Books Of The Bible
Seven Disasters: The Seven Seals, Trumpets And Bowls

Revelation Series • Chapters 6, 8, 16
FIRST LESSON    A Liturgical Reading from Revelation 6, 8, 16

Reader: Then I saw the Lamb open one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures call out, as with a voice of thunder, ‘Come!’

Congregation: I looked, and there was a white horse! Its rider had a bow; a crown was given to him, and he came out conquering and to conquer.

R: When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature call out, ‘Come!’ And out came another horse, bright red; its rider was permitted to take peace from earth.

C: When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature call out, ‘Come!’ I looked, and there was a black horse! Its rider held a pair of scales in his hand

R: When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature call out, ‘Come!’ I looked. There was a pale green horse! Its rider’s name was Death and Hades.

C: When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slaughtered for the word of God and for the testimony they had given.

R: When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and there came a great earthquake; the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell. Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and called to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?

C: When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. And I saw the seven angels who had the seven trumpets were ready to blow them.

R: The first angel blew his trumpet, and there came hail and fire, mixed with blood. A third of the earth, trees and grass was burned up,

C: The second angel blew his trumpet, and something like a great firey mountain fell into the sea and destroyed a third of the sea, sea creatures and ships. 

R: The third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven into the rivers and springs and a third of their waters became bitter and infected.

C: The fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun, moon and stars were struck and their light destroyed.

R: The fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit. The locusts and scorpions were told not to damage the grass of the earth or any green growth or any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.

C: Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet. The number of the troops of cavalry was two hundred million. A third of humankind was killed, by the fire and smoke and sulfur coming out of their mouths

R: The rest of humankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands or give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk. And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their fornication or their thefts.

C: Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign forever and ever.’ Then the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God

R: The Lord God Almighty has begun to reign. The nations raged, but the Lord’s wrath has come. The time for judging the dead has come, for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints and all who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying those who destroy the earth.

C: Then I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels, ‘Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.’

R: So the first angel went and poured his bowl on the earth, and a foul and painful sore came on those who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped its image.

C: The second angel poured his bowl into the sea, and it became like the blood of a corpse, and every living thing in the sea died.

R: The third angel poured his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood. And I heard the angel of the waters say, ‘You are just, O Holy One, who are and were, for you have judged these things; because they shed the blood of saints and prophets, you have given them blood to drink. It is what they deserve!’

C: The fourth angel poured his bowl on the sun, and it was allowed to scorch with fire;

R: The fifth angel poured his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness.

C: The sixth angel poured his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up in order to prepare the way for the kings from the east to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty at the place called in Hebrew, Harmgedon.

R: The seventh angel poured his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple, from the throne, saying, ‘It is done!’ And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a violent earthquake. The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. God remembered great Babylon and gave her the wine-cup of the fury of his wrath.

THE GOSPEL    Mark 13     A Liturgical Reading

When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, 4‘Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?’ 5Then Jesus began to say to them, ‘Beware that no one leads you astray. 6Many will come in my name and say, “I am he!” and they will lead many astray. 7When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. 8For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birthpangs.

‘As for yourselves, beware; for they will hand you over to councils; and you will be beaten in synagogues; and you will stand before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them. You will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

In those days there will be suffering/great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the creation that God created until now, no, and never will be. And if the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would be saved; but for the sake of the elect, whom he chose, he has cut short those days. 21And if anyone says to you at that time, “Look! Here is the Messiah!” or “Look! There he is!” —do not believe it. 22False messiahs and false prophets will appear and produce signs and omens, to lead astray, if possible, the elect. But be alert; I have already told you everything.

‘But in those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.

Then they will see “the Son of Man coming in clouds” with great power and glory. Then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

‘But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. Keep awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come. And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.’

Bulletin Cover

Revelation 6
The Four Horsemen
Albrecht Durer

http://www.conncoll.edu/visual/Durer-prints/apocalypse.all/big/Box%2022-30.jpg

Seven Disasters: The Seven Seals, Trumpets And Bowls

Today we continue our summer summers on the Book of Revelation. This is a series that consists of twelve sermons. All twelve sermons are based in the Book of Revelation.

