Revelation 8:13
13 Then I looked, and I heard an eagle flying in midheaven, saying with a loud voice, “Woe, woe, woe to those who live on the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound!”
Other translations say, ‘terror, terror, terror!’ or ‘horror, horror, horror!’ or ‘Doom, doom, doom!’ The Orthodox Jewish Bible says, ‘Oy, oy, oy!’
The Greek word for ‘eagle’ in this passage is aetos which means eagle or vulture acc to the Holman Concordance. All the other translations I checked say it is an eagle flying in midheaven. But the KJV and 1599 Geneva Bibles say ‘an angel flying in midheaven’.
If it is an eagle, in what language do you suppose it cries out? Or perhaps it is like in Acts where the disciples speak in their own language but everyone heard it in THEIR language? Acts 2:7-11
7 They were amazed and astonished, saying, “Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born? 9 Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabs—we hear them speaking in our own tongues of the mighty deeds of God.”
Some points before Dr. Wood starts – he makes a point several times in his talks that ‘Revelation is mostly chronological’. On a micro scale, this is true. The second trumpet does come after the first trumpet, the third seal was opened after the second seal, the sixth bowl is poured after the fifth bowl. So for several stretches of Revelation, the book IS chronological.
But keep in mind, that we are told later that certain things have been taking place since the beginning of Revelation and in that way, they are NOT sequential.
In Revelation 11 we learn that the two witnesses will preach for 3.5 years before being slain, then will be resurrected. This necessitates that they must have already been prophesying for the first half of the seven-year period, though they are not mentioned until chapter eleven.
Then in chapter 17, we are introduced to the Great Harlot, who rides the beast. And we realize that ‘she’ has been active since the beginning of the tribulation and possibly even through the gap period between the rapture and the start of the tribulation.
*So please, don’t protest loudly when Dr. Wood says that Revelation is mostly chronological.
He is referring to the order of the seals, then the order of the trumpets, then the order of the bowls, then the fact that the AC and false prophet are cast into the abyss (Abusso) for eternity.
Then the start of the Millennium and eternal heaven are certainly in chronological order in Revelation.
- Another observation before we start, read Proverbs 30:27
27 The locusts have no king,
Yet all of them go out in ranks;
Yet we will read in Revelation chapter 9 that THESE locusts do indeed have a king, betraying the fact that they are not actual locusts at all, but ‘locusts’ must be a rhetorical device.
- Another point to make is that normal locusts are very destructive to crops. These locusts are supernatural in that they do NOT harm vegetation, only humans, but they do not kill.
Let’s read Revelation chapter 9:1-12 now..
9 Then the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth; and the key to the shaft of the abyss was given to him. 2 He opened the shaft of the abyss, and smoke ascended out of the shaft like the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened from the smoke of the shaft. 3 Then out of the smoke came locusts upon the earth, and power was given them, as the scorpions of the earth have power. 4 They were told not to hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but only the people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. 5 And they were not permitted to kill anyone, but to torment for five months; and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings a person. 6 And in those days people will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, and death will flee from them!
7 The appearance of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle; and on their heads appeared to be crowns like gold, and their faces were like human faces. 8 They had hair like the hair of women, and their teeth were like the teeth of lions. 9 They had breastplates like breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots, of many horses rushing to battle. 10 They have tails like scorpions, and stings; and in their tails is their power to hurt people for five months. 11 They have as king over them, the angel of the abyss; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek he has the name Apollyon.
12 The first woe has passed; behold, two woes are still coming after these things.
Let’s go ahead and look up a few passages he cites, so you are already familiar with them…
1 Peter 3:18-20
18 For Christ also suffered for sins once for all time, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; 19 in which He also went and made proclamation to the spirits in prison, 20 who once were disobedient when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water.
2 Peter 2:4-5
4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, held for judgment; 5 and did not spare the ancient world, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;
6 And angels who did not keep their own domain but abandoned their proper dwelling place, these He has kept in eternal restraints under darkness for the judgment of the great day, 7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these angels indulged in sexual perversion and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.
