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(Trumpets)
THE SEVEN TRUMPETS AND SEVEN BOWLS 
The seven trumpet and seven bowl judgments are literary parallels, describing the same events from different perspectives.  The bowl plagues are the results of the trumpet judgments. So the trumpets and bowls will be considered together.
 06.01.01  Seven Angels and Seven Trumpets Rev 8:2

Rev 8:{2} And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.
 
Years ago I was preaching on the subject of “The Seven Letters of the Revelation.”  After the service, Debi came to me, distressed because Lois had spoken to her earlier about the terrible judgments of the "Seven Spanish Angels" of the Apocalypse, and, "Would you please explain the Seven Spanish Angels to Lois so she won't be so upset?"  I later learned that “Seven Spanish Angels” is a Willie Nelson song popular at the time.
The seven angels who stand before God (8:2) need not be anonymous to us as they were to Debi and Lois; neither need we fear once we learn why they descend. They are not necessarily Spanish either! We learn their identities from the Bible and other ancient Jewish sources.
 
From the Bible:
 
One of Seven: MICHAEL ("who is as God"), the chief of the order of virtues, chief of archangels, prince of the presence, angel of repentance, righteousness, mercy and sanctification, ruler of the 4th heaven, prince of Israel, guardian of Jacob and conqueror of Satan (Dan 12:1, Jude 1:9);
 
Two of Seven: GABRIEL ("God is my strength"), the messenger of God, interpreter of visions, angel of the annunciation, resurrection, mercy, vengeance, death and revelation (Dan 8:16, Luke 1:19);
 
Three of Seven: RAPHAEL ("God has healed"), the angel of healing and 'guardian' angel of Tobias (Tobit 5:4), guide to the underworld, one of the watchers, attendant at the throne of God (1 En 20: 3);
 
From 1 Enoch 20 and other texts:
 
Four of Seven: REMIEL, ("deceit of God") set over those who rise from the dead, destroyer of the army of Senacherib;
 
Five of Seven: RAGUEL ("friend of God"), angel of vengeance against other angels, transporter of Enoch;
 
Six of Seven:  SARAQUEL ("prince of God"), angel of sinners and prince of ministering angels;
 
Seven of Seven: PHANUEL ("face of God"), angel of penance, knower of sins, guardian against Satan (1 En 71:8f).

06.01.02  Angel with Censor  Rev 8:3-6

Rev 8:{3} Another angel with a golden censer came and stood at the altar; he was given a great quantity of incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar that is before the throne. {4} And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel. {5} Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth; and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.
 
He might be URIEL ("fire of God"), angel of eternity, trembling, chief trumpeter, angel of death, ruler of the earth; but more probably is CHRIST himself, who, according to the Gospel, has come to "cast fire upon the earth" (also Ps 141:2).  Prayer rises to God from the hand of this Angel, for it is he who "ever lives to make intercession for us."

The prayers of the saints persecuted unto martyrdom, heard from the time of the opening of the fifth seal, rise in crescendo from beneath the altar ("how long before you avenge us!"), are burned with incense (praise), reaching the nostrils of God as a sweet savor.  The prayer of the righteous avails, and God answers with avenging judgment.  The Christ angel casts the fire down upon the earth and the earth responds, as with any other "acts of God," the like not covered on most homeowner policies.

So the seven trumpeting angels are the personification of the judgments pronounced by Yahweh (God) and issued through his Righteous Angel Yahshua (Jesus).
 
06.01.03  Trumpets Matrix Explained  Rev 8:6
 
Rev 8:{6} Now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets made ready to blow them.

