“The sixth angel sounded
his trumpet… And the four
angels who had been kept ready
for this very hour and day and
month and year were released to
kill a third of mankind.”
(Revelation
9:13-15)
Dear Mr. Wilson:
I came across your
website about four years ago. I
disagree with you on several
points, but I keep coming back
because some of your studies have
really helped me put some pieces
together. Your end time scenario
on the Second Coming is very
strange to me. About a month ago
I downloaded your study on the
seven trumpets and I was
surprised to find answers to
several things I have wondered
about. I am a Seventh-day
Adventist (SDA) and this past
week our pastor spoke on the
seven trumpets during the worship
hour. Because your article was
fresh in my mind, I listened very
closely to what he had to say. He
began by saying that Bible
prophecy can have duel
fulfillments because history
repeats itself. Using Matthew 24,
he presented a parallel between
the fall of Jerusalem and the end
of the world. Then, using the
four trumpets in Revelation 8, he
presented a parallel between the
fall of Roman Empire and the end
of the world. His sermon left me
in a quandary because SDAs
believe the seven trumpets
occurred long ago. Also, our
prophet, Ellen G. White, says the
seven trumpets are in the past.
In 1888 she wrote about the sixth
trumpet saying, “In the year
1840 another remarkable
fulfillment of prophecy
excited widespread
interest…. At the very
time specified [in Revelation
9:15], Turkey, through her
ambassadors, accepted the
protection of the allied powers
of Europe, and thus placed
herself under the control of
Christian nations. The event
exactly fulfilled the prediction.”
(The Great controversy, pages
334,335, underlining by Faye).
Now, I am really confused. I know
that you believe the seven
trumpets are in the future and
after reading your article, that
makes sense. Do you think a dual
fulfillment is possible?
Sincerely, Faye
Dear Faye:
Thank you for your
email. You have asked a good
question that involves three
important issues and I am happy
to respond. Because you have read
my article on the seven
trumpets’ you already know
that I believe the seven trumpets
are future events. Therefore, I
hope you will accept this
response as an examination of
certain facts and not as an
attack you or your church. I am
confident that when our love,
faith and knowledge of God is
carefully built upon Scripture,
we please God. Man’s
understanding of God’s truth
is constantly advancing. If we
allow the Bible to speak for
itself, God will continue to give
us greater light. Through the
Holy Spirit, Jesus will reveal
things that could not have been
known at other times. (See
Colossians 1:26 for an example.)
However, if we dilute or distort
the Word of God with external
authorities, we will surely
trample on the clarity and power
of God’s Word so truth gets
buried. With these things said,
please consider the following
three issues:
1. Five
Types of Prophecy
As I count them,
there are five different types of
prophecy in the Bible and each
type has a specific focus with a
distinctive set of rules for
interpretation. If we mix or
merge there five types of
prophecy together, the result
will be worthless conclusions and
gross confusion. Matthew 24 and
Revelation 8 are different types
of prophecy and I believe they
were inappropriately used by your
pastor to demonstrate that a dual
fulfillment is possible. The five
types of prophecy are:
a.
Messianic prophecies (prophecies
concerning the birth and ministry
of Jesus)
b.
Day of the Lord prophecies
(prophecies concerning the
establishment of the kingdom of
God)
c.
Judaic prophecies (prophecies
concerning God’s covenant
with Israel)
d.
Local prophecies (prophecies
focused on current events, like
Noah and the flood)
e.
