Sermon Tone Analysis

| *Divine Destruction of Earth’s Ecology: The First Four Trumpets*(Revelation 8:6–13) |

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*Revelation 8: 6-13  *(KJV) 6 And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.

7 † The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.

8 And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood; 9 And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.

10 And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; 11 And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.

12 And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.

13 And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!

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*Intro.

-  *People today are very concerned about saving the environment.

* Fears about the depletion of the ozone layer, pollution, the destruction of the rain forests, and global warming are constantly in the news.

* There is a passionate concern to save endangered species, everything from whales to spotted owls to California condors, and a host of lesser-known species.

* For many, protecting the environment has become far more than a concern for health and safety; it has become an issue of idolatry, as they worship “Mother Nature” by trying to protect and perpetuate the earth.

* There is no question that fallen man has failed in his responsibility to properly care for God’s creation (cf.

Gen.

2:15).

* But the damage man has done to the earth pales in comparison to what God will one day do to it.

* The powerful judgments of the future time of tribulation will utterly devastate the earth, causing wholesale, unimaginable destruction of the environment.

* Eventually, after the Millennium, God will completely destroy (or uncreate) the present heaven and earth (2 Pet.

3:10), and, after the whole universe has gone completely out of existence, He will replace it with a new heaven and a new earth (Rev.

21:1ff.).

* There is a sense in which the present age is man’s day; he is free to do what he wants within certain limitations.

* It is also Satan’s day, during which the “god of this world” (2 Cor.

4:4) has been granted certain liberties within the parameters of God’s purposeful, sovereign tolerance.

* But God will not permit the present state of affairs to continue forever.

He will end man’s day, overthrow the usurper, Satan, destroy the present evil world system, and establish the earthly kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ.

* That future time of judgment is known, appropriately, as the Day of the Lord .

That Day involves a complete renovation of the universe and the earth by judgment and restoration.

* As the time for the trumpet judgments to begin approaches, the world will have already experienced for years the frightening and relentless reality of God’s wrath.

* As that seven-year tribulation period unfolds there will be wars, famines, plagues, devastating earthquakes, fiery celestial objects smashing into the earth, and a worldwide reign of terror by Antichrist.

* But the trumpet judgments will be even worse.

* As noted in the previous lesson, 8:1 depicts a brief, half-hour interlude in heaven in response to the opening of the seventh and final seal.

* So horrifying are the trumpet and bowl judgments contained within the seventh seal that its opening stuns the heavenly host of angels and redeemed people into silence.

* That half hour of silence came to an abrupt end when the angel who stood before the altar flung his censer to the earth.

The resulting powerful earthquake (8:5) was the signal for *the seven angels who had the seven trumpets, *and they *prepared themselves to sound them.

*

* The serial judgments the trumpets unleash will hit the earth and its wicked people just as they are crawling out of the caves and rocks where they futilely attempted to hide from the fury of God’s wrath during the sixth seal (6:15–17).

* Thinking that things are returning to normal, they will be hit with the terrifying, rapid-paced trumpet terrors, followed by the bowl judgments.

These final judgments are likely the ones held back until the sealing of the 144,000 (7:3).

* The first four trumpets are described in a brief and straightforward manner; far more detail is given about the last three.

* The first four trumpets all deal directly with the earth.

They do not symbolize political, social, or economic judgment; those types of judgment come later in Revelation.

Nor do they describe any judgment that has ever happened in history in some locale or region.

* The trumpet judgments are actual, literal, physical events that will affect the whole earth.

God will use nature to punish sinners in that day.

* The partial destruction described by the repeated use of the word “third” in each of the first four trumpet judgments indicates that these are not the final judgments.

#.

*The First Trumpet*

*The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up*.* (Rev 8:7)*

#. *Hail *is frequently associated in Scripture with divine judgment (cf.

Ex.

9:13–25; Job 38:22–23; Ps.

105:32; Isa.

28:2; Hag.

2:17), as is *fire* (cf.

Gen.

19:24; Ps.

11:6; Ezek.

38:22).

#.

The combination of *fire mixed with blood* is reminiscent of Joel 2:30, which also describes the Day of the Lord.

#.

The specific cause of the *hail and fire … thrown to the earth *is not revealed, but from a scientific standpoint an earthquake of the magnitude and extent of the one in 8:5 would likely trigger worldwide volcanic eruptions.

i.

Besides spewing vast quantities of flaming lava (which could be bloodred in appearance) into the atmosphere, the atmospheric disturbances caused by those eruptions could trigger violent thunderstorms that would produce large hail.

ii.

Such thunderstorms would be in keeping with the imagery of 8:5; after the angel hurled his censer to earth “there followed peals of thunder and sounds and flashes of lightning.”

iii.

Dr.

Henry Morris suggests that the *blood* may be actual blood, or John may be using descriptive language: “The masses of water vapor blown skyward might well condense in the intense updrafts as hailstones.

… The blood of entrapped men and animals might be mingled with them, or possibly showers of liquid water drops might be so contaminated with dust and gases as to appear blood-red” (/The Revelation Record /[Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale, 1983], 146).

iv.

Morris also offers an alternative explanation for the fiery phenomena: It may be possible that angelic hosts will divert the path of one of the many comets with which the solar system abounds so that the earth will pass through its tail.

v.

The most spectacular comet with which we are familiar—Halley’s Comet—would not need to stray too far from its normal orbit to envelop Earth in its fiery train.

Whether such an experience would produce the phenomena described in this passage we do not know, since our scientists have no experimental data to go on yet.

(Morris, /Revelation Record, /146)

#.

Whatever the scientific explanation, this deluge of death was *thrown to the earth *by God with devastating effects.

i.

The shocking result was that *a third of the earth was burned up,* rendering the soil in which crops are cultivated unusable.

ii.

Then *a third of the trees were burned up, *destroying fruit all over the earth.

iii.

Finally *all* the *green grass was burned up.

*

#.

The fire falling from the sky kindled raging infernos that consumed one- third of the earth’s vegetation and forests (cf.

Ex.

9:25, which records the destruction of vegetation in Egypt).

i.

The effects of such catastrophic fires would be widespread and devastating, including destruction of crops, death of animals on a massive scale, loss of wood for construction, and the destruction of watersheds.

ii.

That is a fitting judgment for those who “exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator” (Rom.

1:25).

iii.

Fallen mankind has failed to recognize and honor God as Creator, choosing instead to make a god out of the earth.

iv.

But the environmental, evolutionary pantheism that devalues man, elevates animals and plants, and ignores the Creator will be severely judged.

v.

“Earth Day” that year will be a gloomy and dismal affair; in a scorched and ravaged world there will be little of the environment left to celebrate.

And worse judgments are still to fall.

#.

*The Second Trumpet*  

*And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood; 9 And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.

(Rev 8:8–9)*

1.

While the earth’s population was still trying to recover from the devastating fire falls, John saw an even more terrifying sign of doom appearing in the sky.

2.       As *the second angel sounded *his trumpet, *something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea.*

a.

The judgment of the first trumpet fell on the land, that of the second trumpet on the sea.

God created the sea to be a blessing to mankind, to provide food, oxygen (much of Earth’s oxygen comes from the phytoplankton and algae in the world’s oceans), and water from the rainstorms on the land that is originally gathered up by evaporation from the oceans.

b.