Now we come to the opening of the seventh seal. As each previous seal was opened John recorded what he saw happening on the earth–symbolic signs that represented actual world events occurring in time-order. Now let us read what he recorded following the opening of the seventh seal: “And when He had opened the seventh seal there was silence in heaven for the space of half an hour. And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets” (Rev. 8:1,2). John saw seven angels holding seven trumpets. The trumpets are symbols which represent seven events that are about to take place on the earth. The seven trumpets constitute the seventh seal, the events of which occur in seven successive stages. Each stage is called a trumpet. Each trumpet is a plague, as noted in 9:20. God will send these plagues upon the people of earth who have already endured Satan’s Great Tribulation.

The seventh seal, with its seven trumpet blasts, constitutes the Day of the Lord–the Great and Terrible Day of His Wrath. The Prophet Zephaniah describes it in this way: “A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced (defended) cities, and against the high towers (military fortifications). The first four trumpets, also called plagues, are described in chapter 8 as winds that blow on the earth, trees, rivers and seas (vss 6-12). The final three trumpets are called “woes” due to the devastation they cause the earth (8:13). Let us study these woes to describe what God is warning us about relative to the last of the last days of the world as we know it.

The first woe (5th trumpet) reveals that beings will symbolically ascend out of a proverbial bottomless pit or abyss to ravage mankind. The inference is that these people have been in “hiding” for many years. People much more learned than I believe this entity to be the revived Holy Roman Empire that, under the direction of the Catholic Church, caused so much devastation and death to God’s people in the past. Having been in dormant for hundreds of years, this empire has been resurrected in the form of the European Union. Having made Roman Catholicism its official religion by constitutional decree, this beast entity will rise up once again to plunge the world into war. Recall that it was this empire that started the first two world wars. This woe is described in Revelation 9:1-11.

The second woe (6th trumpet) symbolized by horses and horsemen, is interpreted in Ezekiel 38:4,15. The Prophet Joel describes this unstoppable army, its character and tactics in chapter two.  Bible authorities believe this to be a mighty Communist Eurasian (Russia, China, et al) army that will unite to fight those who had come out of the bottomless pit (the European Union) following the sounding of the fifth trumpet (first woe). Of note is the fact that in Joel 2:11 God calls this devastating killing machine “His army” and “His camp” that will “execute His Word” (commands) of retribution on those who call themselves by His name while refusing to obey His Word. Is it not ironic that this heathen army will obey God’s commands while those who call Him their Lord refuse to do so (Lk. 6:46/Mat. 7:21-27). These are those who claim Jesus as their Savior but refuse to obey Him as their Lord. These are the billions who have built their spiritual houses on the sands of Counterfeit Christendom by succumbing to the lure of Satan’s religions (Catholicism/Protestantism/Islam/Hinduism, etc. The Day of the Lord is set aside for the Lord to pour out His wrath on those who, throughout their lives, refused to obey Him, many of whom will have spent their lives believing and practicing the heathen doctrines of professing Christendom while worshiping her counterfeit god and his counterfeit messiah. It is to the Counterfeit Church that Jesus was speaking in Luke 6 and Matthew 7. God commands those within her who truly seek Him to “… come ye out of her and be ye separate … touch not (have nothing to do with) the unclean thing” (2 Cor. 6:17). To be continued. L.J.