 Okay. So we are now in Revelation 7. We're going to start reading. Could somebody read for us the first four verses please? Revelation 7 verses 1 through 4. Revelation 7, 1 through 4. After these things I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth holding the four wings of the earth that the wind should not blow on the earth, on the sea or on any tree. Then I saw another angel ascending from the east having the seal of the living god and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea. Saying, Do not harm the earth, the sea or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads. And I heard the number of those who were sealed, 144,000 of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed. So thank you. So we're seeing that there is a time of great calm. So these four angels standing on the four corners of the earth holding back the winds that shouldn't blow on the earth to disturb the tree or the sea or anything on the earth is symbolic for us, symbolic of a time of great calm. The winds are like unrepresenting turbulence, things happening. So there's a period of calm, quiet. And then there's an angel who was too, who comes from the east and this angel has the power to cause harm. But the instruction is don't do anything. That means let the spirit of calm continue until we have marked out these 144,000 Jewish people. That means God is going to call forth these 144,000 Jews from all over the earth. And they belong to the 12 tribes of the children of Israel. That means they are sealed. They are marked out by God. The call of God is put upon their lives. And now how they are sealed, we know in the New Testament there are two things that are used to seal people. That is the presence of the Holy Spirit and the name of the Lord God. So we today as New Testament believers, we are sealed with the presence of the Holy Spirit and by the name of our God. Similarly, these people, these 144,000 Jews would be sealed by God by giving them both the Holy Spirit and the name of the Lord, being put upon their lives. They will be called by God. It does not mean that these 144,000 Jews have to be in Israel. They could be anywhere in the world. But they belong to the 12 tribes of Israel. Now, what is interesting versus five through eight of Revelation chapter seven versus five through eight. When in mentioning the names of the 12 tribes, two of the tribes have been left out. Instead of putting their names, the tribe of Dan and Ephraim, it's replaced by Joseph and Manasseh. So specifically mentioning Dan and Ephraim, it's replaced by Joseph and Manasseh. Again, there's, you know, there's in some in commentaries, there will be this discussion on why those names were left out and replaced by Joseph and Manasseh. Now, Joseph, but eventually, you know, you're covering all the 12 tribes, but it's a specifically naming Ephraim and Manasseh. It's put in there. Joseph, who was the father of Ephraim and Manasseh, the two tribes, his name is put in there. And Dan, the answer of Dan, just the tribe of Manasseh is mentioned there. So why would that happen? And there's a lot of, you know, discussion and the common part is again, this is just based on Bible study. People come up with the most logical reason is that because of the tribe of Dan and Ephraim, that they, you know, maybe they went away from God or they refused to fight for Israel or for the nation and so on. So there are various reasons why people would try to explain why their names were left. So why specifically Dan and Ephraim were left? There could be, you know, different reasons that people present. Now, we don't have to worry about it other than the fact that all the 12 tribes are covered, but the name of Joseph and Manasseh is mentioned in Stub Dan and Ephraim. Now, so what we are seeing is these 144,000 Jews have been marked. Now, obviously they are marked for a reason. They are marked for an assignment. It's not just for fun. Their assignment is to be proclaimers, to bear testimony to the Word of God and to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they're empowered by the Holy Spirit to do that. And we will see later in chapter 14 a testimony to their life during the tribulation. We will see that. Tribulation 14 looks back and says this is how they lived. But these 144,000 Jews, men have been marked by God around the world that they're bearing testimony to the Word of God and to the name of Jesus Christ. So the gospel is being preached, is being proclaimed even during the tribulation. Then what we are seeing is while this is going on, while these 144,000 Jews are being raised up, we now see once again a great multitude who have come into the presence of God. So our view goes from what's happening here on Earth, 144,000 Jews being marked out for God's purpose to heaven where we are seeing a great multitude of people. And who are these multitude of people? These are people who have come through the tribulation. That means we are seeing some more people who have been killed during the tribulation. Remember we saw in Revelation 6 in the fifth seal that many more people are going to be killed and they're going to obviously, you know, their souls are going to come up before the presence of God. And they're going to be clothed in white robes just like what we saw in Revelation 6-9, that when people are killed on the Earth, they're martyred