Words in italic type have been added for clarity. They are not found in the original Hebrew or Aramaic.

Revelation 8 THE TRIBULATION – END OF THE SEALS – NOW THE TRUMPETS

What should I know about the book of Revelation?

• The Book of Revelation is the Seven Year Tribulation.
• There are three “vantage points” of the tribulation: the seals, then the trumpets and then the bowls. Each vantage point covers the entire seven years.
• A review of the previous seals in Revelation chapter six.
  • The First Seal: The introduction of the False Messiah on a white horse. The official “Beginning” of the Tribulation.
    • a. He is Syrian
    • b. He is “Agag”
    • c. He is the caterpillar “king” of the Locusts
    • d. He is the “Little Horn” of Daniel
    • e. He is the first horse of the Apocalypse
    • f. He comes with a “bow”, an oath/pact/peace treaty
  • The Second Seal: War
    1. a. The second horse of the Apocalypse
    2. b. Seeing “Red”
  • The Third Seal: A Famine
    1. a. The third horse of the Apocalypse with a pair of scales
  • The Fourth Seal: Death and Hell
    1. a. The fourth horse of the Apocalypse
    2. b. The middle of the Tribulation at 3-1/2 years
    3. c. The “day” of betrayal by the Antichrist: The Middle of the Tribulation.
    4. d. The first 3-1/2 years focuses on the earth
    5. e. The second 3-1/2 years focuses on the heavens
  • The Fifth Seal: Martyrs: The Heavens.
    1. How much longer?
  • The Sixth Seal: Prelude to Jesus’ Return: The Heavens.
    1. a. Darkness
    2. b. Moon to Blood
    3. c. Stars fall
  • The Seventh Seal: Silence in Heaven: Preparing for the introduction of the Valid Messiah’s return to earth on a white horse from The Heavens.
    1. “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! 17 For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” Rev 8:16
    2. The sinners in Zion are afraid; Fearfulness has seized the hypocrites: “Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?” Isaiah 33:14

• The meaning of the name Haman from the book of Esther is “tumult”-“noise”. Haman is the descendant of Agag, King of the Amalakites. “Agag” and “Gog” are the same names. The Greek Septuagint mentions that “Gog” is the king of the locusts in Amos. Ezekiel mentions Gog is the one whom the prophets wrote about (the Antichrist). Haman is a type of the Antichrist and is the Antichrist’s ancestor.

• “Behold, voices and a noise, thunders and earthquake, tumult upon the earth…” ~The vision of Mordecai – Esther chapter 1 in the Greek Septuagint.

• Right now, we have not yet concluded with the seventh seal and it will not be concluded until verse 5.

Appropriately, at the end of the tribulation, there is silence in heaven for about half an hour. Everyone in heaven is holding their breath – the Day of Jesus’ Return is at hand.

Barbara Grover

Revelation 8

Revelation 8:¹ When He opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

• The word “Silence” G4623: apparently from sízō (to hiss, i.e. hist or hush) (Shhh); silence:—specifically voluntary silence. (silence, i.e. a hush, properly, muteness, i.e. involuntary stillness, or inability to speak, and thus differing from σιγή (G4602), which is rather a voluntary refusal or indisposition to speak, although the terms are often used synonymously)
• The silence of Shhh indicates something great is about to happen.
• Shhh – a secret. If the tribulation wasn’t cut short no flesh would be saved. Nobody knows the day or the hour, not even Jesus Himself. Jesus’ return is a secret.

Revelation 8:² And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets.

• They were given seven trumpets but the trumpets are not yet sounded, not until Revelation 8:7 when the first trumpet is sounded. Verses 3 through 5 continue with Jesus’ Return.

Revelation 8:³ Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.

~ Zondervan dictionary of Biblical Imagery

• Prayers for Protection before the entrance into the earth for the angels and the saints who accompany Jesus to Mount Olives, heading for Armageddon.

Revelation 8:⁴ And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand.

• The incense mixed with prayers is an incense of protection.

Revelation 8:⁵ Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire (judgment) from the altar, and threw it to the earth. And there were noises, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake.

• Matthew 24:14b and then the end will come.

