Chapter 8

There are three paragraphs in this chapter. First of all there is the transition from the seals to the trumpets, verses 1-2. Secondly, there is that tremendous sense of destiny on the part of the Tribulational martyrs: the answer to the imprecatory prayers, verses 3-6. Finally, the chapter closes out with the four trumpet judgements, verses 7-13.

We begin, then, with the transition from the seals of the Doomsday book to the trumpet judgements of the Doomsday book, verses 1 and 2 of our chapter. We note in verse 1 the opening of the seventh seal which will contain the seven trumpets. This is a very unusual thing because silence is not the way in which most of the drama and disasters of the Tribulation is expressed. It is generally expressed through noise of one kind or another. But so great are the trumpet judgements and so fantastic their implications with regard to personal or national sense of destiny that when the seventh seal is opened by our Lord Jesus Christ there is great silence in heaven. Silence always has a dual connotation. Silence first of all connotes great respect for someone who is not present but in your memory. Secondly, silence denotes shock. Both connotations are found in this verse.

The seventh seal is the amplification of the various historical trends of the Tribulation, including Satan, demon invasion, dictatorship and the evil function of religion. Out of the seventh seal there are two categories of historical trends yet to be studied: the trumpet judgements of Revelations chapters 8-14 and the drinking goblet judgements of chapters 15:7 to chapter 18.

The silence here is a reference to the shock of the supernatural nature of the trumpet judgements. This one half-hour of silence has to be classified, therefore, as dramatic silence. Up to this point we have noted a tremendous amount of noise in heaven. This half hour changes everything, it is classified by silence. The trumpet judgements are supernatural in character, they are the result of bad decisions, but they have gone beyond bad decisions to a locked-in system of supernatural judgements which bring into conflict the two historical conflicts of history. First of all there is the angelic conflict which existed from before man was created. Then the angelic conflict has now overflowed into human history and the two are brought together for the first time in detail in the Tribulation.

There has always been demonism and demon activity. There has always been supernatural activity on the part of Satan as the ruler of this world, but primarily he administers his rulership through cosmic one with its 26 gates of interlocking systems of arrogance, and cosmic two with its nine gates of interlocking systems of hatred. Cosmic one is grieving the Holy Spirit in this dispensation; involvement in cosmic two is quenching the Holy Spirit. This is the way that he operates primarily, he does not have to resort to supernatural activity because of the arrogance of those in the cosmic system. The arrogance produces an evil greater even in many ways than supernatural evil. Nevertheless, in every dispensation there is a certain amount of demon activity but nothing compared to the Tribulation, and for the first time in the Tribulation the armies of heaven will be released against the armies of Satan and there will be angelic fighting in the first heaven [the atmosphere] and on the surface of the earth, along with all of these supernatural judgements against man. It is this that brings about this tremendous silence, the silence of awe, the silence of shock, the silence of respect, the silence where you have nothing now to say. Everyone in heaven is going to be absolutely silent at the awe of these trumpet judgements. They are so great that all are shocked into silence. In fact there would be nothing that could be added to what our Lord is doing. It is fair, it is just, and the silence recognises the fact that the human race without the restraint of God the Holy Spirit in the Tribulation has finally brought itself into a disaster situation of its own making by its own decisions, and therefore the shock of what the human race has done to destroy itself and to bring about these supernatural judgements is almost beyond comprehension. Therefore, silence. So terrifying are all of these judgements that all heaven is silent.

There is also here the silence of worship. Here is a side of the Lord that has been obvious from some types of discipline — His integrity, His holiness, His righteousness — but never has it been seen in such concentration. The silence of shock therefore becomes the silence of worship, as illustrated by certain passages where all worship is related to silence on the part of the congregation, Habakkuk 2:20; Zechariah 2:13. This silence also connotes a recognition of God’s authority, as found in 1 Timothy 2:11,12.

Two things are absolutely necessary for learning. One is silence, concentration on what whoever is teaching says, and the other is submissiveness which is genuine humility. To remain in silence has the connotation of learning and all heaven is going to learn something new about God that has never been revealed before. In a short period of seven years there will be a concentrated system of judgment such as the world has never known. So this silence in heaven is not only a learning process it is a function of worship. It is also a manifestation of subordination to the authority of God and the tremendous happiness in heaven as a result. So this is both learning silence and application silence. All heaven is silent for learning; all heaven is silent for making application at this point in the Tribulation when the trumpet judgements are administered. Lamentations 3:28 gives us another concept of it: “Let him sit alone and be silent” is applied to these who are under pressure in the context. Lamentations 3:26, “It is good that he wait silently for the deliverance of the Lord.” So silence not only indicates worship, respect and honour to the Lord but it indicates the fantastic function of the faith-rest drill.

“Then when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.”

Note the contrast of the seals and sealing. In Revelation 7:3 we have the sealing for blessing of 144,000 evangelists of the Tribulation. This sealing is designed for the blessing of mankind through the presentation of the gospel. Now, by way of contrast, in Revelation 8:1 we have the breaking of a seal of judgment from which comes the seven trumpet judgements. Hence, a seal of cursing in. In Revelation seven 144,000 men were sealed to become evangelists, a seal of blessing; these are seals of cursing and judgment. There is a principle here and the relationship between Revelation chapter seven and chapter eight brings out this particular concept: grace precedes judgment. God provides the seal of blessing before He provides the seal of cursing.

As we get into the various trumpet judgements we are going to note that they are supernatural in character; they are not normal things that happen. Our Lord not only created the universe but He sustains it, and in sustaining the universe, therefore, He eliminates a lot of supernatural and extra natural phenomena that would be destructive. The continuation of the universe and its creatures depends, therefore, on who and what Jesus Christ is. The omnipotence of Christ is the means of handling these things. The immutability of Christ is also involved. He is the secret, therefore, to scientific law. There is no such thing really as a scientific law. There is scientific phenomena but scientific phenomena simply do not exist; these are divine laws rather than scientific. Scientific laws are simply the manifestation of God’s faithfulness. These divine laws — rather than scientific — simply say science has no way of enforcing these laws. Science cannot guarantee that they will continue from day to day and operate in exactly the same way. It is the faithfulness of God that provides this. So-called scientific laws are based upon the statistical assumption that the universe which operates according to a fixed norm will continue to do so, yet science can observe but science cannot guarantee any law. In the meantime, so-called scientific laws are often set aside — in the Tribulation only — and supernatural judgements result. Known scientific laws depend entirely, then, on the faithfulness of God which is omnipotence plus immutability plus the veracity of our Lord Jesus Christ. Every text and every discovery of the pattern of the universe is therefore a treatise on the faithfulness of our Lord Jesus Christ. By the Word of His power Jesus Christ holds the universe together, Hebrews 1:3. The reason for doing so is to resolve the angelic conflict in human history and “bring many sons into glory,” as per Hebrews 2:10.

To allow grace to run its full course our Lord Jesus Christ is holding the universe together. The laws of the universe belong to God, they demonstrate His faithfulness, His perfect character, His integrity. These laws can be changed or overruled by the sovereignty of God. Therefore scientific laws are simply a dissertation on the faithfulness, the integrity of our Lord Jesus Christ in holding the universe together, and at the same time holding back eternity so that the human race will have the opportunity to appropriate salvation and enter into an eternal relationship with Him.

Verse 2, the seven trumpets originate from the seventh seal, says this verse. The sequential use of the conjunction kai is translated “then.” Next comes the aorist active indicative of the verb o(raw, which means to see, “Then I saw.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It is a reference to the trumpet judgements and their relationship to the imprecatory prayers of the Tribulational martyrs. The active voice: the apostle John produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the trumpet judgements.

With this we have an object of the verb. The accusative plural direct object is formed from three Greek words. First of all the definite article touj, the generic use of the definite article, it defines a category. The indeclinable numeral e(pta for “seven,” and then finally the noun a)ggeloj, “Then I saw the seven angels.” These seven angels are pur sui vant messengers in the college of heralds.

The doctrine of the angelic college of heralds

1. The Commander-in-Chief, the “Angel of the Lord,” a reference to the ruler of the college of heralds, the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a theophany. The elect angels are always under the command of Christ and this would imply that the elect angels had a similar salvation to what we have today. It is related, at least, to the second person of the Trinity.

2. The seraphim heralds. The seraph is distinguished from all other angels as the highest-ranking because of his six wings, Isaiah 6:2. Angels do not have wings, with two exceptions: seraphs and cherubs. Wings are simply an insignia of rank. There are two categories of seraphs. There are the four angelic heralds and there is the king of arms. The king of arms is the highest, the “powerful angel” of Revelation 5:2.

3. The cherubim heralds, pur sui vant officers. The cherub has four wings. There are six categories of cherubs:

a. The cherubs who guard the gate of the Garden of Eden, Genesis 3:24.

b. The four cherubs, one at each wheel of the chariot of fire, Ezekiel chapters 1 and 10.

c. Lucifer the son of the morning, Ezekiel 28:14, who now bears the title Satan or devil and is the ruler of this world.

d. The pur sui vant officer who commands the weather machine, Revelation 7:2.

e. The angel with the golden incense shovel, Revelation 8:3.

f. The administrator of historical disaster, 2 Samuel 22:11; Psalm 18:10.

4. The wingless messengers of judgment, pur sui vant messengers. They include seven categories:

a. The angelic messengers who spent the night with Lot in Sodom, Genesis 19:13ff.

b. The destroying angel of 2 Samuel 24:16.

c. The destroying angels of Psalm 78:49.

d. The executioners of the city of Jerusalem, Ezekiel 9:1ff.

e. The man clothed in Linen who acts as the messenger of the chariot of fire, Ezekiel 10:6.

f. The four angels each having a hemisphere who restrained the wind cells of the weather machine — Revelation 7:1.

g. The angels with the seven trumpets, Revelation 8:6. (Also there are seven angels bearing the wine goblets of the wrath of God)

Moving on with the exegesis of verse two we have the nominative plural relative pronoun o(j, translated “who.” Then the perfect active indicative of the verb i(stemi which means to stand, “who stand,” the perfect tense of existing state in which the past is dropped from the thought and attention is focused on the status quo. It is like the intensive perfect, it is translated usually with the English present tense. The active voice: seven pur sui vant angels produce the action of the verb. The indicative mood is for a simple statement of fact. Then the improper preposition e)nwpion, and with it its object qeoj in the genitive, “before God.” “Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God.” There is a definite article in the Greek but it is not translated because it is generic. So here are the seven pur sui vant messengers, they are now on red alert before the throne of God for the purpose of administering the unique judgements, four of which are found in this chapter. These four are against nature and they are supernatural in character.

