THE SIXTH TRUMPET (Part 1)

A note before beginning: The sixth Trumpet, which takes part of Chapter 9, all of Chapter 10, and a large part of Chapter 11, IS VERY CHRONOLOGICAL IN NATURE. The intent of the Sender of Revelation was clearly to focus our attention on TIME.

Indeed, ALL of the time features of Daniel 12 have their fulfillment IN or at the CLOSE OF the Philadelphia period. It is, therefore, imperative to notice the chronological focus of all three of these sixth-trumpet chapters.

Rev 9:15 speaks of hour, day, month, and year.

Rev 10:6 speaks of the “chronos” being completed.

Chapter 11 speaks of time measurement in months (Verse 2), in days (Verse 3), and in implied years (3½ years) in Verse 6. It then adds an additional “three and half days” period in Verses 9 and 11 and reinforces the “hour” in Verse 13. Indeed, Chapter 10, as we shall see, is specifically for the purpose of focusing on the “hour” of which Revelation 11:13 and 9:15 speak.

Keep in mind the object of the trumpets is not the same as that of the seals. The seals showed us how historical events of the period affected the church, (viz. the French Revolution, the Enlightenment, the emergence of Protestantism and etc.) while the trumpets show us how present truth (that is those truths then due) affected surrounding society.

Revelation Chapter 9

VERSE 13 “Then the sixth angel sounded: And I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God…”

“The sixth angel was Martin Luther. The “I” is John who represents the Church in the flesh. The voice is a message. (“Four” may or may not be spurious. The golden altar DID, of course, have four horns. Four, representing universality, would show the complete power of the altar.) Horns represent power. The golden altar represents the sacrificing of The Christ during the Gospel Age. Therefore, the message seems to be:

Luther delivered his message, and the Church heard (as a result) a message regarding the power of individual sacrificing with Christ.

This is EXACTLY what Luther’s JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH doctrine accomplished. Christians were no longer subject to the Roman Catholic priesthood and its fraudulent sacrifice of the Mass. They now stood before God as individually consecrated members of Christ’s body, sacrificing individually in Christ as part of the Great Sin-Offering. This message is closely tied to Rev 3:7 where the door is now open and no one can shut it. The saints and history itself are, by this message, released or loosed from the Papacy. The saints were now, in Luther’s words, “A Priesthood of Believers.”

VERSE 14 “…Saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound (in) the great river Euphrates.”

“The four angels here are, no doubt, the same angels which we met in the sixth seal (Rev 7:1-3). It will be of value to review their symbolism. Whether or not four ACTUAL angels are involved behind the scenes is not very material. Four, as we recall, is a symbol of universality. The four angels of Rev 7:1 were standing at the four corners of the earth — all parts of the established order of things. They were instructed by Jesus (Rev 7:2, 3) NOT to let things go to the point of anarchy (four winds).

These four angels are probably the PARTS OF SOCIETY WHICH WILL ULTIMATELY GO TOO FAR thus causing total breakdown.

They are probably the, (1) Social, (2) Political, (3) Financial, (4) and religious elements of society.

“Here in Rev 9:14, Luther is told that his work would release these angels because they were, up until his time BOUND IN THE EUPHRATES. The Euphrates is symbolic of the support of the people given to Babylon. In Luther’s day, of course, ALL support of the people had been to the Roman Catholic Church — the only Babylon at the time.

Because the Roman Catholic Church had complete control over the elements of society, social, judicial, as well as religious, those elements (the four angels) could not function outside of the approval of the Papacy. There could be no social changes, nor financial theories explored, no political freedoms, and no religious questioning. The four angels were, indeed, BOUND in the Euphrates. The people who supported Rome were fearful of giving support to anything not sanctioned by Rome.”

VERSE 15 “So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind.”

The implications of this verse must be viewed carefully. These angels are prepared for a very specific time and work, but they are released to accomplish something additional. In other words, the PRIMARY prophetic work will be for the hour, day, month, and year, but, before that, they are released to “kill a third of men.” This two-fold function must be recognized in the interpretation.

Many suggestions have been made regarding the chronological implications of this verse. Each seems to be forced. We offer an alternative which is derived from within the symbolism of the sixth trumpet. First, it is imperative to note that the Greek text uses the definite article — ONLY before the word HOUR.

Thus, these angels were prepared for:

THE Hour,

A day,

A month, and

A year.

If we look during the period of the Philadelphia Church, what can we find that might be called THE hour?

Nearly all Bible students would conclude that the TIME OF THE END — marked by the close of the French Revolution — is the singular most important “HOUR” in Philadelphia.

Because of this, Verse 15 seems to be saying, the release of the four angels from the power of the Euphrates is so that they will be contributors to the events of the French Revolution. That Revolution could not have happened except that social, financial, religious, and political philosophies and liberties had reached such a degree of development and expression that all fury broke loose because of them — the flood of ideas mentioned in Rev 12:15.

But they are also released for A day, A month, and A year.

Which day, month, and year?

The answer seems clear BOTH in the Revelation account of the sixth trumpet AND in Daniel’s prophecy of the event. It will be the 1260th day (Rev 11:3); it will be the 42nd month (Rev 11:2); and it will be (pardon the strange English) the 3 1/2 year (Rev 11:6; Dan 12:7 and Rev 10:6). Thus, from the sixth-trumpet account alone it is possible to account for THE hour, and one each (the last of each) of the days, months, and years (reaching to THE TIME OF THE END).

But before we reach that special “hour,” (The Time of the End), the release of these four angels progresses so that a third of men might be killed. Once Luther had begun the Reformation, there were three basic parts of the Christian world:

(1) the civil powers,

(2) the Roman Catholic Church, and

(3) the new Protestantism.

These angels didn’t kill Protestants! In actuality, they made Protestants.

They didn’t kill the civil power.

They didn’t kill the Roman Catholic Church either except that those who made up the New Protestantism used to be Roman Catholic members.

Here then is the third that were slain. They (these former members of the Roman Catholic Church) were KILLED AS ROMAN CATHOLICS; they were REBORN as Protestants. This division of Christianity would be one of the factors leading to the French Revolution — the time for which the four angels were especially prepared.”

We move on to Verse 16 in our next post.