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Revelation Segment 8

All scripture is from the King James Version unless otherwise noted. Before beginning this study, I suggest you pray and ask God to guide you through this study. I also suggest that you do you own study of this material in order to ensure its accuracy.
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Let me repeat again what I said about seals (from Revelation Segment 4):

"Jesus opened the seals and as each seal [on the book (scroll) of Rev 5:1-7] was opened the events of the end of the age unfolded. They were seals of revealing. The first four seals reveal the four horsemen: conquering (or victory), war, famine, and death. The fifth seal reveals those slain for their testimony. The sixth seal reveals upheaval on earth. The seventh seal reveals the trumpet and vial judgments. All of these things are contained in the scroll.

Seven seals make this scroll divine, complete, and perfect. Some say that this seal is the title deed to creation. That is an opinion with which I am inclined to agree. To Christ has been given all things (John 3:35) and this scroll is the testament to that."

The seventh, and last, seal reveals tribulation and judgment. After the seal is opened, the seven trumpets of God are disclosed. And after the trumpets are sounded, the seven vials of God's wrath are poured out.

Why is there silence in heaven for half an hour? Silence is often associated with the awesome presence of God and with great and terrible judgment. It is also associated with death and the grave. David said of silence, "let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave" (Psalm 31:17). Silence is used to indicate defeat and destruction: "The burden of Moab. Because in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste, and brought to silence; because in the night Kir of Moab is laid waste, and brought to silence;" (Isa 15:1). Amos speaks of silence in the time of the end: "Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time" (Amos 5:13). Amos also tells of silence during tribulation: "And the songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day, saith the Lord GOD: there shall be many dead bodies in every place; they shall cast them forth with silence" (Amos 8:3). The Holman Bible Dictionary has a good article on silence:

"The Bible uses silence in several ways: as reverence to God (Hab. 2:20), as a symbol of death (Ps. 94:17), as a symbol of Sheol (Ps. 115:17), and as an expression of despair (Lam. 2:10). It is a way to shut up the opposition (Matt. 22:34). It is also used as a dramatic pause following the opening of the seventh seal in Revelation 8:1."

Holman Bible Dictionary for Windows, Copyright ©, 1994, Parsons Technology

This silence in heaven is for the specific purpose of setting apart the pending pouring out of God's wrath. The presence of God is eminent and the trumpet is about to sound. Consider the court of a king. The courtiers and their ladies are all assembled and expecting the king. It is learned that the king is approaching and about to make his entrance into court. Suddenly there is a hush over all the assembly in anticipation of the king. Then the trumpet sounds and the king is announced. That is just about what is happening here. The trumpet is about to sound ushering in the coming wrath of God Almighty.

Silence signifies death, defeat and destruction. Each of these calamities occurs after the silence recorded in Heaven here in the Revelation. Silence signifies that the end is come and that is just what the Revelation is about. Silence anticipates a great and terrible event. That is exactly what the Tribulation is, a great and terrible event.

This silence recorded here is a microcosm of the entire Apocalypse (that is, the Revelation). The entire Apocalypse is about the end of the age, about death and destruction, and of course, about great salvation. These are all awesome events for us and they evoke silence from us because of our lack of understanding of the things of God. Silence allows us to listen, learn and understand these things. We need to have silence for any exalted purpose and what higher purpose is there than the culmination of the Kingdom of God? The seventh seal contains all of these events and that is why there was silence in Heaven before the seal was opened.

There is a very good reason for the silence lasting thirty minutes. One hour is mentioned several times in the Revelation. The word "hour" has more than one meaning. Obviously, it literally means sixty minutes. But figuratively in can mean a fixed time for a particular event. For example, "The condemned man's hour had come." The Revelation mentions such an hour.

The fixed time of the Judgment of God is in view here. This time has been fixed since before the foundation of the world and the Revelation is giving a view of that exact time.

Next, the Revelation mentions a specific one hour period of time. During that one hour, several things happen.

This one hour is Satan's time period on earth before judgment. Daniel tells us of that hour:

Dan 9:27 "And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate [actually desolator--another subject for another study]."

This week is a seven-year period at the end of the age (the consummation). In the middle of that seven-year period, that is, at three and one half years, the desolator (Antichrist) will break the covenant. This is known as the seven-year tribulation. For three and one half years, there will be peace, but at the three and one half-year point, the peace pact is broken and the Antichrist begins his tribulation against men. But at the end of that time, Antichrist will be defeated.

