The Trumpet Judgments:
“And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets.” (Revelation 8:2)
With the understanding in mind that Revelation was written in symbols, let’s look to the Old Testament for an example of trumpets being blown, then put together a model of what the trumpets in Revelation signify. Revelation’s trumpet judgments have significant meaning. They also have a definite purpose: to remove Antichrist from his position of power.
Israel’s Conquest of Jericho:
In the Old Testament book of Joshua, Israel’s conquest of Jericho is recorded. The Lord spoke to Joshua telling him:
“Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have all the people give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse.” (Joshua 6:4–6)
According to Jewish tradition, the long trumpet blast is called:
“… the last trump.”
The Israelites did as the Lord commanded, and the wall of Jericho fell. No earthly weapon was used to bring that wall down; the battle was won through a work in the Spirit. The Lord promised victory to Israel if Israel fought the battle according to His statutes. Israel did just as the Lord commanded.
In the last days, Christians will be facing impenetrable walls also. Then, as Revelation’s final trumpet begins to sound, God’s people will achieve victory[1].
The Chronology of the Apocalypse:
Much of the time-period[2] Antichrist is given to rule the earth has passed before Revelation’s trumpets begin to sound. In the book of Revelation, events escalate on a successive scale. To build a working model of Revelation’s time frame, let’s make some reasonable assumptions.
Consider that the same amount of time will expire between the breaking of all seven of the wax seals on Revelation’s mortgage scroll. Then also consider a seven-year time frame with each seal lasting one year. If this is the case, the breakdown of the main events in Revelation will follow this pattern: The first six seals take up six years, which is six-sevenths of Revelation’s total time frame. This means the trumpet judgments which are contained in the seventh seal occur during the seventh and final year.
Within the seventh trumpet judgment, there are seven bowls of wrath.[3] As the world gets closer to the battle of Armageddon, the judgments follow each other in rapid succession, with each plague being more severe than the preceding plague.
God’s Servants Are Sealed:
The Apostle John records that before the seventh seal is opened, which contains the trumpet judgments, the worldwide Christian Church represented as,
“… the servants of God,”
are sealed:
“After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree. Then I saw another angel coming up from the east, having the seal of the living God. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the land and the sea: ‘Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.’” (Revelation 7:1–3)
This sealing of professing Christians, represented as 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel, points to divine protection for faithful Christians from the coming judgments.
The First Trumpet Sounds:
“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.” (Revelation 8:7)
If one were to take the meaning of this last text literally, from a purely scientific standpoint, they might surmise that hail and fire mixed with blood was the result of a nuclear conflict. And, if one-third of earth’s trees burned up, the amount of smoke this would make and the amount of carbon dioxide it would produce, would indeed cause famine on a major scale. This burning could also account for the moon turning red and the sun withdrawing its light; but wait! This type of devastation on earth is too great at this point in Revelation’s timeline. There is still a year left before Armageddon.
Hail and fire mixed with blood in Revelation 8:7 represents spiritual warfare. Revelation’s first trumpet has more to do with the continued deception and apostasy of men and women rather than the literal destruction of vegetation.
A Symbolic Application:
“A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.” (Revelation 8:7)
Let’s consider the part of the verse where it reads,
“All the green grass was burned up.” (Revelation 8:7)
Why only the green grass? Why not the multitude of grass that is mature and still standing, about to be harvested? And what about the wheat and barley grass that is cut and baled, yet still lying in the fields? The text is not talking about literal grass here. The term green in this prophecy is speaking of people with shallow roots.[4] On this subject the bible spells out:
“… like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away.” (Psalms 37:2)
Let’s look at the part of the verse where it reads,
“A third of the trees were burned up.” (Revelation 8:7)
In Revelation, speaking of Satan, where he is illustrated as a red dragon, it’s written,
“His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth.” (Revelation 12:4)
These stars falling depict men and women falling from their Christian faith. A third of the trees that are burned up represent people falling from their faith as well. When the first trumpet sounds, the war in the spirit increases.