GUIDE TO UNDERSTANDING SEALS, TRUMPETS, BOWLS:  Consider the Roman trumpet of silver or brass -- not unlike the trumpets of today.  If the trumpet blows from heaven above to earth below, only the trumpet's bell would appear to the observer below.  It would appear as a bowl being poured out.  Likewise, in a higher heaven such as the Heaven of God, the trumpet's mouthpiece might appear as a seal.  There are close parallels between the texts about the seals, the trumpets and the bowls.  One exegete, Blomfield in Michigan, suggested years ago that the action stemming from the opening of seals, blowing of trumpets and pouring of bowls were parallel events, but all described from a different perspective (or dimension).  That is my view, to which I might add that the pouring of the bowl of plague is a consequence of the blowing of the trumpet, which is in turn a consequence of the Lamb's opening a seal. Seal  Trumpet  Bowl.  The Lamb opens a seal and its consequence is the blowing of a trumpet.  An angel blows a trumpet and its consequence is the pouring out of a bowl.  Seal after seal is opened, trumpets blown, bowls poured out -- the earth is "reaped."  The length of each sequence of seals / trumpets/ bowls (in years) may not be accurately predictable, although there have been many attempts to match seals, bowls, trumpets with historical eras or events.  One attempt is offered by the SDA professor Edwin Thiele (in Signs of the Times, May, 1998, p. 25):
 
First (trumpet) judgment: Jerusalem and the Jewish nation,
Second: The western Roman world,
Third: The false church that persecuted the saints,
Fourth: The Middle Ages (of darkness),
Fifth: Mohammedan scourges of the Middle East and Europe,
Sixth: Turkish scourges of Asia, Africa and Europe.
 
Although this is a neat scheme and majority belief, it seems far too general and gigantic for this reader.  If we could only place one event in chronological time for sure as a pivot point, then we might be able to get the rest to fit into history reasonably well. That point in time may be set from Rev 8:11: the sounding of the third trumpet. WAS THE THIRD TRUMPET SOUNDED IN 1986?  
 
07.01.01  The Bowls of Wrath  Rev 15:1, 16:1
 
Rev 15:{1} Then I saw another portent in heaven, great and amazing: seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last, for with them the wrath of God is ended.
 
16:{1} Then I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels, "Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God."
 
The bowls of wrath or plagues loosely correspond to (or are inspired by) the great plagues of Egypt (Exo 7 - 9).  "In heaven" means "in the sky."  The judgment and consequent wrath of God all started in the highest Heaven.  Now the entire heavenly entourage, the Lamb, the seven angels, the martyred saints and the Heavenly Temple, are gradually descending closer and closer to earth.  Soon the Heavenly Temple will become the Heavenly City.  As the realized Kingdom of God descends, the seven angels are pouring out the last of the plagues to ready the earth.  
 
06.01.04  The First Trumpet  Rev 8:7
 
Rev 8:{7} The first angel blew his trumpet, and there came hail and fire, mixed with blood, and they were hurled to the earth; and a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.
 
Ezekiel 38:{22} With pestilence and bloodshed I will enter into judgment with [Gog]; and I will pour down torrential rains and hailstones, fire and sulfur, upon him and his troops and the many peoples that are with him.
 
This description makes an immediate impression.  It looks like a bombing raid -- hail, fire, blood -- upon the "land."  The sight of the endless string of American bombers over the Third Reich comes to mind -- a hail of bombs, fire on the earth, blood, burning, death.  Or the UN bombing of Iraq; or the NATO bombing of Kosovo.  
 
("1/3 of the foliage" is not to be taken literally -- it means "a great amount not as much as half.")  Much of "Holy Roman Empire" was little more than burned earth when Hitler, Ike, Bradley, Montgomery, Patton and Zukor, got through.  In fact, the "scorched earth" strategy was Hitler's last attempt to save the German culture from being polluted by outsiders.  In an occult sense, Hitler was Germany, and Germany needed to die with Hitler.

Will Europe once again be scorched, or may we declare the prophecy fulfilled in World Wars I & II?  Prophecies may be fulfilled more than once, even over and over. We now await the prophecy of scorched earth to be fulfilled again, perhaps soon into the 21st century. This month (May, 1998), the Fuhrer of the Fourth Reich, Helmut Kohl, mounts the podium with Bill Clinton (in Berlin), on the very edge of formal European unity. We shudder to think that we are on the verge of Revelation's complete fulfillment.  
 
