Since Seal 6 should be associated with 1988 and the advent of the 70th Week of Daniel, and Seal 7 follows it chronologically with a set of apocalyptic events, each marked by the blowing of a Trumpet, it seems proper for the next order of business, to determine whether those apocalyptic events are in any way descriptive of historic prophetic events that followed 1988. In this respect, it is recalled from Coming Glory that a series of five major events began to occur starting in the fall of 1989. Moreover, it was discovered that each of those events were found to be prophetic, by virtue of their relationships with the Levitical and 360 Day prophetic calendars. So here were a set of major prophetic events that occurred about a year apart, and in precisely the correct time frame to have coincided with the the initial phases of Seal 7.

These sound like strange happenings indeed, yet according to the organization of the book of Revelation so far, they should in some way introduce world events that occurred after 1988. Obviously, they are written in apocalyptic jargon, so they will be interpreted in the manner used for Seal 6. That "search engine" technique used is further facilitated here by extensive works like "The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge", first published in the 19th century, but presently expanded in modern times using computer software to contain about one million scripture references and parallel passages in both the Old and New Testaments. With this asset, it is possible to look at individual phrases within Seal 7, then find corresponding Scriptures elsewhere in the Bible where the meanings of those phrases are clarified. Key phrases for these initial verses in Seal 7 will now be considered.

Consider the key word, "silence", in connection with this verse.

• "Silence" denotes the presence of the Lord in His Temple (Habakkuk 2.20; Zechariah 2.13).

• "Silence" signifies waiting on the Lord for the coming of His salvation (Psalm 37.7, 62.1) .

• "Silence" accompanied a time of fear when Job was placed in the awesome presence of God (Job 4.12-17).

Therefore, "silence" at the advent of Seal 7 seems to convey the idea of a solemn occasion about to begin, when God's direct intervention into the affairs of mankind will become evident.

• "Seven" is the number typically used to denote something that is complete or perfect.
  
  

• Trumpets were the traditional instruments used by Israel to sound an alarm or assemble the people of Israel for special occasions (Numbers 10.1-10) .

  Therefore this symbology appears directed toward Israel, alerting them to assemble for a special display of God's presence that is about to begin. Within this context, we recall that those departed saints of Old Testament Israel were earlier found praying prophetically through the Psalms in Seal 5, crying "how long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" Hence, we will want to be particularly attentive to the character of what is about to happen, so as to detect whether it might describe the beginning of the Lord's response to their prayers.
  
  

• The blowing of a trumpet gives notice of God's revelation to His people (Amos 3.6-7) .

One commentator offers important insight in connection with this scripture:

Barnes advances an important thought pertinent to the present Revelation text. God will not take actions like those described by Seal 7 without also informing His people about what is happening. It is not His desire to leave them in fear or confusion, but rather to give them assurance that it is His work. 

Several key terms here would be, "angel", "golden censer", "altar", "incense", and "fire, thunderings, lightnings, earthquakes".

• Although the "angel", i.e. messenger, is not identified here, (Hebrews 7.25, 8.1-6) indicates that it is Messiah who officiates in the Heavenly Temple to make intercession for His people .

• The "golden censer" was used at the "altar of incense" located in the Holy Place, and depicted as the place where prayers were to be offered to God (Exodus 30.1-8; Psalms 141.2; Luke 1.10).

• "Fire, thunderings, lightinings, and earthquakes" denoted God's wrath and judgement, in this case to be directed against the "earth, sea, trees", etc., i.e. non-spiritual things (Psalm 18.1-50; Isaiah 66.14-16; Ezekiel 10.2-7; Luke 12.49).

So the apocalyptic events associated with the Trumpets seem to signify that God is about to respond to the prayers of His people for past injustices, venting his Judgement against certain non-spiritual things of the earth. Recall Seal 5 when the martyrs of Israel cried out to God, asking "how long" before their blood would be avenged. Messiah is apparently the "angel" who fills the golden censer with fire and casts it to earth, signifying that God is now ready to act with an outpouring anger toward Israel's former oppressors, and will act in a way to show that it is His work.

The following key words seem appropriate: "hail and fire", "blood", "third or one-third", "trees", and "grass".

• "Hail and fire" was one of the plagues Moses brought down to punish Egypt for that nations enslavement of the Hebrews (Exodus 9.23-25).

• "Hail and fire" spoke of judgement against Gentile nations like Assyria (Isaiah 30.27-30).

• "Blood" is used in the Bible on many occasions to denote life or the taking of life.

• "Third" appears innumerable times in the Bible related to all sorts of things, but "one-third" is used prophetically in both (Ezekiel 5.2, 12) and (Zechariah 13.8-9), in connection with selected groups of people who became the objects of God's dealings, the context determining whether those selected were to be destroyed or preserved. In the present text, the intent would appear to be for destruction.

