Revelation 8 - The Wrath of God / Trumpet Judgments

All right, let's open up to Revelation chapter eight, Revelation chapter eight, uh, what's happening now in the book of Revelation, we, you know, we're calling this the tribulation period, right?

But this is really the moment the wrath of God, uh, begins because everything up until this point with the seal judgments, what is that?

The rise of the Antichrist, uh, world war, famine, death.

A lot of that is, uh, man -made, I mean, warfare is between nations.

This is really the beginning with the trumpet judgments. This is really the beginning of God's wrath being poured out, uh, upon the earth.

So here in Revelation chapter eight, uh, the timeline of the story is going to advance.

I had said the overall events of Revelation are in chronological order, but every once in a while you get one of those parenthetical chapters that stands outside of the timeline.

So we believe that in chapter four, that's when the rapture happens as pictured with John being caught up to heaven.

He sees the 24 elders in heaven. So that's, that's the church in heaven. Chapter six is when the tribulation begins with the seals, as I just mentioned, world war chapter seven was parenthetical.

So the storyline was not advanced in chapter seven. It's telling of events that happen really in the future and in the past.

Uh, so now with Revelation chapter eight, the story is advancing and we see the trumpet judgments because the seventh seal is going to be opened and the seventh seal really leads into the seven trumpets.

And then after the seven trumpets, you have the seven bowls. So the seventh seal includes all of that.

So any questions about where we are in Revelation, you understand, uh, basically the chronology of events.

Okay. So let's, uh, start reading then. Revelation chapter eight, starting in verse one says when he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

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

Then another angel having a golden sensor came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar, which was before the throne and the smoke of the incense with the prayers of all the saints ascended before God from the angel's hand.

Then the angel took the sensor, filled it with fire from the altar and threw it to the earth.

And there were noises, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake. So the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound or seven.

The first angel sounded and hail and fire followed mingled with blood and they were thrown to the earth and a third of the trees were burnt up in all green grass was burned up.

Then the second angel sounded and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea and a third of the sea became blood and a third of the living creatures in the sea died and a third of the ships were destroyed.

Then the third angel sounded and a great star fell from heaven burning like a torch and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water and the name of the star is

Wormwood. The third of the waters became Wormwood and many men died from the water because it was made bitter.

Then the fourth angel sounded and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon and a third of the stars so that a third of them were darkened.

A third of the day did not shine and likewise the night. And I looked and I heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven saying with a loud voice, whoa, whoa, whoa, to the inhabitants of the earth because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound.

So you can see this, this is the beginning of God pouring out his wrath upon the earth.

Uh, everybody, all cultures have their end of the world scenario, right?

Today we have that in our culture and it's called climate change and they have theories of how the world will end and if it's not done by man, they theorize that in millions or billions of years, if we do survive that long, the sun will burn out and then mankind will freeze to death.

So everybody has had their idea of how the world will end. Well, this is God's word of what he says is going to happen with the end of the world or the end of the world as we know it.

Because actually revelation, this isn't the end of the world, right? The world is going to live on, so to speak with the new heaven in the new earth.

But as you can see, things are going from, from bad to worse. Uh, with the seal judgments you had world war breakout.

So in chapter six we saw warfare, a famine, 25 % of the earth's population, uh, died.

And that's really nothing compared to what has started here. Now as we read some of these things, we run into the, maybe not the problem, but the question of how literal do we take these things?

Okay. So that question often comes up and let's just go through that with that question in mind.

Uh, revelation eight one, when he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

Now who opened the seal? Jesus, right? The seal he takes from God, the father who's sitting on the throne.

Christ takes the scroll and has seven seals. So he's opened all the seals. He opens the final seal and there's silence.

Uh, this has been described as something like the calm before the storm. And John, remember

John is seeing everything now from heaven's vantage point and he sees now seven angels in verse two and the seven angels are given seven trumpets.

