                   |
The Seven Bowls of Wrath
 The First Bowl. (Revelation 16:2)
Image Credit: GPOnline.com
Commentary:
God, through His angelic messenger, is deliberately targeting all
people on the earth who have accepted the Mark
of the Beast
(the coming
Global Dictator). Many will take this identifying mark out of economic
necessity (Rev. 13:16-18). But accepting the mark amounts to a
wholesale endorsement of this anti-God, anti-Christ, malevolent ruler.
Earlier in the book of Revelation, an angel called out that anyone
worshiping the Beast and
his image, receiving a mark on his forehead or
hand, would drink of the wine of the wrath of God, and would be
tormented with fire and
brimstone forever and ever (Rev. 14:9-11). This
loathsome sore described in Rev. 16:2 is the first installment of the
horrible future that awaits all who worship the Beast and
partake of his identification
system.
The Second Bowl. (Revelation
16:3)
Image Credit: The
Babylon Bee
Commentary: Environmentalists will howl at God's destruction of marine life in all the oceans of earth. They will be unwilling to admit that their own evil acts and those of the entire world are the reason for the devastation brought about by God Himself. Imagine the stench of all the oceans and beaches around the world. And think of all who make their living by fishing. There will be no tuna, no halibut, no cod, no mackerel, no lobster, and no anchovies for anyone to sell to restaurants and fish markets anywhere in the world. There will be loss of income from jobs and starvation in maritime districts. Along seashores and in bays and harbors a great stench will arise, not only from rotting fish, but from decomposing blood. The Third Bowl. (Revelation
16:4-7)
Image Credit: The
Daily Mail
Commentary: This means that all
fresh-water sources of drinking water will be contaminated with blood by the third messenger
pouring out his bowl upon rivers and springs of water. This includes
not only surface rivers, but subterranean springs of water, the source
of the water of many streams and rivers. The messenger of the waters, the third messenger, specifically attributes this horrific
judgment to the righteous judgment of God. The people of the earth
had poured out the blood of set apart people and God's spokesmen
all over the earth. Now these murderers were themselves being given blood
to drink as a Divine judgment. No doubt many will die of thirst or
disease all across the earth from this horrendous plague. But as the messenger stated, "They deserve it!" The altar up
in heaven agreed with the third messenger, stating, "Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are your judgments!"
(For more references to the altar up in heaven, see the following: Rev.
6:9; 8:3, 5; 9:13; 14:18; 16:7.) As with the plague affecting the seas,
this one will result in a great stench everywhere on land there is a
body of water. Fish will rise to the surface and decompose. Anyone who
has driven near a lagoon processing the run-off from the kill floor of
a slaughter-house will know by experience the great stench that will
rise anywhere near a pond or lake or river. The states and provinces
bordering the Great Lakes, for example, will experience the almost
strangling odor.
The Fourth Bowl. (Revelation 16:8-9)
Image Credit: National
Geographic
Commentary: From 1940 - 1970 global cooling of the planet began to occur. In 1974, a Time Magazine article asked, "Another Ice Age?" 1988 seems to be the year during which "Global Warming Gets Real." Well before 2022, the vast majority of environmental activists had come to believe the religion of anthropogenic global warming. But they kept changing the terminology, which leads some people, I among them, to question their claims and their credibility. The term now is "Climate Change." That way, if it gets colder, human emissions are to blame. If it rains a lot, human emissions are to blame. If it gets too dry, human emissions are to blame. And of course, if it gets warmer, again human emissions are to blame. This is hardly scientific. When the fourth messenger pours out his bowl upon the sun, people will no longer lecture about anthropogenic climate change. It will become so hot that people will actually be scorched by the heat of the sun. They will know that God, not man, is causing this heat. But that won't change their outlook one bit. They will reveal their bias by their deliberate and hateful blaspheming of the name of God, the one holding authority over these plagues. Moreover, they will refuse to repent so as to give God glory! This will be REAL Global Warming! And it will not be anthropogenic. It will be caused by God Himself. The tragedy is that most men will be too arrogant, too rebellious, and too disrespectful toward God to learn an appropriate lesson. Perhaps millions will die, but their death will serve no useful purpose other than to illustrate man's inherent rebellion against God. The Fifth Bowl. (Revelation
16:10-11)
