What are the 'Three Woes' in Revelation 8?

by Noah Brown - 12:06

📰The Bible is one of the best-selling and most widely distributed books in history, yet it is also considered to be among the least understood. The Bible, which is referred to as the New Covenant and Promise of God, in which 'the way to heaven and salvation' is presented, differs in theologians' interpretations that make it difficult to understand. These differing interpretations have been the cause of the rise of denominations with each one establishing their own doctrine. With the increase in online church services and gatherings resulting from the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, there has been growing interest in the comparison of various church doctrine. This paper, therefore, attempts to provide readers with the opportunity to compare differing Biblical teachings without interpretation. Among a host of online sermons and Bible-based teachings, the contrasting doctrine between the established Church and Shincheonji Church of Jesus, which has drawn public interest throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, is hereby compared and summarised. Best efforts have been made to provide a summary of Shincheonji Church of Jesus' understanding of the Bible. Judgment as to what is right or wrong is left to the reader’s discernment.

“The remaining three of the seven trumpet sounds of plague in Revelation. Agony of the heart and the spiritual death of the chosen people who betrayed”

Shincheonji Church of Jesus, the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony

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In Revelation chapter 8, which records the time of the Lord's Second Coming, there is an eagle flying in the air, calling out in a loud voice to those who dwell on the earth, 'Woe, woe, woe!' What are these words of fury that the eagle calls out?

In summary, the three woes in Revelation 8 point to the agony of the heart and the spiritual death that the chosen people who betrayed experience, because of them being captured by the destroyer.

At the Second Coming of the Lord, the tabernacle of the seven golden lampstands that prepares the way for the Lord, the Tabernacle Temple, first appeared. As they broke the covenant with God and betrayed, they were defeated in the war against the beast with seven heads and ten horns and became captives. The events of the seven seals, the seven trumpets, and the seven bowls that appear in the fulfilment of the Book of Revelation are plagues that take place in the Tabernacle of the Seven Golden Lampstands, which has been invaded by the false shepherds of destruction, also known as the beast with seven heads and ten horns.

First, let's find out what the eagles flying in the air are in the main reference, who the inhabitants of the earth are, and what the three woes are that will come upon them.

The air refers to the kingdom of God in the spiritual world and the tabernacle on the physical world; and the eagle does not refer to an actual eagle, but to an archangel, one of the four living creatures that comes and goes between these two places. The three woes foretold by this archangel are the disasters of the remaining three trumpets after the first four of the seven trumpets were sounded in Revelation 8.

And the people living on the earth that will suffer this harm are not all the people in the world, but the messengers and congregation of the tabernacle of the seven golden lampstands who broke the covenant with God and were driven out to the Gentiles.

Moreover, the trumpet blown by the angel is not a real trumpet, but a person or flesh who prophesies the word of God. The reason the trumpet is blown is to let God's people know of their sins and transgressions and to make them repent. The angels who blow the trumpets use a remnant of believers, who have the seed of faith, as trumpets from within the tabernacle of the seven golden lampstands in order to sound the punishment that will come upon the tabernacle of the seven golden lampstands who betrayed. Those who hear the sound of this trumpet, repent and act according to the Word will be saved.

Then, what are the three woes in the main reference that will be sounded in Revelation chapters 9 and 11?

Firstly, the first woe is a disaster that occurs at the sounding of the fifth trumpet. It is a tribulation that darkens and afflicts the spirits of the pastors and congregation members of the tabernacle who betrayed, through the authority and doctrine of the locust-like group of destroyers who were invited in. What kind of pain do they suffer? The suffering is the heartache that comes from the destroyers toppling the tabernacle of the seven golden lampstands that God had set up, and assuming the authority of the church to make the congregation members their own. This is the woe on the chosen people who betrayed.

The second woe is a calamity caused by the sounding of the sixth trumpet, where the four angels bound in hell are released and, together with 200 million mounted troops, kill the spirits of those who betrayed with the doctrines and teachings of the destroyers.

These four angels are those who were prepared to kill one-third of the people, and they represent the angels who sinned and were bound, the angels of Satan. The fact that the number of the mounted troops is 200 million means that the number of angels is uncountable, so the spirits and flesh belonging to Satan are many.

Here, the horses of the mounted troops are flesh, false shepherds, and the rider of the horses are evil spirits. The fact that horses have heads on their tails means that these false prophets have head shepherds over them. The fire, smoke and sulphur that come out of the mouths of these horses do not refer to cutting-edge advances in science, but to Satan's false doctrine, opposite to God's fire. These destroyers preach the words (false doctrine) of the evil spirits that in turn kill the spirits of a third of the messengers and congregation of the tabernacle of the seven golden lampstands who betrayed.

Unlike the six trumpets that brings judgment and punishment, the third woe is the seventh trumpet that proclaims salvation. The Bible says that when the seventh angel blows the last trumpet, the kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of Christ, and the mystery of God will be fulfilled just as the gospel was preached to his servants the prophets. In 1 Corinthians 15, when the last trumpet is blown, death is overcome and swallowed up, so this is eternal life and resurrection. Then, who is the reality of the last trumpet that proclaims the news of salvation?

He is the witness who testifies to what he saw and heard at the location of the events of Revelation, the messenger of Jesus sent for the churches, the new John who received the book of revelation, the pastor of the promised new heaven and new earth. At this time, those who hear the words of testimony through the promised pastor will receive the resurrection of life, while those who hear but do not believe will receive the resurrection of judgment.

Let's summarise today's education. Of the plague of the seven trumpets in Revelation, the remaining three trumpets mean the agony of the heart and the spiritual death that the chosen people who betrayed experience because they are captured by the destroyer.

“The first woe is the physical pain inflicted on unbelievers. The second woe is death due to war, and the third is complete annihilation”

Korean Church

Pastor, Presbyterian Church

“The three woes are mainly talking about the human body. The first woe is the greatest pain in the body that unbelievers will suffer during the five months of suffering, to the extent that they do not die and cannot die even if they seek death. It happened at the time of the plague of the fifth trumpet. The second catastrophe is a war in which 1/3 of humanity on Earth die when a cutting-edge scientific and biological war that mobilises 200 million people occurs through the last war of the past three and a half years. The third woe refers to the seven bowls, and during these seven bowls, not a single unbeliever will live and will be slaughtered. In the first there is only pain, in the second a third is killed and in the third complete annihilation. Please believe that this fire is about humans.”