The Eastern Question

THE SEVEN TRUMPETS

God had in old time foretold the fall of Babylon, and the succession of Medo-Persia to her place of power in the world. He had told of the passing of this power from Persia and Media to Grecia, and from Grecia to Rome. And now, before closing the book of His counsels, He would tell of the fall of Rome, and the passing of power from her to others who should succeed. This is done in the series of the seven trumpets of the book of Revelation, which mark important events in the breaking up of the mighty empire of Rome. EQ 2.1

The trumpet itself is a symbol of war. In this fact alone is a suggestion that the seven trumpets announce wars, and as the Roman power was the center of all, they would have to announce wars beginning with Rome. The first four trumpets give the fall of the Western Empire of Rome. The fifth and sixth trumpets give the fall of the Eastern Empire of Rome. And the seventh trumpet gives the fall of all nations and of the world itself. Any one reading the eighth and ninth chapters of Revelation, together with verses 15-19 of the eleventh and 18-20 of the sixteenth chapter, can easily determine that the seventh trumpet ends all things of earth. EQ 2.2

The best exposition of the first six of the seven trumpets is Gibbon’s “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” in its descriptions of the careers of the Goths, Vandals, Huns, Turks, and Mohammedan Arabs. By reading of the first trumpets in the eighth chapter, it will be seen that a dreadful state of things is contemplated. Yet the last three are so much worse than the first ones that “woe” is their chief characteristic. “I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabitants of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels which are yet to sound!” Revelation 8:13. EQ 2.3