FOUR
GLOBAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
Revelation not only predicts the
coming manifestations of the wrath of
God (and the response of the
religious and political systems of
Earth), it also reveals four profound
announcements that God shall send to
every nation, kindred, tongue and
people. These four announcements will
be more widely known than AIDS.
Time has not arrived
As of this moment,
these four messages are essentially
dormant because the appointed time
for these messages has not arrived.
However, do not misunderstand,
Christians are proclaiming elements
of all four messages around the
world. However, the four messages
– occurring as a four-part
sequence, require a specific
progression of global events to be
universally effective. In addition,
when universal circumstances
become appropriate, these four
messages will penetrate every mind
with the brilliance of sunlight. Even
though they can be understood before
their moment of glory, they have not
yet received the power that is to
accompany them.
There is nothing more
powerful than a truth whose time has
come. Like a runaway train, timely
truth can penetrate any blockade
– whether physical, mental or
spiritual. The key word in the
previous sentence is timely. Timing
is everything. And the greater the
resistance, the greater the exposure
and power of timely truth.
Just as heat is generated in an
electrical circuit when there is more
power than the circuit can bear, so
these four messages will cause a
great controversy among all people,
nations and languages.
The four messages
What are these four
messages? In abbreviated form they
are:
- Obey God
- Disobey
man’s laws
- Disobey the
devil’s demands
- Do not receive
the mark of the beast
Look at the diagram
for the chronological placement of
these messages. The first of these
four messages will begin in a
powerful way just before the censer
in Revelation 8:2-5 is cast down. The
global earthquake and attending
phenomena that marks the judgment of
the living serves as the starting gun
for the world announcing the Great
Tribulation. (Think about the
significance of the earthquake as it
relates to commerce. Can you imagine
the consequences of thousands of
collapsed bridges and freeway
overpasses in the USA?) I believe
there will be a short interval of
time between the global earthquake
and the sounding of the first
trumpet, perhaps no more than eight
months. During this interval of
time, the 144,000 will continue
proclaiming the first of the four
announcements – but
comparatively few people will listen
or give them due consideration. Then,
the first trumpet occurs, the world
will behold a fulfillment of the
first trumpet that the 144,000
predicted. It is important to know
that the fulfillment of prophecy does
not change the announcement of the
144,000; rather, the first
announcement will receive much
greater attention by the people of
earth as a result of the first
trumpet. As a result, more people
will respond to the gospel call.
To appreciate the
impact these announcements are going
to have, one has to understand the
events that surround each message
because each message is given in
opposition to what is actually taking
place. For example, the first
announcement (in abbreviated form) is
“Obey God.” While every
born again Christian already
understands the importance of this
statement, the implication of this
message is that most people
aren’t obeying God even though
they think they are! In other words,
the reader must recognize that these
four announcements have two
dimensions.
The first dimension is
the revealing of the will of God to
all men. The second dimension is the
revealing of the rebellion within man
against the will of God. Thus, each
announcement ignites a higher level
of opposition as it is given until
the people of earth are separated
– as sheep or goats.
Right to the
point
God uses few words.
Speech is a temporal and
momentary means of communication. For
example, over the course of your
lifetime, how many sermons you have
heard and forgotten? God prefers to
be understood by His actions because
men may learn much about the nature
and character of God through the
study of His behavior over the
millenniums of time. Therefore, His
words are few and far between, and
everything the last generation needs
to know about salvation has been
written in the Bible. Therefore, God
is going to speak to the people of
the world through His servant –
prophets, the 144,000. These will
present four compelling messages from
the Bible that all will hear. Within
the context of these four messages,
men and women, boys and girls
everywhere will hear the gospel
invitation: Receive Jesus Christ
as Savior AND Lord so that you can be
saved. To receive Jesus, as
Savior is to recognize that one
cannot save himself. Salvation is
only possible through faith in Jesus.
To receive Jesus as Lord is to
recognize the authority of Jesus. If
we accept Jesus as our Lord and
Master, we voluntarily become subject
to His commandments. But what brings
the properties of salvation into
sharpest focus is this: During the
Great Tribulation, men will enact a
number of laws that will stand in
direct opposition to the laws of God.
The result is that the subject of
salvation will become simple to
comprehend: One will not be able to
obey God without great love for God
and faith in His promises.
World response
to the trumpets
I maintain that one cannot correctly
understand Revelation’s story,
especially the four announcements of
Revelation, without first
understanding what the fourth seal
and the seven trumpets are all about.
(Time will soon reveal if my
assertion is true or false.) The
reason I maintain such a position is
that one has to first comprehend
something of the first holocaust
caused by the first four trumpets to
appreciate the panic and desperation
that will galvanize the whole world
into a confused but collective unit
to appease an angry God. This
collective unit of seven religious
systems is called Babylon, and it
will rapidly rise to a coalition
having great power – once the
Great Tribulation begins.
I am convinced that
the four angels holding back the four
winds in Revelation 7:1-4 are the
first four angels having the seven
trumpets. Without going into much
detail, here is why: The four
angels holding back the four winds
have power to harm the earth.
Specifically, they have power to
harm the land, sea and trees.
After the 144,000 are selected and
sealed, the four angels will harm the
land, sea and trees. The only place
in Revelation where the land, sea and
trees are specifically harmed is
found in Revelation 8:7-9. Here, the
first two angels of the seven
trumpets accomplish the harm that God
wants them to do. I also find that
the devil and his angels are not
permitted to harm the land, plants
and trees; rather, they can only hurt
people who have not received the seal
of God. (Revelation 9:4) If the
devil’s angels could harm the
land, plants and trees, all humanity
would prematurely die. Thus, the
devil could thwart the work of God to
reach people with the gospel.
Therefore, God prohibits the devil
and his angels from harming the
environment. (Incidentally, trumpets
five through seven are called curses
or woes because they directly affect
people.)
Therefore, an
understanding of the fourth seal and
the seven trumpets is central to
Revelation’s story. The fourth
seal contains four literal judgments
from God: sword, famine, plague and
wild beasts. These four judgments are
four winds that shall be loosed after
the 144,000 are ready to do their
work! Moreover, the seven trumpets
are the means by which the four
judgments occur. The coalition of the
world’s systems (the rise of the
dragon like beast out of the sea,
Revelation 13:1) is man’s response
to the first four trumpets. This
background information is imperative.
It sets the stage for the
announcements. In addition, once the
setting is properly understood, one
can see why these four announcements
are as volatile as dynamite.
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