Why the Book of Revelation? Because it is the Word of God. Why Revelation? Because there are great passages in that book that speak deeply and personally to our lives. Why Revelation? Because it is obscure and abstruse and we need someone to help us understand it. Why Revelation? Because there is so much confusion about this book and how to interpret it.

To get into the mood of the sermon for today, we need to be thinking about The End of the world. The Book of Revelation, especially chapters six through twenty, focuses on The End and so we want to focus on the End of time. We need to get into the mood of Doomsday and doomsday films.

The theme of the End of the World and the End of Time is fashionable in today’s pop culture world. There are numerous books and movies about the End of the world. These doomsday movies are intended to scare us, make us nervous, and give us the willies. These movies want us to imagine that perhaps we are living in the End Times.

I went to a website on the Internet the other day. I typed into my Google search engine, “End of the world, movies,” and got good results.  I found one website entitled, “End of the world movies to die for” created by the king and queen of doomsday. Another editor of a similar website was a man by the name of David Doomsday. I found many good titles for these doomsday movies e.g. THE DAY AFTER, ON THE BEACH, TESTAMENT, DR. STRANGELOVE, MADMAX, THE ROAD WARRIOR, THE STAND, PANIC IN THE YEAR ZERO, BY DAWN’S EARLY LIGHT, and SOYLENT GREEN.  All these flicks and others were about the End of the world. Their intention was to scare people, entertain people, make people nervous, and think that perhaps they are living in the End times.

Scare flicks about the End of the world are a genre, a category, a kind of movie that is a narrow slice of life. The vast majority of movies are not scare flicks about the End of the world. We all know that doomsday movies are a narrow slice of life.

Likewise with the Book of Revelation. The Book of Revelation is about the End of the world, especially chapters 6-20. Those fourteen chapters are a narrow slice of the whole Bible, a narrow slice of the New Testament.  There are fourteen chapters in Revelation of the 272 chapters in the New Testament. These fourteen chapters are five percent of the chapters of the New Testament. The End of the world and the doomsday philosophy about that End of the world are a narrow sliver of the New Testament. But it is important to know what Jesus and the Bible teach concerning the End of time.

As we begin the sermon for today, I would like to make three general comments. Those three comments are printed on the screen in front of you via a Power Point presentation. 

1) The Book of Revelation addressed its historical situation:  the destruction and punishment of Babylon.

Babylon = Rome.

The title of this sermon could be: WRATH ON ROME.

Like all the books of the Bible, the Book of Revelation was written to a particular historical situation and that situation was the fall and punishment of Rome and the Roman Empire.

As a Biblical principle of interpretation, we listen to what the Word of God says to a particular historical situation and then we apply God’s Word to our situation today. That is the way we understand the books of the Old Testament such as the Law, the Prophets and the Writings. That is the way we understand the books of the New Testament such as the gospels, Acts, the Epistles, the Pastoral letters, and Revelation. Every book in the Bible addresses a particular historical situation and it is helpful to understand the historical setting that book in the Bible is addressing. We then apply the lessons of the Bible to our situation today.

It is clear in the Book of Revelation that this book was addressing the Roman Empire. Six times in the Book of Revelation, we hear about Babylon. In the Book of Revelation, Babylon does not refer to the Babylonian empire with its King Nebuchadnezzar 2600 years ago nor to Babylonia as the ancient capital of Iraq. Babylon is a symbolic name for Rome, for the city of Roman, for the Roman Empire. The city of Babylon is mentioned six times in the Book of Revelation. This whole book is about God pouring his wrath and punishment upon the city of Rome and the culture of Rome.

Look at your bulletin insert today about the seven seals, the seven trumpets and the seven bowls of God’s wrath. The three cycles of seven describe the wrath that God was going to pour out the Roman Empire.

In your bulletin insert, right above the reading of the Gospel is the finale of these three cycles of seven disasters. In your bulletin Bible readings for today, l et us closely examine the last verse about the seventh bowl: “The seventh angel poured his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple, from the throne, saying, ‘It is done!’ And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a violent earthquake. The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. God remembered great Babylon and gave her the wine-cup of the fury of his wrath.” Near the word, “Babylon,” write the word, “Rome.” You could write the word “Rome” near the six references to Babylon in the Book of Revelation. Underline the phrase, “fury of his wrath.” Write the number “11” near the word, “wrath.” These three cycles of the seven seals, the seven trumpets and the seven bowls express the fury of God’s wrath on Rome, its city and its culture. 

