a study by Rev. Paul A. Bartz

Reel 3 continues in Chapter 8.

Outline of Revelation 8:
1. 8:1-7 The First Trumpet
2. 8:8-13 Trumpets 2, 3 and 4

8:1 -- Seals one through six are now completed. The seventh seal is composed of seven trumpets. Chapter 8 contains the account of the first four of those seven trumpets.

The sixth seal was concerned with the period of rest for evangelization and building the church. The seventh seal heralds the end of this period of peace. Now there are challenges for western civilization, now beginning to be Christianized, to face. During this period of history the Imperial Empire of Rome falls.

"Silence in heaven" -- the final calm before the storm. It is only fitting that the previous ringing praises be stilled with expectation rather than being shattered with war. Half an hour -- remember, there is no time in heaven and John is already a couple of hundred years in his future. There is no reason to take this literally. The types of events we are dealing with here do not happen suddenly but develop slowly.

8:2 -- Seven angels -- Seven trumpets . . . each angel and each trumpet heralding a separate event. In Old Testament times trumpets were sounded to herald important events. Revelation 8:2 through 11:19 are concerned with explaining what happens when these trumpets sound. The first four are recorded here in Chapter 8.

8:3-5 -- This angel is in addition to the seven. He was given incense to add a sweet smelling savor to the prayers of the saints. Many of the best commentators here see that this incense was given to him by Christ to mingle with the prayers of the saints. The incense would seem to be linked with Christs atonement for us which makes us acceptable to God. That the prayers are offered by the angel does not make them acceptable to God. Incense is associated with prayer often in worship and prayer before God. (Exodus. 30:1-8; Psalm. 141:2; Luke 1:9-10 for example.)

Note the following about the incense:

1. It is not a symbol of the prayers of the saints, but accompanies their prayers.
2. The angel does not bring the prayers to God. Prayer flows directly from the saints to God, the angel is only mingling the incense with the prayers.
3. This passage gives us no reason to pray to the angel.
4. These prayers are not only the prayers of some of the saints, but of all of the saints.

A censer was a fire pan that held live charcoal on which was placed the incense which was then caused to smolder by the hot coals.

"Filled it with fire from the altar and hurled it on the earth." -- Again, as we saw in 4:5, the lightnings and thunderings echo Gods presence as at Sinai, and further, in the book of Revelation, they always indicates an important event is taking place in the heavenly Temple. This is God's answer to "all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness" (Rom 1:18) and also an answer to the saints' prayers (verse. 4) for deliverance from:

1. Open enemies
2. . Secret enemies in the fold who have the truth but have refused the Spirits work and thus have an unregenerate heart and cause much pain to the true saints.

This is a comfort of Gods powerful protection. The Saints have nothing to fear from their Father, but open and secret enemies have much to fear.

8:6 -- The prayers of the Saints are so received during the "half hour" of silence (verse 1). The throwing of the coals to earth signals the end of the silence. Now the seven angels are prepared to sound their trumpets.

8:7 -- The First Angel and Trumpet -- Hail and fire mixed with blood. It is interesting to find these three items listed together. God often returns punishment in kind for sin. Many saints have been stoned to death for their witness. Destructive hail of stones (ice or rock) is returned. Many saints have been burned at the stake. Fire is returned to the persecutors. Many had their blood shed. Blood is shed, in return by the fire and hail -- as indicated by the phrase "mixed with."

This, as a result of these prayers of the saints, even in praying the Lords Prayer -- "Thy will be done on earth" -- is perfectly in line with Gods desire to have all men to come to Him, and resultant punishment (temporal - in time) of those who do not.

"A third of the earth trees" does not indicate a mathematical formula but that a large part, but only part, of the earth was affected. Into this time period falls the four major barbarian invasions of the crumbling seat of Imperial Rome, the first being the Goths. These events are recorded in The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire and also in other histories. We quote a book on church history published in 1839:

"In the year 410 the imperial city of Rome was besieged and taken by Alaric, king of the Goths [Germans], who delivered it over to the licentious fury of his army. A scene of horror ensued which is scarcely paralleled in the history of war. The plunder of the city was accomplished in six days; the streets were deluged with the blood of murdered citizens through the treachery of the Roman guard, one of the gates was silently opened, and the inhabitants were awakened at midnight by the tremendous sound of the Gothic trumpet."