• "Trees" are used prophetically in (Isaiah 2.10-14) as a metaphor to picture haughty and prideful men, whose downfall will occur specifically when God's End Times apocalyptic anger is vented against them. 

• "Grass" is used parabolically in (Isaiah 40.6-8, 23-24; James 1.11; I Peter 1.24) to depict the glory of men who place their trust in riches and the things of this world, for God will cause them to wither and perish. 

These parallel texts to Trumpet 1 speak of judgements that befell, and will befall, Gentile nations who oppressed Israel, and to men who trusted in their riches and glory who were humiliated and disgraced. This apparently is to be the fate of such nations and leaders during the time of Trumpet 1. Accordingly, let's review the actual history of that period.

The opening of Seal 6 in 1988 was followed by a succession of political traumas that shook the Communist world.  The first of those occurred in Poland in January, 1989 when the Communist Party first agreed to talks with the Solidarity Trade Union.  This was followed three months later by the government's agreement to reinstate the Union's legal status, finally leading to Poland's first free election on June 4, 1989, 44 years after the Communists took over in 1945. 

In May, 1989, Janos Kadar, Hungary's Communist leader for more than 32 years was forced to step down and was replaced by Karoly Nemeth, a more democratically oriented Prime Minister. 

In June, 1989, thousands of Chinese students staged a peaceful revolt against Communism in Tiengmen Square.  The uprising was finally crushed when the military occupied the Square with the loss of hundreds of civilian lives. 

Thus began a great movement of unrest in the "sea" of humanity away from Communism and toward more democratic forms of government for the first time since World War II. However, the world events to be associated with Trumpet 1 proper would have begun in the fall of 1989 with the opening of Seal 7, so the following events should have direct application to that period. 

The violent break-up of the Communist bloc nations of Eastern Europe actually began on October 18, 1989, when Erich Honecker, the Communist Party leader and head of state of East Germany was forced to step down.  On the following day, the East German Politburo also resigned and was replaced.  Less than a month later on November 9, the Berlin Wall was dismantled. Hans Modrow, a Communist reformer was elected with a new cabinet, and shortly afterward, the East German Parliament stripped the Communist party of its control of the country. 

The next Communist government to fall was Bulgaria. It began on November 10, 1989, with the resignation of Todar I. Zhivkov, Communist leader since 1954.  He was replaced by Petar T. Mladenov on November 17, who immediately supported free elections and declared that their National Assembly, not the Communist Party, should henceforth be the decision-making body in Bulgaria. 

Czechoslovakia was the next Communist domino to fall.  On November 14, 1989, the Communist party leadership resigned.  Five days later the Communists yielded to continuing protests, agreeing to relinquish their guaranteed monopoly on power. By December 14, the last of the Communists were expelled, and plans were being made for free democratic elections. 

The Communist government of Romania was the last to go.  Nicolae Ceausescu, the only remaining Communist dictator in the Warsaw Pact had just been "elected" to another five-year term on November 25.  However, his final term of office was destined to be very brief indeed, for on the first day of winter in December 22, 1989, a bloody peoples uprising occurred.  The government was overthrown and Ceausescu, who had taken to hiding, was found and summarily put to death. That date of December 22 was also Chislev 24, the Levitical date when the Lord decreed that Gentile nations would be overthrown from within (Haggai 2.20-21). 

Thus a raging firestorm "mingled with blood" swept through the established regimes of Communism in Europe. By January, 1990 elections were scheduled in the following countries to legitimize some form of movement toward democratic government:   

Poland                         June 4, 1989

USSR                          March 4, 1990

East Germany            March 18, 1990  

Hungary                      March 25, 1990  

Romania                     April, 1990

Bulgaria                      May, 1990  

Czechoslovakia          June, 1990   

Therefore before the summer of 1990, still well within Trumpet year 1, the Communist Party in every country in Central Europe had been put on trial.  Furthermore the unrest that had originated in Eastern Europe continued to spread into the Soviet Baltic Muslim states of Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kirgizia, and the Baltic Christian states of Lithuania and Armenia.

How are we to understand these happenings in terms of the burning up of a "third of the trees and all green grass"?  Perhaps the above texts in (Isaiah 40.6-8, 23-24; James 1.11; I Peter 1.24) bear ample testimony to this symbology, relating these Communist despots to ones who put their trust in riches and the things of this world, and to the fact that it is God who controls the rise and fall of kingdoms and their leaders. Therefore, we cannot escape the conclusion that He must have been the Prime Mover in the rise and fall of International Communism. It should be added that if the fall of that evil system was intended as God's initial response to the prophetic prayers of those Seal 5 saints, it was surely directed against the appropriate geographical region, for history records that those were the very European nations that had hosted the death camps during the World War II Holocaust.

