I already published this but made a mistake so have to publish again.
This brings us to the mark of the beast. You have possibly heard of it and heard
people speculate that it will be tattoos of bar codes on people’s arms, or a
special ID card or implant under the skin, or any other type of visible
identification. However, for every true
and good thing from God, Satan has a counterfeit: God has a church, Satan has a
church; God has a Sabbath, Satan has a Sabbath; God marks his believers, Satan
marks his believers. We will discuss
this more in the next chapter.
At this time probation is
still open and anyone who wants to can join God’s true followers and receive
his seal.
Seventh Seal: Judgment
Experience
“When
the Lamb broke the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an
hour. And I saw the seven angels who
stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. Another angel came and stood at the altar,
holding a golden censer… Then the angel took the censer and filled it with the
fire of the altar, and threw it to the earth; and there followed peals of
thunder and sounds and flashes of lightning and an earthquake.” Rev. 8:1-5
When the other six seals were opened, there
was always a commotion in the form of voices or natural phenomena. (see Rev. 6:1, 3, 5, 7, 9-10, 12) So why is there silence in heaven when the
seventh seal is introduced? Well, when
are you moved to be utterly silent? When something momentous or fascinating is happening
or about to happen and you do not want to miss one second of it. All of heaven has been involved in what has
been going on down here on earth ever since Satan and sin entered the picture,
and now it is all about to climax and to come to an end. No one in heaven wants to miss a second of
the drama about to unfold
.
The
angel with the censer throws it to the earth, signaling the commencement of the
seven trumpet judgments.
Trumpets have been used
for thousands of years to announce one thing or another. They were used to announce a warning that an
enemy was coming, or they relayed battlefield orders in the midst of a fight,
and even today the military uses them to announce the beginning and end of the
day. So the seven angels and their seven
trumpets are announcing the beginning of God’s judgments and the beginning of the
end of this conflict between good and evil on this earth.
First Trumpet: 1/3
of Earth Burned
“The first sounded, and there came
hail and fire, mixed with blood, and they were thrown to the earth; and a third
of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all
the green grass was burned up.” Rev. 8:6, 7
Second Trumpet: 1/3
of Sea Becomes Blood
“The second angel sounded, and
something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea; and
a third of the sea became blood, and a third of the creatures which were in the
sea and had life, died; and a third of the ships were destroyed.” Rev. 8:8, 9
Third
Trumpet: 1/3 of Fresh Water Made Bitter
Fourth Trumpet: 1/3
of Sky Darkened
“The fourth angel sounded, and a
third of the sun and a third of the moon and a third of the stars were struck,
so that a third of them would be darkened and the day would not shine for a
third of it, and the night in the same way.”
Rev. 8:12
The first thing we must ask ourselves is if these trumpet
judgments are literally going to happen or if they are figurative and stand for
something else. If we look closely at
each trumpet we see that the descriptions are too specific to be figurative
language. Trees, grass, creatures in the
sea, men, sun, moon and stars are all literal things affected by what is to
come. But the reference to Wormwood is
figurative, right? Yes and no. Webster’s New World College Dictionary (4th
ed.) defines wormwood as a plant that yields bitter oil, but it also defines
wormwood as, “…a bitter, unpleasant, or mortifying experience.” Living during a time when a third of the
earth is burned, a third of the ocean dies, a third of our fresh water is
ruined, and a third of the sky goes dark is going to be a horribly bitter,
unpleasant and mortifying experience.
If we look
at the world today, we can see that the first three trumpet judgments seem to
be slowly coming true even now. We are
polluting our oceans and our drinking water, and the earth is suffering from
global warming, but it will not culminate into a third of each until we are in
the Laodicea Church era. We can
speculate that the great mountain of fire under the second trumpet is a volcano
or some other natural phenomena that will hasten the ruination of the oceans;
killing a third of the creatures in the oceans and causing tsunamis or other devastating
after effects that will smash ships.
Photo by EPA
Yellowstone Park Fire
Volcanic ash from Calbuco Volcano, Chile
Late on April 22, 2015, Calbuco volcano in southern Chile awoke from four decades of slumber with an explosive eruption. Ash and pumice particles were lofted high into the atmosphere, and the debris has been darkening skies and burying parts of Chile, Argentina, and South America for nearly a week. Along with 210 million cubic meters of ash and rock, the volcano has been spewing sulfur dioxide (SO2) and other gases.
