Introduction.
With the timeline, I will try to show the events that will happen from the time just before we entered the end times until the end times end with Jesus’ return in chronological order. Many of these events can be dated, some of which as specific as a specific date, while others are impossible to say for sure. This has a completely natural reason, and that is that the prophetic events that have happened are easy to date, while dating the prophetic events that are waiting to happen is an impossible task. These will only be stated in a hopefully correct order.
The reason I do this is because prophecies usually jump back and forth in time, so that events that are waiting to be fulfilled are mentioned before events that have been fulfilled. This is because the prophecies in the Bible do not necessarily come in chronological order, which we see clearly in the verses below (Revelation 6:12-17), where the first two verses, 12 and 13 have been fulfilled to the letter, while the last four verses, 14,15,16 and 17, are waiting for their fulfilment. In the period between verses 13 and 14, quite a few things will happen, and several of these have already occurred. And as we understand, we find these events elsewhere in the Bible.
The Sixth Seal, Revelation 6:12-17:
Signs on the Earth and in the Sky That Foretell a Change, and We Go From Prophetic Times to End Times, and Then End Times Is an Expanded Concept, From the Beginning of the End Times to the Second Coming of Jesus.
Verse 12: And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood.
Verse 13: And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.
Verse 14: And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
Verse 15: And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains.
Verse 16: And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:
Verse 17: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?
We will return to these six verses later, and then we will see that they cover two periods, of which verses 12 and 13 foreshadow the aforementioned change that will end the prophetic era. Verses 14, 15, 16 and 17 will end the end times when Jesus returns.
We can say in a way that God roughly has three “dispensations” for humanity, 1) the time before prophetic time and 2) prophetic time and 3) end time. The time prophecy that constitutes prophetic time is found in the longest time prophecy in the Bible, and it is in Daniel 8:14 where an angel comes to Daniel with a prophet, and where he says to Daniel: … … Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. Prophetic time indications such as 2300 evenings and mornings cannot be interpreted literally, but figuratively. A prophetic day corresponds to a year in real time. 2300 evenings and mornings then become 2300 years, (see, among others, The 2300 evenings and mornings under the tab; The book of Daniel). During prophetic time, time plays an important role, and all the prophecies where time plays an important role are given with both an exact starting time and an ending time, such as the 70 weeks in Daniel 9:24-27. We find all time prophecies within the time frame that the 2300 evenings and mornings set up.
This prophecy has an exact starting time which is the third decree given to the Jews, with all the necessary authorizations from King Artaxerxes, so that they could return home to Judah and rebuild Jerusalem and the temple. This happened in the year 457 BC. The prophecy ended with the stoning of Stephen and the gospel given to the Gentiles in the fall of 34 AD. During the end times, time no longer plays any important role in prophecy, and Revelation 10:6 states that there should be time no longer, in the sense that time plays no role.
We can actually set a specific date for when prophetic time ended, and the end times began. This has been discussed in previous posts, so it will not be addressed here, (see, among others, The 2300 evenings and mornings under the tab; The book of Daniel). This date is October 22, 1844, which in that year was the date of Yom Kippur, or the Great Day of Atonement.
The great Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur, was something Israel celebrated every year in Old Testament times, from the time they built the tabernacle in the wilderness until Jesus died on the cross and abolished all temple service. This day, Yom Kippur, was always celebrated on the 10th day of the seventh month, Tishri. On this day, everyone in all of Israel had to prepare themself, and examine themselves to see if they had any unresolved sins with God or their neighbour. Those who had any unresolved sins on this day were expelled from the people. This day was in a way an “annual” day of judgment.
The high priest, who is a picture of Jesus, offered sacrifices on behalf of all of God’s people, and entered the Most Holy Place to make atonement for the sins of the people. It was only on this day that the high priest was allowed to enter the Most Holy Place in the tabernacle, (later the temple). In this way, the high priest cleansed the tabernacle of the sins that had been confessed by the people throughout the past year. Then, the sin was figuratively placed on a scapegoat, which is a picture of Satan, and taken away from the people, and in this way God’s people were “cleansed” of their sins. (See Leviticus chapter 16 and Daniel 8:13-14.)