That the fall of Soviet style International Communism occurred in 1989, exactly 70 years after its inception by the Third International in Moscow in 1919, must be more than a coincidence, for "70" is the Biblical number for Judgement. Consequently, we discover that God's Judgement fell on European Communism after "70" years just as it fell on ancient Babylon after a similar numerical period.  

In addition, it is intriguing to observe that the Levitical date of Chislev 24 that marked the end of that Babylonian Judgement in 520 BC also marked the end of the Communist Judgement in 1989 as seen from the timeline in Daniel's 70th Week, i.e. Chislev 24 (Haggai 2.20-23).   

The following key words stand out for inspection: "mountain burning", "fire",  "sea", "third", "blood", "living creatures", and "ships". When viewed prophetically, these terms related to the following. 

• The "great mountain burning" referred to Babylon (Jeremiah 51.24-25). Here it is not Babylon, but only "something like" it.

• A "mountain" being brought down can speak of the plans of men coming to naught, their haughtiness and loftiness frustrated (Job 14.18-22; Isaiah 2.14-22).

• "Fire", as with Trumpet 1, speaks of judgement.

• Prophetically, the "sea" can refer to the wicked (Isaiah 57.20), the Gentiles (Isaiah 60.5), nations (Ezekiel 26.3), humanity from which empires rise (Daniel 7.2), and the peoples of the world (Revelation 17.15).

• "Third", as with Trumpet 1, refers to those people apparently selected for destruction. 

• Turning water into blood with the killing of fish was one of the plagues Moses brought against Egypt to punish that nation's oppression of Israel (Exodus 7.17-21).

• "A third of the living creatures" could be misleading, because the word for "living" is actually the word "soul", suggesting that these "creatures" are not fish, but human beings.

• "Ships" are used prophetically to convey the idea of people groups, separated from God, who pridefully think to increase their economic influence and power above others by guile and deceit. (Isaiah 23.1-3; Revelation 18.17-20).

These parallels with Trumpet 2 suggest that this time will see a people group or nation, somehow related to Babylon, whose plans for power, conceived in guile and deceit, will come to naught with much bloodshed, just like those of Old Testament Babylon. The "third of the living (soul) creatures" who are killed suggests that these are people who will be the victims of God's selected judgement, and the mention of "ships" suggests that economic considerations also play an important role in this event. Since it was the Persian Gulf War with Iraq that should have occurred during the time frame associated with Trumpet 2, let's review that major historic event.

The clouds of war hung over the Middle East in the months before the attack by Iraq on Kuwait. In April, 1990, the Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, displayed his intense hatred of Israel by initiating a verbal attack against them, stating that his country possesses advanced chemical weapons which will be used to "let our fire eat half of Israel if it tries to wage anything against Iraq". In July, Arab leaders convened in Baghdad, Iraq to discuss the Middle East crisis expressing their unanimous hatred against Israel.  Muammar Qadhafi threatened to turn Israel "into a graveyard of Jews"; Jordan linked itself militarily with Iraq; Yassir Arafat promised to join Saddam Hussein against Israel. Even the so-called Arab "moderates" like Saudi Arabia and Egypt, supported the war talk. 

Iraq suddenly invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990, occupying that small nation within 24 hours. With their capture of the Kuwaiti oi1 fields, further incursions into the Saudi Arabian oi1 fields were averted when the U.S. countered with a rapid and massive defensive military buildup within Saudi Arabia. Although this military crisis temporarily obscured the Palestinian problem, it created the distinct possibility for a direct Iraqi attack upon Israel who were, at once, separated only by Jordan, who continued to voice ambivalence concerning the Iraqi invasion.

Immediately following the invasion, the United Nations Security Council convened on August 6, 1990, and invoked the following sanctions against Iraq. 

1. The UN imposed a full economic, military, and trade embargos against Iraq,

2. Demanded Baghdad's unconditional withdrawal from Kuwait,

3. Insisted on the restoration of Kuwait's deposed government, and

4. Demanded that Iraq free all foreign hostages.

As Saddam Hussein remained intransigent, vowing never to budge from Kuwait until the Arab-Israeli conflict was settled, a 31-nation coalition force was assembled under the overall military leadership of the United States and the operational command of U.S. General H. Norman Schwarzkopf.  Although a large land, sea, and air coalition force was essentially in place by the UN January 15, 1991 deadline date, few expected that a large-scale air attack against Iraq would be launched only one day later on January 16.  

The Desert Storm air campaign was conducted at intensity never before witnessed in the annals of modern warfare. In excess of 1000 sorties/day became routine. Stealth fighter-bombers with laser designated munitions and Tomahawk missiles with terrain mapping guidance led the attack, completely surprising the Iraqi air defense system that was unable to claim a single aircraft shot down in the first 24 hours of combat. Within the first few days, air superiority over Iraq was easily achieved. Those Iraqi Soviet made fighter aircraft that did challenge coalition forces were summarily shot down. Without air cover and with a rapidly deteriorating air defense system, the Iraqi tactical military, command and control, strategic military installations, and entire national infrastructure became victims of an increasingly withering rain of high precision munitions. For the first time the cumulative effect of a high technology aerial attack on a nation was about to be measured. 

