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The historicist method of interpreting the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation is at the very base of not only the Adventist prophetic understanding but at the root of Protestantism.

Yet what we see in the Christian world today is an attack against the Historicist interpretation and an undoing of Protestantism. There is a reason this is so.

500 or so years ago there was a very important reformation that allowed light to flood upon the world.
It was precisely about breaking free from a system that turned the living water of the gospel into worm wood and that had obstructed the light of truth from shining upon the world.
It was a return to scripture and the true gospel of salvation that was to go into all the world.
God had his ambassadors all over Europe --Luther, John Knox, Tyndale, and a little later also in America, a land of freedom where truth could be freely followed and obeyed , with powerful preachers like George Whitefield, John Wesley, and William Miller.

However, the system that had controlled the Christian world for centuries, locking away truth and promoting its worm wood polluted water for doctrines in the place of the gospel's water of life, was clearly portrayed and warned against, in those prophecies!
The historicist interpretation of prophesy clearly revealed to the world that this Roman ecclesiastical power was anti-christ sitting as if he were god over God's church.

Those reformers, though they didn't all agree on all their theological points, were united in several key points.

1. The Bible is God's Word of Truth! Not man's traditions and philosophies.
2. Christ is our only Savior, Mediator and Lord, who alone brings us salvation.
3. The pope is the anti-christ as revealed in prophecy.

That did not make the papacy happy.

With great energy and determination they set out to CHANGE the prophecies. The bible was now available to the people to read for themselves, so somehow, they must change those prophecies so they could not expose their identity as the anti-christ. They must get rid of the historicist method of interpretation. Their sacraments had to be embellished and preserved, their priesthood had to be elevated higher.

They organized "orders", the most aggressive being the Jesuits, to rewrite prophecy, and propagate their message, to persecute and reduce opposition, and influence with whatever method they could devise to destroy Protestantism and bring the world back into anti-christ's fold.


Today they have pretty much succeeded. The whole world is looking up to the papacy as the great spiritual leader. Government officials from the nations are bowing before him.

NOW THINK AGAIN OF THE TRUMPETS

Will this future interpretation of the trumpets point people to God?

Where will it lead people who lack the foundation and who hear this teaching that the trumpets are all future happenings of terrible, supernatural and disastrous trouble sent by an angry God to make people repent?

Where will they go to repent?
To what will their repentance, triggered by fear, lead?

Who is the angry one who brings this destruction and terrible time of trouble?
Are the trumpets outlining this future trouble, or is the trouble all part of the seventh culminating trumpet that defines the nations as being angry and destroying the earth, just before the second coming?

Who will be accused of causing the trouble?



So yes, Satan wants the nations to forget the historicist interpretation of prophecy, so he can use those prophecies (and the futurist interpretation of trumpets will suit him just fine) to corral people into his counterfeit system. Corral them into the very system (the system wounded in 1798 by but now healed and powerful) that those trumpets warned against.

It's the third angel's message -- no rest for those who look to this system for deliverance, though most of the world will go there.

In the last days, the pressure to repent and turn to the Catholic coalition will be tremendous. Repent of rebellion against the church supposedly containing the keys of salvation. Yes there will be a terrible time of trouble and with all the "chastisements" and disasters lashing across the land, (all of which are also predicted by Marian apparitions and others) will be used to urge people to repent of their rebellion against the "church". Will people know that the ones offering sanction and acceptance through their sacraments, are actually the anti-christ, not the real Christ at all?

The historicist understanding lets people know exactly what powers to fear and resist.
The counterfeit, with all deceivable power, will use fear and super natural signs and wonders to compel all into their "fold".

The time to seek truth, repent and surrender our lives fully to our Savior Jesus Christ is NOW. The trumpets have been sounding their warning, all through Christian history. For those who come to the last time of trouble unprepared it is too late.

Revelation 8:13 And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!

Revelation refers to "angel" or "angels" 43 times. (even more if one counts every time the activity of each is mentioned)
The Greek word is "angelos" meaning "messenger". There are millions of angels in God's heaven. Part of their work is to communicate God's wishes to humanity, and do His will in many ways, protecting, and helping as well as communicating.

