Apocalypse Rising: 22 The Seven Bowls of God's Wrath: 22a The First and Final Beast Systems

Reading: Revelation 15:1 – 16:21

It is with the seven bowls of judgement described in Revelation chs.15-16 that God’s end-time wrath is completed. They are called the ‘seven last plagues’ or calamities. This implies clearly that the end-time expressions of God’s wrath in judgement did not begin with these bowls. These judgements are the final expressions of his wrath in the ‘day of the Lord,’ and they simply bring to an end what began much earlier:

‘I saw in heaven another great and marvellous sign: seven angels with the last seven plagues – last, because with them God’s wrath is completed.’ (Rev. 15:1)

So ‘the day of the Lord,’ the ‘great day of the wrath of God and the Lamb,’ does not begin here in Revelation ch.15. It was first mentioned way back in Revelation 6:16-17 in the time of the breaking of the sixth seal. The seventh seal which then followed opened the way into the period of the seven trumpet judgements (Rev. 8:1-6). The image of the pouring out of fire onto the earth after the breaking of the seventh seal signified that the end-time outpouring of God’s wrath, ‘the day of the Lord,’ began with the trumpet judgements (Rev. 8:5). Furthermore, as we have seen, the repeated use of the fraction ⅓ in the trumpet judgements is an image taken from the pouring out of God’s wrath in judgement upon Jerusalem in Ezekiel’s day (Ezek. 5:2,12-13).

These seven bowls of God’s wrath follow on from the blowing of the seventh trumpet, and they happen towards the end of the Great Tribulation, in the second half of the seventieth week, prior to the return of Christ to earth in his Second Advent. This is illustrated in Figure 22.1 below:

Figure 22.1 The approximate timing of the seven bowls of wrath

A word of warning and exhortation

When he inspired these Scriptures through the apostle John, the Holy Spirit interjected a strong reminder to be ready for the coming of the Lord:

‘Behold, I come like a thief! Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, so that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed.’ (16:15)

People need to be repent and to be ready for the coming of the Lord, otherwise they will not be able to avoid going through the judgements described in these bowls of wrath. They WILL go through them. It will be a terrible time to live through, and the hardest-hitting Hollywood disaster movie doesn’t come anywhere close to describing what it will be like!

The image in this verse alludes to the watchmen who guarded the temple precincts in Jerusalem during the night to ward off or catch any unwanted intruders. A watchman who slacked, fell asleep and failed in this responsibility was either beaten or had his clothes set on fire, as a warning to others! So as believers who know and believe the Scriptures, we have no excuse. We ourselves have been forewarned, and we need to warn others. Jesus said, ‘I have told you everything ahead of time.’ (Mark 13:23).

The prophetic song of deliverance

The references to ‘plagues’ in verse 15:1 and to the song of Moses and of the Lamb in verse 15:3 give us an indication as to where in the Scriptures we find the prophetic parallel of this end-time outpouring of God’s wrath on earth.

The Greek word used for ‘plagues’ in verse 15:1 is also used in the Septuagint version of the exodus story in the time of Moses. It is probably better rendered here as ‘calamities.’

There are two songs attributed to Moses in the Pentateuch: the Song of Moses and Miriam, which the Israelites sang when they were delivered from their slavery in Egypt (Ex. 15:1-21), and the Song of Moses, which he recited to the Israelites at the end of their wanderings in the desert, just prior to their entrance into the promised land (Deut. 32:1-43).

So this song of Moses and the Lamb (recorded in verses 15:3-4) celebrates the deliverance from the reign of the Beast (which will come to God’s people on earth at the Second Advent), and also their entrance into the millennial reign of King Jesus the Messiah which will follow on from that:

‘All nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.’ (15:4)

This song is proclaimed prophetically in heaven before the pouring out on earth of the seven bowls of God’s wrath, and it is sung by those who overcame the Beast, his image and the number of his name (15:2). These believers had not taken the mark of the Beast and, like Daniel’s three friends in Daniel ch.3 who refused to bow before Nebuchadnezzar’s golden statue, they had refused to worship the image of the Beast. Undoubtedly, they were beheaded as a consequence of taking this stand for their faith, and so they became martyrs, just as the Lamb himself had become the faithful martus (Rev. 1:5, 20:4). They overcame by not loving their lives so much as to shrink from death (Rev. 12:11). God’s specific response in judgement to their martyrdom is in the pouring out of the third bowl (16:4-6), just as Moses sang:

