UNDERSTANDING THE BOOK OF REVELATION:Satan Is Unleashed

[DrFrank]

Unless you have a strong aversion to news reports,this thought must have crossed your mind recently:OH NO! THESE MUST BE THE BIBLE PREDICTED "LAST DAYS"!! Hey you sure are perceptive !!! With the firm belief that we are now entering into the Tribulation period,I am publishing a series of studies of the Book of Revelation,that difficult to understand road map that shows exactly where we are headed,using the easy to understand Contemporary English Version (CEV) Bible that has been created by the American Bible Society.I will then add insights in capitol letters which will provide explanations and historical background information for the words you have just read, which will be in agreement with leading biblical commentaries,in order to at long last make the startling predictions made in this important and fascinating book comprehensible. I will occasionally make changes in the CEV words if I detect variance from the meaning found in the King James Bible.


Revelation 9

1 When the fifth angel blew his trumpet, (TO ANNOUNCE THE FIFTH PUNISHMENT FOR ONGOING SIN IN THE WORLD) I saw a star (THIS IS A REFERENCE TO SATAN) fall from the sky to earth. He was given the key to the tunnel that leads down to the deep pit.(HELL) 2 As he (SATAN) opened the tunnel, smoke poured out like the smoke of a great furnace. The sun and the air turned dark because of the smoke. 3 Locusts ( A TYPE OF GRASSHOPPER) came out of the smoke and covered the earth. They were given the same power (EXPLAINED BELOW) that scorpions have. 4 The locusts were told not to harm the grass on the earth or any plant or any tree.(THESE "INSECTS" WERE OBVIOUSLY NOT NORMAL LOCUSTS,THEY WERE SATANIC) They were (ALLOWED BY GOD) to punish only those people who did not have God's mark on their foreheads.(THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER DESCRIBED HOW 144,000 JEWS CHOSEN FOR SALVATION WERE GIVEN A MARK ON THEIR FOREHEADS) 5 The locusts were allowed to make them suffer for five months, but not to kill them. The suffering they caused was like the sting of a scorpion.(SOME INTERPRET THESE VERSES AS A DESCRIPTION OF MEMBERS OF AN ARMY OR EVEN HELICOPTERS BUT THAT DOESN'T MATCH WITH THE FACT THAT THEY CAN ONLY INFLICT PAIN AND NOT DEATH. A BETTER INTERPRETATION THAT MATCHES WITH THE REST OF THIS CHAPTER, IS THAT THEY ARE SATANIC DEMONS) 6 In those days people will want to die, but they will not be able to. They will hope for death, but it will escape from them.(AN INDICATION OF THE BOTH THE SEVERE PAIN THESE DEMONS WILL CAUSE AS WELL AS THE INABILITY OF HUMAN PAIN MEDICATION TO CONTROL IT) 7 These locusts looked like horses ready for battle. On their heads they wore something like gold crowns, and they had human faces.(SATAN SURE IS CREATIVE,IN A TOTALLY WEIRD SORT OF WAY) 8Their hair was like a woman's long hair, and their teeth were like those of a lion. 9 On their chests they wore armor made of iron. Their wings roared like an army of horse-drawn chariots rushing into battle. 10 Their tails were like a scorpion's tail with a stinger that had the power to hurt people for five months. (GOD'S LIMITATION ON SATAN. OF COURSE THOSE WHO DON'T READ OR BELIEVE THIS BOOK WON'T KNOW OF OR BELIEVE THIS TIME LIMIT FOR PAIN WHICH WILL MAKE THEIR MENTAL SUFFERING WORSE AS THEY SUFFER WITH THE EXPECTATION OF LIFE-LONG PAIN)11Their (THE DEMONS) king was the angel in charge of the deep pit.(THE SUPERVISOR OF HELL APPOINTED BY SATAN,SIMILAR TO A WARDEN OF A PRISON) In Hebrew his name was Abaddon, and in Greek it was Apollyon. (THIS WORD MEANS "DESTRUCTION" IN GREEK.HE IS ANOTHER FALLEN ANGEL LIKE SATAN HIMSELF WHICH IS ANOTHER REFUTATION OF THE "ONCE SAVED ALWAYS SAVED" THEORY) 1 2 The first suffering has now happened. But behold,(THE ADDITION OF THIS KING JAMES TRANSLATION WORD SIGNALS THAT THE PUNISHMENTS TO OCCUR NEXT WILL BE EXTREMELY SEVERE) two more punishing events will soon occur.13Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet. I heard a voice speak from the four corners of the gold altar that stands in the presence of God. 14The voice spoke to the sixth angel and said, "Release the four angels (THESE ARE FALLEN ANGELS OR DEMONS) who are tied up (TO PREVENT THEM FROM HARMING PEOPLE) beside the great Euphrates River." 15 The four angels had been trained (BY SATAN) for this very hour and day and month and year. Now they were set free to kill a third of all people. 16 By listening, I could tell there were more than two hundred million horsemen.(THIS REFERS TO DEMONS,NOT HUMANS.NEVER DOUBT SATAN'S POWER!) 17 In my vision the riders wore fiery-red, dark-blue, and yellow armor on their chests. The heads of the horses looked like lions, with fire and smoke and sulfur coming out of their mouths.18 One-third of all people were killed by the fire, the smoke, and the sulfur.(THOSE WHO DO NOT BELIEVE IN THE RAPTURE WILL HAVE TO TRY TO EXPLAIN WHY GOD IS SENDING ALL THESE SEVERE PUNISHMENTS TO THE EARTH IF THOSE WHO HE HAS SELECTED FOR SALVATION ARE STILL ON THE EARTH) 19The horses had powerful mouths, and their tails had the heads of poisonous snakes that bit and harmed.(FURTHER CONFIRMATION THAT THESE WERE DEMONIC CREATIONS) 20The people who lived through these terrible troubles did not turn away from the idols they had made, and they did not stop worshiping demons. They kept on worshiping idols that were made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood. Not one of these idols could see, hear, or walk. (MANY PEOPLE,EVEN SOME CHRISTIANS, ENGAGE IN A TYPE OF IDOL WORSHIP BY SHOWING RESPECT AND AFFECTION FOR STATUES WHICH SOME CHURCHES PUT ON DISPLAY IN THEIR SANCTUARIES.THIS IS THE SIN OF IDOLATRY WHICH GREATLY ANGERS GOD) 21 No one stopped (WHICH IS OF COURSE IS EXACTLY WHY THE PUNISHMENTS HAVE NOT STOPPED !!) murdering (WARS WILL INCREASE IN INTENSITY AT THIS TIME) or practicing witchcraft (AS TAUGHT THROUGH THE HARRY POTTER MEDIA) or engaging in sexual immorality (ESPECIALLY HOMOSEXUALITY WHICH WILL FLOURISH) or stealing.