Apocalyptic prophecies
(prophecies concerning
chronological progression)
Matthew 24 cannot
have a dual fulfillment. There
are elements in Matthew 24 that
pertain to the destruction of
Jerusalem. Look at these verses: “So
when you see standing in the holy
place ‘the abomination that
causes desolation,’ spoken
of through the prophet Daniel
– let the reader understand
– then let those who are in
Judea flee to the
mountains.” (Matthew
24:15,16) There are elements in
Matthew 24 that pertain to the
end of the world. Consider these
verses: “For then there
will be great distress, unequaled
from the beginning of the world
until now – and never to be
equaled again. If those days had
not been cut short, no one would
survive, but for the sake of the
elect those days will be
shortened. At that time if anyone
says to you, ‘Look, here is
Christ!’ or ‘There he
is!’ do not believe
it.” (Matthew 24:21-23)
These elements are
separate and distinct. Everything
Jesus predicted about the
destruction of Jerusalem has been
fulfilled and everything Jesus
predicted about the end of the
world will be fulfilled. In other
words, the abomination that
causes desolation will not stand
in the holy place a second time.
(For a discussion on the meaning
of this phrase, please see pages
228-233 in my book, Daniel:
Unlocked for the Final Generation.)
One more point. In Matthew 24
Jesus also said, “As it
was in the days of Noah, so it
will be at the coming of the Son
of Man.” (Matthew 24:37)
Using dual fulfillment argument,
should we look for another flood?
Of course not. The full-fillment
of a prophecy occurs when the
specifications given are
perfectly full-filled. Anything
less than perfection must be
disqualified.
2. The
Importance of Chronological Order
The books of
Daniel and Revelation contain
five and twelve apocalyptic
prophecies respectively. Each of
the seventeen prophecies are in
chronological order and they fit
together when properly assembled.
The books of Daniel and
Revelation are all about time and
timing. In fact, eighteen
prophetic time periods are found
in these two books. The
prophecies of Daniel and
Revelation can be compared to a
tall wedding cake having
seventeen layers. The toothpicks
that hold the cake together are
the prophetic events in each
prophecy that connect and align
the layers with each other. In
other words, dates or events in
one layer connect to dates and
events in other layers. When all
seventeen layers are properly
aligned, a glorious story about
Jesus and His salvation is the
result! The harmony that comes
from the sum of all the parts is
mind-boggling.
Some of the
seventeen prophecies in Daniel
and Revelation have ordinal
numbers in them. This feature
forces events to occur in
chronological order. For example,
trumpet four has to occur between
trumpets three and five. There is
no wiggle room on this point. The
same is true for the seven seals
and the seven bowls. If the
chronological order stated in the
Word of God cannot be trusted, no
one has the authority to tell the
whole world God’s intended
order. I hope you will ponder
the significance of this
statement. God Himself has
declared the order of events in
His Word. Therefore, the seven
trumpets cannot occur twice
because the seventh trumpet
occurs at the close of salvation,
when the Ark of the Covenant is
shown from Heaven (Revelation
11:19), and these events occur a
few weeks before the Second
Coming.
Although I am sure
he means well, your pastor is
doing more harm than good. He is
not talking about dual
fulfillments even though he may
be using such language. Actually,
he is advocating dual
interpretation. In other
words, he may believe the seven
trumpets were one thing at one
time and they can be something
else in the future. This is
impossible. The meaning of the
fifth trumpet cannot change with
time. The fifth trumpet has a set
of specifications that cannot be
changed or manipulated. The fifth
trumpet only occurs when
the specifications given in the
fifth trumpet are met. Period. If
the fifth trumpet marks the
release of the devil and his
angels from the spirit realm so
that Lucifer can physically
masquerade on Earth as Almighty
God, how many times can this
happen? Moreover, if Lucifer is
permitted to kill a third of
mankind to set up his theocracy
during the sixth trumpet, how
many times can this happen? If
the sixth seal is the Second
Coming, how many times can the
sixth seal be broken and the
Second Coming take place? How
many times can the seven bowls
occur? Dual fulfillments and dual
interpretation is pure fiction.
Valid rules of
interpretation will not permit
the fifth trumpet to be
interpreted “one way”
at one time and interpreted
“another way” at
another time. When dual
interpretation is taken to its
logical conclusion, fiction is
the result. Claims of dual
fulfillment and dual
interpretation are beguiling.
