Simple Faith

Guest (Male): When the church is raptured out of this earth, there are going to be a lot of very surprised people left behind. Here's Pastor Bill Henry.

Bill Henry: So, if you’ve been left behind, here’s an interesting thing. You can now go to the Bible, and you can know, read with unsurpassed certainty. You know exactly what’s coming. Here’s the question: would that lead you to repentance? Would that lead you to say, "Hey, you know what?" Again, not just to fear hell, not just to fear the wrath that is coming, but would it lead you to go, "Hmm, that means the rest of this Bible is true too?"

So, all the things that it talks about: sin, salvation, grace, hell. These are all true. That there is one God, that I am a sinner, and that you are a sinner. Would it lead you to that place of repentance?

Guest (Male): You’ve tuned into Simple Faith, the radio broadcast brought to you each week by Simple Faith Calvary Chapel. Pastor Bill Henry is our teacher, and today we open our Bibles to the Book of Revelation, Chapter 8.

Now, each of the trumpets Pastor Bill will discuss today represents something important, and he will shed light on what they are for us. Jesus Christ himself gave this revelation to the Apostle John concerning our future, and we’re about to get a glimpse of it as we now join Pastor Bill. Again, we’re in Revelation, Chapter 8.

Bill Henry: Are you a man or a woman of prayer, or is it that quick, "Oh Lord, now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. Goodnight, Lord. Talk to you again in the morning." Or is it like, "Hey, Lord, thanks for this food, and help it go down the lip and not land up on my hips," or something like that?

Or are you a man or a woman of prayer? Do you have time in the prayer closet where you spend time seeking the will of God, seeking to praise God, seeking to be with your God, just as Jesus told us how to pray? And it’s a great question for all of us: how many of those bowls will be filled with our prayers?

Now, another interesting thing to point out is I believe that some of these prayers were the prayers of those that were opened in the fifth seal when it was opened. If you’ll just glance with me back at Chapter 6, Revelation 6:9-10, it says, "When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held."

And they cried with a loud voice, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" And as a matter of fact, we are seeing now that very thing. If you look at verse 5 back in our text, you’ll see the angel then took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it to the earth. And there were noises, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake.

So, again, I believe that these are the prayers of the saints and even the judgment of God as it is being thrown down upon the earth filled with fire. Notice as it does so, there are noises and thunderings, lightnings, and I believe this will happen all over the world. People all over the world will see this. It won’t just be over Portland, or over Battle Ground. No, it’ll be all over the world and there’ll be an earthquake.

This is the second time an earthquake is mentioned here in the Book of Revelation. I believe when it says this, it’s not just going to be a localized earthquake somewhere. It’s going to shake the whole world. I believe it’s meant to get the attention of everyone on the planet.

Look at verse 6: "So the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound." Verse 7: "The first angel sounded, and hail 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 grass was burned up."

The Amplified says it this way: "And there was a storm of hail and fire, mingled with blood, cast upon the earth; and a third part of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees was burned up, and all the green grass was burned up." And so, it’s interesting we see the very first thing of the seventh seal, the first trumpet, is basically this hail and fire coming down from heaven. But notice, it is mingled with blood.

And I do believe that this is probably the blood of the saints that have been martyred as the world, again, is being judged for what they have done. They have martyred, at this point we don’t even know, countless numbers of saints during the Tribulation. And so, as we see this, I just can’t even imagine going outside or having hail and fire that hits your roof. Our roof would burn if this happened. And as a matter of fact, notice it says a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.

We see this foretold also in Joel Chapter 2, verse 30. It says, "And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: blood and fire and pillars of smoke." Now, I don’t know if you remember just a few years ago, we had record-breaking heat here in the Portland-Vancouver area. I remember it got up to like 115, 116 degrees. We had forest fires burning all around us. The air quality was actually beyond hazardous here in our area. You could see smoke all over the place. And that was terrible. It was hard to breathe. My eyes, at least, were burning all the time.

