Last Days Timeline, A literal interpretation of biblical prophecy, second edition by Gregory Supina - HTML preview

disaster is going forth from nation to nation, and a great tempest is stirring from the farthest

parts of the earth!

“And those pierced by [Yahweh] on that day shall extend from one end of the earth to the

other. They shall not be lamented, or gathered, or buried; they shall be dung on the surface of

the ground. Wail, you shepherds, and cry out, and roll in ashes, you lords of the flock, for the

days of your slaughter and dispersion have come, and you shall fall like a choice vessel. No

refuge will remain for the shepherds, nor escape for the lords of the flock. A voice—the cry

of the shepherds, and the wail of the lords of the flock! For [Yahweh] is laying waste their

pasture, and the peaceful folds are devastated because of the fierce anger of [Yahweh]. Like a

lion He has left His lair, for their land has become a waste because of the sword of the

oppressor, and because of His fierce anger.’”

The “wine of wrath” that Jeremiah took from the hand of Yahweh, to make all nations on earth drunk with its deluding power (25:15), was to be consumed first by the reprobates in Judah, to make the false church of Israel a “desolation.” Of all the nations on earth, Israel was to be first to “stagger and be crazed because of the sword” of war which God was sending them. For His judgment begins with His own children, to purify them, to remove the dross from them. Before any other nation, God will first hand over the liars and deceivers who falsely claim to belong to Him and His church of Israel. He will hand them over to Satan, to be deluded for the destruction of their flesh, to fall in wars and rebellions, until His own elect are left, those who love and seek truth. For it is not those who claim to be His people, while they hate all outsiders, who are born of God. Rather, only those who love are His elect children. For, “whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life remaining in him” (I John 3:15, WEB). “Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. He who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, for God is love” (I John 4:7-8, WEB). In the very end, God will only leave alive those who justly love their siblings in the family of humankind.

When Jeremiah spoke of this day, he was prophesying about the future end times. And, as we see in other prophecies, Israel and the surrounding areas will experience such heavy warfare that almost 85% of its male population will die during the end times, mostly through wars with the Roman beast. But God will cause literally all the nations to pant after delusions, to make extremely poor judgments and war against one another. Israel and all the nations of the earth shall suffer greatly at this time, for they cast aside their Creator and His ways so they could worship human beings as their gods, and each will especially worships oneself. The world-wide scope of this prophecy is not figurative. By reinforcing the phrase “all the kingdoms of the world” with the phrase “that are on the face of the earth,” this is not poetic parallelism, but a way of emphasizing that he is indeed prophesying about literally all nations on earth. Jeremiah is prophesying about the end times, the seventh seal’s era.

Regarding the end times, “Babylon” is granted special treatment, as the last to drink the cup that will destroy it completely (Jer. 25:26). But this is not the Babylon which existed in Jeremiah’s day, but the Babylon which shall exist in the end times, as the head of the four kingdoms which Daniel (a contemporary of Jeremiah) had prophesied about in the end times. This refers to the four kingdoms originating from Babylon’s newly formed demonic religion of humanism, which the Rock of God

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will crush into dust during the end times. The king of Babylon released the religion of the beast into the earth, the religion of humanism, which will rule the hearts and minds of the Antichrist called the beast. It is the culmination of human worship through Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome, which has now conquered every nation on earth. The Roman beast’s kingdom and his worshipers will be the last to fall, since Sheshack or Babylon, is the worst enemy of God which Satan formed on the earth.

God’s church—His priesthood that was supposed to present God’s truths to the people and plead for the people before God—who were given the task of holding the world back from self-destructive lies and sins. Yet here God considers the people of the church to be the most guilty of lies and sins, the people who must be destroyed first, to clear the way for His just, equitable and loving kingdom on the earth. The fakes in the false church were held most responsible for the fallen state of the world, for its chaos and suffering, because they not only neglected their duty, but strove to nullify His truth and hinder or kill those who spoke His truths. Thus, God condemns them first and foremost. If they had spoken out, if they did their daily works for God, if they were faithful in the least, His power would have strengthened them and very much loss could have been prevented. But they chose to abandon God and His just, loving ways, then took up the ruthless ways of Satan’s world order, because they were lured into lives of selfish ambition and hate by the carnal rewards of the loveless.

So the end times will be the “time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?” (I Pet. 4:17, ESV). During this current fifth-seal era, we are seeing the persecution and murder of both Christians and Jews, largely because of the unfaithfulness of the Old and New Covenant branches of the church. Yet His church knew this: “whoever has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, then closes his heart of compassion against him, how does God’s love remain in him? My little children, let’s not love in word only, or with the tongue only, but in deed and truth” (I John 3:17-18, WEB). Instead, the church created lies, so they could hate their siblings among immigrants, among other “races” in the family of humankind, among other religions and among all who were slightly different in superficial ways of the flesh. They were not interested in compassionate, merciful, equitable love of the kind that is God’s principal attribute, nor in the truth which builds up that kind of love. Rather, they actively warred against that love and that truth, to become God’s enemies, as servants of Satan.

But this is only the beginning. Soon the secular world will be judged as well. Even those who resist God’s command to drink the deluding wine of God’s wrath, and do not want to go to war, will be forced to go to war and die. For they murdered through their negligence, by doing nothing to resist evil and the trampling of the needy in times of peace. They became just as guilty of murder as those who physically murdered those sent by God to speak the truth in love. Thus, they too must now pay the price. Not one nation on earth shall be left untouched by God’s unleashed wrath, nor one person, not even the most rich and powerful. For literally all nations and all individuals have sinned against God and His people, either by what they did not say and do, or by the lies and sins they actually did.

After bringing the New Covenant salvation to the world through the Messiah Jesus, and granting almost two millenniums, along with enhanced communications technology, so His Gospel truth could be preached everywhere on earth, it almost the time for God to judge the entire earth for its choices concerning His Word. And His judgment will not be good for the nations that chose the religion of humanism, especially the beast’s form of fascism, instead of God’s just and loving ways.

Both secular and religious people worship self and other human beings, then follow the words and laws invented by these human gods to enforce self-serving injustice, instead of worshiping their just, loving Creator of all that exists. So the sixth seal’s world-wide earthquake and striking meteors,

 

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followed by the deadly plagues of the seven trumpets during the era of the seventh seal, will kill approximately two thirds of the earth’s population, or more. Then Jesus will kill about half of those survivors on the day of His return—all the loveless, selfish, persecuting, murdering non-elect souls of the earth who cannot repent into the truth, all who condoned the beast’s deluded and destructive ways. Of course, many truly just and loving elect will survive, and Jesus will bring with Him many of the elect souls who were murdered by the beast and his people, resurrecting them in the flesh. So these elect will repopulate the earth. But, as Jesus’ feet land on the Mount of Olives, only a small remnant of the earth’s former population will live to enjoy His restoration of the world and His just, joyful, free, loving kingdom. All these will live a just, equitable, modest life of peace with God.

The “shepherds” whom Jeremiah spoke about here (25:34) were primarily the false priests and fake pastors of the church, but included all kinds of leaders or “lords of the flock,” all who judge, teach and bring order to a land were to be loving, caring, honest servants of God, “shepherds” working for the Great Shepherd and serving for the good of the flock. No man was ever supposed to lord it over the flock, as a “superior” sheep bullying “inferior” sheep. For there was to be only one King and one Lord over every individual, their God. So, when Jeremiah addresses these men as “you lords of the flock,” he is being sarcastic and rebuking them for attempting to replace God as the “lords” of the flock. For they all set up humanistic hierarchies and class systems for themselves, so that they, not God, would rule over the destinies of God’s people and His other properties. Therefore, God will destroy all those arrogant “lords of the flock” and none will not find any refuge from God’s wrath.

Some of the rich and powerful, or some foolish groups of “survivalists,” may build bunkers, armed compounds with hiding places, safe havens for the apocalyptic future times, to save themselves when the chaos and destruction they bred turns its fangs against them. But there will be no protection from the wrath of God in those days, except in loving, strong and wise communities who remain humble, modest and faithful to Jesus in all matters of life and faith. Only these simple and lowly ones shall be safeguarded by the Lord and God Himself. All who seek to save themselves will be the first to fall. For, when starving hordes of godless and ruthless souls in lawless gang search for places with an abundance of food and weapons, they will attack and plunder those very places that thought they were well-supplied and secure. And one flock of a human lord will overcomes another flock of a human lord. Each flock of a human lord will rise up to war against, kill and plunder other flocks.

So the rich and the survivalists will destroy one another in those days. They may try to hide in their bunkers and fortresses, as prisoners of their own making. But they all shall be killed eventually, and will be plundered by the very souls they mercilessly left outside to die. The only significant numbers of survivors in the end times will come from the communities and lands that humbly and truly repent to God, who share all things and work together for the good of all, abandoning all the unjust ways of Satan’s world order. They will protect one another and wisely keep alive all truly loving elect souls, through their love of God and love for one another. But they will have no stockpiles of food, since all food will be grown and distributed. These mild, gentle, lowly souls who live modestly will not be the main targets of greedy and arrogant gang leaders, but will be the only places where any of the gang members could go for medical help, a continuous supply of growing food and knowledge. So even some of the criminals will want to preserve Christian communities. And several prophecies assure us that there actually will be some truly Christian communities and nations in those days, who will be able to maintain a modest, simple, free life for its citizens and for those who flee to them.

But God will surely destroy the arrogant who appointed themselves to be “lords of the flock.” Since they followed their own selfish and unjust ways, and did not believe the warnings God gave them through His prophets and His apostles, they will receive the wages of their sins. Our God carefully

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preserved His words for millenniums, and even wrote His ways in all of His creations. Each heart was born with an innate knowledge of basic good and evil. Then God proclaimed the details of His truths in His Word, which has been distributed throughout the earth. So there is not one who has not had a chance to repent into the loving, just, equitable truths of God. Yet most rejected God and His truths, seeking to gratify their unjust and unholy desires. Thus, God grants the people the kinds of lords they deserve, self-seeking task masters who enslave them. They cherish the “freedom” to serve their own lusts and become slaves to their lies, sins and human lords. They reject God’s light yoke and easy burden of loving righteousness, exchanging it for a heavy yoke and unbearably hard burden set upon them by demons and human lords. Since they do not serve God in His just and loving ways, He will turn their cities and lands into a desolate wasteland. In His anger, God will send shepherds and lords who oppress with the “sword” (i.e., with weapons of war), who will themselves be killed by the “sword.” Their selfish sins will leave their plundered, unloved corpses to rot on the ground.

Haggai 2:6-9,21-23 (ESV): “For thus says [Yahweh] of hosts: Yet once more, in a little

while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. And I will shake

all nations , so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with

glory, says [Yahweh] of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares [Yahweh] of

hosts. The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says [Yahweh] of hosts.

And in this place I will give peace, declares [Yahweh] of hosts....

“Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I am about to shake the heavens and the

earth, and to overthrow the throne of kingdoms . I am about to destroy the strength of the

kingdoms of the nations, and overthrow the chariots and their riders. And the horses and their

riders shall go down, every one by the sword of his brother. On that day, declares [Yahweh]

of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel My servant, the son of Shealtiel, declares [Yahweh],

and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares [Yahweh] of hosts.”

This prophecy tells us that the third temple period, which will begin in end times, more than seven years before Jesus returns, shall be far larger and more glorious than the previous two temple periods. For the plunder of all the nations on earth, whom God shall destroy during the end times, will be used to make it glorious. Silver and gold will be common and used to decorate and preserve the final temple, because God will “shake all nations” with wars and devastation until only the elect remain alive in them. Then, since no remaining people will have much use for silver or gold, after the devil’s invention of money has been abandoned, God will “fill this house with glory,” and use inert gold and antibacterial silver for some of their intended purposes, to protect the roof from being eroded by rain and decay, as well as to provide sterile vessels for ceremonial purposes. And, instead of guards constantly watching the temple grounds for troublemakers, there will be peace in His house forever after Jesus returns. It will truly become a place of real prayer for all surviving nations.

We can be fairly certain of the year in which this prophecy was written, which is about 520 BC. For it was not long after a remnant of Jews returned from their Babylonian captivity and were rebuilding the second temple, as well as the city of Jerusalem. For Babylon, the head of the four kingdoms of the beast, had previously destroyed and plundered Jerusalem, as well as its temple, in 586 BC. But this rebuilding process was not going well. The people were demoralized and the building of the temple had been stopped by jealous unbelievers. Still, God was actually planning to use this return of the Jews as a reminder of what would occur in the future, in the end times. And Haggai was aware of this. Haggai knew that, long after his day, in the distant future, God would shake all the nations in the entire world. Then God would fill His “house,” His temple in Jerusalem, with glory, and grant all the elect survivors on the earth an eternal peace with Himself, but after devastating the entire earth.

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Here Haggai was prophesying about a “house” or temple of God which would exist in the end times. By Haggai’s time, God had also revealed that, in the distant future, the greatest enemy of God and Israel would be the “beast” of the fourth kingdom originating from Babylon. That “beast” would conquer Israel and stop temple sacrifices. And latter prophecies said he would do this during the last three and a half years of his seven-year reign over that fourth Roman kingdom. Then Israel’s Messiah would come, destroy all the beast and all His enemies, then gradually gather all remaining elect Jews into Israel, all those scattered in the Gentile nations. And, when their Messiah destroyed all His enemies, He would utterly crush the beast’s kingdom, the spiritual Roman Empire,, the last.

The essence of all these end-time events were prophesied by Daniel and other prophets, whom Haggai would have heard or read. Haggai surely knew Babylon was the head of the beast. Then, once again, God revealed these future events through Haggai. God repeatedly confirmed that all the nations of the world, in future, would be ruled by the fourth kingdom originating from Babylon, just as Judah and Jerusalem were ruled by Persia, Babylon’s second kingdom, in the days of Haggai. So God, through Haggai, once more warned us, hinting that Babylon’s religion of humanism would cause all the future nations to adopt its systems and ways, including its financial systems. All nations would become humanists, claiming that they owned all gold, silver, land, possessions and even people, not by God. But, after Babylon’s humanism conquered the world, the Messiah, Jesus, would come to destroy that religion, together with all its laws and systems. The Messiah will prove that all the earth belongs to God alone—not only all gold and silver, but all land and life, all human beings.

Jesus will crush all financial systems, so no one will ever deprive the workers of wages or the needy of daily bread. None will be able use financial power to exploit people or lands, to control the thoughts and deeds of human souls for their own selfish gain. To crush all these laws and systems, the Messiah “will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land.” That is, Haggai was saying what John expounded upon in the Revelation, that God will send the the earthquakes and striking meteors of the sixth seal, then the plagues of the seven trumpets and the seven bowls of wrath of the seventh seal’s era upon the earth. God’s deeds will shake the skies, lands, rivers and oceans. In those days, more than two thirds of all the people on the earth will perish, leaving only a remnant of faithful elect alive by the time Jesus steps into His temple. This is why Haggai, in four separate verses, exhorted the remnant of Jewish people in his own day to carefully consider all that they were doing and how they were behaving (see 1:5,7; 2:15,18). Since they were to be an example for God’s people in future days, who also would lose hope for a season, and they would surely be remembered by elect Jews in Israel during the days just before their Messiah would return, they were to act in a way which served as a sign of those future events. God wanted them to remain faithful.

For the sake of future generations, the returning Jews who were rebuilding God’s temple must not falter and drift into apostasy. Yes, these people and their temple would be small and insignificant, in physical ways. But the spiritual worth and significance of their day was much greater than the physical worth and significance they saw with their eyes of flesh. Their “little” mundane physical lives and works would someday serve as a light to the elect who also lived “little” mundane lives more than two and a half millenniums after them. And God, referring to His temple in Jerusalem, declared that “the latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former.” For Yahweh God, in a body of flesh, would come in perfect glory to the final temple built by human hands, to serve as the King and High Priest of Israel and the entire world. So the physical size or appearance of the temple in Haggai’s time was not as important as the heart, faith and examples of the people building it. Nor would its size be that important in the end times, although it actually would be nicer and bigger than

 

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the one built in Haggai’s day. For the glory of the third temple will not be in the size or outward appearance. It’s glory will be our God Jesus, when He is teaching there in a body of flesh among us.

And Jesus will bring more than glory. Although there will be deadly wars and rumors of wars until His return, along with other unimaginable terrors, all those horrors will cease at the moment Jesus sets His feet upon the Mount of Olives. When our Messiah returns, there will be peace on earth for a thousand years. All our short and insignificant lives and little works for God will have served their purpose, to teach and train our spirits to serve this coming Jesus, even in heaven for all eternity.

God sent His message to Zerubbabel to the people in Haggai’s time. He was the governor of Judah, appointed by Persia, by the second of Satan’s four kingdoms. In Haggai’s day, Judah was a tiny part of a massive Gentile Persian kingdom, subject to the whims of Persian kings, a powerless little land inundated with troubles from without and within. Then Judah’s people were hated by the nations surrounding them, due to arrogance and conflicts with them in a long-forgotten past. Also, Judah had only a small, demoralized population available to rebuild their small allotment of land and to protect their people. So, when Zerubbabel was appointed the governor of Judah, the Persians perceived it as almost a punishment and disgrace, more than an honor with glory. Only a God-fearing and God-loving man would desire this assignment. But Zerubbabel was a Jewish man who trusted in God, and the task of rebuilding Jerusalem and its temple was his heart’s desire, a chance to serve his beloved God, a new beginning of God’s kingdom on earth, an opportunity to serve all future generations.

This governor was to build the sign of hope for the coming Messiah, for Yahweh who would come in a body of a man to forever rule as the final King and one true High Priest of Israel. Zerubbabel was chosen by God for this role, as a “signet ring” upon God’s finger (Hag. 2:23). So Zerubbabel would remind his people that, someday, Yahweh, as the Messiah, would come “to shake the heavens and the earth, and to overthrow the throne of kingdoms” (2:21-22). That is, He was coming to cast down Satan from that throne, to remove that demonic spirit’s influence over all the earth. And, when the Messiah Yahweh did that, He would also “destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations” (2:22), even all four of the world-wide kingdoms of Satan created through Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome. So Zerubbabel would be a symbolic figure, a reminder of the coming Messiah—although many generations would pass before the Messiah would arrive in Jerusalem with power and glory.

As small at Zerubbabel’s role seemed to be in physical and outward appearances to the Persians, it held a truly great, eternal, spiritual value, far greater than Persian king himself. Living in the days of the second kingdom of Babylon, during the time of the Persian Empire, things were progressing just as God had prophesied through Daniel. Now Zerubbabel would play a part in God’s work to prepare for the eventual return of the Messiah to Israel. So let us look again at how the Messiah will come to take His throne over Israel and the whole world. First He will shake the heavens and earth. Then, on the day of His advent, He will cast Satan, the beast and all the fallen angels into hell, removing their power and influence from the earth, so Jesus will be the only spiritual power and influence over all.

Once the guidance of demonic hatred is withdrawn from Babylon’s four kingdoms, and especially from the fourth Roman kingdom of the beast, who is here called “the kingdoms of the nations,” their armies coming against Israel, “their chariots and their riders,” will fall into chaos. The beast’s armies and their allies from everywhere on earth will turn against one another, “and the horses and their riders shall go down, every one by the sword of his brother” (2:22). Then our God Jesus will remove the spirit of life from each and every non-elect soul on earth, so they will all die instantly. Then there will be no tempting spirits left on earth, nor any of Satan’s human children left to corrupt the elect.

 

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Other prophets say that the Messiah Jesus will personally destroy all the irredeemable wicked on the day of His return, not that many will destroy one another. Both are true. For Jesus’ power will also personally destroy most of the beast’s army by deluding and confusing them, by causing each soldier to turn against the other, to kill one another once they have drawn near to Jerusalem. For Jesus is God and is well able to influence the thoughts of men in any way He chooses. And we can also speculate on other ways Jesus will cause this internal strife and infighting. For the prophecies tell us that God will send demonic spirits to nations all over the world, including the beast’s former enemies located to the north and to the east of the beast’s homeland. Demonic spirits will convince many nations to become allies of the beast and send their armies to help the beast destroy Israel. Thus, once Jesus casts those demons into hell, the spiritual forces which unite them will be nullified and they will no longer be allies. They will remember their bitter battles with the beast and war with him.