That is exactly the period explained in the Revelation in the verses above. The seven year period of Daniel is the one hour period mentioned in the Revelation. It is Satan's hour. Satan's one hour is the same as his seven years in Daniel. In one hour, all of Satan's plans will become desolate or destroyed. It is the one hour of the beast, and the one hour of Babylon. At the end of that hour, they are destroyed.

In heaven, there is one half hour of silence. That corresponds to the 3½ years of peace with the "prince that will come" (Dan 9:26), who is the desolator. After that half an hour, the covenant is broken and the Great Tribulation begins. The silence precedes the events of the Great Tribulation, which is the second half of the seven years. In Matthew 24:22 and Mark 13:20 we are told that those days of tribulation are shortened for the sake of the elect. We will find out what the time is shortened to in Chapter 9.

Here is another perspective of the half-hour: Usually a day is reckoned figuratively as a thousand years:

But in the prophetic works of Daniel, we are given a different symbolic time frame for a day:

Daniel saw a period of seventy weeks from his day until the end of the age. That is "to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy". These things do not happen until the end of the age. If this prophecy were actually literal weeks of seven days each, then either Daniel was wrong or the end of the age happened sixteen and one half months after the prophecy was given.

Daniel was not wrong, for his writing is the Word of God, which is without error. We can understand these weeks then, to be weeks of years or periods of seven years each. If Daniel had meant literal weeks of seven days, then he would have used the term "days" as he did in places where literal days were meant. No, he meant a total period of 490 years. The first sixty-nine weeks of years (483 years) were to pass and then the Messiah will be cut off. The last week will happen at the end of the age. It has been nearly 2,000 years since He was cut off.

This is easily explained if we let E.W. Bullinger explain it:

"Messiah was to 'have nothing' that was His, 'after' His cutting off. This clearly points to the crucifixion of Messiah, and the rejection of His Messianic kingdom. For nearly 2,000 years Messiah has 'had nothing' of all the many 'glorious things' which have been spoken of Him, in connection with Himself or with His People Israel."

The Companion Bible, © 1990, Kregel Publications, Ap. 91.III.2

The purpose of this aside was to help us to understand that in Daniel's prophecy, days were symbolic of years. Using the day-year time scale of Daniel, we could determine half an hour to be a week. (The Rabinnic year was 360 days. One hour is 1/24 of a day, so half an hour is 1/48 of a day. In our time scale, half an hour, which is 1/48 of a day would be 1/48 of a year. The calculation is: 360 days X 1/48 day = 360 days ÷ 48 = 7.5 days or about one week). So it is possible the silence could be for a whole week. Some have interpreted it this way. I must admit I am not fully convinced of this argument, but it is interesting and I place it here for your decision.

A trumpet denotes action (as in battle). Since the trumpets signify action it is more than likely that they are arranged in chronological order in the Bible. Not all scholars or students would agree that they are in order, but I find no reason why they should not be in order. God controls when the trumpets will sound and His messengers, or angels, sound them. Of course the sounding of them precedes an action.

To understand this verse, we must first understand the workings of the temple system. Once and only once a year, the high priest was to go into the Holy of Holies, the Sanctum Sanctorum, the Most Holy Place, that is into the very Presence of God, and to make atonement for the sins of Israel. The Ark of the Covenant was located in the Most Holy Place. When he went into the Most Holy Place, he took with him a censer, which is a container for live coals. The live coals in the censer came from the altar of incense. The high priest would carry incense into the Most Holy Place along with the censer filled with coals, and then he would pour the incense over the coals in the censer causing copious amounts of incense smoke. The smoke from the incense would fill the place. The smoke represented the shekina glory of God, that is the visible presence of the Glory of God, in the Most Holy Place. It was also used to cover God so that the priest would not see Him and die (Lev. 16:13). The Israelites truly believed (as I do, for that is what the Bible says--Ex. 30:6) that the actual Presence of God was in the Most Holy Place, above the cover or Mercy Seat of the Ark.