‘Rejoice, O nations, with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants; he will take vengeance on his enemies and make atonement for his land and people.’ (Deut. 32:43)

The first and final manifestations of the Beast system

Manifestations greater or lesser of the antichrist spirit in the socio-economic-political sphere of human life invariably lead sooner or later to widespread suffering and disaster. The evil spiritual powers which control and operate these systems covertly behind the scenes, manifest their evil ways through the structures that their human pawns have built up, bringing untold suffering to the lives of millions of people, either on a national or regional level. For example, if Haman had had his way, then the entire Jewish population of the Persian Empire in Queen Esther’s time would have been annihilated in a single day.

Communism, arguably the worst anti-theistic system the world has ever known, wherever it manifests brings persecution upon the Church and often decimates its power. This godless system creates a society in which everyone lives to a large extent as a fearful and submissive slave to the established order, with no real freedom at all, and it always brings economic misery on everyone apart from the elite and those who remain faithful to the Party. Stalin’s economic and ethnic policies, and Mao’s Great Leap Forward, both led to catastrophic consequences as millions of people starved to death, were imprisoned in labour camps and died, or were simply taken out and executed.

In the 1930s, Nazism in Germany exerted widespread state control over the Church in that country, repressing the voice of conscience, and the Nazis proceeded to commit the worst and most horrendous genocide against the Jewish people in Europe which the world has ever seen. Through the World War which ensued after Hitler’s rise to power, this evil system ultimately brought catastrophe upon Germany, leaving almost this entire nation in ruins, and it was divided up into two separate countries for almost 45 years.

Similarly, the new world order, the one-world system which is even now developing globally, and which, sooner rather than later, will lead to the open worldwide rule of Antichrist the Beast, is a system which runs thoroughly counter to biblical Judeo-Christian values. The spirit behind this system is anti-Christian and anti-Semitic. When Antichrist comes into power, his one-world system will openly rise up against Israel and the Jewish people, just as other historical manifestations of the Beast system did.

As we saw in chapter 21, Satan in his rage will work through this Antichrist Beast system to commit genocide yet again against the Jewish people, this time in their historic homeland. He will also cause people everywhere in the world to receive the mark of the Beast, and to worship the Beast and his image. He will kill off many of God’s prophets and servants, and he will cause lawlessness and evil in people’s lives to know no bounds, waxing worse and worse.

In ancient Egypt we see the first manifestation of the spirit of the Beast in history. The Pharaoh was held to be the manifestation in human form of Amun-Ra, the creator god of the ancient Egyptians, and, in parallel with this during the end-time tribulation, Antichrist will set himself up in the re-built temple in Jerusalem and proclaim himself to be God (2 Thess. 2:4). The controlling spirits behind the Pharaonic system moved their human pawns to commit genocide against the Hebrews who had become trapped and enslaved by the Egyptians (Ex. ch.1). In doing this, these controlling spirits brought judgement upon both themselves and the Egyptian people.

The story of how God brought deliverance to the Israelites through Moses is one of God bringing judgement upon the gods of Egypt. These were representations of the evil spiritual powers behind this system of the Beast, and the Egyptians worshipped them idolatrously (Ex. 12:12). They were seen as influencing different areas of life. By the end of the period of his judgement upon this system through the ten ‘plagues’ (as they are so often called), God had demonstrated the powerlessness of these false gods to save, and virtually the entire socio-economic structure of Egypt was left in complete ruins. It was only through such a period of extensive judgement that God’s ancient people were able to be completely liberated.

