How Do I
Prepare for the Great Tribulation?
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The seven
trumpets
Revelation does not
leave us in darkness wondering how
the final events occur! The total
destruction caused under the fourth
seal amounts to a total of fourteen
events. These events are described as
seven trumpets (or seven first
plagues) and seven last plagues. Each
plague has a special purpose and
meaning.
The seven
seals reveal who Jesus really is. The
seven trumpets awaken the world to
its need of Jesus and the everlasting
gospel tells how to receive Jesus and
avoid the mark of the beast!
A time of
wrath
Before we look at the
contents of the seven trumpets, we
need to understand that the time
period following the opening of the
four seal until the arrival of Jesus
in the sixth seal is appropriately
called, “a time of wrath.”
Remember Gabriel’s visit with
Daniel? Review what Gabriel said, “…I
am going to tell you what will happen
later in the time of wrath, because
the vision concerns the appointed
time of the end.” Daniel
8:19. On a later visit with Daniel,
Gabriel told Daniel that Satan would
appear in person upon earth! He said,
“The King (Satan) will do a he
pleases. He will exalt and magnify
himself above every god and will say
unheard-of things against the God of
gods. He will be successful until the
time of wrath is completed, for what
has been determined must take
place.” Daniel 11:36.
The time of wrath is
mentioned twice in Daniel’s
vision and John saw it too! Compare
Daniel’s verse above with
Revelation 15:1. John says, “I
saw in heaven another great and
marvelous sign: seven angels with the
seven last plagues – last,
because with them God’s wrath is
completed.” In other
words, God’s wrath is completed
or fulfilled during the seven last
plagues!
Study the chart and
notice that the trumpets mark a time
period of redemptive judgments
because mercy is mixed with them.
This underscores the purpose of the
trumpets to awaken and arose people
to the sinfulness of their course,
and to prepare them for the close of
mercy.
Back to the
sanctuary and the Day of Atonement
The time period of the
seven trumpets marks the judgment of
the living. We have studied the
importance of the Day of Atonement in
the wilderness. The Day of Atonement
was the most important day in the
Jewish year for the 10th
day of the 7th month
marked the close of Israel’s
judgment for that year.
To warn the Jews of
this final and most important day of
the year, the Feast of Trumpets began
nine days earlier – on the 1st
day of the seventh month (see
Leviticus 23:24). Each day, according
to the Talmud, trumpets sounded
throughout the camp announcing the
close of mercy. On the 10th
day, the actual Day of Atonement, the
trumpets blasted throughout the land
(see Leviticus 25:9) to signify that
probation had ended.
The close of judgment
was not a surprise in the wilderness
and neither will it be a surprise to
those living upon the earth. In fact,
Jesus is desirous that the close of
probation come upon earth with ample
warning so that all necessary
preparations can be made by any
desiring eternal life!
A clarion call
The Bible uses the
trumpet as a symbol of warning or
announcement. Notice the following
references:
“Blow the
trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on
my holy hill. Let all who live in the
land tremble, for the day of the Lord
is coming. It is close at hand. Joel
2:1
“I
appointed watchman over you and said
‘Listen to the sound of the
trumpet!’… I am bring
disaster on this people, the fruit of
their schemes, because they have not
listened to my words and have
rejected my law.” Jeremiah
6: 17, 19
“…If
anyone hears the trumpet but does not
take warning and the sword comes and
takes his life, his blood will be on
his own head.” Ezekiel
33:4
When Jesus returns, He
will use the trumpet to announce His
appearing! “…for
the trumpet will sound, the dead will
be raised imperishable, and we will
all be changed.” I
Corinthians 15:52
Since ancient times,
the trumpet has not only been an
instrument of music, it has been a
means of communication. For example,
generals in battle directed their
armies with trumpets. The trumpet was
ideal because its penetrating sound
could rise above the din of war or
pierce the dark of night. Night
watchmen were required to sound the
trumpet if an enemy approached.
