Once the last seal is loosed it appears the multitude of reveling beings in heaven are rendered speechless at the discovery of the horrors to come. And that the Lamb is reluctant to speak those horrors into “Action!” There is no going back. The time of the end is now.
“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.
These were brought to our attention earlier:
And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” (Revelation 6:9-11)
And now God answers their prayers.
“And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying...if ye go to war…then ye shall blow an alarm with the trumpets;” (Numbers 10)
God announces his impending attack with trumpet calls for his people to join him in battle – “To me! To me!”
“be strong in the grace [given to be strong, not to be pampered] that is in Christ Jesus….Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of YHVH’s Anointed Savior.” (II Timothy 2:1-3)
The goal in this battle is to survive everlasting death. Mortal death is just a flesh wound! A version of Christianity that promises a good life for being a good person in this life has completely missed the point. This life is hard. It is a temporary opportunity to identify with the Creator God’s Redeemer Savior and train for service in an eternal kingdom we can’t begin to imagine.
Don’t invent your own story of what happens next. The battle of Jericho, a stronghold of pure evil, provides the battle plan. God’s servants blow trumpets for 6 days / eras without taking action.
We can parallel the events at the last battle to reclaim the land promised to God’s people with the first battle plan Yeshua used to lead his people to recover the Promised Land. Although these are not documented in the book of Joshua, they are well known features of siege warfare.
“Now all these…examples…are written for our admonition [we Gentile followers of Messiah / Christ who are grafted in to Israel]: upon whom the ends of the world are come.” (I Corinthians 10:11-12)
The Canaanites lining the walls of Jericho would have stockpiled stones, arrows, garbage, excrement, putrid dead bodies of animals and people, boiling oil, fire and anything else that could cause damage to hurl at the attackers.
They would have shouted insults, imprecations, curses and dares at them as well as enticed them to come over to the apparent safe side. Any other besieging army would be calling for a parley, spreading propaganda, building war machines, cutting down the surrounding orchards.
But not these weirdos.
“And it came to pass…that the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams’ horns passed on before the LORD, and blew with the trumpets…so they did six days. “(Joshua 6)
Remember the purpose of the trumpet calls – to gather God’s people together!
God gives his people time and opportunity to witness of his power and salvation, and to bring as many to his side as possible before he is forced to destroy them.
“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” (II Peter 3:9)
Is not saving your loved ones at the last minute worth being long-suffering ourselves?
Do you think Rahab is honored in the Bible for just one act of faith? Can’t you see her circling the edge of the Hebrew rereward calling out to her people “Look at me! It’s safe here! Everything we heard about their god YHVH is true – he IS merciful!”
And what a witness she made! She was a whore! EVERYBODY knew her either personally or through her sordid reputation. Some Canaanites would have listened to her, and would have fallen away out of cursed Jericho and the surrounding countryside to voluntarily join the Hebrew nation.
As you read the following events notice that,
- in contrast to the statement that the angel with the censor cast fire into the earth,
- there is no statement that anyone in heaven causes the actions following each of the trumpet blasts.
Instead, “there followed”…
- Action! The seven angels which have the seven trumpets sound their battle calls in turn. But they only announce the coming battle. God’s forces do not yet engage.
- Reaction: Satan’s response to each trumpet call to war.
- hail and fire mingled with blood, were cast upon the earth [clearly from above the earth]: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.
- a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died;
- a great star from heaven fell upon the third part of the rivers…became wormwood…and many men died
- 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.
- a star fell from heaven unto the earth: and…he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened [yet more] by reason of the smoke of the pit. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth…And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.
- And the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates…were loosed…to slay the third part of men…out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. By these three was the third part of men killed (Revelation 8-9).
One problem I’ve noticed in failed attempts to decipher Revelation is the assumption that the actions described in Revelation 9-11 occur in sequence.
The reality is that in any narrative there are multiple points of view woven throughout requiring shifts back and forth in time as well.
Take the American Civil War, for example. “Over four years, Union and Confederate forces met in more than 10,000 armed confrontations.”
Accounts of the Civil War don’t move from battle to battle in a timeline but different accounts focus on a specific viewpoint which threads through the totality of the account.
For example,
- “The most central fact about the Civil War was its astounding death rate…The sense of organized mass slaughter that we associate with modern warfare began in the Civil War.”
- “The articles that follow focus on key aspects of the four-year conflict that not only preserved the nation, but also transformed it.”
We need to read Revelation with the same understanding that multiple activities are occurring at the same time during and between the documented events bullet-pointed by the trumpet blasts.
Revelation 8 narrates distinctly human actions on earth heralded by the first 4 trumpet blasts described in sequential order.
- The first angel sounded, and…the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.
- The second angel sounded, 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.
- 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 many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.
- And the fourth angel sounded, and…the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.”
“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!” (Revelation 8:13)
Revelation 9 narrates distinctly hyperdimensional actions on earth heralded by the next 2 trumpet blasts
5. And the fifth angel sounded, and…I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and…he opened the bottomless pit;
6. And the sixth angel sounded, 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. (Revelation 8-9)
Just because these first six trumpet events are described in sequential order, we cannot assume that they all occur before the rest of the documentation.
We can also deduce that the hyperdimensional attacks against humanity of Revelation 9 are occurring at the same time that the warnings to humanity in Revelation 10 are being broadcast, confirmed in Revelation 9:20, “the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues [described through Revelation 9] yet repented not…that they should not worship devils, and idols.”
- Revelation 10 informs us, through the stance of the angel, that the battleground has moved from just earth (first four trumpets in chapter 8), to include the hyperdimensional domain of the sea, i.e. simultaneously chapter 9’s report of the 5th and 6th trumpet events.
- Revelation 11 reports the two witnesses at the temple simultaneous with the 5th-6th trumpet events and announces the 7th – reported to occur instantaneously – but without detail at that point in the documentation as it shifts the perspective of the report.
- Revelation 12 interrupts the timeline with a flashback to Revelation 8:13: “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!”
- Revelation 13 parallels the timeline of Revelation 9-11 from the perspective of the rise of the Beast from the bottomless pit / sea and the Hybrid Beast from the earth heading the New World Order government, during the same time as Revelation 11.
A motif present throughout Revelation, clarifying who is behind apparently repetitive actions of the seals and trumpets and vials, is the flow of energy.
We can break it down thus:
- Seals: Humans are executing the actions which empower their gods through a massive amount life being sacrificed – not necessarily ritually as in the past, but sacrificed nonetheless in exchange for short-term material benefits.
- “Thou shalt make no covenant with them…neither shalt thou serve their gods; for that will be a snare unto thee…be not snared by following them…enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods?
We’ve lost 60% of wildlife in less than 50 years
This is nothing compared to the transfer of life energy that lies ahead.
2. Trumpets: the empowered gods are executing the actions to maximize their power through massive slaughter through war and after-effects of famine and disease.
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- “if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee
- “then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved:” (Matthew 24:21-22)
3. Vials: The Adversary loses energy every time he acts and has to replenish his stores from life energy in mortal beings. Once so much life energy – which, remember, cannot be destroyed – has been cycled and released by the hyperdimensional beings, the Singularity LORD who alone controls energy turns the released energies against the wicked in the vial events.
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- The LORD is known by the judgment which he executeth: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands.”
Kingdom Come 