The Trumpets of Revelation Are Sounding

The Trumpets of Revelation Are Sounding

The tornadoes we are witnessing throughout the US for the past few days are a warning from Almighty God to repent.  They are the manifestation of the trumpet warnings of Revelation.  The following is taken from my book The Second Coming of Jesus Explained So Anyone Can Understand It.  Available at http://www.amazon.com/Second-Coming-Explained-Understand-ebook/dp/B004YR18T2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1330734755&sr=8-1 for $3.99.

People are in the habit of blaming some imaginary female entity named Mother Nature for our weather calamities.  Do I really need to state the obvious that there is no such being as Mother Nature?  Father God does not need anyone to protect His reputation by disavowing His actions.  He takes full responsibility for what He does without apology to anyone.

But, someone argues, there are Christians who are suffering through these tornadoes.  If you read Revelation 8 and 9, God makes the distinction between His people and the unsaved with the fifth trumpet, just like the plagues in Exodus 8 and 9 included Israel for four plagues, but with the fifth, a distinction was made between Israel and Egypt.

Chapters 8 – 11

The next section is chapters 8 – 11 and it deals with the seven trumpets, sounding in answer to the prayers of the saints.  These trumpets adversely affect the world.  These trumpets sound in response to a world that has opposed Jesus and has persecuted His people.  These trumpets do not sound only once, but again and again in every age.  I know that there are many who take offense at the idea that God punishes the wicked by sending judgments upon them, but God is not merely a God of love, mercy, and grace, but is also a God of holiness who will not always allow sinful man to do as he pleases.  His wrath is (present tense) revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness (Romans 1:18).   God’s wrath is constantly being revealed against sin, and its manifestation is explained in these trumpet sounds.

But, in all of these trumpets, God is calling sinners to salvation through repentance.  Even in His wrath, He still extends mercy, (“in wrath remember mercy” Habakkuk 3:2) but sinners do not respond to His invitation.  They still do not repent.  9: 20 But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. 21 And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.

This shows the absolute hard-heartedness, arrogance and pride of sinful man.  “If God is going to do this or allow this, I will not worship Him.  I cannot believe in a God who does this.”  Their attitude is that they are teaching God a lesson by their response – or lack of an appropriate response – to His justified actions against their sin and arrogance.  The sad reality is that they are stoking the fires of their punishment even hotter by their arrogant refusal to repent and receive God’s mercy and forgiveness.  The harder the heart, the hotter the flames of punishment.

As this section begins, there is silence in Heaven for about a half an hour.  This is the silence of awe before the Almighty God. 

Habakkuk 2: 20 “ But the LORD is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him.”

Zephaniah 1:7 Be silent in the presence of the Lord GOD; For the day of the LORD is at hand, for the LORD has prepared a sacrifice; He has invited His guests.

Zechariah 2: 13 Be silent, all flesh, before the LORD, for He is aroused from His holy habitation!”

The Lord is about to speak in judgment and all of Heaven is silent in anticipation of His actions.  They are unable to speak or to even move about while waiting for the terrible consequences of the sins of the inhabitants of the earth to fall upon them.  Reverent silence is the only acceptable reaction to the knowledge of forth coming judgment.  Make no mistake about it.  These trumpet judgments are in answer to the prayers of the persecuted saints.  Seven angels are each given a trumpet, but before they sound their trumpets, another angel is given a vial of incense, which is mixed with the prayers of the saints.  Since this vial of incense is given to the angel, it can be nothing other than the intercession of Christ for His saints to His Father.  God sees and hears all that occurs on earth.  He knows when His children are in tribulation and trials because of their faith, and He acts in response to it.  Nothing escapes His sight.  The vial is then cast to the earth, and the judgments begin.

Now, before we look at the trumpet judgments (warnings to repent), there is a precursor to them in the Old Testament, in Amos 4: 6-12, which gives us a better understanding of them.

6 “I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and (Deuteronomy 28: 27; Lamentations 2: 12) lack of bread in all your places, (Jeremiah 15: 7; Haggai 2:17) yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord.  7 “I also  withheld the rain from you (Jeremiah 3: 3) when there were yet three months to the harvest; I would send rain on one city, and send no rain on another city (Exodus 9: 26);one field would have rain, and the field on which it did not rain would wither; 8 so two or three cities (Amos 8: 12) would wander to another city to drink water, and would not be satisfied; yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord.  9 “I struck you with blight and mildew (Deuteronomy 28: 22; Haggai 2: 17); your many gardens and your vineyards, your fig trees and your olive trees the locust devoured (Joel 1: 4); yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord.  10 “I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt (Deuteronomy 28: 27, 60; Isaiah 10: 24, 26); I killed your young men with the sword, and carried away your horses (2 Kings 13: 7), and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils (Joel 2: 20); yet you did not return to me,”declares the Lord.  11 “I overthrew some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah (Isaiah 13: 19), and you were as a brand plucked out of the burning (Zechariah 3: 2); yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord.  12 “Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel!”

