39: World News & Prophecy - Revelation 8:1-9:12

[Darris McNeely] Alright, we have come to Revelation 8 in our progression through the book of Revelation, and we are ready to address the seventh seal. Remember your handout from last time, the Rubik's Cube. Those of you that are watching this online later, we will have a copy of this posted online for you to download. It is a pretty neat little graphic.

It goes back a number of years. It has all the seals of Revelation, the trumpet plagues, and then the last trumpet plagues, or the seven vials, and kind of progresses across the top down here. So we are at the seventh seal, ready to address that. And remember, you have three sets of sevens in the book of Revelation. You have seven seals, seven trumpet plagues, the seventh seal is the seven trumpet plagues, and then the seventh trumpet plague has the seven last trumpet plagues, or seven vials.

So in essence, everything is kind of wrapped into one bundle, one cube, if you will. But then as the seals are unfolded, these progress in a fashion that brings the judgment of God upon the earth. As we come to the seventh seal in chapter 8 and beginning in verse 1, it says that “there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.”

And it says, “I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets.” So here’s the scene of silence, and yet there is the sounding of the trumpet that ultimately will begin here with the seven trumpets in the hands of these seven angels. And it appears that these seven angels are appointed by God to direct the judgments of these seven trumpets as they unfold.

And we see trumpets as a very integral part of Scripture. Trumpets are used in many different parts of Israel’s history. We find that a trumpet was sounded in ancient Israel at the time of an assembly, a gathering of the people—Mount Sinai, for instance, and other occasions. Trumpets were used to direct soldiers in war. Events on the calendar were signified by a trumpet as well. And so here we see then these significant events are heralded by the sounding of a trumpet.

So here’s the seventh seal. And where we are in the unfolding of this, as these begin to drop, if you will, upon the earth—and I mentioned this in the last class, and I want to refer you back to Zephaniah 1:14, where it talks about “the great day of the Lord is near.”

And if we are looking at any possible determination or length of time from Scripture as to the day of the Lord, the sounding of these seven trumpets begin this time. And it could be that we’re looking at a one-year duration of these events taking place and that we would be then in likely the last year of the three-and-a-half-year tribulation that the book of Revelation talks about.

And so again, if there’s one Scripture that gives us that indication employing the day-for-the-year principle, we would look at Zephaniah 1:14 in regard to that. And with the magnitude, the impact of the events that are mentioned here by the seven trumpet announcements or plagues, then there’s a concentration of the judgment of God.

And in a sense, a final—we’re moving to the climax. We’re moving to the fulfillment here of this. Revelation 8:3 says, “Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar.” Now keep in mind John’s looking into the throne of heaven through all of these passages here. And so you have an altar and a censer, which was a kind of a bowl with a handle on it into which coals were taken from the altar.

And in this case, “he was given incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.” And incense here, it says, “the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand.” (Revelation 8:4) And so here’s a representation of incense being, likely, the prayers of the saints.

Very clear interpretation here. And as we look at this, I think we need to understand that this is a symbolic vision, if you will, of centuries of prayers of saints and martyrs of the people of God, many of which we read about in the Bible, others that have transpired subsequently—including the prayers of God’s people before the throne of God. And this is in the sense of incense, a sweet-smelling incense, an offering before God.

If we’re looking at these prayers, they’re intercessory prayers of God’s people—something that is pleasing to God. And if you would look at that in the context of these seven trumpet plagues, the people of God—we’ve talked about the 144,000 in chapter 7 and the likelihood that those are referring to the saints of God, coupling that with the reference to 144,000 in chapter 14.

We talked about all of that in the last class, and they’re sealed. And yet, keep in mind that during this time of great trial upon the earth and tribulation, God’s people are still populating the earth, and some are sealed, some are protected. We’ll talk in Revelation 12 about a remnant of the church that are in what is called “her place in the wilderness.”

We’ll talk about that when we get to it. But what’s important is to look at this and see God’s people interceding on behalf of the earth, the world, and the times. And though we may not be there right now, what’s the takeaway for you and I right now? Well, I think it is to sigh and cry for the abominations and the sins of the people—that we should look at and understand and empathize and feel the suffering, the pain, the trials that go on even today.

