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UNDER CONSTRUCTION
This was written in the 80's before I understood that the KJV is the only reliable English Translation.
REVELATION CHAPTER EIGHT
Verse 1: “And when He opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.”
Commentary: The first six seals were opened in chapter six, then the 144,000 Jewish evangelists were saved and sealed with the Holy Spirit in chapter seven and now in this chapter the Lord Jesus opens the last seal and there is total silence in heaven.
Because of the terrible judgements that are about to follow all heaven stands silent. “The four and twenty elders ceased their singing. The ‘voices of many angels round about the throne’ (5:11) were stilled. Cherubim and seraphim ceased to praise God. The host of heaven stood in awe…Can you imagine the judgements of misery. Blood, and woe…so terrible that the very sight of those judgements renders heaven … silent?” (O.B.G. pg. 234) “In the courtroom perfect silence is required every ear waiting to hear the report of the jury, innocent or guilty; every ear waits to hear the sentence of the judge. One enters softly and sits quietly at a funeral. (During W.W. II) in London when the warning siren started, all the city stopped deadly still to hear where the bomb would drop. So a serious warning of deadly import is about to be revealed…Take to heart most seriously what is coming!” (J.R.R. pg. 157) God is allowing men a last chance to repent!
Verse 2: “And I saw the seven angels who stood before God, and to them were given seven trumpets.”
Commentary: The seventh seal contains the seven trumpet judgements. They chronologically follow the seals.
The kingdom of Antichrist will soon fall just as the walls of Jericho did (Joshua 6).
Verses 3 - 6: “And another Angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto Him much incense, that He should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints ascended up before God out of the Angel’s hand. And the Angel took the censer, and filled it with fire from the altar, and cast it upon the earth; and there were voices, and thunderclaps, and lightnings, and an earthquake. And the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.”
This other angel is none other than the Lord Jesus Himself. It is the high priest that makes offerings in the holy of holies (Hebrews 9:2-7) and Jesus is the Christians high priest (Hebrews 3:1, 4:14). He is the One who now intercedes for us before the Father (I John 2:1), “for there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (I Timothy 2:5). “This mediator…who ‘ever liveth to make intercession’ (Hebrews 7:25) now stands at the altar adding incense (efficacy) to the prayers being offered.” (J.V.I. pg. 88)
Much incense was given to Jesus to offer with the prayers of the saints. “The sweet savor of Christ is set forth in the incense burning, signifying what He was for us, what He did for us, and what He suffered for us (Ephesians 5:2).” (O.B.G. pg. 238) The blood of Jesus along with the prayers of the saints is very, very powerful. Jesus is typified by the incense.
Who are these saints that are praying? They are “the great body of saints on earth during the last half of the Great Tribulation…the time of the trumpet judgements …They are part of the great multitude which no man could number (of all nations and kindreds which were saved as the result of the witness of the 144,000). They are praying because they are going through hell on earth under the mighty hand of the rider of the white horse…They need heavenly help…in this time of terrible, terrible tribulation…God answers their prayers by pouring out unheard-of judgements upon (their ungodly oppressors). (O.B.G. pg. 237 & 238) “And shall not God avenge His own elect, which cry day and night unto Him, though He bear long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith of the earth” (Luke 18: 7 8). Yes, God will avenge these who pray to Him during the Tribulation, and God will destroy all that are against Him and His. Only these saved Tribulation saints who are not killed by the Antichrist will enter the millennium. No lost man will!
Jesus, after offering “Himself for us an offering, and a sacrifice to God (the incense) for a sweet smelling savor” along with the prayers of the Tribulation saints, then “took the censer, and filled it with fire from the altar, and cast it upon the earth.” In the Old Testament the altar typified what Christ would do for us on the cross. But here we see that it also typifies the judgement of unbelievers. The same altar that speaks of mercy will now be used to show forth the wrath of the Lamb.
As a result of the censer filled with fire from the heavenly altar being cast to earth there are “voices, and thunderclaps, and lightnings, and an earthquake. And the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.”
Verse 7: “The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mixed with blood, and they were cast upon the earth; and the third part of trees were burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.”
