THE SIXTH TRUMPET
The Vision of the 7 Trumpets is one of the most perplexing
subjects in the book of Revelation and in the entire NT. Before we examine the
6th Trumpet in detail, it is necessary to discuss some questions of
general matter.
What are the 7 trumpets all about? What is the nature of the
trumpets in the Bible? When is the time of the blowing the 7 Trumpets?
In both the NT & OT, the blowing of the trumpets
symbolises “the intervention of God in history.” E.g. summons to battle, announcement
and coronation of King, gathering of people, warning of approaching danger etc…
However in most cases the trumpet is used in the context of the temple liturgy
and holy wars (Lev 25:9, Num. 10:9-10, Josh 6:4-20)
The Key OT text for the meaning of the trumpets is in Numbers
10:8-10.
The vision of the blowing of the 7
trumpets of Rev 8-11 should be understood against these OT backgrounds. In
other words the blowing of the 7 Trumpets is a series of interventions by God
in response to the prayers of His people.
In Revelation 8-11, John observes the 7 Angels standing
before God’s throne to receive 7 Trumpets. Their Mission is to announce a new
series of woes being sent to the earth. The text indicates that even though
catastrophic in nature, the 7 Trumpets are not natural calamities and
disasters. They are rather a manifestation of the presence and reality of God
in history. They reveal God’s reaction to injustice and harm being done to His
people (as you can see the first verses of chapter 8:5 where John saw the
angels receiving the 7 trumpets, he saw another angel take the golden censer
with incense mingled with the prayers of the Saints, and the angel fills it
with fire from the alter and throws it to the earth which resulted in “thunder,
voices and flashes of lightning and an earth quake’”)
The scene of the blowing of the 7 trumpets begins with the
cross, as does the scene of the opening of the 7 seals of Revelation 6. The
conclusions of both scenes bring us to the time of the end. The 7 seals talks about what the Church of
the God has gone through, while the
7 trumpets talks about what is really happening in the Christian lives of
people when God allows Spiritual destruction to take place.
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History of the 5 Trumpets
1. Rev 8:7-1st Trumpet- the
Biblical evidence leads to the conclusion that the first trumpet blast portrays
the consequences visited upon those who rejected and crucified Jesus and
opposed the gospel. This is experienced by the Jews who were utterly
annihilated in AD. 70. In the destruction of the Jewish nation with its capital
in AD 70, many Jews were “burnt up.” For the Jewish people, this event still
remains one of the bitterest chapters in their history.
2. Rev 8:8-9- 2nd
Trumpet- (mountain represents a Kingdom (great kingdom), (In
Jeremiah 51:25a- the Bible says the God will destroy Babylon which is a
destroying Mountain, now in Bible prophecy, Babylon is code name for Rome.
Hence here God allows the destruction of the Roman Empire who was also with the
Jews was hostile to Jesus and the Christians [through the Northern Tribes]
3. Rev 8:10-11- 3rd Trumpet- Great
Star- Lucifer (Satan), Rivers & Springs of Water = Spiritual nourishment,
wormwood= is the name of a bitter herb which has poisonous effects- This refers
to the time where Spiritual Apostasy creeps into the Church, and those who
drinks it were spiritually dead.
4. Rev 8:12- 4th Trumpet- Darkening
of the light= which represents Jesus & Bible Good news. – Describes the
temporal darkening of the spiritual sources of true light, namely Bible Gospel,
under the prevailing influence of secularism
5. Rev 9:1-12- 5th Trumpet- Star
fallen from Heaven- Satan, Pit of Abyss- chaotic condition, was given to him-
Key was given by God to him, Locusts- God’s symbol of Judgement, grass of the
earth, nor anything green thing nor any tree (Ps 1)- God’s people, already
sealed by God, five months- maybe the lifespan of the locusts, tails like
scorpions and stings- refers to deceiving prophets and false teachings,
Abaddon-Apollyon- means destruction. – The fifth trumpet refers to the
spiritual condition in the secular world and the consequences of such
conditions from 18th century to our time.
This now leads us the study of the 6th
Trumpet which is the final trumpet before the 7th Trumpet that
refers to the second coming of Christ. Let us now look at our main study.
