Revelation 9:1 - 12

Fifth Trumpet: The Locusts from the Bottomless Pit

1 Then the fifth angel sounded: And I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth. To him was given the key to the [a]bottomless pit. 2 And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace. So the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit. 3 Then out of the smoke locusts came upon the earth. And to them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. 4 They were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree, but only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. 5 And [b]they were not given authority to kill them, but to torment them for five months. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man. 6 In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will desire to die, and death will flee from them.

7 The shape of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle. On their heads were crowns of something like gold, and their faces were like the faces of men. 8 They had hair like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth. 9 And they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots with many horses running into battle. 10 They had tails like scorpions, and there were stings in their tails. Their power was to hurt men five months. 11 And they had as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but in Greek he has the name Apollyon.

12 One woe is past. Behold, still two more woes are coming after these things.

There are some Bible scholars who connect this chapter to the Islamic prophet Mohammad. Much of their reasoning is based on the literal characteristics of locusts and horses and soldiers. Because of the literal characteristics they feel there can only be one conclusion that the predictions are about Mohammad and the way the Islamic armies swarmed across the Middle-east and Northern Africa.

However, the mention of the star falling from heaven to earth indicates the one who fell was at one time a truthful leader in the true church. He fell under the influences of Satan and fell from the good graces of God. This formerly faithful servant of Christ became a deceitful follower of Satan.

We remember the angels were told to wait to release the wrath of God upon the Roman Empire until the faithful followers of Christ would have their mark upon them. We now see that it was because of what is about to happen.

The Roman Empire is falling apart because of the chaos caused by Constantine's conversion to Christianity. A former leader of the church is about to loose a new organization which will step into the footsteps of the former Roman Empire, only it will not only be a political organization but will combine the power of the Roman Empire with the control of a religious organization.

The apostle Paul had predicted the coming of this organization in his writings to the church before John received his revelations. (1 Timothy 4:1 – 5) He wrote of the Roman Catholic Empire refusing to let their priests and their nuns marry. He also wrote of them banning the eating of certain foods. He said in this writing that they would depart from the faith, they had been faithful followers of Christ. And gave that up to listen to deceiving spirits and follow the doctrine of demons.

This did not effect those whose seal was being one of God's faithful because they are faithful and heed the word of God and not the false doctrine of Satan.

These keys to the bottomless pit is the home that the demons are destined to inherit. The demons cast out by Christ in Luke 8 begged Christ not to send them there. (Luke 8:31) These demons who are part of the Roman Catholic Empire are described as locusts which were not to devour the earth or the vegetation of the earth. They were given a time to deceive part of mankind who ignored the instructions of God and listened to the doctrine of demons. These are the ones who do not have the mark of God upon them.

These locusts are the priests, bishops and other hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Empire. During this time which was allotted to them they controlled the kings of the former Roman Empire. It was states controlled by the Pope and his bishops, they made it miserable for their own followers by bleeding them dry and keeping them in a condition of poverty.

Paul again spoke of this leader as one whose coming is after the likeness of Satan and using all of his power, signs, and lying wonders. (2 Thessalonians 2:9)

This smoke which came with the locusts represents the deception which was used by those of Satan's followers to deceive those who were lacking of knowledge of God's word. This smoke hid the light of God from the world.

The locusts were the clergy of the organization which was the Catholic church which was also known as Babylon the Great.

The clergy did not kill their followers because they needed them to support their selfish interests. They were allowed a definite amount of time to be particularly active in their oppression of their followers and the people of the countries under their control.

The oppression by the leaders of the Roman Catholic empire made the times so difficult that it made their followers wish for death to relieve them of the tortures which were placed upon them.

The locusts resembled horses, horses were a weapon of war, and it was justly used because the leadership was not reluctant to use physical war to gain their desires. They wore crowns of gold which represented both authority and wealth which the leadership of the Roman Catholic empire had plenty of both.

The locusts had faces like men, while the horses represented the warlike leadership, the faces like men showed the scheming intelligence of the leadership in their actions of deceiving their followers.

They had hair like women and teeth like lions, the hair like women gave them the deceptive appearance of being gentle like women, while the of lions provided for a character of one which was deceptively dangerous. Gentle in appearance but in reality a very dangerous beast.

This group of locusts (men) had breastplates, the Roman Catholic empire protected its clergy with the armies of the countries which it controlled

They had wings which sounded like the rumbling of chariots rolling across the stone roads of the empire. They were like women in appearance but ferocious and going into battle like chariots.

They were as painful as scorpions to the ones who they ruled over and they had a certain amount of time to afflict their followers.

Abbaddon and Appollyon both mean “destroyer” and it represents either a pope or another leader of the clergy who was very successful in controlling those who were under him. John relates him to the bottomless pit which is the destined home to the demons and angels of Satan.

In Revelation 8:13 the angel announced three woes which would afflict man, this is just the first of the three.