<p>9:1<em> And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star from heaven fall to the earth-&nbsp; </em>If the physical movement of Angels from Heaven to earth to perform certain tasks can be taken literally, Rev. 9:1,11 and certain other&nbsp;passages taken on a more literal slant: &quot;I saw a star (symbolic of an Angel) fall from Heaven unto the earth: and to Him was given the key of the bottomless pit. . . the Angel of the bottomless pit&quot; (Rev. 9:1,11). It seems that great stress is placed in Scripture on the Angels physically moving through space, both on the earth and between Heaven and earth, in order to fulfil their tasks, rather than being static in Heaven or earth and bringing things about by just willing them to happen. See on Gen. 18:10.</p><p><em>And there was given to him the key to the pit of the abyss</em>- The key to death and the grave is in Christ's hand (Rev. 1:18). This person is therefore an anti-Christ. We note how the locusts who are released from it are specifically obedient to their king-leader (9:4,11). The idea of course is that if you're thrown into a bottomless pit &quot;abyss&quot; which is locked, there's no way you can ever get out of it. But locusts, representing the desolators of the land, do arise out of it. The figure is similar to that of receiving a deadly wound, a wound that makes one die, and then resurrecting. This is what is said of the beast and its horn (13:3,12). The locusts are connected to that entity. We should be looking, therefore, for the entity which will finally dominate Israel to receive a wound which apparently makes it dead. This could be from Western and / or Israeli intervention against them. There would then be a brief period of worldwide relief- the &quot;peace and safety&quot; period of 1 Thess. 5. But the entity then revives. This scenario is possible as we see from the Western conflict against the Islamic jihadists.</p><p>So many of Revelation&rsquo;s allusions to the Old Testament are to material specifically concerning Jerusalem. One could almost argue that the prophecy could have a specific application to the latter day city of Jerusalem. The language of the bottomless pit likewise has specific reference to Jerusalem: &ldquo;In the floor of the small cave (measuring about 14 feet square with a six foot ceiling) under the great foundation stone in the Dome of the Rock is round marble slab closing a well shaft known as &quot;the well of the souls&quot; (Bir al Arwah) &hellip; A Muslim tradition holds this is the entrance into the bottomless pit, the abyss. The souls of the dead awaiting judgment are said to be audible beneath. The Talmud claims that this is the abyss above the primeval waters of creation and of the Flood&rdquo; Lambert Dolphin, <em>Early History of the Temple Mount</em>.</p><p>The language used here is specifically relevant to latter day Islam. Mawdudi writes of how Muhammed and his message came out of &ldquo;Arabia- the Abyss of Darkness&rdquo; (Abul A&rsquo;la Mawdudi, <em>Towards Understanding Islam</em>, 8th ed. (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: National Offset Printing Press, 1986), p.63).</p>