What are the seven trumpets of Revelation?

The trumpets are the first four specific judgments on the Western Roman earth, on all earthly prosperity and power (chap. 8). The next two are the judgments on men, whose portion is on the earth, but in the east (chap, 9). Then a parenthesis shews the connection of the great Western beast or empire with the cast, and the testimony given there, which comes to a close before the end of the period of the second woe - trumpet; and last follows the seventh trumpet, which closes the whole scene (chaps. 10, 11.

In the first four trumpets the judgment is limited to the third part of the things smitten. It is all that is organised on the earth, beginning by the lowest. The sources of refreshment and the authorities are smitten completely for a third part. First trumpet is a third part of the eminent persons and all prosperity. Second trumpet is some great power, which God employs in judgment, in causing to fall into the mass of the people (the sea). Third trumpet is the star, some power, acting as light, which corrupts the principles of the peoples and influences for evil. It is not only human power; it is something higher (as for instance the star of Napoleon). The "rivers" represent peoples, the "waters" moral influences. The peoples moving under certain principles become the rivers. Fourth trumpet is the governmental powers are smitten: they are in darkness, at least for a third part.

After this brief respite the seventh seal is opened, and another series of judgments, more dreadful and more distinctly from God's hand, falls upon the world. These are introduced by seven trumpets sounded by seven angels, and during the course of these judgments Christ is no longer seen as the Lamb slain, but as "the Messenger of the covenant," and always in angelic character As such He offers up the prayers of the saints, and the answer is the fire of God's consuming judgment cast on to the earth, thus again showing that the day of Christ's patience is over, and a totally different dispensation begun. The trumpets follow each other in rapid and dreadful succession. The first four announce wars, tumults, delusions, and anarchy spread over a third part of the world, a phrase probably signifying the Roman Empire. But the worst is still to follow, in the three last trumpets which bring "woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth."

In the earlier trumpets we have, I believe, the judgments of the western nations; and in the fifth and sixth trumpets, that of the eastern nations. The seventh trumpet closes up everything. In the first four, the state of things is touched. Grass represents general prosperity. In chapters 9 and 10, people are attacked. The contents of the little book of chapter 10 are found in chapter 11.

At whatever period the seven trumpets begin to sound, the series is continued until the Lord takes His great power, and reigns. The first four trumpet-actions do not seem to bear directly on men, though the third trumpet-sound causes the waters to become bitter, and many men drink of the waters, and die. The last three trumpets are connected with terrible power and judgment directly upon men living on the earth, and are called the three woes. It is God punishing the inhabitants of the earth. The trumpets are severer in their character than the seals.

We noticed, in considering the seventh chapter, that the angels were not to sound their trumpets until the elect remnant of Israel was set apart — till the servants of our God are sealed in their foreheads. That being done, the first angel sounds a trumpet.

The coming great events which overshadow all others are the Translation to Heaven (1 Thess. 4:16-17) and the Return from Heaven (Rev. 19:11-14). Paul alone treats of the former; John more fully than any of the other New Testament writers unfolds the latter. Now, in the interval between these two, the septenary series of judgments under the Seals, the Trumpets, and the Vials run their course. These divine chastisements increase in severity as we pass from one series to another. The judgments are not contemporaneous but successive. The Trumpets succeed the Seals, and the Vials follow the Trumpets. Strict chronological sequence is observed. The general symbol of the previous prophecy was a Seal; in the second series of judgments it is a Trumpet; in the third it is a Vial or bowl. These respective symbols impress a certain character on the events grouped under them. The Seals were opened in order that the successive parts of God’s revelation of the future might be disclosed, but to faith only the mass would regard the judgments as merely providential. Such things had happened before. But the Trumpets’ loud blast by angels intimates a public dealing with men of an intensely judicial character. These mystic Trumpets sound an alarm throughout the length and breadth of apostate Christendom. The public intervention of God in the guilty and apostate scene is thus intimated. Then in the third general symbol, that of the Vials or bowls poured out, the concentrated wrath of God overwhelms the whole prophetic scene under Heaven. Revelation 16 reveals a series of judgments hitherto unsurpassed in range and severity. During the progress of the Seal judgments the Lamb and His suffering people on earth are prominently introduced, but under the Trumpet judgments the Lamb wholly disappears, and saints are only incidentally noticed, and then as praying.

