Barometers of Faith ...

How great is your imagination?  What kind of pressure does reality put on it?  The two-year-old set is unburdened with the day-to-day pressures of survival / life / death; social loneliness; concerns about their health; and for most, whether they are loved.  They simply do not live under that kind of stress or strain.  Most are able to completely trust that whatever issues may exist out there in the world, mom and dad will handle them.  Thus the toddler is fully capable of enjoying life, all the while, just knowing mom and dad have a handle on the rest of it.  This is so true, that toddlers do not even “think” this way.  They just live in it.  It takes the perspective of an adult, to understand what “reality” is like in the world that surrounds your given toddler child.  It is only the adult that has the wisdom and perspective to really understand what is going on, and what “could” happen.  Most of the admonitions we hand out then to our children are designed to be preventative, to keep the bad stuff from entering their reality.  When the accidents do occur, we are there to demonstrate a love to them, that will comfort in spite of the boo boo that life has somehow introduced.  A model of family, a picture we should be extending in our thoughts and faith towards our God.

But what is the net effect of nearly zero stress, and absolute trust; a mind free to imagine nearly anything.  Toddlers will gladly draw you a picture of nearly anything that enters their own thoughts or ideas.  Objects in the pictures very rarely resemble what they “are” – instead they represent how a child sees that object – and accounts for the lack of Michelangelo prodigies.  They are proud to have their “work of art” displayed on the refrigerator with magnets sold for this purpose.  They take joy in having mom and dad make a great deal production when the art is submitted for its gallery spot on the fridge.  They also take note when mom and dad share the work with grandparents, and highly tolerant friends, who seem to be in on the idea of making a big production of how great it is when the artist is nearby.  While Picasso might be hard pressed to identify any of the objects in the art-work, in the mind of the child, they are as clear as day.  Imagination, can nearly completely take over the point of view of the artist, allowing them to see renaissance paintings, where others only see crayons on construction paper.  It is only age, and the stress it brings, that can cause the artist to lose the memory, of what he/she was trying to convey.  While still young, and unencumbered, the masterpiece is easy to decipher.

Imagination is not just limited to expression, it is boundless in ideas.  Children “invent” new animals, generally by combining characteristics they enjoy from the ones they are familiar with, and coming up with something entirely new.  Who says you cannot put wings on a frog?  Or give him a nice long furry tail.  I don’t hear the frog complaining.  And if you listened closer you might hear the frog tell you what to do next.  The kids hear it.  They hear stuffed animals talk as plain as mom and dad.  They assign life like characteristics to many an inanimate object, and then expect you to join in on the journey of imagination.  When adults refuse, play comes to an abrupt halt.  A piece of plastic molded into the shape of a doll is a lifeless rock, without any imagination to bring it to life.  A $20 waste of money, if you cannot play with your child, in the way your child wants to play.  The fact that the box it came in, cannot be thrown away, as it is serving as a doll castle, is yet another testament to the idea that children can play with trash as quick as they can play with treasure, and find them both equally appealing under the same imagination.

So we understand our kids can make stuff up, and believe it is real.  It is a function of their age, but deeper than that, it is a function of a mind free from the burdens of reality.  Now lets talk about you and I.  Is it possible for you to ditch that adult perspective for a moment, and embrace the boundless creativity of the mind of a child – then take it a step further.  Let your adult mind, truly believe it is possible to make it real.  This is a trick nearly no adult has mastered.  We just do not believe it is possible.  Reality and history argue with that idea quite successfully.  But they are wrong.  Case in point; Matthew recalls in his gospel picking up in chapter 21, an unusual story of things that just do not happen “normally”, but “did” anyway.  This story is not just your typical Jesus miracle.  It begins with a hungry man, or more accurately with Jesus being hungry.

Picking up in verse 18 the story begins by saying … “Now in the morning as he returned into the city, he hungered.”  To set the context, this verse refers to Jesus, who is returning to Jerusalem near the time of His pending betrayal, and right after His triumphant ride into the city.  It is the next day.  Jesus has spent the night, likely at the home of Lazarus in Bethany.  Why Mary and Martha did not prepare Him a breakfast banquet we don’t know – maybe they did.  But nonetheless, Jesus got hungry again.  Now keeping in mind, that Jesus did a 40 day fast in the wilderness to start His ministry, the idea that He got that hungry after breakfast, or since dinner the night before seems hardly noticeable.  More likely, Jesus told the disciples about His hunger, because He had a lesson to teach them, and us.

Continuing in verse 19 it says … “And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away.”  OK that qualifies as the weirdest scripture in the book in my opinion.  First of all, Jesus is the creator of ALL life.  If He found a barren tree, He could have just as easily made it fruitful.  That is kind of His thing.  He takes our barrenness and makes us produce worthy fruit as we submit ourselves to Him.  But that is not what happened.  Instead He sees a tree in the distance that looks like it should have lots of good fruit, likely hidden in the bountiful leaves.  But when He gets there, it has only leaves.  A whole lot of camouflage, nothing good to eat.  So instead of a lesson in self-sacrifice, Jesus curses this tree and says in effect, you are not going to fool anyone else, from now on and forever more going forward, no fruit will ever grow on you.  The net effect to the tree, is that is withers up and dies right in front of all the disciples, like if you have a time-lapsed view of a plant dying.  But instead of days or weeks, this entire tree dries up to nothing and falls away within minutes of what He says.

The disciples are freaked out.  Matthew writes in verse 20 saying … “And when the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, How soon is the fig tree withered away!”  Nobody had ever seen a tree wither up and die in minutes instead of months.  No famine.  No chainsaw.  Just one negative pronouncement from the Creator and this tree is history.  Object lesson #1 – you don’t ever want to find yourself on the wrong side of a negative pronouncement of Christ.  Like say … when you have forgotten to visit those who are sick, or in prison.  Or perhaps when you were too worried about safety or inconvenience to invite home a person with no place to live or stay.  Or perhaps when you thought donations could substitute for actually loving someone else.  That kind of thing.  Also coming a time when the pronouncement let he who is unholy be unholy still – that one is particularly ugly.  Makes you think for a minute huh?

Object lesson #2 – destruction is as real as salvation, and as permanent.  Jesus speaks this way to a tree, not a human, because for us there is still hope while we draw breath.  There is a chance we may still submit ourselves to Jesus and find that He recreates who we are from the inside out.  If Jesus had done this to a human, even say Judas, the same level of destruction would have ensued.  The person would likely have died.  So instead, Jesus speaks this way to a tree, to an object of life without a soul.  But the demonstration is breath taking.  And it can illustrate the permanence of destruction, as easily as His miracles of restoration to us, illustrate the permanence of salvation.  It is we alone who can tear ourselves away from the love of Christ, by our choice to do so, and our ultimate rejection of Him.  But even though we may choose to focus on these kinds of object lessons from what took place, they were still not the point Jesus was trying to make.

