Interpreting the seven trumpets of Revelation

B. W. Johnson

1st trumpet

Desolation of the land in the Roman Empire by destroying armies (the Goths) after 409 AD.

2nd trumpet

The sea becomes a scene of awful warfare and destruction; the Vandals take Gaul, Spain, and North Africa from the Romans; Rome is besieged and falls to barbarians

3rd trumpet

"a leader suddenly appears, rapidly does an awfully baleful work, and then disappears. In some way the rivers will be the scenes of his malign influence. They shall become bitterness and shall be scenes of death" Interpreted as applying to Attila the Hun (A.D. 406 - 453) and the Hunnic Empire."

4th trumpet

"a Roman emperor and ruler of the world is cast from power; his empire is overthrown; the consuls, senators, and great men who supported his power are cast to the dust, followed by a period of intellectual and moral darkness; interpreted as the overthrow of Rome by Odoacer. In A. D. 476 "Odoacer, king of the Heruli, a Northern race, encouraged by the apparent weakness of the falling empire, besieged and took the almost helpless city. Augustulus, the feeble emperor, was hurled down, the Roman Senate that had met for twelve hundred and twenty-eight years, was driven from the Senate chambers, the mighty fabric of the empire fell to the dust, and the great men were humbled never to rise again. Sun, moon, and stars, emperor, princes, and great men, are smitten, lose their power, and cease to give light"

5th trumpet

The Mohammedan or Saracen power (632 to 782 AD) "bursts forth from their deserts to assail the world. Within a hundred years Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia, Egypt, the north of Africa, and Spain had fallen beneath their sway"

6th trumpet

The rise of Turkish power; Turks assail the Eastern Empire beginning in 1057 AD and eventually take the city of Constantinople in 1453.

7th trumpet

The universal reign of Christ; the judgment