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Revelation 9:1
ESV - 1 And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit.
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As I read the text (down through Revelation 9:11), the "star" referred to in Revelation 9:1 is an angel (similar to when angels are metaphorically referred to as stars in Job 38:7, or in multiple passages within Revelation itself, such as Revelation 1:20 (where the stars represent good angels) or Revelation 12:4 (where the stars are fallen or evil angels)). However, the angel in Revelation 9:1 who is appointed by God to open the bottomless pit is not the same being as the angel or king (named Abaddon in Hebrew or Apollyon in Greek) of the beings in the bottomless pit who is mentioned in Revelation 9:11. Also, the fact that the angel (or star) mentioned in Revelation 9:1 is described as "fallen" is not referring to that angel being evil, but is a reference to his trajectory from heaven to earth to open the bottomless pit (with the key that he had been given in Revelation 9:1 for that purpose), in order to release God's judgment upon the earth..
Many Bible scholars, including Martin Luther and Sir Isaac Newton, have seen in the fifth and sixth trumpets the rise and progression of Islam. In view of the military, religious, economic and cultural impact Islam had on the Christian world in the nearly fourteen hundred years since its rise in the early 600s, this interpretation appears valid. As in other places in the Bible, a star represents a leader. The bottomless pit (Greek abbusos where we get our word abyss), means a desolate empty place - similar to the word void (Gen 1:2). This star was Mohammed, the founder of Islam. The bottomless pit applies here to the vast desolate land of present-day Saudi Arabia, from which the smoke (the religion of Islam), rose, darkening the light of Christ and Christianity in all the lands that come under their control. To this day, Christian religion is prohibited in Saudi Arabia. Walter Scott, the 1800s leader of the Restoration Movement, in his Revelation commentaries wrote: "The fallen star of Revelation 9:1-21 is generally supposed to point to the great Arabian impostor Mohammed....." "The five months of torment (Rev 9:10) are supposed to refer to the 150 years of unchecked conquest by the Moslem hordes on the year-day theory. Then the sixth Trumpet, or second Woe, is applied to the revival of Mohammedanism under the Turks, and the extinction of the Greek-Roman empire in the ever-memorable siege and capture of Constantinople. For nearly 800 years repeated efforts had been made to establish Islamism in the eastern half of the empire, but beautiful Constantinople, standing on the borders of Europe and Asia — the Bosphorus dividing the two continents — defied capture. Its hour, however, had come. The decree had gone forth. Mohammed the Second entered Constantinople on the morning of the 29th May, 1453. The great Greek Church was purified and then transformed into a mosque, and the Crescent floated over the walls of the city of the Caesars.” (These quotations are a derivative of an electronic edition available at BibleSupport.com. - Public Domain)
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