Added to this are the seven trumpets which are given to them, “and seven trumpets were given,” the aorist passive indicative of the verb didomi which means to give. Notice that in each of the three sequences of judgements that something is used that is familiar in the ancient world. We have studied the seal judgements which are in the Doomsday book and noted their significance. Now we go to trumpets, a musical instrument but not a musical instrument in the ancient world. The trumpet was used rather as a system for giving commands. It was an alert system, an alert for something unusual which we have anticipated by the silence in heaven for half an hour. Verbal commands were often impossible, they did not have systems of communication such as we have today whereby voice commands could be given to thousands of troops. Then we are going to look at next the vial judgements which are really not vials at all but drinking goblets. The fact that these angels have different categories of instruments which were used in the ancient world also is significant. So terrible are the trumpet judgements that the trumpet is used because of the din, the confusion, the unusual noises of nature and human beings combined in great agony.

The aorist tense of didomi is the culminative aorist, it views the giving of the trumpets in their entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, the answer to the imprecatory prayers of the Tribulational martyrs. The passive voice: the seven trumpets receive the action of the verb. That is, they were given to the pur sui vant messengers for the administration of seven unusual judgements. With this we have a dative plural indirect object from the intensive pronoun a)utoj which is generally, but not always, used as the personal pronoun third person. Here it is used as the personal pronoun in the plural referring to the pur sui vant messengers, “and seven trumpets were given to them.”

Translation of verse two: “Then I saw the seven angels [seven pur sui vant messengers from the angelic college of heralds] who stand before God: and seven trumpets were given to them.”

To understand these seven trumpets we need to go back to chapter six, verse 9 and note again the Tribulational martyrs, for it is these martyrs who are responsible for the seven trumpets. These most unusual judgements in history, supernatural judgements in fact, are the result of a category of prayer we call imprecatory.

“And when he [our Lord Jesus Christ] had broken the fifth seal, I saw under the altar [of burnt offerings] the souls [lives] of those who had been murdered [butchered].”

While many of these believers have not been saved very long before their martyrdom they have advanced to maturity very rapidly and they have made the ultimate sacrifice. They have given their lives for Bible doctrine, for their faith. In the meantime they are enjoying great interim happiness in their interim bodies in heaven, and the fact that they are seen under the altar of burnt sacrifice emphasises their fantastic virtue. They have given their lives under principles that they had virtue that could not be destroyed by any form of torture. They had perception of doctrine that would not crack under the greatest pressures of life. In short, they had everything that was worthwhile from the Word of God. Remember that all believers of the world go up at the Rapture and that means no believers when the Tribulation begins, and remembering the shortness of the Tribulation, a shortened seven years, you can begin to see the intensity of living in that period. The longest any believer can live would be a little short of seven years and in perhaps one or two years these people take in doctrine in such an intense way that they are able to advance to maturity.

These believers fulfil a principle that is enucleated in Matthew 16:24,25. Self-denial is usually regarded by people with any lust for life as a pain in the neck and it certainly doesn’t fit the average person’s idea of what fun should be. But if you have Bible doctrine, and if you have strong motivation and therefore from this great entrenched happiness in the soul, and if you have learned to entertain yourself, which very few people seem to have done in the time in which we live, you can utilise your time properly. In other words, you are able to have a disciplined system of time, to get organised. Unhappy people never get organised and that contributes to their self-induced misery. This is what Jesus is saying here. He is not saying that you are going to have to grit your teeth and it is going to be miserable, far from it. “Let him deny himself” simply means organise yourself. To take up the cross means to go through life with impersonal love, the highest form of virtue. It means that no matter how antagonistic people may be toward you, no matter how much they hate you, no matter how much they make life miserable, you treat them exactly the same way that you treat everyone, the function of impersonal love. For that you have to have integrity. Once you get organised you have a chance to take in Bible doctrine and then you have a chance to develop integrity. Once you have integrity you are carrying your cross and it is not miserable at all, it is very happy. “Follow me” means fulfil His plan.

The human security system concept is what we have in verse 25 of Matthew 16, “Whoever wishes to deliver his soul [life] will lose it.” That is the person who is not well organised, who has no common sense, who is divorced from reality and who is a product of his own decisions and dies miserably, the sin unto death for the believer. But, “whoever loses his life for my sake shall find it.” In other words, the believer who loses his life for the sake of the Lord dies under dying grace, he has great happiness in time, he moves on into the interim life, as will the Tribulational saints. In an intensified way the Tribulational martyrs advance to maturity, they are well organised, they learn Bible doctrine, they have great common sense and great integrity, and they gave their lives refusing to renounce Christ. They died, it says, because of Bible doctrine, “because of the Word of God [6:9].” The spiritual growth of positive Tribulational believers: through a concentrated effort they were organised, they had a sense of personal destiny, they related their scale of values to number one, Bible doctrine — the Word of God has always been the greatest opposition to the cosmic system —, they loved the Word and Satan was permitted to remove them from the earth through martyrdom. But their death does not stop Bible doctrine. No matter how many believers die Bible doctrine goes on forever. Bible doctrine is never hindered or slowed down and there is no way that Satan by the administration of death can destroy them. Nothing can stop the power of the Word of God.

The second reason for their martyrdom, verse 9, is “because of the testimony they maintained.” This is their deposition with regard to the gospel. These positive believers of the future are not only consistent in the perception of doctrine but they are consistent in the production of virtue, the function of evangelism, their personal testimony. These believers are not the evangelists of the Tribulation but they are dynamic believers living in the Tribulation, and they stand out because the Tribulation is a time of historical disaster and they have fantastic happiness. They don’t die with a grim face, they are happy and relaxed, they are organised people and people with great capacity for life. So the Tribulational martyrs of the future teach us a great lesson.

In Revelation 6:10 we have again the subject of imprecatory prayers. We are now going to relate it to our passage for all of the trumpet judgements are related to the imprecatory prayers which were uttered by these people, “and they said, ‘How long O sovereign Lord’… ” Sovereign Lord refers to the integrity of Jesus Christ as God: His righteousness and His perfect justice. Because God is righteous, because God is justice, therefore because God is holy, He must do something about the injustices under which they were martyred. They have the courage and the boldness to speak up, they have learned a great deal of doctrine, they know when to speak and when not to, they know that they have a point and they make their point at this time for our benefit. They also add to the word “holy,” the integrity of Jesus Christ as God, but they add the word “true” which also means dependable. “How long O sovereign Lord, holy [the integrity of Christ as God] and true [the integrity of Christ in His hypostatic union].” This is a double appeal. It is an appeal to Jesus Christ as God, it is an appeal to Jesus Christ as their great high priest. They recognise that He has the key to the situation.

The appeal to the hypostatic union in the imprecatory prayers is compatible with emphasis on the justice of our Lord Jesus Christ to rectify the terrible injustices done to these believers by a demon- possessed government and demon-possessed people at that time. While imprecatory prayers are generally defined as prayers for vengeance it is used here as an appeal to the justice of God, to the integrity of God, to the holiness of God. And, of course, the prayers are offered in the same way that we offer prayers, through our Lord Jesus Christ.

In the past this was a legitimate prayer offered by great believers such as King David, who said in Psalm 13:1, “How long?” the same words used by these Tribulational martyrs. And then in verse 2, “How long will my enemies triumph over me?” He prayed these prayers under great pressure from his enemies. He said in verse 3, “Look on me and answer, O Lord, my God,” and added in verse 4, “My enemy will say, ‘I have overcome him,’ and my foes will rejoice with glee when I fall.” Cf. Psalms 54; 143; 35; 59, imprecatory prayers.

The seven trumpet judgements are the answer to the imprecatory prayers of Tribulational believers. Even the martyrs said from under the altar, “How long before these prayers are answered?” They were prayed in confidence. So great were these Tribulational believers, so advanced spiritually, that when they prayed that their persecutors would be ruined and dealt with by the justice of God they were absolutely confident that their prayers would be answered. And their confidence is reflected in these seven trumpet judgements. While these trumpet judgements are horrible don’t feel sorry for the recipients, they had it coming.

These judgements are divided into two categories. Four of them are found in chapter eight, the other three are found in other chapters and they are called “Woes.” The first four judgements are all related to nature. Supernatural things in nature are brought against mankind. These four trumpet judgements are presented in verses 7-13 as a part of the answer to the imprecatory prayers of Tribulational believers. The last three trumpet judgements are directed against mankind. All of these judgements are going to combine to make life horrible for those who persecuted believers in the Tribulation.

The first trumpet is found in Revelation 8:7. It is a judgment against vegetation where one third of the topsoil, vegetation, rain forest, is removed from the earth. We will see what happens under those conditions and how this becomes a fantastic judgment.

The second trumpet is found in 8:8,9. It is a judgment against salt water.

The third trumpet is found in 8:10,11. It is a judgment against fresh water.

The fourth trumpet judgment in 8:12 is going to bring great darkness to the earth and there will be no help for that for a certain time.

The fifth trumpet judgment is called the first woe, 9:1-12. It is a judgment involving a demon invasion from the Abyss, and where we meet the number two fallen angel, Abaddon or Apollyon.

The sixth trumpet is found in 9:13-21. It is a demon invasion from under the Euphrates river.

The seventh trumpet or third woe is found in 11:15-12:17, another woe on demon activity, the demon attack against Israel, the greatest movement of anti-Semitism in all of human history.

In answer to the imprecatory prayers it is interesting to note one principle. In the first four trumpets God does some supernatural things with nature, supernatural because they are very destructive, but the world survives. These are exceptions to scientific laws. But in the last three we have demon attacks. And who do the demons attack? They do not attack believers, they attack unbelievers who are serving Satan. That could be called “confusion in the ranks” for in answer to imprecatory prayers God turns the fiercest of demons into attacks upon people. The imprecatory prayers have tremendous power in their proper setting of the Tribulation for God is going to answer them by turning Satan’s greatest demon armies on Satan’s greatest human servants. And Satan can do nothing to stop it. Now you know where the power is! The power is with God for these three great demon invasions are going to be against unbelievers and servants of Satan only. Again, it is a reminder of the power of prayer.