Dr. Wood gets into the subject of the Nephilim a bit and the origin of this doctrine is Genesis 6:1-4
6 Now it came about, when mankind began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, 2 that the sons of God saw that the daughters of mankind were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not remain with man forever, because he is also flesh; nevertheless his days shall be 120 years.” 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of mankind, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
Now look just a bit further in Genesis 6:9
Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.
Other translations say, ‘Noah was perfect in his generations (or genealogy)’ His family had not interbred with the fallen angels.
Also see Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28.
So now, you have a running start into what Andy wants to talk about…
(These verses will also be in the notes that I send you, or you can write them down now. I make a point of this because there are many people (even in our own church) who do not believe Genesis 6 is speaking of fallen angels at all but rather sons of Seth or Lamech even.)
Now with those verses as a warm up, let’s watch Dr. Andy Wood’s commentary. Write down any thoughts you have, as I’m not going to stop the video midstream, and we will have at least ten minutes after the video for discussion. We are going to watch from the 7:40 mark until the 45:27 point. Listen up especially at 28:50-34:50
Revelation Episode 28. The Reality of Demons. Revelation 9:1-12. – YouTube
Next week, chapter 9 verses 13-21.
ADDENDUM
(From ‘Zondervan Academic Blog’….)
Who are the Nephilim in Genesis 6?
Genesis 6:4 reads: “The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.”
This is an incredibly confusing passage. We know almost nothing about the Nephilim. Who were these people, and why are they important to the surrounding narrative in Genesis?
Before we attempt to answer that, let’s take a look at the broader context. Genesis 6:1–4 reads:
When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.
Who are the “sons of God”?
The three most common answers to the identity of the sons of God (or gods) in Genesis 6 have been:
- the sons of God (or gods) were fallen angelic beings;
- the sons of God were the men of the line of Seth and the daughters of humans were the women of the line of Cain; and
- the sons of God (or gods) were the men of the tyrannical dynasty of Lamech.
Each view uses the biblical context for support. Let’s take a closer look:
- The “sons of God” are fallen angelic beings
The first view—the sons of God (or gods) were fallen angelic beings—is based in part on the use of the term “sons of God” for angelic beings in Psalms and Job.
The contrast between sons of God and daughters of humans makes it seem as if the former may not be human. This view was held from pre-Christian times.
Often this view has been combined with the view that the “Nephilim” were giants, the logic being that the offspring of angelic and human relations could be physically large in size. (More on that in just a moment.)
Proponents of this view argue that angelic beings take on male human bodies in Genesis (19:1–3), while opponents contend that angelic beings do not have the capacity for marital relations (Mark 12:25). Proponents often read 1 Peter 3:19–20 and Jude 6–7 as referring obliquely to Genesis 6.
- The “sons of God” are from the line of Seth
The second view—the sons of God were men from the line of Seth—is based on the two genealogies, Cain’s and Seth’s, which immediately precede this context.
The rhetorical force of Adam in the likeness of God and Seth in Adam’s likeness (Gen. 5:1–3) suggests to proponents of this view that the Sethites can be considered sons of God in that sense.
If Seth is in Adam’s likeness because he is Adam’s son, and Adam is in God’s likeness, then Adam is a son of God.
It is thought that the two human lineages, one more wicked and one more godly as typified by Lamech and Enoch respectively, began to intermarry and became corrupt.
- The “sons of God” are from the line of Lamech
The third view—the sons of the gods are the tyrannical dynasty of Lamech—was formed by noting the quasi-divine and celestial language often used by ancient peoples regarding royal personages.
The description of their offspring as “heroes of old, persons of name” appears, for the proponents of this view, to lend credence to their military or political dominance. Moreover, ancient rulers slept with any women they desired (see 12:14–16; 20:2). In this case, these sons of the gods intermarried with the daughters of humans.
Who are the Nephilim?
The word “Nephilim” is the Hebrew word spelled with English letters that sound similar.
The translators of the Septuagint used the Greek word for “giants” to translate the Hebrew term nepilîm.
There are several reasons for their decision.
The ten scouts called the large-sized Canaanites “Nephilim” (Num. 13:33); they were described as “heroes of old, persons of name,” which could give them a legendary sort of stature; and, again, perhaps their fathers were angelic and so they could be physically large.
