The Judgments on Earth
The second of three studies of The Revelation of Jesus Christ by Paige Ramsey
“The Seven Trumpets” – Lesson 5
Revelation 8:1-13
Seventh Seal: Prelude to the
Seven Trumpets
When He opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. 2And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. 3Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense that he should offer it with the prayers of
all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. 4And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it
to the earth. And there were noises, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake.
So the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.
First Trumpet: Vegetation Struck
The first angel sounded: And hail and fire followed, mingled with blood, and they
were thrown to the earth. And a third of the trees were burned up, and all green
grass was burned up.
Second Trumpet: The Seas Struck
Then the second angel sounded: And something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood. And a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.
Third Trumpet: The Waters Struck
Then the third angel sounded: And a great star fell from heaven, burning like a
torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the water, because it was made bitter.
Fourth Trumpet: The Heavens Struck
Then the fourth angel sounded: And a third of the sun was struck, a third of the
moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened. A third of the day did not shine, and likewise the night.
And I looked, and I heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, “Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the
remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound!”
We are well into the Great Tribulation Period. The first six seals had been broken, producing judgments on the earth. Now, the seventh seal is broken. The judgments we will see tonight are of supernatural properties. They are hard to imagine, and you must keep in mind that they are very real. God is a God of the supernatural!
Thirty minutes of silence in heaven!
Heaven is a noisy place! There are hundreds of millions of angels, and all the Old Testament Saints, all the New Testament Saints, and even some of the Tribulation Saints have already come home. Four angelic creatures are praising God continually and the hosts of angels and saints are also praising God. Then our Lord Jesus opens the seventh seal and silence. No one makes a sound for half an hour. No one. That’s a miracle, if you didn’t know it! But, this silence is likened to a part
of the Jewish temple worship:
In the Jewish temple, we are told, the musical instruments and
chanting resounded during the offering of the sacrifices, which
occupied the first part of the service; but at the offering of the
incense a solemn silence was observed, Psa_62:1. The people
prayed quietly without, at the time of incense.[i]
There is something to say about silence and solemnity. The Bible instructs us to live soberly. I truly believe that in America, we have forgotten how to be solemn. Let me ask you some questions to rank your importance of sobriety. Rank your solemnity on a scale of 1 – 5 on each:
In church services, would you rather be entertained or be still and hear
the voice of God? _____
On Memorial Day, does your family find ways to remember those who
have fallen in war and spend the day without amusement to remind you
of the blessings you enjoy in life because they lost theirs? Or do
you have picnics, go to the lake, barbeque, and have a good time? _____
On Pearl Harbor Day, does your family set even fifteen minutes aside to
reflect on the tragedy our country experienced? _____
On 9-11, does your family set aside any time to pray for the families who
lost loved ones, or pray for our country that is still being terrorized? _____
On the National Day of Prayer, which I hope we will all continue to observe
even without the White House endorsement, are you more interested in
going to hear a concert and speeches than you are in spending the day in
actual prayer? _____
How much time does your family really spend giving thanks to God for all
His wonderful blessings on Thanksgiving? _____
If you gave yourself 20-25 points, you’re living soberly!
If you gave yourself 15-19 points, you’re doing pretty well!
If you gave yourself 10-14 points, you’ve got a lot of improving to do.
If you gave yourself 6-9 points, you really need to get serious with your life.
America has become a country of FUN, FUN, FUN! We no longer even want to take the time to teach our children to sit still – even for a church service! We only think
about what to do to keep them happy, that they will like, and to keep them busy.
We need to teach them to be quiet, calm, listening to instruction, thinking things through, praying silently, waiting on God.
God orders silence in heaven while the incense of our prayers are being offered on the golden altar and He is receiving them as a sweet savor into His nostrils.
That’s how important our prayers are!! Doesn’t that just make you want to stop
right here, right now, and pray??! Go ahead, I give you permission. :)
Notice there are two altars:
1. The Brazen Altar outside the temple is for sacrificing animals.
2. The Golden Altar inside the Holy of Holies is for incense (representing
the prayers going up to God
The seven angels who were given the seven trumpets are special angels created for just this purpose.
