Revelation 8-9: Seventh Seal and first Six Trumpets
As stated above, before the
resurrection of the saints can occur at the Seventh Trumpet (Rev. 11:12-15),
the first “Six Trumpets” must sound first, which are all part of the symbolic Seventh Seal. We read in Revelation 8:1
that before the opening of the Seventh Seal, there is a profound silence in
heaven for “half an hour.” This pause
could illustrate the sense of dread among the angelic beings regarding the
disasters that they represent for God’s people and the world. It is important to note that God’s people
will still be on earth at this time, both Jews and Christians. I also believe
that, just as the seals are symbolic of a long extension of time, these
trumpets can also be symbolic of a certain unknown length of time. I have
come to understand that we might have already been seeing some of their
effects, starting with the 20th century. The world has experienced
its most transforming wars in all of history for the sake of Israel! We have
also been seeing the catastrophic effects of modern global contamination. Thus,
I believe that the first Six Trumpets could represent concurrent world-wide disasters in
Trumpets 1-4 (such as pollution of land, seas, rivers, and air), and global events
(such as wars and epidemics)
in Trumpets 5-6.
To better understand the significance of these seven trumpet sounds, we must see what the trumpets signified in ancient Biblical times. They were sounded on many different occasions, but the most common practice among the Gentile nations was for: a) warning of imminent danger (Jer. 6:1, 17; Ezek. 33:3-6), and for: b) gathering their armies to battle (Josh. 6:4-5; Judg. 7:18; Neh. 4:20). But in Israel, trumpets or shofarim (ram’s horns) were more often used for calling God’s people to: c) repent and be consecrated in prayer and fasting (Lev. 25:9; Joel 2:15-16). They were also sounded for: d) assembling God’s people before Him (Ex. 19:18-19), and for: e) celebrating and singing praises to His name (Psa. 81:3; Psa. 150:3). In this manner, trumpets were used to declare that God would save and redeem His people for Himself (Num. 10:9; Zech. 9:12-17). Similarly, trumpets were used to: f) announce new kings when they sat on Israel’s thrones (2 Sam. 15:10; 1 Kgs. 1:39), as well as to: g) announce God’s wrath against the nations that did not submit to Him (Zeph. 1:15-18).
All of the above common practices seem to be evident during the seven eschatological Trumpets. God is warning unbelievers of: a) coming dangers if they don’t repent, and: b) announcing imminent wars and disasters around the world. God is also calling His people to: c) repent in prayer and consecration because it will soon be time for: d) “assembling” (gathering/raising) them to Himself. This will be a time of: e) great celebration and praise before the throne! During the Messianic Kingdom, Yeshua will also announce that: f) He is Lord of all the earth when He sits upon His holy throne, and: g) will finally judge the sinful nations (Psa. 47:5-9). In similar fashion, the first Six Trumpet are clear admonitions of calamity and war so that the nations repent and turn to God, for calling Israel to return to their land, repent, and consecrate themselves to Him, while the final Seventh Trumpet will be to gather up His holy people. Then, the Messiah will return to establish His Kingdom.
Let us now consider some of the symbolic details regarding these Seven Trumpets, and a number of possibilities that they may represent.
The first Three Trumpets (Rev. 8:6-11) describe natural calamities in which a third of all (1) land, (2) oceans, and (3) rivers are destroyed. Could this represent the increased contamination of land, seas, and rivers that has been evident since the 20th century? Widespread human pollution has ruined much of our agricultural land, many of the important oceans and coral reefs, and a great many rivers that are our source of drinking water. (It is also possible that we may see actual asteroids fall from the sky.)
The Fourth Trumpet (Rev. 8:12) describes a darkening of the sun, moon, and stars, which may have nothing to do with anything happening to them, but due to heavy earthly air pollution. Ever since the industrial revolution, we have been dealing with smog in dense population centers, destructive solar rays due to the disappearance of our ozone layer, and more frequent and greater solar flares. There have also been occasional smoke clouds due to large fires, making the sun, moon, and stars appear dark and reddened.
