Bible Study No 18 of Revelation

Good evening, brethren! Welcome to our 18th study on the Book of Revelation. Also, as I am recording it, I've been told as brethren listening in from different areas to this recording, and I want to welcome you all. I know this brethren from the UK, brethren from Portugal, brethren from other areas of the world, South Africa and Jamaica, so I welcome you all. Let us start today by doing a very brief revision. We have covered the first four seals, which represent four horsemen. The false religion, in other words, a false ideology, because you always need some sort of religion or ideology to get people behind you. That's obviously for people that have an evil intent, to get people behind you to wage your war, to wage wars for them to support you. And the outcome of those wars is hunger, and then the final outcome is death, and more and more people going to the grave. So, through wars, hunger, diseases, pandemics, and these leaders, which are beasts of the earth, these seals will keep running, and they will stay open as we discussed all the way through till Christ's coming. This will keep going. The fifth seal we looked at is the Great Tribulation, which the Bible talks that there's never been a day like that, or never will be, so it is a Great Tribulation like never before. And we also saw that it's a time of Satan's wrath, and we also saw that it lasts for three and a half years. Following that, we have the sixth seal, which is the heavenly signs, which represent the beginning of God's Great Judgment period. And God's Great Judgment period, in fact, extends all the way to beyond the millennium and the hundred years. But basically, God is starting to judge, but there is a verse phase of this judgment of this evil war that happens. So, this judgment is based on a day of wrath. That is great, great wrath has to come, as we saw in Revelation 6. At the end of verse, in verse 17 says, for the great day of his wrath has come, and who is able to stand? We also see there on verse 16 that different people in Revelation 6 verse 16, it says, people are moaning and groaning, and nations are mourning and saying, hi from us, hi from us, sits from him that sits on the throne. But this is similar, in a way, to Matthew 24. So, I want us to look at Matthew 24 verse 30, only the first part, because I think it's meaningful, something young, that quite often we don't pay attention, is it says in verse 30, Matthew 24 verse 30, when I say 30a means the first part of verse 30, then the sign of the Son of Man will appear. What is meant by the sign of the Son of Man that appears in heaven? And then all the tribes of the earth will mourn.

So, I believe that could be very well referring to the heavenly signs, which represents the sign that Christ's coming is soon. So, it's a sign of Christ's intervention, because later on in verse 30 it says, and they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. But you see there's two different things. One is the sign, and then it's actually the coming. So, this sign could well be these heavenly signs, which is a sign that Christ is coming soon. And it says, and the nations will mourn. And we saw that in Revelation 6 verse 16, that they say, you know, they say in Revelation 6 verse 16, say, to the mountains and to the rocks, fallen eyes and idols, from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. So, the is definitely a sign that they know something is happening. But this is still a year before Christ's actual coming. So, that is a possibility of the meaning of Matthew 24, verse 30, that first part. Now, before God punishes the world with his wrath, because this sign, these heavenly signs, is Christ saying, that's it, that's enough, I'm going to start intervening in world affairs, and I'm going to punish these evil people. I'm going to give them a good punishment. But before he punishes the world of his wrath, he will protect his servants who repented during the Great Tribulation. And that we saw in the last study, we addressed that, we covered that, that these are people that will be sealed, that will be sealed and protected from these things to come.

So, let's move now on to Revelation 8. Revelation 8. And we're going to start with verse 1, because up to the end of Revelation 7, we covered previously. And in verse 1 says, when he opened the seven seals, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

So, something terrible is about to happen. So, there's silence in heaven. It could well be in parallel to the time that those servants of God are being sealed on earth, which we covered during chapter 7. Now, there is an interest in parallel in Genesis chapter 7 verse 4. So, I want you to look briefly to Genesis chapter 7 verse 4, because in Genesis chapter 7 verse 4 is the beginning, the period just before the flood. And it says, and he used to take seven of each clean animal, seven pairs of each clean animal to the ark, and one pair, two animals, of unclean. And then in verse 4 says, and after seven more days, I'll cause it to rain on the earth, forty days and forty nights. So, they got into the ark, and they were sealed. They were sealed in the ark. And before that punishment came, there was a period. It's like the calm before the storm.

