The Seven Trumpets of Revelation and Muslims in Bible Prophecy

September 11, 2001 is a day that the world will not soon forget. Almost the entire world witnessed, by way of television, the horror of people jumping to their deaths and the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, New York, USA, crashing to the ground, all a result of Muslim radicals crashing airplanes into the Twin Towers. As we all know, these radicals were driven on by the teachings of Bin Laden who, quoting from the Koran, promised them eternal life for doing these terrible acts.

As a result of these terrible actions on the part of Muslim terrorists, many are asking, does the Bible have anything to say about the Muslims and terrorists? What is the meaning of these events? Does it mean the world is soon coming to an end?

The Bible does have something to say about the Muslims and terrorists. And some of what it says has to do with what is happening right now in the world. So, read the articles below and learn much of what is known about it.

Our guest author has provided us with several good articles concerning the trumpets of Revelation. The first four trumpets involve the Christians of the Roman Empire, while the three trumpet woes (trumpets 5 through 7) explain the role of Muslims in relation to their contemporary Christians. We hope that you enjoy them and learn much from each of them. Our guest author has also provided documents about the trumpet woes and we have placed the first two of the three trumpet woes (trumpets 5 and 6) below where you can link to and read them. Note that we do not provide his document on the 7th trumpet because we believe there is a better interpretation of when this one occurs, so provide our own document for trumpet 7.

To any Muslims reading this, it is not our intent to create hate against Muslims, but simply to point out the facts of history and that the Bible predicted the rise of the Muslim religion more than 500 years in advance and the role it would play in the Christian world. Historical evidence indicates that the book of Revelation was written a little after 90 AD (about 60 years after Jesus went to heaven), though some think it may have been written as early as the time of Nero in the mid 60 AD range, or possibly later. Anything said about the Muslims in Revelation was in fact written long before there was such a thing as a Muslim. God revealed it to the Christians long before it ever occurred, though it is seriously doubtful that they understood what it meant until after the events happened because of the complicated symbolism involved.

History itself reveals both positive and negative aspects of the incursions of Muslims into Christian lands long ago. Some Muslims may be disappointed to learn that though the Bible speaks of the Muslim incursions into the Christian lands, it does not speak of the Crusades against Muslim territories. There is a good reason for this. The focus of the Prophecies of Revelation concerning the Muslims was that God planned to use them to punish the Christians for failing to live up to his requirements. He also wanted to bring the Christians to true repentence for the sins they were committing, but noted ahead of time that most of them would refuse in spite of the punishment God sent their way while hoping to get their attention.

The focus of the Bible on the Muslim attacks against the Christians does not in any way deny the evils the Christians did against the Muslims during the Crusades (and truthfully, history shows that evils were done by both sides). God had his purposes, which he always does when he takes action. This speaks of the fact that God was trying to get the Christians to change their ways. He was not trying to make Muslims out of the Christians, as some Muslims might imagine, but rather was trying to get the Christians to be better Christians, to live up to all that God requires of them.

Note that we provide PDF versions of some of the articles shown below. You need the free Adobe Acrobat reader to view any PDF formatted article. If you don't have the Adobe Acrobat Reader but would like to view any article in PDF version, then Click here to obtain the free Adobe Acrobat reader. Install the downloaded reader program, and once that is finished, you can view the PDF version of any article on any site.

 

---

The First Four Trumpets - By Our Guest Author

Before you start reading the article The First Four Trumpets of Revelation provided by our guest author, please note that the guest author is a Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Christian, so makes some reference to SDA beliefs and writings in his document. If you are not an SDA, the web site authors encourage you to not be afraid to read the guest author's document. There is much good material in this document from which you can learn, so is worth your time to read it. He didn't write this document to convert you to an SDA but rather his primary purpose was to inform people of how to understand the trumpets. Note that the guest author's abbreviation "S.O.P." (an abbreviation of the words Spirit Of Prophecy) refers to the writings of Ellen G. White, one of the founders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Seventh-day Adventists believe Ellen G. White was an inspired messenger of God but is not considered equal with and not greater than the Bible (that is true of most of them and is the official stand of the SDA Church, but there are some individuals among them who are an exception to that).