Thus, we have been seeing greater extreme weather conditions due to climate change, global warming, and increased carbon gas emissions (as minimal as it might be). Clearly, because of all this man-made pollution, we have been suffering from greater droughts and wildfires, widespread floods, more destructive super-storms, tornados, and hurricanes, huge tsunamis, frequent and stronger earthquakes, eruptions of volcanos, world-wide viral pandemics, and many other upheavals in nature, killing many thousands upon thousands of people around the globe. Scientists predict only an increase in all these things. We are not yet experiencing destruction to the degree of a third of the land, water, and humankind being destroyed, but is that also just a metaphor? Are we already seeing the signs in heaven and on earth that must occur before we see the sign of the Son of Man when He appears in the clouds to raise or gather His people?
The Fifth Trumpet (Rev. 9:1-12) describes evil powers from the bottomless pit that torture those “who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads” for “5 months” (Rev. 9:4). It is also described as the First Woe. It speaks about certain creatures preparing for battle, which seem to resemble modern tanks and warplanes, and whose leader is clearly Satan (Abaddon and Apollyon). Could this refer to the world-wide struggles for global dominance by several dictators and the accompanying modern warfares of World Wars I and II, including the Holocaust of the Jewish people? The 20th century has seen one of the deadliest and most widespread military conflicts in history, and only the allied Christian nations were able to stop this evil advance. A third of humankind was tormented during these wars (v. 5), while others wished to die but could not (v. 6). An estimated total of 70 to 85 million people perished during WW II, which was considered to be near 2.3 billion in 1940. About 6 million Jews were annihilated merely for being Jews, plus many Christians who defended them. Nevertheless, we can see that God allowed World War I to happen so that the Ottoman Empire would fall, and World War II so that the nation of Israel could miraculously be reborn in 1948 from its ashes. Afterwards, communism and socialism spread their equally evil totalitarianism around the world, continuing wars and threats against God’s people, both Christians and Jews.
The Sixth Trumpet (Rev. 9:13-20) also describes terrible wars (Second Woe), but this time in the region surrounding the Euphrates River. This might refer to Muslim terrorism and wars in Iran (1953, 1979), Iraq (1990, 2003-2011), Afghanistan (2001), and the entire Middle East that have been ongoing for several decades since World War II, mainly due to Islamist efforts to re-dominate the world. It certainly seems like Satan has reawakened Islamic jihad and fervor, producing unrelenting and unsolvable Middle East struggles. Al-Qaida and ISIS (Islamic State) terrorists have been only temporarily contained. Israel has been continuously attacked by Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis, and other Islamists, financed by Iran, in order to destroy it as a nation. On the other hand, could the reference to fire, smoke, and sulfur refer to nuclear bombs and weapons of mass destruction that were used to stop World War II, and which may again be utilized during an even greater future war in the Middle East? (Rev. 9:18). Everyone is justifiably fearful about what a widespread nuclear war could do, which is why Israel and other nations are trying to keep Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. The western nations also fear that Russia might unleash its own nuclear power against the world. China has been taking advantage of this chaos and has dominated the global industry and commerce during the past 20 years. Turkey has been barely suppressing its aggressive intentions, though it clearly has the intention of controlling Israel and more of the world through a revived Ottoman Empire. It is presently trying to take control of the new Syrian government.
On the other
hand, there have also been many spiritual revivals around the world since the beginning
of the 20th century, especially the Azuza Street revival in California between 1906 and 1915. This led
to a global “Pentecostal” charismatic movement during the following decades. In
the 1960s and 70s, there was what Time Magazine dubbed as the Jesus Revolution among the young
“hippy” segment, when thousands of people gave their lives to Jesus the Messiah
(such as myself). God has also been revealing Jesus by visions and dreams to many
Muslim and unbelieving individuals living in areas where the Gospel cannot penetrate
through regular means of evangelism. God will always be their protector and
provider, though it is most certain that they will be fiercely persecuted.
Regarding the Muslim persecution that Christians face, in Jesus’ well-known intercessory prayer for His disciples (Jn. 17:15) He said that He would not ask the Father to take us out of (airo ek)[1] the world, but that He would ask the Father to keep us from (tereo ek)[2] the Evil One. He was actually referring to His guarding and protecting us in the midst of trials and tribulations. He did not say that we will not suffer, but that we will be safe from Satan and his evil intentions to ruin our lives through sin and temptations. In Jesus’ message to the church of Philadelphia, He also spoke about being kept or protected during the “hour of trial,” using the Greek term of “pirasmós” for “trial”:
“Because you have kept [tereo] my word about patient endurance,
I will keep you from [tereo ek] the hour of trial [pirasmós]
that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth” (Rev. 3:10).
