By Gwen Frangs / Cambridge, UK / January 2022
The Book of Revelation provides a great deal of insight with regard to the return of Jesus. I decided to compare recent historical events with the descriptions of the seals, the trumpets, the signs in the sky and the two beasts in Revelation, to see if I could find any indication that some, or all, of this prophetic book might have already been fulfilled. What I discovered was a surprise even to myself.
The Six Seals
In the sixth chapter of the Book of Revelation, Jesus Christ opens a scroll which is sealed with seven seals. When opened, six of the seals release specific types of judgment onto the earth.
Then I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals. 2 And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, “Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?” 3 But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it. 4 I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside. 5 Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.”
Revelation 5:1-5 NIV
The First Five Seals
The first five seals are conquest, war, famine, death and martyrdom. Could these five seals have already been fulfilled? The amount of human misery caused by these five occurrences during the past two thousand years has been more than adequate to have fulfilled the first five seals. Any student of history would have to agree that there has been so much conquest, war, famine, death and martyrdom on the earth during the last two thousand years, that you don’t need to have any more added, in order to justify an argument that the first five seals may already have been fulfilled.
The Sixth Seal
12 I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, 13 and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. 14 The heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.
15 Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone else, both slave and free, hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. 16 They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us[f] from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! 17 For the great day of their[g] wrath has come, and who can withstand it?”
Revelation 6:12-17 NIV
The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami and the Nias-Simeulue earthquake
Revelation 6:12-17 seems to be describing a tsunami because of three things:
There was a great earthquake (Rev 8:12). A great undersea earthquake caused the tsunami.
The heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up. A tsunami affects the atmosphere above it, causing waves in the atmosphere, which could be described as the heavens receding like a scroll being rolled up:
https://visibleearth.nasa.gov/images/77377/quake-and-tsunami-makes-waves-in-the-atmosphere
https://www.livescience.com/8782-tsunamis-send-mysterious-waves-earth-atmosphere.html
Also, mountains and islands were removed from their place because the entire earth wobbled on its axis as a result of the tsunami and islands were moved:
https://www.theage.com.au/national/tsunami-quake-wobbled-earths-axis-20041228-gdz9ru.html
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-dec-27-sci-tsunami27-story.html
According to Wikipedia’s article about the tsunami:
Early speculation was that some of the smaller islands south-west of Sumatra, which is on the Burma Plate (the southern regions are on the Sunda Plate), might have moved south-west by up to 36 m (120 ft), but more accurate data released more than a month after the earthquake found the movement to be about 0.2 m (8 in).[37] Since movement was vertical as well as lateral, some coastal areas may have been moved to below sea level. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands appear to have shifted south-west by around 1.25 m (4 ft 1 in) and to have sunk by 1 m (3 ft 3 in).[38]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake_and_tsunami
The Jewish tsunami victims
The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, 13 and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind.
Revelation 6:12b-13
The sun, moon and stars symbolize Israel in the Bible. In Genesis 37 Joseph has two dreams, the second of which depicted his family as the sun, moon and stars:
9 Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”
10 When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?” 11 His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2037%3A9-11&version=NIV
In Revelation 12:1-6 the nation of Israel is symbolically referred to as a woman clothed with the sun and moon and wearing a crown of stars.
Therefore, it is possible that the reference to the sun, moon and stars in Revelation 6:12-13 could be a reference to the Jewish people who were killed by the 2004 tsunami. There were a number of Jewish people who lost their lives in the tsunami. The following articles speak about some of those Jewish victims:
https://www.jweekly.com/2005/01/14/jewish-couple-embarking-on-new-life-killed-in-tsunami/
https://www.sajbd.org/media/the-2004-tsunami-and-south-african-jewry
https://www.jta.org/archive/israel-jewish-groups-pitch-in-to-help-victims-of-quake-tsunami
https://www.ourjerusalem.com/news20041231/
A comparison of Matthew 24:29 and Revelation 6:12
“Immediately after the distress of those days
“‘the sun will be darkened,
Matthew 24:29 NIV
and the moon will not give its light;
the stars will fall from the sky.
The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind.
Revelation 6:12 NIV
We see that this is a description of the same events, but using slightly different wording. Therefore, it is possible that the tsunami in 2004 heralded the return of Jesus.
We can say that Jesus is coming back in this century because he said that the generation who saw these things, the sun being darkened and the moon not giving its light and the stars falling from the sky, would not be dead before He came back:
32 “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. 33 Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it[e] is near, right at the door. 34 Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
Matthew 24:32-35 NIV
He must have been saying that the generation that witnessed the 2004 tsunami, would not die until before his return.
Evacuation to the mountains
Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone else, both slave and free, hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains.
Revelation 6:15
While I could find no accounts on-line regarding people hiding in caves and among the rocks of the mountains on the 26th December 2004, when the initial tsunami event occurred, I did find an account of how people fled into the mountains and hid during the aftershock, which occurred on March 28, 2005. This aftershock, called the Nias-Simeulue earthquake, was also a very powerful earthquake:
According to a BBC news article, this aftershock caused mass panic and people evacuated into the mountains:
Local residents said Wednesday’s earthquake, which hit Simeulue at 1508 (0808 GMT) according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), lasted for almost a minute.
It was felt strongly more than 300km (185 miles) away in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, where people left their offices after buildings started shaking.
“Everything shook very strongly for more than a minute and I ran along with the others. I heard people screaming in panic,” Ahmad Yushadi told the Associated Press news agency.
An official from the Indonesian ministry of health, Rustam Pakaya, said the authorities on Simeulue had reported three deaths and 25 serious injuries caused by the earthquake.
“People have evacuated to the mountains,” he said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/7254325.stm
Fear of judgment
16 They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us[f] from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! 17 For the great day of their[g] wrath has come, and who can withstand it?”
Revelation 6\;16
Prior to the tsunami, there had been considerable persecution of the Christians in Indonesia. At Christmas in 2000, churches were bombed:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/1086275.stm
In January 2004 churches were attacked:
https://www.worthynews.com/353-protestant-churches-sustain-attacks
In September 2004 twelve churches were ordered to close:
https://matt510.wordpress.com/2004/09/
https://christianpersecution.info/indonesia-closes-12-churches-in-bandung/
In November 2004 a pastor was murdered and on 14 December 2004 two more churches were attacked:
https://matt510.wordpress.com/2004/12/
Given the level of persecution that Christians were experiencing prior to the tsunami, it is justifiable to believe that the people fleeing into the mountains may have interpreted the tsunami as an act of retaliation on the part of the Christian God. This is why they would have been calling to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can withstand it?”
The Seven Trumpets
Then the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to sound them.
Revelation 8:6
The following articles suggest that six of the seven trumpets may have already sounded:
https://strangesounds.org/sky-trumpets-2020-trumpet-sounds-in-the-sky-list
https://etheric.com/trumpet-sounds-sky/
https://prophecywatchers.com/strange-trumpets-is-the-world-being-warned/
https://www.the-wise-shall-understand.com/trumpets-in-the-sky/
Strange sounds have been heard in the skies all around the earth during the past twelve years, the first being recorded in 2008. Is it possible that these sounds are the seven trumpets? NASA says that they are normal sounds which are made by the earth:
https://www.elitereaders.com/eerie-noise-heard-from-different-parts-of-the-world-explained-by-nasa/
https://www.sott.net/article/297196-NASA-confirms-strange-sounds-emanating-from-the-sky
But, if they are normal sounds, made by the earth, why is there no record in history of their having been heard before? Also, if they are normally at a very low volume, undetectable to the human ear, why did their volume suddenly increase?
The First Trumpet
The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down on the land. For the third time the land was burned up, and for the third time the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.
Revelation 8:7
The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail
In November 2015 a freak hailstorm in Iraq caused a river of hailstones running through the desert, which swelled the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/iraqi-ice-flood-footage-shows-6805027
The land and trees were burned up for the third time
The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down on the land. And for the third time the land was burned up, and for the third time the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.
Revelation 8:7
Most Bible translators translate the second line in the verse as:
‘A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up’.
However, there is a problem with this translation. The word ‘a’ does not appear in the original Greek text. The Bible translators have mistranslated the definite article.
Mistranslation of the definite article
If you read the verse in the original Greek it does not actually say ‘a third of the earth’. In the original Greek it says ‘the third of the earth.’ The Greek word τὸ which is translated as ‘a’ by many Bible translations is actually the definite article ‘the’:
Strong’s Concordance
ho, hé, to: the
Original Word: ὁ, ἡ, τό
https://biblehub.com/greek/3588.htm
Part of Speech: Definite Article
Transliteration: ho, hé, to
Phonetic Spelling: (ho)
Definition: the
Usage: the, the definite article.
The Bible translators have quite rightly realized that it sounds strange for the verse to read:
‘And the third of the earth was burned up and the third of the trees were burned up…’
So, they decided to change the definite article ‘the’ to ‘a’ to try and make their translation of the verse work. I decided to accept that the apostle John meant ‘the’ when he put this word into the verse and to see if the verse could be translated in a different manner from the way in which Bible translators have traditionally translated it.
The meaning of τρίτον
The Greek word τρίτον which has been translated as ‘third’ can also mean the ‘third time’ (Matthew 26:44; Mark 14:41; Luke 23:22; John 21:14; John 21:17; 2 Corinthians 12:14; 2 Corinthians 13:1). Therefore, it is possible that the verse is saying that for the third time the earth is burnt up and for the third time the trees are burnt up.
However, this doesn’t make much sense because there are no instances in history where the entire earth was burnt up on two previous occasions.
However, things begin to make sense when you realize that the Greek word γῆς which has been translated as ‘the earth’ can also be translated as ‘the land’ (Mat 14:24; Mark 4:1; Mark 6:47; Luke 5:3; Luke 21:23; John 6:21; John 21:8; Acts 7:4; Heb 8:9; Heb 11:29; Jude 1:5; Rev 10:5; Rev 10:8).
It can also be seen to be a region.
Strong’s Concordance
gé: the earth, land
Original Word: γῆ, γῆς, ἡ
https://biblehub.com/greek/1093.htm
Part of Speech: Noun, Feminine
Transliteration: gé
Phonetic Spelling: (ghay)
Definition: the earth, land
Usage: the earth, soil, land, region, country, inhabitants of a region.
If one translates the verse putting in the ‘third time’ and ‘the land’ or ‘the region’ then the verse reads:
The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down on the land (or region). And for the third time the land (or region) was burned up, and for the third time the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up. (Bold mine)
Revelation 8:7
Military strikes on Iraq
Where did Revelation 8:7 take place? Where is this land or region? I believe that the hail in November 2015 directs us to the location onto which the fire mixed with blood was hurled. Therefore, we can know that the land, or region, that we have to look at to see if fire mixed with blood was hurled down onto it, is the land of Iraq.
The meaning of fire mixed with blood
Probably, the best explanation of what fire mixed with blood being hurled down on the land symbolizes in our modern understanding, is that it symbolizes military airstrikes. In November 2015, when the hail fell, Iraq was in a state of war. Iraq was fighting a war against ISIL (The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) which started in 2013 and finished in 2017. Many airstrikes occurred in Iraq during this war. If it is the case that airstrikes are being referred to in Revelation 8:7, then these airstrikes may have occurred during the Third Battle of Fallujah.