Fear, was not the object lesson Jesus had in mind.  The story continues in verse 21 saying … “Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done. [verse 22] And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.”  Ahh, here is what Jesus was trying to convey.  The impossible is “not” really impossible.  So I ask again, how great is your imagination, how much pressure has reality inflicted upon it?  Trees do not just wither up and die in an instant.  But on the scale of things, that is pretty small next to the idea of speaking to a mountain and telling it, you have a better location for it, out in the sea somewhere.  In our age we would have to enormously careful with that one, as nearly the whole planet has people on it given the explosion of our population across the earth.  But that is not the point.  Reality is not the point.  Faith that truly believes IS the point.  Toddlers have it right.  We are the ones all messed up in our thinking.

We speak to God like we are trying to make Him aware of our problems, you know, just in case He might, maybe, want to do something about them.  We are ALL sure He “can” do something about them.  We are completely UNSURE if He “will” do something about them.  That is not faith that truly believes, that is barely faith at all.  I see a whole lot of leaves, and very little fruit.  No limits; was the message of Jesus.  Do not pray with the idea that there is a limit to how big a thing you can ask, how impossible it looks to you, how ridiculous it sounds to everyone else – be a toddler – show that crappy picture to Jesus anyway cause only He understands the weird shapes and crayons of your life to begin with.  He will take your ridiculous prayer picture and hang it on His refrigerator and hold a parade in heaven so everyone else can come see it.  He longs for us to trust Him just that much.  To be able to bring Him anything, and like a toddler does with earthly mom and dad, just to KNOW, that whatever it is, our heavenly Father has it handled for us.  We need do nothing.  We need not worry about anything.  He has it.  Only He really understands it, we just do not have the perspective.  We are toddlers, He is the only adult in the room.

So what can you imagine?  And before you start thinking like an adult with an imagination – gee, could I be rich, and perfectly healthy, and in need of “nothing”.  Scratch that and think like a toddler who does not worry about those things – now exercise your imagination – and what do you come up with.  Giving a frog wings, and a long furry tail, does not seem like something to waste our prayer energy on.  But if we actually believed He would do it – there would be a new species of frog discovered this afternoon that would baffle scientists for years to come.  (though they may believe “they” discovered a missing link in their silly theories of evolution, so perhaps that is a bad example).  The point is not to focus on the limitations, but to live and pray as if there are none.  Because there are none.  Becoming like a little child so you can enter the kingdom of heaven, looks a lot like this. 

We should not just pray for something, cause maybe, if the winds are right, and if we have done enough to “deserve” the answer we want, we may get it.  We should pray for what we truly need, knowing He answers our prayers every time, even when they sound crazy.  We should perhaps start praying in earnest not for what we need, but for what others need.  Remember toddlers already KNOW their parents will meet whatever needs they have.  This would free up Jesus to pour out His love on others, even when they refuse to ask for it themselves, or even recognize He is our God, the only God.  People who do not know Jesus this way are unlikely to ever pray to Him for what they need.  Why not do it ourselves on their behalf.  We may pray someone else to salvation doing this and never even know it.  When Satan yells at Jesus for trying to influence the life of someone who is not asking for it, Jesus can respond that He is simply answering the prayers of someone else who asked Him for that very interference in the life of someone who needs Him.  This kind of prayer frees up and unleashes the power of our God.

If you are too timid to start moving mountains around.  If you are too scared to ask for the cure to cancer.  Then start small, ask for the salvation of Jesus in your own life, and in the life of someone who you know needs Him.  Then sit back and watch what happens.  If you need to pray again because you are not sure if it worked, pray again.  Do what it takes to build trust in your prayers and certainty in the God who really is your Dad.  Before you know it, you will start making crazy prayer paintings that only those in heaven can understand.  You will come to KNOW you are heard.  YOU are HEARD.  And Jesus moves mountains for you anytime you need it.  That is the thought that should scare you.  Unleashing the power of your God should make you a little nervous.  Because His power is truly unlimited.  Not the idea that His power is never poured out on your behalf.  That is a lie Satan tells.  And you need to ditch it, in favor of understanding how powerful your Dad is, what He is longing to do for you.  Know it.  Don’t just have faith, Know it.  And the word impossible will lose all meaning to you.  And winged tailed frogs will appear on mountains on their way to the sea, or perhaps something more meaningful in the topic of salvation, will become evident between you and God.

 

Contrasts of Finality [part one] ...

We have only ever known the events preceding the end of all things, of life as we know it.  For 4,000 years the people of this world waited in anticipation of the first coming of the Messiah.  All they ever knew were the events that preceded His first coming.  Many slept before that great day of our salvation arrived, before God became man, and showed the world what it means to love each other.  So now, we live on the other side of the coming of the Messiah, on the precipice of the end.  We are on the brink of the abyss, staring over its edge into the unknown.  But the reason for revelation is to demystify what is coming, to remove the fear, to maintain the peace of Christ.  John was given these beautiful Revelations of Jesus Christ in order that we see our salvation plainly, understand the attacks of the enemy in order to avoid deception, and know with surety, the outcome of the coming battles as well as the end of this war between good and evil.

All of the Revelations given to John thus far pointed to the events now about to unfold.  Every love-soaked message, every warning, every admonition, every prediction, was designed to lead mankind to the foot of the cross, to find our salvation based in Jesus Christ alone.  In the end, there are only 2 sides, a final contrast between good and evil as reflected in the people who walk the earth.  There is NO middle ground.  There are not 50 shades of gray, nor any other variety.  There are not many paths to God, there is only one.  There is only the blackness of infinite depth that comes packaged in the slavery of self-love.  And there remains its contrast: the bright white light of freedom to love others that is the basis of perfection, harmony with God, and comes in the form of our salvation brought about solely by Jesus Christ.  These 2 contrasting ways of life are all that exist in the end.

Those who bear the mark of the third beast, are content to compel the conscience of others.  They live to exert control.  They are wholly blind to the hate that lives within them, to the bloodlust they are so free to express.  They have deceived themselves into thinking that to kill those who do not share their majority view, is to do the work of God Himself.  But in truth, in Christ, they do not serve truth, nor Christ.  They serve only the dragon, who has only ever sought to compel the minds, hearts, and deeds of mankind in his self-based-service.  By contrast, God has only ever offered a choice to accept His love or not.  To be a true choice, what is selected by mankind must be respected, it must be allowed.  Those who have chosen to find salvation through Jesus Christ alone, MUST find it, or God is not God.  Those who have chosen to seek salvation in themselves in any way, or to seek salvation not at all, are to be allowed to have that choice respected in finality for all time.

