Seven Trumpets

Biblical Text

In Revelation 8:1, when the seventh seal is opened, there is silence in heaven for about half an hour. Then the seven angels who stand before God are given trumpets (Revelation 8:2). Another angel offers the prayers of the saints with incense in a golden censer and then casts fire from it onto the earth (8:3-5), after which the trumpets sound one by one.

• First trumpet: Hail and fire mingled with blood are cast upon the earth, and a third of the earth and of the trees, along with all green grass, is burned up (8:7).
• Second trumpet: Something like a great mountain burning with fire is cast into the sea, and a third of the sea becomes blood (8:8-9).
• Third trumpet: A great star burning as a lamp, called "Wormwood," falls upon the rivers and fountains of waters, and the waters become bitter (8:10-11).
• Fourth trumpet: A third of the sun, the moon, and the stars are darkened (8:12).
• Fifth trumpet: The bottomless pit is opened, and locusts come forth. For five months the locusts torment those who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. Their king is called Abaddon in Hebrew and Apollyon in Greek (9:1-11).
• Sixth trumpet: Four angels bound at the river Euphrates are released, and an army of horsemen numbering two hundred million kills a third of mankind. Even so, those who remain do not repent (9:13-21).
• Seventh trumpet: Voices in heaven proclaim, "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ," and the ark of the covenant is seen in the temple in heaven (11:15-19).

After the fourth trumpet, an eagle announces the remaining three trumpets with the cry "Woe, woe, woe" (8:13). For this reason the fifth through seventh trumpets are called the "three woes." Between the sixth and seventh trumpets come the account of the little book (chapter 10) and the account of the two witnesses (11:1-14).

Background

In the Old Testament, trumpets were used to assemble the people and to announce war and the feasts (Numbers 10:1-10). Two Old Testament backgrounds are commonly cited in connection with the seven trumpets of Revelation:

• The fall of Jericho, in which seven priests blew seven trumpets as they circled the city (Joshua 6)
• The warning of the day of the Lord that begins, "Blow ye the trumpet in Zion" (Joel 2:1)

Plagues such as hail and fire, water turned to blood, darkness, and locusts resemble the ten plagues of Exodus.

Significance in the Whole of Scripture

The New Testament speaks of a trumpet announcing the Second Coming and the resurrection (Matthew 24:31; "the last trump" in 1 Corinthians 15:52; 1 Thessalonians 4:16). Interpreters differ on whether this trumpet should be identified with the seventh trumpet.

The damage caused by the trumpet plagues is limited to "a third." In addition, Revelation 9:20-21 says that those who remained "repented not." These two features provide grounds for reading the trumpet plagues as warnings preceding the final judgment and as a call to repentance.

Interpretations and Issues

• Structure: There are two interpretations of the relationship among the seven seals, the seven trumpets, and the seven bowls. The sequential interpretation holds that the three sets follow one another in chronological order. The recapitulation (parallel) interpretation holds that they depict the same period repeatedly with increasing intensity. In support, the recapitulation view points to the escalating scope of devastation: "the fourth part" under the fourth seal (6:8), "a third" under the trumpets, and total destruction under the bowls.
• Timing: Views on when the trumpet plagues occur vary according to interpretive approach.
• Preterism: regards them as events that took place in the first century.
• Historicism: correlates them with events in church history, such as the fall of the Roman Empire or the expansion of Islamic powers.
• Futurism: regards them as events that will occur just before the Second Coming.
• Idealism: reads them as principles of judgment that recur throughout history.
• Tendencies by denomination and theological tradition: Dispensational premillennialism follows futurism and places the trumpet plagues within the Great Tribulation. The Seventh-day Adventist Church has traditionally followed a historicist interpretation. Among Reformed amillennialists, the recapitulation interpretation and symbolic readings are common.
• Debate over the timing of the rapture: In the debate over the timing of the rapture, positions such as the midtribulation view link "the last trump" with the seventh trumpet. The pretribulation rapture view distinguishes the two.
• Ideas from outside the text: The following connections have spread through popular books and other sources, but they are not stated directly in the text:
• Linking the star Wormwood with the Chernobyl nuclear disaster
• Identifying the locusts as modern helicopters
• Linking the army of two hundred million with a particular nation

In Korean Churches

In Korean Protestant churches, the seven trumpets are frequently addressed in expository preaching on Revelation and in sermons and revival meetings dealing with eschatology. A hymn sung in Korean churches under the title "The Sound of God's Trumpet" (Hananim-ui napal sori) is based on 1 Thessalonians 4:16; it does not directly sing of the seven trumpets.