Seven Trumpets Begin
The first of the trumpets and bowls of wrath are sores on those who worship the image of the beast (the Trinity) and receive his mark (Sunday rest). This began as early as the 1800’s.
While a significant number of people have questioned the Trinity doctrine over the years, until recently, the true Apostolic doctrine remained clouded by changes made to the biblical text. Alternatives to the Trinity, including modalism, and unitarianism, were no more sensible than the Trinity itself. Those who had ideas that embraced the Apostolic concepts, were unable to explain themselves, because of the false translation of the biblical text.
Today, the true Apostolic doctrine of Christ and God is evident, and undeniable. Anybody who continues to worship the Trinity, after hearing the truth, will fall under the judgment of God. They will receive the “sores” of this first trumpet.
The trumpets and bowls of wrath resemble the ten plagues that God sent upon Egypt. These trumpets remove the lawlessness out of the kingdom of heaven, whereas the bowls of wrath are simply the attack against “the kingdom of the beast.” But the meaning and result is the same. The last plague, which is the spiritual death of man at the judgment seat of Christ, reminds us of the death of the Egyptians by the Angel of Lord (Christ), the last plague on Egypt. But, all those who had the blood over the door, were spared. This represented the blood of Christ over the house of God, His Church.
The first four trumpets attack the one “third” of the kingdom of heaven which is lawless. The fifth trumpet makes no distinction of “a third,” because by this time, the Angels have separated the wheat and the chaff (Matt 13:40;49).
The first four trumpets span a considerable time period, over 500 years. This should not be too surprising as the fifth trumpet is directly said to be over 5 months (150 prophetic years).
|Trumpet||Bowl of Wrath|
|1. hail and fire||sores on those who worship the image and receive the mark of the beast|
|2. sea||sea (baptisms/salvation of death in false churches)|
|3. rivers and springs||rivers and springs (the lawless drink the spirit of a demon called Wormwood)|
|4. sun, moon, and stars are darkened (matches the fifth Bowl of Wrath)||the glory of the saints; “then the righteous shall shine forth as the sun”|
|5. release from the bottomless pit||the kingdom of the beast is darkened|
|7. flaming fire and judgment||flaming fire and judgment|
there was silence in heaven for about half an hour – there is a period of quietness, that follows the deaths of the Reformation wars, in about 1650 AD, until the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in about 1900 AD. This is approximately 250 years, or 1/2 hour of the clock of human history of 6,000 years. From the end of the cry of the Martyrs, “how long?” in Revelation 6:10, until this next major event is a “half an hour.” See also Revelation 14:7, “the hour of his judgment has come.” The hour of God’s judgment is the “final hour,” being the last 500 years of the 6,000 years of man. This “half an hour,” of 250 years, precedes “the hour of God’s judgment.”
that He might add to the prayers of the saints – this Angel is Christ, the Angel of God, who intercedes for the saints.
then the Angel took the censer and filled it with fire…and threw it to the earth – the Angel, the Spirit of Christ, baptises His Church with fire of the Holy Spirit, in the last days (as He did on the Day of Pentecost, see Acts 2:33). Through the Sanctified Church, Christ brings these plagues against the kingdom of the beast. (Fire from the altar can be found in Leviticus 6:13, and was first poured down from heaven in Leviticus 9:24.)
there followed peals of thunder…lightning and an earthquake – “there followed” the judgment Day, that is explained as “thunder, lighting and an earthquake” in Revelation 11:19. The final outpouring of the Holy Spirit, that brings the darkening of the “sun,” and “moon,” and the falling of “stars,” described in this Chapter, will be followed by the Judgment Day, as Christ described in Matthew 24:29-30.
the first trumpet, hail and fire, and blood – this is the plague of hail and fire poured out on Egypt (Exod 9:24). From here, we begin to suspect that these plagues are metaphorical. The meaning of the metaphor in the “Seven Trumpets” is simple. These plagues are like those on Egypt, that have no affect on the “righteous,” just as they passed over the sons of Israel, and only struck the Egyptians.
This is only one of two trumpets that do not seem to directly match the corresponding bowl of wrath. The first bowl of wrath is “sores on those who worship the image of the beast and receive his mark.” Of course, the hail and fire cause the “sores on those who had the mark of the beast and worship his image.” The fulfillment of this prophecy, which followed the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, was dramatic. Prior to the 20th Century, few people questioned Sunday rest, or the Trinity doctrine. But by the end of the 20th Century, there was scarcely a Christian who would try to defend either. Before the year 1950, businesses would not operate on a Sunday, but by the end of the 20th Century, both Sunday and Saturday had become acceptable days of business in the Western World: “they have no rest day or night,” Revelation 14:11.
The other bowl of wrath that does not match is the fourth, because the focus of the Bowls of wrath are the attack on the kingdom of the Beast, whereas the focus of the trumpets is to show God’s deliverance of His people.
a third – the meaning of “a third” is clear in the fourth trumpet, where we see “a third of the sun, moon, and stars” darkened. The sun, moon and stars represents the kingdom of heaven, before its corruption, as described in Revelation 12:1. A “third of the Angels fell” in Rev 12:4, representing the part of heaven that was lawless, and sided with Satan. In each of the first four plagues, “a third” represents the “lawless” part of the kingdom of heaven affected by the plague. These plagues are the work of Angels sent out to remove the lawlessness from Christ’s kingdom (see Matt 13:40-41; which was also explained in Revelation 14).
Before we comfort ourselves with the idea that God only considers 1/3 to be lawless, we must ask ourselves the question, do we know who the 1/3 is? Only those who receive the promised Holy Spirit have the assurance of salvation (Ephesians 1:13-14).
of the earth – you may notice that the first three trumpets follow the judgment order of Revelation 14:7, “the hour of His judgment has come…who made…the earth, and the sea and springs of water.” Here, in the first three trumpets, are the effect of these plagues against the earth (the people), the sea (their salvation), and springs of water (the spirit they drink).
one third of the trees – Jesus said we would know those who are true, in the kingdom of heaven, by their fruit: “a good tree cannot bear bad fruit.” (Matt 7:18) The trees, especially by the water, are the righteous, see Psalms 1:3, Jeremiah 17:8. The trees of the end time Church are fed by the water of the Holy Spirit, as we read in Ezekiel 47:12; they grow much fruit.
all of the grass was burned – grass represents all men; “all flesh is grass,” see Isaiah 40:6, 1 Peter 1:24, and other verses. In Rev 13:16, we learn that the beast caused “all men” to receive a mark, as all men forsook the commandment of God. More specifically, from 1 Peter 1:23-24, the grass represents those who have not been born of the Spirit, “for you have been born again, not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, for ‘all flesh is as grass.”
If anyone doubts the figurative meaning of this verse, they should consider the trees and the grass in Revelation 9:4. The Greek text literally reads: “And it was said that they should not harm the grass, nor any green thing, nor any tree; if not the men not having the seal of God on their foreheads.” The Greek grammar, in this verse, directly identifies the trees and grass as men.