And so, it's just an interesting parallel there with Genesis chapter 7 verse 4, that before that God's judgment on earth during the flood, there was a certain period of time in which things paused and waited. Now, going back to Revelation chapter 8, in verse 2, and I saw, in Revelation 8 verse 2, I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. So, now we see the seventh seal, the seventh seal, which is for a period of a year. It opens up into seven trumpets, seven major events to happen during this time period. So, trumpets were used during important events or to announce important events. Brethren, trumpets yah is the symbolism of the day of trumpets. When we keep God's holy days, we go through God's holy days, pass over. Christ sacrificed, suffered, and died for us, opening up the way for us to be saved through his plan of salvation.

The days of 11 Brea represents our commitment to God and to obey Him. And yes, we are to obey. But then it comes to the day of Pentecost, which represents that we can't do it alone. We can't obey God's commandments by ourselves. We need to write, or God needs to write, His commandments in our minds and in our hearts. So that's why in the Old Testament, God's Ten Commandments were given on the day of Pentecost. That is the tradition in the Jewish community, and I believe to be correct in this specific case. And the day of Pentecost is the day that God made available to mankind His Holy Spirit, through which He writes the Ten Commandments in our minds and in our hearts, through which He writes God's Law. That's the new covenant. God will write His laws in our heart and our mind. And so there's the symbolism of Pentecost has been fulfilled.

And that's why there's the two waves of love being presented to God, representing us. But the two wave loaves are leavened. They are with leaven. And you and I know very well that leaven represents sin. Therefore, we as physical human beings have access to God's throne, represented the two wave loaves with leaven. No other sacrifice is offered with leaven.

That is prohibited. But this is the only one that's allowed to be offered with leaven. And that ties in with Hebrews 10. Let me tell you exactly where it is. I don't have to say right about. So let me look. Hebrews 10, where it says, we are starting in verse 19, says having boldness to enter the holiest of all by the blood of Jesus.

That means you and I say, therefore brethren, having boldness to enter now. How can you and I enter the very throne of God? Because we still have sins. If you say you have no sin, if Bible says you're a liar. So, and how do we enter? By a new and living way, Hebrews chapter 10 verse 20, which he consecrated for us through the veil that is his flesh.

So through Christ's sacrifice, he allows us to, God allows us, and Christ being the intermediate, the intermediated, the high priest, the one standing for us, allows us to have access to God's throne. So that is fulfilled in Pentecost. Now we have to remain faithful till the end, and at the end is the symbolism at the harvest time of trumpets. And so now we have the symbolism of the day of trumpets, which includes these seven trumpets, which is the symbolism of the day of trumpets.

So trumpets, the blowing of trumpets, was used for many reasons. The giving of the law for the actual day of trumpets, for the day of jubilee, announcing liberty in the land, was announced for different instructions. For instance, when to go to war and when not to go, when to lift up the camp and move and when not to. It also is used for the first resurrection. It's also used to specify when Christ begins to reign over the nation. So I've got different scriptures mentioned there, and you are welcome to go through those in your own time to see that trumpets are used for various purposes.

But now we're looking at the time of the end, and this is the symbolism of the day of trumpets. And this period of one year is what the Bible terms it, the day of the Lord. And we saw that, but let's go there again briefly in Joel chapter 2 verse 1 and 2. Blow the trumpet in Zion and sound it along, for the day of the Lord is coming.

You see that in verse 1, Joel 2 verse 2, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness. So and then it describes various things like that we'll discuss later on today, which is the the fifth and the sixth trumpet. It describes them in the remaining section of Joel chapter 2 verses 3, 4, and 5, and 6, and 7.

But then look at verse 11. It says, the Lord gives voice before his army. And then a little later says, for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible. And then if you go a bit forwards in verse 30 and 32, and it says, and our show wonders in the heavens and in earth. That's the heavenly signs. The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.

And so the radius before the great and awesome day of the Lord, there's the heavenly signs. The heavenly signs, as I explained, is before the day of the Lord. Now as we're opening up the trumpets, we have now the the day of the Lord. So there's this silence in heaven. And that's why it says in verse 32 of Joel 2, it says, and it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. In other words, in this context, whoever calls on the name of the Lord, that are coming through, these are the people are going through the tribulation. And during this time before the great and terrible day of the Lord, before the seven trumpets, if they repent during the millennium, whoever calls is not just Israelites, it's Gentiles as well.