 

[veteran]

Rev 9:1-21
1 And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.

The 7 trumpets continue. At the end of the previous Rev.8 chapter, a warning of three woes were given to those on the earth because of the next three trumpets that are about to sound. That is a specific warning from our Lord Jesus to listen up, and pay close attention to these next three trumpets. This begins the 5th trumpet and 1st woe period. Many have a difficult time grasping the order of Revelation events, but these last three with woe periods should be easy to grasp.

Later in Rev.12:3-4 we're given a description of a red dragon that drew a third of the stars of heaven with his tail, and cast them to the earth. Our Lord Jesus said He beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven (Luke 10:18). That's who this is here that has been given the key of the bottomless pit. Satan as a star falling from heaven is a marker for his original rebellion against God in that time of old.

2 And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.

He opens the bottomless pit and smoke is released that causes the sun and air to be darkened. This symbolizes an event of spiritual darkness coming upon the earth. We'll learn it has mostly to do with deception, like smoke and mirrors.

3 And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.

This locust idea was first mentioned back in the Book of Joel. God uses four stages of a natural locust to represent a takeover by a certain people upon the earth. What one stage of the locust leaves uneaten, the next stage devours, and so on through four stages. In Joel 6 God says, "For a nation is come up upon the land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion...". Our Heavenly Father showed these locusts are "a nation", a certain people, and they devour the land like a locust devours.

That reveals these are not literal locusts, nor some crazy monsters coming upon the earth in the last days. It's about a certain people that God is allowing to take control over the earth, and in Joel 2:25 God calls them His "great army" that He sent among us.