Now where does the trumpet signify? So in the old Testament they had trumpets in Israel and depending on the sound of the trumpet, it could either signal to the

Israelites, either a call to worship or a call to battle. So the men had to pay attention to the noise coming from the trumpet.

Is this a call to go to the tabernacle and worship or is this a call to battle?

Well, what do you think this is here in revelation chapter eight? Well, it's a call to battle.

Uh, the Lord is now battling against the antichrist and his world system.

So God is waging war upon the earth. You could look at it that way. Verse three, we are reminded of the tabernacle.

How remember when God told Moses how to build it and it was set up here on earth, the tabernacle is actually a shadow of the true tabernacle that is in heaven.

So all these things, the altar and the sensor, these were objects on earth, but there seems to be a tabernacle or temple and an altar in heaven.

Now that raises some questions, but that's what it says. So I believe that those things actually exist in heaven.

But one of the angels takes the sensor. What's a sensor? Who's been to a

Catholic mass and they have that, the thing that swings with the incense, right? Well, that's, that's what a sensor is or something like that.

So the angel took the sensor to offer incense. And we learned that incense, it represents the prayers of the saints.

And we remember in back in chapter six, what was the prayer the saints were offering?

They were saying, Lord, how long, how long until you avenge our blood?

So they're, they're asking God, how long until you take vengeance? Well, their prayer is getting answered right here.

So like I said, the, the beginning of the trumpet judgments, this is the beginning of the wrath of God being poured out upon the earth.

And that's really what the, in verse five, the noises and thunderings and lightnings in an earthquake.

It's just a picture, an ominous sign of, of what's to come.

Any questions so far? Kind of a scary picture, right? So this is similar to what we saw in chapter four.

I mentioned in chapter four, thunderings, lightnings, verse six, the angels are now preparing to sound the trumpets.

The first blast. Now I have the New King James and I think it's helpful just the way they label each trumpet.

So it says the first trumpet, what is struck? Yeah, the vegetation is struck.

And then it's going to be, you know, after that, the sea and then freshwater and then the heavenly bodies.

But first the vegetation is struck. Now it says that hail and fire followed and it was mingled with blood.

So we've all been outside and it started hailing out, right? We've seen that. Now fire may be lightning.

We're not exactly sure, but it says it's mingled with blood. So whatever this storm is that starts falling upon the earth, is this literal blood here?

Because that's one thing that, okay, hail, we can see fire from heaven. Okay. That happens.

But blood, like, do we take the blood literally? Who thinks the blood is literal? I mean,

I guess there's no right or wrong answer. I mean, there is, I guess, the right or wrong answer, but who says literal blood?

Okay. We got like two and a half for literal blood.

Okay. Now I've been telling you going through revelation, the only way to really understand what's happening is to take the

Bible literally. But at the same time, even some of the most literal interpreters, you know, they don't take everything literal.

Let me just read to you what John MacArthur says about this passage. And you know, this is his view of it.

It doesn't settle the issue, but he says, this may describe volcanic eruptions that could certainly result from the earthquake in verse five.

The steam and water thrown into the sky by such eruptions could easily condense into hail and fall to the earth along with the fiery lava.

Dust and gases may so contaminate falling liquid water so that it appears blood red.

So at least according to John MacArthur, he is thinking this probably is not literal blood, but it looks like literal blood.

Erin. If you think about the force of the volcanoes are flung at hurricane forces,

I mean, they're moving that fast and there are birds in the air and it could hit something and there could be literal blood from the devastation of these rocks and these hailstones getting animals.

Right. Of course, God is perfectly capable of allowing it to rain blood.

I mean, that would be that would be a supernatural event. And I realize someone's thinking, well,

I just can't picture that, you know. Well, we don't really know, but God could do it is the point.

Yeah, well, OK. And Jana mentions the plagues in Egypt. So we're we should start thinking about that because there are some parallels here, right?

In the book of Exodus, Aaron, I was thinking it was Moses, but I went back and I read it was it was

Aaron who turned the water in the Nile River and all the waters around there. He turned it into blood.