The guest author mentions his view of the 7th trumpet in this article, but at this web site we feel that there is a little better interpretation available so have provided an article below on the 7th trumpet to explain it. We also believe that while the guest author has provided an excellent explanation of the first four trumpets, we believe that there is a little better explanation of the fourth trumpet. An alternate article explaining that will be available in the future, but not now. As soon as it is available, we will post it here. No author gets everything right, including us, but you can still benefit by reading the article by our guest author. We believe that he is right on with the first three trumpets and with the fifth and sixth trumpets so think there is much to be gained by studying his materials. We encourage you to read his articles for this reason.

The First Four Trumpets of Revelation - HTML Format

The First Four Trumpets of Revelation - PDF Format (2.9 MB)

The First Four Trumpets of Revelation - Microsoft Word or WordPad RTF Format (8.3 MB)

---

The Last Three Trumpets - The Three Woes - Muslims In Bible Prophecy

Guest Author Articles on Trumpets 5 and 6

5th Trumpet of Revelation 9 - Tormented by Locusts - HTML format

5th Trumpet of Revelation 9 - Tormented by Locusts - PDF format (749 KB)

6th Trumpet of Revelation 9 - The Triumph and Tragedy of the Turk - HTML format

6th Trumpet of Revelation 9 - The Triumph and Tragedy of the Turk - PDF format (189 KB)

See the comments below on the 6th trumpet for further historical details that you should find most informative.

7th Trumpet (Last Woe) - Written By Web Site Authors

Dating the Blowing of the Seventh Trumpet - HTML format (73 KB)

---

 

Comments By Web Site Authors About the Guest Author's 6th Trumpet Article

The guest author does not give all the details of the historical events leading to the reduction of power of the leader of the Ottoman Turks and how the events of August of 1840 fulfilled the prophecy of this. Below is more detailed information, including reports sent to a newspaper of the day by individuals involved with the actual historical events.

Here is the prophecy to be fulfilled:

Rev 9:13 And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,
Rev 9:14 Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.
Rev 9:15 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.

Verse 15 is the one which gives the time formula, so by determining the beginning date, one can fix the ending date. Of course, the only way to determine the beginning date of the 6th trumpet is to date the 5th trumpet first. Based on the fact that the fifth trumpet predicted the rise of the Saracens (Muslim Arabs who went about conquering for their religion). This is based on several factors. First, the smoke rising from the abyss obscured the sun and the air. This event follows the darkening of the sun, moon and stars, an event believed to occur about the end of the Roman Empire. So, this must follow.

The sun, as a symbol of Jesus, is obscured by the Muslim religion because it denies the divinity of Jesus and it replaces him with what they claim is an even greater prophet - Muhammed. Revelation 9:11 says that they had a king over them. The only time the Arab Saracens had a single king (remember that in Bible prophecy a king is normally a line of kings, not a single individual, so this is a reference to a single line of kings) over them was when Othman, the Turk, united all the Arabs under his command and thereby began to fulfill the prophecy. Prior to Othman, the Saracens had several lines of kings ruling over them.

According to the understanding of the prophecy of the fifth trumpet by Litch, the time of the prophecy of the 5th trumpet started when Othman began to conquer the Eastern Roman Empire, which commenced with the battle near Nicomedia on July 27, 1299. The prophecy said that these Arabs would torment men for five months, which is symbolic of 150 years (30 days per month X 5 months = 150 symbolic days or 150 literal years). The Ottoman Empire tried for a little more than 150 years to conquer the Eastern Roman Empire, and while they were successful in taking much of it, they failed to take Constantinople. In this sense, they tormented men without "killing" them - they didn't succeed in totally destroying the Eastern Roman Empire but certainly tortured it.

According to the calculation by Litch, the 6th trumpet began when this 150 year period ended, meaning it began on July 27, 1449. Shortly before this date, the final Roman ruler of Constantinople asked for permission of the Turkish Sultan to be crowned king of Constantinople, thereby showing that he was no longer an independent ruler, but instead ruled at the pleasure of the Turkish ruler. By so doing, he surrendered his sovereignty, which marks the end of the 150 years of torment by the Saracens under the leadership of the Turks. The Eastern Roman Empire was brought to a final end shortly after this event when a new Sultan took the throne and determined to take Constantinople. This completed, Constantinople became the new capital of the Ottoman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire ceased to exist.

