March 23, 2022

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. Revelation 8:12

Thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who make My people stray; who chant “Peace” while they chew with their teeth, but who prepare war against him who puts nothing into their mouths. “Therefore you shall have night without vision, and you shall have darkness without divination; the sun shall go down on the prophets, and the day shall be dark for them.” Micah 3:5-6

Darkening of celestial bodies has been associated in the scriptures with the coming of God’s judgment. Light symbolizes the gospel message (Colossians 1:13, 1 Peter 2:9). Jesus is “the light of life” (John 8:12). Darkness symbolizes the absence of truth because of false prophets who, having full access to His Word, chew on it and fabricate a corrupted form of it for profit. God points out that those who twist His words and misrepresent Him “make My people stray”, and they are bringing judgement upon themselves. Jesus said:

“This is the judgement, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light…” John 3:19

Behold, the day of the LORD comes, cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate; and He will destroy its sinners from it. For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be darkened in its going forth, and the moon will not cause its light to shine. Isaiah 13:9-10

After the Roman Empire fell (circa AD479) the papal power rose on the heels of the tide of compromise that had flooded the church. Compare the letters to Pergamum and Thyatira found in Revelation 2:12-29. Three of the ten divisions of the fallen Roman Empire tried to stand in opposition to this abusive use of religious and political power by the bishop of Rome. But as foretold, they were obliterated. Daniel described the demise of these three nations by the little horn thus: plucked out by the roots! (see Daniel 7:8) The third of the three was wiped out in AD538. In combination with military might, the corrupted church was now largely unopposed and mushroomed into power over the known world. The demand to acknowledge papal supremacy plunged the world into the Dark Ages while the true church went into hiding in the wilderness. (Revelation 12:6,14)

In brief summary of the first four trumpets thus far, they came in pairs: the first two trumpets deal with the Jewish nation and the Roman Empire, the two nations that crucified Jesus. The next two trumpets (three and four) deal with apostate Christianity and the horrendous consequences of that apostasy. Her false doctrines are referred to as the “wine of Babylon.”

Babylon was a golden cup in the LORD’s hand, That made all the earth drunk. The nations drank her wine; Therefore the nations are deranged. We would have healed Babylon, But she [refuses to be] healed. Forsake her . . . Jeremiah 51:7,9a

“Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she has made all the nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” Revelation 14:8