Revelation 9:16

16 The number of their troops of cavalry was twice ten thousand times ten thousand (200,000,000); I heard what their number was. 

In today’s battles, with all of the high tech weaponry, troop numbers are becoming less, because the weapons that they possess are becoming greater. Think of it, with today’s weapons, you send 200 million people into battle and they would easily be killed by far less bombs and other weapons. 200 million soldiers would be so tightly packed together in this small area, one bomb would take out thousands and the world has tens of thousands of bombs, which can be fired from great distances. Also keeping supply lines open to feed these troops would be extremely difficult. You couldn’t feed these warriors, especially when a third of the light of the earth has been removed by the natural disasters and a third of the water destroyed as well. But to have 200 million demon possessed extremist, who are just part of the population is another thing. The Four Angels could easily influence 200 million muslims to go and destroy society and men. 

These 200 million extremist could easily destroy the millions of muslims who had been born again during the Great Tribulation. Remember Jesus told us that from every tongue, tribe, and nation an uncountable number of people would be saved during the last three and a half years of this earth age. This holds true for the Middle East as well. The woe here isn’t death, it is the destroying of the message of salvation that the children of God give. The Truth that these Christians were giving, will be allowed to end and the Truth that would set the wicked free is gone. The solitary eagle told the people of the world to fear the last woes, the first woe was a spiritual attack and the second one is as well, and the woe is that there will be a severe decrease in the message of hope being preached in the Middle East. 

Jesus shows John that the Four Angels are loosed from their captivity bound by the Euphrates River. I have always heard this preached that this is China and their massive armies. But China is not near the Euphrates River. Also there are 200 million troops all riding on 200 million horses? The horses could represent worldly weapons of power, but as we will read, the horses look like something, and the description isn’t anything like a weapon of today. Even if the horses that we read about were mechanical and the riders human, 200 million of them would be highly unlikely with the technology of today. China has a highly technologically advanced army. Keeping 200 million warriors fed, fueled, and loaded for battle during these times of great lack would be miraculous. But to have entire populations of people, in an extremely fragile area of the world, unite under demonic influence, now that is far more reasonable. 

The population of the world today is approximately 6,602,224,175, so a third of the population today would be 2,178,000,000. But we have been shown that a war engulfed a fourth of the earth and natural disasters have killed millions of people on a third part of the earth, so these numbers will be far less when these Four Angels are released. So it is not a reach at all to have 200 million muslim extremist all possessed to kill born again muslims, especially when today Islam is the fastest growing population in the world. The exciting thing here is that a 1/3rd of mankind, the 1/3rd that are killed could actually be saved. This shows us that there will be a massive move of the Holy Spirit in the Middle East. Remember we are told that these final three woes are especially tormenting. People have been dying and being killed by the millions before these woes. The life’s of the wicked have been nothing but torment and yet we are told that these last woes are even worse. So they have to go past physical torment to spiritual torment and having no messengers of Truth is a terrible woe.