0601 The Seven Trumpets

“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

Rev 9:{4} They were told not to damage the grass of the earth or any green growth or any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. {5} They were allowed to torture them for five months, but not to kill them, and their torture was like the torture of a scorpion when it stings someone. {6} And in those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will flee from them.

Mention now is made as to the human suffering described in the text in various places. In the following parallel prophecy, it is made perfectly clear what the affliction does and who it affects:

(Zec 14:12,15 KJV) {12} And this shall be the plague wherewith Yahweh will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth. {15} And so shall be the plague of the horse, of the mule, of the camel, and of the ass, and of all the beasts that shall be in these tents, as this plague.

Those who are against Jerusalem in armed conflict will be consumed by a flesh-eating disorder similar to radiation poisoning, maybe as a result of being targeted by nuclear war or weaponry with limited nuclear capability. Flesh-eating bacterial disorders like Ebola seem to be species-specific; radiation poisoning effects all biological entities, as the nuclear holocaust of Chernobyl testifies.

Let's turn our attention away from nuclear plagues for a moment in favor of epidemics:

PLAGUE OF INFLUENZA: Now a word about plagues of disease. Most have heard about the Black Plague that wiped out half the population of the world in the twelfth through fifteenth century. But few seem to remember the influenza plague of 1918 (at the close of the First World War) that killed at least twenty million people all over the world. Victims literally "rotted away" with little that could be done to save them.

PLAGUE OF AIDS:

"The year was 1959. Location: The central African city of Leopoldville, now called Kinshasa, shortly before the waves of violent rebellion that followed the liberation of the Belgian Congo.. A seemingly healthy man walked into a hospital clinic to give blood for a Western-backed study of blood diseases. He walked away and was never heard of again. Doctors analyzed his sample, froze it in a test tube and forgot about it. A quarter century later, in the mid-1980s, researchers studying the growing AIDS epidemic took a second look at the blood and discovered that it contained HIV, the virus that causes AIDS." (Christine Gorman, "When did AIDS begin?" Time Magazine, 2/16/98, p. 64)

From those humble beginnings, today conservative estimates of HIV infection read like this:

Africa: 21,000,000

Asia: 6,450,000

South America 1,300,000

North America 1,170,000

Europe 530,000.

"The findings underscore how rapidly HIV can adapt to its surroundings, maing it devilishly difficulty to develop effective vaccines. No one knows how many more subtypes of HIV will sprout up in the next forty years, but chances are they will be every bit as lethal as the ones we see today, if not more so."

Now we are in the grips of AIDS-related disorders that are killing multiple millions all over the world, especially in Africa. AIDS is spread as a result of promiscuity and intravenous drug use -- or whatever else promotes the exchange of body fluids (including some rather innocent activities). I remind the reader that AIDS may not show up on a test for ten years or more, making early diagnosis impossible. The fear that grips the silent, politically correct, AIDS researchers is that the AIDS virus might "take wing" and mutate to an airborne form.

PLAGUE OF TUBERCULOSIS: Since the late 1980s, the tuberculosis epidemic has been in full swing again, especially in AIDS victims and among the poor. Tuberculosis is virulently contagious and is seldom diagnosed until it is full blown. New strains resist vaccination and treatment. And most shocking to researchers -- When an AIDS victim passes on Tuberculosis (which occasionally happens in a hospital), he also passes on AIDS.

ANTHRAX: seems to be the disease of choice for biological weapons. Anthrax is a fungal disease of sheep and cattle that eats away the animal from the inside out, and is usually fatal for them. "Weapon grade" anthrax to be used on humans has of course been developed and is stockpiled all over the world. Our attention has been drawn to weapon grade anthrax through the efforts of the U.N., which is trying to eliminate it from Iraq. An anthrax epidemic would exactly fit the description of death quoted above in Zechariah, and could become a reality sooner than later:

(CNN 6/22/99) A Russian island in the Aral Sea called Vozrozhdeniye has shrunk to half its former size and some American scientists think is a "toxic time bomb set to infect central Asia with some of the deadliest germs on Earth." Researchers at California’s Monterey Institute of International Studies say that the island was a secret Soviet biological weapons test site where lethal agents such as plague, small pox, tularemia and anthrax were released for 50 years. Now fears are that the deadly materials are leaking into the sea. A scientist from the Monterey Institute was quoted as saying, "These weapons were extraordinarily potent. Some of them were actually engineered, genetically, to become more lethal than the strains in nature."