What changes about our world at the end of all things, is not the choice, or the results of that choice – it is the finality of that choice.  For 6,000 years, God has waited patiently.  He has tolerated our lives steeped in evil, in order to see us redeemed from them.  He has longed for us to choose the freedom He offers.  He has put up with our refusal to come to Him.  He has shielded us from the pain our choices cause, protected us while we spit in His face, denied His victories, claimed credit for His deeds.  He has faithfully loved us, while we were anything but faithful in return.  He has acted as a loving parent trying so desperately to protect an erring child from the path of self-destruction they have chosen to embrace.  But patience has its limit, time for evil is not infinite, and evil is unrelenting.  Should time be allowed to progress forever, evil would consume every living thing it touches, till none remain.  Ironically, it is not God who forces the end of all things to be.  It is mankind.

When once the compulsion of the conscience upon pain of death is embraced by mankind the world over, mankind will have forced the finality of his own decision.  In effect, our decisions will be written in blood one way or the other.  For those who believe, and who define their identity in following Jesus Christ alone, we write our decision in the blood of Christ.  For those who refuse, they write their decision in the blood of the saints.  Whether Cain, or Abel, whether saved by Christ, or lost to self, the finality of our choice MUST be respected, or it is not a choice at all.

The plagues that John has only recently described were poured out, only AFTER this choice was made.  Evil has suffered the judgments of God, only AFTER evil determined it would never change its mind, it would never choose to be reconciled to God.  And the destruction that evil has embraced is now seen poured out into the world.  The evil woman, the Jezebel, the mother of harlots, and great whore of blending self into the process of our salvation has been judged of God.  She is to be slain.  Babylon, that great city, that government who should have been the light of the world, whose wealth made all rich; has used its power and might to bring destruction through the threat of commerce to the entire globe.  The false prophet, the impersonator of all deities, the dragon has now marshalled his forces to war against the returning lamb.  The contrast is made evident again.  Those who await the return of Love, hide from hate, choosing not to confront it, or kill it, or even to hurt it.  Those who think themselves as pure, and in blind zeal follow their false god, seek to kill any who dissent.  They seek no redemption of their foes, only their extermination.

The contrasts of finality are set.  Evil stands armed, ready, and desiring to kill those who would gently oppose it.  The righteous are buried in the love of Christ, they care for each other, and reflect such deep sorrow for those who WILL not seek love evermore.  The saved seek life.  The lost seek death.  The finality of their choices must be respected to be considered choices at all.  It is in this final scene, that John reveals the contrast of the second coming of Christ.  Believers have only ever longed to see this day.  Many will report, will consider, will think, that they long for it.  But they will be disappointed.  The Pharisees too, did nothing but devote their entire lives to the study of the word.  They lived every day reading, debating, and trying to deepen their understanding of scriptures, of the law, and of God’s will.  They too longed for the Messiah.  They just longed for different kind of savior. 

But when the Messiah appeared, He brought with Him a return to the simple, humble, message of love and service to others.  And the inflated ego of the Pharisees would not accept it.  They had mastered the law and the scriptures, and were wholly ignorant of the love behind them both.  They had put their trust for salvation in the power of self, in the mastery of what “they” learned from scriptures.  They needed no dependence on something outside of themselves to be saved, and thus they were comfortable with murdering the Giver of the law, and the scriptures they devoted their lived to study.  So at the end, history repeats.  Many Christians now stand armed and ready to slay all those who will not yield their conscience to the views of the majority.  They bear the name of Christ, and live the hate of the dragon.

But for those who love others, the end of pain is thing of celebration.  The finality of the triumph of love is a moment all have waited for.  So against this backdrop John continues to reveal what transpires in chapter 19 and very 1 saying … “And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God:”  The first fruits of His salvation, those who were raised from the dead at His crucifixion and returned to God as the first fruits of humanity now praise the Lord their God and our God.  They cry out to honor Him, for He alone is worthy of glory.  He alone has shown the definition of glory in unselfish love to others.  He alone is worthy of honor and power, for His love is more powerful than all the evil that ever has existed.  And His salvation is His gift to us.

John continues in verse 2 … “For true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. [verse 3] And again they said, Alleluia. And her smoke rose up for ever and ever.”  There is a respect for finality in the praising statements the first fruits offer.  The judgments of God, His stamp of approval or denial have been made known as to the all the false doctrines of the churches who claim His name, and serve the dragon.  Those who sought to find salvation in themselves, whether alone, or in part, have found only the results of evil’s punishments poured out on their doomed efforts.  The many true followers who they killed in the name of a saving God, are avenged in the plain declaration of God’s disapproval of their actions.  The finality of this question is to be made clear, and permanent.  The phrase John uses is “her smoke rose up for ever and ever”.  The results of God’s judgments are final, there will be no additional discussions, no revisions, no edits, no opinions.  The matter has been judged, and the results are to be eternal, for ever and ever.

Notice here, it is not the torment of the whore that is to be eternal.  She is not to be tortured forever.  These texts reveal she is already dead, burnt, and gone.  It is her smoke, the after-effects of her destruction, her lack of existence, and the memory of her error, that is to last forever.  She does not stay in a state of perpetual dying.  She does not get to live on, whether in agony, or through adapting to pain, to live a tortured existence constantly bemoaning her state.  Eternal life, even in agony, is NOT her fate.  But she is to die.  And she is to remain dead.  The memory of her evil choices lives on the smoke, but not her consciousness, nor her body.  The dead know not anything.  She will sleep the sleep of non-existence, neither sharing the joy of love, nor the agony of dying.  It is a contrast in finality.

John continues in verse 4 … “And the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen; Alleluia.”  Here again the 24 elders, the representatives of our world that sit closest to God and witness His work for our salvation, praise Him who gives freely to all the redeemed.  In addition, the 4 beasts, or representatives of the other creations of our God, the other sentient life around the universe we know so little of, also praise Him.  Notice how they humble themselves, by lowering themselves, in effect falling to the ground.  When we see the love of God through the lens of perfection, even after millennia, it overwhelms us, and causes us to prostrate ourselves before the glory of His love.  We will never fully understand it, forever learning more of its depths, and trying better to reflect it.  The time of the redemption of mankind is not just a cause for human celebration, it is one for universal celebration.  There is no “prodigal’s brother” in this story, only servants of the King who are glad to throw a celebration at the redemption of he who was lost and is found.

