The Sixth Trumpet

 One woe is past. Behold, still two more woes are coming after these things.

Revelation 9:12 NKJV

Great interest abounds on the subject of Bible prophecy, especially concerning where we may be on the timeline of the seal, trumpet, and bowl judgments. In my studies I have come across some amazing discoveries that may support where we now stand.

Many students of prophecy pinpoint Jesus’s return for His bride at the sounding of the seventh trumpet judgment in Revelation 11:15-19, which is based on 1 Corinthians 15:51-52:

Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 

1 Corinthians 15:51-52 NKJV

How does this relate to the sixth trumpet?

Assuming the last trumpet in 1 Corinthians occurs during the seventh trumpet judgment in Revelation, what will happen when the sixth trumpet sounds? Let’s take a look at how close we may be to that day when all believers will go up to meet Jesus in the clouds.

Then the sixth angel sounded: And I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.”

Revelation 9:13-14 NKJV

Spiritual eyesight…

How amazing to realize there is a world of activity around us and in the heavens that we cannot see with our mortal eyes. Revelation, however, is a book that gives us a look into that invisible world. Our glimpse in chapter nine reveals four fallen angels who initiate the slaughter of one-third of earth’s population. How do they do that? The next verses explain:

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. Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision: those who sat on them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow; and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone. 

Revelation 9:15-17 NKJV

Some scholars claim these two hundred million riders to be actual troops, perhaps from the Orient. (It is an interesting side note that several of their national flags use the same colors: red, yellow, and blue.) Others, like myself, believe these verses describe an invisible army, perhaps originating from that part of the world.

Another question: why are the horses’ heads like lions? Nothing terrifies people nor animals more than a lion’s roar. Scripture describes Satan as as a roaring lion, roaming about and seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8). The implication here is that great fear accompanies these plagues.

Mortal eyesight…

What is the literal explanation of this army, two hundred million strong? We see them plainly in the spiritual dimension, but what do they look like in the physical dimension? Let’s observe them by examining the following microscopic picture taken by the CDC:

Do you recognize it? Isn’t it interesting that its colors are the same as the breastplates described above. Another interesting fact is that fire, smoke, and brimstone are also red, blue, and yellow, respectively. Additionally, Scripture tells us these three things are in hell and the lake of fire.

By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed—by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their [the horses’] mouths. For their power is in their mouth and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents, having heads; and with them they do harm.

Revelation 18:19 NKJV

The horses’ tails look like serpents’ heads, whose bites can be lethal. The serpent reminds us of Satan in the Garden of Eden who deceived Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, resulting in spiritual death. So, deception may also play a big part in these plagues, the same as fear does.

We may conclude that the four fallen angels have unleashed deep fear and deception regarding three deadly plagues via two million invisible “horsemen.” These affect the entire world, killing one-third of the earth’s population.

Could we be living in the days of the sixth trumpet?

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for your protection from the fear and deception of these three plagues sweeping the earth. As we wait for Your glorious appearing, may we purify our hearts and proclaim Your gospel of salvation to a lost and dying world. In Jesus’s Name, Amen.