In order to determine whether someone should be expelled from the people, an investigation was needed. All families were examined, and this was an investigative judgment. Many are sceptical of such an investigative judgment. In Genesis chapter 11 we see that God examined the people of Babel, by coming down to see what the people were doing—before He pronounced judgment on them. This is an investigative judgment. In Genesis chapter 18 we read that the Lord would examine the conditions in Sodom and Gomorrah and their sister cities—before He pronounced judgment on the cities. This is also an investigative judgment. And in Revelation 22:12 Jesus says: And behold, I come quickly; and my reward [is] with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. There is also an investigation that is the basis for determining who will be rewarded at Jesus’ return— an investigative judgment.
Now this is not because God does not know who is righteous, but for all the other living beings in the entire universe, so that they may see that God’s judgments are righteous.
Many people want to explain the seven letters to the seven churches and the seven seals by saying that they cover the same period, so that the first letter and the first seal cover the same years and give the religious and military history of the church, respectively. This is not entirely correct, because the first letter only covers the time of the early church from the day of Pentecost in the year 31 to the year 155, while the first seal covers the spread of Christianity from the day of Pentecost in the year 31 to the second coming of Jesus, which is still in the future.
We will start with the sixth seal, and see what this leads to, we will also look at the seventh seal in more detail, but we will begin with the last events in prophetic times.
All Bible texts are from the King James Version 1611/1769 unless otherwise stated.
The final events of prophetic time.
In Daniel 7:25 and 12:7 (a time and times and the dividing of time), as well as in Revelation 12:14 (a time and times and the dividing of time); Revelation 11:2 (forty and two months); Revelation 11:3 (1260 days); and Revelation 12:6 (1260 days) we find six prophecies covering a time period of 1260 years. This period covers the time from the establishment of the Catholic Church as we know it today in the year 538 until Pope Pius VI was thrown into prison by Napoleon’s general Berthier in the year 1798.
Many also see this as the end of prophetic times and the beginning of the end times. This is not correct. These prophecies are entirely about the Catholic Church and the actions of this church in the Middle Ages until Pope Pius VI was thrown into prison.
Prophetic times began with Artaxerxes’ decree of returning from Babylon in the year 457 BC. If we add 2300 years (remember that there is no year zero) we arrive at 1844, and as mentioned at the beginning, this was the year prophetic times ended and the end times began. Let us begin with the two verses that introduce the sixth seal.
Revelation 6:12-13: And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.
These four supernatural events occurred over a period of 78 years, from 1755 to 1833. Now many will say that these were not supernatural events, but if we look behind the text and not least at what happened, we soon see the hand of God. The earthquake in Lisbon on November 1, 1755, must have been many times stronger than the earthquake that shook the Pacific Ocean on December 26, 2004, when Australia moved 25 cm. away from the epicentre. This earthquake had a magnitude of 9.3 on the Richter scale.
In 1755, the earthquake that struck Lisbon was felt by large parts of the world, from North America to far east into Russia, from South Africa to the far north of Scandinavia. The fact that the sun turned black as sackcloth of hair on May 19, 1780, is usually explained away by saying that it was a solar eclipse. The problem with this explanation is that there was a full moon the following night, the sun and the moon were on opposite sides of the earth, and it could therefore not have been caused by a solar eclipse. Nor was there a lunar eclipse the following night, the night of May 20, 1780. The stars that fell on November 13, 1833, were of a character not recorded since that day. It was an unparalleled meteorite storm, and they all seemed to come from the same point in the sky and spread out across the entire sky like the slats of an umbrella.
These four events, together with the arrest and imprisonment of the pope, were five signs that the prophetic era was drawing to a close and that the end times would soon begin. Now it is appropriate to recall what the prophet Amos says about God’s pattern of action. The prophet says: Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets, (Amos 3:7).
We can therefore assume that God will do something special in connection with the transition from prophetic era to the end times. Let us look at Revelation chapter 10.
End of prophetic time, Revelation 10:1-7.
Let us first look at some verses in the book of Daniel. It says that this book was sealed by God, with instructions that it should not be opened again until the end of time, and this was repeated three times in the book. To seal a book means to make it difficult to understand. The Bible says something about this, and we read in Isaiah 29:11 the following: And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which [men] deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it [is] sealed:
It was not because of a lack of knowledge that the person could not read the book. A person who was a learned person could read; it was someone who had knowledge. But this book, which must have been a scroll of prophetic writings, behold, he could not read it, and says it was sealed. We find exactly the same thing in our day. Most people on earth can read, yet there are many who can read and are highly educated who claim that Revelation is a book that cannot be understood. Even theologians say this! Imagine, a book that says of itself that it is a revelation, and that is called a revelation, cannot be understood. But the reason they say this is given in Isaiah 29:13: Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near [me] with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men.
