What are the seven trumpets in the book of revelation?

Answer 1

In the Old Testament, trumpets were a means of rapid communication used for two basic purposes: one, was to call the people to assemble for the commanded sabbaths... and the other was an alert to assemble for war. The type of tune the trumpets blared told the people which one.

In the New Testament, seven prophetic trumpets compose the "seventh seal" of the scroll that's sealed with seven seals, that hide the understanding of end time events to unfold on earth that lead to Jesus' return to earth with His Kingdom.

The first six seals are stripped away by Jesus in the sixth chapter... which leaves the remaining 16 chapters of Revelation to explain the "seventh seal," which represents the Day of the Lord (when Jesus returns).

Jesus Christ is prophesied to return "at the LAST TRUMP" (I Cor.15:52 & I Thess.4:16). The seven trumpets of Revelation's seventh seal are the first of "two" countdowns of the Day of the Lord.

The two countdowns are two sets of "PLAGUES OF GOD."

The first countdown is the seven trumpets. These are called down by the Two Witnesses who will witness and testify to God's Truth in Jerusalem during the 3 1/2 year Great Tribulation when the Beast and False Prophet rule the earth.

"... and the holy city shall they (Gentiles) tread under foot forty and two months (3 1/2 years). And I will give power unto My Two Witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days (the same 3 1/2 years), clothed in sackcloth... these have the power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have the power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will." (Rev.11:2-6)

The seven trumpets are first mentioned in Revelation 8.

"...when He had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets." (Rev.8:1-2)

Trumpets are played by "blowing wind" through them. It is evident, therefore, that the seven "trumpet plagues" of God will be "wind-borne." We can know that they are plagues by the wording in chapter nine, when the first four trumpets are "blown" or "sounded."

"...and the rest of the men which were not killed by these PLAGUES yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils (demons), and idols of gold, and silver...." (verse 20).

These trumpet plagues of God are leveled on the Beast and the False Prophet during the Great Tribulation, which compares to Moses and Aaron going before Pharaoh, daily, demanding the release of God's people.

At the end of the Two Witnesses' allotted time of witness and testimony... they are killed. And 3 1/2 days later they rise from the dead and ascend into the clouds to meet Christ in the air with the rest of the "dead in Christ"... as it is then that the "seventh and LAST TRUMP is sounded":

"...the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever." (Rev.11:15)

It's at this time with the sounding of the seventh trumpet that Jesus returns with clouds to gather His elect unto Himself in the air, which is within the earth's breathable atmosphere, where He will instantaneously "change" them into immortal Sons of God.

And while they hover in the clouds above the earth along with Jesus' army of angels, preparing to complete their descent upon the earth... the last seven VIAL plagues of "God's WRATH" will be POURED OUT on the earth.

"...I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth..." (Rev.16:1).

This is a kind of "softening up" of the stubborn nations on the earth before Christ descends upon them, making war. And it's at this time that Satan "gathers all the nations to Armageddon" to fight against the returning Christ, which the nations may well see as an "alien invasion."

"they are the spirits of devils (demons), working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that Great Day of God Almighty... and he (should be "they," the demon spirits) gathered them into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon." (Rev.16:14)

And finally... after reading through the various inset chapters of Revelation... chapter 19 relates the summary vision of Christ's return, battling the Beast and False Prophet at Armageddon and the casting of the Beast and False Prophet into the Lake of Fire.

This is followed by chapter 20 - the removal of Satan from influencing the nations for a thousand years, the millennial rule of God's Kingdom... and Judgment Day.

Chapter 21 prophesys of the re-making of the earth by God the Father's new immortal Family... and His descent out of heaven with the Holy City New Jerusalem onto the pristine new sinless earth, which will be the new headquarters of His universal Government.

Then will be God's plan of man's salvation and the restoration of His Kingdom to the earth complete.

"...BEHOLD, I MAKE ALL THINGS NEW... It is done. I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end... He that overcometh shall inherit all things (the universe); and I will be his God, and HE SHALL BE MY SON." (Rev.21:5-7)

The seven trumpets of Revelation are the "first phase" of God's two sets of plagues of the Day of the Lord and Jesus' return to earth with salvation and the Kingdom of God.

Answer 2

My (educated) guesses:

Old Testament period: Animal horn shofars.

New Testament period: curveless, valveless, metal trumpets.