Here we are told that the smoke from the incense is offered with the prayers of God's people. In the Tabernacle and the Temple, the Altar of Incense was kept just outside the curtain that separated the Most Holy Place from the Holy Place. Incense was perpetually burned on the Altar of Incense. Each morning, the high priest would burn incense on the Altar. We read about Zacharias (father of John the Baptist) burning the incense and at the time of incense, the people would gather outside the Holy Place to pray (Luke 1:10). The Bible also indicates that incense is effective in making atonement for sins (Num. 16:46-48). Thus

"the fragrance of incense was symbolic of the prayers of the faithful, which when produced by the fire of the Holy Spirit acting upon thought, word, and deed, bound together in adoration, ascend acceptably to God: Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. (Psa 141:2)"

--E. Raymond Capt, King Solomon's Temple, Artisan Sales, Thousand Oak, CA, 1979, p.54

The incense and the prayers of the saints were both offered on the altar before the Throne of God. Therefore God would smell the sweet savor of the incense and simultaneously hear the prayers of His own people. Note that the incense is offered on the Golden Altar and not in the censer like the High Priest would do. This incense is offered by an angel and not by our High Priest, Jesus Christ. The high priest would pour the incense into the censer full of coals, but here, that does not happen because the High Priest is not making the offering, an angel is. At this point the censer is empty.

Here is a better translation: "And the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints ascended up out of the hand of the angel before God." The KJV implies that the smoke inherently included the prayers of the saints, but the Greek implies that the prayers and the smoke were two different things going up before God together. The incense was placed on the fire of the Altar out of the angel's hand and the smoke ascended from the altar. By extension, the smoke was out of the angel's hand. I believe it is symbolic of the Holy Spirit going before the Father with the prayers.

In the Temple system, the priest would take fire from the altar of incense that stood outside the Most Holy Place and place it in the censer to take with him into the Most Holy Place to burn the incense. Fire could also be taken from the Brazen Altar, which stands in the court before the Tabernacle/Temple. It is the Altar of Burnt Offering. Here we see the angel taking fire from the Golden Altar casting it down to the earth. He burned the incense on the Golden Altar and not in the censer like the priest would do. The smoke of the incense went up before God with the prayers of the saints. This is the key.

Who are the saints? The Greek word for saint is hagios. It means sacred, set apart and blameless. Christians are set apart for God and all are blameless before Him because of the blood of Christ. The saints are Christians. All true Christians are saints. So the prayers of God's people have come up before Him with the smoke of the incense. God has heard the prayers of his people and now He is ready to begin the tribulations prepared for the earth.

The Bible says "For our God is a consuming fire." (Heb 12:29) This is a New Testament stating of an Old Testament principle. For example, "For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God." (Deu 4:24) And, "Understand therefore this day, that the LORD thy God is he which goeth over before thee; as a consuming fire he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down before thy face: so shalt thou drive them out, and destroy them quickly, as the LORD hath said unto thee." (Deu 9:3)

The last verse gives us the information we need. God is speaking of those enemies of His that lived in Canaan. He would drive them out before the Israelites, His chosen people. He is a consuming fire to His enemies, but to He gives grace to His people. So when the angel pours the censer out upon the earth, he is pouring out God's wrath as a consuming fire.

When Moses was on the Mountain and the people were at the foot of the Mountain, "there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled." The presence of God on Sinai frightened the people because of the cloud, the thunder, the lightning, and the sound of the trumpet. The sound of the trumpet was the Voice of God.

This passage in Revelation is a fulfillment of Isaiah 29:6, "Thou shalt be visited of the LORD of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire."

Isaiah is talking about the mythical place called Ariel. Ariel means Lion of God. Ariel is most commonly associated with Jerusalem, but it has an allegorical quality to it. It is used of Jerusalem when Jerusalem is rebellious against God. It could also be used of the world when the world rebels against God.

Isaiah is definitely talking about the time of the end. When the Babylonians came against Jerusalem, they besieged it. There was no thunder, noise, or earthquake. The Temple was burned and the walls were broken down and most of the people were exported to Babylon. As violent as the burning of the Temple and the tearing down of the walls were, they did not equal the words of Isaiah.

Here in Revelation the LORD visits the earth with thunder, earthquake, noise (the word for voices could also be rendered noise), storm, tempest, and devouring or consuming fire.

The first six trumpets are associated to the earth and its tribulations, while the seventh is associated with heaven. Here the trumpet and vial judgments against the earth begin.

