Revelation 8:12, commentary and pictures

The fourth trumpet is the fourth of seven successive symbolic trumpets marking successive periods of political war and revolution in the Christian dispensation, whose first four together shattered the Western Roman Empire and divided it into ten kingdoms. Its sun, moon and stars are the political lights of imperial Rome, the sun being the emperor and imperial power, the moon the consulship reflecting authority as the moon reflects the sun, and the stars the senators and senate. The third part smitten is the western third of the divided empire centered on Rome and Italy, while the Eastern Empire at Constantinople was not then destroyed. Its darkening is the decline and extinction of Roman civil rule, fulfilled when Odoacer ended the Western emperorship in 476 with the forced resignation of Romulus Augustulus and the sending of the imperial ornaments to Constantinople, followed by the extinction of the consulship under Justinian in 541 and of the senate when Narses conquered Rome in 552, leaving Rome without emperor, consul or senate. Unlike the bloody wars on land, sea and rivers under the former trumpets, this blow upon the firmament came peacefully, like a lamp going out for lack of oil through the submissive abdication of a boy.

Place in Trumpet Prophecy

Revelation 8:12 is the fourth of seven successive symbolic trumpets sounded one after another in order, each marking its own period of political war and revolution during the gospel or Christian dispensation. These trumpets are not literal sounds heard by inhabitants of the earth, but signals marking the transition from one angel's trumpet to the next. Together they give a history of earthly nations in conflict with one another and of the world while men are still in a state of probation, to be interpreted in keeping with the historical records of those events. The trumpet series describes political commotions among the nations in this age, occurring alongside the seal events but differing from them, since the seals trace the religious history of the church from the opening of the Christian era to Christ's coming. The first trumpet does not last until the coming of Jesus, so the fourth trumpet has its own place in succession.

The first four trumpets together shattered the Western Roman Empire and divided it into ten parts or kingdoms, portraying the means by which the Roman Empire was overthrown and brought to ruin. The repeated reference to a third part reflects the empire's division into three parts, with one part suffering the scourge, and the first four trumpets mark the fall of the two western divisions. The fourth trumpet in the sequence marks the fall of the Western Roman Empire, with its darkening of sun, moon, and stars belonging to the events heralding that empire's ruin, completing the first four trumpet judgments before the three remaining trumpets. The trumpets that follow it are woes rather than blessings, bringing severer calamity on the empire and the wicked world. These trumpet judgments are partial judgments upon the wicked and precede the seven last plagues that complete God's wrath.

The seven trumpets are set forth in Revelation 8 and 9, with the seventh angel as the seventh of this same series presented in Revelation 11:15-19. They stand within a portion of prophecy following the prophecy of the seven churches, the seven seals, and the great sealing work. They run parallel in period to the seals, which trace religious history while the trumpets trace political commotions.

The trumpet outline is a prophetic outline of political events running through Revelation 8-11, from the breakup of the Roman Empire to Christ's coming, with the seven trumpets sounding in succession to represent successive events and together marking the completeness of this prophetic history. It portrays the breaking up of the Roman kingdom, the details of the kingdoms formed by the division of the fourth universal empire including the plague of Mohammedanism and the duration of the Mohammedan powers, and the closing work of the judgment. The sequence continues to the seventh trumpet, which announces Christ's reign and the time when the dead are judged, the servants of God are rewarded, and those who destroy the earth are destroyed. It belongs to the prophetic chain of Revelation 8-14 spanning the whole period of the Christian dispensation, followed link after link to place the reader in the last link on the verge of the day of God, as one of eleven long chains given from different standpoints by which God goes over the same ground to make the nearness of the second coming of Christ a matter of certainty and to provide additional evidence by which people can know that the end of the world's history is approaching and probation is near its close.

The first six trumpet judgments were fulfilled over many centuries through the incursions of northern European barbarian tribes and Turkish and Saracen forces into the Roman Empire. Their fulfillment together with the following trumpets proves the present stands at the close of the sounding of the sixth trumpet, when the seventh trumpet is to sound quickly, and when it begins to sound the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of the Lord and of his Christ.