Once this sophistry invades
prophetic study, Bible truth is
trampled underfoot because a
perfect fulfillment of prophecy
cannot be found. Even worse, no
one can anticipate a prophetic
fulfillment because there is no
way to determine what a second
fulfillment would look like!
Again, there is a simple rule
that eliminates this problem.
“A full-filling only occurs
when the specifications are
perfectly met and this includes
the given order of the
events.”
3. Ellen
G. White
Faye, I assume
that you included Ellen G.
White’s position on the
sixth trumpet because her views
on the Bible largely determine
what members of the SDA Church
will accept and reject as truth.
As I wrote earlier, speaking
against any religious authority
is difficult because deeply
religious people – whether
they are Muslims, Hindus,
Catholics, Baptists, Mormons, or
Adventists – are offended
whenever someone says their
beloved prophet, pope, or clergy
is in error. Nevertheless, please
consider the following:
During the 1830s,
a licensed Baptist minister from
Low Hampton, New York, named
William Miller, began preaching
that Jesus would return to Earth
“about 1843.” He
concluded the 2,300 days
mentioned in Daniel 8:14 would
terminate in the Spring of 1843
and that Jesus would return to
Earth during that year. The
Millerite message grew quickly.
At its peak, historian’s say
somewhere between 50,000 and
100,000 people in New England
embraced Miller’s
explanation of prophecy. This is
remarkable given the fact that
news could travel no faster than
horseback in those days.
Because Miller
declared Jesus would return to
Earth in 1843, pastors and
adversaries constantly ridiculed
and taunted him with, “But
of that day and hour knoweth no
man, not the angels of heaven,
but the Father only.” (Matthew
24:36) Miller and his associates
deflected this charge by saying
that they did not know “the
day and hour.” They also
claimed that there was a great
deal of prophetic evidence
indicating that 1843 would be the
end of the world – evidence
such as the great Lisbon
earthquake in 1755, the
mysterious darkness that fell
over New England at noon in 1780,
and thousands of stars that fell
in 1833.
Because the world
did not end in 1843, we have the
advantage of studying the
Millerite movement in reverse to
see what went wrong. In a
nutshell, Miller’s
conclusions on 1843 created a
fatal problem that no one could
foresee. The Millerites reasoned
backwards. Here is the logic: If
our conclusion is right and since
the world ends in 1843, then
there must be a historical fulfillment
and explanation for everything
written in the books of Daniel
and Revelation. The Millerites
(unwittingly) abused the Bible by
forcing it to support their
conclusion instead of allowing
the Bible to speak for itself and
tell them things they needed to
know. It is highly important that
we recognize this flaw because it
is a perpetual problem. The
Millerite movement was built on a
false assumption and it
eventually imploded because it forced
the Bible to defend a conclusion
rather than allowing the bible to
speak for itself. Sometimes the
Bible speaks so softly that you
must really strain to hear from
it.
In 1838, Dr. Josiah Litch, a
scholarly Methodist minister from
Massachusetts, published a
48-page booklet supporting
Miller’s prophetic position.
Litch had been studying the
prophecies for some time when he
became aware of the Millerite
movement. Litch became involved
in the movement and he produced a
discovery that brought thousands
in to the Millerite movement in
1840. Looking through the
corridors of history for a
fulfillment for each of the seven
trumpets, Litch came up with an
explanation for the fifth and
sixth trumpets that was better
and more concise than anything
heard before. Litch’s
exposition on Revelation 9 fit
within the paradigm of 1843 like
a hand fits a glove. Basically,
Dr. Litch thought he had
discovered a time capsule. He
translated the five months in
Revelation 9:5 to mean 150 years
(using a day for a year) and the
same time period called “an
hour, month and year” in
Revelation 9:16 he translated as
391 years and 15 days. In other
words, Dr. Litch believed the
fifth and sixth trumpets spanned
a total of 541 years and 15 days.
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