It's The End of the World As We Know It: The Rapture, Pt. 1

Few things get theologians more riled up than asserting that The Rapture is going to happen at a time different than what they, themselves, may believe.  I've seen people get vicious.  Which is interesting, when you really think about it, because the Bible seems to give us a pretty clear picture of when the Rapture takes place.  Now, I'm not talking about date-setting, because we don't know the exact hour or day - not from where we are right now (Matthew 24:36).  Date-setting is heretical.  But. . . .

. . . Jesus does tell us, numerous times, to watch and be ready.  Watch what?  If it's impossible to have any idea, whatsoever, when He's coming back, then why watch?  And what, exactly, does watching and being ready actually mean?

Let's look at a few things that Jesus has to say about this:

"Now learn this lesson from the fig tree:  As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near.  Even so, when you see all these things [Matthew 24:1-31], you know that it is near, right at the door" (Matthew 24:32-33).

What's His point?  "Look, you know how to read the signs of the fig tree, so learn to read the signs of the world."

"But understand this:  If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into.  So you must also be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect Him" (Matthew 24:43-44).

There are two ways to interpret this.  The first seems pretty straightforward:  "the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect Him."  In other words, you don't know when He's coming, so be ready.  But look at Jesus' "If" statement:  If you knew about what time someone was going to break into your home, wouldn't you be ready for it?  Therefore, Jesus says, be ready - be ready, just like the guy who knows when the thief is coming.  Sounds an awful lot like we can have a general idea, doesn't it?  But then He tacks on that weird clause:  "because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect Him."  As I said, I think most of us take that to mean:  it could be any day.  But when we take it in context of what Jesus has just finished saying ("watch for the signs, just like you watch the fig tree" and "be ready, just like the owner of the house who knows exactly when the thief is coming"), then Jesus may not be saying, "It could be any day, maybe in the next five seconds."  What He might be saying is that lots of people are going to give you lots of opinions, but check them to make sure they are Scriptural, because there will be enough in the Scriptures for you to know when the time will be - again, not necessarily the day or hour, but a general concept of what to look for.

Let's reiterate, this is not date-setting.  Take a few months and read through the Bible, and you'll find that, not once, does God give us a date.  Never.  Not once.  If you see someone tell you that the Rapture will happen by, say, the 3rd of October, 2017, run from them.  Flee their teaching:  it's wrong.  God does not give us a specific date.  He does, however, give us a whole lot of stuff to look for, and some of it is pretty specific, specific enough that we can, if we are familiar with the Scriptures, say, "Yep, the time is getting nearer."  I can look, for example, and see our world moving ever-closer to a one-world economy.  The U.S. economy can't keep going the way it is - collapse is inevitable.  Parts of Europe and Asia are experiencing collapse in several markets - and our economies are so closely linked that, should the American economy actually collapse, most of the world will follow.  That seems, to me at least, to be a good time to implement a one-world economy, like we see in Revelation 13:16-17; when the Old Order collapses, usher in the New Order.

The world - even as the Gospel is spreading throughout the planet - is growing ever-more intolerant of Christianity.  In places like China, which has always persecuted the underground Church, persecution is stepping up.  We've watched, for a couple of years now, as ISIS has gone after Middle Eastern Christians.  In America, laws are being passed that are making it illegal to hold certain viewpoints as a Christian - our religious freedom is being systematically removed.  We're certainly not being executed, so I'm not comparing our plight with believers in the Middle East, but what we're seeing here is a precursor to that.  Even now, in light of the recent shooting in Orlando, we see people blaming Christians for the act of a Muslim; this is the quintessential definition of "scapegoat."  So when we read that The Beast from the Abyss wages war against, and conquers, Christians [Revelation 13:7], I can see our globe moving ever-closer to that scenario.

But these are all theoretical, and things could certainly turn around, so let's move on to something more tangible and Biblical.  Now, I'm about to wade into some potentially dangerous waters, so please hear out what I have to say, and then I will give some rationale for this:  true, Jesus did not know when He was returning while He was here on earth - He said it Himself.  But that doesn't mean that He's still ignorant of it.  If, after His Ascension, after He received His glorified body, after He was given authority of Heaven and Earth, He still does not know when He's returning, then does He really have all authority?

