The Fourth Angel

2005-5-24 06:56:00

The next verses read:

Rev 8:12 And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise. Rev 8:13 And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!  Revelation 8:12-13

The results of the work of the first three angels was that various elements of heaven (spiritual revelation) fell on the earth and seas (humanity), creating great change, destroying the old in preparation for the new. This time things are different. Instead of new disrupting agents falling from heaven to earth, that which normally shines on the earth (sun, moon and stars) is diminished.

Before we can go forward let us examine the symbols.

The sun represents God, or pure unveiled truth. The moon which reflects the light of the sun represents the reflections of God on the earth. In other words, it signifies authorities, or those places where people look for God where he is not, but is merely reflected. This could be a priest, a teacher, a religion, a prophet or even a book, a stone or a temple.

When people look toward reflected light they do get some visibility, but the comparison is what you can see at night by the light of the moon compared to seeing in the day by the light of the sun.

The third object is the stars. As we have said before these represent the fixed beliefs of humanity. Just as the stars of the heavens seem immovable and do not change even so does mankind gravitate to beliefs that seem solid and reliable.

Unlike the moon, the stars have their own light and are suns themselves, but merely of such distance that they give only a small fraction of the light of the sun. Even if we were to add all the light of the stars together the illumination would be insignificant compared to our one great Sun.

Even so it is with us. We ordinary humans are stars with our fixed belief systems. We find in these systems just a twinkle of light because our beliefs are such a distance from the source of light that their light is eclipsed by a real sun which is nearby.

Jesus manifested truth, transcended belief and became a sun. We too shall someday discover that the star of light within us is also a sun. We are merely a farther distance from our sun that is the Christ, but someday that distance will be transversed and "we will be like him."

Remember the Book of Revelations is a story about a disciple treading the path of Christ. The fourth angel represents the highest part of the lower quaternary, or the mind, a link between heaven and earth. When the disciple treads the path of Christ he brings down to mind the truths of heaven and the true knowledge of the kingdom of God. He sounds the voice of mind, logic reason and like the sound of a great trumpet, and humanity hears it whether they want to or not.

The sound of this trumpet of mind has an unusual result for it forces those who are honest with themselves to examine that which they previously considered pure truth (the sun), their authorities (the moon) and their beliefs (the stars).

The eventual effect will be that a third of that which they considered to be true will be altered and no longer be light to them (one third of the light of the sun is smitten).

The word "smitten" comes from the Greek PLESSO and is only used this one time in all the Bible. Because it is used only this once it makes a correct translation more difficult.

PLESSO comes from PLASSO which means "to form, mould (something from clay, wax, etc.)"

Apparently PLESSO is translated as "smitten" because the ancients had to strike a thing to form and mold it. But the Concordant version, which is very reliable, gives an interesting alternative translation. It renders the word as "eclipsed." In other words the light of the sun, moon and stars was blotted out by something else.

The interesting thing is that the word "eclipse" has an alternative meaning. Instead of light merely being blotted out by a lifeless object it can insinuate that a light is blotted out by a greater light.

For instanced, you could say, "Sam's performance eclipsed that of anyone one else." In other words, Sam did such a good job that his was the only act worth remembering.

This leads us in the right direction of understanding this verse. The light of the sun, or truth, as people see it, becomes blotted out when a greater truth is revealed through a disciple treading the path of Christ.

The light of the authorities of the world (the moon) is also eclipsed when compared to the new revelation. Finally the light shed by personal beliefs (stars) held dear is also eclipsed when compared with the truth revealed through a Christed one.

Again the figure one third is used. This is because approximately one third of the people who are directly exposed to the teachings of a Buddha, a Christ or a Mohammed are altered in their views because the teacher's revelations eclipse that upon which they have previously relied.

A point to keep in mind is this. The great teachers do not always have an effect on large numbers within their lifetime. Often, we have to wait centuries to witness the power of the truths they offered. Jesus himself only had 120 followers who gathered after his resurrection. But sooner or later the masses will come face to face with the new truths which will eclipse their old beliefs.

The final verse in the chapter reads:

And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!  Revelation 8:13

In other words the people effected by the Christed one had better prepare. If you think the effect on you so far has been great, just wait.

Luke: [griping about Tatooine] If there's a bright center to the universe, you're on the planet that it's farthest from. From the first Star Wars