Segment VIII

Censer Cast Down

The first declaration of sovereignty marks the beginning of the Great Tribulation: “Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightening and an earthquake. Then the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to sound them. The fist 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.” (Revelation 8:5-7)

Seventh Trumpet

The second declaration of sovereignty marks the end of God’s mercy and salvation and the beginning of the seven bowls: “The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever.” Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of the covenant. And there came flashes of lightening, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a great hailstorm.” (Revelation 11:15,19)

Seventh Bowl

The third declaration of sovereignty marks the end of 6,000 years of sin. The wicked will be destroyed and the land will rest from the works of sin for a Sabbath millennium. “The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, saying, “It is done!” Then there came flashes of lightening, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever occurred since man has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake. 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. Every island fled away and the mountains could not be found. From the sky huge hailstones of about a hundred pounds each fell upon men. And they cursed God on account of the plague of hail, because the plague was so terrible.” (Revelation 16:17-21)

After reviewing these passages, it is clear that the five physical events are not random in nature. In fact, they are identical in all three cases. Because the same events occur three times at strategic moments during the Great Tribulation, we know that Jesus is deliberately making a show of power to the people on Earth. Each declaration of power evidently destroys everything and everyone on Earth. Jesus will totally devastate the earth. It will be made uninhabitable, at the Second Coming. “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.” (Isaiah 13:9-11)

Summary

The breaking of the sixth seal will be a revelation of the glory of Jesus. He will have all power and authority. He will destroy His enemies and rescue His children. I can think of one more reason (and I am sure there are many more) why the sixth seal is a revelation of the glory of Jesus. Before I present this reason, let us review the setting.

Before sin began in Heaven, Jesus identified closely with the angels by living among them in the form of an angel. His name was Michael, the archangel. (For a more complete study on the subject of Michael, please see Bible study 3 in the Bible study room of this web site.)  Lucifer, the highest of created beings, became jealous of Michael because he wanted the position, worship and adoration that belonged to Michael. Because of jealousy, Lucifer became anti-Christ. A third of the angels listened to Lucifer’s misery and joined in his rebellion. At that time, the glory that belonged to Jesus was shrouded because He lived among the angels as one of them, that is, as their companion. (Hebrews 1:9) Thousands of years later, Jesus came to Earth to live among us in the form of a man. A few people received Him as Messiah, but most of the people rejected Him. “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.” (John 1:11) To the people on Earth who saw Him, He looked like a very ordinary man. (Isaiah 53:2) When Jesus was on Earth, the glory that belonged to Jesus was shrouded by His humanity. The purpose of the seven seals is to disclose Jesus. During the Great Tribulation, the glory of Jesus will be shrouded from mankind until He physically appears at the Second Coming. Jesus does not want His creatures worshiping His power, position, or glory! He does not want to be a superstar or an icon! Jesus wants to live among His created beings so that we can know and love God. The sixth seal is a revelation of Jesus’ glory and it proves forever that Jesus has the same glory and authority as the Father.

Artists depict Jesus on the cross wearing a loincloth because it would be too offensive to show what really happened. The Romans stripped criminals of all their clothing so that their shame would haunt them in the life hereafter. Jesus was willing to bear our shame. He was disrobed and publicly humiliated because He loved us enough to die in our place. Amazingly, Jesus will be disrobed once again! This time, there will be no shame. We will see Him for who He is – Almighty God. “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6) “Who is He, this King of glory? The Lord Almighty – He is the King of glory.” (Psalm 24:10) This is why the sixth seal is a revelation of the glory of Jesus.

Seal #7 – A Campaign of Knowledge – The Deity of Jesus Exposed

“When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in Heaven for about half an hour.” (Revelation 8:1)