This is the sounding of the first trumpet. Hail, fire, and blood are all associated with the judgment of God. Hail is used as a divine punishment and reminder of who God is. Fire, as we see from the previous verses can represent the glory and awesome power of God, is also used for judgment against enemies of God. When spilled, blood can be the way to atonement and to salvation The blood of bulls and goats was spilled for the temporal relief of sins, but the blood of Christ was spilled once for all as atonement for all sins and provides for our salvation and eternal life. But the spilling of blood also represents the judgment of God. When God sends an army against His people in judgment, blood is spilled.

The best way to understand what is going on here, is to go to Ezekiel. These words are in judgment against Gog and Magog. Read Ezekiel chapter 38 in its entirety. Ezekiel 38:22: "And I will plead against him [Gog] with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone."

Here in Ezekiel, God is talking about bringing a vast army from the north, the army of "Gog, [of] the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him." This land is not readily identified as of yet. There have been many speculations, some better than others. But right now there is no way of really knowing what land Ezekiel was speaking of. Some have said that is the land of the State of Russia and that Meshech is Moscow and Tubal is either Tublisi in Georgia or Tobolsk in Russia. Others have said Germany (during WWII), China, and various places. It seems like the land of Magog is usually identified with some current enemy. But these are just guesses. We just don't know what Ezekiel meant. When the event comes to pass, then we will know.

The Revelation uses the terms Gog and Magog as an inclusive term for all nations: Rev 20:8: "And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea." So, the words in our verse, Rev 8:6, apply to all the nations using Ezekiel 39:22 as a figure. In Ezekiel, we are given a prophecy of a real battle that has not yet taken place, and Revelation uses this as a figure for the judgment of God poured out on the entire earth.

What is meant by "the third part" (meaning one-third)? In Law, the third part is the part of the estate of a deceased man who dies intestate (that is, without a legal Last Will and Testament) and leaving an heir that goes to his widow. The heir receives two-thirds by law and the widow receives one-third.

Christ died leaving a widow and an heir. The widow could be assumed to be those of the world who rejected the Messiah, and the heir could be assumed to be the Church. The widow's, or the world's part of the estate is judgment, therefore the judgment falls on a third part of everything: trees, rivers, seas, etc.

But there are more Biblical links to help us to understand why one third of these things were judged. Rev 12:3-4a: "And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. {4a} And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth:" Who is this dragon? We find out in verse nine: "And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him." (You need to read all of chapter twelve to get the whole story. Please take the time now to do so) The dragon is Satan and the stars are his angels. In Rev 1:20, we are told that stars are angels or messengers. Here, we are also told that the dragon's tail swept a third of the stars from heaven and that the dragon is Satan and his angels were cast out of heaven with him. It is a simple connection to make that these stars are Satan's angels. This is the story of his rebellion.

When Lucifer rebelled (Isa 14:12-20, Eze 28:12-19) he took a third of the angels with him in the rebellion and therefore judgment falls on a third of his domain, the world. This way, Satan reaps what he has sown. He took a third of the angels with him in his rebellion so a third of the world over which he is prince (John 12:21, 14:30, 16:11, Eph 2:2 1 Pet 5:8) is destroyed.

Why was all of the green grass burned?

Deu 29:23 "And that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the LORD overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath:"

Psa 37:1-2 "A Psalm of David. Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. {2} For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb."

Isa 40:8 " The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever."

In Isaiah, God was talking about Israel's disobedience and He compared it to Sodom and Gomorrah. The wrath of God left no green grass and that is why all the green grass was consumed. The Psalm goes a step further and says evil doers will be cut down like the grass. Isaiah says that even though the grass withers, God is Eternal. In the time written of in Revelation chapter eight, God's wrath will pour out again but on the whole world.

The second trumpet. A great mountain was cast into the sea. Literal or figurative? Literally anything is possible with God, but as Revelation is full of symbology, it is more likely that this is figurative. In Jer 51:24-25, Babylon is called a mountain. "And I will render unto Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight, saith the LORD. {25} Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith the LORD, which destroyest all the earth: and I will stretch out mine hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain."

