The sixth trumpet in history

Before Jesus’ ascension into heaven, he told his disciples to go and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19). We know from church history that the disciples obeyed the Lord’s instruction; tradition has it that Thomas travelled across the Euphrates to preach the gospel as far east as India. The New Testament, however, records only the work of the apostles on the side of the Euphrates where the Lord had given land to the offspring of Abraham. The apostle John himself was imprisoned on Patmos from where he wrote his Revelation to the seven churches of Asia Minor (present‑day Turkey). The gospel has had a blessed effect in European lands for many centuries, as is evident even in the principles laid down in so many European legal documents (e.g., Magna Carta of 1215) and the influence of the Great Reformation on political and economic theory. But in his time, the Lord has released hordes of pagan thinking into lands once positively affected by the gospel. One can think of the pagan thinking that spawned the French Revolution or the worldview that resulted in the Second World War. Both events resulted in enormous numbers of deaths (be it through civil war or through invasion of other lands, let alone the effects of gas chambers). Pagan thinking today justifies the deaths of millions through abortion. The sixth trumpet truly brings ghastly woe upon the earth.