Announcing the Seventh Trumpet Judgment
Revelation 11:15-19
The seventh trumpet blows at last.
After an electrifying buildup that introduced us to God’s two prophetic witnesses who will go toe-to-toe with the antichrist for 3.5 yrs. (Rev 10:1-11:14), Rev 11:15-19 finally cues the seventh and final trumpet judgment (and third woe). What follows, however, is not an immediate act or event of judgment but a climactic announcement about the outcome and significance of that judgment.
Just as the seventh seal judgment unveiled the seven trumpet judgments, the seventh trumpet judgment unveils the seven bowl judgments in a similar, telescopic way. Yet before these bowl judgments appear, John offers another more extended intermission.
Another intermission is coming.
This next intermission gives a broad-sweeping backstory about what’s been going on “behind-the-scenes” in a spiritual sense between God, Satan, and other key characters and factors through history, building up to the climactic moments at the end of the Tribulation (Rev 12:1-14:20). Following this gripping presentation, the results of the seventh trumpet – the seven bowl judgments themselves – will be portrayed (Rev 15:1-16:1ff).
Why does John (or rather Christ who revealed this prophecy to him) take so long to move from describing the middle trumpet judgments to describing the final bowl judgments? The answer is not necessarily because there will be a lengthy pause between these two sets of judgments. Instead, this extended material magnifies the gravity and seriousness of what’s about to happen.
There is a very real sense in which this moment (the end of the Tribulation) is the grand moment towards which all of history and God’s redemptive plans have been marching. For this reason, this moment deserves a slower pace and a magnified view from multiple angles. It deserves to be read from a heavenly, earthly, historical, and spiritual dimension using both literal and allegorical methods for greater effect.
Before we consider this next intermission, let’s look at the announcement of the seventh trumpet judgment first (Rev 11:15-19).
Loud voices in heaven announce some encouraging news. (Rev 11:15)
“Then the seventh angel sounded” resumes John’s description of the seven trumpet judgments from Rev 9 (he described the sixth trumpet judgment in Rev 9:13). “And there were loud voices in heaven” contrasts distinctly with the half-hour of silence in heaven when the seventh seal was opened (8:1). John doesn’t tell us whose voices these were, but it’s safe to say they were the voices of all those whom he’s already introduced to us before the seventh seal being broken (Rev 7:9-11). If these are the voices John heard, it would have been a loud noise instead.
These loud voices cried out, “Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever!” John probably heard this triumphant announcement repeatedly as when a crowd chants at a sporting event, not as when a choir gives a rehearsed, one-time outburst.
This declaration announces the final triumph of both the Father (“our Lord”) and the Son (“his Christ”). It is through Christ as first the suffering Messiah (i.e., the Gospel of John) and the Lamb and now the conquering Messiah (i.e., Revelation and the Lion) that the Father establishes his full and final authority over the united kingdoms of this world.
We shouldunderstand “have become” as referring to what is about to happen at that point, not necessarily what has already happened. With the seven bowl judgments that are about to happen, Christ will do what he appeared to begin at his triumphal entry to Jerusalem before his crucifixion when he entered the city as though he were about to be coronated as king of Israel. That didn’t happen of course since he was crucified instead.
At this future moment, however, when the seventh trumpet blows, he will come to take his rightful place on the throne of David over the kingdoms of the entire world, and no one will stop him – though they will attempt to do so. What’s even more encouraging is that he will not only take full authority over all earthly kingdoms, but he will do so forever. Once he begins to reign he’ll never relinquish his power. He’ll reign (or “be king”) forever.
The twenty-four elders foreshadow some more encouraging news. (Rev 11:16-18)
The twenty-four inner angelic council members will respond to this exhilarating announcement by leaving their thrones of delegated authority and falling to the ground in worship. “The twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshipped God.” This is significant, at least in part, because it reveals that even God’s more trusted angels are submitted to his authority (as they also demonstrated in Rev 4:10). This is reassuring since we know that in eternity past, some trusted angels (including Satan himself) rebelled against God’s authority. Such an angelic rebellion will no longer be a threat.
To affirm their adoration and allegiance to God, these angelic beings will express their profound thankfulness for what God is about to do. Needless to say, they are relieved and overjoyed at what’s about to occur at last.
They call God “Almighty,” a title which occurs nine times in this book (1:8; 4:8; 11:17; 15:3; 16:7, 14; 19:6, 15; 21:22) and only one other place in the NT (2 Cor 6:18). It refers to God as omnipotent and all-powerful. According to Louw and Nida, “In some languages, the Almighty as a title for God may be expressed as ‘the one who controls everything’ or ‘the one who commands all things and all people.’”[1]
They also describe God as “the one who is and who was.” Some translations (KJV, NKJV, MEV) also include “and the one who is coming,” yet this reading is absent from the vast majority of manuscripts, including both the oldest manuscripts (NU) and the majority manuscripts (MT). We face a similar challenge in Rev 16:5 as well.
The reason to include this third descriptor would seem to be that John has already given a similar threefold description of God in Rev 1:8 and 4:8. By doing this, he not only describes the eternality of God and Christ (past, present, and future) but foreshadows that God/Christ is indeed coming in the future to rule and reign with finality.
So, why would John omit this third descriptor here? There’s a good reason for why this might be: because he’s just announced that Christ’s coming is no longer coming in the future because his coming has become a present, unfolding reality with this seventh trumpet. He is no longer “coming” because he now “has come.”
That’s the point of this seventh trumpet – Christ’s arrival is now, at last, in motion. As the twenty-four angelic elders announce, “Because you have taken your great power and reigned.”