John continues in verse 5 … “And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great.”  We do not know the source of this voice.  Perhaps it is the voice of the Holy Spirit, perhaps the voice of the archangel.  Both the cause of celebration is to be universal, both in our world, and in all the other unfallen worlds across the galaxies.  The response comes quickly as John continues in verse 6 … “And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.”  The response echoes across the universe, it sounds like rushing water, like thunder, in its declaration of praise and thanksgiving.  It is likely many voices in one accord, all echo the praise our God deserves.

John continues in verse 7 … “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. [verse 8] And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.”  Here John recalls the analogy of the wedding feast Jesus spoke of so long ago.  Five foolish virgins and five wise who took the extra precautions to be ready with extra oil – in this case he focuses attention on the bride herself, the church of Christ, the true followers of Jesus.  There are they who love.  These are they who cannot imagine breaking His laws of love, nor choosing to follow another, nor identifying themselves as anything other than followers of Jesus Christ.  These do not kill.  They love.  These do not compel.  They invite and accept.  These do not condemn, they focus on redemption.  These have made themselves ready in the acceptance of the salvation that comes from Jesus Christ alone.  Notice how John carefully uses the words “to her was granted”.  This shows that the fine linen, that is clean and white, and represents the righteousness of the saints IS A GIFT!!  It is “granted” to her, it is given to her.  It is not something she earned, performed services for, or bought with her wealth.  It is a gift, granted to her from her Husband.

The angel continues to speak to John in verse 9 … “And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.”  All who are redeemed are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.  In addition all who witness the redemption of fallen mankind from around the universe may well enjoy that invitation too.  We are not the exclusive creations of our God.  We share His love with our fellow created beings.  And perhaps on that long awaited day, we will share a feast with more species than the ones we recognize today.  John’s joy in the reaction to this scene of so great joy overwhelms him as he continues in verse 10 … “And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”  John is so thankful he is ready to worship the bearer of so good news, but the angel is quick to correct him.  The angels of heaven know, that only God is worthy of worship. 

This angel identifies himself in such simple yet profound language.  He refers to himself as a “fellow servant”.  He too works His part in the mission of our redemption, in SERVICE to others.  In identifying with John he reminds him gently that these revelations are part of his mission in the redemption of mankind.  He then identifies himself secondarily as “of thy brethren”.  The angel considers himself to be part of our family.  He accepts us, even with all our undeserved nature, faults, and history; as a part of his closest kin.  He adopts us into his family without reservation, limitations, or preconditions – sound familiar?  It should.  It is the nature of the love of God reflected through this one of his creations.  He then points out to John, that the testimony of Jesus Christ is the Spirit of Prophecy.  Jesus testified while here of what was to come.  He spoke of what He alone could know was going to take place.  All through this book of revelations, Jesus has revealed Himself and our salvation to John through each and every prophecy. 

The scene in heaven is set to joy, a stark contrast to what lay below it.  The finality of the judgment of God is to be celebrated and lamented.  The contrasts have only begun, more was to unfold in just a few moments …

 

Seven Trumpets [part four] ...

We continue our examination of the seven trumpets from part three of this series.  One woe is past, two are yet to come.  The sounding of the sixth trumpet is to correspond to the second woe poured out upon the earth.  The first woe that emerged from the darkness was so thick it inspired a desire for death, rather than to endure the poison of the scorpion locust army that tormented those men who had not the seal of God in their foreheads for a period of 5 months (or 150 years, if we apply the day for a year interpretation).  A darkness so terrible as to inspire a wish for death that would not come, should be enough to give us pause.  Have we embraced the poisoned doctrines of secular atheism that would deny us our meaning and our worth?  Or have we embraced the poisoned doctrines of self-created salvation that would offer us the lie of perfection within our own grasp by simple choice and will, absent the need for a savior?  Indeed the fifth trumpet sounding was to wake us from these woes, but the sixth trumpet is ready to sound, what is the message it carries?

John continues his revelation of Jesus Christ in the ninth chapter and verse 13 writing … “And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, [verse 14] Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.”  The reference to an altar that is “before God” implies another similarity between the original worship system defined for the Israelites who wandered the desert and the heavenly archetype it represents.  Similarly, while the need for the altar and continued sacrifice is no more, having met its fulfillment in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ as our Lamb of God, it remains a reminder of what was done in order that you and I might be freed from our slavery to self.  It stands as a memorial to what it took, what Love was willing to pay, to see your value realized, to see your meaning realized, to see your freedom realized. 

The message given from the altar is to the sixth angel to go and loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.  The idea conveyed that something, or some event had up till now been restrained that is about to be loosed and allowed to work its course.  Often the forces of evil are restrained by God, and kept in check.  If this were not the case, evil would overwhelm the world and kill everything in its path.  Evil has no mercy.  Evil has no restraint.  Evil has no sense of enough; it has only a hunger for more.  When once, the slavery of serving self is embraced, its end cannot be found in any other path but death.  It is why our Savior is needed to alter this course, and see us find life, instead of the highway to death our choices would otherwise result in.  The wages of sin being death is not the result of a judging God, but rather the consequence of a hunger that will only deepen until death offers it a final release.

John continues in verse 15 … “And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. [verse 16] And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.”  The first element to the work of the four angels bound in the river Euphrates who were now loosed was that of the time of their work.  The preparation they had made, or the time they were allotted, was an hour, a day, a month and a year.  The second element uniquely identified to this woe is the number of horsemen being an army of 200 million.  The original scorpion locust army had no such designation in numbers, only thought of as swarms that appear without end.  While the central point of origin is here identified in the region of the river Euphrates, also associated with this woe, is a specific amount of time, and a specific amount of participants.  Also identified here was the goal, to slay the third part of men.  Yet another result being associated with the “thirds” as outlined in the earlier trumpets sounding.

John continues in verse 17 … “And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. [verse 18] By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. [verse 19] For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt.”  Very similar to the original scorpion locust army these were horsemen.  They had similar characteristics but to these were added the issue of smoke and fire out of the mouths of these horsemen.  Gunfire is the most apt application for this symbolism were we to look for a more literal association.  But as with the original scorpion locust army, the power to hurt men was still in their tails, in the poison of the doctrines of their mouths, the doctrines of serpents with heads, that cause pain.  And their result was the death of the third part of men they had prepared to kill.  Great is this woe.

John now records the effects of what has been unleashed as he continues in verse 20 … “And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: [verse 21] Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.”  In the days of Israel of old, God would remove His protective hand from them when they used His blessings on themselves, believing they could worship whatever gods they wanted, and perform any acts of selfishness that brought them pleasure, while still claiming to be God’s people by right of birth.  It was when Israel strayed so far, indulging self, and self-passions, that they rationalized it was acceptable to throw the unwanted offspring of adultery with temple prostitutes into the fires of Moloch, or Baal, that it was time for an intervention by our God.  Likewise in the times of this trumpet the forces of the four angels bound in the Euphrates are unleashed upon the earth in order that the evil choices and doctrines embraced by those who claim to serve God might be revealed for the folly they are.  The intent of these interventions was to cause us to see the results of our choices and our embrace of selfishness.