Now, the reason I call this dangerous is because it could lead to some of us thinking that the Bible cannot be trusted.  Here's the potential argument:  "Well, if Jesus didn't know about His return, but now He does, then He could have been wrong about other things."  But here's the deal:  Jesus wasn't wrong about His return when He said He didn't know the day or the hour, He simply didn't know - and He told us as much.  This wasn't a mistake on His part, but an open honesty about His own human limitations, limitations that have no evidence, whatsoever, of spilling out into any other area of His teaching.  Remember, Jesus taught with great authority, but He could also only say what the Father told Him to say (John 8:28).  This isn't an issue of Jesus being wrong, just an issue of Jesus - as a man - having limited divine knowledge.  Therefore, the question remains:  is He still ignorant?

I would venture to say, no, because He revealed much to the Apostles in the years between His Ascension and the exile of John.  But let's be clear, even with all that the Apostles reveal - through Christ - in the Scriptures, they still never give an exact hour or day.  Even with added revelation, Jesus is not contradicted.  Now, I know that some of you who read this are still going to balk and say, "But Jesus said we can't know the day or hour!  Plus, the Apostles all thought Jesus was coming back in their lifetime!"

Yes, they appeared to, that's true.  But the Apostles didn't have the Book of Revelation.  Peter, Paul, James - they all died before John received the Apocalypse (which is Greek for "Revelation," not "End of the World in a Fiery Cataclysm that Destroys All Life on Earth," which is how modern American film culture defines it).  It would make sense, therefore, that we would take all of the information that they give us in their letters, look at that in light of what Jesus says in the Gospels, and filter all of that through the Book of Revelation.  And when we do that, Jesus' admonition to watch the signs becomes way, way easier, and involves very little guesswork.

Now, some of you may still be saying, "We can't know, because Jesus said so!  Besides, eschatology doesn't matter; only the Gospel matters!"

I've actually heard these arguments, which is why I bring them up.  First of all, we do have to be careful not to follow every theory and every conspiracy claim out there, looking for far-reaching "examples" of The End in order to "prove" everyone wrong.  I agree with that, and I agree with the fact that we don't need to scour Youtube for "proof" that the Rapture is about to happen.  Eschatology should always be filtered and presented in light of the fact that Jesus can be trusted, that He is God, that He died for the sins of the world, rose again, and will return.  But to claim that eschatology doesn't matter is to claim that sections of the Bible don't matter, and if that were true, God wouldn't have revealed it.  Since God did reveal it, and since Jesus admonished us to study the signs, then it's probably something we should take seriously.

But there's a deeper issue with the above argument, the argument that appeals to one single verse, while denying the importance of a good deal of the New Testament:  if you approach this area of Scripture in this manner, how do you approach other areas?  If you deny the importance of key elements of the Scriptures, how do you know you have key elements of the Gospel correct?  My guess is, you may not.

"Well, all I know is that Jesus is returning, and that's good enough!"

Yeah, so did the foolish virgins in Matthew 25, yet they were shut out from the Bridegroom (Matthew 25:1-13).  So what do we do?  How do we study this topic without getting sucked into debates and far-flung theories and foolishness?

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, we study the Scriptures.  We learn what they say, we learn what they don't, and we recognize Paul's advice in Romans 14:1, "Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters."  And while many people would claim that the Rapture is a disputable matter, the Scriptures do give us quite a few signs.  So let's look at those, and then we'll see how it applies to the Gospel in the here and now.

The actual spelled-out doctrine of the Rapture is non-existent; we need to be clear.  There is no passage in the Bible that lays out, detail for detail, every single aspect of this event (there is nothing, for example, that says that we will all disappear, naked, leaving a pile of clothes behind).  Nonetheless, there is a large number of passages that addresses the concept (sort of like "the Trinity"), and Jesus Himself starts it off in Matthew 24:30-33; 36-41:

"At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn.  They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory.  And He will send His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

"Now learn this lesson from the fig tree:  as soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near.  Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. . . .

"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.  As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.  For in the days before the Flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and given in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the Flood came and took them away.  That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.  Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left.  Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left."

