The Fifth Bowl

                    

The angel of Darkness

   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. 9:11. 

   Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom became full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues because of the pain. 

   They blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and did not repent of their deeds. 16:10-11 

One woe is past. Behold, still two more woes are coming after these things. 9:12

    The ruler of this army is the angel of the bottomless pit.   In English, his name is the Destroyer.  In my next post, I will repeat this statement, The First Beast (a beast of a man) is the world’s last great political leader, known as the Antichrist.

    To fulfil the fifth trumpet blast which coincides with the fifth bowl of wrath, which is the first woe the Destroyer appears on the world stage, ready to fight against Israel.  The countries of the world will take up arms; either for Israel and Jesus Christ or against them.  The Apocalypse says, And the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him (Christ) who sat on the horse.  He cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, “Come and gather together for the supper of the great God, “that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, both small and great.” 19:21,17-18.

Anyone who has studied the Apocalypse realises that not everything in the book can be taken literally.  So let's modernize these two verses.

the rest - those that will dare fight against Christ
were killed with the sword - any type of modern war machine
which proceeded from the mouth - by Christ's command

He cried with a loud voice - as the Captain of the world's final army He gave the following command
to all the birds that fly - the warplanes in His army
Come and gather together - come, let's put an end to this battle once and for all
that you may eat - destroy
kings - the final word in all matters of the country
captains - the highest ranking soldiers
mighty men - leaders of armies serving under the captains
horses - methods of transportation 
those who sit on them - and their pilots
the flesh of all people - all those who serve as privates
free and slave - mercenaries and conscripted soldiers.

It will be a bloody war when Christ returns to head up the battle of Armaggedon


The striking similarities between the fifth trumpet blast                                http://ikefehr1939.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-fifth-trumpet.html 

and the fifth bowl of wrath are that both involve the throne of the beast and the ensuing darkness.  The severe pain and sores are also common to both the trumpet and the bowl of wrath.

Modern News Headlines

From a blog written by Marianne,  Heaven Awaits,                                                                  http://heavenawaits.wordpress.com/  comes the following insightful information.

   Whether right or otherwise, Marianne makes Joel 1:4, sound very up to date. She writes that the names of the places mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, when translated, become modern words; words which we have all learned from our generation's newscasts. (Bold emphasis are mine).  It is interesting to note that Joel prophesied about 2800 years ago!

so you are looking at Joel 1:4 and seeing this:That which the palmerworm (Gazam – Hamas) hath left hath the locust (arbeh-arab) eaten; and that which the locust (arbeh) hath left hath the cankerworm (yelak-terror cell) eaten; and that which the cankerworm (yelak) hath left hath the caterpillar (Chaciyl- Hezbollah) eaten.

Rewritten:That which HAMAS does not destroy, the Arabs will destroy.

That which is left by the Arabs, the terror cells will destroy.

That which is left by the terrorist cells, will be destroyed by Hezbollah.Joel 1:4

 

   The armies are gathered together in a place called Har Megiddo, meaning, hill or city of Megiddo.  

1. It was there that Gideon obtained the victory over the Midianites. 
2. It was there that King Josiah and King Saul were killed in battle. Unger++. 
3. It is located about fifteen miles from the Mediterranean Sea and about twenty-five miles South West of the southern tip of the Sea of Galilee. 

  We do not read here that the war happened; we read only that the forces were gathered together there.  I also read that har Megiddo (Armageddon - the place) has experienced more wars than any other place in the world.

This is the first woe, and also the first of three plagues since Satan was released from prison!
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++ Unger’s Bible Dictionary, Merrill F. Unger