Jesus will cause the non-elect from all those allied nations to quarrel with one another on the day of His return. After all, there are always battles of egos among humanists, since each want to be a god who rules over other human beings. So infighting is not only possible but probable, after their uniting demons are gone. Then Jesus will directly kill the survivors. Regardless of how the armies of the beast will die, Jesus will be the cause of their deaths, so He can establish justice and peace on earth. And we will not grieve for any of them. For, by then, His enemies will have already proved to us that they are totally incapable of repenting into a knowledge of truth. They will have revealed that they are the loveless, that their ruthless spirits were born of Satan as eternal enemies of God and us.

Now, in the Revelation, we are told that the seventh seal’s era begins with a short hiatus: “When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour” (Rev. 8:1, ESV). So the tribulations of the seventh era will only begin after the sixth seal’s revival is granted a period of time for His sealed and revived elect children to grow stronger. And, during this time, all the lies, delusions and deceptions from the “four winds” will be silenced in His true church. All the Roman humanistic influences upon His elect will begin to fade and die. For the power of humanism comes from incessant repetitions of propaganda by humanists and the media, as well as economic and political pressures. But the separating of the elect into the true church, together with the destruction of economic, political and mass media systems by the sixth seal’s world-wide earthquakes and the bombing of meteors, will disrupt all those humanistic influences, so the church will remain pure.

During this time, when Satan’s world order will be silenced, God’s wrath will be readied like a wrecking ball being raised above the enemy’s walls, preparing for many long, strong and perfectly aimed blows. This destruction will pause for a moment, for about 20 years, but it will soon begin to break down all the defenses that maintain Satan’s world order, with all the strength of God’s power, until there is nothing left of the enemy’s fortress of lies. God will draw back to strike one very lethal blow after another, to fully gratify His rage against their murderous evil. Even now, the formidable, awesome wrath of God is poised to strike against the devious systems of Satan’s world order. The more delusions God sent to the nations who did not love the truth, the more those lands will feel His devastating wrath. And any who cease to feel His wrath on earth, through death, shall experience even more of His wrath on the judgment day, and feel an even more pure, painful expression of His wrath. For God shall cast all unrepentant souls into hell, to forever wallow in the darkness of their delusions and lies. And their own darkness will cause more agony than they could possibly imagine.

On the day Adam and Eve sinned, God granted Satan the power to rule over sinners and the right to establish a subject kingdom of sinners, which was limited by God but gave the devil much power to manipulate even the elect. And Scriptures called that devil’s kingdom “the world order” (κόσμος). From the day it was formed, the ambitious devil worked ceaselessly to build up his kingdom. Not

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only did Satan give birth to many of his own children on earth—to loveless non-elect spirits that willingly and gladly served their father’s kingdom—but he also began to steal some of God’s elect children, to make them into his slaves. The devil sent his unloved and unloving brood throughout the world to capture elect souls. Whenever they found any, they pinned them to the ground and smeared Satan’s thick, hot tar on their eyes, to blind them with his searing, black lies. Then they dragged these elect home, into gloomy caverns and barren lands, into slave camps hidden from God’s light.

Once they safely chained their captive elect inside their fortresses, Satan and his children forced those elect souls to build edifices of demonic glory, and to carry multitudes of their masters’ heavy burdens, as they trudged ceaselessly on the factory tread mills producing toxic power for Satan. So, in the end, after most elect on earth became slaves of the devil’s children, that many of these blinded elect slaves forgot that anything existed outside of Satan’s dark, gloomy kingdom, especially that devil’s humanistic empire of class systems for the hierarchies that empowered his most psychopathic children. By our day, almost everyone on earth thinks they have no choice but to pursue a narrow, dark, unthinking, futile existence as a puppet ruled by Satan through his unjust systems, especially his humanistic hierarchies. For, as soon as Satan’s children see anyone attempting to escape from this lifeless existence, they seize that one and beat him senseless, or kill him. They let none run free, beyond the devil’s high boundary walls. None may even glance outside to God’s bright, living lands.

The sins of Satan’s kingdom have reached a climax in our day, during the era of the fifth seal. Soon God will shout to make His heavens and His earth shake. Jesus will initiate the era of the sixth seal, and send His Spirit to awaken His elect, to open their eyes to His light. For they have been blindly retreating for so long that they have almost forgotten that it is possible to overcome evil with good, with God’s truth and power. But after the sixth seal opens, and before the plagues of the seventh seal begin, the elect will grow inwardly strong. They will begin to truly walk in Christ and undo Satan’s works with Christ’s power and wisdom, so they can build up His loving, just kingdom on the earth.

Then, during the seventh seal’s era, Jesus will entirely crush the world order. So the seventh era may begins with a hiatus of about “half an hour” in heaven—a short, quiet time where God will not allow the world order to effectively keep His elect captive. For about 20 years of earthly time, He will hold back His wrath, so He might build up His true visible church, by sending His Spirit to teach and train the elect spirits He has sealed and awakened. So this pause, which begins the era of the seventh seal, is also basically an extension of the very short era of the sixth seal. But, after God awakens and prepares many elect for His service, this hiatus will end. God’s destroying wrath will begin, and Satan will know his time is short. For those days of the seventh seal’s great tribulation will complete their works after only about another 20 years. So the end times, from the beginning of the sixth seal’s era until the day Jesus returns, will be only a total of about 40 years, which is about one generation.

Clearly, the reason God grants the short hiatus, just before He causes the greatest tribulations in all history, can only be for one reason, to gather together His sealed elect and to teach them to live by the truths and wisdom of His Word. The “silence in heaven for about half an hour” actually must be to supplement the sealing of the elect during the sixth seal’s era. Immediately after the sixth seal’s world-wide earthquake, with meteors striking the earth, God will “seal” the spirits of His elect, to make them into His people, then teach and train them to serve His will and purposes, which is why He calls this the sealing of “the servants of our God.” Thus, this “sealing” is a true revival of His church, where He grants them His Spirit of truth and power, so they can do His works of nullifying Satan’s works and building up His loving, just kingdom on earth. So, during this short, peaceful silence, while Satan’s world order sits stunned and incapacitated, unable to persecute and deceive the elect for a time, Jesus shall teach His elect to live a truly godly, just, modest and loving life for Him.

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After this, the seventh seal’s plagues will begin, as God’s wrath repeatedly strikes the earth with devastating fury. Yet Jesus said the generation living during the time appointed for these plagues will not all pass away before He returns (Mat. 24:34; Mark 13:30; Luke 21:32). And a biblical generation is usually considered to be forty years. So, if we subtract the twenty-year hiatus from one generation of forty years, it leaves less than twenty years for all the great tribulations of the seventh seal. And that is about how long it would take for the plagues of the seven trumpets and seven bowls of wrath.

The events of the first six trumpets in the seventh seal’s era could easily occur within about thirteen years. Then the time of the seventh trumpet (which includes the days of the seven bowls of wrath) will last only seven years, only during the seven-year reign of the beast as the dominant world power. Immediately after that, Jesus will return to complete the destruction of the beast and his evil kingdom, as well as all the wicked souls on that same day. Then He will rule over the entire earth for a millennium. Thus, all the tribulations of the sixth and seventh seals can occur within forty years. The sixth seal’s events, with the twenty-year hiatus and all the plagues of the seventh seal can occur within one generation. If the sixth seal was opened today, with its world-wide earthquake and deadly meteors striking the ground, many of the younger people living right now would see Jesus returning.

Immediately after the half an hour of silence in heaven, seven trumpets will be handed to seven angels. So the plagues of these seven trumpets will occur within the era of the seventh seal—because all seven trumpets are handed to the angels at the same time, after the seventh seal is opened, and the plagues of those trumpets cannot occur until those trumpets are handed over to the angels. Therefore, all the cataclysmic events associated with all seven trumpets must necessarily occur within the era of the seventh seal. All of the great tribulations of the seven trumpets are initiated by the angels blasting their trumpets during the era of the seventh seal. And these angels sound these trumpets in much the same way that trumpets were used in battle to direct troops. Each trumpet signals a different mode of attack by God and His armies against His enemies on earth. Therefore, each trumpet would produce a different sound to be used as a different signal indicating a different command of God, where only God’s own armies, not the enemies of God, would be able to comprehend the meaning of the various sounds of these seven trumpets. But the messages of these trumpets tell us that God, who cannot lose any battle He chooses to fight, will effectively eliminate the armies of Satan, utterly destroy them all.

As each trumpet sounds, a new period of time—terrifying days of death and great suffering—shall begin. And all this seems to occur in response to the prayers of certain saints, the first sanctified elect (Rev. 7:9-17), who all want the injustice of Satan’s world order to cease. And these saints will all be in heaven as they pray for this. So all seem to have been martyred by this time, but fully conscious as they pray in heaven. They are the mostly Gentile elect who were sealed during the sixth seal’s revival, a “multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands” (Rev. 7:9, ESV). And they likely do not include all the martyrs in history, only the one kind of elect sealed during the sixth seal’s era, who have died during the era of the seventh seal. For it says: “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Rev. 7:14, ESV). The “great tribulation” of these particular saints must refer to the plagued during the seventh seal’s era. And the washing of their “robes” refers to the cleansing of every aspect of their lives after the revival of the sixth seal.

The “great tribulation” of these multitudes praying in heaven cannot refer to any who died from any plague that God casts upon the non-elect who belong to Satan’s world order. Rather, this is the “great tribulation” of the thoroughly cleansed and sanctified elect, of the “saints.” So it must refer to a tribulation caused by Satan, by the enemy of God and His people. Specifically, it most likely refers

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to the execution of those elect by the beast during the last half of his seven-year reign, just before Jesus returns. Yet these saints are praying in heaven even before the first of the seventh seal’s plagues strike the earth. So, once more, we see how time in heaven is not aligned with times on the earth, and how times in heaven are not linear, not one moment sequentially flowing into another, from the past to the present and on into the future. The prayers of these deceased saints in heaven suggests that they could see what would happen to their flesh on the earth before those events even happened. Thus, their spirits will be fully awake, aware and alive in heaven even as their flesh lives on earth, before their flesh dies on earth. Those living in Christ dwell in heaven and never truly die.

I repeat, according to prophecies, the greatest tribulation of elect Jews and Gentiles occurs during the last half of the beast's seven-year reign. The beast’s kingdom beheads Gentile Christians (Rev. 20:4-5) and attacks Israel with international armies of demonic non-elect (Rev. 16:12-16), and attacks the Christian nations around Israel too, killing the elect who were sealed by God during the era of the sixth seal. Yet the washing of the robes of the saved elect in the blood of the Lamb (e.g., Rev. 19:5-9) suggests that many elect lived, did righteous works on earth, and received salvation to make them ready to be the bride of Jesus when He returned to the earth. However, the Revelation refers to the prayers of these saints rising like incense (Rev. 8:1-5) before God’s throne long before the beast even begins to rule or persecute them. So how can these saints be dead in heaven, praying to God, during a time long before the beast actually kills them, and long before many live to be His bride on earth?

John saw a vision of multitudes of sealed saints who were in heaven shortly after the era of the sixth seal began, praying in a way that stirred God's wrath. Then God responded by announcing that He “will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Rev. 7:17, ESV), before He opened the seventh seal. So God’s response to their prayers was actually to cause the events of the seventh seal’s era; the plagues of the seven trumpets and the plagues of the seven bowls of wrath. So the Gentile sealed elect and the 144,000 Jewish elect virgin males were already in heaven before the seventh seal’s era began. Yet the beast does not come to kill them until much later in the seventh seal’s era. Thus, these deceased sealed and saved Gentile elect and the 144,000 male Israelites all died long after they were seen in heaven. They all died in the future, about 16 to 20 years after the seventh trumpet sounded, during the “great tribulation” of the saints, which was to occur during the last half of the beast's seven-year reign. So the order of these events seems wrong, unless their spirits and our spirits already exist in the spiritual realm right now, and time in heaven is not linear like it is on earth, nor aligned with earthly time. Only if our spirits actually dwell in heaven at all times, while perceiving the flow of time on earth for the teaching and training of our spirits, can what John described here be possible.

What John saw before the era of the seventh seal began seems impossible—unless John is actually teaching us about the difference between time on earth and time in heaven. He knew exactly what he was saying, although it seems impossible to those who lived before Einstein discovered that all past and future material times exist simultaneously. So, in the Revelation, was John actually telling us that heaven and earth are two completely different space-time continua. A spirit belongs to heaven’s continuum while flesh belongs to earth’s continuum, and a soul’s interface enables communication between the spirit and the flesh, each dwelling in two different continua, and where earthly time is both subordinate and irrelevant to time within the greater heavenly continuum, allowing spirits to see the future of their flesh on earth. For we must remember that both kinds of time are created by God who continually exists outside of both kinds of time, and both times are relative to God’s thoughts.

We can assume that John was deliberately teaching this because of the other things he prophesied. For remember how John saw 24 elders during this visit to heaven (Rev. 4:4). These elders even held the prayers of these deceased saints (Rev. 5:8,14; 7:11,13), the prayers of those who prayed about

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future times that they already lived on the earth while in a “past” time in heaven. These elders also spoke about these deceased saints reigning “on earth” with the Lord (Rev. 5:10), some because they survived to see Jesus return and some because they were resurrected from the dead when Jesus had returned, during the first resurrection (Rev. 20:4-6). At His return, the spirits of many elect who had been revived during the sixth seal’s era, but were martyred by the hands of the beast, will be brought back to the earth by Jesus (Rev. 20:4). Then will Jesus allow these saints (now in new earthly bodies of flesh again) to rule with Him during the millennium. So we now ask, “Who were these 24 elders who carried the prayers of these now-deceased saints that would be martyred in the future?” The only Scripture that seems to identify them is Revelation 21:12-14. Since John spoke about these 24 elders as though we should know them, they must be the twelve sons of Jacob (fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel) and the twelve apostles chosen by Jesus. Only these can be the 24 elders in heaven.

But if these are the 24 elders, one of them was John himself. For John was one of the twelve apostles chosen by Jesus. Thus, as John was speaking to the 24 elders, John was actually speaking to himself among them. He was two persons at the same time. The spirit in his earthly body was also out of his body at the same time, standing in heaven before the eyes of his flesh, heard by the ears of his flesh, and recognized by his mind of flesh. For his soul connected the mind of his spirit with the mind of his flesh. And the only way one can be two persons at the same time is if one part of a person comes from one space-time continuum to visit the other part of the same person in the other space-time continuum. John’s body had been lifted from earth’s continuum and placed in heaven’s spiritual continuum, where the time in heaven’s continuum does not progress linearly like time does on earth. So John’s spirit, communicating with his flesh through his soul (an interface), saw himself in heaven.

This explains how, throughout the Revelation, John seems to be actually witnessing future events, as though he was physically taken into those future times, to physically observe those events as they were actually occurring in those future times. For it was his mind of flesh that became conscious of these visions and used his body of flesh to write down all that his flesh saw and heard, so we could read about this in his book of the Revelation. How else could he possibly describe this so deeply and accurately? It is quite obvious that John was not simply imagining these things, or dreaming about them. Clearly, he actually saw future earthly events occur with his own eyes before he described them phenomenologically, in his own words. So heaven’s eternal space-time continuum must have random access to all times we perceive linearly on the earth, and earthly time must be subordinate to heavenly time. In heaven, one must be able to see earthly time as a finite line, all of it at once, from its beginning to its end. Time in the material universe must be something like a series of still pictures in a film, but 3D pictures, each formed by God’s power transformed to provide each moment’s form.

Of course, this is all speculation, and our minds of flesh cannot truly comprehend exactly how such things can exist. However, one thing is clear: If God wills, a spirit can enter heaven to see the line of time God created in the material universe, at any point, anywhere from its beginning to its end, and at any location. For how else could we explain any of the prophecies of Scripture that have already been fulfilled in every detail; or events like the deceased saints praying in heaven at a time before they actually died; or John the elder talking to himself in heaven; or John seeing future events in a way where he could then record all that he saw and heard? All this conveys a perplexing message about the way time on earth relates to time in heaven. The Bible clearly portrays time in the material universe as a finite, predetermined, purposeful, transitional line existing entirely apart from eternal heavenly time. Finite and temporary earthly time is very real, and for a definite purpose, since God created it and uses it to shape the spirits of His elect. But earthly time is obviously subordinate to an eternal kind of time in heaven, and functions completely apart from time in heaven. The earth and

 

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heaven clearly are what would be called, in our day, two completely different space-time continua. We perceive the material space-time continuum as linear, but its whole completed line of time can be viewed from heaven’s space-time continuum. In heaven, a spirit can apparently look at any time upon the earth—past, present or future—and see it as though it were a current event. So, of course, this means all times on earth are predetermined and predestined. Only the time in heaven is not completely predetermined and predestined, not subject to certain laws which govern the material universe, without any kind of end. For instance, the laws of entropy cannot exist in heaven’s realm.

Since all times on earth can be seen from heaven all at once, all at the same time, the events of our earthly times must be set in stone, absolutely predestined, without any possibility that those times will change or fail to occur. This was necessary to make it possible for the names of all God’s elect, in all history, to be written in His Book of Life at the foundation of the world, before He created any of them. God predetermined all that would ever occur on the temporary earth before creation, before anyone or anything existed, before any events in the material universe began to occur. God wrote every detail of the history of the material universe before any of it occurred. God also put the spirits of His elect children in heaven, and must somehow keep them in heaven, even at the same time they live their lives on earth. For how could any human spirit, which must always remain a part of the spiritual space-time continuum, ever fully exist inside the limited material space-time continuum?

Yes, all our spirits experience linear time on earth through our temporary bodies of flesh, but this must be because the minds of our spirits are directly linked to the minds of our earthly flesh through an interface which the Bible calls the “soul.” Thus, our spirits know and experience all things on earth, but also know God and experience His heaven at the same time. Only minds of flesh can never be fully cognizant of heavenly time, nor anything else in heaven, not even God. But our spirits can actually experience two times at once, what we call two different space-time continua. Therefore, the minds of our eternal spirits must be vastly superior to our minds of flesh. The minds of our spirits can know all the mind of flesh knows in the material space-time continuum, plus all that our minds of flesh cannot know from heaven’s space-time continuum. And the minds of our spirits must have a direct access to the pure logic and reasoning of God, who is a Spirit, in whose image our spirits have been created as His children. Thus, an elect spirit can be infinitely more rational and wise than flesh.

Colossians 3:1-4 (ESV): “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are

above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are

above, not on things that are on earth . For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ

in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.”

On the one hand, elect spirits begin life on earth as “babes,” as spirits born with infantile minds, needing to be taught and trained by the Holy Spirit of Jesus throughout their lives on earth. Each is granted a specific earthly time period, so that each of God's elect children can mature into a unique individual who generally complies to the image of Jesus and becomes fit for particular kind of life in heaven. On the other hand, all elect spirits belong to the eternal spiritual space-time continuum, and cannot truly exist in earth's temporary space-time continuum, since earthly life is merely a regulated perception placed in the minds of our spirits. Elect spirits can only be bound to their earthly bodies through that interface which God's Word calls the “soul.” Thus, even while we live on earth, our spirits must actually remain in the spiritual space-time continuum of heaven, since our spirits can only engage in spiritual actions and with spiritual matter in heaven’s space-time continuum, but with all the thoughts in the minds of our spirits immersed in our assigned perceptions of flesh and times on earth, joined with our minds of flesh in those earthly times—bearing the limitations God chooses to place on each one for the purpose of teaching and training each one’s spirit for a unique ministry.

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But, if God allows it, elect spirits can be made able to see the material space-time continuum as God Himself sees it, or at least some parts of its whole, segments between its beginning and its end. So our spirits can see and pray about earth’s future events, causing our spirits to learn from the Holy Spirit, who is God existing outside all times, so we may seek what God desires. And, by the way, this means the spiritual dimension of heaven, and God in it, are far closer than we think. In fact, all of the earthly continuum is within the heavenly continuum, where we dwell. Likewise, elect spirits are far more aware of God and things of heaven, including their eternal destinies, than their minds of flesh can realize. Awakened elect spirits remain somewhat infantile, yet are aware of heaven around them.

