And
I saw another sign in heaven, great
and marvellous, seven angels having
the seven last plagues; for in them
is filled up the wrath of God. And I
saw as it were a sea of glass mingled
with fire: and them that had gotten
the victory over the beast, and over
his image, and over his mark, and
over the number of his name, stand on
the sea of glass, having the harps of
God. And they sing the song of Moses
the servant of God, and the song of
the Lamb, saying, Great and
marvellous are thy works, Lord God
Almighty; just and true are thy ways,
thou King of saints.
{15:1} I
saw seven angels holding seven bowls,
these bowls contain seven lastplagues.
These seven judgments will serve as
the winepress of God’s
wrath. These plagues are called
“last,” because they follow
the seven trumpets (seven first
plagues) and they will utterly crush
the wicked and destroy the planet as
well. {2} Then, I saw
a great expanse supporting the throne
of God. It looked like a sea of
glass mixed with sparkling fire.[158]
Standing beside the sea of glass were
the 144,000. They had been
victorious over the beast and his
image and over the number of his
name. They had faithfully
accomplished the mission given to
them and they had been taken to
Heaven on the 1,265th day of the
Great Tribulation. They held
harps that God had given to them {3} and they
sang the song of Moses, the servant
of God, and the song of the
Lamb: “Great and marvelous
are your deeds, Lord God
Almighty. Your ways are just
and true, King of the Ages.”
Revelation
15:4-6
Who
shall not fear thee, O Lord, and
glorify thy name? for thou only art
holy: for all nations shall come and
worship before thee; for thy
judgments are made manifest. And
after that I looked, and, behold, the
temple of the tabernacle of the
testimony in heaven was opened: And
the seven angels came out of the
temple, having the seven plagues,
clothed in pure and white linen, and
having their breasts girded with
golden girdles.{4} Referring
to the wicked who were about to be
crushed in the winepress of
God’s wrath, the 144,000 sang,
“Who will not fear you, O Lord,
and bring glory to your name? For you
alone are holy. People from all
nations will come and worship you,
for your righteous acts of vengeance
have been revealed.” {5} After the
144,000 finished singing, I looked
and the temple, that is, the
tabernacle containing the Ark of the
Testimony, was opened. {6} Out of the
temple came the seven angels who
stand before God.[159] They
were carrying seven bowls which
contain seven plagues. They
were dressed in clean, shining linen
and wore golden sashes around their
chests. Their clothing and
golden sashes indicated they were
sent from Almighty God, sent on an
honorable and righteous
mission. They were commissioned
by the Creator of Heaven and Earth to
avenge the great suffering of His
saints.” Jesus said, “
‘It is mine to avenge; I will
repay.” “The Lord
will judge [avenge]
his people.’ It is a
dreadful thing to fall into the hands
of the living God.”[160]
The
Rules of Interpretation
Consider how the Rules of
Interpretation (discussed in the
Introduction) are observed in this
prophecy: Rule One says
an apocalyptic prophecy has a
beginning point and ending point in
time and the events within the
prophecy occur in the order
given.” This prophecy
conforms to Rule One because
chronological order is self evident.
God
sends an outright demand
(first angel’s message)
God
sends an inflammatory
declaration (second
angel’s message)
God
sends an ultimatum (third
angel’s message)
God’s
offer of salvation comes to
an end (end of salvation)
The
victory celebration of the
144,000
Rule
Two says a fulfillment
only occurs when all of the
specifications are met, and this
includes the order stated in the
prophecy. Even though the three
angel’s messages have been
understood for a while, they have not
been set before mankind as a testing
truth. The elements described
in this prophecy have not
begun. The judgment of the
living does not begin until the
censer is cast down. Babylon
does not rise until the Great
Tribulation begins and Lucifer does
not appear until the fifth trumpet
sounds. Finally, the 144,000
have not begun their ministry.
Therefore, this prophecy has not been
fulfilled.
Rule
Three says that
apocalyptic language can be literal,
analogous or symbolic. To reach
the intended meaning of a prophecy,
the reader must consider (a) the
context, (b) the use of parallel
language in the Bible, and (c) if an
element is thought to be symbolic,
the Bible must interpret the symbol
with a relevant text.
The language used in this prophecy is
not symbolic because there are no
relevant texts defining a
symbol. On the other hand, we
do find an extensive use of analogous
and literal language. For
example, the three angels orbiting
the Earth represent three messages
from God that will be heard around
the world. The three
angel’s messages are
self-explanatory once we understand
the setting in which they are
delivered. The scene where
Jesus waves His sickle over the Earth
because the harvest is ripe uses
language that is analogous with a
harvest. The “winepress of
God’s wrath” is easy to
understand. Grapes are crushed
in a winepress and indeed, God’s
wrath will crush the wicked who live
during the seven bowls. Rule Four is
not used in this prophecy.
For
further discussion on this
assertion, please see pages
22-24 in my book, A
Study on the Seven Trumpets,
Two Witnesses and Four
Beasts or you may
freely download the article
at: http://www.wake-up.org/Revelation/724Book.pdf. Return
Ezekiel 28:14; Daniel 10:13 Note:
Although the Bible does not
state a number, this author
concludes there were two
chief princes in Heaven,
e.g., two guardian cherubs
– Michael and
Lucifer. After the
expulsion of Lucifer, it is
understood that Gabriel took
his place. See
also John 12:31; 14:30; Luke 1:19. Return
We
know that Eden is called,
“the garden of
God.” (Ezekiel 28:13) We
also know that Eden remained
on Earth after Adam and Eve
were cast out.
See Genesis
3:22-24, 4:16 and
compare with Ezekiel
31:16-18.
At the flood, this author
assumes that God took Eden to
Heaven to save it for the
Earth made new.
Compare Revelation
22:1-3 with Genesis 2:10.
It is possible that the same Tree
of Life that Adam and Eve
once enjoyed will be found in
the New Earth. Return
Aleksandr
Solzhenitsyn, National
Review, July 22,
1983 Return
See
Exodus 5. For a discussion on
this topic, please see
Chapter 9 “What Happened
to the Lord’s Day?”
in my book, Jesus:
The Alpha and The Omega or
you can freely download this
article at: http://www.wake-up.org/Alpha/Chapter9.htm. Return
This
date is calculated. In
keeping with God’s use
of one-third and two-thirds
during the seven trumpets, it
is assumed that Jesus
protects Earth from Lucifer
and his angels by keeping
them in the Abyss for
two-thirds of the 1,335
days. If so, the devil
and his angels will appear on
the 891st day, a new
moon. Five months of
torment amounts to 148 days
counting inclusively (29.53
days per month x 5 months =
148 days). Return