Neither of the first two reasons are adequate. The spies were fabricating a myth in Numbers 13:33, and “heroes of old, persons of name” does not need to be related to physical stature.
The third line of reasoning is a hypothesis built on top of another hypothesis, thus it is weak. Even if the Nephilim were the “biological” offspring of “angelic men” and human women, there is no way to know whether this would affect their physical stature.
The Hebrew word for Nephilim probably means something like “fallen ones.” In my view, translating it as “fallen ones,” whoever or whatever they were, captures the spirit of the passage.
What is the meaning of the phrase “and also afterward”?
This is a difficult phrase for all of the above combinations of views because the Nephilim were killed in the flood.
Three of the many ways that this phrase can be interpreted are as follows.
- This phrase was not original but was inserted by a scribe who tried to “correct” the narrative based on the report of the ten scouts in Numbers 13.
- Though these “fallen ones” were wiped out by the flood, it is really a term that can be used generically enough to describe any number of very immoral peoples.
- Though the Nephilim themselves were destroyed in the flood, the term later became elastic and could be used to describe the mythic size or wickedness of people like the Anakites in Numbers 13.
I think any of these three may work, but it is hard to say which because of all of the other difficulties here.
A reader who is looking for “my view” may have noted that I took a position on the Nephilim as fallen ones, but did not commit to any of the other views.
The reason for this is that I do not know. Over the course of years I have favored, at different times, most of the various positions discussed above. If it were important for me to take a position on the identity of “the sons of God (or gods)” today, I slightly favor the view that the passage was referring to legendary beings because of the contrast to “daughters of human beings.”
What this means for us
Many of the “sin stories” in the Torah exhibit a kind of ambiguity as is evident here. That is, narrative clues seem to lead in different directions simultaneously, thus creating competing readings.
It is my thinking that the sin stories have been written with intentional ambiguity to invite readerly study and conversation, and resist conclusive readings. The stories of the sins of Cain, Ham, Aaron’s sons, and Moses and Aaron are each debated by interpreters as to what exactly the sins were.
I think the sin of Genesis 6:1–4 likewise is hidden by the narrator to invite readers to engage the story through the ages. It worked.
I submit that whoever or whatever the sons of God or the sons of the gods were and whoever the daughters of humans were, the narrator’s interpretation of the significance of the situation is clear enough. The wickedness of humankind escalated to such a level that God was grieved that he had made human beings and was planning to damn them all (Gen. 6:5–7).
The narrator’s view of the problem of human sinfulness is the key issue. Biblical readers are welcome to debate and choose among the various interpretations and/or guesses, but they should not neglect the prevailing wickedness of the human race.
Yet there was Noah’s family.
The earth was corrupt and full of violence. God determined to kill everyone but to save Noah and his family and two of every kind of animal, seven of each of the clean animals (a distinction made in the book of Leviticus), in order to begin anew.
***
Before we dive into Revelation, I saw a verse and comment that struck me this week…
Hebrews 9:15
‘Therefore, He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.’
‘The new covenant, Jesus tells us, is made in His very own blood, His life shed on the cross for the remission of sins. He Himself is the mediator of that covenant between God and man, and there is no other besides Him who intercedes for us before our holy heavenly Father.
His death paid the due penalty for sin, redeeming us from the slave market utterly and completely. What joy fills the soul that has been freed, what love fills the heart that has been forgiven! The Lord guarantees that all He chooses of those He calls to repentance, will inherit eternal life, cleansed and glorified and fit to stand before Him in adoration.’
There is no problem in my life that the Rapture wouldn’t solve.
It is so humbling to think that as unworthy as I am, as rotten as I’ve been, God has ordained that I will stand before Him in a glorified body that I don’t deserve, getting respect and honor I don’t deserve, for eternity. With that vision of my future status in mind, how should I be living now?
This goes along with 1 Peter 5:6
6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, so that He may exalt you at the proper time,
**Any comments on Revelation up to this point?
Joel 2:1-2
Blow a trumpet in Zion,
And sound an alarm on My holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
For the day of the Lord is coming;
Indeed, it is near,
2 A day of darkness and gloom,
A day of clouds and thick darkness.
