Many people are curious about prophecy and end-time related events; however, most never thoroughly pursue the subject to achieve a basic understanding of Pre-Trib, Post-Trib, Pre-Millennium or Post-Millennium, the seal judgments, the trumpet and bowl judgments. Through some minimal effort, it becomes apparent that there is organization to the sequence of events following the Rapture.
End-time events are happening every day. We know the time is short, but we don’t know how short. It is very likely that each of us knows someone who will suffer the judgments of the Tribulation period. The following is a summary of the judgments that will occur during the Tribulation, as described in Revelation. Please be aware that there are many things that will happen on the earth just prior to and during the Tribulation that won’t be discussed here simply because they are beyond the scope of this article.
For example, the two witnesses will come and be killed; the 144,000 witnesses will be raised up to heaven, the Antichrist will suffer a fatal wound but will be miraculously resuscitated back to life. While these events are important, I want to focus on God’s wrath on the earth during this horrible time. The study of end-time events is vital because they are unfolding every day. It is very likely that each of us knows someone who will have to endure the judgments of the Tribulation period, even some readers of this article.
After the letters to the seven churches, John is given the call to “come up hither.” This would signify the Rapture—the church being removed from the earth. Note that after this point the church is not mentioned again in Revelation. Please note that this is not the only reason or even the best reason to believe in a Pre-Trib Rapture. There are pages throughout this website where the purpose is to prove that a Pre-Trib Rapture is biblically, the only viable possibility. Visit: The Pretribulation Rapture, and Defending the Pre-Trib Rapture, for further study.
Although we don’t know when the Rapture will be, Jesus did give us some pretty good indicators for the beginning of the Tribulation. We can see those indicators falling into place all around us every day. Since we know that the Rapture must precede the Tribulation, we know that the Rapture is near. After the church is removed from the earth the Antichrist will be able to begin his reign of terror.
2 Thessalonians 2:7-8: “For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy with the splendor of his coming.”
One of the first things the Antichrist will do is sign a seven-year peace treaty with Israel. This is the beginning of the judgments that God will visit on the earth during the Tribulation. There are three sets of judgments in Revelations: 7 seals, 7 trumpets, and 7 bowls.
Rev. 6:2: “I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.”
The unleashing of the Antichrist is the first seal judgment. The Bible says that when Jesus breaks the first seal, a rider on a white horse will come forth wearing a crown and holding a bow with no arrows. The crown indicates rulership, and the bow with no arrows indicates that the Antichrist will gain his position without any warfare. The Antichrist, at first, will appear to be the smoothest, kindest, most trustworthy individual you could imagine. Jesus said that the deception will be so strong that if it were possible, even the elect would be deceived.
He will accomplish what no world leader has ever been able to: a seven year peace treaty with Israel, and this will be the official beginning of the Tribulation. However, it won’t be long before some world leaders will likely begin to grow weary of his ordering them about, and war will break out. This is the second seal, the rider on the red horse: War. (The red, of course, signifies blood.)
Rev. 6:3-4: When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other. To him was given a large sword.
The natural companion of war is famine, and the next rider (the third seal) is the rider on the black horse, famine. He is told to cause the price of grain to be equal to a day’s wage, but not to raise the prices of the oil and the wine (traditionally rich people’s foods). This probably signifies rampant inflation.
Rev. 6:5-6: “When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” I looked and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “A quart of wheat for a days wages, and three quarts of barley for a days wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!”
After that, the fourth rider is released with the breaking of the fourth seal. The fourth rider is the one on the pale horse (pale signifying death). When he comes to the earth, twenty-five percent of the earth’s population will die. But hang on tight – this is still the easy part!
Rev. 6:8: “I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beast of the earth.”
With the opening of the fifth seal, John sees the souls of the martyred Tribulation saints under the altar. After the Antichrist has the world in his grip, Christians (and Jews) will be martyred at an alarming rate. It is these martyred Christians who are crying out to God to avenge their deaths. They are each given a white robe and told to wait a little longer until their number is complete.
Rev. 6:9: “When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained.”
After the sixth seal is opened, there will be a great earthquake on the earth; the sun will turn black and the moon will turn to blood. This will be a judgment brought on the earth by God because of the persecution of His saints that was seen with the fifth seal.
Rev 6:12: “I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind.”
The seventh seal ushers in the seven trumpet judgments. When the seventh seal is broken, there will be complete silence in heaven for about one-half hour. The silence will probably be brought on by a state of complete awe as the inhabitants of heaven grasp the reality of what is about to take place on earth. What will follow with the trumpet judgments and the bowl judgments is so horrific that we cannot comprehend such chaos. The end of the seal judgments brings us to the end of the first twenty-one months of the Tribulation.
Rev. 8:1, When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.
Rev. 8:7: “The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down upon the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.”
When the first trumpet sounds, there will be hail and fire mixed with blood cast upon the earth. This plague will burn up a third of all the trees and all of the grass. Can you fathom living in a world without trees and grass? We can only imagine what this will do to the ecosystem. It is bound to have a huge effect on air quality and also soil conditions as erosion eats away where grass once grew.