We are studying the seven trumpet judgements which are in answer to the imprecatory prayers of Tribulational believers. We will see the first trumpet in verse seven, a judgment against vegetation. The second judgment in verses eight and nine is against salt water. Verses ten and eleven: judgment against fresh water. In verse twelve a very unusual celestial judgment. All of these have to do with supernatural activities in nature. Then follows in chapter nine two of the last three of the trumpet judgements and they are called woes. The first woe is the demon invasion from the Abyss in chapter nine verses one through twelve. The sixth trumpet is a demon invasion from the Euphrates in chapter nine verses thirteen through twenty one. The we have to skip over the Revelation chapter eleven verses fifteen through chapter twelve verse seventeen for the third woe or the seventh trumpet which is Satan’s famous attack on Israel, the last and most intensified function of anti-Semitism.

In the paragraph here in verses three through six we note the answer to the imprecatory prayers of the Tribulational believers.

In verse 3 we begin by noting the conjunction kai, translated “and, followed by the adjective a)lloj which refers to someone different, an angel but a different one in that category. It is translated “another. With it is the nominative singular subject a)ggeloj, a pur sui vant officer of cherub rank in the college of heralds. Next comes the aorist active indicative of the verb e)rxomai, “another angel came.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The per sui vant officer produces the action of the verb in the active voice. The declarative mood is for a simple statement of fact, but more than that, it demonstrates the fact that these angels have entered into their status quo of eternity. They fought a good fight in the prehistoric conflict between the fallen angels and the elect angels. They have a very definite confidence about them, a confidence that means that while they were in their struggle, long before man was created, they had a tremendous sense of destiny. This is one of the higher categories of angels with that sense of destiny.

Never in the history of the human race has one dispensation had such a fantastic opportunity under the same concept of sense of destiny as the Church Age. You and I as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are royal family of God. As members of the royal family of God and a kingdom of priests we should have a very great sense of destiny. Our sense of destiny has to do first of all with God’s plan. God has given us as the royal family the same divine dynasphere used by our Lord Jesus Christ in His humanity during the first advent. He had the prototype; we now have the operational type.

Long before we existed there were those elect angels who had a very clear sense of their own personal destiny and they related it properly to whatever form of Bible doctrine was given to them before human history began. Because they had this and because through every type of disaster and difficulty they were faithful to the Word of God they now have entered into their eternity and certain angels, like the one in our verse and other angels, is a unique person; he is very high among the officers and the nobility among the elect angels. And so when it says, “And another angel,” that is the story of a person, a creature quite superior to mankind in its present form, but an angelic creature who through all of that conflict was faithful to Bible doctrine.

It pays to have a one-tracked mind until you come to a point where you must have flexibility through the application of doctrine. To be single-minded about your scale of values and to be flexible in your application of doctrine makes a devastating combination. This particular angel has his own biography which is absolutely fantastic and very helpful to us. No matter what the historical climate happened to be at any given time in the past in the angelic conflict before man was created, whether it was historical adversity or historical prosperity, this is one of those successful above millions and millions of angels. For many of the elect angels, like many believers today, had their own status quo carnality, had their own failures, and did not even fulfil the objectives under the plan of God assigned to them in their generation of angelic history.

And so it is today. You have a greater responsibility for what happens in this country and this generation than anyone else. When things go bad we cannot turn around and say it was the fault of anyone else.

And it says, regarding the angel, “he took his place, the aorist passive indicative of the verb i(stemi, and it means that he took his place or he stood or he took a stand. The ingressive aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb at its beginning. He is going to be quite active now in heaven. He has the privilege of being in charge of the administration by which all of the imprecatory prayers of the believers of the Tribulation will be answered, and will be answered from the justice of God. The passive voice: the subject, his pur sui vant officer, this cherub receives the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for a simple statement of fact and this is said to be “he takes his stand” or “he takes his place” at the altar. This is e)pi plus the genitive of a very long word. E)pi takes the genitive. When it takes the ablative it means something else. When it takes the accusative it means something else. Here, e)pi plus the genitive emphasises contact, location. The noun is qusiasthrion, and it refers to a very special altar, not the brazen altar but the golden altar of incense. It is first mentioned in Exodus chapter thirty, verses one through ten. It was associated with the Tabernacle and it was the altar which was associated with the ark of the covenant in the holy of holies, according to Hebrews 9:4. This particular altar is constructed of acacia wood and is plated with gold. Hence, it depicts our Lord Jesus Christ in hypostatic union, eternal God and true humanity in one person forever. Therefore being in hypostatic union our Lord Jesus Christ is our high priest. All prayers are processed through Him. And that is not only true for us but as indicated here it is true for the Tribulational believers. The gold represents the deity of Christ, the wood His true humanity. Around the top of the altar was a crown of gold, emphasising our Lord’s third royal patent, and according to Leviticus 16:18 the altar of incense was placed just in front of the second veil. The second veil was the one that separated the holy place from the holy of holies in the tabernacle and, later on, the temple. This is where the angel stands. This is the heavenly original from which the tabernacle and the temple was patterned.

With this we have a present active participle from the verb e)xw, “and he had.” The retroactive progressive present denotes what was begun in the past but continues into the present and even into future time. It is rendered into English by the perfect or past tense. The active voice: the pur sui vant officer, this cherub with his very high rank in the college of heralds, produces the action. The circumstantial participle expresses attendant circumstances and therefore is translated into the English by a conjunction and the finite verb. Even though it is a participle it is translated this way.

Next we have the accusative singular direct object composed of two words. First of all the word xrousouj, and it means “made of gold.” With it we have a very controversial word in the Greek, libanwtoj. This word means several things. It means frankincense; it means a shovel; it means something in which frankincense is burned which we might call simply an incense shovel, and that is the way we will translate it. The controversy comes from what this shovel was like. This is a golden incense shovel.

Here we have a high-ranking angel and he is carrying around an incense shovel made of gold. And it goes on to say, “consequently,” the conjunction kai, something was given to him. And next we have “much incense was given to him.” The verb to give here which comes first in the Greek is the aorist passive indicative of the verb didomi, and it is correctly translated “to give.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The passive voice: the subject is “much incense” and it receives the action of the verb. It is passed over to the shovel and to the cherub who holds the shovel. The indicative mood is declarative for the historical reality of this future event in heaven.

The subject is now composed of two words. First we have an adjective poluj, and whatever it is it came in a large quantity and it took a strong angel to hold it up, and the cherub apparently had great strength. The incense is called qumiama.

What is this incense that was given to him? And why is qumiama such an important word? Qumiama, the incense, is made up of four different things. These four elements are mentioned in Exodus 30.

First of all there is stacti [Hebrew], which means to drop or distil and it refers to myrrh. Frankincense and myrrh were used by the wise men from Persia who came to pay their respects to our Lord Jesus Christ. Myrrh was used for a perfume but it wasn’t used for a perfume by ladies to attract men. It was used for embalming. It was an ingredient also used for anointing oil. It was one of the gifts of the Magi and it was used by them to anticipate the death of Christ on the cross, bearing the sins of the entire world. Also it was used to represent strategic victory. This particular myrrh was used two ways: to embalm the dead and to make an appointment, to anoint, which means to commission. The death has to do with the cross. When our Lord Jesus Christ was on the cross the sins of the entire world were imputed to Him on the cross. He was judged on the cross and that is its connotation in embalming. That is why it is used in this shovel that the angel has. It was also used for anointing, and that indicates the strategic victory of Christ in His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and receiving His third royal patent.

The second ingredient was onycha [Hebrew], and according to Exodus 30:34 it was an ingredient of incense used for the ritual in the tabernacle. It is derived from scale or shell, the shell, for example, of a shellfish. Onycha also refers to our Lord’s death on the cross. It emphasises the relationship between propitiation and prayer. When Jesus Christ was hanging on the cross God the Father judged our sins and, afterward, He was satisfied [or propitiated] with what had happened. This was why it was used on that golden altar in front of the holy of holies.

In the holy of holies was a box called the ark of the covenant. Inside that box were those things that represent sin. The box was made of acacia wood and gold, speaking of Christ in hypostatic union. Over the top of that box was a throne which was called the mercy seat, and on each end of the throne was a golden cherub, in each case speaking of the holiness of God, composed of His perfect righteousness and His justice. Once a year, on the day of atonement, the high priest came in and sprinkled the blood of the sacrifice over the top of the mercy seat. The righteousness of God looked down and was satisfied because it represented Christ bearing our sins, and He was perfect as He hung upon the cross — doctrine of impeccability. The justice of God looked down — the other half of divine integrity — and was satisfied because our sins had been judged on the cross. The concept is called propitiation. So when the mercy seat is brought in to, say, the book of Romans the word for mercy seat is propitiation. Christ became the propitiation [mercy seat] for us.

This must relate also to prayer. When you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ you are then commanded to pray. And there are various mandates about prayer. Since God the Father is propitiated or satisfied with the work of Christ on the cross, and since when we are in the divine dynasphere and we offer prayer we offer it through Christ, and God is satisfied with Christ and His work on the cross. And He is now seated at the right hand of the Father as the stamp of propitiation. Any prayer that comes through Christ if we are in the divine dynasphere is going to be answered. That is why onycha was burned as a part of this incense; that is why it burned in the golden shovel in our context.

Then there is a third ingredient called galbanum [Hebrew]. This is a gum resin which has a very pungent odour. When mixed with a fragrant substance it has the effect of increasing and prolonging the sweet odour of the incense. It emphasises the power of prayer from believers in fellowship, believers who have a sense of destiny and are executing the plan of God. It emphasises the power of prevailing prayer from believers in the Tribulation who are under much persecution.

Finally, number four is frankincense. In Matthew 2:11 frankincense was offered by the Magi to our Lord Jesus Christ. The white gum is derived from certain trees. It was used by the Magi to portray the impeccability of Christ inside the prototype divine dynasphere and to emphasise the fact that prayer can only be answered when believers are in fellowship with God [inside the divine dynasphere] and offer those prayers through our Lord Jesus Christ. All prayer must be related to the person of Christ and the filling of the Holy Spirit.

The documentation for these four ingredients: Exodus 30:34,35.

Translation of verse 3 so far: “Then another angel came and took his place before the altar, and he had an incense shovel made of gold; consequently much incense was given to him ...”