Anybody from mankind that repents during the tribulation, and they see all these things, and they turn to God and say, we should have repented earlier before the tribulation, but they haven't. They've got, for instance, our booklets, our stuff, our material, and they finally realize we should have repented. Now they repent. They will be saved. In other words, they will be protected from the wrath that God is going to bring upon the nations, because that is the wrath of the Lamb, the great day of His wrath. That is the day of the Lord, or the seventh seal, or the seven trumpets.

So here is another picture that actually describes it. We now are talking about the seven trumpets, the day of the Lord, which is the seventh seal. You can see here it's the seventh seal, which also explains to you it symbolizes by the day of trumpets.

And there are seven trumpets. That's why it's not called the day of trumpet singular. No, it's the day of trumpets, because it symbolizes all seven, symbolizes the state of the Lord, the seventh seal, of which at the last trump Christ will return. And that is symbolized by the day of trumpets. Now, I know there are people out there today saying, oh, the return of Jesus Christ is symbolized by the day of Pentecost. That is absolutely false. The return of Jesus Christ, the first resurrection is symbolized by the day of trumpets. And we can see, and we're going to see more about how that is clear. So, let us continue with this. You can see the structure that we've got the first six seals, and we have the heavenly signs, and after the heavenly signs we've got the seventh seal. It opens up into seven trumpets, which is the day of the Lord. And the first four trumpets, okay, are, as you can see, yeah, are a third, a third, a third, a third, a third, and even the sixth trumpet affects a third of humanity. But you can see these first four trumpets are things that affect our world environment, that affect our world environment. So, let's go on, because there's something else to happen before the first trumpet is unleashed. So, we read in Revelation chapter 8 verse 3, then another angel, having a golden sense, came and stood at altar, and he was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the signs upon the golden altar, which was before the throne. So, yeah, we see incense, which is offered with the prayers of the signs upon the golden altar, which was before the throne. You see, this altar is God's altar, but this incense is right there by God's throne.

Verse 4, and the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints ascended before God from the angel's hand. And if you read in Psalm 141 verse 2, even there, the psalmist in Psalm 141 verse 2, 141 verse 2 reads, Let my prayer be set before you as incense, the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. Our prayers go before God, and it is like incense, the sweet smelling incense to God. And then, continue reading in Revelation chapter 8 verse 5, Then the angel took the sensor, folded with fire, so the sensor which has the incense, which symbolizes the prayers of the saints, and folded with the fire from the altar and threw it to the earth. And it went noises, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake. So, if we read in Exodus, we see that this is the incense that was before the altar, before God's throne, the incense altar which was before God's throne, which was in the holiest of holiers, in beyond the curtain. So you and I, our prayers, as we said, since we have God's holy spirit, our prayers through the body of Christly sacrifice go through the veil into the very throne of God today. So, and if we read in Hebrews chapter 9, Hebrews chapter 9, Hebrews chapter 9, verse 1 through 4, it says, then indeed, when the first covenant had ordinances of divine service and earthly sanctuary, for the tabernacle was prepared, the first part, which was the lampstand, the table of showbread, which is called the sanctuary, and beyond the second veil, in the words, in the holiest of holiers, the part of the tabernacle, which is called the holiest of holiers, which had the golden sense. That golden sense is the one with the incense and the arc of the covenant, which represented God's throne and the mercy seat, which is God's seat is a seat of mercy, not of punishment and judgment, but now is the time to do judgment on the earth because God has given the earth plenty time and chance to repent. So he says, and he says, on all sides of gold, on which are the golden part, and had the manna, and Adam's rod, and the tablets of the covenant, and above it, and so on. So it just shows that this golden sense is in the holy of holies. So the sense, which has our prayers, filled with fire from God's own altar is thrown onto the earth, which appears to represent or signal God's judgment as a response to the suffering saints' prayers during the Great Tribulation. So the prayers of the saints, as they suffer, as they go through the Great Tribulation, and our prayers, and all our prayers, but probably specifically those during that specific time, and the brethren going through the Great Tribulation are praying and asking for rescue. Now God takes those prayers with fire and throws them onto the earth. So there's certain things that will happen that is not described here in detail, but it says there will be noises, thunderings, lightning, and earthquake. And you know these things do cause death as well, but these are people that would not repent, because the ones that have repented have been sealed. They've been protected.

