Revelation 8:5: And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.

In Revelation 8:3-4, the angel, who is Jesus Christ,¹ used a golden censer to present to God the prayers of saints during the Day of Atonement in heaven.² This event will occur during the initial half an hour of silence of the seventh seal.³ At that future day, coals from the brazen altar in heaven will combine with the incense of Christ's intercession to produce a powerful petition to God from Christ for the vindication of his righteous saints.⁴ After his prayerful petition, Christ will fill his golden censer with hot coals from the fire of the altar a second time.⁵ These he will cast down into the earth⁶ to symbolize how his intercessory power will become the instrument of God's divine wrath at his Second Coming.⁷ The half an hour of silence in heaven will end abruptly⁸ as Christ literally casts down fire from heaven into the earth and the judgments of the seven trumpet angels will quickly follow.⁹ These judgments on the wicked will answer the prayers of the righteous saints described in Revelation 8:3-4, and the petitions of martyred saints from the fifth seal that John saw under the altar in Revelation 6:9-10.¹⁰

The fiery judgments from heaven¹¹ will fulfill Christ's own prophesies¹² and many other types and foreshadows. For example, the sixth plague of Egypt foreshadows this future event when Moses threw ashes in the air and caused burning boils on the Egyptians when the ashes rained down from heaven.¹³ Ezekiel similarly envisioned fire cast down from heaven on Jerusalem as the city burned in his day.¹⁴ Fire from heaven will accompany the trumpet blasts during three of the first four trumpet angels of the seventh seal.¹⁵

When Christ casts the hot coals of fire on the earth from his golden censer there will be (1) voices, (2) thunders, (3) lightnings, and (4) an earthquake.¹⁶ John identifies these four (world number) elements to signify the worldwide scope of judgments about to befall the earth.¹⁷ In this list, the voices are probably the sounds of the earthly elements themselves in commotion.¹⁸ The thunders and lightnings represent extreme weather patterns.¹⁹ When coupled with the earthquake, all of heaven and earth will be in commotion.²⁰ These four signs–together with the first four judgments of the seventh seal–will encourage people to repent.²¹ They are, however, merely a prelude to even more severe judgments, plagues, calamities, and warfare²² that will occur with the sound of each new trumpet blast.²³

Revelation 8:6: And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.

Christ will cast the fire of the altar into the earth to signal the seven trumpet angels to prepare themselves to sound.²⁴ They stand ready to blow their seven trumpets of judgment²⁵ in the sequential order given by John in his subsequent visions.²⁶ The first four trumpet angels may be the four destroying angels identified in Revelation 7:1, but this is by no means certain.²⁷ As each trumpet sounds, the judgments become more severe²⁸ until the earth and her people are finally prepared for Christ's Second Coming.²⁹

The seven trumpet angels will blow their trumpets in sequential order to herald a series of seven plagues that will end with the Second Coming. The same seven angels will then blow their trumpets a second time in sequence to herald in the various stages of the resurrection at the Second Coming and throughout the millennium.³⁰ Doctrine and Covenants Section 88:94-106 describe these seven resurrection angels, whose trumpets complete the salvation of mankind and bring an end to Satan's kingdom by the end of the millennium.³¹ After the millennium, and at the end of the earth, the same seven angels will sound their trumpets a third time in Doctrine and Covenants Section 88:108-110 to reveal the secret acts of mankind during each of the earth's seven periods of temporal existence.³²