In the seven bowls of God’s wrath in Revelation ch.16, we see the end-time prophetic fulfilment of the plagues of ancient Egypt. Just as God brought judgement on the first manifestation of the Beast system, so too will he bring judgement upon its final manifestation. The widespread destruction which took place in Egypt is a prophetic picture of what will happen in the world during the time of the Great Tribulation. If you want to know what kind of state the world will be in by the end of the Great Tribulation, then consider the depth of all-round devastation and utter ruin that Egypt was reduced to by the end of the ten plagues and this will give you some idea. The worldwide Antichrist system will undergo judgement, together with the demonic and fallen angelic spiritual powers which were hurled down to earth from the heavenlies, and which then undergirded and empowered Antichrist’s system. Their powerlessness to save will be exposed and made plain to all who have eyes to see (cf. Ex. 12:12; Rev. 12:4a,9).

This period of God’s wrath poured out on the worldwide Beast system will ultimately lead to the liberation of God’s land of Israel and his people, of those Jewish people who have become true believers in Jesus as their Messiah during the tribulation period, and of those among the Gentiles who have become believers in that time and who have somehow managed to survive the rule of Antichrist. It is through the Second Advent of Christ that this act of liberation will finally take place.

Just as the complete destruction of Pharoah’s army in the Red Sea proved to be the final act in the liberation of the Israelites from their bondage in Egypt, so too the destruction of Antichrist’s army at Ha Megiddo after the Second Advent of Christ will prove to be the decisive and final act in the liberation of God’s land of Israel and the believing remnant of his people from the end-times Beast system (see next chapter).

The pouring out of God’s wrath on the nations

We are told in Revelation 17:13,17 that the ten kings associated with the rise of Antichrist will willingly give their power and authority to the Beast, and they will make war with him against the Lamb, i.e. against God’s people on earth (culminating in the events at Ha Megiddo just after Christ’s Second Advent). It is interesting that even now this trend has already begun. The nations of the world are being increasingly encouraged, manipulated and deceived into giving up their national sovereignty (and therefore their right to govern their own nations freely), so that the globalists, who are striving to bring the new world order into being, can gain increasing power and authority over the nations and thereby establish this end-time system in the world.

So the rise of this new world order will deceive the nations of the world, and they will be willingly absorbed into its total agenda. The nations of the world will become a humanity brought together and united under this agenda and its values. One part of this, as we have seen, is its increasingly anti-Israel stance. The expression of Satan’s rage against Israel and the Jews through Antichrist will eventually involve the nations of the world:

‘The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One.’ (Ps. 2:2)

It is this, along with other increasing worldwide expressions of sinful defiance and rebellion against God, that will bring judgement down on the nations of the world in the time of his wrath. This human defiance and its judgement will eventually reach their climax in the battle at Ha Megiddo (often called Armageddon) at the Second Advent of Christ (Rev. 16:14,16; 19:17-21).

A simple but profound lesson which is repeated many times in the Scriptures, is that God will treat you in a similar way to how you have treated his people. As you have done to Israel, so will it be done to you:

‘The day of the Lord is near for all nations. As you have done, it will be done to you; your deeds will return upon your own head.’ (Obad. v.15)

Similarly, just as God did not hold back from judging his ancient people when they fell into sin and idolatry, neither will he hold back from judging the nations of this world for their evil. In fact, the history of Israel in the Old Testament is a paradigm from which we are to learn: what God did to or allowed to happen to the Israelites, he will also do or allow to happen to the nations of this world.

Neither Isaiah nor Zephaniah minced their words when they described God’s end-time judgements on the nations of the world, which were foreshadowed in judgements upon the Israelites for their own sin. They both give us graphic descriptions of the worldwide catastrophe which will take place through these final expressions of God’s wrath:

‘See, the Lord is going to lay waste the earth and devastate it; he will ruin its face and scatter its inhabitants – it will be the same for priest as for people, for master as for servant, for mistress as for maid, for seller as for buyer, for borrower as for lender, for debtor as for creditor. The earth will be completely laid waste and totally plundered. The Lord has spoken this word.’ (Isa. 24:1-3)

‘“I will sweep everything from the face of the earth,” declares the Lord. “I will sweep away both men and animals; I will sweep away the birds of the air and the fish of the sea. The wicked will have only heaps of rubble when I cut off man from the face of the earth,” declares the Lord.’ (Zeph. 1:2-3)

