Revelation 9 - Lake Erie Bible Church

Chapter 9
THE REVELATION TO JOHN
ANALYSIS VERSES 1 – 2:
1. Chapter 9 now assumes the new face of the grouping patterns as previously illustrated
for the trumpet judgments.
2. It is two-fold and introduces us to the next unit of 2 of the 4,2,1 pattern as well as the
new 4,3 pattern with the 1 st of the triple woes. Rev.9:12
3. As we pointed out, the 1 st 4 trumpets form a unit and delineate the horrific results of
the nuclear attack on the U.S as it applies predominately to the physical environment.
4. The 5 th trumpet now introduces us to the next unit of 2 denoting judgments reserved
predominately for men.
5. As the 1 st of the woes, it indicates an escalated judgment directly associated with the
destruction of the U.S. being the eagle of 8:13.
6. Therefore, it maintains the same force of the terminus ad quo of the 1 st 4 trumpets
chronologically preceding the Day of the Lord.
7. John again reveals this new vision with the visual of an eyewitness, “And the fifth
angel sounded, and I saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth”.
8. As most interpreters agree, the star now in view is metaphorical symbolizing an
angelic being.
9. The doubt otherwise is removed based on the principle of authority and power
attributed to it as well as a personal pronoun in vs.1b, “and the key of the bottomless
pit was given to him”.
10. This clause gives the star in view personality and otherwise a human characteristic to
open a lock with a key.
11. This single angel in view is described as having fallen to the earth by means of a
perfect participle that indicates he fell in the past and was residing on the earth.
12. This perfect participle indicates that John did not see this angel fall as revealed in our
verse, but saw him after the fact having taken up his new position.
13. The commentary of Mounce calls this participle a dramatic perfect translating it as
“which had just fallen” that is a good explanation of the timing of this event that
occurs prior to the mid-point of Daniel’s 70 th week.
14. This scenario harks back to the 6 th seal of 6:13 that indicates angels falling to the
earth, an event as we saw that was directly affiliated with the destruction of the U.S.
15. The verb “had fallen/p i , p t w – pipto” is used 3x in the perfect tense in the NT and the
other 2 usages indicate a fallen condition as something less than desirable. Act.15:16;
Rev.2:5
16. While most recognize that this is an angel, the exact identification and whether it is
elect or fallen is debated to include:
A. Kiddle, Walvoord and Sweet believe it has to be a demon.
B. Some identify it as Satan himself based on the fact that this fits the imagery of
Rev.12:7-9 that indicates he was cast to the earth. Cp.Rev.12:14
C. They further suggest that this builds on the imagery of Isa.14:12-14 that describes
Lucifer as the morning star that had fallen to the earth.
D. Beale feels strongly that this is an evil angel sent from God and argues that in the
OT and Jewish writings a falling star always refer to a fallen angel.
E. Others point out that this would be the only place in this book where God used an
evil angel to execute His will and questions that any fallen angel would be given
the key to his own prison.
Lake Erie Bible Church
P-T Ken Reed
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