Here are the verses from the book of Daniel:
Daniel 8,26: The vision of the evenings and mornings that has been given you is true, but seal up the vision, for it concerns the distant future, (New International Version 1984).
Daniel 12,4: But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, [even] to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
Daniel 12,9: And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words [are] closed up and sealed till the time of the end.
What do these three verses have to do with Revelation 10? They seem out of place at first, but they actually directly affect Revelation chapter 10.
Looking back at history, we see that the book of Daniel was not fully understood in ancient times. Some understood a little of it, while others understood nothing at all. But as we approached the time of the transition from prophetic times to the end times, people began to understand more and more. Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727) was among the first to understand major parts of the book. The first to understand almost the entire book was a farmer named William Miller. He studied the Bible after the British/American War of 1812-1814, and came to the conclusion that the return of Jesus was imminent.
This gave rise to a religious movement and revival. Christians from all denominations and congregations eventually rallied around Miller, and it is this event that is described in Revelation chapter 10.
This particular event was one of the events that occurred in connection with the transition from prophetic times to the end times. As we saw earlier, God says that He never does anything for His people without making it known to them, (see Amos 3:7). How has God communicated with people throughout history? With the exception of the first time after creation, before sin entered the world, God and man could walk together and talk face to face. After the fall, almost all communication has gone through prophets. There are some exceptions, and these primarily concern people like Abraham, Daniel and John who all had encounters with Jesus, either in person or in dreams and visions. It was natural then that God would also raise up a prophet, or a prophetic movement, as we entered the end times, because with the entrance to the end times a new time dispensation began for God’s people. Let us now look at what Revelation chapter 10 says about this.
Verse 1: And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow [was] upon his head, and his face [was] as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire:
Verse 2: And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and [his] left [foot] on the earth,
Verse 3a: And cried with a loud voice, as [when] a lion roareth … …
Chapter 10 begins with a description of the mighty angel that John sees coming down from heaven. This angel is clothed with a cloud, has a rainbow over his head, has a face like the sun, has feet like pillars of fire, and cries out with a voice like the roaring of a lion. All of these characteristics are typical of Jesus Christ. It is He who comes to John in this vision. This means that the message that follows comes directly from the throne room of heaven, has absolute divine authority, and it will be accomplished with divine help despite human errors along the way until the fulfilment of the prophecy is accomplished.
Verse 3b: … … and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices.
Verse 4: And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not.
This is a strange passage. Many have suggested many fanciful explanations for what it is that John has heard, and there is no reason to wonder what it might be. Ellen G. White received information about this in a vision, and she says in Letters and Manuscripts the following: The special light given to John which was expressed in the seven thunders was a delineation of events which would transpire under the first and second angels’ messages. It was not best for the people to know these things, for their faith must necessarily be tested. In the order of God, most wonderful and advanced truths would be proclaimed. The first and second angels’ messages were to be proclaimed, but no further light was to be revealed before these messages had done their specific work, (15LTMS, MS 59.23).
Apart from the book of Daniel, which was sealed in its entirety, this passage is the only part of the Bible that has been sealed, and the reason, as we see, is that the faith of God’s people is to be tested in order to prepare them for what was to come.
Verse 5: And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven,
Verse 6: And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer:
Verse 7: But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.
The fact that the angel, or Jesus, stands with one foot on the sea and one foot on the land implies that the message is universal. In other words, it applies to all people throughout the world. It is also in the sixth verse that we see that we have entered the end times because it is said that there should be time no longer. This does not mean that time has ceased to exist. We are still here, but time no longer plays any role in relation to prophecies given for this period. They will be fulfilled no matter how long time it takes. We also understand from the text in verse 7 that there are many more events that will afflict the earth, otherwise God would not express himself as He does by saying that when the seventh trumpet sounds, then the mystery of God will be finished. We will return to this later.
The last church of God is established, and the Advent movement – SDA – arise, Revelation 10:8-11.