Now, now, the seven angels we have, or have the seven trumpets, prepare themselves to sound. So you can see there were two major events happening before the actually sounding, or the execution of the seven trumpets. The first, this was after the heavenly silence, the first was the sealing of God's servants, and the second is now God starts punishing them, and there is some punishment here because of the prayers of the saints, in answer to the prayers of the saints. You know, brethren, our prayers are being heard by God, and they go straight through to God's very throne by a new and living way that we have, as it is the significance of the Day of Pentecost.

So, let's move on to the first four trumpets, which affect the earth, the sea, which is saltwater, fresh waters, and affect the light that comes to earth. So the first trumpet, verse seven, that's Revelation chapter 8 verse 7, the first trumpet, which is in verse 7, the hail and fire followed, mingled with blood, and they were thrown to the earth, and a third of the trees were burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.

So a third of vegetation on earth was wiped out. Imagine, brethren, it's not saying in this region or in that region, it's all over the world. This is God's judgment on all mankind. It's not just on Israel or this, it's on all mankind. And then there's the second trumpet, verses eight and nine, and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea, that's saltwater, became blood, and a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships in the sea were destroyed.

So you can see it's things affecting the environment of the earth, and that God is bringing it to happen through these trumpets. And this is after his servants are sealed, protected, those that have repented during the tribulation. So again, there's two protections I've discussed already. First was the protection of those before the tribulation that was a part of the church. The other part of the church went into the tribulation, underground, some died, some survived, and helped these that are repenting to come to the way, and then they've repented.

So these will also be protected. So there's two, let's say, stages of repentance. Now let's move on to the third trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on springs of water. This is now freshwater. The previous trumpet was on saltwater seas. This is on fresh waters, and springs and rivers. The name of the star is warmwood. A third of the waters, of freshwater, rivers, lakes, etc., became warmwood, became bitter, and many men died from the water because it was bitter. So there is more death here. There's a lot of easties where the people are dying.

Now, you remember the story in Acts 15 about when Israelites went into this area and the water was bitter, and then Moses was said to throw into a certain bush, if I remember correctly, or the rod, I don't quite remember now, but and then the water became sweet and it shows that God heals. Christ sacrificed, civilized by the breaded Passover, turns the bitter sweet. It heals. So here is a symbolism that Christ sacrificed is like that water in the desert that was bitter but becomes sweet.

But yeah, we have the reverse. We have Christ's wrath, transforming man's vain hopes and ambitions into desperation and bitterness. So there we see that as well. Now we move on to the fourth trumpet in verse 12, 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. Now, for those people that live in cold areas, this will mean that it'll get mighty cold, mighty cold.

So there is this combination. Things getting hot and things getting very cold. It's actually a serious effect in the world, and God is bringing these punishments because of mankind's sin. So the moral of the story is this green, green deal is not going to have any fit. But anyway, now we've had four trumpets that have gone by. So there are three trumpets to go, correct? These are called woes. There are three great woes still to come.

We can see that in verse 13. It says, and I looked and I heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying for loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels were about to sound. So these last three trumpets, the first, the sixth, and the seventh are three great woes to mankind.