Now, this sounds a lot like Jesus will "take" believers at the sign of His physical return in Revelation 19:11-16.  It really does.  And I'll admit, that may be the case.  But I want to temporarily call attention to only one factor here (we'll return to the rest in the next post!), and that is that His angels will "gather the elect . . . with a loud trumpet call."  This sentiment is echoed in I Thessalonians 4:13-5:11:

Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope.  We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him.  According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.  For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.  After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.  And so we will be with the Lord forever.  Therefore encourage each other with these words.

Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.  While people are saying, "Peace and safety," destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief.  You are all sons of the light and sons of the day.  We do not belong to the night or to the darkness.  So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled.  For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night.  But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.  For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.  He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him.  Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

Okay, two things.  Firstly, notice Paul reiterates this idea of the "trumpet call of God" with the Rapture:  "For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.  After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air" (4:16-17).  Jesus is going to command something, "the archangel" is going to shout, there will be a trumpet call, and believers will "meet the Lord in the air."      
            
Clear?  Absolutely.  But notice something else, Paul uses Jesus' term "thief in the night."  Most of us, especially those raised on A Thief in the Night, have always believed that "thief in the night" refers to how the entire world, including Christians, will view the Rapture.  But Paul says something in this passage that many of us have long-overlooked:  "We know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night . . . but you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief" (5:2,4).  What's Paul saying?  If you're a believer, you shouldn't be caught off-guard by it - you'll know when it's coming.

Now, let's look at one more word from Paul.  In his first letter to the church at Corinth, he writes:

I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.  Listen, I tell you a mystery:  We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed - in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.  For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will all be changed.  For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality (15:50-53).

Paul's point here is fairly obvious, and that is that, since our sinful flesh cannot enter the kingdom of God, then, by the grace of Jesus (see 15:57), our bodies will be changed into our new, glorified bodies, in the same way that Jesus, after His resurrection, had a glorified body.  The second point here is that Paul tells us that the recurring trumpet motif is not just a random trumpet, but is the "last trumpet" in an uncounted series of trumpets.  Perhaps there will be two, maybe fifty - he doesn't say.  Only that, it is "the last trumpet," and for there to be a "last," there must be a first.

Have we heard any Divine trumpets?  Not yet.  Since, therefore, there hasn't been a first yet, there can't be a last.  But there is one more sign to look for, and we find this in II Thessalonians 2:

Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to Him, we ask you, brothers, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us, saying that the day of the Lord has already come (1-2).

In other words, the church at Thessalonica was worried that they had missed "being gathered to Him."

Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the Man of Lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.  He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God" (3-4).

Do we see this?  Do we see, now, why we cannot claim the Rapture to be "at any moment"?  Because Paul himself, who claimed to have visions of heaven (II Corinthians 12:1-7), tells us that "The Rebellion" (not "a rebellion," which happens all the time), and "The Man of Lawlessness" (again, not "a man of lawlessness," of which there are countless), must happen before we are "gathered to Him."  In other words, believers will not be taken by God until after the Beast has risen, and after he has set himself up as god.  Listen carefully:  God does not promise to save us from the Tribulation and persecution of the saints, but He does promise to save us from the coming wrath.

But wait, aren't they the same thing?

In certain novels and movies, yes, but in the Bible, they are different.  The difference is subtle, but clear:  God brings judgments onto the earth during the persecution of His Church, under the Satanic rule of The Man of Lawlessness, in order to demonstrate His power and His Sovereignty over His people, in an effort to bring about a great harvest of believers before the Last Days.  But once His church is removed, He pours out His wrath on the earth, and on the Kingdom of the Antichrist.  We'll explore those ideas more in following posts. 

It's The End of the World As We Know It: The Trumpet Judgments, Part 2

The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth.  The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss.  When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace.  The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss.  And out of the smoke locusts came down upon the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth.  They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads.  They were not given power to kill them, but only to torture them for five months.  And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes a man.  During those days men will seek death, but will not find it; they will long to die but death will elude them.

The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle.  On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold, and their faces resembled human faces.  Their hair was like a woman's hair, and their teeth were like lions' teeth.  They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing into battle.  They had tails and stings like scorpions, and in their tails they had power to torment people for five months.  They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek Apollyon.

The first woe is past:  two other woes are yet to come (Revelation 9:1-12).