Next we have the purpose: the conjunction i(na introduces a sub-final purpose clause. There are two kinds of purpose clauses, final and sub-final. Here we have a sub-final purpose clause in which the action of the main verb is directed toward a given result, which result is anticipated. So it is translated, “in order that.” Then we have the future active indicative of didomi, but here it does not mean to give. It has a similar connotation. We translate this correctly, “in order that he might offer it.” The future tense expresses the anticipation of a future event, hence a predictive future. The active voice: this particular angel, one of the highest-ranking in the angelic order of battle, is actually going to do this thing in heaven. He is going to produce the action of the verb by making the offering. The indicative mood is declarative for an unqualified statement of fact as to the subject, as to the function, and as to its meaning. The word “it” is added, it refers to the incense, hence the incense indicates the fact that the imprecatory prayers of Tribulational believers are acceptable to God like the sweet odour of the incense. God is propitiated by these prayers and therefore they will be answered.

Then we have what it is being offered with — the instrumental of manner, plural, from the noun proseuxh. Since the incense is associated with the prayers of the Tribulational believers we have the instrumental of manner, also the instrumental of association. With this we have the possessive genitive plural from a(gioj, “saints,” indicating that these prayers come from believers. We have an adjective in the genitive plural, paj, “of all the saints.”

Then we have the repetition of that prepositional phrase “upon the altar.” The word for “altar” is the altar of golden incense. With this we have an accusative neuter singular definite article, to, but the definite article is used as a relative pronoun translated “which.” Add the verb to be, e)imi, “which is.”

Then, finally, the prepositional phrase, the improper preposition from the adverb e)nwpion, plus the noun qronoj, “before the throne.”

Translation of verse three: “Then another angel [a pur sui vant officer, cherub rank in the college of heralds] came and took his place before the altar, and he had an incense shovel made of gold; consequently much incense was given to him in order that he might offer the prayers of all the saints [Tribulational believers] on the golden altar which was before the throne.”

The doctrine of prayer

Prayer is a weapon and, like any weapon, you have to know how to use it. How does it function? Prayer is the effective function of petition and entreaty to God on the part of the believer in Christ who resides in the divine dynasphere. It is a weapon, it must be treated as a weapon, it must be understood as a weapon, it must be used as a weapon.

God the Father is the recipient of all prayer; God the Son is the means of approach. Each member of the Trinity has certain designated functions according to the Word of God and these functions must be understood to be effective as a believer. Don’t offer prayer to the Lord Jesus Christ, don’t offer prayer to God the Holy Spirit. Prayer is offered to God the Father and Jesus Christ adhered to this rule in His humanity during the period of the first advent.

God the Father receives prayer from three different sources: from believers, Hebrews 4:16; God the Son offers prayer in hypostatic union, Hebrews 7:25; God the Holy Spirit, Roman 8:26, 27.

There is also a prayer that the believer cannot pray because of the intensity of pressure, disaster, shock, and that is why the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings which cannot be uttered in Romans 8:26,27.

In verse four we are introduced once again for the third time to the imprecatory prayers of Tribulational saints. The connective conjunction kai is sequential and translated “then.” With this we have the nominative singular subject from the noun kapnoj, translated “smoke.” It is the smoke of burnt incense. And with it we have the genitive plural from qumiama, “the smoke of the incense.” The plural refers to the four categories which are involved in that incense and their significance as related to our Lord’s first advent and His strategic victory at the cross. Then comes the verb, the aorist active indicative of the verb a)nabainw which means to ascend, to go up, “Then the smoke of the incense went up.” This is a constative aorist tense contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety.

These prayers are answered. The dynamics of prayer in the Tribulation is one of the great spiritual phenomenons of that time. The active voice: the smoke of the incense produces the action of the verb. The declarative is the for the historical reality of this future event. There is here the associative instrumental plural from the noun proseuxh, a Greek word for prayer, and with it the genitive of a(gioj meaning saints.

Translation: “Then the smoke of the incense, along with [the associated instrumental] the [imprecatory] prayers of the saints, went up before God from the hand of the angel.”

Just as the smoke of burning incense is used to portray propitiation, so it is also used in the Bible for the concept of answered prayer. The incense indicates that the imprecatory prayers of the Tribulational believers are being answered by the seven trumpet judgements. And just as the pur sui vant officer of cherub rank commanded the four angels, the pur sui vant messengers who controlled the wind cell. So the pur sui vant cherub commands the seven angels who will sound the trumpets to administer this judgment. Anticipating the next verse, the answer to the imprecatory prayers call for great judgements and great historical disasters on earth, they are, in effect, supernatural judgements. This brings us back to the chariot of fire which we have noticed in Ezekiel chapters one and ten.

Verse 5, the function of the pur sui vant officer in the answer to these imprecatory prayers. Again we have the sequential kai, “then,” and the nominative singular from the subject, a)ggeloj, and the perfect active indicative of lambanw. He stood at the altar until he was given the command, “Then he took.” The perfect tense is a dramatic perfect, it describes vividly the ease with which one does a thing. When you are serving the Lord the ease with which things are accomplished is an amazing thing. He is about to something that is about to turn the world upside down with supernatural judgements. The dramatic perfect, then, emphasises the results of the action. The active voice: the pur sui vant officer produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for a future statement of fact in the field of eschatology. What is angel took is the accusative singular direct object from libanwtoj which refers to the golden shovel. It is translated in the King James version “censer.” It is a golden shovel in which incense is burned. He took the incense shovel and he filled it with the fire from the altar. So it has a place for coals on it, it heats up and begins the process of the incense being manufactured.

And he threw it. We have the aorist active indicative from ballw which means sometimes to hurl. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist which views the events in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, the judgements of the inhabitants of the earth, unbelievers, in answer to imprecatory prayers of the Tribulational believers. The active voice: the pur sui vant officer produces this action in heaven. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the act which is tantamount to a command from the pur sui vant officer, a command which has been relayed from God Himself, to the pur sui vant messengers who have the seven trumpets and who are on red alert for sounding off. Then we have a preposition, “to the earth,” e)ij plus gh. The imprecatory prayers of believers are collected in heaven and then at the exact moment they are approved, resulting in the answer, the judgment of the seven trumpets. Such historical judgment generally originates from the chariot of fire but in this case the judgment originates from the altar because they involve answers to the imprecatory prayers of the Tribulational saints, chapter 6:9-10. The answer to question, How long? is found in the administration of the trumpet judgements. These same Tribulational martyrs who had offered the imprecatory prayers are described in more detail on chapter 7:9-17.

Now we have the warning of coming judgements. We have the predicate nominative bronth which means crashes or peels of thunder, a warning of the coming storm. Hence, a warning of the coming trumpet judgements to the people of the earth. This is the principle of grace before judgment, there is still time for people to repent and avoid these judgements. No one has ever been judged by God without more than adequate warning. The problems we bring on ourselves and call divine discipline are really not divine discipline at all. We are the products of our own decisions and when we make bad decisions we simply manufacture our own misery. The only warning we get from that is the function of our own soul, but when God does judge, and these judgements originate from God, there is always a tremendous warning system.

The second predicate nominative is fwnh which means voices, sounds or noises. This is the audible warning system, like a tornado, a hurricane, etc. to give people the opportunity of changing their mind.

The third is a)straph and it means flashes of lightning. So we have the warning: “and he hurled it to the earth and there followed peels of thunder, loud noises and flashings of lightnings.” These are all warnings of coming judgment. The flashings of lightning would be the visual rather than the audio approach, it indicates the coming of great historical disaster in the Tribulation.

These first three subjects are connected by the conjunction kai used in its connective sense. Then we have kai one more time and it is used as an adjunctive kai, “also.” But before we get to that we should have “there followed,” the aorist middle participle of the verb ginomai, which means to be, to become, here it means to follow. It is because of this state-of-being verb that we can actually have predicate nominatives here instead of accusative. The constative aorist tense of the verb contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. These signs or warnings of coming judgment allow people to change their mind and avoid the judgment. This is a period of grace before judgment to allow the recipients of the judgment another chance. The middle voice is the indirect middle emphasising the subject, the warning of judgment as producing the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial.

Then comes the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai, and then a word in the singular, seismoj, for earthquake. One of the great and terrible earthquakes will occur at this point.

Verse 6, the function of the pur sui vant messengers in answer to the imprecatory prayers. God the Father processed those imprecatory prayers. The Son then put everything into action. From the Son they went to the pur sui vant officer and then to the pur sui vant messengers. Then we will have the seven trumpets. This whole system is to allow time for repentance or change of attitude.

“Then the seven angels [the pur sui vant messengers] who had the seven trumpets,” the articular present active participle of the verb e)xw, “who had.” Then the nominative plural definite article used as a relative pronoun, “who.” The perfective present tense refers to what has come to be in the past but is emphasises as a present reality. These pur sui vant messengers had this category of judgment but it is now emphasised as the reality of the Tribulation. The active voice: the pur sui vant messengers are going to be the administrators. The participle denotes a future purpose for the seven trumpets.

Then we have the accusative direct object of the participle composed of two words: a very simple accusative plural definite article paj, “the”; the adjective numeral e(pta, “seven”; and the noun salpigc for “trumpets.” And “they have prepared themselves,” the aorist active indicative of e)toimazw.

Everyone has to prepare before he can be used by God. No matter how high you are in God’s plan or no matter how low you are, you can’t be anything without preparation. You can’t run off half-cocked. God uses prepared men. The active voice: the seven pur sui vant messengers produce the action and while the preparation modus operandi is not given it does emphasise a principle: preparation is necessary for any function involving the decisions of eternal God. Both elect angels and regenerate mankind must constantly prepare themselves and be prepared to carry out God’s plan for history. Your preparation as a believer is in perception of Bible doctrine. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of preparation necessary to execute the will of God.

And this is a very rare use of a)utoj. Every now and then this word is used in its original connotation of the Classical Greek which is an intensive pronoun. Here it is used as an intensive pronoun, the accusative plural direct object. The function of the intensive pronoun is to emphasise identity, therefore it is demonstrative force intensified. This is the predicate use of the intensive pronoun and that is why it is translated “themselves,” “they prepared themselves.” Their purpose is given in the final phrase, a final purpose clause from the conjunction i(na, “they prepared themselves that.” The semi-final purpose clause is one which denotes the direction or the action of the main verb toward a given result. The result anticipated is the answer to the imprecatory prayers of the Tribulational believers, “that they might give the signal with the trumpets,” the aorist active subjunctive of the verb salpizw, and it means to give an order with a trumpet, to produce a blast on a trumpet, to sound off. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the sounding of the trumpet call or signal in its entirety but it emphasises the existing result, the answer to the prayers of the Tribulational believers and the administration of terrible judgment. The active voice: each pur sui vant messenger produces the action of the verb in sequence, not simultaneously. The subjunctive mood is a potential subjunctive used to form or construct a semi-final purpose clause.

