Fifth Trumpet: A
Really Big Show
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The devil will have to
imitate the Second Coming of Jesus a
number of times. Unlike the global
appearing of the real Jesus who will
remain in the sky for everyone to
see, the devil’s appearing will
be a series of local events. For
example, Lucifer and his angels could
descend form the sky over Houston,
later they could descend out of the
sky at Dallas, then Los Angeles,
Mexico City, Paris and other great
cities of Earth. Jesus confirms the
local nature of Lucifer’s
appearing. He said, “At that
time if anyone says to you,
‘Look, here is Christ!” or,
‘There he is!’ do not
believe it…. So if anyone tells
you, ‘There he is, out in the
desert,’ do not go out, or,
‘Here he is, in the inner
rooms,’ do not believe it. For
as lightening that comes from the
east is visible even in the west, so
will the coming of the Son of
Man.” (Matthew 24:23,26,27)
John wrote, “Look,
he [Jesus] is coming with the
clouds, and every eye will
see him, even those who
pierced him; and all the peoples of
the earth will mourn because of him.
So shall it be! Amen.” (Revelation
1:7, insertion and italics mine) When
Jesus comes, He will not touch the
Earth. This explains why the saints
will meet Him in the air! “After
that [the resurrection of the
righteous dead], we who are still
alive and are left will be caught up
together with them in the clouds to
meet the Lord in the air. And so we
will be with the Lord forever.” (1
Thessalonians 4:17) Jesus said where
the saints will go. “In my
Father’s house are many rooms;
if it were not so, I would have told
you. I am going there [to the New
Jerusalem] to prepare a place for
you. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come back and take
you to be with me that you also may
be where I am.” (John
14:2,3)
The Bible indicates
the fifth trumpet will last for five
months. The devil will speak kind
words, perform wonderful miracles of
healing, feed the multitudes, and
offer inspiring words of hope to a
world in utter despair. He will show
great signs and wonders. He will be
glorious and lovely to look upon. He
will captivate and motivate people
towards hope, assuring them that a
thousand years of peace and joy is
coming. The kingdom of God has come!
He will call for renewed efforts to
make the world a better place to
live. Meanwhile, some of his demons
will be working day and night to
subdue Lucifer’s opposition. The
non-religious wicked group will
suffer the horrible “sting”
of Lucifer’s scorpions. When
family members and observers see the
horrible searing pain that comes from
one demon, many of the non-religious
wicked group will capitulate on the
spot. I can see how demons could
tauntingly use the Scripture: “…
If you confess with your mouth,
‘Jesus is Lord,’ and
believe in your heart that God raised
him from the dead, you will be
saved.” (Romans 10:9) Of
course, the Jesus promoted by
Lucifer’s demons is the devil,
an imposter of the real Jesus.
Isaiah, Ezekiel,
Daniel, John, and Paul Agree
Shortly before
Paul’s death, Jesus revealed to
him that Lucifer would someday
physically appear on Earth. Notice
Paul’s understanding of this
matter: “Concerning the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and
our being gathered to him, we ask
you, brothers, not to become easily
unsettled or alarmed by some
prophecy, report or letter supposed
to have come from us, saying that the
day of the Lord has already come.
Don’t let anyone deceive you in
any way, for that day [the Second
Coming of Jesus] will not
come until the rebellion
occurs [a worldwide rejection of
the gospel. Paul knew that the gospel
of Jesus would be presented to
everyone on Earth before Jesus would
return. “The rebellion”
that has to happen before Jesus can
return will occur during the Great
Tribulation. The world must first
hear the gospel and refuse to submit
to its terms and conditions before
Jesus can return. The great rebellion
will cause the work of the 144,000 to
stall. When the gospel cannot make
any forward progress, Jesus will
release the devil from the Abyss] and
the man of
lawlessness is revealed, the man
doomed to destruction.” (2
Thessalonians 2:1-3, insertions and
italics mine)
Lucifer Is Called a
Man
Lucifer is called a man
in 2 Thessalonians 2, Isaiah
14:16,17, and Ezekiel 28:2 for two
reasons. First, God will give Lucifer
a body that looks something like the
form of a man. Currently, Lucifer has
no body (Revelation 17:8) He is
locked in the spirit realm. Just as
Jesus was given a body (Hebrews 10:5)
to save mankind, Lucifer and his
angels will be given bodies as part
of their mission to destroy mankind.
