The Sixth Trumpet War: Is World War III Already Underway?

THE SIXTH TRUMPET: HAS THE WAR ALREADY BEGUN?

I have been studying Bible prophecy for a long time, and particularly the Sixth Trumpet War for the last several years. The more I study it and the more I look at what is happening around us, the harder it becomes for me to dismiss a very uncomfortable possibility. The Sixth Trumpet War may have already begun. I am not saying the nuclear phase has begun. Obviously it hasn’t. What I am wondering is whether we are already watching the opening conventional, political and military stages of a conflict that ultimately becomes the Sixth Trumpet War described in Revelation. I want to make something clear right up front. I am not a prophet. I am a teacher and a student of prophecy. I don’t receive new revelation telling me what happens next. I don’t need to. The prophets already did the prophesying, and a remarkable amount of Scripture is prophetic.

WHAT DOES THE SIXTH TRUMPET ACTUALLY SAY?

Don’t take my word for it. Read the King James Bible. Revelation 9:13-21 says:

“And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,

Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.

And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.

And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.

And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.

By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.

For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt.

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, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:

Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.”

That’s Revelation. Not Walt Tollefson. Not Donald Trump. Not Vladimir Putin. Not some guy with a YouTube channel. Revelation 9. Whatever interpretation you place upon the imagery, one statement is extraordinarily difficult to misunderstand. A third part of mankind is killed. That is civilization-shattering warfare.

HAVE THE FIRST FIVE TRUMPETS ALREADY SOUNDED?

This is where I follow the prophetic interpretation taught for many years by Irvin Baxter and Endtime Ministries. Endtime teaches that the first five trumpets have already sounded and that the Sixth Trumpet represents World War III. That is their interpretation. It is also the interpretation I have increasingly come to accept. It is not the position of every Christian denomination or every Bible scholar, and I don’t pretend otherwise. According to that interpretation, the First Trumpet was World War I. The Second Trumpet was World War II. The Third Trumpet was the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and the prophecy of Wormwood. The Fourth Trumpet concerns the shortening of the days and the extraordinary geopolitical transformation surrounding 1989. The Fifth Trumpet was the Gulf War of 1991. Then comes Number Six. World War III. The Second Woe. And according to Revelation 9, one-third of mankind ultimately dies.

THE FOURTH TRUMPET AND 1989.

I think this part gets passed over much too quickly. Revelation 8:12 says, “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.” Endtime Ministries associates the Fourth Trumpet with the shortening of the days, but I believe 1989 is important for another enormous reason. The Berlin Wall fell. The Wall had physically divided Berlin since 1961 and had become one of the great symbols of the Cold War. Then it came down, and German reunification followed.

THE QUICKENING OF TIME.

This is another part of the Fourth Trumpet that I think deserves more explanation. Jesus said in Matthew 24:22, “And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.” Most Christians I have talked to seem to read that as simply meaning God will reduce the number of days of tribulation. That is one interpretation. It is not the interpretation I follow.

Endtime Ministries connects that statement with the Fourth Trumpet and teaches that the length of the day and night itself is shortened. That is also how I understand it. When Revelation says that one-third of the sun, moon and stars are affected, and that the day shines not for a third part of it and the night likewise, I believe we may be looking at something much more profound than a political event. I believe it may involve the very experience of time being quickened.

Now let me be careful. I am not claiming that physicists have measured some mysterious fulfillment of Revelation and announced that clocks are suddenly speeding up. They haven’t. I am talking about a prophetic interpretation. But if you believe, as I do, that Jesus Christ is the Creator of all things, then time is not beyond His authority. Neither are gravity, matter, space or relativity. The Creator of the universe does not have to ask Einstein’s permission to alter His own creation.

And I find the language fascinating. Jesus does not simply say the suffering will be severe. He says the days will be shortened, and He gives the reason: if they were not, no flesh would survive. Some of us also talk about how quickly time seems to pass now. Weeks disappear. Months turn into years almost before we realize it. I understand that psychology can explain some of that perception, especially as we age. That is not scientific proof of anything prophetic. But as a student of prophecy, I can’t help wondering whether there may eventually be something physical occurring that we don’t yet fully understand.

Could God alter humanity’s relationship to time as the end approaches? Could the shortening involve Earth’s rotation, light, the heavens, relativity or something beyond our present vocabulary? I don’t know. Scripture doesn’t give us the mechanism, and I’m not going to pretend it does. But Jesus created time itself. If He says the days will be shortened, I take Him seriously. Maybe some of us perceive something and some of us don’t. Maybe it is merely perception today and the physical fulfillment is still ahead. But I don’t dismiss it.

