Answers to questions from chapter 8:
1. To show his servants things which must shortly take place (Revelation 1:1).
2. On the Island of Patmos
3. witness, dead, kings, earth (Revelation1:5)
4. Alpha and Omega, Beginning and End, Alpha and Omega, First and Last, First and Last, He who lives and was dead (Revelation 1: 8 then 11 the 17, 18).
5. The things you have seen, the things which are, and the things which will take place (Revelation 1:19).
6. Loveless church, persecuted church, compromising church, corrupt church, dead church, and lukewarm church.
7. The throne Room of Heaven
8. 24, 24 (Revelation 4:4)
9. Holy, holy, holy, Lord G od Almighty, Who was and is and is to come (Revelation 4:8)!
10. The Lion of the Tribe of Judah, The root of David, The Lamb of God (Revelation 5, 6).
11. The Conqueror, Conflict on earth, Scarcity on earth, Widespread Death on Earth, The Cry of the Martyrs, Cosmic Disturbances, and Prelude to the Seven trumpets (Revelation 6, 8).
12. The 144,000.
13. Trees and grasses, seas, waters, and the heavens (Revelation 8:7-13).
STUDY: PART 27
REVELATION
CHAPTER 9
V1, 2. In researching Revelations, I always read as many commentaries as possible to compare the thoughts of the writers. All this was accomplishing for me today was to cause absolute confusion of who this star that falls from the sky is. One guy said it had to be Jesus because the star was doing God’s bidding. But most agree that the star is antichrist. Remember in Job when satan asked God’s permission to put Job to the test, and God said he could do anything he wanted to Job’s family and possessions but not to Job? This seems to be the same type of situation here, only reversed. Here satan will cause harm to his own. Jesus will give antichrist the key to the pit and God will give the antichrist permission to come down and open the long shaft that leads to the abyss, but this is not hell, and release smoke. J. Vernon McGee says of this smoke, “This is smog of the most vicious type.” Smoke represents deception, and we know who the deceiver is.
When the antichrist opens the door to the abyss it will be like a volcano blasting its poisons and debris into the air (Joel 2:2,10). Those around Mt. St. Helens saw the devastation that opening the earth causes. Here’s what a United States Department of Agriculture Forestry Department article stated, “At 8:32 Sunday morning, May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted. Shaken by an earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale, the north face of this tall symmetrical mountain collapsed in a massive rock debris avalanche. Nearly 230 square miles of forest was blown down or buried beneath volcanic deposits. At the same time a mushroom-shaped column of ash rose thousands of feet skyward and drifted downwind, turning day into night as dark, gray ash fell over eastern Washington and beyond. The eruption lasted 9 hours, but Mount St. Helens and the surrounding landscape were dramatically changed within moments.”
This was done by one mountain in one community. There are national monuments to visit now where you can still see the affects of this destructive force. Imagine the abyss being opened! Its ash and debris will be spewed all over the world. It won’t be one state seeing darkness in the daytime, it will be the world. (As of March 22, 2006, just a few days ago, Mt St. Helens was closed to hikers as volcanic activity was detected. They say she could blow again.)
V3-5. Unlike the ash, lava, and rocks Mt. St .Helens blew out, the smoke of the abyss will blow out scorpion-like locusts. In the first three trumpets, the earth was harmed. In this trumpet, the earth is unharmed. This time, by the smoke and poisons issuing from the abyss, the people will be harmed. The locusts which will be released will sting man, woman, and child with fierceness. They will be unrelenting for five entire months, the life cycle of the locust. Let me remind you here that the church will not suffer through this. These will be for the survivors of the Seals who will continue to grieve the Spirit of God, refuse to be sealed in the blood, and will not receive salvation. These locusts are the beginning of God’s judgment on them.
Note one thing else. They are forbidden to do harm to any thing other than the people. Locusts are feared by farmers because they devour every piece of living vegetation in their path. A swarm can decimate a crop field in short order. But these are a different order of the species, although I believe that, just as in Exodus, these will be real locusts.
Please read Exodus 10:12-15.
Nowhere does it hint in Revelation that John is using a metaphor. The locusts are just that, locusts. These locusts will sting like a scorpion. Scorpion stings are not usually deadly, but they are horrendously painful.
V6. Sadly for those being tormented, they won’t be allowed to die, regardless of the fact they sure will wish they could! God’s purpose in allowing these locusts is not that He wants to torment people, but that He desires to lead them to repentance and salvation. The devil will blind the eyes of these people further so that he can take them to hell.
V7-10. I don’t buy the theory that the locusts are helicopters with guns in them. Guns kill, these bugs won’t. God so far has not had to use man-made equipment to deliver His wrath, why would He suddenly need our intervention? He doesn’t. He can speak this army of the new breed of locusts and see it appear. What’s described by John, I believe, is exactly what those locusts looked like in his vision. It’s been documented by people who have witnessed a swarm of locusts descending on their farm that this description in Revelation is acutely accurate.
Please read the following: Joel 1:6; 2:4-7.
V11. Another difference in these locusts is that they have a king over them. Proverbs 30:27 says that locusts have no king. These locusts will be like an army with the king leading the way. Some commentators liken this king to a man. This can’t be as the Bible calls him the angel of the bottomless pit. This implies a real created angel fallen with satan at his rebellion. The reason he’s called Abaddon in Hebrew, and Apollyon in Greek is that it means destroyer, which he is. hat is this king destroying? He’s destroying the souls of men. He’s making sure to cause them so much grief (Matthew 24:21) they can’t see or hear the truth of Jesus, and will suffer for it, and eventually die in their sin.