The Book of Revelation, as all books in the Bible, was addressed to a particular historical situation. The Book of Revelation was addressed to the fall and destruction of Rome. Like all books of the Bible, its Biblical truth also applies to our situation today. We always ask an important question as we are doing Bible study: “How does this verse apply to our situation today.”

2) Mark 13 trumps Revelation. The teachings in the Book of Revelation needs to be consistent with the earlier teachings of Jesus in Mark 13 about The End Times.

Mark 13, the Gospel reading for today, is a record of Jesus’ teachings about the End of the world.  We find parallels for these teachings in both Luke and Matthew. We need to study the bulletin insert for today for Mark 13. Please turn to it now. These are the essential teachings of Jesus about the End of the world.

Jesus began to say to them, ‘Beware that no one leads you astray. Circle the words, “beware” and “astray.” Christians have always been lead astray about the End of the world, such as when it is going to come.

Many will come in my name and say, “I am he!” and they will lead many astray. There will be false messiahs. Circle the word, “astray,” for a second time. 

When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. 8For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; Circle the word, “wars and rumors of wars.” Wars and possibilities of wars is the number one reason that people think the world is going to end in their lifetime and in their near future. 

There will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birthpangs. Circle the words, “earthquakes,” “famines” and “birthpangs.” There always are earthquakes and famines in every generation.  When you hear the word, “birthpangs,” think of a pregnant mother who is full term and is absolutely at the last moments of the delivery of her baby. Talk about pain. Talk about intensity of pain, just before the baby is delivered. So it will be at the End of Time. There will be an intensity of pain like never experienced before in human civilization.

‘As for yourselves, beware; for they will hand you over to councils; and you will be beaten in synagogues; and you will stand before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them. You will be hated by all because of my name. Jesus taught that people will be persecuted by the governing authorities for standing up for their beliefs in him.

But the one who endures to the end will be saved. Underline this important sentence. This is not only a teaching of Jesus but a theme in the Book of Revelation. This calls for endurance. People of Christ are to endure the pain of ridicule, persecution and martyrdom.

In those days there will be suffering/great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the creation that God created until now, no, and never will be. Circle the words, “suffering/great tribulation.” Jesus talked about the intensification of suffering. This is what the Book of Revelation expands: the intensity of the worst kind of suffering humanly imaginable. We have heard about “the great tribulation” and this specific phrase comes from this passage in the Gospel of Mathew. 

And if the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would be saved; but for the sake of the elect, whom he chose, he has cut short those days. These days will be shortened.

And if anyone says to you at that time, “Look! Here is the Messiah!” or “Look! There he is!” —do not believe it. False messiahs and false prophets will appear and produce signs and omens, to lead astray, if possible, the elect. Circle the words, “false messiahs” and “false prophets.” This is what the Book of Revelation addresses: the presence of false messiahs and false prophets.

But be alert; Circle the phrase, “be alert.” This is Jesus’ primary teaching. We are not to fall asleep or become lethargic but be alert to the signs around us.

I have already told you everything. Don’t be surprised at these things because Jesus has already told us.

‘But in those days, after that suffering, Jesus first talked about human suffering here on earth. Jesus then talked disasters in the sun, moon, stars and heavens.

The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. Circle the words, “sun,” “moon,” “stars,” and “heavens.” The creation will also be shaken immediately prior to the End. After human suffering from wars, famines and earthquakes, the whole creation will begin to disintegrate.

Then they will see “the Son of Man coming in clouds” with great power and glory. Then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven. Circle the word, “Son of Man.” Jesus will come again and in such a way that all creation will see him come. Then, after the intense suffering of all humanity and the beginning of the disintegration of creation, the End will come. The Son of man, Jesus himself, will come to earth for the second time, and he will come with great glory and fanfare.

‘But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.  Circle key words such as “no one knows” the time, including the “angels” nor “the Son” but only the “Father.” Only God the Father knows when the End will come. No one else does, including the authors of the gospels, the authors of the epistles and the author of the Book of Revelation.

Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. Keep awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come. And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.’ Circle the key words such as “beware,” “keep alert,” “keep awake,” “keep awake.” This is the primary teaching of Jesus about the End Time that he repeats most often. Keep awake.

It is as if you were driving down a freeway that was crowded with cars in heavy traffic. You need to keep alert, to avoid accidents and other crazy drivers. You also need to be alert to where the road is going and where you want to go. You need to be able to read the signs along the road because they are very helpful in finding your way. The worst thing possible when driving a busy freeway is to fall asleep or become preoccupied with something/someone else while driving. A serious disaster will most likely happen. You will miss the directions of a crucial sign that you have been looking for. You must always be alert when you drive through life.

These are the primary teachings of Jesus in Mark 13 which many Bible scholars call “The Little Apocalypse.”  The Book of Revelation is then the “Big Apocalypse.” The teachings about the End from the Big Apocalypse need to be consist with the teachings of Jesus in the Little Apocalypse.

Two further remarks: In Mark 13, there is no teaching about Jesus being the final judge on the judgment day. This theme is woven deeply into the earliest fabric of the New Testament especially in Matthew and Luke. On the Last Day, Jesus will separate the sheep from the goats, the good fish from the bad, the wheat from the weeds, the five wise maidens from the five foolish maidens, the faithful servants and the slothful servants. We hear about the final judgment of God, but the wrath of God is not emphasized as it is in Revelation. In the Book of Revelation, we hear about the wrath of the Lamb and the fury of God’s punishment. In the gospels, we hear of judgment and separation but not divine wrath and divine fury.

In the Gospel of John, it is amazing but there are no parallels to Mark 13 and to the final judgment parables in Matthew and Luke. In John’s Gospel , there are absolutely no parallels with Jesus’ teachings about the End found in Mark, Mathew and Luke.

We now turn to the Bible study of the seven seals, the seven trumpets and the seven bowls in Revelation, chapters 6, 8, 16. The themes in Revelation 6, 8, 16 need to be consistent with Jesus’ teachings about the End in Mark 13. The teachings in Revelation are as follows. Please examine your bulletin insert.

Reader: Then I saw the Lamb open one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures call out, as with a voice of thunder, ‘Come!’

Congregation: I looked, and there was a white horse! Its rider had a bow; a crown was given to him, and he came out conquering and to conquer.  The first four horses are about war. Jesus said, “There will be wars and rumors of war.” The only warriors to ride horses and shoot bows were the Parthians.

R: When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature call out, ‘Come!’ And out came another horse, bright red; its rider was permitted to take peace from earth. This second seal is about war. All four horses are symbolic of war.

C: When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature call out, ‘Come!’ I looked, and there was a black horse! Its rider held a pair of scales in his hand. Poverty is part of war and is awful. Immense poverty is always a primary consequence of war.

R: When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature call out, ‘Come!’ I looked. There was a pale green horse! Its rider’s name was Death and Hades. We know that war feels like hell.

Carefully examine the following pictures on the screen in front of you. Notice the four horsemen, the four colors of the horses, the skeletons riding the four horses, notice the white horse and the bow symbolic of the Parthian invaders, notice the black horse and the scales of justice that are lost during war, notice the green horse and the images of a firey hell behind it, notice the red horse and the sword which is another word for war.

The Four Horsemen

http://www.apocalipsis.org/rev-6.htm

The following image by Durer of The Four Horsemen is one of the most famous etchings in the world. Notice the four horses and the symbolism behind them. Notice the first horse on the left which says that war is hell. Notice the second horse on the left and the scales of justice that are thrown out with war. Notice the third horse with the bow,  which is symbolic of war. Notice the fourth horse with the bow and rider, symbolic of the Parthian invaders on the Roman empire. Notice the people trampled under the four horses. War is especially awful for the vulnerable common people who get trampled to death by the warriors on the horses who have all the power and instruments of war. This pattern (common people run over by the forces/powers/instruments of war) has been true throughout all history.

Durer, Germany, 1498

http://www.abcgallery.com/D/durer/durer5.html

C: When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slaughtered for the word of God and for the testimony they had given. Jesus taught that people were going to be persecuted because of their loyalty to him.