‘Come near, you nations, and listen; pay attention, you peoples! Let the earth hear, and all that is in it, the world, and all that comes out of it! The Lord is angry with all nations; his wrath is upon all their armies. He will totally destroy them, he will give them over to slaughter. Their slain will be thrown out, their dead bodies will send up a stench; the mountains will be soaked in their blood. All the stars of the heavens will be dissolved and the sky rolled up like a scroll; all the starry host will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like shriveled figs from the fig tree.’ (Isa. 34:1-4)

‘The great day of the Lord is near – near and coming quickly… That day will be a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness… I will bring distress on the people and they will walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord. Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to save them on the day of the Lord’s wrath. In the fire of his jealousy the whole world will be consumed, for he will make a sudden end of all who live in the earth.’ (Zeph. 1:14-15,17-18)

When Jesus spoke about the time of ‘great distress’ which will happen in the Great Tribulation – in fact, it is this word ‘distress’ or ‘tribulation’ used in Matthew 24:21 from which the Great Tribulation takes its name – he was speaking not only of a time of tribulation which will come against Israel and the Jews at that time, he was also referring to tribulation which will come upon the whole world (cf. Luke 21:25-26).

He used the examples of the Flood in Noah’s time and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in Lot’s time as analogies of this worldwide tribulation (Luke 17:26-29). To use again the analogy of birth-pains, this will be the time when these birth pains become their most intense: they will be very frequent, very intense and very painful! (Matt. 24:8). It will be so bad that some people will die from heart failure as they experience deep levels of inward stress and fear over what is happening in the world (Luke 21:26).

Indeed, the words of Zephaniah 1:3 and 1:18 (quoted above), Matthew 24:22 (quoted below) and Isaiah 13:12 (quoted further on in this chapter) clearly indicate that the world will be largely depopulated during the Great Tribulation. Very many people will die or be killed, that’s how bad this time of tribulation will be![1] However, as bad as it will be, the Lord will not put an end to humanity even in this time of his wrath. In his purpose and his mercy, he has shortened these days, so that, although many people will indeed die, yet at least some will survive:

‘For then there will be great distress, unequalled from the beginning of the world until now – and never to be equalled again. If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened.’ (Matt. 24:21-22)

The parallelism between the bowls of wrath and the plagues in Egypt

So, as we look at these seven bowls of wrath in Table 22.1 on the following pages, we can see a distinct parallel or connection in all of them to the plagues of Egypt in Moses’ time:

The Bowls of Wrath

The Plagues in Egypt

Bowl 1 (16:2)

poured on the land

ugly and painful sores break out on those who received the mark of the Beast and worshipped his image

Plague 6 (Ex. 9:8:12)

judgement on Sekhmet, the goddess of epidemics, and the gods of healing, Serapis and Imhotep

fine dust in the air caused boils to break out on the skin of both people and animals

Bowl 2 (16:3)

poured on the sea

the sea turns into blood like that of a dead man, and every living thing in the sea dies

Plague 1 (Ex. 7:14-24)

judgement on Osiris and Hapi, two of the greatest Egyptian gods

Hapi was seen as the water god of the Nile, giving life to the land around

poured on the Nile whose waters were thought to be the lifeblood of Osiris

the waters, streams and canals of Egypt all turned to blood

all the fish died

there was blood everywhere in Egypt

Bowl 3 (16:4-7)

poured on the rivers and springs of water

they become blood

this is a judgement specifically in response to the martyrdom of God’s prophets and servants

Bowl 4 (16:8-9)

poured on the sun

people are scorched and seared by the intense heat

they curse God, but still refuse to repent

Plague 9 (Ex. 10:21-29)

the sun-god, Amun-Ra was the creator god, the greatest of the Egyptian deities

Bowl 5 (16:10-11)

poured out on the throne of the Beast

his kingdom is plunged into darkness

people gnaw their tongues in agony and curse God, because of their pains and sores, but they still refuse to repent