Second, Lucifer is
called a man because he is a mortal
being, that is, subject to death just
like mankind. The coming Antichrist,
is a man, but not a man born of a
woman, or having an earthly origin.
Even though the devil has lived for
thousands of years, he will be
annihilated with fire at the end of
the 1,000 years, just like the rest
of the wicked (Revelation 20:9,10)
Isaiah saw Lucifer
cast out of Heaven and given the form
of a man! “How you have
fallen from heaven, O morning star,
son of the dawn! You have been cast
down to the earth, you who once laid
low the nations! You said in
your heart, ‘I will ascend to
heaven; I will raise my throne above
the stars of God; I will sit
enthroned on the mount of assembly,
on the utmost heights of the sacred
mountain. I will ascend above the
tops of the clouds; I will make
myself like the Most High.’ But
you are [a mortal] brought
down to the grave, to the depths of
the pit. Those who see you stare at
you, they ponder your fate: ‘Is
this the man who
shook the earth and made the world a
desert, who overthrew its cities and
would not let his captives go
home?’”
(Isaiah 14:12-17,
italics and insertion mine)
Daniel knew the
Antichrist would be a man, but not a
man of earthly origin. He wrote, “Out
of one of them [the four winds] came
another horn [the king of the
north], which started small but
grew in power to the south and to the
east and toward the Beautiful
Land…. In the latter part of
their reign [that is, the reign
of Earth’s kings], when
rebels [against the gospel] have
become completely wicked, a
stern-faced [angel] king, a
master of intrigue, will arise
[from out of nowhere, the Abyss]. He
will become very strong, but not by
his own power. He will cause
astounding devastation and will
succeed in whatever he does. He will
destroy the mighty men and the holy
people. He will cause deceit to
prosper, and he will consider himself
superior [above everything that
is called God]. When they feel
secure [with his deceptions],
he will take his stand against [Jesus]
the [real] Prince of
princes. Yet he will be destroyed,
but not by human power.” (Daniel
8:9, 23-25, insertions and italics
mine)
Paul continues, “He
[the man of lawlessness, the devil] will
oppose [the teachings of all
religions] and he will exalt
himself over [and above] everything
that is called God or is worshiped,
so that he sets himself up in
God’s temple, proclaiming
himself to be God. Don’t you
remember that when I was with you I
used to tell you these things?”
(1 Thessalonians
2:4,5, insertions mine.)
Contrary to what many
people think, Paul is not talking
about the devil sitting in a rebuilt
temple in Jerusalem. The temple the
Romans destroyed in A.D. 70 cannot be
rebuilt because God has established a
new covenant. He abandoned the nation
of Israel (Matthew 23:38) and put a
seal on the temple mount to prevent
the temple from being rebuilt. This
seal is a Moslem mosque, “The
Dome of the Rock.” Furthermore,
Paul says the devil will oppose
everything that is called “God
or is worshiped” as God. This
means the devil will blaspheme
Judaism and all religions. In fact,
Lucifer will destroy all of the
world’s religions when he sets
up his theocracy during the sixth
trumpet. Paul’s phrase, “he
sets himself up in God’s temple
proclaiming himself to be God,”
means the devil will usurp God’s
place and authority over Earth. The
devil will exalt himself over
everything that is called God so that
he can rule as King of kings and Lord
of lords. Isaiah affirms this point: “You
said in your heart, ‘I will
ascend to heaven; I will raise my
throne above the stars of God; I will
sit enthroned on the mount of
assembly, on the utmost heights of
the sacred mountain. I will ascend
above the tops of the clouds; I will
make myself like the Most
High.’” (Isaiah
14:13,14)
Paul continues: “And
now you know what is holding him
[the devil] back, so that he may
be revealed at the proper
time [fifth trumpet]. For
the secret [unseen and hidden]
power of lawlessness [even though
he is invisible or hidden, the devil]
is already at work; but the one
who now holds it back [Jesus is
currently holding back the appearing
of the devil.] Will continue to do
so till he [Jesus] is taken
out of the way. [When the
corporate intercession of Jesus is
taken out of the way, there is
nothing to stop the wrath of God.] And
then [during the fifth trumpet] the
lawless one will be
revealed, whom the Lord
Jesus will overthrow with the breath
of his mouth and destroy by the
splendor of his [Second] coming.