Unable to mount effective defensive responses against the coalition aerial assault, Iraq was forced to launch mostly secondary and spurious retaliatory Scud attacks against civilian centers in Israel and Saudi Arabia.  While the Scud missile attacks had essentially no military value, they did serve to test the political fabric of the coalition by tempting Israel to take defensive military action against Iraq. However, when that was averted, partly by the deployment of U.S. Patriot ground to air defense missile systems in both Saudi Arabia and Israel, Iraq turned to non-military vengeful actions against the environment and against defeated Kuwait that had already suffered unspeakable atrocities at their hands. They proceeded to dump millions of gallons of oil into the Persian Gulf, destroying the environment and killing wildlife. Then when their fortunes of war were about spent and their forced retreat from Kuwait was imminent, they fired most of Kuwait's operating oil wells. For a period of months, Kuwait came as close as one could imagine to a literal hell on earth. 

After several weeks of intensive bombing of high priority targets in major Iraqi cities and throughout the country, aerial attacks converged more and more on Iraq's ground army, preparatory to a coalition ground attack to retake Kuwait. As the B52 carpet bombing of forward area bunker installations continued, their effectiveness was unknown. However when the ground attack actually began at 8 PM on February 24, 1991, their physical and psychological impacts became evident. The ground attack was carried out with a fury even greater than the aerial attack.  In just a few hours, advance tank units had not only penetrated Iraqi forward area bunker installations but had broken into wide ranging excursions miles behind enemy lines. Residual front line Iraqi troops who had not already been killed by the B52 bombing, either surrendered or were buried alive in their bunkers by M1A1 plow tanks. An end-around stratagem enabled elements of the 101st Airborne and 24th Mechanized Infantry divisions to outflank Iraqi forces and trap the elite rear area Republican Guard units. With this encirclement completed, the entire Iraqi in-theater army was squeezed into an area between Northern Kuwait and the Iraqi city of Basra. There it was decimated and essentially annihilated. Those Iraqi military units that had retreated from Kuwait fled North through Basra on Highway 8 toward Baghdad, but were interdicted by coalition aircraft and totally destroyed; bodies, vehicles, and booty taken from Kuwait, littered that highway for miles. So came to a tragic end Iraq's military adventure into Kuwait at 8 PM on February 27, 1991.

Iraq's prophetic role may be related directly to prophecies that are to be fulfilled during Trumpet 2. It is fascinating to discover that the geographical region of modern-day Iraq has a venerable Biblical history. It is, as best ascertained, the region in which the Garden of Eden was located. Later it was the domain of Nimrod and the Tower of Babel. Still later, in what is today Southern Iraq, Abraham was born in Ur of the Chaldees. Centuries later this region of Iraq became the breeding ground for three major empires of the ancient world, the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Medo-Persians all claiming portions of this territory. Indeed, the ancient remains of both Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire, and Babylon, the capital of the Babylonian Empire are located in Northern and Southern Iraq respectively. The Southern portions of modern Iraq were identified Biblically as "Shinar", always the enemy of God's people.

It is therefore understandable why Saddam Hussein, who probably knows nothing of Biblical prophecies, refers to himself as the "King of Babylon", claiming to be a descendant not only of Nebuchadnezzar, but also of Hammurabi and Saladin of Tikrit, with whom Hussein shares his birth place. It is also clear why many prophetic books have connected 20th Century Iraq with Old Testament Babylon, observing that there appears to be a kind of prophetic dualism in the way God plans to direct His judgements against that region both in ancient times and in the 70th Week. Accordingly, it should come as no surprise that the 1991 fall of Iraq is found to be juxtaposed with the Revelation prophecy concerning "something like a great mountain burning with fire" that is thrown into the sea during Trumpet 2. Fire was certainly the hallmark of the 1991 Iraqi conflict. Fire was brought down on Iraq's civilian population and military by the intense coalition aerial bombing. The Iraqi Scud missiles directed against civilian centers in Israel and Saudi Arabia provided fiery displays of terror. And the torching of hundreds of Kuwaiti oil wells by retreating Iraqi troops produced a fiery legacy of the holocaust to which Kuwait was subjected by the Iraqi invasion.

