This is the first installment of the study of the Seals, trumpets and bowl judgments. Please bear with me for a little bit of background regarding this time of wrath before getting directly into the seals, trumpets and bowl judgments themselves.
The seals, trumpets and bowl judgments, are three sets of seven judgments that God is going to use to fulfill the long prophesied Day of the Lord, which both the OT prophets and the NT apostles wrote about. This time of judgment will take place in conjunction with Daniels prophecy regarding that Ruler, that antichrist being revealed and the seven year treaty that he establishes with Israel in fulfillment of the time that referred to as the day of the Lord and referred to by Isaiah as “The day of vengeance of our God” and which Jeramiah referred to as “The time of Jacob’s trouble as found in Isa.61:2 and Jer.30:7, respectively.
During this time, God will also be pouring out his wrath upon the rest of the Christ rejecting world, as described in Daniel 2:31-45. Without getting into an entire study on this this part of Daniel, in summary, Nebuchadnezzar is given a dream of an enormous statue representing the Gentile kingdoms of Babylon, Medo/Persia, Greece, Rome and a revised or extended Roman Empire represented by the future ten-toed kingdom made of partly iron and partly baked clay, which demonstrates that because of this mixture of people (iron and clay), that this last kingdom will not have the same power as it did when it was pure iron. The Rock, which is symbolic for Chirst, falls on the feet of the statue smashing it to pieces like chaff on a threshing floor, which is blown away by a summer wind without leaving a trace. The Rock then becomes a huge mountain (government) which fills the whole earth.
The statue represents all human Gentile governments, with it being smashed to pieces with the wind blowing them away without leaving a trace, which represents the dismantling of all human government never to be reestablished again. It is through the meting out of the seals, trumpets and bowl judgments that this dismantling of worldly governments will take place leading up to the battle of Armageddon. The Rock that becomes a huge mountain and fills the whole earth is representing the establishing of Christ’s millennial kingdom which will be the only kingdom on this earth during that time, where the Lord will rule from Jerusalem from the throne of king David, according to the scriptures. – Luke 1:32-33
The seals, trumpets and bowls will also result in the decimating of the majority of the earths population. There are only two places within the description of the seals, trumpets and bowl judgments where a percentage is given of the resulting fatalities, which at the 4[SUP]th[/SUP] seal and the 6[SUP]th[/SUP] trumpet, a fourth and a third, respectively. With just these two alone, over half the earth’s population will have been killed during just first 3 ½ years of Daniel’s seven year period and that’s not including trumpets 1, 2 and 3 nor the fatalities that will result from the bowl judgments. There are those expositors who discount the first five seals as belonging to the wrath of God and this because of the annoncement made after the 6[SUP]th[/SUP] seal is openened which says:
“For the great day of Their wrath has come, and who is able to withstand it?”
Because of this, they only consider everyting that happens after the announcement as being wrath. At the same time there are others who only consider the bowl judgments as only representing God’s wrath, both of these being false. That the seals are also apart of God’s wrath can be deduced from the following:
1). The great day of their wrath has come
The expositors who claim that God’s wrath does not start until after the announcement are not taking into consideration that the words “has come” are in the Greek aorist tense, which means that the announcement of wrath is referring to God’s wrath in its entirety. Therefore the announcement includes the events that will have previously taken place, namely the first six seals, as well as the wrath represented by the trumpets and bowl judgments which follow the announcement:
2). The Lamb/Jesus is the One opening the seals
Revelation states that Jesus is the One who “tramples the wine press of the wrath of God Almighty.” That Jesus is the One opening the seals; He is therefore responsible for the fatalities resulting from the seals, trumpets and bowl judgments. Regarding this and as was previously stated, the culmination of the 4[SUP]th[/SUP] seal will result in a fourth of the earths population being killed, which based on the current population, would be over 1.7 billion people. And that is just the results of the first four seals, with Jesus as the one initating it and therefore the One responsible for the resulting fatalities.
