Revelation 9 - Lake Erie Bible Church

Chapter 9
THE REVELATION TO JOHN
21. This will leave only days (answering the “days of” Rev.10:7) before the mid-point
when Antichrist will consolidate his pact with Israel (Dan.9:27), establish his image
in the tribulational temple and the Day of the Lord will begin (Rev.11:15). Note: the
future tense of “will reign” in 11:15 cp. to the aorist tense of “has begun to reign” in
11:17 indicating the period of time Christ legally claims His kingdom on the Day of
the Lord exercising wrath cp.’d to His future literal reign at the 2 nd Advent.
22. While we cannot pinpoint exactly the day and hour that the 6 th trumpet will occur,
we can state that it is just days prior to the 3 ½ year mark of Daniel’s 70 th week.
23. Only God knows the exact time and any attempts of trying to use this passage to
predict the timing of Christ’s return is ludicrous and beyond sound hermeneutics.
Cp.Mat.24:36
24. The tasks of these four demon angels is then described for us as lethal in the
remainder of vs.15, “so that they might kill a third of mankind”.
25. The number of men that will die as a result of these demons’s release is a greater
figure than all that have died in all the wars of the 20 th Century combined.
26. The current world population medium as of 2005 is approximately 6.465 billion
people. World Population Prospects Population Database, United Nations
Population Division, Revised 2004 http:www. un.org/unpp/p2k0data.asp
27. By 2010, the U.N. estimates an increase to 6.843 billion.
28. With the current population of the Western Hemisphere estimated at 850 million
(gotta take in account the removal of the Church with current statistics), the
destruction of the U.S. and its environs will reduce world population to about 5.99
billion.
29. It is easy to see that from this number of survivors, the third taken in the death toll of
this judgment is easily in the neighborhood of about 2 billion people.
29. Some interpreters have concluded that since these demons are released in the region
of the Euphrates, the slaughter must be confined to that same region.
30. However, the text does not say this and the most probable scenario is a military
campaign encompassing a much larger region.
31. The fact is that over 60% of the world population (~ 4 billion) resides in Asia (as of
2000) that makes that region quite conceivable for an escalated conflict moving
toward the Middle East that would result in this massive number of fatalities.
32. Some have suggested that there will be a sort of Far East civil war that will be
necessary for the kings of the East to get themselves organized and field this huge
army.
33. Then, under demonic influence, this army will march westward toward Israel, passing
through nations like India, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq before
reaching the Euphrates River.
34. As mention in vss.13-14, this passage is connected to the 6 th bowl indicating that this
is an ongoing military operation.
35. The execution/initiation begins with the activity of the four demons continuing
among mankind by the mobilization of the kings from the East eventually resulting in
the death of a third of humanity, as they march toward the final battle.
36. The natural reading of vs.15 by itself tends to indicate that these four demons kill the
human race by themselves.
Lake Erie Bible Church
P-T Ken Reed
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