Revelation 9:13-21 “Then the sixth angel sounded: And I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, (14) saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, "Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates." (15) 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. (16) Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them. (17) And thus, I saw the horses in the vision: those who sat on them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulphur yellow; and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone. (18) By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed--by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths. (19) 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. (20) But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. (21) And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.”
In this section we want to discuss the sounding of the sixth trumpet and the corresponding judgement that will be initiated because of that trumpet’s sounding. The above quoted passage of scripture describes an angelic army of two hundred million destroying one third of mankind. This angelic army is currently in the spirit realm, waiting for their command to enter into this natural realm. This passage teaches us that they will invade the natural realm from the geographic location of the Euphrates River in the Middle East, and from there they will spread out throughout the earth. It is interesting to note that this invasion will begin in the Middle East, which is the geographic location where the anti-Christ’s kingdom will be centred. This army of angelic horsemen is described as wearing breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue and sulphur yellow. Their horses are unlike anything mankind has ever seen, being described as having heads like lions and tails like serpents with heads with which they do harm. The horse like creatures are described as spewing fire, smoke, and brimstone out of their mouths. The fire they spew will reach temperatures able to melt all forms of metals known to mankind, while the smoke and brimstone which they spew will be similar to sulphur and sulphur dioxide produced by volcanoes, both of which are extremely toxic. And so we see that God’s sixth judgement will be to release this angelic army of two hundred million into the earth to destroy one third of mankind. The earth’s current population is approximately eight billion people and is projected to reach approximately ten billion by 2050; nevertheless for various reasons, i.e. nuclear war plus the removal of all children and the church at the time of the rapture, that number will drop to approximately seven billion by the time this judgement takes place. That means that when these angels are finally released into the earth they will kill no less than two and half billion people. What is amazing to see from this passage is that even after all the judgements that mankind would have incurred by that time, they will continue to remain unrepentant of their godless lifestyles. In other words they will continue to ignore the warnings delivered by the one hundred and forty four thousand.
Joel 2:1-11 “Blow the trumpet in Zion and sound an alarm in My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; for the day of the Lord is coming, for it is at hand: (2) a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, like the morning clouds spread over the mountains. A people come, great and strong, the like of whom has never been; Nor will there ever be any such after them, even for many successive generations. (3) A fire devours before them, and behind them a flame burns; the land is like the Garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; surely nothing shall escape them. (4) Their appearance is like the appearance of horses; And like swift steeds, so they run. (5) With a noise like chariots over mountaintops they leap, like the noise of a flaming fire that devours the stubble, like a strong people set in battle array. (6) Before them the people writhe in pain; all faces are drained of colour. (7) They run like mighty men, they climb the wall like men of war; everyone marches in formation, and they do not break ranks. (8) They do not push one another; everyone marches in his own column. Though they lunge between the weapons, they are not cut down. (9) They run to and fro in the city, they run on the wall; they climb into the houses, they enter at the windows like a thief. (10) The earth quakes before them, the heavens tremble; the sun and moon grow dark, and the stars diminish their brightness. (11) The Lord gives voice before His army, for His camp is very great; for strong is the One who executes His word. For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; who can endure it?”
In the above quoted passage of scripture the prophet Joel prophesied about the same angelic army of two hundred million that John was shown in his vision. In this passage the Holy Spirit reveals to us that mankind will try to fight back against this army but to no avail, for this passage declares that “though they lunge between the weapons they are not cut down”. And so we see that even though the various armies of the earth will join forces to confront this angelic army, their resistance will prove to be futile as they discover that manmade weaponry, including nuclear, has zero impact against a spiritual army. There is another aspect to this judgement that we need to consider however; there is an account in scripture of one angel killing one hundred and eighty five thousand soldiers in one night (2 Kings 19:35). Using that example as a template, we can deduce that it would take approximately fourteen thousand angels to kill two and half billion people in a twelve hour period. So the question is asked, why would God send two hundred million angels to do something that fourteen thousand angels could quite easily do in one day? When we look at the armies of the anti-Christ at the battle of Armageddon we get a bit of insight into why God will do this, for the scripture teaches us that the anti-Christ’s armies will be on horseback (Revelation 19:17-19). In other words there will be no modern military equipment available to the anti-Christ’s armies on that day. And so it is very clear that this angelic army will completely destroy all forms of modern weaponry available to man, both military and private. But it goes even further than that, for this passage declares that “A fire devours before them, and behind them a flame burns; the land is like the Garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; surely nothing shall escape them”. In other words this angelic army will destroy mankind’s entire infrastructure in the earth i.e. all mining, all energy production, all manufacturing, all construction, all services (including all forms of transportation), all information technology, all communication; the list goes on and on. No country, city, town, village, home or farm, no matter how remote the location will escape this destruction, for this passage declares that they will climb into the houses and nothing shall escape them. Obviously, the various militaries and paramilitaries of the earth will be among the first of the two and a half billion to be destroyed. There is another people group however that will be included in the two and half billion destroyed i.e. those who have the technical knowledge to rebuild the various industries destroyed by this angelic army. This angelic army will also destroy all literature, thus erasing all record of mankind’s accumulated knowledge. And so we see that by the time this angelic army has completed its task they will have destroyed all modern infrastructure, resulting in mankind being reduced to technologies that were last used in the first century. Therefore because of the extent of destruction required, we can understand why God will send an angelic army of two hundred million to carry out this judgement. As an aside this angelic army will steer clear of the one hundred and forty four thousand, recognizing the seal of God on their foreheads. As an aside, we have seen earlier that the full duration of God’s wrath will be approximately three years. And so it is very likely that half of that time i.e. eighteen months would have expired by the close of the sixth trumpet’s judgement.
Michael E.B. Maher
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