Dr. J and the Bible
This podcast features Dr. Jonathan Behler, a Christian therapist and theologian, discussing the Bible.
Dr. J and the Bible
Revelation Chapter 9
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Today, Dr. J discusses Revelation 9.
Welcome to Dr. J in the Bible. Quick shout out to Charleston, South Carolina. Thank you for listening. Hope that you're enjoying this great weather wherever you are, but especially our friends in Charleston. And so today we're looking at Revelation chapter 9, the fifth and sixth trumpets, the first two woes. Revelation 9 continues the trumpet judgments that were introduced in chapter 8. We're looking at this, that the church has already been raptured, as was mentioned prior studies. And the falling upon unbelieving humanity during the tribulation is the judgment of God. Verses 1 through 21 of this chapter describe the fifth and sixth trumpets, also called the first two woes. And so we're going to expound on this a little deeper. Verses 1 through 12, they have the fifth trumpet in the first woe. The fifth angel sat at his trumpet, and I saw a star falling from heaven to the earth. To him was given the key to the shaft of the abyss. And I saw a star from heaven. And the text clearly shows us that this star is a person, not a literal star. The verb tense fallen indicates he had already fallen. So who is this star? There are suggestions that it could be Nero, it could be a fallen angel, an evil spirit, Satan, it could be a good angel, or even Jesus himself. In context, this star is best seen as an angel. Whether he's good or bad depends on the relation to the angel of the bottomless pit. Revelation 9.11, if the angel of Revelation 9.1 is the same angel, it could be an evil angel, perhaps Satan himself. So it is a different angel, nevertheless. Or it could even be an evil angel that God commands to open the bottomless pit. Some people would even say it's Satan himself, which it could be. If you look at Isaiah 14, it talks about old Lucifer, son of the morning, uh how he has fallen. He used these several I will statements. I will exalt my throne. I will, you know, uh seat at the I will be like God. And so pride was the big deal. Ezekiel mentions the fall of Lucifer too. And so it could be Satan, but it does not say specifically him by name. And it says to him was given the key to the bottomless pit. Now, this star is fallen. It makes us associate once again with Satan or another high-ranking evil angelic being. But the fact that he is given the key to the bottomless pit makes us not want to associate him with Satan. But the idea Satan is the master of hell is foreign to the rest of scripture. He will be hell's victim, not ruler. Now, I will say this: God is fully sovereign. The devil is God's devil. You know, when Jesus commanded uh demons to come out of people, they didn't abate him. Now, I guess they you could say they were trying not to, for instance, legion, they were throw us up to the pigs. But uh ultimately they did what God permitted. And so whether, you know, Satan has the keys, eh? You know, if he does, it's still God's, God's the God's the sovereign one. And Satan will ultimately be thrown in what he thinks he rules. So however you look at this, remember that God is ultimately the judge, and he, Satan, is one of many who will be thrown in there at the end of time in the great white throne. And at that same time, we notice that the key is given to this being, and that it is given at a specific time for a specific purpose that furthers God's plan. This angel, whether evil or good, is ultimately serving God's purpose, even if he does not intend to. Through scripture, God allowed sometimes the enemies of the gospel or the enemies of his elect to ultimately serve his purpose. He just lets them, you know, basically fall into their lustful fleshly desires, and they still fulfill God's purpose, which is quite interesting indeed. So he was given the key to the bottomless pit. And uh the now some wonder what is this bottomless pit? Well, this is most pretty straightforward answer, I think. I think that according to scripture and and really logic, it's the center of the earth. Um it is the center, I believe that's where hell will be or is. I think the abyss is there. And the really the Greek word abyssos is a prison we know from scriptures like Luke 8, 31, uh 2 Peter 2.4, and Jude 1.6, of certain demons. Uh, most likely these demons, according to those passages, are chained in the abyss. Way because uh probably the ones in during the times of Noah of Genesis 6, uh, where they rebelled from their own abode and married and intermarried with women, human women, and basically had what you call the Nephilim. You had a mixed mixed species, I guess you would even say, half angel, half human. Which some people, and I take this view, when God saw Noah and gave him grace, that is inferring not only did he get the grace of God on his family, but