Rapture: The End-Times Error That Leaves the Bible Behind (36 page)

The first trumpet is followed by “hail and fire, mixed with blood” (8:7). This is a picture of destruction and death beyond the ability of any human to stop; a devastated ecosphere, with “a third of the trees” destroyed (8:7). The Roman army actually used so many trees for their siege engines and their crosses that the area around Jerusalem was completely deforested for miles (
WJ
, XI).

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The second trumpet: mountain into the sea
. At the second trumpet “something like a great mountain, burning with fire, was thrown into the sea” (8:8). This symbolizes the destruction of a monarchy, as does similar language in Amos 1 and 2. The Sanhedrin were the remnant of the Hasmonean dynasty. The priests traced their lineage all the way to Aaron’s day. Nero was of the royal dynasty of Augustus. All were overthrown during this period, Daniel’s last week.

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The third trumpet: poisonous wormwood
. Wormwood is not only the third trumpet, but also the name of an extremely bitter plant. “A third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died of the water, because it was made bitter” (8:11). Rapturists try to interpret this bitter water to be the result of a future biochemical or nuclear war. Even the accident at Chernobyl has been read into this trumpet. But a Winkle Warp is not the way to understand this prophecy.

This view fails to appreciate the Old Testament background of this word. The message of the third trumpet reflects the language of Jeremiah 23:15. As is so often the case in the New Testament, a mere word or phrase is meant to evoke an entire scene from the Old Testament (GR3).

Jeremiah lived in a time when Jerusalem was under attack by the Babylonians. He predicted the defeat of Jerusalem. In the middle of a beautiful description of God’s promised Messiah, one who will be a “righteous Branch” that “shall reign as king,” Jeremiah stops to lament the false prophets of Judah (23:5). They were falsely predicting peace and safety when Jeremiah knew Jerusalem would surely fall. The leaders of Jerusalem persecuted Jeremiah as a naysayer. God makes a promise to Jeremiah, telling him that He “will feed them with wormwood, and give them poisoned water to drink” (23:15). A modern equivalent to this idiom might be to say that God would make the false prophets “eat their words.”

The connection to the third trumpet of The Apocalypse is apparent. When the Messiah, the righteous Branch, finally appeared, the Jewish Sanhedrin turned the people of Jerusalem against Him. The Sanhedrin’s leader, the high priest, is the star that “fell from Heaven,” and poisoned the waters (8:10). He led the assault on the Messiah and encouraged the false prophets.

All throughout the Roman siege, the leadership of Jerusalem was predicting the salvation of God for Jerusalem. Josephus tells us that there were many “false prophets suborned by the tyrants to impose on the people … that they should wait for deliverance from God; and this was in order to keep them from deserting, and that they might be buoyed up above fear and care by such hopes” (
WJ
, VI, 5:2). They believed to the very end that God would defeat the Roman army for them.

The third trumpet bears evidence again that God keeps His promises against false prophets. They will be fed “with wormwood.” The prophets who predicted victory for Jerusalem would have to “eat their words.”

Unfortunately, their false hopes resulted in the unnecessary and brutal deaths of many Jerusalem residents. These residents are split into thirds, and the mention of “a third” here is another example of anticipation (8:11). We will examine its background and fulfillment shortly.

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The fourth trumpet: sun, moon, and stars darkened
. The fourth trumpet once again employs vivid apocalyptic imagery to warn of political upheaval (GR5): “A third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars” (8:12). The significance of “a third” is rooted in the Old Testament prophecy of Ezekiel, and we will examine it in more depth in a later passage. Suffice it to say here that this symbolizes the utter defeat of the leadership of Jerusalem. In 70 A.D., biblical Judaism was utterly destroyed and was eventually replaced by the Rabbinic Judaism of today. Rabbinic Judaism finds its home in the synagogue rather than in the Temple, its meaning in the moral law rather than in the sacrificial law, and its leadership in the teacher rather than in the priest.

