(tm)The Seventh Seal: The Blowing of the Seven Trumpets"
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And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets. 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. (Revelation 8:1-3)
The "golden altar which was before the throne" is the Altar of Incense, the fifth piece of furniture of the Tabernacle of the Congregation, coming after the golden Lampstand.
The Old Testament Blowing of Trumpets, today termed Rosh Hashanah (the Head of the Year), is the fifth of the feasts of the Lord, the next observance after the feast of Pentecost.
The Christian Church has been at the Lampstand, at the feast of Pentecost, for two thousand years. Now the Lord is moving us toward the Altar of Incense, toward the Blowing of Trumpets (the Head of the Year, that is, the beginning of the entrance of the Kingdom of God into the earth).
The Altar of Incense typifies the place where the Church bows in humility and obedience before her Lord, dying to sin and self-will. The Blowing of Trumpets signifies the coming of the Lord to make war against the sin and self-will of the peoples of the earth, beginning with those who are closest to Himself. It is the coming of the King to wage war against His enemies. It is the entering of the Lord into His temple to cast out the moneychangers. It is spiritual war!
The seven trumpets announce the coming of King Jesus to destroy His enemies, beginning with the forces of darkness that bind His own people. The blowing of the seven trumpets results in the great tribulation. The purpose of the great tribulation is to separate the true people of the Lord from Satan, from Antichrist, from the False Prophet, and from Babylon. The tribulation will perfect the Lord’s true saints and also prepare the peoples of the earth for the appearing of the Lord.
At the end of the great tribulation, that is, at the blowing of the seventh trumpet, the royal priesthood, the Israel of God, will be raised from the dead and ascend into glory. As we understand it, the resurrection and ascension of God’s true witnesses of every age will take place "after the tribulation of those days" (Matthew 24:29) and before the bowls of wrath are poured out on the inhabitants of the earth. There is an important difference between the tribulation period and the pouring out of the bowls of Divine wrath.
The great tribulation will expose the sin in the churches, humble the true saints, and prepare the way of the Lord among the nations.
All worldliness, sin, and self-exaltation must be purged from the house of God. The commercial spirit in the churches, the immorality, the entertainment, doing what is right in our own eyes instead of keeping the commandments of Jesus, foolishness, presumption—all must be burned out of the Lord’s people.
When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning. (Isaiah 4:4)
And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake. (Revelation 8:5)
There is a multitude of voices in the land today, but only one of them is the voice of the Lord. We have to pray intently in order to discern the voice of the Lord. There is much deception in the churches.
The thunderings of God’s wrath can be heard in the Spirit. The thunderings are a warning of the destruction that soon is to come upon the world.
The lightnings of God’s power will strike the inhabitants of the earth, including the Lord’s own people. Divine judgment already has fallen on numerous saints of the Lord.
Everything that can be shaken will be shaken. All that is not of the Lord Jesus Christ will be shaken and removed from the heavens as well as from the earth.