Seven trumpets
In the
Significance
After the Exodus, God had Moses make two silver trumpets, (Numbers 10:2), later called the chazozra. The traditional sacred horn of the ancient Hebrews was the shofar, made from a ram's horn.
First trumpet
Upon the sound of the first trumpet, hail and fire mingled with blood is thrown to Earth, burning up a third of the trees on the planet, and all green grass. 1/3 of nature will be disappeared.[3]
Second trumpet
With the sounding of the second trumpet, something described as "a great mountain burning with fire" plunges into the sea and turns a third of the oceans to blood. Soon after, a third of all sea life and a third of all ships will be destroyed.[4]
Third trumpet
With the sounding of the third trumpet, a great
Fourth trumpet
Following the sounding of the fourth trumpet, a third of the light that shines from the Sun, moon, and stars becomes dark from the celestial bodies being "struck." This catastrophe causes complete darkness for a third of the day, even through night hours.[7] This is the final trumpet that sounds before the three woes, also known as the fifth, sixth, and seventh trumpets.
Fifth trumpet
The fifth trumpet is the "first woe" of three. Before this trumpet sounds, an angel (translated as an eagle in some versions) appears, and warns, "Woe, woe, woe, to those who dwell on the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound!"[8]
The fifth trumpet prompts a personified star to fall from heaven. The star is given the key to the
Preterist views
Robert Witham, a Catholic commentator, issued his two-volume Annotations on the New Testament, in 1733. Commenting on Chapter 9, he offers two preterist views for identifying the locusts with scorpion tails.[10]
- The locusts may have represented the incursion of the Goths and “those barbarous People” who interrupted the Roman Empire during the time of Decius.[11]
- The locusts may have represented the Jewish heretics who denied Christ. Most notably, Theodotus, Praxeas, Noetus, Paul of Samosata, Sabellius, and Arius.[11]
Sixth trumpet
After the fifth trumpet blast, the sixth one sounds.[12] This is the "second woe", where four angels are released from their binds in the "great river Euphrates". They command a force of two-hundred million mounted troops whose horses exude plagues of fire, smoke, and brimstone from their mouths. The mounted horsemen wore breastplates with the color of fire, hyacinth, and brimstone. The horses are with lion's head and their tails, as well, are like a serpent with a head. The plagues exuding from the horses will kill a third of all mankind.[13]
Seventh trumpet
The sound of the seventh trumpet signals the "third woe." This is the final trumpet and the final woe. Loud voices in Heaven will say: "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Messiah, and He will reign forever and ever."
Interpretations
In
The Preterist understanding is that these blasts are like war trumpets against apostate Israel of the time period and that they correspond to events in the Jewish Wars. For example, the second trumpet is the nation of Rome depicted as a mountain, symbolic for great nations in the Old Testament, and its destruction of Galilee and the Sea of Galilee becoming full of blood and dead bodies.[16]
Concerning the second trumpet blast,
Christians who follow the
According to the
There are some scholars who describe a part from the finale from the second symphony by Gustav Mahler, as the seven trumpets, actually played by four trumpets, bass drum, cymbals and triangle, which are offstage.[28]
See also
References
- ^ Revelation 5:1
- ^ Barnes, A., Barnes' Notes on Revelation 9, accessed 29 October 2018
- ^ Revelation 8:7
- ^ Revelation 8:8–9
- ^ Revelation 8:10–11
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-01-20.
- ^ Revelation 8:12
- ^ Revelation 8:13
- ^ Revelation 9:1–12
- ISBN 978-0-521-77334-8), 2000, p. 85
- ^ a b Witham. Annotations, vol. II, p. 463
- ^ Revelation 9:10–12
- ^ Revelation 9:13–21
- ^ "The Archangel Israfil late 14th–early 15th century". Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
- ^ Koester Craig R (2001). Revelation and the End of All Things. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.
- ISBN 978-1-60791-229-3.
- ^ Revelation 8:8
- ISBN 0-310-23005-5(pbk.)
- ^ Chapman, G. W. (1996, August). Comets and Asteroids and Future Cosmological Catastrophes. Compiled from Apocalypse When by Dr. Frank Close.
- ^ 1Corinthians 15:52
- ^ Isaiah 27:13
- ^ Matthew 24:29–31
- ^ 1Thessalonians 4:16
- ^ Revelation 11:15
- ^ Revelation 11:17
- ^ Revelation 11:18
- ^ a b ‘Abdu’l‑Bahá. Some Answered Questions (second ed.). Baha'i Publishing Trust. pp. 82–83.
- ^ Floros, C. (1993). Gustav Mahler. The Symphonies (p. 69). Amadeus Press.