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The fifth trumpet, first woe: the fallen star and the locusts
. The fifth trumpet serves also as the first of three woes, introduced by an eagle (8:13). The eagle was an unclean bird and would have immediately brought the Roman Empire’s army to the mind of any attentive Jewish reader.

With the blowing of the fifth trumpet, St. John “saw a star fallen from Heaven to earth, and he was given the key of the shaft of the bottomless pit” (9:1). Some commentators believe that the star that falls from Heaven is probably Satan. Jesus told the seventy-two disciples on their successful return to Him that He “saw Satan fall like lightning from Heaven” (Luke 10:18; Isa. 14:12–17).

But in apocalyptic writings, stars usually denote earthly, political leaders. The best interpretation is that this fallen star symbolizes either Nero or the Jewish high priest. It could symbolize both (GR4). Nero was responsible for the initial decision to declare war upon Jerusalem. Alternately, the high priest has already been described as a fallen star in the third trumpet. By his misguided leadership, he incited Nero to declare war.

This fallen star unleashes a swarm of locusts with “the power of scorpions” upon Israel (9:3). The word
locust
literally means “burners of the land.”

Amos 2:1–20 describes the fear and destruction locusts could bring. Locusts were an instrument of God’s judgment on any people who rejected His entreaties. Pharaoh discovered this in Exodus 10:1–20. Here in The Apocalypse we see the plagues that had been unleashed upon the Egyptians being brought upon Jerusalem. God had promised as much to the Israelites if ever they rejected His ways (Deut. 28:38).

The advancing Babylonian army is likened to a swarm of locusts in Joel 2:1–11. That is probably the primary picture drawn here as well. In this instance, it was the Roman army that would devour the land like an invasion of locusts, just as the Babylonians had done centuries earlier (GR6).

We will hear much of this army’s “power” (9:3). They were the warriors (the red horse of the seals) that brought famine (the black horse) and death (the pale horse) to Israel. The fifth trumpet recaps the second, third, and fourth seals.

The detailed description of this locust army is quite obviously that of the Roman cavalry in battle armor under the bright Judean sun: “The locusts were like horses arrayed for battle; on their heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces, their hair like women’s hair … teeth like lions’ teeth; they had scales like iron breastplates, and the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle” (9:7–9).

The only description that does not sound like a human army on horseback is the description of “teeth.” Of course, the fourth beast of Daniel (Rome) had iron teeth. More specifically, the reference to “teeth like lions’ teeth” recalls Joel 1:4–6. Joel prophesied the judgment of God upon Israel, and St. John subtly reminds us that this is exactly what is occurring in this trumpet (Joel 2:2).

What makes this locust army particularly frightful is its purpose. They would not “harm the grass,” as most locusts would. This invading locust army would prey upon “those of mankind who have not the seal of God upon their foreheads” (9:4). This is the mark of God already mentioned in the sixth seal.

During this trumpet, we encounter the first of several specific time references. This scorpion army would torment the Jews for five months, which was the length of the season in Israel for these insects (May to September). Those are precisely the months during which Titus completed his final assault upon and siege of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.

This locust army brings with them the “torture of a scorpion”—not merely death, but “torture.” Read St. John’s description carefully: “Their torture was like the torture of a scorpion, when it stings a man. And in those days, men will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, and death will fly from them” (9:5–6). This was written by a man who had witnessed the Crucifixion of his Savior up close (John 19:25–27). The locust army stung like scorpions in the hand and foot by using the nails of crucifixion. Imagine the hills around Jerusalem completely filled with Jews being crucified; that was the scene during the final five months of the siege. During these five months, well over one million Jews died, many of them from crucifixion. This passage describes the horrific judgment that fell upon Jerusalem for its rejection of the Messianic Kingdom. It is not a future event.

These locusts have a king, who is “the angel of the bottomless pit” (9:11). As we will see with other symbols in The Apocalypse, this beast serves as a symbol for more than one person. In its broadest sense, the beast symbolizes the Roman Empire’s government. This should not surprise us at all if we remember Daniel. He predicted four beasts. The fourth one symbolized Rome. Yet in a specific sense, some of what this beast does points directly to the individual Caesar ruling at that particular time. There were three during this period: Nero, Vespasian, and Titus (GR4).