THE WOUND, THE WALL AND THE REUNIFICATION OF GERMANY.

This is one of those places where I think people really need to go back and read what the press itself was saying instead of simply taking my word for it. Long before the Berlin Wall fell, TIME magazine described what communism had done to Berlin in remarkably graphic language. TIME said the Wall “cleaves Berlin’s war-scarred face like an unhealed wound.” Think about those words. An unhealed wound. That wasn’t Irvin Baxter writing a prophecy lesson. That wasn’t Endtime Ministries. That wasn’t me trying to make history fit Revelation. That was TIME magazine describing the divided German capital.

THEN LOOK AT THE LANGUAGE WHEN THE WALL CAME DOWN.

The Associated Press later described the Wall as having “the transience of a wound” and said it was one that “would, over time, heal.” Again, those are not my words. That is secular journalism describing what happened to Germany. The Wall had literally cut one nation and one people in two. Then suddenly the barrier opened, the concrete began coming down and the two halves started moving toward reunification.

THE HEADLINES THEMSELVES ARE FASCINATING.

TIME’s coverage of the November 1989 revolution noted the headline, “BERLIN IS BERLIN AGAIN.” Less than a year later, when reunification became official, TIME titled its October 1990 coverage “Germany: And Now There Is One.” Put those expressions beside the earlier description of Berlin as an “unhealed wound.” First the nation is divided and described as wounded. Then the Wall falls. Berlin is Berlin again. Germany becomes one again. I am not telling you those journalists were secretly interpreting the Book of Revelation. Of course they weren’t. That’s exactly what makes the language so interesting to me.

NOW PUT THAT BESIDE REVELATION.

Revelation 13:3 says in the King James Version, “And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.” This is where my interpretation, and the interpretation taught by Endtime Ministries, becomes important. We understand the beast imagery prophetically as governmental and national rather than simply as an individual man suffering a literal gunshot wound to his physical head. Daniel 7 describes the leopard with four heads, and Endtime Ministries identifies that leopard with Germany and the heads with successive rises of German power.

GERMANY, THE LEOPARD AND THE FOUR HEADS.

Daniel 7 describes a leopard having four heads. In the interpretation taught by Endtime Ministries, that leopard represents Germany. A beast in Bible prophecy represents a kingdom, government or political power, and that distinction is terribly important. Under this interpretation, the four heads represent successive manifestations of German governmental power: the First Reich, the Second Reich, Hitler’s Third Reich, and what I refer to prophetically as a Fourth Reich following reunification. I am not saying modern democratic Germany is Nazi Germany. It isn’t. I’m talking about the prophetic continuity of the nation represented by the leopard and the successive governmental manifestations represented by its heads.

THE ANTICHRIST’S “HEAD WOUND.”

This is also why I disagree with the popular prophecy interpretation that says we’re supposed to identify the Antichrist because some future man gets shot in the head, appears to die and then miraculously survives. I don’t believe that’s what the text is telling us to watch. Revelation talks about a beast. Government. Kingdom. Political power. So I’m not waiting for CNN to show me some European politician walking around with a bandage over his forehead. I’m watching governments. I’m watching nations. I’m watching systems. The Third Reich was destroyed. Germany was divided. Then East and West Germany reunited. In the prophetic interpretation I follow, the wounded political entity rose again.

WHEN I USE THE TERM “FOURTH REICH,” I NEED TO BE VERY CLEAR ABOUT WHAT I MEAN.

I am not saying today’s democratic Germany is Nazi Germany. That would be historically ridiculous and isn’t my argument. I use “Fourth Reich” in the prophetic sense taught within this interpretation: another manifestation of the German nation after the destruction of the Third Reich. A beast in biblical prophecy represents political power, government or kingdom. Therefore, I believe the prophetic focus is on the governmental entity being wounded and restored, not on waiting for some future Antichrist to appear on television after being literally shot in the forehead.

AND THEN CONSIDER THE TIMING.

The Wall fell in November 1989. Germany reunified in October 1990. The Soviet system was collapsing. Eastern Europe was breaking loose from communist control. The Cold War order was disappearing. At almost exactly the same historical moment, President George H. W. Bush began publicly talking about the emergence of a “new world order.” Germany was becoming one again while the international political order around it was being fundamentally rearranged.