Now let me return to the prophecies about the great tribulations during the seventh seal’s era. All the events of all seven trumpets in the era of the seventh seal will occur before Jesus begins to rule for a millennium, and all will be completed in about twenty years. They might occur over a longer period of time, but not much longer. For it is obvious that God wants the plagues of the seven trumpets to be completed quickly, for the sakes of His elect. And the Bible suggests that the plagues of the first four trumpets will occur in rapid succession, within a few years or less. Then the Scriptures tell us that the plague of the fifth trumpet will last only five months (Rev. 9:5). As for the sixth trumpet’s events, they can occur within a couple of years, assuming the massive armies involved had prepared for their campaigns some years before they will engage in their warfare. Then the tribulations of the seventh trumpet will last the longest, but only for seven years of the beast's rule. Prophecies of both Daniel and John confirm that the beast will rule for only seven years, including the few months that God pours out the seven bowls of His wrath upon the beast's kingdom near the very end of his reign.

Above all, we know the tribulations of the seven trumpets will not last very long because Jesus, after talking about end-time events involving the beast (Mat. 24:15-22,29,32-33) and His own return (Mat. 24:23-28, 30-31), then declared: “And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.... Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place” (Mat. 24:22,34, ESV). In context, when Jesus referred to “this generation,” He did not mean the generation living at that time, those who were alive in about AD 27. Rather, it is clear that He was referring to the generation that would be alive during the times He had just been talking about, that is, during the end-times, occurring just before His return. “This generation will not pass away” meant that the generation living during the end times will not all die before all those end-time tribulations end on the day that He returns. And, biblically, a generation is about forty years. So the sixth seal’s era, the hiatus of about twenty years, the times of the seven trumpets and seven bowls of wrath during the seventh seal’s era, will come to a total of about 40 years. Then there will be more than a thousand years of Jesus ruling the world.

Even so, not everyone from that generation who lives to see Christ’s return will also live to see the very end of the seventh seal’s era, since the time of the seventh trumpet, which is within the era of the seventh seal, will last for the entire time that Jesus rules over the earth, more than a thousand years. The time of the seventh and last trumpet includes the day Jesus returns and rules the earth for a millennium. And not all who see His return will live throughout the entire thousand years, although some humans will live that long. The point is that we need to remember that, when Jesus spoke of “this generation,” He was talking about the generation born after the troubles of the end times first begin, those born after the sixth seal’s earthquakes and striking meteors. Jesus promised that at least a remnant of “this generation” will live to see His return, although some may die before He returns.

The Revelation’s description of the seventh seal’s era provides details that are missing in some of the other biblical prophecies about the end times, but repeats enough to ensure us that it is talking about

 

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the same end times that Jesus, the prophets and the other apostles wrote about. John begins with the following description, which I have already discussed, but will be repeated here for further exegesis:

Revelation 8:1-5 (ESV): “When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in

heaven for about half an hour. [This is the hiatus, which is likely about twenty years.] Then I saw the

seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. And another

angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer, and he was given much incense to

offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne and the smoke of

the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel. Then

the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth, and

there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.”

As mentioned, God’s granting of the seven trumpets is one event, and it occurs after the seventh seal is opened and after the “silence in heaven for about half an hour.” This is when the seventh seal’s plagues begin. So all the plagues of all seven trumpets occur within the era of the seventh seal and all will be completed before Jesus returns. Also, Jesus’ return is clearly one of the events within the seventh trumpet’s period of time, and so is the rule of Jesus during the millennium. Thus, the time of the seventh trumpet, which occurs within the era of the seventh seal, will last more than a thousand years. And, since the earth ends at an undetermined time after the millennium, the period of the seventh trumpet will last until the end of earthly time, until the end of the entire material universe.

Before the seven trumpets begin to sound, a storm and an earthquake occur. This seems to be a sign intended only for the awake and observant elect, to tell them that Jesus will begin to destroy Satan’s kingdom of the world order. If it is a sign meant only for His elect, it will not likely be a world-wide quake. Rather, this storm and earthquake will likely occur somewhere that these elect would focus upon, so they could recognize it as a sign from God. So this might occur in Israel, or in some other place that all the elect are looking towards at the time, with intense interest or fear. After this storm and earthquake, the seven angels will blow their trumpets, one at a time. Each trumpet blast initiates a period of time in which a certain specific judgment of God will strike against one certain kind of sin in the world, and against all the nations of Satan’s world order. So plagues of the seven trumpets will be world-wide events, or will at least be felt by the whole world. These plagues of the seven trumpets will not strike only the seven nations belonging to the beast, as some say, since the beast is the seventh trumpet’s plague upon the whole world, and the beast’s demise occurs when God’s wrath against the world ends. Also notice how most plagues come from the sky, symbolically from God in heaven. These plagues are God’s wrath coming from heaven, His war against the sins of the world.

 

7.1. The First Trumpet

Revelation 8:7 (ESV): “The first angel blew his trumpet, and there followed hail and fire,

mixed with blood, and these were thrown upon the earth. And a third of the earth was

burned up , and a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up .”

The great plague of the first trumpet is “hail and fire, mixed with blood,” which burns a third of the earth. Some might say this could be a sudden and severe climactic change occurring in the world, one that causes much hail in many places and extreme drought, with fires, in other places. However, I doubt it, especially since this “hail and fire” will be “mixed with blood.” In the phenomenological language of a first-century prophet, this “hail and fire” seems to be a meteor shower. Some meteors consist of ice, chunks of iron and iron dust. And precipitation forms around particles of dust (or single-celled organisms) before it rains on the earth, as thawed or frozen water droplets. If the water

 

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droplets freeze to form hail stones around oxidized iron dust from meteors, it would melt into water once it hits the warmer lower atmosphere and the earth, turning as red as blood. The ice in the meteors would fragment, melt, vaporize, gather around the iron dust, then freeze into hail while in the cold cold upper atmosphere, before it becomes so heavy that is falls to the earth. Meanwhile, some of the larger meteor fragments of iron would fall all the way to the earth, heating up through the friction of passing through the atmosphere. So some of these burning meteors might cause some of the fires. However, massive lightning storms would likely occur as well, due to rapid temperature changes in the atmosphere during the meteor shower. And it would likely be the lightning from these storms that would cause most of the fires John saw here. For the electricity generated by the moving clouds and falling meteors would draw a huge charge from the earth, as lightning, in all these storms.

Also, it makes sense that the events of the first four trumpets, and some of the later bowls of wrath, would involve meteor showers, as signs of God’s wrath coming from the “heavens” where the people perceive His dwelling place to be. So the sixth seal’s world-wide earthquake and falling meteors would most likely be caused by an asteroid passing too close to the earth, and the same asteroid may revolve around the sun, alter its orbit and pass close to the earth again and again, dragging a massive trail of space debris (rocks made of iron and ice) behind it. Thus, during the first trumpet event, that same asteroid may not come as close as it did the first time, yet close enough to cause another earthquake with more meteors striking the earth, as the earth passes through its trail of debris, causing massive meteor showers and fires on earth. And, the earth would experience this asteroid and its debris as events precisely timed by God at creation and, thus, as predestined events.

Of course, God may choose to make this a purely supernatural event, by creating fire and hail to fall on the earth. But that is not God’s usual modus operandi. For God predestines everything. And God, at the beginning of creation, created all that would cause all the necessary events in all history. It says He rested from creating all things for Himself on the seventh day, presumably forever. After the six days of creating things for Himself, the only works He did after that day were done to maintain all He initially created. So all forces and laws of nature in the universe, all that makes life possible in a perfectly balanced solar system, which allows the genetic materials in all living entities to build up all the ecosystems in all the regions on earth, were created by God at once in the beginning. Then, at the very moment He created the earth, He likely also placed certain asteroids strategically in space, timing their trajectories and orbits around the sun perfectly, so they would eventually cause all these events at the precise times He chose to cause them. God seems to use His natural creation in this way to ensure that the non-elect will not acknowledge that all these things come from Him, and not think they come according to His will. This will prevent them from repenting to Him through the fears of their flesh. For God desires all repentance to come from the minds of spirits through a love for Him.

God gives the non-elect a chance to invent ways of convincing themselves that it is not really Him who is rebuking their evil ways when disasters strike the earth. They can tell themselves that every disaster has “natural” causes, although they never seem to realize that every single “natural” event logically must be fully planned and caused by the omniscient and omnipotent Creator. Thus, aside from a few miracles, most events that God causes have a natural explanation. I don't know exactly how this event of the first trumpet will be caused. But one thing is certain: About a third of the earth shall burn, since the words about its burning clearly were not meant to be figurative or metaphorical.

Now John knew God's Law well. It was the very shape of the shadow of Christ to him, all that Jesus taught John’s spirit to do through love. So, to John, this plague of blood-like hail and fire which burns a third of the the trees and grass on earth would be symbolic. By God’s Word, John knew God sent hail to show the power of His wrath against arrogant ones, against those who slander His name

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and disregard His words (e.g., Ex. 9:16-20). Then God often used fire to symbolically cleanse what was tainted by evil. The worst idolaters—those who burned infants alive on alters dedicated to demon gods as they held group orgies, even with children and animals—had their cities burned to ashes around their corpses and defiled animal carcasses. And, if metal objects were “mined” from those cursed places, Israel first had to cleanse them in fire, before God’s people could use them (e.g., Num. 31:23). Also, trees often represented the lords who raised themselves above other men, like the leaders of Shechem (Judges 9:6-20). So the third of the trees that will burn may be literal trees, but might also represent the prominent lords of the affected lands, and those lords themselves might burn to death. Then the “green grass” and other vegetation would represent the common people who condoned the wickedness of their lords. So both the physical plants and the people they figuratively represent might be burned by these cleansing fires of God during the time of this first trumpet, to purify the world from idolatry. Yet this will be only the beginning. For only a third of the earth will be hit by this first plague, and not all the people in those lands will die. God will cause the world begin to feel His deadly wrath during this time. There will be many more deadly plagues to come.

Right now, all people on earth are destroying themselves and the world they live in, willingly, to gain a few more days of status quo for themselves. Most even admire and serve the criminals who rule over them. Of course, their criminal law-makers and wealthy overlords exploit their worshipers and steal from them, taking a grossly excessive share of goods and services from the people for their own self-indulgent desires in carnal pride. Yet the people continue to worship their exploiters. They all bow before thieving pastors, politicians, judges, lawyers, business men, and many other lying crooks who pretend to serve them. And those thieves are enabled through the oppressive power of money, although they all know money is not real. They all know that money is merely digits they create out of thin air. Yet they find new ways to steal more of digits for themselves each day, no matter how much their greed harms those they are supposed to serve for their good. Then they use those digits to build an separate economy which excludes their own siblings, which shrinks the public ‘s economy and makes ever fewer goods and services available to all the rest of the people. The private economy of the elite contains nothing but useless mansions and other luxuries created for themselves by the labor and resources belonging to all, yet is never circulated or accessible to their deprived people.

It is time to acknowledge that the earth and all that is upon it belongs to God alone. And God uses it all to serve the life He created on the earth. Then God commands human beings to govern their own lives in just, equitable ways for the good of all, while they tend the gardens of the earth and take full responsibility for the animals. Thus, God grants the elders of national families, the governing bodies of those families, stewardship over all the people and lands that they must serve for the purposes of their loving, serving God. Lastly, God grants stewardship to each extended and nuclear family too, but only under the stewardship of national elders who must acknowledge the purposes of God. Thus, if all this is done, there is absolutely nothing is left over to allow a self-proclaimed psychopathic elite to form artificial hierarchies that exploit their siblings whom their evil father deems to be “inferior.”

In the nations who live according to Satan’s religion of Roman humanism, those who live real and loving lives, and especially those who cause the least harm and strive to do the most genuine good through the love of their spirits, are never granted an appropriate share of goods and services to do their works. For Roman criminals deny them these loving ones those goods and services, by seizing control of all that exists through their the unreal financial digits, by using money to distribute unjust amounts of goods and services to their violent and self-indulgent selves. And those criminal elite, together with the more common criminals, keep stealing more and more critical needs from those who live loving lives in God’s created realities, and even violently persecute those souls who keep

 

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life alive in the world. So the future life of lands all over the world are being exploited to death by the Roman elite while those gangs of criminals prosper more and control more daily, even as the life-givers bow at the feet of their own destroyers. So, after seventh seal’s plagues, all this will all cease.

From the beginning, God’s justice demanded that the blood of those who murdered the innocent or who did great injustice must be shed (e.g., Gen. 9:6), if those sinners did not repent. And, if those who unjustly shed blood were not found and brought to justice, God commanded the blood of a sacrifice to be spilled on the ground, to symbolically cleanse the land of the evil that occurred in it (e.g., Deut. 21:1-9). This was done to remind the people that His justice, equity and love was a very serious matter, and that death was the wage of lies and sins. But they did not listen. So, when the plague of the first trumpet’s fire strikes a third of the earth, perhaps they will begin to acknowledge that the exploitative, lying, thieving ways of Roman humanism are not God’s ways. God will send hail and fire, mingled with blood, upon a third of the earth to denounce their evil. God Himself will spill the “blood” of a sacrifice upon a third of the earth, so we will stop ignoring truth and justice.

And this third of the earth to be burned will be chosen because it thwarted justice in a terrible way, because it became very spiritually unclean by allowing the murdering of the innocent, likely in a way involving idolatry, the worship of human beings and arrogance towards God. It must be a very stubbornly unrepentant third of the earth too, where both its prominent and common people have not allowed Jesus to atone for their sins. Just as God poured hail and fire on idolatrous, unrepentant land of Egypt in Moses’ day, since they enslaved and killed Israel and the Gentiles who joined them (Ex. 9:23), God will do the same to a third of the earth. Then let us realize that this first plague is only the beginning. It may not necessarily require any more plagues to fall on that third, but worse plagues will hit the rest of the earth. Although this third must consist of sinners, the other two thirds of the earth are sinners too, and God will send greater plagues, especially the plague of the beast, for them.

So this symbolic plague of fire begs us to ask which third of the earth will be burned. This massive, painful destruction cannot fall upon the Middle East, northern or eastern Africa, most of Europe or powerful nations east and north of Rome. For all those places will later play important roles in events involving the other plagues. So, if those lands were heavily devastated by hail and fire from the first plague, it would take more than a couple of decades for them to recover the power of their evil governments before they could be involved in the latter plagues. The latter plagues involving the European beast and other evil nations who become his allies in the end, as well as Israel and the Middle East whom the beast attacks, must remain relatively intact for all the latter plagues to occur.

For instance, look at the sixth trumpet’s plague. How could a land east of the Euphrates raise an army of 200 million if it was previously devastated by hail and fire about a decade before this? So the first trumpet’s plague might not burn a contiguous third of the earth’s land, and it will not occur in the lands destined for the latter plagues, like the plagues of the sixth and seventh trumpets. But does this not mean that the most likely lands which shall be burned in the first trumpet’s plague would be North and South America, or vast parts of the entire southern hemisphere? The prophecies do not reveal where this plague will strike, but it does indicate the lands which are likely excluded.

 

7.2. The Second Trumpet

Revelation 8:8-9 (ESV): “The second angel blew his trumpet, and something like a great

mountain, burning with fire, was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood .

A third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.”

 

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In a first-century phenomenological language, John tells us that a “great mountain” shall be thrown into the sea and turn its waters into “blood” as the plague of the second trumpet. And this seems to happen very soon after the plague of the first trumpet. There are speculations about this “mountain” being different things. But John says it is “something like” or “like” (ὡς) a “mountain of fire.” So it is not a literal mountain. Yet it comes from the sky. Thus, John seems to have seen yet another large meteor falling from the sky, with trailing and burning fragments looking like the top of a mountain.

The glowing meteor fragments behind a large meteor would form a peak behind the meteor and rise to a substantial distance above it, forming a cone-like shape. So, to John, it would look “something like a great mountain” falling in the sky. In his phenomenological language, this is how he would describe such a meteor. As for the sea water turning to “blood,” this could be caused by “burning” or oxidizing iron dust and fragments. They would produce an extremely high iron oxide content in the water, turning it blood red. Now, since these acts of God's wrath against the entire earth are being represented by these seven trumpets, they are all world-wide events. So this “mountain” falling into “the sea” would occur in a world-wide sea, in the Atlantic or Pacific oceans, or adjoining seas, not just those in the Mediterranean Sea. So it would involve the pollution of a third of the entire world's oceans, turning their waters into “blood.” And this pollution would cause a third of the creatures in all of the world's oceans to die. Also, a third of the entire world's ships would be destroyed, likely by a resulting tsunami, especially if this “mountain” struck a place on the oceans where a busy shipping route existed, and if more about a third of the world’s ships were near where the meteor actually hit.

In the Bible (and in the Revelation in particular, see Rev. 17:15), the sea represented the people as a whole, the common people blindly moved en masse by the currents and winds of times and false teachings. So, when God strikes the world's oceans, it symbolizes God's wrath against all the people of the world, likely for their thoughtless, foolish, destructive ways that have caused the deaths of so many innocent lives over the centuries. For they blindly allowed themselves to be swayed by the evil doctrines and philosophies of men. Whether they did evil directly, or by merely remaining silent when those wicked words and deeds were released upon the world, they all participated in the unjust, wicked and often murderous practices of the world against their brothers and sisters upon the earth. And they all did this through their loveless, unbridled greed, with an unholy lust for personal glory. Therefore, when God strikes a third of the world’s seas, God is condemning the manipulated, blind, common people of the world for their sins. But the first plague, which struck the land, was against the stronger souls who are the manipulators, the ones who like to think they rule their own destinies.

 

7.3. The Third Trumpet

Revelation 8:10-11 (ESV): “The third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from

heaven, blazing like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water.

The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many

people died from the water, because it had been made bitter.”

This third brief plague follows immediately after the plagues of the first and second trumpets. And it is likely yet another meteor shower striking a third of the land on earth, a fractured falling “star” called Wormwood. So this suggests that the orbit of the great meteor which caused the world-wide earthquakes and sent a number of meteors down to strike the earth during the sixth seal, about 20 years earlier, had left some significant asteroids caught in the orbit of the sun. Then a group of these asteroids would eventually strike the earth in rapid succession as the plagues of these first three trumpets, and likely as the plague of the fourth trumpet too, creating a very darkened atmosphere.

 

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Now the real wormwood is a herb with an extremely bitter taste and it may have been used as an antiseptic by the people in John's day. So this meteor called Wormwood, would be a homogeneous mixture of ice and toxic metal particles, which breaks apart as it hits the atmosphere. Then, if it strikes the earth at a very acute angle, perhaps at about ten or twenty degrees, and its trajectory is altered so it curves around the circumference of the earth, the particles it drops could theoretically spread over a very wide area. One meteor like this could pollute a third of the earth’s land for months and symbolically “disinfect” a third of the earth from the wicked who use that water to sustain life.

Here God seems to be saying that these people took God's gift of life and used it for evil. So now God shall make His gift of life-giving water into a bitter antiseptic they cannot drink, into a deadly drink. God temporarily removes His gift of life due to their sins. The meteor and its debris seem to contain substances which make the water far too bitter and toxic to drink, in a way where most water purification systems cannot filter out those toxins. As the meteor breaks apart and disintegrates, it’s dust pollutes a third of the potable water on a third of the whole earth, thus causing many deaths.

 

7.4. The Fourth Trumpet

This period of time experiences a considerable dimming of the sky over the entire earth, a physical darkness that symbolizes the hearts of the lawless. Since the earth chose to walk in darkness, and loved it, God gives it physical darkness. For why should the people enjoy His physical light while they reject His more critical spiritual light at the same time? They lived for pleasures of their flesh alone, although they were never inwardly fulfilled by any of them. So now they will face a likeness of the utter darkness which exists in their own hearts. The darkness will be both inside and outside.

Revelation 8:12 (ESV): “The fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun was

struck, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of their light might

be darkened , and a third of the day might be kept from shining, and likewise a third of the

night.”

This seems to occur immediately after the plague of the third trumpet. And this darkening of the earth likely will be caused by atmospheric dust which is caused by falling meteors very soon after the Wormwood meteor strikes. So this plague seems to relate directly to the plagues of the first three trumpets. For all these plagues come from the sky in seemingly rapid succession, and all represent God’s wrath from heaven. In His war against the world’s sins, God will not relent nor hesitate after the sixth seal revival separates the elect from the non-elect, but will rapidly deliver all of these swift, devastating blows against the world’s wickedness, one plague immediately following after another.