R: When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and there came a great earthquake; the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell. Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. 16They called to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand? Underline the phase, “Hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.” Hide us from the face of God and from the wrath of the Lamb. Circle “wrath of the Lamb.” The words seem incongruous, “the wrath … of the Lamb.” Jesus was the Passover Lamb who was sacrificed for the sins of the whole world and the concept of “wrath of the Lamb” seems inconsistent with that. Underline, “the great day of their wrath” has come. The Day of Judgment is the great day of wrath. On the Day of Judgment, the city, culture and empire of Rome will not be spared from the punitive wrath of the Lamb who will be roaring like a lion.

C: When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. And I saw the seven angels who had the seven trumpets were ready to blow them. Now we move to Revelation, chapter 8, and the sequences of suffering follow again: the intensification of human suffering plus cosmic signs.

The Seven Angels With The Seven Trumpets
Patricia Marvenko Smith

http://www.apocalipsis.org/rev-8.htm

I like this picture of the seven trumpeters because they angels look so lovely and a person does not grasp that they are announcing such awful misery that is about to be showered on the earth. These graceful angels are ready to blow their trumpets and bring misery.

We will not study in detail the cycle of plagues associated with the trumpets. But the seven seals, the seven trumpets and the seven bowls follow the same cycle of misery. A third of the trees and grass are destroyed; then a third of the things living in the salty ocean waters; then a third of the things living in fresh water; then a third of the sun, moon and stars; and then third of the people of the earth are killed in massive military battles.

R: The rest of humankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands or give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver andbronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk. And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their fornication or their thefts. Circle the word, “repent,” found in two places in the text. Plagues, disasters, diseases are to motivate us repent, to change and turn towards God. So it was in the teachings of Jesus in Mark 13. Sometimes, when disasters strike our lives, we find a new motivation to change the things that have become unhealthy in our lives.

Let us look for these plagues in the following woodcut by Durer: a third of the earth, a third of the oceans/ships, the rivers and springs, etc. Durer has images of seven angels who are blowing their trumpets. Two of the angels have blown their trumpets in the lower left and right of his canvas and a viewer can see the beginning doom and destruction on the earth. Notice the ship with the broken mast on the left. Notice the wall of fire on the lower right. Notice the shaft going down to hell on the far lower left. The whole picture gives us a feeling of doom, disaster, human misery, an intensification of sharpened pain.

The Seven Trumpets
Direr. Germany, 1498

http://www.conncoll.edu/visual/Durer-prints/apocalypse.all/big/Box%2022-12.jpg

C: Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign forever and ever.’ Then the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God. It is as though the plagues are over and the time for the final judgment has come. The disasters on earth and in the heavens are over and it is time to praise God.

R: The Lord God Almighty has begun to reign. The nations raged, but the Lord’s wrath has come. The time for judging the dead has come, for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints and all who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying those who destroy the earth. Circle, “the Lord’s wrath” and punishment had finally come. Near the word, “wrath,” write the number “11.” The Book of Revelation refers to the “wrath” of God eleven times. This wrath of God is not confined to the Old Testament or to the Book of Revelation in the New Testament. In the gospel stories about Jesus, the word “wrath” is used of John the Baptist twice and once in Luke referring to the day of wrath. The Book of Romans uses the word, “wrath”, ten times. Romans and Revelation both equally teach the wrath of God. (Eleven references to wrath; ten references to wrath.)

Circle the words, “time for judging had finally come.” God the judge will separate the good from the bad, the faithful from the unfaithful, the sheep from the goats, the wheat from the weeds.

C: Then I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels, ‘Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.’ Underline, “the seven bowls of the wrath of God.” A reader thinks that the wrath of God was finished but there are now seven more bowls of wrath to be poured onto the earth. The cycle of the bowls of wrath follow in a similar sequence to the previous seven trumpets of wrath. We have heard about the wrath of the Lamb, the day of wrath and now there will be seven bowls of wrath.                  

http://www.apocalipsis.org/rev-15.htm

The angels look pretty and benign but the artist reveals the contents of those bowls.

Again, we will not study the details of the seven bowls. The sequence of the seven seals, the seven trumpets, and the seven bowls are the same.