When we compare the descriptions of the king of the locust army (9:11), the beast that kills the two witnesses (11:7), and the beast with seven heads that “was, and is not, and is to come” (17:8), we can determine that this king “of the bottomless pit” is General Titus. We will return to this later when we examine Chapter 17.

The name of the army’s king,
Abaddon
, literally means “destruction.” This Hebrew word leads the careful student to Obadiah 12. In the Old Testament, the elder son of Isaac, Esau by name, was denied the promises of God’s blessing. The younger son, Jacob, was blessed instead. Esau and his descendants (Edomites, or Idumeans) deeply resented this, and so would later revel in the persecution of Jacob and his descendants (Israelites). But the prophet Obadiah promised a day of reckoning, of
abaddon
, to the Edomites. Obadiah spoke judgment against the Edomites, because they gloated over the destruction of the Israelites.

Obadiah chastises the Edomites: “You should not have gloated over … your brother in the day of his misfortune; you should not have rejoiced … in the day of their ruin; you should not have boasted in the day of distress” (Obad. 12). In fact, the Edomites cooperated with the Arabians and Philistines when they plundered the home of Israel’s king. The conquering army carried off all of the royal sons except one (2 Chron. 21). Obadiah prophesied to the Edomites that “as you have done, it shall be done to you; your deeds shall return on your own head” (Obad. 15).

These events stand as prophecy pointing to 70 A.D. (GR3). The Sanhedrin had reveled in the persecution of this young sect called Christianity. They were the elder brother (Esau and Edom) in the family of faith, while the Christians were the younger brother (Jacob and Israel). But by their persecution of their younger brothers, they had turned their advantage into a curse. The Messiah’s coming in judgment through the Roman army would constitute their “day of the Lord” (GR6). “Abaddon” had arrived.

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The sixth trumpet, second woe: invasion by a great army
. When the sixth trumpet blows, we find four angels have been waiting—reflecting the four angels in the sixth seal. They “had been held ready for the hour, the day, the month, and the year, to kill a third of mankind” (9:15). Might the holding back of the four angels be a reference to the prediction of Jesus that His followers would be given a small window of opportunity to flee Jerusalem? It is a historical fact that the Christian community heeded the warning of their Lord and that no Christians remained in Jerusalem during its final siege and destruction. The destruction had to wait; it “had been held ready for the hour, the day, the month, and the year.” Remember that at the beginning of the seals and the trumpets, only the Lamb was able to break the seal of the scroll. Even now He controls the flow of events. One moment too soon would not do. Jesus had a promise to keep, down to the exact hour of the exact day.

This trumpet unleashes the gentile horde. Even the ancient protective boundary of the Euphrates will not impede the advance of the locusts, the Roman army (9:13–14). The details of the invasion extend all the way through 11:14.

The size of the army is almost universally understood as a symbolic number. The “cavalry” alone is “twice ten thousand times ten thousand” (9:16). If taken literally, that would be two hundred million! Since the cavalry is a small percentage of an army, imagine the size of the army itself! Clearly, no army that size could have existed in the ancient world. Some have calculated that it would encompass every eligible male alive even today. It makes better sense as a symbolic number.

Significantly, this cavalry is exactly double the size of “ten thousand times ten thousand,” the number who attend to the Lamb as they “encircled the throne” (5:11, NIV). That is the crucial issue for St. John. The number of God is
three
, and man’s number is twice that,
six
. The army of man is twice the size of God’s loyal following, even in Heaven.

On an earthly level, the locust army outnumbers the Lamb’s loyal following. It is a complete army of ten thousand, multiplied by another of the same size, and then doubled for good measure. It is an overwhelming force. Any thought of victory against this force is ludicrous. Indeed, when the Jews saw the size of the army that Vespasian and Titus had actually mustered, much of the Jewish army deserted in despair (
WJ
, III, 6:3).