on the Earth for the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus. Spiritually their spiritual persons come before the presence of God and they're clothed by tropes. So we're going to see one more scene of that in Revelation 7 verses 9-17 and these people are standing before the throne and they're worshiping God. That means more lives, more people are being martyred and they are seen up in heaven. So let's read that. That says Revelation 7-9-17, the worship of the martyred saints taking place in heaven. Revelation 7-9-17, please. Dave, would you want to read it or Aaron? After this I looked and there was an enormous crowd, no one could count all the people. They were from every race tribe, nation and language and they stood in front of the throne and all the lame dressed in white robes and holding palm branches and their hands. They called out in a loud voice, salvation comes from our God who sits on the throne. And from the lame all the angels stood round the throne and the elders and the four living creatures. Then they threw themselves face downwards in front of the throne and worshipped God saying, Amen, praise, glory, wisdom, thanksgiving, honor, power and might belongs to God forever and ever. One of the elders asked me, who are these people dressed in white robes and where do they come from? I don't know sir, you do, I answer. He said to me, these are the people who have come safely through the terrible persecution. They have washed their robes and met them white with the blood of the lame. That is why they stand before God's throne and serve him day and night in his temple. He who sits on the throne will protect them with his presence, never again will they hunger or thirst. Neither son nor any scorching heat will burn them because the lame who is in the center of the throne will be their shepherd and he will guide them to the spring of living, of life giving water and God will wipe away every tears from their eyes. Thank you. So John sees this great multitude once again. And this time he's seeing people from all over the world, from every tribe, town, people, language. So he's getting a sense of, wow, there are people here from just everywhere, standing before the throne. And they are clothed in white robes. So just keep this in mind, clothed in white robes, that's very special for the saints. We saw that earlier, the martyred saints in Revelation 6-9, they were given white robes. So here again, these are clothed in white robes and they're standing before the throne, they're worshiping God. They are singing salvation, belongs to the Lord and the angels and everyone else is joining in this worship before God. And so while the elders ask, do you know who these people are, who are they? And John says, I don't know. And the elder explains to them, these are the people who have come out through the great tribulation. So we are saying that these, now it doesn't state it here in the text, but it's safe to conclude that these are people who have been martyred during the tribulation. Why? Because the whole tribulation period is not yet over, it's going on. So these are saints who have been martyred during the tribulation and they are come up in the presence of God, they're clothed in white robes and they're worshiping God. And the promise to them is, I will wipe away all tears. So again, the reason that promise is given is because they have endured so much, they've gone through so much, they've suffered and they've even died for the name of Christ. And so there's this promise that they're going to be, they're going to sit on the throne, they're going to be before the throne of God, they will worship the Lord, they will neither hunger nor thirst to be more. They're not experienced, any of these hardships which they experienced while here on earth, God will wipe away all the tears. And so that's what we're saying, because based on the context of what is given as a promise that these are people who most likely have suffered so much during the tribulation, died for their faith and they are there before the presence of God worshipping. So chapter seven is like an in between chapter, it's like an interjecting the whole sequence of things that are happening. The sixth seal is over, seventh seal is going to take place, but in between, John gets this insight into 144,000 Jews who are set apart by God to serve him during the tribulation. And these great multitudes of people who are coming out of the tribulation, they're in the presence of God out of every tribe, tongue and nation that comes, people from all over the world are going to believe in Christ during the tribulation. They're going to die for their faith during the tribulation and they are going to come up with the presence of God, clothed in white robes and worshipping God. So remember, these things are happening during the tribulation and literally in the first half of the tribulation because we haven't reached chapter 11 yet. So it's just the beginning now when all these things are happening. So we get into chapter eight, where we now in a read about the seventh seal. And then that leads us into the seven trumpets. Right. So the seven seals, seven trumpets and seven bowls. So the seventh seal. So in Revelation chapter eight, and let's read verses one through six, please. Revelation chapter eight, verses one through six. So we're going to transition