7 Trumpets of REVELATION

Drawn/taken from the book Daniel & Revelation by Uriah Smith---Study Guide by Stephen Bohr---Sermon by Walter Veith---Commentaries from Matthew Henry/Adam Clark---Revelation Made Clear

--Intro 

--7 Trumpets & 7 Plagues

--Opening Scene

--FIRST Trumpet

--SECOND Trumpet

--THIRD Trumpet

--FOURTH Trumpet

--The Eagle

--FIFTH Trumpet

--SIXTH Trumpet

--SEVENTH Trumpet

Intro

The introductory vision to the trumpets describes the starting and ending points. 

--The starting point is the Day of Pentecost when Jesus began His intercession at the golden altar of incense in the holy place. 

--The series ends when Jesus throws down the censer, ceases to intercede and takes over the kingdoms of the world.

Earlier in Revelation God described Himself as the one who was, and is and is to come (Revelation 1:8), but in Revelation 11:17 (when the seventh trumpet sounds) He is spoken of as the one who is and who was and has taken His great power and begun to reign. O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come;

*The literary structure divides the book of Revelation into two major sections: 

(1) a historical section (Rev. 1-14) that emphasizes the experience of the church and related events during the Christian era, and 

(2) an eschatological (end time) section (Rev. 15-22) that focuses particularly on end-time events and the end of the world.”
The series of the trumpets occur in the historical section of Revelation. Consequently, we should seek for their fulfillment in historical time, the Christian era.
The prophecies of the trumpets have only one prophetic fulfillment.

--Trumpets are used in many contexts in the Old and New Testaments—worship, sanctuary and judgment. 

In the case of Revelation’s seven trumpets it is clear that the trumpets bear a relationship with the idea of judgment. 

The purpose of the feast of trumpets was to announce the upcoming Day of Atonement (Leviticus 23:23, 24). 

The trumpets that the priests blew as they surrounded Jericho announced God’s upcoming judgment against the city (Joshua 6).

7 Trumpets & 7 Plagues

The trumpets and the plagues afflict the same things, in the same order:

First trumpet and plague: Afflict the earth
Second trumpet and plague: Afflict the sea
Third trumpet and plague: Afflict rivers and fountains of waters
Fourth trumpet and plague: Afflict heavenly bodies
Fifth trumpet and plague: Heavenly bodies darkened
Sixth trumpet and plague: Mention of the Euphrates
Seventh trumpet and plague: Possessing the Kingdom
The evidence seems to indicate that the trumpets represent

preliminary and partial judgments that fell upon the oppressors of God’s people beginning with the destruction of Jerusalem and ending with the setting up of Christ’s everlasting kingdom. 

*The fact that the trumpets only fall on thirds and not on the totality indicates that the trumpet judgments are preliminary and partial. 

--The trumpets series indicates that repentance during the blowing of the trumpets is possible.
--The plagues, on the other hand, describe final and total judgments of God upon end time Babylon after the close of probation.

Without determining what is matter of controversy in these points among learned men, we rather choose to make these plain and practical remarks: - 

(1.) Where the gospel comes to a people, and is but coldly received, and has not its proper effects upon their hearts and lives, it is usually followed with dreadful judgments. 

(2.) God gives warning to men of his judgments before He sends them; He sounds an alarm by the written word, by ministers, by men's own consciences, and by the signs of the times; so that, if a people be surprised, it is their own fault. 

(3.) Corruptions of doctrine and worship in the church are themselves great judgments, and the usual causes and tokens of other judgments coming on a people.

Opening Scene

And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets.
And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. 

And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand. 

“Christ proclaims Himself our Intercessor. He places His merit in the golden censer to offer up with the prayers of His saints, so that the prayers of His dear children may be mingled with the fragrant merit of Christ as they ascend to the Father in the cloud of incense.” E.G.W.

And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake. And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.
Revelation 8:2-6

The fire is a symbol of the Holy Spirit and 

the incense represents the prayers of the saints 

mingled the merits of Jesus.

FIRST Trumpet

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. Revelation 8:7

Hail and fire mingled with blood - This was something like the ninth plague of Egypt. See Exodus 9:22-24: The Lord sent thunder and hail - and fire mingled with the hail - and the fire ran along upon the ground.

The Bible tells us that judgment must begin at the house of God (1Peter 4:17) so the judgment must begin with the Jewish nation. 

In the first destruction of Jerusalem, the man clothed in linen commanded the destroying messengers to begin their work at God’s sanctuary (Ezekiel 9:6). The second destruction of Jerusalem [A.D. 70] parallels the first..... the historicist method requires that the blowing of the trumpets begin in apostolic times. 

*Furthermore, the first trumpet must refer to a judgment that falls

upon those who first oppressed God’s people. 

Q: What judgment fell upon oppressors of God’s people in apostolic times? 

A: There is only one possibility—the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple.