As dawn is spread over the mountains,
So there is a great and mighty people;
There has never been anything like it,
Nor will there be again after it
To the years of many generations.
And there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time;
Matthew 24:21
21 For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will again.
Half the world’s population will be destroyed by this chapter. One-fourth was already destroyed in the fourth seal, and one-third will be destroyed in the sixth trumpet. (Two of four fingers).
We are talking about a dark time that is prophesied. You may not get a joyous feeling from this class. But you will get the truth.
Our guest speaker last week, who we flew in from Texas (ha), Dr. Woods, did a great job covering the beginning of chapter 9, but like all thorough commentators, he proceeds slowly and thoroughly. (Part of that is because he was an attorney before he got his doctorate in Bible).
Did any of you watch the rest of his video? If not, good, you won’t realize that I borrow some from it for today.
So we didn’t get very far in the passage But just to refresh a bit,
Revelation 9:1-5 (Demonic Armies from the Abyss)
9 Then the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth; and the key to the shaft of the abyss was given to him. 2 He opened the shaft of the abyss, and smoke ascended out of the shaft like the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened from the smoke of the shaft. 3 Then out of the smoke came locusts upon the earth, and power was given them, as the scorpions of the earth have power. 4 They were told not to hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but only the people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.
We are starting now to get into areas of disagreement among scholars and the disparity will only worsen as we delve deeper into Revelation.
Note that there is no specific number given to these locusts from the abyss, but I’m wondering if there were so many locusts that they simply had the appearance of thick smoke.
Dr. Woods went into that pretty thoroughly. If you need the review, watch the video from last week.
Moving on…
Revelation 9:5-12
5 And they were not permitted to kill anyone, but to torment for five months; and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings a person. 6 And in those days people will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, and death will flee from them!
This punishment is on mankind, not other nature. Shows God’s sovereignty just like with Job – ‘afflict him but do not kill him.’ God is turning up the thermostat just like He did in Egypt with the plagues, until finally, the first-born males were killed. God does the same with us – increasingly serious warnings until the point of no return in punishment.
Job 2:6 6 So the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your power, only spare his life.”
Imagine being in so much pain you want to die, but killing yourself is not an option. Kidney stone?
For five months – very specific period of time. Why not more? Why not less? God is in command and when He feels He has allowed the punishment to go on long enough, He moves on to something else.
Reminiscent of Egyptian plagues not lasting forever. By the time the angel of death passed through, the plague of the gnats presumably was over, for instance. At least I know the Nile isn’t blood to this day.
But it is better illustrated in Matthew 24:21-22 –
21 For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will again. 22 And if those days had not been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect* those days will be cut short.
* Those who survive the Tribulation to enter the Millennial Kingdom and populate it.
Revelation 9:7-12
7 The appearance of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle; and on their heads appeared to be crowns like gold, and their faces were like human faces. 8 They had hair like the hair of women, and their teeth were like the teeth of lions. 9 They had breastplates like breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots, of many horses rushing to battle. 10 They have tails like scorpions, and stings; and in their tails is their power to hurt people for five months. 11 They have as king over them, the angel of the abyss; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek he has the name Apollyon. (Both names mean ‘Destruction’)
12 The first woe has passed; behold, two woes are still coming after these things.
(The seventh trumpet is the third ‘woe’, but is only a pause. Why is it called a ‘woe’ then? Because it unleashes the seven bowls of judgement.)
John uses a lot of similes here again.
Many teachers allegorize it away, saying these are tanks or Cobra helicopters, etc. But these come out of the abyss remember, not the US military.
These are demons, as the Bible says they come out of the abyss, not from the Wuhan lab in China.
And I believe the army of 200 million in 9:16 are demons as well, because compare 9:10 with 9:19. Both types of demons have wicked tails.
And last week we talked about several reasons why these are not the typical locusts, in that they do not destroy plants and Proverbs 30:27 says ‘the locusts have no king’.
*By the way, does the Bible say anywhere that there are more than one kind of demon?