ANOTHER INSIDIOUS FUTURE PLAGUE: NBC News (3/8/98) reported that scientists are predicting a new, horrifying plague that may just be beginning. It's generically called Kuru, a mutant protein disease derived from meat-eating, especially cannibalism. Its more common name is Creutzville-Jacob Disease (CJD), contracted from transplants, genetic therapy, blood transfusions and use of human growth hormone. Mad Cow Disease is a form of CJD, contracted by cows from being fed beef by-products (which is cannibalism). Diagnosis could take as long as twenty years. CJD causes the destruction of brain matter, "holes in the brain" and dementia. And some scientists are speculating that the increasing incidence of Alzheimer Disease is really attributable to CJD. CJD is a very good reason not to eat meat or take blood.

What can we do about plague? The following passage about plague and pestilence gives us something positive to accomplish in the here and now that could affect tomorrow:

(2 Chr 7:12-14) And Yahweh appeared to Solomon by night, and said unto him, ... If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people; If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

07.05.01 The Fifth Bowl Rev 16:10-11

Rev 16:{10} The fifth angel poured his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness; people gnawed their tongues in agony, {11} and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and sores, and they did not repent of their deeds.

The throne of the beast is in Europe and is probably Rome. As in the past, Europe will be plunged into darkness and death as war comes home again. For readers with “ears”: Europe is already in spiritual darkness. Did you know that a recent poll in France, the bastion of Catholicism, showed that only 5% of the population believe in God? Yet despite plague and suffering, nobody in this end-time world of terror repents (16:11) as a result of this first of three woes.

06.06.01 The Sixth Trumpet Sounded Rev 9:13-15

Rev 9:{13} Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar before God, {14} saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, "Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates." {15} So the four angels were released, who had been held ready for the hour, the day, the month, and the year, to kill a third of humankind.

07.06.01 The Sixth Bowl Rev 16:12-16

16:{12} The sixth angel poured his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up in order to prepare the way for the kings from the east.

Four angels are now loosed at the command of the voice of the sacrifice upon the altar. The angels are murderous. The Euphrates, one of the four rivers surrounding the Garden of Eden, is located primarily in modern-day Iraq (Babylon). It was the eastern-most boundary of the Roman Empire in its height of glory. Again, this is the land of Parthia, which is modern-day Iran / Iraq / Syria. Beyond the Euphrates awaited the Parthian cavalry! (see below Rev 9:16)

Thus death may be loosed from (literally) Iraq or Iran upon Europe, through these countries (from the east) or (figuratively) from Europe (Rome / Berlin) itself. This means more war-judgment.

20TH CENTURY CASUALTIES: It is estimated that 11 million died as a direct result of the First World War and 50 million died in World War II, 300,000 with one bomb (Hiroshima). And the killing goes on today all over the world and will continue tomorrow. The 20th has been the century for war and death, and death by war continues on in Europe, Africa, India with rumors of war in Korea, China and Malaysia.

THE EUPHRATES DRIED UP: Rumor has it that Saddam Housein of Iraq has diverted the Euphrates in such a way as to make it possible for troop movements from the “Kings of the East” to cross (or go through) the river en masse. This “drying up” makes it possible for armored vehicles like tanks (“horses” in 9:17) to cross westward toward Harmagedon; indeed, for the sake of subduing his people, this modification has been made.

06.06.02 Two Hundred Million Troops Rev 9:16,17

Rev 9:{16} The number of the troops of cavalry was two hundred million; I heard their number.