And there are those. And I don’t want to get into any graphic reference to any current scene, of which I could. But whatever you’re watching this later on, or whatever might be in the news at any given time, there are matters in the world, human suffering, evil, that is perpetrated, that we as God’s people should be offering up prayers to God on behalf of the world, if you will, specific situations and people.

But we should not just go through life immune to what is happening around us. We have wars today in Europe, in the Middle East. We have suffering. We have people who are—we still have human trafficking.

We have human slavery today. That is kind of a silent and almost forgotten scourge upon the earth today. And yet it goes on every single day. You may sometimes walk into a public restroom at a truck stop or somewhere, and you’ll see a poster reminding us that people are being trafficked and at least to be aware of it. And it breaks your heart to think about that.

Even the migrations of people, whether into North America or whether into Europe, represent human suffering. Apart from the political discussions that surround both of them, which are vital and which are important, there are some real-time episodes and stories of human suffering that cause people to want to migrate to a better place—whether it’s North America or Europe—to try and have a better shot at life and to end the suffering that they may have in Africa or Latin America. I mean, there are some very real reasons for that. But that speaks more to the problems, the systemic problems, of governments in Africa and Latin America—that they do not properly care for and provide for their people, which is the first purpose of any government.

But then they seek something else, and you can get into the real human stories there that, again, are just absolutely tragic. My point is that we should be recognizing that for some people today, there’s a tribulation.

There’s war. There’s suffering. There’s famine. There are disease epidemics.

And that is very real. We may not be able to solve every bit of it, but please, let’s not just hide our eyes from it or ignore it even as we go about our lives. For we certainly know the ultimate answer is God’s kingdom that will come—and that’s what Revelation tells us. But let’s not be unmoved even in the world today, and let that motivate us to the seriousness of the times, to the knowledge of truth, to the knowledge of God’s ultimate judgment upon the world, and to make sure that we ourselves are not caught up in any of the sins of this current world here.

So in verse 5 then, “the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it to the earth. And there were noises, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake.” (Revelation 8:5) So the silence is shattered at this point here. And again, the lightnings and the thunderings, as I’ve mentioned, continue on through the book of Revelation. “And so the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.” (Revelation 8:6)

And so here we are seeing the opening of God’s intervention, when all of the events of the day of the Lord—the coming day of the Lord—then begin to move rapidly to completion. So let’s look at verse 7.

Revelation 8:7 “The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down on the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.”

Now you can compare this to the tenth plague in the book of Exodus, in Exodus 9, when hail rained upon the Egyptians, destroying livestock. And of course, the rivers in Egypt turned to blood at one particular point. But we have here hail and fire mingled with blood, thrown upon the earth. Now as we begin to look at this, this is a striking of vegetation, a third of the trees.

Again, get back into a little bit of an ecology lesson. You learn in basic science classes about the earth’s ecology and the hydrological cycles, how trees take in carbon dioxide and then give off oxygen. Trees are kind of filters and purifying agents and air purifiers, which is why trees are so important, so valuable. And you look at the vast forests and the trees—they’re a beautiful thing to understand—and the intricacy of the life even of a forest. There’s a whole study in itself.

But we have an impact upon a third, it says. Now, as we go through these, just look at them and take them at face value, or in a literal way, of events that strike the earth.

And we’ll not try to spiritualize this away. But I want you to do that with this point in mind and realize that these are, in a sense, real ecological disasters, aren’t they? They’re not man-made. They’re God-made. It’s part of God’s judgment, and life goes on.

If our understanding is correct and these, let’s say, flow out over a multi-month period, maybe at the 12-month period, final year as I mentioned earlier, then life goes on. I commented last class about The Privileged Planet and how intricate and important our placement and our position of the earth within the cosmos is—the rotation of the earth on its axis, its revolution around the sun, just the right distance from the sun that we don’t burn up, nor do we freeze up. That’s by design. No other place in the cosmos that we have been able to observe has those ideal conditions for life as we have it on the planet earth. It just has not been found. And again, I mentioned, I think, that some would say, well, given enough powerful telescopes and time and stellar exploration, we may find that. Well, so far we haven’t.

