Revelation for the Head and the Heart

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Norman McNulty

Kenneth Mathews

Considering the 5th, 6th & 7th Trumpets

I can only point you back as we start into the considerations of the fifth, sixth, and seventh trumpet.

I can only point you back to what we talked about last night and this morning.

Remember that as we look at how The heavenly trio tries to work on planet earth to rescue God's people who choose to be with Him.

The heavenly trio works the same way in the New Testament as it did in the Old Testament.

Through grace, through mercy, through judgments.

We just happen to call it the churches and the trumpets in the New Testament, whereas in the Old Testament It's Babylon and Assyria and the Malachites and all of the kinds of things.

And the blessings and cursings of Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 8 and 11.

We're going through this time period and we stand here in the year 2016 looking back at the history of God's providences and His workings throughout this whole time.

So as we look at this 1 piece in the book of Revelation, remember the 7 churches is the basic story of God's church on this earth after Pentecost and after Jesus took the scroll and began to reign and deal with the sin problem in the scroll.

And 2 different ways of dealing with this sin problem in the scroll are 1, the grace he offers to the 7 churches, and 2, the judgments that come as a result of bad choices.

And these graces and judgments escalate as we go through, culminating in the 7 last plagues, and then in the final judgment.

So we must keep this overall picture in mind as we look at the trumpets, so that we don't become discouraged and see what's going on.

Now I'm going to go through a few of general ideas, but we're gonna get over to talk about the time periods of Josiah Litch and the Fifth and Sixth Trumpets from some of the research that my friend, Steve Emcee and I have been doing.

First, I would tell you in summary, there are basically 2 or 3 interpretations.

And the other 1 is a mostly modified interpretation.

This is 1 that you find in Uriah Smith's book and some others.

The 4 barbarian invasions of the first 4 trumpets, the Islamic depredations from July 27, 1299 through August 11, 1840, and the seventh trumpet October 22, 1844 to the end.

This has been general thought for many years although in the last 50 years things are changing.

Now a number of expositors in the Adventist world, and it's primarily Adventist because non-Adventist Revelation commentators simply do not, 1, believe in time periods.

Number 2, chronology is not a big issue in the book of Revelation.

And number 3, it's politically incorrect to identify symbolism.

So all they talk about is demonic locusts and sea beasts and the horrible things that go on as a result of these, whoever these entities are doing whatever they do.

But the newer modified approach looks at the first and second trumpets, literal, the fall of Jerusalem, fall of Rome, Third and fourth trumpets more figurative, spiritual apostasy, darkening of the Word of God.

The fifth trumpet, I lost 1 slide here, I don't know.

In The fifth trumpet and the sixth trumpet, they still hold to the Islamic invasions and the modified.

They just changed the first 2 to the fall of Jerusalem, the fall of Rome, and the third and fourth trumpets are figurative.

Now the mostly modified version is this 1, where the 2 time periods of the fifth and sixth trumpet are dropped out, and you can see in the fifth trumpet is the rise of secular atheism, sixth trumpet the rise of end-time Babylon.

So what you can see is the trumpet symbolism stands either for a literal person or a historical event or character trait, where the trumpet symbolism is more and more being interpreted as symbols of spiritual realities.

Now I want to define some of those terms a little bit more in a minute.

And for some there is still a mixture of the 2.

As we have shown, the interpretation of the trumpets is moving from a literal to a figurative point of view.

I don't think we're there totally figurative yet, but we're getting that way.

We'll talk about whether that's good or bad momentarily.

Now, I'm going to just show you a few of these slides because there are many, many thoughts on the trumpets out there.

And what I want to talk now is about the purpose of the trumpets.

We've heard some, both from myself and from Brother Norman already.

But understanding the purpose of the trumpets helps you to place them in the scheme of what God is doing in the book of Revelation.

You can find his book through Remnant Publications.

He's 1 of the few that I know of that still have a traditional standard view of the trumpets.

He says, The 7 trumpets represent scourges that fall upon the nations that rejected the gospel given during each of the Christian time periods.

The trumpets sound God's own assessment of the ungodly political decisions made by man.

The 7 trumpets sound God's judgment upon those both inside and outside the church who do not take God seriously." So this is what I would call a very standard and traditional interpretation, but 1 that is not widely thought of.

The 7 trumpets are a judgment on Rome for persecuting God's people.

The first 4 trumpets are a judgment on Western Rome, the fifth and sixth trumpets a judgment on Eastern Rome.

The seventh trumpet heralds a judgment on Papal Rome as manifested in the 7 last plagues.

God is avenging his saints in the 7 trumpets and God pours out his judgments on the wicked in the 7 trumpets.

I might discuss for a moment the fact that the judgments fall on Western and Eastern Rome.

I want you to realize that if the trumpet judgments fall in their traditional time periods from 395 to 476 AD with the barbarian invasions, they're actually falling on Western Christian Roman Empire.

The fifth and sixth trumpets are actually falling on the Eastern Christian Roman Empire.

So are judgments falling on a people who persecute God's people or do judgments fall on Christians who are apostate and rebellious or is it a little bit of both but I'm okay with that.

William Miller's view would be important.

The trumpet is the harbinger of destructive wars and dissolution of Empire states of the earth.

It also takes away the pagan rites or rituals.

The first 4 trumpets have their accomplishment under pagan Rome.

The last 3 trumpets describe the judgments God has sent, will send to his papal beast.

The trumpets also become a check on Roman power.

You're seeing here modern Adventist expositors like some of these and so there may be some kind of a composite understanding as we go.

Now James White is very interesting and I recommend this to you.

James White from 1859, The sounding of the 7 trumpets, I understand, to shatter forth the instrumentalities by which the Roman Empire was to be overthrown and subverted and finally ruined.

And then he goes on under the first 2 trumpets, first 4 trumpets the 2 western divisions fell under the fifth and sixth the empire, eastern empire was crushed.

But under the seventh trumpet great Babylon in Tyre will sink to rise no more at all.

But now notice, here is 1 of the few Adventist expositors to tell you why the trumpets sound.

Have you ever wondered why the trumpets sounded?

Well, they're sounding and people are talking about the trumpets sounding, but why is very important.

The Roman Empire declined as it arose by conquest, but the Saracens and the Turks were instruments by which a false religion became the scourge of an apostate church.

Did you see the why show up here all of a sudden?

The Saracens and the Turks were the instruments by which a false religion became the scourge of an apostate church.

And hence instead of the fifth and sixth trumpets, like the former, being marked by that name alone, they are called woes.

It was because the laws were transgressed, the ordinances changed, and the everlasting covenant broken that the curse came upon the earth or land.

Now, I thought this statement sounded familiar.

In 1, I was listening to Isaiah and heard the verse spoken.

In number 2, I went to Alexander Keith's book from 1832.

Remember that Alexander Keith was the religious historian and expositor from whom Josiah Litch took much of his material from in identifying who the trumpets were.

And Alexander Keith, I have his books, They're very interesting to read.

He does not totally follow what we came to believe, but he was used by Litch.

But James White picks up on Alexander Keith and says, this is why the trumpet sounded, because the laws were transgressed, the ordinances changed, the everlasting covenant broken, that the curse came upon the earth or the land.

So I think that's very important in understanding what happens.

This is exactly what happened in the Old Testament.

And the children of Israel during the time of the judges went serving Baal and Asherah.

God says, the Lord strengthened Eglin, king of Moab.

The Lord strengthened Eglin, king of Moab.

And then they cried unto the Lord after 10 or 15, 20 years, whatever it was.

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Considering the 5th, 6th & 7th Trumpets

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