Now, imagine though, a third of all the trees of the planet catching fire from this supernatural act. And I believe it’s actually going to be like a slice, one-third of the planet, because, again, I think it’s going to be miraculous. Some commentators that I love and respect say, "Well, it could be because of that earthquake it made all these volcanoes erupt, and then we see this ash and maybe some people were blown into the atmosphere."

For me, I think these are going to be supernatural things, so that when people see them, they’re not going to say, "Oh, well, all this other stuff is just a result of this earthquake." No, they’re going to know that it’s God. They’re going to know that it’s His hand. And I think it’s going to be this clear slice of the earth is just where it’s all going to fall—a third. I could be wrong, but again, a third.

And that’s going to affect all the planet. That smoke will cover all the planet. Think about how many people will die just from the smoke alone, but then all the plants that have been destroyed. It even says all the grass, so all the grass in the earth will die. The thing about grass, though, is it grows rather quickly.

Now, one other thing to note here: most of your Bible scholars believe the things that we’re reading are taking place in the last three and a half years of the Tribulation, but we don’t know how long is in between each thing and how long they last. We’ve said this before earlier with the seals. So, we don’t know. I don’t think it’s one thing after another in the same day this all happens. But it’s one thing; it might be a few months later, six months later, a year later, and the next thing happens.

Again, we’re not told how long is in between. And so, how long are the effects going to happen? Trees won’t grow back even in two or three years. The grass will. So again, this is not the first time, by the way, that something like this has happened. So, we can kind of look at the damage that will be done.

If we look at Exodus Chapter 9:22-24, it says, "Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be hail in the land of Egypt—on man, on beast, on every herb of the field, throughout the land of Egypt.'" And Moses stretched his rod toward heaven; and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and fire darted to the ground. And the Lord rained hail on the land of Egypt.

So, there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, so very heavy that there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. "And the hail struck throughout the whole land of Egypt, all that was in the field, both man and beast; and the hail struck every herb of the field and broke every tree of the field." That’s just the first trumpet, guys and gals. That was just a glimpse, and this trumpet is a lot worse.

Now, look at the second trumpet, verse 8, back in our text: "Then the second angel 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." So again, some of your commentators say, "Hey, this sounds a lot like an atomic bomb." If you’ve ever seen a video, it almost looks like a great burning fire mountain, doesn’t it, when you look at it?

But to be honest, I don’t think that’s what it is. Because even then, you could blame the Russians, or the Chinese, or the Americans—that they came up with some new atomic bomb, so it’s their fault, it’s not God. These things are going to happen, and they know they’re from God. So, this thing happens like a great mountain burning with fire. We can look at an atomic bomb and get an idea, but even that doesn’t do the devastation we see here.

A third of the planet's oxygen that the trees create and the grass—think of that—that’s no longer being produced. And now, a third of the oceans. Verse 8 says a great mountain 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.

This is crazy. Notice it became blood; it doesn’t say "like" blood. It will become blood. How can God do that? Well, because He’s God. That’s not a big miracle to me, to be real frank with you, but this is what’s going to happen. If you know about algae and all the things in the sea, they produce a huge amount of our oxygen that we breathe. Think of all the food. Think of all the stuff that comes from the sea.

Notice a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and even a third of the ships. Now, what’s interesting is a third of the ships. I went to a website and checked out how many ships are on the seas right now today. For commercial ships, you can actually go online, and it’s kind of interesting. You can see a little map of where all the ships are because they all have to register. I’m sure this is a help for the pirates. You read about, "Hey, let’s go get this one." "That’s a good idea."

Anyway, there’s 90,000-plus commercial ships on the seas right now. So, if this were to happen today, 30,000 of them would be wiped out. Now, that’s not counting, by the way, privately owned ships that will be wiped out too. So, again, I think this is going to happen like a slice of this area. All of a sudden, you’re going to have this regular seawater and then it’ll turn to blood. And they’re going to come right up, I think, to a line. Why? Because they’re going to see the miracle in it.

