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 6^th 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 8:7-1^st 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- 2^nd 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- 3^rd 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- 4^th 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- 5^th 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 18^th century to our time.  

This now leads us the study of the 6^th Trumpet which is the final trumpet before the 7^th Trumpet that refers to the second coming of Christ. Let us now look at our main study.

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The 6^TH 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 5^th 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 6^th 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 6^th 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 5^th 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

The 6th Trumpet mages are accessed from https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=the+sixth+trumpet+pictures&qpvt=The+Sixth+Trumpet+pictures&FORM=IGRE 

Bibliography

Stefanovic, R. (2009). Revelation of Jesus Christ: commentary on the book of   Revelation. Andrews University Press.

 

 

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