Although these hostilities brought few casualties to Israel and the coalition nations, great death and destruction was concentrated within Iraq and Kuwait.  It is now estimated that Iraq alone may have suffered somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000 killed in the brief six-week war, though a final figure will probably remain unknown, because many Iraqi soldiers died alone in the vast expanses of the Arabian desert or were buried within the bunkers intended to protect them from the onslaught of coalition forces.  Moreover, battlefield deaths did not end the misery of the Iraqi people, for they were subsequently subjected to internal hostilities at the hands of a remnant of their own Iraqi military who carried out punitive strikes against the Kurds in Northern Iraq and Shi'ites in Southern Iraq.  Those post-war attacks against the Kurds may be connected with a corresponding prophecy extending to the End Times, of judgement  against Elam, the Biblical ancestors of the modern-day Kurds (Jeremiah 49.34-39). 

Just as Iraq may be associated with Biblical Babylon/Shinar, so may Kuwait be associated with Biblical Kedar in the following ways:

1. Archaeology associates the region of Kedar with Northern Arabia, i.e. the region of Kuwait.

2. (Jeremiah 2.10) describes Cyprus as being representative of Western cultures while Kedar is representative of Eastern ones.  It is noted that Kuwait is that land farthest East of Israel within the ancient Middle Eastern World.

3. Both (Isaiah 21.13-17) and (Ezekiel 27.21) associate Kedar with Northern Arabia that today would be the area of Kuwait.

In addition, a Biblical study of the forefathers of the Kuwaitis yields two other interesting facts:

1. Kuwaitis are descendants of Ishmael by his second son who was Kedar (Genesis  25.13; I Chronicles 1.29; Psalm 120.5). Therefore Kuwait is Biblically an "Arab" nation.

2. Kuwait is also the birthplace of Mohammed, so Kuwait spawned the religion of Islam.

Kuwait/Kedar thus became the object of Iraq's/Babylon's wrath during the Persian Gulf Crisis just as it did in ancient times (Jeremiah 49.28-33), and just as Kedar was a wealthy nation in Old Testament times (Jeremiah 49.31), Kuwait enjoyed the enviable status of being the wealthiest nation in the Middle East at the time of the Persian Gulf War. So we cannot escape the conclusion that it is God who used Iraq/Babylon to bring judgement upon Kuwait/Kedar the home of Islam. 

There is a whole body of Old Testament scripture that is clearly intended for complete fulfillment just before the Lord's return in the 70th Week, identifying a coalition of nations which will come against Iraq/Babylon during that timeframe. Isaiah forecasts extensive woes to come against "Babylon" and "Lucifer" that could have their complete fulfillment only at the end of the age, i.e. within (Isaiah 13.1-14.23) see (Isaiah 13.6, 9-11). Of course, historic Babylon was destroyed at the hands of one nation, i.e. the Medo Persians (Isaiah 13.17-22), but its complete fulfillment calls for its final destruction at the hands of "kingdoms of nations" (Isaiah 13.4). Furthermore some of these are to come "from a far country, from the end of heaven" (Isaiah 13.5a) to destroy their land.  It is intriguing to learn that this phrase, "the end of heaven" is a Hebrew idiom that refers to a nation(s) farthest from Israel on the face of the earth.  Geographically this would have to be some nation in North or South America, so it could not possibly refer to Medo Persia that was essentially next door in worldly terms, but it could refer to the United States that played a leading role in that UN coalition. Isaiah seems to allude to a whole confederacy of nations, some of whom will come from the most remote corners of the globe, to destroy them.  We know this was never fulfilled in the case of historic Babylon but was certainly, at least partially fulfilled in the Persian Gulf War against its prophetic counterpart, Iraq.  Notice that when it occurs, Isaiah says the "Day of the Lord is at hand" (Isaiah 13.6a).

Incredibly, the timing of the Persian Gulf crisis, both in its overall duration and also in its subordinate intervals when air and ground combat occurred, may be synchronized with a Levitical calendar based on a 360 day prophetic year indicative of Daniel's 70th Week.

1. The total period of time from the initial invasion by Iraq into Kuwait on August 2, 1990 until the final destruction of their army on February 27, 1991 was exactly 210 days. This may not at first seem relevant to a Levitical calendar since the Lunar Levitical month is 29½ days while the Gregorian is roughly 30¼, until it is remembered that God's prophetic calendar for both the first 69 Weeks of Daniel and the period of the 70th Week must be computed on the basis of a 360 day prophetic year. On this basis 210 days becomes precisely "7" 30 day prophetic months, or "30" prophetic weeks.  "7" is understood to denote an interval of completed action, and "30" a period of sorrow or mourning (Numbers 20.29; Deuteronomy 34.8).

2. Within this span of "7" prophetic months, the UN sanctioned war against Iraq started on January 16, 1991 and ended 6 weeks later on February 27, thereby defining a period of 42 days = "6" weeks, the number of man or Satan.

3. The ground portion of those hostilities began on February 23, 1991 and ended 4 days later on February 27, thereby effecting a land war lasting exactly "4" days, the number of the "earth".  The repeated historic reference to the acclaimed 100 hour ground war includes a 4 hour concluding period of disengagement, so that offensive actions were actually executed in 96 hours.