Plague 9 (Ex. 10:21-29)

judgement on the sun-god, Amun-Ra

total darkness covered all Egypt

darkness that could be felt

everyone had to stay in their homes

but all the Israelites had light

Bowl 6 (16:12-16)

poured out on the Euphrates river

its water is dried up, allowing the kings from the East to cross over

three evil spirits in the form of frogs come out of the mouths of the Dragon, the Beast and the False Prophet

these spirits perform miraculous signs; they go out and deceive the kings of the whole world, and they gather them together to Ha Megiddo in Israel for the battle on the great day of God Almighty (i.e. the Second Advent)

Plague 2 (Ex. 8:1-15)

judgement on Heqet, the frog god who was a goddess of fertility associated with the annual flooding of the Nile river

in bowl 6, these spirits which look like frogs are exposed as being a major source of spiritual deception, just as Heqet was a deceiving spirit

the source of their spiritual power is in the unholy trinity of Dragon-Beast-False Prophet

Bowl 7 (16:17-21)

poured into the air

flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake, the greatest that has ever occurred

the great city splits into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapse

Babylon the Great is thrown down (cf. Rev. ch.18)

every island flees away and the mountains cannot be found

huge hailstones weighing about 100 pounds fall on people

people curse God because of the hail

Plague 7 (Ex. 9:13-35)

judgement on Nut, the sky goddess, and on Isis and Seth, agricultural deities

the worst hailstorm that ever occurred in the history of Egypt

livestock that was left outside was all killed

all the flax and barley crops in the fields were totally destroyed, and every tree was stripped bare

rain, hail, lightning and thunder

but it did not hail in Goshen where the Israelites lived

(cf. Josh. 10:11)

Final act of liberation

drowning of Pharoah’s army in the Red Sea (Ex. ch.14)

destruction of Antichrist’s gathered army at Ha Megiddo

(Rev. 16:12-14,16; 19:11-21)

Table 22.1 Comparison between the bowls of wrath and the plagues in Egypt

Some observations

· Regarding the time of the pouring out of these bowl judgements, the reference to the throne of the Beast (16:10) evidently implies that it will be after Antichrist has secured his position and his authority, and he has been seated on his throne. Furthermore, the fact that the first bowl is poured out on those who have received the mark of the Beast means that that measure has also been implemented and that the idolatrous allegiance of the masses to the Beast has been secured. These facts suggest that these judgements will not be poured out immediately at the beginning of the Great Tribulation, but rather at some stage further into this 3½-year period. Many commentators believe that it will be in the final year or so.

· The first bowl (that of the dust which causes sores to break out on the physical bodies of those who had received the mark of the Beast) corresponds to the sixth plague in Egypt. Pharaoh’s magicians had no answer to that plague, and so here too the False Prophet is unable to overcome this judgement and to bring healing to the afflicted followers of the Beast.

We are told that the False Prophet can exercise some degree of evil spiritual power to do signs and wonders which deceive people (Rev. 13:13-15). Yet it is clear that he can do nothing about these bowl judgements, just as Pharaoh’s magicians could not respond at all to the last eight plagues: ‘This is the finger of God.’ (Ex. 8:18-19). From the first bowl onwards, God works throughout these judgements with a much higher and stronger power than that which the False Prophet can demonstrate, thereby exposing the powerlessness of the Beast system to overcome the power and judgements of God.

· As the table shows, there are similarities to several of the plagues in Egypt. Several of them are geographic, meteorological or geological in nature, e.g. the references to water sources, the sun, and to the storm and the severe earthquake (16:3-4,8,18,21). Water and light are sources upon which human beings are dependent for the sustainment of life, but at the heart of all of this lies a wrong and ungodly allegiance to the Beast. The fourth bowl (16:8-9) perhaps suggests the end-time climax of increasing global warming, but obviously this extreme heat will be felt to its greatest effect in certain parts of the planet. This suggests that there will be a period of prolonged and very extreme heatwaves, resulting in famine, drought, extensive apocalyptic wildfires, and consequent widespread loss of both human and animal life. It would also probably mean that major hurricanes and typhoons would be able to form at mid-latitudes (i.e. further north or further south than the tropics), together with their associated tornadoes, and so release their devastating impacts directly onto major coastal centres of human population.