All these first four short-term plagues seem to be caused by meteors. And it seems likely that some of the debris trailing the largest meteor which caused the earthquakes to initiate the plague of the sixth seals era would be light enough break off of that larger meteor when it passed by the sun. So those smaller asteroids would then orbit around the sun, until their orbits eventually intersected with the earth’s orbit. God would predestine all this until He completed the plagues of the sixth seal and the first four trumpets, as well as some of the plagues upon the beast’s kingdom through His seven bowls of wrath at the very end. And John saw a vision of how God would cause these plagues to occur in symbolic ways against sin, at precisely timed intervals “from heaven,” at the times He appointed and planned from the beginning, when He set asteroids in motion at the creation of time.

When John says a third of the sun, moon and stars are “struck,” he defines this striking as that which does not destroy a third of the sun, moon and stars, but simply in a way where “a third of their light

 

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might be darkened .” Then he implies that a third of the light in the day and a third of light in the night will be prevented from shining. And many people on earth have experienced something like this phenomenon, when even a relatively thin cloud of smoke or dust blots out a percentage of the sun’s light and shorten the hours of daylight, then blots out much of the moon’s light and makes many stars impossible to see. But this dimming of light will temporarily cover the whole earth.

During this plague of the fourth trumpet, so much meteoric dust will dim the light of the sun that relative darkness will be maintained for about two hours after sunrise and about two hours before sunset, when the sun is lowest in the sky—enough to shorten daylight by about a third (about four hours out of the normal twelve hours of daylight). This, and dimming of the sun’s brightness, seems to be what John meant when he said “a third of the sun” will be “struck.” Also, even at noon, the sun will be dimmed significantly and look reddish (meaning the violet side of the light spectrum, with shorter wave lengths, will be deflected away by atmospheric dust). The same phenomenon would occur with the moon. Also, only the brightest stars would be seen at night—so about a third would be too dim to be seen, even from the higher places on earth. Since the whole earth would experience this dull, dreary, depressing, dim light and much longer nights during this time, not to mention a much cooler climate that would devastate crops, all their thoughts would be darkened by fear and anxiety. This may seem like a mild plague, compared to the others. But it may be worse, both in terms of physically starving all life on earth and in terms of its psychological effects. A world-wide cloud that could block out so much light like this would require an intense, world-wide shower of many small meteors burning into dust, a shower lasting for days. And its pollution will be severe.

Now, since the beast will rise up in parts of Europe, in less than a decade after these first four plagues strike the earth, these first four plagues probably will not strike certain parts of the earth as severely as other parts. Most of Europe, the eastern lands which raise up an army of 200 million (China?), the lands to the north of the beast’s kingdom that attack the beast with enough power to think they can conquer him (Russia?), the Middle East and parts of northern Africa which the beast sees as so powerful that he will need massive armies to overcome them, are all lands that must be remain relatively intact if the plagues of the sixth and seventh trumpets are to occur. But none of these lands could possibly recover in time if the plagues of the first four trumpets severely crushed them for several years, less than a decade earlier. Also, the devastation of the lands which are hit by the plagues of the first four trumpets will benefit in another way. That is, the beast and the other evil powers of the north and east will focus all their attention on lands that are not devastated by the first four plagues. The violent world powers will not bother to attack lands weakened by the first plagues.

Now the sixth trumpet’s plague will see an army of 200 million from the east coming to conquer all the lands up to the Euphrates river. But they could not possibly assemble an army of this size, to kill a third of the earth population, if they had been weakened by the first four plagues. Likewise, Satan’s beast in Europe could not become the dominant world power, and successfully war against another northern world power, then attempts to conquer the Middle East and north-east Africa, it it had been devastated by the first four plagues. Remember Daniel said the beast will war against armies from the north (Russia?), south (Israel, Egypt, Sudan, Syria, Jordan and other parts of the Middle East) and the east (China?). So it is unlikely that any of those lands will be struck by the plagues of the first four trumpets, since those lands must remain relatively stable, reserved for the last and worst plagues which God will send to punish the wicked. So the plagues of the first four trumpets will cause great damage to other places on earth, like North and South America or the lands in the southern hemisphere. Yet those first four plagues will draw away attacks from the worst kingdoms.

 

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7.5. The Fifth Trumpet

The seventh seal also involves “a star fallen from heaven to earth.” But this is obviously a spiritual being, not a physical falling star, not a meteor. By this time, whatever caused the world-wide devastation of the sixth seal and the plagues of the first four trumpets have passed. By now, most of the elect will have repented into the truth and their lives will be separated from the lies and delusions of the non-elect. If all the previous events were caused by asteroids and trailing debris coming from outer space, the orbits of those asteroids would have greatly diminished by this time, to the extent where they would cause lesser threats to the earth. From this point on, the plagues God will send involve the kind of punishments that God gives to the worst of sinners, involving delusions of their spirits’ minds, where God hands sinners over to the lies which will destroy them. Here God begins this more inward kind of punishment with a plague that crushes any sense of rational order or justice.

Revelation 9:1-12 (ESV): “And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fallen from

heaven to earth, and he [i.e, a sentient being who fell from heaven at an unspecified time, almost definitely

referring to the fallen angel called Satan] was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit. He

[Satan] opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke

of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft. Then

from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given power like the power of

scorpions of the earth. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or

any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.

“They were allowed to torment them for five months, but not to kill them, and their torment

was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone. And in those days people will

seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them. In

appearance the locusts were like horses prepared for battle: on their heads were what looked

like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces, their hair like women's hair, and their

teeth like lions' teeth; they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the noise of their

wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle. They have tails and

stings like scorpions, and their power to hurt people for five months is in their tails. They

have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit [i.e., Satan]. His name in Hebrew is

Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon [means 'destroyer']. The first woe has passed;

behold, two woes are still to come.”

In context, this fallen “star” is a sentient being, who must be Satan, because he had “fallen to heaven to earth” at some unspecified time, was “the angel of the bottomless pit” which refers to hell, was called by some of the other names of Satan (Abaddon and Apollyon), and was given the “key” to the pit of hell where these stinging locusts were kept. This “key” represents God's permission for Satan to release these locust-scorpion creatures from hell, to set them free on earth and is not a “key” that will allow Satan to enter and leave hell whenever he chooses. The Greek word translated as “bottomless pit” is ἄβυσσος, which literally means “a depth without a bottom.” This cannot refer to a physical place, since no pit in the material world is bottomless and John was clearly referring to the very common ecclesiastical description of “hell,” indicating the spiritually evil and Satanic origins of these locust-scorpion creatures. So here John is indicating that physical locust-scorpion creatures come from a spiritually demonic source. And these locusts will do two things: (1) they will torment the non-elect to drive them further into hate-filled madness; and (2) they will incentives the elect who have not yet repented and had “the seal of God on their foreheads” to reconsider their beliefs.

 

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Consider how human beings are the only forms of life on earth which God hands over to be entirely controlled by demons. And many human spirits are Satan’s children, the non-elect whose home is hell. Those non-elect human beings, who not sealed by God during the era of the sixth seal, and never will be sealed by God, will all be victims bitten by the locust-scorpion creatures from hell. But the fact that they come from hell also might imply that the non-elect offspring of Satan, whose homes are hell, were the ones who will create those physical locust-scorpion creatures, such as through genetic engineering. According to John, there definitely will be supernatural or spiritual powers at work here, powers of hell. For the non-elect are always coming up with insane theories such as, if they utterly destroy their own societies, then they can rise up to restructure them so that everyone in those societies will become their submissive slaves. And perhaps they will think that, if they cause these scorpion creatures to plague the earth, they can then eliminate them or let them dies off after five months, then look like the heroes of the world, convincing everyone to worship them.

At any rate, all these stinging locust creatures will be commanded and ruled by Satan. Yet these locust-scorpions are obviously real, physical creatures who cause physical pain. So we have physical creatures coming from a spiritual source and controlled by a spirit who is Satan. Thus, the creatures might be created by demonically manipulated, deluded, non-elect human scientists.. This prophecy may simply indicate that the spirit of Satan enables his children to create these creatures, by making them believe lies which provide them with the motive, incentive and inspiration to create them. And we cannot entirely dismiss the possibility that John is figuratively referring to a real, physical place on earth, such as an evil scientific facility which may be likened to the dark bottomless pit of hell.

Perhaps there is a real place where genetically modified embryos will be placed in locust or scorpion eggs at some future time. Or such creatures lie frozen and dormant from prehistoric times and will be thawed and hatched through global warming, although that seems extremely unlikely. John’s words here are far too figurative and spiritual to determine exactly how these physical locust scorpions will be formed and dispersed throughout the earth, even though it is clear that he is describing physical creatures. So I would tend to speculate that John is talking about demonic non-elect scientist creating these locust-scorpion creatures for some deluded nefarious purpose that will backfire, and actually work God’s purposes, to cause more of His elect to repent while making the non-elect more wicked.

Since hell is a spiritual place, strictly a part of the spiritual space-time continuum, the “smoke” rising from the “shaft” of hell might figuratively represent a kind of dark fear, great anxiety, depression and severe disillusionment among the people who were not sealed by God, who will be dwelling all over the world. For it says “the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft.” And Satan is the “prince of the air.” Also, depression makes even sunlight seem dim. So this does not seem to indicate that the physical light of the sun, moon and stars will be dimmer, like the previous plague did. This “smoke” is far more likely a dark mental and spiritual cloud of despair and depression, which then causes the non-elect to create these locust-scorpion creatures through their anxious and darkened delusions. For John said these locust creatures came from this “smoke.” Those creatures rose from the figurative “pit” of hell, from the spiritual darkness in which it seems that Satan’s servants will make and distribute these torturing creatures throughout the world, all designed to sting the fearing faithless, but somehow repelled by the hope of the elect who have been sealed by God.

Now, because God forbids these locust-scorpions to harm physical things like plants or trees, these must be physical creatures who have been designed to sting the flesh of those who emit the scent of fear and anxiety, or similar pheromones secreted by the body. For these creatures only harm “those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads,” while they leaved the revived elect alone. From this we must conclude two things: (1) Satan or his human servants were incapable of

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making a spiritual judgment regarding those whose spirits are truly awakened by God with hope and joy in their hearts, and somehow think they are the same as them; and (2) this fifth plague of the locust-scorpion creatures occurs while many or most of the elect who experienced God’s sealing during the era of the sixth seal must still be alive. This event must occur within about a decade after the sixth seal, while God’s true and visible church still exists on earth, while true Christians dwell all over the earth. And the “seal of God” is not merely a physical mark “on their foreheads” of those elect, since that would mean nothing to the locust-scorpion creatures. God’s sealing must be an inner alteration of the spirit of life in His elect, where their spirits affect every aspect of their physical lives too. And we can be certain of this. In all the Scriptures, God inwardly seals His elect to indicate that they are His children, like God did when He sealed the apostles and their churches, with a seal that changed the thoughts of their minds behind their foreheads. For God is a Spirit, and these elect have spirits born of His Spirit. So He seals them by granting His Spirit to serve their spirits, to cause the repentance of their spirits into His truth, as He teaches their spirits to love in all His wise, just ways.

Since this sealing by God is inward, of the spirit, we can assume that God does not put a physical mark on the physical foreheads or hands of His elect when He seals them. Rather, God’s seal is that which awakens the spirits of His elect, to be aware of and believe the truths He teaches to their spirits. As His Spirit dwells beside their spirits in their hearts, He trains their spirits to love all that His name represents, all His attributes, and to realize that He forgave all their sins, so He could grant them the atonement of His relationship with them. It is in this way alone that His “name” can be truly written on their “foreheads,” in a way that affects all the thoughts of the minds of their spirits and the minds of their flesh in their souls. God gives His teaching, training, admonishment, counsel, encouragement and all that any other good and loving father would want to give his own children.

So, if these locust-scorpion creatures cannot harm these inwardly and invisibly marked elect scattered throughout the world, do these locust-scorpion creatures have spirits that can see and recognize which human spirits have received God’s Spirit and His works? For John implies that these locust-scorpion creatures obey God’s command to not harm anyone or anything except the human beings whose spirits are not sealed by God. And how could they obey unless they could see human spirits? Of course, it might just be that these creatures were simply designed to attack those secreting fear and anxiety pheromones. Then again, these physical locust-scorpion creature originate from hell, just like physical non-elect humans do. So they have demon-like spirits too, and the eyes of their spirits may be able to detect God’s Spirit dwelling with human spirits. Since these locust-scorpions are controlled by Satan and demonic spirits, they go wherever the demons tell them to go, but those demons fear God and are limited by God in all they do. So those locust-scorpions creatures will sting only those whom demons tell them to sting, but God can forbid those demons to cause those creatures to sting His sealed elect. All demons must obey God when God commands them to limit their actions in any way, because they know God can eliminate their existence as easily as He created them. But whether it is through the wills of demonic spirits or the wills of the spirits of the locust-scorpion creatures or the wills of both, the sealed elect will not be harmed during this time.

The locust-scorpions will sting mostly the non-elect, whose spirits were born of Satan’s spirit, but also some elect who have not yet been sealed by God. Because God’s sealing always causes a spirit’s repentance, the scorpion-locusts will sting all who have refused to repent during the sixth seals’ era or at any time after that, whether those spirits were born of Satan or born of God. And this will be a physical torment caused by these creatures, like the pain of a scorpion sting, but so powerful that those are stung will long to die. Since this must be a physical torment, and these locust-scorpions attack physical bodies, they are physical creatures. This is not speaking figuratively about spiritual

 

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creatures, but about real creatures sent to plague physical bodies on earth. And this is a world-wide event, like the other plagues of the seven trumpets. No boundaries are specified when these locust-scorpions harm the souls not sealed. And the sealed ones which they must not harm, like the plants which these creatures were not to harm, are “of the earth” (τῆς γῆς), not those of a specific local region. Neither their victims nor the sealed elect souls they were forbidden to touch, nor the plants they were forbidden to harm, were limited to any particular region on earth, but exist everywhere.

When this and the other plagues strike the earth, let the elect realize that God has always, and always will, limit the actions of Satan and his minions. For God rules as the sovereign King over Satan and over all of Satan’s subject kingdom of the world order. Yes, God limits Satan less when a people work against Him and oppose His truth and persecute His faithful servants who proclaim those truths. And it is also true that literally all life on earth, including all God's elect, has been predestined to suffer and eventually die in the flesh, very often die by Satan’s hands. God ordained that His elect spirits shall only perceive the corrupted and temporary earth for a very short appointed time, only long enough to receive the teaching and training that He has destined for each of their spirits. And, although some elect are called to partake in Christ's work of undoing Satan's works (I John 3:8), not all will do so, and those who do must not do it according to the will of their own flesh, but in His name, that is, by His commands to their spirits, in a way that does not permit all evil to be undone until its appointed time. So God will not completely undo all Satan’s works, nor cast all the demons permanently into hell, until His appointed times. Nevertheless, God rules over and limits Satan, and our focus is primarily build up God’s kingdom while we live, to the very last moment our flesh dies.

If God does nothing more than prevent His elect from suffering from these locust-scorpion creatures, while allowing some non-elect sons of Satan to persecute and kill some us, we live while we live to advance God’s just, equitable, loving kingdom, through the teaching and training He provides, which includes learning from the stupid actions of the non-elect against God’s immutable truths. For God does not cast His elect human, animal, plant or other creations into hell, only demonic spirits and the human spirits born of them. So the the whole perceived life in flesh on earth, up to our death, is only a short moment within our eternal and far more real life in heaven. The only reason God prevents some of our suffering in the flesh is either because God knows we do not need it for the education of our spirits, or because we are too weak to endure that suffering at that time. But we must endure some suffering of some kinds, because our spirits need to discern between good and evil. We need to suffer in the flesh because the flesh is for the education of our spirits, and God educates His beloved.

But Satan tortures his children to make them more bitter and full of hate, like himself. So Satan also educates his children in a way. The cunning devil uses suffering and death to promote evil desires such as senseless and unjust revenge, which, in turn, promotes more senseless and unjust revenge against the avengers. Or Satan sometimes causes suffering and death for no real purpose at all, for his own twisted entertainment, since abusing and killing others makes him feel like he has the power to act like a god. Likewise, Satan’s children often do the same, since their spirits were made in their father’s image. However , God often prevents the senseless evil of the non-elect from harming His elect, by preventing His elect from associating with the non-elect. So the non-elect mostly harm one another. Gangs mostly kill gangs. Dictators are mostly killed by other wanna-be dictators. Only if it will cause a much greater spiritual good for His elect in the very end, will God allow the non-elect to harm His elect. Then some non-elect are afraid to harm those who appear to be God’s elect, because they know that will inevitably backfire against them in the end, and God has put this fear in them.

Now notice how this period of the fifth trumpet, and its plague of stinging locust-scorpion creatures, lasts for only five months (9:5). This also suggests that all the plagues of the first four trumpets are

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also occurring during relatively short periods of time, each within a year or two. And the longest plague will be the time of the seventh trumpet, which includes the seven years of the beast’s reign. So Satan’s rule over the actions of these creatures is cut very short, causing them to torture mostly his own unrepentant non-elect children for five months. And that devil does not torture them to cause repentance, since only the elect are ever able to love and repent. Rather, the devil is granted these five months to basically transform his loveless non-elect children into more hardened psychopaths.

This fifth plague is not like the previous four, since it is not a symbolic plague confronting lies and sins. And notice how this prophecy about the plague of locust-scorpions is called the first of three “woes.” After the five months of tormenting stings plague those who are not sealed by God, it says, “The first woe has passed; behold, two woes are still to come” (Rev. 9:12, ESV). In other words, the first four plagues of the first four trumpets belong in one category, while this fifth plague belongs to another category with the last two plagues of the sixth and seventh trumpets. This fifth plague was the first of the plagues of the last three trumpets. And the last three plagues of the last three trumpets are called “woes” against those who have not been sealed by God during the era of the sixth seal and have not repented since then, during the times of the four trumpets which confronted lies and sins.

So the plagues of these last three trumpets will serve a different purpose. They do not confront lies and sins to cause repentance, but will primarily bring disasters and “woes” upon the unrepentant. The eras of the first four seals revealed God’s wrath against the whole earth for a purpose, to cause the hearts of the elect to question their false beliefs and sinful behaviors, to seek God and His truths, to awaken their spirits so they might be joined to those sealed during the era of the sixth seal. But these last three plagues expose and destroy the foundation of Satan’s world order, and blow away the last vapors of trust that the elect ever had in the non-elect and their hierarchical systems. For now Satan will have made his non-elect children into purer psychopaths, with no more pretenses of love.

After this fifth trumpet’s plague, there will be very few elect who have not repented. And it seems that the only unrepentant elect left on the earth will enter the false church of the Roman Great Prostitute, but will be called out of her just before the beast burns her to death. And this suggests that, by that time in history, all the Great Prostitute’s daughter false churches will have joined her and enter her, to form one large false humanistic church existing in the entire world. It suggests that all humanistic mainline and evangelical Protestant churches will join the Roman Catholic church.

The last three “woes” against the unrepentant, who are mostly the non-elect, will more directly prepare the elect for Christ’s rule upon the whole earth, since God’s attacks against them will expose the blind and irrational psychopathy which governs the spirits and hearts of all who love Satan’s world order. Seeing how the non-elect become more ruthless and drop all pretense of justice, equity, compassion and tolerance, will cause the elect to further purge themselves of all their Satanic ways and philosophies, especially those of Roman humanism. And this fifth plague will also prepares the non-elect to more faithfully worship the beast, through greater esteem and service, without any doubt about the murdering of the innocent souls that beast will command them to commit. And this will allow Jesus to justly destroy all those distinctly revealed non-elect sinners in the end, without a single tear shed for any of them by His elect. At this point in time, after this plague of the fifth trumpet has hardened the non-elect and purged them of all pretenses, the dichotomization between the elect and the non-elect will be almost complete, so Jesus can begin to destroy Satan’s kingdom.

Of course, these woes may also cause some of the stubborn elect, who remain unrepentant, to rethink their stand against God, and repent into the truth. But that is not the main purpose of these last three plagues. The main purpose will be to quicken the unrepentant non-elect, to make their spirits far

 

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more aware of their evil inherent desires to become gods ruling over their own destinies, and to grow an awareness of Satan’s spirit ruling over their thoughts and lives. Then the sixth trumpet’s plague is the second woe, when the selfish ambitions of the non-elect awaken, and they kill a third of the earth’s population. But this will pave the way for the selfishly ambition beast and his worshipers to become the dominant world power, after other world powers expend their armies and resources in the great world war that murders a third of mankind. So the seventh trumpet’s plague, which is the third “woe,” will see the beast (Satan’s messiah) inherit his kingdom for seven years. And, when the beast does this, all the non-elect will be further exposed as Satan’s children, and all their supposedly “wise” doctrines of Roman humanism will also be exposed, as the destructive lies they actually are. Therefore, after these three “woes” expose all this, Jesus will return. This is His purpose, as this prophecy states: “that in the days of the trumpet call to be sounded by the seventh angel, the mystery of God would be fulfilled, just as He announced to His servants the prophets” (Rev. 10:7, ESV).