I mean, it says he turned it into blood. And in Exodus chapter nine, with the seventh plague that fell on Egypt, it was hail mingled with fire or most assume would be lightning.

So there are some parallels with the plagues that rain down upon Egypt with what's happening in Revelation.

Either way, it's this isn't just a really bad storm. I mean, this is a supernatural storm like the world has never seen.

We're coming to it, but in verse eight, after the seed becomes blood, so, I mean,

I think it could be literal. Yeah, and you notice it doesn't say it became as blood because that's what you would want to look for.

It was like blood or it was as blood. That would tell you it's not literal, but when it says it turned into blood,

I mean, it sounds literal, but, you know, that's something you don't want to fight with people about.

But it is a question. So what's happening here? I mean, this is a real climate disaster, you could say.

So I don't know the first trumpet, second trumpet. Are there weeks or days in between the trumpet judge weeks, months?

We don't really know. But as time goes on in Revelation, things are going to start happening quicker and it's going to get more and more intense.

Remember in Matthew 24, Jesus talked about the end times and he talked about birth pangs, right?

Labor pains. So when a woman is about to give birth, right, the contractions, they start to increase in frequency and intensity.

And that's what's going to happen as you go forward in Revelation. The judgments are going to start coming quicker and they're going to get worse and worse.

And it just kind of escalates from there. Now this next thing, verse eight, notice it says, something like a great mountain.

It doesn't say a great mountain was cast into the sea, something like. So that is a signal that it's not literal, okay.

So it says, something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea and a third of the sea became blood.

So, I mean, that's what it says, it became blood. Marcus. Well, there's another time where John, describing

Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, was in such an anguish of prayer that he was sweating so severely, it was like blood.

Some say, well, the blood vessels in your forehead are very close to the skin and so forth.

But it does say, sweat like blood. Right. So it's just, so he might be saying, but he didn't say it was like blood here, he said it was blood.

Yeah, I forget the verse, I think it's in Revelation somewhere, probably we'll get to it, a statement that like, they killed the saints, they shed the blood of the saints, so God is going to give them blood to drink, like it's their just due.

So that's what it sounds like, it would be literal. But anyways, this, something like a mountain being cast into the sea, verse 9 says, a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.

Now what is this mountain, or something like a mountain? The theories

I've heard, something like a large meteor, that's one idea. Some believe it's a nuclear explosion, either way, the first trumpet, a third of the vegetation is struck, the second trumpet, a third of the sea is struck.

Okay, so, is that, do you guys have any notes, in like maybe a study bible that theorizes?

These are just theories, we don't know exactly what it is, but John is doing his best to describe what he's seeing in the vision.

Okay. I tend to think it's something like a meteor, I mean that's, that's where I would lean.

This next thing that happens, because the sea is struck, now it's the fresh water that God is going to strike.

This might be something like a comet falling to the earth. Verse 10, then the third angel sounded, and a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers, and on the springs of water.

Now the reason why some people think it's a comet, because, you know, as it moves, it's burning like a torch, like it would have a tail behind it.

So that's, that's why some commentators say it's a comet. If that's the case, if it's big enough, and it's dropping as it's going across the sky, it could drop particles, chemicals, whatever, to where it's actually covering a large part of the earth, and that's how it's able to contaminate much of the fresh water.

Now what is this star called? You say, well, it says a star. Yeah, but in the

Bible, a star is not like we think of a star, okay? It's hundreds of millions of miles away.

A star would include a meteor, any heavenly body, basically, okay? There's the sun, the moon, everything else up there is a star.

What's it called? What's the name of the star? Wormwood. Now, interesting side note.

Those of you who remember the nuclear meltdown, I think it was in the 1980s,

Chernobyl, right? Was it 86? When was it? Anyways, in,

I don't know if it's Russian, but the name Chernobyl means wormwood.

So there's all sorts of, you know, different theories about that. Of course it was a disaster and it did pollute the environment.

