The Fifth and Sixth Trumpet Judgments (Revelation 9:1-21)

Summary

Grace in Focus – "The Fifth and Sixth Trumpet Judgments (Revelation 9:1–21)"

Podcast: Grace in Focus
Date: December 16, 2025
Hosts: Bob Wilkin and Philippe Sterling

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Overview

In this focused 13-minute episode, Bob Wilkin and Philippe Sterling delve into Revelation 9, examining the striking imagery and meaning behind the fifth and sixth trumpet judgments. The discussion emphasizes distinguishing between literal and symbolic interpretations, explores God’s ongoing attempts to encourage repentance, and highlights the eschatological significance of these judgments in Free Grace Theology.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Transition from ‘Natural’ to ‘Supernatural’ Judgments

• [01:07] Bob explains that the first four trumpet judgments relate largely to "natural type of calamities," but with the fifth and sixth trumpets "we’re dealing with bottomless pits and locusts... bringing in basically the angelic realm."
• The escalation marks a shift from environmental disasters to supernatural and direct spiritual afflictions.

2. The Fifth Trumpet (Revelation 9:1–12)

• Bottomless Pit & Locusts
  • [01:42–02:09] Discussion of the "bottomless pit" (Greek: Abyss), possibly referring to a region of Sheol/Hades where certain angels are confined.
• Nature of the Locusts
  • [02:09–02:51] The locusts are not standard creatures. Bob notes: "They appear to be supernatural entities... a different sort of supernatural being than just the fallen angels themselves."
• Role of the ‘Star’
  • [02:51–03:07] The "star fallen from heaven" could be an angel (fallen or unfallen), potentially tasked with opening the abyss.
• Who is Afflicted?
  • [04:05–04:26] Philippe identifies that only "the men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads" (the 144,000; see Revelation 7) are protected from harm.
• The Nature of the Torment
  • [04:40–05:22] Philippe draws a connection between the word for "torment" (basanizo) and its New Testament usage, e.g., Luke 16 ("I am in torment in these flames"), suggesting the suffering is excruciating but not "intolerable."
• Desire for Death
  • [05:24–06:04]
    • Philippe: "In those days, men will seek death and will not find it. They will desire to die, and death will flee from them."
    • Bob expands: "The affliction... is painful... here the torment may be a physical torment... even if they wanted to be liberated from it by death, that's not going to happen."
• Strange Appearance
  • [06:07–06:40] The locusts’ monstrous, hybrid characteristics (human faces, women’s hair, lions’ teeth) signal their spiritual origins. Bob mentions using "artistic renderings" for his eschatology class to illustrate the verses.

3. The Nature of Supernatural Beings

• [07:16–07:37] Bob references Revelation 4’s four living creatures, noting that heaven also contains beings with fantastical traits, implying fallen beings could appear just as outlandish.

4. Leadership of the Locusts

• [08:08] The locusts are led by "the angel of the bottomless pit," named Abaddon (Hebrew) or Apollyon (Greek), both meaning "destruction" or "destroyer."

5. The Fifth Trumpet as the First Woe

• [08:34] Philippe summarizes: "One woe is past, but now still two more woes are coming," referring to the severity escalating with each trumpet.

6. The Sixth Trumpet (Revelation 9:13–21)

• The Four Angels at the Euphrates
  • [08:43–09:33] Four mighty (likely fallen) angels, long bound at the Euphrates, are released. Bob posits their connection to ancient empires.
  • A brief allusion to Genesis 6 and 2 Peter 2, where certain angels were bound for special judgment.
• The Army of 200 Million
  • [10:04–10:41] A force of "200 million horsemen" is released. Bob dismisses popular interpretations (e.g., Chinese armies, helicopters as described by Hal Lindsey or Billy Graham) in favor of supernatural entities: "They appear to be infernal creatures... supernatural beings."
• Destructive Power
  • [10:48–11:07] This infernal army kills a third of mankind—a significant but still limited judgment.
  • Philippe questions the accumulating percentages: "Is it a third of the remaining 75% or a third in addition to the 25%?" Bob asserts, "I'll say a third of the remaining... it's limited in scope," signifying God’s continued restraint.