Not all "angels" refer to actual angels. Their is One glorious Being referred to "as an angel" yet it is Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, He is captain over the whole host of angels. (Joshua 5:14,15) He is much more than what we understand as an "angel" He is our High Priest interceding at the altar of incense as the trumpets are sounding (Rev. 8:2-3) He stands on land and sea as the real owner of this earth (Rev. 10:1)

And who is the "angel" of Rev. 7:2 with the seal of God calling out to "hold the winds of strife" till the sealing work is done? Could it be the Holy Spirit (Eph, 1:13, 4:30)


In the above verse (8:13) there is debate amongst students who have studied Greek manuscripts as to whether it is "an angel" or whether it is a bird of prey (an eagle or a vulture). He announces that three more trumpets are about to sound showing more rejection of Christ's great offer of salvation. Woe, woe, woe -- and the the vultures begin to circle knowing rejection of Christ's gift of life and salvation, means there will be a lot of death. (Compare with Luke17:37)

The woes that come upon the human race is one of misery, pain, suffering, privation, sickness and death. These woes come as a result of their own choice. If the Eastern Church would have learned something from the nature of the Roman church, they would have realized that was not the way nor the truth. Had they thanked God for keeping the Mongols from attacking them when they were scattered after the 4th crusade had turned on them, with serious destruction of their capitol. Had they thanked God for another chance once they re-established the Byzantine Empire, had they returned to the true gospel, things could have been different. But like so many they did not connect the dots that waywardness and sin has serious consequences. They did not realize leaving God's blue print has consequences triggered by their own choice. People blame God and everyone else but do not see it's their choices

Let's look at all those angels once more.

Revelation 8:13 And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!

Yes, we will see that the trumpets are connected with the three angels' of Revelation 14.
Does the connection show the historicist interpretation is correct, or does it nullify it?
But let's start with angels in Revelation 14 and work backwards to the angels in the trumpets.

THE ANGEL with the "third angel's message" is announced as:
"And the third angel followed them." (Rev. 14:9)
This indicates that there were angels which came before, whom the third angel "followed."

Indeed the third angel followed "another angel" (the second in this sequence) (Rev. 14:8) The third angel followed, this "another angel", indicating neither were the first.

But now go back to Rev. 14:8, we call this angel the first, but the Bible reads:
Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven having the everlasting gospel....

"Another angel" means there was another angel before him as well, he was not the first of the angels that brought messages!

What angel went before him? Is there a messenger type angel earlier?
We search back and find no angels in chapters 13,12. In chapter 11:15 there is the trumpet angel, but trumpet angels have their own sequence.

In chapter ten we read: I saw still another mighty angel coming down from heaven...(Rev. 10:1) This is a special messenger-- Jesus Himself. But even He is still described as "another mighty angel".

It's not until we reach Revelation 8:13 that we reach the primal angel, and read: "And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the middle of heaven saying..."This is not "another angel, but, primarily, "an angel."

So we find the sequence:

Primary angel- every angel following him is "another angel"
The angel of Rev. 8:13 is not the same as the angel of Rev. 14:6. The angel of Rev. 14:6 "another angel".

Rev. 8:13 "And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe

"And I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven." Rev. 10:1.

"And I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven ." Rev. 14:6.

"And there followed another angel." Verse 8.

"And the third angel followed them." Verse 9.

Revelation 14:15,17,18 has three more angels, each (another angel came) coming out of the temple.

The Primal (beginning of the sequence) angel appears between the fourth and fifth trumpet.

What has gone on before?
1. The gospel went out in power!
The first church fervently spreading the gospel, but loosing first love.
The first seal releases white horse of pure gospel going froth in spiritual conquest
The first trumpet the first great rejection of the gospel and its consequence of ruin.

2, The persecution ending in a league
The second suffering church
The second seal red -- persecution
The second trumpet -- a league made with the empire that had had persecuted them, that now groomed the papacy but ended up crashing like a great burning mountain.

3. The sliding/drifting into darkness
The third church infiltrated with doctrine of Balaam and Nicolaitans.
The third seal -- black horse and weigh scales, spiritual things are getting harder to find.
The third trumpet -- wormwood water, polluting the living water of life.

4. The gospel eclipsed in a large part of the world
The fourth church Jezebel
The fourth seal horse looking like death
The fourth trumpet darkness, the sun of righteousness eclipsed.

So what do we see at the end of the fourth trumpet? Even though the gospel went out with power, to a large extend at the end of the fourth, the gospel truth is covered in deceptive doctrines and darkness. The beast has been established. Truth is hidden in a large part of the Christian world.

