Revelation 8


	This passage is little commented upon.
	Remember the discussion we had during the Sixth Seal? Sun, moon and stars (following Joseph’s dream) are supposed to be kings and authorities. So we may begin by stating that the symbolic side of this must be the fall of a third of the kings, etc.. to which this applies.
	Note also that we explicitly mention not only the stars, etc.. but also the light. Light is seen symbolically as the light of God (“God is Light” said John -- remember in our preliminary study?}. Darkness, the lack of light, is a plague, as it was to the Egyptians.
	There are some interesting parallels. The point of the plagues in Egypt was to warn Pharaoh; the point of these trumpets is to warn men (which is probably why the damage is partial).
	Another parallel concerns the fact that this is the fourth trumpet. Recall that in Genesis the fourth day saw the creation of the sun and moon; the fourth trumpet sees a third destroyed. Make of it what you will.
	The literalists (notably Lindsey, as usual) hold this to be nuclear in nature (or volcanic, Smith). Talbot and others place this as a moral darkness.
	The Historicist approach sees this in the start of the Dark Ages. The Latin Roman Empire (or “Western Empire”) was finally destroyed from within. A minor German tribe, the Heruli, under their king Odoacer. demanded one third of the lands of Italy in payment for their services in keeping out the (other) northern barbarians. This was refused. Odoacer then entered Rome, deposed the emperor and abolished the Senate -- effectively ending the Roman Empire in the west. In its last act, the Senate petitioned the Eastern emperor, Zeno, to accept Odoacer as his viceroy for the west (the actual title was “patrician.”) Zeno did so, and the proud city of Rome ceased to be independent. Thus began what classic historians call The Dark Ages.