The Goths, incidentally, were famous for their trumpets as they moved in conquest. Often cities, hearing Alarics trumpets outside the gate, would open the gate and surrender. Goths led by Alaric moved into Greece and then Rome, virtually surrounded the Northern Mediterranean coast (controlling one-third of it), into which flowed the blood -- quite literally -- of his victims. They killed every male they encountered and burned every village in Greece and Italy. Most of the damage we see in Greek ruins standing today (Parthenon, etc.) are the result of Alaric's hand.

The saints had prayed "How long " (6:10) while their blood was shed for hundreds of years by Rome. Now the time had come. The judgment upon Rome had now come, as it once came upon Canaan, with blare of trumpet, bloodshed, and a rain of destruction upon the Empire which had ruled a third of the known world.

While this fulfillment of the vision seems quite uncanny, and fits in both with Scripture and the whole picture of Revelation, one other important opinion on these verse ought to be mentioned.

Several commentators, including Luther, identified the first trumpet with false teachers at about this same period in history who led many away from the Gospel, including:

• Tatian: Who forbade marriage by pastors, and encouraged people to become righteous by their good works.

• Arius: Who taught that the Son is by nature and essence different from the Father, specially created, first and foremost human, and that by his good works works He became united with the Father. The Nicene Creed is the church's witness against this. ("Of the same substance with the Father.") Arius was a much-loved teacher and a very convincing and personable man and drew many of the weak into his heresy.

These heresies were tests and led to the eternal destruction of many of the weak in faith who did not depend on the Word as they should have. As always they were more swayed by Arius' personal character than by the Scriptures truth of which, by their own fault, they knew little.

But these heresies alone seem to fall short of what Rev. 8:1-7 is speaking of:  :  : The punishment of the godless who have persecuted the saints in chapter 6. However, at we noted, the persecutors, include both those inside the fold and open enemies. Thus we may see the heretics as those sent by God to punish to punish enemies within the Church, while the Goths were sent to punish those outside the Church.

There are additional striking resemblances between the invasion of the Goths and the first trumpet. Amazingly, Alaric's reputation preceded him to Rome, in which Christianity was now growing, and with it a distaste for the Roman the ethic, typified by the games. The Goths first attempt at Rome was driven off under a Christian leader (Honorius) who then, hailed as the savior of Rome, was made its head. Rome welcomed him and the end of Roman ethic, Christian poets waxed eloquent about the end of the Roman games. It seemed the prayers of the saints against the Roman butchery had been answered. Not all Romans were Christians, however, and many violently opposed their Christian rule and the ending of the games and human sacrifices. Then, with reinforcements from the Huns, Alaric returned to deliver the punishment earned by the enemies outside the Church.

8:8-9 -- The Second Trumpet -- The second sequence of events -- something "as a great mountain" was cast into the sea and a third of the sea became blood.

"The sea" here is the Mediterranean Sea. It was known as the "Great Sea" in John's time. Travel into the Atlantic was considered mysterious and was not practiced but by a few isolated people. In this context, then, we can understand a third of the Mediterranean Sea became like blood -- the origin and scene of great bloodshed.

The Goths had driven the Christians out of Rome. The Christians had crossed the Sea to Africa. The Second Trumpet is taken to herald the Vandals (422-452 A.D.) who finished off Rome and then continued to chase Christians across the sea to Africa which had become the center of Christianity. In 426 A.D. 80,000 male Vandals crossed the Mediterranean to destroy Christianity. Two years later there were only three Christian towns left in Africa. The bloodshed was incredible, all Christians found were executed immediately. These 80,000 warriors, like a great mountain, fell in from the sea to destroy hundreds of thousands. Again the sequence of events here is too remarkable to be only coincidence.