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The 6TH
TRUMPET
Let us now
Read Revelation 9:13-21
Notes/ Key phrases
9: 13 The
golden alter which was before God- The golden alter here is evidently
the alter of incense before the throne mentioned earlier in Rev 8:3-4, which in
the OT temple was “in front of the veil that is near the ark of the testimony,
in front of the mercy seat that is over the ark of the testimony, where I will
meet you.” (cf. Exod. 30:6)
9:14 The
great river Euphrates- In OT, the Euphrates, called the great river,
stood for the boundary that separated God’s people from their enemies. Regions
beyond the Euphrates were regarded as archenemies of God and Israel- Assyria
& Babylon (cf. Isa 7:20; Jer. 46:10)
The four
angels- The four angels “who are bound at the great river Euphrates”
are evidently the same four angels of Revelation 7:1-3. While in Revelation 7
the four angels are holding firmly the four winds of the earth, so that the
wind should not blow upon the earth, the four angels in Revelation 9 retrains
the armies of the horsemen.
The four
angels were released- the passive form her (“were released”) indicates that
God now allows them to release the armies of the horsemen.
Two hundred
million- Literarily, “two myriads of myriads,” or, twenty thousand
times ten thousand. The figure is symbolic representing a countless multitude
9:17-18- Fire
and smoke and sulphur- The combination of fire, smoke, and sulphur in
the Bible is always linked with judgements on the wicked. In destroying Sodom
and Gomorrah, the Lord rained sulphur and fire out of heaven, so that their
smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace.
9:19 Mouths- According
to 9:18, the people are killed by fire, smoke, and sulphur issuing from the
horses’ mouths. The mouth as a symbol in Revelation refers to a mighty weapon
in spiritual battle between good and evil. Here the symbolic mouth is the
weapon of Satan and his associates in their activities against God’s people. These
suggest that the battle here is verbal rather than physical in character.
Tails- refers to deceiving prophets
and false teachings
APPLICATION
In the
scene of the blowing of the 5th trumpet, the horse-like demonic
locusts were prepared for battle (9:5) under the leadership of Satan. Their
activities were restrained for they were not allowed to kill people but only to
torment them. The situation here now in the final stages before second coming
is now different; the demonic forces are given total freedom to exercise their
destructive activities against the earth and its inhabitants.
In Rev
9:13-16- The 6th Angel is now sounding his trumpet, John now hears a
voice coming from the horns of the golden alter which is before
God. Here the heavenly voice coming from the alter of incense is very
important, God is responding to the payers of His people throughout the world
who are going through trials, persecution and hardship by allowing the
escalation of the activities of the demons to also hasten is coming.
Thus, Jesus
Christ now from the heavenly Sanctuary commands the 6th Angel to release
the 4 angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates. Here Jesus in
response to the prayers and cries of His people is allowing the demonic forces
to escalate their attacks. God’s people, this explains the escalations of the
immorality and lawlessness within our society today.
We Christian
friends are in the final edges of the earth’s history. The, good news is that God
is in control. This is why the demonic forces have no freedom to act until the
time set for them by God. The Bible mentions that, the four angels are set to
have been prepared for the hour and day and month and year.
Yes, the demonic forces had already begun
with the sound of the 5th trumpet and they were restrained, however
today they are no longer restrained, they are now carrying out widespread
killing. The influence of secularism and materialism with Satan’s influence has
now eaten almost all the entire civilisation throughout the world and has
already destroyed almost all parts of our country and is still continuing. This
explains the everyday crime news that we hear on TV, we experience every
minutes and hour within our community in the form of constant swearing as play
words going on around the place.
Yes dear friend,
the number of this demonic army is two hundred million- It is
countless, we are constantly in this battle. Without Christ, we are helpless.
God the Holy
Spirit wants us to notice tonight that the demonic horses killing power lays in
their
mouths and in their tails. The demonic horses use their tails to
torment and harm. Their tails are like snakes, having heads and with them they cause
harm. In Rev 12:9, Satan is seen as the old serpent that drags the
other angels out of heaven with his tail which (Isa. 10:14-15) refers to lies,
deception and false teachings to lead human begins away from God and to follow
him.
