The Seven Trumpet Judgments
The seven trumpets, along with the seven vials, issue forth God's great and terrible judgements on mankind during the Tribulation Period. There is so much injustice in the world today. Many innocent people are the victims of horrible and terrible crimes. The citizens of many nations suffer poverty and famine while their leaders live in splendor. Millions of people have been tortured and killed because of their faith in Christ. Children suffer at the hands of abusive parents or fall prey to drug dealers and pushers. Millions of babies have been painfully dismembered and aborted.
The outcry for centuries has been "Why God allows such suffering to continue. Why doesn't He do something about it?" Beginning with the trumpets, God does do something about it. It comes to pass the saying of the angel to Daniel concerning the seventy weeks, "Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to FINISH the transgression, and to make an END of sins, and to make RECONCILIATION for iniquity, and to bring in EVERLASTING righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy." (Daniel 9:24).
The first angel sounded his trumpet. Then hail and fire, mingled with blood, were cast upon the earth. One-third of all trees and grass were burnt up.
The second angel sounded, and a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea causing one-third of the oceans to become blood. One-third of all ships were destroyed and one-third of all life in the sea died.
The third angel sounded, and a great star or meteor burning with fire fell to the earth poisoning one-third of the rivers or fresh water.
The fourth angel sounded and one-third of the moon, stars, and sun are darkened. There is very little light on the earth, and though the Scriptures do not mention this, there may be intense cold or other natural results stemming from one-third of the sun becoming dark. At this point, John saw an angel flying through the heavens crying 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!" (Revelation 8:13).
Revelation 9 begins with the fifth angel sounding his trumpet, and an angel came down and opened the bottomless pit. The smoke rising upward from the pit darkened the sun and polluted the air. And mingled with the smoke were billions of locusts with stingers like scorpions, and they were given power, not to kill, but to torment mankind for five months. John said the locusts were like horses prepared for battle, they had the face of a man, and hair of a woman, teeth as a lion, and upon their heads was a crown. The sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots running to battle. John said concerning these locusts that "in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them." (Revelation 9:6).
Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet and two hundred thousand thousand (or two hundred million) horsemen were released and power was given to them to kill one-third of mankind. All of these judgements are terrible, and will be a sad time for those living upon the earth. But what is even sadder is what John writes at this point, "And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet REPENTED NOT of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood; which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk; neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts." (Revelation 9:20-21).
The Middle of the Tribulation
After the sixth trumpet and before the seventh, comes the middle of the Tribulation Period or the end of the first 3 1/2 years, at which time several events will happen.
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