The Seven Trumpets, Part One: Interlude

The problem of understanding Revelation has to do whether the visions are chronological or not. I do not believe that they are. The text before us (Rev. 8:1-5) actually relates to the last judgment (the sixth seal) but introduces the trumpet judgments that run concurrent with the seals—actually filling out the details of the fourth seal. The purpose of the seals relates to suffering saints. The purpose of the trumpets relates to earth-dwellers in general. The introduction relates to God's response to the prayers of the saints calling for God to avenge their deaths on the persecutors (fifth seal).