Now, the prophecy for the 6th trumpet said it would run for an hour, a day, a month, and a year for slaying, not just tormenting, the third part of men (the Eastern Roman Empire - the old Roman Empire had been divided into 3 parts long before, so 1/3 of men would refer to the third of the territory of the Roman Empire which constituted the Eastern Roman Empire at that time). This time prophecy works out as follows:

Symbolic Time	Literal Time
year (12 months X 30 days/month)	360 years
month (30 days)	30 years
day	1 year
hour (1 year of 360 days / 24)	15 days
Total Time	391 years, 15 days

Adding this time to the starting date of July 27, 1449, brings you to the final date of the ending of the prophecy of August 11, 1840. On this date, the leader of the Ottoman Turks surrendered his sovereignty to the Christian nations (the reverse of what happened at the beginning of the prophetic time period for this trumpet), known as the Four Powers, who became his protectors. By so doing, he terminated the end of the 391 years, 15 days, of prophecy exactly on the date on which the Bible said he would be reduced in power. You can read the longer details of this history by clicking here, or you can read on below for the shorter version of the details of how this last event of August of 1840 came about.

The quote below was apparently written by one of the representatives of the Four Powers (England, Russia, Austria, and Prussia) which intervened in the affairs between Egypt and the Ottoman Empire because they wished to see the Ottoman Empire continue to exist rather than allow the leader of Egypt (referred to below as the Pacha or Pasha) to take over the Ottoman Empire. Note that as of August of 1840, there had been threats of war going back to 1838 and apparently a year or so of actual war between Egypt and the Ottoman Empire, with the Empire losing the war.

"By the French steamer of the 24th, we have advices from Egypt to the 16th. They show no alteration in the resolution of the Pacha. Confiding in the valor of his Arab army, and in the strength of the fortifications which defend his capital, he seems determined to abide by the last alternative; and as recourse to this, therefore, is now inevitable, all hope may be considered as at an end of a termination of the affair without bloodshed. Immediately on the arrival of the Cyclops steamer with the news of the convention of the four powers, Mehemet Ali, it is stated, had quitted Alexandria, to make a short tour through Lower Egypt. The object of his absenting himself at such a moment being partly to avoid conferences with the European consuls, but principally to endeavor, by his own presence, to arouse the fanaticism of the Bedouin tribes, and facilitate the raising of his new levies. During the interval of this absence, the Turkish government steamer, which had reached Alexandria on the 11th, with the envoy Rifat Bey on board, had been by his orders placed in quarantine, and she was not released from it till the 16th. Previous, however, to the poet's [boat's] leaving, and on the very day on which he [she] had been admitted to pratique, the above- named functionary had an audience of the Pacha, and had communicated to him the command of the Sultan, with respect to the evacuation of the Syrian provinces, appointing another audience for the next day, when, in the presence of the consuls of the European powers, he would receive from him his definite answer, and inform him of the alternative of his refusing to obey; giving him ten days which have been allotted him by the convention to decide the course he should think fit to adopt." (London Morning Chronicle, September 18, 1840, extract from a correspondent's letter dated "Constantinople, August 27, 1840.", quoted in Uriah Smith's book The Prophecies of Daniel and Revelation, Review and Herald Publishing Association, Hagarstown, Maryland, USA)

There are several key events in this, one of which is that the Turkish government ship, which carried the representatives of the Four Powers to Alexandria with their plans to meet with the Pacha of Egypt, arrived in the harbor at Alexandria, Egypt, on the 11th of August, 1840. This was followed immediately by it and everyone on board being placed in quarantine by the harbor health authorities, which remained in effect until the 16th of August of 1840. This forced everyone to remain on the ship from the moment it arrived until the quarantine was lifted (the red word in the above paragraph, pratique, means this: clearance given an incoming ship by the health authority of a port) on the 16th of August of 1840. In other words, there was no meeting with the Pacha of Egypt UNTIL the 16 of August of 1840 and not a moment before.

