(tm)The sixth trumpet
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One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter. And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. 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 9:12-15)
The "two woes" that are to come "hereafter" may be the events that follow the blowing of the sixth and seventh trumpets.
The four angels have been prepared for the hour, day, month, and year in which they are to be released for their dreadful mission. Again we see that the plagues of the end time are not haphazard but are controlled by Him who knows the end from the beginning.
On the sixth day of creation man was brought forth. At the blowing of the sixth trumpet a third of mankind will be slain, the four angels being prepared for the precise moment of the execution of judgment.
No doubt it will prove to be true literally that one out of every three people on earth will die—well over a billion human beings. This is a pruning of the vine of mankind.
And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand: and I heard the number of them. (Revelation 9:16)
A specific number of warriors has been commissioned to perform a specific task on the earth, being under the total control of the Lord.
And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt. (Revelation 9:17-19)
The description of the judgment of the sixth trumpet is suggestive of a world war. But whatever material form these soldiers may take they will be a manifestation of the four angels, for it is the four angels who have been prepared to slay the third part of men.
The closing days of the Church Age will be spiritually dark, and filled with plagues. So many will be slain during the great tribulation that just the Christians who are killed are referred to as "a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues" (Revelation 7:9).
The faithful who wash their robes and make them white in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus will be brought up, when they die, to stand before the throne of God. The fervent disciples will be sealed so the spirits assigned to torment and slay mankind cannot harm them.
The sealed remnant also will be before the throne of God, in a spiritual sense, but many of them will be kept alive on the earth in order to be a refuge and place of deliverance for all who call on the name of the Lord in the oppressive spiritual darkness.
Multitudes will not repent even though they have experienced torment and have witnessed the slaying of a large part of the population of the earth.
And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts. (Revelation 9:20,21)
One may wonder why God would permit the judgments of the seals, the trumpets, the bowls of wrath, the burning of Babylon, and the invasion of Armageddon, to fall on the human beings whom He has created. The reason is, people will not repent. No matter how they suffer they will not repent. How many times was Egypt smitten with destruction? Yet Pharaoh would not repent.
The hardness of the human heart is a wonder. Why are we so determined to resist God?—to refuse to humble ourselves before God? Why are we so determined to have our own way no matter what the will of our Creator may be?
The hearts of people increasingly will become hardened until they are shaking their fists in defiance of God. Even after all the judgments they will be angry at God. After a thousand years of the righteous rule of Christ and His saints, after the nations have been broken to pieces by the rod of iron, mankind still will rebel against the saints at the end of the Kingdom Age so that God has to send down fire on them and destroy them. (Revelation 20:9).
So severe is the wrath of God that the earth and the heaven themselves will flee from His face and no place will be found for them (Revelation 20:11).
We see this hardness of heart today. People will not serve God. The Christian believers are choosing the present world ahead of God.
The churches have assigned all torment to the Jews, to God’s chosen people, so the so-called "Gentile Church" may enjoy Paradise while the Jews attempt (without the Holy Spirit) to establish the Kingdom of God on the earth.
The truth is, Divine judgment begins with the Lord’s saints, with those who are closest to Him. God’s wrath toward the sins of mankind is so extreme the righteous themselves are saved only with difficulty (I Peter 4:17-19). The righteous will suffer much in the last days as they have down through history. But they will be saved if they keep themselves so Satan cannot touch them (I John 5:18).
The closing days of the present age will be a holocaust. The gap between the earth and the bottomless pit will be narrowed. Satan and his angels will be forced down from the heavens and compelled to live among mankind on the earth.
The fallen angels have desired to gorge themselves on the flesh of men, and the flesh of men will be given to them in abundance. What a disgraceful condition for those personages who once had illuminated the heavens with the splendor of their majesty—to be forced to wallow in the rancid mass of rotting flesh, the heaped up corpses of willful humans!
Of those who know the Lord, some will be slain. Some will fall into sin because of widespread lust and deception. Some will be driven from the cities of the earth. Some will be strong in the Lord and be a place of safety for all who call on the name of the Lord.
The last days will be an extraordinary era, and many who serve God during this time will be among the first in rank in the Kingdom of God. It is a period during which an individual can reveal his determination to love and serve the Lord and become a victorious saint.
The last days will not be a time of hilarity and glorification for the saints as sometimes is "prophesied." It will be an hour of the greatest tragedy and suffering and the saints are not exempt. The saints will minister but in "sackcloth," that is, in humility (Revelation 11:3).
There will be no exalted ministers in that day nor the foolishness, presumption, and entertainment of Christian assemblies. Rather there will be a return to the apostolic and prophetic ministry of the first century. It will be a dark hour for all—saints and sinners alike. But the believers who give themselves wholly to Jesus in first-century consecration will be enabled by the Lord to shine in the darkness.
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