And again, to study just how intricate all of this is, and then you talk about the water, the clouds, the tectonic plates, gravity, the tides that are created by the positioning of earth’s moon—all set in such a way to, again, create conditions for sustainable life on the planet. How that works together is a fascinating study, as that book The Privileged Planet brings out. And I’ve made the comment, and I do believe, that it would take a great deal of human… well, I don’t know that it would take… I don’t know if there’s any amount of human activity that can alter that. And my ultimate feeling is, with so much of the green ideas and the fear-mongering regarding climate change—and there is climate change and everything else—it comes down a lot to earth worship. And sometimes I think just the human pride that we find in the Bible at the Tower of Babel.

Where mankind was going to build a tower to heaven and be like God, and God scrambled the languages and stopped that. One of the problems at that time was pride. We still have that.

And the idea that human activity, human behavior, could destroy the earth—what God has designed—I think is pride. God designed it that it couldn’t be. And it would not be destroyed, altered irrevocably, by human activity. But that’s not what we’re seeing here. What we’re watching here is godly activity upon the earth. And as I said, we still see life going on. It’s going to get worse, especially when we come to the seven last plagues. And I think that’s going to be a very, very short time. Because indeed, as Christ said, “except those days would be shortened, no flesh would be saved alive.” But look at all of this as God’s judgment upon the earth, and it’s quite large—a third of the trees—life goes on.

Let’s go on to verse 8 here. “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. And a third of the living creatures in the sea died. And a third of the ships were destroyed.” (Revelation 8:8)

All right? Here’s another significant event that takes place here. And a third of the creatures in the sea died. That’s, again, a huge ecological disaster. You see a portion, portions of the earth—look at it this way—where God’s judgment appears and strikes. I would surmise, and this would be an opinion or speculation, that the first trumpet, second trumpet might hit different places of the earth. And they may likely be spaced for impact.

And all of this is being noticed, observed. It is unprecedented. In verse 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. 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.” (Revelation 8:10)

All right, so here’s an astral body. We take this literally, of a star falling from heaven, burning like a torch, and a third of the waters—rivers and springs of water, freshwater. Here, it was hit where in verse 8 it was the sea, a third of the sea, saltwater. So here is another location, another event.

And many died because of this. When you’re trying to comprehend an asteroid, a super asteroid—Hollywood has made the movies of these asteroids that have been observed in outer space coming for earth. And astronauts have to go out and kind of knock it off course to save earth. That’s been the theme of some movies. Here’s a heavenly body, and it’s burning like a torch, so it’s observed, and it falls upon the earth.

Now, I don’t know if any of you have kind of studied or been aware when meteors have struck the earth, which they have from time to time. You go out in southern Arizona, there’s a place called—where a meteor struck. A long time ago, as they say. I forgot the name of the place. I didn’t mean to talk about this. If anybody knows that, help me out. You can stand, get up on an observation platform and see this huge circle where this meteor struck a long, long time ago and created a huge hole.

It was just a few years ago that there was in Siberia, in Russia, an asteroid, a meteor that came in and struck. It struck near a town, not on the town, but there’s footage of it—you can probably find that on the internet. But it was like an explosion, I mean a huge bomb exploding.

And so if you look at something of this size that is being described here, and it hits the earth, creating this kind of damage, it’s tantamount to a mega nuclear explosion—the force of it would be. And this is, you know, scientists know that should some asteroids that don’t make it to earth strike earth, they could, you know, it’d be like nuclear weapons going off, creating great destruction. And so this is what is happening, the effect of such an object here. And it could alter—yes, it could alter—weather patterns significantly. Volcanoes do that today. And something like this is going to wreak havoc upon all of the systems and supply chains of the earth, and look at it and see for what it is, God’s judgment upon the earth.

Verse 12 then goes on, “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, and likewise the night.” (Revelation 8:12)

And so here is a darkness that occurs. Again, I mentioned last class about the solar eclipse that we had here about a year ago. And if you were right in the optimum positioning on that path, it became like night. Here in Cincinnati, I remember sitting out on my back porch watching it finally get to its ultimate moment. And it wasn’t completely dark, but it was just kind of maybe a twilight, or, you know, just before it gets dark at night at midday. But it was even different from that. It was a different light than anything I’d really experienced before. But now here in this one, a third of the light from these bodies creates a darkness.

Incredibly interesting celestial atmospheric observations. And so there’s a tremendous impact upon the environment. Again, you would go back to the plagues that God poured out upon Egypt, one of which was the darkness that came. And here’s a similarity to that. Of course, in the plagues that God brought upon Egypt through Moses prior to the Exodus and that effort to bring judgment upon Egypt—softening up, trying to let God’s people go—it was a time of judgment. You know the story of Pharaoh, his heart was always hardened until it finally came to the loss of the firstborn and his own firstborn.

