Revelation Chapter 11

The Seventh Trumpet

As explained by Brother Frank Shallieu in The Keys of Revelation

VERSE 19 continued “Then the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple. And there were lightnings, noises, thundering’s, an earthquake, and great hail.”

Noah’s Ark and the Flood

“And the Lord said, my spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years” (Gen. 6:3; Matt. 24:36–39; Luke 17:26–30; 1 Pet. 3:20; 2 Pet. 2:4–8).

In Noah’s day the earth was “filled with violence,” “the wickedness of man was great,” and “every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:13, 5). This concise, graphic portrayal of conditions back there corresponds to those rampant today. However, to describe either the trouble that prevailed before the Flood or present-day conditions as the Day of God’s Wrath not only is incongruous but is totally unacceptable.

The violence before the Flood originated with fallen man and a depraved society influenced by demons in open rebellion against divine authority. The latter took (forcibly if necessary) unto themselves human wives of all whom they chose (Gen. 6:2). Both the materialized fallen angels and their subsequent progeny were mentally and physically superior to Adam’s race. Man’s own inhumanity to man, plus the demoniac violence, makes the ascribing of guilt an easy task, “for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth” (Gen. 6:12). It should be noted, however, that God’s wrath was displayed not in the preceding evils but in the precipitation of the Flood itself—something beyond human and angelic origin. The same is true today. In no way is God responsible for the obscenity, depravity, lawlessness, and terrorism that afflict human society. These are not the results of His anger.

We are living in A time of trouble, but not THE Time of Trouble to come. The “flood” of God’s indignation is to be equated, as it were, with the precipitation of a figurative nuclear “winter.”

In spite of the world’s current ills, the Scriptures declare the present time to be still the “summer” of God’s favor; that is, although the Gospel Age is expiring, this is still the day of salvation or the time of harvest to as many as will now quickly lay hold of eternal life (predicated, of course, upon prior repentance). The true Church will pass beyond the veil of human experience before “winter” (Jer. 8:20; Matt. 24:20–22; Luke 21:36). But, thank God, those terrible days will be shortened . . . NOT on behalf of, NOT for the sake of, but BY the Elect.

According to the Apostle the Ark prefigures the salvation of souls through baptism (or consecration) into Christ’s death (1 Pet. 3:18–21). Only when Noah’s Ark was finished, and entered into, did the Flood come. God waited 120 literal years for the completion of the Ark.

It took seven days for Noah and his family to enter the Ark; those seven days represent the seven periods (or stages) of the gospel Church during which the faithful have been entering the antitypical Ark. When the Ark is fully occupied, the Lord will close the door and shut the Little Flock within (Gen. 7:16). After that cometh the “flood”: the lightnings, voices, thundering’s, earthquake, and great hail of Revelation 11:19.

One reason for supplying information about the Flood is that a definite relationship exists between Noah’s Ark, the ark of bulrushes that bore Moses upon the waters of the river Nile, and the Ark of the Covenant seen in the Most Holy of the Temple.

Flashback to the Angel with the Censer

There is a close relationship between the temple scene of Rev 11:19 and the vision of the angel and the censer of Rev 8:3–5. Not until after the incense and the prayers of the Very Elect have been fully offered up will the golden censer be filled with the fiery coals of divine wrath and cast into the earth to cause “voices, and thundering’s, and lightnings, and an earthquake.” Or stated another way, not until after each of the seven angelic trumpeters has blown his trumpet will the “lightnings, and voices, and thundering’s, and an earthquake, and great hail” come to pass. It is during this commotion on earth that the half-hour silence in heaven occurs (Rev. 8:1).

Summation

The “lightnings” are further future revelations of truth exposing what conditions should be, but are not.

The “voices” are vehement clamoring’s of the people for their real and fancied rights as a result of the revelations of truth (on all subjects).

The “thundering’s” are the fearful repercussions and sporadic violence associated with such contention.

The “earthquake” is the complete rupture and upheaval of Satan’s present order followed by the red hand of anarchy.

The “great hail” is a deluge of truth in its most compact form that falls selectively upon the heads of the proud and those who do wickedly (Mal. 4:1)—upon those of the world who disobey the instruction to “seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger” (Zeph. 2:3).

Hail is often associated with the voice of God’s indignation (Josh. 10:11; Isa. 30:30; Psa. 18:13), which will “sweep away the refuge of lies” (Isa. 28:17). But it will be specially directed against the “drunkards of Ephraim” (Isa. 28:1–3), the false prophets of Christendom “that prophesy out of their own hearts.”

“Thus saith the Lord God,…Ye have not gone up into the gaps [breaches], neither made up the hedge for the house of Israel [God’s people] to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord…[ye] have seduced my people, saying, Peace; and there was no peace;…ye, O great hailstones, shall fall…So will I break down the wall that ye have daubed with un-tempered mortar,…and will say unto you, The wall is no more, neither they that daubed it; to wit, the prophets of Israel which prophesy concerning Jerusalem [the city of God]” (Ezekiel 13).

Thus, we conclude our study of the Seventh Church, Seal and Trumpet.