“The long-suffering of God toward Jerusalem only confirmed the Jews in their stubborn impenitence. In their hatred and cruelty toward the disciples of Jesus, they rejected the last offer of mercy. Then God withdrew His protection from them and removed His restraining power from Satan and his angels, and the nation was left to the control of the leader she had chosen.” E.G.W. 

*It fell on the third part of the trees, that is, say some, The most severe calamities have their bounds and limits set them by the great God. A third of the trees means that the trumpets were partial and preliminary judgments that point forward to greater judgments in the future. 

*Fire falling from heaven signifies a judgment from God against apostate Jerusalem. 

*Blood Symbolism--As we have previously seen, the Jews in Pilate’s judgment hall clamored for Christ’s crucifixion and cried out, “His blood be upon us and our children.” Jesus also predicted that God would require from that generation all the righteous blood, shed from the time of Abel.

*Trees - Luke 23:27-31: These are the most important verses to understand the first trumpet: And a great multitude of the people followed Him, and women who also mourned and lamented Him.  But Jesus, turning to them, said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For indeed the days are coming in which they will say, 'Blessed are the barren, wombs that never bore, and breasts which never nursed!' Then they will begin 'to say to the mountains, "Fall on us!" and to the hills, "Cover us!" [Fulfilled finally in Revelation 6:16, 17; Revelation 1:7; Matthew 26:64; Matthew 23:39] For if they do these things in the green wood, what will be done in the dry? 

This must be seen in the light of the fig tree that dried up by the roots because they condemned Jesus who is represented by a green tree. The key phrase is ‘dried up by the roots’. Thus, the Jewish nation was the dried up tree.

*Grass - the voice said, Cry out! and he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.  The grass withers, the flower fades, because the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever." Isaiah 40:6-8.

SECOND Trumpet

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. And a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed. Revelation 18:8,9

Mountains in Bible prophecy represent kingdoms so the fall of a kingdom must be in view in the second trumpet. 

*This mountain must represent a kingdom that destroyed Jerusalem and persecuted God’s people.
Daniel 9:26 states that ‘the people of the prince’ destroyed Jerusalem the second time in the year AD 70. 

The prince in Daniel 9 is Christ. 

If the prince of verse 26 is Jesus, then the people of the prince must be the Jews (remember that the word ‘people’ throughout Daniel 9 always refers to Israel (see verses 15, 16, 19, 20, 24). 

Q: Did the Jews destroy their own city and sanctuary? 

Q: Did not Titus and the Romans destroy the city and the temple?
A: Three ideas coalesce in this verse. [1] God used the [2] Roman armies (spoken of as His armies) to destroy [3] those murderers and to burn their city.

Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith the LORD, which destroyest all the earth: and I will stretch out mine hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain. Jeremiah 51:25: The prophet Jeremiah compared the kingdom of Babylon with a destroying mountain.

Eventually this destroying mountain became a burning mountain that was thrust into the sea (the passive voice ‘was thrown’ indicates that this is God’s judgment). This is the key verse to understand the second trumpet.

Jeremiah 51:42: The sea has come up over Babylon; she is covered with the multitude of its waves.
The waves of the sea destroyed Babylon and made her desolate. In this case, the sea represents the multitude of nations that arose against Babylon and destroyed her.

Revelation 17:15: Then he said to me, The waters which you saw, where the harlot sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues.

Since the days of Daniel, four major kingdoms have risen to power and fallen. They are Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome. 

*The power that ruled in the days when John wrote the book of Revelation was Rome. 

*Literal Babylon had already fallen when John saw his vision of the trumpets therefore the mountain of the second trumpet cannot refer to the fall of literal Old Testament Babylon.

In Revelation 17, we see a dragon beast with seven heads. However, the heads are actually seven mountains. Each of these heads/mountains represents a kingdom that ruled beginning with Babylon. 

The burning mountain that cast into the sea at the sounding of the second trumpet was the fourth of those mountains or heads of Revelation 17, namely the Roman Empire.

--The Jews in the intertestamental period understood that the Roman Empire was a ‘new Babylon’: “. . . then shall come a great star from heaven into the divine sea, and shall burn up the deep sea and Babylon itself, and the land of Italy on whose account many faithful saints of the Hebrews have perished, and the true people.” 

Sibylline Oracles, lines 158-161
--1 Peter 5:13: She who is in Babylon, elect together with you, greets you; and so does Mark my son.
Many scholars believe that Babylon in this text is a cryptic reference to Rome. There is persuasive contextual evidence that this is so. God appointed Peter as His messenger to the Jews. Peter wrote his first epistle close to the end of his life and we know that at the end of his life he was in Rome where he would die as a martyr by the hand of Nero.