· Some of these bowl judgements seem to be experienced simultaneously. People will still be gnawing their tongues in pain from the effects of the dust from the first bowl, when they are plunged into darkness in the fifth. So there is no respite. Suffering piles up upon suffering. The phrase ‘gnawed their tongues’ suggests that they are in deep and continuous agony (16:10). Their physical bodies, their sources of drinking water, and their God-given source of natural light are affected all at the same time. By contrast, in Egypt, each plague began only as the effects of the previous one ceased.

· The fifth bowl is poured out onto the throne of the Beast which represents the centre of his power and authority, just as Pharaoh’s throne represented his own absolute, ‘divine’ power and authority (cf. 2 Thess. 2:4). The Beast’s kingdom is plunged into darkness just as Egypt was in the ninth plague. And there is nothing that either the Beast or the False Prophet can do in the face of this encounter with the greater power of God Almighty. This man who proclaimed himself to be God is rendered powerless. He and his infernal colleague can bring neither healing nor light. So, as a point of conjecture, might the third temple (where Antichrist set up his throne) be destroyed in this fifth bowl?

The impenitence of the human heart

Just as in the time of the seven trumpets, we again see the impenitence of people’s hearts in the time of these bowl judgements. However, whereas in the time of the sixth trumpet, where we were told that people simply continued on as they always had done, and did not turn to God in repentance from their sin and idolatry (9:20-21), yet here in the time of the pouring out of God’s wrath in the bowls, we are told that they actively and stubbornly refuse to repent:

‘…but they refused to repent and glorify him… they refused to repent of what they had done.’ (16:9,11)

Here we see conscious, deliberate and wilful choice, the intransigent impenitence of people’s hearts in obstinately refusing to change their sinful ways and therefore also their own eternal destiny. They did not understand and extrapolate from what they were experiencing themselves and what they saw happening around them, the fact that they needed to seek God and to repent from their sin. The first three bowl judgements affect their allegiance to the Beast and their dependence on water and light to sustain their daily life, yet they refuse to repent and change their ways.

In fact, not only do people refuse to repent, it says repeatedly that they actually curse God in response to what is happening (16:9,11,21). Human nature can sometimes endure even the greatest suffering, yet still not seek God and repent from sin. In fact, suffering often hardens the human heart even further, and God’s megaphone to a deaf world is not heeded! This is the ultimate expression of the sinful rebelliousness and defiance of the human heart towards God.

This reminds us of how Pharaoh repeatedly hardened his own heart and refused to let the Israelites leave Egypt (Ex. 8:15,19,32; 9:7,34-35). So God’s judgements continued to rain down until, after virtually every part of Egypt’s social and economic life was in complete ruins, and his own firstborn child was left dead, Pharaoh finally relented and let the Israelites go. However, even then, as the narrative tells us, he again foolishly hardened his heart and pursued them, with the result that his entire army ended up being drowned in the sea. So he lost that too! (Ex. 14:5-31). In hardening his heart repeatedly, Pharaoh brought almost complete destruction upon his country and his own people.

God always exhorts people to repent from sin and to turn to him in faith, and thereby become recipients of his mercy (Hab. 3:2), but hardened impenitence ultimately brings only his judgement upon their lives (Amos 4:6-12). God seeks for people to repent because he knows that their eternal destiny without him will be permanent, and it will be far, far worse than any suffering they will ever experience in this life.

The seventh bowl: the last and most intense of the birth pains

Birth pains reach their greatest frequency, intensity and strength just before the actual birth. So it is in the judgement of the seventh bowl that we see described the greatest and last of the birth pains that lead up to the Second Advent of Christ. It is after these events that the sign of the Son of Man will be seen in the sky, and he will return to earth (Matt. 24:30-31, and see the next chapter).

This seventh bowl describes a severe earthquake, a massive electrical storm which will produce enormous hailstones, and the fall of Babylon the Great. However, there is another element in it which is not mentioned in Revelation 16:17-21. This element is the shaking of the heavens and the earth, and the cosmic blackout which are mentioned by both Matthew and Luke:

‘Immediately after the distress of those days “the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.”’ (Matt. 24:29)

‘There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’ (Luke 21:25-26)

It is clear from Luke’s account that this shaking of the heavenly bodies will profoundly affect life on planet earth. So the shaking described is not that of far-flung stars in space (which would not affect life on earth), it must be that of near space objects such as the sun, moon, other nearby planets in the Solar System, asteroids, meteors and nearby comets. When these bodies are shaken, our planet will be greatly affected in consequence.

