Godsloveandlaw's Blog

Rev. 8:7. “The first angelsounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.”

We know that literal “fire,” “hail,” and “blood” would, if commingled, result in the fire’s melting the hail and burning up the blood. This result did not, however, follow the mingling of these three elements, the “hail” and “fire” and “blood” at the sounding of the first trumpet. Inescapably, therefore, they must be symbolically interpreted. And this conclusion is reenforced by the fact that the fire burnt all the “green grass,” and only a “third part” of the “trees.” This unnatural circumstance makes unavoidable the inference that the dry grass, which is more easily burned was unharmed; otherwise no mention would have been made as to the kind of grass consumed by the fire. But as it is contrary to nature for dry grass not to be consumed in the burning of green grass, the “green grass” and the “trees” are hence symbolical of something living, and vulnerable to injury, whereas the dry is not.

And finally, as proof in “good measure, pressed down…, and running over” (Luke 6:38), that the trumpets are symbolical, we call attention to the main events to take place in connection with some of the other trumpets.

At the sounding of the second trumpet, a great “mountain,” as it were burning with fire, “was cast into the sea.” Had not the “mountain” been symbolical, then after it had been cast into the “sea,” either the waves would have extinguished the fire or the fire would have transformed the water into steam. Instead, though, a part of the sea became “blood” — a condition utterly illogical, also unhistorical.

Obviously, then, the “mountain,” the “fire,” the “ships,” the “creatures,” and the “life” which they had, are each figurative. Likewise must be the sea, for only those “creatures” which are in the “sea,” and which “had life,” “died,” showing that there were others which did not have life but which yet lived on. If the creatures are not symbolical, it would be superfluous to say that those which “had life,” “died.” For unless they had life, how could they have died? A natural sea, furthermore, is never motionless, but ever undulating. Accordingly, were this “sea” literal, it would be impossible to confine the “blood” within the limits of the “third part of the sea.”

Were the “star” which, at the sounding of the third trumpet, “fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters,” not symbolical, but literal, it would jar the earth off its course and annihilate it!

At the sounding of the fourth angel, the “third part” of the “sun,” the “moon,” and the “stars” were “smitten.” Its being impossible, though, to smite the heavenly luminaries, then those here recorded as “smitten” are manifestly symbolical. This is made doubly plain in the light of the knowledge that even were they literal, and one part of them actually was smitten, the two parts of them remaining unsmitten would still emit more than enough light to prevent darkness.

Out of the “smoke” which, at the sounding of the fifth trumpet, rose from the “bottomless pit,” came fabulous “locusts” the like of which do not exist. The locusts, the “smoke,” and the “pit,” therefore, must also stand for something else. And furthermore as the personal pronoun “he” applies to the “star,” the star, consequently, is figurative of a male person.

That a horse, as in the sixth trumpet, should have a tail of serpents, a lion’s head, and a mouth belching fire, smoke, and brimstone — how utterly and fantastically impossible! These unnatural and grotesque combinations therefore reveal that the truth of the seven trumpets is to be unlocked only by the key of symbolical interpretation, and that hence the Bible Itself must explain

The Nature of the Trumpets.

That singular parallelism exists between the several effects of the seven trumpets and the several effects of the seven last plagues, is clearly to be seen in the following collocations:

(1) Both the elements of the first trumpet (“hail and fire mingled with blood”) and the contents of the vial of the first plague are cast upon the “earth” (Rev. 8:7; 16:2).

(2) The “mountain” at the sounding of the second trumpet and the contents of the “vial” at the pouring out of the second plague find their point of coincidence in falling alike into the “sea” (Rev. 8:8; 16:3).

(3) “Upon the rivers and fountains of waters” (Rev. 8:10; 16:4) fall both the “star” of the third trumpet and the contents of the “vial” of the third plague.

(4) Just as at the sounding of the fourth trumpet, so likewise at the pouring out of the “vial” of the fourth plague, the sun is affected (Rev. 8:12; 16:8).

(5) Darkness (Rev. 9:2; 16:10) ensues in common at the sounding of the fifth trumpet and at the pouring out of the fifth plague.

(6) As with the sixth trumpet just so with the sixth plague, the “river Euphrates” is the focal point (Rev. 9:14; 16:12).

(7) And bringing up the seventh parallel, the seventh trumpet and the seventh plague exhibit the identical components: the temple in heaven the voices and thunderings and lightnings therefrom, the earthquake and the hail (Rev. 11:15; 16:17-21) — the second coming of Christ.

These coincidences demonstrate beyond the slightest peradventure that the nature and the purpose of the seven trumpets are the same in kind as the nature and the purpose of the seven last plagues: destructive; and that of the wicked after their probation has closed.

Let it not, however, be understood that the respective destructions revealed in the subject of the seven trumpets must be one and the same in time and event with the corresponding destructions of the seven last plagues, for such a conclusion is made impossible by the fact that the voice which spoke to the angel at the sounding of the sixth trumpet, saying, “Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates,” came “from the four horns of the golden altar.” Rev. 9:13, 14. The altar’s being in the holy apartment of the sanctuary at the sounding of the sixth trumpet, proves that the trumpet sounded before the Most Holy apartment was opened for use. For had it been in use, the “voice” would necessarily have come from therein, where the throne is. Hence, the sounding of this trumpet had to take place before the door of the Most Holy was opened and the throne occupied.

Just as the seven plagues, therefore, reveal the judgments to be visited upon the wicked living after they reject the message in the closing period of this world’s history, so the seven trumpets reveal, as will be seen, the sequent destructions of the successive generations of the wicked, each of whose probation closed consequent to their rejecting God’s respective message to them. Thus the trumpets culminate with those who reject His message to them today.

This basic truth that each period of destruction follows only after a corresponding period of sealing, is corroborated by the fact that the symbolical locusts, which came up at the sounding of the fifth trumpet, hurt only those men which had “not the seal of God in their foreheads.” All this shows not only that each trumpet follows its sealing period, but also that the nature of the trumpets reveals the punishment of those who failed to receive the seal in their particular periods. (Final Warning Tract, p.26-32)