This is when the Primary angel begins the sequence of these "another angel" voicing messages. It begins in the middle of the trumpets.
Two more woes will come to break up the hold of error this beast power has upon the population and give them opportunity to repent. The woes are the result of the majority rejection of Christ and His truth. As more light shines, the more desperately the evil spirits attack. Light when it can't melt the heart, hardens it. Without the protection of Christ (because He is rejected) the people are vulnerable to Satan's malicious hatred and deceptions against the human race.

When the sixth woe ends the Mighty Angel tells people the timelines have all ended, they think that means Jesus is coming, but He doesn't, thus their sweet expectation arising from their Bible study turns bitter. But they must prophesy again. They are not give up in despondency. (Rev. 10:1,6,9-11) They must prophesy again. The three angel's message must yet go forth with it's last call to worship the God of Creation.

Then the seventh trumpet sounds. The time to finish the Mystery of God.
I believe the Spirit of Prophecy which tells us in plain English -- the seventh trumpet began to sound in 1844, at the end of all the timelines. It includes all the end time events.

The warning angel of Rev. 8:13 shouting "woe, woe woe, to the inhabitants of the earth,"
is situated between the fourth and fifth trumpets. The "man of sin" is sitting in God's place.

One thing we rarely hear is the fourth trumpet not only portrayed the spiritual darkness descending upon the world in 538 AD it was heralded by literal darkness! The time when Emperor Justinian cleared the field for the papacy and by law made him the "head of all churches" with responsibility to deal with "heretics".


This marked the beginning of the 1260 year period!

A quick review of the next 600+ years before discussing the 150 years of the fifth trumpet. Those 600 years were years of crusades and war!
What was the Christian church doing?

We hear about Emperor Justinian usually in relation to his attempts to reunite the Roman Empire. He enabled the papacy to be over all churches, and helped clear the political field around Rome, so the papacy could take the seat of Rome. But what we don't hear so much is that Justinian was a persecutor. There was persecution against supposed heretics before Justinian, but he made the punishment of "heresy a serious part of imperial Christianity".

"The bishops in attendance at the Synod of Constantinople in 536 recognized that nothing could be done in the Church contrary to the emperor's will and command". To believe differently meant loosing ones property and human rights, exile, and often death.

The Syrian Churches were among the first churches planted and nurtured by the apostles. They were comprised of Jews and Gentiles, and had a rich Judeo/Christian heritage, but they were not always in agreement or in line with the emperor's will and command. They suffered persecution. Large numbers of these Christians fled to Persia or elsewhere.

Then, about 100 years later, came the new Islamic power launching countless crusades against all the countries around them! Islamic Conquests were very successful. The area of the Syrian churches was among the first to be overtaken, with the already battered Syrian Christian churches soon left desolate.

The Byzantines and Persian Empires had worn themselves out with fighting. Into this weakened political scene stormed Islam and conquered considerable territory in Palestine, Asia Minor, then marching clear across Northern Africa and up into Spain and France (Gaul and Burgundy) they seemed unstoppable. The Battle of Tours in France in 711 AD stopped them, or even Europe would have been taken over in the Islamic conquest.

The Byzantine Empire, reduced in size remained.
And in the west there was the papacy and the Holy Roman Empire .
Though they both, east and west, were supposedly both part of the decreed one and only Christian church, they were not in unity. They ended up splitting into two separate church bodies in 1054 AD, resulting from a complex interplay of theological issues, resistance to papal headship, political, and cultural differences.

1204 -- the fourth crusade besieged the Byzantine's capital, Constantinople. They conquered the city, pillaged and robbed it, and set it up as Latin city.
Yes, the fourth Crusade's biggest accomplishment had nothing to do with Muslims, it was the papal armies that besieged, conquered and pillaged Constantinople.

1261 the Byzantines regained Constantinople, But they are weak.
Meanwhile the Mongols from China are sweeping into the middle east. The Islamic regions are suffering considerable loses as the Mongols build an impressive large empire. For a while Byzantine is left in relative peace and are able to rebuild.
Finally the Mongols begin to retreat towards the east, as they find it difficult to maintain their far flung assets. Those Mongols left in the middle east, accept the Islamic religion, and begin to partner with the growing Turks.

I tend to see this whole span from Justinian's decrees enacted in 538 AD to Byzantines near fall and resurrection as the "Dark ages" of the 4th trumpet.

So where is the church when the angel in Rev. 8:13 cries out "woe, woe, woe"?