The first four trumpet signals are directed against nature while the last three trumpets signals are the three woes directed against mankind in a very dramatic way. The drama comes from the fact that demons are allowed to attack people.

As the seven angels prepare to sound it reminds us several facts that we can anticipate. These trumpets judgements are supernatural rather than natural judgements. They are the consequence of man’s erroneous decisions. Man is the product of his own decisions; man is the product of his own adversity through making bad decisions. The natural result of bad decisions is first of all self-induced, self-imposed misery — the concept of we reap what we sow. But these trumpet judgements are much more than that, they are natural consequences of man’s reversionism, his apostasy, his degeneration, but they are supernatural in character. Many believers will survive all of the historical disasters of the Tribulation but they will survive because they have a personal sense of destiny, a fantastic humility and flexibility. The believer in the Church Age living in a client nation to God has a dual destiny they do not have. We have a personal sense of destiny related to the plan of God for our lives and, of course, that means living in the divine dynasphere. But we also have a national sense of destiny related to the advance to maturity, forming the pivot, and that brings us to the point of prosperity for the nation. As goes the believer in this dispensation, so goes the client nation. Only the first category is open to these Tribulational believers, they only have available to them the personal sense of destiny related to the plan of God. There are no client nations in the Tribulation. To survive the cataclysms of the Tribulation the believer must have a personal sense of destiny related to his perception and application of Bible doctrine. (We have far more than that today, we even have a greater challenge) With a personal sense of destiny from Bible doctrine the believer’s confidence is related to his humility which produces fantastic application and flexibility, and there will be many survivors.

We now note the four trumpets of judgment in this passage, verses 7-13. They will be quite different from the final trumpets which are demon invasions and will give us the chance to study the whole realm of demonology.

The first of these trumpet judgements is found in verse 7. The connective conjunction kai introduces a result from what precedes and is translated, “And then.” The adjective prwtoj is a nominative singular and with the generic use of the definite article identifies the category of trumpeters, pur sui vant messengers in the college of heralds. The noun a)ggeloj is the subject and the first of the trumpeters, but we do not have a)ggeloj here in the original although it does occur later on in verse eight. So we will translate it correctly here: “Then the first one [the first angel, a pur sui vant messenger in the college of herald].” This is the first one, a)ggeloj does not occur in the original. It has been included in the King James version.

Then we have the aorist active indicative of salpizw which means to sound a trumpet, to give a signal with a trumpet, and we translate it, “sounded his trumpet.” We will see this verb in this form seven times before we are through, all of the way from this chapter to chapter eleven. “Then the first one sounded [gave a signal on] his trumpet,” for the administration of the first judgment. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes up everything we will note with regard to the first judgment and gathers it into one concept. The active voice: the first pur sui vant messenger actually produces the action. The declarative indicative mood is for a simple statement of fact in the field of eschatology.

Now we see a terrible storm in the phrases that follow. It is introduced with the aorist middle indicative of the verb ginomai. The verb means to be, to become, but here it is translated correctly, “and there followed.” It is giving a sequential result from the sounding of the trumpet. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, again contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes up the first judgment against the world’s vegetation in its entirety. This is a middle voice but being a deponent verb, middle in form, active in meaning, and again the action is produced by a terrible storm. The indicative mood is declarative for the historical reality of divine judgment. This is a judgment which does not come from man’s bad decisions, it comes from God as a result of the imprecatory prayers. What follows then rescinds the mandate of Revelation 7:2,3. With this order rescinded the first four trumpet judgements are against vegetation on land. The second is against the salt water of the seas and the third is against the fresh water such as lakes and rivers. Finally there is the fourth trumpet which has to do with judgment against the atmosphere. Each category produces a tremendous amount of suffering to the unbelievers of the earth during the Tribulation. This, again, is in answer to the imprecatory prayers.

“Then the first one sounded his trumpet, and there followed ...” The predicate nominative is made up of several words. First of all xalaz, used generally for hail, and then we have another, pur for fire, translated “hail and fire.” The word “fire” is possibly lightning but there is another Greek word for lightning. In Exodus 9:24 one of the great plagues was a terrible thunderstorm and it was described in similar words. It was the worst storm in the land of Egypt since it had become a nation. Now we have another one of those supernatural thunderstorms directly from heaven. The first plague of Egypt is very similar except that this judgment is intensified.

With this we have the perfect passive participle from mignumi, and it means to mix, “which had been mixed.” The perfect is a tense of completed action, therefore the action is viewed as a finished product. The perfect tense implies the process of mixing blood with an intensified tropical thunderstorm, but a process consummated and existing in a finished state. So when the storm hits you have everything we have today but you have blood mixed in with it. This is the intensive perfect in which special attention is directed to the results of the action and the existing fact is intensified. The passive voice: the terrible thunderstorm receives the action of the verb, it is mixed with blood. The participle is circumstantial and this is followed by a prepositional phrase e)n plus the instrumental of manner from a(ima, correctly translated, “which had been mixed with blood.” The instrumental of manner indicates that we have here literal blood, not like the blood of Christ which we have studied in terms of redemption, reconciliation, etc., the saving work of Christ on the cross. This blood was first mentioned in Revelation 6:10 which records the imprecatory prayers in summary of the Tribulational martyrs and this same blood is now mixed with this supernatural and therefore unusual thunderstorm. “How long will it be fore you avenge our blood on the population of the earth.” The blood of the Tribulational martyrs is mixed with that tropical storm and then it hits a certain part of the earth. What this really is is wind shear, a down-burst in which a strong wind is actually smashed against the surface of the earth. And it is not only wind shear and its manifestation in a down-burst but it is one that is mixed with blood. In other words, all of the blood that these people shed is going to cover them when this storm hits them. The storm does not destroy people as much as it does vegetation.

How do we know it is wind shear? The aorist passive indicative of the verb ballw, a word that means to throw but it also means to hurl, and we will translate it, “and it was hurled.” This is a down-burst. The passive voice: the thunderstorm, the hail, the fire mixed with blood, receives the action of the verb in a tremendous down-burst. Then we have the prepositional phrase e)ij plus the accusative of gh, “to the earth.” This is how we know that it is a down-burst. Wind shear has only been recently discovered and distinguished from tornadoes.

Corrected translation: “Then the first one [the angel or the pur sui vant officer in the college of heralds] sounded his trumpet [gave the signal] and there followed a terrible thunder storm, hail and fire which had been mixed with blood [of the Tribulational martyrs, Rev. 6:9,10], and it [the supernatural thunderstorm] was hurled to the earth [the phenomenon known as wind shear or down-burst].”

Next we have to notice that there are some results from this activity. All of the results occur in the area of burning. Three times in the result column we have the aorist passive indicative of the verb katakainw. Katakainw means to burn up, to consume, to destroy by fire. The culminative aorist tense views the down-burst of the supernatural thunderstorm in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of its existing results. The fire or lightning in the thunderstorm has great destructive effect, it destroys one third of the land surface, one third of the trees and one third of the green grass. Later on we will discuss the problem of what third. The passive voice: one third of the land surface, one third of the trees, one third of the grass, receives the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of these results. We translate: “and with the result that one third of the land surface was destroyed by fire; one third of the trees were burned up plus one third of the green grass”.

By green grass is meant agricultural grains, like hay. Both natural vegetation and cultivated plant life is included. Along with the tress all plant life provides oxygen on the surface of the earth, so this is a matter of general health of humanity from both food and atmosphere. The cultivated part of the land surface is called gh, while the natural plant life is derived from the noun xortoj which is translated “grass” but also includes grain. A destruction of the great rain forests like those in Central and South America, or those in the Congo basin, or the Indo-Malayan rain forests, would be very detrimental to mankind on the earth. The terrestrial vegetation of the world may be classified into three categories of plant life: grassland, desert, and forest. Desert here is not a reference to sand but to the high desert areas and other places where grazing exists. Grasslands of the world actually cover 13,000,000 square miles of valuable grazing land. Of this area three and a half million square miles are suitable for the production of cold weather crops, grass like wheat, rye, oats. Six million eight hundred thousand square miles are suitable for warm weather crops, cotton, etc. Two million seven hundred thousand square miles are suitable for grazing only. That is what the grasslands produce and the grasslands are caught in this judgment so that one third of that is destroyed. A tremendous impact on mankind is therefore provided in the first third of this trumpet judgment.

What about the desert grazing land? The deserts cover some 17,000,000 square miles of good grazing land, good for either grazing or irrigation in farming. The fact that the entire world contains approximately 26,000,000 square miles suitable for grazing, 12,800,000 square miles good for producing warm weather crops, and about eleven and a half million square miles capable of producing cold weather crops, it can be seen immediately that when the desert is hit as well then you are destroying a great portion of the world’s food supply. The natural forests of the world cover an area of approximately 22,000,000 square miles. About 14,000,000 square miles are capable of being converted into crop-producing land. The tremendous devastation of this supernatural storm can be pictured which destroys one third of the high grass savannahs, the tall grass savannahs, the desert grass savannahs, marsh grass, short grass, desert shrubbery, rain forest, etc. The devastation of this judgment staggers the imagination.

The adverse affects on weather, food supply, and many other factors would be devastating to mankind on earth during the Tribulation.

Translation of verse seven: “Then the first one [the angel or the pur sui vant officer in the college of heralds] sounded his trumpet [gave the signal] and there followed a terrible thunder storm, hail and fire which had been mixed with blood [of the Tribulational martyrs — Rev. 6:9,10], and it [the supernatural thunderstorm] was hurled to the earth [the phenomenon known as wind shear or down-burst]: with the result that one third of the land surface was destroyed by fire, both a third of the trees was burned up plus all the green grasses.”

A similar prophecy is found in Joel 1:15-20, “What a dreadful day! [the day of the Tribulation] for the day of the Lord is near [second advent], and it will come as destruction from the Almighty.” Has not food been cut off from before our eyes, yes, joy and gladness from the house of our God? And the seeds shrivel under their clods, the storehouses for food are desolate, barns are torn down; for grain has dried up. How the cattle groan! the herds mill about, because there is no pasture; yes, even the flocks of sheep are suffering. To you, O Lord, I call: for fire has devoured the open pastures, and the flame has burned up all the trees of the forests. Even the wild animals of the field pant for you: for the watering holes have dried up, and fire has devoured the open grazing land.” This is an amplification of the first trumpet judgment.