“The nations were angry” describes the way that the pagan, secular, religious, and nonbelieving people of the world will respond to his entry into the world this second time. What’s fascinating about this description is how it mirrors, in ironic fashion the following connected description of God, “your wrath has come.”
Both anger and wrath are the same words (ὀργή). Yet, the anger of the nations against God is evil while the anger of God against the nations is holy. As we’ll read later in Revelation, from the period which this announcement describes, the defiant, rebellious nations will express their wrath against God by gathering in large armies to fight against God (16:14, 16, 19; 20:8-9), but Christ will stamp out their rebellion completely.
“And the time of the dead that they should be judged.” As the king who is coming to reign, Christ will also judge all those who’ve died throughout the history of the world. The purpose of this judgment will be twofold. To “reward his servants” and to “destroy those who destroy the earth.”
The elders describe God’s servants as both “the prophets” and “the saints.” Prophets refers to God’s chosen spokesmen, whether Old Testament (OT) prophets or New Testament (NT) apostles. Saints refers to all God’s people generally who have followed him and persevered in faith.
He describes his prophets as “his servants” and his people as “those who fear God’s name.” The description of servants underscores how the prophets devoted their lives to speaking for God though they were pressured by the world to do otherwise. The fearing God description underscores how God’s people in general have elevated God’s priorities and values over the priorities and values of this fallen world despite intense pressure to do otherwise by this fallen, rebellious world.
According to these elders, the faith of God’s prophets and people will be rewarded. God will give them the proper outcome for what they’ve done – all the suffering they’ve endured, all the loss they’ve incurred, all the risks that they’ve taken for his name. This will be true for “small and great,” a description of people that John uses multiple times in this book (Rev 13:16; 19:5, 18; 20:12).
This may be a way of saying “youngest to oldest” but is likely referring to a more significant social paradigm of “least prominent to most prominent.” In other words, all of God’s people will receive equal treatment when their rewards are given by God. Whether you were wealthy or poor, powerful or oppressed, important or unimportant, free or enslaved, he will reward your faith and perseverance for Christ just the same. In other words, the social statuses to which our fallen world attaches so much meaning and value will have no such value in the kingdom of God. We’ll all be treated as equals and our faith, and service for Christ will be rewarded in its own right regardless of the social position we held.
“And should destroy those who destroy the earth” is not necessarily a reference to ecological mistreatment, as though the elders are saying that God will destroy or ruin anyone who refuses to recycle their nonperishable trash. Instead, this is a reference to the corrupt economic and religious system which John will later describe as Babylon which has corrupted and exploited this world for evil causes rather than exploring and governing it for God’s glory (cf. Rev 19:2). In particular, it will not be an abstract, personal system alone that God judges, but the nonbelieving, rebellious people that carried it along in all their various ways (Rev 19:2; cf. Gen 1:28, Rom 8:19-21).
God gives his people open access to his presence. (Rev 11:19)
“Then the temple was opened in heaven, and the Ark of the Covenant was seen in his temple.” This detail is important because it signals a new degree of fellowship with God and his people.
- In the OT, God’s people would gather at the tabernacle, then Temple, to interact with God and worship him. When they did this, however, they could only enter into the outer courtyard if they offered a sacrifice.
- Only priests could enter the Temple building itself in the Holy Place after elaborate purification rituals, and only the High Priest could enter the innermost chamber, the Holiest Place (where the Ark of the Covenant sat as the focused seat of God’s presence) once a year, after elaborate cleansing and sacrificial rituals.
It’s fascinating to note that the blueprints for the OT tabernacle and Ark of the Covenant given to Moses were a kind of copy designed to resemble the heavenly version (Exod 25:40; Heb 8:1-5). Knowing this, it’s reasonable to assume that the Ark of the Covenant here in heaven is not the same one that disappeared at the end of the OT. It is, instead, the heavenly version after which the earthly one was patterned.
What’s important here is that John saw this superior, heavenly temple of God being shown as having open access to the Ark of the Covenant with no elaborate ceremonies or sacrifices required. This indicates full, unhindered fellowship and intimacy with God for all his people forever.
“And there were lightnings, noises, thunderings, an earthquake, and great hail.”
These natural phenomena seem to correspond with what will happen at the end of the seventh bowl judgment and the end of the Tribulation, indicating that what John saw at the end of this heavenly announcement will correspond with what occurs on earth at the end of this trumpet judgment, which encompasses all of the bowl judgments together (Rev 16:18, 21).
Final Takeaways
In the end, the only factor that will unite the world is mutual defiance against God.
John says that the nations will be angry. That’s not hard to imagine, isn’t it? You see, the only thing that will unite them, in the end, is their shared anger towards God, which will escalate to a climax at the end of the Tribulation. But their anger will be unable to withstand the just and holy anger of God against their sin. Today is not the day for God’s anger to fall for there are more people to be rescued from destruction, but that day will come.
In the end, Christ will reign and reward his people.
Before the 1968 Super Bowl, QB Joe Namath guaranteed that his New York Jets would win Super Bowl III. Many fans and pundits ridiculed his claim believing that the team was nowhere close to being able to win it all. When they qualified for the game, they were still 18-point underdogs. Even so, they shocked the world (and perhaps even themselves) when they triumphed 16 to 7.
In times like these (similar to when John wrote Revelation in the first century, pagan Roman Empire), we need a good reminder that no matter what happens in the course of human history and the nations, there’s coming a day when the seventh trumpet will blow in heaven and Christ’s full and final triumph will be announced. The nations will rage against him, but their plans will come to nothing. He will destroy those who are destroying the earth today and reward those who faithfully followed Christ through these dark and dangerous times. It’s truth like this that enables us to set aside the bad news of our day and persevere in serving Christ with steady confidence, joy, and peace in our hearts.
[1] Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), 138.