Rev. 8:8: “The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea.”
This is, most likely, a meteorite, that falls into the sea. This meteorite will destroy a third of all the living creatures in the sea and a third of all the boats on the sea.
Rev. 8:1: “The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water–the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter.”
The third trumpet introduces a “great star” falling from heaven, probably another meteorite. The name of the meteorite is Wormwood, and it will destroy a third of the rivers, making the water very bitter and killing many people.
Rev. 8:12: “The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark. A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night.”
The fourth trumpet is the removal of one-third of the earth’s light. So the first four trumpet judgments saw a reduction by one-third of everything that is vital to life on earth: vegetation, salt water, fresh water, and sunlight. This is the end of the “easy part.”
Revelation 8:13 describes that after the plague of the fourth trumpet, an angel will fly through the midst of heaven calling out “Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels!” If the first seven seals and the first four trumpets weren’t enough to shake the remaining humans from their apathy and disbelief, these next three should really get some people’s attention.
Revelation 9:1-12 explains the terrifying, fifth trumpet judgment. With the trumpet blast sounded by the fifth angel, an angel is given the key to the Abyss. The smoke rising from the Abyss will darken the sun and the sky. Out of the smoke, locusts that have the power to sting like scorpions will come down onto the earth. The Bible says that the locusts will look like horses prepared for battle, that on their heads they will wear something akin to gold crowns, and that they will have faces that look human, with hair like a woman’s and teeth like a lion’s, and breastplates like iron. They will not be allowed to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. But this will be no ordinary scorpion sting! No one will die from the stings, but the Bible says the locusts will be given power to torture man for five months. It also says that men will long for death, but it will elude them.
The sixth trumpet finds a voice saying, “Loose the four angels who are bound in the great river Euphrates.” These angels (demons) will be given permission to kill one third of mankind. One-third. Try to imagine that. How many people live in your household?
Rev. 9:14: [The voice] said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” And the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind.
Then, the seventh trumpet simply initiates the seven bowl judgments (or vial judgments) and the beginning of the second half of the Tribulation, also known as the Great Tribulation. With these judgments, the wrath of God will be completed (Rev. 15:1).
When the first angel pours out his bowl, ugly and painful sores will break out on the people who have the mark of the beast and worship his image, Revelation 16:2. The pouring out of the second angel’s bowl will turn the sea into blood like that of a dead man, and everything in the sea will die, Revelation 16:3. Then the third angel will pour out his bowl, and all of the water in all of the springs and rivers will turn to blood, Revelation 16:4. When the fourth angel pours out his bowl, the sun will be given power to scorch people with fire, Revelation 16:5. At this point, the people whom these plagues affect will curse God rather than repent and praise Him. How hardened their hearts will be, Revelation 16:9!
When the fifth angel pours out his bowl, the antichrist’s throne and kingdom will be plunged into complete darkness, Revelation 16:10. Then, the sixth angel will pour his bowl out on the river Euphrates, and it will be completely dried up, making way for the kings from the East (the Orient) to come preparing to fight the battle of Armageddon, Revelation 16:12. Then the last angel will pour our his bowl on the earth, and a loud voice will come from the throne saying, “It is done!” Then there will be an earthquake so great, according to the Bible, that no earthquake like it has ever occurred since man has been on the earth. Every island and mountain will pass away. Hailstones weighing over one hundred pounds each will fall upon men, and again, they will curse God, Revelation 17:21.
After this judgment, the destruction of the Harlot (the one-world-religion) and of Babylon follow, and then the battle of Armegeddon will take place. It is during this battle that Jesus returns to the earth with His church to conquer the earth, and He will reign here as King for a thousand years, Revelation 17,18 and 19.
The pouring out of the seventh angel’s bowl concludes the wrath of God on the earth. It is hard to believe that there are probably people alive today who will live through this horrible, unthinkable time in the earth’s history. It truly is not unrealistic to think that the Tribulation might be drawing to a close. The stage is being set everyday for fulfillment of the events that will occur during the Tribulation.
The realization of the carnage the earth will see during the Tribulation caused me to put some things in perspective. I’m no longer so worried about having enough for retirement as I am doing my part to show God’s love to a lost world. Our time is so short!
Briefly, let’s look at some of the factors that tell us the time is short:
· Growing unrest in the Middle East.
· Movement of society toward an electronic banking system.
· Technology that would allow a chip to be implanted in the forehead or hand for identification purposes.
· Growing desire of the Jewish people to rebuild the Temple.
· Increased interest in a single world religion.
· Increased interest in a single world government.
· Increased persecution of Christians.
Read Revelation for yourself and become acquainted with the judgments that the inhabitants of the earth will suffer during the Tribulation. Then, next time you are visiting with a lost friend or relative, ask yourself if it is worth it to risk waiting another day before you share the Lord’s love with them. Begin praying now that God will make their hearts receptive to His Word and that He will open the door for you to share His story at just the right time.