And now (June 1999) I mention blitzkrieg again; the 70+ days of continuous bombing of Serbia (1/3 of the “land”) by NATO has ended. Russian tanks roll into Yugoslavia, while “Christians” there cry out,
 
“Russian Serbia – 300 Million Strong!”
 
All the while Slav / Albanian Moslems are dispersed by freighters to the ends of the earth.
 
07.01.02  The First Bowl Rev 8:2

Rev 8:{2} So the first angel went and poured his bowl on the earth, and a foul and painful sore came on those who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped its image.
 
The lesions are painful and rank, and appear only on those with the mark of the beast. They could be caused by anything: AIDS carcinoma, radiation poisoning, diabetic lesions.  But if we use parallelism, we get a better idea of what kind of sores these are.  They are the marks and far-reaching consequences of the twentieth and twenty-first century wars -- nuclear, chemical, biological. Pay attention to the signs of the times!
 
And doesn't this passage imply there will be others besides idolaters on the earth during the last judgment of God?  Yes, the righteous have remained all along.  But where are they hidden?  
 
06.02.01  Second Trumpet  Rev 8:8-9
 
Rev 8:{8} The second angel blew his trumpet, and something like a great mountain, burning with fire, was thrown into the sea.
 
Eze 38:{20} and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the cliffs shall fall, and every wall shall tumble to the ground.
 
{9} A third of the sea became blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.
 
"Something like a great mountain burning" -- A missile?  A meteor? A volcano?  Most likely John is describing a volcanic eruption, like Vesuvius (79 AD).  Once again, "a third of the sea" is not literal, but means "a portion, less than half."  The sea is the Mediterranean.  John looked out to this sea every day from the heights of Patmos.  

God's judgment is not final at this point.  Will anyone see these signs and repent before judgment becomes final?

07.02.01  The Second Bowl  Rev 16:3

16:{3} The second angel poured his bowl into the sea, and it became like the blood of a corpse, and every living thing in the sea died.
 
Finally, as the Kingdom makes its final decent, the sea goes from being partially (second trumpet – something is thrown in) to fully destroyed (second bowl – the sea is poisoned) over the course of time. The sea is killed, as though it were a living entity.  (Isn't it a living entity?)
 
In my research, I was surprised to learn how much European nuclear waste has been disposed of in the seas and oceans, and what a deplorable threat it is to the future of the continent and the world.  Here is a recent (and startling) example:
 
June 3, 1999 Institute for Global Communications “Greenpeace Steps Up Pressure On Radioactive Polluters And Returns Radioactive Waste To Dutch Nuclear Plant”: The French government-owned COGEMA factory at La Hague extracts plutonium during the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel from nuclear power stations such as Borssele and others across Europe; in France, Belgium, Germany, Japan and Switzerland.  The processing plants at La Hague  and Sellafield in the United Kingdom are the largest sources of radioactive contamination of the environment in western Europe. Each year the La Hague plant discharges 230 million litres of radioactive waste into the ocean, where it is spread northwards by ocean currents, along the French, Belgian, German, Danish and Norwegian coasts.  During the past week Greenpeace has collected  9,000 litres of liquid radioactive waste from La Hague.
 
There are many, many more such headlines as this one.  The radioactive pollution of the seas and ocean around Europe has to be a major undertaking for the new European Union. 
“It isn’t pollution that’s harming the environment.  It’s the impurities in our air and water that are doing it.”  --Dan Quayle
06.03.01  The Third Trumpet  Rev 8:10,11 
Rev 8:{10} The third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. {11} The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many died from the water, because it was made bitter.
 
Try drinking out of a stream today; the freshwater supply is universally polluted.  Here is an asteroid or a terrible chemical weapon of some type falling to earth and poisoning the fresh water supply.  "1/3 of waters" simply means "a great amount."  
 
