Interpreting the seven trumpets of Revelation

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The Seven Trumpets

The Creation Concept

Charles D. Alexander
Herbert W. Armstrong
William Barclay
Gregory K. Beale
James B. Coffman
John Darby
A. C. Gaebelein
George Gifford
David Guzik
E. W. Hengstenberg
H. A. Ironside
B. W. Johnson
Alonso T. Jones
Jack Kelley
William Kelly
Don Koenig
Gordon E. Ladd
Clarence Larkin
Francis Nigel Lee
David B. Loughran
John MacArthur
Henry Madison Morris
Robert H. Mounce
John H. Ogwyn
David C. Pack
Jon Paulien
J. Dwight Pentecost
Peter Pett
Bob Pickle
Vern S. Poythress
John H. Pratt & Edward B. Elliott
Ken Raggio
James Stuart Russell
Tyconius
John Walvoord
Ronald Weinland
James White

Jon Paulien

1st trumpet

John intended his readers to see in the first trumpet the fate of the Jewish nation that had rejected Jesus as its Messiah.

2nd trumpet

it is likely that a first century reader would understand the second trumpet as a prediction that the Roman Empire was soon to fall along with its entire social order.

3rd trumpet

The main symbolism of the third trumpet revolves around the great falling star and the rivers and springs which it defiles. The falling star is particularly reminiscent of the Lucifer account (Isa 14:12-15) and the activity of the little horn (Dan 8:10,11) in the Old Testament. In both texts there is the attempt to usurp God's authority. In Isa 14 the falling of the star is the punishment for Lucifer's activity, in Dan 8 it is the result of the little horn's persecuting activity.

Rivers and fountains, when pure, are sources of life in the Old Testament (Deut 8:7,8; Ps 1:3). Thus they became symbols of spiritual nourishment (Ps 36:8,9; Jer 17:8,13; Prov 14:27; Ezek 47:1-12). Impure fountains, on the other hand, would have the opposite spiritual effect (Prov 25:26). Bitter water cannot sustain life and growth.

Wormwood and bitterness are associated together in Lam 3:15,19. In Deuteronomy wormwood represents anyone who turns away from Yahweh into idolatry (Deut 29:17,18). In Jeremiah it symbolizes the punishment Yahweh was planning to mete out because of Judah's apostasy (Jer 9:15: 23:15). The Marah experience is also a close parallel to the third trumpet (Exod 15:23). The children of Israel were dying of thirst. With great anticipation, they approached the spring-fed oasis of Marah only to find that there was no life in the bitter water.

Other parts of the New Testament also contain parallels to the third trumpet. In Luke 10:18 Satan is the one who fell from heaven. Similar imagery is used in Rev 12 where the dragon's tail sweeps a third of the stars of heaven to earth before being thrown to the earth himself (Rev 12:3,4,9). In the Gospel of John "living" spring water is a symbol of what Jesus brings to the believer through the Holy Spirit (John 4:10-14; 7:37-39).

What was John trying to say with by means of these images? The overwhelming flavor of this account is one of apostasy. Stars and fountains are positive images in Scripture but here John drew on passages such as Isa 14 and Deut 29 where a good thing becomes evil due to apostasy. The little horn of Dan 8 also encourages apostasy in its usurpation of the sanctuary service. Such apostasy is the first step on the road to spiritual death in that it results in a distortion of the source of spiritual nourishment, the Word of God. Through distorted views of God the Scriptures are made of no effect in giving life to the people.

The early church was aware that apostasy loomed large in its future (Acts 20:28-31; 2 Thess 2; 1 Tim 4:1ff.). It was also aware that pure doctrine can only be maintained with diligent effort (1 Tim 4:1,2; 1 John 4:1-3; Jude 3,4). The message of the third trumpet underlines these convictions. The removal of Rome and Judaism as effective opponents would have seemed to open the way for the church's advancement and growth. But John warns in apocalyptic language that such a removal only diverts Satan's attack. He then will concentrate on destroying the church from within, knowing that if the church's life-giving message can be subtly distorted, mankind will fail to find the spiritual nourishment it needs, but instead will find only bitterness. Indications that this iniquity was already at work in John's lifetime are found in New Testament books such as 1 Corinthians, Galatians, Colossians and Hebrews.

4th trumpet

There is an apparent contradiction in this verse. The plague smites a third of the sun, moon and stars with darkness, which one would expect to result in a dimming of the intensity of the heavenly lights. Instead a third of the day and a third of the night are darkened as in an eclipse. Since the latter is more sound grammatically, the plague probably points to a darkening of the heavenly bodies for a third of the time.

This passage is strongly based on the darkness of the ninth plague on Egypt (Exod 10:21-23) and the lamentation over Pharaoh in Ezek 32:2-8. Darkness is one of the curses of the covenant (Deut 28:29). The sun is a symbol of the Word of God in the Old Testament (Ps 19; 119:105). The moon represents beauty and fertility (SS 6:10; Deut 33:14). Stars represent angels and the people of God (Dan 8:10; 12:3). The choice of symbolism points to a partial obliteration of the Word of God resulting in spiritual darkness.