This fifth plague brings extremely painful stings from locust-scorpion creatures controlled and sent by a “star” who is Satan, also called Apollyon (meaning “Destroyer”). But Satan's creatures harm “only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.” That “seal” is what God puts on the hearts of most elect during the era of the sixth seal, which will also be the same seal put on the elect who repent after that, mostly during the plagues of first four trumpets. During this first woe, during this plague of the fifth trumpet, Satan's stinging locust-scorpion creatures are forbidden to harm God's sealed elect children. But less than half of all human beings will be sealed by the time this plague strikes. For the non-elect will not repent, since most of their spirits are be born of Satan and cannot love or repent, cannot repent into the truth because they all love darkness rather than light. So the vast majority of those Satan will torment at this time will be his own children, those whose spirits are born of his spirit. A few might be God’s elect children who stubbornly remain in rebellion against God. Nevertheless, the vast majority of those whom Satan severely torments, until they long for death, will be his own children. Yet he will torture his children for a specific purpose.

Satan must torture the flesh of his own children to strengthen the resolve of their ruthless hatred against God and against God’s children. In their severe pain, they will grow very jealous of God’s sealed elect who are not being tortured, and hate God even more than they did before, because God protects His children. And that is exactly what Satan desires. Satan will constantly shift the blame of all three woes away from himself and his children who actually cause them, will whisper in the ears of all his irrational children, who love the darkness of lies, that God is unjust to cause them woes, since they are striving to make a utopia where only the strongest and fittest are allowed to live, free from the “burden” of caring for the weak, like those “fools” who worship God always seem to do.

Satan is always slandering God through lies which rely heavily on truncated and false logic. And this fifth woe, which Satan himself will mostly apply against his own children, will provide that devil a perfect opportunity to convince his children to blame the pain he himself causes them upon God. Of course, this plague of extreme physical pain will last for only five months. But that will be enough time to cause Satan’s children to become totally spiteful, vicious, ruthless and loveless. This plague will be severe enough and long enough to cause Satan’s children to become pure psychopaths, so they will eventually worship the loveless, ruthless, God-hating beast more, and submit to him gladly, without question, carrying out his commands with zeal. God will let the devil torture his children in order to harden their hearts against God, God’s elect children, God’s truths about His loving ways, so they will zealously war against God and fully reveal their true inner selves, heaping up their own damnation. And they will thus justify their own destruction on the day that our God Jesus will return.

 

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We must realize that severe, prolonged pain of the flesh affects the hearts of different people in different ways. After suffering in the flesh, the spirits of God's elect often wake up, and are better able to objectively judge their own inner spiritual motives, and see real truths more clearly. Extreme pain can open the minds of their spirits to be taught by God, to become more empathic towards the suffering of others, to love more purely and justly, if they allow their spirits to learn from God during their times of physical suffering. Suffering can make them better able to recognize the spiritual lies they formerly believed, and repent into the truth. Consequently, it is through physical suffering that most elect grow to be more humble, inwardly honest, just, equitable and loving. Of course, minds of flesh in the elect may not always allow their spirits to seek God, and so not all elect handle physical pain very well. But, at the height of suffering, or after a time of considering their past pains, their spirits may wake up, usually with bitter rants and railings against God, but at least with their spirits acknowledging the existence of God. And, after this, their spirits begin to admit real truths about themselves, about those they have failed through lies and sins, and about the holy God they ignored.

The flesh always resists its own pain and death. But, as elect spirits begin to share in the sufferings of Christ and grow in knowledge and discernment between the physical and spiritual, both their spirits and their flesh becomes increasingly aware of every human being’s capacity for evil and destruction, as well as an elect spirit’s wondrous capacity to love as God loves. So both their spirits and their flesh learn to rely on God more, and seek Him more. And this causes their past judgments about what is “good” and what is “bad,” made only through their their minds of flesh, to be shattered and exposed as worthless. As God teaches and trains their spirits to develop their inner consciences, their outer consciences taught by human beings is superseded and almost completely eliminated. The elect begin to see how all flesh, even their own flesh and the flesh of all the so-called “good” people, is never truly and fully “good,” but always capable of ruthless murder, prone to commit every sin under the sun. They no longer trust the flesh, not even their own flesh. They learn to trust God more.

But Satan’s world order functions almost entirely through minds of flesh, and nothing in it is granted to the spirits of men directly from God. So when an elect soul follows the precepts of Satan’s world order, thinking that good can come through it, this kind of thinking is blatantly exposed and crushed by physical suffering. The elect soul begins to change its thinking. At first, an elect one may respond in carnal anger, or might try to hide from the world. The suffering elect might grow bitter or go out into the “wilderness,” apart from all mankind. Yet, if an elect spirit finds the real Holy Spirit of Jesus, and learns to hear Him, that one’s spirit will begin to act according to thoughts from God. And physical pain will also cause the elect heart to empathize more with other sinful, suffering souls. The pain of the flesh humbles one’s flesh, allowing for an awakening of the spirit, turning the spirit’s focus to one’s Father. After the elect recover from pain, they are able to walk more according to the inner consciences of their spirits, according to all God’s Spirit is teaching the minds of their spirits.

But prolonged, severe suffering will normally cause Satan's children to become even more hateful and evil, because pain will also awaken their spirits. Those with spirits born of Satan can only do “good” according to their outer consciences, by that which was formed in their minds of flesh by their families and by society. So, when pain shatters the restraints of this shallow and fragile outer conscience, formed in their brains of flesh, all the “good” they learned is cast aside. Yet the non-elect have absolutely no inner conscience formed in their spirits by God. So there is no real good nor love to take the place of the fleshy “good” learned by their minds of flesh. And, because spirits born of Satan always strive to be their own gods—with a strong desire to control all things for their own benefit and pleasure—prolonged pain of the flesh simply strengthens their resolve to gratify their Satanic desire to be their own gods, to get more of whatever their flesh might want for itself. After

 

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facing their own mortality, and after seeing that all flesh is capable of every kind of evil, their spirits no longer allow anyone or anything to stand in their way, whenever they pursue their selfish and evil desires. Their broken outer conscience, in their minds of flesh, can no longer inhibit them, cannot stop them from pursuing what their flesh desires, even if their desires inflict harm or death on others.

After the non-elect lose their outer conscience, which is the only kind of conscience they can ever possess, they also walk according to their spirits, but their spirits are manipulated and commanded by Satan and his demons. Since Satan's children can never have an inner conscience of their spirits through God’s teaching and training of their spirits, those non-elect have no conscience at all after a severe prolonged pain destroys their outer consciences. Nothing holds them back from evil. They become what we call psychopaths, with actual physical changes occurring in the physical brains of flesh. The bravest among those psychopaths, and those smart enough to avoid physical consequences of their actions, will then kill or destroy their own siblings in humankind, even for the slightest personal gain or for pleasure, whenever they can get away with it. Since they never empathize with anyone’s pain or loss, and never truly love anyone, they can kill or harm others for almost any reason at all. Yet this is the very kind of person Satan cherishes most. Thus, Satan orchestrates this plague of locust-scorpion creatures to torture his own children, so he can turn them into true psychopaths. For Satan will want his people to be ruthless psychopaths during his last great battle against Jesus Christ.

But, when Satan’s children become psychopaths, the nature of their inner beings is clearly revealed for all to see. So Satan’s act of torturing his own children will produce a clearer dichotomy between the elect and the non-elect. After this, God's elect will not be the only ones sealed by the Father of their spirits. The spirits of Satan's children will be sealed by their father too, and soon take a physical mark of the beast upon their hands or foreheads. Satan will mark the flesh of his children because he can only offer his children things of the flesh, no spiritual benefits. And their marked flesh will keep them focused on things of the flesh. Since the beast is the devil's “messiah,” Satan will turn their focus to him. When the seventh trumpet sounds, Satan will give his power to the beast who will then dominate the world order. Only one obstacle still stands in the way of the beast. Before Satan can cause his beast to rule over the whole of the world order, everywhere on earth, the power of all other world leaders must be weakened or eliminated. So the “woe” of the sixth trumpet accomplishes this.

 

7.6. The Sixth Trumpet

An army of 200 million soldiers kills a third of the earth’s population during the plague of the sixth seal. And this means that everyone in that army must willingly commit this unthinkable atrocities, as one body with one mind. For, if anyone in that army has any kind of inner conscience, they would refuse to indiscriminately slaughter relatively harmless civilian infants, children, women and men. Those with any kind of inner conscience would defect or rebel against such an army. Therefore, we can assume that almost every soldier in this army will be a non-elect soul who has become a true psychopath. And, in order to turn this many soldiers into psychopaths, the plague of the fifth trumpet had to occur before this plague of the sixth trumpet occurred. Then this sixth trumpet’s plague will prepares the world for the beast, since this war will weaken all the world powers opposing the beast.

Revelation 9:13-21 (ESV): “Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice from

the four horns of the golden altar before God, [i.e., a ‘horn’ is a ruler, so these are four rulers of the

alter standing before God, all speaking simultaneously] saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet,

‘Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.’ So the four angels, who

had been prepared for the hour, the day, the month, and the year, were released to kill a third

 

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of mankind. The number of mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand [i.e., it

is an army of 200 million]; I heard their number.

“And this is how I saw the horses in my vision and those who rode them [The expression, οὕτως

εἶδον, literally means, ‘in this manner I saw,’ ‘in this way I saw,’ or 'this is how I saw.' In context, it indicated

that John was about to provide a phenomenological description of these horses, riders and events. It suggests

that John did not actually recognize what he saw, so he simply described those things in the familiar terms he

knew in his day. So we must keep this in mind as we interpret his vision of the horses and riders.] : they wore

breastplates the color of fire [transparent red or orange] and of sapphire [transparent blue] and of

sulfur [bright yellow], and the heads of the horses were like lions' heads, and fire and smoke

and sulfur came out of their mouths. By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed, by

the fire and smoke and sulfur coming out of their mouths. For the power of the horses is in

their mouths and in their tails, for their tails are like serpents with heads, and by means of

them they wound.

“The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of

their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone

and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk, nor did they repent of their murders or their

sorceries [i.e., magic rituals, often religious ones] or their sexual immorality or their thefts.”

Clearly, the “four horns” (mentioned in 9:13) are four creatures who faithfully serve God and bear some authority from God, since they command the sixth trumpet’s angel to release the four angels bound at the Euphrates river. And the Euphrates is border of the land which God eternally gave for Abraham’s descendants of the covenant to hold in stewardship (Gen. 15:18). So this army of 200 million will be stopped at the border of God’s promised land. Now, if the four angels at the Euphrates are “bound” there (9:14), this implies that they are likely fallen angels, demons. Because there are four of these demons, one for each corner of the earth, it implies a world-wide involvement in this massive war. It will be a world war. Furthermore, the binding of these four demons at the Euphrates river would clearly indicate the western boundary that an eastern army of 200 million will reach before they are stopped. And this is an eastern army which kills a third of mankind does come from the east of the Euphrates, since they do not kill the majority of people who serve the beast in Europe, nor do they kill most of the people living in the nations which the beast will subsequently conquer in the Middle East or northern Africa is the first half of his seven-year reign over the world.

For Daniels says this about “the time of the end” (Dan. 11:40, WEB), and about the first half of the beast’s seven-year reign, after the lands of the south oppose him: “He will enter also into the glorious land [Israel], and many countries will be overthrown; but these will be delivered out of his hand: Edom, Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. He will also stretch out his hand on the countries. The land of Egypt won’t escape. But he will have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt. The Libyans and the Ethiopians will follow his steps” (Dan. 11:41-43, WEB). Then, just after this, Daniel prophesies: “But news out of the east and out of the north will trouble him; and he will go out with great fury to destroy and utterly to sweep away many” (Dan. 11:44, WEB). This will be the world war, principally fought by three nations, by the beast’s Roman kingdom, by the army of 200 million from the east of the beast’s kingdom, and by a kingdom to the north of the beast’s kingdom. And through this world war, the beast’s kingdom will emerge as the dominant world power, likely by allowing the northern kingdom to engage in most of the warfare with the eastern kingdom, until the beast finally steps in to overcome both those nations.

This world war will not last too long, only a few years, from about the middle of the beast’s seven-year reign until a few months before the end of his reign. But the beast’s preoccupation with this

 

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world war will provide a reprieve for Israel, the Middle East and northern Africa. During that time, those nations will be able to recover some strength and build up a strong rebel force which will cause the beast to gather a massive international army against them. And this will occur near the end of his seven-year reign, at Armageddon. The beast “will plant the tents of his palace between the sea and the glorious holy mountain; yet he will come to his end, and no one will help him” (Dan. 11:45, WEB). For Jesus will return to utterly destroy the beast and his international alliance of non-elect soldiers, casting the demon-possessed beast and Satan and all demons into hell. This will destroy the fragile unity of those armies and they will kill one another. Then Jesus will remove the non-elect spirits of life from the earth, causing their bodies of flesh to die, all before He lands upon the earth.

By the way, there can be no other reason for binding these demons at this particular location except to indicate a boundary. The binding of the four angels at the Euphrates River must mean that most of the fighting and deaths caused by this war will occur east of the Euphrates River. Logically, we must conclude that this army of 200 million will not devastate Israel, most of the Middle East, northern Africa or the beast’s European lands, since all those places must remain relatively intact, so they will be able to perform their roles during the days of the next seventh trumpet’s time period, immediately after this world war. If the army of 200 million devastated those lands, the events of the seventh trumpet would not be possible. But look at the prophesied results this great war of the sixth trumpet.

An eastern world power, with an army of 200 million, kills a third of the earth’s population, which would include most of the people east of the Euphrates. And it does so ultimately by the command of God, because God who causes the release of the four demons who will manipulate this eastern world power to start this war at this appointed time. For God Himself granted His elect angels the authority and power to bind those four demons, and then to loose their bonds at this particular time, so those four demons would start this world war. So God who decreed the slaughter of this third of mankind, presumably because of their refusal to give up their idols and repent into the truth. And it was clearly God who created these four demons in the first place, since all is created by Him. So it was God who prepared them for this very hour, day, month and year. Now, since God created these four demons to think and act in this way, and these four demons will easily manipulate 200 million soldiers and their rulers, then we must conclude that God Himself can directly manipulate the thoughts and actions of all demons and all men on earth. This is why we place our faith in God, not in manipulated humans.

God has a revealed will, indicating His heart’s desires through the precepts evidenced in His natural and spiritual creations, as well as in His written words through His prophets and apostles. But God also has a what is sometimes called His “secret will,” His will to accomplish certain tasks that are far beyond the understanding of our minds of flesh. Only our spirits can comprehend why God does some things, and only a few elect spirits are granted an understanding of why He does them, although all elect spirits will fully see and realize all His reasons for all His actions after all are perfected and completed on the judgment day. As Paul once said, “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, even as I was also fully known” (I Cor. 13:12, WEB). All we can now know is that God is infinitely more powerful than all the angels and all the demons put together. It is indeed God who allows and, thus, indirectly causes all evil and calamities on earth (Is. 45:7). Thus, we need to focus on our God Jesus above all else.

God, the Creator of all angels, demons and men, can also eliminate all whom He created, which makes even Satan and his demons fear and obey God. And this fear allows God to limit and even directly manipulate all demons. Then God can easily manipulate infantile human spirits, either directly through His power or through His appointed agents, which includes commanded demons or other human beings. Thus, God will manipulate this eastern army through those four demons as His

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“four horns” do His will through those demons upon the earth. And God’s angel of the sixth trumpet will release those four demons from their bondage at the Euphrates river at the precise appointe time.

Literally all God’s creations—all angels, demons, human beings and animals—are subject to God’s power and will, whether they want to be or not, and whether they think they are or not. Therefore, it is God who ultimately causes this world war, in order to crush the arrogance of willfully lying and sinning souls who reject Him as their Creator and Lord. And God will also use this world-wide horror to establish the circumstances necessary for the beast to become the dominant world power, so His elect will thoroughly separate themselves, once and for all time, from the loveless non-elect.

God will create all the circumstances required to provide all the world’s non-elect with the Satanic leader they deserve, with the demonically controlled beast who will ultimately cause their deaths on earth, then justify their eternal deaths. Humanists think they rule their own destinies. But objective reality proves that life and all inanimate existence has been entirely predestined by an intelligent non-material Designer, who maintains literally all material and spiritual consistency and harmony, and that Spirit who created all did so for one purpose only, so He could serve all through His love, and particularly for the teaching and training of the human elect spirits of His children who were created in His image, so those children could serve His creations in communion with Him, in love.

So a bodily death awaits all life on earth, and the perceptions of material existence will be removed from both elect and the non-elect spirits. But neither elect or non-elect spirits will ever want to cease their own existence altogether. Both will always desire to continue their thoughts and experiences forever, in the spiritual realm after their bodily deaths. So, although the non-elect spirits of demons and humans were simply created as instruments for the teaching and training of God’s elect spirits, to illustrate the effects of straying from the loving, wise ways of God, they will not want to stop existing altogether, to become non-existent after the deaths of their flesh. And God will respect their desire to exist forever, although He will limit and confine them in the inescapable prison of hell, where they will never again be allowed to exploit and harm His good creations. Knowing this, after Satan has awakened their non-elect spirits, those children of Satan will not hold back their evil and will more boldly face the deaths of their flesh, with the hope of becoming gods who can exploit a few more souls on earth during their lifetimes, or else kill a few more to feel like they have a god-like power over other siblings in the family of humankind. Nothing, not even physical death, will deter them from expressing their evil desires and inclinations. Thus, this world war will occur now.

And this particular world war is obviously planned and indirectly caused by God, since He tells us about it in advance. So it will definitely bring Satan's world order a step closer to its end. This world war will weaken opposing world powers and make way for the beast to seize controlling power over the entire world. This will expose the evil of the fourth Roman kingdom especially, and reveal it to be the religious and moral center of all non-elect nations remaining on the earth, since all will soon become allies of the Roman humanist nation of the beast. Thus, the world-wide existence of Roman humanism will be able to destroyed throughout the world. This world war prepares the world for all the seventh trumpet’s events, which primarily expose and eliminate Satan’s religion of humanism.

Now look at the riders of these “horses” in the army of 200 million. These riders are human beings with red body armor which has sapphire blue and sulfur yellow highlights or markings. But their horses obviously are not real horses. Rather, John saw men who looked like they were riding horses, but the “heads” of these “horses” were “like” or “as” the heads of lions, and the Greek word ὡς, often translated as “like” or “as,” is used by John to indicate that he is describing those things phenomenologically. Since the “horses” which the soldiers were riding have large, broad “heads”

 

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with deadly plagues coming out of their mouths, they are not real horses. They must be machines, not animals, but John could not imagine machines which men could ride upon like “horses,” so he said they were “like” horses. Yet John saw these “horses” cause three plagues which no real horse could ever cause: (1) “fire,” (2) “smoke” and (3) “sulfur,” which only modern weapons produce.

John also said that all three of these plagues will kill people. Since John spoke as a first-century man, these three killing plagues, in modern terminology, might be: (1) bullets fired from conventional guns mounted on moving machines, since sulfur is a major ingredient of gun power and causes its characteristic sulfur scent, (2) incendiary missiles and/or (3) possibly missiles of other kinds, such as those delivering poisonous gas. He also said the “power” of these “horses” is “in their mouths and in their tails,” but their “tails” only wound and do not kill like their “heads” do. So this means that the power of the three killing plagues (fire, smoke and sulfur) must come from the “mouths” in the “heads” of those “horses.” And, since they are “horses” with “heads,” not “wagons” or “chariots,” these machines which John phenomenologically described seem to be motorcycles. Thus, gun barrels and small missile or grenade launchers would look like “mouths” in the center of motorcycle fairings, and the fairings would look like the heads of motorcycles he saw as mechanical “horses.”