The Pacha of Egypt (whose name apparently was Mehemet Ali and sometimes referred to as the Pasha in other documents, was the ruler of Egypt and had been winning battles against the Porte, the ruler of the Ottoman Empire, wars which threatened to take over the Ottoman Empire). The Pacha absented himself from Alexandria, Egypt, apparently some indefinite time (how many days is not stated) prior to the arrival of the Turkish government ship. He did this for several reasons. First, he apparently had learned of the meeting of the Four Powers some (unspecified) days prior when the French ship Cyclops arrived with the news of the conference in London. Second, he then knew a ship would be arriving with the news of the decision of the Four Powers, but apparently he decided that he did not want to meet with them without first taking some steps to strengthen his own position. So, he decided that a visit among his people was the best way to accomplish this. Third, he wanted to levy some new taxes among the Bedouin Tribes, so by traveling among them, this furthered his cause of both military support and tax support.

The Pacha apparently personally gave orders to have the Turkish government ship placed into quarantive before he left for his trip among the Bedouin Tribes. By having the Turkish government ship immediately placed into quarantive upon its arrival, he could be sure that any news they had about the conference in London (which took place in July of 1840) would not be noised about the city of Alexandria until after he had a chance to return from his trip, whereupon he could hear it first and could hopefully control any damage it might do.

The ultimate effect of these actions was this: By making sure he was not in Alexandria when the representatives of the Four Powers arrived and having them placed immediately in quarantine, this meant there was no possibility that he could have been given the ultimatum until after the Turkish government ship was given health clearance and he returned, which health clearance to the ship was given on the 16th of August, 1840.

As important as these dates of delivery of the ultimatum to the Pacha are to history, from a Bible prophecy perspective, they are not what really mattered most. The quote below from the represtative of the Four Powers who was with the Porte will help explain why this is so:

"I can add but little to my last letter on the subject of the plans of the Four Powers; and I believe that the details I then gave you compose everything that is yet decided on. The portion of the Pacha, as I then stated, is not to extend beyond the line of Acre, and does not include either Arabia or Candia. Egypt alone is to be hereditary in his family, and the province of Acre to be considered as a pachalik, to be governed by his son during his lifetime, but afterwards to depend on the will of the Porte; and even this latter is only to be granted to him on the condition of his accepting these terms and delivering up the Ottoman fleet within the period of ten days. In the event of his not doing so, this pachalik is to be cut off. Egypt alone is then to be offered, with another ten days for him to deliberate on it before actual force be employed against him. The manner, however, of applying the force, should he refuse to comply with these terms--whether a simple blockade is to be established on the coast, or whether his capital is to be bombarded and his armies attacked in the Syrians provinces--is the point which still remains to be learned; nor does a note delivered yesterday by the four ambassadors, in answer to a question put to them by the Porte, as to the plan to be adopted in such an event, throw the least light on this subject. It simply states that provision had been made, and there was no necessity for the Divan alarming itself about any contingency that might afterward arise." (London Morning Chronicle, September 3, 1840, extract from a correspondent's letter dated "Constantinople, August 12, 1840," quoted in Uriah Smith's book The Prophecies of Daniel and Revelation, Review and Herald Publishing Association, Hagarstown, Maryland, USA - To read the whole chapter of this book by Uriah Smith, which gives further explanations of his views of the 5th and 6th trumpets, click here.)

What mattered is that the Porte asked about what, if anything, he needed to do should the Pacha refuse the orders of the Four Powers. He was told that he need not worry about it as provision had been made to deal with the Pacha to compel his compliance with the order. The question by him, the answer to his question, and his response to the answer to his question is what is important.

His response was that he believed the explanation of the representative of the Four Powers that the matter need not concern him because (note that the communication was dated August 12, 1840) adequate provision had been made to protect his interests. His acceptance of the explanation of the representative of the Four Powers ON THAT DATE (August 11, 1840) is all that mattered because he was the main object of the prophecy which terminated on that date. The Pacha of Egypt was not the main object of the prophecy. On that date, the Porte accepted the statement of the representative of the Four Powers and did nothing further, which indicates that he was placing himself in the hands of the Four Powers of Europe and accepted their protection. From then on, he ruled only at their pleasure and he knew it. His power as an independent ruler was reduced. If he didn't accept their authority over him, they could simply withdraw their protection from him and the Pacha of Egypt would move in with his troops and finish off the Ottoman Empire - and likely him with it. There would be nothing stopping that from happening unless the Four Powers restrained the Pacha.

