Revelation 9:15: And the four angels were loosed for to slay the third part of men.

The third part of men has two meanings. First, it quantitatively describes a large, but fixed number of people.¹ A large number of people will literally die during the Second Woe of Physical Armageddon throughout the four parts of the earth.² John uses symbols to describe this massive slaughter in Revelation 9:16-19.³ The third part of men also qualitatively identifies the specific type of wicked people targeted for death during the Second Woe.⁴ Before the millennium begins all telestial-worthy people and sons of perdition will be destroyed. However, the specific target group of the Second Woe will be all the mortal sons of perdition, rather than telestial-worthy people.⁵ Telestial people‒speaking collectively‒will survive until the Third Woe⁶ where they will be destroyed and burned at Christ's Second Coming.⁷ The Second and Third Woes have a priority and order for the destruction of the wicked, starting with the most wicked sons of perdition during the Second Woe, followed by less wicked telestial-worthy people during the Third Woe.

During the five months of spiritual darkness and torment of the First Woe,⁸ Satan will recruit and seal as his own the mortal sons of perdition then on earth.⁹ In symbolic terms, this includes the tares sown into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who are apostate members of the church.¹⁰ These once-elect people become mortal sons of perdition¹¹ as Satan gains dominion over them and they apostatize from the church.¹² They will spiritually die on a permanent basis¹³ and will become fully visible and distinguished from the wheat within the church during the First Woe.¹⁴ The parable of the wheat and the tares in Doctrine and Covenants Section 86 describes this process.¹⁵ The tares of the earth will be sealed up for destruction during the First Woe and they will die physically as sons of perdition during the Second Woe.¹⁶

The physical battle of Armageddon during the Second Woe¹⁷ is an antitype for the premortal war in heaven.¹⁸ When the war in heaven ended, a third part of the spirits of mankind were cast out of heaven to become unembodied sons of perdition on earth.¹⁹ A similar casting out of physical bodies will occur during Physical Armageddon when mortal sons of perdition will literally die after committing the unpardonable sin.²⁰ These mortal sons of perdition are the third part of men that will be purged from the earth,²¹ just as the third part of premortal spirits became unembodied spirit sons of perdition and were purged from heaven when the war in heaven came to an end.²² Viewed from this qualitative perspective, the total number of fatalities during Armageddon will not be 67 million of the 200 million combatants precisely, or one third of the world's population as some suggest.²³ There will be many deaths during Physical Armageddon, but the one third number should be viewed qualitatively rather than quantitatively.

Mortal sons of perdition will be the first group of one third to die collectively when the earth's cleansing process begins with Physical Armageddon.²⁴ They die first because they are the most wicked²⁵ and rebellious.²⁶ The earth must be cleansed of all unrighteousness before the millennium,²⁷ but this will occur in a predetermined order and not haphazardly.²⁸ Just as there is an Order of Creation²⁹ and an Order of Resurrection,³⁰ there is an Order of Destruction for the wicked.³¹ The Order of Destruction is governed by the eternal law of obedience.³² The law of obedience dictates the order of death just as it dictates the order of life.³³ These laws apply generally, of course, and do not guarantee that all righteous people will be individually preserved against any particular judgment during the seventh seal.³⁴ Nevertheless, and still speaking collectively, mortal sons of perdition will be the first to die as a group during the Second Woe because they will be the least obedient and most rebellious of God's children then on earth.³⁵ They will die first and will also be resurrected last,³⁶ conforming to the immutable law that the first shall be last and the last shall be first.³⁷

John identifies the sons of perdition as the group targeted for death during the Second Woe in Revelation 9:20-21. In these verses he describes telestial-worthy people as murderers, liars, sorcerers, and adulterers and states that they will survive the Second Woe.³⁸ This leads to the necessary conclusion that telestial people will be appointed to death during the Third Woe.³⁹ This must be so because every person that lives telestial law will be destroyed no later than the Second Coming as part of the earth's cleansing process.⁴⁰ Only people living at least terrestrial law will survive the Second Coming to live during the millennium.⁴¹

Before the physical carnage of the Second Woe begins, the Lord will chasten all people with natural disasters⁴² as an encouragement for them to repent.⁴³ This will occur during the sixth seal as the earthly calamities of this day and age become increasingly severe.⁴⁴ This is also true of the even more deadly plagues that will accompany the first four trumpet angels of the seventh seal.⁴⁵ These worsening calamities and plagues will strengthen the faith of righteous people through adversity,⁴⁶ even as they mercifully rehabilitate some wicked people who will be persuaded to have faith in Christ and finally repent.⁴⁷

The nature and purpose of the seven trumpet plagues will change during fifth, sixth and seventh plagues called the Three Woes. Beginning with the fifth trumpet angel of the First Woe, evil spirits from the bottomless pit will specifically target their torment on sinners that do not have the seal of God in their forehead.⁴⁸ These sinners can still repent, but many will openly rebel against God in the face of these afflictions.⁴⁹ By the time the sixth trumpet angel sounds and the Second Woe begins, the time for repentance will largely be past.⁵⁰ The third part of men (mortal sons of perdition) will then become the first target of God's wrath⁵¹ because the cup of their iniquity will become full during the First Woe.⁵² After the destruction of mortal sons of perdition during the Second Woe (Physical Armageddon), the seven Vial Plagues of the Third Woe will happen so quickly that there will be no time to repent. These final seven Vial Plagues will (1) destroy the remnant of telestial survivors left over from the Second Woe and (2) purge evil spirits from the earth during Spiritual Armageddon.⁵³