Revelation Chapter 8

The First Trumpet

VERSE 7 (NAU) “The first sounded, and there came hail and fire, mixed with blood, and they were thrown to the earth; and a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.”

The mingling of blood with the hail or truth and throwing it into the earth would seem to indicate the misuse of doctrine in the churches dealing with the world as represented in the symbol “earth”. It’s possible that some in the early church used the threat of judgment to frighten some into coming into the church (As many still do today). God never wanted anyone to be forced to join the church, but rather intended that all who came into the church should come because of a desire to further his Divine Plan. We know the tactic of fear was definitely misused later on and so we suspect it had small beginnings in the early church, which grew into a big problem later.

The blood that was mixed into the hail would seem to be pointing to one of two things. One possibility is that it could be that the blood or false ideas that were coming into the early church were already poisoning the truth or water that had just been given to them, just as the blood made the water in the Egyptian plagues undrinkable and unable to sustain life.

The second possibility is that the doctrine of the blood of Christ or salvation was already being corrupted and thereby being cast into the earth. As an example of that we know that some in the early church were already claiming that Christ did not come as a man (an actual man, of flesh and blood) but that he was a spirit being (merely disguised as a man) while on earth.

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.” (1 John 4:1-3)

That false idea is what led to the Trinity doctrine later on and it also led to the loss of understanding about the corresponding price of the ransom.

If you have a correct understanding of the ransom then you would know that the doctrine of the trinity is false for they are not compatible (harmonious) one with another. For further insight on this matter please see our blog posts entitled “A Ransom for All”, “A Ransom for Adam”, and “Those Who deny the Ransom”. The Ransom is one of the first and foremost principle doctrines, and it should be thoroughly understood by all true Christians especially new converts less they be inadvertently led astray into one of the many false doctrines now infesting the professing church, the church nominal, such as the false doctrine of the trinity, the immortality of the soul and eternal torment as the wages of sin. The Ransom sacrifice stands in direct opposition to these false doctrines.

Continued with next post.