Daniel 11 verse 40 to 43. Daniel 11 verse 40 to 43. Daniel 11 is one of the most specific and long prophecies in the Bible. And Daniel 11 verse 40, and it says, At the time of the end, the king of the south shall attack him, that's the beast, king of the north, and the king of the north shall come against him, against the king of the south, like a whirlwind, with chariots, warsmen, etc. And it shows a little bit more detail about that. And it shows in verse 43, that's the king of the north, he shall have power over the treasures of gold and silver, over all the precious things of Egypt and the Libyans and Ethiopians, in other words, over all these oil fields, for one. Because the king of the south includes countries like probably Saudi Arabia and others, and they will get together. We believe that the king of the south will be the Muslim nations of the Sunni group, and they will get together, and they will push probably against the king of the north. And I say probably during the beginning of the Great Tribulation. In other words, I'm putting out the word probably to point the time frame. Obviously, they will push, but when I say probably, it will be the time frame. I believe this will be at the beginning or soon after the beginning of the Great Tribulation. There will be this fight internally, but then it continues in verse 44. Daniel 11. Daniel 11, 44, says, But news from the east and the north shall trouble thee. News from the east and the north will trouble the king of the north. It rewards the beast. Now, note, the Bible here does not refer them as Gog and Magog. Yes, the nations are basically what we define as Gog and Magog, but the Bible does not define them because the issue of Gog and Magog is to happen during the millennium, at the beginning of the millennium, maybe 30 or 40 years into the millennium, whatever it may be. So that is a different situation. So we are clearly specifying there as the nations, as it says here, from the east and the north, which I speculate would be nations like Russia, Iran, yes, Muslims of the Shiite group. It will be nations like India, will be nations like China, will be nations like Korea, and the other nations would have been absorbed or taken over by China or Korea. All that northeast component will become a huge power house, let's call it a military house. And so the news from the east and north will threaten the king of the north. But now when does this happen? This prophecy. This will happen during the fifth trumpet, which is the first wall, when the beast attacks the north and the east.

These people, north, east, the north, east, east, the north people. So they are news, they are rumors that they are kind of going to attack you. And instead of just sitting and wait, well, maybe they will make peace like we see now in Ukraine. Now maybe they won't do it. They know they're going to do it. So they're going to attack first. And that's what we see in Revelation chapter 9. Now let's look at Revelation chapter 9. We're going to read verse 1 and 2.

So, then the fifth angel, that's the fifth trumpet, sounded his trumpet, that's the second wall, as I mentioned, and I saw a star falling from heaven to the earth. Who's this star?

Which star has fallen from heaven to the earth? Which one? In Revelation 12, verse 9 through 10, Revelation 12, verse 9 through 10, you see, so the great dragon was cast out out of heaven and he was thrown to the earth. So I suspect that when we go back to Revelation 9, chapter 1, that is Satan. And to him was given the key of the bottom, but in other words, Satan has the authority now to open up verse 1. Because the word bottomless is in Greek, the word 12, it's gibbous. And if you look at Luke chapter 8 verse 31, if you turn now to Luke 8 chapter 31, let's read there. Luke 8 chapter 31. There is this situation of a demon-possessed man, which was healed. And then there's these demons in this man, various demons in this man. And then they, Christ asks, what's your name? And he says, Legion. Remember, Legion, because we're manning. And they begged him, read in verse 31, and they begged him, they begged Christ.

Christ was a human being at that time, but he had the authority. He had the authority.

Because he was who he was. He had the authority. He says, they begged him that he would not command them to go out into the abyss. In other words, command them not to go back into the abyss. That's the same Greek word as the bottomless pit. So this abuzzest bottomless pit is probably a dwelling of demons, that Satan is kind of the chief demon. Of course, he is the chief of them. Right? And he's now given authority to say, okay, let this group of evil spirit beings out. Imagine the extreme corruption and oppression that was spread throughout the earth.

That's why it's a war. Let's continue reading in Revelation chapter 9 verse 1 and 2. We read verse 1, and then it says, in verse 2, 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. So this evil came out of it. Then out of the smoke, locusts came upon the earth. And so we see this situation about Yap, about locusts. Now in verse 3, which nation represents locusts? Well, let's look at Nahum. Nahum? Nahum.

Chapter 3 verse 17 and 18. Your commanders are like swarming locusts, and your generals like great grasshoppers. And then it says, which camp in the edges of a cold day when the sun rises they flee away. Now look at verse 18. Your shepherds are slumber, O king of Assyria. These locusts are controlled by the king of Assyria, which should be one of the leading groups of nations in the peace power, which is the king of the north. So, this, what we have here in Revelation chapter 9, in this first world, which are these locusts being released, which are these demons and evil spirits influencing the leadership of the peace power to actually go absolutely mad, because we read and we continue to read, and we continue to read in verse 4. They were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth, nor any green thing or any tree, but only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.

