I do recommend that you read Revelation from the start but I have taken this section to start from and to describe some of the things that will happen.
Why choose Revelation? Simple answer is this Revelation 1:3
Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.
The image below is the timeline of all of Revelation Scriptures.
As you can see the 7 Trumpets are towards the end of everything. The 7 Trumpets are part of the last of the 7 seals.
On a side note the number 7 is Gods number as it has alot of mentions through out the Bible Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation.
If you wish to see the image in full detail please see "Biblical Maps" in my photo section on Facebook. Somehow it wont enlarge it here
We start in Revelation 8:6
In previous chapters in Revelation we have been told that the 7 angels with their trumpets are coming.... from the image above we are at the point when alot happens all at once. "Egyptian/Russian/Muslim Invasion of Israel", the earthquake and Israel repenting, end of war #1 and we are half way through the Gospel preaching.
As you can see there is alot to happen to the world from the 7 Trumpets but how can we put these into something we come to see? We have had disasaters in the world so far but I fully believe that they are nothing compared to what will happen during this time.
Trumpet 1: Rev 8:7 The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down upon the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.
Hail Storm:
Have we ever seen hail and fire mixed with blood? The closet I think we can get to this in things that have happened in this world ishttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfVHRdHCGi4
This is a hail storm which we see as a "bad storm" but when you read what will happen this you are watching is a small fraction of the truth.
What we have to ask is, is it actually blood mixed in with the hail? Do we think it could be red colured hail? Yes it is very possible. Does it mean we will have red hail? A bright red hail storm.. Not something we can actually visualise!
Bushfires:
Lets look at the next part of the first trumpet. "A third of the Earth was burned up"..
We instantly think of bushfires that have happened. Take most of America and Australia. These 2 countries have probably the most horrific bushfires on a regular occurance.
Let's take Austalia as they had a huge disaster in 2009. Here is one news article about it: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/02/08/2485648.htm
Then you look at the video footage we have seen so far of bushfires:
What we have to bear in mind is this, yes all of this was VERY tragic and people lost their lives and it is never a good think and I am not belittling what everyone went through. What we have to think abous with Revelation is simply this. On a scale or measure between what happened in Australia and what will happen is a huge vast.
1 third of the Earth will be burnt.. The land mass of the earth is currently 148,940,000 km² and thats only 29.1% of the mass of the Earth! The rest is water as it is today..
We are talking the land the size of north America, South America, Australia and Antartica all burnt completly! Yes it will be spread across the whole word so there may be still be patches of vegetation in places.
Just looking back at the Scriptual passage it does say ALL green grass will be burned up.
Trumpet 2: Rev: 8:8: The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood, third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.
This I can only believe as a volcanic eruption. There are so many different images and videos of eruptions on the internet to view and I am unable to find one that is close to what Scripture tells us will happen. View what you can online and you have a small view of this! In no way am I saying those people affected/died by volcanos have life easy or do this is a small thing they are/have gone through!.
A third of the sea turned to blood.. literally red, could be teh blood from the animals within the seas or the lava. Its something we can't image.
A third of the creates of the sea being killed. This is not just a case of fish dying. It is als a case of food stock as well. A massive amount being killed and inedable you will have massive problems. Starting 2010 and we already see what happens to fish stocks if they are not maintained corerctly. Here is a small insighthttp://www.fishonline.org/advice/avoid/
A Third of ships being destroyed. Again you think of the people on board those ships and then you have the impact of the loss of water transportation of things around the world. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Container_ship
Trumpet 3: Rev8:10 The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water—the name of the star is Wormwood.A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter.
Meteors falling: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dan3wM3rns We look at this and it is just one meteor falling. Try to imagine a sky full and all of them hitting the Earth with such force and destruction. No where to run or hide. Blazing like a torch I don't feel tells us exactly how bright it will be.
Bitter Water: Bitter water in the Old Testament is suppose to expand the stomach. Numbers 5:27 This would be more bitter than a glass of pure lemon juice. Also Exodus
Trumpet 4: Rev: 8:14 The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, 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 turned dark. A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night.
A third of the sun was struck.. Does this tell us that we will have an eclipse? Does it say that we will lose 1/3 of the brightness of the sun? From the word "struck" I can only take this to mean actually hit and lost. We rely on the sun so much for light, power and the balance of the Earth.
What does a loss of sunlight also mean to everyday life?
Plantlife and vegetation:
Our plants and vegetation require sunlight to grow. If we don't have the same growing ability we have today then the lack of food is going to cause starvation and malnutriction. We would also see hoarding of food even more than we do today. People waring over food to proportions unimaginable.
Diseases and Mental Disorders: Immunity is strengthened during daylight as a person feels uplifted. People are generally motivated more during the daylight hours.
Germs: UV light kills germs and with this decreased the world will end up with more germs and even some that are unknown taking control of our life and food.
Animals: The sun's movement throughout the year causes natural biochemical changes in our circadian rhythms. These solar shifts even affect the activities of animals (for example, in the winter, hibernation). So this will also affect the number of animals in the world and will have a knock on effect on food.
