The seventh seal has been broken and the scroll is now fully open. As it was broken, the wrath of God began to be unleashed upon a rebellious world. In his vision, John sees seven angels each with a trumpet to announce the different ways in which God's anger would be experienced on earth. These are like the plagues God sent to rebellious Egypt, but worse, in that they affect a third of the world.

As the divinely authorised trumpet calls ring out from heaven, so John sees the effect which God's plagues will have on the earth. The fifth trumpet announced another cosmic event with global consequences. Another great star (Revelation 8:10) fell to earth.

The sixth trumpet was sounded by the sixth angel. These herald messengers were appointed by God to dramatically introduce the scenes of forthcoming judgement. John saw these graphic images in his vision as the Lord Jesus entrusted terrible future events to him, for John to write down. The purpose was to prepare the church for the time when God takes obvious command of the wheel of history, steering humanity towards His mercy through what might be called plagues.

The escalating tribulations, which God promised to unleash on the world in the Last Days, as shown by Jesus to John in the vision, were truly dreadful. From 'natural' disasters to cosmic events and global warfare, the catalogue was woeful. The word 'woe' (used in