WORMWOOD: The name of the star (a fallen angel) is "Wormwood":  Jerome's Commentary defines wormwood as "an extremely bitter and malignant substance" -- a cancer causing agent.  In the Old Testament, the sin of idolatry or perverting justice is punished by God by "turning [the transgressor] to wormwood" (Deu 29:17; Amos 5:7 Jer 9:15, 23:15).
 
CHERNOBYL:  Some tell us that the Ukrainian word for "wormwood" is Chernobyl, and that, if we read Revelation 8:11 in the Cyrillic version, we will actually read chernobyl.  Chernobyl, on Lake Kiev in the Ukraine, is a major source of drinking water for the entire country. In 1986, the water was radioactivated by the disintegration of a nuclear power plant adjacent to the lake. Eight thousand initially died, and multiple thousands have since expired. The effects of the radiation are observed all over the world (cancer, birth defects, radiation sickness).  The following article serves as an update to what is happened since the initial tragedy:
 
“Conference focuses on nuclear safety in the Eastern Bloc” from Russia Today, June 17, 1999: In 1986, the world was taught a chilling lesson about the shortcomings of Soviet-designed nuclear reactors when Unit 4 at Ukraine's Chernobyl power station exploded and spewed radiation across a wide swath of Europe. The accident prompted fears that the 67 Soviet-designed reactors in operation throughout Central and Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union itself were fundamentally flawed and needed to be repaired, if not shut down altogether. Prompted by the Chernobyl disaster, the G-7 group of major industrialized nations in 1992 recommended that the 25 most dangerous Soviet-designed reactors in operation -- particularly two older reactor types known as the RBMK and the VVER-230 -- should not operate any longer than absolutely necessary. The seven Western nations also urged safety upgrades at safer Soviet-designed power stations.
 
“Eight years later, however, not one of the suspect Soviet-designed nuclear power stations has been closed. Even an agreement between the G-7 and Kiev to close the remaining functioning reactors at Chernobyl by next year faces an uncertain future. Lars Larsson is the director of the EBRD's Nuclear Safety Department. He told our correspondent in Vienna that the world community's first mistake was underestimating how long economic and energy-sector reform would take in the former Communist states:
 
One of the most important things also [was] the economic development of these countries has been much, much slower than originally anticipated. And with the slowdown of economic development there also goes, unfortunately, the slowdown of nuclear safety. They all go along. For instance, if you have economic problems, and it is not possible to pay salaries to the operators, of course this is a safety concern.”
If this “wormwood” prophecy is referring to the Chernobyl disaster, then the whole of Revelation can be understood from a more contemporary perspective. It certainly seems like more than coincidence!  If so, then the third trumpet sounded in 1986!  The Ukraine, Chernobyl and all, is now its way toward becoming part of the new European Union.
 
07.03.01  The Third Bowl  Rev 16:4-7
 
Rev 16:{4} The third angel poured his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood. {5} And I heard the angel of the waters say, "You are just, O Holy One, who are and were, for you have judged these things; {6} because they shed the blood of saints and prophets, you have given them blood to drink. It is what they deserve!" {7} And I heard the altar respond, "Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, your judgments are true and just!"
 
Two events from 1993 that concern the fresh water supply are exemplary. Tritium, a radioactive poison, is seeping into the Georgia water supply from a leak in a South Carolina power plant.  The plant inspectors could not find the leak, yet the radioactive trail led right back to the plant.  In the rural Georgia county where I lived at the time (across the state from the Tritium), practically everybody over 40 had some kind of cancer.  There was a disproportionate number of stillbirths and birth defects, like at Kiev, but on a smaller scale.  Within the last year (1997), there was a similar report of radioactive water supplies in Minnesota.  In the rural area of Alabama where I now live (May, 1998), most of the church folks have cancer.  The rural water supply is questionable, owing to its proximity with the chemically polluted Mobile Bay and the local water board’s lack of concern.  There is no doubt that irradiated water is “wormwood” and causes cancer.
 