The Third Battle of Fallujah
The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down on the land (or region). And for the third time the land (or region) was burned up, and for the third time the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up. (Bold mine)
Revelation 8:7
On the 2 February 2016, approximately two months after the strange hail fell in the Iraqi desert, Iraqi troops laid siege to a city in Iraq called Fallujah:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_War_in_Iraq_(2016)
On 22 May they started an attack to take back Fallujah from ISIL. This attack is called the Third Battle of Fallujah:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Battle_of_Fallujah
Before and during the Third Battle of Fallujah, the city and the land around the city were attacked from the air a number of times by western coalition forces and the Iraqi military:
List of RAF airstrikes on and around Fallujah in May 2016:
On 27 May, the US-led Coalition conducted airstrikes in and around Fallujah, killing 70 ISIL fighters, including the militants’ top commander in the area, Maher Al-Bilawi:
On 19 June, it was reported that 50 ISIL militants had been killed in coalition air strikes and 15 others had been killed in clashes with Iraqi security forces:
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/battle-for-iraq-s-fallujah-continues
On 29 June, Iraqi jets targeted a convoy of militants and their supporters fleeing from Fallujah’s villages under cover of a dust storm. The Iraqi Air Force claimed that about 426 vehicles carrying up to 2,000 militants were hit in the airstrikes.[94]
Later that day, the U.S. Air Force conducted airstrikes against retreating ISIL convoys on the outskirts of Fallujah, killing at least 250 militants and destroying 40 vehicles.[95] Overall, 348 militants were killed and more than 200 vehicles were destroyed throughout the day.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Battle_of_Fallujah
As the fight for Fallujah intensifies, the Iraqi military has revealed it has launched at least 240 air raids since the beginning of its military operations, as a leading aid group raised alarm over the unfolding “human catastrophe” in the city.
https://english.alaraby.co.uk/news/operation-fallujah-240-airstrikes-nine-days
These airstrikes were the third time that military airstrikes were used against Fallujah during a battle. There had previously been two other battles at Fallujah.
The First and Second Battles of Fallujah
The First and Second Battles of Fallujah didn’t actually take place in the same war as the Third Battle of Fallujah. They took place during the previous war, the Iraq War (2003 – 2011).
First Battle of Fallujah:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Fallujah
Second Battle of Fallujah:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Fallujah
https://www.britannica.com/event/Second-Battle-of-Fallujah
https://mca-marines.org/bsp/bsp-middleeast/second-fallujah/
During both the First and Second Battles of Fallujah, the city and the land around it were also hit by airstrikes.
Airstrikes during the First Battle of Fallujah:
Air bombardments rained on insurgent positions throughout the city,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Fallujah
Airstrikes during the Second Battle of Fallujah:
The United States Air Force provided close air support for the ground offensive, employing F-15 Strike Eagles, F-16 Fighting Falcons, A-10 Thunderbolt IIs, B-52 Stratofortresses, and AC-130 gunships to carry out close-quarter precision airstrikes against enemy strongholds within the city. The Air Force also employed MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicles for reconnaissance and precision strikes, and the U-2 Dragon Lady high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft for intelligence collection, surveillance and reconnaissance before, during, and after the battle.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Fallujah
Therefore, during all three Battles of Fallujah, ‘fire mixed with blood’ was cast onto this region in Iraq.
All the green grass was burned up
The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down on the land (or region). And for the third time the land (or region) was burned up, and for the third time the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up. (Bold mine)
Revelation 8:7
Although Iraq is a very dry country, Fallujah had green grass:
In the following article, written by someone who had visited Fallujah prior to the Battles of Fallujah, the author called Fallujah ‘green’:
https://revealnews.org/article/fallujah-my-lost-hometown/
The Significance of Fallujah
At the time that John was writing the Book of Revelation, Fallujah was occupied by Jewish people:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallujah
So, Fallujah must have had significance to John because it was a Jewish settlement. Also, it is one of the locations where the Babylonian Talmud was created https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumbedita .
But, more importantly Fallujah has significance for God, as it is a city located in the area where the Garden of Eden was located. I will discuss this further in the next section of this article.
I believe that God is particularly angry about the devastation caused to the city of Fallujah by the wars in Iraq. Babies at the time of the First and Second Battles of Fallujah, who survived to become children, had to flee from Fallujah in 2016 to escape the Third Battle of Fallujah.
This article https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/fallujah-in-ruins/ describes the situation of one of these children:
To watch young amputee Mustafa Ahmed swing from his crutches into a dirty tent in the middle of the desert—no clean water or food, no mattress to sleep on—is to see the failure of U.S. policy in Iraq.
According to a grim report on PBS Newshour by foreign correspondent Jane Arraf, Ahmed lost a kidney and his leg when he was a baby during an American airstrike in Fallujah in 2004. (She doesn’t say whether it was during the first Battle of Fallujah or the second.) Now a handsome yet serious-faced child of 12 or 13, he has fled his city on crutches for eight miles before becoming trapped in one of the desperate camps outside.
He told Arraf he once had a prosthetic leg, fitted for him in Oregon—likely as a form of restitution for being collateral damage. But he has since outgrown it. Now he doesn’t even have catheter tubes. He couldn’t even get one of the free mattresses being distributed by the Norwegian Refugee Council, one of the few aid groups on the ground there today.
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/fallujah-in-ruins/
Some more articles about this devastation caused to Fallujah in 2004 and 2016:
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/fallujah-tries-to-rebuild-before-residents-return/
https://articlesfactsstats.wordpress.com/the-iraq-war-fallujah-before-and-after/
https://revcom.us/es//////////a/023/fallujah-hidden-massacre.htm
The Second Battle of Fallujah was the worst battle for Fallujah environmentally. This was because the Americans bombed Fallujah with things that have contaminated the environment to the extent that babies born in Fallujah after the Second Battle of Fallujah have been born with birth defects:
https://truthout.org/articles/iraq-wars-legacy-of-cancer/
https://libcom.org/news/fallout-us-seige-fallujah-worse-hiroshima%E2%80%99s-19082010
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/oct/25/fallujah-iraq-health-crisis-silence
http://www.newweapons.org/?q=node/104
http://www.brussellstribunal.org/Fallujah020710.html
https://hibakusha-worldwide.org/en/locations/fallujah
https://www.thenation.com/article/world/fallujah-iraq-birth-defects/
The fact that Fallujah was exposed to the effects of war for a third time, after having sustained such damage as a result of the Second Battle of Fallujah, is pretty mind-blowing.
It is very possible that Revelation 8:7 may be referring specifically to the area in and around the city of Fallujah. First there is the hail in November 2015, indicating to us that the next events are also going to occur in Iraq. The words the ‘third time’ point to the exact area on which the fire mixed with blood will be hurled by indicating that this event is happening for the third time. The three Battles of Fallujah are historically well known. Wikipedia dedicates an individual article to each of these Battles. The Second Battle of Fallujah was the worst battle that the Americans fought during the Iraq War. A number of books have been written about it. For example:
So, this event of Fallujah being involved in a third battle is a sign which the world cannot fail to miss. The Third Battle of Fallujah is very possibly the First Trumpet. If so, then this sign has already occurred between November 2015 and June 2016.
The Second Trumpet
8 The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. And for the third time the sea became blood, 9 and for the third time the living creatures in the sea died, and for the third time the boats were destroyed.
Revelation 8:8-9
In July 2016 the USA is thrown into the sea of populism
In the Bible a mountain can symbolize a nation Isa.41:14-16 ; Zech. 4:7 and the sea can symbolize people (Revelation 17:15). The huge mountain being thrown into the sea, spoken of in Revelation 8:12, could be the USA being thrown into populism. It might not be a coincidence that this is the same country which had been involved in fighting all three Battles of Fallujah. The Third Battle of Fallujah ended in June 2016, so this happened in the very next month. The huge mountain is on fire because it is being judged. In the Bible judgment is often associated with fire.
How do we know that the USA is the nation being cast into the sea?
In the original Greek text the fiery mountain being cast into the sea is causally linked to the sea turning to blood. In the original Greek text it says that the mountain is cast into the sea and the sea turns to blood. The Greek word καὶ is used which means ‘and.’ On 18 July 2016, the same day that the Republican National Convention started, Lake Urmia in Iran turned blood red. The waters of Lake Urmia in Iran changed from green on April 23 to red on July 18, as seen by a NASA satellite:
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/88395/red-lake-urmia
https://sputniknews.com/20160727/iran-lake-salt-color-1043682677.html
On 19 July 2016, Donald Trump was nominated as the Republican candidate:
Is it a coincidence that on the day that the Republican National Convention starts, which will nominate Donald Trump as the Republican candidate for the presidency, that Lake Urmia is photographed by NASA as blood red?
Can Lake Urmia be described as a sea?
Lake Urmia can be regarded as a sea for two reasons:
Firstly, Lake Urmia is one of the remnants of the ancient sea that once covered Mesopotamia. The Caspian Sea, the Aral Sea, the Black Sea, and Lake Urmia, are remnants of the ancient Tethys Sea and all were once part of it, but each of these became landlocked about 5.5 million years ago due to plate tectonic uplift and a fall in sea level: https://www.lakepedia.com/lake/caspian-sea.html
Secondly, the traditional Armenian name is Kaputan tsov (Կապուտան ծով) which means the “blue sea”. The residents of Shahi Island refer to the lake in Azerbaijani as Daryā meaning Sea: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Urmia
Is Lake Urmia the sea described in Revelation 8:8?
What makes Lake Urmia so significant that God would be including it in Revelation? I believe that what makes Lake Urmia so significant is that it was located in Eden. According to David Rohl, the author of Legend: The Genesis of Civilization, Eden was located around Lake Van and Lake Urmia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Rohl.
I agree with Rohl that Eden was located around Lake Van and Lake Urmia. However, I believe that Eden was larger than Rohl thinks and that it also extended down between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. It is in this area that the city of Fallujah is located. I believe that Eden included this area for two reasons:
Firstly, it does not make sense that the very fertile area between the Tigris and Euphrates, which we know to be the cradle of civilization, would not have formed part of Eden.
Secondly, after studying the Greek text of Genesis 2:10, I believe that it should be read as saying that Eden was separated between the four headwaters. In other words, it is Eden that is the subject of the verse and the ‘it’ in the verse refers to Eden and not to the river.
In Genesis 2:10 the Hebrew word וְהָיָ֖ה translated ‘and became’ can also be translated as ‘shall extend’ (Numbers 34:3) or ‘shall correspond’ (Leviticus 25:50). There is a preposition on the word לְאַרְבָּעָ֥ה (four). It is ignored by most Bible translators. It is the preposition ‘to’ https://www.pealim.com/dict/6014-le/. Therefore, the verse is saying that from the river, Eden separates and extends or corresponds to four headwaters.
Therefore, it is my understanding that the verse should read as:
A river, watering the garden, flowed from Eden; from there it (Eden) was separated and extends (corresponds) to four headwaters. (Bold mine)
Genesis 2:10
Verses 11-14 name the four headwaters that demarcate the area of Eden. Eden was separated into the area between the Gihon and Phison rivers and the area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, as indicated by the red-orange shaded area on the following map:
This is why Lake Urmia is so significant. It was located in Eden and it must have been known to Adam and Eve. There are no capital letters in the ancient Greek text, but if there were, I believe that the word ‘sea’ in Revelation 8:8 would have been capitalized to emphasize its significance.