Fun stuff, eh?  Before we get into the (almost rampant) speculation, there's a small detail I had never noticed before until I was typing up this passage:  in John's vision, the "star" was already on earth before the trumpet sounded.  Notice verse 1 of Chapter 9:  "The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth."  Remember that John is presenting these visions after the fact - that is, he saw them, then wrote them all down - and is, therefore, using the past tense:  "The fifth angel sounded his trumpet. . . ."  But he shifts tense when he references the falling of the "star," in that when the trumpet sounded, the angel was already on earth, and the trumpet signaled the opening of the Abyss.

Why does this matter?  Because so many people believed that CERN was the opening of the Abyss, and they scoured all sorts of video footage of the night sky, waiting to see the star fall.  The fact is, if that's what we're waiting to see, then we're putting our hope and trust (or our fear) in the wrong thing.  If John's use of verb tense is any indication, we have no idea when that star is going to fall.  He could have already done so.  Perhaps he fell two thousand years ago.  We cannot cling to one particular detail that may, in fact, be taken out of context.

And this is what happens when we take things out of their Scriptural context:  it makes Christ appear to be a liar.  Think about it:  if people proclaiming to be followers of Jesus spend all of their time on Youtube "prophesying" that Revelation tells us we're going to see the star fall, and CERN is going to release a demonic army, then when that fails to happen (as it did last fall), non-believers - who don't know the Scriptures - are left with the impression that the Bible is, once more, wrong.  Of course, it's not the Bible that's wrong, but all of those people out there who do not know the Scriptures won't know that - they're only going by what they hear.

And, according to the Scriptures, there will be a hail storm, an asteroid, a meteor, and a terrifying display in the sun, moon, and stars before the Abyss is opened.  Will there be a demon horde that torments non-believers for five months?  Yes, the Bible makes that clear.  Will it start tomorrow?   Not unless really bad things happen all at once today.  Stay rooted in the Scriptures, and don't listen to the false prophets.  In fact, stay rooted in the Scriptures, even if you're listening to someone you trust.  Don't take anything for granted!  Look, if Paul can tell people to verify what he was saying, then no one alive today can be completely and blindly trusted - go back to the Scriptures.  I may be writing about a small portion, but if you're reading this blog, you need to go back and read the whole book of Revelation to ensure I'm not cherry-picking.

Having said that, let's move on to the speculative part (yes, I see the irony) - it is possible that this is when the Beast actually arises out of the Abyss.  Let me be clear:  the passage does not state this, but what it does state is that the Abyss is shut and locked until this moment, which would indicate that the Beast cannot leave until it is opened.  Many will claim that "Beast from the Abyss" refers to Satan, but nowhere in Scripture do we see Satan being locked (or even dwelling in) the Abyss.  Nor do we see any specific Scriptures stating that Satan indwells the Antichrist.  We see him giving the Beast power and authority (13:2), but never Exorcist-style possession.

Now, I realize that I've stated that the Antichrist will be indwelt by Satan, which is the most popular take on Revelation 13:2, but I may have been hasty.  Remember, we have to be careful not to take our assumptions as stated Biblical Truth, and claiming that Satan possesses the Beast is just that - an assumption.  Reasonable, yes, but still an assumption, and still potentially wrong.  But one of the biggest, boldest, flashiest neon signs we have is that the Beast is most certainly demonic, since he comes from the Abyss.  Who dwells in the Abyss?  Demons.  Whether or not he is indwelt by Satan remains speculation, but he is certainly demonic; that much is clear.  So he is at the very least a demonic entity wrapped in the flesh of someone who was previously dead.

The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the horns of the altar that is before God.  It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, "Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates."  And the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind.  The number of the mounted troops was two hundred million.  I heard their number (9:13-16).

Back in the late eighties/early nineties, China began boasting of an army of 200 million.  In one of the most perplexing moments in the Christian culture, believers began panicking that China was about to start the Apocalypse.  I've fallen for my fair share of alarmist overreaction in the past, but this one struck me as odd.  Why?  Verses 17-19:

The horses and riders I saw in my vision looked like this:  Their breastplates were fiery red, dark blue, and yellow as sulfur.  The heads of the horses resembled the heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire, smoke and sulfur.  A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur that came out of their mouths.  The power of the horses was in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails were like snakes, having heads with which they inflict injury.