The last event before we entered the end times was that God’s last church was established, and the Advent movement was a fact. This started with William Miller’s preaching that pointed to the soon return of Jesus. This preaching led to a revival, first in the United States and later in the rest of the world. This movement has rediscovered all the forgotten truths that were forgotten during the Catholic Church’s misrule during the Middle Ages. Instead of preserving God’s Word pure and unadulterated, this church introduced all the pagan traditions and philosophies that had accumulated through Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and the military Roman Empire and in addition created some unbiblical doctrines.
Verse 8: And the voice which I heard out of the heaven {was} again speaking with me, and saying, Go, take the little book which is opened in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the earth., (Darby Bible 1884/1890).
Once again we have a clear connection to the end times in this verse. John, who here represents the movement that God raised up in the first half of the 19th century, is told to take the little book which is opened. Notice that the book is not open but opened. This means that this book was at some point closed or sealed. And we have seen that there is a book in the Bible that was closed by God before the author of the book died, and that is the book of Daniel. Therefore, it must be this book we are talking about. We can also read that from what was told to Daniel that the book should be closed/sealed until the end times. In this verse we have come to the last events that lead us from prophetic time to the end times.
Verse 9: And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take [it], and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.
Verse 10: And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.
Here John is told to eat the book, and it will cause certain things in him. It will be sweet as honey in his mouth, but when he swallows it, it will give him a bitter pain in his stomach. This seems hopeless to understand at first, but we can always get help from the Bible itself.
In Ezekiel 3:1-4 we find this text: Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, eat that thou findest; eat this roll, and go speak unto the house of Israel. So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat that roll. And he said unto me, Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll that I give thee. Then did I eat [it]; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness. And he said unto me, Son of man, go, get thee unto the house of Israel, and speak with my words unto them. Here the commission is repeated twice to emphasize its importance. And as we see, Ezekiel must eat a scroll and afterwards preach to God’s people.
To eat a scroll means to study the scriptures and to take in the message, because the commission is to preach the word of God to His people. It was so in Ezekiel’s day, and it is so in our day. Nothing has changed. The commission John received on behalf of the Advent movement was to study the Bible and take in the gospel, because they had been raised up to bring God’s gospel and the present truth out into all the world. But there is one thing that sticks out about this verse, and that is that the message would be sweet in the mouth while it would give bitter pain in the stomach. This means that when Miller discovered the imminent return of Jesus, the book was sweet as honey in his mouth. Who would not rejoice to have “found the time of Jesus’ return”? So a final date was set for this, but Jesus did not return. It was a great disappointment, but the disappointment was prophesied. Can anything be said better than that the book should give bitter pain in the stomach when the event they thought would happen did not happen? This proves that the Advent movement is from God and founded on God’s word.
The commission is given to the Advent movement.
Verse 11: And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.
This verse implies that a movement was raised up that was to be prophetic, and in humility and with all possible respect for all other denominations I must say that this description only fits the
Advent movement. There are several reasons for this, and the Bible tells us what characteristics this movement will have.
1) This movement was established on the day we entered the end times, (Revelation 10:11).
2) This movement will restore the old truths, (see Isaiah 58:12).
3) This movement will keep the commandments of God, and then all of God’s ten commandments as they were given at Sinai, (see Revelation 12:17; 14:12).
4) This movement will have the testimony of Jesus Christ, which is the spirit of prophecy, (see Revelation 12:17; 19:10).
5) This movement will proclaim the three angels’ messages, the midnight cry and the loud cry, (Revelation 14:6-12; Matthew 25:6; Revelation 18:4).
The first point in particular will probably cause many to raise many protests. They will claim that this is only about the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the other cities of Judah and nothing else. Then they completely forget, or choose to ignore, the fact that prophecies usually have two fulfilments, one in the prophet’s contemporary, and one in the end times as is the case in this chapter. This verse, Isaiah 58:12, begins with a reference to «they that shall be of thee» which points to God’s end-time church. These are the ones who will proclaim the three angels’ messages, the midnight cry and the loud cry and who will spread divine light and joy together with God’s blessings to people in need. These are the ones who will rebuild what has been torn down and these are the ones who will tell of God’s infinite and boundless love that has the power to set the oppressed free from the slavery that binds them. These are the ones who will also restore the understanding of God’s word, the law, the commandments, and who will preach the true day of rest which is the seventh day of the week – our Saturday.