We have trusted local utilities and governments to guarantee water safety and supply.  Yet, in 1993 alone, 250,000 were left with no drinking water at all on account of floods! And 400,000 in the Milwaukee area were poisoned by cryptosporidium.  Having been poisoned by a tainted water supply, I can speak to its agonies -- six weeks of nausea, fevers, convulsions, vomiting – wishing for death. "Many died of the water because it was poisoned."  
 
At this point in time (June 1999), the greatest single danger of the coming Y2K blackout is its effect on the water and sewer systems. As a result of a failed Y2K computer test, tons of raw sewage swept out into the streets of Los Angeles last week.  
       
CBS channel 2000 (6/14/99) reported today that a sewage plant testing its Y2K contingency plan in Van Nuys, California yesterday caused 4 million gallons of raw sewage to flood city streets. The test switched to an emergency generator and a "computer closed a gate, blocking a major sewage line serving the western San Fernando Valley and causing the sewage to back up and overflow."
 
Does anyone remember the novel The Magic Christian?
 
Over time, the fresh water supply becomes as blood; that is, poisoned.  Like in Egypt (Ex 15:23ff).  The angel pronounces why; because the beast spilled the blood of witnesses, persecutors are given blood to drink.  "They deserve it" (v. 6).  And those beneath the "altar" (i.e. the martyred saints) finally get vengeance.  God is their redeemer (blood-avenger).  Blood for blood (Exo 21:24).
  
06.04.01   The Fourth Trumpet  Rev 8:12-13
 
Rev 8:{12} The fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of their light was darkened; a third of the day was kept from shining, and likewise the night. {13} Then I looked, and I heard an eagle crying with a loud voice as it flew in midheaven, "Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, at the blasts of the other trumpets that the three angels are about to blow!"
 
The fourth angel sounds and the heavenly lights are stricken. Result: dimness, smog, air pollution -- darkness -- reminding us of the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines or Mt. St. Helens in Washington State.  It was as dark as night for weeks in these areas.
 
One thinks also of the current theory about the extinction of the dinosaurs.  A mountain falls from the sky and hits the earth, throwing up radioactive dust that darkened and poisoned the earth, and destroyed the food chain for large animals.  That irradiated layer of dust (rhodium) is still found embedded in the stratae of that long past age all over the earth.
 
Gross darkness is the prelude to the end foretold by Amos (8:9-11) and Jesus (Matt 24:29-30).  Darkness is also a prelude to a new light coming into the world (Isa 9:2, John 1) or a new creation.
Then an eagle heralds the triple woe of the trumpets to come.
 
07.04.01  The Fourth Bowl  Rev 16:8-9
 
Rev 16:{8} The fourth angel poured his bowl on the sun, and it was allowed to scorch them with fire; {9} they were scorched by the fierce heat, but they cursed the name of God, who had authority over these plagues, and they did not repent and give him glory.
 
It seems like a contradiction that the sun would lose a portion of its light, then later scorch with fierce heat.  But this is entirely possible and actually happening to an increasing degree today.  Some would lead us to believe that ozone depletion is a hoax.  (The ozone layer of the atmosphere protects us from the damaging radiation from the sun.)  Yet today skin cancer is such a plague to the nation that public service announcements are broadcast to instruct us in self-protection from the sun's deadly rays.  Now it is advisable to wear sunscreen even in doors!  Where I live (1998), summer was fiercely hot and we experienced no winter at all, thanks to the weather front we know as El Nino, named after the Christ child.  A local dermatologist testified from his experience that "in the last five years, skin cancers have risen 50%."
 
This plague of scorching was meant to bring repentance, but it does not.  Rather, God is cursed.  We observe that people today, including children, curse terribly, using the name of Christ in vain, as a joke, as a swear word.  It is now commonplace to experience someone crying out in a public place "Jesus Christ," and not as a prayer.  Our entertainment media curses Christ, the commandments of God, and the godly use of the sexuality he gave as a gift.  The sun burns hot, and our children are very well conditioned to curse the name of the only Lord who can save them.
 