Commentary: This plague, instigated by the fifth messenger, will amount to a direct assault by God on the capital city and the seat of power of the Beast, the evil World Dictator also known as the Antichrist. Where is this capital city? We are not told. One is tempted to think that Babylon might be his capital, but that seems to be the capital of the world-wide false religion (Rev. 17:1-6). The Beast will head up a Revived Roman Empire, so one would think that his capital city will be somewhere in Europe, perhaps Rome itself. But we are not given this information. Regardless, we are told that the fifth messenger will pour out his bowl upon the throne of the Beast, and that his whole kingdom will be darkened. Since his kingdom will be world wide, the darkness will pervade the entire earth. Some interpret this passage metaphorically, as they do almost everything else in Revelation. But there is no reason to do so. The ninth plague in Egypt was literal, not metaphorical (Exod. 10:21-22), so why would this plague not be literal? We are told that great pain will accompany this darkness, so much so that victims will gnaw their tongues because of the pain. That sounds literal to me. Because of the great pains and sores inflicted on the followers of the Beast, they will blaspheme the God of heaven. Moreover they will refuse to repent of their evil deeds. Just as the darkness of the ninth Egyptian plague did not affect the Israelis (Exod. 10:23), so this darkness and pain will likely not affect believers in Christ who somehow survive to the closing days of the Tribulation. The Sixth Bowl. (Revelation
16:12-16)
Commentary:
There is a lot of symbolism here, but the Apostle
John is able to give
us fairly clear indicators as to what will happen. When the sixth messenger
pours out his bowl on the Euphrates River,
it will be dried
up in order to prepare a way for the arrival of the "kings from the
east." But why would the Euphrates River
be an impediment for modern
armies? It wouldn't unless a bizarre turn of events made modern warfare
impossible. What could that be? A couple of things come to mind. With
its mindless insistence on anthropogenic global warming, the
environmental movement is doing its best to wage a war of "cancel
culture" against internal combusion engines
powered by carbon fuels. Instead, the movement has placed a premium on
electric vehicles. If the world goes largely to electric vehicles, a
few well-placed bombs will destroy the power grid over large areas of
the globe. Electric vehicles will be useless if drivers are unable to
recharge their batteries. However, there will always be portions of the
world that will refuse to give up gasoline-powered cars and trucks. But
there appear to be indicators in Rev. 18 that some allied forces will
sabotage the oil infrastructure of the Middle East. What if the world
is
largely immobilized except for equestrian transportation? Then the
drying up of the Euphrates
will be truly significant, removing a
barrier to transporting millions of troops from Iraq, Iran, Pakistan,
India, China, Mongolia, and SE
Asia to the Middle East. Three evil
spirits will deceive the kings of
the world to gather together "for the war of the great day of God, the
Almighty." They will gather the kings of the world together to Israel
to the Valley of
Jezreel, measuring 14 by 20 miles. This whole valley
is surrounded by mountains, one of them being Megiddo. The term
"Har-Magedon"
means "Mountain of Megiddo," in Greek, Harmagedon,
often
transliterated to Armageddon.
Satan
and his demons
will gather the
world's armies to defeat Israel. But it is a Divinely-induced trap. It
is the world's armies who will be destroyed by Christ at
His return
(Zech. 12:1-5; 14:12-15)!
The Seventh Bowl. (Revelation 16:17-21)
Image Credit: Circle
of Blue
Epilogue: This judgment ends the series of three types of judgments, the Seven Seal Judgments, the Seven Trumpet Judgments, and the Seven Bowl Judgments. Revelation 17:1-18:24 describes the diabolical, seductive influence of The Great Prostitute, Babylon, representing a final form of a global false religion with enormous political power. At first the Prostitute, Babylon, is seen to be riding the terrible Beast, the End-Time manifestation of the Revived Roman Empire. So for a time, the religion will dictate to the government. But in the end, the Revived Roman Empire will turn on Babylon the Prostitute and will burn her with fire (Rev. 17:16-17; 18:8-10). There will follow great economic loss to the Kings of the Earth, the Merchants of the Earth, and even the Mariners of the Earth (Rev. 18:1-24). Then in Revelation 19, the Lamb's Bride will have made herself pure. Announcement will be made of the impending great Wedding Feast celebrating the marriage of the Lamb to His Bride, the Church (Rev. 19:7-9). Christ will return to earth in power and great glory, and He will conquer all his adversaries (Rev. 19:11-21). Then He will commence His 1000-year reign (Rev. 20:1-6)! Return to Eschatology Index
Updated February 1, 2022
|
|||||||||||||||