For the third time the Sea turns to blood
8 The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. And for the third time the sea became blood, 9 and for the third time the living creatures in the sea died, and for the third time the boats were destroyed.
Revelation 8:8-9
As previously discussed when we looked at the First Trumpet, the Greek word τρίτον which has been translated as ‘third’ can also mean the ‘third time’ ( Matthew 26:44; Mark 14:41; Luke 23:22; John 21:14; John 21:17; 2 Corinthians 12:14; 2 Corinthians 13:1).
Satellite photos show how Lake Urmia progressively turned red over three months in 2016, May, June and July:
https://www.eorc.jaxa.jp/GOSAT/news/news_201609.html
Therefore, it could be said that after America plummeted into the metaphorical sea of populism in July 2016, the literal sea (Lake Urmia) turned to blood for the third time.
The creatures living in Lake Urmia die for the third time
8 The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. And for the third time the sea became blood, 9 and for the third time the living creatures in the sea died, and for the third time the boats were destroyed.
Revelation 8:8-9
Lake Urmia is a super saline lake, so very few creatures live in the lake. A study of the biodiversity of the lake indicated that archaebacteria and bacteria, microfungi, phytoplankton and Artemia (a type of shrimp) are the only creatures that live in the lake:
https://www.mdpi.com/1424-2818/6/1/102/htm
Between the mid-1990s and 2019 there were three fluctuations in the surface area of the lake.
Fluctuations in the surface area of Lake Urmia
From the mid-1990s to the early 2000s the surface area of the lake decreased. An article published in February 2012 said the following:
Since peaking in the mid-1990s, surface area has generally declined quite rapidly despite regular seasonal variation and a brief expansion during a wet period in the early 2000s.
https://na.unep.net/geas/getUNEPPageWithArticleIDScript.php?article_id=79
In 2013 the lake was in a state of crisis because its surface area had reached a point of only being 700 km2:
At this time the Iraqi government intervened and they managed to increase the surface area of the lake through various interventions. The surface area of the lake increased by 1,600km2 between 2013 and 2017 as a result of these interventions:
In 2017 the lake’s surface area had increased to 2,300 km2:
These articles verify that the Lake was reviving in 2017:
Some positive results are finally emerging and the lake’s surface area reached 2,300 km2 last year, according to UN Development Programme figures.
https://middle-east-online.com/en/iran%E2%80%99s-lake-urmia-shows-signs-revival
https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/414156/Migrating-flamingos-opt-to-stay-in-reviving-Lake-Urmia
https://ifpnews.com/flamingos-return-to-shrinking-lake-urmia
Unfortunately, in early 2018 the surface area of the lake again decreased because of lack of rainfall in 2017. In early 2018 the lake again lost surface area:
https://caspiannews.com/news-detail/iranian-officials-try-to-save-drying-lake-urmia-2018-3-7-9/
This shrinkage continued throughout the year. In November 2018 the surface area had reduced to 1,661km2:
https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10708-020-10180-w.pdf
This satellite photo shows how much surface area had been lost:
I think that it is fair to say that during the three periods in which the surface area of the lake decreased, the creatures that had been living in those parts of the lake also died.
A 2004 presentation shows the effect that the decline in surface area of the lake was having on the Artemia (brine shrimp) between the mid-1990s and 2004. There was a decline in the amount of the shrimp and birds were dying, both because of the decline of the Artemia, which is their food source and because of salt crystallizing in their eyes and feathers. This caused them not to be able to see and to fly:
https://aquaculture.ugent.be/Research/INCO/present/wsh4/Hafezieh.pdf
In 2016 it was confirmed that there was no longer any living Artemia in the lake:
https://peerj.com/articles/7190/
According to Revelation 8:9 the creatures in the lake died for the third time. This means that they had to have died two times previously. To summarize the situation at Lake Urmia between the mid-1990s and 2019:
The first time that creatures died in the lake:
From the mid-1990s to the wet period in the early 2000s when there was a brief expansion in surface area due to rainfall, is the first time that creatures died in the lake.
https://aquaculture.ugent.be/Research/INCO/present/wsh4/Hafezieh.pdf
The second time creatures died in the lake:
From the end of the wet period in the early 2000s until the end of 2013 is the second time creatures died in the lake. There was only 700 km2 left of the lake by 2013, so a large number of creatures would have died between 2005 and 2013. The bird life at the lake declined significantly during this period:
The third time creatures died in the lake:
In March 2018 for the third time creatures living in the lake would have died as a result of a reduction of the surface area of the lake because of a lack of rainfall in 2017.
The situation at Lake Urmia correlates with the description of the creatures in the sea dying for the third time. Therefore, it is possible that the situation that occurred at Lake Urmia between the mid-1990s and early 2018 fulfills Revelation 8:9a.
The boats at Lake Urmia are destroyed for the third time
The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. And for the third time the sea became blood, 9 and for the third time the living creatures in the sea died, and for the third time the boats were destroyed.
Revelation 8:8-9
The Greek word typically translated ships can be more correctly translated as boats:
Strong’s Concordance
ploion: a boat
Original Word: πλοῖον, ου, τό
https://biblehub.com/greek/4143.htm
Part of Speech: Noun, Neuter
Transliteration: ploion
Phonetic Spelling: (ploy’-on)
Definition: a boat
Usage: a ship, vessel, boat.
The boats at Lake Urmia cannot be used when the water level in the lake is too low and they are abandoned and left to be destroyed by rust.
Evidence of boats being destroyed at Lake Urmia:
The following articles contain pictures of the boats at Lake Urmia that were abandoned to rust:
https://www.homeiswherethecaris.com/photography-iran-lake-urmia/
https://hipersia.com/en/news.cfm?id=1004
https://www.middleeasteye.net/features/demise-lake-urmia-sparks-trouble-iran
https://www.youthjournalism.org/lake-urmia-former-tourist-favorite-and/
https://library.panos.co.uk/features/stories/salt-lake-citizens.html#0_00175317
https://phys.org/news/2018-12-iran-revival-imperilled-lake-urmia.html
Strange natural phenomenon which occurred in 2016
Could Donald Trump’s rise in politics and these strange environmental events be connected?
There was a dramatic increase in volcanic eruptions around the world in February 2016:
9 February 2016 – Donald Trump wins New Hampshire Primary
20 February 2016 – Donald Trump wins South Carolina Primary
24 February 2016 – Donald Trump wins the Nevada Caucus
Then on Sunday April 17, 2016 a giant fireball appeared in the sky in El Salvador:
3 May 2016 – Donald Trump wins the Indiana Primary:
https://nypost.com/2016/05/03/donald-trump-wins-indiana-primary/
Last month, more volcanoes erupted during one week than would typically erupt during an entire year in the 20th century. Hailstones the size of tennis balls fell across southeast Asia, while the Indian subcontinent roasted in a record-breaking heatwave for the second year running. Europe experienced record-late snowfall in many places, followed by tornado outbreaks, devastating flash-floods and hailstorms that required snowploughs to clear streets. Wildfires raged across vast expanses of sub-Arctic regions, notably in central Canada, where the population of an entire city was forced to flee.
https://vimeo.com/169770683
Was the planet itself trying to warn us in 2016, by means of volcanic eruptions and severe weather, that Donald Trump coming into power meant that bad times lay ahead? Could the red fireball in the sky in El Salvador have been a sign in the heavens warning the people who saw it that the Day of the Lord is near? Or, was it merely a meteor and it was just a coincidence that the only people who saw it were leaving a church service?
The Third Trumpet
The pollution of the Tigris River is made public
10 The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky and it fell on the third of the rivers and on the springs of water— 11 the name of the star is Wormwood. And became the third of the waters wormwood, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter.
Revelation 8:10-11
Again, in verse 10 the Greek word τὸ is mistranslated as ‘a’ by most Bible translations instead of as the definite article ‘the’.
What is meant by the ‘third’ of the rivers. As we have already seen, the Greek word τρίτον can mean the ‘third time.’ But, it can also mean the ‘third’ of a quantity (Mat 17:23 ; Mat 20:3 ; Mark 15:25 ; Luke 9:22 ; Acts 2:15). I believe that in Revelation 8:10, it means the ‘third’ of a quantity. The verse is referring to the third of the rivers.
But, what is meant by the third of the rivers? What river is the third of the rivers and why is the definite article used when referring to it? I believe that this is a reference to the third river spoken of in Genesis:
10 A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin[d] and onyx are also there.) 13 The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush.[e]14 The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Ashur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
Genesis 2:10-14 NIV
The definite article is used in Revelation 8:10, when referring to the third river, because of its significance as a point of reference to Eden.
Stars as revelation
In the Bible angels are called stars, the Jewish people are called stars, there is a star in Bethlehem when Jesus is born and Jesus is called the bright Morning Star:
- Angels were sent as messengers to provide people with revelation regarding their future.
- The Jewish people were created by God to provide revelation about the nature of God to the gentiles.
- The star, in the accounts of the birth of Jesus, provided revelation regarding where He was, to the three wise men.
- Jesus, the bright Morning Star, came to reveal to mankind what God is like.
Therefore, we see that in the Bible, stars are strongly associated with revelation or enlightenment.
I believe that the star, referred to as Wormwood, could refer to revelation about the state of the third of the rivers in 2018. This revelation was brought about by the reports and media articles about the condition of the Tigris river and the ground water in Baghdad and Samarra, which were made public in January, February and April 2018. Wormwood means bitterness. Therefore, it is a bitter revelation. It is a revelation which blazes like a torch enlightening the public.
In February 2018 a report came out which revealed the extent of the pollution of the Tigris River and revealed that this pollution had caused 600 000 people to get cancer as a result of drinking the water from the river. This report revealed the extent of the problem and in the eyes of the world the Tigris became wormwood. It had been polluted for years, but the world had no idea about how polluted it really was. When the February 2018 report came out and the media made it public, in the eyes of the world, the Tigris immediately was changed to wormwood in public knowledge.