John seems to be pointing to an attack on God's word and His people that is of a different nature than that of the third trumpet. While wormwood represented a distortion of the Word of God the fourth trumpet results in the obliteration of that word. It is no longer visible. In the third trumpet people continued to drink from the springs, hoping to gain life, in the fourth trumpet the very presence of the life-giving sources is removed.

John seems to be pointing to a new power which would oppose the truth and the people of God in a more direct way. Perhaps the model for such a power can be found in the Pharaoh of the Exodus, who denied the very existence of Yahweh (Exod 5:2). It is difficult to know what kind of movement John would have had in mind, likely he was pointing to something completely new.

There is a seeming contradiction in that the trumpets are judgments of God on the enemies of His people, yet the third and fourth trumpets seem to be attacks on the gospel and those who proclaim it. But God's judgments come in two forms in the Bible. There is the judgment of open intervention as in 2 Kgs 19 where 185,000 Assyrians were slain. Similar is the sending of Cyrus to defeat Babylon in order to free Israel. On the other hand, as in Rom 1, God's judgments often come in the form of permitting people and nations to reap the consequences of their own actions (cf. Hos 4:17). Thus, while the direct enemies of the church are removed in the first two trumpets, God permits an apostasy which results in two new enemies, one from within and one from without. In its apostasy the church, as with Judaism, becomes an enemy of God's true people.

5th trumpet

It is possible to make too much of the elaborate description of the locusts. Perhaps they symbolize human beings inspired by Satan (Rev 9:7,8,11). Whether man or demon, these fiends "are as strong as horses, as powerful as kings, as cunning as the wiliest man, as seductive as a beautiful woman, and they can cause pain like a scorpion." In verse 11 Satan's names (Apollyon and Abaddon) are personifications of death, the fate of the wicked (Job 26:6; 31:12; Ps 88:11). This fits in with the character of one who was a murderer and a liar from the beginning (John 8:44). He exercises his lies through the tails of the locust-men (Isa 9:15). Just as his confinement to the abyss (Rev 20:1-3 restricts his deceptions, so the opening of the abyss is the release of his deceptions to do their deadly work. In those who reject Christ the light of truth is extinguished by Satan (cf. 2 Thess 2:9-12--with God's permission).

6th trumpet

The Euphrates River was the northern border of the land promised to Abraham (Gen 15:18; Josh 1:4, etc.). The language here is reminiscent of Isa 8:7,8 where the Assyrian invasion of Judah is described in terms of the Euphrates River overflowing its banks and flooding Palestine. Here again the Euphrates is the source of a great assault against God's people. This plague appears to be a gathering of the forces of evil for the final battle (cf. 16:13-16; 20:7-9).

 As in Rev 7:4, John doesn't see 200,000,000 horsemen in 9:16, he hears the number. This is Satan's host in contrast to the sealed of God who number 144,000. In verses 17-19 the horsemen are equipped with material from the lake of fire. This plague is a composite with the fifth trumpet, for the horsemen not only harm men with the fire, smoke and sulphur which comes out of their mouths but with their tails, which remind one of 9:10. The flavor of these images reminds one of the beasts of chapter 13 and the frogs which come out of their mouths in 16:13. Thus the sixth trumpet is related to the account of the final crisis in Rev 13-16.

In Rev 9:20,21 there are many references to the fall of Babylon in the Old Testament. The images of idolatry are drawn from Dan 5:4,23; a description of Babylon just before the Euphrates River dried up! Verse 21 is based on Isa 47:9-12, a prediction of Babylon's fall.

In summary, this trumpet is based on imagery that points in two directions. There are references to Babylon in the Old Testament and its river, the Euphrates. And there are many connections with the three-fold Babylon of the end-time crisis. Since the closest parallels are with Rev 16:12,13 it seems reasonable to suggest that John was here portraying the gathering of Satan's host which precedes the battle of Armageddon. With this plague we clearly enter the arena of final events.

7th trumpet

In Rev 10:7 it is stated explicitly that the "mystery of God (to mustêrion tou theou)" will be consummated (etelesthê) at that point in history when the seventh angel is about to sound his trumpet (hotan mellê salpizein). The mystery of God is an acronym for the gospel in the New Testament (Rom 16:25,26, cf. Col 1:25-28; Eph 6:19). Thus, the sounding of the seventh trumpet signals the close of the great work of proclaiming the gospel to every nation, kindred, language and people (Rev 14:6,7). It ushers in the final events connected with the battle of Armageddon.
 
The climax of the seven trumpets comes with Rev 11:15: ... This depicts the enthronement of God and Christ over all the nations of the world.

Copyright © 2010 by Douglas E. Cox
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