The coming of the lawless one
[his appearing] will be in
accordance with the work of Satan
[even though the devil will give the
appearance of Almighty God, his
actions will betray his charade. The
miracles, manifesting incredible
powers] displayed in all kinds of
counterfeit miracles, signs and
wonders, and in every sort of evil
that deceives those who are
perishing. They [the
wicked] perish because they
[heard the gospel and] refused
to love the truth and so be saved.
For this reason God sends
them a powerful delusion [an
invincible destroyer] so that they
will believe the lie [that
Lucifer is God] and so that all
will be condemned who have not
believed the truth but have delighted
in wickedness.”
(2 Thessalonians
2:6-12, insertions and italics mine)
God gave Isaiah,
Ezekiel, John, Daniel, and Paul
slightly different views of the
devil’s work and appearing.
Isaiah saw Lucifer cast out of Heaven
and given the form of a man!
Ezekiel saw a man
claiming to be God. Daniel was shown
a “stern faced king” who
will come out of the north and
destroy the mighty men and the holy
people. Paul was shown “a
lawless man,” and John was shown
“the angel king from the
Abyss.” When we align these
views, we discover that God provided
a powerful matrix revealing several
things about Lucifer that cannot be
explained with just a few words!
Consider the following verses and
notice how the wicked will be
surprised at his appearing!
“[The angel said
to me, ‘John,’] The [great
red dragon] beast, which you saw [cast
out of Heaven in Revelation 12:7-9], once
was [in Heaven], now is not
[in Heaven because he was cast into
the Abyss], and [at the
appointed time, he will be released
and] will come up out of the Abyss
[the spirit realm where he was
confined] and [after a great
display of authority and power for
445 days he will] go to his
destruction. The inhabitants of the
Earth whose names have not been
written in the Book of Life from the
creation of the world will be
astonished when they [actually] see
the [great red dragon] beast,
because he once was [visible as a
glorious angel in Heaven], now
[he is confined to the Abyss and] is
not [visible to human beings],
and yet [during the fifth
trumpet, he] will [be
permitted to] come [out of
hiding and masquerade as Almighty
God. He will astonish the wicked with
incredible glory, counterfeit
wonders, and miracles!]. The [great
red dragon] beast who once was [in
Heaven], and now is not [in
Heaven], is an eighth king. [The
devil is called the eighth king
because he will rule over the seven
heads just like the eighth horn ruled
over the seven horns in Daniel7.] He
[the red dragon] belongs to
the seven [heads because he is
blasphemous. He opposes God’s
authority and truth. The great red
dragon is the dreaded Antichrist] and
[even though he will appear to be
invisible for awhile, you can be sure
that he] is going to his
destruction.” (Revelation
17:8,11, insertions mine)
To put it simply, the
devil will be released from the Abyss
because the gospel has stalled. Jesus
releases a destroyer so that people
can make up their minds about good
and evil. Once Lucifer is released,
the devil will move quickly to
establish control over the world and
his evil actions will force many
undecided people into a decision.
If counterfeit miracles cannot budge
a hardened heart, then the searing
pain imposed by Lucifer’s demons
will. Many people will make up their
minds when they are confronted with
Lucifer’s demands. Even still, a
few hard-headed people will remain in
the valley of decision, but the sixth
trumpet will force everyone into
their ‘final decision.”
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