Posted by AU on 10/4/2001, 2:10 pm

Re: one more chapter, more Posted by Author Unknown on 8/31/2001, 3:16 pm , in reply to "Someone E-mailed Me and expressed interest in my book so here is one more chapter" This understanding tells me that much of the statements in Revelation about oceans and rivers turning to blood, etc. may be either figurative or will occur during the final seven weeks before Christ’s return because like in Noah’s day, everything was going along somewhat normally until Noah entered into the ark. If the earth had shown powerful indications of a coming storm, the people should have taken heed to Noah’s message. The Day and Hour Unknown “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with his assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch. “Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’” (Mark 13:32-36, NIV) Protection from the Trumpet Plagues John records that before any trumpet sounds, the children of Israel are sealed. “After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree. Then I saw another angel coming up from the east, having the seal of the living God. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the land and the sea: “Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God” (Revelation 7:1-3, NIV). This sealing can only point to divine protection from judgment. Divine protection from mere wind? Now is the time for us to exercise common sense and figure out what the wind in our text is symbolizing. Over and over in Scripture, we see havoc that is caused by an east wind, and because the angel in our text comes from the east, we could simply accept this prophecy at face value and take it literally. But first let’s build a physical model in our mind’s eye and envision how being sealed by the Almighty God could affect those who receive his seal. Let’s consider two men standing on the same street in a major city, one of them has the seal of God upon him and the other does not, the wind is blowing extremely hard. Will the one who has God’s seal be affected by the wind any less than the other man? Is literal wind the destructive force that God will protect his faithful from? Probably not—after all the word usage in Revelation can have figurative applications. Wind throughout Scripture is associated with a spirit, or force, like when the “sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where” people were praying. Could the first trumpet be dealing with a spiritual force—possibly an evil wind? Again, let’s look to the Old Testament for a possible example: this next text depicts God’s people when they were worried about a possible conquest: “Ahaz and his people were shaken, as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind” (Isaiah 7:2, NIV). This text even likened people to the trees of the forest. This is noteworthy because trees were mentioned in the trumpet judgment. Please notice these people were shaken, meaning they were terribly frightened—the Bible verse makes no mention of any storm looming; it was a warring faction of Israel that was ominous. People at the end of time who have forsaken the knowledge of God will be spiritually and emotionally shaken by the coming conquest of God’s Christ and “like the wind their sins will sweep them away.” Yet those who are in fellowship with the Lord have no need to fear. This next text is an end-time prophecy: it fits perfectly into our time frame and speaks of the coming low moral condition of the earth. “The earth reels like a drunkard, it sways like a hut in the wind; so heavy upon it is the guilt of its rebellion that it falls—never to rise again” (Isaiah 24:20, NIV). Wind was mentioned in that text. In the last days the wind of God’s judgment will blow upon our troubled world, yet the earth will not literally fall—these are figurative statements. Because Revelation was written in symbolic language, we wouldn’t necessarily be breaking any rules or taking its prophecies out of context if we looked for symbolic applications. Speaking of one of the tribes of Israel, it is written, “Ephraim feeds on the wind; he pursues the east wind all day and multiplies lies and violence” (Hosea 12:1, NIV). Surely the wind is likened to a negative force in that passage. Is it possible that the wind that blows near the end of time could be an illustration of “multiplies lies and violence?” In another Bible verse where wind is mentioned it reads, “May they be like chaff before the wind, with the angel of the LORD driving them away; may their path be dark and slippery, with the angel of the LORD pursuing them” (Psalms 35:5-6, NIV). Seeing that the angel of the LORD is shown chasing after the wicked, the word usage points to the word wind in this passage representing a driving or pursuing force. None of these texts is speaking of a literal wind. Now please don’t misunderstand the point of my arguments. I would be the last man on earth to say there won’t be terrifying winds before Christ returns. What I am saying is, God is not going to seal us from mere wind—the protection he gives his faithful ones is protection from coming judgment that will sweep through our world like an east wind—judgment of a spiritual nature, which is far more devastating. The First Trumpet Sounds “The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down upon the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up” (Revelation 8:7, NIV). If we were to take the meaning of this last text literally, from a purely scientific standpoint, we may surmise that hail and fire mixed with blood was the result of a nuclear conflict—that is a good possibility. If one third of earth’s trees burned, the amount of smoke this would create and the amount of carbon dioxide it would produce would indeed cause famine on a major scale: This burning could also account for the moon turning red and the sun withdrawing its light, but wait! This type of devastation may be a little too much at this point in our time-line. We still have a year left before Armageddon. Again we should consider that the word usage in our text might be figurative. So let’s ask the question, what might hail and fire mixed with blood represent—spiritual warfare? This first trumpet will probably have more to do with the continued deception and apostasy of men and women rather than the literal destruction of vegetation. A Symbolic Application Let’s consider the part of the verse where it reads, “all the green grass was burned up.” Why only the green grass? Why not the multitudes of grass that is mature and still standing, about to be harvested? And what about the wheat and barley grass that is cut and bailed yet still lying in the fields. Maybe were not talking about grass at all. Let’s ask the question: could this term “green” in prophecy be speaking of people who have turned from the knowledge of God? The Bible says, “like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away” (Psalms 37:2, NIV). Let’s look at the part of the verse where it reads, “a third of the trees were burned up.” In Revelation speaking of Satan where he is illustrated as a red dragon it is written, “His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth” (Revelation 12:4, NIV). The time frame when these stars hit the earth is during Antichrist’s regime. Because the term his tail is used [speaking of the dragon], this could refer to a time near the end his reign, which fits our time frame perfectly. If these stars falling depict men and women falling from the faith, then the trees that are burned up may represent people as well. One thing is certain: When the first trumpet sounds, the war in the spirit will escalate. God is going to seal us from harm, yet the forces we shall be protected from are far more deadly than wind. The Second Trumpet Sounds “The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed” (Revelation 8:8-9, NIV). Before we decide if this text should be taken literally or if it has a figurative meaning, we should look at the word usage where we find this word sea elsewhere in the same book—the word sea is found 26 times in Revelation. Here are a few examples: 1. “Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short” (Revelation 12:12, NIV). 2. “And the dragon stood on the shore of the sea” (Revelation 12:18, NIV). 3. “And I saw a beast coming out of the sea” (Revelation 13:1, NIV). Even the expression sea creatures is used elsewhere in the Bible in reference to men, as in this passage, “You have made men like fish in the sea, like sea creatures that have no ruler” (Habakkuk 1:14,NIV). So we shouldn’t automatically designate this word sea in Revelation to have a literal context, especially considering that Revelation is a book written in symbols.