The Trumpets

The trumpets follow chronologically upon the opening of the seals. After the opening of the seventh seal half an hour of silence follows and then seven trumpets are handed to the seven angels that stand before God. The prayers of the saints, together with incense, are offered to God by an angel, which we believe to be Jesus, the High Priest, here presented in the form of an angel. Jesus is the one Mediator between God and men.

 

The first four trumpet-blasts of the angels are each followed by disasters descending from heaven upon earth. These judgments from heaven follow each other closely. After the fourth trumpet, an eagle (or angel) in the midst of heaven heralds the sounding of the three remaining trumpets crying 'woe, woe, woe', indicating how horrible their effects would be.

 

We consider the trumpets 5 and 6 to be the establishment of the worldwide system of the beast that will be forced upon humanity by political means (trumpet 5 - first woe) and military means (trumpet 6 - second woe). The sixth trumpet ends shortly before the second coming of Jesus, at the end of the Endtime. Both trumpets 5 and 6 imply the unleashing of dark spiritual powers from the past, the fallen angels from the abyss and the four angel-princes of the four empires that were bound at the river Euphrates.

 

Humanity has seen the enormous power of the Lamb, but afterwards, they experienced the powers of darkness through the empire. The end result is a deterioration of mankind. After the earthquake of seal 6, they had hidden in caves in fear of the Lamb. But after the sixth trumpet any fear of the Lord seems totally gone. Mankind continues to resist the one true God and follows in paths of idolatry: 'And the rest of humanity, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands.'

 

After the sixth trumpet another intermezzo follows, a very long one of 5 chapters: chapters 10-14. Chapter 10 shows an angel with a small scroll, which typifies the Endtime prophecy concerning  Jerusalem and the two prophets, which is the subject of Chapter 11. Revelation 11 again starts at the beginning of the 3.5 year-great tribulation and again ends shortly before the second coming. It ends with the blowing of the seventh trumpet which is the signal for the preparation of the seven vial judgments, that will be a pouring out of God's wrath upon the earth (the third woe).

 

Chapters 12 and 13 show the historical development of the empire and Israel as God's people, which play a central role in the Endtime. Chapter 14 recounts all messengers from God, warning for the dark powers of the Endtime and showing how all evil will end in a great harvest by the Son of man and his angels, which is synonymous of the seven vial judgments. We estimate the first four trumpets to take four  months, about a month each. After a short pause, the heralding by the eagle of 2 months, the trumpets 5 and 6 would take about 18 months, one year and a half. Here follows the summery of the 3.5 year-Endtime in our estimation, measured in months (totaling 42 months):

Seal 2-6    Intermezzo   Four trumpets   Intermezzo   Trumpets 5,6    Vials-End

  12                   5                        4                         2                      18                   1