Uploaded September 2017 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
On the day when Jesus gathered his disciples around him on the Mount of Olives and was about to depart into Heaven, the disciples had one important question for him. They asked him the question "Will you at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel?" This is a question that has an answer that lays out God's plan for the ages, a plan that lays out what God intends to do with geopolitics on the earth right on up until the very end of the end times. J.R. Church and Gary Stearman discuss the details of this all important question.
On the day when Jesus gathered his disciples around him on the Mount of Olives and was about to depart into Heaven, the disciples had one important question for him. They asked him the question "Will you at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel?" This is a question that has an answer that lays out God's plan for the ages, a plan that lays out what God intends to do with geopolitics on the earth right on up until the very end of the end times. J.R. Church and Gary Stearman discuss the details of this all important question.

![REVELATION 9: THE FIFTH TRUMPET
The concluding verse of Revelation 8 introduces the remaining trumpets as a set of three divine judgments upon an unbelieving and unrepentant human race.:
And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound! (Revelation 8:13).
The Textus Receptus renders the term angel as eagle. Although the Textus Receptus is understood to be the most accurate Greek version, it is interesting to note that most earlier manuscripts show the word as an eagle. This rendering appears in the Codex Sinaiticus, the Codex Alexanddrinus and the Codex Vaticanus. Also, the ancient Syriac version has eagle. Early commentaries such as Griesbach, Sholz, Lachman, Van Ess, Hengstenberg, Stuart, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Wordsworth and Ewald Alford accept eagle as the original reading. Joseph Seiss quotes these early sources as supporting the eagle. He also quotes Bengel (circa 1750), who wrote, ... the Italian version and other most ancient authorities, widely separated from each other in age and clime, and in very great numbers, clearly vindicate the reading of the Greek term as eagle, from all suspicion of gloss. Why does the Textus Receptus use the term for eagle? And why does the KJV render it as angel? It is entirely possible that the eagle referred to in earlier manuscripts is the fourth living creature (beast KJV) seen before the throne of God in Revelation 4:7 - the angel that had the appearance of an eagle. Therefore, both versions may be correct. If it is the fourth beast, the one that issued the command to come and see in the scene of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, then the events prophesied by the remaining three trumpets may be related to the destruction set forth by the pale horse. As its rider, whose name is Death, and whose companion is Hell, moves across the world, the angelic eagle announces, Woe, woe, woe to the inhabiters of the earth! These three woe trumpets introduce a series of judgments upon Earths unsaved and wicked population. As we see in chapter 9, the first woe will torment, but not kill, while the second woe will kill a third of mankind. Turning our attention to the first woe trumpet, we read the following:
And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
... whose name in the Hebrew tongue is [Abaddon], but in the Greek tongue hath his name [Apollyon] (Revelation 9:1,11).
As the fifth angel places the trumpet to his lips and issues a woeful sound, Johns attention is drawn to a fallen star. He notes that the fallen one is a demonic warlord, whose name is given in two languages - the Hebrew Abaddon and the Greek Apollyon, both referring to destruction. He is in charge of a demonic force sent to torment unrepentant mankind. Are we looking at the Greek god Apollo? If not, why did John call him so? Perhaps the use of this Greek term opens our understanding as to the original nature of idolatry. It is possible that the gods of the Greek pantheon were actually demonic associates of Satan who consorted with the Greeks in the early days of their empire. The idolatry of ancient Babylon may have had its roots in these demonic sons of god who, we are told, once took wives from among the daughters of men (Genesis 6:2). Idolatry may not simply be an outgrowth of the figment of mans imagination. This forbidden religion may actually stem from an ancient association with these alien beings.
The day is coming when the hordes of demonic locusts from Hell (Gehenna) will be unleashed upon the earth as described in Revelation 9:2-6). Though the scripture does not use metaphoric language to identify them, these are no ordinary locusts. They are called locusts, not like as or as it were, but a definite species of locusts. However, the description offered here is different from any locusts in history. These creatures are described as not being allowed to harm vegetation - unlike a plague of ordinary locusts. Ancient Egypt suffered a similar plague in the days of Moses. Those locusts were also unique - unlike any before or after them:
And the locust went up over all the land of Egypt, and rested in all the coasts of Egypt: very grievous were they; before them there were no such locusts as they, neither after them shall be such (Exodus 10:14).
Unlike the locusts of Revelation 9, the plague that covered Egypt harmed not men, but the vegetation:
For they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened; and they did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left: and there remained not any green thing in the trees, or in the herbs of the field, through all the land of Egypt (Ex.10:15).
CONTINUED IN COMMENT SECTION BELOW REVELATION 9: THE FIFTH TRUMPET](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ZCoIQKYC7_Q/mqdefault.jpg)