THE NEW WORLD ORDER.

George H. W. Bush actually used those words. This isn’t Internet folklore. As the Cold War was collapsing, President Bush publicly spoke of a “new world order” in which nations would increasingly work through international law and international institutions. Those words are historical fact. What they mean prophetically is the question. Endtime Ministries believes the political integration developing from that era forward points toward the eventual world governmental system of Revelation 13. I agree. That doesn’t mean George Bush was secretly the Antichrist. It doesn’t mean everyone working at the United Nations is knowingly working for Satan. People immediately leap to those ridiculous extremes and then think they have disproved the underlying argument. They haven’t. My point is much simpler. Scripture describes an end-time global governmental system. For most of human history such a system was practically impossible. Today, the infrastructure increasingly exists.

AGENDA 2030.

Look at the United Nations’ own Agenda 2030. Don’t read somebody’s meme about it. Read the actual document. It lays out 17 Sustainable Development Goals reaching into poverty, agriculture, education, energy, inequality, production, consumption, cities, finance, climate policy, health and international institutions. Is Agenda 2030 itself the government of the Antichrist? I am not saying that. What I am saying is that I see a philosophical direction toward greater international coordination, increased governmental management of economic and social activity, and stronger global institutions. In my opinion, and in the prophetic framework taught by Endtime Ministries, the eventual governmental system of the Antichrist will be heavily socialistic or communistic in nature. Believe that or don’t, but at least understand what we’re actually arguing before dismissing it.

THE FOUR HORSEMEN ARE SPIRITS.

This brings me to something else I teach that is regularly misunderstood. Zechariah 6:5 says, “And the angel answered and said unto me, These are the four spirits of the heavens, which go forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth.” Spirits. That’s important. Endtime Ministries compares Zechariah’s horses with the Four Horsemen of Revelation and interprets them as tremendous ideological and religious forces moving throughout mankind. That is also my interpretation. The white horse represents Catholicism. The red horse represents communism and socialism. The black horse represents capitalism. The pale horse, from the Greek word chloros, which can mean green, represents Islam. I am not saying every Catholic is evil, every Muslim is a terrorist, everyone participating in capitalism is wicked, or everyone who supports a government social program is Joseph Stalin. I am talking about enormous religious, political and economic systems influencing civilization. Spirits moving through mankind. That’s the distinction.

KNOWLEDGE SHALL BE INCREASED.

Then there is technology. Daniel 12:4 speaks about the time of the end and says, “many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” My gosh, look around. Artificial intelligence. Facial recognition. Biometric identification. Satellites. Instant global communications. Digital banking. Digital currencies. Massive databases. Location tracking. International financial networks. Devices in our pockets that can identify where we are, whom we communicate with and what we purchase. For most of history, the buying-and-selling control described in Revelation 13 would have been extraordinarily difficult to administer globally. Today the technical problem isn’t particularly mysterious anymore.

I AM NOT CALLING YOUR SMARTPHONE THE MARK OF THE BEAST.

Let’s be clear about that too. Your smartphone is not automatically the Mark of the Beast. Your Visa card isn’t automatically the Mark of the Beast. Artificial intelligence isn’t automatically the Antichrist. Technology is a tool. I’m using some of it myself right now. My point is simply that the capability now exists for a centralized political system using digital identification, biometric systems, financial controls and worldwide communications to exercise a degree of control over economic participation that dictators of earlier centuries could only dream about. Scripture describes a future system in which participation in buying and selling can be controlled. I think Christians ought to notice that technological capability without going off the deep end every time somebody invents a new gadget.

NOW LOOK AT THE MILITARY CHESSBOARD.

Step away from theology for a minute and just look at the world as an old soldier might look at a map. Russia and Ukraine remain at war. North Korea has become directly entangled with Russia, supplying weapons, ballistic missiles and personnel. China has rapidly expanded and modernized its nuclear forces and has now publicly demonstrated all three legs of a modern nuclear triad: air, land and sea. Bombers and air-delivered nuclear capability, land-based strategic missiles, and ballistic-missile submarines. That sea leg is particularly important because nuclear submarines can disappear beneath the ocean and preserve a retaliatory capability even if land-based forces are struck. Even Japan is now having strategic discussions that would have been almost unimaginable a generation ago. Then look at Iran, Israel, the United States and the greater Middle East. Add missile proliferation, drones, regional alliances and the world’s dependence upon vulnerable energy and shipping routes. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist, no pun intended, to notice an awful lot of rockets.