Summarized in these two verses are again a call to love God, and worship Him only, our Creator.  Also is contained the basis of loving each other.  Sound familiar?  When Christ summarized the Ten Commandment law He referred to both of these principles in order.  Love God first, for without this no other love is possible.  After having chosen to love God, we can then begin to learn what it truly means to love each other.  Here in verse 20, is a reference to our love of the real God, having gone astray to instead loving “the works of our hands”.  Whether those works are made manifest in idols of gold or wood, or stone; or whether they emerge as large corporations, or large homes, or large personal accomplishments – what remains the same is our tendency and natural desire to worship what we do, and who we are.  This common thread unites secular atheism, with the Catholicism of the dark ages, with the practices of Islam – the tendency to rely upon self, our actions, and our will, to see us saved from evil.  But again John records the calling out of our loss of the love of the true God.  And he again records the results of what happens when this love is lost.  We begin to think killing is ok, or good.  We begin to think we can substitute sorcery for the power of God.  We begin to think fornication is good, and theft is only natural.  Our conscience towards other men is dulled, by our desire to see self praised and worshiped ahead of any God or any idea of God.

To carry the seal of God, is to know loving Him first, and through gentle submission to Him, find ourselves learning to love like He does.  God does not love and show love to Himself.  Instead He shows it to us, freely, and without restraint, as we allow Him to do so.  The darkness that the four angels unleash continues the woe begun in the sounding of the fifth angel’s trumpet.  That warning went unheeded and now the stakes are raised.  Instead of mere torment, the third part of men find the destruction their actions and beliefs have led to.  Instead of embracing the repentance this woe was designed to illicit, men only deepen in the darkness they have embraced.  They add to their crimes, an embrace of dark supernatural influences in the form of sorceries.  It appears this final warning is to go unheeded as well. 

If we look to interpret this sixth trumpet from a spiritual context in a message to the church we might find several interpretations.  First, it might be found in the rise of the kingdom of Babylon which is predicted to occur right before the second coming of our Lord.  Babylon, and the darkness of self service, combined with a denial of any God, is surely on the rise.  Atheistic leanings invade the church as many believers begin to doubt the miracles outlined in scripture which give example to the power and supremacy of our God.  Creation is doubted, and evolution is theorized instead.  Noah’s ark is considered fable and allegory.  Virgin birth is denied.  Before you know it, the Bible is reduced to story-telling of morals designed to scare or guilt its readers into submission.  And many within Christianity embrace some level of this poison from the scorpion into what they believe, never seeing the pain it will bring, and the results is will bear. 

A second interpretation from a spiritual context might be found in the Time of Crisis that begins in the 1800’s and extends to the final second coming of Christ.  Our faith has long suffered the effects of looking at self to find salvation from evil.  We have perverted texts that discuss the evidence of our transformation from submission to Christ as witnessed in what we do when we are in harmony with Him; as instead pre-requisites we are able to perform by our own sheer will.  We put the deeds ahead of the reason and motives for the deeds.  We claim faith without works is dead, as if works could illicit and inspire faith, instead of the other way around.  The devil has introduced this sophistry to confuse and bewilder, and ultimately depress the believer with the truthful realization he is “not good enough”, and “nor will he ever be”.  Our own actions and will power is simply not enough to see us rid from sin.  We fail repeatedly, until the tempter inspires us to give up, and give in.  But we fail, not because it is impossible, but because it is impossible for us doing it the way we do – of our own strength.  It was never intended to be so.  It is ONLY through submission that we find His perfection worked within us.  It is ONLY through submission that we are brought into harmony with His laws, and learn to love like He does.  The work of our perfection belongs to Him, not to us.  The poison of looking to self for salvation, has stunted the growth of the gospel, and our own Christian experience.  We have no victories to claim, and live like our contemporaries, because we do not allow ourselves to be transformed by His power.  We do not allow Him to change what we want, fearing to lose those things we desire.  We fear His true transformation of who we are, as if we would lose something that actually matters when it does not. 

This poisoned understanding of salvation, that we can do it for ourselves, or in a “partnership” with God, where we do all we can first, and then allow God to make up the difference; it is these poisoned ideas that keep us in a perpetual state of pain, guilt, and grief.  It does not present the freedom and liberation of the gospel to the world.  Instead it presents a picture of self-loathing and judgmentalism of others that offers no appeal, no lure, instead only alienates those who need His love the most.  We are no different than those we are attempting to witness to, because we have not abandoned self any more than they have.  We still want what they want, and do what they do.  We are not truly transformed by Christ into the new creation He intends us to be, because we refuse to rely upon Him to do so.  We look to do this work for ourselves and the poison of the scorpion remains within us.  Our crisis is self-created.  We could end it, with a simple recognition that submission to Christ brings real change, real reform, and a real freedom to love we have yet to truly experience.

To see this trumpet in a more political context could be found in the rise of the Ottoman Empire.  The first element of the prophecy, namely that of timing, (391 years applying the day for a year principle) corresponds to history from 1449 to 1840, or from 1453 to 1844 depending on which events one uses to measure it.  Much like its predecessor, the doctrines of Islam are the motivating influence behind the wars and the conquests that ensue.  And the opposition that fights against this expansion also fights from a misguided sense of spiritual motivation.  In either case the edict of toleration seems to mark the end of this period of work of the powers that emerged from the Euphrates region and swept across one third of the world.  Earlier studies of this trumpet marked the time down to the very day, which offers further evidence that perhaps this method of interpretation has merit.

To see this trumpet sounding in a more modernistic method is to presume another regional war is coming (or has been taking place in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, and Israel) for some period of time now.  Another Middle Eastern war is not out of the question as recent history has demonstrated.  Kuwait was only recently a victim of this.  Terrorism which while state-less, has its tentacles in nearly every Middle Eastern country could also be seen as factor towards a more modernistic interpretation.  Obviously to see this fulfilled in our day, a 391 day period would be more literal.  And the number of 200 million participants seems to sound more like populations affected, than the literal size of the military effort that might be undertaken in that region.  But who knows, how a future event of that size might transpire?