So John probably saw a vision of a great army from the east with weapons mounted on the fronts of motorcycles, in their fairings. Also, a real horse’s tail seldom looks like a snake with a head, unless the tail is shaved to look that way, which it would not, for a number of practical reasons. And, even if a real horse’s tail was made to look like that, it could not wound anyone. But a curved tail pipe of a motorcycle does resemble a snake, especially in the eyes of a first-century man. And a tail pipe can get hot enough to “wound” anyone it touches. So these “horses” surely cannot be real horses, but must be machines, likely larger, cross-country motorcycles with ornate fairings that look like the heads of lions, possibly with lion-head decals, and with with weapons mounted in their fairings.

Since tail pipes become extremely hot, they can “wound” but cannot really kill. And no one would intentionally touch a hot tail pipe with bare hands. Yet John saw these soldiers “wound” with those “tails” of those “horses.” Thus, those soldiers may have pressed the arms, legs and faces of their victims against the hot tail pipes just to torture them. By the description John gives of this huge army of 200 million, who kills a third of humankind, we can see that they will be ruthless, possibly even torturing their many victims before they murder them. At the same time, most of this war will occur in the northern hemisphere, in the lands extending from the beast’s European homelands to the east in Asia and to the north, likely in Russia, and will cease as soon as the armies reach the Euphrates.

This is also the first plague to mention that “the rest of mankind ... did not repent” as it occurred. So this seems to imply that, after the fifth plague of the locust-scorpion creatures, almost all the elect who were able to repent, except a few elect taken captive in the false church of the Great Prostitute, will already have repented into the true church that was revived during the sixth seal’s era. Now the elect and non-elect have been divided into two distinct and firmly resolved camps, which makes the non-elect ready for their judgment and destruction by the just and loving God, to protect His loving and just elect children. By the time of this sixth trumpet’s plague of the great world war, which is the “second woe” against the non-elect, the intent of God is no longer to cause repentance, but to destroy the unrepentant non-elect. This is why John says: “The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk, nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts” (Rev. 9:20-21, ESV). Now it is time for the “third woe,” which will remove the rest of the non-elect from the face of the earth.

 

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Since God’s dichotomization between the elect and the non-elect will have been almost been entirely completed by the time the plague of this sixth trumpet began, before this world war started, we may deduce a few things about this world war. For one thing, it seems to imply that the third of the world’s population killed in this war might consist mostly of the non-elect. For the vast majority of the elect would have fled into the true church by this time, and likely into the lands which the non-elect would not consider to be a threat to them, into peaceful lands that the non-elect nations would plan to attack and conquer until after they established themselves as dominant world powers over the other “stronger,” more violent, non-elect nations like themselves. It seems that the third who will be killed in this world war will be idolaters, murderers, practicing magic rituals, exploiting others for sexual gratification and stealing from siblings and God through fraud, usury and other forms of theft.

And remember, one’s principal god is anyone or anything which most powerfully influences one’s decisions in life, a person or thing one esteems most highly and trusts to shape one’s destiny or to provide for one’s welfare, any person or thing which receives one’s highest praise, service and obedience. So, if one primarily makes most of one’s decisions based on financial considerations, then one’s highest and principal god is Money, a demonic spirit called Mammon, a god of selfish ambition, careers and self-entitlement, seeking to manipulate and even oppress one’s siblings in the family of humankind. And one cannot serve both the demon Mammon and the real God at the same time. Therefore, if one chooses to worship Mammon, one has become an enemy of the Creator God.

Or, if one’s highest priority is to serve one’s own pleasures, and trusts only in oneself to guide one’s own destiny, or seeks to obtain all that one desires without considering the wants and needs of God or anyone else, then one worships oneself as one’s own highest god. And if one worships only one’s own self as one’s principal god, and possibly some other human beings as one’s secondary gods, then one is a humanist by definition, a human worshiper. Naturally, humanists also worship other peripheral gods too, usually submissive gods who serve their own interests, shape-shifting gods invented in their own minds and manipulated by their own wills. Then humanists worship Mammon, their own possessions of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood, with great esteem and service as well. For almost all humanists are materialists and love their possessions. And humanists love to make images and statues of themselves to glorify themselves. In fact, most of the idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood that John mentioned here are statues of humans worshiped by other humans.

By the end of the twentieth century, Roman humanism had infiltrated and corrupted every religion on the face of the earth. Roman humanism has become the dominant religion of the world, although it has also been eroded in power by an ever increasing influence of God’s just, equitable and loving ways. Still, the power of humanism is overwhelming everywhere on earth. So even the most self-centered humanists trusts certain people or human organizations as one’s guides and saviors, then strives to appease or please them, seeks to serve and esteem them as acts of worship, bows to them as to gods, so they might help one obtain one’s own desires and destiny. And almost no one on earth actually worships any gods other than human beings. Then the number who truly worship the real Creator God, who wrote all His ways and even His core attributes in all His physical and spiritual creations, is worshiped by so few that it is almost impossible to find them. All this is about to change during the eras of the sixth and seventh seals. And the elect are already questioning both the precepts and effects of the religion of humanism. But, for now, Roman humanism is still the world’s religion.

Self is usually the highest and most-beloved god of the humanist. Yet, in this mixture of all these other gods worshiped by humanists, their minds are thoroughly manipulated by the king of the world order, Satan, and by other demon lords to whom Satan manipulates. So Satan ultimately controls every aspect of his Roman kingdom. Satan is the real high god worshiped by Roman humanists, and

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Satan bears the only real power over all their thoughts, although God rules over and limits Satan. So a humanist worships men and demons in many ways, but seldom through a formal religion organized by priests in robes. Humanists worship man through humanistic economic systems, like communism or capitalism (which are both identical). They let financial considerations rule their personal lives, and they leave national decisions to an esteemed, worshiped, elite group of very materialistic souls who prioritize human power and military might over the welfare, health and lives of their people.

Clearly, a faithful and very reverent worship of Mammon is frequently one of a humanist’s highest priorities in life. And the ruthless demon Mammon is indeed one of the principal gods in the pantheistic religion of Roman secular humanism, as well as in fake humanistic churches. But all humanists devoutly worship other gods as well, such as Nebo, the demon of destructive intelligence that applies false reasoning, fake science and propagandizing education to serve Satan’s purposes. Then most humanists also worship Baal, the demon of sexual exploitation and dominance over other siblings in the family of humankind. Many even worship, with great esteem and slavish service, their own houses, cars and other things. They will slavishly serve things made of any substance, although as their lesser gods. Of course, almost every society on earth routinely practices the religion of Roman humanism as their principal religion. Although their religion consists of very many bickering sects, almost everyone on earth is a humanist today. But the fact that idolatry is so common does not make it right. For all idolatry is actually evil and causes deadly sins against God and other humans.

All that remains of the tenuous Roman world order, ruled by the humanistic lords of the earth, has been growing weaker for 2,000 years, and will be significantly weakened by the terrors which will initiate the sixth seal’s era and its revival. Then, during the plagues of the first four trumpets, most of the elect will have repented into that revived true church. And the plague of the fifth trumpet will almost complete that process, and begin to utterly destroy the non-elect on earth. Then the plague of the six trumpet will destroy a third of humankind, but mostly the non-elect, more than half of them.

This sixth trumpet’s plague will hurl the remnant of the non-elect into chaos. With all this trouble, all but the most deluded of the elect will see the folly of humanism. Yet, out of the millions of surviving souls by the end of this massive world war, none will repent. For the lies and delusions that overtake the non-elect, and the few remaining unrepentant elect still bound in the Great Prostitute’s false church, will be almost impenetrable. Even in our day, humanists repeat their lies so often, and with such convincing confidence, that it is very difficult to clear one’s head enough to realize that they are indeed speaking irrational, self-serving lies. Nevertheless, the powerful and effective works of God during the sixth seal’s era, and His plagues of the first four trumpets during the seventh seal’s era, will have caused almost all of the elect on earth to repent into a knowledge of the Gospel salvation.

Therefore, almost all of the unrepentant ones, by this time, will be the non-elect, who can never bear any desire in their hearts to repent into the truth. Consequently, after this world war weakens or destroys the armies of the eastern and northern secular and non-elect world leaders, the ensuing vacuum of power will prepare the way for the demonic messiah, the beast, to become the dominant world power, to manipulate all the surviving non-elect. He can now establish his demonic kingdom which wars against God and God’s people. Even before this war kills a third of mankind, most elect will have separated from the non-elect, and will have fled from the beast's kingdom (secular Rome). So now that only one non-elect power rules over all non-elect nations, those people of God will become the focus of all humanists on earth, the next target of their ruthless ambitions to force their selfish and self-serving wills upon every person and everything else which exists upon God’s earth.

 

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Now let me repeat, from John's description of this army of 200 million soldiers, we must conclude that their “horses” cannot possibly be real horses, nor any kind of living creatures. They must be machines of some kind, most likely motorcycles. For there is “fire and smoke and sulfur” coming “out of their mouths” and they have “tails ... like serpents with heads, and by means of them they wound.” Clearly, these must be heavily armed vehicles that men ride like horses. And the only kind of vehicle that can be ridden like a horse is a motorcycle. So they likely use motorcycles with guns or small missile launchers mounted in their fairings, shooting bullets or missiles from where a horse's “mouth” would be. A first-century man like John would say that soldiers on motorcycles are just like men riding horses, since motorcycles and guns were far beyond anything he could imagine.

This prophecy also leaves us to ask where this army of 200 million will come from. Looking at the prophecy, they will come from a place that is a significant distance east of the Euphrates River. And this army will be stopped at the Euphrates after it manages to kill a third of mankind, but before it reaches the lands God gave to Israel and before it reaches most of Europe, since those lands must remain intact during the time of the seventh trumpet, which occurs immediately after this. So this army will reach the Euphrates after it kills a third of mankind dwelling east of the Euphrates. Thus, we can conclude that this vast army will come from somewhere far east of the Euphrates, then move west through heavily populated areas, killing everyone, before they are stopped by other armies at the Euphrates. Now about a third of the world’s population lives between China and the Euphrates River, in India and other heavily populated areas, which are all rife with idolatrous religions. And China is the only nation that is able to raise an army of 200 million. So it seems possible that China will attack India and other eastern nations during this world war, but Russia, the nation to the north of the beast’s kingdom, will be backing India and those other nations. Then both China and Russia will be severely weakened by this world war, allowing the beast’s kingdom to take over the world.

We also must consider: (1) the relatively short time of the seventh seal’s plagues before Jesus will return, which must be only about 20 years, and (2) that the sixth and seventh seals’ eras will begin fairly soon, likely within a generation or two from now. Because the world cannot possibly sustain its godless social structure, unjust laws, economic exploitation and other sins much longer, since its current practices are destroying the whole planet, we can be certain that the end times are near, and that the nations which will start this massive world war must already exist. Therefore, this army of 200 million will likely come from a very aggressive nation that is most likely a world power today.

It requires many generations to build up and unite a vast population that is able equip, support and train an army of 200 million, and to develop an aggressive, warring culture which makes that nation willing to engage in such a massive war. So, if we look at nations east of the Euphrates, only one of them has an aggressive culture and the ability to raise an army of 200 million heavily armed and ruthless soldiers. That nation is China. If a Chinese army of 200 million began to march in a general westerly direction, it could conquer India, Pakistan, Iran and other nations, advancing all the way to the Euphrates river in Syria and Iraq. And the casualties of such a war would literally amount to a third of the world’s entire population. A few billion men, women and children could die in such a war. At the same time, they may also kill millions of Christians in China, as well as in the other conquered lands. For China’s state religion of radical secular humanism seldom hesitates to kill those from opposing religions. But, wherever this army of 200 million soldiers comes from, the events of this sixth trumpet will be the second greatest plague sent by God, surpassed only by God’s wrath against the wicked during the time of the seventh trumpet, when Jesus kills all the non-elect.

 

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7.7. The Seventh Trumpet

Revelation 10:1-7 (ESV): “Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven,

wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head, and his face was like the sun, and his legs

like pillars of fire. He had a little scroll open in his hand. And he set his right foot on the sea,

and his left foot on the land, and called out with a loud voice, like a lion roaring. When he

called out, the seven thunders sounded. And when the seven thunders had sounded, I was

about write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying, ‘Seal up what the seven thunders have

said, and do not write it down.” And the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and anon the

land raised his right hand to heaven and swore by Him who lives forever and every, who

created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, that

there would be no more delay, but that in the days of the trumpet call to be sounded by the

seventh angel, the mystery of God would be fulfilled, just as He announced to His servants

the prophets.”

It had been a long time since the Creator put an image of His own Spirit in the bodies of each of two small creatures named Adam and Eve. In those days, God also told the Serpent, who deceived His human children, that an offspring of this woman would crush his “head,” although that devil merely crushed God’s “heel” of flesh. Satan merely temporarily crushed the body of God born of a woman, which was the lowliest manifestation of God that ever walked on earth. Then God healed His “heel,” and rose from the dead in the flesh, to save His elect children from lies and sins. But God waited until the days of the seventh trumpet to crush the “head” of that Serpent, to end his power and life on earth. God delayed this justice for so long that some even forgot that He promised to do this work of full and restoring love for His people. Yet God did not forget, and He repeatedly revealed the day of Satan’s demise, the crushing of his “head” on earth, to many human prophets since Adam and Eve.

Now the end of Satan’s rule was near. The Savior of the world, the “Seed” of Eve, was about to return to the earth and cast that devil into a prison which would prevent any of his interference in the material perceptions of the elect, into a part of the spiritual realm created for him and his kind. And, to announce this event, God sent a “mighty angel” from heaven. This angel was “wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head,” with the reminder that God had promised to never again destroy all flesh on the earth, as He did in flood of Noah’s day (Gen. 9:11-15). For now the time for the greatest restoration of life on earth in all history was arriving, immediately after Satan’s destruction and the return of God’s own body of flesh to the earth. And the “little open scroll in his right hand” was brought down to the earth, the promise that had been read in the sky since the days of Noah, and had never been closed and hidden from the eyes of His people. This angel set one foot on the “sea” of the common people being tossed and turned by every wind of teaching, as well as on the “land” where humans more solidly stood upon their beliefs. Then the angel called out for seven thunders to shout.

These seven thunders spoke a message which John was about to write down, presumably a word about the completion and perfection of God’s wrath against Satan and his earthly kingdom, since seven is the number representing completion and perfection, while thunder represents the voice of God’s wrath. But a voice from heaven forbade John from writing down what the seven thunders had proclaimed, although they clearly wanted John to tell us that he did indeed hear that message. So it seems that God wants us to know that He does have just and valid reasons for His wrath, but God does not want us to focus on them, only upon the healing and restoration which will come through His works of wrath against Satan. The primary thing we were to understand was that “there would be

 

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no more delay,” but these days of the seventh trumpet would be when “the mystery of God would be fulfilled, just as He announced to His servants the prophets.” Now God Himself would rule the earth.

The days of the seventh trumpet will begin when the beast comes to rule his kingdom, and this beast is Satan in a body of flesh, with a wounded head, as a sign that he is the Serpent who deceived Adam and Eve. More than two and a half millenniums after his creation of his great humanistic kingdom, through Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome, this prophesied beast will come to make his last stand against God for the last part of his kingdom, which is the Roman Empire. The beast will come to raise up Rome as the only dominant physical world power. Of course, this fourth kingdom became the dominant religious power in the world long before this. That religion essentially governed all of Satan’s world order by the twentieth century. But Satan will want Rome to become the greatest and only ruling military and economic power on earth too. And the king of this revived Roman Empire will be the “Antichrist,” the enemy of the Messiah Jesus, striving against Jesus, against the King of God’s kingdom on earth. The king of this new Roman Empire will be a purely demonic messiah or the “anointed one” of Satan, coming to save the kingdom of Satan’s world order in its hour need.

God’s Messiah came early, when the fourth Roman kingdom was young. Then He worked gradually over the millenniums to teach His justice and love to His holy internal kingdom on earth. But the beast who will come as the king of the fourth Roman kingdom in the end will only appear when his ancient kingdom is about to perish. And the beast will attempt to preserve Rome through the use of lies, slander and brute physical violence, like all Roman humanists have done throughout history. Yet the time of the seventh trumpet will see Jesus destroy Rome, then cast the beast and Satan into hell, and rule the world through loving, godly justice, in peace. Of course, before the beast goes, he will cause many elect to suffer more than ever before. There will be a great tribulation of God’s children and life on earth before the beast, with all his followers and allies, are slaughtered, and before Jesus will “take away” the hate of literally all the non-elect. But, although Jesus will punish the wicked with many plagues, He will not use violence and weapons of this world to build His inward, spiritual kingdom, to replace Satan’s world order. Rather, Jesus will expose Satan’s ways and turns His elect from that destructive stupidity, towards a wise, patient, just and loving construction of abundant life.

Now remember, God’s plan was to allow the beast’s religion of humanism to utterly corrupt the entire world by the end of the fifth seal’s era. At the same time, while all this corruption reached its peak, Jesus would also be building up His own internal kingdom on earth, by teaching and training many elect spirits to love in His just ways. This would prove that His internal kingdom is stronger than Satan’s factious external kingdom. For the kingdom of God does not require a constant effort to invent new lies and delusions of the flesh, like Satan’s kingdom did. Rather, the truths of God remain forever the same, immutable and solid as rock hardened in fire. Then Jesus planned to return at the very height of Satan’s corruption of the entire world, when all visible churches became thoroughly defiled by the beast’s religion of humanism—when churches became utterly foolish, useless and warred against justice and God’s kind of love, when all the world’s religions were strictly a forms of false worship through minds of flesh. Jesus would come after the era of the fifth seal, after most had joined the Roman humanists in the persecution of God’s true elect, in order to open the sixth seal.

Jesus would begin the judgment and destruction of the beast’s fourth Roman kingdom after it had spread its lies and delusions throughout the world, after it claimed victory, although Rome would be a divided, internally unstable mess throughout the world, held together only by fragile threads of shared hatred and anxieties. Then, during the era of the sixth seal and throughout the times of the first four trumpets in the era of the seventh seal, Jesus would seal His elect children together, into

 

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one united people struggling for survival, learning to love and depend upon Him and upon one another, growing in love. Then the “woes” of the last three trumpets would destroy Satan’s kingdom.

The plagues of the seventh trumpet will end Satan’s Roman kingdom of humanism. And the plagues which came before it, from the day the sixth seal’s era had been opened, will have exposed the folly of Rome and weakened that kingdom, so that nothing but its blind rage and violence will keep its empty and inwardly dead non-elect citizens loyal. Thus, they will have no plan, no ambition left to pursue, except to eliminate the only ones left on earth who oppose their futile lies and delusions. They will attack God’s people, the Jews and Christians of the world, knowing that, even if they did win a victory over those who seek abundant life, those non-elect would only gain an even more vain, useless, empty life than they had before, without purpose or goal, merely a darkness of utter futility.

But this goal of striving for futility and emptiness will not stop or even dampen the wrath of the beast and his allies against God’s people. Instead, God will allow that beast to gather the surviving God-hating non-elect from around the world to try and annihilate the land where our God Jesus will come to rule over all the earth, thinking that the destruction of the physical land of Israel will be the key to stopping the power of God’s Spirit and God’s spiritual works on earth. But Jesus will keep hitting harder and stronger against the unjust, God-hating, Roman world order during the time of the seventh trumpet, by pouring out seven bowls of His wrath upon the beast’s homeland, even as that beast and his allies are camping within the land of Israel. With the blast of each trumpet and the pain of each bowl of His wrath, Jesus will crush more of the beast’s worshipers who refuse to repent from their murdering and unjust ways. Nonetheless, Satan’s non-elect children will never repent, and only grow worse. Then Jesus will return to the earth, in His body of flesh, to annihilate Satan’s dark, deluding world order and slaughter all the unrepentant, even casting Satan, with his beast, into hell.

The prophecies of Scripture described the days of the seventh trumpet, with its destruction of Satan’s world order and the Messiah’s subsequent rule over all the earth, most often and in the most detail, more than any other time in the world’s history. And we will look at some of those prophecies later. But, for now, we need to realize that those prophecies make it clear that God’s wrath against the earth, which will be expressed through the plagues of the seven trumpets, shall be primarily directed at the religion of humanism and its wicked delusions. God will come to destroy the beast’s religious kingdom, which began in Babylon. And the head of the beast shall always be Babylon. This is why some of the more ancient prophecies about Babylon can be confusing, since some do not distinguish between Babylon’s physical kingdom, which fell in the sixth century BC, and its religious kingdom, which has now spread throughout the entire earth, and will continue to thrive until Jesus destroys it. For instance, Isaiah’s prophecy against Babylon included all the nations of the world. Then he spoke about God destroying Babylon, in “the day of the Lord,” when Jesus will return to Israel and kill all the wicked on the earth. Thus, Isaiah’s “Babylon” is actually the beast’s kingdom of the end times.

