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Now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to blow them (Revelation 8:6, ESV).
Turn on the news for five minutes, and you’ll get the distinct impression that planet Earth is having a very bad day. Wildfires in forests, polluted rivers, and even waves smashing homes in Malibu. And unfortunately, politicians argue over the cause and push legislation to serve their personal agendas.
But as a pastor, I tend to look at the headlines through a slightly older Book, one written by the God of the universe who knows what’s wrong.
If you flip to the back of your Bible—specifically Revelation chapters 8 through 11—you’ll find God’s seven trumpet judgments. Right after the seventh seal is opened, seven angels step up with trumpets.
They aren’t getting ready to play a New Orleans-style jazz riff from Tuba Skinny; they are sounding cosmic alarms about disasters soon to arrive on planet Earth:
- First Trumpet (Revelation 8:7): Hail and fire mixed with blood hit the earth, burning up a third of the trees and all the green grass.
- Second Trumpet (Revelation 8:8-9): Something like a huge burning mountain gets tossed into the sea, turning a third of the ocean to blood, killing a third of the sea creatures, and sinking a third of the ships.
- Third Trumpet (Revelation 8:10-11): A blazing star named Wormwood drops from the sky, poisoning a third of the rivers and freshwater springs.
- Fourth Trumpet (Revelation 8:12): A third of the sun, moon, and stars go dark, knocking out a third of our daylight and nightlight.
- Fifth Trumpet (Revelation 9:1-12): A star unlocks the bottomless pit, releasing demonic locusts—led by a “pleasant” fellow named Abaddon—to torment unsealed people for five months.
- Sixth Trumpet (Revelation 9:13-21): Four angels tied up at the Euphrates River are cut loose, leading a massive supernatural cavalry that wipes out a third of humanity.
- Seventh Trumpet (Revelation 11:15-19): Loud voices in heaven announce that the kingdom of the world now belongs to Christ, complete with lightning, thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.
Biblical scholars point out that these trumpets—especially the first four—are environmental judgments. They are the direct fallout of human sin and stubborn unrepentance. Some believe the ultimate, full-blown version of these judgments will happen during the future Great Tribulation. Being a pre-tribulation, pre-millennialist, my eschatological viewpoint says I will be raptured before the seven trumpets, but for those of other viewpoints, get ready for an earthly “nature with a bad attitude from a belly ache” experience.
However, if you look out your window today or watch Facebook® reels, it’s hard not to notice we are previewing these ultimate environmental tremors right now. Sin doesn’t stay neatly tucked inside our hearts; when we rebel against the Creator, the creation takes the hit.
The Apostle Paul mentions this in Romans 8:19-23 (ESV), writing that creation is waiting with “eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.” Because of human rebellion, the natural world was subjected to futility, and Paul says the whole creation has been “groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.” Nature isn’t just evolving; it’s hurting, waiting to be set free from its bondage to corruption alongside the children of God.
Again, in my end-times viewpoint, I believe we will see the restoration of Earth realized during the millennial thousand-year reign of Jesus on earth (Revelation 20). Creation isn’t waiting for a better recycling program or a global summit. It’s waiting for us—the redeemed children of God—to be revealed. Back in Eden, God handed Adam and Eve the keys to the garden with a simple job description: tend it, keep it, and care for it.
Sin broke our stewardship of nature and turned caretakers into takers.
As we watch the earth groan today and read the sobering warnings of Revelation, we get a glimpse of where this story is headed. Through Jesus, we are being restored to who we were meant to be. One day, when Christ makes all things new, God’s kids will finally get back to caring for creation just like He intended from day one.
But according to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells (2 Peter 3:13, ESV).
Come quickly, Lord Jesus!