The 7 Trumpet Judgments
Now for the Seven Trumpet judgments!
"The seven trumpets warn of the impending judgments of God. Until the first trumpet is sounded, God has left man to his own destruction. Now, in the sounding of these trumpets, we see God begin to pour His wrath on the earth and its inhabitants."
To
summarize:
1.
The first trumpet. One-third of the earth's vegetation burns up.
2.
The second trumpet. One third of the sea, the creatures and the
ships in it are destroyed.
3. The third trumpet. One third of
the fresh water is destroyed. (Pollution?)
4.
The forth trumpet. One third of the sun, moon and stars are
destroyed.(Cosmic?)
5.
The fifth trumpet (This
is the first
of three woes
to come). Demonic
scorpions are loosed. (more
on this later)
6.
The sixth trumpet (the
second woe). One
third of mankind is killed by fire, by plagues and by brimstone.
7.
The seventh trumpet (the
third woe).
Is
not sounded until Revelation
11:15.
It is followed by the proclamation "The
kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of
His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!"
After the 7th Trumpet we are just gone past the middle of the '7 year' Tribulation period.
(My alternate diagram of the End Time sequence looks at a logical sequence to that listed in the Book of Revelations. In my opinion a more logical blend to the Seals and Trumpet judgments. It also reflects a strong possibility for the Pre-Tribulation rapture of saints to take place prior to these terrible Trumpet judgments the world would face. After the 1st rapture of righteous souls, and subsequent for the 2 witnesses, the 144,000 righteous Jews, and those saved through their ministry, the Earth is harvested and in the remaining 3 ½ years of great Tribulation the full wrath of God will take place with the Bowl judgments and the 7 Dooms. God spares His people from these terrible events that would be taking place by ‘catching them up’.
See below a condensed chart(s) summarizing the events. My sincere apologies if this is not clear enough – am not very good at this.
Chart below is an amplification of the first half of the Tribulation for a bit more clarity.
Now for the details of each Trumpet judgment.
1st Trumpet Judgment
Rev
8:7
7 The first angel sounded: And hail and fire followed,
mingled with blood, and they were thrown to the earth. And a third of
the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.
Wild
fires are already happening in Australia, California and
other parts due global warming, but the worse is yet to come when the
first Trumpet is blown – a third of the tress and grass on
earth.
"Hail and fire mingled with blood" reminds us
of the seventh plague that God sent against Egypt (Ex 9:18-26). The
Prophet Joel also promised "blood and fire" in the last
days (Joel 2:30). Since this is a supernatural judgment, it is not
necessary to try to explain how hail, fire, and blood become mingled.
"Fire" could refer to the lightning of a severe electrical
storm.
The target for this judgment is green vegetation, the
trees and the grass, one third of which is burned up. One can well
imagine how this would affect not only the balance of nature, but
also the food supply. The Greek word for trees usually means "fruit
trees"; and the destruction of pasture lands would devastate the
meat and milk industries."
(from The Bible Exposition
Commentary.)
2nd Trumpet Judgment
Rev
8:8-9
8 Then the second angel sounded: And something like a
great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third
of the sea became blood.
9
And a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of
the ships were destroyed.
Notice
that John does not say that it was a mountain but it was
something like it, not a burning volcano, but an immense
meteoric mass ablaze with fire.
The falling of the "meteor"
into the sea destroys 1/3 of the life in the sea and the resultant
tidal wave destroys 1/3 rd of the ships/vessels (or fall possibly on
a fleet of naval vessels?) in it.
Hal Lindsey says "When you couple the destruction of at least 1/3rd of all vegetation with the annihilation of 1/3rd of all marine life, it amounts to a massive reduction of the world's food supply. Add this to a loss of part of the merchant fleet, it equals famine on an unbelievable scale!"
3rd Trumpet Judgment
Rev
8:10-11
Third Trumpet: The Waters Struck
10 "Then the
third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from the sky,
burning like a torch. It fell on one-third of the rivers and on the
springs of water.
11
The name of the star was Bitterness (In
the NKJV this star is called Wormwood”).
It made one-third of the water bitter, and many people died from
drinking the bitter water." New Living Translation
Hal Lindsey interprets this as another thermonuclear weapon which is part of a series of exchanges between the nuclear powers. This particular 'star' contaminates a third of all freshwater sources on earth. The bitter water of this third trumpet judgment will be so poisonous that numbers of people will die from drinking it.
Fourth
Trumpet: The Heavens Struck
Rev
8:12-13
Then the fourth angel sounded: 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 were darkened. A third of the day did not shine, and
likewise the night.
13 And I looked, and I heard an angel
flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice,
"Woe, woe, woe to
the inhabitants of the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the
trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound!"