C: The sixth angel poured his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up in order to prepare the way for the kings from the east to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty at the place called in Hebrew, Harmgedon. The sixth bowl of wrath is the huge, intensive warfare, as was the sixth trumpet of wrath. Notice that the sixth trumpet was massive warfare.

R: The seventh angel poured his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple, from the throne, saying, ‘It is done!’ And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a violent earthquake. The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. God remembered great Babylon and gave her the wine-cup of the fury of his wrath. The seventh bowl of wrath is the final bowl of wrath and the city of Babylon (Rome) fell. It is similar to the seventh trumpet of wrath, and “it is done.”  Underline the last sentence, “God remembered great Babylon and gave her the wine-cup of the fury of his wrath.” We have heard about the wrath of the Lamb, the day of wrath, the bowls of wrath, and now God gave Babylon the “fury of his wrath.” See the images from Revelation 16, the seven bowls of God’s fury on the woman with the label of 666 on her forehead, the ocean to blood, the rivers to blood, etc.

http://www.apocalipsis.org/rev-16.htm

We have seen the three cycles of God’s wrath and punishment on people and creation. In the Book of Revelation, there is an emphasis on the punishment of God which is filled with fury and wrath and this theme is absent from Mark 13.

3) Application to our lives: Lessons to be learned from the teachings about the seven seals, seven trumpets and seven bowls (Revelation 6, 8, 16) 

As an interpreter of the Bible, I believe that all books of the Bible are addressed to the local situation at that time. We then apply that teaching to our lives today. What are the parallels for us today? What can we learn from these chapters in Revelation?

• Doom is not the last word of God.
• Victory is God’s last word.

There are times in life when we feel like the world is coming to an End. There are times, life can be incredibly hard. In the worst and darkest day of human history, Jesus still clung to God with both hands and held onto God. We are to cling to God in our darkest days. And what are the darkest days of human history, when the sky was blackest? Was it 200 million people killed by Hitler, Stalin and Mao during World War II? Was that the darkest time of human history? Or the 137,000,000 people killed by the Black Plagues in the 6th, 14th and 17th centuries?  Or the 100 million people in southern Africa infected with the AIDS virus by the year 2005? Or the 25-30 million people killed in the United States in 1918 by a flu epidemic after World War I? Or when six million Jews were exterminated in gas chambers during World War II?

In all of these tragedies, the tragedy itself may drive us into a corner whereby we repent and turn away from the silly and stupid things that we are doing wrong. Deepest tragedy can be the turning point for change.

Jesus name is Immanuel. Jesus is with us at all time of life and in all disasters of life, to give us strength and wisdom to cope with the disaster we are dealing with.

Just as Good Friday was not the last word of God but there was another day called Easter, so also the Doom is not the last day, but there is another day, God’s grand and glorious victory at the end of the Book of Revelation. The devil and doom will be destroyed and there will be a New Jerusalem where we live with God forever. Doomsday is not the last day. Doomsday is not the final word of God.

B. Punishment is part of God’s action in our lives, on this earth and at the End of Time.

There is another lesson that we learn from Revelation 6, 8, 16, the three cycles of immense tragedy. Punishment is part of this life on this side of the grave but punishment is also part of the last judgment. We don’t know how it works, but we do know that punishment is part of life. That God punishes individuals and nations in this life and in the life to come. If and when you violate the will and desires of God, God will punish you and me. Punishment may not be a fashionable word right now, but the fact of punishment is still true. The shape and shade of punishments vary with different generations and different cultures but punishment is part of life. If I get a speeding ticket, I pay a fine. It is punishment and part of life. If I murder someone, if the system works, I go to jail for a long time. The whole court system works with the awareness of appropriate punishments. If I desert my family, people get hurt. The family will be punished for my selfish actions.

Although we don’t how it works, wrath and punishment are part of God’s actions for this life and for eternal life. The purpose of wrath and punishment are to motivate us to change for the better and to protect other people from our sinful behavior.

C. There is punishment but not with the emphasis on divine fury and divine wrath.

We will end where we began: Mark 13 trumps the Book of Revelation. In Mark 13 and its gospel parallels, there is nothing about the divine fury and vicious wrath of God that is found in Revelation. As Christians, we trust God as a fair final judge with his infinite wisdom and grace.  The wrath of Revelation is not found in the teachings of Jesus in Mark 13.

Amen.

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