It is said that only the Chinese could muster such a force of troops. But this gigantic number, like many of the other numbers of the Revelation, is not necessarily to be taken literally. To get the symbolic meaning, the number must be broken down like this: 1000 x 1000 x 200. The number 1000 means a large, complete amount. Times 1000 means a very, very large number. The 200 comes from 1 Enoch:

1 Enoch 6:1 And they were in all two hundred; who descended in the days of Jared on the summit of Mount Hermon … 7:1 And all the others together with them took unto themselves wives, and each chose for himself one, and they began to go in unto them and to defile themselves with them … And they 3 became pregnant, and they bare great giants … Who consumed 4 all the acquisitions of men. And when men could no longer sustain them, the giants turned against 5 them and devoured mankind.

This refers to myriads of fallen angels’ and the giants’ spirits, which had been confined to the abyss in the days of Noah. These spirits have the ability to take human form and possess humans, as demonstrated in the passage above and below.

1 Enoch 69:4 The name of the first [angel is] Jeqon: that is, the one who led astray [all] the sons of God, and brought them 5 down to the earth, and led them astray through the daughters of men. And the second was named Asbeel: he imparted to the holy sons of God evil counsel, and led them astray so that they defiled 6 their bodies with the daughters of men. And the third was named Gadreel: he it is who showed the children of men all the blows of death, and he led astray Eve, and showed [the weapons of death to the sons of men] the shield and the coat of mail, and the sword for battle, and all the weapons 7 of death to the children of men. And from his hand they have proceeded against those who dwell 8 on the earth from that day and for evermore.

So this “Calvary” is demonic in origin, swarming from the open pit leading to the second heaven. The humans involved in this army are not of God, but have been taken over by a reprobate mind.

)6.06.03 Plagues of Horses Rev 9:17-21

Rev 9:{17} And this was how I saw the horses in my vision: the riders wore breastplates the color of fire and of sapphire and of sulfur; the heads of the horses were like lions' heads, and fire and smoke and sulfur came out of their mouths. {18} By these three plagues a third of humankind was killed, by the fire and smoke and sulfur coming out of their mouths. {19} For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails; their tails are like serpents, having heads; and with them they inflict harm.{20} The rest of humankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands or give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk. {21} And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their fornication or their thefts.

Three plagues are dispatched by the demonic horses / horsemen: fire, smoke and sulfur – Death from Hades. The horses’ demonstration of murderous power originates in their heads and tails, the latter inflicting the poisonous bites of snakes. One cannot help but compare this description with the armored horses we call tanks – demonically directed tanks moving west toward Palestine from beyond the Euphrates.

The reason for such plagues and warfare is to bring the survivors to an acknowledgement of God through repentance (Eze 38:23); but all humanity worship the demons that are destroying them. There is no repentance; but murder, sorcery, immorality and theft continue unchecked. Once again, Enoch brings the meaning of Revelation’s symbols to light:

1 Enoch 56:5 And in those days the angels shall return

And hurl themselves to the east upon the Parthians and Medes:

They shall stir up the kings,

so that a spirit of unrest shall come upon them,

And they shall rouse them from their thrones,

That they may break forth as lions from their lairs,

And as hungry wolves among their flocks.

Rev 16:{13} And I saw three foul spirits like frogs coming from the mouth of the dragon, from the mouth of the beast, and from the mouth of the false prophet. {14} These are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty.)

6 And they shall go up and tread under foot the land of His elect ones

[And the land of His elect ones shall be before them a threshing-floor

and a highway :]

(Rev 16:{16} And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Harmagedon. )

7 But the city of my righteous shall be a hindrance to their horses.

(Rev 9:{17} And this was how I saw the horses in my vision: the riders wore breastplates the color of fire and of sapphire and of sulfur; the heads of the horses were like lions' heads, and fire and smoke and sulfur came out of their mouths.)

And they shall begin to fight among themselves,

And their right hand shall be strong against themselves,

And a man shall not know his brother,

Nor a son his father or his mother,

When the nations of the East meet the nations of the West in or about Palestine, though they came as allies, in the confusion of angelic legions they will turn upon each other,

Till there be no number of the corpses through their slaughter,

And their punishment be not in vain.

06.07.01 The Seventh Trumpet Sounds Rev 11:15-19; 10:7

Rev 10:{7} But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished (fulfilled), as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.