Trumpets are significant in God’s Word:
Numbers 10:1-10 – And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: “Make two
silver trumpets for yourself; you shall make them of hammered work;
you shall use them for calling the congregation and for directing the
movement of the camps. When they blow both of them, all the
congregation shall gather before you at the door of the tabernacle of
meeting. But if they blow only one, then the leaders, the heads of the
divisions of Israel, shall gather to you. When you sound the advance,
the camps that lie on the east side shall then begin their journey. When
you sound the advance the second time, then the camps that lie on the
south side shall begin their journey; they shall sound the call for them to
begin their journeys. And when the assembly is to be gathered together,
you shall blow, but not sound the advance. The sons of Aaron, the
priests, shall blow the trumpets; and these shall be to you as an ordinance
forever throughout your generations.
"When you go to war in your land against the enemy who oppresses you,
then you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets, and you will be
remembered before the Lord your God, and you will be saved from your
enemies. Also in the day of your gladness, in your appointed feasts, and
at the beginning of your months, you shall blow the trumpets over your
burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; and they
shall be a memorial for you before your God: I am the Lord your God.”
Blowing trumpets were used:
1. To gather the congregation for the feasts – when the trumpet of God shall
sound in heaven, we will be gathered together for a huge feast – the
Marriage Supper of the Lamb.
2. To gather the armies together for war – shortly after these seven trumpets
sound, the war of all wars will rage – the Battle of Armageddon.
3. To anoint a king – Jesus will be crowned King of Kings and Lord of Lords
as He enters into His millennial reign on this earth.
Trumpets 1-4 are war trumpets; Trumpets 5-7 are woe trumpets
The War Trumpets:
1st Trumpet – brings a brewing storm of hail, fire, and blood that will burn up a third of all the trees and a third of all the green grass. “And Al Gore will have a
hissy!”[ii] This repeats the plague in Egypt (Exodus 9) and the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19).
2nd Trumpet – brings a bloody sea – A third of the seas become blood, a third of all life in the sea dies, a third of the ships are destroyed – this repeats the plague in Exodus 7.
3rd Trumpet – brings a banished star – This star poisons a third of all the water (not only the seas, but even the fresh water).
4th Trumpet – brings a blackened sky – A third of the sun, moon and stars are blackened. This means shorter days and longer nights – see Amos 8:9; Ezekiel 32:1-8. The loss of heat will cause temperatures to plunge drastically over all the world and severely disrupt the earth’s weather patterns and sea tides leading to violent, unpredictable storms and tides causing even more death on the earth.[iii]
NOTE: In Revelation 8:13, the word “angel” is not the normal Greek word “angelos” but rather, the word “eagle” (the same word as our English word “eagle”). Is this yet another type of angel? Eagle angels? Dr. Dan Cozart brought out Isaiah 40:31 – But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. – and these two observances about eagles:
1. Eagles are great watchers – they are not easily fooled – they are
alert – like eagles, we are to be alert and watch for the signs of the times
of the coming of the Lord.
2. Eagles like to go higher than other birds – they do not like to live close to
the earth. Like the eagles, we should not want to live close to this world –
this world is not my home![iv]
Revelation 9:1-21
Fifth Trumpet: The Locusts from the Bottomless Pit
Then the fifth angel sounded: And I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth. To
him was given the key to the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace. So the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit. Then out of the smoke locusts came upon the earth. And to them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. They were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth, or any
green thing, or any tree, but only those men who do not have the seal of God on
their foreheads. And they were not given authority to kill them, but to torment them for five months. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man. In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will desire to die, and death will flee from them.
The shape of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle. On their heads were
crowns of something like gold, and their faces were like the faces of men. They had hair like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth. And they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots with many horses running into battle. They had tails like scorpions, and there were stings in their tails. Their power was to hurt men five months. And they had as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but in Greek he has the name Apollyon.
