Thru the Bible

Steve Schwetz: More weird and wild things have been written about the book of Revelation than any other part of God's word, but this section really is weird and wild. Welcome to Thru the Bible. That's what our teacher Dr. J. Vernon McGee had to say about our current study in the book of Revelation. Weird and wild, I couldn't have said it better myself.

While it can be difficult to know how to interpret its strangeness, Dr. McGee leads us in the best explanation: a literal translation that has carried us through the whole word of God. I'm Steve Schwetz, so glad that you're here on the Bible Bus as it moves along. Remember, anytime you miss a study, you can of course listen on our app or at ttb.org anytime.

Some say that this isn't a good business decision that we give away so much of Dr. McGee's content for free, but our history has proven that when God's people are blessed, in turn they partner with us in ministry and help to provide this teaching from his word to others, especially to people in places where Bible teaching is rare and where it's having an amazing impact.

So thank you, friends on the Bible Bus. Thanks for investing in God's word and for keeping gas in the tank or maybe providing new tires to keep traveling the roads of scripture. God is using your generosity to deliver on his promise that the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

As you find your seat on the Bible Bus, here's a special introduction by Dr. McGee. He brought some levity to our intense study with a poem called "Not Growing Old." It's definitely a listener favorite.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: There's a poem been sent to me. I don't know why they send these poems about growing old. This one, however, the title of it is "Not Growing Old." They say that I'm growing old. I've heard them tell it times untold in language plain and bold, but I'm not growing old. This frail old shell in which I dwell is growing old, I know full well, but I'm not the shell.

What if my hair's turning gray? Gray hairs are honorable, they say. What if my eyesight's growing dim? I can see to follow him who sacrificed his life for me upon the cross of Calvary. What should I care if time's old plow has left its furrows on my brow? Another house not made with hand awaits me in the glory land.

What though I falter in my walk? What though my tongue refuse to talk? I still can tread the narrow way, I still can watch and praise and pray. My hearing may not be as keen as in the past it may have been, still I can hear my Savior say in whispers soft, "This is the way."

The outward man, do what I can to lengthen out this life's short span, shall perish and return to dust as everything in nature must. The inward man, the scriptures say, is growing stronger every day. Then how can I be growing old when safe within my Savior's fold, ere long my soul shall fly away and leave this tenement of clay? This robe of flesh I'll drop and rise to seize the everlasting prize. I'll meet you on the streets of gold and prove that I'm not growing old. I think that's a very fine poem that was sent to me, and that's the reason I'm sharing it with you today.

Steve Schwetz: Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Open our eyes to what you have to teach each of us. Comfort, encourage, and convict us according to our need. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. We're off to Revelation 9 on Thru the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Friends, we're coming down here to verse seven today in chapter nine of Revelation, and we're looking at the three last trumpets. They're called "Woe Trumpets" because that's the way they were given to us. John told us in the last verse of the last chapter that the next three trumpets would be woe trumpets. We saw that at the blowing of the first trumpet, we were startled at the locusts that appeared on the earth, unusual, different from locusts as we know them.

Now he's going to give us in verses seven through ten a description of them, and I'd like to pass that on to you. I'm going to read this scripture from my text. I won't recommend it, but I'm at least giving you the literal. Will you listen to it? "And the likenesses of the locusts were like unto horses prepared for war, and on their heads were, as it were, crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men."

"And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions, and they had breastplates as it were, breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was as of chariots and of many horses rushing into battle, and they had tails like scorpions and stings, and in their tails was their power to hurt men five months."

This is a description of the locust, and I'm sure you'll agree it's a frightful, weird, and unnatural description. However, we want to examine this just a little closer, and I think it reveals a striking similarity to the locust in Palestine. I think that we need to note that. Dr. Vincent makes this comment in his book on Revelation.

He says, "The likeness of a locust to a horse, especially to a horse equipped with armor, is so striking that the insect is named in German 'Heupferd', that is, a hay horse, and in Italian it's called 'cavalletta', and that means little horse. So that's the name given to the locust." The faces of a locust do resemble the faces of men, and the antenna of the locust is compared to a girl's hair.

Joel compares the teeth of the locust with those of a lion. You'll find that in Joel 1:6. Many have commented on the weird sound that locusts make. Dr. Vincent again quotes Olivier, a French writer, and here's the quotation: "It's difficult to express the effect produced on us by the sight of the whole atmosphere filled on all sides and to a great height by an innumerable quantity of these insects, whose flight was slow and uniform, and whose noise resembled that of rain."

There have been those that have attempted to liken this description to the airplane. I remember hearing a preacher when I was a young fellow that said that since the sting is in the tail, it compared to the rear gunner on a bomber. That all sounds very good, but now we pass from the plane to the jet plane from that day, and maybe this is more like a jet plane. Then we've moved now to the missile age, and the missile is the weapon today. Maybe you'd want to compare it to the missile.

I want to say that I don't want to compare it to anything that's known today because it's not the weapon that's used today. It's going to be the weapon that will be used in the Great Tribulation period, and I don't know what that's going to be. I'm told today that men have weapons so frightful that even Russia and the United States can sit down and talk about it for a while until they find out whether they're stronger than we are. When they find that out, they're going to move.

