Study In Revelation 21 Details Of The Seventh Trumpet Series

STUDY IN REVELATION 21

The Seventh Trumpet in detail [Part 1]

The Struggle Behind the Great Tribulation

Rev. 12: 6-17

We have been given a behind the scenes view of the spiritual conflict, which is behind the evil of this world. We see how the dragon, the devil, is out to hurt and break the heart of God. He does this by turning people away from Jesus and leading them to follow evil.

The Book of Revelation shows us that the rampage of the devil will only intensify in the end time.

v:6: The woman flees for her life.

This is a picture of the terrible holocaust in the end time. How do we know this is not speaking of some other time in history? How long is the woman to be fed in the wilderness? 1260 days. The KJV says a Thousand two hundred and threescore, which is 1260 days. 1260 days equals to 3 ½ years.

The woman in verse six, Israel, will be persecuted severely by the antichrist during the great tribulation. The Jews will have to hide, wherever they can find shelter. But remember, there will be a numberless number of gentiles slaughtered during this time as well. There will be “no vacancy” signs in every cave and mountain in the wilderness.

The good news is, God has a place for His people to hide and during this time of horror many Jews will come to Christ. Rom. 11:23-26

Vs. 7-9: The war over Israel and God’s people is to be fought in: The street The ring Heaven

This war has been launched by the antichrist and from these verses we find what is causing the awful attack on Israel and the believers.

1. The forces behind the struggle are Michael and his angels and Satan and his fallen angels.

Scripture teaches several things

a. God has assigned angels to look after and minister to believers. Heb. 1: 14”Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?” [NIV]

b. There are ranks and orders of angels. Do you remember our study of “God’s Heavenly Warriors”?

God’s Heavenly Warriors, pt. 3

Col. 1:16

Because of the invisible spiritual war going on in the air around us between God’s Holy Angels and those who fell w/ Lucifer, are organized into an intricate system of rank, position and authority.

Let’s first look at Satan’s angels. His demons are organized in much the same way:

Ephes. 6:12

Here we see 4 designated positions of authority. These are 4 classes of demons. Most commentators agree that these are ranks…different levels of authority in the demonic world.

J. Vernon McGee a great commentator, has an interesting take on these verses…tho’ this may be just speculation…it’s good food for thought:

Principalities—he believes this would correspond to a general in the military. This would be a very high ranking demon. This demon would oversee of an entire nation. In Daniel, it talks about “the prince of Persia” in ref. to a specific demon. Other verses also seem to indicate this. Think about America: in the last 100 years our nation has morally and spiritually been influenced greatly by something from the realms of darkness. There is much corruption in Washington, and I have no problem recognizing the demonic influence upon our nation.

Revelation talks about 4 demons which are right now bound beneath the Euphrates River. They could represent the 4 great kingdoms of human history: Grecian, Roman, Persian and Babylonian Empires. These 4 demons could be the principalities which were over these empires. When those empires fell, they were bound, but they will be turned loose upon the 1 world gov’t during the tribulation.

Powers—He believes these demons oversee powerful individuals. This could be a demon possessed world leader, or other leader in great power. I don’t believe a Christian can be possessed, but only oppressed. I am inhabited by the Holy Spirit and I don’t believe an unholy spirit can also inhabit me.

Rulers of darkness—He believes these oversee worldly business and industry. For example: how many would agree w/ me that the Hollywood establishment is corrupt? Sure! There’s a dark force behind that. How about the music industry? Same thing.

Spiritual wickedness in high places—He points out that the phrase ‘high places’ is throughout our OTs. Idol worshippers had their high places where they worshipped Baal and other false gods. McGee thinks these would be demons who oversee areas of religion in the world. Let’s face it; religion is not a good thing. More people will be sent to hell by religion than by Hollywood or the music industry! More wars are fought in the name of religion than because somebody saw violence in a movie!

So, we have these 4 classifications of demons. But this flow chart didn’t start w/ Satan. He is not the originator, just an imitator.