Pirasmós represents a beneficial discipline of some sort that is divinely permitted. God doesn’t want to prevent us from going through certain beneficial trials, because He wants to use them as a way of perfecting us and keeping us from sinning.
As God’s people keep His Word, He will keep them from the Evil One during their time of testing in this world. Jesus prayed in the Lord’s Prayer: “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” (Matt. 6:13). Here He used the term pirasmós for “temptation,” and He also used rhúomai for “delivering” or preserving us from evil. We can ask God not to deliberately lead us into trials, though He allows them once in a while for our benefit. Nevertheless, He rescues, delivers, or preserves us (rhúomai) from sin and the Evil One (or Satan) while we are in our trials, rather than actually removing us from this world.
The Apostle Peter distinguishes this type of disciplinary correction of “trial” (or pirasmós) from actual “punishment” (or kolazo):
“…and if he rescued [rhúomai] righteous
Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked… then the Lord knows how to rescue [rhúomai] the godly from trials [pirasmós], and to keep the
unrighteous under punishment [kolazo]
until the day of judgment…” (2 Pet.
2:7, 9).
The idea here is that God will preserve and rescue (rhúomai) His people from sin and Satan during the trials of the first Six Trumpets in the same manner that He preserved Lot from the wicked environment of Sodom and Gomorrah. He will protect us while we are in the midst of beneficial tribulations and trials [pirasmós] until it is time for us to be delivered “immediately after the tribulation of those days,” before the unrighteous experience their punishment, just as God took Lot out of Sodom when the time came to destroy it.
That is why modern believers will experience the effects of worldwide disasters during the Trumpets 1-6, though they may not be as directly affected as the unbelievers. We also read in Exodus that the people of Israel were protected from the third to the tenth plagues against the Egyptians. God told Pharaoh: “But on that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, where my people dwell, so that no swarms of flies shall be there, that you may know that I am the LORD in the midst of the earth. Thus I will put a division between my people and your people…” (Ex. 8:22-23). Would God really subject His righteous saints to the punishment meant in their own vindication? Isn’t this what is meant by: “Come, my people, enter your chambers, and shut your doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until the fury has passed by” (Isa. 26:20)? Wasn’t this the prescribed action by most of the world governments during the Covid-19 epidemic shutdowns of 2020-2021?
Importantly, the Greek rhúomai above is the same as in 1 Thessalonians 1:10, where the new
believers in Thessalonica “wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from
the dead, Jesus who delivers
us from [rhúomai apó] the wrath
[orgé] to
come.”
Here, the Greek term used for “delivers us from…” is “rhúomai apó” in order to express that Jesus will deliver us up (apó) from the wrath (orgé) of God before it comes. I interpret that this means that God will resurrect/rapture the Christians at the time of the 7th Trumpet, but the orgé really refers to the later Bowls of Wrath. The term “wrath” in this sentence refers to God’s punishing indignation upon sinners, similar to “kolazo.”
Orgé is the same term for God’s wrath used in John 3:36: “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath [orgé] of God remains on him.” Certainly, the wrath of God, or the coming Bowls of Wrath, are only meant for non-believers who will not participate in the resurrection of the saints!
Thus, the action of “rhúomai apó” (“delivered from”) or “airo ek” (being “taken out of”) is exactly what the resurrection/rapture signifies, but it will not happen until “after the tribulation of those days.” This will be our “deliverance away from” and our “lifting up out of” the world. Jesus said, at the end of His intercessory prayer, that He looked forward to the moment when He would finally be taking us out, since He desired that we may be with (“metá”) Him where He is: “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me…” (Jn. 17:24).
A powerful YouTube recording was made in 2016 when some Jewish people in Israel heard a long series of trumpet sounds blaring from the sky above Jerusalem, coming out of a circular ring of clouds.[3] Some have even told of similar sounds in many other different parts of the globe. This was a literal sound, heard and recorded by many people on their phones, stirring wonderment and fear in their hearts. Are these just unexplainable atmospheric effects, or are they part of the heavenly trumpets that are announcing the final events in God’s prophetic plan? I must admit that this is very compelling!
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