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Our Mission: Revelation 14:6-12
If I Were Told the Future - Lesson 43
Darkening
of the Heavenly Bodies
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Welcome to this lesson! Let's pray together:
Our Father,
As we study the seven trumpets, we realize that their messages contain not only
prophecies, but also valuable teachings.
Please guide us by Your Holy Spirit during this lesson, and show us the errors men made in
the past, so that we may not imitate them, but always remain faithful to You.
In the precious name of Jesus we pray.
Amen.
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Revelation 8:10,11
Then the third angel sounded.
And a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the
rivers and on the springs of water; and the name of the star is Wormwood.
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In our last lesson, we have seen that the bright star fallen from
heaven symbolizes Satan, the angel of light who rebelled against God.
Decisively driven out of heaven when Jesus, by His death and His resurrection, obtained
victory over death and sin, Satan was cast down to the earth.
Full of bitterness, and eager to poison men with his lies leading to death and loss, he is
compared to wormwood.
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Revelation 8:11
The name of the star is Wormwood; and a third of the waters became wormwood; and many men died from the water, because it was made bitter.
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Satan managed to poison the fountains of water by bringing the
Church to make many doctrinal compromises with paganism, in order to establish its
supremacy over Europe.
These compromises began as soon as the fourth century, as the waning Western Roman Empire
progressively gave more and more of its authority over to the Church, whose power grew
rapidly.
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Revelation 8:12
Then the fourth angel sounded.
And a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that
a third of them were darkened; and a third of the day did not shine, and likewise the
night.
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What happened next? The fourth trumpet announces the following
events, once again in a symbolic language.
A careful and thorough study of the Word of God will explain the meaning of this prophecy,
and allow us to understand the events it describes.
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John 8:12
Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying,
«I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the
light of life.»
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John 12:46
I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness.
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The fourth trumpet reports a darkening of the heavenly bodies.
To find out the meaning of this fading light, we must first discover the source of light.
And the Bible gives a very clear anwser: Jesus is the light.
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Many times, the Bible testifies that Jesus is the light of the world:
«I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the
night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the
world.» (JOHN 9:4,5)
«In [the Word] was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the
darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. (...) That was the true Light which
gives light to every man who comes into the world.» (JOHN 1:4,5,9)
«I, the Lord, have called You in righteousness, and will hold Your hand; I will keep You
and give You as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles, to open blind eyes,
to bring out prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house.»
(ISAIAH 42:6,7)
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2 Corinthians 4:5,6
For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and
ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.
For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness who has shone in our hearts
to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
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During His life here on earth, Jesus, the light of the world, dispersed the darkness prevailing over the earth, and clearly revealed, as never before, the perfect character of God and His love for each one of us.
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When we choose to follow Jesus, we turn from darkness to light:
«I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the
Gentiles, to whom I now send you, to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to
light, and from the power of Satan to God.» (ACTS 26:17,18)
«But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special
people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His
marvelous light.» (1 PETER 2:9)
«The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land
of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined. (...) For unto us a Child is born,
unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder.» (ISAIAH 9:2,6)
«Who walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord and rely
upon his God.» (ISAIAH 50:10)
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Ephesians 6:11,12
Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand
against the wiles of the devil.
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in
the heavenly places.
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2 Peter 2:4
God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness.
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Whereas light is linked with Jesus and the salvation He offers us, darkness is linked with Satan and his angels.
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2 Corinthians 4:3,4
But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.
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Satan, the ruler of darkness, has only one purpose: to prevent
men from reaching the light, the way to salvation in Jesus Christ.
And to manage it, his best strategy is to spread false teachings, leading people to
believe that they don't need Jesus to be saved.