from seven seals into the seven trumpets. What happens then during that time? Somebody could read Revelation chapter eight, verses one through six for us, please. And now Kanan Siddharth. When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. And I saw the seven angels who stand before God and to them were giving seven trumpets. Another angel who had a golden sensor came and stood at their altar. He was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne. The smoke of the incense together with the prayers of the saints went before God from the angels' hand. Then the angel took the sensor, filled it with fire from the altar and hurled it on the earth. And there came force, and there came peach of thunder, rumblings the pleasure of loving and love to the trumpets. And the seven angels who had seven trumpets prepared to sound them. Thank you. So what do we see here? The seventh seal is just a moment of silence. It's a continuation of this calm that we read in chapter seven. So remember the beginning of chapter seven. The angel says, okay, don't do anything. Hold back the winds. Let there be calm. There are certain things that need to be done. What is it? Mark out the 144,000 Jews. And we are seeing, you know, souls up in heaven, worshiping God. So chapter eight, seventh seal, silence, quietness. But it's an indication. It's a time of transition. What's happening? We're going to get ready for the seven trumpets. So that's revelation eight to the seven angels for the seven trumpets. They come and they stand. But at this time. What we are seeing is there's a great prayer and intercession happening from the earth. Because we are seeing that there is this angel who has this is verse three revelation eight verse three has this golden sensor. And he's having a lot of incense. And there are the prayers of the saints that are coming up before the throne, the golden altar before the throne. So what we have obviously these are the prayers of the saints who are on the earth. And the prayers are coming up before God. And this angel has been given this incense. It's just showing us it's representing to us. A lot of prayer that's happening. The prayers of the saints ascending before God. So therefore what we could say is that at this point in the tribulation, there's going to be a great prayer movement. Sometimes you might hear it referred to as a global prayer movement. This is happening in the tribulation. Obviously, when people are seeing all these, you know, things happening, there will be many who turn to God. It doesn't mean that everybody will turn to God, but there will be many who turn to God. And the only thing they can do is pray. Why? Because it's so difficult. It's so difficult to follow Christ. Like we've already seen people are being killed for the word and they're testimony. They're being martyred. And more people are going to be killed. So it's going to be very difficult. And the only thing people can do, those who turn to the Lord in those days is they can just pray. And that's what Revelation 8 verses 1 through 6. We are seeing this lots of prayer, prayer ascending before God. And the angel is throwing the censor to the earth, meaning he's igniting this prayer movement. You know, there's something from heaven that is igniting this prayer or encouraging this prayer or supporting this prayer movement on the earth. People are praying, crying out to God. Because it's not going to be easy. So that's another thing we're seeing happen during the Tribulation. And remember, we haven't even reached the middle of the Tribulation yet. This is all happening in the first part of the Tribulation. Revelation 11 will be the transition point when we are crossing into the second half of the Tribulation. This is all in the first part. It was three and a half years. The next thing that we see happen is the seven angels are ready to sound the seven trumpets. So one by one, these seven trumpets are sounded. And similar to what happened with the seven seals, with the six seals, first six of them, whenever a trumpet is sounded, something is happening here or not. And there is the wrath of God. There is a judgment of God being poured out on the earth. So let's look at them one by one. Let's read Revelation 8 verses 7 through 11. We will read about the first three trumpets. Revelation 8, 7 through 11. Somebody could read that for us, please. Revelation 8, 7 through 11. Karan, if your mic is fine, you can read it. Otherwise, may I call upon Dave to read? Okay, maybe Dave, you should read. I think maybe Karan's mic is not okay. You give me some time, sir. Oh, okay. Okay, okay. Revelation 8 verses 7 through 11. Maybe Prince, if you can read, if it's possible, or if Dave can get it or can get it. Go ahead. The first indus sounded, and hill and fire followed, mingled with blood, and they were thrown to the earth, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grasses were burned up. Then the second indus sounded, and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood, and a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed. Then the third indus sounded, and a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers, and on the springs of water, the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became Wormwood, and many men died from the water because it was metric. Thank you. So, as the trumpet judgments are