As long as they think we're as strong as they are, they won't move. But believe me, friends, the weapons must be frightful to cause men to be willing to sit down that are opposite poles. So I would not attempt to compare this to any weapon that's known to man today, but it's going to bother man for five months, we're told.

Now I read verse 11: "They have over them a king, the angel of the abyss, and his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek tongue he hath the name Apollyon." These locusts are further differentiated from ordinary locusts in that they have a king over them. Proverbs 30:27 says the locusts have no king.

This leader is one of the fallen angels, I think the chief henchman of Satan, and he's permitted to lead an invasion of Earth for the first time. This is going to be something that's rather frightening. His name means in the Hebrew it's "destruction" and in Greek it's "destroyer." It's the same thing, of course. He leads this.

This confirms what Daniel told us, that the demon world of fallen angels was divided into gradations. There were generals and majors and lieutenants and sergeants and then buck privates. I think that you'll find the angels of God divided the same way. We saw that in Ephesians.

Now we're told here in verse 12: "The one woe is past, behold there come yet two woes after these things." The first woe introduced to us what we believe is the last half of the Great Tribulation period, and it had a duration of five months. Apparently, the last two woes would cover the remainder of that period, and the warning here indicates that worse things are to follow. The next trumpet reveals it wasn't just idle warning, by the way.

Now we come to the sixth trumpet, and here are the angels that are loosed at the river Euphrates. Now I'm reading again my text verses 13 and 14: "And the sixth angel blew the trumpet, and I heard one that is a single voice out of the horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel having the trumpet, loose the four angels which have been bound at the great river Euphrates."

All right, now will you notice when the sixth angel blew the trumpet, a command came from the horns of the golden altar? That golden altar speaks of prayer. That's what it spoke of in the tabernacle here on Earth. This is where you will recall back in the eighth chapter where the angel offered prayer at the beginning of the blowing of the trumpets.

The sixth angel not only blows the trumpet but is given a command to loose four angels bound at the river Euphrates. This angel received in turn his orders from a voice that was there at the altar. Who is it? It says that he was at the horns. Well, it's Christ. He's now ripped off the seventh seal, and this seventh seal just leads into the trumpets and then will lead on to the seven persons or personalities and then on to the seven bowls of wrath here in Revelation. All of this is bound together.

The angels who are bound are evidently evil, for why would they be bound if they were not? Releasing them turns loose a flood tide of destruction on the earth. They were bound away from the others, I think because of the enormity of their crime. Now, why were they bound at this particular location at the Euphrates River?

Though this I think is rather difficult to explain, the prominence of this area in scripture cannot be overlooked. The Garden of Eden was somewhere in this section. The sin of mankind began here. The first murder was committed here. The first war was fought here. Here was where the flood began and spread over the whole earth.

Here is where the Tower of Babel was erected, and to this area were brought the Israelites of the Babylonian captivity. Babylon was the fountainhead of idolatry, and here is the final surge of sin on the earth during the Great Tribulation period. So the Euphrates actually marks the division between East and West.

It was Kipling, you remember, that said, "East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet." Well, that's been true to a certain extent. Perhaps there's been a restraining influence in the past which has kept the hordes from the East from spilling over to the West, but it's going to be broken down. They have been held back, and apparently these four angels had something to do with holding them back.

Remember Zechariah in the fifth chapter, and we studied that not long ago, locates Babylon as the last stand of false religion. That's where it will be, Satan's last stand. Now these four angels are loosed. Notice verses 15 and 16: "And the four angels were loosed who had been prepared for the hour of the day and month and year."

You'll have to take that literally, my friend, because I don't know how else you'd take it. The very hour is marked out that they might kill the third of man. Notice that. At the blowing of this trumpet, the sixth trumpet, the third of the population of mankind will be removed. We've already seen a fourth removed.

Now a third is removed, and over half of the population of the earth will be destroyed in the Great Tribulation period. No wonder the Lord Jesus Christ said, "except those days were shortened, no flesh would survive." It says, "the numbers of the armies of the cavalry was two myriads of ten thousands, and that's 200 million."

What a tremendous thing this is, the size of this army's stupendous. What we have here is the wholesale invasion of the demon world that we had back in the locusts, and now they are motivated to a world war. Actually, we've never had a real world war yet, not where every nation is involved. That will take place in the Great Tribulation period.

Now, here are 200 million. Are they human beings? I've so far indicated that they could be, but frankly I believe that what you have here is the invasion of the demon world, which is a further result of Satan opening the door of the shaft of the bottomless pit. The following description of these horsemen further confirms this fact.

Now, will you notice this? Verses 17 and 18: "And thus after this manner, rather, I saw the horses in the vision or in my vision, as John says, and those that sat on them having breastplates as of fire, that is fiery red, and hyacinth and brimstone, and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions, and out of their mouths proceed fire and smoke and brimstone."

And these are supposed to be tanks. Well, I don't object to somebody saying that. The only thing is, how do you know that they'll be using tanks in the Great Tribulation period? We're talking about a period that's in the future. This could well be, but I have a notion they're going to have something more refined and sophisticated for that period.

