Wednesday Bible Study: Before the final trumpets

 

This week, I feel led to do things a little differently.  I know that the prophecy we've been going through is a bit confusing- and a lot of things I've mentioned are speculation on my part.  So I want to stop and go piece by piece to figure up what, so far, we know for sure; what might be right; and what we just don't know.  

And we start with the Rapture of the Church, which I believe John has been made a party to.  Not every evangelical teacher believes that there is a separate Rapture from Christ's second and final coming; I do, based on many sections of the Word, most closely to this story in the letter to Philadelphia...

Rev 3:10  Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth. 

I believe that those brought to heaven in this are split into two groups:  Those who served in prayer, who are gathered under the golden altar of incense; and the martyrs, who are, we are told, under the bronze altar of sacrifice.  Both are witnesses to the breaking open of the first four seals, and these are the judgments that mankind, without the restraint of the Holy Spirit, will bring upon themselves.  As Paul says...

2Th 2:3  Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 2Th 2:4  who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. 2Th 2:5  Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? 2Th 2:6  And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. 2Th 2:7  For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. 

Now this man of lawlessness is the conqueror from the first seal.  And what we know about him comes from many sources, but it is Daniel who tells us he will be of the same people who destroyed the Temple- he is a ROMAN.  But here's the thing- does that mean he's Italian?  No, because Paul was a Roman but not an Italian.  Rome was always more than a city, it was a principle of power, just as Babylon was a principle of sin.  But it does mean, in some way we don't yet grasp, Rome is going to rise from the ashes- Rome the concept.  And something big is going to need to happen, to allow it to happen.  Later on, we will learn that there are ten "kings"- three of them to be overthrown- that will give the Ultimate Idol his power.  Europe has been moving in this direction since the Common Market was formed, but this is more than that.  In Nebuchadnezzar's vision, Rome is seen as a colossus made of iron, but it's base is mixed with clay.  The new Rome will be an iron forging- but with a fatal weakness.

Where does America fit in?  Note that as the AntiChrist comes to power, terrible war breaks out.  I believe- but this is nowhere near a certainty- that this is the Gog War in Ezekiel, and I believe that this war eliminates both Russia and the United States from the picture. Without their great rivals on either side, Europe will not only be able to weld into one entity- it will have to.  The war brings famine, which the AC exacerbates (third seal), and death (fourth seal).  A quarter of mankind dies just to this point.  

At this point, the martyrs raise their plea for the Lord's Vengeance (Fifth seal).  God is not ready yet- despite the near-complete rejection of Him, He desires to show mercy.  He then shows them the Master Plan (sixth seal), and they are struck silent with the awe of it all (seventh seal).  They see that, before the worst of it, a set of faithful will be sealed- protected providentially from what is to come.  Apparently, the only death that will be theirs is that of a martyr...

 Rev 7:13  Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, "Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?" 

Rev 7:14  I said to him, "Sir, you know." And he said to me, "These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 

I say, apparently, because the logic I'm using here isn't perfect.  But I look at the Lord's sealing; I think about Chuck Swindoll's thought that just maybe, 666 will be a clue that helps these saints survive the economic stranglehold of the AntiChrist; and the fact that the earlier martyrs are told vengeance must wait until the last of this new crowd of martyrs joins them, and that's what I see.

As we move to the trumpets, the Angel mixes the prayers at the martyr's altar for God's vengeance with the prayers of the non-martyrs under the golden altar for mercy, and hurls that to earth.  To me this is another sign of God's mercy- but each step the mixture of mercy/judgment gets heavier on the judgment side.  Even as the evil men hide and ask the mountains to bury them (6: 15-17), God gives them a chance.  To me so far, this is the greatest thing we can learn from Revelation- just how deep the mercy of God goes.

But now the trumpets blow, and what appears to be a great meteor shower begins to destroy and divide the earth.  I have been reading the Book of Job lately, and I was surprised to find there an evidence of how long this phase has been planned...

Job 38:22  "Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, or have you seen the storehouses of the hail, 

Job 38:23  which I have reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war? 

From the oldest book of the Bible, the preparations for the events in the last book.  And this shower wrecks tremendous havok; the destruction of land, the adding of water shortage to famine, the severing of the connections across the ocean; and almost as an afterthought, the dimming of light due to the destruction.  Keep in mind, that electric lights were likely also dimmed here; if the Great War of the second seal didn't cause an EMP to knock out many electrical devices, certainly this great a meteor swarm would.

So, dialing it all together, we are at this point reduced to a hellish world in which a reforged Rome is the main seat of power- but not the only one.  Perhaps Russia and the USA still stand in some form, perhaps not.  We WILL see that the Chinese (at least) still have a part to play.  And I'll end this refresher the same way I ended the last one; the dire warning to the remnants of earth:

Rev 8:13  Then I looked, and I heard an eagle crying with a loud voice as it flew directly overhead, "Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth, at the blasts of the other trumpets that the three angels are about to blow!"