*Fish--Habakkuk 1:14-15: Why do You make men like fish of the sea, like creeping things that have no ruler over them? They take up all of them with a hook, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their dragnet.
Ecclesiastes 9:12: For man also does not know his time: like fish taken in a cruel net, like birds caught in a snare, so the sons of men are snared in an evil time, when it falls suddenly upon them.
*Ships - In Scripture, ships generally refer to trading and commercial prosperity. Ezekiel 27:9, 25, 29: Elders of Gebal and its wise men were in you to caulk your seams; all the ships of the sea and their oarsmen were in you to market your merchandise . . .  the ships of Tarshish were carriers of your merchandise. You were filled and very glorious in the midst of the seas . . .  All who handle the oar, the mariners, and all the pilots of the sea will come down from their ships and stand on the shore.

--At the sounding of the second trumpet, instead of temporal prosperity, the barbarians invaded the Empire, destroyed the routes of commerce, and decimated the prosperity of Rome. 

The judgment of the second trumpet brought the collapse of the entire social and economic order of the Roman Empire.

Gibbon uses this significant language: "Genseric, a name which, in the destruction of the Roman Empire, has deserved an equal rank with the names of Alaric and Attila."

THIRD Trumpet

Then the third angel sounded: And a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch; and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the water, because it was made bitter. Revelation 8:10

There can be little doubt that the ‘falling star’ of the third trumpet refers in a primary sense to Satan. Yet this star cannot refer to the original fall of Satan from heaven because that happened before creation week.
Though this trumpet cannot refer primarily to the fall of Satan from heaven at the beginning or at the cross, nevertheless the language is very reminiscent of the fall of Lucifer from heaven as described in Isaiah 14:12-14 and Revelation 12:7-9.
The terminological links between the third trumpet and Isaiah 14 and Revelation 12 leave little doubt that the fall of Satan stands in the background of the third trumpet. Satan, the star of the morning, who was originally perfect, apostatized and became a fallen star. He then defiled and poisoned Adam and Eve with his specious teachings and through them, the entire human race. The result was that the entire race came under the sentence of death (Genesis 3:1-6, 19).

The fall of this star portrays the great apostasy that defiled the church from within when Papal Rome rose to power from the shambles that the barbarians left in the Roman Empire. 

--Daniel 7 and Revelation 13 tell us that the little horn/beast persecuted the saints for 3.5 times or 42 months. 

--However, Revelation 12 presents a parallel, but different picture. The text tells us that the work of persecution was the work of the dragon for 3.5 or 1260 days (Revelation 12:6, 13-14). 

Thus, when we compare Daniel 7/Revelation 13 with Revelation 12 we find that Satan ruled during the 1260 years through his emissary, the Bishop of Rome.

2 Thessalonians 2:3, 4 explicitly tells us that the man of sin would exalt himself to the height of God even to the point of sitting in the temple of God claiming to be God. 

The language is quite similar to what Satan attempted to do at the very beginning when he was cast out of heaven (Isaiah 14:12-14). 

In fact, the text tells us that Satan would energize the man of sin (2Thessalonians 2:9).
*The backdrop to the idea expressed above is that Satan does not

accomplish his work in person but rather through his seed or body. 

*What he was not able to accomplish in heaven he does on earth through his vicegerent. As Christ works through His seed or body to accomplish His purposes on earth, so does Satan.

In all the great lines of prophecy pagan Rome is always followed by papal Rome.

In Revelation 1:20 the seven stars in the right hand of Jesus represent the seven churches -- seven consecutive eras of church history so the seven stars must represent the messengers that proclaim God’s message to the church in each of those eras. That is to say, each of the seven churches has one star.
In Revelation 12:1, the twelve stars on the crown of the woman represent the twelve apostles of the lamb who taught the truth as it is in Jesus. 

In Zechariah 9:16 the prophet saw the final remnant under a symbol of stars on a crown of glory.

When the stars cease preaching the gospel and preach human tradition, they become fallen stars.

--Revelation 8:10 indicates that the ministers and teachers (the angel or star of the church of this period) of the church were supposed to shine as a lamp. Instead, they fell from their post and defiled the waters.

--The fountains of waters are different from the raging waters of the sea (Isaiah 17:12, 13). The fountains of waters are life giving waters that refresh, restore and perpetuate physical and spiritual life.
--Deuteronomy 29:17, 18: Gall and wormwood describe the terrible consequences that would ensue if Israel drank from the polluted waters of apostasy.
Amos 5:7: When righteousness in the earth is forsaken, the result is wormwood: You who turn justice to wormwood, and lay righteousness to rest in the earth!

--The word "wormwood" denotes bitter consequences.

*The rivers and springs of water must have been clean before the fall of the star defiled them. 

--This is another indication that the third trumpet’s theme is apostasy in the church. 

When the star falls, it pollutes the fountains of waters with wormwood and bitterness and many people die.

FOURTH Trumpet

Then the fourth angel sounded: And a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third o the stars, so that a third of them were darkened. A third of the day did not shine, and likewise the night.” Revelation 8:12

Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. Genesis 1:16
Note: We shall find that the use of the words ‘greater’ and ‘lesser’ to refer to the sun and moon are very significant.