Joel 2:25
25 And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, My great army which I sent among you.
(KJV)

These locusts are shown to also operate like scorpions do upon the earth. That again, like the locust as a symbol, is used about this "nation" or people that devour the earth, taking it over. So it's very important to understand how a natural scorpion does work. A scorpion has no digestive system. It numbs its prey with a sting of its tail, then passes a fluid from its mouth into its victim. That fluid acts like an acid that turns the victim's insides into mush, so the scorpion can draw it up as food. Its victim is left as an empty shell.

God is using that to represent HOW these locusts (a "nation" or certain people) attack people and devour spiritually using deception. The attack is upon one's soul. One who is spiritually deceived becomes dead inside. How a real scorpion works is a perfect metaphor for how the enemies of Christ will work in the last days, starting on this 5th trumpet - 1st woe period.

Rev.9:4 And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.

If these were real natural locusts, they would eat the plants and trees and leave them bare. They are not real locusts, but "a nation", a certain people God is allowing to take over the earth in the last days. They are not allowed to hurt any green thing on the earth. They are only allowed to hurt those which do NOT have God's sealing in the forehead.

That sealing in the forehead by God is what? What's inside your forehead? Your brain or mind is. God's sealing by The Holy Spirit is about understanding, being steadfast in the Faith, not allowing any man to deceive us like our Lord Jesus warned within the seven signs of the end He gave in Matthew 24 and Mark 13. In Rev.7 we learned that 144,000 of the 12 tribes of Israel are sealed by God in prep for these last three trumpets, and in Rev.7:9 a great multitude out of all nations are also, for we were shown those came out of great tribulation having made their robes white in the Blood of The Lamb Jesus. So this sealing from God is specifically for the purpose of the saints going through the coming great tribulation.

A parallel to this sealing is given in Ezekiel 9, when God sent an angel with an inkhorn to Jerusalem to seal His servants that sighed because of all the abominations going on. The angel put a mark (Hebrew letter tao, represented by a cross) upon the foreheads of God's servants, and then told the other angels to go down and slay all those that didn't have His mark.

5 And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.

The locust army is not given to kill those without God’s sealing, but are only allowed to torment them for a period of "five months". The torment is to be like that scorpion working. There's the possible time that our Lord Jesus shortened the tribulation to, "five months", for He said He shortened the time for the sake of His elect servants (Matt.24:22; Mark 13:20).

The scorpion sting represents the attack upon the souls of the deceived. In Matthew 24 our Lord Jesus warned of a time when some will be saying, "Lo, Christ is here', or there", and He warned to not believe it. He showed a false messiah coming working great signs and wonders on earth that would deceive His own elect, if it were possible. That's especially what this sealing by God is for in the last days, to prepare Christ's servants to make a stand for Him, having the Gospel Armour on so as to stand in the "evil day". This 5th and the 6th trumpet - woe periods are particularlly about that "evil day" Apostle Paul mentioned in Ephesians 6. Paul also called this the "strong delusion" in 2 Thessalonians 2.

Bottom line: not WWIII, not a "secret rapture", not literal destruction and torment upon the earth by monsters like in some Hollywood movie, but the greatest time of deception there has ever been upon the earth.

6 And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.

That also points to this time of the 5th trumpet as a time of deception, and not literal killing of people. This even suggests a time without wars, a time of peace on the earth, a time with people wanting to escape these things and not being able to. Our Lord Jesus did warn us that as long as we hear of wars and rumours of wars, don't be troubled, for those things must be, but the end is not yet (Mark 13:7). The opposite is a time of peace, but a fake peace on the earth, a type the locusts in control over the earth will institute for the time of the great deception or "strong delusion". That's when the deceived will be saying, "Peace and safety" according to Apostle Paul (1 Thess.5). That period shows the design of the globalist one world government, an attempt to bring world peace upon the earth of themselves, excluding our Lord Jesus.

7 And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.

Now our Lord Jesus gives a detailed description of the locust army. Their shapes were like horses prepared for battle, like an army. God calls them an army in the Book of Joel. He uses the idea of military ranks for them, filling up all gaps in their ranks to show how unstoppable they are.