The prophecy under the first four Trumpets refers to the general state of things, civil and ecclesiastical, of the western Roman empire then revived. Revelation 8:2-13 covers this ground. The recurrence of the expression, third part (twelve times repeated in our chapter, see R.V.), points to the resuscitated power of Rome, the same power which gave its legal sanction to the crucifixion of the Lord and scattered the Jews throughout the earth (see Rev. 12:3-4). Then the fifth Trumpet, or first Woe judgment (Rev. 8:13), falls on apostate Judaism, and is the subject of Revelation 9:1-11. The sixth Trumpet, or second Woe judgment, deals directly with the guilty and apostate inhabitants of the Roman earth, and is the burden of Revelation 9:12-21. The final blast of the Trumpet, or third Woe, is universal in its effects, and in result reaches on to the end of the kingdom reign of 1000 years, even to “the time of the dead that they should be judged” (Rev. 20:11-15). The momentous issues under the seventh Trumpet are briefly detailed within the compass of four verses, Revelation 11:15-18.

We have had the preliminary judgments ushered in by the first four trumpets. They dealt, to a certain extent, with man's prosperity high or low — first, in the settled ordered system, and next in a state of confusion; then the blow fell on the means of human enjoyment, turned into bitterness and destruction; and lastly, the whole fabric of political rule, supreme and subordinate, has to suffer a notable eclipse.* Thus, it was a judgment of circumstances, rather than a personal visitation. But we also see a closing intimation of still deeper inflictions, marked off in the most definite way from the series that preceded: "Woe, woe, woe, to those that dwell on the earth," etc. The unsealed do not escape in the first; the third of men are killed in the second. Under the last we come, in a general way, to the end of all.

if you examine the first four trumpets you will find that they symbolize the blighting of all that supplies the needs, or pleasures, of man — at least on a third part of the earth, where these judgments fall — the trees, the sea, the rivers, the sun, the moon, and the stars. The judgments thus fall on the circumstances of men during the four terrible blasts of these trumpets. Does not this show out the marvellous long-suffering of God? There is warning after warning; and even now, though the judgments of God through angelic agency begin, still the mildest are first. But at last the fifth angel sounds; and men are now tormented in their own persons. The bottomless abyss is opened; hell, as it were, let loose on earth: Gross darkness now covers men’s minds. And out of this darkness come terrible locusts. These seem to me to figure wicked spirits, which shall sting men with horrible doctrines; for the angel of the bottomless abyss is their king — and thus are men tormented five months.

“The sixth angel sounded.” And the four angels, bound in the great river Euphrates, are loosed. And a vast army of horsemen, a terrible show of human power and strength, pours into the prophetic earth from the east. These seem to me to be possessed by the wicked spirits of the previous woe. Though Satan is the god of this age, yet his power is only permitted so far; but who can conceive the state of the earth when Satan, and the hosts of demons, are thus let loose? And, my reader, if you are not caught up to meet Christ, and be for ever with the Lord, you may see all this, and feel it in your own terrified soul!

During this present dispensation of grace God has not intervened directly in the affairs of the world. In long-suffering grace He has been bearing with this world. But once the Church is caught up the work of judgment begins. First the seven seals, God's providential judgments, run their course; then the seven trumpets follow, direct visitations from heaven as seen in their angelic agency; the last three of the latter series being likewise called woes. But in the seventh trumpet or third woe, taking place during the great tribulation, we have THE LORD INTERVENING IN PERSON.

As to the trumpets, taking them altogether, you have them developed in a way similar to the seals. You have six trumpets and then an interval and in that interval you have the little book and the two witnesses testifying. The seven seals seem to give us the introductory judgments which are inflicted largely by human agencies. These judgments of the trumpets are through providential agencies, more particularly resembling those in the land of Egypt, the blood, the hail, the death, that comes in upon all. They doubtless symbolize spiritual death as well. There is another thing to notice they are visited more particularly upon the third part of the earth. That seems to be the western, or Roman Empire.