Terrifying events begin to unfold. Judgement is falling. Find sanctuary, in Christ, before it is too late!
1 When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. 2 And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and they were given seven trumpets.
3 Then another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, along with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne. 4 And the smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, rose up before God from the hand of the angel.
5 Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it to the earth; and there were peals of thunder, and rumblings, and flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.
6 And the seven angels with the seven trumpets prepared to sound them.
7 Then the first angel sounded his trumpet, and hail and fire mixed with blood were hurled down upon the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, along with a third of the trees and all the green grass.
A nuclear exchange, other weapons of man? It is not for us to know – yet.
8 Then the second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned to blood, 9 a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.
Following the imagery in chapter six, one can’t ignore the words of something ‘like a great mountain on fire’ – that it sounds like a meteor or an asteroid plunging toward the Earth. If so, the devastation could be such as described here. We will consider this in depth soon, but for now I’d like only to ask how it is that we have not heard about this, repeatedly?
10 Then the third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star burning like a torch fell from heaven and landed on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. 11 The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter like wormwood oil, and many people died from the bitter waters.
A great ‘star’ – again, an ἀστὴρ (as-tare’). It would be a mistake to limit this Greek word to mean a star as in the astronomical term (for instance, our Sun). Think of a luminous astronomical body – a comet or a meteor – ‘burning like a torch‘.
12 Then the fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun and moon and stars were struck. A third of the stars were darkened, a third of the day was without light, and a third of the night as well.
A third of the (light of) visible, luminous stellar objects obscured – like a nuclear winter? A consequence of the above, or another (impact) event? How many times have we seen such on the silver screen? Diminished by a third is the brightness of sky, or a region extending to a third of the sky?
13 And as I observed, I heard an eagle flying overhead, calling in a loud voice, “Woe! Woe! Woe to those who dwell on the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the remaining three angels!”
What is the significance of the eagle? It is not meaningless – again, we will consider a possible answer as we proceed. Some readers may already know.
End Times Prophecy 