I know that this will get us sidetracked from Revelation, but that’s okay, we’re in no rush to push through but…
Matthew 17:21
21 Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting. (KJV)
I chose the KJV because the NASB does not have a Matthew 17:21. If you notice, it skips from verse 20 to 22. And on ‘Bible Gateway’ many of the versions have instead a notation that ‘older manuscripts do not contain this verse.’ Some think the Catholics inserted this verse to try to ‘help’ God get His point across and to promote asceticism.
But even if that is true, we still have Mark 9:29…
Mark 9:29
28 When He came into the house, His disciples began asking Him privately, “Why is it that we could not cast it out?” 29 And He said to them, “This kind cannot come out by anything except prayer.”
So even if you reject Matthew 17:21 (which does not appear in earlier manuscripts) there is still Mark 9:29 which indicates that there are different kinds of demons, some which can be commanded out and some which only are removed through prayer.
So I said all that to say this: There are obviously different kinds of demons, and Revelation chapter 9 may illustrate that there is more than one type of demon locked in the abyss.
Dr. Andy Woods, our speaker from last week, feels that this army of 200 million described next is a human army related to the sixth bowl, the kings of the east. Dr. Missler and almost every other commentator believes it is another demonic army -see below.
Judgement of the thirds continued (cf Ezekiel 5)…
Revelation 9:13-19 (Human vs Demonic? Armies from the East)
(Though commentators disagree, most attribute the unique characteristics described of these creatures as being demonic. Surprisingly, Dr. Andy Woods feels this is a human army, and like some other scholars, feel that this army of 200 million will march to Israel using the dried-up Euphrates described in the sixth bowl judgement. I side with most other commentators that this is a demonic army and is unrelated to the sixth bowl. It is important not to conflate the sixth trumpet judgement with the sixth bowl judgement. See further comments in the next set of notes.)
9:13 Then the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, 14 saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.”
The golden altar in the tabernacle and temple was different than the brazen altar where the sacrifice was burned. The golden altar was a comparatively small altar for incense. (See Exodus 30). It is thought that this is the same altar that the martyrs associated with the fifth seal were beneath (Revelation 6:9). Perhaps the sixth trumpet was God’s response to their prayers for vengeance.
The ‘east’ was associated with Mesopotamia (not China) also called Shiloh. Eden was here as was the tower of Babel. Abraham was from here – modern day Iraq where Babylon was.
Meso – ‘between’ and ‘potamia’ as in Potomac River. Between the rivers – the Tigris and Euphrates – turn a few pages to your ‘maps’ in the back of your Bibles.
9:15 And the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released,…
(God keeps accurate time.
John 2:4
4 And Jesus *said to her, “What business do you have with Me, woman? My hour has not yet come.”
But then later…
John 12:27
27 “Now My soul has become troubled; and what am I to say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour.”)
…so that they would kill a third of mankind. 16 The number of the armies of the horsemen was two hundred million;
[[20,000 by 10,000 in Greek. Apparently there was no expression for million in Greek at that time]] {{same expression as to number of angels in Revelation 5:11 – ‘myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands’}}
(At the time of this revelation to John, some say there weren’t even 200 million people on earth)
(9:16 cont’d) I heard the number of them. (John didn’t count them himself, he was told the number) 17 And this is how I saw in my vision the horses and those who sat on them: the riders had breastplates the color of fire, of hyacinth (blue), and of brimstone (yellow); and the heads of the horses are like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths *came fire and smoke and brimstone.
(Much like Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by brimstone in Genesis 19:24
24 Then the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah from the Lord out of heaven,)
9:18 A third of mankind was killed by these three plagues, by the fire, the smoke, and the brimstone which came out of their mouths. 19 For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents and have heads, and with them they do harm.
A word about Satan’s power, look in Job 1:16
16 While he was still speaking, another came and said, “The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”
Now was this really the fire of God? Of course not. Satan had been allowed to do this to Job’s sheep and servants. Satan empowered Pharoah’s magicians to duplicate the miracles of Moses and Aaron until it got to the gnats. Satan has great power, but is limited.
Acts 17:11!
An interesting aside – one commentator noted that the five months the scorpions stung the people (150 days) in Revelation 9 is the same length of time as Noah’s flood.