But to you who fear My name the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings; Malachi 4:2
When Jesus spoke to them again, saying, I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. John 8:12

The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death Light has dawned. Matthew 4:16

“Christ makes no apology when He declares, "I am the light of the world." He was, in life and teaching, the gospel, the foundation of all pure doctrine." E.G.W.

John the Baptist and the Old Testament were lesser lights [represented by the moon] whose purpose was to lead to the greater light, the person of Jesus Christ. 

John the Baptist was not ‘THE’ light but he was ‘a’ light to bear witness to THE light (John 1:6-8).

The Scriptures and God’s People Are Lesser Lights:

And when they say to you, Seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter, should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living? To the law [the writings of Moses] and to the testimony! [The writings of the prophets] If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. Isaiah 8:19-20

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Psalm 119:105

God’s People are ‘Moons’ Reflecting the Light of Jesus.

“As the moon and the stars of the solar system shine by the reflected light of the sun, so, as far as their teaching is true, do the world's great thinkers reflect [lesser lights] the rays of the Sun of Righteousness. Every gem of thought, every flash of the intellect, is from the Light of the world.” E.G.W.

The wise who understand Bible prophecy are like stars: Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever. . . Many shall be purified, made white, and refined, but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand. Daniel 12:3; 12:10

Eclipse of the Two Witnesses: 

1260 Years of Darkness

And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth. Revelation 11:3
I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering. Isaiah 50:3
The two witnesses (the lesser lights, Old and New Testaments) were clothed in sackcloth during the 1260 years. Sackcloth is a black fabric that symbolizes darkness, affliction and death.

The Greater and lesser lights pointed to Jesus dimly because the papacy partially eclipsed them: 

“The period when the two witnesses [the lesser light] were to

prophesy clothed in sackcloth ended in 1798. As they were approaching the termination of their work in obscurity [darkness], war was to be made upon them by the power represented as "the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit." In many of the nations of Europe the powers that ruled in Church and State had for centuries been controlled by Satan, through the medium of the papacy. But here is brought to view a new manifestation of Satanic power [the fifth trumpet or first woe].” E.G.W.

The Papacy Darkened the Sun and Moon

Darkening the Sun and the Moon:
In order to understand the darkening of the sun and moon during the fourth trumpet we must study the ‘daily’ that the little horn removed from the Prince of the Host. What does the word ‘daily’ mean?
It is difficult to interpret the word unless we go to other places in Scripture that explain it. The word is an adjective that has no noun to qualify. So the question is: 

Q: The little horn took away the daily what? 

A: The meaning of the word tahmid is simply “something which goes on continuously without interruption.” 

Q: However, what is it that ‘goes on continuously without interruption’ in Daniel 8?

It is important to keep in mind that the word tahmid has the definite article ‘the’. It is THE daily (hatamid) that the little horn took away (see also Daniel 11:31; 12:11). The King James Version translators added the word ‘sacrifice,’ thinking that tahmid refers to the morning and evening sacrifice. 

The Old Testament makes it abundantly clear that this word refers to the daily ministration of the priest in the court and in the holy place of the sanctuary. 

A: This means that the little horn was going to attempt to take away from the Prince of the host His ministration in the court and in the holy place of the sanctuary.

In summary, two princes are struggling for the souls of human beings. 

--One Prince, Jesus, performs a continual ministry of salvation in the heavenly sanctuary by pleading the blood of His one and only sacrifice before the Father. 

That Prince feeds His people with the Word of God (the table of showbread), keeps the light of the church burning by the power of the Holy Spirit (the candlestick) and forgives those who come to Him in penitence and prayer (the golden altar of incense).

--The other prince, Satan, unable to overthrow the heavenly ministry of the Prince, establishes a counterfeit continual ministry (the mass, tradition, the confessional, the pope) in the earthly temple—the church (see 2Thessalonians 2:3-4). 

By shifting the attention of the people from heaven to earth,  he casts down the place of the sanctuary and prevents human beings from discerning the saving work of Christ in heaven! Not being able to discern the saving work of Christ in heaven, souls perish in sin!

The Eagle

*In the KJV an "angel" warns of the 3 woes to come. But the actual translation is an "eagle:

In the KJV: 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 8:13
In the AMP: Then I looked, and I heard a solitary eagle flying in

midheaven [for all to see], saying with a loud voice, “Woe, woe, woe [great wrath is coming] to those who dwell on the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpets which the three angels are about to sound [announcing ever greater judgments]!”
In the NIV: 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!”
In the NLT: Then I looked, and I heard a single eagle crying loudly as it flew through the air, “Terror, terror, terror to all who belong to this world because of what will happen when the last three angels blow their trumpets.”

The eagle is an image used by God as a harbinger of doom. 

The Old Testament uses the eagle as a picture of destruction.
The LORD will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, swooping down like the eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand, a hard-faced nation who shall not respect the old or show mercy to the young. 