According to historians, the Pacha had been winning his war against the Ottoman Empire because the Porte was not well liked and the people found more freedom under the Pacha than under the Porte. Thus, when the armies of the Pacha arrived in a given area, the population tended to support them rather than the armies of the Porte. Consequently, the Ottoman Empire was losing the war rather quickly, something that the Four Powers decided they could not live with, probably because they were worried about what a destabilized Ottoman Empire would do. So, they intervened through a Conference held at London in July of 1840 with a representative of the Ottoman Empire present to represent the interests of the Sultan. This resulted in the Treaty of London of July of 1840.

In descriptions of these events that the web site authors have read elsewhere, some erroneously focus on the fact that the order to the Pacha apparently was supposed to have been delivered on August 11, 1840 and believe that this fulfilled the prophecy of Revelation 9:15. Some even misread the actual historical events and believe that the delivery was made on August 11, 1840, when in fact that is not what actually happened. While it is a fact that the intended delivery date is somewhat important because the message did need to be delivered around then to facilitate the Porte believing the representative of the Four Powers, people forget that the prophecy was not about the Pacha of Egpyt and it was not about the delivery of the message of the Four Powers. Instead, the prophecy was applicable to the Ottoman Empire and, as a result, was actually about the power and position of the leader of that empire, the Porte, and the fact that he would lose his power on that date (this does not have to mean he lost all power, but rather that he was no longer an independent ruler and served at the pleasure of others). Therefore, what the Porte believed happened on that date and his response to the answer to his question is what mattered more than anything else. Everything else involving the delivery of the message is secondary to that, including the fact that the actual delivery date of the message of the Four Powers was on August 16, 1840.

Of course, the Pacha was not very happy about the demands of the Four Powers and refused to obey their orders. The result was that European Naval ships bombarded at least one city along the Mediterranean coast, which was in the hands of the Pacha, and reduced it to ruins in a very short time. This event (and maybe a few others?) finally compelled the Pacha to accept the demands of the Four Powers and his troops withdrew back into Egypt during the winter of 1840-1841.

After the capture by the military of the Four Powers of St. Jean dAcre, a city going back to very ancient times that today lies inside of Northwestern Israel, an observer of these events later wrote to the London Morning Herald and commented about the condition of the Ottoman Empire:

"We have dissipated into thin air the prestige that lately invested as with a halo the name of Mehemet Ali.  We have in all probability destroyed forever the power of that hitherto successful ruler.  But have we done aught to restore strength to the Ottoman empire?  We fear not.  We fear that the Sultan has been reduced to the rank of a puppet; and that the sources of the Turkish Empires strength are entirely destroyed.

"If the supremacy of the Sultan is hereafter to be maintained in Egypt, it must be maintained, we fear, by the unceasing intervention of England and Russia . . . ."

It is clear that people near to these events felt the Ottoman Empire had been severely compromised by the events that had transpired and was an empire dependent upon the powers of Europe for its very existence. In time, this eventually led to the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire and a complete change in the government of what was left of it, which we know today as the country of Turkey. The final dissolution of the Ottoman Empire occurred in 1923. But clearly, the events of 1840 reversed the condition of things at the beginning of the Ottoman Empire where it was placed in control of the Christian nations. Suddenly it found itself in the grasp of the Christian nations with them being able to do with it pretty much as they pleased. Some discount the effect this had on the Ottoman Empire, but there is evidence from the events that followed that the Christian nations were concerned with the continuance of the Ottoman Empire. One result of that was the Crimean War between Russia and the Ottoman Empire, for which England and France intervened on the side of the ottoman Empire against Russia.

Hopefully, this helps the reader understand the details of how this event actually transpired and why the prophecy was actually fulfilled on the date prophecied.