I remember, I think it was on the Jim Baker show. I think I saw a clip of this and there, you know, there's this guy who had this theory about we're already living in revelation because the, what is it, third trumpet.

That's already happened. It happened back in the eighties. So we're already in the middle of this thing. I don't listen.

I don't believe that. It's an interesting coincidence maybe, but yeah.

So just in case you hear that, I wouldn't make too much of it. I looked it up today, like, does that really mean wormwood?

And then one site said, yes, that's what it means. And then another site said, well, no, it means it's a different word, but it's something like wormwood.

So anyways, I just thought it was interesting. So either way, I believe it's something from outer space.

It's something that John saw. It, it came and it, it came down to earth because we're taking this literally, right?

So what's the position of revelation that we take as, as a church?

And I realized there might be, I say we, I mean, there could be someone in the room that takes a different approach and I appreciate you not fighting me on this, but as a church, this is our position.

What, what do we call this position? Futurist. Yes, we are futurists as opposed to the other three, three ways revelation is interpreted.

There's the preterist view, historicist view, and the spiritualist view.

So we're taking things literal. We think revelation is, is future prophecy. So if it says a star, yeah, it's something like that meteor, comet, something falling from the heavens.

So I think we covered the four interpretations. Okay. Do you remember that? Did I cover the four interpretations back in chapter one with the preterist and everything who remembers me talking about it?

So, okay. So I don't need to go over all of that again, but I did want to read cause

I have this book. Who has the, who's seen this? Okay.

I remember. Yeah. Marcus has one. This is called revelation for views, a parallel commentary.

So I would recommend this book. If you want to learn more about revelation, it gives you the futurist view, and I don't even agree with everything that says, but, but it also gives you the other three viewpoints.

So every page it'll give you, okay, this is what the historicists say. This is what the preterists say for every verse, every passage, it gives all four viewpoints.

So I want to read to you what some of the other viewpoints are on this passage, but yes.

I've forgotten the author. Yeah. I was going to mention Steve Gregg, Steve Gregg with two

G's or three G's G R E G G. Okay. So we believe it says a star.

What is the star? It's a star. It's a meteor. It's a comma. Okay. Okay. Here's what the historicists say about Wormwood.

You ready? They say that the great star of this vision is

Attila, the Hun who's Attila that you know, Attila, the

Hun. Did you learn about him? And history? Yeah. They say the great star is

Attila, the Hun. Now, how do you come to that conclusion? Is that in the text? It's probably not drugs, but okay.

It's not in the text. They say the role, how did they come to that conclusion? They say the

Romans knew very little about the Huns before 440. Their emergence was sudden as a blazing meteor.

Okay. So the Huns broke on the scene and it was sudden like a meteor. Therefore, Attila, the

Hun is Wormwood. I mean, I'm trying to be kind here, but that's,

I don't think that's true. That is a classic case of eisegesis.

That's just a fancy word for you're reading your own ideas into the text of scripture. That is not there at all.

Okay. So the historicists say that Wormwood is Attila, the Hun. What do the preterists say?

Ready for the preterists? So historicists, what they do is they take the events of revelation, okay, and then they take a timeline of church history and they lay one on top of the other.

So they take events in revelation and they tie it to events throughout history. That's how they do it.

The preterists say this all happened in the past. So the second coming of Jesus was 70

AD when the Romans destroyed the temple. That was Jesus coming back in judgment. Okay.

So historicists, or excuse me, preterists say it's in the past. Here's what they say about Wormwood.

The turning of fresh water sources, bitter and toxic, may be in part a literal result of decaying corpses that lay in the

Sea of Galilee and in the river as the result of war. So when it says star, they interpret star as not a star.

The Roman army came in, slaughtered the Jews, and all these corpses laying around polluted the water.

So that's Wormwood. Again, I mean, that's not quite as far out as Attila the

Hun, but is it in the text? It's not in the text. What is in the text?

That it's a star, because that's what it says. So that's what we believe. Here's the other viewpoint, the spiritual interpretation.