The report reveals the shocking damage to health created by the pollution of the Tigris:
Baghdad, with a population of approximately 7.6 million (2014),6 is divided by the Tigris River into two parts: Al-Karkh on the Western bank of the Tigris River, and Al-Rusafa on the Eastern bank of the river. The polluted water of this river is a common cause of disease in the city. Sadr Hospital in Sadr City, one of the largest suburbs of Baghdad, is reported to receive about 400 children every 24 hours with diseases caused by polluted water, and five deaths on daily average have been recorded due to severe diarrhea as a result of drinking unpurified water directly from the river or eating contaminated food.7 Al-Sadr hospital receives hundreds of people daily who are suffering from poisoning, diarrhea and kidney, urinary tract diseases as a result of drinking polluted water. Some cases require treatment by a specialist doctor or even surgical intervention. Dr. Hashim Ali, a specialist in kidney diseases, considers polluted water to be one of the main causes for the increase in the number of children affected by skin diseases, smallpox and the “Baghdad boil”.8 The latter can cause skin ulcers which leave lifetime scars. In Medical City, the largest complex of hospitals in Baghdad, polluted water is a common factor of diseases. “The Tigris River gives the people of Baghdad carcinogenic water”9 heads an article published by Kholoud Al-Ameri in Al-Hayat. The author witnessed patients suffering from the pollution effects: a man was subjected to an operation for a cancerous tumor in the bladder; while an old woman was being diagnosed with intestine inflammation. Family members of the victims attribute the diseases to pollution of the river and lament the passivity of the authorities.
https://www.savethetigris.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Tigris-River-Pollution-Baghdad-Report-Save-the-Tigris-Campaign-2018.pdf
In April 2018 the media became aware of the report and there were a number of articles about the problem. For example:
https://www.iraqicivilsociety.org/archives/8472
https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/basra-iraq-water-hrw-report/
https://www.arabamericannews.com/2018/10/01/once-iraqs-venice-basras-waters-have-now-turned-deadly/
The springs of water became wormwood
The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky and it fell on the third of the rivers and on the springs of water…
Revelation 8:10
The source of springs is groundwater. Groundwater is recharged from rainwater and snowmelt or from water that leaks through the bottom of some lakes and rivers. https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/1993/ofr93-643/pdf/ofr93-643.pdf
In January 2018 there was a report regarding the condition of the groundwater at Baghdad and a report regarding the condition of the groundwater at Samarra, a city north of Baghdad, which is located on the east bank of the Tigris. These reports showed that the groundwater was not drinkable because of heavy metal contamination:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322530176
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331802515_
The revelation in these reports about the pollution of the groundwater could be why Revelation 8:10 refers to the star falling on the springs of water.
The Fourth Trumpet
The Israeli Nation State Law is approved
The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and for the third time the sun was struck, for the third time the moon, and for the third time the stars, so that for the third time they turned dark. For the third time, the day was without light, and, also, for the third time the night.
Revelation 8:12
As already discussed, the sun, moon and stars are symbolic of Israel in the Bible. In July 2018 the Israeli government passed a controversial law called the Israeli Nation State Bill which declared that Israel was exclusively the State of the Israeli people.
On July 19, 2018 the Israeli Nation-State Bill passed as a basic law in Israel. The law establishes constitutional-level protections for the Jewish people and its culture in Israel:
What does the verse mean when it says that the sun, moon and stars were darkened for the third time? It is possible that this refers to the three readings of the Israeli Nation-State Bill. This bill was passed after the third reading:
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/249170
In July 2017, a special Joint committee headed by MK Amir Ohana (Likud) was formed to revive the Nation-State Bill,[citation needed] which was then approved for a first reading on 13 March 2018.
The committee oversaw a number of changes, mostly regarding articles such as the “Hebrew Law”,[20] “Ingathering of the Exiles”, and “Jewish Settlement”, replacing an earlier version that would have enabled the state to allow groups to establish separate communities “on the basis of religion and nationality” with a version that emphasised “developing Jewish communities a national value, and will act to encourage, promote, and establish them”.[21][22]
Upon presenting the reformed bill, Chairman Ohana stated: “This is the law of all laws. It is the most important law in the history of the State of Israel, which says that everyone has human rights, but national rights in Israel belong only to the Jewish people. That is the founding principle on which the state was established”. Minister Yariv Levin, a strong backer of the proposal, called it “Zionism’s flagship bill… it will bring order, clarify what is taken for granted, and put Israel back on the right path. A country that is different from all others in one way, that it is the nation-state of the Jewish people.”[23]
On 1 May 2018, the Knesset passed the Nation-State Bill, with a majority of 64 voting in favor of the bill and 50 against in its first reading.[24] On 19 July 2018, after a stormy debate which lasted for hours, the Knesset approved the Nation-State Bill in second and third readings by a vote of 62 in favor, 55 against and two abstentions.[25]
Following the vote, members of the Joint List tore up a printed text of the law while shouting out “Apartheid” on the floor of the Knesset.[26] MKs from the coalition, on the other hand, applauded the passing of the legislation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_Law:_Israel_as_the_Nation-State_of_the_Jewish_People
Therefore, we see that there were three readings of the bill and that Israel was darkened by each of these readings. Israel was darkened for the third time when the fourth angel sounded his trumpet and the bill was read for the third time.
The new law was very controversial
The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and for the third time the sun was struck, for the third time the moon, and for the third time the stars, so that for the third time they turned dark. For the third time, the day was without light, and, also, for the third time the night.
Revelation 8:12
The words: ‘for the third time, the day was without light, and, also, for the third time the night’ could point to the controversial nature of the bill. On the one hand the State of Israel was created specifically to be the home of Jewish people and it seems fair that they would be able to have a home that was entirely theirs. But, on the other hand the world is now run on democratic principles and the bill conflicts with democracy:
Controversy has surrounded the Basic Law since it was first proposed in 2011. Prominent Israeli political, especially from the left of the political spectrum, and academic figures, such as Professor Amnon Rubinstein, have been highly critical, and frequent references have been made to the potential harm that the passage of the law’s bill could do to Israel’s democracy and the rights of its minorities.[32]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_Law:_Israel_as_the_Nation-State_of_the_Jewish_People
It was also not what the founders of Israel wanted:
The Jewish people’s own experience of 2,000 years of persecution and its own prophetic tradition led Israel’s founders to reject a narrowly Jewish state. It has thus historically constrained its ethnocultural nationalism by establishing legal protections for all minorities. These include commitments to human rights and justice as expressed in its Declaration of Independence and other basic laws.
Overall, the law is less damaging to principles of democracy than earlier proposed versions would have been.
Some wonder if the Jewish settlement clause may also permit future residential segregation that restricts Arabs and non-Jews from living anywhere they would like, despite the fact that an explicit provision in this direction was excised before passage at the behest of Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin. While informal segregation between Arabs and Jews is common in Israel, the question is whether this law will make residential segregation legally permissible.
https://www.jfedstl.org/2018/07/20/the-israeli-nation-state-law/
It is clear that Netanyahu is pushing for a legitimisation of the unofficial status of non-Jewish Israelis as second-class citizens. By doing so, however, he is openly breaking the fiction of Israel as a democracy, thus pushing Israel’s liberal supporters within the country and throughout the world into disarray.
https://www.marxist.com/netanyahu-s-jewish-nation-state-law-enshrining-discrimination-in-israel-s-constitution.htm
Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People (Hebrew: חוֹק יְסוֹד: יִשְׂרָאֵל—מְדִינַת הַלְּאוֹם שֶׁל הָעַם הַיְּהוּדִי), informally known as the Nation-State Bill (חוֹק הַלְּאוֹם) or the Nationality Bill,[1] is an Israeli Basic Law which specifies the nature of the State of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people. The law was passed by the Knesset—with 62 in favour, 55 against, and two abstentions—on 19 July 2018 (7 Av 5778),[2][3] and is largely symbolic and declarative in nature.[4][5][6][7][8][9] However, it was met with sharp criticism internationally, including from several prominent Jewish American organizations.[10][11][12][13][14][15]
Following the passage of the law, petitions were filed with the Supreme Court of Israel challenging the constitutionality of the law. In January 2019, the Israeli Supreme Court announced that challenges to the constitutionality of the law would be heard by an 11-justice panel and would decide if the law, in whole or in part, violates the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty, passed in 1992. Additionally, the hearing would also be the first time the Supreme Court addressed the question of whether it had the authority to strike down another Basic Law in whole or in part on the basis of constitutionality.[16][17]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_Law:_Israel_as_the_Nation-State_of_the_Jewish_People
For more information regarding the controversial nature of the bill:
https://www.wrmea.org/israel/palestine/israels-new-nation-state-law-zionism-uber-alles.html
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-59740356
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-and-the-nation-state-law/
The fact that the verse says that the sun, moon and stars were darkened, points to the fact that God does not approve of the decision by Israel to bring the bill into law. The New Testament makes it clear that in Jesus the dividing walls between people are broken down:
There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3:28 NIV
By bringing the bill into law, the nation of Israel has re-erected these divisions and, by doing this, they have become darkened.
The Fifth Trumpet
Five months of political turmoil in Israel
9 The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the land. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. 2 When it opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss. 3 And out of the smoke locusts came down on the land and were given power like that of scorpions of the land. 4 They were told not to harm the grass of the land or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. 5 They were not allowed to kill them but only to torture them for five months. And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes. 6 During those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.
7 The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold, and their faces resembled human faces. 8 Their hair was like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth. 9 They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing into battle. 10 They had tails with stingers, like scorpions, and in their tails they had power to torment people for five months. 11 They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon and in Greek is Apollyon (that is, Destroyer).
Revelation 9: 9-11
Let us unpack the meaning of these verses. In verse two the Greek word αὐτῷ is often translated as ‘he’ by Bible translators, creating the impression that the star that falls to the earth is an angel. However, this word can also be translated as ‘it’:
Strong’s Concordance
autos: (1) self (emphatic) (2) he, she, it (used for the third pers. pron.) (3) the same
Original Word: αὐτός, αὐτή, αὐτό
https://biblehub.com/greek/846.htm
Part of Speech: Personal Pronoun
Transliteration: autos
Phonetic Spelling: (ow-tos’)
Definition: (1) self (emphatic) (2) he, she, it (used for the third person pronoun) (3) the same
Usage: he, she, it, they, them, same.
I would argue that the star that falls to the earth from heaven is not a ‘he’ but an ‘it’. In other words, the star that opens the Abyss is not an angel, but is also some sort of revelation which comes down to the earth from Heaven and which is responsible for opening the Abyss. Therefore, verse two reads:
When it opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace.
Revelation 9:2
In verses one, three and four, the Greek word γῆς needs to be translated as ‘land’. We can know that this takes place in the land of Israel because verse four says:
They were told not to harm the grass of the land or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads.
Revelation 9:4 NIV
The 144 000 people who have the seal on their foreheads are Jewish (Revelation 7:1- 4). So, it seems most likely that the events described here occur in the land of Israel.
These demonic entities are described as locust-like. This is a significant clue to the timing of this event. The description of the demonic entities as locusts pinpoints the time of the year in which the five months of torment fall.
When do locusts occur in Israel?
In his book about Revelation, Days of Vengeance, David Chilton notes that in Judea it was typical for locusts to appear in the land anytime between May and September, a period of five months. http://lastdayspast.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/1987_chilton_days-of-vengeance.pdf
However, locusts can attack Israel from as early as March:
Locust in Israel in March 2013: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21847517
https://www.palestine-studies.org/sites/default/files/jq-articles/JQ_56-57_The_1915_Locust_0.pdf
Based on what David Chilton says about the typical time of locusts and what I found out researching when locusts occur in Israel, we can place the time that locusts occur in Israel as between March and September.
Since the Nation State Bill was passed on 18 July 2018, we need to look at the next time of the locusts in Israel, to find the five month period spoken of in Revelation 9:5. This was March to September 2019. We, therefore, need to look for a five month period during this time, in which Israel was attacked by the demonic entities which were released from the Abyss.
Israel attacked by demonic entities during the time of the locusts in 2019
We are being told that this trumpet occurred during the time when swarms of locusts normally occur in the land of Israel. We can take this time as March to September. We are being told that the attack of the demonic entities will last for five months during the time that locusts occur in Israel. If one examines what was happening in Israel during the time of the locusts in 2019, we see that it was a time of political turmoil. Two elections had to be held as a result of this turmoil. A five month period of political turmoil separated these two elections.