Thunder, Lightning, Noises, Hail and an Earthquake are all the same event repeated three times signifying the end of the tribulation at the 7th seal, 7th trumpet and 7th bowl simultaneously.

Barbara Grover

HOW TO READ THE BOOK OF REVELATION:
“VOICES, NOISE, THUNDERS AND EARTHQUAKE” is mentioned in Revelation three times:
Revelation 8:5, Revelation 11:19, and Revelation 16:18

NOTE: EACH TIME IT MARKS JESUS’ RETURN!
Each chapter has either reached the 7th seal, the 7th trumpet or the 7th bowl.
In each instance the story of the seven year tribulation begins over again from a different vantage point. The first vantage point is the seals, the second vantage point is the trumpets and the third vantage point is the bowls. ~Barbara Grover

“the LORD Almighty will come with thunder and earthquake and great noise, with windstorm and tempest and flames of a devouring fire.”
Isaiah 29: 6 NIV

“Behold, voices and a noise, thunders and earthquake, tumult upon the earth…”
The vision of Mordecai – Esther 1 in the Greek Septuagint.

• The censer is the prayers of the saints being answered! Come Lord Jesus!
• The fire from the altar is God’s judgment on the earth.
• The meaning of the name Haman (Amalakite) from the book of Esther is “tumult”, “noise”. The Antichrist will also be of an Amalakite lineage. Gog/Agag is Amalakite.
• “Behold, voices and a noise, thunders and earthquake, tumult upon the earth…” ~The vision of Mordecai – Esther chapter 1 in the Greek Septuagint. His vision is of the end times.

The Last Seal wraps up the entire seven years of tribulation. Now scripture begins again from a different vantage point: the Trumpets (Warnings).

Barbara Grover

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The Beginning of the sounding of the trumpets:

Revelation 8:⁶ So the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.

First Trumpet: Vegetation Struck

Revelation 8:⁷ The first angel sounded: And hail and fire followed, mingled with blood, and they were thrown to the earth (Some translations add: and a third of the earth was burned up). And a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.

Second Trumpet: The Seas Struck (The Salt Waters)

Revelation 8:⁸ Then the second angel sounded: And something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood.

• * Nuclear Missles

Revelation 8:⁹ And a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.

Third Trumpet: The Waters Struck (The Fresh Waters)

Revelation 8:¹⁰ Then the third angel sounded: And a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water.

Revelation 8:¹¹ The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the water, because it was made bitter.

• The meaning of the name “Chernobyl” is “Wormwood”. If the waters are contaminated from a nuclear bomb, they would be undrinkable.
  • In Russian and Ukrainian, the word “Chernobyl” means black weed and is a member of the wormwood family.
• In April 1986 the number 4 reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant in the Ukraine exploded leaving the entire region uninhabited, left to rust and desolation.
  
  World-Europe News
  On 26 April 1986, a testing accident at the Chernobyl power plant near the Ukranian town of Pripyat sent clouds of smouldering nuclear material across large swathes of Europe. More than 30 people died in the incident, many more subsequently due to radiation-related illnesses, and 50,000 people were forced to evacuate. Mar 25, 2016.
  A concrete “sarcophagus” was hastily built over the site of the stricken reactor to contain the worst of the radiation at the time.
  Nature has been quick to reclaim the area’s abandoned infrastructure. Trees sprout from the rusted roofs of apartment blocks in the ghost town of Pripyat, which was built to house Chernobyl power plant workers…the disaster is sure to shine a new light on the long-term human impact of the worst nuclear meltdown in history.
  
  

• The Ukraine explosion may well be a shadow of things to come during the seven year tribulation.

• “Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets: ‘ Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, And make them drink the water of gall; For from the prophets of Jerusalem Profaneness has gone out into all the land.’” Jeremiah 23:15

Fourth Trumpet: The Heavens Struck

Revelation 8:¹² Then the fourth angel sounded: And a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened. A third of the day did not shine (had no light), and likewise the night.

• The effect of the attack may be that the debris that covers the skies will darken the sun, the moon, and the stars.

Revelation 8:¹³ And I looked, and I heard an angel (eagle) flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, “Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound!”