Previously: Revelation 8-9: the division of the Empire, part two
The first post in the Revelation series
Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar before God, saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour, the day, the month, and the year, were released to kill a third of mankind. The number of mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand; I heard their number. And this is how I saw the horses in my vision and those who rode them: they wore breastplates the color of fire and of sapphire and of sulfur, and the heads of the horses were like lions’ heads, and fire and smoke and sulfur came out of their mouths. By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed, by the fire and smoke and sulfur coming out of their mouths. For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails, for their tails are like serpents with heads, and by means of them they wound. The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk, nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts. Revelation 9:13-21
The sixth trumpet involves a judgment by four types or groups (four angels), which originates at the Euphrates River; which would occur over a certain time period (1 hour + 1 day + 1 month + 1 year), and which would afflict the final third of the Roman Empire, if the historicists are correct; or the Byzantine Empire. That the sixth trumpet judgment involves an army of horsemen is made plain by vs. 16. Then a description of the army is given, along with the unusual means by which they accomplish death.
The sixth trumpet judgment ends with the notation that those in the (former) Roman Empire who were left (the other two- thirds which had already been judged?) did not repent of a philosophy of works, of the worship of demons as idols made as actual statues, of murders, of sorcery, of immorality, or of theft.
We already know that we are looking for an assault against the Byzantine Empire which begins sometime after 762, which marks the end of the fifth trumpet. The Turks are the only power to assault the Byzantine Empire following 762. They actually bring about its fall in 1453. But do the details of history, the times, and the descriptions fit?
To be continued …
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Update: continued in Revelation 9: the four angels of the sixth trumpet
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