An early election had to be held on 9 April 2019 because of disputes about national service for the ultra-orthodox and impending corruption charges against the Israeli Prime Minister. Then, five months later, a snap election was held because of continued disagreements about the national service for the ultra-orthodox:
An early election is held on 9 April 2019:
Early legislative elections were held in Israel on 9 April 2019 to elect the 120 members of the 21st Knesset. Elections had been due in November 2019, but were brought forward following a dispute between members of the current government over a bill on national service for the ultra-Orthodox population, as well as impending corruption charges against incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Netanyahu’s Likud tied with Blue and White alliance of Benny Gantz, both winning 35 seats. The balance of power was held by smaller parties, with a majority being right-wing and religious parties that had previously sat in coalition with Likud, which would have allowed Netanyahu to form the next government.
Due to continuation of the disagreements over the national service of the ultra-Orthodox, a snap election was called, and was held on 17 September 2019.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_2019_Israeli_legislative_election
September 2019 Election:
The upcoming elections for the 22nd Knesset were called under unprecedented circumstances: the previous Knesset (21st) , elected on April 9th , decided less than two months later on its early disbanding after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s failed to form a government. This is the first time in Israel’s history that two elections will be held in the same year, and for the tenth consecutive time Israel is holding early national elections. They will be held in the shadow of Attorney General Mandelblit’s announcement of his intent to indict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, pending a hearing, at the height of the previous election campaign.
After surviving several coalition crises, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s fourth government (in office since May 2015) disbanded in December of 2018. The formal explanation for the early Knesset dissolution was the governing coalition’s inability to obtain a majority to push forward legislation that would authorize a proposed solution for the never-ending issue of ultra-Orthodox military service. This was also the reason behind the failure of the coalition talks after the elections: Lieberman opposed any compromise regarding the draft law. The Dispersion Law: The 21st Knesset, passed on May 29th and new elections will be held on September 17, 2019.
https://en.idi.org.il/israeli-elections-and-parties/elections/2019/
But Netanyahu later failed to gather them into a majority government after he lost support from his former defence minister, Avigdor Lieberman. To give himself another shot, Netanyahu forced parliament to dissolve, triggering repeat elections…
Ostensibly, it was over disagreements between Lieberman’s secular party and Jewish ultra-Orthodox politicians. Lieberman refused to join a coalition with them unless Netanyahu agreed to force seminary students to serve in the army. Israel’s deeply observant minority have long been allowed to avoid the draft to study, but the issue has irked non-religious Israelis.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/16/israel-elections-why-is-country-going-to-polls-election-again
Therefore, in the five months between April 9, 2019 and September 17, 2019, there was a large amount of political uncertainty in the nation of Israel.
The mind and emotions are the main targets of demonic attack. I would like to suggest that the torture rendered by the demonic entities on the people in Israel, who did not have the seal of God, was of a mental and emotional nature, rather than a physical nature. The political uncertainty that the Israeli people were facing was exacerbated by the demons attacking their minds. The demonic entities would have stirred up contention and conflict making it impossible for agreement to be reached.
If that was not bad enough, Israel had a heatwave in July 2019 and on 17 July the temperature went up to 49.9 degrees Celsius in the area of Sodom:
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-bakes-as-temperature-climbs-to-near-record-49-9c/
This could be why men were wishing to die in verse six:
During those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.
Revelation 9:6 NIV
The Sixth Trumpet
Covid-19
13 The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the four horns of the golden altar that is before God. 14 It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” 15 And the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill mankind for the third time. 16 The number of the mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand. I heard their number.
17 The horses and riders I saw in my vision looked like this: Their breastplates were fiery red, dark blue, and yellow as sulfur. The heads of the horses resembled the heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire, smoke and sulfur. 18 For the third time mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur that came out of their mouths. 19 The power of the horses was in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails were like snakes, having heads with which they inflict injury.
Revelation 9:13-19
The Fifth Trumpet brought us to September 2019. The Sixth Trumpet starts directly after the Fifth Trumpet. Interestingly enough, September 2019 is the month during which experts now believe that the Covid-19 pandemic started:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/13206255/covid-plagued-eu-september-2019-italy/
We are told that this is the third time that these four angels have attacked mankind. It seems that the four angels control the cavalry. Can we conclude that the cavalry that is described is actually a description of the sub microscopic infectious agents which are viruses?
The cavalry spoken of release three plagues of judgement onto the earth, symbolized by the fire, smoke and sulphur.
The Seventh Trumpet
15 The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said:
“The kingdom of the world has become
the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah,
and he will reign for ever and ever.”16 And the twenty-four elders, who were seated on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, 17 saying:
“We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty,
the One who is and who was,
because you have taken your great power
and have begun to reign.
18 The nations were angry,
and your wrath has come.
The time has come for judging the dead,
and for rewarding your servants the prophets
and your people who revere your name,
both great and small—
and for destroying those who destroy the earth.”19 Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of his covenant. And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a severe hailstorm.
Revelation 11:15-19 NIV
The seventh trumpet is separate from the other trumpets and occurs in Revelation 11 after the two witnesses have died and been resurrected. I don’t believe that the seventh trumpet has occurred yet.
The two witnesses are described in the first half of Revelation 11. I have reason to believe that these witnesses are currently active on the earth. I don’t want to get into who they are and what they are doing in this article. However, I have some good reasons to believe that the events described in Revelation 11 began in 2020 and that they will conclude in mid 2024.
Therefore, I have an expectation that the earthquake that is described in verse 19 will occur sometime after July 2024. It will be interesting to see if I am correct in thinking this.
It is possible that the seventh trumpet may be the trumpet described in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18:
13 Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. 14 For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 NIV
And the trumpet described in 1 Corinthians 15:50-55:
50 I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”[a]
55 “Where, O death, is your victory?
1 Corinthians 15:50-55 NIV
Where, O death, is your sting?”[b]
Revelation 12
Signs in the sky
12 A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2 She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. 3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. 4 Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. 5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter”…
Revelation 12:1-5 NIV
On September 23, 2017 this sign was fulfilled. The sun was in the zodiac constellation Virgo – “a woman clothed with the sun”. The moon was at the feet of Virgo – “with the moon under her feet”. The ‘nine’ stars of the zodiac constellation Leo, plus three planets (Mercury, Venus, and Mars), was at the head of Virgo – “on her head a crown of 12 stars”. The planet Jupiter was in the centre of Virgo, and, as the weeks pass after September 23, Jupiter exited Virgo to the east, past her feet, as if she was giving birth – “She was with child and wailed aloud in pain as she laboured to give birth”. Jupiter is the largest of the planets, and could be called the “king” of the planets – “She gave birth to a son, a male child, destined to rule all the nations with an iron rod”:
7 Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 8 But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. 9 The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:
“Now have come the salvation and the power
Revelation 12:7-10 NIV
and the kingdom of our God,
and the authority of his Messiah.
For the accuser of our brothers and sisters,
who accuses them before our God day and night,
has been hurled down.
The date of Satan being hurled down to the earth might also have been placed in the stars. On 5 April 2020 a huge solar flare occurred on EK Draconis: https://www.cnet.com/news/astronomers-watch-huge-solar-eruption-10-times-more-powerful-than-ever-seen-on-the-sun/
On the same day, 5 April 2020, a Jupiter Pluto conjunction occurred. According to a well-known astrologist, this type of conjunction indicates:
the downfall, very specifically, of any person, group or organisation which had total control before, or was abusing power.
https://www.jessicaadams.com/2019/11/09/blog/jupiter-pluto-conjunctions-of-2020/
Baba Vanga, the blind mystic from Bulgaria, who died 25 years ago, predicted that in 2021 a strong dragon would take over the planet. It looks like she may have been right about that:
There also seems to have been truth in the other two predictions which Baba Vanga made for 2021:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGtApfD3HYI
The Blood Moons
2014 / 2015 Blood moons:
https://www.the-wise-shall-understand.com/the-blood-moons/
http://1260.org/Mary/Nature/Nature_Total_Solar_Eclipse_2015_en.htm
I believe that the reason why these literal blood moons are not referred to in Revelation 12 with the other signs in the heavens, is because these blood moons are signs specifically for the Jewish people. When God inspired the apostle John to write Revelation, He was aware that in the twenty-first century the majority of Christians would not be Jewish. In order to identify these signs you have to have knowledge about when the Jewish feasts fall. He knew that the majority of Christians would have no idea when these feast days fall and, so, the blood moons would be meaningless to them. Therefore, He did not include them with the other signs in Revelation 12.
Revelation 13
Revelation 13 speaks of the two beasts. One of the beasts is a political amalgamation of nations while the other is a man.
The First Beast
The first beast has seven heads. In the Bible the heads represent nations. Therefore, this beast is an amalgamation of seven nations. This seems to indicate that it is the G7, which is made up of the world’s seven wealthiest nations. A huge clue that it is the G7 is given in Revelation 17:
And the beast which was and not is also himself an eighth is and of the seven is…
Revelation 17:11 NIV
This verse begins to make sense if you look at the history of the G7. At one time the G7 was actually the G8 because Russia was a member:
After the 1997 meeting, Russia was formally invited to the next meeting and formally joined the group in 1998, resulting in the Group of Eight (G8).[15] Russia was an outlier in the group, as it lacked the national wealth and financial weight of other members, had never been a major advanced economy, and was not yet an established liberal democracy.[20][21] Its invitation, made during a difficult transition to a post-communist economy, is believed to have been motivated by a desire to encourage its political and economic reforms and international engagement.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_of_Seven
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_of_Eight
However, Russia was kicked out of the Group after it annexed Crimea in 2014:
Russia’s membership was suspended in March 2014 in response to its annexation of Crimea.[22] Members stopped short of permanently ejecting the country,[23] and in subsequent years expressed an openness or express desire to reinstate Russian participation. Nevertheless, Russia announced its permanent departure in 2017; the following year, the G7 announced further sanctions on the country for its intervention in Ukraine. In 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump, backed by Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, advocated for Russia’s return; all other members rejected the proposal, and Russia expressed no interest.[24]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_of_Seven
On 24 March 2014, the G7 members cancelled the planned G8 summit that was to be held in June of that year in the Russian city of Sochi, and suspended Russia’s membership of the group, due to Russia’s annexation of Crimea; nevertheless, they stopped short of outright permanent expulsion.[29] Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov downplayed the importance of the decision by the U.S. and its allies, and pointed out that major international decisions were made by the G20 countries.[30][4]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_of_Eight
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev went further and suggested the G7 and G8 were now defunct political organizations:
“The G20 format actually replaced the G7 and G8 groups,” he said. “It is clear what this Group of Seven means without other major economies. Nothing.”
https://www.unian.info/world/1724127-russia-announces-plan-to-permanently-leave-g8-group-of-industrialised-nations-after-suspension-for-crimea-annexation.html
In my opinion, the loss of Russia as a G7 member and the fact that Russia suggested that the G7 was not relevant as an organisation, is the wound that is referred to in Revelation 13:3:
One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound…
Revelation 13:3 NIV
The fact that the Russian foreign minister and the Russian Prime Minister suggested that the G7 lacked relevancy because of the existence of the G20 threatened the very existence of the G7. In this way the wound was fatal.
