathan, but is ultimately a representation of Antichrist). The people tear down the altars to false gods. And God ends the chapter with the last 2 trumpets.

Note that it mentions in Revelation 9 that even though these things are happening, the people don’t repent. We are at the very end, and it should be obvious that God is judging the world. Yet, there are still people that cling to their idols, murders, sorcery, sexual immorality, and their theft. This is something that completely baffles me. However, I think that this is easier to understand when put into perspective. Those who follow the beast and worship him as a god are given over to a reprobate mind.

It would seem as though from the prophetic Scriptures that not everyone will follow the beast. Some will follow whole-heartedly, and others will only do what they have to do in order to survive. I liken it unto the Holocaust. Not everyone in Germany was a part of the Nazi party. There were people that were not Christian that took in the Jews. There were people that disagreed with the system they lived under, but didn’t act out against it.

I think that there will be something similar in the last days. These who don’t repent – won’t repent – are the reprobates. They are possibly those enlisted in the beast’s army. They might simply be those that have given their entire beings over to the beast. Either way, I think it needs to be mentioned that somehow there are those that survive the Tribulation and make it into the Millennial Kingdom without serving the beast and without being God’s people.

I’ll cover more Scripture on this 6^th trumpet when we have the extra details about the bowl of God’s wrath as well. Lets continue into Revelation chapter 10:

¹And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire:

² And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth,

³ And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices.

⁴ And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not.

⁵ And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven,

⁶ And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer:

⁷ But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.
Revelation 10:1-7

I’ll stop here to make a point. In verse 7 we find the statement that when the 7^th trumpet is sounded, the mystery of God will be finished or accomplished. Why is this important? I want to continue to show Scriptural reasons why I cannot believe that the trumpets and the bowls are separate. When that final trumpet blast comes, there is nothing else. All has been accomplished. It is finished.

⁸ And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth.

⁹ And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.

¹⁰ And I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.

¹¹ And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.
Revelation 10:8-11

There is a parallel passage in Ezekiel 3 where Ezekiel was also given a scroll to eat. It had the same results – sweet to the taste and bitter in the stomach.

¹Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, eat that thou findest; eat this roll, and go speak unto the house of Israel.

² So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat that roll.

³ And he said unto me, Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll that I give thee. Then did I eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness.

⁴ And he said unto me, Son of man, go, get thee unto the house of Israel, and speak with my words unto them.
Ezekiel 3:1-4

Note that in both places the result of eating the scroll (God’s words) is that you must then go out and prophesy. When we reach Revelation 11, we backtrack only a little bit to give background to 2 new characters. I'll pick up in Revelation 11 to finish the Trumpets and to speak about these two witnesses in the next post.