The 5th Trumpet
Ok, the first 4 trumpets, as far as what they are and when they occured, are anybody's guess. Some extremely intelligent Biblical researchers have spent lifetimes looking into them and each has come away with different answers. I'm not going to lead astray. I don't know either. But the fifth trumpet is a different story.
The fifth trumpet sounded in the mid 1960s to the mid 1970s. At the time nobody noticed, but hindsight is a wonderful thing. It began as small changes in the structure of the 'nuclear family' (a dad, a mom, and children), it began to weaken, just a little. The kids wanted more stuff like their friends had, dad worked more to make ends meet and 'keep up with the neighbors', mom became more concerned with status and equality.
Over a period of time, spanning the next few decades, this little crack of weakening family values trickled down until it infected all parts of individual, social, and national life.
Living through a gradual change we experience very little. Looking back 40, 50, 60 years or more, we can see the change more clearly. Remember back to a time when people respected each other, the family meant something, the company you worked for cared for its employees, you could walk the streets without fear, let the kids go trick-or-treating by themselves, or leave your doors unlocked when you went out.
Compare that to today.
Yeah, big change, but it was gradual, imperceptable. It was a slow move away from morals, respect, love, commitment, freedom, righteousness, and God.
... and so we find ourselves at the 5th trump and it's current effect on humanity ...
Revelation 9:1 - "And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit."
When the bottomless pit was opened, smoke didn't immediately jump out and inundate everything. It rose out of the pit slowly, darkening the sky, obscuring the light, spreading darkness, and out of this, one at first, then two, then more ... came, the locusts.
I used to believe that the 'star that fell from heaven' was Satan but it's not. Satan doesn't get kicked out of Heaven until after the 6th trumpet has sounded. This is one of God's messengers - an angel. Where did he get the key? The scripture says that the key was given to him. By whom? God of course. Who else would have such a key? God, himself, is causing all this to happen, not Satan.
Before we go on please remember that the Bible is a spritual book. As such think about the things you read in a more spiritual light. The locusts of the 9th plague in Egypt (Exodus 10:4) were real bugs. The locusts in Revelation 9:1 are humans, but, their behavior is like the behavior of locusts.
Joel 2:3 - "A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them."
Real locusts eat vegetation. They eat it all. The human locusts are not builders or creators they are users and destroyers. You can watch them today on TV and social media. They are active all over the world; rioting, destroying, burning, and killing.
Above is a very stark gradient representing God, white, on the left and Satan, black, on the right. The Bible will often use clouds and smoke to create a good/bad gradient like this. The more clouds or smoke the darker. Lets just say here that before the 5th trumpet sounded we, as individuals, families, and countries, were more toward the white, good side. Today we are well into the dark area.
The Human Locusts
Out of the pit came smoke (ever increasing darkness). Out of the smoke came the locusts. It began with the weaking of the nuclear family and has, over the decades, degraded everything they touch and use.
Revelation 9:4-6 - "And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man. And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them."
The human locusts were commanded (by whom?) not to destroy any vegetation but they were to torment other humans for 5 months (5 months is the normal life span of the real locust - April/May to September/October). To their normal powers they were given the stinging attribute of scorpions - now they can maim and kill.
Revelation 9:7-10 - "And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men. And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. 9:10 And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months."
So they are human - faces of men hair of women. Commanded to destroy and torment.
Revelation 9:11 - "And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon."
Their king, who is not with them at the moment, is Satan. His name is given in two languages so that no one could miss the meaning - Abadon in Hebrew and Apollyon in Greek. In their respective languages they both mean 'destroyer'.
After verse 11 there is a parenthetical verse stating that the first Woe is finished and there are two more coming - the 6th trumpet and the 7th trumpet.
Joel 2:1-11 - "Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand; A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations. A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array. Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness. They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks: Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk every one in his path: and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded. They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief. The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining: And the LORD shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?"
As a preview of coming attractions - the anti-christ comes into power on the earth at the 6th trumpet and Jesus, the Messiah and King of Heaven arrives in pomp and circumstance at the 7th trumpet - you won't want to miss either one.
It is guaranteed that you will be intimately involved in both.