The Christ in Prophecy Journal

The Mighty Angels of Revelation 8 Revealed

MP3: The Mighty Angels of Revelation 8
Hosts: Nathan Jones & Vic Batista

The Third Trumpet Judgment Angel

Vic Batista: We are now in our study of the mighty angels of Revelation in Revelation 8:10-11. Here we learn about the Third Trumpet Judgment.

“Then the third angel sounded: And a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the water, because it was made bitter.”

Nathan Jones: Like the Second Trumpet Judgment, something mighty has fallen down out of the sky and crashes into the earth. It sounds like a star, or like a comet, smacking into the earth. While the seas were struck in the Second Trumpet Judgment, the Third Trumpet Judgment affects the freshwater such as the rivers, the lakes, and the springs. The drinking waters are affected by this Wormwood. Wormwood means bitter, so it turns the water bitter, with bitter meaning poison. So, first the salt water was poisoned, and now the freshwater is poisoned as well. Revelation 8 reports that many men will die from drinking the poisoned water.

Vic Batista: Wow, and we think we have water pollution today! People are so very particular wherever they go that they have a little filtered water bottle.

Nathan Jones: I am all for ecology, and in high school I was part of a students against pollution group, so I think we need to be good stewards of what we naturally have been given. But, it’s kind of hard to think of recycling when you know that at some point God Himself is going to trash the earth, on top of already having let mankind trash the earth so badly due to the Tribulation wars, that they couldn’t possibly recycle all the water. It’s just not going to make any difference. At some point God Himself is going to judge the world by poisoning a third of the fresh waters. We’ll read later in Revelation that God will eventually poison all of the world’s waters.

Vic Batista: Water is very necessary and important to life. We read how difficult life is going to be during the Tribulation for everyone, and especially those millions of Tribulation Saints who after the Rapture are going to become saved. Many of them are going to try to survive by hiding in caves. That’s why I always say to people, “You don’t have to live through those horrors if you come to know the Lord now.”

Nathan Jones: Exactly. The Tribulation will be a time period unlike any in all of human history. It is called the “time of Jacob’s trouble” in Jeremiah 30:7. It’s also called the “wrath of God.” The time period’s purpose is for God to pour His wrath upon the earth for mankind’s ongoing rebellion. When God gets really angry, the result is the almost total destruction of mankind.

Nathan Jones: When #God gets really angry, the result is the almost total destruction of mankind. Click To Tweet

The Fourth Trumpet Judgment Angel

Vic Batista: As bad as the Third Trumpet Angel’s judgment was, can you imagine that next it gets even worse as we get into Revelation 8:12?

“Then the fourth angel sounded: And a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened. A third of the day did not shine, and likewise the night.”

I was thinking what life would be like due to the striking of the sun, and the third of the moon and a third of the stars being darkened. Then I remembered to back in Revelation 6:12-13 at the Sixth Seal Judgment, when all this disaster began to happen, there was a reference to the moon and the stars: “the moon became like blood. And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind.” The various judgments of the Tribulation greatly affect the heavens.

Nathan Jones: With the Fourth Trumpet Judgment God darkens a third of the light. Picture your day turning into night as if storms had come and it gets really dark. God basically shortens the daylight hours. He doesn’t cut the length of a day down from 24 hours, but He shortens the number of lighted hours of the day.

I believe the reason why God does this is because of the dangers facing mankind. The evil heart of mankind is destroying each other by the millions during the Tribulation. Remember that the inhibitions of mankind have been set free when the restraining influence was taken away by God at the onset of the Tribulation. Mankind since has descended into anarchy. They feel free to act on whatever sins they want to commit. And so, God darkens the light and diminishes it by a third, and in doing so He reduces the amount of destruction that mankind can bring upon themselves. So, while there’s judgment upon mankind, there is also the mercy of God.

Vic Batista: We take so many things for granted, like light for instance. Then there’s the beautiful stars at night, the beautiful sunrise, and the amazing sunsets. Here it’s almost as if God is saying,”You have taken all of My Creation for granted, so now watch this!”

Nathan Jones: What a contrast to the Millennial Kingdom. When Jesus Christ returns to the earth, the opposite occurs. All of the sudden the world will have two-thirds more brightness than we have now. The nightfall will look like dusk, and the days are extra bright, and the whole world is filled with light and cheer. What a contrast that is to the Fourth Trumpet Judgment where a third of the light is taken away and the earth is darkened and the skies look like dusk all of the time.

Vic Batista: What a scary scene! We’ve had a few power outages in Florida due to tornadoes and hurricanes, and the most we went without lights was a week or two. It was frightening going without power for so long. Can you imagine a worldwide reduction of light by a third?

Nathan Jones: I spent three months in Alaska during one summer. We only got darkness for about three hours from midnight until three in the morning, but it was more like dusk. On the first day of summer, I stayed up all night and watched the sun go down to the horizon and then go back up again without ever setting!

During the wintertime the opposite occurs up there in Alaska. They only get a few hours of light, even down as far south as Juneau. Can you imagine being a local and you only get a few hours of light per day? What would that do to people psychologically? I’d bet it’s depressing. It’d be like when you get a rainstorm that lasts for days and you are just dying for some light. This Fourth Trumpet Judgment almost seems more like an attack on mankind’s psyche.

Vic Batista: I used to live in New Jersey for a while, and I’m living in Florida now. I’m so spoiled down living here. I remember up North when the snow would come and the gloominess set in. It gets depressing.

Nathan Jones: When the winters are long, yes, they get on your nerves. In fact, in Alaska during the dark months drunkenness and spousal abuse are commonly on the rise.

So, when the earth is blackened more during the daylight hours, I believe it will affect people psychologically. It will affect people’s moods causing depression, and it will affect the amount of light in the sky. On the plus side, the darkness also keeps people from going out and committing as much crime and evil as they could if there had been more sunlight available.

In the twelfth segment of our series “The Mighty Angels of Revelation,” we’ll look at how Revelation 8 ends with an angel’s cry of three woes.

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Dr. Nathan E. Jones

As the Internet Evangelist at Lamb & Lion Ministries, Nathan reaches out to the over 4.5 billion people accessible over the Internet with the Good News of Jesus Christ. He also co-hosts the ministry's television program Christ in Prophecy and podcast The Truth Will Set You Free.

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