Which church denominations fulfil all that these points outline? Only the Advent movement, or Seventh-day Adventists, fulfil all these points. This movement was shaken by the great disappointment they experienced in 1844, and the next day, October 23, there was only a remnant left who had everything God wanted them to have. From that day on, the Advent movement grew again, and what we can call the last reformation was started when Rachel Oakes, a Seventh-day Baptist, challenged the Advent movement – to keep all of God’s ten commandments, and her first sermon on the Sabbath was preached on a Sabbath in March of this year. Shortly after the disappointment on October 22, 1844, the Advent movement was given the spirit of prophecy. This happened when William Fay, Hasen Foss and Ellen Harmon (later White) received their first visions this year. This led to a widespread understanding that the three angels’ messages had to go out quickly to the whole world.
Since its inception, this movement has rediscovered many of the truths that were hidden by the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages, it keeps all of God’s Ten Commandments as they are laid down in Exodus chapter 20, it has the spirit of prophecy, which was given to the movement in 1844, and which it still has, and it proclaims the three angels’ messages, the midnight cry, and will proclaim the loud cry when the time is right.
What is described above we know has happened since the sixth seal was opened. These are all events that can be confirmed by history. What will happen after this we have prophecies that tell us about, but we do not know when the individual events will happen. When we continue with the upcoming events we will also see if we have events in ancient times that give us a clue as to what we can expect in the future. The Bible is a typological book where an event in ancient times is a type of an event that will happen at a later time, an antitype.
The sixth seal ends with a question: … … who shall be able to stand? (Revelation 6:17). Implicit in this question is that terrible times will come for God’s people. All people will be affected by ten great plagues, and God’s faithful remnant will be subject to persecution as they were persecuted by the Catholic Church for 1260 years, and as God’s faithful remnant in parts of the world are already suffering. Malachi 3:2 says: But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he [is] like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap.
The end time events.
The end-time began on the day Jesus entered the Most Holy Place in the heavenly temple, on the day called Yom Kippur, October 22, 1844. On that day, the investigative judgment began, as Jesus goes through the books of heaven to distinguish between those who have been justified by Jesus and those who have not been justified. This work He is still doing, but will soon be completed, and then He will return to take His faithful people, the little remnant.
Before Jesus finishes the investigative judgment, things will happen here on earth, both with God’s people and the wicked. These events will follow a special pattern that we will soon see. The first thing that will happen after the end-time has begun is that the seventh seal will be opened, and we read in Revelation 8:1 the following: And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.
Many have tried to explain why there was silence in heaven, and many fanciful explanations have been put forward. If we look at what will happen after this, there are a number of plagues that will harm both the earth and people, and one possibility for why there is silence in heaven is that God’s angels are now witnessing the end of this earth’s history, and that the plagues will soon fall upon all living things. The half hour that the silence lasts is seen by many as prophetic time. If it were prophetic time, it would not be about the space of half an hour, then it would be exactly half an hour, or a week of real time. In any case, this period of time is of very short duration.
After this follows what we can call an interlude where we see the seven trumpets being prepared. The Bible says: And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets. And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer [it] with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, [which came] with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand. And the angel took the censer, filled it with fire of the altar, and cast [it] into the earth: and there were voices, and thundering, and lightnings, and an earthquake. And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound, (Revelation 8:2-6).
This means that the seven trumpets are a result of the opening of the seventh seal. When we have come this far, the ten plagues begin to fall upon the earth. Now many will ask; only ten plagues? As I said, the Bible is a typological book, where what happens in the end times has already happened in ancient times. Now in the end times we read that plagues will fall upon the earth. This sounds familiar to those who know the Bible, and if we go to the Book of Exodus from chapter 7 verse 14 to chapter 12 verse 30, we find the type for the end times antitype, the ten plagues that fell upon Egypt in connection with God redeeming his people from captivity and slavery in Egypt and leading them to the promised land – Canaan.
We know that the day Jesus returns to earth it is to gather His people and lead them to the promised land. Then God will redeem his people and lead them out of our time of Egyptian slavery and into the promised land, the heavenly Canaan. The antitype must reflect the type in an exact way, therefore there will only be ten plagues, even though there are seven trumpets and seven vials, a total of what is usually called 14 plagues.
