Revelation9:11

Some “experts” in prophecy have taught that the locusts of Revelation 9:1-11 may actually be attack helicopters. The biggest problem with that interpretation is that it violates both of the rules given earlier in this book: It takes things out of the context of its day, and it does not consider the meaning understood by the original audience, which could not have known about helicopters. What if it means something not yet invented? Then we would be lost in confusion as well.

Let’s take a look at how much of this symbolism can be applied to attack helicopters, and how much cannot.

1. There are parts of the description in 9:7-10 that must be left out in order to get a picture of a helicopter. Do attack helicopters look like horses prepared for battle? Do they have the faces of men, or the hair of a woman? Do they have crowns of gold? (The spinning rotor blades could possibly be called silver, but not gold.) Where are the helicopter’s teeth? (Some people say that their machine guns are their teeth because they puncture and tear flesh. However, if people of ancient times saw something spitting fire, they would probably refer to it as something other than teeth.) Admittedly, the part about a breast plate of iron does fit a helicopter, as does the part about the noise caused by its “wings.” But how do helicopters “sting” people? Is it with their tails? (Attack helicopters have no offensive weaponry in their tails.) Can we say that attack helicopters never kill people, they only injure people? If you got shot by an attack helicopter would you be in pain for exactly 5 months? When people take what they want from a passage and ignore the rest I call this “cherry picking.”

2. Attack helicopters are flown by men, yet this passage refers to Satan and his demons.

3. How will a helicopter, piloted by a human being, be able to discern who has the mark of God on his forehead and who does not?

In the Old Testament locusts were a common symbol for destruction and military attacks. Notice that the imagery bounces back and forth from locusts to cavalry.

This is the 5^th of seven trumpets. These 7 trumpets, like the 7 seals, were demonstrations of Christ’s power. However, these appear to be Satan’s hordes, right? So how are Satan’s hordes demonstrations of God’s power? The point here is that they are subject to God’s limitations and He tells them what they can and cannot do. In this case God is not doing the punishing, but He is limiting it. Why would Satan attack his own? Satan hates all who were made in the image of God. While these that he has access to have all been faithful to him, he does not care about them, and he shows his hatred for God by attacking what God has created. God will not allow the anger of Satan to be poured out in this way on the saints, but He does allow it on those who have rejected Him. For them it should be a wake-up call. The one they have been following does not care about them and will turn on them and lash out at them for no reason at all other than his general hatred for God and anything made in God’s image. In this way God reveals Satan’s true character for all to see.

Let’s look more closely at those limits placed on these locusts. God will not let them harm His sealed ones, nor parts of His creation, such as green plants, they are only to harm those people who do NOT have the seal of God on their foreheads, those people who refuse to follow Him, and only for a limited time.

Notice that prophecy experts of today usually assume a literal mark of the beast upon the forehead, but I don’t hear them talk about a literal mark of God on the forehead. Why not?