One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed.
Revelation 13:3 NIV
In spite of this blow, of the loss of Russia and Russia’s attack on the G7’s relevance, the G7 seems to have recovered from the loss of Russia as a participating member. It seems to have moved beyond the incident and to have continued to exist as the pre-eminent world political organization. It is the organization that I hear about in the news the most frequently. Therefore, the wound has been healed.
The fact that Russia belonged to the G7 also explains why it says in Revelation 13:1 that the beast has ten horns. In the Bible horns stand for kings. Therefore, it is saying that the beast has ten kings. The G7 Summits are attended by the seven heads of nations and, also, by the President of the European Commission and the Council President of the EU. If Vladimir Putin is added in, this makes the ten heads of the beast.
However, it is also possible that the ten kings in Revelation 13:1 are ten angelic rulers, as the king in Revelation 9:11 is an angel:
They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon and in Greek is Apollyon (that is, Destroyer).
Revelation 9:11 NIV
The Image of the Beast
The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed.
Revelation 13:15 NIV
If the beast is the G7, then the image of the beast can be seen to be another amalgamation of nations which was formed after the formation of the G7 and which has tried to pattern itself on the G7. In other words, it has a similar purpose and similar goals. It is important to determine what the image of the beast is, because the man who is the second beast breathes life into the image of the beast.
We shall see that the Gulf Cooperation Council is the most likely candidate for the image of the beast. The Gulf Cooperation Council was formed after the G7, presumably because it looked at the G7 and recognized that it would be valuable to have a similar kind of group. The Gulf Cooperation Council consists of six full members and an associate member:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_Cooperation_Council
The Second Beast
In my opinion, Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, fits the description of the second beast that is given in Revelation 13.
The second beast has the number 666
Revelation 13:18 says that the Second beast has the number 666:
This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man.[e] That number is 666.
Revelation 13:18 NIV
If one Googles ‘Jared Kusher 666’, a startling number of articles appear. This is because of a building that he purchased which had the address 666 Fifth Avenue and which caused him some significant financial difficulties:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-you-need-to-know-about-666-fifth-avenue/
He seems to be quite notoriously associated with the number 666 because of that building.
The second beast exercises all of the authority of the first beast
If I am correct about the G7 being the first beast, then the second beast would have to have exercised all of the authority of the G7:
It exercised all the authority of the first beast on its behalf…
Revelation 13:12 NIV
Did Jared Kushner exercise all of the authority of the G7 while he was working at the White House? It does not seem possible because Jared Kushner was not the President of the United States. However, a number of people seem to think that as the senior adviser to Donald Trump, Jared Kushner had an extraordinary amount of power and that he exercised an extraordinary amount of influence over the President.
The following articles discuss this:
“It felt like Kushner was the president. He sat in the chair and he was clearly making the decisions.”
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/09/jared-kushner-let-the-markets-decide-covid-19-fate
Insiders also say Kushner and Trump are bizarrely co-dependent on one another. Jared is often the last person Donald talks to before going to bed (sorry, Melania!), and that the two guys often dine together and spend most of their free time and weekends together, as well.
https://www.queerty.com/everyone-white-house-thinks-jared-kushner-total-loser-makes-fun-behind-back-20170403
Jared’s office is right next to Trump’s in the Oval Office and he can go into the East Wing as well as the West Wing. So when everybody else leaves for the night, he can have family dinner with the president and that gives him enormous power.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/6/13/21265067/jared-kushner-trump-white-house-andrea-bernstein
Trump consistently went to Kushner to fix things when he felt they weren’t going right, showing a heavy dependence on the 39 year old.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8436089/amp/Donald-Trump-Jared-Kushner-charge-series-foreign-policy-areas.html
Speaking to TIME for a January profile of Kushner, Brad Parscale, the Kushner-appointed manager for Trump’s campaign, said, “Nobody has more influence in the White House than Jared. Nobody has more influence outside the White House than Jared. He’s No. 2 after Trump.”
Parscale may actually have been underselling Kushner’s influence there. In a new story for Vanity Fair, Gabriel Sherman details how Kushner has filled the vacuum left by Donald Trump’s general lack of interest in governing:
https://www.gq.com/story/kushner-de-facto-president
Trump’s son-in-law has been put in charge of pretty much everything.
https://archive.thinkprogress.org/7-jobs-jared-kushner-is-now-doing-for-the-united-states-of-america-6f0a799462ed/
Trump says that if Kushner can’t produce peace in the Middle East no one can.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Icq0lVEcycQ
According to an article by Newsweek, John Bolton, former US National Security Advisor, made a number of disturbing claims in his book which indicate that Jared Kushner had a vast amount of authority:
In The Room Where it Happened—released on Tuesday—Bolton paints a picture of a chaotic and nepotistic White House in which Kushner and Ivanka Trump, his wife and the president’s oldest daughter, wielded undue influence over career staffers and experts.
Kushner has been given an expansive White House portfolio, at different times directed to oversee the administration’s Middle East peace efforts, the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, criminal justice reform, trade negotiations with China and Mexico, and immigration issues, among others.
https://www.newsweek.com/john-bolton-book-details-intense-frustration-jared-kushner-white-house-1512560
The U.S., France and the U.K. launched airstrikes on Syria after President Bashar al-Assad executed a chemical weapons attack against civilian areas in 2018. In the run up to the strikes, Bolton described how the Trump administration gathered support for action.
Bolton said Kushner relayed a message from British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson—now prime minister—expressing support for a joint strike. Bolton said the message was “encouraging,” though added: “Why a foreign minister was calling Kushner, however, was something to address in coming days.”
https://www.newsweek.com/john-bolton-book-details-intense-frustration-jared-kushner-white-house-1512560
Bolton suggested Kushner had also overreached in negotiations with the Turkish government to solve an escalating tariff battle, sparked by Turkey’s detention of American pastor Andrew Brunson and proposed U.S. action against the Turkish bank Halkbank for violating sanctions on Iran.
Vice President Mike Pence suggested Kushner speak with Turkey’s finance minister—the son-in-law of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan—given both men’s close ties to the national leaders.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin “exploded” when Bolton told them, he says in his book—”Pompeo because this was one more example of Kushner’s doing international negotiations he shouldn’t have been doing (along with the never-quite-ready Middle East peace plan).”
“Kushner also said he had told the Turkish son-in-law he was calling in his ‘personal’ capacity as a matter of ‘friendship’ and in no way was signaling ‘weakness’ to the Turks,” Bolton wrote. “I doubted the Turks believed any of that.”
https://www.newsweek.com/john-bolton-book-details-intense-frustration-jared-kushner-white-house-1512560
Netanyahu was desperately trying to contact Trump to also push him to ignore Zarif but could not get through. Netanyahu was in touch with Pompeo and both the prime minister and Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer were trying to reach Bolton to push him to speak with Trump.
But when Bolton got to the floor of Trump’s hotel room, he found Kushner on the phone with the U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman explaining “he was not going to allow Netanyahu’s call to go through.”
https://www.newsweek.com/john-bolton-book-details-intense-frustration-jared-kushner-white-house-1512560
Kushner was wielding influence at home, too, Bolton wrote. He and Ivanka outlasted early rivals to become the most influential faction within the administration, frequently influencing policy and guiding the president towards their initiatives.
https://www.newsweek.com/john-bolton-book-details-intense-frustration-jared-kushner-white-house-1512560
Bolton’s book portrays a White House filled with chaos – a president with no real understanding of world affairs, a son-in-law wielding powers in areas out of his depth, and in-fighting and backstabbing among different power centers.
He claims that at multiple times and at various points he, Kelly and Pompeo all considered resigning out of frustration about how the administration was run and with President Trump’s behavior.
The book, clocking in at over 500 pages, also shows how close Trump is to his daughter and son-in-law. Trump consistently went to Kushner to fix things when he felt they weren’t going right, showing a heavy dependence on the 39 year old.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8436089/amp/Donald-Trump-Jared-Kushner-charge-series-foreign-policy-areas.html
White House insiders describe President Trump’s adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner as a “de facto president” who has played a key role in the administration’s response to coronavirus, according to a Vanity Fair report released Tuesday.
In the article, titled “Inside Donald Trump and Jared Kushner’s Two Months of Magical Thinking,” sources described Kushner as the second most powerful person in the West Wing when COVID-19 began to spread across the globe.
“Jared is running everything. He’s the de facto president of the United States,” a former White House official said.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/495270-insiders-describe-kushner-as-de-facto-president-who-played-key-role
Former White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham wrote a book about her time at the White House in which:
She recalls that when it was decided that Trump should address the nation in regard to Covid-19, that Kushner had worked with Trump’s speechwriter and “dictated” what Trump would say.
https://www.politicususa.com/2021/10/01/former-wh-prsss-secretary-stephanie-grisham-on-jared-kushner-rasputin-in-a-slim-fitting-suit.html
Grisham wrote, adding that she grew increasingly “outraged” at Kushner’s behavior.
“He was not an expert on any of those things — shutting down borders, the economic consequences, the health consequences — yet he alone seemed to be deciding the nation’s first actions to address one of the most devastating crises in our history,” she wrote.
https://www.politicususa.com/2021/10/01/former-wh-prsss-secretary-stephanie-grisham-on-jared-kushner-rasputin-in-a-slim-fitting-suit.html
Kushner, by contrast, has an ever-expanding portfolio that includes overseeing relations with Mexico, Canada and China, ending the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, and running the White House Office of American Innovation, which aims for nothing less than a reinvention of the entire federal government.
Rick Tyler, a political analyst and former spokesperson for Ted Cruz, said Kushner’s lack of experience concerned him.
“It’s deeply troubling given all the existing talent in foreign affairs and diplomacy and government functions,” Tyler said. “I’m sure Jared is a very talented young man but he comes in with zero experience in these areas.”
He added: “The portfolio’s scope is as big as the presidency itself. We didn’t elect Jared Kushner and we didn’t confirm him. He’s the president’s son-in-law and doesn’t have the required experience.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/apr/08/donald-trump-steve-bannon-jared-kushner-power-struggle
“Jared Kushner is the biggest surprise of the 2016 election,” adds Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, who helped design the Clinton campaign’s technology system. “Best I can tell, he actually ran the campaign and did it with essentially no resources.”
https://www.thejc.com/news/world/meet-trumps-mastermind-jared-kushner-1.429952
It is clear that Jared Kushner is a remarkably talented young man. As the USA is arguably the most powerful member of the G7 and Jared Kushner was exercising such a large amount of authority and influence in the White House, can it be argued that Jared Kushner was exercising all of the authority of the G7? I believe that it can.
Let us go verse by verse through Revelation 13 and examine whether Jared Kushner has fulfilled everything ascribed to the second beast:
The second beast speaks like a dragon
It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon.
Revelation 13:11b NIV
A number of articles suggest that Mr. Kushner can speak very assertively:
“You f***ing moron,” Mr Kushner allegedly said to Mr Kadlec in a dispute over an order of 600 million masks that would not arrive until the beginning of summer: “We’ll all be dead by June.”