According to studies published in Beyond Prozac, the higher the heat, the higher the rate of violence, including rape, in our society (and, I suppose, the higher the "per capita cursing index").  Higher IR, UV and gamma radiation may be part of the catalyst for some of the depraved acts we are becoming so accustomed to knowing.
 
Depraved acts may be at their peak in 2000 as solar flares,  sunspots and related heat reach the most active of the eleven-year solar cycle.  In 1989, the last time the solar cycle peaked, the sun caused massive power outages in many places, including metropolitan New York City.
 
To top it all off, 1998 scored the highest global temperature average in recorded history.
 
06.05.02  Locusts Like Scorpions  Rev 9:3,7-10

Rev 9:{3} Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given authority like the authority of scorpions of the earth. {7} In appearance the locusts were like horses equipped for battle. On their heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces, {8} their hair like women's hair, and their teeth like lions' teeth; {9} they had scales like iron breastplates, and the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle. {10} They have tails like scorpions, with stingers, and in their tails is their power to harm people for five months.
 
The pit of nether gloom is opened, the stench of its smoke darkening and eneviling the world, then out of its foulness swarm the demonic spirits of antediluvian giants in the form of huge "locusts."  Throughout the Bible, locusts are consumers, eaters of everything in their path (Joel 2, “Blow the trumpet in Zion!”), and destroyers, obliterating what man has made and meant for good.  As locusts, they are aggressive and mobile (9); they are of Appolyon (11), yet they are crowned with the authority and consent of human government (7); they also appear as women, but their bite is of a lion (8).  As scorpions (1 Ki 12:11), they inject poison through the skin (5); this causes a protracted, lingering plague in which the victims long for death.  
 
OK, here are locusts large as horses and armed, not unlike the many bionic foes shot down in droves while playing computer games (like Spear of Destiny).  The description of these entities make it easy to imagine something like the "Chariot of Fire," Israel's famous war tank.  But they fly as well, and we think of a manned, armed helicopter like the one after Rambo, multiplied by thousands or millions.  Whatever kind of war machines they are, three things are worth noting: they are the embodiment of demons from the pit, we'll know them when we see them and they have a limited time allowance on their power (five months could literally mean "five months" or 5 months of years, 150 years, not such a short time in human reckoning).
 
Consider this headline:
 
The Press Association (6/18/99) in Great Britain reported: "Killer heatwaves, disastrous floods, and invasions of disease-carrying insects are likely to hit Britain and the rest of northern Europe over the next 100 years, experts warn. Climate warming and changes in rainfall patterns were expected to have a major impact on health in Europe, said researchers from a World Health Organization working group..."
 
Many commentators say that the hordes of troops will originate in China.  Is the following article predicting prophetic fulfillment?
 
Agence France-Press (6/15/99) reported: "China's Agriculture Ministry is bracing for a possible plague of locusts which threatens to blight crops this summer.  A prolonged drought since the winter has raised locust numbers and increased swarm densities. Cui Shi'an, a ministry division chief, said initial surveys in Tianjin Municipality and Hebei, Shandong, Henan, Anhui and Shaanxi provinces indicated locusts had infested one and a half times their normal area."
 
Here they come!
 
06.05.03  Abaddon / Apollyon  Rev 9:11,12

Rev 9:{11} They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon. {12} The first woe has passed. There are still two woes to come.
 
Proverbs 30:27 "The locusts have no king over them, yet go they forth all of them by bands."  Yet these war locusts have a king, an overarching authority: Abaddon / Apollyon, a formal name which means "Destroyer."  Fallen angels have human counterparts; Appolyon also has a human counterpart who is a military person, a chief strong man, who commands the great army of the demon possessed ("their faces were human" v.7).
 
The exegete Volter identifies Apollyon with Ahriman, the Parthian devil.  That possibility would fit precisely with the threat of Parthia to Rome and the Parthian / Moslem states to Europe.
 
06.05.04  Tortured by Locust  Rev 9:4-6