being sounded, things are happening on the earth. So, when the first trumpet sounds, one third of the earth's vegetation is burned up. So, the trees, one third of all the trees in the grass, so earth's vegetation is destroyed. A third, 30% of the earth's vegetation is destroyed, and it's destroyed by hail and fire. So, different parts of the world are experiencing these things, hail and fire, and it's destroying the vegetation. Second angel, so John is saying, he's saying a great mountain burning with fire. So, when you think about a great mountain burning with fire, a mountain with fire, what does that look like for us? A mountain that's throwing fire into the sea. What does that picture to you? To most of us, that would seem like a volcano. A mountain that's throwing out fire seems like a volcano. So, it could be volcanic eruptions, but anyway, John sees like a mountain burning with fire, it's throwing fire into the sea. And it's destroying life in the sea. It's destroying sea creatures. It's destroying ships. So, life in the sea is being destroyed. Now, remember, we do depend a lot on the sea for food and other things, and there's just so much destruction there. The third trumpet is causing destruction of drinking water. Springs and rivers are affected and the water is turning bitter and can't drink it anymore. So, really life on earth, the vegetation, life in the sea, water that we drink is all being affected. And 30%, saying over and over again, 30% of all of these things is affected. And it's not going to be easy when things like this is happening. Already we've seen so many things happen under the seal judgments. Now the trumpet judgments are beginning to affect life, make it even more difficult. The fourth trumpet we will read verses 12 to 13. Revelation 8, 12 to 13. Somebody could read this, please. Then the fourth angel sounded, and the third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon and a third of the star, so that a third of them were drunken. A third of the day did not sign and likewise the night. And I looked and I heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth because of the remains of the trumpet, of the three angels who are above the sun. Thank you. So this fourth trumpet is once again, just like what we saw in Revelation 6, once again the sun, the stars, the moon are affected. And it's cutting off the heat and the light that the earth needs. So I can imagine, you know, how life on earth is going to be affected. If today everything, you know, under normal conditions, everything is held in balance. We get just the right amount of light and heat from the sun. There is the right balance of day and night. But then when that is disrupted and it says yet a third of the sun, that means imagine if 30% of the heat and the light is taken off, it's going to be terrible. So that's what I'm saying here in verse 12, that the stars, the sun is darkened and they did not shine. Now, we don't know for how long, whether it's just, you know, a short period of time or what duration this is, but it's going to affect life on earth terribly. And then there's an angel that says, you know, woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because the next three trumpets are going to be worse than these first four judgments that come on the earth. The next three trumpet sound are going to be worse than the first four trumpets that have already sounded. So it's like, get ready for worse things. So let me come into chapter nine and we read about the fifth trumpet. The fifth trumpet being sounded and what do we see happen? It's a rather lengthy passage, Revelation chapter nine. And we have to read verses one through 12 to get an understanding of what happens when the fifth trumpet sounded. But the angel has warned us, hey, this is going to be worse than the first four. So let's just look at Revelation nine verses one through 12. Somebody could read that for us, please. Revelation nine, one through 12, please. Can I read? Yes, go ahead. Then the fifth angel sounded and I saw a star fallen from heaven on the earth to him was given the key to the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace. And the air were opened because of the smoke of the pit. Then out of the smoke, locusts came upon the earth and to them was given power as the scorpions of the earth have power. They were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth or any green thing or any tree, but only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. And they were not given authority to kill them, but to torment them for five minutes. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man. In those days, men will seek death and will not find it. They will decide to die and death will flee from them. The shape of the locusts was like horses, prepared for battle. On their heads were crowns of something like gold and their faces were like the faces of men. They had hair like women's hair and their teeth were like lion's teeth. And they had a breastplate like breastplates of iron and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots with many horses running into battle. They had tails like scorpions and there were stings in their tails. Their power was to hurt men for five months and they had a king over them, the angel of the bottomless pit, those who were in Hebrew in Abaddon. But in Greek, he has the name Apollon. One bow is passed. Behold, two more bows were coming after these things. Thank you. So the fifth trumpet sounds. So there is an angelic being who is released on the earth who opens up the bottomless pit, meaning there's a release of demonic spirits on the earth. So the locus here are representing these demonic beings that are released on the earth and they have power like scorpions that means they are very painful and destructive in what they're doing and they're tormenting people on the earth for five months but they cannot affect these men who have the seal of God in their foreheads. It's not affecting the 144,000 Jewish men but these beings are troubling men so much that men want to die. They want to just end their lives but they're not able to do it. So it's a very difficult situation. They're being tormented. People are being tormented by these demonic powers for five months and they want to die but they just cannot. Now John describes what he's seeing verses 7 through 10 and what are these beings like? Now we don't know if what he was seeing when he describes these locus, he refers to them as locus so we can imagine, you know, locus they look almost like grasshoppers looking type creatures but they're actually empowered by demonic spirits so they could either just represent demonic spirits or some physical thing that is being used by demonic spirits but John is describing what he's seeing these locus that he's seeing so it's very likely that there are some things that are being used by these spirits that have been released from the bottomless pit to trouble men. It's very hard to determine from what John has described here what this could be. So, you know, just anything that we would arrive at could be just speculation, could be just guess but we will just leave it at that that there are these certain creatures or things that are being used by these demonic spirits to hurt men and trouble men for five months and this whole thing that's happening on the earth is actually being led by the angel of the bottomless pit I mean, this is like a heightened demonic activity on the earth which is troubling men and it could be through some sort of a thing or a creature, whatever that is on the earth meaning these creatures that John is saying, locus like things but the real power behind all of that is demonic power now keep this in mind because when we come to Revelation chapter 19 once again we will see demonic forces released on the earth in a different way this is when we come to the bold judgments so those demonic powers will actually cause nations to come against each other they will be released on the earth to go and instigate the heads of nations to come into the battle of Armageddon so what we are saying is during the tribulation both during the trumpet judgments as well as during the bold judgments there is increased demonic activity on the earth that is troubling people, causing people to suffer and the height of all of this what we will see later on is in chapter 13 when the beast and the false prophet that is the Antichrist and the false prophet Satan directly is empowering them they are empowered by the dragon that is Satan to cause harm upon the human race to take control of people's lives so we put all this together and we say that during the tribulation while there are other things happening in nature calamities happening vegetation being destroyed water being affected the seas being affected there are volcanic eruptions all of those things are happening the sun is being darkened the moon is turning blood red and all those things are happening there is also an unleash of demonic activity on the earth that are troubling people's lives like never before this fifth angel has announced and this is what is happening on the earth demonic power is troubling people on the earth for these five months but then he says the next two are going to be even worse so when the sixth trumpet is sounded again there is a release of demonic powers and they are affecting people on the earth in a very significant way so let us read Revelation chapter 9 verses 13 to 21 Revelation 9, 13 to 21 somebody could read that for us please then the sixth angel sounded and I heard a voice from the four phones of the golden altar which is before God saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet release the four angels who are bound at the great river Ephrytus so the four angels who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of an angel now the number of the armies of the horsemen was 200 million I heard the number of them and thus I saw the horse in a vision and those who sat on them had bracelets of fiery red hyacinth blue and sulphur yellow and the heads of the horse were like the heads of lion and out of their mouths came fire smoke and brimstone by these three flakes a third of men was killed by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths for their power is in their mouth and in their tails for their tails are like serpents having heads and with them they do harm but the rest of the men who were not killed by these flakes did not repent of the works of their hands that they should not worth a demon and idols of gold, silver, baston and wood which can neither see nor hear nor walk and they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immoralities or their thefts So once again when