Even though the sentence in Revelation 8:1 is part of the second apocalyptic prophecy in Revelation (7:1-8:1), the seventh seal will be discussed in this study segment because conceptually, the seven seals belong together. The seventh seal confuses many people because it seems disconnected from the first six seals. There is a good reason for this. Rule One of apocalyptic prophecy says, “Each apocalyptic prophecy has a beginning point and ending point in time and events occur in the order given.” We see this rule at work in the apocalyptic prophecy of the seven seals. Jesus was found worthy to receive the Book of Life in 1798, then He broke the first seal, then the second, etc. The first apocalyptic prophecy in Revelation begins with Revelation 4:1 (the beginning point in time for this prophecy is 1798) and this prophecy ends with the sixth seal, which is the Second Coming in Revelation 6:17 (the ending point in time for this prophecy). Because the next verse after Revelation 6:17 does not happen chronologically after the Second Coming, the order in Revelation’s text is broken. Therefore, according to Rule One, this forces the beginning of a new prophecy. In other words, the sealing of the 144,000 (Revelation 7:1) does not happen after the kings and generals of the Earth hide in caves and cry out for the mountains to fall on them, so Prophecy #2 begins with Revelation 7:1.

X= verse 8:1 – Seventh seal

Y= verse 8:2 – Seven trumpets begin – chronological order broken – Prophecy #3 begins

Look at this last chart above and notice how the second apocalyptic prophecy begins with Revelation 7:1 and it proceeds in chronological order through Revelation 8:1. Then in Revelation 8:2, the chronological order is broken and the third apocalyptic prophecy (the seven trumpets) begins.

Revelation 8:1 contains one short sentence describing the opening of the seventh seal. Of course, if you know nothing about the seals, the one sentence does not offer much. Centuries ago, when the Bible was divided into chapters and verses for purposes of reference and study, translators did not know what to do with the sentence describing the seventh seal. This one sentence does not fit within Revelation 7 that deals with the 144,000, and it does not belong with the seven trumpets. Since they could not physically relocate the sentence to the end of Chapter 6 so that the seventh seal would follow after the sixth seal, they decided to make this sentence the first verse of Chapter 8. (Of course, they did not know about the rules of interpretation because Daniel had not been unsealed, but to their credit, they did not tamper or altar the order of the text that John wrote! They did not move this one short sentence from its all-important location!)

The second prophecy in Revelation (Revelation 7:1 through 8:1) perfectly conforms to Rule One. There are three events in this prophecy. (See A, C, D in the next chart below) God put these events together in one apocalyptic story because the rules of interpretation produce a matrix. We have seen in our study on Daniel how the matrix provides solutions to timing that cannot be discovered otherwise and the same is true in Revelation. The rules produce the matrix and the matrix reveals the timing. Notice the chronological flow in the second apocalyptic prophecy.

Apocalyptic Prophecy #2: Revelation 7:1 to 8:1

Seals 4

A    ------ Great Tribulation ---------- B – C ---------- 1,000 Years ----------------- D

A.      The sealing of the 144,000 just before the global earthquake

B.      The Second Coming – sixth seal

C.      The numberless multitude that will come out of the Great Tribulation are seen standing before the throne in Heaven

D.      The seventh seal broken / Book of Life opened

After studying this last chart, you might ask, “How do we know the seventh seal is broken at the end of the millennium?” The answer might surprise you.

·        First, the Bible indicates the book of Life is separate and distinct from other books in Heaven.

·        Second, the Bible indicates the Book of Life is opened once, at the end of the thousand years. “And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.” (Revelation 20:12)

·        Third, evidence was presented in Segments I and II of this study showing why the Book of Life was sealed with seven seals. Therefore, the Book of Life is opened when the seventh seal is broken. 

·        Fourth, the seventh seal is broken open after the numberless multitude has been taken to Heaven and are seen standing around the throne. “After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands… Then one of the elders asked me, ‘These in white robes – who are they, and where did they come from?’ I answered, ‘Sir, you know.’ And he said, ‘These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed they robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.’” (Revelation 7:9,13, 14)

Therefore, the saints in verses 9-14 came out of the Great Tribulation and are seen standing around the throne. Then, the seventh seal is opened in verse 8:1. The location of verse 8:1 forces the seventh seal to be opened after the numberless multitude are in Heaven.

When we align the matrix of events that Rule One produces, the opening of the book of Life occurs at the end of the millennium and the breaking of the seventh seal occurs after the Second Coming, so the seventh seal has to be broken at the end of the millennium. This conclusion harmonizes with the idea that the Book of Life is sealed until the end of the thousand years. Once the seventh seal is broken, everything written in the Book of Life will be exposed! “If anyone’s name was not found written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” (Revelation 20:15)

:: page 1 :: page 3 ::