Symbols of Heavenly Lights

The lights in the firmament are the political lights of imperial Rome shining in its civil heaven. The sun is the emperor and the imperial power of Rome, which had long ruled like the sun among lesser kings represented by stars, whose decrees had the force of law and whose authority was like the sun's own light. Their darkening marks the extinction of the Western Empire and the closing of Roman government in its Roman third.
The moon is the consulship, whose authority depended partly on another as the moon borrows and reflects the light of the sun. The stars are the senators and the senate, which acted when the people's needs called for it. Together the sun, moon and stars are the emperorship, the consulate and the Roman senate, with the emperor as the highest source of authority, the consulship as the next, and the Senate as the third.
Their being smitten and darkened, so that the day shone not for a third part of it and the night likewise, is the decline, weakening, obscuring and extinction of Roman civil authority and rule and the removal of its rulers. Provinces were lost, armies defeated, and imperial authority reduced to empty titles and ceremony until rulers became merely nominal and unable to act, until emperors, consuls and senators ceased to act and to exist in that part. In the sequence of the first four trumpets this belongs to the events that broke the Roman Empire into fragments and brought about its complete disappearance.
The darkening is meant figuratively rather than literally, in contrast to the literal signs of Christ's coming.

Meaning of the Third Part

The repeated third part reflects the division of the Roman Empire into three parts, with the blow falling on its western or Roman third centered on Rome and Italy. The first four trumpets together mark the fall of the two western divisions and the means by which the empire was overthrown and brought to ruin, with one part suffering the scourge in turn. The fraction answers to the division of the empire into three portions under Constantine's three sons, and the northern barbarian invasions helped break it up and establish independent kingdoms in its territory. The sun smitten is imperial Roman power long ruling like the sun among lesser kings, extinguished in Italy when the imperial office was abolished in 476 or 479 and the last western emperor resigned, while the eastern empire continued at Constantinople and the imperial title later continued elsewhere. The darkening is the extinction of Roman imperial rule and loss of civil authority in Italy, with emperorship, consulate and senate set aside until Rome had no emperor, consul or senate and Constantinople remained the sole imperial city, the later fate of the east belonging to other trumpets.

The third part is the middle division of the empire, one of three divisions made under Constantine among his sons, the portion associated with Rome. The sun being smitten is Odoacer ending the title of emperor in Rome, after Rome's territory beyond the Alps had already been ceded, so that Western imperial power there was extinguished while the Eastern Empire remained and the Western imperial title was later revived elsewhere. The moon being smitten is the end of the consulship as Rome lost territory and its consular power only glimmered for a time, and the stars being smitten is the senate's end when Narses governed Rome for the Eastern emperor and Justinian had his own senate, until rulers became merely nominal and emperors, consuls and senators ceased to exist. Chiefly its Western division was thus broken, humiliated and abolished, with different sections suffering punishment in turn until the power and empire of imperial Rome was brought to an end.

The third part smitten is also the third of the lands of Italy demanded for themselves by the barbarian confederates who defended Italy, granted under Odoacer after Orestes refused it. That death blow to the Western Empire came with Orestes killed, the boy emperor Romulus forced to resign, the Roman senate solemnly disclaiming to Zeno emperor of the East the necessity or wish of continuing the imperial succession in Italy, the imperial ornaments sent to Constantinople, and Odoacer proclaimed king of Italy with only the title of patrician instead of taking the imperial dignity. Those who held otherwise applied the trumpet instead to the darkening of the political heavens by the Saracens and Turks.

Fulfillment in Fall of Rome

The fourth trumpet is war upon the Roman Empire by barbarian invasion, fulfilled in the career of Odoacer, leader of the Heruli and other tribes, whose conquests completed the downfall of Western Rome and put an end to the rule of the Caesars. The darkening of a third of the sun, moon, and stars, with a third of the day and of the night losing light, signifies that career and the extinction of the Western Empire as Odoacer with the Ostrogoths and Theodoric established their rule. By that breaking Rome was divided into fragments out of which the modern nations of western Europe were planted.