On their heads they have "as it were" crowns "like" gold. In other words, they're wearing fake crowns of gold. What is it that our Lord Jesus promised us when He comes, and finds we have remained faithful to Him? He promised us crowns of gold, to reign with Him over the nations as kings and priests. So why would these locusts have on fake crowns? It's to deceive you into thinking they are someone or something they are not. It's the idea of false servants.

Their faces are as the faces of men. There it is. These aren't literal locusts, for no locust has a face like men. These ARE men, which is why they have faces like men. These are a "nation", a people, the devil's workers who seek to gain control over the whole earth, and over God's people. These are workers of iniquity preparing the earth to bow in false worship to another. And they go about in a determined way to destroy spiritually like a real army does literally.

8 And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.

Their teeth like lions God covered in the Book of Joel. When a lion attacks its prey, once it sinks its teeth in there's no letting go. Once it's tasted blood it won't let loose. That's a symbol to show their determination. We can see that once the plans for a "one world government" became public, they stepped up their determination towards that goal. Now they don't care who knows about it, realizing the world is powerless to stop it. Could be that radical Islam thinks they are stopping it, or at least delaying its coming, but they are only be used by the locust army to bring that time of false world peace in our near future. Create a problem, present a solution. Give peoples enough strife and war, and eventually they will sue for peace. This is why many will be declaring "Peace and safety" in the time of these first and second woe periods. They'll be tired of war by then.

What's this "hair as the hair of women" the locust army has? Can you picture a beautiful flowing soft head of hair on a beautiful woman? Smooth and silky like isn't it? Christ is showing us yet another deceptive way the locusts work. They'ree smooth talking, have sweet candy words to your ears, promising you this and that, that they want to take care of your problems, all the work of a soothsayer, like this...

Isa 30:8-13
8 Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever:
9 That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD:
10 Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:
11 Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.
12 Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon:
13 Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant.
(KJV)

Many of the perverse ways old Israel fell into are like the times we're also in today. Many do not want to hear God's Truth, they'd rather hear smooth things preached in their ears, and then go back to their daily business thinking there's nothing to be concerned about, doing what they think is right in their own hearts instead of allowing God to show them in His Word the difference between right and wrong. The locust army knows what the majority want to hear. And they are smooth in that working, soft and silky like a woman's flowing head of beautiful hair. (see also Isaiah 3 for a parallel to this working)

Rev.9:9 And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.

The locusts have on breastplates made of iron. The breastplate here has a double meaning, since we learned in the previous verses about their smoothness as soothsayers. A breastplate was used as armour for war, and it was also apparel of the Hebrew high priest. The "breastplate of judgment" the high priest wore was made of gold, and blue, and purple and scarlet, and contained 12 precious stones with the names of the 12 tribes engraved upon them (Exo.28:15). So who do these locusts of the 5th trumpet - 1st woe period actually represent? Definitely not God's people, we know that.

But they ACT as from God with that breastplate symbol of the high priest. Yet their breastplate is of iron, showing that it is a fake. Their mode of travel is like horses and chariots running to battle. The idea that this locust army also represents false priests will be shown further down when Christ reveals where their power really is.

10 And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.

Not literal tails like scorpions, but the stinging like a scorpion does, but applied in the spiritual deception sense. They were given to hurt only those NOT sealed with God's seal for a period of "five months". There's that five months again. During the days of Noah, the amount of time the flood waters were at their peak before receeding, was a period of 150 days. Per the old Hebrew solar calendar, a month equalled 30 days. That 150 days of the flood peak time is the same as a five month period. The height of the waters of the flood is symbolic of the flood waters we later learn that comes out of the mouth of the dragon upon the symbolic woman of Israel (Rev.12). Christ Jesus is our Ark of protection through the tribulation; as God sealed Noah and his into the ark, so Christ Jesus seals us for the end to make it through the dragon's flood lies that come out of his mouth.

Continued...

 

[veteran]

(Revelation 9 Continued)

Rev 9:11-21
11 And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.