WHAT IF WORLD WAR III HAS ALREADY STARTED?

That’s the question I’ve been batting around in my head. What if we’re waiting for World War III to start when historians someday will say it already had? World War II didn’t magically appear at Pearl Harbor. Germany invaded Poland in 1939. Britain and France were already at war. Japan had been fighting in Asia for years. America entered later. History gives wars nice clean dates after they’re over. Living through the opening stages isn’t nearly so tidy. So perhaps Ukraine isn’t just Ukraine. Perhaps Iran isn’t just Iran. Perhaps North Korean soldiers supporting Russia aren’t merely an interesting regional development. Perhaps China’s military buildup isn’t occurring in isolation. Perhaps the alliances forming today become the alliances fighting tomorrow.

I DON’T KNOW.

Let me emphasize that. I don’t know. I’m not setting dates. I’m not claiming that God appeared at the foot of my bed and gave me tomorrow’s missile launch codes. I’m saying I have eyes, I have a Bible, I have spent much of my life around military aviation and military affairs, and something doesn’t smell right. I increasingly believe it is at least possible that the Sixth Trumpet War has already begun in its conventional and geopolitical phases and that what we have not yet seen is its terrible transition into nuclear warfare. I sincerely hope I’m wrong.

FIRE, SMOKE, BRIMSTONE AND MODERN WARFARE.

Revelation 9 gives us another fascinating description. Verse 17 speaks of breastplates “of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone,” colors roughly associated with fiery red, blue or violet, and sulfur yellow. John then sees fire, smoke and brimstone issuing from their mouths. I have often wondered what a first-century man would say if suddenly shown a twenty-first-century mechanized battlefield. What would he call a tank? What would he call an attack helicopter? What would he call a multiple-launch rocket system, thermal sights, infrared optics, electro-optical targeting systems or night vision?

WHAT WOULD JOHN HAVE SEEN THROUGH MODERN OPTICS?

Today’s tanks, helicopters and fighting vehicles don’t simply look through ordinary glass. They use thermal cameras, infrared sensors, electro-optical systems and computerized displays. Some display white-hot or black-hot imagery. Others can use false-color palettes. Am I saying John’s colors are definitely a coded description of Apache helicopter optics or a particular tank sight? No. I cannot prove anything of the sort. But I find the comparison fascinating. Imagine a first-century man looking into modern thermal imagery where people and machines glow in unnatural colors, and then watching modern weapons firing cannon rounds, rockets and guided missiles. Fire. Smoke. Brimstone. Heads like lions. Power coming from the mouth. If John was shown warfare thousands of years beyond anything he had ever encountered, he had no choice but to describe it using first-century vocabulary. That’s not proof. It’s something worth thinking about.

PROPHECY DOESN’T NEED DONALD TRUMP’S PERMISSION.

This brings me back to the current war. I don’t particularly like every aspect of the way President Trump is prosecuting it either. My sense is that he may be trying virtually everything he can before allowing this to develop into the sort of total war nobody wants to contemplate: diplomacy, pressure, sanctions, military action, negotiations, more pressure, more strikes and back to negotiations. Maybe he’s right. Maybe he’s wrong. History will judge him. The American public has no stomach for the kind of warfare our grandparents experienced during World War II, and neither does the modern media. Frankly, thank God we have an instinct to avoid that kind of slaughter. But if my understanding of prophecy is correct, Donald Trump cannot negotiate Scripture out of existence. Neither can Putin. Neither can Xi Jinping. Neither can Netanyahu. Neither can the United Nations. Prophecy doesn’t need Donald Trump’s permission.

SO WHAT ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO? PREPARE.

Not panic. Prepare. There is a very large difference. And I’m becoming increasingly serious about this. If you have the means to make reasonable emergency preparations and simply refuse to do so, I believe you’re doing your family a disservice. You’re potentially doing your neighbors a disservice too, because when catastrophe comes, people who didn’t prepare suddenly become dependent upon those who did. Have drinking water. Have a way to purify additional water. Have food that doesn’t require constant refrigeration. Have necessary medications, first-aid supplies, flashlights, batteries, a battery or hand-crank radio and basic tools. Know where the most protected interior area of your home is. Learn what nuclear fallout actually is before there’s an emergency. Think about what you would do if electricity disappeared, refrigerators stopped, gasoline couldn’t be pumped, electronic payments stopped functioning or grocery deliveries were interrupted.