By these three plagues was the third of man killed by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone that proceeded out of their mouths. Now notice the colors of these horsemen are not only striking and they're colorful, but they're unnatural. The fire is fiery red, as we indicated, and hyacinth is the same color as the flower, dull dark blue, and brimstone is light yellow.

Now the horse here is the animal of war, and actually hell is now making war on mankind, that is the underworld, I probably should say. These creatures, they're unnatural from the underworld, and they're probably demons or demon-controlled. This is a literal description of them.

I think Dr. Newell in his book on Revelation makes this very timely comment: "Believe, and you scarcely need any comment." You know the problem today with men when they come to Revelation? They say, "Oh, it's difficult to understand, and you can't interpret it." My friend, the problem is you don't believe it.

If you just believe it, read it. This is very clear as to the hellish forces that will be at work during this period. Now these three plagues that are mentioned here, they're literal plagues. The fire is literal, the smoke is literal, and the brimstone is literal. You had that same thing at the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and I believe this world will be worse than Sodom and Gomorrah during that period.

You talk about homosexuality attaining respectability. It did in Sodom and Gomorrah, but they went out of business. God put them out of business. If you think God is going to permit mankind to go into eternity an unnatural creature, I think you're wrong, my friend. Now let's move on here.

One third of the population is killed, and one third of nature had been affected before, but mankind had not been touched. Now if the population of the world were one and a half billion, then this would mean that 500 million would be slain. Remember that a fourth part had been slain under the fourth seal. This terrible decimation of the earth's populations seems incongruous with all of history until an atomic bomb fell upon Hiroshima.

Since then, men have been using more frightening language than that of Revelation. They now talk of the total decimation of Earth's inhabitants. But the Lord Jesus said he won't permit it, that unless those days were shortened, no flesh would survive. The human race would commit suicide.

Now I'm reading verse 19: "For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails, for their tails were like serpents, having heads and by them they hurt." Unnatural horses that are able to kill with their mouths. The weirdest feat of all is that instead of horse hair for a tail, they have serpents, which also are used in destroying mankind.

Now, verses 20 and 21: "And the rest of men who were not killed by these plagues repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons and idols of gold and silver and copper and stone and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts."

Now our time is up for today, but I need a great deal of time to talk about this section. I say this in closing. The word here that's translated "sorceries" is in the Greek the word "pharmakeia." Now that is the word we get our word "pharmacy" from, and it has to do with drugs. This is going to be a period when drugs will not be controlled. What a picture that you have given here, and we're going to look at this next time. Until then, may God richly bless you, my beloved.

Steve Schwetz: Without a doubt, the use of illegal drugs and the abuse of legalized drugs is a current and relevant issue. So don't miss this discussion in our next study. Of course, we know that Jesus Christ is the only lasting solution for the challenges that we face, and that's why we love to encourage you with stories of impact from all over the world, proof of the power of God's Spirit moving and working in lives today. We hope that hearing from listeners like this one stirs your hope that God is still at work in our generation and prompts you to share your story as well.

Guest (Male): My wife and I have been listening for years. She passed away five years ago and she's with the Lord now. My name is Bruce and I live in Shelburne, Connecticut, I'm from Massachusetts originally. That's where we got saved in a church in Lowell. But I'm really blessed by the whole thing, but mainly the stories that people tell all over the world.

I'm prejudiced to the United States, I just love the United States. But I love to hear people and what they have to say. That's almost more of a blessing than the lesson itself, and don't misunderstand me. I listen at night before and then I catch it in the morning when I'm getting ready, I put my app on. But anyway, it's a real blessing. You guys do a great job, you're really gifted, and I know the whole team worldwide is amazing. But thanks again. God bless and continue to do what the Lord wants you to do.

Steve Schwetz: And then here's another one from a listener named Beth. "Hello friends, I completed one ride on the Bible Bus this summer and presently completed Genesis on my second ride. The more I read and study the Bible, the more exciting it gets. I love finding unexpected treasures. I love being transformed. I love growing closer to my Lord. Thank you so very much."

Well, thanks Bruce and Beth for contacting us. I'll save seats for you here on the Bible Bus. Now we want to hear from you too, so why don't you drop us a note through our app or email us at biblebus@ttb.org, or write to us at Box 7100, Pasadena, California, 91109. In Canada, Box 25325, London, Ontario, N6C 6B1.

And like Bruce, you can also call and leave a message at 1-800-65-BIBLE because we certainly love hearing from you. And when you're in touch, tell us how you listen to Thru the Bible. If it's by radio, give us the call letters of your favorite radio station, or tell us if you listen by app, maybe at ttb.org, or by one of the many other ways that this program is available.

So thanks for helping us be wise stewards of the gifts that God provides through friends like you. Now as we go, I invite you to join me this weekend for Dr. McGee's Sunday sermon: "Why I Believe the Coming of the Lord is Near." To find a station near you that carries it, go to ttb.org or call 1-800-65-BIBLE. I'm Steve Schwetz, and I hope to see you here next time as we continue this grand adventure through God's entire word.