Who is “the angel of the bottomless pitâ€? That should be easy; it’s the devil himself, Satan, “that old serpentâ€. Our Lord tells us here he also has the names of Abaddon in the Hebrew language, and Apollyon in the Greek language. Both names mean ‘to destroy’. Greek Apolllyon is from the Greek word apollumi which means to perish. Satan and his angels so far are the only ones already judged by God, and sentenced to perish in the “lake of fireâ€.

This locust army of the 5th trumpet – 1st woe has Satan as their king over them. No doubt now about who this locust army serves and follows.

12 One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.

That ends the 5th trumpet – 1st woe period. Two more trumpets and woes are next here. These 3 woes attached to the last three trumpets help us keep the order of events straight. There is no juxtaposing these events out of their order because of the woes.

13 And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,
14 Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.

The river Euphrates was the old border between Israel and Babylon. It represents a symbolic border here in the spiritual sense, as a wall between God’s people and Satan’s host. The wall of separation is being removed here, allowing Satan’s host to come forth and accomplish God’s ordained working on the earth by the locust army. The four angels being loosed represent that symbolic border of separation being taken down.

15 And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.

This loosing has been set to occur at a certain hour, day, month, and a year. It’s according to God’s timetable of end time events which He is in control of.

What kind of slaying of the third part of men is this? Further in this chapter that is revealed, and we should remember what our Lord just showed us above that the locusts are not allowed to kill those without God’s seal, but only sting them for a five month period, nor are they allowed to hurt any green thing on the earth. Their real modus operandi is deception through lies, smooth lies.

16 And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.

On this 6th trumpet – 2nd woe period, the locust army is officially loosed upon the earth. Two hundred thousand thousand is a symbolic number, representing Satan’s host. This is not the battle of Armageddon like some suggest, for Armageddon does not occur until Christ’s coming on the 7th trumpet – 3rd woe. We haven’t gotten that far here yet, for remember, these woe periods keep these last three trumpets in order.

17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.

Oh my, what a terrible vision! Don’t be deceived, for we discovered earlier that the actual locust army is “a nationâ€, a strong people, not fire-breathing dragons and monsters. Our Lord often uses strong graphic symbology to get His point across.

Note especially where that fire, smoke, and brimstone comes from. It comes out of their MOUTHS. What comes out of one’s mouth? Words, speech. And if these have their king as the angel of the bottomless pit, i.e., Satan, then what kind of words would they be speaking? Lies, and not God’s Truth.

18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.

Here we have it. This is how those third part of men are killed, by the fire, smoke, and brimstone that issues out of the locust’s MOUTHS, pointing to lies that deceive. Do you see their attempt to copy The Word of God in this? You should, because The Word of God is what comes out of Christ’s mouth, and it is like a two-edged sword, “piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.†(Heb.4:12).

19 For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt.

Their power is in their mouth. Ponder on that for a while. Then take a look at the amount of deceptions going on in many of today’s Churches, especially those Churches that allied with the globalist’s plan for a one world government with world-socialism. The real danger is not with literal physical weapons, but the use of ideas that cause deception away from Christ Jesus. Our Lord Jesus and His Apostles warned us of a false one that is to come working miracles on earth in the sight of men, and to not believe on that false one. Apostle Paul even used the idea of the “another Jesus†for that false one in 2 Corinthians 11.

20 And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:
21 Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.
(KJV)

Who are these “rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues�

We know the locusts can only torment those without God’s sealing for a five month period, and are not allowed to kill them, but only sting them with what comes out of their mouths. That’s who will be subject to the locust’s plagues, with one third of them being killed, spiritually, a death to their souls.

Question, who would be more likely to listen to a fake mimic of God’s Truth coming out the locust’s mouths? Believers that are in ignorance, those Christian brethren who don’t know the difference because they’ve listened more to doctrines of men than our Lord directly within His Word. That’s who these plagues by the locusts is especially pointed at. Brethren who put their trust in man, or in a religious system of man, and doctrines of men that don’t align with God’s Word, who are setup for deception by the locust army. These are drunken in the night spiritually, asleep in the night like Paul showed in 1 Thessalonians 5.

The rest are those who refuse Christ, so the locust army’s power out of their mouths will not affect them the same, for they haven’t believed in God from the start. And for that reason, nor will they repent of their idolatry, their murders, their sorceries, nor of their fornications nor their thefts.