7. Human Response—and Failure to Repent

• [11:23–11:53]
  • Philippe: "And yet in verses 19, 20, 21, we find they didn’t repent." Bob agrees: "Even with these severe judgments, God is hoping to bring people to repentance."
• The implication: repentance could lessen judgments, but humanity’s refusal leads to the looming "seventh trumpet and seven bowls"—greater devastation ahead.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Nature of the Judgment:

  “It’s bringing in basically the angelic realm... actual judgments.”
  — Bob Wilkin [01:13]

• On the Identity of the Locusts:

  “They appear to be supernatural entities of some kind… demonic entities, but perhaps a different sort of supernatural being than just the fallen angels themselves.”
  — Bob Wilkin [02:18]

• On the Purpose of Limited Judgment:

  “The purpose is still functioning as a warning because it’s limited in scope... even with these severe judgments, God is hoping to bring people to repentance.”
  — Bob Wilkin [11:01], [11:23]

• On Human Stubbornness:

  “They did not repent of the works of their hands... their murders, or their sorceries or their sexual immoralities or their thefts.”
  — Philippe Sterling quoting Revelation [11:30]

• On Spiritual Interpretation vs. Literalism:

  “...they appear to be infernal creatures also because we’re given a description... not a description of the armies that would be there in Armageddon.”
  — Bob Wilkin [10:09]

• On Abaddon/Apollyon:

  “They have as king over them... the angel of the bottomless pit, which is Abaddon or Apollyon, meaning destructor or destruction.”
  — Philippe Sterling [08:08]

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Key Timestamps

• [01:07] — First four trumpets vs. fifth/sixth (natural vs. supernatural)
• [02:09] — Literal or symbolic locusts?
• [04:05] — Who is protected? (The 144,000 sealed)
• [05:24] — Men seek death but cannot find it
• [06:07] — Locusts’ bizarre descriptions
• [08:08] — Leadership by Abaddon/Apollyon
• [09:04] — Four angels bound at Euphrates released
• [10:04] — 200-million-strong infernal army
• [11:23] — Continued refusal to repent

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Resources Mentioned

• Revelation Commentary by John Claes
• Upcoming Study and Teacher’s Guides on Revelation (Available March-April 2026)

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Conclusion

• The episode highlights the terrifying escalation of supernatural judgments in Revelation 9 while underlining God’s intent: to call humanity to repentance before the final, even more severe outpourings. The hosts’ careful Free Grace interpretations underscore God’s justice and mercy, even in the midst of apocalyptic wrath.

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Next Episode Teaser:
The series will pause to discuss perseverance in faith, then return to more trumpet judgments.

Transcript

[Bob Wilkin]

The following is a listener supported ministry.

[Narrator/Announcer]

From the Grace evangelical society. Revelation 9 describes the fifth and sixth trumpet judgments in our eschatology series. Thank you for joining us today. It's going to be interesting. Hope you'll stay tuned. This is the ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society and Our website is faithalone.org Please navigate to that website to find out more about our upcoming national annual conference. It is May 18th through the 21st, 2026. Our theme will be believe in Jesus for life. There's an early bird registration and we waive our registration fee for first time attendees, so take advantage of those timely offers. Find out more about all the [e-mail] events. And now with today's discussion, here are Bob Wilkin and Philippe Sterling.

[Philippe Sterling]

All right, well, Philippe, we're gonna end the trumpet jud today with the fifth and sixth trumpets. And I guess we're in Revelation chapter nine, is that right?

[Bob Wilkin]

Yes. The first four trumpets were dealing mostly with natural type of calamities.

[Philippe Sterling]

Right.

[Bob Wilkin]

But now we're dealing with bottomless pits and locusts, like horses prepared for battle and so forth. So it's bringing in basically the angelic realm in some ways, and in all of this, actual judgments.

[Philippe Sterling]

Okay, so chapter nine, one through twelve is the fifth angel, the fifth judgment, right?

[Bob Wilkin]

Yes. And then, well, one through twelve is the fifth angel, and then thirteen through the end is the sixth angel.

[Philippe Sterling]

All right, and the fifth angel, like you say, there's this bottomless pit which the bottomless pit is part of Sheol, or the Hebrew word, or Hades, the New Testament word, right?

[Bob Wilkin]

Yes. And perhaps a portion of it where some particular ang beings were imprisoned and perhaps some things associated with them. Here, talking about the locusts and their strange appearance, we can talk about that a little bit.

[Philippe Sterling]

Okay, so are these literal locusts or are these demonic spirits or fallen angels or something? What are these locusts?

[Bob Wilkin]

They appear to be supernatural entities of some kind. Now, whether they're actual fallen angels or some entities more like, we call them demonic entities, but perhaps a different sort of supernatural being than just the fallen angels themselves. But there is one associated with them. And verse nine says, and the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth to him was given the key to the bottomless pit.