Isaiah 13:6-13 (ESV): “Wail, for the day of the Lord is near; as destruction from the

Almighty it will come! Therefore all hands will be feeble, and every human heart will melt.

They will be dismayed: pangs and agony will seize them; they will be in anguish like a

woman in labor. They will look aghast at one another; their faces will be aflame. [This seems to

describe the beast and the wicked on earth just before Jesus returns.] Behold, the day of the Lord

comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its

sinners from it.

“For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be

dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light. [This occurs when the fifth bowl of wrath is

 

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poured out on the beast’s lands, near the end of his reign.] I will punish the world for its evil, and the

wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low the

pompous pride of the ruthless. I will make people more rare than fine gold, and mankind

than the gold of Ophir. Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be

shaken out of its place, at the wrath of the Lord of hosts in the day of His fierce anger .”

The “day of the Lord” or “the day of Yahweh” refers to greatest and most blessed day that will ever occur during the entire existence of the earth. It is the day that Yahweh God, in the body of the Messiah Jesus, will come to rule the world, bringing justice, peace and love to all the people and all life on this planet. But Jesus will come to judge the earth on that day, “to destroy its sinners” who refuse to repent into the truth, to take them away from the earth in death. Of course, Isaiah realized that all human beings are sinners. But Isaiah heard from God about sinners who hated the Creator and His ways, who stubbornly opposed God’s justice, equity, truth and love. So here Isaiah, like most other prophets, used the term “sinners” only to refer to intentional sinners who refuse to repent.

Before Yahweh can rule the earth in loving peace and justice, He must remove those who hate peace and justice. Before God fills the earth with His light, He must remove those who love the darkness of their lies rather than the light of His truth, since the lovers of darkness will always try to suppress the light. So Jesus will destroy all unrepentant sinners, all the non-elect, before He walks to His earthly throne in Jerusalem. To those citizens of Satan’s world order, the “day of Yahweh” will be “cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make [their own] land a desolation and to destroy” them, because they were “cruel, with wrath and fierce anger” against the innocent, against those who spoke the truth in love, and those sinners also came to make God’s promised land of Israel in “a desolation.”

Now this is Isaiah’s “oracle concerning Babylon” (13:1). So here “the land” that God will destroy is the land belonging to Babylon. But it is obviously not the physical land that was overrun in the sixth century BC. Rather, it is clearly about the long-enduring religious kingdom of Babylon during the end times, the kingdom of Babylon which was destined to exist until the day the Messiah returned, the religious kingdom that was to conquer the whole earth. This refers to “the land” of the beast, to Babylon’s fourth Roman kingdom in the end times. The head of all four kingdoms of the beast will always be Babylon, and all four kingdoms will always be called Babylon. So this Babylon is the beast’s Roman Empire in the end times, and its people, which consists of seven European nations that shall all be destroyed in the end times, made into a “desolation” by the day that Jesus returns.

Clearly this prophecy possesses a world-wide scope. For God declares, “I will punish the world for its evil” (13:11), and “I will make people more rare than fine gold, and mankind than the the gold of Ophir” (13:12). This can only refer the last days, when the plagues of the seven trumpets will likely kill about two thirds of the earth’s entire population, and almost everyone in some regions. Some like to say Scriptures like these are figurative and poetic, exaggerated in scope, and refer only to places near Israel. But, in reality, all the Scriptures are about Israel becoming the priesthood of the entire world, and the prophecies of Scripture are always about the fate of the entire planet. Yahweh was never a local god like the demon gods of the pagans, but always the God of all existence. Thus, all that those who artificially limit the scope of such prophecies completely nullify what they are saying.

Those who think God’s prophecies are like pagan literature and poetry, consisting of nothing but imagined dramatic figurative language and swollen hyperbole, forget that all biblical writings, even its “poetic” parts, are concepts revealed by God, always expressed reverently, and have always proved to be reliable and true. None of the prophecies or information in the Bible have ever been proved false, and archaeological finds are continuously proving the Bible to be an accurate account

 

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of the past. God’s prophets and apostles always strove to be honest, and never misled to make a favorable impression of their faith, never exaggerated the power or esteem of anyone at any time. All the Scriptures are far more literal and honest than any of the pagan writings, even though the Bible speaks of miracles. For the miracles of the Bible are realistic, serving real purposes of God, done through either love or through a just judgment of the wicked, never like the obviously fictitious “signs and wonders” found in the myths of pagan religious writings about their immoral pagan gods.

Literally all the prophets and apostles remained literal in all their thinking and in all their writings, only using figurative language that would be instantly recognized and understood by their readers. All were afraid to exaggerate, since that would be a lie, and they never wanted to tell any kind of lie to their people in the name of the one real God. Not one of the prophets or apostles ever dared to write any Scriptures in the same way that the bragging, lying, arrogant pagans wrote their teachings, histories and poetry. We must never forget this. Since these verses are not great exaggerations or purely figurative (although some are phenomenological descriptions), we can definitely assume that God “will punish the world,” even the whole world, before Jesus returns on “the day of the Lord.”

Besides, all this is confirmed by the prophecy of John and other prophets. Thus, we can be assured that, on the day Jesus returns, “the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising and the moon will not shed its light.” There will be much physical darkness, especially in the beast’s kingdom, during the time of the seventh trumpet, which occurs after the fifth bowl of God’s wrath is poured out. We can also be certain that the world’s population will be greatly reduced by the day of Christ’s return. Millions of the souls on earth will die from the plagues during the eras of the sixth and the seventh seals, then all the non-elect will also perish on the very day He returns. Considering all the prophecies say about those times, if the population of the world is about eight billion, it might even be reduced to something like one or two billion as Jesus sets His feet on the Mount of Olives. Even with the multitudes returning with Jesus at the first resurrection, there will likely be only be about one or two billion souls left alive on earth.

As soon as the seventh trumpet sounds, it will signal the end of Satan's world order, which plagued the earth since the day Adam sinned. For, although Satan was cast down from heaven to the earth on that day, he was also granted a kingdom of sinners on that day as well. The devil was made the ruler of the world order, granted all the souls who sinned and refused to repent. Therefore, as the days of the devil's world order draws closer to its end, he now strives, with all his might, to preserve his vile kingdom. Soon he will bring out his evil messiah, the beast, in whom he dwells. And that beast will preach the most deluding, demonic religion ever invented, the worship of man, humanism. This will be the moment of Satan’s greatest glory, and his last stand, his final attempt to keep the evil kingdom he cherishes so much. But it will end when Jesus, God’s beautiful Messiah, comes to rule the earth.

Jesus will only let the demon-possessed beast rule for seven years, before He will cast Satan, that beast and all demons into hell. Seven is the number representing completion. So Jesus only allows Satan one Sabbath of years (seven years) to dwell in the human body of the beast and rule on earth, just enough time to fully and completely expose his humanistic world views as utterly unjust and destructive lies. Satan created humanism as his ultimate demonic religion, since it promotes the worship of self as one’s principal god, which is Satan’s own religion. Of all the creatures on earth, only man bears the knowledge of good and evil. So only man can sin. Thus, worshiping anything other than man is worshiping a sinless thing, but not an actively righteous thing. So worshiping any created thing, rather than the Creator, is wrong and evil. Yet worshiping oneself or any human is to worship a deluded, lying sinner whose spirit is so weak and infantile, and so easily manipulated by the mind of flesh, that one will become a total slave of Satan. By worshiping a sinner, the humanist

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serves the delusions, lies and sins of the sinner, and worships the devil who is manipulating and deluding that sinner. A humanist becomes an unjust, deluded fool ruled by Satan, unwittingly and unconsciously serving, esteeming and worshiping Satan himself, as a blinded puppet of that devil.

Back when men worshiped animals and inanimate things, at least some of their laws and ways remained right and wise, since animals and God’s other creations all reveal the attributes and nature of their Creator. Furthermore, animals are never capable of having corrupt spirits like human beings. So, when a man replaces the righteous God with his sinful self, and replaces God’s laws and ways with his own laws and ways, to live according to manipulations of Satan and the evil intentions of his own heart, man will justify any and every kind of sin he ever committed, and every lie he needs to justify that sin. Thus, the religion of humanism is far worse than animism, or virtually any other false religion ever invented by man. Humanism allows Satan to rule humanists without opposition.

The seven-year rule of the beast, during the time of the seventh trumpet, also has seven short periods of time embedded within it. Within the time of the seventh trumpet, at the end of the beast’s seven-year reign, seven bowls of God’s wrath will pour out upon the beast’s kingdom in rapid succession. So the eras of the seven seals, some lasting for hundreds of years, then the short times of the seven trumpets and the brief times of the seven bowls of God’s wrath, are all divided into sevens, since the number seven indicates a perfect completion, a fulfilling of God’s purposes. They signify that God will complete the destruction of Satan’s world order. More than this, these sevens indicate that God will finish building His true church, His kingdom on earth, and will rule it completely and perfectly.

But there is some mystery in all these sevens and in the perfect completions they represent. We are told much about what will happen during the eras of the seven seals, the times of the seven trumpets and the days of the bowls of God’s wrath. Yet, aside from the prophecies about God punishing the wicked, as well as destroying their evil systems and structures, we are left to find out some of God’s purposes for ourselves. Only a prayerful study of the whole of God’s Word allows us to figure out what God intended us to learn during each time and from each plague. Even then, we need to make assumptions about the reasons for God causing all this suffering and death. In fact, it seems that God intentionally suppressed some knowledge of His purposes. It seems He did not want most people to know the full and detailed reasons for His actions, although He privately revealed more about some of His purposes to some spirits among His faithful servants. We saw an example of His suppression of information about His purposes for His actions in chapter ten of the Revelation, which introduced the seventh trumpet’s events. For God told John to seal up what is revealed, and not write down the things he heard. Then John was told to swallow a scroll, which internalized some information. So this implies that God wants each of us to pray for more information, to learn truth directly from Him.

Remember how John saw a “mighty angel” with “a little scroll open in his hand” (Rev. 10:1-2), who came to welcome the time of the seventh and last trumpet, the days when Jesus would finally return to destroy Satan’s world order and rule over all the earth. It is significant that a “mighty angel” like this did not come to herald the times of the other six trumpets, because the other six angels sounded their trumpets to signal the plagues which prepared the earth for the time of this seventh trumpet. So this announcement by this “mighty angel” indicated that the days of the seventh trumpet would be an extremely critical and historic time, involving greater and more mighty acts of God than any other times since the beginning of time. For this time of the seventh trumpet would see God’s kingdom on earth stand for more than a millennium, then endure for all eternity in heaven after the earth will end.

Back in the first century, when John lived and saw the scroll with the seven seals, the seven eras of the last days (Rev. 5:1), it seemed that a very long time would pass before Jesus would return to

 

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undo the works of Satan on earth and set the world on a path of loving justice in peace. And that was a very large and long scroll, unlike the little open scroll in the hand of the mighty angel standing before John when the seventh trumpet was about to sound. But the little open scroll of the mighty angel was something which John was to internalize, to eat and digest as a part of his body. And, as a spiritual work of God’s handwriting, that little scroll would become a part of John’s eternal spiritual being, not merely a part of his flesh. So it was very different from the first scroll which contained all the eras of the last days, yet that small open scroll must have been wrapped withing that larger scroll of all the last days, because the small scroll was a time within the last days, a part of the times within the seventh seal’s era, a part of the seventh trumpet’s time. So, perhaps, we should try to visualize what these scrolls were like in the first century, and what John was actually prophesying about here.

The large scroll contained all the sealed and predestined times of the last days, the seven eras which would unfold throughout history stretching from the days after the Messiah’s first advent to the day of His second advent. And each sealed era would consist of a sheet of parchment (cleansed animal skin) or papyri (reed or plant stems processed into “paper”). So there would be seven sheets, one for each of the seven eras. The the seventh sheet would reveal the events of the seven trumpets, and the words about the seventh trumpet would not only describe the events of the seven bowls of God’s wrath, but also what was written on the “little scroll” held by the “mighty angel.” And the sheet that recorded and predestined the events of the seventh era would be wrapped upon a dowel at the center of the scroll, then sealed until it could be opened. Then the sixth sheet would be wrapped around it and sealed. Then the fifth, fourth, third, second and first sheets would wrapped and sealed around them in the same way, until one large scroll was formed out of all. Thus, the seal on each sheet could be broken separately to begin each era during the end times. But each opened sheet would remain unsealed and opened, when the next sheet and next era began. So the breaking of a new seal to begin a new era did not mean that the predestined trials and plagues of the previous one would then cease.

The sealed sheet recording the events of the seventh seal’s era would have seven subsections, used to record the events of the seven trumpets within the seventh seal’s era. And the subsection about the seventh trumpet would have been near the very center of entire large scroll, since it was to be one of the last events of the seventh seal’s era. And, just before that last sheet of the large scroll revealed the events of the seventh trumpet, it would have written what was on the “little scroll” that the “mighty angel” gave John to eat. Not only this, but what the seven thunders proclaimed at that time would also be recorded on that seventh sheet which revealed all the events of the seventh seal’s era. And we need to remember that, by the day Jesus returns, all seven sheets revealing all the events of all the events of all seven eras will be opened by Jesus. Therefore, by the very end, we will actually see what was written on the “little scroll” that John ate and know what had been said by the seven thunders. Although we are not to know these things now, for some good reason, we will know all that was hidden from us, and from the elect in the past, when Jesus returns to rule over all the earth.

That “little scroll” could be a record of all the judgments of God against the wicked non-elect on earth during the time of the seventh trumpet. It could list all God’s punishments for those who worshiped the beast, and for those who allied themselves with the beast through their mutual hatred for God, or through their bitter opposition to God’s loving ways of pure justice. On the other hand, it might reveal something more positive, although the bitterness resulting in John’s stomach after eating that scroll suggests that it has something to do with God’s wrath. Either way, once John ate this “little scroll,” its words entered his inner being, and John prophesied what God commanded him to write to us. And John described the events of the seventh trumpet. He told us how the beast would rule over the world order for seven years and how Jesus would destroy that beast when He returned.

 

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Revelation 10:8-11 (ESV): “Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me again,

saying, ‘Go, take the scroll that is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea

and on the land.’ So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll. And he said

to me, ‘Take and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as

honey.’ And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it. It was sweet as honey

in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter. And I was told, ‘You must

again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings.’”

It is usually a victory over a terrible enemy which tastes as “sweet as honey,” yet makes a “stomach bitter” after one has to face all the death and devastation caused by that enemy. And, since John was a first century Jew, he would have used the word “stomach” in a traditional Jewish, figurative way, to represent “the inward part of our constitution, the mind, the thoughts and affections of the mind” (from: Wilson, William; Old Testament Word Studies; Kregal Publications, Grand Rapids, 1978, p. 36). The “stomach” would represent the feelings or emotions resulting from what one experienced. Here it would refer to the thoughts and feelings in the soul, from both the mind of flesh and the mind of the spirit together. Then the “mouth” was the instrument used to speak words from the soul, the conclusions of both the mind of the spirit and the mind of the flesh. Thus, this “little scroll”, which tasted like honey and made the stomach bitter, seems to be a revelation of the final acts of God’s wrath against the wicked on the earth, His utter destruction to cleanse the world of evil and injustice.

Whenever we see the disabling destruction of the wicked, so their evil and injustice ceases forever, it tastes as sweet as honey. Yet it bring no real inner joy to God or to us. Instead, it makes our souls feel sad and even bitter, as we ponder all the senseless deaths and losses that resulted from the deeds of that enemy. So our rejoicing turns to mourning, even for our enemies, as we consider how they fell into their lies and sins, and how they died unrepentant and damned. We survived, but could not save all our loved ones. A type of shame and unanswerable guilt gnaws at our souls, though we know we are weak and our failures were inevitable. But, most of all, we cannot comprehend how those cruel souls could so zealously love their darkness of lies and hate, and utterly reject the light of truth and love. Why did they strive to build hell on earth, and oppose all that builds up abundant life for all?

So the deaths of the wicked, and the ending of their evil works, is “sweet,” but never a pleasure for the soul. As we look at the dead bodies of the non-elect scattered on the ground, left as food for the birds throughout the earth, our thoughts will bitterly resent what they have done. Nevertheless, the lands will be fully restored, and the return of Jesus will bring true and abundant inner joy, as He rebuilds a just and beautiful life for us and all creatures of the earth, full of absolute freedom for all loving and just souls belonging to Him. Yes, we welcome the destruction of the wicked, and swallow it to the last crumb. We will partake in their final demise, since we know the wicked must be stopped and their evil works must be undone, because they will destroy all they touch. We need to prevent the wicked from their willful and senseless destruction of others and themselves. For we can make no lasting peace nor work justice together with them. Their lawlessness and lies makes all love grow cold and kills life wherever their feet might tread, without any ability to learn to live. So, in the end, they must not be allowed to live for hell and death. And only their end can begin abundant life for us.

We all know God, our high King, has always severely limited the power of Satan's subject kingdom of the world order. Yet God has never destroyed it. For the time of this seventh trumpet was meant to be the predestined time when Jesus shall completely eliminate it. And Satan’s stay on earth served a purpose for God’s elect. It taught the elect to value and love God, His truth and His ways far more than we ever could have cherished them if we had not ever perceived Satan’s lies and sins on earth.

 

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We all learn to love God and all that is of God more than the elect angels ever could, because God grants us the experience of life in this place where both good and evil exist side by side. And not even the mightiest angels suffer from the devil’s physical, mental and spiritual attacks on earth, so they have not been granted the ability to know what we know through our experiences here. After Jesus brings Satan's world order to its destined and justified end, that kingdom shall be crushed into dust and blown away by the winds of time, just as Daniel prophesied. But its history will remain to teach future generations on this earth about the effects of evil and the rewards of good. Even on the final day at the gates of heaven, that history will be used to teach and train His elect human children.

In the same way we forget a bad dream, we will forget Satan’s evil world order, as Jesus personally rules the entire world through His wise, just love. But we will not lose the lessons we learned in all history. Those fully and rightly revealed past times will forever increase in our love and zeal for God and His ways. So, after Jesus returns, we will know and love Him in an even better way than Adam and Eve did when Jesus, our God in a body of flesh, walked with them in the Garden of Eden, both before and after we sinned. When Jesus returns, He will make the earth into a garden that is even more wise and instructive than the garden of Eden. Jesus will repair most of the damage done to the earth and totally remove His initial curse from all lands. But we will not love Him because of this physical beauty, but for His spiritual beauty, for the past lessons He will leave behind for us to see.

Revelation 11:15-19 (ESV): “Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud

voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord

and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever.’ And the twenty-four elders who sit

on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, ‘We give thanks to

You, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for You have taken Your great power and

begun to reign. The nations raged, but Your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be

judged, and for rewarding Your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear Your

name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.’ Then God's

temple in heaven was opened and the ark of His covenant was seen within His temple. There

were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.”

Through the revival of the sixth seal’s era and the repentance of the elect during the times of the first four trumpets, the world will no longer consist of sinners ruled by Satan’s world order. For almost all the elect on earth, by the days of the seventh trumpet, will have repented into the truth and into the forgiveness and atonement purchased by Jesus during His first advent. Thus, once Jesus removes the non-elect from the earth, the entire world will become the “the kingdom of our Lord and of His Messiah,” even “forever and ever.” But this time of this seventh trumpet will include many events.

The plagues of the seventh trumpet will be the result of events which began during world war of the sixth trumpet’s plague. For the Roman beast’s kingdom will rise up to become the dominant world power during the time of the sixth trumpet. And it seems that the beast will be able to gain that power because he will avoid involvement in that world war for the first three and a half years of his seven-year reign. The beast will begin his seven-year reign about “forty-two months” (3.5 years) before the days of the seventh trumpet begin, although his seven-year reign is the preparation and initiation of the seventh trumpet’s plagues. We can conclude this because, three and a half years before the sixth trumpet’s world war ended, John was given “a measuring rod like a staff,” and was told to “rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there” (11:1). Yet he was not to measure “the court outside the temple,” since it was “given over to the nations and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months.” And, as we saw in other prophecies, those 42 months (3.5 years) will be when the beast come to take over Israel and the Middle East, just before

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he is drawn away by news from the north and from the east. That news from the north and east will be about the sixth trumpet’s world war, where an army of 200 million from the east kills a third of the earth’s population, but seems to be opposed by armies of the north. So the news received by the beast will likely about an opportunity for him to defeat both the northern and eastern kingdoms and become the dominant world power. The beast will rush off with all his armies to conquer those lands.