the sixth trumpet sounded angels have released from the river Euphrates and they they go there assignment is to kill a third of mankind so it seems here that there are these angels who been assigned in this territory and they go about they have been assigned in this territory around the river Euphrates at the great river Euphrates and they are released to destroy one third of mankind now it is not very clear here that how all this happens but it seems like there is a human army it could be understood as a literal army of people of 200 million this is in verse 16 200 million and they are going about destroying the lives of people and he's mentioning John is seeing actually what's happening because there is fiery red blue sulfur yellow fire smoke and brimstone that is coming out from these 200 million horsemen army of the horsemen or movement of this army and also these horses are looking very different this is some sort of a metallic they have breast plates and faces like lions and so on and so forth and there is fire and smoke and brimstone coming out so is John seeing spiritual beings that are very destructive in their nature that have been released on the earth that could be one or could this 200 million be a human army that is going about destroying lives but what is very clear is in verse 18 he says people are destroyed by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone so it seems to me and again I'm only saying it seems because we don't know for sure that this is talking about you know kind of battle of warfare that could happen in our day and time back in old times people fought with swords and shields and spears and fire and smoke and brimstone was not part of weapons of destruction or battles at the most they would shoot arrowheads with fire but today battles are very different it's fire, smoke and brimstone it's basically been dropped bombs missiles tanks and all the kinds of weapons that are used in warfare today are like this they cause these kinds of things to happen so if this army of 200 million that John saw it could be a literal army of people going about killing destroying this is when the sixth angel sounds or if it is all just a spiritual in nature it could be a natural army of 200 million people an army that's going about being very destructive at that point in time that's my feeling because he's talking about fire, smoke and brimstone and one third or 30% of mankind was killed so most likely it's some huge army some of the countries that have capacity for this kind of army of course is China they have a standing army I think of over 200 million soldiers so or at least it could be a combination of nations possibly such a large standing army that could more round and cause destruction now just to close off versus 20 to 21 while all this is happening there's another side to all of this that is people don't repent so on the one side we said there are people who are dying for their faith who are turning to God in prayer there are people who are listening to us who are bearing witness for the Lord Jesus Christ but then on the other side there are people it says here the rest of mankind they did not repent though they were seeing all these things they hardened their hearts and they continued to do in their sinful ways they did not turn to God so that's the other side of what's happening people are recognizing that this is very unusual this is not normal and yet there are people who refuse to repent and they continue on in their sinful ways so we've come to the end of chapter 9 next week we will pick up with chapter 10 and move forward and as we look at all these things we say you know a lot of these things that we are seeing that we are reading could definitely be fulfilled in our day and time especially when you talk about an army of 200 million if that was actually a physical army that's going about killing with smoke and fire and brimstone that seems much like a modern day warfare battle with the kind of equipment that's available today for battle seems very much like today's times alright so we're going to pause here we will pray and dismiss and we will continue this next week just an announcement that we will not be having the next class on media and technology and just taking a break we will continue that next week as well with that subject so there won't be class on media and technology I've put a note in that class as well okay I want to invite somebody to pray with us and we will close sorry Kiran would you like to pray and we will close sorry thank you sir I want to say thank you for the God your grace and mercy for the God thank you for the God once again we are just praying for that all people who the God just open their eyes for the God they can understand they can receive you for the God and they can repent for the God raise your people for the God intercede for the God all things are meeting to your hand now time give your peace and comfort for the God to every side for the God just give your saloon for the God to every country, every state and every way to help them to understand your presence and your peace and your God's father thank you for coming time to submit to your hand thank you for being part of the class today I appreciate it have a good weekend enjoy your time thank you for being part of the class today I appreciate it have a good weekend enjoy your time