I hope all of you are reading and/or listening to multiple commentaries from reliable sources. You will find that they often disagree, which is fine, because we are to be like the Bereans in Acts 17:11. In fact, I have found something I disagree with from almost all of the commentators, even Chuck Missler, Andy Woods and JVM who I rely on heavily today. Todd Hampson, who wrote The NonProphet’s Guide to Revelation’ makes several significant errors, but still has some good points, as all of them do.
It’s like eating an apple – some parts of everyone’s commentaries have to be discarded, but that doesn’t mean all of it is spoiled.
*But even then, I am only giving you 0.1% of the commentary that is published. Please do your own studies.
I am simply presenting the information and the scriptures. I have studied many commentaries and present their summaries, but again, I run a non-prophet organization so to speak. I don’t personally have divine revelation about this book more than that which the Holy Spirit provides any who diligently pursue the truth.
Biblehub.com gives commentaries side by side so it is easy to quickly go through a dozen or more commentaries on a single verse.
*This class is just an opportunity for all of us to carve out time from our busy lives to prioritize reading what many consider to be a difficult book to understand, that shamefully and sadly, does not get much attention from the pulpits of most churches.
If we were honest, many of us would not focus on it verse by verse if it weren’t for this class. So absorb what you can, and contribute if you have something on your heart.
You are all of a rare breed. A Christian who wants to go beyond the pablum of most Sunday morning pulpits and find the meat in scripture. Congratulations.
I’ve already said how each of us will earn the ‘crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day-and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. (2 Timothy 4:8)
Revelation 9:20-21
20 The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands so as not to worship demons and the idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk;
Worship demons? Really? It is thought that Baal and Moloch and other idols all had an actual demon behind them whose powers would convince the people that they were gods. This is how Pharoah’s magicians could replicate some of Moses and Aaron’s miracles. There is real, actual, demonic power behind idols.
The fact that people during the Tribulation will again resort to demon worship likely has to do with the ‘great delusion’ of
2 Thessalonians 2:11…
11 For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false,
I have an article that quotes the Department of Defense as saying that since 2014, pilots are reporting UFO’s at an increasing frequency. Now they call them UAP’s – unidentified aerial phenomena.
Quote “‘In fact, the Pentagon created quite a stir recently when it confirmed that leaked UFO photos taken in 2019 were indeed legitimate. The following comes from CNN…
The Defense Department has confirmed that leaked photos and video of “unidentified aerial phenomena” taken in 2019 are indeed legitimate images of unexplained objects.
Photos and videos of triangle-shaped objects blinking and moving through the clouds were taken by Navy personnel, Pentagon spokeswoman Sue Gough said in a statement to CNN. She also confirmed that photos of three unidentified flying objects — one “sphere” shaped, another “acorn” shaped and one characterized as a “metallic blimp” — were also taken by Navy personnel.
In the old days, the Pentagon would have never made such a shocking admission.
And we have also learned that in one stretch during 2014 and 2015 U.S. Navy pilots were seeing UFOs on an “almost daily” basis…
‘Sightings of unidentified objects in 2020 nearly doubled in New York from the previous year, to about 300, according to data compiled by the National U.F.O. Reporting Center. They also rose by about 1,000 nationwide, to more than 7,200 sightings.’” End quote.
Airline pilots, generally considered to be level-headed, are also reporting UAP’s in increasing frequency.
For decades, popular culture has conditioned us to accept the possibility of life on other planets that might come visit, from Twilight Zone episodes and cheap B movies of the 1950s to Close Encounters of the 70s, etc.
*We’ve discussed before, how it is possible that the disappearance of hundreds of millions of Christians worldwide will be explained away as our being captured for re-education by alien beings, because we are impeding human evolution with our devotion to bronze age ideas.
It follows then, that those left behind will regard these higher order beings who took the Christians, as having a superior intellect and technology and they will eagerly look to them for guidance, even regarding them as gods.
Subsequently, many of those not taken in the rapture will not want to offend these higher order beings (demons disguised as angels of light) and will seek to root out any remnant of humans guilty of such thinking, lest the whole world be punished.
So they will hurry to report any Christians to the new authorities, to prove their own loyalty, just like in Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, or North Korea today.
And of course, after the rapture there will be many, many new followers of Christ, as our disappearance gives evidence of the veracity of our beliefs, proof many were waiting to have before they themselves would believe.
