This column is a revision of one I wrote years ago for a men’s Bible study we did at church, which is why I’m jumping straight into a single chapter of Revelation here. For a deeper dive into eschatology and the book of Revelation, check out my two-part interview with scholar and podcaster Dr. Matthew Halstead.
I don’t know anybody who doesn’t find the book of Revelation fascinating. Maybe it’s because most of the accounts in the book defy explanation — and it seems to become more inscrutable with repeated reading.
Sometimes when I read John’s descriptions of events in Revelation, they amuse me. I can envision these terrors as ‘50s Hollywood horror films. Chapter 9 is a prime example. Picture a vintage movie poster with the heading “The Fifth Trumpet Brings… the First Terror!” Verses 3-10 set the scene:
Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. They were allowed to torment them for five months, but not to kill them, and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone. And in those days people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them.
In appearance the locusts were like horses prepared for battle: on their heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces, their hair like women’s hair, and their teeth like lions’ teeth; they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle. They have tails and stings like scorpions, and their power to hurt people for five months is in their tails.
(I had a Sunday School teacher when I was in 5th grade who was an Army officer, and he interpreted nearly all of Revelation from a military perspective. Those locusts were helicopters according to his interpretation. Go figure.)
As the chapter goes on, John has written the sequel in verses 16-19. Envision another poster: “They Thought They Were Safe… but Then Came… the Second Terror.”
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.
Related: Sunday Thoughts: Imagining Eternity
Ok, so it sounds weird and a little flippant to laugh at these extreme terrors in the last days. How can I chuckle at them? The key is in the final verses of the chapter:
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.
These people who suffer at the hands of the terrors are the ones who have not given their lives over to God. So this leaves you with one of two practical applications.
If you’re certain of your salvation, rejoice! Revel in the fact that you won’t have anything to worry about.
If you’re not sure, repent. It’s never too late to let Him have control of your life. Then you can rejoice!
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