Of course, in Revelation, Babylon is symbolic of the world and her government. So here we have a picture of Babylon being tossed into the sea. Jesus said that if we have enough faith we can move a mountain into the sea (Mat 21:21). He did not mean a mountain in the literal sense; he meant it figuratively. He said a man with faith could do to the mountain as Jesus did to the fig tree. The fig tree was symbolic of Israel and the mountain was symbolic of Israel's enemy, Babylon. Israel represents God's people and Babylon represents those who belong to the prince of this world. Jesus spoke to the fig tree and it withered symbolizing His coming and Israel's rejection of him. But His church then became God's people (the church does not replace Israel because the church is made up of both saved Israelites and saved Gentiles). God's people, the church, have the faith to move Babylon into the sea.

Which brings us to the sea. The sea is symbolic of the nations of the earth. Ezek 26:3: "Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causeth his waves to come up." Read all of Ezekiel chapter 16 to get the full significance of the use of the sea to symbolize nations. Of course Tyrus or Tyre means a rock, not the Solid Rock but the impostor, Satan. Tyre is symbolic of Lucifer in Isaiah 14. So the sea or the nations will come up against Babylon, Satan's government.

The casting of the mountain into the sea represents the prophecy against Babylon given in Jer 51:41-42: "How is Sheshach taken! and how is the praise of the whole earth surprised! how is Babylon become an astonishment among the nations! {42} The sea is come up upon Babylon: she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof." This fulfillment will come in the time of the end. More clearly, Satan will be cast into the earth when Michael casts him out of heaven.

When Satan is cast out of Heaven he will fall like lightning. He will be a falling star, Wormwood to be exact (v. 11). That is why the mountain seems to be on fire. Wormwood means bitterness and when Satan falls to earth, he will be bitter. A third part of the sea becoming blood symbolizes a third of the nations being destroyed.

A third of all life in the nations will die. A third of the commerce between them will cease. Commerce, or merchandise is how Satan spreads his lies.

In the epic novel, The Pilgrim's Progress, by John Bunyan, Christian and Faithful come to this city in which there is a fair called Vanity Fair. The Fair is ancient and vanities are sold there. It was started by Satan. Here is what Bunyan writes about Vanity Fair:

"…at this fair are all such merchandises sold, as houses, lands, trades, places, honours, preferments, titles, countries, kingdoms, lusts, pleasures; and delights of all sorts, as whores, bawds, wives, husbands, children, masters, servants, lives, blood, bodies, souls, silver, gold, pearls, precious stones, and what not? ."

The Pilgrim's Progress, © 1985 by Barbour and Company, Inc, Ohio

Mr. Bunyan says that the merchandise of Satan is all of these things. This is very astute, and true. See Ezekiel 28, especially verse 16.

Trumpet number three. Wormwood is the common name of an aromatic herb yielding a bitter extract used in making absinthe, which is a strong bitter liqueur. The extract, terpene thujone, is a toxic substance, which explains why absinthe is no longer manufactured. The scientific classification is artemisia absinthium. The wormwood plant produces a bitter and toxic substance. Toxic means deadly. So a deadly poison enters the waters and kills men. That would be the literal interpretation. But the Revelation is filled with figures and this is another of them.

Let us examine some bitter waters in the Bible. Of course we know the story of the waters of Marah. The Israelites came to Marah to drink water but it was bitter. Moses cast a tree into the waters and they became sweet. This was a blessing even though the Israelites murmured against God. But the bitter waters caused by this falling star called Wormwood are for a curse.

The Law of Jealousies (Num 6:29) is concerned with bitter waters. If a man suspected his wife had been unfaithful to him but was not a witness to the act and could not produce witnesses to the act, the woman was taken to the priest who arranged an ordeal to determine the woman's innocence or guilt. When the man brought the woman to the priest, he brought an offering of jealousy or remembrance (an offering of barley). The priest seated the woman before the sanctuary facing the altar. The woman's hair was unbound as a sign of her shame. The woman held the offering, and the priest held the vessel containing the bitter water. The bitter water was a combination of blessed water and dust from the sanctuary floor. At this point the woman took an oath: if she was innocent, the water would not harm her; if she was guilty, then her "thigh would rot" and her "body swell." The woman affirmed the oath with a double, "amen." The priest wrote the curse, "The LORD make thee a curse and an oath among thy people, when the LORD doth make thy thigh to rot, and thy belly to swell; and this water that causeth the curse shall go into thy bowels, to make thy belly to swell, and thy thigh to rot:" on a parchment and washed the ink off the page into the water. The priest then took the offering and burned it upon the altar, after which the woman drank the bitter water. If she was innocent, she would not be harmed and would conceive children as a blessing. If she was guilty, the curse would take effect.