YOUR NEIGHBORS MAY BE MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOUR STOCKPILE.

Talk to them. Talk to your family. Talk to your church. Find out who knows medicine, electrical work, plumbing, mechanics, cooking, gardening and basic emergency care. Find out who has tools, a generator, water storage or skills everybody else may need. Find out which elderly or disabled neighbors are going to require help. If something genuinely catastrophic happens, you’re probably not going to John Wayne your way through it alone. You can own seventeen rifles, six generators and enough canned chili to feed the 82nd Airborne, but sooner or later you’re still going to need people. Community matters. Family matters. Neighbors matter. Your church matters. Work together.

THE MOST IMPORTANT PREPARATION ISN’T IN A STORAGE CLOSET.

Get right with God. Something in Revelation 9 bothers me even more than the weapons. After a third of mankind dies, the survivors still refuse to repent. Think about that. Humanity experiences destruction beyond anything we’ve ever seen and people still won’t turn toward God. So if you’ve spent twenty thousand dollars preparing your house but haven’t spent five minutes considering the condition of your soul, you’ve prepared for the least important part. Prepare physically, absolutely. Prepare your family, your home and your neighborhood. But above everything else, prepare spiritually.

MAYBE I’M BLOWING MY OWN TRUMPET.

Considering the subject, I suppose that joke was unavoidable. For some of you, there may be an awful lot of hot air coming out of this particular trumpet. That’s okay. I can take it. But I’m very serious about the message. I would rather have somebody laugh at me today for telling them to store water than someday hear them say, “I wish I had listened.” Don’t wait until everybody needs the same supplies. Don’t wait until the shelves are empty. Don’t wait until the grid goes down. Don’t wait until an emergency alert shows up on your phone. And for heaven’s sake, don’t wait until you can see a mushroom cloud before Googling what nuclear fallout is.

DO IT NOW.

I’m not telling you nuclear war begins tomorrow. I’m not telling you it begins next month. I’m certainly not telling you the world ends Tuesday at three o’clock, because that’s not even the prophetic sequence I believe Scripture teaches. There are tremendous prophetic events still ahead. But I believe we’re very late in the prophetic timeline, and I increasingly believe the possibility exists that the Sixth Trumpet War isn’t merely approaching. Perhaps we’re already watching its opening act. Maybe I’m wrong. I pray that I am. But don’t confuse uncertainty about timing with uncertainty about what Revelation says. The prophecy is still sitting there. One-third of mankind. Fire. Smoke. Brimstone. The Euphrates. An army of almost unimaginable size. And according to the Endtime Ministries interpretation I follow, five trumpets have already sounded. That leaves Number Six.

SO I’LL BLOW MY LITTLE TRUMPET.

Maybe there’s some hot air in it, but I’m going to blow it anyway. Prepare your family. Prepare your home. Prepare with your neighbors. Prepare with your church. Prepare spiritually. And as Arnold Schwarzenegger would say, DO IT NOW.

A FINAL CAVEAT AND AN INVITATION.

Everything I’ve written here represents my own study and interpretation of Scripture together with teachings I have learned through Endtime Ministries. I’m not asking anyone to blindly believe Walt Tollefson, Endtime Ministries, your pastor or anybody else. Check us. Open the Bible and check the Book. If you’re interested in seriously studying Bible prophecy and Scripture for yourself, I recommend taking a look at Jerusalem Prophecy College, offered through Endtime Ministries. It provides a systematic study of Bible prophecy, Scripture and the relationship Endtime sees between biblical prophecy, history and current events. You can begin at Endtime.com and follow the Jerusalem Prophecy College information from there.

I ALSO HIGHLY RECOMMEND ONLY SOURCE NETWORK.

Only Source Network is another valuable resource from Endtime Ministries for people who want to go much deeper into Bible prophecy, Scripture and Christian living. It offers prophecy teaching, Bible studies and additional programming that can take you far beyond anything I can cover in a Facebook article. You can find it through Endtime.com as well. Don’t take my word for any of this. Study it. Challenge it. Compare Scripture with Scripture. Pray about it. Check me. Check Endtime Ministries. Check your pastor. Check the talking heads. Check everybody. But most importantly, check the Book. Because ultimately my opinion doesn’t matter, and neither does anyone else’s. God’s Word does.