The judgements which we have noted in Revelation up to the time of the trumpet judgements are the result of man’s bad decisions. Bad decisions result in judgment. But we have now come to a point where God directly judges mankind and the first four trumpet judgements are judgements related to nature. We now move on to verses eight and nine where we see the judgements of the second trumpet.

Verse 8, we have the sequential use of the conjunction kai, translated “then,” and we have the adjective numeral deuteroj which means “second.” With it, again, the same subject as always a)ggeloj, “the second angel,” and it refers to one of the members of the college of heralds, the fourth category, the pur sui vant messenger. Then follows the verb, the aorist active indicative of the verb salpizw, and it means to sound a trumpet. We translate: “Then the second angel [the pur sui vant messenger from the college of heralds] sounded his trumpet.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, this is the second trumpet judgment against nature. The active voice: the pur sui vant messenger produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for a simple statement of fact. This is a judgment from heaven. This signal on the trumpet begins the second judgment given in direct answer to the imprecatory prayers of Tribulational believers: a judgment against the seas of the world, specifically salt water areas.

The seas of the world with their salt water form ninety-eight per cent of the world’s water supply which means that two per cent of all the water available on the earth’s surface is fresh water. This would be more than adequate were it not that the world’s greatest reserves are locked inaccessibly in our ice caps. The problem therefore is to provide fresh water when and where it is needed and to ensure that it is not used faster than it can be replaced. The oceans of the world are nature’s reservoirs for this. Water evaporates from them to fall as rain and snow over land. So we actually get our fresh water from evaporation of salt water and from the land it returns mostly through rivers to the sea. Therefore the maximum amount of fresh water available depends on precipitation which depends on evaporation from the seas. This judgment is an attack on the salt water seas; the next trumpet judgment will be an attack upon fresh water, lakes, and rivers.

So we have a great mountain of burning fire which is suddenly used at this point, the aorist active indicative gives us our next verb, ballw, which actually means here to hurl. A great mountain of burning fire is hurled into the sea; “and became,” the aorist middle indicative of ginomai, which means to come, to follow, here it means to become; “and a third of the seas became blood.” This is a similar judgment found in Exodus 17:20, also mentioned in Psalm 105:29. It describes the first plague in Egypt and Psalm 105:29 puts it this way: “He [Aaron, serving Moses] turned their waters into blood, and caused their fish to die.” Of course, this came from God through Aaron and Moses. This was a local judgment against the Pharaoh of Egypt but here in Revelation this is a universal judgment against the seas and oceans of the earth.

Translation: “Then the second angel sounded his trumpet, and a great mountain of burning fire it was hurled into the sea: and a third of the seas became blood.”

The significance of the blood here is twofold. First of all it is a reminder to the unbelievers of the Tribulation that they have rejected the only way of salvation which has been given to them through evangelism and personal witnessing under the title: “The blood of Christ, God’s Son cleanses from all sin,” redemption, reconciliation and propitiation. The second reason is that the blood acts as a pollution, a salt water pollution. The importance of oceans and seas in sustaining the natural balance cannot be overestimated. Pollution on the ocean therefore becomes a very serious matter. The great mountain of burning fire will pollute oceans and seas up to one third by turning them in to blood. The Tribulational results of the second trumpet will be noted in verse nine.

Verse 9, When it says that a third of the creatures which were in the sea died, we have the aorist active indicative of the verb a)poqnhskw. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: creatures of the sea produce the action. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of this judgment. Fish and other sea food offer valuable protein in the diet of mankind. Many of the countries of the world depend on sea foods for their very existence. Again, this is reference to the four horsemen of the apocalypse where hunger is one of the great causes for death in the Tribulation.

There is also an effect on shipping, for it says at the end of this verse, “a third of the shipping was destroyed,” the aorist passive indicative of diafqeirw, and it does mean to destroy in the very same sense as death. This is the death to shipping. The passive voice means the subject receives the action of the verb and the shipping itself was destroyed. The economic wealth of many nations depends on their shipping and their trade.

It will be noticed that in verses eight and nine we have a general attack on all salt water, the oceans and the seas, and the shipping. Translation: “Then a third of the creatures in the sea, having life, died; also a third of the shipping was destroyed.”

The largest ocean in the world is the Pacific which covers 63,855,000 square miles, with a maximum depth of 36,198 feet. It is deeper than the highest height, Mount Everest. Next is the Atlantic which has 31,744,000 square miles. When you add these up plus all of the many other seas of the world it can be seen how devastating this second trumpet judgment will be.

That brings us, then, to another body of water, fresh water, in verses 10-11, the judgment of the third trumpet.

Verse 10, We have a word in the Greek which is used at least three different ways, a)sthr. It is correctly translated “star.” Sometimes it refers to a celestial body, sometimes it refers to a planet, and sometimes it refers to angelic creatures. In the Old Testament “star” is even used for achievement.

“Then the third angel [the pur sui vant messenger] sounded his trumpet, and a great star, burning like a torch, fell from heaven.” The word “great” which is used with it, megaj, also is significant. It means “great.” Actually, this time it is not a star. This is a giant meteor, a transient celestial body that enters the earth’s atmosphere with great velocity. It has incandescence with heat. It is luminous and shiny with the heat generated by the resistance of the air. We will translate this then: “ a giant meteor, incandescent like a lamp, fell from the sky.”

“and it fell on a third of the rivers and lakes.” The words “springs of waters” actually means lakes. This contamination is from a giant meteor and it affects one third of the fresh water supply of planet earth, specifically the rivers and the lakes. All of the lakes of the world add up to a considerable body of water, one third of which will be contaminated.

Translation of verse 10: “Then the third angel sounded his trumpet, a giant meteor, incandescent, fell from the sky, and it fell on the third of the rivers and the lakes.”

At this point we stop to notice a principle of interpretation. All three of these first judgements talk about a third being affected. The judgements are literal, they are local, they are lucid, and they are locked in. And these are the three principles that we should note.

First of all the judgements we are studying are literal, they are not to be taken symbolically. These judgements come from heaven, they are related to natural phenomena but they are administered in a supernatural way by the angelic college of heralds.

Secondly we note that these judgements are local. That is, a third of the earth or a third of the seas and oceans, or a third of the lakes and rivers, are affected. It is the local area where the hail and the fire and the giant meteor hits that is the area affected. So when these areas are affected it is wherever the judgment hits and from there it moves out locally to one third of planet earth.

The third thing we note is that these judgements are lucid. No question as to what is affected in the four trumpet judgements.

Finally, we note that these judgements are locked in. The certainty of these future judgements as a part of historical trends of the Tribulation is as certain as the Word of God which lives forever and ever. And by way of application to us in the Church Age, just as certainly as these things will occur so we as believers in this dispensation can anticipate some great historical disaster, which we are now experiencing.

The recipients of these judgements are the unbelievers of the Tribulation. No believers are destroyed by these judgements from God. To the contrary, these trumpet judgements are the results of the imprecatory prayers of Tribulational believers. Two categories of Tribulational believers exist at this time, those who have been martyred, and they are treated as Old Testament saints, and those who survive the Tribulation to the point of the second advent, they are treated as Millennial believers. The Tribulation then becomes what we would have to classify as a transitional dispensation that marks the dividing line between two categories of believers. And since the Tribulation is the extension of and termination of the dispensation of Israel, i.e. Daniel’s seventieth week, those believers who are martyred are going to be classified with the Old Testament saints. They will receive their resurrection bodies with the rest of the Old Testament believers at the second advent.

In other words, remember the doctrine of resurrection. The resurrection takes place under the Greek word tacij which in 1 Corinthians 15 means battalion, “every man in his own battalion.” In resurrection there are two battalions. The first battalion is made up of believers only, the second battalion is made up of unbelievers only. The second battalion is the resurrection which takes place at the end of time, the great white throne judgment where the unbelievers are cast into the lake of fire. But the first battalion is broken down into four companies and is pictured as a battalion review. Alpha Company moves out first and has already passed the reviewing stand. That is our Lord Jesus Christ. Next comes Bravo Company, the Rapture of the Church. Then Charlie company, the Old Testament saints at the second advent. Delta Company follows last, and that would be the resurrection body given to Millennial saints at the end of the Millennium. So you have four different companies involved in the resurrection and they take place at different times. Since the Tribulation, then, is a separate dispensation preceding the Millennium these believers who survive the Tribulation will become the cadre for the Millennial believers.

Here is the point of application. At the beginning of the Millennium there are believers only because that is the beginning of a civilisation. All the unbelievers of the Millennium will be the children of believing parents or grandparents. Since life is extended in the Millennium that means that all unbelievers have parents and grandparents who are believers. The principle is one that you must never forget and it must never become a source of unhappiness to you. How your children turn out may or may not be your responsibility. In most cases it is not. In the time in which we live because of drugs and because of the evil society in which we live, in which drugs are tolerated, in which you are ostracised through social groups if you

Principles from what we have done in Revelation

1. The third world is a perfect example of negative volition toward Bible doctrine, rejection of establishment, and the function of the cosmic system.

2. All life is not valuable, criminals must be executed, the enemy killed, the lazy and the degenerate destroyed, as a part of divine discipline.

3. Impersonal love is designed to benefit the human race; personal love is optional, designed for interaction of a few.

4. Virtue is developed through divine laws of establishment — believers and unbelievers, and the divine dynasphere where virtue is developed for believers only.

5. Impersonal love is a problem-solver. Christ solved the sin problem through impersonal love. Personal love is not a problem-solver but often a distraction. Or, personal love is often a distraction to relationship with God; impersonal love is the result of relationship with God.

The principle of energy

Energy minus ability, energy without ability, is misdirected arrogance. Energy without ability produces mental attitude arrogance or inordinate ambition. When people have energy and no ability they become troublemakers. They are a source of dissension in any organisation.

Energy without ability results in self-righteous arrogance, crusader arrogance. Crusader and self-righteous arrogance always combine to form a person who sticks his nose into everyone else’s business, intrudes into the privacy of others, becomes a gossip or maligner, tries to run your life and control your life, or the person who tries to intimidate you.

Energy without ability produces conspiracy arrogance, sexual arrogance, iconoclastic arrogance, morality arrogance, the arrogance of Christian service. People who have energy but no ability to serve the Lord are always using their energy in pseudo systems of Christian production.

Ability without energy is lack of motivation, lack of self-discipline. This, of course, is the other side of the story. Ability without energy, lack of motivation, and lack of self-discipline is what we might call the arrogance of laziness.