And the effect of that. And so this is what God is pouring out—it is a warning. It is a judgment in stages and in a partial of what is more to come later. And could be a softening—it really looks like, and it would be a softening up. Now during this time, would we be seeing people that were described in chapter 7, this great innumerable multitude of all the nations? Would we see people at that point, in a sense, having a wake-up call and crying out to God in a heartfelt way that God would know and God would spare them? I think so. I think that these events will bring about that softening of people who will turn to God and God will spare people—an innumerable multitude. How many is that? It cannot be counted. Just let God know, let God decide on that as to how many that would be.

You know, in Ezekiel 33:11, the prophet here, or God says through the prophet as he is witnessing and warning: “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.” I have no pleasure. He says, he tells them, “Turn and live.” That’s ultimately God’s message, whether it was to the Egyptians, through Ezekiel, or any of the other Old Testament prophets, and through this particular time as well.

There is this message—God has no pleasure. Will this form a part of the message of the two witnesses? We haven’t got to chapter 11 yet, but keep in mind that chapter 11 will show us that during this time God’s still doing a work, and there are two witnesses. Individuals yet to appear—we’ll likely get to those here—and they are God’s witnesses that appear, and their message will be heard. Their message will be known.

There’s one other event that we’ll read about in, I think it’s chapter 14, of an angel that flies through the midst of the heavens with the message of the everlasting gospel. That’s some fantastic event there that will also be, in a sense, a witness. And again, all of that together likely creates some people who will turn to God and cry out. Their cries will be heard. Not everyone will. Most people, Revelation tells us, will not repent. In fact, we will see that people grow increasingly defiant and do not repent. And so, as we move along on this, we have to recognize that.

So, this is the fourth trumpet.

Verse 13 then says, “And I looked, and I heard an angel 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.”(Revelation 8:13)

This is a different angel from the one I just referenced in chapter 14 who flies through the midst of the earth. These are an angel announcing three woes, and there are three angels yet to sound, three more trumpets as a part of the sequencing of all of this.

And so we’ve come to the fifth trumpet here. And if you look on your Rubik’s Cube chart, you’ll see that it mentions here this is a war that is inspired by Satan. And as we read about it, we will see Satan’s connection to this and the demonic activity.

And so we have these four trumpets, each bringing a unique aspect of ecological impact upon the earth, upsetting conditions, creating a great deal of, obviously, discussion, talk, and anxiety. People will be getting the sense that the earth is out of control.

And fear, wonder—what’s next? Certainly will drive many. And yet, not all. And at the time that this is taking place, we now kind of—there’s a shift. And with these next three trumpet plagues, we’re going to see military, political type activity taking place upon the earth and demonic activity. So let’s look at the fifth trumpet and look at these locusts that come up from what is described here as a bottomless pit.

Revelation 9:1-2 “Then the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star falling from heaven to the earth. To him was given the key to the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace. So the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit.”

Alright, let’s pause there for a moment. This is what is called as well—and I believe that it is mentioned here, it is on your Rubik’s Cube—the fifth trumpet is also called the first woe. You want to make sure you see that. The last verse of chapter 8 says, “Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth.”

Now, that word woe in the Greek, really it means alas. Now, alas is a word we don’t use too much in English speech today. Alas, this must come to pass, you might read, okay, in a book. My good friend Tom Robinson, he uses this word a great deal, so I’ll give him a shout out here. He’s probably used it in class with you, but when he writes, at least, he will use this quite often. I don’t know of anybody else that uses the word, but it’s an expression of grief, you know, or kind of, “Oh, I wish it weren’t that way. Alas, it is so.”

But in this context here in the Bible, it is three woes. And it’s meant to be an expression of warning and of great grief that will come about as a result of the events that will take place. And so the fifth trumpet is the first woe, the sixth trumpet is the second woe, and the seventh trumpet is the third woe. And that’s all on your chart here, so you can see that kind of laid out here.

And the first one is an increased demonic activity that creates a war—an intensified impact of war. We have likened this into what is mentioned back in Daniel 11:44. If you go back to Daniel 11, we read this at the time. The King of the North is active in Daniel 11 at this point.