Deuteronomy 28:49–50 ESV
In Ezekiel 17 we read a parable of two eagles. The message of the parable was that Babylon was the eagle destroying Jerusalem.  

God promised curses on Israel if they disobeyed. 

One of the images of this curse is in Deuteronomy 28:49 that a foreign nation would destroy them, swooping down like an eagle.

FIFTH Trumpet

Then the fifth angel sounded: 

And I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth. 

To him was given the key to the bottomless pit. 

And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace. 

So the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit [even greater darkness than the fourth trumpet].  

Then out of the smoke locusts came upon the earth.
And to them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.  

They were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree, but only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.  

And they were not given authority to kill them, but to torment them for five months. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man. In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will desire to die, and death will flee from them.  

The shape of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle. On their heads were crowns of something like gold, and their faces were like the faces of men.  

They had hair like women's hair, and their teeth were like lions' teeth. And they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots with many horses running into battle. 

They had tails like scorpions, and there were stings in their tails [the tail represents lies]. Their power was to hurt men five months.  And they had as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but in Greek he has the name Apollyon. 

Revelation 9:1-12 

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! 

Revelation 8:13

When the fourth trumpet has blown, 

there is an announcement of three woes to come.

The key to understanding the fifth trumpet is in the details of Revelation 9.
A fallen star rises from the bottomless pit and his name is Abaddon in Hebrew and Apollyon in Greek. Both of these words mean ‘the destroyer’.

--This star is the leader of a vast host of locusts who have the tails of scorpions that come out of the bottomless pit and cause a dense darkness.
--This star did not fall at the time of the fifth trumpet. There is a distinction between Revelation 8:10 where John saw a star fall (second aorist, active, indicative in Greek) from heaven and Revelation 9:1 where the NIV correctly translates the tense of the verb (perfect, active participle), ‘I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth.” That is to say, this star had already fallen when the fifth trumpet sounded.
Revelation 11 explains the chronological time frame when the shaft of the abyss was opened during the fifth trumpet to release this hoard of demons:

“According to the words of the prophet, then, a little before the year 1798 some power of satanic origin and character 

would rise to make war upon the Bible. 

And in the land where the testimony of God's two witnesses should thus be silenced, there would be manifest the atheism of the Pharaoh and the licentiousness of Sodom.” E.G.W.

A striking parallel to what occurred in France transpired in the destruction of Jerusalem. The Jewish nation rejected the light and embraced the darkness (see John 1:5-11):

“Then God withdrew His protection from them and removed His restraining power from Satan and his angels, and the nation was left to the control of the leader she had chosen. Her children had spurned the grace of Christ, which would have enabled them to subdue their evil impulses, and now these became the conquerors. Satan aroused the fiercest and most debased passions of the soul. Men did not reason; they were beyond reason—controlled by impulse and blind rage. They became satanic in their cruelty. In the family and in the nation, among the highest and the lowest classes alike, there was suspicion, envy, hatred, strife, rebellion, murder. 

The Jews had accepted false testimony to condemn the innocent Son of God. Now false accusations made their own lives uncertain. By

their actions, they had long been saying cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.’ Isaiah 30:11. Now God granted their desire. The fear of God no longer disturbed them. Satan was at the head of the nation, and the highest civil and religious authorities were under his sway. When France publicly rejected God and set aside the Bible, wicked men and spirits of darkness exulted in their attainment of the object so long desired—a kingdom free from the restraints of the law of God . . . Centuries of apostasy [the fourth trumpet] and crime had been treasuring up wrath against the day of retribution; and when their iniquity was full, the despisers of God learned too late that it is a fearful thing to have worn out the divine patience. France was shaken as if by an earthquake. Religion, law, social order, the family, the state, and the church were smitten down by the impious hand that had been lifted against the law of God.” 

E.G.W.

The tense of the verb ‘had fallen’ clearly indicates that the star did not fall when the fifth trumpet blew. It had already fallen before the fifth trumpet
Q: How else could the star come out of the Abyss unless it had fallen into the abyss before?

When the ‘star’ (notice that the star is a ‘he’) opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a massive furnace. The smoke eclipsed the sun and the sky. There is no indication that the smoke eclipsed only a third part of the earth (as in the fourth trumpet)—the text seems to indicate that the darkness was total!
When the shaft of the abyss opens, ‘all hell breaks loose.’ 

As we have previously seen when we studied the fourth trumpet, the sun (the greater light) is a symbol of Jesus and the moon (the lesser light) is a symbol of the Scriptures that give witness to Him. The partial darkness of the fourth trumpet (when the two witnesses prophesied in sackcloth or obscurity) becomes complete darkness in the fifth trumpet. A comparison of verse 2 with Exodus 10:15 seems to indicate that the smoke was really composed of a huge cloud of locusts that eclipsed the sun.

France had the bright light of the reformation and rejected it and the result was a great darkness.
It is also significant that Daniel 11:40 describes the king of the south (atheism, spiritual Egypt) rising against the king of the north (apostate Christianity, the papacy) at the beginning of the time of the end (1798). 