So it stands to reason that demons, posing as aliens, might be worshipped during the tribulation. There is no denying that Revelation 9:20 (‘…and they did not repent of the works of their hands so as not to worship demons’) says that people will worship demons without repentance, and this is simply one possible explanation for how that will come to be.
Revelation 9:21 and they did not repent of their murders, nor of their sorceries (witchcraft), nor of their sexual immorality, nor of their thefts.
They will be murdering Christians, so that is plain. But in those days of desperation, murdering for food and drugs will be even more commonplace than it is now.
Sorceries – the root here is pharmakeion – from which we get the word ‘pharmacy’. Drugs. People will try to numb the extreme pain of the scorpion stings and addiction will no doubt quickly follow.
JVM had a great comment: ‘Under the influence of drugs, mankind will accept anything and I believe the Antichrist will use them to bring mankind into subjection to himself. (the mega dealer?).
One of the reasons that contemporary nightclubs push liquor is not only for the money that is in it, but it also makes their entertainers acceptable. A very inferior singer or comedian goes over well if you’ve had two cocktails, and if you’ve had three, he is a star. Drugs and liquor will put Antichrist over. (make him tolerable).
They did not repent of their…
Sexual immoralities – the depravity of mankind will worsen further than it even is today. Sexual pleasure is an escape that becomes an idol to many people and is another ‘false god’ to be dealt with.
Thefts: Socialism – ‘the plundering of the productive by the unaccountable’. As you recall, we got a preview of this in the third seal, famine, where the four living creatures commented on the rider on the black horse in Revelation 6:5…
5 When He broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, “Come!” I looked, and behold, a black horse, and the one who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. 6 And I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not damage the oil and the wine.”
As always with socialism, those at the top do well, while everyone else eats their pets to survive.
(The NWO wants to do away with the notion of private property, at least for common folk.)
And yet no one repented.
As I said last week…
We find it easy to scorn people who still wouldn’t repent after all this demonstration of God’s anger. But do we repent when given nudges by the Holy Spirit?
Human idiosyncrasies are manifold – arrogance, narcissism, anger, gossip, lust, little prevarications, exaggerations / hyperbole / ‘humble bragging’. When we get nudges that ‘maybe I shouldn’t have said that or done that, or acted that way’ and yet we do it again and again, isn’t that the same spirit of rebellion that these people display? Yet we have the Holy Spirit on the inside communing with our spirits. They will not. Apparently, the Holy Spirit will no longer indwell humans after the Age of Grace, which helps explain why they so easily stay rebellious. But what is our excuse? We have none.
Again, many Christians want ‘justice for others but grace for me.’
We want others to suffer the due recompense for their own foolish decisions, but we are grace addicts when it comes to ourselves. ‘Justice for others but grace for us.’ What a self – centered, entitled attitude. We should repent of that trait – it is no better than the hypocrisy of a Pharisee.
We kind of think it is poetic justice for the people in the Tribulation to suffer these things. If they won’t repent after all this punishment then they deserve even more! That’s called sadism, not justice. And again, how much more do we deserve, having the tutelage of the Holy Spirit within us, and yet we continue our thoughts and habits that displease God?
*Finally, as we finish chapter nine, many people conflate details of this trumpet judgement with the sixth bowl judgement, thinking that the army from the Kings of the East will comprise 200 million. Not sure how that got started but they are different. I think some people make Revelation into one confused blob, and don’t ‘rightly divide the Word’ (2 Timothy 2:15) when it comes to this book.
Revelation 16:12
12 The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates; and its water was dried up, so that the way would be prepared for the kings from the east.
13 And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs; 14 for they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the entire world, to gather them together for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty. 15 (“Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes, so that he will not walk about naked and people will not see his shame.”) 16 And they gathered them together to the place which in Hebrew is called Har-Magedon.
The sixth trumpet is NOT the sixth bowl and is a year or two apart, but perhaps there is a connection. There is no mention of a 200-million-MAN army anywhere using the dried-up Euphrates as a road. Both mention the Euphrates and both are large armies, but one is demonic, the other, human. You will see some authors and people conflate these two items, so just be aware.