One woe is past. Behold, still two more woes are coming after these things.
Sixth Trumpet: The Angels from the Euphrates
Then the sixth angel sounded: And I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind. Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision: those who sat on them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow; and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone. By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed—by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths. For their power is in their mouth and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents, having heads; and with them they do harm.
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. And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their
thefts.
The Woe Trumpets:
5th Trumpet – brings a star fallen from heaven (which is personified by the pronoun “he”) Who is the star that fell from heaven?
1. The Lord Jesus Christ? (Having the key to the Bottomless Pit)
2. Satan? (Given the key to the Bottomless Pit – Satan is allowed to open
the pit)
The Bottomless Pit is referenced seven times: Revelation 9:1, 2, 11; 11:7; 17:8; 20:1; 20:3
Where is the Bottomless Pit? Outer Space? Sheol-Hades?
Sheol-Hades has several divisions:
1. Abraham’s Bosom or Paradise (Luke 16)
2. Torment (Luke 16)
3. Taurtarous – 2 Peter 2:2-4; Luke 8:31 (abyss – bottomless pit)
Where is Sheol-Hades? – Numbers 16:30-33; Matthew 12:40; Ephesians
4:8-10; 1 Peter 3:19
Out of the Bottomless Pit come the most horrendous creatures imaginable – apart from the creatures that are to come out of the river Euphrates when the sixth trumpet sounds. These are locusts! But they are not like any locusts with which this earth is familiar.
They have authority (signified by their crowns and are given power). They are intelligent (have faces like men). There is nothing scarier than insects with human intelligence!! They are carnivorous (teeth like lions – they don’t eat vegetation, but only feed on the flesh of men). And they are not allowed to kill – only torture (the sting of a scorpion can cause more agony than any other). Men will want to die because the torture is so grievous, but they will not be allowed to die – they will try to kill themselves, but will only create more pain.
The names Abaddon (destroying angel) and Apollyon (the destroyer) are other names for Satan. As Satan is named their king and the angel over the Bottomless Pit, this provides more evidence supporting the theory that Satan is the star fallen from heaven, even though we know he fell before the incident in the Garden of Eden. We must remember God is of the Spiritual World and is not bound by time. He looks at everything at once, past, present, and future.
6th Trumpet – brings the release of four demons locked up in the river Euphrates who will kill a third of all mankind. Notice that they were prepared for just this purpose. Who prepared them? God. God is a God of wrath and judgment. We cannot forget that.
These four demons organize an army of 200,000,000 demon possessed horsemen! They ride horses that have the heads of lions and tails that are like snakes with heads that bite. They have red, yellow, and blue breastplates, though I’m sure they won’t be in the Superman diamond shape. Men will finally be able to die, only to go to hell and await the Great White Throne Judgment after which they will be thrown into the Lake of Fire.
It is amazing that the men who have survived to this point still will not repent of their sinful deeds!! This only proves that repentance comes by grace. Praise the Lord, He empowers us to repent of (turn away from) our sins! Without repentance, there is no salvation. Too many Christians (or perhaps those who have fooled themselves into thinking they are saved) hang onto their sin and use the excuse, “I can’t help it, I’m just a sinner saved by grace.” That is not even Biblical. God gives us power over sin and commands us to repent, to renew our minds, to come out from among them, to be separate from the world. He says we are a new creation – all things have become new. If that does not describe your life, you need to pray that the Lord will save you.
As the opening of the seventh seal brought the seven trumpets, the blowing of the seventh trumpet bring the last seven judgments that will occur during the Great Tribulation.
[i] Meyer, F.B.; Through the Bible by Day, GENESIS TO JOSHUA, Revelation 8:1-13
[ii] Cozart, Dan W.; sermon: The Seven Trumpets, 20 SEPT 2009.
[iii] Cozart, Dan W.; sermon: The Seven Trumpets, 20 SEPT 2009.
