158    The Bible and the Future of the World 

months, only those who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. 

Clearly, these are not ordinary locusts. These things are similar to locusts in 

that they are small, can fly, travel in great numbers, and are a kind of plague 

on mankind. This affliction is most likely supernatural, and not from nature. 

(However, it is possible that these locust like things are some type of man 

made weapon.) This event occurs about the year A.D. 2039. 

    Those who suffer from this plague  will seek death and will not find it  

(Rev 9:6). Their suffering will be so great that they will long to die. Those 

with the seal of God on their foreheads will be spared this suffering. 

    I think that those with the seal will also be mostly spared from the other 

sufferings of the seventh seal (which are symbolized by the trumpets). They 

were given the seal after the sufferings of the sixth seal began, as a way for 

God to mark off or distinguish between His servants and unrepentant 

sinners, between those who would be punished and those who would be 

protected. Recall that the Israelites were also spared from the last and the 

worst of the plagues which fell upon Egypt (Exodus chapters 3 12). Those 

persons with the seal of God will still experience some suffering because of 

the widespread destruction on the earth, but they will have the special 

protection of God to protect them to a great extent from these punishments. 

The Sixth Trumpet (Rev 9:13 19) 

     So the four angels were released, who had been held ready for the hour, 

the day, the month, and the year, to kill a third of mankind.  (Rev 9:15). 

    The sixth trumpet releases angels who go out in all four directions, that is, 

over all the earth, with three plagues. By these three plagues one third of the 

human race is killed. This is not a metaphor or a figure of speech. A very 

large number of people will die, about a third of the world's population, i.e. 

a third of those who survived all the previous sufferings. (The total number 

killed in all of these sufferings  will be  significantly more than a third, i.e. 

closer to two thirds will be killed.) 

    The description of the horses, and the three plagues which they bring, is 

metaphorical. The horses have heads like lions' heads, tails like serpents, 

and the three plagues which kill come out of their mouths. The three plagues 

are symbolized by fire, smoke, and sulfur. I do not know what these symbols 

stand for; perhaps, it is something supernatural which has not been seen 

before on earth. The cause of so many deaths in this event, as in the previous 

event of the fifth trumpet, seems to come not from nature or human actions, 

but more directly from God and His angels. 

    This event of the three plagues coincides with, and is equivalent to, the 

Three Days of Darkness, which was foreshadowed by the darkness God sent 

upon the Egyptians through Moses (Ex 10:21 23). During those three days,