Before studying the Seven Trumpets, it is important to recognize that the Book of Revelation is not in strict chronological order. For instance, the First Seal through the Sixth Seal takes the world from the rise of the Antichrist to the very moment of the Return of Christ (see the previous section). At the Sixth Seal, the wicked have seen the Lord’s Coming and are trying to hide themselves from the Wrath of God. When the Seventh Seal is opened, however, the events described are significantly different than the chronology of the preceding six Seals. As we will see, the Seventh Seal actually backtracks in time as it is seen to contain the entire series of Seven Trumpets. In fact, in linear time, some of the Trumpets will really occur concurrently with some of the previous six Seals.
But how is this possible? Since God exists throughout all time and space (as well as other dimensions, such as in the realm of God’s throne and heaven’s paradise), His perspective is different from the linear time we live in. Jesus hinted at this fact when He said to the Jews who challenged Him, “Before Abraham was, I am”. This means that the Lord still existed before and during the time of Abraham, even though as he spoke those words, Abraham was long dead.
The Lord is outside our view of time and space. Therefore, it is not an issue for God to open the Seventh Seal in heaven and have it contain the Seven Trumpets, most of which actually happen in our linear time before some of the previous six Seals are fully opened.
Note that similar time shifts also occur in the Book of Revelation with regard to the Apostle John’s experience. As John was given these revelations, he wasn’t merely told of the things to come, but he experienced them firsthand as they occurred. He was transported to different moments in time to view and record the events that God wanted him to see.
In reality, the Seven Trumpets are similar to some of the Seals in that they also describe the effects of a global war during the Great Tribulation. However, the purpose of The Trumpets is to go into much greater detail than the Seals and to paint a horrific picture of major events during this terrible time. While the Second Seal paints with a broad brush stroke concerning the coming of war, as depicted by the riding of the Second Horseman of the Apocalypse, the corresponding Trumpets describe the fiery holocaust of global nuclear war.
In contrast to the Seals, all of the Seven Trumpets occur in chronological order and mark specific events in time. The timeline shown at the beginning of these sections illustrates approximately when the events heralded by each trumpet will begin to occur. Although we are not told precisely when the first trumpet will sound relative to the final 3½-year period, we can get a reasonably good idea of its timing if we take into consideration the predicted course of the final battles.
In this regard, since the first five trumpets all describe the frightful effects of nuclear war, they probably do not sound until well after the start of the final 3½-year period. For detailed information on the effects of nuclear war and how they correlate to the Seven Trumpets, see the eight sections beginning with Nuclear War and The Great Tribulation. The known major effects of nuclear war amazingly follow the descriptions given in the Book of Revelation after each Trumpet sounds.
However, before the First Trumpet sounds, there must be enough time for the initial Middle East war to begin (after the abomination and at the midpoint of the final seven years) and then for the forces of the Antichrist to respond and intervene. The Empire of the Beast must then wage a counter-attack and win the battle. At that point, the Antichrist will set up his main military base and palace within the land of Israel (Dan. 11:45). There also must be time for Russia and her allies to mobilize and attack Israel and for the kings of the East to begin to move west. During this time, the Antichrist is said to hear “news from the east and the north [that] shall trouble him; therefore he shall go out with great fury to destroy and annihilate many” (Dan. 11:44).
However, even with the prospect of a larger superpower confrontation, the nuclear option may not come into effect until one side begins to suffer severe losses or is close to defeat. The majority of the initial military losses are predicted to happen to the Russian alliance as their forces are turned back and destroyed (Ezek. 38-39).
Ezekiel prophesies that many of Russia’s allies will fall upon the mountains of Israel and be turned back in defeat (Ezek. 39:1-5). Immediately after that prediction, he quotes the Lord as saying:
“And I will send fire upon Magog and those who inhabit the coastlands in safety; and they will know that I am the Lord.”