You see, those people that have been sealed, those people that had been sealed by God would not be harmed. They'll be protected. Those are the people that we saw in Revelation 7 verse 3. Look at Revelation 7 verse 3. Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads. And then you read in verse 16. It says, they shall not have hunger anymore, nor thirst anymore, the sunshine of strident, nor any heat. Why? Because they're physical human beings, and they protect it. They protect it as physical human beings. These are the people that repented during the Great Tribulation and are still alive, because we see you, don't harm them if they have the seal of God, only harm the other people. They will be protected. Now, the majority of these people will form part of what we call the Second Exodus, which is in Zephaniah 3 verse 12, called a meek and humble people, who God will work with during the beginning of millennia. They will be the physical pioneers in the world tomorrow.

And those people that are meek and humble and teachable, they are malleable and workable, they come out of this Great Tribulation, they've been protected through the stay of the Lord, and they'll say, yes, Lord, what do you want me to do? They'll be a meek and humble people, and they'll believe in God. But the rest of mankind, let's go back to Revelation chapter 9 verse 5 and 6. He says, and they were not given authority to kill mankind, you see, because they were not to harm people, but they were not to kill either. But they were to torment people for five months to just give them pain, suffer for five months. Their torment was like 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. Now, this just shows that the parent of the seven trumpets is more than five months, right? Because we've had the first four trumpets. Then we have this fifth, and we still have the sixth to go. So this period is what we call the Day of the Lord, which is defined as a year. It's a day, a day of the Lord, a day for a year. So it's a year. So now we have people who will be tormented. What does this mean they'll be tormented? It's because these scorpions or these locusts that have the pain of scorpions, what will they do? Maybe they'll have a biological warfare. They will go around and like with special little planes or whatever it is, and they will spread some viruses or something that lasts and affects people's health for five months. Or it could be a special gas that is spread out.

But I'm kind of more inclined towards biological warfare, but it could be one or the other.

Anyway, let's go on and look at verse 7 through 10. And look, the shape of the locusts was like horses. Look at that shape, like horses prepared for battle. On the heads with crowns or something like old, and their faces were like the face of men. They had hair like woman's hair and their teeth were like lion's teeth. They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots. So we see how horses prepared for battle. We see teeth like lion's teeth, like like the sound of chariots, which with many horses running into battle. And they had tails like scorpions, and they were stings in their tails. You see, so that's why I think it's kind of, it's a biological warfare, because it's like a scorpion injects a poison into you. It's not a gas, but it could be one or the other. And he says, and they had tails like scorpions, they were stings in their tails. Their power was to hurt men five months.

Now, if you look at Joel, remember we were looking at Joel a little earlier on today, remember? And I said in Joel, it was talking about an alarm, the day of the Lord. Look at Joel chapter 1 verse 6, For a nation has come up against my land strong, and without number, his teeth are like the teeth of a lion, and he has the fangs of a fierce lion. So the eyes of Syria that we went through that will attack the Israelites before the Gertrudelation, but it's referring to the same nation that has these teeth like a lion. Look at verse 15, it says, Alice, for the day, for the day of the Lord, is at hand, it shall come as destruction from Almighty. All right, so we're talking about the day of the Lord. Look at chapter 2 verse 1, below the trumpet, he is iron, son, and alarm, and then for the day of the Lord is coming. So it's clearly talking about the day of the Lord. Then look at the first part in verse 2 of chapter 2, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness. And you see, it's defining the state of the Lord. And look at verse 4 through 6, their appearance is like appearance of horses, and like swift steeds, they run. Remember we read that in Revelation 9, with the noise like chariots over mountains, like the noise of a flaming fire, that if I was a stubble, like a strong people sitting in a battle array. And then we read in verse 6, before them the people will writhe, arrive in pain, their faces are drained of color. Then he says it will be for five months, they'll be tormented for five months. So you can see their faces, they will be in pain. So you can see how Joel is actually describing the day of the Lord. Yes, his facts, yeah, God at that time decided to put them together in a way, but in the book of Revelation is now sifting them in more of a time sequence.