[Philippe Sterling]

So what verse was that?

[Bob Wilkin]

Verse one, Chapter nine.

[Philippe Sterling]

Okay.

[Bob Wilkin]

Yeah. And so who is this star? Is it just a star that's an angel that's making its way from heaven to the bottomless pit? Or is this a fallen angel?

[Philippe Sterling]

Right.

[Bob Wilkin]

You know, that is, given the Authority to open up this bottomless pit to release all these demonic type of locusts.

[Philippe Sterling]

Right. And so what is the normal view is that this is an unfallen angel or a fallen angel?

[Bob Wilkin]

Well.

[Philippe Sterling]

Or Lucifer.

[Bob Wilkin]

Well, Lucifer, of course, is called a shining being in Isaiah, in chapter 14.

[Philippe Sterling]

Right.

[Bob Wilkin]

And Jesus did say, I did see him falling like lightning from heaven, but I don't think we should make too much of that. It is fallen from heaven to earth, whether it's just traveling through or talking about a falling into wickedness or having fallen already into wickedness. But this is some kind of angelic being, apparently, that comes and that opens up the bottomless pit. And locusts came upon the earth, and they were given the right to afflict people, but yet without killing them.

[Philippe Sterling]

Yeah. In verse four, they were not to harm the grass or any green thing or any tree, but only the men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. Who are the men who have the seal of God on their foreheads?

[Bob Wilkin]

Well, this will be going back to the 144,000 who were especially sealed earlier.

[Philippe Sterling]

And protected by God.

[Bob Wilkin]

And protected by God.

[Philippe Sterling]

Okay.

[Bob Wilkin]

So they could not be touched or harmed and presumably kept from their mission too, which would be to go to all the earth, you know, speaking of the kingdom, and believe a message of life as well.

[Philippe Sterling]

But the men they were to oppress or to punish, it says they were not given. Verse 5. They were not given authority to kill them, but to torment them for five months. It's interesting, this word for torment. I think it's basanizo. It's the same word that's used when the rich man in Luke 16 says, I'm in torment in these flames. And so this shows that the torment currently in Sheol or Hades is not some torment that's intolerable. At least I would argue that. In fact, Jesus said it'll be more tolerable for those in Tyre and Sidon, or more tolerable for those in Sodom.

[Bob Wilkin]

At the Judgment.

[Philippe Sterling]

At the judgment. But here they're in torment for five months, and it was like the torment of someone who's stung by a scorpion. And I don't understand verse six, in those days, men will seek death and will not find it. They will desire to die and death will flee from them. What does that mean?

[Bob Wilkin]

Well, the affliction that they're experiencing from these locusts is painful. So here the torment may be a physical torment of some kind that is very painful. And it's such that even if they wanted to be Liberated from it by death. That's not going to happen. They're for five months.

[Philippe Sterling]

They live God seeing to it that they go through it.

[Bob Wilkin]

Yes.

[Philippe Sterling]

And it says the shape of the locust was like horses. So does this mean they're big? Their heads were crowns of something like gold.

[Bob Wilkin]

It described their heads were crowns. Their faces were like the faces of men, but they had hair like women's hair and their teeth were like lion's teeth. And oh, by the way, for my PowerPoint for the eschatology class, I got. I got some artistic renderings of what is actually literally taking it, what it may have appeared like.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Did you know that the Grace Evangelical Society offers an M. Div. Degree through our online seminary and tuition is free to those who maintain a 3.0 grade average. It is a three year degree program and you could submit your application now to gain acceptance. Then stay apprised of our registration periods for upcoming semester terms. Program and application details can be [e-mail] have a look at our MDIV degree, become an approved workman, find out how gesseminary.org but all this possible, you know.

[Bob Wilkin]

Some kind of creatures that were there and they had tails and everything. Now of course, that scene that we have in heaven in Revelation 4 talks about the four living creatures and all of that. And they are unusual looking creatures. One with the like an eagle, another like an ox, another like a man.

[Philippe Sterling]

They'll have four different faces.

[Bob Wilkin]

Four, you know, different. Well, depending. The one in Ezekiel is different from the one in Revelation 4, 4 and 5. But my point is that these are holy beings, holy creatures, cherubim like. And yet they're different type than the other angels like Gabriel and Michael. So it's possible that among the fallen angels there are these demonic like, you know, beings that are there that are then set free to afflict the people of the earth for this five month period.

