Revelation 8-11

The Seven Trumpets

And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets.—Revelation 8:2

David Rice

The seven trumpet blasts of Revelation 8 through 11 are seven declarations of judgment which fall on the political-religious systems which impact God’s elect. These judgments are inscribed “within and on the backside” of the scroll in the right hand of God (Revelation 5:1), but as the scroll is sealed with seven seals, we are not introduced to the actual content of these judgments until “he had opened the seventh seal” (Revelation 8:1). Then, after a dramatic introductory pause, “silence in heaven about the space of half an hour,” they are revealed.

That the contents of the scroll are foreboding judgments is attested by two Old Testament texts. “Written within and without [were] lamentations, and mourning, and woe” (Ezekiel 2:10). “Everyone who steals will be purged away according to the writing on one side, and everyone who swears will be purged away according to the writing on the other side” (Zechariah 5:3, NASB).

Revelation 8:2 says “I saw the seven angels which stood before God,” as though they appeared before in Revelation. Perhaps these seven angels, or spirits, are the same as “the seven Spirits of God” which stood before his throne (Revelation 4:5).

There are two basic frames of reference in Revelation. Chapters 1 to 3 have their setting “down here.” John was on the isle of Patmos when he heard a voice behind him, and turning saw a vision of Jesus walking among the candlesticks (Revelation 1:9-12). But the scene changes in chapter 4. “A door was opened in heaven: and the first voice ... said, Come up hither” (Revelation 4:1). The remainder of Revelation has its setting “up there,” through the door in heaven, in the presence of God.

The symbols change in the two locations. Jesus, for example, appears in the first three chapters as a priest tending the candlesticks, but from the throne scene onward he appears as a lamb. Similarly, the seven messengers are represented through chapter 3 as seven stars in the right hand of Jesus, but afterward the “seven stars” appear no longer and “seven lamps” appear representing “seven spirits.” Perhaps they are the same class. In chapters 1 to 3 they are seven light-bearers; later they are seven spirits trumpeting God’s judgments.

Before the seven angels sound, a brief episode intervenes in verses 3-5. An angel standing at the golden altar offers incense “with the prayers of all saints.” This reminds us of the incense on the Day of Atonement which pictures our Lord’s life yielded as a fragrant offering to God. Without this our prayers as sons of God could not be received. That means this scene—and thus the Trumpet Judgments—begin at the opening of the Gospel age.

Trumpets One Through Four

Trumpet One produced a deadly trauma, “hail and fire mingled with blood ... cast upon the earth: the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.” Earth, as distinct from sea, represents stable religious society. This judgment evidently was against the Jewish polity. In 70 A.D. Jerusalem was taken and the Jewish state broken. The green grass represents the Jewish people (“all flesh is grass,” Isaiah 40:6), and the trees the leaders among them. The half hour silence (verse one) may signify the period from the opening of the age until this first judgment.

Here, and in trumpets 2, 3, 4, and 6, a “third part” is afflicted, whereas the corresponding plague judgments of the harvest have no such limitation. In trumpet two for example, a third of the creatures in the sea died; in plague two “every” living soul in the sea died. Perhaps this indicates the seven plagues bring a finality, as compared with the judgments through the age. Whether a detailed meaning can be given to each example of a “third part” is uncertain. Perhaps it is used simply as a Gospel age number (3, 30, 300, 3000 all appear respecting our Lord’s atonement).

Trumpet Two. “A great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood.” The great mountain represents Pagan Rome. As Christianity spread, paganism weakened, and the old empire fell to Constantine (nominally Christian) at the battle of the Milvian bridge in 312. The sea represents the peoples from which Constantine drew his armies. Rome is sometimes represented by Babylon (1 Peter 5:13), which Jeremiah 51:25 said God will make “a burnt mountain.”

With the fall of Judaism and Paganism, two large impediments to Christianity were removed. Notice a parallel here to Mark 11:20-23 where Jesus cursed the fig tree (Israel), and declared that through faith even “this mountain ... [shall be] removed ... and cast into the sea,” a symbolic reference to Rome. Later representatives of both institutions assailed Jesus, when “they sen[t] unto him ... Pharisees [leaders in Israel] and ... Herodians [supporters of Rome], to catch him in his words” (Mark 12:13). They proved no match for his words, and their institutions proved no match for his power. By two trumpet blasts these enemies were removed.