The first four trumpets together are the attacks of the barbarians upon the Western Empire, beginning in A.D. 395 with the Visigoths under Alaric, continuing with the Vandals from North Africa under Genseric from 428 to 476 and with the Huns under Attila who called himself the Scourge of God, and closing with Odoacer of the Heruli in 476 when the history of the Western Empire as one empire ends. More than fifteen nations took part in the invasions, but ten kingdoms divided the territory of Western Rome, the empire having divided into ten divisions between A.D. 351 and 476. In this the kingdom was divided and ten horns came out of the fourth beast, while with the ruin rose the apostasy from genuine Christianity that opposed the setting up of the kingdom of God on earth. Its calamity, with those of the first three trumpets, was mild compared with the woes of the last three trumpets upon the Roman Empire and the wicked world.

The judgment culminated in the abolition of the Western emperor's name, office, and title, when the imperial office in Italy was abolished and the last western emperor resigned. Orestes was killed, the boy emperor Romulus Momyllus, called in derision the little Augustus, was forced by submissive abdication to resign in 476 or 479 almost without shedding of blood, like a lamp going out for lack of oil. The Roman senate then solemnly disclaimed the necessity or wish of continuing the imperial succession in Italy to Zeno emperor of the East, the imperial ornaments were sent to Constantinople, and Odoacer was proclaimed king of Italy with only the title of patrician instead of taking the imperial dignity, so that a Gothic king ruled Rome. The sun is the imperial Roman power which had long ruled the world, and its light was extinguished in Italy while the eastern empire continued at Constantinople, so only a third of the sun was smitten. The death blow came when the barbarian confederates defending Italy demanded the third part of the lands of Italy for themselves, and the third part smitten is that third granted under Odoacer after Orestes refused it.

After the emperorship fell, the consulship and the senate met their fate not by the hands of Vandals or of Goths but by Rome's subjection to the East under Belisarius and Narses, generals of Justinian, when Rome came under Ravenna and Italy became a conquered province of the Eastern Empire. The smiting of the moon is the abolition of the consulate in 541, the consulate being a reflection of the imperial dignity as the moon reflects the light of the sun, when the succession of consuls finally ceased in the thirteenth year of Justinian. The smiting of the stars is the abolition of the senate in 552, the Roman senate of three hundred senators being the stars of the empire, when what remained of the imperial dignities was abolished from the East. Thus provinces were lost, armies defeated, and imperial authority reduced to empty titles and ceremony until the Senate was dissolved and the consulship abolished.

Dates and Steps of Extinction

The imperial office in Italy was ended in 476 or 479, yet the consular and senatorial powers continued to glimmer for a time afterward under Theodoric, while Constantinople remained the sole imperial city and the Eastern Empire was not then destroyed. The sun was smitten when imperial rule and the emperor's office and title were abolished in Italy in 476, with the Western imperial power there extinguished and Rome's territory beyond the Alps already ceded. The third part smitten was the western or Roman third, the middle division associated with Rome, while the later fate of the East belonged to other trumpets. The moon and stars briefly continued to shine after the emperors' power in Rome ended, before they too were set aside, leaving Rome without these institutions.

The consulship, as the moon reflecting imperial dignity, was extinguished by Justinian in A.D. 541. The succession of consuls finally ceased in the thirteenth year of Justinian. After the emperorship fell, the consulship and senate met their fate not by Vandals or Goths but by Rome's subjection to the East under Belisarius and Narses, generals of Justinian, emperor of the East.

The senate of three hundred, as the stars of the empire, was extinguished as the trumpet closes. Narses, successor of Belisarius, defeated the Goths and conquered Rome in A.D. 552 and sealed the fate of the senate. The abolishing of what remained of the imperial dignities was thus carried out by generals sent from the East, leaving Rome without an emperor, a consul, or a senate.

The third part of the sun, moon, and stars are powers that were extinguished, whose historical dates of extinction are to be identified. They represent parts of Europe overthrown with the Roman government. The empire had divided into ten divisions between A.D. 351 and 476, and fell in A.D. 476 with its last monarch Momyllus, called in derision the little Augustus.

