Summary of the Seven Trumpets of Revelation

The Seven Trumpets (Revelation 8:2-11:19)

• First Trumpet: Alaric’s Goths revolt against the Romans, invade Italy, and sack Rome, 395-410 AD

• Second Trumpet: Genseric’s Vandals attack Roman seaports and sack Rome, 429-455 AD

• Third Trumpet: Attila and the Huns invade Gaul and Italy, 451-452 AD

• Fourth Trumpet: Odoacer conquers the Roman Empire, 476 AD

• Fifth Trumpet: Founding and expansion of Islam, 612-762 AD

  • Lasted five prophetic months, or 150 calendar years

  • Start of 150 years: Muhammad first preaches Islam publicly, 612 AD

  • End of 150 years: Abbasids settle in Baghdad, 762 AD

• Sixth Trumpet: Defeat of Buyids until Ninety-Five Theses, 1062-1517 AD

  • Turks Attack the Byzantine Empire (Revelation 9:13-21)

    • “An hour, and a day, and a month, and a year,” or about 391 years

    • Start of 391 years: Seljuk Turks conquer Buyids, 1062 AD

    • End of 391 years: Ottoman Turks conquer the Byzantines, 1453 AD

  • The Little Book (Revelation 10:1-11)

    • An angel gives John a little book, which represents the Bible

    • Represents the printing press making the Bible accessible, 1455 AD

  • Measuring the Temple (Revelation 11:1-2)

    • The Reformers begin to see how Catholicism does not measure up to God’s Word in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries

  • The Two Witnesses (Revelation 11:3-14)

    • Metaphor for the Old and New Testaments

    • The two witnesses were “killed” when no one testified for the Bible at the Fifth Lateran Council, May 5, 1514 AD

    • Three and a half years later, the two witnesses were resurrected when Martin Luther published his Ninety-Five Theses, October 31, 1517 AD

• Seventh Trumpet: After Martin Luther published the Theses, his ideas quickly spread, causing the Protestant Reformation, November 1517 AD