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REVELATION - Behold, I am Coming Soon
Studies in the Book of Revelation
BOOK 3 - THE CHURCH OF CHRIST AND THE TRUMPET JUDGMENTS (REVELATION 7:1 – 9:21)
PART 3.3 - THE LAMB OF GOD OPENS THE SEVENTH SEAL THE SEVEN TRUMPET JUDGMENTS AND THE THREE WOES (REVELATION 8:1 - 9:21)

2. The Seven Trumpet Judgments (Revelation 8:7 - 9:21)


The Second Trumpet Sounds - A Third of the Sea is Ruined

REVELATION 8:8-9
8 The second angel sounded, and something like a great burning mountain was thrown into the sea. One third of the sea became blood, 9 and one third of the living creatures which were in the sea died. One third of the ships were destroyed.

The Patriarch, John, stood on the shore of the island Patmos and looked out past the horizon of the Mediterranean Sea into distant eternity. At the same time, the angel of the Lord revealed to him that with the archangel's sounding of the second trumpet new catastrophes of judgment would be coming.

John had asked from Jesus, the Lamb of God, grace, guidance, growth, protection and strength for his abandoned and oppressed churches on the mainland. His prayers united with the prayers of all the saints and rose up to the throne of God and to His Lamb. The answer of the Almighty came in lightning, thunder, fire and voices of dismay, but also in the saints hymns of praise.

As the second archangel took the trumpet of judgment and unceasingly began to blow into it, John saw something like a great burning mountain being thrown into the sea. It was none of the mountains bordering the plateau of Asia Minor, but appeared in the vision like a burning mountain that had plunged into a flat sea. It's fall had caused a raging of the waves, a boiling up of the salt water, and a quick death of fish, so that a third of the sea became red like blood. A third of the ships, too, were burned up by the invading lava masses or torn apart by the killer waves.

Some interpreters see in this vision an indication of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D., a few years before the giving of this revelation. As a result of this volcano catastrophe, the city of Pompeii, two further Roman settlements, the port, as well as nearby bays were covered with thick lava. Tens of thousands were instantly swept away in the midst of daily life by clouds of gas, heat and flowing magma. The Jews interpreted the volcano catastrophe as the judgment of God on the Roman Empire, whose armies, under the command of Titus, had destroyed the temple in Jerusalem and driven all the Jews out of their beloved city eight years previously. Many Christians, as well, were horrified at the destruction of the earthly site of our salvation's completion. The volcanic eruption of Vesuvius was understood by all awaiting the coming of the Messiah to be a sign of the end time.

Others recognize in the sea that John saw in his vision a restless sea of people under the Roman Empire's sphere of control at that time, cast out from a fire-spitting mountain in the great mass migrations of 375-525 A.D.. The power of the Western Roman Kingdom broke apart at that time, and streams of blood depicted the tracks of the Germanic and Slavic tribes expelled during the Hun attacks.

Others, again, are reminded by the vision of the first plague in Egypt, when the waters of Egypt were turned to blood after Moses struck the Nile with the rod in the presence of Pharaoh (Exodus 7:14-25). The river became red like blood, and there was a massive death of fish. The lifeline of Egypt stank from decomposing fish. But still the pharaoh was not minded to release the enslaved Israelites. The signs of the Almighty had not particularly troubled him.

In more recent time, Hitler and his party could be seen as a mountain toppling down, killing one third of the then living Jewish population in the gas chambers. The crimes of this historic catastrophe, however, did little to change the minds of the majority of Germans or of nationalists in other countries. The woes of the end time did indeed force the birth of the state of Israel, in which today a few thousand citizens know and worship the Lamb of God.

Some speculate that the active volcano Aetna and parts of Sicily will in the last days sink into the Mediterranean Sea, and that continental borders, like Portugal or the coast of California, would disappear into the ocean.

No one knows exactly who or what the fiery mountain in the vision of John is, or into what sea it will fall. The vision is an image, to remind us that God Himself, the Lord, is a consuming fire (Deuteronomy 4:24). The singer of Psalms did not call out in vain: “Our God shall come, and shall not keep silent; A fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous all around Him” (Psalm 50:3).

The end time will bring mighty catastrophes with it that will not only compress and shake the living space of mankind on the continents, but will also contaminate a third of the seas. The judgment of the Lamb of God comes in stages, and does not destroy all the continents and oceans at once. The Lord still waits for mankind's repentance, even though He sees how indifference and godlessness grow amongst rich and poor. Who understands the signs of the times? Who interprets them correctly, and draws out spiritual consequences? Who worships the Almighty? How do we react personally?

PRAYER: Just Lord, volcanoes erupt even under the seas, and masses of burning, explosive asteroids fall upon us as if they were volcanoes falling down on land and sea. Be merciful to us O God because we are sinful according to our nature, and help us to call the unbelievers to repentance and salvation before the end.

QUESTION:

  1. Why does God strike mankind in His wrath?

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