“We have no difficulty understanding this verse literally. The same kind of judgement occurred in (Egypt in the days of Moses). (Exodus 9:22-25) It happened then; now it happens again.” (J.V.I. pg. 88) “The prophet Joel predicted this devastating event would occur after Israel had been gathered back into the land, just before the great and terrible Day of the Lord, or when the Lord would come back to bring His kingdom (Joel 1:15-20). (D.F.W. pg. 88)
“Hail and fire mingled with blood could be symbolic of atomic war. If a 50-megaton bomb were droped in a heavily populated area…there would be fire mixed with bolld because the people would be literally consumed, and hail falls out of atomic clouds. In the Pacific, hailstones from atomic clouds even dented…armor plate on…ships. This happens when huge amounts of water…is carried up into the air…and as it reaches the upper atmosphere … it freezes and then falls as huge hailstones. When the atomic bombs were exploded over Nagasaki and Hiroshima…tempertatures up to 2 trillion degrees centigrade were generated. Thousands of people were literally consumed, and blood become mingeled with fire.” (D.F.W. pg. 89)
It may be that God will allow Satan to contrlo men to cause this horrible judgement, it may be that God will make them do it Himself, or God may do the whole thing alone. One thing is sure, it will happen. God said so!
Verse 8 - 9: “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; 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.”
“This judgement is undoubtedly a giant meteor falling into the sea…This, again, is a symbolic description…Something gigantic, as or like a mountain, is cast into the sea and causes a third part of the sea to become blood.” (J.V.I. pg. 89) The mountain is symbolic, because it says: “as it were” or like “a great mountain.” The sea however is literally turned to blood. “Yes, the water became blood, not symbolic, just plain blood! If you doubt that water could be changed to blood, read concerning the first Egyptian plague when Pharaoh rebelled against God (first Egyptian plague when Pharaoh rebelled against God (Exodus 7:19-21).” (O.B.G. pg. 242) Can you imagine the huge tidal wave caused by a giant comet or asteroid, and the effects on the food chain if one third of the sea life was killed!
Verse 10 - 11: “And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as though it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters. 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.”
Here again we have an asteroid or comet falling to the earth. The first one effected the third part of the sea, and now this one poisons the third part of all fresh water supplies. This “great star from heaven, burning (like)…a lamp” puts off poisonous gases or dust that will get into water supplies. “Many men shall die from drinking the poisoned water. ‘Wormwood’ is a perennial herb, extremely bitter, used in the manufacture of absinthe, which is used in France as a beverage, and is much more intoxicating and destructive to the human body than ordinary liquors…” (O.B.G. pg. 243) Could these poisonious wormwood chemicals put off by the “great star” that get into the drinking water, be the method God uses to “send them strong delusions, that they should believe the lie (of Antichrist, that he is God), that they all might be judged who believed not the truth (that Jesus Christ is both God and saviour), but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (II Thessalonians 2:11 & 12; cf. Jeremiah 9:15)? At any rate “many men (will die) of the waters, because they (will be) made bitter.”
Verse 12: “And the forth 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 that the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.”
“We note with interest that, on the fourth day of creation, God said: ‘Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven’ (Genesis 1:14-19).” (J.V.I. pg. 90) Plant life was created on the third day of creation (Genesis 1:11-13). One third of the plant life will be wiped out by the first trumpet judgement. The waters were separated from the atmosphere and the earth, and gathered into lakes and seas on the second and third days of creation (Genesis 1:6-10). One third of all waters on earth are poisoned by the second and third trumpet judgements. The sun, moon, and stars created on the forth day are here darkened by one third. All that God created on the first four days are reduced by one third as a result of the sounding of the first four trumpets.
Jesus said: “And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened” (Matthew 24:22). We have in the verse we are studying the fulfillment of what Jesus said concerning the shortening of the days. There will be 16 hour days during the Tribulation. There will be 8 hours of daylight, and 8 hours of night. One third of what we have today. This will be because “the third part of the sun was smitten” resulting in the nova of the sun which will generate intense heat (Joel 1:17-20).
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!”
If you think the first four trumpet judgements were bad just wait till you see what the last three bring! The first four judgements are directed towards nature. They effect man, but they are primarily on corrupted nature (Genesis 3:17-19; Romans 8:20-22). The next three trumpet judgements will be directed on those on the earth who have rejected Christ, and followed the Antichrist. These three woes are announced on lost people, “the inhahiters of the earth.” (cf. 3:10, 6:10; Hebrews 11:13-16; I Peter 1:17-19)
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