Ezek. 39:6
It is only after Russia and her allies are suffering defeat in and around Israel and are in full retreat that the Lord authorizes fire to be sent on the coastlands or other nations. This is the start of the global Great Tribulation. Therefore, it’s possible that the full-scale nuclear war will not begin until at least a year after the mid-point of the final seven years. Of course, this is pure conjecture, because it is not clearly stated in the Bible exactly when this will occur. The Antichrist or Russia may decide to use tactical nuclear weapons rather quickly, in which case the First Trumpet may sound only a few months after the beginning of the final 3½ years.
There are, however, a few hints within the descriptions of the Seals and Trumpets that can pinpoint them in time relative to the overall course of Daniel’s 70th Week. For instance, the Second Seal is significant in that it begins to describe the outbreak of war on the earth. This must therefore correspond to the beginning of the last half of the final seven years, since we already know that the war will start in the Middle East at precisely the midpoint of the Week.
Another correlating factor between the Seals and the Trumpets is the mention in the Fourth Seal of one-fourth of the world’s population being killed. If this corresponds to the result of a nuclear war, which certainly seems to be the case, then the First Trumpet probably also has a strong correlation to that Seal. In other words, whenever the Fourth Seal is placed in time, the First Trumpet must also be placed near it in the same relative time frame.
In addition, similar to the Second Seal through the Sixth Seal, as we go through the Seven Trumpets in chronological order, we are again taken prophetically through the last few years right up to the moment of the Coming of Christ. The First Trumpet through the Fifth Trumpet all describe the effects of nuclear war and therefore must occur during the worst part of the war between the Empire of the Beast and Russia. See the sections under World War III for more information.
The Sixth Trumpet, however, goes on to predict the attack of the massive armies from the east and also indicates that further nuclear warfare will occur. Since the Sixth Trumpet occurs just before the Seventh Trumpet (which is of course the last one predicted to sound), the attack of the 200-million-man army must occur very near to the end of the Great Tribulation period and probably just several months before the Return of Christ (see The Attack of China).
However, in terms of timing, the Bible says that Christ is going to cut short the Great Tribulation and stop the spiral downward to total annihilation (Matt. 24:22). The Bible also makes it very clear that Christians are going to be rescued from this world just in the nick of time before the Wrath of God falls. If the Lord’s Return were to happen any later, the environmental conditions would become so extreme that the ecosystem itself would no longer be able to support life (see Collapse of the Ecosystem). In other words, if Jesus were to return just a few days or weeks later, then the world He would come back to might be nothing more than a barren, lifeless wasteland.
Jesus predicted that he would cut this time short in order to save life from complete extinction. He said in Matthew:
“And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.”
Matt. 24:22
The Seventh Trumpet then correlates to the actual moment of the Second Coming. As we discovered in previous sections (see all the chapters under the Return of Christ), this last Trumpet also corresponds to the resurrection and gathering of all the followers of Christ. Thus, the Seventh Trumpet represents the very instant at which the believers are finally rescued from the dark days of the end. It must also occur just before the Sixth Seal, since at that point the people of the world are pictured as trying to hide themselves from the wrath of God. It is only at the sounding of the Seventh Trumpet that everyone will actually see the truth of the Bible in the powerful Coming of the Lord and his angels. As believers are being resurrected by the Lord and gathered by His angels, the people remaining will be left in a state of terror and shock. They will run into caves and under rocks and actually pray to the rocks to fall on them and hide them from the coming judgment of God.
Paul prophesied that the coming of the Lord would occur this way:
“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”
1 Thess. 4:16-18
All of the correlating factors between the Seals and the Trumpets indicate that the series of both events must at least partially overlap in time. In particular, the Fourth Seal and the First Trumpet must be concurrent events (describing massive death on a global scale and the start of nuclear war, respectively). Also, the Sixth Seal and the Seventh Trumpet must occur very close in time because both of them describe events at or near the Second Coming. This means that the Trumpets do not occur after the Seals, as some have said, and the Seventh Seal does backtrack in time to predict events as the Seven Trumpets sound.
