Interpreting the seven trumpets of Revelation

Alonso T. Jones

1st trumpet

The time covered by this prophecy is from 395 to 419 A. D., and relates to the invasions of the Visigoths, especially under Alaric; and the great horde of barbarians under Radagaisus.

2nd trumpet

The period covered by this Trumpet is from 428 to 476; and the prophecy was fulfilled in the terrible Genseric, King of the Vandals, and "Monarch of the Sea;" whose ravages fixed forever in human language the term expressive of wilful, wanton, and ignorant destruction -- "Vandalism;" and who "spread his negotiations round the world." -- Gibbon, Chap. XXXXII, par. 10 from end; Chap. XXXIV, par. 4.

3rd trumpet

The period covered by this trumpet was brief, as "a burning star," 451-453.
Raids by Attila the Hun in Western Europe.

4th trumpet

Decline of the power of Rome. "This trumpet illustrates the blotting out of the Roman government. Sun, moon, and stars are evidently symbols that denote the ruling powers in the government -- its emperors, consuls, and senators."

5th trumpet

This trumpet covers a period of eight hundred and seventeen years, -- A. D. 632-1449, -- and shows the rise and work of the Mohammedans in the destruction of Eastern Rome -- first the Arabian Mohammedans and later the Turkish Mohammedans. Of this Albert Barnes remarks that, "with surprising unanimity, commentators have agreed in regarding this as referring to the empire of the Saracens, or to the rise and progress of the religion and the empire set up by Mohammed." We can not see how anyone who will read the prophecy, and Gibbon's history of Mohammed and his successors in the light of it, can disagree with the application of the prophecy to the Mohammedans.

6th trumpet

The four angels here mentioned, that were bound in the great river Euphrates and that were at this time to be loosed, refer to the four great sultanies -- Bagdad, Damascus, Iconium, and Aleppo -- of which at that time the Mohammedan power was composed. ... The breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and of brimstone; and the fire, smoke, and brimstone as issuing out of the horses' mouths; are explained by the fact of the large use of powder in the firearms employed, which was at that time only a late discovery in the West. ...These items are sufficient to designate the point of the true application of the prophecy. 

In the year 1449, at the death of the emperor of the Eastern Empire of Rome, that empire had dwindled almost to the very walls of the capital itself. And so certain did it seem that the capital itself must shortly fall, that the successor to the throne would not accept the place without the knowledge and permission of Amurath, the sultan of the Turks. And thus that empire at that time really passed under the control of the Turkish power; and all that remained to complete the blotting out of the empire in every respect, was the actual taking of the capital, which was accomplished by Mahomet II, May 29, 1453.   The time of the Sixth Trumpet began immediately upon the expiration of the Fifth, July 27, 1449; and was to continue "an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year."

7th trumpet

The first Four Trumpets mark the downfall of the Western Empire of Rome; the Fifth and Sixth Trumpets mark the destruction of the Eastern Empire of Rome; and the Seventh Trumpet marks the downfall of all empires, all kingdoms, and all nations; for when the God of heaven sets up His kingdom, "it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms." Dan. 2:44.