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| Earl Gillespie |
A Study of The Book of Revelation
The Judgement of an Angry God
Revelation 16:16-21
It has
been said that there is nothing new under the sun, that history repeats itself and each repetious cycle the actions intensify. If this is
true then the events taking place today intensified could represent the events
predicted in our study of Revelation 16.
A new
sickness has begun to permeate the streets of some American cities. Those that are infected with this sickness
that rots the skin of the body from the inside out are reported to be drug
users. Gangrene abscesses appear on the
arms and legs that the person’s muscles, tendons and bones can become exposed. The smell of rotting flesh fills the treatment
room and there to be no cure for this painful and smelly way to die.
A great ball of fire streaked across the Texas sky during the
first week of April in 2012, much to the surprise of thousands of people who
witnessed it. It was so bright that it
looked "like a little piece of the sun falling," Since that incident was reported there has
been many more reports of fire falling from the sky in the US and Russia.
A large and powerful earthquake struck on September 24, 2013
in a remote, mountainous region of Pakistan. The quake measured 7.7 on the
Richter Scale; that is a very large earthquake. It struck in Pakistan’s
Balochistan region, its largest but least populated province. What is outstanding about this earthquake is new island was formed from a
“mud volcano” on the sea floor following the quake.
Let's
began by painting a word-picture of that great gathering for the great battle: “The
Heathen rage, and the people’s mind are filled with vain things. . . The
Kings, the presidents, the leaders of the earth set themselves up, and take counsel
together, against the Lord (His Word) and against His anointed, saying, Let us
break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the
heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision (confusion)” (Psalm
2:1-4). Read the
entire second Psalm for the picture of that great
day when the armies of Christ and Antichrist meet around Jerusalem in the valley of
Armageddon. In verse 15 John gives a solemn warning that is applicable to any
event that reference the return of Christ. “Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed
is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and
they see his shame.” Why is this strange announcement here?
This is
Jesus making this announcement.
These words sound like the words which Jesus Christ our Lord spoke to his disciples and to the
Church concerning the Rapture, but since the Church was raptured almost seven years previous to this Scripture, how
does this announcement apply here? For whom is Jesus coming? Revelation 15:2
gives a picture of the group for whom Jesus is coming at this stage in the
pouring out of the seven vials.
During
the reign of Antichrist, not all will bow down and worship him, nor
will all receive his mark. Most of those who refuse to do so will be killed, but
some will live through it all, up to the pouring out of the seventh vial. It is for these
faithful ones that Jesus comes just before the great Battle of Armageddon
begins. They will be supernaturally removed from the earth, and those who have been killed will be raised
and given a new body. Revelation 6:9-11 gives a picture of these martyrs
- but they must be faithful unto the end if
they would be in that number (Matthew 24:13). Final judgment cannot be poured
out until every righteous one is out of the range of God’s fury. It was
thus in the days of the flood. Not one drop of rain fell until Noah was in
the ark and “the Lord shut the door” (Genesis 7:1-16). It was likewise in the
days of Sodom. Lot was a
just (righteous) man (II Peter 2:6-8), and God could not destroy Sodom until
Lot was safely outside the city. Read the entire
nineteenth chapter of Genesis, noting especially verse 22: “ Haste thee, escape
thither; for I cannot do any
thing till thou be come thither!”
We will continue to teach that The
Church - the Bride of Christ - will not go through one day of the Great
Tribulation (Revelation 3:10; 4:1-3). So it will be in the darkest hour of all
human history . . . every God-fearing person must be removed before Almighty God thrusts in the sharp sickle (the Word) to reap
the earth. “And He gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew
Tongue Armageddon ” (Revelation 16:16). Armageddon means the Mount of Megiddo
, which takes in the plain of Jezreel, the great valley that runs through the middle of the Holy Land from the
Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River. It is approximately two hundred miles
long and ten miles wide. The name comes from a Hebrew root which means “to cut
off ,” and that is exactly what God will do in the day of judgement. This
valley has been a place of slaughter down through the ages . It was the great
battlefield of the Old Testament. Judges 5:19 tells us that “the kings came and
fought . . . by the waters of Megiddo .” II Chronicles
35:22 tells us that “Josiah came to fight in the valley of Megiddo.” The sixth vial brings
all the kings of earth, with their armies, to the valley of slaughter.
All is now ready for the last vial to be
poured out . What a sight!
Jerusalem is now surrounded by armies; there are millions of soldiers with their (Kings)
generals. They are determined to wipe the names of God and his Word (Bible) from the earth
and prevert the memory of man. What a deluge of blood they are to enter. Two
hundred miles of blood - six feet deep and ten miles wide (Revelation 14:20).
THE SEVENTH
VIAL
Revelation
16:17-21
Revelation
16:17-21 And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the
air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne,
saying, It is done. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there
was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so
great. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the
nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup
of the wine of the fierceness of
his wrath. And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. And there fell upon men a great hail out of
heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because
of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.
And the
seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great
voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, IT IS DONE!
From the seat of the Judge of all, we have the
announcement that it is done. This is the climax!
When
Jesus paid the supreme price for the redemption of sinners, just before
He died He cried, “IT IS FINISHED!” On the Cross He finished redemption of the
soul. Nothing more can be added. Redemption of the soul is complete in Jesus.
And now, the judgment of the earth is done. It, too, is finished!
Jesus Christ is about to rid the earth of the dragon, the
Beast, and the false prophets. The The
contents of the little
seven-sealed book is completed. Every minute detail has been carried
out and the whole creation at last will stop “groaning and travailing in pain ”(Romans 8:22). IT IS DONE!