1. Around 1200 AD The apostolic church is no longer visible.
The Syrian churches have been persecuted by imperial Christianity and then fully destroyed by Islamics.
The western churches who had issues with the papacy have fled into the Alps (into the wilderness) having also suffered persecution by the imperial Christian church.

2. The"head" papal church has risen to it's highest point (in the middle ages at least) in the 13th century. It had come through a mire of trouble within: there had been rival popes, one time there were four popes at once, each declaring they are the true pope, there was quiet an amount of corruption at headquarters.
The Roman church was getting into full swing in making outward trouble, much of it terrible trouble, sending forth many crusades against Muslims, Jews, so called "heretical" Christians, even thinking crusades were a good means of converting pagans, and yes, one crusade conquered Constantinople.
Spiritually -- we've already read of the wormwood gospel and doctrines. Politically, the papacy used his supposed "keys" to eternal life to get the kings and rulers to do his bidding

3. The Byzantine Church, on the other hand, had been existing under the influence of the Eastern Emperor. The issue of church and state combined, with the state having considerable influence over the Patriarch church leader. During the previous centuries the eastern church had been torn between the doctrines from the Bible urged by the Syrian churches and Bishops, who opposed the progressive move the eastern church was taking to accept the papal doctrines.

4. The Eastern Orthodox Church had been given another chance, after nearly being wiped out by the fourth crusade, they were given a short period of peace in which to rebuild. Like we wrote in previous posts, they were given 150 more years. They had made a break from the Papal church earlier, they didn't need to follow Rome's doctrines. Yet, they didn't repent, they continued to develop along the same methods and doctrines as Rome. And so, instead of prospering and being shielded by God's protection, the Ottoman Turks harass them and at the end of the 150 years, destroyed there church and city.

WOES (how does the Bible define woes?) Paraphrased.

Interestingly there are seven woes in Isaiah.

Isaiah 5:8 Woe unto them that strive to get more and ever more land. Their houses will be desolate, their fields will not yield a plentiful harvest.
Could this be the first trumpet? Israel rejecting Christ because they wanted a Messiah who would regain their land for them from the Romans, and continue on to conquer more, making Jerusalem the center.

Isaiah 5:11 Woe unto them that drink and party all day and regard not the work of the LORD, nor fulfill their responsibilities.
They go into captivity, are famished, and dried up with thirst. All their glory, and their pomp, shall descend into it.
Could this be the second trumpet? Rome outwardly becoming Christian, but corruption, and pleasure continued in worldly fashion. Their power was drying up and all their glory and pomp descended like a burning mountain.


Isaiah 5:18 Woe unto them that not only seek after evil, but encourage it in vanity and draw others into evil (figuratively harnessing themselves to a chariot of sin and mocking the idea of retribution) They will see retribution.
Could this be the third trumpet? The church filling their cart with renamed pagan practices and pulling it into the church?

Isaiah 5:20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness
They receive bitter for sweet.
Could this be the fourth trumpet? The church substituting false doctrines and throwing out the true. Substituting darkness for light and persecuting those who followed the light as if they were teaching darkness.

Isaiah 5:21 Woe unto [them that are] wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!
Could this be the fifth trumpet? Continuing in the their set pathway, instead of turning to God in repentance and trust. Meanwhile the Turks are coming ever closer, causing more "woe" .

Isaiah 5:22-23 Woe unto them which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!
The most severe consequences against such --
Could this be the sixth trumpet? After the fall of Constantinople, it was like a flood of information, Biblical manuscripts as well as other writings streamed out to the world. The reformers preached righteousness in Christ. But the church leadership resisted strongly.
Reformers were called the evil ones, mocked and tortured, while the ones who planned these tortures were presenting themselves as honorable.
. A new wave of Muslims came forth, Ottoman Turks. More terrible in their conquests than even the previous Islamics. It is written in some history books -- "If it wasn't for the Turks, there would have been no Protestants" It was because the papal powers were so busy trying to deal with the Turks, that Protestant Reformers were able to preach,


6:5 Then said I, Woe [is] me! for I am undone; because I [am] a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.
Could this be the seventh trumpet? The day of real Day of Atonement arrives, the investigative judgment begins. The ark of the covenant in heaven is seen. Inside are the ten commandments. People cry, "woe is me" how can I stand. The three angel's go forth with their message -- righteousness by faith in Jesus. There-in is the coal that cleanse and prepare people to see the King, the LORD of hosts.
The multitudes don't claim it, nations are angry, but Jesus will win, He will reign and those with Him are the called, chosen and faithful .