In Trumpet Three the waters were made bitter, and many died as a result. The waters represent the streams of Christian truth, which after Constantine’s day became increasingly polluted. As former pagans flooded into the church nominal, the simple doctrine of Christ became confused with heathen philosophies, and a great dissension grew over the rising doctrine of the Trinity. That false doctrine caused the sweet waters of truth to no longer impart their life-giving refreshment. Arius boldly opposed these errors, and he may be the “great star from heaven” which fell upon the waters, being “deposed and excommunicated” by “one hundred Egyptian and Libyan bishops” in about 321 (McClintock and Strong, “Arianism,” p. 388). The name given this star, “wormwood,” signifies something harmful (Deuteronomy 29:18), and this is the view Christendom has of Arius. He is almost universally vilified to this day, though he nobly stood for the truth against staunch opposition.

Had the church remained loyal to their simple faith, and to a simple life of sacrifice, this affliction probably would not have arisen. This trumpet was a judgment not on Jews or Pagans, as the first two, but on (nominal) Christians.

Trumpet Four is similar but more severe. The degradations of the nominal host, led by the priests, bishops, and popes, caused the light of the gospel to be greatly darkened. “The third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and ... of the stars” (Revelation 8:12). The gospel (sun), the teachings of the law (moon), and the teachings of the apostles (stars) were dimmed. Christendom slipped into the dark ages with all its evils. This was the period of Waldo (about 1160), up until the Reformation would break the shackles and let the light penetrate anew.

There is a great change between the first four periods of church history and the last three. This demarcation appears forcibly in Revelation 8:13 (NIV): “As I watched, I beheld an eagle that was flying in midair call out in a loud voice: Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels.”

Trumpets five, six and seven are thus three “woe” trumpets to Christendom—the Reformation, the French Revolution, and the Second Advent (with its seven plagues). The flying eagle introducing these trumpets reminds us of Hosea’s warnings to nominal natural Israel: “Set the trumpet to thy mouth. He shallcome as an eagle against the house of theLORD, because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law” (Hosea 8:1; Deuteronomy 28:49).

As the first four seals were recorded briefly, and the remainder at length, so the first four trumpets are recorded briefly, and the remaining three at length.

Trumpet Five

“I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit” (Revelation 9:1). As Arius was represented earlier as a star fallen from the ecclesiastical heavens, so here Luther, who was a priest but was excommunicated, is cast out of “heaven.” Subsequently he had great influence on the “earth,” stable religious society. He was the rock whom it pleased the Lord to use as the pillar of the Reformation, and weather the many anathemas of Papacy.

He used the key to release the Scriptural doctrines long dormant in the “bottomless pit” of inactivity. These doctrines are represented as locusts with the appearance of horses. It was a time of great commotion, represented by the smoke which rose with the locusts and darkened the air, as Papacy’s spiritual control of Christendom was darkened.

The locusts afflicted only those “which have not the seal of God in their foreheads,” just as the renewed influence of the Scriptures afflicted nominal Christians. The locusts had tails like scorpions which “tormented” men for five months. This is the same period the flood waters prevailed (Genesis 8:3), and it may indicate the fifth trumpet period would last 150 years, 1517 to 1667. The torment is probably the same torment referred to in the next trumpet when the two witnesses (Old and New Testaments) briefly “died” and their enemies rejoiced because these two prophets had “tormented them that dwelt on the earth.”

Verse 11 says the locusts had a king, the angel of the bottomless pit. Probably this was Luther, the same as the star (angel) who opened the pit. As Arius was termed “wormwood” in trumpet three, so here Luther is termed “Abaddon ... Apollyon,” destroyer, for so he seemed to the Papal world.

Trumpet Six

The record of this trumpet is the longest of all (Revelation 9:13 to 11:13). This second great “woe” to Christendom was the French Revolution. It was more dynamic, more powerful, more destructive of entrenched Christendom than even the Reformation.

France was a key supporter of Papacy. Not only had it served as a temporary home for Papacy in centuries past, but after the Reformation protestants were decimated by the persecutions of the French monarchy, highlighted by the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of 1572. Thus the revolution against monarchy and church in this thoroughly Catholic country was a mighty blow. But even more severe, it led to the enthronement of Napoleon Bonaparte, who conquered Europe and broke the thousand-year stranglehold of Papacy.