Revelation paints a picture of the forces of evil, knowing this is their last hurrah, lashing out at everything they can. Satan and his whole entourage are about to be removed from power. Their opportunity to deceive mankind and wreak havoc on the earth is coming to an end. So, they are trying to spoil what’s left of their domain:
“Before them fire devours, behind them a flame blazes. Before them the land is like the garden of Eden, behind them, a desert waste—nothing escapes them. They have the appearance of horses; they gallop along like cavalry. With a noise like that of chariots they leap over the mountaintops, like a crackling fire consuming stubble, like a mighty army drawn up for battle… Before them the earth shakes, the sky trembles, the sun and moon are darkened, and the stars no longer shine.” (Joel 2:3–5 & 10)
The Second Trumpet Sounds:
“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, a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.” (Revelation 8:8–9)
Before deciding if Revelation 8:8–9 should be taken literally, or if it has figurative meaning, look at passages elsewhere in Revelation that contain the word sea. The word sea is found 26 times in the book of Revelation. Here are a few examples:
- “Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.” (Revelation 12:12)
- “And the dragon stood on the shore of the sea.” (Revelation 12:18)
- “And I saw a beast coming out of the sea …” (Revelation 13:1)
Within prophetic scripture, the earth represents political strongholds while the sea is an illustration of multitudes of people, languages, and nations, as seen in the passage below:
“And he said to me, ‘The waters which you saw where the prostitute sits are peoples and multitudes, and nations and languages.'” (Revelation 17:15, NASB)
The expression sea creatures is used in the bible in reference to men, as in this passage:
“You have made men like fish in the sea, like sea creatures that have no ruler.” (Habakkuk 1:14)
The devil’s fury will not be focused on a literal sea, his rage will affect multitudes of people, of different languages, consisting of many nations. People expecting natural plagues in the days ahead will fail to notice the Satan’s more subtle deceptions.
As demonstrated in the following verse, a mountain on fire being hurled into the sea is speaking of Satan’s governmental forces impacting the nations, affecting multitudes and then burning out and coming to an end:
“‘I am against you, O destroying mountain, you who destroy the whole earth,’ declares the LORD. ‘I will stretch out my hand against you, roll you off the cliffs, and make you a burned-out mountain.’” (Jeremiah 51:25)
Jesus said,
“I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.” (Mark 11:23)
Was Jesus Christ speaking in figurative language here? Yes.[5]
People expecting to see a real mountain, or what looks like a mountain, being cast into the sea during the days of Revelation’s trumpet judgments, are misunderstanding Revelation’s narrative. Throwing down the powers of darkness and the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly realms is what the book of Revelation is speaking of.
The creatures that die in the sea represent men and women who die spiritually due to the strong pressure this mountain imposes upon their unstable faith.
The Third Trumpet Sounds:
“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.” (Revelation 8:10–11)
This great star falls on rivers and streams; one-third of the earth’s water is affected! From a strictly geological standpoint, it would be impossible for a natural star, or meteor, to only affect fresh water; because on a scale of this magnitude, if it were a physical object, the oceans would also be impacted. Bitter waters in scripture are illustrations of spiritual deception, which can lead to spiritual death.
What Do the Prophets Say about Rivers and Streams?
Jesus cried out saying,
“‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.’ By this he meant the Spirit.” (John 7:37–39)
Streams of fresh water depict the Spirit of God. In the last days, Satan and his demon host will pollute earth’s spiritual environment. Satan wouldn’t be satisfied with just harming people’s bodies, he wants to thwart Christ’s victory where it matters the most, by destroying people’s faith in the gospel of Christ.
The Fourth Trumpet Sounds:
“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.” (Revelation 8:12)
This trumpet plague is speaking of a great loss of light.
It will be earth’s darkest hour before the dawn arrives:
“Therefore night will come over you, without visions, and darkness, without divination. The sun will set for the prophets, and the day will go dark for them. The seers will be ashamed and the diviners disgraced. They will all cover their faces because there is no answer from God.” (Micah 3:6–7)
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Endnotes:
[1] Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” (1 Corinthians 15:51-54)
[2] “The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise his authority for forty-two months.” (Revelation 13:5)
[3] “Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, ‘Go, pour out the seven bowls of God’s wrath on the earth.'” (Revelation 16.1)
[4] “The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.” (Matthew 13:20-21)
[5] “And with many such parables He was speaking the word to them, so far as they were able to understand it; and He did not speak to them without a parable; but He was explaining everything privately to His own disciples.” Mark 4:33-44, NASB)