All
natural light diminished by one-third! Could this be as a result from
the tremendous pollution in the air left from nuclear explosions? Or
as the Darby Bible translates this “Rev 8:12 “and
that the day should not appear [for] the third part of it, and the
night the same.”
Consider
the situation today.
Build up of nuclear weapons in the region-
Iran for example.
Israel defiance of the US and others over the
building of settlements in Jerusalem and fears of Iran's nuclear
threat.
Unusual weather, earthquakes, etc. occurring throughout
this world.
The signs of the end? Jesus said in Matt
24:34 "I tell you the truth, this generation
(ie the generation that goes through
the tribulation) will
not pass from the scene until all these things
(great tribulation) take
place."
Assume a Jewish generation is seventy years, add the year in which the state of Israel was set up 1948; could the countdown to the commencement of the Tribulation be around 2018?
"The
first 4 Trumpet judgment are directed toward the
Earth's ecology but the last three judgment (also
termed woe's by the angels), are
directed toward man himself.
Each of
these judgment increase in scope and magnitude as it
unfolds.
It appears that God is putting the pressure on man, a
little more each time, to try to get him to repent and turn to Christ
Jesus for salvation.
Webster defines the word (woe) as
'sorrow, calamity, affliction.'
If only men would heed this
somber pronouncement! But the indication is that most WILL NOT."
(Are
we at all surprised? Considering the hardness of Man in this day and
age.)
Hal Lindsey - New World
Coming
The 3 Woes
The Fifth Trumpet (or
1st woe)
Rev
9:1-12
9:1 Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw one
(star) (Lindsey believes this star
refers to Satan himself, described in ISA 14 as "Lucifer"
or "Star of the morning". Satan receives the key from
Christ himself, since Christ is the possessor of the key of hell)
who was fallen to earth from heaven,
and to him was given the key to the bottomless pit.
2 When he
opened it, smoke poured out as though from some huge furnace
(unparalleled torment unleashed), and the sun and air were darkened
by the smoke.
3
Then locusts
(these figurative locusts are said to
be possessed by hell's worst demons - fallen angels, convicts of the
ages, so ferocious that God has kept them bound since
the days of Noah)
came from the smoke and descended
onto the earth and were given power to sting like scorpions.
4
They were told not to hurt the grass or plants or trees, but to
attack those people who did not have the mark
of God on their foreheads
(this
includes all false, hypocritical, and heterodox Christians. In
chapter 7 the 144,000 of Israel were sealed, and protection from the
plague was extended to all who knew the Lord in that day.)
5 They
were not to kill them, (as
in the case of Job, God almighty here grants the devil authority to
torment but not to kill) but to
torture them for five months with agony like the pain of scorpion
stings.
6 In those days men will try to kill themselves but
won't be able to -death will not come. They will long to die - but
death will flee away!
7 The locusts looked like horses armored
for battle. They had what looked like golden crowns on their heads,
and their faces looked like men's.
8 Their hair was long
like woman's, and their teeth were those of lions.
9 They wore
breastplates that seemed to be of iron, and their wings roared like
an army of chariots rushing into battle.
10
They had stinging tails like scorpions (a
kind of nerve gas sprayed from their tails?),
and their power to hurt, given to them for five months, was in their
tails. (There
are diverse opinions among Bible teachers as to whether these
creatures are actually supernatural, mutant locust or they symbolize
some modern device of warfare like a helicopter.)
11
Their king is the Prince of the bottomless pit whose name in Hebrew
is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon [and in English, the
Destroyer].(The leader with almost
the power as Satan himself)
12
One terror now ends, but there are two more (Trumpet
Judgment or woes) coming! TLB
6th Trumpet (or 2nd woe.)
This
is a terrifying judgment.
Rev
9:13-21
And I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden
altar which is before God, 14 saying to the sixth angel who had the
trumpet, "Release the four
angels (four of the most wicked
and powerful of all the fallen angels are released to inspire the
destruction on mankind. Compare these four with those from God
in Rev 7:1) who
are bound at the great
river Euphrates."
15
So the four angels, who had been
prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were
released to kill a third of mankind. (remember 1/4
of mankind has already been destroyed by
the judgments described earlier. The poisoning of
water killed some more and now the remaining
population is reduced by a further 33 %!)
16
Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million
(Which country today has an army of
2,000,000? In 1961 the armed militia of China was estimated at 200
million. It's much more now. When John wrote this prophesy there
would not have been on Earth 200 million);
I heard the number of them.
17 And
thus I saw the horses in the vision: those who sat on them had
breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow; and the
heads of the horses were like the heads of lions; and out of their
mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone. (Ballistic
missile launcher? It could also include long-range strikes, even at
the US itself. Which probably explains why the US is nowhere
intimated in the Bible prophecies)
18
By these three plagues (fire,
smoke and brimstone) a third of
mankind was killed - by the fire and
the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths.
