Explained, The Fifth Trumpet Judgment--Revelation Part 2

As we explain the next trumpet judgment, the fifth one sounded of Revelation, you find many and varied discoveries about God's wrath towards disobedience. In our next post you will discover how the use of chemicals, a problem that is of epidemic proportions in the world today, will be even worse during the tribulation period. Watch for our next post! 

God can't sin! Therefore, he truly hates sin. That's why he gives mankind so many opportunities to believe in his Son so their sin nature and their sins can be removed.

As we begin our study today, we will begin with the fifth trumpet blast.

Fifth Trumpet

You find the fifth trumpet blast in Revelation 9. When it sounds, a star falls from heaven. To this "star" is given the key to the "bottomless pit."

Your first question might be, "Who has the key?" Acts 1:18 says, "I am he who was dead, but now am alive, and I have the key to death and hell."

Then you may wonder, "Who or what was the star?" Many believe the star to be the devil, himself, verse 11. If we look at the Greek tense of the verb "fall" used here, we find the verb is past tense not present. Notice also that the key was given to "him." Therefore, the star is identified as male and has human characteristics to be called him.

Bottomless Pit Opened

"He" or the star opened the pit, and smoke went up from the pit. Much smoke as though from a great furnace. Pollution! You bet. Environmentalists need to get saved!

Although John describes this huge cloud as smoke, these were demons. So many of them that John first saw them as smoke from a furnace. Can you imagine how happy these demons are to be released. They've been bound for ages and ages. Now they are free to do their destruction and perform their heinous crimes on humanity.

John describes these demon beings as "locusts." When locusts swarmed over the land, they came in hordes. I think that is what John is describing, the vast numbers of these demons, rather than the size.

Clarifying Element for Revelation

An important thing to remember about Revelation is that it's author, John, views events that happen way in the future. He lives in the first century AD, but he sees events that take place many thousands of years later.

John relates future events in terms of his day and his experiences. Remember, too, John wasn't an educated man. He was a fisherman. His experiences would have been limited. When he describes the demons as "locusts," it had to be his first impression of the hordes he saw. The literal description that John gives of these demons do not represent locusts at all.

Description of the Locusts

The power of these demons was in their tail or sting as scorpions have power. Many believe these demons are part of the fallen angels that fell with Satan, Genesis 6:1-3; 1 Peter 3:18-20; 2-4; Jude 6. 

Even though recently released from the abysmal confinement, these demons have restrictions placed on them. They can only torment unbelievers, they can't hurt the grass or green thing and they can't kill anyone. Regardless of what has been created, God has control over it. Everything of course except mankind. He gives all a choice.

The shapes and identities of the locusts are interesting.

  1. They were like horses.

    represents speed

    represents strength

    prepared for battle represents fear (foot soldiers would fear one on a horse).

    prepared for battle would also mean the horses wore or had some protection.
    they had breastplates of iron so that their enemies couldn't hurt them

  2. They had crowns of gold on their heads.

    depicts royalty, authority

    also depicts dominion, conquering, against which the subjects had no choice

  3. Faces of men denotes intelligence.    

  4. Because of their hair like women, they could be attractive and appealing
  5. Teeth like that of lions would denote cruelty and savagery.

The demons tormented humans for five months. Nearly one-half year these hordes of demons tormented the earth. People wanted to die, but the demons couldn't kill.

This was a direct attack on the power of the Anti-christ and his authority to rule!

Given all the above characteristics, speed, strength, intelligence, attractiveness, protection from harm, noise and confusion, should be quiet enough. However, add the power of the sting of a scorpion and you have one tormenting machine that can cause terrible suffering to people on earth. No wonder these unbelievers wanted to die! However, death is going to bring even greater trauma for them. 

Is it any wonder that only something from the abyss could bring this kind of torture? Anything with some semblance of conscience could not continue to inflict this kind of pain day and night on its victims.

The king over these tormentors is "the angel of the abyss." He is called Abaddon in Hebrew and Apollyon in Greek. Jesus spoke of him in John 10:10. He is the enemy of believers. He is the devil himself. His name means destruction. Rather fitting, wouldn't you say?

Our Explanation

We only look at one trumpet judgment in this post, the Fifth one. The reason is that the explanation is so long. We didn't cover nearly half of the information about this judgment that is available in our free study of Revelation (see below how you can get your copy).

The tribulation period is so complex, it is difficult to cover in a short post. Therefore, we are dividing the trumpet judgments into some short posts.

I am here to help! If you have questions or comments, please leave them below. I'll get back soon.



Blessings,


Howard

PS: A complete study on Revelation and the judgments is available at B. C. Ministries, Inc. Email us if you'd like a free copy.

PSS: Our first novel has been published. You can get your copy here. Or you can email us for your copy.


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