Revelation 8:6

And the seven angels that had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.

This verse begins the trumpet judgments, and it should be noted that all of them are tempered with mercy, only "the third part" of affected things being involved. "The mercy is greater than the judgment."[39] This is another particular in which the trumpet judgments parallel that of the seals, in which only "the fourth" part was hurt or destroyed. A big difference is that the seal judgments were ordinary events; these are supernatural and represent the direct intervention of God in the progress of the natural order of creation. There is clearly here an echo of the primeval curse upon Adam and his posterity in Genesis 3:17-19, when God intervened to reduce the desirability of the natural environment "for Adam's sake"; and these judgments show that God is still doing the same thing, and, presumably, for precisely the same reason, "for Adam's sake." It was for the spiritual advantage of man that the curse came upon the ground for Adam's sake, and it must be that the continuing adjustment of human environment by the Father is also for the purpose of making it a little easier for people to set their minds upon the things eternal "The first four of these involve natural catastrophes; the last three fall directly upon men."[40] This motif of four and three appears repeatedly in this prophecy. "This fresh series of disasters does not advance matters any further than the previous seal-series."[41] All of the things in both series concern the life of people in the present dispensation. Referring the judgments to the so-called "Great Tribulation" is a mistake. "The tribulation began with the Cross and resurrection and continues until the end of time."[42]

The judgments in this and the following chapter do not need to be identified with any particular time or event. Their fulfillment is multiple and continuous throughout history. As Pieters said:

I know them. Have we not ourselves twice, in 1914-1918, and again in 1939-1945, seen the bottomless pit opened, and the heavens darkened by the swarms of evil things that issued from it? Has not the thunder of two hundred million hellish horsemen shaken the earth in our day?[43]

The same thing, of course, may be said of countless natural disasters occurring almost every week everywhere on earth. These verses enable people to connect all such disasters with the will of God; and yet God's purpose is benign. The Lord cursed the ground for Adam's sake; and the great floods, earthquakes, droughts, volcanoes, etc., all these visitations, are for the same purpose, that evil men may learn repentance and be saved. All such things are depicted, not literally, but symbolically in the trumpet series.

[39] J. R. Dummelow, op. cit., p. 1080.

[40] George Eldon Ladd, op. cit.. p. 126.

[41] James Moffatt, Expositor's Greek New Testament, Vol. V (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1967), p. 403.

[42] Douglas Ezell, op. cit., p. 47.

[43] Albertus Pieters, Studies in the Revelation of St. John (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1934), p. 130.