As if to punctuate that this conflict amounted to God's judgement against Iraq, the final date marking the completion of hostilities and annihilation of Iraqi ground forces fell on Purim, as seen in Daniel's 70th Week. The prophetic significance of this is clear. It was on Purim when the plot by evil Haman to destroy the Jews, in the times of the Medo Persian Empire, boomeranged, and their tormentors were destroyed (Esther 9.1-17). Likewise, it was on Purim when the plot by evil Saddam Hussein to destroy Israel, in the days of the Persian Gulf War, boomeranged, and the Iraqis themselves were destroyed.

Former days of the Soviet Union

TRUMPET 3 (1991/1992): THE FALL OF THE SOVIET UNION

Key terms here would be a "star falling", "rivers and springs of water", and "Wormwood".

• A "star falling" often refers to Satan or to something that is Satanic (Isaiah 14.12; Luke 10.18; Revelation 9.1). The "star" burned as a torch providing light, but the source of its light was actually Satanic.

• The "rivers and springs of water" on which the "star" falls prophetically denote the "fountains and waters" of blessing or salvation (II Kings 2.19-22; Isaiah 12.2-3; Hosea 13.15; John 4.10-14).

• The "star" is named "Wormwood", a word used in the Bible to mean calamity, injustice, bitterness, and death both physical and spiritual (Deuteronomy 29.18; Proverbs 5.4; Jeremiah 9.15, 23.15; Lamentations 3.19; Amos 5.7, 6.12; Hebrews 12.15).

The concordant texts referenced above prompt the view that Trumpet 3 must herald the fall of something that had Satanic origin, appearing to be truth but actually causing the downfall of many people. Satan is the father of lies, so its teachings and ideology would be directed against those who could have received blessing and salvation, but would instead suffer calamity, injustice, bitterness, and death. Trumpet 3 should define the time frame when the Soviet Union collapsed, so let's review the history of that period.

Mikhail Gorbachev had orchestrated for himself a brilliant rise through the ranks of the Soviet Communist bureaucracy.  His down-to-earth "westernized" approach and reform mentality over six years at the head of the Soviet Union had endeared him to many outside of that Empire.  He was viewed as a breath of fresh air from those previous leaders who had more the appearance of zombies than of real live human beings.  However, his image outside the Soviet Union was a facade masking manifold internal problems.  We document a few of the signposts on the way toward the demise of the Soviet Union.

1. After the collapse of International Communism beginning in the fall of 1989, cumulative problems stemming from years of over centralization and bureaucratic lethargy within the fundamentally flawed Soviet Communist system, made it apparent that the time of accountability was at hand.  The Soviet Union had arrived at a state where it was on the verge of total economic collapse and where ethnic strains among the republics were threatening to bring the whole "house of cards" down.

2. The Soviet people were rapidly losing confidence in the future of their country.  In November, 1990, U.S. News and World Report recorded that less than 2% of the Soviet people had any confidence in their future compared with 62% just one year earlier, and those who trusted their government had also declined from 34% to 14% over that same period.

3. The economic woes and internal ethnic strife within the Soviet Empire were becoming so debilitating that when the Soviet leadership attempted to lobby in behalf of Iraq to prevent an imminent ground offense by the UN coalition forces, the United States summarily brushed aside their efforts as being of negligible significance, and continued unilaterally, without their coordination to call the shots.

4. As disenchantment with the unworkable bureaucracy created by a Communist society continued to rise, a group of traditional hardliners decided something must be done to reset the clock. That attempt was made on August 18, 1991 when a Soviet coup was attempted to depose Gorbachev and others from power, who were moving the Soviet Union along a path toward democratization and a free market economy.

5. But rather than the coup bringing about its desired effect, to return the Soviet Union to Communism, it became the catalyst that precipitated the death knell for that system. The coup ended on August 21, 1991 after four days. On August 22, 1991, when Gorbachev returned from his Crimea villa where he had been forcibly detained, he witnessed the uncontrollable disintegration of the Soviet central government before his eyes and the emergence of Boris Yeltsin as chief power-broker.

6. The Soviet Union had begun what would prove to be an irreversible disintegration, as republic after republic announced its intention to set up independent governments.

• Georgia had previously declared independence on  8/09/91

• Estonia then declared independence                   on  8/23/91

• Latvia                                                                    on  8/23/91

• Lithuania                                                               on  8/23/91

• Ukraine                                                                 on  8/24/91

• Byelorussia                                                           on  8/25/91

• Moldavia                                                               on  8/27/91

• Azerbaijan                                                             on  8/30/91

• Uzbekistan                                                            on  8/31/91

• Kirghizia                                                                on  8/31/91

Of the 15 republics originally forming the Soviet Union, only the principal republic of Russia remained intact under Boris Yeltsin, with Armenia, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan still remaining undecided.