He counterattacks into the Promised Land, into Israel, the Middle East, as a result of the push by the King of the South in verse 40. But then in verse 44, we have correlated this verse here with this fifth trumpet—or the timing of this woe—that comes out here of a war and a movement of armies that is inspired by Satan.

And keep in mind that this beast power, this King of the North—European based as we discussed, but larger beyond Europe, I think, in terms of the impact or the mixture of political states and armies that will make up this King of the North with its leadership—they have come into the area of the Middle East. But “news from the east and from the north shall alarm him, and he shall go out with great fury to destroy and devote many to destruction. He shall pitch his palatial tents between the sea and the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, with none to help him” (Daniel 11:44–45).

But focusing on verse 44: news from the east and from the north. Now, if you’re looking at everything right here in the land of promised Israel, east would take you into the Asiatic nations. You’ve got India over here, and you’ve got China up here. And China comes around to the north. So if you’ve got east and north, you’ve got everything from India and Indonesia up through South Asia, China, and you would include Russia being up here as well—from the east and from the north.

News, political events, a movement of armies that alarms him, and he goes out with great fury to destroy and devote many to destruction. So we’ve equated that with this fifth trumpet, the first woe that occurs here. But what is described in the first few verses here is a star falling from heaven to the earth, “and to him was given the key to the bottomless pit.” This seems to indicate that this is a different star than what we had read about in the previous chapter of the third trumpet, verse 10 of chapter 8. “That was a great star that fell from heaven, burning like a torch.” This one has a different purpose, and it said, “to him was given the key to the bottomless pit, and he opened the bottomless pit.”

Now, the term bottomless pit is used several times in the book of Revelation. It’s used three times here in chapter 9—it’s used again in verse 2 and then again in verse 11. The term is also used in chapter 11:7, chapter 17:8, and in chapter 20:1–3, where in chapter 20 an angel from heaven comes with a key to the bottomless pit and throws Satan into that bottomless pit.

Alright? And so here, there’s a difference to this bottomless pit, which should be understood as the abode of the wicked in a symbolic sense. And the opening of this pit comes, and smoke comes out. The sun and the air are darkened at this point.

Is this Satan? Is this Lucifer? Some feel that it is. In Luke 10:18, Jesus said, “Behold, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” We know the stars are a symbol of angels, both the bad and the good. And Revelation 12, which we haven’t got to yet, describes a battle—a final great battle between Lucifer, his minions, and Michael and his angels. And Satan is cast down to the earth. That’s a second casting down. It’s not the first one that you read about in Ezekiel or Isaiah. That’s a second, yet future one in Revelation 12.

And this could be a reference to that event, in that there’s Satan falling from heaven to the earth, but he has a key to the bottomless pit. In other words, he has the authority now within the sequencing of this time of judgment to unleash hell on the earth. This is essentially what’s being done. So if it is Satan, or some other being, there is an unleashing that occurs. And this is a great demonic activity here.

Let’s go on in verse 3: “Then out of the smoke, locusts came upon the earth. And to them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. They were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree, but only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.” (Revelation 9:3-4)

So here’s a reference to our grouping of people who are not sealed.

Again, we read about 144,000, 12,000 from each of the tribes of Israel that are sealed, an innumerable multitude protected. But now this time of punishment is not upon the vegetation—there’s been enough of that for the moment. This is now directed at unrighteous people who are not sealed, who have not turned to God. “And they were not given authority to kill them, but to torment them for five months. And their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man. In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will desire to die, and death will flee from them.”(Revelation 9:5-6)

So they are allowed to attack, disturb, influence men—or people—who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads, but not kill them. So here is a focused torment and trial and affliction, an increased period of tribulation upon those that are wicked, that have not been moved by anything that has taken place. And it’s likened to the sting of a scorpion. Anybody here ever been stung by a scorpion?

I haven’t either. I’ve heard that it can be very, very painful. And I’ve read that some larger scorpions, if they sting maybe an infant, enough venom could be there to kill a small baby. But typically the sting of a scorpion that you might encounter in the desert or in certain locations, it’s going to be very painful, but it would not be enough to kill you.