They say the turning of pure waters, bitter and undrinkable, might reflect the fact that God in the

Old Testament refers to himself as the fountain of living waters and complains that his people have forsaken him for idols, which pollute their worship.

Jeremiah two, 13 and 23. When men prefer the bitter waters of idolatry to the fountain of living water, they will receive these bitter waters with the fatal consequences which follow.

Now, while I don't hold to the spiritualist view of revelation, that is much more reasonable than the other two.

But still, you know, it's just not what it says. So I believe this now more than ever.

The only right way to understand revelation is to take it literally. And if you take it literally, you have to hold to the futurist view.

Amen. Marcus, amen. Okay. All right. So let's, let's, speaking of sticking to the text, let's get back to the text.

You know, but one problem though, with taking it, you know, allegorically or spiritually, if the text doesn't mean what it says, what does it mean?

If, if Wormwood is not literal, how do you know the new heaven and new earth isn't literal?

Maybe Jesus coming back at all isn't literal. Hey, maybe heaven isn't, maybe heaven is a symbolic for, maybe none of this is real.

Maybe it's all symbolic for something. See that, that's the road that once you get on this track of everything's spiritual, everything's allegorical, you take that too far.

Next thing you know, the resurrection of Jesus is allegorical and you have no savior. And that's really what the mainline

Protestant denominations have done with the book of revelation.

So why do they do that? What's behind this, this desire, this reinterpreting of revelation, so where it doesn't actually mean what it says.

You know, I can understand this because when you read revelation and God is pouring out his wrath upon planet earth,

I can understand somebody thinking, you know what, I really wish this, this isn't real, or I really wish that this isn't going to happen or something like that.

Right? The human heart doesn't want this to be true, right?

This is, I said, I'd get into the text and I will in one moment, but this is an illustration.

Who saw, who saw the Superbowl commercials, the one in particular about Jesus called the he gets us ad campaign.

Okay. Okay. Um, basically he gets us, it's paid for to have a

Superbowl commercial. I mean, you have to pay like $3 ,000 a second, $3 ,000 for 15 seconds.

Well, it's going to be like, it's going to be like 30 million for like one commercial or something.

Yeah. Anyways. It was a three. Yeah. 300 million.

I don't know. I don't know. It's some crazy number, but there is this commercial and the whole premise is, you know,

Jesus, he gets us. So it showed a woman outside of an abortion clinic and had

Christian protesters in the background. Like they're the bad guys, like these protesters, they're not like Jesus and had somebody washing her feet.

So, Hey, if, you know, if you're in that situation, then Jesus unders, he, he gets you, uh, had a, a, a priest washing the feet of a homosexual.

Um, so, you know, Jesus, he understands, uh, had a police officer washing the feet of a, like a,

I don't know, some guy in an alleyway who looked a little rough around the edges.

Man, I don't know. I mean, there's all these scenarios and at the end it says, Jesus did not preach hate.

He washed feet. Now, did Jesus preach hate?

Here's the thing. You know, when people say things like that in a Christian context about hate and being against hate, you, you know what they're saying.

Christians are a bunch of haters and the real Jesus isn't like that.

My interpretation of that commercial and just the, the mainstream way

Jesus is presented when powerful people talk about Jesus, when Hollywood talks about Jesus, their

Jesus has no wrath. He's fine with sin. He's cool with whatever. He has no wrath at all.

The book of revelation says the exact opposite. Not only does God have wrath, he's going to pour it out and he's going to pour it out on the whole world.

And people just don't want that to be true. Yes. And these, these, uh, wacko, uh, groups are somehow always able to come up with a good slogan to begin with.

You know, when I first saw the first sign, Black Lives Matter, I was for it.

I love an awful lot of people in Haiti and Africa and, and yeah, they really do matter.

But behind it all is a, is a group trying to cause division between black and white people.

This is what Satan will always do. And this one, this new one here, this Jesus gets us.

He gets us. He gets us. Yeah. Well, yes, he really does get us. He is omniscient.