--This attack of the king of the south against the king of the north is a depiction of the French Revolution. 

Thus, the fifth trumpet (Revelation 9:1-12), Revelation 11:7-10 and Daniel 11:40 are all describing the same historical event: 

The French Revolution.

Revelation 9:11 tells us that this cloud of locusts had a king who led them whose name was Abbadon or Apollyon. Normal locusts have no king over them (Proverbs 30:27) so these must be unusual and supernatural locusts.
*Some interpreters have seen in this plague of locusts a depiction of the devastations caused by Mohammed and the Muslims in Arabia. 

--However, in his commentary on the book of Revelation Seiss provides a multiplicity of reasons why this interpretation cannot be accurate: “Nor yet will this vision apply, except in a very dim and imperfect way, to the mighty Saracenic invasion, in which so many moderns locate its fulfillment. 

--If Muhammed was this star, it is impossible to show wherein he experienced the fall ascribed to this star. 

--If he was the star, he was also the king of the powers he set in motion; but the record plainly shows that the star and the king of the locusts are two distinct personages. 

--If the cave of Hera was the mouth of the pit, the followers of Muhammed did not come out of that cave, as the locusts are said to come out of the abyss. 

--If his flight from Mecca was his fall, then the pit was open and the smoke had begun to issue and breed locusts before the star's fall, which is again contrary to the record. 

--If the smoke were Muhammed's false doctrines, then neither smoke nor locusts existed before the pit was opened, for the Arabians were not Muslims before Muhammed, but the vision represents the locusts as dwelling in the pit and in the smoke long ere the pit was opened or the smoke issued. 

--The locusts were forbidden to touch anyone upon whose forehead the seal of God was impressed; but the wrath and fury of the Muslim hordes were directed mainly and above all against Christians and Christendom. 
--The locusts were in shape like horses, prepared for war; Muslims had this appearance no more than any other armed hosts. 

--The locusts wore seeming golden crowns; but ‘turbans of linen’ very poorly meet the description, while, if the creatures are symbolical, the crowns are symbolical also. 

Q: What, then, is the prophetic import of a turban? 

A: The locusts had breastplates, which are said to be symbols of invulnerability; but the Muslims were not invulnerable; they never went into battle without losing some of their number, and they were more than once defeated with great slaughter. 

--The locusts have wings, and tails, and stings in their tails, and poison in their stings like the poison of scorpions; but, in no respect was this true of the Muslims, any more than of any other conquering hordes. 

--The locusts have power to operate only for the space of ‘five months’—on the year-day theory, one hundred and fifty years—but the warlike expeditions of the Saracens ranged through more than four hundred years, and their power is not yet taken away.

--The king of the locusts is named Abaddon and Apollyon, but neither of these was the name of the Muslim prophet, nor do they describe him anymore than many others who have acted a like part in the world. 

--Smoke may very well represent false doctrine, but what was the sun and air obscured by Mohammedanism, when those who see only Mohammedanism in this vision are obliged to consider the Christianity and churches which the Saracens overrun, as even worse than Islamism itself? 

--Besides, if Arabia, whence the Saracens came, is the well-pit of the abyss, as some seem to affirm, then it is into Arabia that the Devil is to be cast, and shut up, and sealed in, for the thousand years, if not also the place into which all the finally lost are to be consigned!” Joseph Seiss, The Apocalypse: Exposition of the Book of Revelation, Electronic Database.

*These locusts are clearly symbolic because they are a hybrid combination of locust and scorpion and they attack people, not plants. According to Jesus, the scorpion represents Satan (Luke 10:18, 19). The most dangerous body part of a scorpion is its tail and the tail represents lies (Isaiah 9:15; John 8:44). 

*This is why Satan’s tail drew a third part of the angels and cast them to the earth (Revelation 12:4).

--In brief, this army has all the Biblical characteristics that apply to Satan and his angels: scorpions, serpents, lions, locusts, sulphur, bottomless pit, etc. The fifth trumpet is clearly a description of an extraordinary manifestation of satanic power.

--Applying the year/day principle, the five months would be equivalent to one hundred and fifty years. Notably the Age of Reason or the Enlightenment began in the early 17th century with the work of Rene Descartes: Contemporary, Blaise Pascal wrote: ‘I cannot forgive Descartes; in all his philosophy he did his best to dispense with God. But he could not avoid making Him set the world in motion with a flip of His thumb; after that he had no more use for God."
Descartes’ most famous book was A Discourse on Method, published in 1637 some 150 years before the beginning of the French Revolution. The Age of Reason eventually jettisoned the need for faith and the miraculous in religion. It supplanted faith in God with human wisdom.  

The Age of Reason inspired the French Revolution.

--In Scripture the tail represents lies (Revelation 12:7-9; John 8:44; Isaiah 9:15). 