Let's go on back reading in Revelation 9. We read up to verse 10. Let's now read verse 11. And they had as a king over them the angel of the bottomless bed. Now who's this angel of the bottomless bed?

Whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but in Greek he has the name Apollyon.

And if your Bible has a little mark, it says destruction and destroyer. So Abaddon is destruction and Apollyon is destroyer. Now who is the destroyer? He's Satan the devil, and he is the king of this bottomless bed. And that's why when he was thrown down to heaven, he was given authority by God allowed to open it up to let them out. You can see that. Now let's just look at 1st Peter chapter 5 verse 1. 1st Peter chapter 5 verse 8. 1st Peter chapter 5 verse 8. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, seeking whom he may destroy.

So Satan and his demons are to be seen as the destroyers of mankind, those that only bring pain and suffering because they hate God's plan for mankind.

Because God has a plan to make us members of his family, and he hates that.

So when the divine restraint is taken out of the way by God, the true character of the lawless one and his cohorts is made manifest immediately. Let's read that in 2nd Thessalonians 2.

2nd Thessalonians chapter 2. We're going to read verse 6 and 7. And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawliness is already at work. Only he who now restrains will do so until he's taken out of the way. So God has put maybe an angel and we saw that God has allowed that key not to be given to Satan, and he's restraining, and he's holding it back. And when God says, here is the key you can get these demons out of the bottom of the split, bang! There they go! And the slowest one, it will just be even worse. So there is a time when God allows this. God has been restraining Satan. There's a time when we allow, and now we're talking about a time even worse when the bottom of the split is opened up.

So we have the first row completed, which is this attack of the king the king of the north attacking the the nations of the east. Why? Because there were rumors that they were going to do that. They were bullying up. So this is not before they do it. Let's go to them. Let's see. Punch them hard, and he punched them hard by giving them this disease. But now once this disease is over, after five months, what do we have? We have a counter attack, because now the king of the north and east is really mad. Now they're going to attack the beast. So let's read that in Revelation chapter 9 verse 13. There are six angels sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar, which is before God, saying to the six angels, where the trumpet released the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates. So there was its nations east of the Euphrates, which means Iran and others. So the four angels who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind. So we have this more demonic influence is released, I say temporarily, because they will be destroyed at Christ's coming. So but if they are released, right, when I mean destroy means they'll be put in jail at Christ's coming, that it says for a thousand years. But we can see this demonic influence is released temporarily, and they kill a third of the world's population. That's where we read here at the end of verse 15. It says we were released to kill a third of mankind. So there's this demonic influence coming from the north and east, impacting the nations of the north and east. There is nations, like I mentioned, Russia and China, and will include India, they'll include Iran, will include nations like Korea and those nations out there. So they will now attack.

The beast of power. And it says they will kill a third of mankind.

But they will not kill or affect those sealed by God in their foreheads. You see, those are there are God's people that they're ever repented, they now are sealed, they protect them, because we read in Revelation 7, it says nothing will affect them. So yeah, there's these things going on, they're in the middle of it, but they will not be killed, because they've repented during the first two and a half years of the Great Tribulation. Now, pay attention, yes, here's a third of mankind.

Now, if this number, a third of mankind, is in addition to the one-fourth of the world's population already destroyed during the fourth seal, which is the yellow horseman of Revelation 6 verse 8. Let's look at Revelation 6 verse 8. Revelation 6 verse 8 says, and look, beyond a pale horse, and there is death in Hades, and says, and power is given to them, that is through these diseases and horsemen, etc., but death is the one power is given to them, over a fourth of the earth. Now, this, a fourth of the earth, was before, probably before the Great Tribulation, right? So, because the Great Tribulation is the fifth seal. So, yeah, this seal keeps going, wars and things are technically going, but there is a fourth. So, imagine there is a hundred people, or a thousand people, a hundred thousand, but let's keep a round number like a hundred, like the whole world population is a number of hundred. A fourth of it means 25, so it means to still lift 75, right? Now, of those 75, verse kills a third of it, which is 25, 25, 25, makes 75. So, now you have another 25. So, the fourth seal killed a quarter of the earth's population, and now this is killing another quarter of the earth's population. So, what do we have is 50% of the world's population has been killed by these two alone. 50% of mankind on planet earth will be killed! Brethren, this is still to happen.