Why isn’t that mixing over here? Because God said it was just going to be a third. But at the same time, the devastation, the death, and the diseases that will come from all the dead animals in the seas. Imagine those countries that have their ocean all of a sudden turn into blood on their borders. It’s just crazy how many will starve to death because of this, and how many will die from diseases and stuff that will come even with the dead animals.

Now, that’s just the second trumpet. Look at the third one, verse 10: "Then the third angel 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 made bitter."

So we see, notice, a great star fell from heaven. The word "star" there in the Greek is *astros*. So, this could be an asteroid; it could be a meteor. But what’s interesting to me, again, is it’s a miraculous thing that happens. It’s not just some random meteor that everybody goes, "Oh, see? Just a random meteor." No, because notice what it strikes. It doesn’t cause a huge tsunami; it doesn’t cause these earthquakes.

It fell on one-third of the rivers and of the springs of water. And it says the name of the star is Wormwood, and the waters became wormwood. Now, in the Greek, that literally means bitterness. Wormwood represents bitterness. And it usually, by the way, wouldn’t kill people, the bitter water; it just was bitter, hard to drink. But this, notice: "Many men died from the water because it was made bitter." It wasn’t just bitter; it was poisonous.

So, do you see the picture? It’ll be "burning like a torch." It falls on a third of the rivers and the springs of water. Anybody here get thirsty suddenly? Imagine, seriously, you go home to get water; it’s not there. It’s bitter because of a supernatural act. And all of a sudden you go to drink your water—maybe this is okay because it’s bottled—but all the other water that’s in rivers and in streams, in springs, it’s all, again, a third.

So now imagine those countries that still have good water. How many people from the countries that have bad water or no water are going now to be fighting to go get that good water? Because remember, you can go without food for a week, two weeks, some of us even longer. But with water, you need—what do they say—three or four days?

So again, imagine the devastation. This is just crazy. A third of the earth’s fresh water sources are now poisoned and ruined. How many people and animals now would thirst and drink to death? Now, that’s the third trumpet. Look at the fourth, verse 12: "And the fourth angel sounded, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened. A third of the day did not shine, and likewise the night."

Now, some were saying—well, we don’t know. Again, this is kind of hard to picture or perceive. I like how some of the guys really honed in on the end of verse 12, and I’ll tell you about that in just a moment. Some were saying, "Well, it won’t be like a third of the sun—all of a sudden, a third of the sun is gone." Because then the earth would get so cold we’d all freeze to death. Or whoever is there—we’re not going to be there, praise God.

And the same thing with the moon. But what it really means is, all of a sudden, for a third of the day and night, there’s going to be no light. None. There’s not going to be any sun, there’s not going to be any moon, there’s not going to be any stars. It’s just going to be complete darkness. You’ll have the sun come up, and then maybe it goes down, and all of a sudden in the middle of that, or in the middle of the day, all of a sudden it’s just complete darkness.

Now, I don’t know about you, but—anybody, I mean, I like the dark sometimes, but complete darkness? Ever been in a cave and turned the lights off? You can hold your hand right up in front of your face; you can’t see a thing. And so, again, this is going to be terrifying. But also, what else is going to be affected by this? For a third of the day and a third of the night, it’s just gone.

Now, if you’ll notice something with me, with all four of these trumpets, they’re all affecting the earth. And in affecting the earth, they’re pouring out God’s wrath on mankind. If you go back to Romans Chapter 1, what does it talk about there, at least the last half? It talks about those who have denied God and basically have rejected God.

And it says because they have rejected God, they’ve rejected the Creator; now they worship the creation rather than the Creator. And God hands them over to their own lusts, which we see happening all around us today. We see the perversions that are happening continually getting worse and worse and worse. I’ll be honest with you: even as I prepare stuff when we do the prophecy updates, I can’t even listen to or read some of the stuff. I’ll get to one point and I just can't do it.

I say, "Lord, I can’t even report on this. It is so disgusting. It is so gross." These things that are being put forth by councilmen, congressmen and women, in California alone. I could talk about Washington and Oregon as well, but it’s just so disgusting. But God has handed them over because they don’t worship God; they worship the creation. And do you notice that God is taking down the creation?