The controlled energy of hard work, on the other hand, produces ability and ability channels hard work into fields of productive success. This is simply saying that ability is acquired through hard work, through dedication, through plugging. Energy plus ability is the true drive in life. Energy is basically created in the body but ability is created in the attitudes of the soul. The ability is created in the motivational function of the soul, not the IQ of the soul, not the emotion of the soul, not even the self-consciousness of the soul. Motivation in the soul produces the decisions to take in doctrine on a daily basis regardless of circumstances, distractions, or discouragement. Both energy and ability are harnessed through perception and application of doctrine. Therefore, energy plus ability must be related to doctrine and wisdom otherwise a pseudo drive is created and all pseudo drives terminate in the modus operandi of the cosmic system.

Our Lord’s energy and wisdom, His ability during His first advent, was derived from His residence and function in the prototype divine dynasphere and it resulted in the greatest of all victories in human history, the strategic victory of the cross. Our Lord’s wisdom, coupled with His energy and ability at the second advent will set in motion the greatest reign in all of human history. Jesus Christ will rule the world. In the meantime, of course, our Lord has provided for us the divine dynasphere so that we can face and overcome every disaster in life. Our Lord has seen fit through the vehicle of eschatology to give us an account of the greatest period of historical disaster, the Tribulation, duplicated often in our lives and in our lifetime but with a difference: we have the means of meeting any disaster, any tragedy, any situation in life, and overcoming it.

Verse 11, the result of what happened when the meteor struck the fresh water supply. We begin by noting the name of the meteor. We have discussed the word a)sthr which can be a star, it can be an angel, it can refer to a human being who achieves, it also refers to a meteor. “And the name of the meteor is called,” the present passive indicative of legw, translated here “to call.” The perfective present tense refers to a fact which has come to be in the past but is emphasised as a present reality. The passive voice: the name or designation of the meteor is going to receive the action of the verb in this verse. The indicative mood is declarative for a simple statement of fact, and with that comes the fact, the predicate nominative of the Greek word a)psinqoj, transliterated “absinthe,” a very famous wine in France and made more famous by what the French Legionnaires did when they had too much of it. Today the name absinthe is the name of a green alcoholic liqueur containing oil of wormwood and annis. It was famous in the French Foreign Legion by causing nervous derangements and wild hallucinations. But it is translated in our verse “wormwood” and that is a possible translation, the only problem being that wormwood is not a deadly poison and we are dealing with a pollution where fresh water is concerned. Whatever a)psinqoj was it killed many people. Absinthe or wine prepared with wormwood was well-known in the ancient world. Wormwood is a plant. The oil from the plant has a very strong bitter taste. The oil was also used to destroy intestinal worms in the ancient world and was considered a great cure. It was also used to manufacture absinthe in the ancient world as well and since the noun is used for wormwood perhaps a few scriptures will give us an idea as to exactly what the Bible has in mind by calling this meteor “Wormwood.”

Proverbs 5:3,4 — here wormwood is used for hooking up with the wrong doll! “For the lips of an adulterous woman drip honey, and her palate is smoother than oil of frankincense. But in the end she is as bitter as wormwood.” Wormwood here is a frustrated relationship with a member of the opposite sex. A bitter experience is what it connotes here.

The word for wormwood in the Hebrew is not the same as the Greek, it is laanah, and it is exactly the same as absinthe in the Greek. Wormwood is identified generally in the Bible with some form of discipline: to an individual has made some kind of a mistake in a relationship with a member of the opposite sex, or for a nation which has failed as a client nation. The latter is the meaning that Jeremiah assigns to it in Jeremiah 9:15, “Therefore thus saith the Lord of the armies, the God of Israel [our Lord Jesus Chris]; Behold, I will feed this people [referring to Israel about to be punished with the fifth cycle of discipline] with wormwood [wormwood is the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline to the client nation Israel], I will give them poisoned water to drink.”

The explanation in Jeremiah 9:16 follows: “I will scatter them among the nations [that’s wormwood], whom neither they nor their fathers have known [the Chaldeans in 586 BC; the Romans in 70 AD]: I will send the sword after them until I have annihilated them.” This is what wormwood means.

Now we have a giant meteor called Wormwood because it is the vehicle for the administration of God’s justice on unbelievers of the Tribulation. Wormwood connotes divine judgment and the giant meteor is the means of administrating that judgment under the fifth trumpet. We must remember that Wormwood is the name of the meteor and not what pollutes the water. So the giant meteor, incandescent, burning like a lamp or a torch, is a symbol of divine judgment on fresh water upon planet earth. The judgment is literal. We will stay with the translation of the name of the meteor, Wormwood, because it always connotes some form of divine judgment.

“Therefore, thus saith the Lord of the armies, ‘Behold I am going to feed them wormwood, and make them drink poisonous water: for from the prophets in Jerusalem pollution has gone out throughout the entire land’.”

The real pollution in that passage is false teaching from the prophets and this real pollution is the basis for divine judgment, or wormwood. Wormwood depicts the anti-pivot in a client nation, and specifies idolatry in Israel as the gathering point for those who reject Bible doctrine.

Deuteronomy 29:18, “Lest there be among you any man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose right lobe turns away today from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of those Gentile nations; lest there shall be among you a root bearing poison fruit and wormwood.” Only believers who are positive toward doctrine ever survive wormwood type judgment.

This is the subject of Lamentations chapter three, beginning at verse 15. In verses 15-19 we see the wormwood judgment, “He has filled me with bitterness, he has made me drunk with wormwood.” Now the wormwood is described as a literal judgment. “He has broken my teeth with gravel, he has caused me to cower in the dust. My life has been deprived of its prosperity: I have forgotten the good [I have forgotten what blessing is]. So I think my strength is gone and so has my hope from the Lord: I remember my adversity and my straying, I remember the wormwood, the bitterness [the meaning of wormwood].”

Deliverance by logistical grace from wormwood judgment is mentioned in verses 20-26, a passage which should remind us that no wormwood judgment ever touches the advancing or the mature believer. This becomes important in the interpretation of the next chapter because wormwood judgements are going to include demon invasions, and demon invasions are going to first torture and then destroy unbelievers in the cosmic system, and believers in the cosmic system; believers and unbelievers who are serving Satan. But no believer who is positive toward doctrine and advancing will ever be disturbed by a wormwood judgment.

“Definitely my soul remembers, and is humbled within me. This I recall to mind, therefore I have hope [confidence]. It is of then Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness [great is logistical grace]. The Lord is my portion, thinks my soul; therefore I have confidence in him. The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the person who seeks him. It is good to wait silently or quietly for the deliverance of the Lord.”

And so while the wormwood judgment was being administered as the fifth cycle of discipline to Israel, the subject of Lamentations, it was not true where believers had Bible doctrine and were advancing. And just as Jeremiah was delivered from the wormwood judgment of the fifth cycle of discipline in BC 586 so Tribulational believers will be delivered from the wormwood judgment of the third trumpet.

“And the name of the giant meteor is called Wormwood.” Then we have a description of the wormwood judgment in the Tribulation, “Now one third of the waters [fresh waters: lakes, rivers] became,” the aorist active indicative of the verb ginomai, which means to follow, to be, to become. The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes the third trumpet and gathers it into a single whole, the pollution of one third of the fresh water supply of the earth. The active voice: the fresh water supply, two per cent of all water on the earth, produces the action of the verb.

The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the pollution of one third of the world’s fresh water supply.

The importance of water for sustaining life cannot be overestimated. Here is an ellipsis generally not recognised, therefore the word “polluted” is inserted between the verb ginomai and the preposition e)ij, plus the accusative of wormwood [e)ij plus a)psinqoj], and it is translated like this: “and the name of the giant meteor is called Wormwood: now one third of the [fresh] waters became polluted [poisoned] because of the meteor called Wormwood; in fact many of the human race [unbelievers] died,” the aorist active indicative of a)poqnhskw, meaning to die. The culminative aorist tense views the death of many people in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. The verb denotes the end of judgment for many people in the world. The waters were polluted by some form of poison or disease-bearing germs, many unbelievers drank it and died. The active voice: the Tribulational unbeliever produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for the results of water pollution, the judgment of many Tribulational unbelievers. Then we have e)k plus the ablative of u(dor, “from the waters,” and then the causal conjunction o(ti, “because,” the aorist passive indicative from the verb pikrainw, meaning to be made bitter or polluted. It not only means to make bitter, it also means hostility, to become hostile, it also means to be polluted, and that is exactly the way we will translate it: “because they were polluted [they were made hostile or bitter].”

Many diseases are communicated by means of water. Even metallic poisoning, especially lead poisoning, can be transmitted through the water supply. Between 1920 and 1936, a period of seventeen years, there were 412 reported water-born epidemics of disease in the United States of America. This affected 115,000 people and caused 955 deaths. These are just normal functions, not divine judgment.

Pollution of fresh water falls into three categories: a microbe such as virus and bacteria, natural pollution from human or animal waste, environmental pollution such as industrial chemicals and toxic waste, acid rain from polluted air. Streams, rivers, lakes, and small reservoirs should not be used as a direct source of home water supply because of the potential danger from pollution. Modern systems for the purification of water are generally excellent but not foolproof. However, this judgment of the third trumpet far exceeds any problem or any danger hitherto known to man or anything that is related to fresh water problems. This pollution of water is supernatural and will claim the lives of hundreds of thousands and perhaps millions of unbelievers in the Tribulation.

The fourth trumpet is the most difficult of all. This is the one that is going to affect the atmosphere.

Verse 12, “And the fourth angel [the pur sui vant messenger] sounded his trumpet, then a third of the sun, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars were struck,” the aorist passive indicative of the word plessw which means to strike, to hit. Figuratively, when used of celestial bodies it means to lose, at least temporarily, at least one third of their radiation. So we are talking about loss of light. The stars here refer to the planets in the solar system only. They were struck, meaning loss of light, loss of radiation at its source. The culminative aorist tense views the event in its entirety — the striking of the moon, the sun and the planets — but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results: loss of radiation. The passive voice: the sun, the moon, and the planets [stars] receive the action of the verb, they were struck so that their light was lost up to one third. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of this divine judgment in relationship to the solar system to celestial bodies.