[iv] Cozart, Dan W.; sermon: The Seven Trumpets, 20 SEPT 2009.
Seventh Seal: Prelude to the
Seven Trumpets
When He opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. 2And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. 3Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense that he should offer it with the prayers of
all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. 4And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it
to the earth. And there were noises, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake.
So the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.
First Trumpet: Vegetation Struck
The first angel sounded: And hail and fire followed, mingled with blood, and they
were thrown to the earth. And a third of the trees were burned up, and all green
grass was burned up.
Second Trumpet: The Seas Struck
Then the second angel sounded: And something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood. And a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.
Third Trumpet: The Waters Struck
Then the third angel sounded: And a great star fell from heaven, burning like a
torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the water, because it was made bitter.
Fourth Trumpet: The Heavens Struck
Then the fourth angel sounded: And a third of the sun was struck, a third of the
moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened. A third of the day did not shine, and likewise the night.
And I looked, and I heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, “Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the
remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound!”
We are well into the Great Tribulation Period. The first six seals had been broken, producing judgments on the earth. Now, the seventh seal is broken. The judgments we will see tonight are of supernatural properties. They are hard to imagine, and you must keep in mind that they are very real. God is a God of the supernatural!
Thirty minutes of silence in heaven!
Heaven is a noisy place! There are hundreds of millions of angels, and all the Old Testament Saints, all the New Testament Saints, and even some of the Tribulation Saints have already come home. Four angelic creatures are praising God continually and the hosts of angels and saints are also praising God. Then our Lord Jesus opens the seventh seal and silence. No one makes a sound for half an hour. No one. That’s a miracle, if you didn’t know it! But, this silence is likened to a part
of the Jewish temple worship:
In the Jewish temple, we are told, the musical instruments and
chanting resounded during the offering of the sacrifices, which
occupied the first part of the service; but at the offering of the
incense a solemn silence was observed, Psa_62:1. The people
prayed quietly without, at the time of incense.[i]
There is something to say about silence and solemnity. The Bible instructs us to live soberly. I truly believe that in America, we have forgotten how to be solemn. Let me ask you some questions to rank your importance of sobriety. Rank your solemnity on a scale of 1 – 5 on each:
In church services, would you rather be entertained or be still and hear
the voice of God? _____
On Memorial Day, does your family find ways to remember those who
have fallen in war and spend the day without amusement to remind you
of the blessings you enjoy in life because they lost theirs? Or do
you have picnics, go to the lake, barbeque, and have a good time? _____
On Pearl Harbor Day, does your family set even fifteen minutes aside to
reflect on the tragedy our country experienced? _____
On 9-11, does your family set aside any time to pray for the families who
lost loved ones, or pray for our country that is still being terrorized? _____
On the National Day of Prayer, which I hope we will all continue to observe
even without the White House endorsement, are you more interested in
going to hear a concert and speeches than you are in spending the day in
actual prayer? _____
How much time does your family really spend giving thanks to God for all
His wonderful blessings on Thanksgiving? _____
If you gave yourself 20-25 points, you’re living soberly!
If you gave yourself 15-19 points, you’re doing pretty well!
If you gave yourself 10-14 points, you’ve got a lot of improving to do.
If you gave yourself 6-9 points, you really need to get serious with your life.
America has become a country of FUN, FUN, FUN! We no longer even want to take the time to teach our children to sit still – even for a church service! We only think
about what to do to keep them happy, that they will like, and to keep them busy.
We need to teach them to be quiet, calm, listening to instruction, thinking things through, praying silently, waiting on God.
God orders silence in heaven while the incense of our prayers are being offered on the golden altar and He is receiving them as a sweet savor into His nostrils.
That’s how important our prayers are!! Doesn’t that just make you want to stop
right here, right now, and pray??! Go ahead, I give you permission. :)
Notice there are two altars:
1. The Brazen Altar outside the temple is for sacrificing animals.
2. The Golden Altar inside the Holy of Holies is for incense (representing
the prayers going up to God
The seven angels who were given the seven trumpets are special angels created for just this purpose.