And this is the mystery of God, declared throughout the prophets of old:

Rev 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.

A litany of fulfillment begins with the “great” trumpet, then the announcement of heavenly voices. Responding are the twenty-four elders (patriarch or prophets and apostles):

Rev 11:{16} And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, {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. {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.

The prayer of the elders is a direct reference to the prophetic Psalm 2 (KJV); many parallels may be found:

Why do the heathen (nations) rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? {2} The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against Yahweh, and against his anointed, saying, {3} Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. {4} He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. {5} Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. {6} Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. {7} I will declare the decree: Yahweh hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. {8} Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. {9} Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel…

Enoch (56:8) declared the fate of such rebellious kings:

In those days Sheol shall open its jaws,

And they shall be swallowed up therein

And their destruction shall be at an end;

Sheol shall devour the sinners in the presence of the elect.

The seventh trumpet figures prominently in other prophetic New Testament passages. Christ speaks of his coming in the Olivet discourse:

(Mat 24:30-31 NRSV) Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see 'the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven' with power and great glory. {31} And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Christ comes, the trumpet sounds (we assume the seventh), and the elect of Yahweh (the dead in Christ) are collected together to descend with him.

Paul appends this prophecy to include the living.

(1 Th 4:16-17 NRSV) For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel's call and with the sound of God's trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. {17} Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever.

This is “the rapture.” Note that we understand it to happen at the seventh trumpet, after most of the festivities of Revelation have been fulfilled.

That the rapture takes place at the seventh trumpet of Revelation is affirmed in Paul’s writing. He says that imperishability will be “put on” at the sound of the last trumpet:

(1 Cor 15:51-53 NRSV) Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, {52} in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. {53} For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality.

Notice again that both dead and living, according to Paul, will be changed at the last trumpet. Those ascending will be received in the heavenly temple, which has been descending throughout the time of tribulation.

Rev 11: {19} And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.

On earth while the saints depart, storm conditions will ensue.

07.07.01 The Seventh Bowl Rev 16:17-21

Rev 16:{17} The seventh angel poured his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple, from the throne, saying, "It is done!" {18} And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a violent earthquake, such as had not occurred since people were upon the earth, so violent was that earthquake. {19} The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. God remembered great Babylon and gave her the wine-cup of the fury of his wrath. {20} And every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found; {21} and huge hailstones, each weighing about a hundred pounds, dropped from heaven on people, until they cursed God for the plague of the hail, so fearful was that plague.

Now the location of the loud voice is identified; it is coming from the descending temple. The mystery of God is finished – “It is finished” – the same words Yahshua cried from the cross. The inclement weather worsens, and an earthquake is experienced.

THREE PARTS: In the days of the Roman conquest of Titus, Jerusalem was broken into three factions: those led by Simon bar Giora, Eleazar the Zealot, and John of Gischala. Now in the days of the destruction of Babylon, Rome will be split into three.

The wine cup of martyrs is full and now poured out on Babylon. The saints are gone, and do not endure this outpouring of wrath, which destroys (flattens) everything. Yet the people endure, taking the advice of Job’s wife -- cursing Yahweh and dying.

100 pound hailstones remind us of the great fiery stones Titus rained down upon Jerusalem and Masada. Do you suppose these hail stones are bombs?

THE MATRIX OF SEALS / TRUMPETS / BOWLS:

Seals Trumpets Bowls

The Heavenly Temple The Temple Descending The Temple Seen

1. Military conquest Scorched earth Foul sores

of "Parthians"

2. Slaughter Sea battles Sea destroyed

"Ethnic cleansing" Sea Polluted

(Mediterranean?)

3. Inflation / Water polluted Fresh water sup-

Famine "Wormwood" ply destroyed

4. Pestilence, dis- Darkness Burning cancer

d ease, death, Hell

5. Martyrdom Pit opened, demons out Agony at the

Season of torture beast's throne

Warfare Radiation?

6. Earthquake, dark- Warfare cont. demonic Euphrates land

ness, fear of death cavalry; large death toll bridge

7. Silence “He shall reign!” “It is finished”

I might suggest moving from here to "Signs of the Times" to continue the study. Thanks.

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