he had a pure blood line, that he was purely human. And at that time there was not very many people left that were purely human beings and not mixed with angelic beings. And so you could take it or leave it for that. Some people will say it's the sons of Seth. I don't buy that view whatsoever. And you also can find in 2 Peter how uh in Jude, where it talks about Jesus after his death, he went down into the abyss and he proclaimed to these angels and chains. What did he proclaim? I believe he proclaimed victory. Uh he proclaimed victory of the cross and the resurrection. And uh so that was prior to his resurrection and prior to setting the Old Testament saints free to where they could enter heaven with no intermediary uh placed where they would be. So the star fallen from heaven, we we can see from these passages, is symbolic, I believe, of demonic angelic beings, uh, which, you know, uh I think a specific, also specific demonic being could be Lucifer. It could be an elect angel, no matter what, he there he's being used for God's purpose. The abyss is a realm of demonic confinement for a certain time period. We also know later on, I think in this chapter, that God will open up the abyss, and some of these demons that have been in chain for the spirits for thousands of years will be released, and you can imagine what that's gonna be. And we're also gonna talk about locusts, which I believe is also demonic symbolism as well. So looking at two through six, we we go right into the locusts. And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke arose out of the pit, like the smoke of a great furnace. So the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit. Then out of the smoke locusts came up upon the earth, and to them was given power as the scorpions of the earth had power. They were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth or any green thing or any tree, but only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. And they were not given authority to kill them, but to torment them for five months. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man. In those days men will seek death, will not find it. They would desire to die, and death will flee from them. So out of the smoke, locusts came in upon the earth. Now these these are obviously not natural locusts, because they avoid, you know, plants that attack men like scorpions attack. That just these are visual symbols, a representation of hordes of demons loosed upon the earth. Uh, so are they not literal locusts? Um, the idea is, and the key word here is you're going to see like locust. And that's the key, the key word is like locust. And so the idea here is simply that this is part of a judgment of the great tribulation. God allows these demonic beings that were previously in prison for thousands of years to descend upon the earth like a swarm of destructive locusts and they torment and they sting unbelievers for five months, and is representing intense but controlled judgment, and God is allowing this judgment to as a means to provoke repentance. And uh it talks about the seal of God on their foreheads. Now, those who have the seal of God on their foreheads, the hundred and forty-four thousand that we talked about uh previously, are protected, they cannot be be hurt in any way, but none others are. These are inescapable judgment of uh from God. They were not given authority to kill them, by the way, but torment them for five months, and so their purpose, their period is especially governed by God. Let us not think that Satan has the big authority. Everything on earth here is governed by the sovereign hand of God, and once again, the purpose is for repentance. In those days, men will seek death and they will not find it, they'll desire to die and then it will flee from them. Death will offer no escape from them. This is a prolonged torture, and there's some divine way that God is going to not permit people to die, but be tortured. Like scorpions, uh, like being bit by a scorpion, extremely painful. And they will desire to die. In Philippians 1:21-23, Paul says, for me to live as Christ to die is gain. But this is totally the opposite. These people want to die. Paul would die for eternal blessing in heaven with God, but these people want to die because they want to end their suffering when it's kind of like uh leaping from front one frying pan into a present torment, eternal fire, into another frying pan. Um, and that's what unbelievers do. I mean, unbelievers are like, eh, you know, I'd rather die. You know, and some of them, even with euthanasia, they will, there's people that, you know, I have this going on. Some people, even with depression, anxiety, or maybe some disease is debilitating, they seek to be euthanized because they think their pain's going to end. And, you know, if you don't know Jesus, you're jumping from one frying pan into another. That's far worse and eternal. So these locusts