Segment VIII
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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)
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