Again, the most salient and important question to ask regarding any potential interpretation of this trumpet sounding is, how do we see the redemption mission of Jesus Christ met in what is relayed?  From a spiritual context, whether as a warning against the rise of the Kingdom of Babylon, or as a rebuke to folly in the Time of Crisis that ends His second coming, it seems the trumpet is sounding to call us to repentance.  If we are to heed the warning call, we must return to loving God, instead of the idolatry of loving the works of our hands.  We must return to loving others, forsaking the sorceries that vie for our attention, forsaking the ideas that killing others in the name of any religion is anything more than fallacy, forsaking the theft that would indulge our self-service; and instead we should embrace the idea of truly loving others like He loves them.   To find His seal in our foreheads will require our submission to Him in order that He might bring us into harmony with His law, and His character.  We must abandon who we are, and seek for Him to re-make us, into who He would have us to be.

From a political context, the rise of the Ottoman Empire has had its day, another in the sequence of our empires.  Rome is gone.  The Muslim alternative remains only another part of the mix of clay and iron in the feet of the statue.  Our God calls us to find our salvation in our Savior.  We are not to look at the magnificent works of art of the great Cathedrals of our faith, and transfer our worship to the images of what they were made to represent.  Great works of art may be admired for their craftsmanship and artistry, but not as substitutes for what they represent.  God is not found in Cathedrals or Mosques, but in the human heart where He belongs, but only as we allow Him a position there.  If we are to be saved, we must be willing TO BE Saved.  One does not save themselves, they are saved by something greater than themselves.  This message is consistent in the sixth trumpet whether looking spiritually, politically, or even with a modern lens.

To find the sounding of the seventh trumpet we would have to jump ahead in scripture past 2 significant other prophecies.  So part five that will conclude this series will be delayed while the other 2 significant prophecies are examined for what they tell us in the meantime.  But there is one more trumpet left to sound …

 

Seven Trumpets (part two) ...

We resume our study of the seven trumpets of Revelation continuing from part one of this series.  John writes in verse 7 … “The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.”  If this is truly to be literal, it must also be a future event.  Should our world lose 33% of its tree’s and 100% of its grass, the effects would be so devastating that it might indeed end life as we know it on our planet.  Therefore if we consider a more historical context to apply the symbolism described here, we might find fulfillment in a few ways. 

First let us consider the implications of this trumpet being another message of great importance to the church and the servants of Jesus Christ.  In this context, the first trumpet may have sounded to announce the judgments of God on the city of Jerusalem for its complete rejection of the Messiah and the role it played in the murder of our God, done in the name of religion.  Rome destroyed Jerusalem, inadvertently setting the temple on fire, which melted the gold that dribbled down all the way between the stones in the floor.  Thus the errant Roman soldiers were told to destroy the remains of the temple and dig up the rocks so as to get the gold from its foundations, leaving “no stone upon another”.  But no Christians died in the terrible siege and taking of Jerusalem.  They saw signs in the heavens, and remembered the warnings of Christ to flee without looking back to gather your belongings.  The early Christian church was spread out into the world, and Jerusalem tasted the results of her complete rejection of the cornerstone of her faith.  If the message of the first trumpet was directed at an early Christian church under the pagan persecution of Rome, this may well have been the hail of Roman destruction, that ultimately mingled fire in the blood spilled and cast upon the earth in the temple there.

Another view of the first trumpet may have been in a more political context.  Trumpets often precede war, and are used within war to give direction to coordinate troop efforts when the noise of battle might otherwise overwhelm the sound of a human voice.  If the context were political in nature, one interpretation might be assigned to the Visigoth barbarian hordes that rained a hail of destruction down upon the once great Roman empire.  This was the first step in reducing the legs of iron into the feet of iron mixed with clay.  Constantine had divided the Roman empire into three sections in order to place each of his three sons on a throne, and to better provide for the defense of the empire.  The western seat was attacked by the Visigoth Alaric, equating to a destruction of one third of the empire at that time.  The reason to apply this particular war to the sounding of this trumpet may also coincide with a view of the ten horns or kingdoms, where three were up rooted by the little horn.  The Visigoths surely helped break up the Roman empire, but their legacy was not to be forever felt.

Finally a more modernist view of the first trumpet sounding, interpreted under the ideas that these trumpets are to sound in the last days before His returning might be found in scorched earth policies exacted in the Second World War.  A great deal of modern Ukraine was ruined during WW2 by policies of scorching the earth so that nothing of value remained.  This would have met the idea that all the grass was burnt up, and nearly a third of this area of the world destroyed in one form or another.  Regardless of the viewpoints outlined here, all interpretations include attributing symbolism described in John’s visions to events in our history.  Whether as important messages to the church, or the history of the fall of an empire, or the destruction we have witnessed in our last days – each employs the same methods of ascribing characteristics and events in parallel with what John relayed.  Again it must be noted, that perspective matters when taking this approach.  The earliest Christian church may well have interpreted the sounding of the first trumpet as described above because they bore witness to those events.  The potential modernist view is only possible from our own perspectives as now these events are a part of our recent history.

Perhaps the most important question, is how do we see Christ revealed in the view of interpretation we take of this revelation?  Do we see a warning of the consequences of rejecting the sole method of our salvation as witnessed through the destruction of Jerusalem?  Do we see that it is Christ who ultimately controls the halls of power and succession of kingdoms that traverse our history of empires?  Do we see that even in the massive destruction that occurs in our modern world of war, that Christ is still ever present and ever in control of these events, and more importantly of our salvation?  These prophecies are revelations of Jesus Christ.  They are not mere history lessons.  They are not meant to be scare tactics.  Fear does not bring about reform, only love can do that.  Only love provides the motive for reform.  So if we are to see Jesus in these revelations, how do we see Him?  Do we see the love of Christ, or have we become fixated on times and events and the things that seem to threaten our way of life?  Our lives in this world are of little consequence, they only have meaning in how we can share in the ministry of loving others to see them connect to the source of redemptive love and salvation.  Destruction is not the goal, redemption is.  Without this context, our study has little relevance.

John’s vision continues in verse 8 as he relays … “And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood; [verse 9] And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.”  Again from a purely literal point of view this would also have to be a future event.  It describes what we might refer to as a meteor which descends into an ocean killing a third of life there, and a third of the naval ships in that ocean.  The level of destruction between the first trumpet and the second could all but kill life on our planet from a pure reduction in oxygen if nothing else.  So again to interpret these events as purely literal seems counterintuitive to looking at our God attempting to draw us closer to Himself that He might redeem a fallen world.  If we then attempt to interpret this passage in a symbolic form there are several meanings that might emerge.