were were like horses prepared for battle. Seven through ten is the shape of the locusts were like horses prepared for battle. On their heads were crowns of something like gold, their faces were like faces of men, they had hair like women's hair, their teeth were like lions' teeth, they had breastplate like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots, with many horses running into battle, and they had tails like scorpions, and there were stings in their tails. Their power was to hurt men five months. So the shape of the locusts were we're prepared for battle. Many attempts have been made to show that this is uh some sort of poetic description of a natural locust, but it's just false. You know, this approach I believe really, really is an error because it misses the obvious demonic connection. Why would God call them locusts if they are not literal locusts? Well, but demonic spirits, that's what I would say, who swarm to destroy like locusts, and among other reasons, like like horses like gold, like faces of men, like women's hair, like lions' teeth. And the repetition of like, you hear that, like, like, like, is indicates something other than literal descriptions is an intention. So these are symbols being used for a literal meaning. And it really suggests that these locusts actually describe something, I think, like helicopters, gunships of the Antichrist, the one world system. I think are speculative, but I think they're possible for indeed. Um well, I'm not going to be here to find out, and I hope you guys won't either, but you know, there seems to be no alternative to this, concluded that. But what we see though is is these are evil spirits working in a system under the Antichrist, which may manifest through through mechanical weapons of war, helicopters, tanks, other things. And they had a king over them, the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name is Hebrew in Hebrew is Abandon, but in Greek is called named Zapollon. And so once again, the Bible, the Bible tells us that you know, literal logus locusts, we know from Proverbs 30, verse 27, have no king. So these aren't literal locusts. And uh basically uh Abaddon and Apollyon both have the same thought of destruction and torment.
SPEAKER_00Um so we see it's gonna be bad.
SPEAKER_01These you know, this angel is going to open up hell, the gates of hell, these enchained demons are gonna be spirits are gonna be released, and people will desire to die and won't be able to. Just picture this. 13 through 21, uh, the sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the four horns of the golden altar. Release the four angels who bound in the great river Euphrates.
SPEAKER_00Um Yeah.
SPEAKER_01In the tabernacle of the temple of Israel, the golden altar was an altar of incense, which was a representation of prayers of God's people. And the four horns of the golden altar stood at each corner of the altar, the atoning blood applied to the horns. And we hear John's voice. In this, John recalls a repeated theme, the prayers of God's people. And once again, I believe these prayers as thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Uh do I know for sure? No, but I think it I think those prayers asking for God's will to be done are the ones that that uh John is uh referring to. 14 through 15, saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, release the four angels who are bound to the great river Euphrates. So the four angels had been prepared for the hour and day of month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind. So these four angels who are bound the great river Euphrates, and these four angels have no necessary connection with the four angels of Revelation 7.1, they may be the same four angels, they may not be. Whoever they are, they're prepared for the hour of the day, the month, and the year to unleash this judgment according to God, under God's sovereign command. And they were released. Most Satan's angels are yet to be free. Once again, many of Satan's angels are unchained. Uh, after the church is taken out, they're gonna have free reign for the most part. Of course, within the boundaries of God's judgment, because they're not sovereign, but it's basically going to be uh a type of a type of hell on earth. Of course, it's not hell, but it's gonna be bad. And uh these are principalities and demonic fallen angels, which we wrestle, and and some of them we we don't even know about because they're high-rank, terrible offenders that have been balanced since Genesis chapter six. Um and they were released to kill a third of mankind. You know, the earlier angels were just described what we described earlier, were restricted to torment. But these four angels have been given authority to kill on a massive scale.
SPEAKER_00A third of mankind. That's a that's a billion plus people, perhaps. You know, the Bible talks about in the Old and New Testament how angels execute God's judgment.