This law was actually used for the purpose stated. But now to find the figurative sense of this law, let us look at the act of spiritual adultery. God considered Israel to be as his wife (Isa 54:6, Jer 3:20, Eze 16:31-32, Hos 1:1). When Israel departed form the true worship of God and worshipped idols and other Gods, she was in idolatry. But God called it adultery. It was the adultery of forsaking the worship of God to worship other gods. Spiritual adultery is actually idolatry.

The church is considered to be the bride of Christ. It is now betrothed to Christ. That means that all aspects of marriage are in force except consummation. To be separated from Christ, the church would have to be given a bill of divorcement. In ancient Israel, in order for the betrothed of a man to be separated from that man, a bill of divorcement had to be issued. That is because betrothed was the same as married except for the consummation of the marriage. A six-year-old child may have been engaged to be married and even though she was a child; in order for her not to become the wife of her betrothed, she would have had to get a divorce. But because she was a child the wedding could not take place because she was too young for the consummation of that marriage. As the betrothed of Christ, the church could be accused of adultery for worshipping someone other than God.

Could that happen? Do we ever get in a backslidden position because we put something before God? A good example of this is spending so much time at work that we forsake the worship of God, the study of His word, and the fellowship of other Christians. That is putting work before God. That is idolizing work. That is spiritual adultery.

It could also happen if you do not understand who the false Christ is and who comes to Earth first. Many Christians today believe that the church will be taken off the earth before the antichrist comes. That is just not true as Paul tells us in 2 Th 2:1-4: "Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, {2} That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. {3} Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; {4} Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." So the antichrist, the man of sin, the son of perdition who claims to be God will come to Earth BEFORE the True Christ comes and gathers His elect unto Him. When the false Christ comes first, many Christians who have believed the rapture theory will think he is the real thing and will worship him. This is idolatry or spiritual adultery.

The reason that Wormwood made the waters bitter is because of the Idolatry of men. Just as the wife suspected of adultery was to take of bitter waters, so are those who reject God falling into idolatry. Who do they worship? Well take your pick. The big thing about today is the New Age movement, which teaches that we are gods. It teaches the worship of self. Let us not forget the environmental movement. While there are good people who are in the environmental movement, there are also bad there. In it reside witchcraft, nature worship, and mother earth worship. But the age-old worship of self started at the Tower of Babel. There men came together to try to be like God. In the beginning, Lucifer committed that same sin of trying to be like God. And now, men are returning to that mistake through one-worldism and that leads to worship of the beast.

Men who participate in that idolatry are destined to drink of the bitter waters just like the woman who is tested for adultery. Many of them died just as the woman who committed adultery.

The fourth trumpet. Here we must return to the Old Testament. You will find allusion to this event in these prophecies: Isa 13:10, 24:23, Jer 4:23, Eze 32:7,8, Joe 2:10,31, and Am 8:9. Jesus discusses this in Mt 24:29, 27:45, Mk 13:24, 15:33, Lu 21:2,5 23:44,45, and Peter quotes Joel in Acts 2:20.

Why were the sun, moon, and stars created? "And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:" Gen 1:14.

They were created to distinguish between night and day and to show seasons, days, and years, but here we are interested in signs. How are they used for sings? Some say the stars of the Zodiac tell the story of the earth, the divine story of the earth, that is. This is the story from creation to the crucifixion, form the resurrection of Christ until his return. Modern astrology is not in view here, nor is the worship of the stars. We are only interested in them as signs. For more information see Bullinger's Witness of the Stars and Capt's The Glory of the Stars. But here in Revelation, all three are used for signs.

What kinds of signs? Those signaling the Day of the Lord. We see the darkening of these lights in prophecies against Babylon, Tyre, Jerusalem, Egypt, Zion, and the people of Israel. The darkening of the lights in the firmament represents the wrath of God. When God created the lights, he saw that they were good. When evil, which is darkness, pervades the earth, the light that God created will go away. In the days of the trumpet judgments, evil will have overshadowed a third of God's good lights that He placed in the heavens for our benefit. For the reason for the use of thirds, see above.

The explanation for this is simple. In fact, the verse interprets itself. The last three trumpets, which follow this happening, are also three woes. If the first four were not woes, then woes must be something else! The first four trumpets were a party compared to the last three. Find out about them in the next segment.

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