Revelation 8
About RevelationWritten by AI
Revelation is the Bible's last book and its most vivid. It is a prophecy, a letter to seven churches, and an apocalypse, a word meaning unveiling: a kind of writing full of symbols, numbers, beasts, and heavenly scenes. The author is John, exiled on the island of Patmos. Tradition identifies him as the apostle John, though some think he was another early leader with that name. Most date it around AD 95, under the emperor Domitian, while some place it earlier, in the 60s.
The churches of Asia faced pressure to compromise with Rome's power, trade, and worship. Revelation pulls back the curtain to show who truly rules: God on the throne, and the Lamb who was slain and is alive.
Christians read its visions in several ways: as mainly about John's own time, as a picture of the whole church age, as chiefly about events still to come, or as a symbolic portrait of the spiritual battle in every age. Many combine these. Whatever the view, the ending is the same hope: “Behold, I make all things new.”
Before you read Revelation 8Written by AI
The seventh seal brings silence in heaven for about half an hour. The prayers of the saints rise like incense before God, and then fire is thrown to the earth. Seven angels receive seven trumpets. The first four strike a third of the land, sea, rivers, and sky, and an eagle cries woe for the three trumpets still to come.
The Seventh Seal
When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and they were given seven trumpets.
Then another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, along with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, rose up before God from the hand of the angel.
Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it to the earth; and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.
The First Four Trumpets
And the seven angels with the seven trumpets prepared to sound them.
Then the first angel sounded his trumpet, and hail and fire mixed with blood were hurled down upon the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, along with a third of the trees and all the green grass.
Then the second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned to blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.
Then the third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star burning like a torch fell from heaven and landed on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter like wormwood oil, and many people died from the bitter waters.
Then the fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun and moon and stars were struck. A third of the stars were darkened, a third of the day was without light, and a third of the night as well.
And as I observed, I heard an eagle flying overhead, calling in a loud voice, “Woe! Woe! Woe to those who dwell on the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the remaining three angels!”