The Book of Revelation 102: The Seventh Seal

Part One of the Seventh Seal left off with a warning voice of an Angel crying "...Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!" - Revelation 8:13 So far we've seen the waters turning to blood/poison/made bitter/causing death, a third of the green of the earth being burned, and a third of the lights of the day and night being darkened. Exactly what will be the cause of this has been speculated as a Nuclear Holocaust, "that surely shall be."

So, what will happen with the remaining three Angels? Shall we continue into chapter 9?

The first 11 verses in this chapter describe the horrors of the sixth Angel's trumpet. We see a star fall from Heaven, and he has a key to the bottomless pit. Stars=Spirits. A spirit being who fell from heaven, sound familiar? Yup, it's Satan again. He has a key to a bottomless pit. This pit represents the evils of his designs: War, Secret Combinations, Bloodshed, Fornication, murders, all things wicked known to man, and some even unknown. And just what comes out of this pit when he opens it?

Smoke, Locusts, Scorpions, having power over the earth. Yet they are commanded not to hurt the green of the earth? Locusts? Not hurting the trees and plants? Obviously these are again symbolic, or rather, likened. When John is writing this, he is seeing our future. A future where technology is so complex, and the ways of society so far-fetched, it is hard to describe. Back in John's time, they didn't have cars, or planes, or helicopters...let alone words for any of these devices, so he used the best references he could (try explaining an elephant to someone whose never seen it before!)

Helicopters, or possibly something similar, in the designs of the devil, sent not to kill man, "but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man. And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them" - Revelation 9:5-6. I've never been stung by a scorpion before, but if men desire to die, it must be excruciating. Just what weapons of war these machines will harbor is unknown, but by its description one can only imagine...

Called to loose the four angels "in the great river Euphrates", but if you follow the JST footnote to the correct translation, it read "the bottomless pit". Again, what comes forth is of the evils and designs of the Devil, though what follows is perhaps the most terrifying of all:

"And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them." - Revelation 9:15-16

An army of 200,000,000, kills A THIRD of the WORLD'S population in 13 months and 193 hours... A THIRD! The population today is about 6 BILLION people. That's at least 2 BILLION in a little over a YEAR! DEAD!

And just what is it that kills an average of 2 billion people? Those of the army are called "horseman", as he likened what they're operating to horses prepared for battle. But again, John is describing something he doesn't have words for, so he's likening what he does know.

Having a horse to ride into battle with was preferable, and gave a person the edge. Since horses are expensive, usually only captains and men of high rank would be riding these steeds. The army John sees aren't attacking on foot, but they are "riding", or rather operating machines with "breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone". Jacinth is a very red stone, and brimstone and fire go hand in hand with wrath and destruction. Bombs? Explosives? "...issued out of their mouths. For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt." - Revelation 9:18-19 Tanks, perhaps?

Land vehicles with heavy guns, flame throwers, again possibly something we've not seen yet. After all, they're only recently designing robots that can move on four legs on any terrain, hover copters that deliver pizza...

This is as far as Chapter 9 goes, but its not the end of the 7th seal...no, the 7th seal is covered in over 200 verses of the Book of Revelation. So, what of the Seventh Angel yet to sound? Lets not get ahead of ourselves, for there is still much to come in the timeline of events before that Angel sounds...