Daniel 11:40 describes the two-staged blow to Papacy of these times—the Reformation period and the French Revolution period. “The king of the south [shall] push at him [the Ottoman Empire threatened Europe at the time of the Reformation, until stopped at Budapest by the king of Poland]: and the king of the north [France, led by Napoleon] shall come against him like a whirlwind ... he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.”

The sixth trumpet episode erupts from the River Euphrates, representing the peoples who formerly supported Papacy. “The four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slaythe third part of men” (Revelation 9:15). Thefour angels remind us of Revelation 7:1-3, where four angels are commanded to “hold back the four winds” which are loosed in Armageddon. Their loosing here, causing such havoc, is a picture of the French Revolution, which was a small picture of Armageddon. (See Studies in the Scriptures, vol. 4, p. 531.)

The symbols which follow are incredibly powerful. An army of 200,000,000 war horses is assembled—orders of magnitude larger than any cavalry which ever existed literally—and the description of these horses is awesome in the extreme. They have breastplates of fire, jacinth and brimstone, heads like lions breathing out fire, smoke and brimstone, and tails like serpents with biting heads. This is indeed a frightful woe to Christendom, well fitting the ravages of the Napoleonic wars.

There is a clear comparison between the locusts (trumpet five) and horses (trumpet six).

 In each case the second category is more intense, more fierce, more devastating, than the first. It is Revelation’s way of symbolizing the relative intensity of these two woes: the Reformation and the French Revolution. The first was an intense turmoil caused by the loosing of the doctrines so long oppressed by Papacy. The second is the more intense havoc of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars.

Good manuscripts add a word in Revelation 9:18 missing from the common version. “By these three plagues” (fire, smoke, brimstone). The yet more dynamic and deadly picture of Armageddon which finally removes Christendom is described similarly. “Therefore shall her plagues come in one day [now these three plagues are itemized]: death, and mourning, and famine” (Revelation 18:8). These are a three-fold breakdown of Armageddon. From them there will be no respite, and no recovery. “She shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.”

Chapter 10

This entire chapter is part of the sixth trumpet. A mighty angel descends from heaven clothed with a cloud and a rainbow upon his head. The rainbow was a sign of hope and promise, and here signals the end of the persecution of 1,260 years. Papacy was allowed 3 “times” to “scatter the power of the holy people” (Daniel 12:7), but now the bow appears as a token of brighter prospects for the saints.

The angel held a “little book open” in his hand, in contrast to Daniel 12 where Daniel was told “the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end ... [then] the wise shall understand” (Daniel 12:9,10). During the sixth trumpet the Scriptures generally, and Daniel in particular, began to yield their testimony more abundantly.

But it was also a time of judgment. When the angel cried “as when a lion roareth ... seven thunders uttered their voices” (Revelation 10:3). At the second advent there would be another lion-voice of judgment. “He cried as a lion [margin] ... I stand continually upon the watchtower ... Babylon is fallen, is fallen ... that which I have heard of the Lord of hosts ... have I declared unto you” (Isaiah 21:8-10). After this announcement by the harvest watchman, the seven plagues remove Babylon.

Revelation 10:3 refers to the judgments closing the 1,260 years. The roar of the lion (announcing the end of Papal rule) was followed by seven thunders, the judgments of the Napoleonic ravages, a portent of the seven plagues to come later. After the seven thunders John was “about to write” when a voice said “seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not” (Revelation 10:4), as though to say the full impact of the judgments was in abeyance for a future time. When would they be fully revealed? “In the days of the voice of the seventh angel [when the lion roar of Isaiah 21:8 would sound] ... the mystery of God [perhaps the mystery of the seven thunders] should be finished” (Revelation 10:7).

The time setting is established by verses 5 and 6. The angel standing on the sea and the earth “lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever ... that there should be time no longer.” In Daniel 12:7 one clothed in linen “upon the waters of the river ... held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever, that [Papacy’s rule] shall be for a time, times, and an half.” The same scene which prophesied these times now reappears in Revelation to declare the end of those times—“there should be time [the 3 times of Papal persecution] no longer.” The date would be 1799.

This signaled a great blessing for the saints. The Scriptures would be freely circulated and have a fresh impact on the Christian world. John was told to take the little book and “eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey” (Revelation 10:9). So the blessed word has been sweet in our mouths, though it brings bitter experiences as Godly labors frequently do. “Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.” The amazing testimony of the Scriptures far and wide during the 19th century fulfilled this.