Trumpets are significant in God’s Word:
Numbers 10:1-10 – And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: “Make two
silver trumpets for yourself; you shall make them of hammered work;
you shall use them for calling the congregation and for directing the
movement of the camps. When they blow both of them, all the
congregation shall gather before you at the door of the tabernacle of
meeting. But if they blow only one, then the leaders, the heads of the
divisions of Israel, shall gather to you. When you sound the advance,
the camps that lie on the east side shall then begin their journey. When
you sound the advance the second time, then the camps that lie on the
south side shall begin their journey; they shall sound the call for them to
begin their journeys. And when the assembly is to be gathered together,
you shall blow, but not sound the advance. The sons of Aaron, the
priests, shall blow the trumpets; and these shall be to you as an ordinance
forever throughout your generations.
"When you go to war in your land against the enemy who oppresses you,
then you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets, and you will be
remembered before the Lord your God, and you will be saved from your
enemies. Also in the day of your gladness, in your appointed feasts, and
at the beginning of your months, you shall blow the trumpets over your
burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; and they
shall be a memorial for you before your God: I am the Lord your God.”
Blowing trumpets were used:
1. To gather the congregation for the feasts – when the trumpet of God shall
sound in heaven, we will be gathered together for a huge feast – the
Marriage Supper of the Lamb.
2. To gather the armies together for war – shortly after these seven trumpets
sound, the war of all wars will rage – the Battle of Armageddon.
3. To anoint a king – Jesus will be crowned King of Kings and Lord of Lords
as He enters into His millennial reign on this earth.
Trumpets 1-4 are war trumpets; Trumpets 5-7 are woe trumpets
The War Trumpets:
1st Trumpet – brings a brewing storm of hail, fire, and blood that will burn up a third of all the trees and a third of all the green grass. “And Al Gore will have a
hissy!”[ii] This repeats the plague in Egypt (Exodus 9) and the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19).
2nd Trumpet – brings a bloody sea – A third of the seas become blood, a third of all life in the sea dies, a third of the ships are destroyed – this repeats the plague in Exodus 7.
3rd Trumpet – brings a banished star – This star poisons a third of all the water (not only the seas, but even the fresh water).
4th Trumpet – brings a blackened sky – A third of the sun, moon and stars are blackened. This means shorter days and longer nights – see Amos 8:9; Ezekiel 32:1-8. The loss of heat will cause temperatures to plunge drastically over all the world and severely disrupt the earth’s weather patterns and sea tides leading to violent, unpredictable storms and tides causing even more death on the earth.[iii]
NOTE: In Revelation 8:13, the word “angel” is not the normal Greek word “angelos” but rather, the word “eagle” (the same word as our English word “eagle”). Is this yet another type of angel? Eagle angels? Dr. Dan Cozart brought out Isaiah 40:31 – But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. – and these two observances about eagles:
1. Eagles are great watchers – they are not easily fooled – they are
alert – like eagles, we are to be alert and watch for the signs of the times
of the coming of the Lord.
2. Eagles like to go higher than other birds – they do not like to live close to
the earth. Like the eagles, we should not want to live close to this world –
this world is not my home![iv]
Revelation 9:1-21
Fifth Trumpet: The Locusts from the Bottomless Pit
Then the fifth angel sounded: And I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth. To
him was given the key to the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace. So the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit. Then out of the smoke locusts came upon the earth. And to them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. They were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth, or any
green thing, or any tree, but only those men who do not have the seal of God on
their foreheads. And they were not given authority to kill them, but to torment them for five months. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man. In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will desire to die, and death will flee from them.
The shape of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle. On their heads were
crowns of something like gold, and their faces were like the faces of men. They had hair like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth. And they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots with many horses running into battle. They had tails like scorpions, and there were stings in their tails. Their power was to hurt men five months. And they had as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but in Greek he has the name Apollyon.
One woe is past. Behold, still two more woes are coming after these things.
