November 7th

The Fourth Trumpet/Vial

And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.

(Revelation 8:12) KJV

And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.

(Revelation 16:8-9) KJV

A lot of people find it hard to reconcile the idea of a loving God with vials of plagues being poured out upon the Earth. It’s similar to the idea that a loving God wouldn’t send people to hell. We understand the confusion, but it’s not confusion on God’s part, it’s our attempt to apply human values to something that we don’t fully understand.

Let’s take hell, for example. The description is truly horrifying. Just read Luke 16:19-31. Why would a loving God send someone to hell? The answer lies in understanding the purpose of creation. God knew before the beginning of time that creating this physical reality from the Hydrogen in water would result in a system with inherent impurity. That’s why God designed the system as a means to permanently separate the corrupt from the incorruptible so that it could be destroyed. The plan of redemption through faith in Jesus Christ is how we come out on the pure side and don’t get lost with the corruption. As such, hell is the default state for all life and that’s where we begin our journey: in the lower parts of the Earth. This life is our opportunity to escape it. God isn’t being mean by sending people to hell, he’s shown his uncompromising love for us by becoming human and living among us so that we may be saved from it.

Likewise the vials of wrath poured out on the Earth aren’t God being intentionally mean. They are all of the energy of destruction that God has held back from the Earth so that we can live lives of relative peace and security.

Take the solar flares described in the passage as an example. Why aren’t they happening now? Why haven’t they been a regular occurrence since the beginning of time? They have, but God protected us from them and designed systems to mitigate the effects of these phenomena. The problem is that in order for this physical reality to pass away and the next one be brought in, all of these systems are going to break down and the energy will be released. God is angry, and righteously so, and this anger must be vented so that we can go forward into a new reality where we’re all at peace.

There is an incredible amount of detail in the scripture which gives us a way to understand what happens. This is now the 4th plague which involves either matter or energy falling to the Earth out of heaven. Revelation 6:14 tells us that the heavens roll up like a scroll. Heaven, the firmament, is the source of gravitational interaction which has been holding the stars in place, so as it’s removed the stars begin to fall. The first wave is relatively small debris which falls as hail at the first trumpet. The size of the particles gets successively larger with the 2nd and 3rd trumpet until bodies with the mass of the planet Mercury are smashing to the Earth.

While this is happening the sun is going through a metamorphosis. There are prophecies in scripture about both the sun being brighter than normal and going dark. It’s possible to understand these prophecies as part of the same event. The sun is going to burn off all of its excess energy as solar flares which cause the sun to appear seven times brighter than normal. This causes the moon, a reflective body, to appear as bright as the sun. The solar flares are what scorch the people as part of the 4th trumpet/vial. When the energy has been released the sun will settle down to be a dimly glimmering body with less intensity than it has now. The sun will still be still present during the Millennial Kingdom, but it’s replaced as the main source of light by the brightness of the Lord in the temple at Jerusalem.

The following summary gathers up all of the pertinent prophecy about the different conditions that the sun will go through. Although they vary from brighter to dim to dark there’s no conflict here. All of these passages occur in the context of the great and terrible day of the Lord and the establishment of his Millennial Kingdom. Each condition of the sun is part of its evolution into the body which will orbit the Earth during the Millennial Kingdom.

4th Trumpet/Vial Summary

Event	Description
Seal 6 Rev 6:12, 14	.. the sun became black, .. the moon became as blood;
Trumpet 4 Rev 8:12	.. the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars, .. so the third part of them was darkened ..
Vial 4 Rev 16:8-9	.. poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.
Scripture	Prophecy
	Sun and moon become brighter
Isaiah 30:26	.. light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun .. .. the light of the sun shall be sevenfold ..
	Sun and moon become darker
Isaiah 5:30	.. the light is darkened in the heavens thereof.
Isaiah 13:10	.. the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light .. .. the sun shall be darkened .. .. the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
Isaiah 24:23	.. the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed ..
Joel 2:2	A day of darkness and of gloominess ..
Joel 2:10	.. the sun and the moon shall be dark, .. and the stars shall withdraw their shining:
Joel 2:30-31	.. I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, .. blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, .. and the moon into blood
Joel 3:15	.. The sun and the moon shall be darkened, .. and the stars shall withdraw their shining.
Matthew 24:29	.. the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light..
Mark 13:24	.. the sun shall be darkened and the moon shall not give her light..
	Sun and moon will glow dimly
Isaiah 42:16	.. I will make darkness light before them ..
Zech 14:6-7	.. that the light shall not be clear, nor dark .. .. not day, nor night: .. at evening time it shall be light.

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