I ran into some scorpions in the mountains of Tuscany in Italy at a Feast of Tabernacles many years ago. We were staying on a little—it wasn’t a chalet or anything—but it was kind of a room up on a mountainside. And it was, the rooms and the houses were built of stone. Quite nice, quite nice view. But one night I was up late preparing, working on my sermon I was supposed to give the next day. This was a Feast of Tabernacles. And I heard something go—I heard a clicking sound. I thought, I just ignored it, you know how it is, you ignore it to begin with—but it just kept going, going like that. And I went to look for what it was, and under some clothing was a scorpion.

So I quickly grabbed a shoe and killed it, okay? I didn’t want it to get one of us—you know, my two boys were small at the time, and my wife and I were there. And that’s about as close as I’ve come to a scorpion as far as I know, but I didn’t want to get stung by it.

But the torment is that of a scorpion—“was like the torment of a scorpion,” it says here—“when it strikes a man.” And the pain, both mental and otherwise, and mostly mental, is that they would desire to die and death will flee from them. And so, again, God is in control of all that is taking place here. He knows exactly what He is doing. And there is an abyss out of which all of this comes, as it is being described here.

Let’s read on a little bit. “The shape of the locust was like horses prepared for battle. On their heads were crowns of something like gold, and their faces were like the faces of men. They had hair like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lion’s teeth. And they had breastplates, like breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots with many horses running into battle. They had tails like scorpions, and there were stings in their tails. Their power was to hurt men five months.” (Revelation 9:7-10)

So here’s this horde of locusts that have the sting like a scorpion. They come up out of an abyss. That term abyss is used like a bottomless pit, as I mentioned, and they are places out of which the beast arises—you’ll see throughout the book of Revelation. The Greek word abyssos—or abyss here—refers to this bottomless place. And, you know, scripturally, it’s a place for the rebellious demons. 2 Peter 2:4 is a classic example of demons held in Tartarus, or a place of restraint, meaning that their activities are restrained. And that’s an important distinction to note. Jude 6 also mentions this place of restraint, and Luke 8:31.

But when this abyss is opened, smoke comes out, darkens the sky, and releases these large locusts that are like a scorpion or as dangerous as a scorpion. And they’re all under the control of Satan.

Verse 11 goes on to show us this: “They had as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but in Greek he has the name Apollyon.” (Revelation 9:11)

And so here’s a name, Apollyon. In the Hebrew version of this, it means “destruction.”

And so this is not a nice name indicating nice character. In Greek it’s “destroyer,” and it’s a name for Satan. Satan controls these forces. God controls His angelic forces as the judgment is pointed out.

One commentary says that this name, Abaddon, or in the Greek, Apollyon, is a play on the name Apollo. You will recognize Apollo as one of the popular gods of the Greek pantheon. And particularly in Asia Minor—of course, where today is Turkey, but Asia Minor, where John is having this vision—Apollo, there were a lot of temples to Apollo. I usually take the tour groups to one in a place called Didyma, near the city of Miletus. And it’s a huge temple to Apollo. And it has a big underground cavern where there was a…what’s the word? Where you…

An oracle. Oracle, thank you. Yeah, an oracle. People would go up to it, wanting the future told. And it’s all part of the temple to Apollo, which is the same thing that you had in Greece.

But it appears that what God is allowing here is a period of unleashed demonic activity upon the earth, upon human behavior, and upon life. And the torment is described here like mental illness, like you see in the Gospels where you find demon-possessed people. Demons are disembodied spirits. And the description here of the faces like faces of men, like women’s hair, is John’s effort as he’s watching this and seeing this to describe some type of embodiment of these demonic beings as they are given kind of an unprecedented effort, ability to unleash their activity upon the earth, upon human behavior and life—and a rise in mental illness.

So one way to look at this: it is a movement of armies and demonic forces upon the armies of the earth as well. But it is also a time, it seems, that God removes a protection that He has upon the earth. Call it a foreshield, all right? The foreshield goes down on demonic activity and they’re able to do more.

Look, demons today do not have the ability to at will possess anybody, or to wreak unprecedented havoc through possession and other types of activity. They just don’t. Now, they can do other things, and they can influence people and principalities and all, as Paul says in Ephesians 6. And we’ve talked about that from Daniel.

But when it comes to human behavior, by and large they don’t. Except, I do think, that the—let’s hold it right there.

And we’ll come back, and in the next class we’ll pick up that thought.