Now, I suppose it's possible that John was using symbolism here, but he's very specific that these are horses and riders, and, unless China has been working on some sort of horse/lion/snake hybrid animal, it seems fairly reasonable that this is an angelic army.  So what's the takeaway here?

Read your Scriptures.  I know I keep saying that, but it's vital.  Think of all the anxiety and panic that a multitude of Christians could have saved themselves had they actually read the Book of Revelation.  Just like CERN, Satan has used our lack of knowledge and understanding of the Scriptures to create fear, and - most importantly - to cast doubt on the goodness of God's Word.  When we run around claiming the Apocalypse is about to start, because China has an army of 200 million, and then things don't pan out the way we expect, the non-believing world looks at that and says, "See?  The Bible is wrong."

Indeed, we are seeing a massive hardening of hearts - particularly here in America - because people have been listening to false claims for decades.  Want an example?  Take a look at some of the comments regarding this remarkable gem:  88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988.  There's lots and lots of ridicule aimed at the Church, aimed at Christians, and aimed at the Bible.  Many of you reading this may remember the Harold Camping fiasco of four years ago.  Youtube abounds with "date-setting."  Folks, know the Scriptures, so that we don't contribute to leading people astray.

Okay, I'm going to wrap things up here.  We're going to take a brief interlude from the Trumpets and look at the intervening passages (Chapters 10 and 11), as well as the Rapture.  Because - and I'll throw this out there for you all to mull over - it is plausible that the Seventh Trumpet actually is the Rapture.  

  

       

It's The End of the World As We Know It: The Trumpets, Part 1

One of the most common arguments people make against the accuracy of the Scriptures is that God is inconsistent between the Old and New Testaments.  God, they (always) claim, is all about wrath and judgment in the Old Testament, but suddenly He becomes all about love and grace in the New Testament, and that sort of inconsistency is unacceptable to them.  But, as is the case with inconsistencies in the Bible, there actually is no inconsistency.  God has always been, and always will be, a God of justice, and justice will always involve punishing the wicked.

But . . . God is also a consistent God of love Who offers grace as a means of fulfilling His wrath, which is poured out on Jesus, instead of the wicked.  So God's wrath (the "Old Testament God") is most visible in His greatest display of love:  the Cross.  Grace and wrath are not two opposing entities, but are very closely entwined, and God's grace can be found just as much in the Old Testament as His wrath can be found in the New Testament; the Trumpet Judgments are a clear example of God's wrath in the New Testament.  So let's back up and re-read what happens prior to the sounding of the trumpets:

When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets.

Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar.  He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne.  The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angel's hand.  Then the angel took the censer, filled with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.

Then the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to sound them.

The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down upon the earth.  A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up (8:1-7).

As we looked at last time, the 144,000 Israelites were sealed so as to protect them from whatever harm would befall "the land or the sea or the trees" (7:3).  The first trumpet, which I personally believe may be the beginning of God's Judgment against the Tribulation of the Saints, does almost exactly what the angel in 7:3 predicted:  it harms the land and trees.  While some speculate that this judgment only falls on a third of the earth - hence only a third of the earth and a third of the trees being burned up - the fact that "all the green grass [will be] burned up" indicates that this fiery, bloody hail will indeed fall on the entire planet, but will "only" destroy a third of the world's forests.  At this point, I'm going to issue a magnificently large conjecture alert, and comment that this could be God's judgment against our world's ever-increasing environmental worship.  One of the mantras that has been chanted over and over and over again for decades is "Save the Trees."  Here in America, we even have a day set aside and dedicated specifically to trees.  Sounds an awful lot like worship, to me, but that's just my opinion, and I wouldn't make that the bedrock of your interpretation of Revelation.

So the First Trumpet harms the grass and the trees, right?  But wait, doesn't 7:3 specifically references the "sea" as well?  Yes, but so does the Second Trumpet.

The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea.  A third of the sea turned into blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed (8:8-9).

Obviously, the Big Asteroid that astronomers keep going all Chicken Little on us about will eventually hit, and when it does, it will turn a third of the sea into blood.  Now, it's unclear whether this happens because a third of the ships - and the people on them - die, as well as a third of the sea creatures, or whether the sea turns to blood in a First Plague of Exodus sort of supernatural event.  Either way, God reveals that we really aren't in control of anything.  All of our attempts at only eating sustainable food sources, all of our attempts at removing mercury, all of our fretting over contamination, all of it comes to naught when God pours out His judgment on the earth.