First, if the message is again similar in context to a warning to the church, it might be applied to God’s judgments against pagan Rome.  After addressing Jerusalem in the first trumpet warning, this centers our attention on the ideas that false gods, and many gods, do not form alternate paths to the real God.  Pagan Rome had at the center of its doctrine the worship and exaltation of self.  No passion or pleasure were to be denied to the affluent citizens of Rome.  They did not use their wealth and knowledge extensively in the service of others, but instead like Israel before them, they turned inward, became corrupted and only deepened in their self-embraced slavery to indulgence.  The various forms of false gods included the ideas that war, or sex, or violence were to be praised.  While human sacrifice may not have been an official form of worship, it was highly condoned in the arenas with the gladiator slaves who were sent there to die violently to the cheers of the crowds.  The level of debauchery had no equal.  And the judgment of our God was to be felt on this ideology. 

The lesson was for us to see.  The lesson has not been heeded.  We emulate Rome nearly perfectly.  We no longer have arenas where slaves are made to fight for their existence.  But we do have a class of people with great means, who are content to see their fellow citizens struggle to survive while they spend their means indulging their every whim.  The poor aspire to be the rich.  The rich work to insure this never happens.  The class warfare exploited by our politicians is all too real, but it is waged in secret in the halls of power.  What is missing in our society was the same thing missing in ancient Rome, a desire to see wealth used to benefit all in need.  Today, we blame the poor and downtrodden for their own condition.  We judge them that it is their lack of willingness to work, to take ‘dirty jobs’, or work 60 hours a week instead of 40 that sees them remain in their poverty.  There is little if any empathy.  There is instead an abundance of apathy and self-obsession and desire to be ‘entertained’.  We too look to the needs of our empire before we look to the needs of our citizens.  We too worship the false gods of money, of power, of defense, and of control.  But worst of all, we too worship the exaltation of self at the expense of our submission to something greater than ourselves.  So what might have been a message to our ancestor role model regarding the fate of this path, remains unheeded in our day.

If the sounding of the second trumpet was to be of a political variety, then perhaps the Vandals did to pagan Rome in a physical sense, what was also seen from a spiritual one.  The Vandals grew in power in Spain eventually crossing the straights of Gibraltar into Africa.  They swept through the southern Mediterranean coasts of Africa and built a sizeable navy.  Rome, not wishing to lose the jewel of its supply lines sent its own navy to combat the Vandals.  The Vandals used combustibles and sent them into the heart of the Roman fleet.  The net result was a great fire spreading out across the fleet.  Soldiers died either in flame, or by the sword of the Vandal navy who remain relatively unscathed.  Death by fire in the sea could be seen as a more historical and political view of the sounding of this trumpet.

If we were to look for a modern day fulfillment of this trumpet sounding, with an eye towards an interpretation of keeping the trumpets in the days of the last generations; we might find its fulfillment in the great naval battles of the Second World War.  From Pearl Harbor, to the war’s end, nearly 36,000 ships were lost (just about a third of those that fought).  The imagery of fire cast into the sea, could have been seen in the testing of nuclear bombs that would have killed sea life in the area.  Or it could be fulfilled in the normal conventional naval bombing runs that occurred throughout the war.  Many millions of lives were lost in WW2, and the imagery John witnessed could have conceivably met its interpretation if we put the lens of modern perspective on these events.

Once again, no matter how we choose to interpret the imagery and prophecy of the vision John describes, we must ask ourselves, how does it reveal to us Jesus Christ and His intent to see us redeemed?  In one sense, Christ may be revealing to us, that the worship of self leads to the level of debauchery the Roman empire experienced, and to a similar fate of self-determined destruction.  He may also be revealing to those who have means, that prolonged abuse of the poor and downtrodden gives rise to the Vandal empire who may resort to physical retribution to the apathy that has kept them under the oppression of the rich.  Wealth after all, did not defend the Romans from the Vandals, but instead made them a target of retribution and theft.  Wealth is therefore, by definition, temporary.  It can be shifted.  Whereas wealth, or what is truly important in the kingdom of heaven, cannot be shifted or taken away.  Love of others, absent selfish motive, can offer a permanence that transcends even this life.  That is the kind of wealth, that does not inspire retribution, and cannot be taken by the Vandal hordes. 

If we are to see Jesus revealed in the great naval battles of WW2, what are we to learn of Him there?  Do the countless stories of heroism and self-sacrifice emerge under the conditions of fire reigning into the sea?  Does what emerges become known as ‘the greatest generation’ not because of their military prowess, but because of their willingness to finally sacrifice self and isolation to keep freedom in the world?  But if so, where is the revelation of Christ in all of it.  I am not fully certain the redemptive love of God is found in the pride of our accomplishments, but rather in the humble submission that results from knowing we need a savior, not that we are one.

John continues his revelation in verse 10 … “And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; [verse 11] And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.”  Once again a literal interpretation seems unlikely.  For a star called Wormwood to fall to the earth and hit a central place where all the freshwater emanates making a third of it bitter is again unlikely.  Obviously nothing is impossible for God, but as in the previous soundings, this too seems more likely fulfilled with the application of the symbolism, than in waiting for a future literal event to occur.  What begins to emerge however, as we read these passages is yet another pattern of numbers.  In this instance what we see are the results of these trumpet soundings having an effect on “one third” of the things they describe.  In the first trumpet it is one third of the trees.  In the second, it is one third of sea life and the  navy.  In this one it is one third of the fresh water.  In the next it is one third of the atmosphere.  Each of the first four trumpets (as distinct from the remaining three woes), seems to affect one third of the objects they reference.  I am not certain how this is to be understood outside of the context of the Roman empire being divided in three parts, but it is worth noting.

If we are to seek the interpretation of the sounding of this trumpet as a message to the church, it might be found in the revelation of the difference between professed Christianity and actual Christianity.  The worldwide ascendency of the Catholic church who professed Jesus Christ in its doctrines did not set the true example of the worship and ministry of our God.  Christ, the king of all things, came to our world in abject humility and lived in humble service to others His entire life.  He amassed no wealth.  He made no elaborate cathedrals.  He required no offerings of gold or silver to obtain His favor, or purchase His free gift of redemption.  He established no doctrine of celibacy among those who were to lead His church.  And His own law forbid the crafting of graven images to serve as representations of things to worship neither in this world, or in His heaven.  Indeed, the exertion of control attempted by the Catholic church alone, was completely counter to the ideas of submission He taught and lived Himself.  To compel the conscience has never been His method, and only exclusively used by that of Satan His enemy. 