The senior adviser also purportedly threw his pen against the wall in frustration as he “exploded in anger” over the delay.
– https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/jared-kushner-mask-covid-trump-administration-b1870579.html
Former US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner shouted at Israel‘s ambassador to Washington and kicked him out of the White House in February 2020, according to a new book on Trump’s Middle East dealings.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10305901/Jared-Kushner-screamed-Israeli-ambassador-told-White-House-book-claims.html
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-israel-palestine-kushner-trump-dermer-get-out
The heated encounter angered Kushner, and he called Lewandowski and accused him of poisoning the POTUS’ relationship with Manafort. Ivanka’s husband reportedly screamed at the top of his lungs while talking to President Trump’s manager on the phone.
https://www.ibtimes.com/ivanka-trumps-husband-jared-kushner-lost-temper-over-potus-jealous-surrogate-son-2909376
Kushner, seated at the head of the conference table, in a chair taller than all the others, was quick to strike a confrontational tone. “The federal government is not going to lead this response,” he announced. “It’s up to the states to figure out what they want to do.”
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/09/jared-kushner-let-the-markets-decide-covid-19-fate
The same attendee explained that although he believed in open markets, he feared that the system was breaking. As evidence, he pointed to a CNN report about New York governor Andrew Cuomo and his desperate call for supplies.
“That’s the CNN bullshit,” Kushner snapped. “They lie.”
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/09/jared-kushner-let-the-markets-decide-covid-19-fate
The group argued for invoking the Defense Production Act. “We were all saying, ‘Mr. Kushner, if you want to fix this problem for PPE and ventilators, there’s a path to do it, but you have to make a policy change,’” one person who attended the meeting recounted.
In response Kushner got “very aggressive,” the attendee recalled. “He kept invoking the markets” and told the group they “only understood how entrepreneurship works, but didn’t understand how government worked.”
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/09/jared-kushner-let-the-markets-decide-covid-19-fate
After reading these articles, it is my opinion that, although Jared Kushner looks like a very mild mannered person, there is no doubt that he speaks like a dragon.
The second beast makes the inhabitants of the earth worship the first beast
It exercised all the authority of the first beast on its behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed.
Revelation 13:12 NIV
I have already discussed how it seems that Jared Kushner may have exercised all of the authority of the G7 while he was working at the White House. However, did he make the earth and its inhabitants worship the G7?
I think that he did because of his role in pushing out the Covid vaccines through Operation Warp Speed. All of the vaccines that are currently being used in the western world were manufactured by pharmaceutical companies that are located in G7 countries. A vast number of the inhabitants of the earth are looking at these G7 companies to provide them with vaccines. In this way the G7 countries, in which these companies are located, are being worshipped by the world.
The second beast causes fire to come down from heaven
And it performed great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to the earth in full view of the people.
Revelation 13:13 NIV
Donald Trump authorized a vast number of drone strikes during his first two years as president – fire from heaven. As senior adviser to the President, Jared Kushner may very well have advised Donald Trump regarding whether to authorize these drone strikes. By doing this, Kushner, was effectively bringing down fire from heaven:
During his first 2 years as president alone, Trump launched more drone strikes (2,243), than Obama’s 8 years presidency (1,878).
https://lawfulpath.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1038&p=70660
Thursday night’s missile strike on a military airfield in Syria could be seen as another blow to Trump’s populist credentials, the associate added. “He was elected as a non-interventionist. It’s Jared teaming up with the generals: ‘You’ve got to look tough, Mr President.’
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/apr/08/donald-trump-steve-bannon-jared-kushner-power-struggle
The second beast orders the inhabitants of the earth to set up an image of the beast
Because of the signs it was given power to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived the inhabitants of the earth. It ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived.
Revelation 13:14 NIV
I discussed earlier that the Gulf Cooperation Council may be the image of the beast. It was created after the G7 and shares the same goals and has the same purpose as the G7. During his time in the White House, Jared Kushner seemed to be encouraging the world to support and build up the Gulf Cooperation Council.
Donald Trump’s first stop on his first overseas trip was in Riyadh, the capital city of Saudi Arabia and the venue in which the Gulf Cooperation Council has its meetings every three months. As his senior adviser Jared Kushner must have advised Trump to take this trip. During the visit Donald Trump met with the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council:
The 2017 Riyadh summit … was a series of three summits held on 20–21 May 2017 on the occasion of the visit of United States President Donald Trump to Saudi Arabia, his first trip overseas. The summit included one bilateral meeting, between the United States and Saudi Arabia, and two multilateral meetings, one between the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council and the other with Arab and Muslim countries.[1]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Riyadh_summit
I think that this must have sent a clear message to the rest of the world that the world must recognize the Gulf Cooperation Council and support it. In other words, this image of the G7 must be supported and recognized by the inhabitants of the earth. From what I can see, Mohammed bin Salman is the de facto head of the Gulf Cooperation Council. He is also a personal friend of Jared Kushner. After the murder of the journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, it was Jared Kushner who urged Donald Trump to stand by the Saudi Arabian crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman:
… it was former first son-in-law Jared Kushner who urged Trump to “stand according to The New York Times by” MBS, arguing that the outrage—about a man being dismembered—would simply blow over?
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/10/jared-kushner-saudi-arabia-swords-dagger
By November 2018, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, based on multiple sources of intelligence, had concluded that bin Salman had ordered Khashoggi’s assassination.[1] In the same month, the United States sanctioned 17 Saudi individuals under the Magnitsky Act over the Khashoggi murder, including former bin Salman advisor Saud Al-Qahtani, but did not sanction bin Salman himself.[15] U.S. President Donald Trump disputed the CIA assessment, expressed support for bin Salman, and stated that the investigation into Khashoggi’s death had to continue.[16]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Jamal_Khashoggi
The Trump administration’s mysterious relationship with the Saudi royal family has come under increased scrutiny in the wake of U.S. resident and journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder in October.
The overarching concern is the message the U.S. is sending by deepening ties to Saudi Arabia instead of taking concrete actions to hold the kingdom accountable for Khashoggi’s murder.
“This sale is telling the Saudis that the U.S. is firmly in their corner,” Hartung said. “That might be the worst element of it, particularly in the post-Khashoggi murder period, to say the Trump administration more or less supports you to the hills.”
During a recent CNN interview, Trump said he was “extremely angry and very unhappy” about the Khashoggi murder, but — despite findings of the CIA and U.N. — claimed that nobody has directly implicated the crown prince Mohamed Bin Salman.
In the past, Trump has dismissed U.N. requests for the FBI to investigate the murder, suggesting it would get in the way of pending weapons transactions. The U.N. implicated the crown prince in the Washington Post columnist’s death, calling it a “premeditated execution.”
Trump’s first official foreign visit was to the royal kingdom – an early sign that he would place a high value on his relationship with the House of Saud. As a candidate, he made Saudi weapons deals a campaign issue, promising they would generate American jobs and boost the U.S. economy.
“Saudi Arabia is a big buyer of America product,” Trump said when NBC’s Chuck Todd asked him about the decision to override Congress and push through the weapons deal. “That means something to me.”
Congress has also zeroed in on the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who is known to be close to the crown prince.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/saudi-arabia-arms-deal-trump-what-to-know/
On 20 November 2018, Trump issued the statement “On Standing with Saudi Arabia”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Jamal_Khashoggi
This could have been a clear message to the world that they must continue to set up the image of the beast, in spite of what had happened to Jamal Khashoggi.
Since then BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, has opened an office in Saudi Arabia:
“The region is not perfect. No region in the world is perfect,” Fink said earlier this year. “The fact that there are issues in the press doesn’t tell me I should run from a place, it tells me we should run to a place.”
BlackRock is pushing ahead with plans to capitalize on the government’s ambitious reform agenda despite global criticism of its human rights record.
Khashoggi, a critic of the kingdom’s de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was murdered by Saudi agents inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018.
BlackRock is the world’s largest asset manager with $6.84trn in assets under management as of June 2019.
https://www.internationalinvestment.net/news/4004629/blackrock-office-saudi-arabia
The second beast gives breath to the image of the first beast
The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed.
Revelation 13:15 NIV
Jared Kushner may have given breath to the image of the beast, the Gulf Cooperation Council, by negotiating peace between the members of the group. Prior to his doing this the group was considered to be defunct: https://gulfstateanalytics.com/yemen-will-probably-never-join-the-defunct-gcc/
In 2020 Jared Kushner negotiated peace between the Gulf Cooperation Group and Qatar. This deal was signed in January 2021:
Saudi Arabia and its allies are expected to sign a deal Tuesday officially ending their feud with Qatar in an agreement negotiated by White House senior advisor Jared Kushner, a government official confirmed Monday.
https://nypost.com/2021/01/04/saudi-arabia-to-end-feud-with-qatar-in-kushner-brokered-deal/
Brokering this deal made Jared Kushner the ‘unsung hero of the New Middle East:’
https://besacenter.org/jared-kushner-middle-east/
The second beast enables the image of the beast to speak
The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak
Revelation 13:15 NIV
The de facto head of the Gulf Cooperation Council seems to be the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman. It has been suggested that Jared Kushner played a role in bringing MBS into power:
https://theintercept.com/2018/03/21/jared-kushner-saudi-crown-prince-mohammed-bin-salman/
https://medium.com/s/story/two-princes-kushner-khashoggi-and-the-kingdoms-mbs-567c8cd4e1c5
The image of the first beast causes all who refuse to worship it to be killed
The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed.
Revelation 13:15 NIV
Following Jamal Khashoggi’s killing and mutilation, several other exiled Saudi activists reported that the Saudi regime attempted to lure them into their embassies.[210] Middle East Eye published claims from an unnamed source with knowledge of Saudi intelligence agencies that the murder is part of a larger operation of silently murdering critics of Saudi government by a death squad named “Tiger Squad“, composed of the most trusted and skilled intelligence agents.[82] According to the source, the Tiger Squad assassinates dissidents using varying methods such as planned car accidents, house fires, or poisoning clinics by injecting toxic substances into opponents when they attend regular health checkups. The alleged group members are recruited from different branches of the Saudi forces, directing several areas of expertise.[82] According to Middle East Eye, five members were part of the 15-member death squad who were sent to murder Khashoggi.[82]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Jamal_Khashoggi
The second beast forces people to take a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads
It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, 17 so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.
Revelation 13:16 NIV
In 2020 Jared Kushner facilitates the rapid creation of the Covid vaccines:
Trump’s son-in-law has been tasked with fast-tracking a coronavirus vaccine.
https://www.salon.com/2020/05/08/jared-kushner-reportedly-in-charge-of-push-for-vaccine–what-could-go-wrong/
Operation Warp Speed is reportedly the brainchild of Presidential Adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner. It is being formally run by the Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who will work with a new Vaccine Czar. The Vaccine Czar selected for Kushner’s Operation Warp Speed is former GlaxoSmithKline Chairman of its Vaccines Division, Morrocan-born US citizen, Dr. Moncef Slaoui. https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Operation_Warp_Speed
https://www.salon.com/2020/05/08/jared-kushner-reportedly-in-charge-of-push-for-vaccine–what-could-go-wrong/
Jared Kushner — who helped run Operation Warp Speed to develop accelerated COVID-19 vaccines — just got his jab by registering on a Florida state website and waiting on line at a CVS pharmacy.
https://pagesix.com/2021/04/19/ivanka-trump-jared-kushner-wait-on-line-at-cvs-for-covid-vaccines/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/oxford-coronavirus-vaccine-oxford-astrazenca-partnering-united-states/
Jared Kushner, the president’s son in law, also had a hand in ensuring Operation Warp Speed got going, he says.