Chapter 11

The opening verses describe a measurement (judgment) of the (nominally) Christian world. The court was excluded. It represents “the holy city,” the saints, who are not part of the false worship of Christendom, and were trodden down for 42 months (1,260 days, fulfilled as years).

During this time God’s two witnesses, the Old and New Testaments, prophesied in sackcloth, an emblem of their oppression during Papacy’s reign. Then the people (the beast) rose out of their dormant condition (the bottomless pit) during the French Revolution, and failing to distinguish the true from the false, opposed all Christianity. In 1793 a decree passed the French Assembly mitigating the influence of the Christian religion and thus the influence of Papacy. Just 1,260 years earlier, in 533, Constantine had decreed the Pope to be the supreme head of all Christian churches (see Studies in the Scriptures, vol. 3, p. 70).

But in 533 the Pope had a problem. He was in Italy, ruled by Ostrogoths who were of Arian persuasion. The real power of the decree did not accrue until this tribe was defeated by the fall of their capital Ravenna in 539. So with the decree of 1793, the real brunt came when the pope died a prisoner in France, leaving the Papacy temporarily headless in 1799.

For the following years Christianity (true and false) was “dead” in France, the “street of the great city” Christendom, and the two witnesses had no life. But soon Napoleon concluded a concordat effective April 1802 for France, another 1803 for Italy (McClintock and Strong, “Concordat,” p. 457), re-establishing Christianity as an active force. Thus the two witnesses revived. Soon Bible Societies were formed which distributed Bibles by the millions, causing the Scriptures to ascend to great prominence in the ecclesiastical heavens. Thus “after three days and an half [3 years] the Spirit of life from God entered into them ... And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud” (Revelation 11:11,12).

In all of this there is a parallel between the Two Witnesses (the written Word), and “The Faithful and True Witness” (Jesus, the living Word, Revelation 3:14). They both had a ministry of 1,260 days. They both died at the end, Jesus buried by his friends while the Scriptures languished unburied by their enemies. Both rose from the dead and ascended to heaven in a cloud.

Verse 13 closes the episode of Trumpet Six. “The same hour [as opened the period, Revelation 9:15] was there a great earthquake [the French Revolution], and the tenth part of the city fell [France, one of the ten toes of Christendom], and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand [the faith remnant, numbered at 7,000 at the close of the 1,260 day drought in Elijah’s time—here slain figuratively by the rejection of Christianity]: and the remnant [of nominal Christian France] were affrighted [by all the tumult] and gave glory to the God of heaven [the ruler of the ecclesiastical heavens, the Pope, who was reestablished in the aftermath].

The Seventh Trumpet

This is the third woe. It brings the final end of the old order by the authority of the incoming kingdom of Christ and its judgments which include all of the seven last plagues. The period opens with a pronouncement of a transfer of authority. “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord [Jehovah] and of His Christ [Jesus]; and He will reign forever and ever” (Revelation 11:15, NASB).

As a result of this kingly power, Christ, having returned “with royal title and power” (Studies in the Scriptures, vol. 1, p. 307), removes the old powers. “The nations were angry, and thy wrath is come [exhibited in two World Wars, with Armageddon impending], and the time of the dead that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints” (Revelation 11:18). This is not the time of the general resurrection, nor even of the Ancient Worthies. The “prophets and saints” are two designations of the Church class, God’s spokesmen (prophets) and holy ones (saints), as in Revelation 18:24 and 16:6.

“And shouldest destroy them which destroy [corrupt] the [Christian] earth” (Revelation 11:18). This is not second death for individuals, nor is it referring to environmental polluters. It refers to the destruction of Christendom, including “the great whore, which did corrupt [same root word as “destroy” above] the earth with her fornication” (Revelation 19:2).

All of this occurs in the Gospel age harvest when Christ is present as earth’s new king, but before his righteous administration is established in the earth. The seventh trumpet is a woe, like the two preceding. It is a period of judgment, and does not encompass the raising or blessing of mankind in the kingdom.

“And the temple of God was opened in heaven [where everything after chapter four occurs], and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament [the saints in their eternal abode]: and there were lightnings, and voices and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail [all symbols repeated in the seven plagues of chapter 16]” (Revelation 11:19).

Thus closes the seven judgments of the scroll. Thus ends the harvest of this age. Thus is prepared the glorious kingdom of righteousness which follows, which “shall stand forever” (Daniel 2:44).