So the beast’s plans to restructure and secularize Israel and the Middle East will be delayed after the first three and half years of his seven-year reign, as he pulls his armies out of the Middle East to war against the armies of the north and east. This war will preoccupy the beast for another three and a half years, which will provide enough time for Israel and the Middle East to build up a resistance army to oppose the beast. So this resistance will force the beast to begin his war in that region all over again, but this time with the intent to kill everyone there and completely destroy those lands.

In the meantime, during the first half of the beast’s seven-year reign, while the world war is taking place, John saw two “witnesses” in Jerusalem. Jesus granted these two the authority to “prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth” (11:3). That is, they prophesied during the first three and a half years of the beast’s seven-year reign to cause the repentance of the elect. And these two were called “olive trees” and “lampstands” before the presence of our God Jesus (11:4). That is, they were cherished and protected by Jesus. Like Elijah, “if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes,” to kill them, and “have the power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying” (11:5-6a). And, like Moses, “they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every king of plague, as often as they desire” (11:6b). But their prophesying will end just before the days of the seventh trumpet begin.

Just before the beast leaves to conquer the armies of the east and the north, he will “make war” on the the two witnesses. And he will “conquer them and kill them” (11:7). At that particular time, most people in Jerusalem will still be unrepentant, and will not have heeded the two prophets. For the city of Jerusalem, “where their Lord was crucified,” will “symbolically [be] called Sodom and Egypt” at that time (11:8). And “the peoples and tribes and languages and nations” throughout the world also will remain unrepentant, since they “will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb” (11:9). Instead, “those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over [their dead bodies] and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth” (11:10). But those God-haters will not rejoice long, because, “after three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and a great fear fell on those who saw them” (11:11). At that moment, they will also hear “a loud voice from heaven” telling the two prophets to “Come up here,” then watch those two ascend into heaven, in a cloud of God’s bright approval (11:12). Since so many people around the world will see this, it will likely be an event streamed around the world, and it will cause many elect to reevaluate their past world views.

When the two prophets ascend into the sky, an earthquake will destroy a tenth of Jerusalem and kill seven thousand people (11:13). This will be when the rest of Jerusalem shall be “terrified and gave glory to the the God of heaven.” And this also would be just before the beast leaves Jerusalem and the whole region. So this event would likely encourage the rebellion of Israel and the Middle East against the beast during the next three and a half years of his absence from that region. Also, this is also when John said, “The second woe has passed; behold, the third woe is soon to come” (11:14). The “second woe” is the plague of the sixth trumpet and the “third woe” is the plague of the seventh trumpet. So the death and ascension of the two prophets marks the end of sixth trumpet’s plague at the middle of the beast’s seven-year reign. Then John hears the seventh trumpet sound after this.

 

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The countdown of 1,260 days (Rev. 11:3), until the beast kills these two prophets, begins before the end of the “second woe,” which is the plague of the sixth trumpet. And the sixth trumpet’s time ends before the seventh trumpet sounds. So the primary aspect associated with the times of the seventh trumpet, which is the seven-year reign of the beast, will actually be half finished by the time the seventh trumpet sounds. But that beast’s seven-year reign represents all that the seventh trumpet’s plague will destroy and replace. Therefore, the beginning of the beast’s reign is also the beginning of the days of the seventh trumpet’s working of God’s woes upon the evils of the world’s history, since it is the last stand of Satan’s world order. The crushing of the beast will be the end of all earthly evil when Jesus begins to rule the earth. Still, it is important to remember that the actual time of the seventh trumpet, when the beast leaves and reenters the Middle East until Jesus returns, will be only about three and a half years, including the plagues of the seven bowls of wrath poured out on Rome.

At the moment the seventh angel blew his trumpet, the plagues of that third woe had not yet begun and Jesus had not yet returned. Yet, at that moment, “there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Messiah, and He shall reign forever and ever.’” God has always ruled all His creations from heaven, as the only High King. And Satan's world order has always been a mere subject kingdom on earth, always bowing under God’s final authority. But times of the seventh trumpet would assured the end of Satan’s subject kingdom on the earth, to make room for the sole rule of Jesus over all the earth. And the voices of all the elect and all life in heaven used the past tense to declare that Satan’s kingdom of the world order already was removed and “has become” the kingdom of God, as though Jesus had returned as soon as they heard the trumpet sound. For that past tense indicated that their absolute certainty that our almighty and wise God Jesus could not fail to accomplish all He set out to do at that time. Jesus will fulfill His promise to destroy Satan’s world order, then come to Jerusalem to restore and rule over all the earth.

God’s declarations about the future are often treated as though they were already completed events, even before they actually occur. For God will surely do whatever He wills to do, and there is no chance of Him failing to fulfill all that He promised to do in His covenants and prophecies. For there is only one omniscient, omnipotent Creator God who ordained the end from the beginning, whose power maintains all spiritual and material existence. By His very nature, God is incapable of failing to do anything He wills to do or declares that He will do. But now, ever since the days of ancient Rome, humanists have been trained in a certain kind of delusional vanity which denies the concepts of God’s omnipotence and omniscience. Now Satan’s religion causes humans to somehow think their will is done on earth and in heaven, even as empirical observations of all genuine realities by science and by reason throughout history have proved otherwise. But let elect spirits know and remember this truth, that God will never fail to fulfill literally all that He prophesied and promised in His Word.

After the seventh trumpet sounded, but before Jesus returned to destroys Satan’s world order and rule the earth, John saw this: “The twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, ‘We give thanks to You, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for You have taken Your great power and begun to reign’” (Rev. 11:16-17, ESV). Satan’s world order and most people on earth did not see how their beast and the devil in him had already lost their war against God. But these 24 elders, sitting in heaven awake in upright chairs or “thrones” saw it. These elders were watching the events taking place on earth, where they had once dwelt as the twelve sons of Jacob and as the twelve assistant teachers of Jesus. These twenty four understood that Jesus had now stepped from His throne in heaven, into the material realm, to rule as the one and only High King over all the earth, as that seventh trumpet sounded. Jesus had not yet begun to visibly

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ascend to the earth, and would not ascend for another three and a half years. But He was already transfigured and seized all decision-making authority on earth. Now Jesus would manipulate Satan and his beast into a trap, for their final and utter destruction, just before He set His feet on the earth.

Now let us thank Jesus for finally coming to rule the earth with justice and truth, in His love for His people. For His second advent has already occurred in the future, since all the future exists now. And this is faith, the “assurance of things hoped for, proof of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1, WEB). Our faith should see and do the same as the faith of those twenty-four elders. Then there is another interesting element recorded here. All these words of faith were uttered in heaven. Thus, in heaven, we know that humans who once lived on earth remain alive and awake, in a way where they too can see earthly events, although they see time differently. For those humans in heaven used the aorist and perfect tenses (past tenses) when they spoke about future events. While they were in heaven, they seemed to see future events on earth as events already been completed in the past, as though times on earth and times in heaven were concepts in the mind of God completed from the very beginning.

So faith may be this ability to recognize that time does not pass from moment to moment, in the way we are caused to perceive time while our spirits are bound to flesh on earth. There is no real “arrow of time,” only a perception of it. But our eternal spirits belong to the spiritual realm, where they see beyond what our minds of flesh perceive, since our minds of flesh are themselves a mere perceptions flowing into the minds of our spirits. It seems that, in heaven, spirits see earthly time in its whole, from its beginning to its end, and can look upon any event and moment in the past, present or future of all earthly time. Of course, our spirits cannot actually exist in the earthly space-time continuum, so our spirits simply learn from the perceptions of earthly existence that God grants to our spirits.

All saving faith originates from the minds of our spirits, never from the minds of our flesh. So perhaps, if our God Jesus allows it, our spirits can sometimes also see the past, present and future earthly times, because our spirits actually dwell in the eternal and far more real spiritual realm, just like those 24 elders do in heaven. This may be how Jesus teaches our spirits perceive His promises of His future deeds, as though they have all been already completed. This may be how we know they will occur, with absolute certainty in our hearts. God’s Word says: “Now faith is the reality of things is being hoped, the proof of accomplished works not [yet] being seen” (Heb. 11:1, ALT, from: Ἔστιν δὲ πίστις ἐλπιζομένων ὑπόστασις, πραγμάτων ἔλεγχος οὐ βλεπομένων). Our spirits often know what our eyes of flesh have not yet seen, where this knowing is granted by Jesus’ Spirit to our own spirits.

So Jesus allows our spirits to see some of His future works on earth from the realm where our spirits actually dwell, from the native space-time continuum of our spirits, so our hearts may know what our flesh has not yet seen. But, whether or not some believe this to be true, one thing we do know is that God commands us to learn, think and walk according to the minds of our spirits. Yes, our spirits can and should also employ our minds of flesh. But we must never live according to our thoughts and impulses of our flesh. Our spirits must manage our minds of flesh and our entire lives. The elect must walk in faith, which exists only in the minds of our spirits. For minds of flesh cannot possess any kind of real faith, only a fake faith consisting of psyched up emotions that wax and wane strictly according to influences of physical stimuli. For just love from God is “revealed from faith to faith” and “the just shall live by faith” (Rom. 1:17, WEB). God’s process of salvation is worked through faith alone, through the trust of our spirits in the words and works from the Holy Spirit of our God Jesus. The only way we can rejoice in His promises for our eternal future lives is through our spirits.

But the non-elect spirits born of Satan are always heaping up more damnation for themselves, every second they remain alive, because their spirits choose to believe only lies and delusions instead of

 

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the truth and realities God created and manifested throughout all his creations. Still, all non-elect human spirits will be judged with the elect after the earth ends, to expose their love for this darkness and their hatred for the light. And the non-elect will be judged for the sakes of His elect, so the loving spirits born of God will fully realize why God must cast them into hell, where those non-elect can safely wallow in their beloved darkness for all eternity, without causing harm to any of His good creations. Then the elect will know that those non-elect never really loved any of them, and will not grieve as the non-elect are separated from them forever, but praise God for His wise, loving justice.

So now let the elect rejoice in full over all they have actually gained on earth, both now and already on the future judgment day. For the elect all forever possess things of real, eternal value for their spirits, all that can be called love and truth. And our spirits have already seen how that final day will complete and perfect us. So we pray as the 24 elders did, as though the future has already been seen and completed: “The nations raged, but Your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding Your servants, the prophets and the [sanctified ones], and those who fear Your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth” (Rev. 11:18, ESV). And, indeed, the “small” will be rewarded first and most bountifully, before the elect who became “great” in the devil’s world order on earth. For the last in this world order shall be first in the eternal lands of God.

John then saw another vision immediately after the seventh trumpet sounded: “God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of His covenant was seen within His Temple. There were flashes of lighting, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail” (Rev. 11:19, ESV). But the temple “in heaven” is our God Jesus (Rev. 21:22). So the opening of this temple “in heaven” is the opening of Jesus' heart, when He pours out both His wrath and His love. The “ark of His covenant” contains His Law, His just ways, the very nature of God, all the attributes of God, which He will fulfill in us and through us according to His eternal, unconditional New Covenant promise of His salvation. This is the sign that Jesus will now fulfill all the promises of His New Covenant upon the earth, including all the promises of His Abrahamic Covenant which His New Covenant completes. Now the earth will be just, and everyone will be granted the opportunity to live truly abundant lives.

The physical “ark of His covenant” had been lost centuries before John lived on earth, and the stone temple in earth’s Jerusalem did not have that ark within it. But God’s Law in that “ark” was never lost, merely corrupted by the humanistic rabbis and people. And remember, that physical ark also held Aaron’s staff, the sign of the high priest’s shepherding and guiding of God’s sheep of Israel. And this was also the same staff which became a serpent and swallowed the staffs of political power and authority belonging to Satan’s magicians in Egypt, when they supposedly transformed their staffs into serpents (Ex. 7:9-13). Furthermore, Aaron’s staff also turned the pagan’s worshiped Nile waters into blood (Ex. 7:19), brought a plague of frogs to rebuke Egypt for seeking prophecies from frogs (Ex. 8:5), sent a plague of gnats to gnaw their sinful flesh (Ex. 8:16), and sprung to life with leaves, blossoms and mature fruit as a sign against those who rebelled against God (Num. 17:8-10). Now all the blessings of the true, eternal High Priest’s shepherding, as well as His wrath against evil, would come to the earth, now that the “ark of the covenant” was exposed within the temple of Jesus.

Lastly, remember that a jar of eternally fresh manna was also placed in the physical ark, the first of the manna that came from heaven, the communal and equally shared food that God’s words sent to His people in His priesthood of Israel (Ex. 16:32-33). This food from heaven was to keep His priesthood alive as they wandered through the wilderness of this world. And it was a sign that man shall not live by physical food alone, but by every word that come from the mouth of God (Mat. 4:4). So, when the ark is revealed in heaven, the earth shall receive both the physical and spiritual providence of God, even in a way where none shall have too much and none shall lack what they

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need. Each shall live by the Word of God, taking as much as each needs, both for one’s physical works and life as well as for one’s spiritual works and life. In this way, all will be deemed equal.

The lightning, thunder, earthquake and heavy hail which John saw after the temple in heaven had been opened suggest God’s wrath, which would fall upon the earth. So, although John did not say where these events would occur, they would happen somewhere on earth, as a sign to all believers that the time of the seventh and last trumpet will begun. And, since the eyes of most believers will be focused on the beast’s hatred towards Israel, these signs of God’s wrath probably will occur in Israel.

Now that Jesus would soon come to personally rule the earth, the process of ending Satan’s world order would begin. As the seventh trumpet sounds, the wrath of our God Jesus would focus upon the devil's messiah, the beast, whose kingdom was now the dominant world power. Satan dwells in the beast and sends the beast to resist Jesus with all his might, since he knows his time is short. Six of the seven nations of the beast’s fourth Roman kingdom will be basically the same as the core nations of ancient Rome. So ancient Rome did indeed survive, because ancient Rome was actually a system built on a world view, on a religion syncretizing various philosophical principles, which we now call the religion of humanism. Its physical borders shifted as various factions of indoctrinated Romans conquered and divided the ancient Empire. Yet it not only survived, but took over the entire world. So, during the time of the seventh trumpet, God's wrath shall descend upon those seven nations in particular, but also ensnare and destroy all the other Roman humanists throughout the world. Due to this, Satan in the beast, and all those other humanists, shall become very anxious and very bitter against God and His people, then rage more violently against the elect during their last days of life.

God's wrath had begun to more openly and clearly manifest against the wicked during the times of these last three trumpets, the “three woes,” when He began “destroying the destroyers of the earth” (Rev. 11:18). And, since these enemies of God began to strive to do as much evil as possible before Jesus would annihilate them, God’s temple in heaven has opened, so the true spiritual Ark of the Covenant would be seen, as a hope for the spirits of His elect during these last years before His return. But even this was accompanied by “flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail” (Rev. 11:19, ESV), to instill fear and dread in the non-elect who hated God and His just, loving ways. And this ominous sign will likely occur in Jerusalem, to throw the traitors in that capital city of God into disarray, confusion and death, because they support the beast.

As for that real Ark of the Covenant in heaven, it represents all God's loving and just laws and ways, which He reveals to all, but particularly to His elect. Previously, God's ways were partially hidden from men, veiled to their full understanding, and especially obscure to the minds of the worldly. “For to this day, when they read the Old Covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away” (II Cor. 3:14, ESV). Therefore, when God fully reveals His laws and ways, and shows how His Law can be rightly, justly and lovingly handled for the good of all, the elect who have not yet repented in Israel and around the world, will be made ready for that repentance. This will be a great blessing, preparing them to embrace the loving wisdom and freedom in Christ (Mat. 5:17-20, II Cor. 3:16-18). However, that same Law will be a dreaded warning to all the unjust God-haters, since their evil deeds will be further exposed as vile, selfish, destructive, irrational, unjust and unloving. By causing the whole world to see the true meaning of His Law, Jesus will also be telling the wicked that He no longer tolerates their loveless, ruthless, foolish, vain, destructive lawlessness.

 

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Seventh Seal Prophecies

 

The Book of Joel

Almost the entire Book of Joel is about the days of the seventh trumpet. So it is likely best to exegete it as a whole and not divide it into parts or chapters about the seventh-trumpet events. Joel’s whole book prophesies about the times immediately before the “Day of Yahweh,” just before the day Jesus will return, let me present it from its beginning to its end, as a kind of introduction to the other prophecies about the days of the seventh trumpet. And, in the study of these events, Joel’s book is invaluable. The prophecies God gave him align perfectly with Christ’s Revelation to John, just like the end-time prophecies of Daniel, Isaiah and others. So it can help us understand other prophesies about the events of the seventh trumpet, help us better comprehend all that the Revelation declared.

Joel begins his narrative by talking about how locusts will invade and devastate the land of Israel. Some say he was prophesying about real locusts coming to devastate Israel, and was not speaking figuratively about invading human armies. But Joel himself makes it perfectly clear that the locusts figuratively represent a future invading army. And he was not prophesying about past invasions by Assyria and Babylon, nor even about the wars between Israel and Rome during the first and second centuries. Yes, Joel prophesied that these invading armies would come from the “north.” But the nation to the north is Babylon, the head of the four kingdoms of the beast, the spiritual beginning and essence of the fourth kingdom of the beast’s Roman Empire. And Joel also clarified that these “locusts” will be gathered from “all the nations” of the world, just as the Revelation also describes the last battle of the Roman beast, who gathers his God-hating allies from everywhere on the earth.

Joel described a massive army that will be greater than any army ever seen in Israel before his time, and greater than any that will be seen in Israel ever again (e.g., Joel 2:2), an event involving enemies of God and Israel from the whole world. If we compare Joel’s prophecy to all the other end-time prophecies, we find that he is definitely talking about the beast’s first and second invasions of Israel and the Middle East. Daniel said the beast will invade and occupy Israel, much of the Middle East and parts of Africa in his first year. But, in the middle of his seven-year reign, he will withdraw most of his troops. Then, at the end of seven years, he will return in greater wrath, to a place that John called Armageddon, intending to utterly destroy Jerusalem and all of Israel. And this time the beast will come with a massive international army, with soldiers from all nations. But Yahweh shall save Jerusalem and Israel from the beast on the day He returns as the Messiah, in a body of human flesh.

This day that our God Jesus will return is what Joel called the “Day of Yahweh.” Then Joel declared that, after the Messiah comes, Israel will “never again” suffer adversity (e.g., Joel 2:19,26,27; 3:17). Clearly, since Joel’s prophecy is about events involving the whole world, leading to an everlasting deliverance of the physical land and people of Israel by the Messiah, it can have only have one valid interpretation which can rationally harmonize it with all the other biblical prophecies. We must conclude that Joel’s prophecy describes the times just prior to and after Christ’s second advent. In other words, we can be sure that Joel’s entire prophecy was primarily about seventh-trumpet events.

The date of Joel’s prophecy is not known. Some think it may be quite early, perhaps sometime in the ninth century BC. But most think it was written much later, possibly in the sixth century BC. And, if we look at his comments about events which must have occurred prior to his prophecy—such as when Israel’s neighbors plundered their land, then sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks (3:4-6)—we might even speculate that Joel could have written it sometime after Alexander’s conquest of Israel (332 BC), during the Ptolemaic Empire’s rule over Israel (323-198 BC). Yet the precise year is not important. What matters most is that we realize how Joel was truly uttering words

 

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commanded by God. It is obvious to all who hear God that this prophecy was surely from God. This book was not created by a human intellect, since it perfectly aligns with all other biblical prophecies.

Joel 1:1 to 3:21 (ESV): “The word of [Yahweh] that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel [A ‘word

of Yahweh’ is a prophecy. A prophecy is a concept that God’s Spirit grants to a prophet’s spirit, then commands

the prophet to utter it or write it down, using the imperfect earthly language of his mind of flesh, so another