When these nearby heavenly bodies are shaken, their orbital paths will suffer perturbations and changes, and their gravitational and magnetic fields will be seriously affected. These changes will be of sufficient magnitude to affect life on this planet. So the earth’s own gravitational and magnetic fields will be affected, causing great changes in the tides of the sea and bringing massive sea-surges and tsunamis as a result, as intimated by Luke.

Some asteroids whose path in space takes them between the earth and moon – and there are quite a number of these! – may have their trajectory changed to a degree that they come crashing into earth instead of missing it, as Isaiah suggests:

‘…all the starry host will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like shriveled figs from the fig tree.’ (Isa. 34:4, cf. Matt. 24:29)

This will cause widespread damage and atmospheric darkening, because of the vast amounts of smoke and dust particles which will be kicked up into the earth’s atmosphere. Satellite signals will be completely blocked out, electrical grids will be severely disrupted worldwide (if not brought down completely), and there will be a worldwide communications blackout. Weather patterns will become frighteningly destructive, causing the great and widespread storm that is described in this seventh bowl.

Indeed, Isaiah tells us that in the time of the destruction of the end-time Babylon the Great, even the earth itself will be shaken in this way:

‘See the day of the Lord is coming – a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger – to make the land desolate and destroy the sinners within it. The stars of heaven and their constellations will not show their light. The rising sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. I will punish the world for its evil, the wicked for their sins. I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty and will humble the pride of the ruthless. I will make man scarcer than pure gold, more rare than the gold of Ophir. Therefore, I will make the heavens tremble; and the earth will shake from its place at the wrath of the Lord Almighty, in the day of his burning anger.’ (Isa. 13:9-13 underlining my own for emphasis)

All this will be so shocking that some people will faint from fear, or even die of a sudden heart attack caused by anguish, stress and anxiety, as the AV rendering of Luke 21:26 seems to suggest: ‘men’s hearts failing them for fear.’

This shaking of the earth may well be a significant contributory factor in the severe earthquake and the destructive weather patterns that we are told will happen during the time of the seventh bowl. Such a great earthquake would also undoubtedly produce catastrophic tsunamis in many parts of the world, bringing further great destruction and loss of life.

The severe earthquake

Seismologists tell us that the magnitude of an earthquake is proportional to the length of the geological fault-line upon which it takes place, and also to the width of the fault area. This would then imply that unless something radical happens between the time in which we presently live and the time of the seventh bowl judgement, then an earthquake of such a great magnitude could only happen on the so-called ‘Ring of Fire.’

The greatest earthquakes in recorded history have happened along this ‘Ring of Fire.’ The two greatest were the earthquake which occurred in Valdivia, Chile in 1960 (which measured 9.4 – 9.6 on the Richter scale) and the great Alaskan earthquake in 1964 (which had a magnitude of 9.2). The tsunami which was created by the Chilean earthquake killed dozens of people as far away as Hawaii.

Furthermore, seismologists tell us that at the present time an earthquake of magnitude 10.0+ is impossible, because there simply isn’t a fault-line which is long and wide enough on planet earth which could make such an earthquake possible. It would have to extend around most of the planet. This fact would then seem to imply that, for this end-time earthquake of the seventh bowl judgement to take place, there will have to be an increase in the intensity and occurrence of earthquakes between now and then which will significantly lengthen and widen existing fault-lines in the earth’s crust. This dovetails well with the concept of birth pains increasing in intensity, frequency and regularity as we get nearer to, and then enter into, these end-time events (Matt. 24:8). Other significant contributory factors in this may perhaps be the meteorite-asteroid event of the first four trumpets,[2] and the end-time shaking of the planet itself outlined above:

‘The earth is broken up, the earth is split asunder, the earth is thoroughly shaken. The earth reels like a drunkard, it sways like a hut in the wind; so heavy upon it is the guilt of its rebellion…’ (Isa. 24:19-20)

The severe earthquake described in verses 16:18-20 as part of the seventh bowl will be the greatest seismic convulsion ever experienced on earth, and it will have catastrophic consequences. An earthquake of magnitude 7.0+ is strong enough to cause cracks to appear in the ground, and one of 8.0+ is strong enough to alter river courses and topography. An earthquake of magnitude 9.0+ is strong enough to devastate a whole area covering thousands of square kilometres.