===It is significant that during the 1260 years, Satan deceived people by the lie of false religion (false God) 

===but during the age of reason Satan deceived and hurt people by the lies of secularism (no God).

--The king who rules over the locusts is the angel of the Abyss, and his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon. The names Abaddon and Apollyon mean “destroyer.” The New Testament describes Satan as the ruler or prince of demons (Matthew 12:24) and Jesus referred to him as the ‘destroyer’ (John 10:10). This means that the locusts represent Satan’s angels.

The devil carries on his designs by blinding the eyes of men, 

by extinguishing light and knowledge, 

and promoting ignorance and error. 

He first deceives men, and then destroys them. 

SIXTH Trumpet

And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. 

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. 

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

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. 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. 

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

Here observe, 1. The power of the church's enemies is restrained till God gives the word to have them turned loose. 2. When nations are ripe for punishment, those instruments of God's anger that were before restrained are let loose upon them.

The fact that the voice comes from the four horns of the golden altar of incense is significant. The noted commentator, Albert Barnes, in agreement with virtually all others, stated: “When it is said that this was ‘before God,’ the meaning is, that it was directly before or in front of the symbol of the divine presence in the most holy place.”

The horns of the golden altar of sacrifice in the court represented God’s mercy and protective power in times of crisis when life was in danger (see 1Kings 1:50, 51; 2:28) However, if Israel had not repented from her sin, the horns were broken off (Amos 3:14, 15) and no mercy was extended. In the daily service blood was rubbed on the horns of the altar of sacrifice (Leviticus 4:24, 25; Jeremiah 17:1) to indicate that the confessed sins of Israel had been forgiven.

The sixth trumpet is a vivid description of the gathering of the wicked by Satan’s three symbolic angels for the final battle against God’s remnant (Revelation 16:13, 14, 16). This final gathering, which began in 1844, will intensify until the close of probation.

Inspiration tells us that the False Prophet (apostate Protestantism) will even make fire come down from heaven in the sight of men, a miracle that parodies the falling of fire from heaven in the days of Elijah and the manifestation of tongues of fire on the Day of Pentecost (see Revelation 13:13).

The persecuting waters of the symbolic River Euphrates flowed against God’s people for 1260 years.
--The persecuting waters dried up by the earth and by the French Revolution.

--The persecuting waters flow once again when the lamb-horned beast from the earth gives the sword back to the beast and heals its wound.
--The persecuting waters dry up against Babylon for the final time when Jesus overcomes them and takes over the kingdoms of the world.

Notably, God has three angels that gather the remnant on God’s side and Satan has three angels who gather the wicked on his side.

And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. Revelation 16:13
*The dragon (or civil powers of the world) is a parody of God the Father. 

*The beast counterfeits the ministry of the Jesus Christ the Son 

*and the false prophet counterfeits the work of the Holy Spirit.

"Satan has long been preparing for his final effort to deceive the world. The foundation of his work was laid by the assurance given to Eve in Eden: "Ye shall not surely die." "In the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." Genesis 3:4, 5. 

Little by little he has prepared the way for his masterpiece of deception in the development of spiritualism." 

E.G.W.

Q: What is the meaning of the expression ‘the hour, the day, the month and the year’? A careful study of Revelation indicates that the hour is ‘the hour of God’s judgment’ (14:6, 7). Other parts of Scripture indicate that the day refers to the 10th day, the month is Tishri (the seventh month), and the year is 1844 (see Leviticus 23:27; Daniel 8:14).
The Jamieson, Fausset and Brown Commentary explains:
“The article [‎ten‎], once only before all the periods implies that the hour in the day, and the day in the month, and the month in the year, and the year itself, had been definitely fixed by God.”  This verse is not describing the final and total destruction of the wicked after the close of probation at the end of the time of trouble because this army of demons is only able to destroy a third of humanity.

Note: The number of the enemy is huge in comparison to the 144,000 of Revelation 7:4. These are the only two verses in Revelation where John uses the expression “I heard the number” so they must be related in some way. 

Revelation 7:4 is transpiring during the sixth seal and Revelation 9:16 is occurring during the period of the sixth trumpet. 

Notice --contrasts the number of God’s followers with those of Satan: “The remnant church will be brought into great trial and distress. Those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, will feel the ire of the dragon and his hosts. Satan numbers the world as his subjects; he has gained control of the apostate churches; but here is a little company that are resisting his supremacy. If he could blot them from the earth, his triumph would be complete.” 

E.G.W.

Note: This army clearly rises figuratively from hell. These are the same spirits of demons in Revelation 16:14 that God releases to gather the kings of the earth and the whole world against God’s people. 

Note: Notice that what comes out of the mouth is what kills the wicked. In the book of Revelation, fire, brimstone and smoke relate to those who worship the beast and his image and receive the mark. Notably Revelation 16:13 explains that the evil spirits come out of the mouth of the threefold union.

