1THEN THE fifth angel blew [his] trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth; and to the angel was given the key [a]of the shaft of the Abyss (the bottomless pit).
2He opened the [b]long shaft of the Abyss (the bottomless pit), and smoke like the smoke of a huge furnace puffed out of the [c]long shaft, so that the sun and the atmosphere were darkened by the smoke from the long shaft.
3Then out of the smoke locusts came forth on the earth, and such power was granted them as the power the earth’s scorpions have.
These trumpets are part of the revelation that comes with the blowing of the 7th trumpet beginning Chapter 8.
The timing of this can not be doubted: We have the release of Satan from the bottmless pit. Clearly defined in Revelation 20 as coming at the end of the Kingdom and start of the real final war between God and evil.
An army of perhaps supernatural locusts creating massive destruction are found in Joel 1 too:
4What the crawling locust left, the swarming locust has eaten; and what the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten; and what the hopping locust left, the stripping locust has eaten.
6For a [heathen and hostile] nation [of locusts, illustrative of a human foe] has invaded My land, mighty and without number; its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and it has the jaw teeth of a lioness.
15Alas for the day! For the day of [the judgment of] the Lord is at hand, and as a destructive tempest from the Almighty will it come.
19O Lord, to You will I cry, for the fire has devoured the pastures and folds of the plain and the wilderness, and flame has burned all the trees of the field.
20Even the wild beasts of the field pant and cry to You, for the water brooks are dried up and fire has consumed the pastures and folds of the wilderness and the plain.
You can read this review of Revelation 6 & 7, along with looks at similar passages elsewhere, to see that:
The “day of the Lord” is mentioned – vast destruction – drying up of the rivers and brooks – and consuming fire —
— are all mentioned in Revelation 16 and 20 and elsewhere in that book.
Given everything, it does seem these prophecies work together and do describe the war at the end of the Kingdom that will remove Satan and evil from the Earth after which the new Earth will be created for the people of faith and worship.
Oooooops…
It seems the next verse in Revelation 9 marks them as not the same as Joel:
4They were told not to injure the herbage of the earth nor any green thing nor any tree, but only [to attack] such human beings as do not have the seal (mark) of God on their foreheads.
Those in Joel do consume – everything…
The people who survive include those who have the seal of God as mentioned for the 144,000, and a verse soon to come again places this after the emptying of the bottomless pit – not when it was filled at the end of the 1st war:
11Over them as king they have the angel of the Abyss (of the bottomless pit). In Hebrew his name is Abaddon [destruction], but in Greek he is called Apollyon [destroyer].
Next comes the wholesale slaughter of people:
15So the four angels who had been in readiness for that hour in the appointed day, month, and year were liberated to destroy a third of mankind.
16The number of their troops of cavalry was twice ten thousand times ten thousand (200,000,000); I heard what their number was.
The people destroyed are depicted as evil beyond the will to redemption:
20And the rest of humanity who were not killed by these plagues even then did not repent of [the worship of] the works of their [own] hands, so as to cease paying homage to the demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor move.
This does seem to conflict with earlier verses in previous chapters that say the Kingdom will see all idols and false prophets and the false spirit will be removed so that those remaining in the Kingdom will have every opportunity to learn of God’s will without interference…
2And in that day, says the Lord of hosts, I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, and they shall no more be remembered; and also I will remove from the land the [false] prophets and the unclean spirit. (Zechariah 13:2)
Perhaps a somewhat weak interpretation of these verses together would be: this is strictly for the limited time of the final war: That those who refuse to worship Christ and God and the Holy Spirit during the kingdom period will be seduced by the idols and power of Satan and his host that are released from the bottomless pit.
This does fit the outline of the timeline laid out in Revelation 20:
7And when the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his place of confinement,
8And he will go forth to deceive and seduce and lead astray the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth–Gog and Magog–to muster them for war; their number is like the sand of the sea.
9And they swarmed up over the broad plain of the earth and encircled the fortress (camp) of God’s people (the saints) and the beloved city; but fire descended from heaven and consumed them. [II Kings 1:10-12; Ezek. 38:2, 22.]
Revelation 20 is the reference point for interpretation of the End Times: It lays out quickly and clearly – the first war, the Kingdom, the final war, the Great White Throne, and then the new Earth and eternity…That is why I refer back to it so often.
Verses 7-9 are quiet clearly about the final war before the end of the Kingdom. Here, we see Satan’s forces will be able to seduce those who are not committed to Christ by the end of the Kingdom.
What makes this a weak is Zechariah 13:2.
I don’t think you can say this removal of the idols is at the start of the New Earth: Verse 7 makes it seemingly clear another war breaks out – which would be the final one – which means this removal of idols in 13:2 will be at the start of the Kingdom. So, how could it say the idols will be remembered no more???
The description of that final war in Zechariah 13 does seem to match up with both Joel 1 and Revelation 9:
8And in all the land, says the Lord, two-thirds shall be cut off and perish, but one-third shall be left alive.
9And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined and will test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, and I will hear and answer them. I will say, It is My people; and they will say, The Lord is my God.
I wonder if the 2/3rds destroyed are all the unsaved? Or, is a mixture of the saved and the damned: Those who refuse to accept Christ’s rule and those who do but are killed during the massive war?
I tentatively suggest that the 1/3rd are not the only true believers at the end. That some of the 2/3rds destroyed are also part of the saved.
I look back at the description of the saints in heaven around God’s throne who were killed for being believers before the Kingdom started:
9When the Lamb broke open the fifth seal, I saw at the foot of the altar the souls of those whose lives had been sacrificed for [adhering to] the Word of God and for the testimony they had borne.
10They cried in a loud voice, O [Sovereign] Lord, holy and true, how long now before You will sit in judgment and avenge our blood upon those who dwell on the earth?
11Then they were each given a [b]long and flowing and festive white robe and told to rest and wait patiently a little while longer, until the number should be complete of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed as they themselves had been. (Revelation 6)
These future saints “were to be killed” in the future – and then God would come for the final judgment that would utterly separate evil from creation for eternity…