This is terrible, brethren. These are terrible times, and it really, really saddens me when brethren are asleep, they're in the church, and they're just falling asleep. That is so terrible. And remember, there'll be other judgments, there'll be other destructions. During the period of these seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven lost flags, I showed you early on, I emphasized, well, this will bring death, and this will bring death. So, the earth will be reduced to less than 50% of its today population. For every two people, one will die for sure. That's what it says. And there will be some, a great multitude will be protected, but there'll be a great number of reduction of world population.

Now, reading here in verse 15 as well of Revelation 9, pay attention to what it says here. In verse 15 of Revelation 9, it says, these four angels who had been prepared for the hour, and day, and month, and year. Do you know what? God knows exactly in advance the day, the hour, the month, and the year. This should be encouraging to you, because this is not our control. It appears to be our control. But God is important. It's a mere fact that He can protect people, living amongst all these things, those that are sealed, that great multitude and 144,000 Israelites, and He can protect them throughout all this. God is in absolute control. As a matter of interest, just as a sideline, verses got defined. God knows exactly the day. So that means if you had the capability of knowing the same things, you could actually calculate that day. No man knows the day of the hour, but God knows. That's why Christ said, no man knows that. But my Father in heaven, but my Father in heaven, He's got this time. And that, between brackets, brethren, it shows that calculating a calendar is perfectly correct, because we can work out these things. God has given it to His priesthood, that capability. But anyway, continue with that. Now in Revelation 9 verse 16, Revelation 9 verse 16, it says, Now the number of the army of the horsemen was 200 million. I heard the number of them. The number of soldiers in this army in the north and east, that means nations like China, Russia, Korea, India, etc., they and Iran, they get an army of 200 million. That is a huge army. Huge! And if you go back to Joel chapter 2, where it says this number it describes, and Joel chapter 2 describes more details about this army, which I'm not going to go through now. But it would be interesting for you to make sure you do that study as well. Continue now in verse 17 through 19. And it says, And thus I saw the horses in the vision, those who sat on them had breastplates of fire, red, yasenth, blue, and sulphur, yellow, and the heads of horses were like the heads of lions, and other their mouths can fire, smoke, and broomstone. And verse 18, By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed. A third of mankind was killed, that we by the fire and the smoke and broomstone which came out of their mouths. And practices could well be nuclear warfare.

For their power is in their mouth and their tails, for their tails are like serpents having heads, and with them they do harm. Verse 20, That the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues did not repent of their ways. That they should not worship, they do not repent, that they should not worship demons and idols of gold and silver. So they kept worshiping idolatry. And verse 21, They did not repent of their murders, or their sorcerers, or their sexual immorality, or their thefts. There's no repentance. Now those who repented already did so during the first two and a half years of determination. Those who were sealed by God and they now living through this terrible disaster. Now consider the emotional and mental stress that these people will have as they get into the world tomorrow, they get into the beginning of the millennium, as physically human beings have gone through this. Yes, they were protected, but they saw this happen. They left fluid. They'll need to be consoled. They'll have stress, and they'll have depression, and they'll have anxiety, and they'll need a lot of love and care by us. And by those that were protected, that portion of the church that were protected away from the face of the serpent, somewhere protected from all these things. So it is an amazing job we're going to have in the first few years of the millennium. But going back to what about the beast?

You see, the North and East now counter-attack. They kill the third of mankind. What do you think the beast is going to say? Oh yeah, okay, we give up and you can rule over us. Will they simply submit to the counter-attack from the North and East?

I think you know the answer. No, no, no, because they now are ready to go for it to death. The whole mankind is now ready to wipe itself out, which after all is Satan's goal to destroy the mankind. Now, now is the time for Jesus Christ to finally return and save mankind, the world population, save the world from destruction, self-destruction, because mankind has proved without shadow of a doubt that it is incapable of ruling, of governing itself. Thank God Christ is coming. All of that in the next study.