Specific tunes were used to indicate
assignment and signals. The Apostle
Paul says: “…if the
trumpet does not sound a clear call,
who will get ready for battle?” (I
Corinthians 14:8).
So it will be. The
sounding of the seven trumpets will
be a clarion call. The seven trumpets
of Revelation are symbols of warning
or announcement. Their purpose is to
awaken the world with the fact that
Jesus is about to appear. Their
message is, “Get ready! Get
ready! Get ready!” Since the
trumpet is the loudest of all musical
instruments and the number seven is
usually considered to be full or
comprehensive number, these trumpets
have global application. After all,
God wants to awaken and arose all
people of Earth that Jesus is coming
back to Earth to gather up those
whose names are written in the book
of life!
What takes
place as each trumpet sounds?
1.
Hail and fire mixed with blood. A
third of the earth, trees, and all
green grass is burned up. Revelation
8:7
2.
A third of the sea is turned to
blood, a third of the sea
creature’s die, and a third of
the ships are destroyed. Revelation
8: 8,9
3.
A third of the rivers and the spring
of waters turn bitter, and many
people die from the waters. The name
of the plague is “Wormwood”
or bitterness. Revelation 8: 10,11
4.
One third of the sun, moon and stars
are struck, and they turn dark. A
third of the day will be without
light, also a third of the night.
Revelation 8:12
5.
The angel king of the bottomless pit
is let out. He brings a terrible
affliction for five months upon those
who rebel against God. The torment is
so bad that, “men will
seek death, but will not find it;
they will long to die, but death will
elude them.” See
Revelation 9: 1-12
6.
Satan conducts a great war to conquer
the world. Four angels at the great
river Euphrates are released to kill
a third of mankind. The number of
troops will be myriads. These angels
have been kept ready for this very
hour, day month and year! Revelation
9: 13-19
7.
Jesus concludes His special work in
the heavenly sanctuary. There is an
earthquake, lightening, rumblings,
peals of thunder, and a great
hailstorm. Revelation 11: 15-19
The fourth
seal opens and the first trumpet
sounds
Jesus opens the fourth
seal and initiates the great
tribulation upon the world by
sounding the trumpets. These warnings
fall in response to our unrestrained
evil and hardness of heart. “…Why
has the Lord decreed such a great
disaster against us? What wrong have
we done? What sin have we committed
against the Lord our God?…
‘(Your) houses are full of
deceit; (you) have become rich and
powerful and have grown fat and
sleek. (Your) evil deeds have no
limit.’” Jeremiah
16: 10; 5: 27, 28
Thus, the opening of
the fourth seal will attract the
attention of everyone on earth that
God’s wrath has broken out upon
Earth. These trumpet plagues are not
man-made rather; these will be
rightly called, “Acts of
God” and will be correctly
recognized as such. As in the days of
Pharaoh, God says the world will
know, “I am the Lord
that do these things.” See
Exodus 7:5
Summary
From the Bible we have
seen that Jesus has sent judgments
upon the world in times past.
Judgments from heaven come with
warning. Jesus uses judgments to
awaken and arose people to the
sinfulness of their course. His
judgments can be redemptive or
punitive. They can be a means of
salvation or a means of destruction.
If you are upset and
worried about the oncoming Great
Tribulation to the point that it
constantly robs you of your joy and
peace in the Lord, then I recommend
you reading the book, Bible
Stories with End-time Parallels. A
good friend of mine wrote this book
in 2002 to encourage God’s
children. He took ten well-known
Bible stories of faith and paralleled
each story with the Great
Tribulation. If we
“put on the scandals” of
those saints who lived in Bible times
and examine their lives and
experiences, our faith in God will
increase because God is changeless!
When early Christians in Corinth
became discouraged with persecution,
Paul encouraged them to read stories
from the Old Testament! “These
things happened to them as examples
and were written down as warnings for
us, on whom the fulfillment of the
ages has come.” (I
Corinthians 10:11) Therefore, if you
need some faith-building stories, you
can read this book free on the
Internet. Just go to the link: http://www.wake-up.org/daystar/DSIndex2002.htm This book can also be
obtained by calling WUAS office at
1-800-475-0876.