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Satan is always trying to darken the truth which leads to salvation:
«This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should
no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having
their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the
ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their heart.» (EPHESIANS 4:17,18)
«To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is
because there is no light in them. And they will pass through it hard pressed and hungry;
and it shall happen, when they are hungry, that they will be enraged and curse their king
and their God, and look upward. Then they will look to the earth, and see trouble and
darkness, gloom of anguish; and they will be driven into darkness.» (ISAIAH 8:20-22)
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2 Peter 1:19
We also have the prophetic word made more sure, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.
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Since we are talking about light and darkness, let's remember
that the prophetic word, which is the subject of this set of lessons, is also a reliable
lamp!
Now, let's come back to the fourth trumpet, in order to discover which events it
describes.
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Revelation 8:12
Then the fourth angel sounded.
And a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that
a third of them were darkened; and a third of the day did not shine, and likewise the
night.
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The third trumpet announced that the fountains of living waters
would be poisoned, and this is what happened when the Church, from the fourth century
onward, mixed foreign and pagan doctrines with the Christian faith.
The way was then prepared for the fourth trumpet, which announces a period of darkness.
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John 12:35
Then Jesus said to them,
«A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest
darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going.»
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John 9:4
I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work.
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Jesus knew that, after His departure for heaven, a period of darkness would follow.
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Revelation 2:18,20
To the angel of the church in Thyatira write,
«These things says the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like
fine brass: (...)
"I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls
herself a prophetess, to teach and beguile My servants to commit sexual immorality and to
eat things sacrificed to idols."»
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In the book of Revelation, Jesus, blazing with light, announces once again this period of spiritual darkness and generalized apostasy, in the letter to the fourth church, Thyatira, which is parallel to the fourth trumpet.
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Revelation 2:21,22
And I gave time [to Jezebel] to repent of her sexual immorality,
and she did not repent.
Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great
tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds.
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The letter to the fourth church, Thyatira, had the same purpose
as the fourth trumpet: calling to repentance the Church which, since the fall of the
Western Roman Empire, was plunging deeper and deeper into apostasy.
But unfortunately, during all the Middle Ages, it refused to repent.
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Isaiah 59:9,10,13
We look for light, but there is darkness! for brightness, but we
walk in blackness!
We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes; we stumble at
noonday as at twilight; we are as dead men in desolate places. (...)
[We are] transgressing and lying against the Lord, and departing from our God, speaking
oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
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As a result of its apostasy, the Church of the Middle Ages was plunged into deep spiritual darkness, just as foretold by the fourth trumpet.
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God has often warned men that apostasy plunges into darkness...
«But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the
Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command
you today, (...) the Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of
heart. And you shall grope at noonday, as a blind man gropes in darkness.» (DEUTERONOMY
28:15,28,29)
«Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, before the difficult days come, and
the years draw near when you say, "I have no pleasure in them": while the sun
and the light, the moon and the stars, are not darkened.» (ECCLESIASTES 12:1,2)
«Give glory to the Lord your God before He causes darkness, and before your feet stumble
on the dark mountains, and while you are looking for light, He turns it into the shadow of
death and makes it dense darkness.» (JEREMIAH 13:16)
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... but, in spite of everything, men have preferred apostasy and darkness!
«Men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were
evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest
his deeds should be exposed.» (JOHN 3:19,20)
«They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of
Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness (...). To [these] the gloom of darkness is
reserved forever.» (2 PETER 2:15,17)
«Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of
Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah. These are (...) wandering stars
for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.» (JUDE verses 11 to 13)
«Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who make my people stray; who chant
"Peace" while they chew with their teeth, but who prepare war against him who
puts nothing into their mouths: "Therefore you shall have night without vision, and
you shall have darkness without divination; the sun shall go down on the prophets, and the
day shall be dark for them."» (MICAH 3:5,6)
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Revelation 2:24
But to you I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this doctrine, and who have not known the depths of Satan, as they call them, I will put on you no other burden.
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Revelation 8:12
A third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened.
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Fortunately, some faithful believers escaped from the spiritual darkness of the Middle Ages, as foretold by the fourth letter and the fourth trumpet (only «a third» of the heavenly bodies were darkened).
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Revelation 8:12
A third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened.
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Revelation 12:1
Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars.
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Only a third of the heavenly bodies is darkened, meaning that
some people escaped from the darkness. Who are they?
We can find the answer to this question by drawing a striking parallel between these two
verses.
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Revelation 12:1,5
Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the
sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars. (...)
And she bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron.
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As we will study in a future lesson, the pure woman of Revelation
represents the Church faithful to God, from which Jesus came to the earth.
Pure and loyal, she is portrayed as being surrounded with the same heavenly bodies as
those listed in the fourth trumpet.
But here, the heavenly bodies are not darkened, thus making this woman glorious and
radiant.
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Revelation 12:5,6
And her Child was caught up to God and to His throne.
Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they
should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days.
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This prophecy foretells that, after the departure of Jesus for
heaven, God's pure and faithful Church would experience difficult times for 1260 days.
In our lesson «The Four Mythical Beasts», we saw
that these 1260 days represent the period of 1260 years during which a persecuting power
attacked the people of God, from A.D. 538 to 1798.
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Daniel 8:10,12
[The little horn] grew up to the host of heaven; and it cast down
some of the host and some of the stars to the ground, and trampled them. (...)
He cast truth down to the ground. He did all this and prospered.
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In the book of Daniel, this persecuting power is represented as a
little horn.
«Casting down some of the stars to the ground», and thus darkening truth, this little
horn accurately confirms the message of the fourth trumpet.
The identity of this little horn is now obvious: it is the apostate Church of the Middle
Ages.
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Daniel 7:25
[He] shall persecute the saints of the Most High, and shall
intend to change times and law.
Then the saints shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time.
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Revelation 12:6
Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days.
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As the apostate Church was sinking into darkness, many believers
chose to remain faithful to God.
So they had to face the persecution of the apostate Church, during the 1260 years (3½
times) of its reign.
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Daniel 7:21
I was watching; and the same horn was making war against the saints, and prevailing against them.
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Isaiah 58:1
Cry aloud, spare not; lift up your voice like a trumpet; tell My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.
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History reports that, during the 1260 years of its reign, the
apostate Church killed about 50 million believers who refused to obey it.
The message of the fourth trumpet is thus directly intended for the apostate Church, as a
major persecutor of God's people, and invites it to repentance.
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Exodus 10:22,23,27
So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was
thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days.
They did not see one another; nor did anyone rise from his place for three days.
But all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings. (...)
And [Pharaoh] would not let them go.
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Like the first trumpet, the fourth trumpet calls to mind one of
the plagues of Egypt.
The parallel is interesting, because, in both cases, darkness did not affect God's people.
And unfortunately, also in both cases, the persecuting power did not repent following this
curse.
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Revelation 8:13
And I looked, and I heard an angel flying through the midst of
heaven, saying with a loud voice,
«Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the
trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound!»
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Isaiah 5:20
Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness!
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Refusing to repent, to come back to light, the apostate Church will now be struck by the other trumpets, the subject of our next lessons.
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As for us, let's never abandon the light to choose darkness!
«Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what
fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?
And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever?»
(2 CORINTHIANS 6:14,15)
«For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light
(for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth).» (EPHESIANS
5:8,9)
«The path of the just is like the shining sun, that shines ever brighter unto the perfect
day. The way of the wicked is like darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble.»
(PROVERBS 4:18,19)
«The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of
darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.» (ROMANS 13:12)
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Let's close this lesson with a prayer:
Our Father,
David sang: «You will light my lamp; the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness.» (Psalm
18:28)
This song could also have been sung by the Church of the Middle Ages, but unfortunately,
it preferred darkness to light, apostasy to Your truth.
May we never follow this example, and always remain faithful to You.
In the name of Jesus Christ, the Light of the world, we pray.
Amen.
The test of Lesson 43 is waiting for you!