SPEAKER_01And it talks about how in in uh Exodus 12 23, you know, talks about an angel, which I actually believe is the Lord Jesus Christ, a pre-incarnate uh of the of Christ, said the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and the firstborn Egyptians died in homes protected by the Passover blood. We know that an angel in 2 Kings 19, 31 killed over 185,000 Assyrians. Yeah, it says that night the angel of the Lord went out and put to death 185,000 in the Assyrian camp.
SPEAKER_00Um that's a single angel.
SPEAKER_01We also know the judgment of God was on David when he David's kingdom when David took a census, 2 Samuel 24, 15 through 16. About 70,000 people died before God stopped destroying the destroying angel. And we also know from Acts 12, 23 how God used an angel to strike down Herod. So when we look at this, God is going to be utilizing angelic beings, he still does, but it's going to be, I believe, in a more pronounced way, and and most of the earth will not even understand that. And then the great Euphrates. Um these angels were connected in some way with the Euphrates River, because the Euphrates was a landmark of ancient Babylon. It was the frontier of Israel's land promised by God. It was the boundary of the old Roman Empire revived by the Antichrist. So the Euphrates is associated or connected with first sin, it's connected with the first murder, Canaan. Abel, it's you know, it's it's it's kind of um the revolt, symbolic of the revolt against God of uh Nimrod and Simaramus. It's the first dictatorship in Genesis 10 under Nimrod. And it talks about in 16 through 19 that you know there's going to be an army of 200 million. It says now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million, and I heard the number of them, and thus I saw the horses in the vision. Those who sat on them had breastplates of fiery red, sulphur yellow, and heads of horses were like the heads of lions, and out of their mouth came fire, smoke, and brimstone. By these three plagues and third of mankind was killed by the fire, the smoke, and the brimstone, which came out of their mouths, for their powers in their mouth and their tails, for the tails are like serpents, having heads, and with them they do harm. So the number of the horsemen here, the two hundred million, is is literal number. Um there's no reason to take this symbolic. And the breastplates, the fiery red, the yellow, the and you know, this really is a powerful picture of the whore destruction of demonic the demonic uh association of war. And you know, I would even say that this is very likely um weapons of war helicopters, uh tanks.
SPEAKER_00You know, what' what what you picture within within warfare. And so you have this army.
SPEAKER_01You know, back then you would never have had an army of 200 million people. That was uncalled that was unheard of. In you know, the total size of the army is on both sides. At the height of the Second World War was only 70 million. In 1965, China claimed to have an army, a militia of 200 million. And so I think there's a very good chance that you're gonna see the Chinese somehow involved and utilize their men uh during the tribulation. And it very much could be this. Um, you know, we even see within the Middle East now, with Iran, the things going on in the Middle East, Israel. Um, you know, China is highly connected to Iran and the oil. It's going to affect one third of humanity. One third of humanity is going to be killed by these plagues and by the fire, smoke, and the brimstone, I believe, with warfare. That'd be over two billion people or more that are killed. And once again, this is to demonstrate God's sovereign control and righteous judgment on a rebellious, obstinate, recalcitrant world that we live. Wicked world. 20 through 21, and the but the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues did not repent of their works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, wood, can neither see nor hear nor walk, and they did not repent of their murders, their sorceries, their sexual immorality, or their thefts. And this just tells you the pride, the arrogance, the self-righteousness. People are like, how could they not repent after they've seen all this? Well, how could people not repent after the prophecies have been filled in Scripture? Jesus came and died and rose from the grave with the empty grave, and the evidence is right there and still do what they're doing today. So I think it's quite clear that people will still do what they do because they hate God, they love their sin rather than the creator and the savior who's to be blessed forever and ever. Amen. Well, I hope you guys enjoy this. I hope you're able to get some good stuff from this. You see, God's not playing. We're living in very, very intriguing times. Um, you have to have your your head in the sand to not see that we are in the last last of last. And uh I believe that we're we're waiting as the church to hear that uh trumpet blow and meet the Lord in the air. Hope you guys have a good rest of the weekend. Have a good one, and we'll talk to you next week.