1. SOUNDING THE FIFTH TRUMPHET (Vs 1-12)

1. The star of V-1 is not a planet or meteor but a person – not a human being but a person. Note the personal pronoun.

2. Note that he did NOT have the key to the bottomless pit but it was GIVEN him. What he does here he does by permission.

3. Satan is called “son of the mornin,” Some also call him “Day Star”: and in Luke 10:18 satan fell from heaven like lightning.

4. I believe that the bottomless pit is hades. We know that hades is a place of fire -therefore the smoke rises when it is opened.

5.  These locusts are nor regular locusts as we have now. They do not eat as locusts eat -and they sting. 

6. It has been said that nothing is more painful than a scorpion’s sting. This sting will not kill but torment people. Just think of suffering the pain of a scorpion’s sting for five months. 

7. Men will seek death because of the severe and prolonged pain but they will not be permitted to die. 

8. Note the description of these locusts in Vs 7-10. These are not regular locusts but a super- natural thing that is now shut up in hades. 

9. These creatures have a king -his name is Apollyon. Apollyon means DESTROYER. Christ IS ths Savior, satan is the destroyer.

2. SOUNDING OF THE SIXTH TRUMPHET (Vs 13-21)

1. When the sixth trumphet is sounded, war will begin that will see one third of the men of the earth killed.

2. Note the location the region around the Euphrates River. Look it up on your map.

3. The length of time this war will last V-15.

4. The size of the army V-16.

5. Those killed -V-18.

6. Not that those who were not killed will not repent of their evil deeds. It is not pain and suffering but the goodness of God that leadeth these to repentance.”

7. Those horses described in Vs 17 and 19 may well be some sort of tank or armored vehicle spewing atomic power (fire and heat) from each end, head and tail.

8. Some believe these to be supernatural creatures as the locusts were. It seems to me that armored vehicles of war fit the picture better.

9. It certainly is important that this is war, that it is right down at the close of the age, and that it takes place in the region around the Euphrates River.