Chapter 8; Motivation of Tribulation
The Lamb Jesus took the book sealed with seven seals from God and when Christ broke the seventh seal, there was silence without any voice or image shown for about half an hour. The seven trumpets indicate the revelations that were previewed in Chapters 6 and 7 to be revealed more precisely in the main body. Seven trumpets show the period from the motivation of last tribulation to the end of the tribulation when the Kingdom of Christ fulfills. Before the seven trumpets were sounded, another angel appeared the second time.
Another angel was already given much incense in his golden censer and the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints went up before God. The angel took the censer and he filled it with the fire of the altar and threw it to the earth; and there followed peals of thunder and sounds and flashes of lightning and an earthquake. This means that the work of another angel from the East is to be done in Judgement which avenges the grudge that went up through the saints’ prayers. (1~5)
Therefore, the vengeance for the saints’ grudge starts from sounding of the trumpets, and the sequence of plagues in Judgement is as follows. (6)
The first angel sounded the trumpet, and there came hail and fire, mixed with blood, and they were thrown to the earth; and a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up. This signifies the fire of the people’s destructive struggle, by which the glory of wealthy and prosperous ones is trodden, as it is prophesied in Isaiah 28:1~2 that a strong one like a storm of hail will throw the crown to the earth with his hand and trample it.
Thus, it demonstrates the current situation in a third of the earth where the glory of the rich is trampled by the strong people’s revolutionary struggle. Therefore, the hail mixed with blood indicates the bloodshed struggle, and the fire is the fire of the revolution. Moreover, the trees and green grass that were burned up mean the religious persecution. This is the first motivation of huge tribulation at the end of man.(7)
The second angel sounded, and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea and a third of the sea became blood and a third of the creatures, which were in the sea and had life, died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.
The sea signifies the becoming of precarious chaotic world, and the burning mountain is the sign of the destruction that is inevitably coming onto the world; it is written in Jeremiah 51:25~26 that “Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, Who destroys the whole earth,” declares the LORD, “And I will stretch out My hand against you, And roll you down from the crags And I will make you a burnt out mountain … But you will be desolate forever.” So the burning mountain signifies the evil force to fall into the destruction and the strong rising of the regime of God’s enemy to destroy the world.
Therefore, the scene of the sea that became blood and the death of the creatures signify the deprivation of freedom of people like a shoal of fish, and the destruction of the ships means the blockade of transportation. Thus, the sign of upcoming huge tribulation is the strong rising of the regime of evil thought. This is also fulfilled at this present moment. (8~9)
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 waters; and the name of the star is called Wormwood; and a third of the waters became wormwood; and many men died from the waters, because they were made bitter. This means the great spiritual confusion in Christianity. The highest class leaders in the churches, who spoil the churches by their behaviors and teachings that are deviated from the truth of Judgement of the end, are shown as the water that is made bitter from fresh.
In Jeremiah 23:14~15, when Jerusalem was being destroyed by Babylon, the wormwood was the teaching of the evilest prophets deviated from the truth against Jeremiah, the true prophet. In the same way, the wormwood indicates the work of false prophets who cause the churches – the spiritual Israel – to fall into the thought of the deviated truth when the churches meet the crisis to be devoured by the northern Babylon-like force.
That is to say, the churches like the living water of the truth will compromise with the antichrist thought making the integration that is deviated from the truth. As always the fresh water becomes bitter when it meets the bitter water, the church with the life of the truth will perish if they accept the wormwood of the devil. We consider that the severe plague to come over the world is the corruption of the church. (10~11)
The fourth angel sounded, and a third of the sun and a third of the moon and a third of the stars were smitten, so that a third of them might be darkened and the day might not shine for a third of it, and the night in the same way.
This shows the religious darkness where the activities of the true light – the Christian Gospel movement, the freedom of the saints, and the sovereignty of true leaders – are overthrown. Both the day and the night lost their light; it means that both the believers and the nonbelievers have together fallen into the darkness.
Indeed, it is fulfilled in this present moment that a third of the earth is in the darkness made by the religious persecution from the antichrist regime. (12)
And John looked at an eagle flying in midheaven saying with a loud voice, “Woe, woe, woe, to those who dwell on the earth.”
It does not indicate those who wait for the LORD as in Isaiah 40:31. Rather, it indicates the enemies of God whose power of antichrist policy ascends like an eagle, as prophesied in Habakkuk 1:8 and Obadiah 1:4. Their technology is now extremely developed enough to invade the universe, and this means Judgement, the great worldwide woes, is near.
The two prophets, Habakkuk and Obadiah, certainly saw in their vision that this time is the Judgement period. In Judgement period, surely God first allows the evil power to extremely rise up, and then He drops it down under Judgement, and lastly fulfills the New Era; this is the message revealed in common to all prophecies of the prophets.
We cannot deny that the rising of antichrist power in these days is the warning of Judgement. (13)