19
For their power is in their mouth and in their tails; for their tails
are like serpents, having heads; and with them they do harm.
20
But the men left alive after these plagues still refused to worship
God! They would not renounce their
demon-worship, nor their idols made of gold
and silver, brass, stone, and
wood-which neither see nor hear nor walk!
21
Neither did they change their mind and attitude about all their
murders and witchcraft, their immorality and theft. TLB
“The
population is approximately 6 billion, eight hundred million people
and estimated to grow to 7 billion within the next 5 years. We have
seen ¼ of this number perish when the 4th
or pale horse was introduced in Chapter 6. Therefore 7 billion
population is reduced to about 5 billion. Now an additional 1/3rd
of this perish as the 4 angels are released. These four executioners
are waiting waiting in the wings to begin the drama of the ages.
Remember the Euphrates river is Middle East Territory – the
location of present day Iraq and Syria. This is the world's present
and future tinderbox. The holocaust will include Russia and her
allies posed against Israel.” Ezekiel 38 and 39 are about to take
place. Refer to Chapter 2 of this book for more on the Ezekiel 38 and
39 war.
Imagine it, here is a situation, the end of the world
is approaching fast, the powers of God are being displayed,
yet 'man' does not accept the God of creation! Even after
the release of 13 judgments by God.
Hal Lindsey states:
"These two verses have got to be among the most incredible in
the whole Bible. After all the supernatural events, men are still
unwilling to repent and turn to Christ!
These two verses also
reveal another remarkable perdition - that
men will once again turn back
to worshiping demons... in the last few years we've the
greatest turning to witchcraft, satan worship and occultism since
the days of Rome!" Satan will try his best to destroy God's
creation - Man.
Between
the Sixth and Seventh Trumpet sees an Interval in which two
events take place:
1) A mighty angel appears with a
Book/Scroll and when he cried out 7 thunders uttered and John was not
allowed to write down what was said but keep it sealed. This
Book is probably the same Book that Daniel (600+ years earlier) was
told to seal up. (Dan 12:4,9)
That
Book contained things that were not to be revealed until the "Time
of the End". "Not the 'End of Time' but the end of the
'times of the Gentiles' which synchronizes with the last half of
Daniel's 'Seventieth Week' and therefore with the 'great tribulation'
period" - the second half of the seven year period.
Rev
10:5-7b
5 “The angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the
land raised up his hand to heaven
6 and swore by
Him.................that there should be delay no longer,
7 but
in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to
sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His
servants the prophets.”
2) Introduces the two Witnesses – to preach the gospel to the Jewish nation.
My summary of how End Time sequence should flow – sequence in Revelation does not necessary imply that its the flow of events. For example, when the Seventh Seal is opened it triggers the Trumpet judgments tied up to the calamities of the 2nd and 3rd Seals.
I would like to highlight the following in relation to the Seal and Trumpet judgments.
1. As we have in Part 3, previously, the first four Seals (and 6 Trumpet Judgments below), indicate a Pre-Tribulation Rapture. This would be the only way to make sense to the sequence of events in the Book of Revelation.
These 4 Judgments alone would destroy one quarter (1/4th) of the World's population.
Rev 6:8
So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth.
As of June 2018 the world's population is 7.6 billion (most recent United Nations estimates elaborated by Worldometers).
One quarter of this is 1.9 billion people destroyed. The earth's population remaining would be around 5.7 billion.
As stated earlier, after the 6th Trumpet is blown 1/3rd of the remaining world population will be destroyed by "fire, plague and brimstone". (Rev 9:18)
The resultant three plagues of the 6th Trumpet "fire,..smoke... brimstone".
The World's population would then be 2/3rd’s of 5.7 billion resulting in only 3.8 billion.
The current World's Christian population is about 2.2 billion.
Assuming that only half of them would be found worthy for the first Pre-Tribulation Rapture, the total world population before the Great Tribulation which occurs in the 2nd half of the 7 year period would be around 3.8 billion less 1.1 billion = 2.7 billion only.
The second half of the Seven year period is known as the Great Tribulation is also referred to as the Wrath of God.
However the destruction even before this period, half the world's population is gone. Such extensive demolition of humans indicates that the God in His mercy will spare His elect from wrath and rapture them before all the Seal and Trumpet judgments.
In Part 2 of this series we referred to the Church of Philadelphia which in fact represents the church of the latter day outpouring. Jesus specifically states in Rev 3:10-11
Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth."
If the first half of the Tribulation is not the hour of trial then what is?
2. A mentioned earlier the Seals announce the Judgments while the Trumpets herald their application.
I hope my chart below simplifies the point.
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