Can you imagine the environmentalists during this stuff? And, by the way, I believe we are to take care of the planet. God gave that—that was the first thing He told Adam to do. I hate pollution. I really do. But again, we don’t take it to the place of worshipping, where it’s more important than human beings, or even equal to. I don’t care if you have dogs and cats—I love my animals—but they’re not a son or a daughter.

But our culture today? It’s just crazy when you take a look at this. God is the Creator. He can do whatever He wants with His creation, for those of us who might judge God. "Oh, imagine all the sea creatures that are going to die. Imagine all the cool deer." Yeah, but remember what the cause of it all is: it’s our sin. It’s our sin.

And so, again, we see all this happening. We see everything being poured out, and this is only four of the seven trumpets. Now, they’ve been blown because the seventh seal has been opened. And remember how the chapter began? Does anybody remember how the chapter began? With thirty minutes of silence.

Now, look how the chapter ends. Look at verse 13: "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 remaining blasts of the trumpet of these angels who are about to sound!'"

What is this? This is a warning. This is a warning to those remaining upon the earth. Notice there are three more trumpets to blow and there are three woes. It’s interesting to note: "woe" here in the Greek is *aho*. It literally means a woe, an exclamation of grief, an interjection of grief or indignation. And it’s interesting: in Revelation 9:12, what we will read next time, it’ll say, "One woe is past."

In other words, after the next trumpet is blown, that woe, it’ll say, "One woe is past. There are still two more woes after this still to come." Here’s the thing: God is warning the people even then. God is warning the people even then. We’re going to see in the next chapter that people still would not repent. So, it shows God was looking for people to repent in the midst of this.

Imagine if you’ve been left behind. All of a sudden—you don’t hear it, maybe, but everybody else—we’re gone. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, and you’re still sitting here in the church. You’re still sitting at home watching on the thing, and you’re like, "Hey, what happened?" No, we’re gone. You got left behind.

So, if you’ve been left behind, here’s an interesting thing: you can now go to the Bible and you can know exactly what’s coming. Here’s the question: would that lead you to repentance? Would that lead you to say, "Hey, you know what?" Again, not just to fear hell, not just to fear the wrath that is coming, but would it lead you to go, "Hmm, that means the rest of this Bible is true too? That there is one God, that I am a sinner, that you are a sinner?"

Again, would it lead you to that place of repentance? Or imagine, if you will, that we take these words seriously today instead, before the Rapture comes. If you’re not a Christian here today, if you’re just religious or you just think, "Hey, this is the place to be today," you’ve never made a profession in Christ, or there’s no real changes in your life, so you’re just kind of a religious Christian, not a real Christian—just religiosity.

But imagine if, instead, you looked at this stuff and said, "I’m going to believe this now. I’m going to believe that I am a sinner now. I’m going to believe that Jesus died for my sins now, and that He rose from the dead, and I’m going to believe in Him to be the Lord and Savior of my life. I’m going to turn away from my sins, I’m going to turn to Jesus, and believe in Him today. Receive Him as the Lord and Savior and be born again of His Holy Spirit."

Imagine that. Then you don’t have to be here for any of this stuff. Amen. It’s interesting, Jesus said this in John 13:19. He said, "I tell you this now before it occurs, so that when it does take place you may be persuaded and believe that I am who I say I am."

You see, the prophecies that we are reading today are given to us to say, "Hey, you know what? The rest of the Bible is true. Jesus is the Messiah. He is the anointed one of God." The question is today, do you believe it? And remember, before you just say you believe it, remember even the demons believe. Many will say to Him, "Lord, Lord, didn’t I do this in Your name?" But here’s the key: Jesus looked at many people and said, "Away from me, you worker of iniquity. I never knew you."

Do you know Jesus today? Are you in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ today? Today is the day to come to salvation, not to wait until after you miss the Rapture—although if you miss the Rapture, remember what you hear today.

Guest (Male): I hope you were blessed by today’s message from Pastor Bill Henry. This has been Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry from Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington. And today we brought you a message from Pastor Bill’s new series in the Book of Revelation.

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