Trumpet 5: The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss. And out of the smoke locusts came down upon the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. They were not given power to kill them, but only to torture them for five months. And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes a man. During those days men will seek death, but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.
The longest description of what will happen during any of the trumpets.
It mentions the "star" that has fallen.. but if that star is not something physical like a human/spirit then how can it be given the key to the Abyss? Also why in the next sentance is the word "he" used? I have no idea!!
Giantic furnace – We already have something in this day and age that produces alot of smoke such as volcanos but can we image the amount of smoke coming from the Abyss? Not at all!
Imagine no sun at all and the sky being completly black.
Now out of the Abyss come locusts and where before we have scorpions these are given power to torment the people of the Earth. One difference is that God actually commands the locusts NOT to touch anyone with the "seal of God on their foreheads". What this seal actually is we have no idea. There are other scriptures which give us a small insight but nothing like a complete answer. Also we must look later in Revelation where the "mark of the beast" is something that those who do not believe in God take either on their right hand or on their forehead. There will be a difference in that mark but the mark of the beast is not mentioned until Revelation 14 so what is the mark of God?
Why 5 months? No idea as this time frame had been chosen by God.
Also even if you do have the "mark of God" on your forehead you will not escape the 5 months of torment from the locusts. Why? Again no idea. Does this mean there will no rapture before the Scriptures of Revelation start? Again no idea.
Men will seek death but it will elude them. Tells us there is no way out of this even if we do try and take our own lives or that of others we wont be able to.
Trumpet 6: Rev: 9:13 "Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates"
Fact: 1/3 of mankind will be killed. Lets have a look a bit more into the figures of this.. The Earths popultion is estimated to be in 20008 at 6,692,030,277. Put this into relation of the population of the United Kingdom is 61,399,118 million which is a small fraction of the worlds total. It is less than 1/10!!
America population is estimated at: 304,059, 724
India population estimated at: 1,139,964,932
China population estimated at: 1,325,639,982
(Figures are taken from Worldbank.org)
Out of the 6,692,030,277 we will have to estimate 1/3 of these are Christians 2.1 billion people. Now I will assume all of these 2.1 billion Christians are taught and accept the Truth of Gods World without question. This will make the maths a little easier.
(Stats on size of Christianity is taken from Adherents.com)
Now you are looking, after taking all Christians out of the equastion, at the population of China, roughly, being wiped out by this! It might and probably will not be confined to one area but will be spread out across the world.
200 million (Something in the range of 3 times the number of the UK population) being sent. Rev: 9:16
Rev 9:17 describes the troops this way "The horses and riders I saw in my vision looked like this: Their breastplates were fiery red, dark blue, and yellow as sulfur. The heads of the horses resembled the heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire, smoke and sulfur. A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur that came out of their mouths.The power of the horses was in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails were like snakes, having heads with which they inflict injury "
Could you imagine being, or watching people, killed by plagues of fire, smoke and sulpher and not being able to do anything about it? When we see someone has burnt themselves nowadays we quickly douse them in water. You can't do this. The worlds water is in very short supply and what is not clean for use is heavily infected.
What is even more frightening of this reading is that whiever is not killed by all of this still will not repent and accept God!
Now we see there is a break from the Trumpets which I may cover in later articles!
Trumpet 7: Rev 11:15
This is the time that we have been waiting for!! Scripture tells us: "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever "
How mighty this is! This is something I have read a few times but it is not until now that I fully realise the impact of this piece of Truth. How can we imagine all that we have read coming to realisation in this verse?
No more pain, suffering and death. A perfect world. Indescribable and something the human mind can not comtemplate as we have made this world the sinful place it is today.
All those that are dead before this day will be judged by God. Rev 11:18 tell us "The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding your servants the prophets and your saints and those who reverence your name, both small and great and for destroying those who destroy the earth. "
People ask why should we worry about living a good life for God? Several reasons come to mind but one of the main ones would have to be to please God as He made us. Then we look, as we are human, at what will happen to us if we do not. You look at Christians today who are persecuted and killed for their Faith and wonder why. Do you want to go through all of this? When you die you still are going to be judge so there is no escape. Are the materialistic things in the world today worth going through all this wrath, torture and termoil? Search within yourself deeply.. Decisions you make WILL affect your life!
Then twe read what else the 7th Trumpet holds: Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of his covenant. And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a great hailstorm"
We look at the weather we have had in recent years and can we compare it to what it will be? Answer is NO!
Here is a small view of what to expect to happen if you are still alive at this time.
Here is a short clip of a lightning strike close up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLJ6oqToKrc&feature=related
Imagine the power that is in that one strike. Now image that several thousand times over and striking all around you.
There are several questions we have to think about here:
Do you want to go through all of this?
How do we feel about our friends and family going through this?
What do we have to do so we do not go through this?
If you have not already given your life to Jesus Christ then maybe today is the time to do this. Not just to avoid what is mentioned above but with everything else Scriptures tell us.
Are you ready to accept Jesus as your Lord and Saviour?
(Draft Version 1 08/02/10.. More edits to follow)