On the other hand, if
you are overwhelmed with fear to the
point of distraction, you should
continue to expand your theological
framework so that you can better
understand the love, the ways, the
plans, and the character of God.
Every human being, including me, has
a flawed view of God. This is why FAITH
in God is eternally important for
angels as well as humans! Our finite
minds are too small to comprehend the
works and plans of an infinite God,
so He asks us to obey His laws and
patiently wait upon Him until
knowledge and understanding arrives.
God may take several thousand years
to work something out or He may take
one second. While we are waiting for
God to accomplish His corporate
purposes or plans for us as
individuals, we have to trust and
obey. Eventually, we will see His
wisdom, His love, and His ability to
make all things work together for
good! (Faith, when viewed in reverse,
always makes sense.)
Remember, no person
can surround all who God is. In fact,
the Bible has more than 40 authors
and it took over 1,500 years to
write! I am constantly learning more
about God, and during the past 15
years, I have had to make major
changes in my theological framework.
I have learned if we allow it, the
Bible speaks clearly, just as it
reads. This may surprise you, but God
has put apparent conflicts in the
Bible. He did this for two reasons.
First, surface readers of the Bible
quickly choose one side of the
conflict and ignore many verses that
conflict with their conclusions. This
foolish behavior quickly exposes
surface readers for what they are to
those who have spent hours searching
for truth. Second, God has put
apparent conflicts in the Bible to
draw His children deeper study and
discovery. A born again Christian
knows the Bible is not in conflict
with itself because God is
changeless. Therefore, resolving
these apparent conflicts requires
digging and searching for truth.
While pursuing “an apparent
conflict,” new discoveries will
occur. Soon, the Bible becomes an
amazing universe of information about
God.
On occasion, I have
had to let go of flawed concepts in
order to embrace a larger harmony
that comes from the sum of all the
parts. As you already know,
renouncing a theological concept like
“the pre-tribulation
rapture” can be very difficult
on a theological level, as well as a
social level. Therefore, to help
others understand the elements of
Bible prophecy more clearly; here in
the reading room of this site, there
are five essential Bible truths that
every student of Bible prophecy
should know. I am convinced that a
person has to know these five
essential truths before the books of
Daniel and Revelation makes sense
just as they read.
Here is a serious
question many people continue to ask:
Do you think that God could give His
saints the same kind of courage and
faith to endure the Great Tribulation
if there was no pre-tribulation
rapture? Of course, someone will
speak up and say, “Sure, God can
do anything, but we don’t need
to worry about this because the
saints will be in Heaven during the
Great Tribulation!” Consider
this text: “He
[the composite beast] was
given power to make war against
the saints and
to conquer them. And he was given
authority over every tribe, people,
language and nation. All inhabitants
of the earth will worship the beast
– all whose names have not been
written in the book of life belonging
to the Lamb that was slain from the
creation of the world.”
(Revelation 13: 7,8, insertion mine.)
Remember friends, as
you begin this new year and a new
understanding of God’s Word, I
want to share three passages from the
Bible. First, please consider the
last words of Jesus recorded in
Matthew, “…and, lo,
I am with you always, even unto the
end of the world. Amen.” (Matthew
28:20, KJV) Second, here is a
blessing from God spoken to all who
love Him. “The Lord
bless you and keep you; the Lord make
his face shine upon you and be
gracious to you; the Lord turn his
face toward you and give you
peace.” (Numbers 6:
24-26) A few hours before His death,
Jesus told His disciples, “peace
I leave with you; my peace I give
you. I do not give to you as the
world gives. Do not let your hearts
be troubled and do not be
afraid.” (John 14:27
My friends, if
we meet and you forget me, you have
lost nothing.
If you meet
Jesus and forget Him, you have lost
everything
Bob Stout