[Philippe Sterling]

So the fifth angel, it says they have as king over them these scorpions or these locust like creatures, the angel of the bottomless pit, which is Abaddon or Apollyon, meaning destructor or destruction. And it says one woe is past, but now still two more woes are coming. So I assume that two more woes are the sixth trumpet, the sixth trumpet.

[Bob Wilkin]

Which is a particular described for us here in chapter nine, and then the seventh trumpet, which be the, the bowl, the seven bowls. So that probably is the third.

[Philippe Sterling]

Well, all right, so let's talk about the sixth angel. We've got the sixth angel sounded and you've got these four horns of the golden altar, which is before God. And it says, release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates. Who are these four angels that are bound? These are fallen angels.

[Bob Wilkin]

Fallen angels that have been bound there. Now, of course, the Tigris, Euphrates areas, the whole beginning of civil and the whole realm perhaps of some fallen angels dealing with the rise of these empires. The Babylonians, maybe from Genesis 6, these.

[Philippe Sterling]

Fallen angels were intermarrying with women. And second Peter 2 says they're being held in chains. Well, it looks like these four angels are being released from the bottomless pit, Right?

[Bob Wilkin]

Yes. And so they've been bound there for this particular time. So through all of these millennias, thousands years, they've been bound there, waiting release for this particular time. And when they are released, we are told that the number of the army of the horsemen will be 200 million. But these are unusual horsemen. I don't think that's 200 million from the Chinese, which is what Billy Graham said, I think.

[Philippe Sterling]

Yeah.

[Bob Wilkin]

Or Hal Lindsay may have said those 200 million men army from China.

[Philippe Sterling]

Right.

[Bob Wilkin]

But they appear to be infernal creatures also because we're given a description of them in verse 17. And thus I saw the horses in their vision, breastplates of fiery red. Out of their mouth came fire, smoke and brimstone. Of course, Hal Lindsay said those were attack helicopters firing forth or tanks fire also going out. But here they appear to. Again, it seems to me that these are supernatural beings. These are not a description of the armies that would be there in armageddon.

[Philippe Sterling]

So like 200 million either fallen or unfallen angels, probably fallen angels, right.

[Bob Wilkin]

That are released and that do harm.

[Philippe Sterling]

They kill a third of mankind.

[Bob Wilkin]

Right. They kill a third. And so that still is limiting the number of people that are being killed. Before the seal, if, remember, was 25% and here another third, is it a.

[Philippe Sterling]

Third of the remaining 75% or a third in addition to the 25%?

[Bob Wilkin]

I think I'll say a third of the remaining. Whatever remaining group was there that is there. And the purpose is still functioning as a warning because it's limited in scope. But the thing to look at is, even with these severe judgments, God is hoping to bring people to repentance.

[Philippe Sterling]

And yet in verses 19, 20, 21, we find they didn't repent.

[Bob Wilkin]

No.

[Philippe Sterling]

Verse 20, they did not repent of the works of their hands. They worshiping demons, they have idols. Verse 21, they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immoralities or their thefts. The implication would be, don't you think, Philippe, that if they did repent, the judgments might lessen? Yes, but because they don't repent, that's.

[Bob Wilkin]

Going to intensify to now the seventh trumpet and seven bowls. That would be great devastation then.

[Philippe Sterling]

All right, y', all, well hang on to your hats because that's where we're going in the next time. Philippe will go on to the seventh trumpet, which opens into all the bowl judgments. This has been an exciting study and I hope you all are challenged by it. We do have a commentary by John Claes, which you might want to get. We also are releasing in the next couple of months a study guide and a teacher's guide for the Book of Revelation. So if your Sunday school class or your home Bible study wants to study through the Book of Revelation, you could do that using our study guide and the teacher can use our teacher's guide. And we should be mentioning that probably in the magazine in March, April of 2026. Well, thanks so much, Philippe, and thank you all. And let's remember, let's get Grace in.

[Bob Wilkin]

Focus.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Be our guest and subscribe to our 48 page magazine, six issues per year, also called Grace in Focus, by emailing your name and snail mail address to gesaithalone.org that's faithalone.org on this program. We keep our requests for financial partners to a minimum, but if you are interested in becoming a financial partner with Grace and Focus, you can find out how to do [e-mail] on our next episode, we take a break from our eschatology series. We'll come back to it in a few days. But the next episode is about persevering in faith. Is it a choice? Please join us. Until then, let's keep Grace in focus.

[Bob Wilkin]

The proceeding has been a listener supported.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Ministry from the Grace Evangelical Society.