Seven Trumpet Warnings (part 2 of 2)

They Are Happening Now

Trumpet Warning #4

The fourth trumpet (Rev 8:12-13) describes a third of the sun, moon, and stars being struck, resulting in the length of both days and nights becoming shortened. This is not describing a physical event, such as the axis of the earth shifting and days becoming 16 hours long instead of 24 hours. Apocalyptic visions are very symbolic. Time will be shortened and the world as we had always known it will be experienced differently. This trumpet warning may be referring to the same prophetic events recorded by Daniel (Dan7:25), “He will… try to change the set times and the laws.” The world began to change with the industrial revolution, like nothing ever before. Then came electronic and atomic development, which began to change our world exponentially. After WWII the United States rose up to become the dominant world power, unique since the fall of the Roman empire. The computer and internet age once again changed the world, almost faster than mankind could keep up. Communication and commerce could be transacted almost instantaneously, rather than taking weeks or months. Time became truncated. After the fall of the Berlin wall a new age of globalization began to develop and it has only grown and expanded through the years leading up to the end of the age. This world is nothing like your great-grandpa’s world.

Trumpet Warning #5

The fifth trumpet (Rev 9:1-11) describes a bottomless pit of fire causing a massive amount of smoke, like a gigantic furnace, blocking the light of the sun. During the Gulf War, as Iraqi soldiers were exiting Kuwait, they wreaked destruction with a “scorched earth” strategy, igniting over 600 oil wells around the deserts of Kuwait. These were some of the largest underground wells of oil on the planet. From the seemingly bottomless holes in the ground, smoke entered the atmosphere and blocked sunlight for three months. With Sadam Hussein as their president, whose name means “Destroyer” or “Abaddon” (see Rev 9:11), Iraqi soldiers invaded and occupied Kuwait in August, 1990. Five months later (see Rev 9:5), in January of 1991, the ultimatum was given by the United States and the UN for Hussein to exit Kuwait. After weeks of ground battles, the Iraqi rebels retreated from Kuwait, but were slaughtered on the “highway of death”, on Feb 26, 1991 (see Rev 9:6). Tension and turmoil, war and death, have continued in the Middle East ever since.

Trumpet Warning # 6

The sixth trumpet is yet to sound (Rev 9:13-19). When it does it will unleash yet another great war which will occur near the Euphrates River, the historic boundary between Israel and her enemies to the East. Four angels will be released and command an army of 200 million soldiers. A third of mankind will be killed by fire, smoke, and sulfur. With a population of more than 1 billion people, China can field an army of 200 million soldiers. Perhaps. More likely, Arab countries united under the Islamic faith could create an army of that size.
We might be tempted to call this cataclysmic confrontation World War 3, but in Revelation it is called Armageddon (16:16). The many visions of John’s Revelation overlap each other and dovetail with each other. They are not strictly successive. This sixth trumpet war is probably the same war as detailed in the sixth and seventh bowl judgments (16:12-16), and also the war described at the return of Jesus, when the Lamb defeats an alliance of ten “kings” (17:11-14).
“Learn a lesson from the fig tree…. When you see all these things, you know it is near, right at the door” (Mt 24:32-33). Trumpet warning #6 is the only one yet to happen before Jesus returns.

Trumpet #7, the Last Trumpet

The last trumpet is not a warning to mankind, as the previous six. It is the trumpet call to harvest. This last trumpet is lengthy in description (Rev 10-14) with several interconnected apocalyptic mini-visions interspersed. The description begins with the pronouncement, “There will be no more delay!” (Rev 10:6), and it ends with the announcement, “the time to harvest has come” – two harvests to be exact (Rev 14:14-20.).

The first harvest is that of the saints, those who have chosen to trust in Jesus. This great harvest is the resurrection of the dead in Christ and the rapture of the living saints. From heaven’s perspective it is an ingathering of the harvest that has been ripening since the creation of mankind. The imagery of this harvest (Rev 14:15-16) is similar to that of Matthew 24:30-31. “They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.” The great apostle Paul describes this incredible event this way: “At the last trumpet… the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever” (I Cor 15:52; I Thes 5:16-17).

The second harvest is far different. It is the harvest of grapes for the winepress of God’s wrath. This harvest is the outpouring of judgment upon all the unbelieving people and nations of the earth, and all evildoers. This judgment is delineated and augmented in the following seven bowl judgments (Rev 16). Go ahead, take a peek. See what it will be like.  

This last trumpet marks the end of human government and the establishment of the Kingdom of God, on earth. Jesus will come again, this time as Lord of Lords and King of Kings.

Don’t say you weren’t warned.

How do you stand with your relationship with Jesus? Are you ready for His return? Will you live forever in His love, or forever suffer God’s wrath and judgment? The decision is yours, and you better decide soon. Maybe even today, because Today will not last much longer. Maranatha! Come quickly Lord Jesus. His second coming is our blessed hope (I Jn 3:2-3).

Dave Eymann, author of Apocalypse Puzzle, available on Amazon.com