A Study of The Book of Revelation, Part #55

Earl Gillespie

A Study of The Book of Revelation

THE FIFTH VIAL

Revelation 16:10-11: 10.

The angry God concept is not supported by all Christians, yet the Bible speaks very clearly of the anger of God. The possibility of God pouring out his angry should be enough to teach us to fear Him.  It is necessary in order to draw members into the church ministers are taught to speak of God's love rather than his anger of fear.  The reason being, is not to frighten people away from the church.  Psalms 86:11  Teach me thy way, O LORD; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name.

We can spiritualize the events of Revelation, but it make sense to me that once the true church is caught up and the Holy Spirit is taken out with the church, the fury of the devil and the anger of God will clash.  Those that are left behind will become pawns in a supernatural battle of good and evil.

Verse 10, And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,

Verse 11, And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.

You can see from this plague that all seven vials are poured out in rapid succession during a very short period of time. The people still have their sores. They received the sores when the first vial was poured out. Now the fifth vial is poured out, and the sores are still with them. Get this picture if you can: First, men who have the mark of the Beast are covered with running, grievous ” sores. Next, the sea turns to the blood of a dead man, and all life in the sea dies. Then, all the fresh water is turned to blood and people have only blood to drink. To make conditions worse, the sun then burns men so that they are scorched with blistering heat. God then blacks out the entire universe, and people move about in gross darkness. Their pain is so unbearable they gnaw their tongues and curse God! Isaiah 60:2  For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.

Joel 2:1-2  Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand;  A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.

Joel 2:31  The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.

Mark 13:24-27  But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, And the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.

When God pour out his anger upon this earth I want to be gone!

There will be total darkness over all the earth. There will be no moon, no sun, no stars - only inky, black, total darkness. There are some who spiritualize the darkness and symbolize the gnawing of tongues because of pain. But as always, unless God definitely tells us that it is symbolic or spiritual, we need to read it and take it literally, just as we accept the virgin birth, the crucifixion, the shed blood, the resurrection. we do not spiritualize those things; why should we spiritualize the darkness, the blood, the sores - and the fact that people will be in such agony they will chew their tongues and the pain will not be noticed, compared with the other torment they will be enduring at that time! The last time the entire earth was totally blacked out was when Jesus hung on the cross.  He was paying the sin debt of all humanity.  He took the sinner’s place. outer darkness forever. Jesus suffered all the agony, pain and misery of an eternal hell for you and me. No, He did not go to the fires of hell, but He suffered all the agony, even the darkness.  The events that took place after the crucifician was just a taste of God's anger. 

Verse 11,  is very needful and enlightening. These people who are in such agony do not fall on their faces and beg God for mercy. They curse God and blaspheme His name. They do not repent. These people have been sent strong delusions. They believed The Lie - they must be damned.

THE SIXTH VIAL

Revelation 16:12:

Revelation 16:12  And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.

There is only one “great river Euphrates.” Since the sores were literal, the blood, the heat and the darkness were literal, why should not this be a literal river?  It is! You will recall that God on one occasion rolled back the Red Sea (and on another occasion, the River Jordan), in order to prepare a way for His people.  These miracles were a blessing to God’s people - but they also brought judgment upon the enemy. When God rolled back the waters of the Red Sea, He prepared the way of deliverance for Israel, which also was a way of destruction for Pharaoh and his mighty army, who were trying to destroy Israel. When God rolled back the River Jordan, He prepared the way for the destruction of the wicked city of Jericho and the giant confederation of the Canaanites.

The Euphrates River has been a great dividing line for ages, dividing the countries of the east from those of the west in that part of the world. This river is 1780 miles long, from 300 to 1200 yards wide, and its depth ranges from ten to thirty feet. Most of the year it is even larger, depending upon the rainfall. It was the boundary of Solomon’s kingdom. It is spoken of as the  northeast limit of the land promised to Israel (Genesis 15:18; Deuteronomy 11:24; Joshua 1:4). History testifies to the great hindrance this river has afforded to armies down through the ages. The drying up of the Euphrates, as set forth in our present study, will prepare the way and open the door to allow the gigantic eastern armies to cross the country and assemble around the Antichrist.  This will be the “great day of God Almighty” Isaiah saw this day when he said, “With His mighty wind shall He shake His hand over the river (Euphrates) and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dry shod .” Read carefully Zechariah 10:11 and Jeremiah 51:36.

At the drying up of the river, John sees something else: In I Kings 22:20-22 we read, “And the Lord said, Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead? And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner. And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the Lord, and said, I will persuade him. And the Lord said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets . And he said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so.”  The Lord gave permission for a lying spirit to be in the mouth of Ahab’s prophets. They prophesied lies to him, he went up to Ramoth-gilead, was killed, and the dogs licked his blood. A spirit from hell was allowed to go forth to inflame and deceive Ahab and to cause him to walk directly into a death trap. So it will be with the kings of earth when the three evil spirits shall deceive them and bring them in for the battle of “God Almighty.”

In the case of Ahab it was “one evil spirit,” but in our Scripture in Revelation it is “three unclean spirits ,” which are termed the “spirits of demons” and are likened unto frogs - loathsome, filthy, disgusting, bred out of the quagmire of the universe. These are sent out on their terrible mission. THREE UNCLEAN SPIRITS

Revelation 16:13-16:

Verse 13, And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out

of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet

Verse 14, For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.

Verse 15, Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.

Verse 16, And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.

At this period of the reign of the Antichrist, all the kings of earth have bowed to his commands and are allied with him in all-out war to crush the remnant of Israel who have refused to accept the false messiah or to receive his mark. In order to congregate all these kings and their armies in one place at one time for the last great slaughter, God does two things:

1. He dries up the great river Euphrates that would hinder their movements toward Jerusalem.

2. He allows three demon spirits to go out and draw the kings and their armies to Jerusalem for the battle.

God has not changed since Old Testament days.These spirits have power to work miracles - satanic miracles - and through these miracles the multitudes who are following the Antichrist will be deceived. Through the power and unusual miracles of the spirits, all the followers of the satanic trinity will be stirred up to declare war on the Lamb and His followers who are in Jerusalem.  The whole satanic system responds , and unites to march to Jerusalem for the great battle - and they will find the going easy since Euphrates, the great natural barrier, is dried up.

This is not the only mention of these evil spirits. Paul warns that in the last days seducing spirits will come, teaching lies. Read the account in I Timothy 4:1-6. With holy irony the Holy Spirit dictates these memorable words to Joel: “Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong. Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord” (Joel 3:9-11).