Continuation of Social Life After Catastrophe

I. Factual Basis for Continued Commerce and Industry

The sins listed by the author confirm that industry, commerce, and wealth were still functional for the survivors: Idolatry: The survivors continued to worship "idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and wood." The continued existence, use, and creation of idols made from precious metals and durable materials prove that mining, metallurgy, commerce, and craftsmanship were not entirely halted. One cannot worship expensive gold idols if the gold standard or the means to produce the idols have entirely collapsed. Thefts: The persistence of thefts is definitive proof of an operational economic system. Theft requires the existence of private property or currency that retains value and ownership worth stealing. Total societal collapse eliminates the concept of theft in favor of mere survival scavenging.

II. Factual Basis for Continued Vice and Immorality

The continuation of specific social vices proves that the judgments did not eliminate human interaction or the capacity for pleasure and crime: Fornication and Sorceries: The continued engagement in fornication, sexual immorality and sorceries, often associated with drug use, occultism, or illicit pleasure confirms that the population retained sufficient organization, leisure, and desire for vice. These are sins of a semi-functional civilization, not merely of desperate, atomized survival. Murders: The persistence of murders indicates that the social fabric retained structure. The murders are not merely war deaths but criminal acts within the surviving population.

Conclusion: The Persistence of Rebellion

The factual conclusion drawn from the sins listed in Revelation 9:20-21 is that the judgments were catastrophic but not terminal. They severely punished the world and reduced the population but failed to eliminate the core social and economic systems necessary for the unrepentant survivors to continue their rebellious way of life. The greatest tragedy of the Sixth Trumpet is that even the most extreme forms of divine intervention and human suffering did not succeed in breaking the unrepentant will to maintain sin and idolatry.