During the remainder of 1991, attempts were made to save the Soviet Union from total disintegration but its fate was sealed on December 1, 1991, when the Ukraine, second most important republic to Russia itself, overwhelmingly approved its earlier independence by referendum.  On December 8, 1991, just a week later, the three principal slavic republics of Russia, Byelorussia, and Ukraine declared the Soviet Union "dead", and moved to form a new "Commonwealth of Independent States" (CIS) to become effective on that same date.  Within a few days following that action eight more republics forming the former Soviet Union joined the CIS, i.e. Moldavia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kirghizia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. However, subsequent events made it evident that even this newly conceived "Confederation" was "stillborn", for when the first CIS Summit meeting ended, it had not achieved a single one of its chief agenda items, regarding (a) a budget for a joint armed force, (b) a division of former Soviet assets, nuclear forces, and use of air space, or (c) even the creation of a CIS television station.

With the precipitous demise of the Soviet Union as a cohesive ideological/political/ military/economic entity, only the United States remained as the one superpower in the world.  The "Evil Empire" no longer existed.  It had become fragmented into a collection of republics, disjointed politically, economically, militarily, and ethnically. Furthermore, what remains of a central government in Russia has become an economic basket case, and is seriously debilitated in its ability to maintain command and control over its tactical forces, and may have lost much of its early warning strategic capability. Nonetheless, the fragmented remnants of the former Soviet Union still possess the sophisticated military assets of that once proud Empire, to tempt the emerging republics or some unknown foreign opportunist to exploit them for selfish purposes to endanger world peace.

The Soviet Union and its demise may be related directly to the prophecy given in Trumpet 3 of Seal 7. That Empire as instituted and governed from its conception in 1917 until its collapse in 1991, was far more than just another nation or union of republics. For the first time in the history of the world, it was an entity founded on the principle of materialistic atheism.  Its whole theme was that man can be his own god through the collective efforts of the Communist state.  It was in every sense a Satanic Empire, rightly dubbed the "Evil Empire" by Ronald Reagan, because it was thoroughly immersed in the Marx/Lenin theology that man can be god and can create his own millennial utopia. Accordingly, the Soviet Union required not only a political arm of government, but also an ideological arm to maintain the doctrinal purity of the Communist theology. Those who possessed material abundance became the first victims of such a system because they were viewed as enemies, aliens to the very concept of its Communist theology. Then Christianity, and for that matter all God-centered forms of religion, came under attack for they were the antithesis of a man-is-god theology. As this system permeated the Soviet society, books, institutions, and all teaching that violated Communist atheistic theology were outlawed or discredited. A new generation of children were taught there was no God; only the state was supreme through the collective efforts accorded by Communist doctrine. 

And so a system of Satanic origin fell upon the Soviet people. Even its national emblem of the "red star" seemed to emulate that "burning star" of Trumpet 3. It ultimately destroyed the "rivers" of abundance for those who came under its purview, stifling and corrupting the ability of its people to obtain not only material well being, but also the doctrines of true spiritual life that can come only from the "fountains" of the Word of God. The non-spiritual lives of the leaders that marked its tenure began with Marx and Lenin, but were further exemplified by their evil successors like Molotov, Stalin, Khrushchev, and others. In this context, the brief description provided for Trumpet 3 seems to encapsulate the entire regime of this evil system, eventually bringing us to its point of collapse in 1991, when those earlier prayers by the saints for past injustices, were finally answered during Trumpet 3. 

In order to confirm the prophetic nature of the Soviet Union, we need only study the timing of those events associated with its demise.

1. It has already been mentioned that attempts were made by a few stalwart leaders of the former Soviet Union to salvage some vestige of the Soviet Empire following the August, 1991 failed coup.  However, that December 1, 1991 referendum in the Ukraine, approving by popular vote their earlier vote for independence, also occurred on Chislev 24, 1991. You will recall that this was the very same Levitical date that ended the reign of East European Communism in 1989, so on this Levitical date for the second time, the Lord executed His judgement on worldwide Communism (Haggai 2.22).

2. Although that declaration of independence sealed the fate of the former Soviet Union, another agreement was forged on December 8, 1991 in an attempt to create a new loosely coupled Confederation of Independent States (CIS). However, a CIS Summit convened the following spring failed to accomplish a single one of its 25-point agenda items, and the Summit was terminated on Purim, 1992, that Jewish celebration thanking God for His providential hand in the destruction of their enemies. As a consequence, their was a clarion ring of impeccable justice in the fact that both Iraq and the Soviet Union, intransigent haters of Israel, shared the very same Levitical date for their humiliation.

