Revelation 8

A WEDNESDAY NIGHT BOOK STUDY
EDGEMONT BIBLE CHURCH
FALL 2009 – SPRING 2010
JANUARY 27,2010
THE SCROLL IS OPENED! – Part 3
THE SEVENTH SEAL
Revelation 8

IX. THE SEVENTH SEAL IS OPENED
A. Silence in heaven for about half an hour. No words but there is work being done during this time.
1. Seven angels who stand before God are given seven trumpets, one trumpet each with no verbal instruction.
2. An eighth angel with a golden censer comes to stand by the altar
a. He is given much incense to offer with the prayers of the saints
b. The combined smoke of the incense and the prayers of the saints ascend before the throne of God
c. He then takes the censer, fills it with fire from the altar and throws the whole thing to earth
d. Following this there are undistinguished noises, multiple thunderings, a lot of lightning and an earthquake which ends the period of silence.
B. With the silence ended and the seven angels with trumpets prepared to sound, the First Trumpet sounds:

ACTION: Hail and fire mingled with blood followed were thrown to the earth
RESULT: 1/3 of the trees are burned up; all green grass is burned up
EFFECT: The oxygen content of the air is going to be diminished and the carbon dioxide content will be raised more in line with the heavily
promoted "global warming" effect taking place. Breathing will be more difficult even poisonous in some areas. Oxygen-starved, grass-eating animals will be searching for food and becoming wilder due to the oxygen deprivation and starvation. The moisture content of the air will change as well. Soil erosion and dust storms, if there is wind, will be regular parts of the day. The blood content added to the air falling on the earth would give rise to some diseases as the decay of the blood takes place.

C. The Second Trumpet sounds.

ACTION: Something like a mountain burning with fire is thrown from to the sea. From the description given here it looks like a volcano.
RESULT: 1/3 of the sea became blood; 1/3 of the living creatures in the
sea died; 1/3 of the ships were destroyed
EFFECT: The eruption of this volcano with its super heat would create a
steaming mess at first as the water is heated by the outflow. An enormous ash cloud would arise that could cover a pretty good portion of the planet. The gases re leased from this large volcano would change the already depleted oxygen level in the air. This may account for the destruction of some of the ships. The blood of course would cut off all the oxygen out of the water forcing all the water breathing animals in the bloody water to die. In the heat of the sun, the blood is going to coagulate turning the sea into a stinking, mass of bloody gelatin. With the sea animals floating dead in this sea of blood, their rotting corpses would be putting large amounts of disease in this sea. The oceanic plants would die, adding to the smell and disease in the bloody gelatin. All of this mess would be floating up on the shores of all lands that bounded it carrying with it its stench and disease. Death in the proportions of the first 4 seals will be matched. It was estimated in 2005 that the number of 1000 gross register ton merchant ships alone was at about 31,000. This count does not count cruise ships, ships of war and smaller vessels. 1/3 of all ships would be in excess of 10,000 ships plus the crews.

D. The Third Trumpet sounds

ACTION: A great star falls from heaven like a burning torch. This is another great meteor or comet.
RESULT: It falls up 1/3 of the rivers and on the springs of water.
EFFECT: The star is called Wormwood and its impact turns all those waters to bitter wormwood. Many men died from the bitter water. As such a comet or meteor passes through the atmosphere it causes the breakdown of oxygen and nitrogen in the air. In combination with the hydrogen ions in the air these three elements can form nitric acid from which the term "acid rain" comes. When acid rain falls it weathers the soil and leaches out insoluble elements that are toxic to animal and vegetable matter.

E. The Fourth Trumpet sounds

ACTION: 1/3 of the sun is struck; 1/3 of the moon and 1/3 of the stars are struck.
RESULT: The meaning of this statement is described as 1/3 of the stars were darkened (stopped shining? Are they still in place but darkened? Does darkened mean diminished or blacked out? Is this like an eclipse? How many stars are left at this time?) 1/3 of the day does not shine: does this mean that daytime is reduced by 1/3 as in a 12 hour day has been reduced to an 8 hour day? The moon has been reduced by 1/3 of its nighttime illumination.
EFFECT: With the sun reduced in this manner the temperature of the earth will also be reduced dramatically. Combined with the three previous ecological disasters we see that the earth's atmosphere has less oxygen and more carbon dioxide making breathing more difficult, at least 1/3 part of the earth is experiencing bloody sea shores and the stench of a dead ocean, all sea food products have been reduced dramatically, the merchant ships that were bringing goods to nations have been reduced by 1/3, dust storms are becoming prevalent all over the planet, volcanic ash clouds have blotted out the sun leaving ash all over things, in at least a third of the world the water is deadly bitter, potentially an acid rain is falling on about 1/3 of the world, the whole world is experiencing about 8 more hours of darkness than normal, the earth is much colder, there has already been a scarcity of goods, and the world is still under death and war.

SECOND ANGELIC ACTION: An angel flies through the midst of heaven proclaiming three woes, one each for each coming trumpet, on all the people of the earth. As bad as these conditions have been they are about to get much worse with the next three trumpets!