All of God’s natural judgments sent against Israel were designed by Him to bring them to repentance, but they refused to repent and to return to Him, but continued on in the flagrant rebellion and disobedience, so He had no choice but to continue to send judgments and punishment for their sin and rejection of Him and His commands.  Therefore, they met their God in the most unpleasant of ways.  These Old Testament descriptions of God’s dealing with Israel set the stage for the sounding of the trumpets in Revelation.  As with the Amos passage, God’s intent is to bring people to repentance.

The First Trumpet

There are two groups of judgments that occur.  The first four trumpets harm the wicked in their physical beings while the last three trumpets harm them in their spiritual being.  The first trumpet sounds and there is an outpouring of hail and fire mixed with blood that is cast down to the earth that results in a third of the trees and green grass being burnt up.  This trumpet, which sounds throughout the time from our Lord’s first coming to His second coming, most likely represents various disasters that afflict those who persecute the church that occur on dry land.  Whatever these disasters entail, they include severe weather that destroys lands and buildings.  Even as I write this, there is a 30,000+ acre fire raging in the Big Cypress Preserve, part of the Everglades just outside of where I live in Naples, Florida.  It was started by a lightning strike.  The smoke is drifting overhead and blocking out the sun.  There are multiplied accounts of wild fires throughout America and the world that very well may be a result of this particular trumpet sounding.  Think of the disastrous hurricanes of recent history; Ivan, Katrina, Charlie, and Wilma, and the tsunamis and cyclones that strike Asia, of the terrible mudslides in rain-soaked California that destroys many homes.  The news covers these events, but fails to credit the source of these events as God and the cause as man’s rebellion against God and persecution of His church. 

The Second Trumpet

The second trumpet sounds and what appears to John like a great mountain on fire is hurled into the sea.  It was not a real mountain, but something that looked like a mountain.  The symbolism is that God is causing terror to those who are unbelievers who make their living on the seas, or who sail the seas for pleasure.  God is using maritime disasters as a tool to speak to those who reject Him, who foolishly think that they are the “captains of their own fate”, who “sail their own ships.”  God is in control of all that happens upon this earth, not man.  Puny man, arrogant man can do nothing to prevent the trumpets from sounding and working their designed destruction of killing one third of the sea creatures and ships, and turning a third of the sea to blood.  The imagery is of destruction upon the sea, not a literal turning of water into blood.  It is a vision, a word picture that conveys truth through symbols.

The Third Trumpet

The third trumpet sounds and it affects inland waters.  In his vision John sees a huge fiery star falling from the sky that falls on rivers and streams.  Hollywood has recreated similar scenes in movies where large meteors are heading toward earth with no possible way to avoid them.  The screen is filled with terror stricken people screaming and attempting to escape, but how do you escape such a calamity?  The scene John is seeing is one of total terror experienced by those who see it falling.  This symbol is one that shows what God’s judgments upon rivers do to men.  Just recently the Red River flooded in North Dakota, Iowa, and parts of Minnesota that caused tremendous damage.  There have been countless devastating floods that destroy towns and people.  The name of the star is Wormwood, which symbolizes bitter sorrow and distress.  This falling star that lands on the waters not only kills people, but destroys all that the water is used for, such as commerce and pleasure. 

When Katrina broke the levy that held back Lake Ponchartrain from New Orleans, people were terrified, although the night before they were partying and laughing, completely disregarding the thought that disaster was imminent.  Although unbelievers – and unfortunately many Christians also - absolutely reject the truth that God had anything to do with this flood that killed many people and destroyed a great portion of New Orleans, it was a result of this third trumpet sounding.  But, man’s rejection of truth does not negate it.

The Fourth Trumpet

When the fourth trumpet sounds, a third of the sun, moon, and stars are affected.  Their lights do not shine for a portion of the day and night.  How exactly this affects man is not clearly stated, but it cannot be overstated that the heavenly bodies do exert influence on life as we know it.  When the sun is experiencing storms – sunspots – it drastically affects our earth.  When the moon goes through certain phases, it affects certain men in various ways.  Again, these events have occurred throughout the history of man and will continue to occur until Jesus returns and establishes the new heaven and earth.

This is a small excerpt from the chapter “What About Revelation?” in my book.