3. Thus the entire period of the fall of the Soviet Union was bracketed within the time period between that August, 1991 coup attempt and Purim, 1992. It is therefore not too surprising to discover that the time period between that coup and Purim date when the CIS attempt was disbanded was precisely 210 days = "7" Levitical months, thereby neatly closing the last chapter of this Satanic initiative.

Key words would include, "third or one-third", "sun, moon, and stars", "struck", and "darkened".

• "One-third" is repeated here as in the previous Trumpets to denote that the objects of God's selected indignation, the context determining whether they are destroyed or preserved.

• "Sun, moon, and stars" can be related in the broadest sense to the apocalyptic language of Seal 6 as discussed earlier. However, in a narrower sense, these terms can have more specific meanings as indicated by the following references: 

• "Struck" is a word used here in the passive sense to convey the idea of being deprived of light and shrouded in darkness. It is commonly used in reference to striking one out of self-possession, or striking one with panic, shock, or astonishment (from Thayer's Greek Lexicon).

• "Darkened" is a word that can mean either physical darkness, or metaphorically that which deprives one of understanding concerning the truth. (Thayer's Greek Lexicon)

This very abstract apocalyptic language of Trumpet 4 makes its connection to a particular historic event in the 1992/1993 time frame quite subjective. Nevertheless, the Trumpet 4 language does seem to suggest some kind of an obscuration of truth, and the previous Trumpets did all involve Gentiles as they in some way impacted modern Israel. Consequently, we are prompted to explore Israel's headline activities during 1992/1993 for their possible connection with Trumpet 4. 

Following the February 2, 1991 defeat of Iraq's army during the Persian Gulf War, the United States as the remaining world super power, elevated the need for greater stability in the Middle East. On October 30, 1991, the Mideast Peace Conference was convened, with the United States, Russia, and the United Nations as the principals. That agenda quickly focused on the continuing Israeli/Palestinian problem as the major source of potential conflict in the region, so that in the following year on October 7, 1992, also the day of Atonement, Israel and the Palestinians were induced to begin overt talks to achieve peace with respect to the disputed occupied territories of the Gaza strip and West Bank. Actually, secret talks on this subject had already been underway in Norway between Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and PLO Chairman Yassir Arafat, as far back as 1991. 

On August 30, 1993, Israel's Cabinet finally approved a framework for Palestinian autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza, thereby taking the first step toward ending Israel's occupation of those territories that had begun following the 1967 Six-Day war. The plan called for a Palestinian takeover of portions of those territories, allowing them to begin running their own affairs six months from that date. Israel's decision to take this step came after 100 years of conflict between Palestinians and Jews living in the Land, and was viewed as both astonishing and hopeful in the eyes of the entire world.  Although the action by the Israeli Cabinet came as a surprise to the world, movement toward that end could have been suspected as early as October, 1992, when Israel first announced their willingness in the regional Mideast Peace talks to begin to deal with Palestinians at a level that suggested occupied territories might later become negotiable.

The United States quickly endorsed the initiative.  When President Clinton deftly engineered an opportunity to host the historic signing between Prime Minister Yitshak Rabin and Chairman Yassir Arafat, PLO negotiator Hannan Ashrawi euphorically spoke of the causes of the conflict now being "unraveled", and Israeli statesman Abba Eban agreed that the two antagonists were "unraveling" a previously untenable solution. As the United States arranged the official signing of the Israel/PLO agreement at the White House for September 13, 1993, only those extremist groups on either side continued to adamantly oppose the Peace Accord. These were mainly the Islamic fundamentalist groups on the one side and some militant Israeli settlers on the other, who lived in the West Bank and Gaza regions.  

In retrospect, it is easy to understand how Israel viewed their claim to those Biblical regions of Judea and Samaria, a consequence of their victory in the 1967 Six-Day War, to be the cause for their continuing problems with the Palestinians, precipitating a 5½  year Palestinian Intifada. Accordingly, many Israelis had become convinced they would be better off without the territories in favor of a bid for lasting peace. They also feared that failure to reach an agreement with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in the near-term could result in their facing other much more dangerous radical Islamic groups dedicated to greater violence over the long-term.

Although the apocalyptic statements associated with each of the first three Trumpets of Seal 7 are very brief, their wording is so precise that each can be correlated with the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe (1989/1990), the Persian Gulf War with Iraq (1990/1991), and the collapse of the Soviet Union (1991/1992), in the chronological order of Trumpets 1,2, & 3. Since it was already discovered in Coming Glory that each of these major events was timed according to a 360 day Calendar, the fact of this correlation now confirms that these events are properly associated with Seal 7 of Daniel's 70th Week.

The meaning of Trumpet 4 presents an enigma at this point in our study, because it suggests that some form of deception was afoot, yet the victims are not identified. Therefore, we are anxious to study Trumpet 5 (Woe 1) to determine if the signing of that Israeli/Palestinian Peace Accord was, in some way, a deception, and if so, whether Woe 1 might explain its consequence.