The phrase ‘every island fled away and the mountains could not be found’ (16:20) is Bible-speak for the widespread geological devastation caused by this planetary shaking and great earthquake. As a result, not only will many of the cities of the world collapse, the great end-time city which is here called ‘Babylon the Great’ will also be destroyed:

‘The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. God remembered Babylon the Great and gave her the cup filled with the wine of the fury of his wrath.’ (Rev. 16:19)

‘Babylon the Great’ is the woman who rides on the Beast and yet is hated by Antichrist and his ten kings (Rev. 17:16). In this book, I will not discuss which particular city this might prove to be. In the apostle John’s day, it was obviously the city of Rome that was being referred to, the city built on seven hills and which was the centre of the sixth historical manifestation of the Beast system (Rev. 17:7,9,16).

Isaiah ch.13 foretells the destruction of the historical Babylon, and verses vv.9-13 (quoted above) are a prophetic foreshadowing of the demise of this end-time Babylon the Great. It is this passage and the similar one in Isaiah 34:4 (also quoted above) which are used by the Holy Spirit to describe the shaking of the heavenly bodies and the earth in Matthew 24:29 and Luke 21:25-26 towards the end of the Great Tribulation. So this evil, immoral, materialistic and idolatrous city ‘Babylon the Great’ will be destroyed by fire in one day, and it is clear that Antichrist and his ten kings will play an active role in her ruination (Rev. 17:16; 18:8,10). This seems to be the final event of the Great Tribulation, and it happens just prior to the Second Advent of Christ.

The giant hailstones

Furthermore, there will be a gigantic electrical storm during the time of the seventh bowl, causing massive hailstones to fall. The heat experienced on earth in the fourth bowl will evidently have been extreme enough and sustained enough for sufficient water to be evaporated from the world’s seas and oceans into the atmosphere to be able to produce the massive amounts of rain and hail which will fall in this storm. The widespread consequences of the shaking of the earth and the other nearby planetary bodies during the time of this seventh bowl, will undoubtedly also be a significant factor contributing to the formation of this storm.

The hailstones referred to are said to weigh about a hundred pounds each (16:21). Being that the density of ice is 0.9167 g/cm3, then, if my own calculations are correct, this would mean that the diameter of these giant hailstones will be around 45 centimetres, i.e. they will be just under half a metre wide! So they will be huge! These hailstones will therefore be big enough to kill any human being and to destroy almost anything they hit, causing even greater and more widespread devastation than the plague of hail did in ancient Egypt (Ex. 9:25, cf. Josh. 10:11). And if there were to be hurricane force winds blowing during this hailstorm, then these hailstones would not simply fall down to earth vertically. They would fall at an angle, perhaps almost horizontally, driven by these strong winds, and they would be travelling very fast indeed. The devastation this would cause would be simply astounding!

Copyright Notice

Scripture quotations from The Authorized (King James) Version. Rights in the Authorized Version in the United Kingdom are vested in the Crown. Reproduced by permission of the Crown’s patentee, Cambridge University Press.

[1] Given the present world population of around 8.1 billion people, even if say 500 million were to survive, then over a period of 3½ years that would mean an average worldwide death rate of around six million people every day during the Great Tribulation.

[2] If the first four trumpets of Revelation ch.8 do indeed describe the collision of a meteorite and asteroid with planet earth, then, if these were large enough, their magnitude of impact would perhaps be enough to damage and crack the earth’s outer crust to an extent that earthquakes of magnitude greater than 10.0 would be possible.

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22 The Seven Bowls of God's Wrath: 22a The First and Final Beast Systems

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