Sixth Trumpet: The Angels from the Euphrates
Then the sixth angel sounded: And I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind. Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision: those who sat on them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow; and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone. By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed—by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths. For their power is in their mouth and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents, having heads; and with them they do harm.
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. And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their
thefts.
The Woe Trumpets:
5th Trumpet – brings a star fallen from heaven (which is personified by the pronoun “he”) Who is the star that fell from heaven?
1. The Lord Jesus Christ? (Having the key to the Bottomless Pit)
2. Satan? (Given the key to the Bottomless Pit – Satan is allowed to open
the pit)
The Bottomless Pit is referenced seven times: Revelation 9:1, 2, 11; 11:7; 17:8; 20:1; 20:3
Where is the Bottomless Pit? Outer Space? Sheol-Hades?
Sheol-Hades has several divisions:
1. Abraham’s Bosom or Paradise (Luke 16)
2. Torment (Luke 16)
3. Taurtarous – 2 Peter 2:2-4; Luke 8:31 (abyss – bottomless pit)
Where is Sheol-Hades? – Numbers 16:30-33; Matthew 12:40; Ephesians
4:8-10; 1 Peter 3:19
Out of the Bottomless Pit come the most horrendous creatures imaginable – apart from the creatures that are to come out of the river Euphrates when the sixth trumpet sounds. These are locusts! But they are not like any locusts with which this earth is familiar.
They have authority (signified by their crowns and are given power). They are intelligent (have faces like men). There is nothing scarier than insects with human intelligence!! They are carnivorous (teeth like lions – they don’t eat vegetation, but only feed on the flesh of men). And they are not allowed to kill – only torture (the sting of a scorpion can cause more agony than any other). Men will want to die because the torture is so grievous, but they will not be allowed to die – they will try to kill themselves, but will only create more pain.
The names Abaddon (destroying angel) and Apollyon (the destroyer) are other names for Satan. As Satan is named their king and the angel over the Bottomless Pit, this provides more evidence supporting the theory that Satan is the star fallen from heaven, even though we know he fell before the incident in the Garden of Eden. We must remember God is of the Spiritual World and is not bound by time. He looks at everything at once, past, present, and future.
6th Trumpet – brings the release of four demons locked up in the river Euphrates who will kill a third of all mankind. Notice that they were prepared for just this purpose. Who prepared them? God. God is a God of wrath and judgment. We cannot forget that.
These four demons organize an army of 200,000,000 demon possessed horsemen! They ride horses that have the heads of lions and tails that are like snakes with heads that bite. They have red, yellow, and blue breastplates, though I’m sure they won’t be in the Superman diamond shape. Men will finally be able to die, only to go to hell and await the Great White Throne Judgment after which they will be thrown into the Lake of Fire.
It is amazing that the men who have survived to this point still will not repent of their sinful deeds!! This only proves that repentance comes by grace. Praise the Lord, He empowers us to repent of (turn away from) our sins! Without repentance, there is no salvation. Too many Christians (or perhaps those who have fooled themselves into thinking they are saved) hang onto their sin and use the excuse, “I can’t help it, I’m just a sinner saved by grace.” That is not even Biblical. God gives us power over sin and commands us to repent, to renew our minds, to come out from among them, to be separate from the world. He says we are a new creation – all things have become new. If that does not describe your life, you need to pray that the Lord will save you.
As the opening of the seventh seal brought the seven trumpets, the blowing of the seventh trumpet bring the last seven judgments that will occur during the Great Tribulation.
[i] Meyer, F.B.; Through the Bible by Day, GENESIS TO JOSHUA, Revelation 8:1-13
[ii] Cozart, Dan W.; sermon: The Seven Trumpets, 20 SEPT 2009.
[iii] Cozart, Dan W.; sermon: The Seven Trumpets, 20 SEPT 2009.
[iv] Cozart, Dan W.; sermon: The Seven Trumpets, 20 SEPT 2009.
Other Bible Studies by Paige Ramsey: