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The Mighty Angels of Revelation

Nathan Jones Vic Batista, radio host of the Miami-based TWave.tv, and I are currently teaching through a study of God's mighty angels found in the book of Revelation. We have been both blogging on The Christ in Prophecy Journal and podcasting mp3s of each lesson.

We are now up to one of the most dramatic and horrific judgments God will one day let loose upon this world — the Four Fire-breathing Euphrates Angels and their 200 million demon army!

The following is an excerpt from one of this week's lesson. If you would like to start this study of Revelation from the beginning, please visit The Christ in Prophecy Journal.

The Mighty Angels of Revelation 9 Trumpeted

Vic Batista: We have been studying Revelation verse-by-verse. Now we are up to Revelation 9 and have learned about the incredible Fifth Trumpet Judgment Angel and the demonic locust horde that's been let loose. Before we get into the Sixth Trumpet Judgment Angel, let's do a quick recap before we move forward.

Nathan Jones: The book of Revelation is God's oracle telling us what will happen in the end times. Jesus is speaking through the Apostle John who was brought up to Heaven to see all of what will one day happen. John was given a glimpse of the future.

John also gets to see the angelic world working behind the scenes performing Christ's will. We today don't get to see the spiritual war between angels being so openly waged here on this earth, for the spiritual world is shielded from our senses, although there are glimpses for some people from time to time. But, here in Revelation, we view how God is using His mighty power to work through the Tribulation judgments.

For a seven-year time period God will be judging the inhabitants of the earth for their sins. God has 21 judgments planned for the world divided into sevens: seven Seal Judgments, seven Trumpet Judgments, and finally seven Bowl Judgments.

We are nearing the end of our look into the Seven Trumpet Judgments. Each judgment is proclaimed by an angel who was given a trumpet by God. The angel blows the trumpet and then goes on to deliver God's wrath. All 21 judgments of the Tribulation are the wrath of God upon this earth. God is using angels both as messengers of His wrath and as foot soldiers waging this battle against Satan's forces.

Vic Batista: As we look at these passages in Revelation, sometimes the imagery might be a little bit too difficult to understand at times, but clearly what we see here throughout Revelation is a spiritual battle. It's good versus evil and good angels versus fallen angelic beings.

Nathan Jones: God sent another angel just after the Fourth Trumpet Judgment to cry out, "Woe, woe, woe!" In other words, he's warning to look out for the next three woes, or the last three Trumpet Judgments, for they will be worse than anything that has come before them. Considering what we've read so far with the Seal and Trumpet Judgments, anything worse is hard to believe. So far we've been told a third of the world's ecology will be destroyed, half the human population will have died, the sun will be darkened for a third of the day, and so on.

We finally get to the Fifth Trumpet Judgment and the angel of that judgment releases a demonic army and their general Abaddon, or in the Greek Apollyon, long held in the Bottomless Pit. These scorpion locust-looking demons are let loose and allowed to punish those in rebellion against Jesus Christ for five months. They are stinging people, but those stung cannot die, though they wish they were dead because the pain is so bad.

The Four Fire-breathing Euphrates Angels and Their 200 Million Demon Army

Nathan Jones: As horrific as the Fifth Trumpet Judgment has been, now the Sixth Trumpet Angel sounds in Revelation 9:13-19:

"...God, saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, 'Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates'... to kill a third of mankind. Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million..."

With the Three Woes having arrived, we've moved totally out of our daily understanding of events. Up to the Fourth Trumpet Judgment, events could happen politically or naturally. But now demonic hordes are roaming the world killing everybody in sight. This is beyond belief!

Many people who study Revelation get to this point in the narrative and conclude this imagery must be nonsense. How could this be? Revelation 9 is talking about four creatures who are nowhere near human looking. They are definitely not like the locust demons that came before them. The Four Euphrates Angels have heads that look like lions, but they are breathing fire like mythical dragons. These are crazy looking dragons released upon this earth, almost like monsters from a bad Godzilla movie.

The Locust Demons could only hurt people, but the Four Euphrates Angels and their army are going even further and are actually killing people. They kill a whopping third of the world's remaining population! Combined with the Seal Judgments which killed a third of the world's population, now we see another third killed, resulting in almost half of the world's population dead within 3.5 years. To think that a third of the remaining population of the world will be killed by just these four angels alone!

Vic Batista: Sometimes Hollywood makes some good movies, but they're nothing compared to the book of Revelation. Just amazing!

The 200 million strong army, is this army made up of people or demons?

Nathan Jones: That leads to a very highly speculative answer. We know from the text that we've got the Sixth Trumpet Judgment Angel who releases the Four Euphrates Angels who had been bound in or under the Euphrates River. The Euphrates River runs through Iraq today. It used to be the border of the Garden of Eden at one time. These angels, we can assume they are demons because they are held in the Euphrates River like prisoners, having been held there to be released just for this purpose — to kill a third of mankind. The Four Euphrates Angels are clearly demons set against God, but God being sovereign and in control allows them to be released.

While the Four Euphrates Angels are demons, they lead an army of 200 million horsemen. So, what are these — 200 million demons or 200 million people? Back in 2015, China announced that they could finally field an army of 200 million soldiers. Bear in mind when John was recording Revelation back around 95 AD, that they were lucky if they had 200 million people living across the entire planet, much less an army that could be made up of 200 million. So, some theologians have speculated that these 200 million are not demons, but they are just led by four demons. The army could be fielded out of the Far East, most likely China and/or India, but their generals are the Four Euphrates Angels.

Vic Batista: What an amazing number, for we live in the days when one country alone — China with an estimate of over one billion people — could field an army that massive.

Nathan Jones: Last I read China's population was 1.3 billion. India is also quickly coming up to that population level. If they combined with the Kings of the East to rebel against the Antichrist, which we read later in Revelation that they will indeed by the end of the Tribulation rebel against the Antichrist, they'll have a big enough army to march across the dried up Euphrates River when it dries out in a later judgment. So, some have speculated that this 200 million man army is China and/or India combined marching across the Euphrates.

So, is this army comprised of men, like what we'll later read about during one of the Bowl Judgments? I don't believe so. I think this is something totally separate from the rebellion against the Antichrist. Look how their four masters are these four demons who have been released from the Euphrates River, and the carnage they create sounds like nothing ever man-made. Whether this army is comprised of demons or they are people, this is one of those topics that is kind of nebulous and highly up for debate.

Vic Batista: There are a lot of good Bible prophecy teachers who have written a lot of speculative interpretation on this topic. But, we really do need more information to make a conclusion, and it's just not given. We just have to allow the Holy Spirit to bring clarification.

Nathan Jones: When it comes to Bible prophecy and the spiritual realm, some of these topics are well beyond our understanding. They're so outside the realm of our daily living in this Church Age, but the Tribulation will be like no age ever before in human history. The Bible says that it will be the worst time in all of human history. It will be worse than the Flood and the following chaos after the Flood. It will be worse than anything we could ever imagine.

The Four Euphrates Angels destroy a third of the world's population by consuming them with fire, smoke and brimstone. So let's say we have 7 billion people today, and already half are dead from the previous judgments, so that is 3.5 billion people left in the world. Take a third of that number, so we are talking about another billion, not million, but billion people killed by the Sixth Trumpet Judgment!

Continue on with our series — "The Mighty Angels of Revelation" — where we’ll continue with Revelation 9 and puzzle at the world’s strange reaction to these world-shattering judgments.

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