Faith Baptist Church
4258 Botetourt Road
Fincastle, Virginia 24090
(540) 473-2325
Today we go on to the next bowl judgment, the seventh bowl judgment. This judgment sets the tone for chapters 17-18 as these chapters explain the fall of religious and economic Babylon.
v.17.-21
In this last bowl we see the ecclesiastical [religious] powers crushed by four types of judgment. This destruction was foretold in Rev.14:8. Religious Babylon is depicted today by the Great Church that subjugates men’s souls across the globe, and during the tribulation period the Antichrist will do much bidding for this church until he has had enough. At the mid-tribulation point as a devil possessed man, the Antichrist sets himself up as God and demands the worship of the entire world. During the second half he will attempt to subjugate the entire world to worship him. The seventh bowl judgments include the following:
v.18 - natural disturbances
v.19 - cities across the world judged
v.20 - topographical judgment
v.21- 100 hundred pound hailstones
v. 17 In saying “it is done” the angel is saying the grand finale of God’s fireworks of judgment has been set in motion with the dispensing of the seventh bowl judgment.
The waters, and vegetation and now the air is contaminated, and the great voice of God coming out of the temple in heaven where he sits upon his throne roars with a thunderous deafening roar, “It is done”. Here we have a [Perf.Active Indicative] verb of ginomai. It is complete. The perfect tense in the Greek means the action of the seven vials is now complete. All that is left now is the Lord’s second coming.
God has reigned down all sorts of misery on the wicked of the earth, and now instead of sending more judgment, his Son is coming in person to deliver the final blow.
v.18
This seventh bowl as noted in v.18 will bring natural disturbances of which will include the worst earthquake [megas seismos] known to mankind. It is said to be, so mighty an earthquake. No one will be able to hide anywhere on the earth from this quake.
Please remember what the Apostle Paul said regarding the earth, which too awaits its redemption from the fall of man, Rom.8:19-22. This quake will be the birthing pangs for the deliverance of the earth for a thousand year renewal when Christ comes to reign. [Check out the 14 part cassette tape series on the Millennial Kingdom of Jesus Christ.]
v.19 The great city, which I believe is Rome, Italy, will be divided into three parts by the great quake. Although Jerusalem is where all of the wicked armies as well as the Antichrist are headed, Rome is known as the city of seven hills, as noted by Latin poets for over two thousand years, Rev.17:9. Rome is the city where Satan’s harlot church is found, 17:5. Rev.17:18 says this harlot church, a church which seeks to create a world though good works, and hold her people in mystic bondage is depicted as a woman, a harlot woman. She holds sway over the souls of countless millions, and subsequently many nations, even today. The Papal power for over 1,700 years has claimed to represent Jesus Christ on earth, and her word is law. For hundreds of years the political empire was centered in Rome, but when religion was reignited by the Roman Catholic Church, this power shifted from political power to religious power. Religion is not Christianity. Religion is man trying to appease and impress God for his divine favor, but true Christianity is based on the grace of God which depends solely on the ability of God to provide salvation through the finished work of Jesus Christ plus nothing. This insults most of mankind.
The Papal priesthood has spread fear of eternal torment to those countless millions who refuse to obey her law. Worship of the Pope is expected as he is called the Holy Father; what blasphemy.
Organized religion, has for thousands of years, distracted men from the true worship of God, and Babylon represents the birth place of religion [ see lesson 51 Rev.14:8] where men gathered to build a tower to unite as one in opposition to the grace of God. For the past 1,700 years religious Babylon has set its seat in the city of seven hills, Rome, Italy.
This judgment will be covered in chapters 17-18 as they are parenthetical chapters dealing with an expanded explanation of this judgment.
Like goats to the slaughter the evil rulers of the world are herded by evil thoughts, allowed by God himself, to bring them to this final day of the tribulation period.
God’s demonstration of dividing this city into three parts shows the unity of the judgment of the Holy Trinity upon the unholy evil trinity of Satan, the Antichrist and the false prophet.
John saw the cites of the nations all over the world,[ethnos] crumble and fall, [Aorist Active Indicative] meaning they fell at once due to these quakes. This great quake will set off quakes all over the world.
Fault lines connected across the planet will be moved by this great quake. This is not a prophecy of environmental disturbances which we see from time to time on our planet. This is a prophecy that will happen all at once. As the Noahic flood once engulfed the entire earth, so will this great earth quake shake the entire earth. Can you imagine the terror in the major high rise cities when buildings will fall and areas where dams will burst.
v.20
Oceans will rise and islands will disappear. Mountains will sink into the earth as a result of this massive global quake.
v.21
Great hail stones which are large ice chunks, the weight of a talent, which was the heaviest measurable weight known in John’s day; it noted the most weight a man could carry alone, probably one-hundred to one-hundred thirty pounds as most scholars believe. These ice stones will fall all over the earth.
And yet men will continue to blaspheme God due to these plagues. We have seen television programs as well as theater movies or we have rented movies about a terrible catastrophe striking somewhere on the earth. There is always a hero to bring the chaos and suffering to an end, or the event finally ends and everyone left alive comes out. When Jesus Christ comes back in his second coming no one will come out to rescue the lost. Their judge is coming to consign them to Hades. Those saints who are saved during the seven year tribulation period, who physically survive the assaults of the Antichrist, will rejoice at the sight of Christ and his holy army following after him.
The revived Roman Empire, headed up by the Antichrist, will fall as the Stone [Jesus Christ] that the lost rejected; comes out of heaven to crush the empire the Antichrist built, Dan.2:34-35.
All of the armies of the world gathered around Jerusalem will stand in terror as they see their end coming. The wrath of God abides upon them as it does all unbelievers. John 3:36 “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.”
I trust that no one here today goes away without Jesus Christ being your Lord and Savior.
Rom.5:9 says we are saved from wrath through our salvation in Christ Jesus, and Paul also said under Holy inspiration in I Thess.5:9 “For God hath not appointed us to wrath but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.”