Character of the Judgment

Unlike the bloody wars and desolations on land and sea and rivers under the former trumpets, this blow strikes a higher sphere than the ordinary theater of battles, the firmament of heaven and its luminaries as opposed to the earth, the sea and the rivers. The great change in the political world is brought about in a peaceful manner, like the going out of a lamp for lack of oil, for the great Roman Empire of the West is dying and only its burial remains. That quiet extinction came by the submissive abdication of the boy Romulus in 476, almost without shedding of blood, when the light of the world was extinguished in the setting of imperial power. The smiting of the moon, which reflected the imperial dignity as the moon reflects the light of the sun, was the abolition of the consulate in 541, and the smiting of the stars was the abolition of the Roman senate of three hundred senators in 552, carried out by Belisarius and Narses, generals sent from the East.

The four trumpets together are judgments on the Roman Empire for rejecting light and putting the Son of God to death, with the fraction of the third part reflecting the division of the empire into three portions under Constantine's three sons, and the northern barbarians' invasions helping break it up and establish independent kingdoms in its territory. They are the history of political powers used as a scourge against the church because of apostasy, beginning in A.D. 395 with the Visigoths under Alaric, continuing with the Vandals from North Africa under Genseric from 428 to 476 and with the Huns under Attila who called himself the Scourge of God, and closing with Odoacer of the Heruli as the new ruler when the history of the Western Empire as one empire ends with the downfall of Western Rome in 476. Together with the ruin they mark the downfall of the Western Roman Empire and the setting up of the ten kingdoms that remained, from which the nations dominating present history came, and also the rise and establishment of the apostasy from genuine Christianity that has opposed the setting up of the kingdom of God on earth through the centuries, literally fulfilling that the kingdom shall be divided and that ten horns should come out of the fourth beast.

Under invasions from the north, south and east the sun, moon and stars as the Western Roman emperor and the lesser officers collapsed as provinces were lost, armies defeated, and imperial authority reduced to empty titles and ceremony. That judgment culminated in Odoacer's abolition of the Western emperor's name and office, with the senate later dissolved and the consulship abolished. Before that burial the barbarians had carried away the accumulated wealth of Greece and Rome, shaken society from its foundations, driven the Romans from the heart of the empire to Africa and Asia and back again, made the earth a hunting ground, and spread wilderness over the most fertile provinces until only earth and sky remained.

Prophetic Links and Application

The darkening of the sun, moon and stars is among the recorded signs that the coming of Christ is at hand, for the darkening itself has been seen and recorded as a sign in those lights. The sun darkened and the stars appearing to fall show that the time of Jesus' coming is near and that probation is nearing its close. Together with the judgment-hour message and the other prophetic signs, they call men to prepare to meet him in peace.

What is foreshadowed here is given more fully as what Jesus foretold in Matthew 24 concerning coming evils at the revelation of Jesus Christ. It belongs to severe and terrible judgments yet future in the course of human history that will precede the second advent, as the Flood in the days of Noah destroyed the world of the ungodly and fire and brimstone fell on Sodom in the days of Lot, showing a great catastrophe coming upon human society. It is in the nature of a judgment attended with both salvation and judgment, involving great and important changes and the removal of all things that hinder the kingdom of the Son, destined to have a practical effect for which men will be as unprepared as in the days of Noah and Lot.

The weakening of Rome's civil authority, when Rome came under Ravenna and Italy became a conquered province of the eastern empire, carries in its closing words the implication of a future restoration of the western empire. The sun spoken of here connects onward with what is spoken of the sun later in Revelation and with the rise of papal and imperial power, when the pope crowned Charlemagne emperor of the Romans in 800. The title passed from the French king to the German emperor, and that emperor later renounced it, while in the present another ruler wore Italy's iron crown.

The seven trumpets sound one after another in order, not all at the same time, for order is heaven's first law, and the first trumpet does not last until the coming of Jesus, so the fourth trumpet has its own place in succession. Their sequential sounding shows that the three messages of Revelation 14 also follow one after another and cannot be given at the same time. Together the trumpets give the history of the world while men are still in a state of probation.

The fourth trumpet, in which sun, moon and stars are smitten and a third of them darkened, stands in chronological succession from the first trumpet onward to the Lord's coming, resurrection, judgment and kingdom, with its symbolism left uninterpreted and no historical date assigned to it.