The fifth trumpet is called the first woe. Remember from last week that woe has no particular meaning of its own. It’s used as an interjection like wow in speaking and writing to capture the hearer’s or reader’s attention. This “wow!” was nasty. This woe took John into the second 3 ½ weeks of the Tribulation.
STUDY: PART 28
REVELATION
CHAPTER 9
V13,17. The sixth angel blew his trumpet and the voice of Jesus spoke from the four horns on the golden altar. ??Where was this altar?? It was before the throne of God. This golden altar is where the angel offered up the prayer of the saints with the incense in Revelation 8:3.
??What did the voice of Jesus say to the angel?? He told him to release the angels who were so evil they had to be locked up and bound in the river bed. These angels were the ones being prepared for the destruction of a third of mankind. It was they who would cover the earth and kill millions of people. Please recall that a quarter of the earth’s population had already been killed by sword, hunger, death, and the beasts of the earth at the opening of the fourth seal in Revelation 4:7,8. Now another third of the people would face death by fire, smoke, and brimstone. This is the woe of which the angel spoke in 8:13.
Please read I Chronicles 12:8.
Some say that the horses described in this verse of Revelation can’t mean real animals. Commentators have said this description must mean tanks and such. Well, what about this verse in I Chronicles? Does this mean David’s army had tanks and artillery to fight with? Somehow I doubt that. So, we must need to take the Old Testament description as truth. If that’s true, why would we take this verse to be symbolic of either armor and ammunition, or merely a creative mind trying to describe what he saw for which he had no words? I think the men are going to be real men and woman of a literal army, and they will cross the Euphrates when it’s dry, and they will make war. Is it possible they had weapons of destruction? Yes, but what those are, we don’t know. The flames are not hard to imagine as flame throwers have been around for decades. Smoke could easily be some sort of chemical substance. Hussein used that type of thing to wipe out an entire village. Brimstone is sulfur, and sulfur has been used in wars before. Do I say this is what they will use? No. I’m merely speculating on the fact that these products are real as I believe the ones John saw are real. I firmly believe that it will be a literal horseback-mounted army that will deliver this death. This will be an army in the number stated because, although John was not able to count them, he heard their number. In Revelation 7:4, John also heard the number, and those were the 144,000 who would be sealed.
Interesting note: There have already been huge dams erected across the Euphrates River to redirect the water for irrigation. In the dry season, you can actually walk across a dry, or very nearly dry, river bed of the Euphrates. Is it still difficult to believe this verse in sight of this information? I think man has tried so hard to wrap his brain around the truths of Revelation that he has to explain things according to his own knowledge bank. But we are dealing with God’s vernacular here, not our own.
I found a list of things which took place at the Euphrates in the Old Testament which qualify this as the perfect spot for evil to have been bound up for later released.
1) The Garden of Eden was somewhere in that area.
2) Man’s fall into sin took place there.
3) This is where the first murder took place.
4) The first war was fought there.
5) The Great Flood began there and spread over the earth.
6) This is where the Tower of Babel was located.
7) This is where the Israelites were brought during their Babylonian captivity.
8) Babylon was the center for idol worship.
It makes sense that the death angels are stored there till the day the Lord will release them on the earth. To read the list confirms that these angels are demons, so evil in their intent that God had to bind them up until their appointed time on earth. China and the countries of the Orient are in the east. They represent most of the population of the world; therefore, have the adequate population to be able to send this type of army west. China’s flag is fiery red and sulfur yellow. Blue plays a large role in Chinese art and culture.
V18, 19. The importance of the number of mankind killed by these three plagues becomes obvious because of that number being repeated here. 1/3 of mankind, millions of people will be lost to this army. Now the real significance of Jesus’ declaration in Matthew 24:22 comes to light, “And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.” The elect referred to here are those saved during the Tribulation.
V20, 21. Two hundred million people coming toward the west with the intention to war should be enough to make people shake in their shoes and bow before the Lord, but they won’t. Rather than turning to Jesus, they will turn to drugs and alcohol. “Sorceries” means pharmacy. They will really begin to use drugs of all kinds when the locusts are stinging and there is no relief. It’s not hard to step into John’s vision and see for ourselves what the people will be doing. We can see it now to a lesser degree, as people right now use drugs and alcohol, and worship idols of gold and silver and wood, etc... as a way to dull their senses and remove themselves from the hardships of living. Even now when we have a headache we run for the Tylenol or Advil. Imagine continuous pain of great intensity harping on us all day and night, every day and night, for five months. I bet we would be right there in line for the best drugs we could find too.
The people of the Tribulation will be into devil worship in a big way. They will not give God the glory for anything. This is nothing new either. Let’s read some Scriptures that show this was practiced throughout history.
Leviticus 17:7; Deuteronomy 32:17; II Chronicles 11:15; Acts19:19.
It’s sad to think that even after living in the worst of times, men will turn to devils and not to God for their salvation and healings. I pray you all now understand the intensity of meaning in this following Scripture verse spoken by our Jesus.
“But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him” (I Corinthians 2:9).