So while
the demonic horses torment people with their tails, they kill with their mouths
from which fire, smoke, and sulphur are issuing forth.
Dear Christians,
God’s people, beloveds whom He purchased with a price, the attack carried out
by the demons using tails and mouths suggests but one thing. That is, the final
conflict between the forces of light and darkness, of good and evil, between us
and Satan is not military, but spiritual.
The
character of the conflict is verbal and ideological- a battle for the total
control of the minds of every people throughout the world and all of us sitting
here tonight. It is a battle of the mind by means of persuasion rather that
physical force which Satan is unleashing at the moment.
The Holy Spirit
would like to appeal to all at this point in time you are reading this sermon,
that don’t wait for the whatever battle that you think is coming, because the
battle is already here.
Devil Satan
is using internet, Facebook and mobile phones, TV‘s and movies to change and
has persuaded and has changed the mindset of every one of us tonight. He has created
the false ideologies of sexual performances that disturb marriage, and people
who have accessed pornography look for sexual gratification outside their marriage,
and even before they are married. People are now experiencing total depravity
which explains the raping of small babies that we often read in papers and
news.
Those who
don’t have access to these stuff that promotes these false ideologies, are
having their minds blown away and changed through the every minutes and seconds
of problems arising in the communities of drunkards, family problems, swearing
people, and other problems escalating everywhere.
The demonic
forces are not only operating in the individual people but also in Governments
in national and international level to promote and persuade false ideologies to
be accepted such as gay marriages which is about to creep into our country shortly,
legalisation of brothels and the list continues.
John then
concludes in 9:20-21- And the rest of the people, the ones who
were not killed by these plagues, did not repent.
I want to pose a question here and the question is, “Who
are these people who have not been killed by these plagues?”
It refers
to some of us who are reading this sermon, in fact all of us. That though we
may not have been totally destroyed for example we cannot accept Same Sex
marriage in a typical Papua New Guinea mindset. However, the Bible says some of
us have not repented.
At this
point in time, some of us here as the battle is going on- did not understand
and realise the hopelessness and helplessness of our situation, but we have continued
on worshipping:
The first
on the list say demons- we still hold on to some of the things of this world,
custom, a little bit of puripuri, sanguma and poisin thing. We are still
worshipping idols of gold and of silver and of bronze, iron, wood, and stone-
these the are pleasures of this world. We are putting money first, we are still
entertaining sinful nature in our lives.
We are
putting the desire of the flesh and lusts of this world first in our lives,
those are those things which do not hear or see.
John continues and sees that the wicked did not repent
from their murders ( this refers to hating of others, swearing and not committing
murder, but Jesus said if you hate someone, you have already killed someone),
or their sorceries- this comes from the Greek word ‘Pharmakeia”- which refers to be enchanted with something- here it refers
to false ideologies presented through movies, mobile phones, TVs and the list
continues, or their fornication- this refers to spiritual backsliding- allowing
the flesh to control our lives-holding both the Spiritual and Immoral life, and
thefts- false play, stealing from God, self centeredness in our lives.
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CONCLUSION
Alas Dear friends, the terrible scene of
the sixth trumpet brings us clearly to the time of the end. It portrays the
preparation for the final conflict. It points to the last crisis of the world
which, as the end draws near, it will be characterized by the intensification
of demonic activities.
The people
who are without the seal of God (who are not experiencing sealing now) are
unprotected against the demonic powers and from the deceptive doctrines from
the symbolic Babylon.
Finally, in humility and in the presence of God
the Holy Spirit, I would like to conclude that the failure of the wicked to
repent signals the approaching cessation of intercession and the gathering for
the final battle between Christ and His army and the Satanic army.
It is
during these intensive demonic activities that God makes a special effort to
reach human hearts when His mercy is still available.
WILL YOU FULLY ACCEPT JESUS CHRIST THIS INSTANT?
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Reference
Bibliography
Stefanovic, R. (2009). Revelation
of Jesus Christ: commentary on the book of Revelation. Andrews
University Press.
sermon no#1