Revelation: The Fifth Trumpet Continued...

I am posting chapters from my sister's book, "The End is Near. End Time Bible Prophecy Anyone Can Understand."  Found at lulu.com
continued from last post...

One way Satan deceives people is through spiritualism.  God is so firmly against anything to do with the occult that he said anyone who practiced it was to be killed immediately.  (see Ex. 22:18; Deut. 18:10-12)  This is because dabbling with the occult opens the door between the physical and spiritual worlds.  If we defy God and open ourselves up to the spiritual world, he cannot protect us and we have placed ourselves into Satan’s hands.  What a terrifying and dreadful place to be!  To fall into Satan’s hands and be tormented by him in whatever way he can think of is the worst torment imaginable.  It would be better to suffer physically and have our souls in God’s hands than it would be to spiritually suffer in the unmerciful hands of pure evil.

            Just as we can see the beginning of the first three trumpets occurring in the world around us, if we take spiritualism as the meaning of the fifth trumpet we can see it is also occurring now.  The rise of spiritualism is often dated as occurring in the mid 1800’s.  However, real organization of spiritualism did not happened until the Theosophical Society was founded in 1875.  The preamble to the society's bylaws states: "The Title of the Theosophical Society explains the objects and desires of its founder: they 'seek to obtain knowledge of the nature and attributes of the Supreme Power, and of the higher spirits by the aid of physical processes.' In other words, they hope, that by going deeper than modern science has hitherto done, into the esoteric philosophies of ancient times, they may be enabled to obtain, for themselves and other investigators, proof of the existence of an 'Unseen Universe,' the nature of its inhabitants if such there be, and the laws which govern them and their relations with mankind…” (18)

          Then there is witchcraft of Aleister Crowley.  “…Crowley is probably best known today as the author of the twentieth century's most influential textbooks on occultism, and as the first Englishman to found a religion—Thelema—which is today a recognized faith around the world.” (19)  “The Law of Thelema, also called Scientific Illuminism and Magick (spelled with a terminal 'k' to distinguish the authentic science of the Magi from sleight of hand), originated in the Cairo Working. At the time, Crowley interpreted the Cairo Working as an astral vision. At this time, Crowley was a Minor Adept of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The Golden Dawn was the most distinguished occult society of recent times, which included such luminaries as the poet William Butler Yeats…” (20) 

          Then there is witchcraft of Aleister Crowley.  “…Crowley is probably best known today as the author of the twentieth century's most influential textbooks on occultism, and as the first Englishman to found a religion—Thelema—which is today a recognized faith around the world.” (19)  “The Law of Thelema, also called Scientific Illuminism and Magick (spelled with a terminal 'k' to distinguish the authentic science of the Magi from sleight of hand), originated in the Cairo Working. At the time, Crowley interpreted the Cairo Working as an astral vision. At this time, Crowley was a Minor Adept of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The Golden Dawn was the most distinguished occult society of recent times, which included such luminaries as the poet William Butler Yeats…” (20) 

And finally we have Anton LaVey who, in 1966, formed the Church of Satan and in 1969 wrote the Satanic Bible.  His is not the only church to worship Satan, many others have sprung up since his bold move to publicly form his church, but his is the most famous. 

 Do you see how all this has progressed?  It started with spiritualism, moved on to witchcraft, and has culminated with Satanism.  Once the door to the spiritual world is opened, more and more evil floods through.  This progression can also happen to individuals on a smaller scale.  You may begin with having your palm read or getting a numerology chart made.  Then you progress to ouija boards and séances.  Eventually you get more and more involved in the occult until Satan can claim you as one of his own.  The best defense against this is to obey God and shun anything to do with the occult.

We do not know at what time the 150 years began and thus we cannot know when it will end, but the fifth trumpet promises that the torment of man by demons will culminate some time in the future. 

We have looked at the first five of the seven trumpets and have a pretty good idea of what to expect.  The sixth and seventh trumpets are so important and contain so much information that they will each be covered in a chapter of their own.

Revelation: Trumpets 1-4.

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

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          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 (4^th 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.