The gravitational attraction of the sun controls the orbits of the planets. The sun is a rotating nuclear furnace composed mostly of hydrogen and helium which constantly emit energy. Periodically magnetic fields develop on the surface areas of the sun called sunspots. They are darker in appearance simply because they are slightly cooler. Associated with these disturbances which last for weeks are streams of gas which are called prominences. Such activity affects the earth’s magnetic fields as well as its atmosphere and weather. Maximum sunspot activity occurs during eleven-year cycles. From the sun comes the gamma rays, the X-rays, the ultra violet rays, visible light, infra red, and radio waves. These waves are called the sun’s electromagnetic radiation. Only some of the longer waves penetrate the atmosphere and reach the earth’s surface. The atmosphere therefore acts as a filter and it filters these rays. In the final layer around the earth, known as the troposphere, we have nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, which supports life and becomes the abode of circulating air and water which creates our climate. So it can be seen that to knock out the normal function of these things would be a very disastrous thing.

In our passage, when this fourth pur sui vant messenger blows his trumpet, light, solar winds, and radiation is cut down by one third at the source. The same is true of the moon and the planets in the solar system, and that is what the first part of verse 12 is actually saying.

The actual result begins with the conjunction i(na. It is translated, “so that,” “a third of them,” and then we have the aorist subjunctive from the verb skotizw, “were darkened.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: star or planets of the solar system produce the action. The subjunctive mood is for the purpose clause.

“and the day might not shine for a third of it,” the aorist active subjunctive of fainw plus the negative mh continues the purpose clause, “might not give light [or might not shine].” The culminative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, the blackout of one third of each day. The active voice: both the day and the night produce the action of the verb. The subjunctive mood is used as a part of the purpose clause. And then it adds in corrected translation, kai nuc o(moioj, “and the night likewise [in the same way].”

Verse13, the message of the eagle herald. We begin by noting the aorist active indicative of o(raw plus the aorist active indicative of a)kouw. This is the beginning of the transition to the demon invasions in chapter nine. “I observed and I heard.” The aorist tense in each case is a constative aorist, it gathers the observation into one entirety. The active voice of each verb: John the apostle produces the action. The indicative mood is for the reality of what he now observes and hears.

We have the objective genitive composed of two words, the numeral e(ij which should be translated “one” and it will be noticed that there is no word for the numeral in the King James version. Then a)etoj is for an eagle, “I saw one eagle.” A problem arises immediately. Is this an eagle or an angel? The Greek says eagle but this is an angel. However, that is an interpretation rather than a translation. The Greek word favours “eagle” but the eagle in reality is the angelic herald of Revelation 4:7 who, it will be remembered, is in the highest echelon of the college of heralds. He is a herald, “the fourth angelic herald [says Revelation 4:7] was like a flying eagle.” So the fourth angelic herald who bears the eagle escutcheon is the one who proclaims the coming of the three woes of the last two trumpet judgements. So what we have is: “Then I observed and heard one flying eagle,” the fourth herald of Revelation 4:7.

Next follows the ascriptive use of the present active participle petomai which means “flying,” and here the present active participle is a complementary participle used to complete the action of the verb. It is said to be flying in mid heaven, referring to the second heaven which is the realm of angelic activity, according to Acts 7:42. Remember, we have three heavens in the Bible. The first is the troposphere plus the stratosphere etc. The second heaven the realm of angelic activity where the fourth herald proclaims these three woes which are synonymous with trumpets five, six, and seven. The third heaven is the throne of God, as we noted in Revelation 4:5.

The angels proclamation follows with the present active participle legw, which means to say, to speak, and many similar things. It means here to make a proclamation. The futuristic present tense denotes an event which has not but is regarded as so certain that in thought it is contemplated as already occurring. The active voice: the fourth angelic herald, the eagle flying, produces the action. The participle is circumstantial, and a circumstantial participle can be translated like a finite verb with the conjunction “and,” “and he said [or proclaimed].”

Next we have the instrumental of manner from two words, the adjective megaj and the noun fwnh, “with a loud voice.” Then we have three interjections: o)uai, o)uai, o)uai, which is comparable to our “woe.” The first woe, the first use of the interjection here, refers to the fifth trumpet, Revelation 9:1-12. This woe refers to the invasion of the earth by the first demon assault army, an assault army which at the present time is in jail in the abyss. It will be led by Abaddon or Apollyon who is second only to Satan in rank among the fallen angels.

The second woe mentioned here is the sixth trumpet of Revelation 9:13-21. This is the invasion of the second demon assault army. The difference between these two armies: the first demon assault army will torture men on the earth for five months, the second one is a killer army which will be initiated from under the Euphrates river. Both the fifth and sixth trumpets of the first two woes are demon invasions of planet earth by hard-core armies that are not operational at the present time in the Church Age.

The third woe refers to the seventh trumpet of Revelation 11:15-12:17. This is Satan’s greatest anti-Semitism offensive. Satan himself leads a third demon army in an attempt to destroy all Israel so that the second advent cannot occur because there will be no Jews to fulfil the unconditional promises to.

“Then I observed and heard one eagle [the fourth herald of Revelation 4:7] flying in mid heaven, and he said in a loud voice, Woe, Woe, Woe [trumpets five, six, and seven].”

Then we have “to the inhabitants of the earth”. These are Tribulational unbelievers and Tribulational believers living in the cosmic system. The present active participle is in the accusative case and it is from the noun katoikew, used here as a noun with the generic use of the definite article to describe a special category. The category refers to people who live in the cosmic system and it will include believers and unbelievers. Later on in the next chapter we will make the distinction for believers will be delivered during the Tribulation. They will have their own special wall of fire of positive volition toward doctrine resulting in learning doctrine. But there will also be a tremendous amount of negative volition among some believers and they are also going to be the victims of these demon attacks.

Next we have a very strange prepositional phrase because of the way it is translated, e)k plus the ablative of source or the ablative of origin, sometimes called the ablative of effective cause. It is not translated like most prepositions, e)k. E)k plus the ablative is ordinarily “from,” but when it is e)k plus the ablative of effective cause then it means “because.” Hence it denotes the origin of the reason. This is a presupposition of the last three trumpet judgements and it is correctly translated “because.” And then we have the ablative of loipoj, meaning the remaining, and the word fwnh which here means “blasts,” “because of the remaining blasts of the three angels who are about to sound off.”

Translation: “Then I observed and heard one eagle flying in mid heaven [the second heaven], and he said with a loud voice, Woe [reference to the fifth trumpet], Woe [sixth trumpet], Woe [seventh trumpet], to the inhabitants of the earth because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet from the three angels who are about to sound off!”

We note, then, that Satan has three attack armies composed of hard-core demons. None of them are operational at the present time based on the fact that today they would be wasting their time due to the fact that the Holy Spirit acts as a special restrainer in this particular dispensation, the Church Age. Also, because for the only time in history God the Holy Spirit actually indwells every believer so that demon possession is impossible. Demon influence is possible. Demon possession, of course is the invasion of the body by one or more demons; demon influence is the invasion of the personality and that is possible through residence in the cosmic system. But the believer cannot be demon possessed. Unbelievers can be demon possessed but not believers. Both believers and unbelievers can be under demon influence, the invasion of the personality through residence in the cosmic system. But in the future there will be a new wrinkle added: demon attack — literal, physical attack. It is not possible now because God the Holy Spirit acts as a restrainer.

So Satan has three hard-core attack armies and their mission will be to actually, literally, physically, overtly attack people. This will be noted in passages coming up. The fascinating thing about all of this, however, is that these demon armies, one commanded by Satan [the third assault army], one commanded by his chief of staff, Apollyon or Abaddon [the first assault army], and the Euphrates army commanded by four demons are going to attack in the Tribulation, overtly and literally assault, people living in the cosmic system. That means servants of Satan, for believers and unbelievers in any dispensation living in the cosmic system are the servants of Satan. Although Satan is a fantastic genius he is actually going to turn his hard-core assault armies loose against his own human servants, unbelievers and believers who reside in the cosmic system. Note: Satan seems to be a little ungrateful!

While the power of Satan, then, is very great and his genius is even greater than that he is unable to control or co-ordinate his very own kingdom of darkness which in the last half of the Tribulation will be out of hand and uncontrollable due to the fact that Satan is no longer in heaven and no longer controls his armies from heaven. Demon armies attack and destroy Satan’s human servants. And while it does not make sense and it appears incompatible with Satan’s genius a study of the cosmic system will aid us to understand this interpretive principle, for the interpretive principle at this point is a very important one and one that will come up several times in the next chapter. Arrogance has no loyalty to arrogance. This principle will be expanded in many ways.

1. Loyalty, which is a great facet of leadership, demands integrity, and arrogance has no integrity.

2. Those human beings who live and reside in the cosmic system do not possess integrity. In fact, many people have integrity before they enter the cosmic system but once they enter the cosmic system that cancels their integrity, their honour. Arrogance neutralises integrity.

3. Therefore, anticipating the next chapter, hard-core demon armies attack Satan’s human servants, which implies that Satan has lost control of his demon assault armies. The loss of control is that there is no honour among those who are arrogant.

4. There is no respect for authority where arrogance has the ascendancy. Smart arrogance will pretend to respect authority to gain some objective for all operational arrogance is hypocritical, whether among people or fallen angels versus people.

5. Even Satan himself becomes inconsistent at the end of the Tribulation. he will attack, he will search and destroy on a mad search and destroy mission against all unbelieving Jews who live in the cosmic system in his attempt to destroy all Jews. That means he will attack his own servants who are Jews as well as believers who are Jews.

6. At least Satan’s great attack leading the third assault army against the Jews [the seventh trumpet] has reason behind it.

7. Satan is seeking to destroy all Jews before the second advent of Christ so that God’s promises to Israel are abrogated. The unconditional covenants to Israel demand living Jews at the second advent.

8. This emphasises to us a great principle. Even though the unbelievers have served Satan well in the cosmic system and even though cosmic believers have served Satan well, when Satan is through using them he discards them.

9. This is the modus operandi used by all arrogant human beings. All arrogant human beings live in the cosmic system which intensifies their arrogance, moves it in many directions. Therefore, human beings living in the cosmic system have neither loyalty, gratitude or the integrity to appreciate loyal service from subordinates.

10. Many Christians have been shocked by executives whose promotion and success depended on their hard and faithful service, yet, when they were no longer useful or because of some pressure became a source of embarrassment they were discarded without any consideration.

11. Arrogant leadership or executive function knows no loyalty to faithful subordinates and has no appreciation for past services rendered.

12. So even service in the cosmic system of the devil is no protection from the devil or his hard-core demon assault armies who at this moment are incarcerated in the abyss of Hades, under the water of the Euphrates.