Part II and III of the first seal to follow.
The seals, trumpets and bowl judgments, are three sets of seven judgments that God is going to use to fulfill the long prophesied Day of the Lord, which both the OT prophets and the NT apostles wrote about. This time of judgment will take place in conjunction with Daniels prophecy regarding that Ruler, that antichrist being revealed and the seven year treaty that he establishes with Israel in fulfillment of the time that referred to as the day of the Lord and referred to by Isaiah as “The day of vengeance of our God” and which Jeramiah referred to as “The time of Jacob’s trouble as found in Isa.61:2 and Jer.30:7, respectively.
During this time, God will also be pouring out his wrath upon the rest of the Christ rejecting world, as described in Daniel 2:31-45. Without getting into an entire study on this this part of Daniel, in summary, Nebuchadnezzar is given a dream of an enormous statue representing the Gentile kingdoms of Babylon, Medo/Persia, Greece, Rome and a revised or extended Roman Empire represented by the future ten-toed kingdom made of partly iron and partly baked clay, which demonstrates that because of this mixture of people (iron and clay), that this last kingdom will not have the same power as it did when it was pure iron. The Rock, which is symbolic for Chirst, falls on the feet of the statue smashing it to pieces like chaff on a threshing floor, which is blown away by a summer wind without leaving a trace. The Rock then becomes a huge mountain (government) which fills the whole earth.
The statue represents all human Gentile governments, with it being smashed to pieces with the wind blowing them away without leaving a trace, which represents the dismantling of all human government never to be reestablished again. It is through the meting out of the seals, trumpets and bowl judgments that this dismantling of worldly governments will take place leading up to the battle of Armageddon. The Rock that becomes a huge mountain and fills the whole earth is representing the establishing of Christ’s millennial kingdom which will be the only kingdom on this earth during that time, where the Lord will rule from Jerusalem from the throne of king David, according to the scriptures. – Luke 1:32-33
The seals, trumpets and bowls will also result in the decimating of the majority of the earths population. There are only two places within the description of the seals, trumpets and bowl judgments where a percentage is given of the resulting fatalities, which at the 4[SUP]th[/SUP] seal and the 6[SUP]th[/SUP] trumpet, a fourth and a third, respectively. With just these two alone, over half the earth’s population will have been killed during just first 3 ½ years of Daniel’s seven year period and that’s not including trumpets 1, 2 and 3 nor the fatalities that will result from the bowl judgments. There are those expositors who discount the first five seals as belonging to the wrath of God and this because of the annoncement made after the 6[SUP]th[/SUP] seal is openened which says:
“For the great day of Their wrath has come, and who is able to withstand it?”
Because of this, they only consider everyting that happens after the announcement as being wrath. At the same time there are others who only consider the bowl judgments as only representing God’s wrath, both of these being false. That the seals are also apart of God’s wrath can be deduced from the following:
1). The great day of their wrath has come
The expositors who claim that God’s wrath does not start until after the announcement are not taking into consideration that the words “has come” are in the Greek aorist tense, which means that the announcement of wrath is referring to God’s wrath in its entirety. Therefore the announcement includes the events that will have previously taken place, namely the first six seals, as well as the wrath represented by the trumpets and bowl judgments which follow the announcement:
2). The Lamb/Jesus is the One opening the seals
Revelation states that Jesus is the One who “tramples the wine press of the wrath of God Almighty.” That Jesus is the One opening the seals; He is therefore responsible for the fatalities resulting from the seals, trumpets and bowl judgments. Regarding this and as was previously stated, the culmination of the 4[SUP]th[/SUP] seal will result in a fourth of the earths population being killed, which based on the current population, would be over 1.7 billion people. And that is just the results of the first four seals, with Jesus as the one initating it and therefore the One responsible for the resulting fatalities.
Part II and III of the first seal to follow.