Because we ‘claim’ to serve our God of love and service to others, does not mean that we do.  Satan is all too happy to see us purport to serve Christ, but instead serve only ourselves and our own needs.  If we do not truly attempt to submit ourselves to Christ in order to see our own desires changed, we will be doomed to continue to want the wrong things.  Our struggle with sin will persist, because we do not allow Christ to change our desires within us.  What happened to the degeneration of the doctrines and example of Christ within the Catholic church of the dark ages, can just as easily happen in the hearts of the modern believer.  When we rely upon self, and refuse to be re-created, we embark on the same path, with the same predictable results.  The third trumpet sounding may well have been intended to wake us both up, to the nature of the path we tread upon.

If we are to see the continued political interpretations of the trumpets, then the sounding of the third one may well have represented Attila the Hun (the star who descended) and his hordes that forced the Romans to endure the bitterness of humility at the point of a sword.  During his rise to prominence Attila forced the Romans to pay annual tributes of gold to keep his destructive force at bay.  At one point Attila changed the terms of their agreement raising it from 350 pounds of gold per year to 750 pound of gold per year.  In addition to gold, Attila demanded a Roman princess Honoria accompanied by an immense dowry of wealth.  Indeed the bitterness of humility of the once supreme Roman empire was brought about by Goths, Vandals, and now the Huns who in concert seemed to only aggregate the damage and destruction of once thought ‘eternal empire’ of Rome.

If we were to turn our point of view to a modern application of this third trumpet, we might find it in the events of Chernobyl.  Even the meaning of word Chernobyl can be seen as Wormwood, and its effect of poisoning the fresh water of the nearby rivers and connecting underground reservoirs was devastating to the entire region.  Many died from the contamination brought about by the world’s worst nuclear disaster.  The waters were indeed made bitter, and many died from drinking them.  This interpretation definitely addresses the poisoning of fresh water, and is again something found only in our own days, the days of the last generations before He returns. 

But if we are to focus on how Christ is revealed, and upon His messages of redemption, what do we see of Jesus in these various applications of this revelation?  Perhaps the key revelation of Jesus to the church, and to the pagan Roman empire, and to modern men of science that build Chernobyl is the same.  We are all in desperate need of humility.  It is our arrogance that poisons church doctrine.  It is our arrogance that leads us to believe the empires we build will stand forever against the sands of time.  It is our arrogance that makes us think our scientific knowledge exceeds the wisdom of God, and makes us believe we need no humility or submission, instead we need only the next achievement.  Pride is said to be an original sin.  Pride is what is held in common in all three interpretations of this passage, and the inevitable destruction that follows pride, is the predictable result.

John continues his revelation in verse 12 … “And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.”  The last trumpet sounding in the sequence of four, follows a similar theme to its counterparts.  Again we avoid a strictly literal interpretation as it is difficult to imagine how it might be achieved.  But if the message is to be intended for the church it might be found in the darkness of the Middle Ages.  When once we have abandoned humility and submission to Christ, we cut ourselves off from the source of all Light.  We come to embrace the darkness of trusting in self, and lose our ability to see the Light, for we turned away from its source, instead trying to find it in the mirror.  The trumpet blast is meant to call us to look upwards once again.  It is meant to sound to call to our ears, what our eyes refuse to see.  We are not the source of our own salvation, nor is there to be found in us the truth we need to find.  The only source of truth is Jesus Christ.  The only source of change and reform is Jesus Christ.  The only way to find the Father is through the work of Jesus Christ.  The trumpet sounds to wake us from our self-imposed slumber and return us to the light of Christ.

If we were to seek a political application of this trumpet we might find it in the fall of western Rome, the last vestige of the old Roman Empire.  The once great light of Roman law, Roman representative government, Roman roads, even Roman justice had long since decayed over time, and now was finally and fully snuffed out.  The last emperor resigned, the senate had no meaning left.  The barbarian hordes had done their work, and what light remained was now gone over the course of the third of Europe.  Rome was the iron legs of the prophecy of Nebuchadnezzar in the book of Daniel.  It had now been officially reduced to feet of clay mixed with iron.  The world would never again know a universal power until the Lord returns.  To find application of these trumpets in the Roman empire instead of the Incan, Aztec, Indian, or Chinese empires has more to do with where the majority of Christians and the church of Christ were located.  To this point in time the gospel had largely been spread only in Roman territories.  The Messiah had come, lived, and died under Roman jurisdiction.  A Roman governor pronounced sentence and Roman troops insured the application of that sentence.  While the Jewish religious leadership was behind the death of their own Messiah, it was Roman hands that were sullied in the work of it.  Pilot might have released and freed Jesus.  Had he taken this bold step, he would likely have joined in the fate of Jesus, for the sacrifice must be made.  However through that outcome, Pilot might have helped to exonerate the Roman empire, and keep them from any responsibility at all of what happened to Christ under his watch.  But instead, Roman weakness, and Roman corruption led to the death of innocent blood, a pattern that was destined not to change.

If we change our perspective and look at the fourth trumpet in light of modern events, one could ascribe the application of this revelation to global climate change.  The toxins in our air have resulted in a steady decline in light that reaches our earth.  Some studies of pollution in major cities show this reduction to be nearly 37% in Hong Kong for example.  Los Angeles, New York, Mexico City, etc., the list goes on.  Major population centers with higher emissions are going to naturally result in a dimming of both night and day light that reaches our world.  This is a condition that merely 120 years ago could not have been imagined, yet it exists today. 

Perhaps the blast of the fourth trumpet is meant to be the noise we need for our ears to awaken us to look out of our darkness.  We are not meant to trust in the greatness of our political power, or our judicial systems.  We are meant to trust only in Christ.  We are not meant to pollute our world, or our souls, with the darkness of trusting to self.  But instead we are to see the light of Jesus Christ as it is revealed in His work of changing who we are into who we were intended to be.  When our eyes fail us, our ears must take up the work.  When we are mired in darkness, we must follow the sound of the trumpet and be led out of darkness.  But as with the warning of the previous trumpet, in order to be led, we must be willing to be led.  It was our lack of humility that led us into darkness.  It can only be a return to humility that will see us led out of it.  While we look to the mirror to find the light, we will find none.  We must instead look upwards, and see the true source of all light in Jesus Christ.  This is the revelation to call us to see.  This is the mercy of our God, His hand outstretched to us in all ages, in all times, in all locations.  He calls us, with blast of the trumpets, to find our redemption in Jesus Christ.

And now, as if heaven fully understood the concept of an intermission long before the first movie epic was ever filmed, John continues writing in verse 13 … “And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!”  This message would appear to tell us, that while the first four trumpets were of great importance to us.  The remaining three are of even more consequence.  This break in the flow was not done by accident.  It was done by intent.  It is to cause us to focus even more on what is to follow.  A trumpet blast is meant to garner our attention.  No matter our method of interpretation of what is to come, its import should not be overlooked.

And so we remain vigilant as the last three trumpets are about to sound …