Note: The horses have mouths like lions. Elsewhere in the Bible Babylon is portrayed as a devouring lion as is its king, Nebuchadnezzar (Jeremiah 4:7) and Satan is described as a ravenous lion seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8).

Note: The expression ‘idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk’ comes almost verbatim from Daniel 5:23. Daniel describes the fall of Babylon when the Euphrates dried up. Thus, this verse links three passages: The fall of Babylon in Daniel 5, the drying up of the Euphrates in Revelation 16:12 and the sixth trumpet of Revelation 9:20.

Observe the impenitency of the antichristian generation under these dreadful judgments; the rest of the men who were not killed repented not, they still persisted in those sins for which God was so severely punishing them, which were, 

(1.) Their idolatry; they would not cast away their images, though they could do them no good, could not see, nor hear, nor walk. 

(2.) Their murders which they had committed upon the saints and servants of Christ. Popery is a bloody religion, and seems resolved to continue such. 

(3.) Their sorceries; they have their charms, and magic arts, and rites in exorcism and other things. 

(4.) Their fornication; they allow both spiritual and carnal impurity, and promote it in themselves and others. 

(5.) Their thefts; they have by unjust means heaped together a vast deal of wealth, to the injury and impoverishing of families, cities, princes, and nations. These are the flagrant crimes of antichrist and his agents; and, though God has revealed his wrath from heaven against them, they are obstinate, hardened, and impenitent, and judicially so, for they must be destroyed.

--God’s three angels have gathered the righteous

 (Revelation 14:6-13)--

--while Satan’s three angels (Revelation 16:13) 

have gathered the wicked. --

The sixth trumpet in Revelation 9:13-21 describes the gathering of the wicked for battle while Revelation 10 describes the gathering of the righteous on God’s side.

SEVENTH Trumpet

Then the seventh angel sounded: 

And there were loud voices in heaven, saying: "The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!"  

And the twenty-four elders who sat before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying: "We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was and who is to come, because You have taken Your great power and reigned.
Revelation 11:15-17

O Lord God Almighty, which art - This gives a proper view of God in His eternity: all times are here comprehended, the present, the past, and the future. This is the infinitude of God.

Observe, 1. The manner of their adorations: they rose from their seats, and fell upon their faces, and worshipped God; they did it with reverence and humility. 

2. The matter of their adorations. 

(a) They thankfully recognize the right of our God and Saviour to rule and reign over all the world: The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. They were always so in title, both by creation and purchase. 

(b) They thankfully observe His actual possession of them, and reign over them; they give Him thanks because He had taken to Him His great power, asserted His rights, exerted His power, and so turned title into possession. 

(c) They rejoice that this His reign shall never end: none shall ever wrest the sceptre out of His hand.

Probation closes when the seventh trumpet is about to sound. At that moment, Jesus will receive the kingdom from His Father. Then the time of trouble will ensue followed by the blowing of the seventh trumpet when Jesus comes to take His people home.
The Jamieson, Fausset and Brown Commentary is on target:

“The seventh trumpet, like the seventh seal and seventh vial, being the consummation, is accompanied differently from the preceding six: not the consequences on earth, but those IN HEAVEN, are described, the great voices and thanksgiving of the 24 elders in heaven, as the half-hour's silence in heaven at the seventh seal, and the voice out of the temple in heaven, ‘It is done,’ at the seventh vial. 

Thus, the seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven vials, are not consecutive, but parallel, ending in the same consummation. 

They, from distinct stand-points, unfold God's plans for bringing about the grand end, under three aspects, 

mutually complementing each other.”

When the angels are released in the sixth trumpet, probation has not closed because probation does not close until the seventh angel is about to sound at the very end of the sixth trumpet. This is a vital point.
We must link Revelation 17:14 [These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for He is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with Him are called, and chosen, and faithful.] with Revelation 19:11 [And I saw heaven

opened, and behold a white horse; and He that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He doth judge and make war.] where Jesus bears the title ‘KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. 

This means that Revelation 11:15 [And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever.] is repeated again in Revelation 17:14 [see verse above] and Revelation 19:16. [And He hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.] 

--This proves that we cannot read Revelation as a continuous flow but rather full of recapitulations and repetitions.

Revelation 11:17 [Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because Thou hast taken to Thee Thy great power, and hast reigned.] actually concludes the seventh trumpet. 

Revelation 11:18 [And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.] then introduces and summarizes the main events of the rest of the book.

This verse contains five key points of time that form the structure of the rest of the book:
Revelation 12-14 - The Nations were angry
Revelation 15-19 - Your wrath has come
Revelation 20:4, 11, 12 - The time to judge the dead
Revelation 19:11-21; 22:12 - The time to reward your servants
Revelation 20:14, 15 - Destroy those who destroy the earth
Thou Shouldst Give Reward Unto Thy Servants the Prophets: These will enter upon their reward at the second coming of Christ, for He brings their reward with Him. (Matthew 16: 27; Revelation 22: 12).