Luther and some of the various older commentators equate the second trumpet only with religious heresy. Luther points to Marcion, a heretic of the second century and those who follow him into the third and fourth centuries. Marcion set himself above Scripture and taught that the cruel God of the Old Testament was a different God from the loving Father of the Lord Jesus. He went on to write his own version of the Bible which favored his idea of the loving God and excluded what he thought was the cruel one. Luther also includes here others who exalt their own spirituality like a mountain in order to blot God out of people's minds.

8:10-11 -- The Third Trumpet: Wormwood is a plant with a strong, bitter taste. It is not poisonous, but its bitterness suggests that it is. "Wormwood" occurs elsewhere in Scripture seven times only. It is always used as representing bitterness caused by unbelief and even punishment for sin. The theme of Revelation identifies its use here as punishment -- Judgment.

This third trumpet is identified with the rule of the Huns about 460 A.D. They ruled the whole of the Old Roman Empire and then some (that third, again). They allowed pastors, bishops, and the other leaders to keep their offices, but these leaders were to do and say nothing except as they were told to do -- one of the most bitter experiences any person can live through. All of life was made bitter. Death did not characterize the reign of the Huns, except death indirectly from embitterment. Again the Third Trumpet uncannily matches this next wave of events for God's people.

Luther wrote: "The third is Origen (about 250 A.D.) who embittered and corrupted Scriptures with philosophy and reason as the universities have hitherto done among us." Origen tried to comprehend the mystery of the Trinity and ended up saying that the Son was not equal to but lesser than the Father, although far above any creature.

8:12 -- The Fourth Trumpet -- Darkness, when a third of the sun, moon, and stars are blotted out. That figure of "one-third" should remind us again of the extent of the Roman empire -- one-third of the known ancient world. Sun, moon, and stars represent royalty. So we have a royal claim to a third of the earth, which is blotted out.

In 476 A.D. German mercenaries in Rome under the command of Odoacer mutinied against Romulus Augustulus demanding one-third of Italy. Odoacer promised to give them that territory if they proclaimed him king. Later, at what was supposed to be a signing of a peace treaty, he was assassinated.

One historian of the early part of the last century remarked "that if a man were called to fix upon a period in the history of the world during which the condition of the human race was most calamitous, he would without hesitation that which elapsed from the death of Theodosius the Great, A.D. 395."

It should be noted that there are remarkable parallels between the plagues used by God to deliver His people from Egypt and these trumpets. Those plagues were specific messages to the Egyptians of the superiority of Moses God over the Egyptian gods, as each plague challenged the area over which one of Egypt's ten greatest gods ruled. In the picture language of Revelation, the first trumpet brought hail, fire and blood. In Egypt, the plague of hail was accompanied by violent lightening. The plague that turned water into blood made it undrinkable. With the Second Trumpet, the sea turned into blood. The Third Trumpet, too, made the waters undrinkable. The darkness of the Third Trumpet reminds us of the ninth plague on Egypt, the plague of darkness.

8:13 "An Eagle" -- The symbol of Rome, ironically enough. (If it were an angel, it would appear to be an extra angel. The best Greek texts favor "Eagle".) "Saying " What has happened so far, forever changed the history of the world and was a great trial for believers. Millions were killed in warfare during this century, but the worst is yet to come.

This was a time of enormous testings for Christians. There had been great heresies which led many astray. There was death for those now who would refuse to abandon their faith. The devil was intent on wiping out the faithful, while the Lord would protect and extend His Kingdom, as He had shown during the lull before the first trumpet. He will also test the faithful. Being faithful when it is dangerous, hard, and sometimes brings bitterness, is a real test of faithfulness. But the trumpeters assure us, God is in charge; His children need not fear.

1. Are we living in an easy time for Christians, or a time of difficult challenges to our very faith?
   Give examples.

2. What are some things that make Christianity "stylish" today?

3. What are some things that make real Christianity difficult today?

4. One commentator has said that these 4 trumpets encourage us to give up all hope in worldly powers for a better world. Do you agree?
   Explain.

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