End times series:
Revelation 16
By Liaf
Revelation chapter 16 deals with the last terrible judgements of God called the "vial" or "bowl" judgements. First were the "seal" judgements, then the "trumpet" judgements, now these. These are the most severe. I tend to interpret this chapter literally in that John was merely describing the various plagues and catastrophes. Let’s turn to our King James Bible and read what these are:
Revelation 16:1-2: And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.
And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.
I’m sure some people read this and say, "Oh, painful sores. Maybe they need a little antiseptic."" They do not realize the scope of these sores. The Greek literally means "ulcers" and diseased ones at that. Remember two messages ago when I mentioned the possibility of the mark being some sort of implant? This passage confirms that. Whatever the mark entails, if eventually causes an ulcerous and diseased reaction. Most people do not know how painful even one boil can get. I had one surgically removed from the back of my neck (only under a local anesthetic and mild sedative). Believe me, it was no fun. I remember every event of the surgery and was glad it was over. I don’t think there will be enough doctors or surgeons in the world to treat every one who has this kind of reaction.
Revelation 16:3-7: And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea.
And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood.
And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus.
For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.
And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.
In short, the second vial was the sea turning to blood (hence everything dies) and the third is the rivers turning to blood. The angel explains why. Don’t make this more complicated than it is. They were given blood to drink as a "reward" for the shedding of blood of the saints. "You want to shed blood---- you’ll get blood."
Revelation 16:8-9: And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.
And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.
In this passage, the sun increases its heat. Other times it is darkened. I said earlier in the Revelation 6 message that we should not assume these astronomical events occur during same time. Many people assume this and thus try to "fit" the course of events in Revelation to them. Anybody out there that knows astronomy realizes that when a star is dying, it oftentimes goes through vacillating periods of brightness and darkness. Why would men not repent? These were people that had plenty of opportunity to repent and did not. The Bible says that God will have mercy on whom he will, and harden the hearts of whom he will. Without the Spirit of God to coax them, they become objects of his wrath. At this point, the vial judgements is the point where God is fed up with these people because their hearts are hardened. I don’t know what the "unpardonable sin" is, or what it takes to commit it, but the symptoms manifest themselves when the Spirit turns from a person. They do not believe the truth. They never want to repent or turn to God again because he turned them over to a delusion. I heard from several sources that if you worry that you committed this sin, then you have not! The reason is because one who commits it never worries about it. They are out of touch with God.
Revelation 16:10-11: And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,
And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.
The fifth vial is darkness on Antichrist’s kingdom (the ten-nation confederacy). This is analogous to the darkness that covered Egypt during the days of Moses. Notice men are still blaspheming and they are still afflicted by the sores back from the first vial. One may wonder why waters turn to blood, the sun heats up, and then there is darkness and so forth. Many come up with theories such as nuclear war, slaughter, disease, or a catastrophe of some sort. I will not even offer my two cents worth on this. Again, John was merely describing what he saw. I believe for whatever reason all this will occur, we at least know the divine reason even if we are not sure of the physical mechanism that will enact it.
Revelation 16:12-16: And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.
And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.
Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.
In the end of the Tribulation, kings of the East will be able to cross the Euphrates for that great final battle that everybody and their brother knows about. This is in agreement with Daniel 11:44-45 where Antichrist is troubled by rumors.
But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.
And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.
The "frog" demons that come out of the "satanic trinity" have the function of mustering the kings for battle. Notice again that they can even do miracles, although the specifics are not stated. These kings are opposed to Antichrist and they are being mustered for war against each other (and the book of Zechariah states that Jerusalem will be the target of battle as well). They are being assembled in Armageddon. The name means "mount of Megiddo" or literally the "mountains of rendezvous". This is where there is a plain about 14x20 miles which is a natural battlefield setting. Historic wars took place there including those of Judges 5:19, Judges 7, I Samuel 31 and later the Roman armies and crusaders. Also the famous deliverance from the Turks by General Allenby in 1917 took place using this field. Little do these kings realize that they are being mustered for God’s judgement soon!
The apocryphal book of II Esdras 13 also states that the river Euphrates will be dried up for the Lost Tribes to return again. The drying up for this river will first be used to gather the kings of the Earth together for judgement, but later God, in his mercy, will use this same path for all Israel to cross when coming back. But as the King James Bible says in II Esdras 13:43,47
And they [the ten tribes of Israel] entered into the Euphrates by the narrow passages of the river…[and upon their return in the end times v 47 says] The Highest shall stay the springs of the stream again, that they may go through…
Notice that Jesus admonishes that he will come as a thief. For those saints still on the Earth, they should make ready for their Lord’s return when they see the kings mustering for battle. Let’s finish reading this chapter:
Revelation 16:17-21: And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.
And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.
And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.
And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.
And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.
The seventh vial was the final one where the angel announced that the judgements were complete. In essence, more natural catastrophes occur. I said once before that I believe this is a literal Babylon that will fall, and the next chapters deal specifically with Babylon. I am at a loss to explain "And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found" since during the millennium there will be mountains and topographical features here on the Earth (yet this clearly occurs before the Second Coming of Christ). I have yet to hear anybody make a commentary on this. Yet I do believe that these are literal mountains and islands. However, after this occurs, notice the giant "meteors" (if we care to call them that) which falls on men. This again may re-change the topography of the Earth. And since an earthquake is involved, there may be a stress and strain on the Earth’s surface (plates) that may "flatten out" some things, but some of them (or new ones) may reform later. This is not unheard of. This is why the Bible says, "there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great." This earthquake is extremely severe perhaps pegging the Richter scales. The bottom line is that if the Bible says islands and mountains disappeared, then they must. (For the islands, we may even consider the possibility of an increased ocean water level perhaps from melting polar ice.) For them to be present in the millennium requires them to be reformed somehow. For a fellow such as myself who claims to be scientific minded, this does not really bother me as much as some of my other scientific friends. However, I am merely saying that there will be destruction and then a reformation of certain features. I find that within the realm of scientific possibility. What I find most amazing (more than this) is man’s ability to survive these catastrophes.
This concludes the message on this chapter. The next two chapters will deal with the specifics of Babylon, the "harlot" and the beast.