“He has the President’s ear, anybody who starts to work for him or report to him, has an incredible amount of power. And it was Kushner, who basically got Operation Warp Speed off the ground. So yes, we can thank him for doing that.”
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/2018823443/the-story-behind-the-race-for-vaccines
In 2021 people are forced to get the vaccines or to lose their jobs. This means that they cannot buy things and that they cannot sell their labour.
Exodus 13:6-16
The Bible makes it clear, in Exodus 13: 6-16, that marks on the hands and forehead are not visible marks:
6 For seven days eat bread made without yeast and on the seventh day hold a festival to the Lord. 7 Eat unleavened bread during those seven days; nothing with yeast in it is to be seen among you, nor shall any yeast be seen anywhere within your borders. 8 On that day tell your son, ‘I do this because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’ 9 This observance will be for you like a sign on your hand and a reminder on your forehead that this law of the Lord is to be on your lips. For the Lord brought you out of Egypt with his mighty hand. 10 You must keep this ordinance at the appointed time year after year.
11 “After the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites and gives it to you, as he promised on oath to you and your ancestors, 12 you are to give over to the Lord the first offspring of every womb. All the firstborn males of your livestock belong to the Lord. 13 Redeem with a lamb every firstborn donkey, but if you do not redeem it, break its neck. Redeem every firstborn among your sons.
14 “In days to come, when your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ say to him, ‘With a mighty hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 15 When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed the firstborn of both people and animals in Egypt. This is why I sacrifice to the Lord the first male offspring of every womb and redeem each of my firstborn sons.’ 16 And it will be like a sign on your hand and a symbol on your forehead that the Lord brought us out of Egypt with his mighty hand.”
Exodus 13:6-16 NIV
It is clear from these verses that marks on the hand and forehead are actually acts and not physical marks. Eating unleavened bread for a week is considered to be a mark on the hand and forehead, as is killing a first male offspring of every womb. Therefore, it is clear that performing an act in faith, is equivalent to getting a mark on the hand or forehead. This means that the act of taking pharmaceutical products which were brought into the market place by the beast, could also be equated to taking a mark on the hand or forehead. However, I cannot be certain of the identity of the beast and my interpretation of Revelation 13 may not be correct. Therefore, I urge the reader to react discreetly regarding this information and not to do anything rash based on this information. God makes it clear in the Bible that we are not to take matters into our own hands and that vengeance belongs only to Him. He will take care of the beast Himself, whoever the beast may be.
Revelation 16
There are indications that the return of Jesus Christ is imminent:
Six of the seven signs in Revelation 16 may already have been fulfilled.
The Bowls of God’s wrath
Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, “Go, pour out the seven bowls of God’s wrath on the earth Revelation 16:1 NIV
The first bowl
The first angel went and poured out his bowl on the land, and ugly, festering sores broke out on the people who had the mark of the beast and worshiped its image.
Revelation 16:2 NiV
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/15370614/covid-vaccine-linked-skin-reactions/
https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19vaccine/92106
https://thewarsan.com/21616-2/
https://www.aad.org/news/covid-vaccine-skin-reactions-possible
The second bowl
The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it turned into blood like that of a dead person, and every living thing in the sea died.
Revelation 16:3 NIV
Lake Urmia turned blood red again in 2021:
https://iranpress.com/content/44650/lake-urmia-biggest-lake-west-asia-turns-blood-red
The third bowl
The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood.
Revelation 16:4 NIV
One third of America’s rivers have changed colour to green and red since 1984:
The fourth bowl
The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and the sun was allowed to scorch people with fire. They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify him.
Revelation 16:8-9 NIV
The fifth bowl
10 The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness.
Revelation 16:10 NIV
The darkness can be a spiritual darkness:
Strong’s Concordance
skotoó: to darken
Original Word: σκοτόω
Part of Speech: Verb
Transliteration: skotoó
Phonetic Spelling: (skot-o’-o)
Definition: to darken
Usage: (lit. or met.) I darken.HELPS Word-studies
Cognate: 4656 skotóō – to darken; (figuratively) to produce a condition of moral, spiritual darkness (obscurity, blindness). See 4654 (skotizō).
https://biblehub.com/greek/4656.htm
The G7 countries became very spiritually dark in 2021.
The sixth bowl
12 The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the East.
Revelation 16:12 NIV
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210830-desert-drying-euphrates-threatens-disaster-in-syria
The seventh trumpet and the seventh bowl
I believe that we can expect the seventh trumpet and the seventh bowl sometime after mid-2024. I suspect that it may be a combined event because the description of the earthquake in Revelation 11:19 is so similar to the description of the earthquake in Revelation 16:18.
This earthquake seems to occur after the armies of the nations have been gathered together for the battle of Armageddon (Revelation 16:16). This seems to be the same battle that is described in Revelation 19:11-21. This is the battle which Jesus returns to the earth to fight in.
The earthquake is described as the greatest that has ever been in the time that man has been on either the land or on the earth. I am uncertain which translation of the Greek word γῆς applies in Revelation 16:18. We know that a tsunami is generated by the earthquake because we are told in Revelation 16:20 that the islands fled. We saw that islands were moved during the earthquake and tsunami in 2004. Clearly, there will be immense devastation because Revelation 16:20 says that mountains were not to be found after this earthquake occurred. I do not know if the reference to mountains in Revelation 16:20 is a reference to literal mountains or if it is a reference to nations.
The nation of Israel seems to already be preparing for a huge tsunami. They had a week long tsunami drill in March 2019:
https://www.undrr.org/news/israel-prepares-face-tsunamis
However, it is also possible that the huge tsunami described in Revelation 16 could take place at some other location in the world.
Babylon seems to be symbolic of the world system. We are told in Revelation 17:7 that the beast carries Babylon. If my interpretation of the G7 as the beast is correct, this means that the G7 nations carry the world system. We are told that Babylon is split into three parts after this huge tsunami (Revelation 16:19). The G7 nations are already split into three parts by virtue of their geographic locations. However, it seems that the tsunami will be so devastating that it will affect the G7 nations’ ability to interact with each other and the world system will no longer be able to trade (Revelation 18).
When will Christ return?
The Sign of the Woman in the Sky
I discussed the sign of the woman in the sky which was fulfilled on 23 September 2017 earlier in this article:
12 A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2 She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. 3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. 4 Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. 5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.”
Revelation 12:1-5 NIV
On September 23, 2017 this sign was fulfilled. The sun was in the zodiac constellation Virgo – “a woman clothed with the sun”. The moon was at the feet of Virgo – “with the moon under her feet”. The ‘nine’ stars of the zodiac constellation Leo, plus three planets (Mercury, Venus, and Mars), was at the head of Virgo – “on her head a crown of 12 stars”. The planet Jupiter was in the centre of Virgo, and, as the weeks pass after September 23, Jupiter exited Virgo to the east, past her feet, as if she was giving birth – “She was with child and wailed aloud in pain as she laboured to give birth”. Jupiter is the largest of the planets, and could be called the “king” of the planets – “She gave birth to a son, a male child, destined to rule all the nations with an iron rod”.
However, the passage in Revelation 12 continues, saying the following:
And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.
Revelation 12:5-6 NIV
Many people believe that the above verse is saying that Israel is going to be persecuted and that the Israelites will have to flee into the wilderness. However, it must be remembered that in Revelation 12 the woman is a sign that is in the sky. Therefore, the sky is the wilderness. I believe that the woman fleeing into the wilderness is a reference to the movement of the constellation Virgo in the sky.
What is important, is that if you add the period of 1,260 days (three and a half years) to the date of 23 September 2017 you get to 23 March 2021. This was the date of the fourth Israeli election https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021.
This cannot be a coincidence. Is the Bible telling us that Jesus will be returning sometime during the time that the new Israeli government will be in power? Was this sign in the sky, in September 2017, the sign of the Son of Man that Jesus spoke of in Matthew 24?:
“Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven…
Matthew 24:30 NIV
By law, elections must be held in Israel every four years. So, it may very well be the case that Jesus will return prior to 2025, which is the year in which the next Israeli elections will be held. However, it may also be possible that this sign in the sky is directing us to an event which must still occur prior to the return of Jesus. It is also possible that the new Israeli government could stay in power longer than only one term.
Personally, I cannot see what other event needs to take place prior to the return of Jesus. My research seems to indicate that we have run out of events to be fulfilled in Revelation and that all events, with the exception of the seventh trumpet and the seventh bowl, may have already taken place. However, it is possible that I am overlooking something.
If one examines the intervals between the different events which I have described as possibly being the signs in Revelation, it becomes apparent that these events have occurred in fairly rapid succession. The tsunami in December 2004 and the Nias-Simeulue earthquake in March 2005, are separated from the first recorded trumpet sound in 2008, by approximately four years. It is also possible that the first trumpet may have already sounded prior to 2008, but was not documented on-line. The gap between the first recorded trumpet and the hail in the desert in Iraq in November 2015 was approximately seven years. The gap between the conclusion of the Third Battle of Fallujah in June 2016 and Donald Trump winning the Republican nomination in July 2016 was less than a month. In 2017 poor rainfall occurred in Iran, resulting in the creatures dying in Lake Urmia for the third time at the beginning of 2018. Later that year, on 19 July, the Israeli Nation State Bill came into law. The next year Israel experienced five months of political torment which could have been created and amplified by demonic entities. In September 2019, the very same month that the five months of torment ended, Covid-19 was released onto the earth. Then in 2020, Jared Kushner uses Operation Warp Speed to push through the vaccines in an attempt to ensure that Donald Trump will be re-elected. In 2021 it is possible that six of the seven bowls are poured out onto the earth. Given how close the signs have followed each other in succession, I can’t see that it would be as long as 2036 before Jesus returns.
Conclusion
I used to be sceptical when someone started to talk about Jesus returning imminently. I didn’t see it happening in my lifetime. But now I am not so sure. Translating the Greek word τρίτον as the ‘third time’, is an equally valid translation of this word ( Matthew 26:44; Mark 14:41; Luke 23:22; John 21:14; John 21:17; 2 Corinthians 12:14; 2 Corinthians 13:1). Using this translation of the word, I have demonstrated that it is possible that certain events described in Revelation may have already been fulfilled. Furthermore, a comparison of recent historical events and the Book of Revelation indicates that Jesus’ return is very close indeed. Given how close the seals, trumpets and bowls have followed each other in succession, I can’t see that it would be as long as 2036 before Jesus returns. It will be interesting to see if I am correct or not. The important thing is to live as if He is coming back, in other words to live a holy and righteous life, while simultaneously living as if He is not coming back. I, for one, will be happy to see His return, as I am tired of seeing the suffering on this earth and seeing how we have destroyed the planet that we were created and appointed by God to protect.
Disclaimer
Gwen Frangs is not responsible for the content of the external sites referenced in this article.