I'm not suggesting we keep pouring mercury and other harmful substances into the ocean, or that we bulldoze every available piece of land in order to build yet another strip mall, but I am suggesting that protecting the environment as an expression of our worship for Mother Earth is idolatry, and for those who continue to worship false gods, these judgments will bring the global economy to a grinding halt.  It will also cause massive destruction and mayhem.  This is what makes the sealing of believing Israel so important.  Remember, part of the reason for sealing the Israelites was to protect them from these two Judgements.  But, for believers in Jesus, there will be a stark contrast when they are unharmed by the judgments, and I believe that this will be a means of preaching the Gospel and declaring God to be God (c.f. Exodus 9:16).


The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water - the name of the star is Wormwood.  A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter (8:10-11).

We should take a moment here and examine some claims that the Trumpet Judgments are largely symbolic.  This is mostly due to the fact that the third trumpet is a little hard to interpret.  There are, for instance, persistent rumors that "Wormwood" in Russian is "Chernobyl."  This has led many to believe that the "star" is actually a bomb.  Truthfully, I can see this; it makes sense . . . if it were accurate.  As it so happens, "chernobyl" translates to "mugwort," rather than "wormwood" (although, interestingly, both are part of the artemisia family, although mugwort is properly called artemisia vulgaris, whereas wormwood is artemisia absinthium - so the "chernobyl" plant is related to Wormwood, but they are not the same thing).  Also, if you are interested, "wormwood" is gorech' - bitter - in Russian.  But this is neither here, nor there.

What we know - beyond speculation - is what John tells us:

1) it's a star
2) it blazes like a torch
3) it has a name - Wormwood
4) it poisons a third of the earth's freshwater supplies

 We know what is is, what it looks like, what it does, and even what its name is.  Where the Second Trumpet was clearly a large asteroid, this is most likely a meteorite (i.e., a "shooting star").  I do not know the mechanism by which it poisons a third of the earth's fresh water, but, once more, the destruction of our so-called "fragile" environment - the environment that so many people today try to "save" - is merely a reminder that it all belongs to God anyway.  Folks, if the bedrock of your faith, if the hope you have for our future, if your most persistent worry is finding clean energy and sustainable food sources, then you need to throw out that flimsy false god that we call "the Environment," and you need to replace it with Jesus.

The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark.  A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night.

As I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying in midair call out in a loud voice:  "Woe!  Woe!  Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels!" (8:12-13).

Where I live, I currently have about twelve hours of light each day, depending on the season; winter is a little less, summer is a little more.  At night, we have the moon and stars to provide some light, and those usually last for twelve hours.  Imagine, then, eight hours of complete and total blackness each day, leading well into the night.  Imagine the looting that will happen during these eight hours.  Oh, and lest you think, "I'll just turn on the lights," do you think the power plants will be working after the previous three trumpets?

An alternative reading is that the light is diminished by 33% each day and night.  Better, perhaps, than the first reading, but would you want it to be dusk all day, every day?  It would be absolutely maddening to be able to see, but not to be able to see well enough to do anything.  And night would be virtually impossible.  It would be like going blind.  You know, upon reflection, I think this reading is worse than the first interpretation.

But the most alarming part is the eagle, telling us all that things are going to get worse.

Worse than fire, blood, and hail raining out of the sky.  Worse than watching all of the grass burn up.  Worse than the largest forest fires anyone has ever seen.  Worse than the smoke that comes with those.  Worse than an asteroid plummeting into the sea.  Worse than the stench of rotting sea life.  Worse than the loss of ships and their crews.  Worse than the tsunamis that will inevitably follow.  Worse than losing the earth's freshwater supplies.  Worse than rampant looting, or "going blind" but still being able to see.

Folks, are you looking for legislators to save us through their laws and regulations?  Are you looking for us to save ourselves through recycling and "going green?"  Are you counting on the earth being here for future generations, as long as we take action immediately to save it?

God is the God of our earth.  He does not bend to its will, but it bends to His, and the first four trumpets of Revelation prove it.

"You shall have no other gods besides Me" (Exodus 20:3).