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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 Fifth Trumpet Sounds - The Invasion of Locusts (Revelation 9:1-11)

REVELATION 9:1-2
1 The fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from the sky which had fallen to the earth. The key to the pit of the abyss was given to him. 2 He opened the pit of the abyss, and smoke went up out of the pit, like the smoke from a burning furnace. The sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke from the pit.

Hell is Turned Loose: When the fifth angel shrilly sounded his trumpet a star from heaven fell to earth. It no longer shone brightly like before, but was dull and burned out.

In Revelation 1:16 - 3:22 we read about seven stars that rest in the hand of the risen Lord. They symbolized the leaders of the seven churches in Asia Minor. Among them were shining and significant shepherds, as well as dismal failures and erring preachers. But the talk here is not of these seven stars.

The burned-out star and its falling to earth, which we read about in Revelation 9:1, signifies a mighty angel. His ruin and sudden fall to the earth point to a previous judgment in heaven. This fallen angel must work on his own further destruction on earth.

The fall of this angel is presumably not the same as the fall of Satan from heaven to earth, which Jesus saw in advance (Luke 10:18-20), and also not the driving out of Satan from heaven by the archangel Michael and his army (Revelation 12:7-9). This fallen angel has much more to do with being a forerunner of the prince of this earth. At the sealing of the 144,000 from the tribes of Israel he was unmasked, and was further excommunicated through the cry of faith of the great number of martyrs before the throne of God. Both in heaven and on earth there will be more anti-Christian spirits revealed that have been driven out and overcome than we realize. Jesus is and remains the Victor! No impure spirit can continuously resist His Holy Spirit and His authoritative Word.

The Opening of the Bottomless Pit: The fallen angel holds the key to the bottomless pit in his hand. Until this time the army of demons and the devil had had no right to freely fall upon earth's dwellers. But with the key came the right and the power for the fallen star to open up the pit of hell for the godless residents of earth.

Perhaps John saw in this shuddering vision of the opening of hell something like an extinguished volcano that suddenly had come alive, filling the air with smoke, explosions, stone fragments and poisonous gases. Anything standing in the way of such an eruption will be violently swept away. Pictures of such eruptions, such as the one from Krakatoa, in Indonesia, or from Mount Saint Helens, in the Rocky Mountains of the U.S.A., are documented witness of the devastation of such supernatural catastrophes.

Spiritually understood, we are experiencing today the cataclysmic eruption of demons being loosed on the population of earth. Modern media, whether newspapers, magazines, radio, TV, videos, cassettes or the internet, have made it possible in the last decades to unleash an enormous flood of filth, godlessness, temptations, incitements to inordinate desires and acts of violence on both young and old. What previously was limited to the circle of a few atheistic groups or occult circles flickers today shamelessly and brutally over television and internet screens in all living rooms, schools, airports and workshops. To be sure, the media does, now and then, offer good programs and seemingly important news. But seldom do we hear or see something about God and His Lamb, about His anger, His love, about his laws and the gospel. Masses, long ago hypnotized and impassioned by the demonic inspired media, have become accustomed to wasting away in spiritual malnutrition. There is little resistance to the enticement to sin or to evil, either in individuals or in nations. The spiritual air in our world has become polluted. The sun of Jesus Christ has far and wide become obscured. Those in responsibility in the media must very soon turn around. Otherwise, they will become helpers to the fallen angels from heaven.

REVELATION 9:3-6
3 Then out of the smoke came locusts on the earth, and power was given to them, as the scorpions of the earth have power. 4 They were told that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree, but only those people who don’t have God’s seal on their foreheads. 5 They were given power not to kill them, but to torment them for five months. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion, when it strikes a person. 6 In those days people will seek death, and will in no way find it. They will desire to die, and death will flee from them.

The Invasion of Locusts: In John's vision the smoke that filled all the air was transformed into a boundless swarm of locusts that fell upon the entire earth. Moses, too, had conveyed such a terrible judgment to Pharaoh, which fell as the eighth plague of God.

But in the vision of John the locusts did not show themselves to be true locusts, whose young cannot fly, and are thus forced to crawl forward, devouring everything green in their path. The locusts in Revelation appear much more to be tormenting spirits, with a limited assignment.

They have neither the right nor the capacity to cause harm to Christ's followers, who have the seal of the Holy Spirit invisibly impressed upon their foreheads. Neither the young in faith, described as “the grass”, nor those having withstood the test of persecution, appearing as “trees”, stand in danger of being annihilated by the massive demonic onslaught (Revelation 3:10; 9:4). They live in the spirit of truth and in the love of God, and remain secure in the hand of the Good Shepherd (John 10:27-30). The evil enemy has no power over them (Revelation 7:2-8):

The assembly of the oppressed Israelites had long ago in Egypt painted the blood of the paschal lamb over the doorposts of their houses, so that the angel of the Lord would pass over them (Exodus 12:1-51). The children of Jacob were not better than the Egyptians. But they placed themselves and their families under the blood of the lamb, and thus were preserved from the wrath of God.

Today, in the age of the church of Jesus Christ, the grace of the Lamb of God again proves itself a protectoral power. Whoever remains “in Christ” lives in a way in a spiritual air raid shelter. The people living without Christ in John's vision were abandoned to the swarm of millions of locust-like spirits from hell. They had preferred their own supposed righteousness to the righteousness of the Son of God.

The free grace of the Lamb of God is, however, still available to them. Christ's adversaries must bear the plagues of hell in their body, soul and spirit. They are not, however, extinguished or annihilated. The chance to turn around is still open to them in the last hour.

The plagues, which those who have not been born again must endure, resemble in intensity the pains caused by the sting of a scorpion. The sting of certain species of scorpions in the Middle East causes excruciating pain in the nervous system, which can last 24 hours or more in adults. In children and small animals, it can lead to death. Even horses are horrified by the sinister scorpions. When scorpions feel threatened they bend together and pull their tail forward over their back and head, in order to be able sting from back to front.

We do not know what type of plagues, pain and despair people without Christ will have to endure at the hand of the invading demonic army. Perhaps they will be tormented with purely existential fears, in light of flight, war and death. Or maybe they will suffer the consequences of their sins with Aids and syphilis. Maybe drugs will have ruined their nerves. In our own day fear of demons is also growing, just as Goethe confessed: “The spirits that I called, of them I cannot come free”. Some people suffering under demonic oppression undergo depression, and think they are being strangled or raped. Whoever has heard the cry of despair of these plagued ones will never forget the profound despair. Some attempt to commit suicide. But as John reported in his vision, these tormented ones will be hindered from committing suicide. Their torment will not last only 24 hours, like that from a scorpion sting, but five months, in which there will be no escape.

But at the same time, this time of plague also contains a consolation: Whoever flees to Jesus and willfully renounces his sin and company with these anti-Christian circles can be freed from his devils: “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed!” (John 8:36)

PRAYER: Merciful Father, we become scared of Your revelation that a falling angel opens the bottomless pit and multitudes of unclean demons come up from it to our world. Keep us from their lying and their tricks, and help us to turn off the television set as soon as they proclaim sexual or financial temptations or vain display.

QUESTION:

  1. Have you ever experiences a place, whose atmosphere was full of anti-Christ spirits?

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