Revelation 9:12

The first Woe is past: behold, there come yet two Woes hereafter.

The second woe begins here and runs through the end of the chapter. "This sixth trumpet is the climax beyond which lies the final judgment."[50] "It is a companion to and the complement of the first woe (the fifth trumpet)just described."[51] The great feature of this woe is the 200,000,000 hellish horsemen; but the first woe has already made us see in the locusts there the beginnings of these horsemen here. We regard it as a mistake to identify these with events of specific dates in history, of which there are doubtless many valid examples of what is prophesied here. We believe that the locusts are still swarming, and that the evil horsemen are still doing their thing on the earth. Again, we wish to call attention to a quotation from Albertus Pieters under Revelation 8:6.

It should always be remembered that Revelation was written to help Christians of John's day face the rigors of the actual, evil world in which they lived; and the same truth that helped them can help the Christians of all ages, including our own. These two woes depict a world that is largely controlled by a wicked and malignant ruler of the abyss, who darkens the light of truth itself with the terrible smoke of the infernal world. Conditions will not become progressively better and better, but steadily worse and worse. Evil teachings will set off the rampaging destruction of 200,000,000 diabolical horsemen. Even then, people will not repent. No matter what awful judgments of God fall upon rebellious and wicked men, they will not renounce their wickedness.

But the Christians must not delude themselves. The world that John depicts with wicked men resisting God to the limit, no matter how they hurt themselves in the process, is the world believers must live in. There is no other.[52]

[50] R. C. H. Lenski, op. cit., p. 299.

[51] Ibid.

[52] Leon Morris, op. cit., p. 132.