That the antitype must be identical to the type is something that becomes apparent in another typological incident. All animals that were to be sacrificed in Old Testament times had to be without blemish, because they were a type of Jesus who died for us on the cross, for Jesus, as the antitype of the sacrificial animals in Old Testament times, was, as we know, without blemish. It is therefore a biblical principle that the antitype reflects the type, and that the two are completely identical.
One day the plagues will begin to fall upon the earth, and the first plagues will come as a result of angels blowing trumpets. It may seem that it has begun, but I cannot say for sure. What we do know for sure is that the plagues will follow the pattern that the plagues in Egypt followed. First, there will be three plagues that will affect all people throughout the world. Then the same thing will happen as happened in Egypt: God will make a distinction between His people—the small faithful remnant—and those who do not belong to this group. In Egypt, God said to Pharaoh before He sent the fourth plague upon Egypt: And I (God says this) will put a separation* between my people and thy people; (Pharaoh’s people). tomorrow shall this sign be, [Exodus 8:23 (Darby Bible 1884/1890)]. In the end times, God will once again make a distinction between His people and the wicked, and we will return to this after the third trumpet.
* To put a separation between literally means to put a ransom between. That is exactly what God did for His people when He gave His only begotten Son for our sins.
The ten plagues.
The trumpets give us events that all fall within the time after Jesus entered the Most Holy Place in the heavenly sanctuary. This is the beginning of the eschatological judgment. It is during this period that God’s people are sealed with the seal of God, and the wicked will take the mark of the beast. Some of the trumpets will sound while Christ is in the sanctuary, and some will sound after He has left the sanctuary. How long after Jesus entered the Most Holy Place before the first trumpet sounds, we know nothing about, but we do know that the sealing will occur after Jesus has left the sanctuary, but before the fifth trumpet sounds. At this time, we have moved into the last days of earth’s history, and the plagues that will tell God’s people that redemption is imminent are beginning to fall upon a ravaged and tormented human race. It will be impossible to date these events, as we have previously seen that it is the sum of a number of actions that will be the triggering factor. These events will occur at the hour and day and month and year or on the day when all things that God in his wisdom has predetermined have happened. Once again, we are faced with a prophecy divided into seven, which basically has great similarities with both the letters to the seven churches and the seven seals. When the seventh seal is opened, it shows us, among other things, the seven trumpets, which are one of the elements the seventh seal contains.
Based on the fact that the seventh seal is opened at some point after the year 1844, it should be the case that the seven trumpets also take place after this time. Even though John saw Lucifer’s fall during the fifth trumpet, it does not mean that we are at that point on the timeline. John saw what happened to Lucifer, and this is probably given as additional information that can help us understand this chapter, and who is behind all the misery we will see. It is thus at one time or another during this period when the seven trumpets sound that God’s people will be sealed. That the seal is included in this sequence shows that it is not nature in the literal sense that is affected during the seven trumpets, but humanity through the spiritual struggle that is constantly going on and intensifying. And the third of the trees were burnt up must not be understood so that it is the final judgement in question. That the plagues intensify, we can read from the fact that it was a fourth part that was affected under the seven seals, now it is a third part that is affected. In the end, everything and everyone will be affected.
It all starts with a dramatic pause before the seven trumpets are released, and after the trumpets follow the seven vials. Why is there silence? Could the silence be due to what is about to happen? Could it be that all of heaven is waiting in awe for the fulfilment of God’s will? That there is silence in heaven before the seventh seal is opened also stands in sharp contrast to the first six seals.
It will be a hopeless task to try to date the different trumpets and vials. It is also impossible to give a detailed description of what will happen, but we have some indications of what will happen given in the text of each trumpet and bowl. This starts, as I said, after the transition from prophetic time to the end time. Here too, the story is not linear all the time we are taken back to the fall of Lucifer, (see Revelation 9:1). And, just as the seals were divided into three groups with four, one and three seals respectively, the trumpets will also be divided into three groups in the same way with four, one and two trumpets respectively.
I believe we must read both the trumpets and the vials in light of the events that occurred in Egypt when Moses led Israel out of Egypt and on the way to the promised land, Canaan. This is the type of the end-times antitype events when we will be liberated from our Egypt and led to the heavenly Canaan.