Yep. He created us. Of course he gets us. So you can say, yeah, he really gets us.

He knows everything about you. He knows all your thoughts and he loves you anyways, then you can say, yeah, he gets us.

Yeah. Yeah. Black Lives Matter. But if you buy into it, uh, you know, further what they're saying is he condones and approves of all these things that Christians disapprove of.

Yes. That's what it is. Disapprove of, of, uh, abortion.

We do. Yep. And so does he. Yeah. Yeah. But this is the idea that, uh,

Jesus, uh, has no wrath. He is, he's yes, he does get us, but here's, here's what they always leave out, whether it's them, these mega churches that are punting the football across this, all of these people, the one thing they always leave out or two things, repentance is one thing you'll never hear about repentance and God's wrath.

You'll never hear about it because they're, they have an idol and the idol that they worship, they call them

God or Jesus, but he has no wrath and revelation. I don't know how they view revelation, but it's nothing you need to worry about, but, and I don't think you have to worry about it.

If you're saved, you don't have to worry about it, but the world does. Okay. All right.

Yes. Did you say who sponsored that one? That commercial? Uh, it was, uh, the green family that owns or started

Hobby Lobby. They're the primary donors. Of course.

You know, I have to say this, that sometimes, um, this happened with Chick -fil -A,

I think like the, the guy who founded it may have been solid or someone who is a

Christian. They started an organization, that organization is solid, but then they have kids and their kids take over or they have grandkids.

So, and you know what, maybe they're, maybe they're rich and they're out of touch and they don't even know what is happening with the money.

So I'm not, I don't want to place blame on any one individual cause I don't know. All I know is that the ad campaign is trash.

Okay. I'll say that. Right. Let's, let's get back. Let's get back to the text, dearly beloved, um, verse 12 and then the fourth angel sounded in a third of the sun was struck in a third of the moon and a third of the stars so that a third of them were darkened.

A third of the day did not shine and likewise the night. So the vegetation is struck, the sea is struck the freshwater and now the heavenly bodies.

So, uh, one commentator says this, that God will supernaturally reduce the intensity of the celestial bodies by one third.

The loss of solar heat will cause a radical drop in the biological cycles, uh, the three woes to come one for each remaining trumpet blast.

Uh, basically all the, they say, although these four judgments are unimaginable, the ones we've looked at, but the three that are to come are far, far worse.

So we'll, uh, cover that next week, but let's just finish with verse 13 and he says, and I looked and I heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven saying with a loud voice, whoa, whoa, whoa.

So these are the three woes, the three remaining trumpets, whoa, whoa, whoa, to the inhabitants of the earth because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet and of the three angels who are about to sound.

Now I had said earlier, and I'll just wrap it up with this, uh, the trumpet judgments are likely based on the trumpets in ancient

Israel. Again, when they were, when they would sound, it was either a call to worship or a call to battle.

I find it interesting, even though God is doing battle with the inhabitants of the earth in heaven, what's happening.

Every time something happens on earth, every time a judgment is poured down, what's going on in heaven?

Oh God, you're so great. Holy is it? You know, God is being praised every step along the way.

So in conclusion, if a person refuses to heed the call to worship, if you hear that trumpet that signifies worship, so to speak, you know, if you don't worship the

God of heaven, um, the person who refuses to worship the Lord is going to be, if they're on earth at this time, they're going to be on the receiving end.

Uh, as God is waging war with mankind, you say, well, that's terrible.

My God would never do that. Man, man fired the first shot this war between God and the inhabitants of the earth who started the war.

God created man, put them in a garden, gave him paradise on earth.

What did man do? He rebelled. He's been rebelling ever since.

And the book of revelation is finally God stepping in and saying enough is enough.

But the good news of the gospel is if a person would place their faith in Jesus, the true

Jesus, the true Jesus that calls people to repent and believe on him, uh, we will be spared from these judgments because as the scripture says, we are not appointed to wrath.