HALLELUJAH! The events which follow the pouring out of the seventh vial
are without parallel in human history. Never has there been such calamity,
confusion, chaos, discomfiture, discord, agitation,
upheaval and such cataclysmic manifestations upon this earth as will be when the seventh vial is emptied! The
air will go into mighty convulsions. There will be lightnings, thunders, and
voices. This vial is poured into the air;
the air is first affected, and then the judgment moves down to earth.
The prophets foretold these days when the heavens would undergo terrific judgments. Read Psalm 102:25,26 and
Isaiah 51:6. Matthew 24:29 and Hebrews 12:25-26 refer to the shaking of the
powers of the heavens. Peter tells us that the heavens shall pass away with a great
noise (explosion) and the elements will melt with fervent heat (II Peter
3:10-12). (This refers to the first and second heavens, where the clouds and stars
are, not to the abode of God, which is the third Heaven - II Corinthians
12:1-4). Isaiah says that the Lord of hosts shall visit “with thunder, and with
earthquake, and great noise, and with storm and tempest, and the flame of
devouring fire ” (Isaiah 29:6). Psalm 50:3-4 tells us, “Our God shall come, and
shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very
tempestuous round about Him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the
earth, that He may judge His people .” In Revelation 17 the kingdom of Satan is
crumbling. He has been prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:2) for six
thousand years, but his rule is about over.
The elements have turned on him and the air is turned into liquid fire! The situation on earth is no better: “And there were
voices, and thunders, and lightnings;
and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the
earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great .” This is the time of which Isaiah was speaking when he said the
Lord would arise “to shake terribly the earth” (Isaiah 2:19-21). Haggai
recorded it in these words:“Yet once . . . and I will shake the heavens, and the
earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and I will shake all nations . . .”
(Haggai 2:6, 7).
Revelation
16:19 gives us some idea of the terror and the greatness of this
earthquake: “And the great city
was divided into three parts, and the cities of
the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give
unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath.” Please note that the
“great city” (Jerusalem) is shaken into three parts; and that all the other
cities are reduced to total ruin. Can you imagine an earthquake so great
and so powerful that it levels all the cities of the
earth? Jerusalem is now protected from total ruin because it is in part possessed and
appropriated as being the Lord’s (Revelation 11:1,2). This earthquake will be
so powerful that the Mount of Olives will break in half, with one half moving
toward the east and the other toward the west. Read Zechariah 14:4; 13:8-9.
Here we have two parts of the land cut off,
destroyed . . . one part is preserved . . . “I will bring
the third part through the fire .” I believe this verse
refers to the time of our Scripture in Revelation 16:19. All the cities of
earth are ruined in this gigantic earthquake . . . yes, even those great and powerful
cities of Rome, Cairo, London, and New York! Can you imagine the death and
destruction of such an hour?
This is it!
This is the end of the systems of the devil and his henchmen . . . Verses 20
and 21:“ And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. And there fell upon men a great
hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God
because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great
.” Men must spend billions of dollars on bombs, planes, ships and guns in
order to carry on war;.but not so with God. He uses mountains for tanks and
islands for torpedoes!
In
chapter 6, the mountains moved out of their places, and when men prayed
and begged the mountains to fall on them and hide them “from the face of Him
who sitteth on the throne ,” they refused to obey; but now it is different. The
Tribulation is about over. If those days were not shortened, no flesh
would be saved; but for the elect’s sake God will shorten them. Jeremiah
4:23-26: “I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the
heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and
all the hills moved lightly. I beheld,
and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. I
beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of The Lord,
and by His fierce anger .” But that is not all: From the sky fell hailstones
weighing about a talent. Talents varied in weight at the time of the writing of
Revelation. The Jewish talent of silver was 115 pounds, while all
others were 135 pounds. An Egyptian talent was 86 pounds. In Antioch, they used
talents of 390 pounds. So, whatever the weight, these hailstones are tremendous,
even if they weigh only the smallest talent. Have you ever been in a
hailstorm? The largest hail I have ever seen was about an inch and a half in
diameter . . . about the size of a hen egg.
I cannot imagine pieces of ice that will weigh between one hundred and four hundred
pounds, falling out of the clouds! Imagine the chaos this will bring upon this old earth! But what effect
did this great deluge of hail have upon men? “And men blasphemed God because
of the plague of hail.”
It would
seem that by this time, someone would be praying . . . but no,
they have sold out to sin and the devil for eternity, and there is no repentance
for them! These people who are cursing God in Revelation 16:21 are those
who chose Antichrist instead of Christ. They accepted the mark of the
Beast and worshipped him. These people were marked to receive the outpouring of the vials of God’s
wrath, and the first vial covered them with vile, running, odorous sores.
Then the sea was changed into the blood of a dead man and every living thing in
it died. This means that every beach and shoreline was filled with dead,
rotting carcasses. What a foul time that will be! But that is not all: In the midst
of all this, they are given nothing but blood
to drink. All the fountains of water are turned into blood! Their misery is then
increased by heat which is so intense that it literally blisters their skin and
burns them into such agony that they curse God because of the heat. God then blacks
out the universe, and in the total darkness they gnaw their tongues for pain.
What agony!
But the
worst is yet to come: From the removing of the first seal in
Revelation 6:1 to the outpouring of the last vial in Revelation 16:17 every phase of
judgment becomes more and more severe. Undoubtedly the seventh vial is what
Heaven saw when it was silent for the space of half an hour (Revelation 8:1).
Giant hailstones fell from Heaven . . . pieces of ice weighing more than a hundred
pounds each. No wonder there would no flesh be left on earth if those days were not
shortened! But thank God, the born again will not be here, for we
will be in the air with our blessed Lord.
I Just don't want to be here..............
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