When considering all the Seals, Trumpet, and Vial judgments we see played out in the pages of Revelation, we often only look at it one-dimensionally. What I mean by that is we read it, but we often fail to ask why something is, rather than what it is. Why do 100 lb. hail stones pummel the earth? Why do the seas turn to blood? Why does one-third of the vegetation on earth burn up? Is it just for the shock factor? Or are their more pragmatic reasons these particular types of judgments happen. Today, we will try and look at it from a strategic perspective.
The judgments found in Revelation are often only viewed in terms of their effects on a civilian population; these judgments also serve a more practical purpose by reducing Satan’s arsenal and ability to fight and maneuver. In other words, God is channeling the antichrist into a certain course of action by reducing his options.
However, none of this will happen until the greatest crisis in earth’s recent history occurs, the Rapture of the Church. Once the Church (the multimember, singular body of Christ on the earth) is removed, the restraining influence she held (by the Holy Spirit) is also removed. For clarification, the Holy Spirit is not removed (He is omnipresent), but the Holy Spirit filled and sealed body of Christ (the Church) is removed off the earth. This introduces the greatest period of darkness and unrestraint mankind has ever known (Matt. 24:21-22).
Seal Judgment 1: Rider on the white horse (the political arrival of the antichrist)
o He is a master politician and tactician. He is unassuming in his initial rise to power in that final gentile kingdom, which is the revived Roman Empire
o He capitalizes on the crisis left by the Rapture, by using the tools at hand; Global Internet, Quantum technology, 5G Wi-Fi, the Internet of things, global satellites and surveillance systems, artificial intelligence, holography, and digital currency, etc.
Seal Judgment 2: Rider on the red horse (the military arrival of the antichrist)
o The antichrist uses war and crisis to consolidate his control when nations refuse to yield to his authority economically or politically
o This necessitates access to a powerful military, which may be possible after the Rapture of the Church decimates the United States governmental system
o NATO is converted into the European Defence Force and uses our collapse to assume the role of the new world superpower
Seal Judgment 3: Rider on the black horse (the economic arrival of the antichrist)
o The antichrist uses economic means initially to assume control. That introduces his political authority. That political authority causes instability, which leads to world war. World war leads to the economic (which wars usually do) to which he uses this crisis to consolidate his financial and commercial control over the world’s systems much the same way Hitler’s four-year economic plan.
o He implements a fail-safe form of both identity protection, and commerce via this new technology. This mark (presumably a type of biomedical device) serves as identification, credit, and loyalty to this final kingdom.
o This mark also serves as a form of worship into this new system, because by taking it one swears allegiance to the Beast. This allegiance makes the bearer unredeemable (Rev. 14:9-10), which means this mark seemingly alters or corrupts the bearer’s genetically
o Those who refuse to take this mark, are increasingly shut out of the system and face starvation
Seal Judgment 4: Rider on the pale horse (death for 1/4th the earth)
o By this time, war, famine, and pestilence have killed a quarter of the earth’s population. If we were using 2018’s population of 7.6B, this would be equivalent to the deaths of 1,750,000,000 people
o He uses this crisis to further consolidate his religious control. The False Prophet (the Antichrist’s campaigner), begins to turn worship away from Mystery-Babylon (Rev. 17) and towards the antichrist himself.
Seal Judgment 5: Cry of the Martyrs
o The False Prophet (the Antichrist’s right-hand man) also takes advantage of emerging technology with artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and holography, to broadcast the Antichrist’s image everywhere and his seemingly supernatural power
o This religious fervor causes his followers to mercilessly persecute anyone who does not worship the beast or take his mark of loyalty. It will make what we see today with ISIS and other Islamic jihadi movements, seem tame in comparison
Seal Judgment 6: Cosmic disturbances (Wrath of the Lamb)
o God pushes back in a warning, the earth dwellers hide in fear. Note the mention of military leaders and great men hiding in caves and bunkers at the celestial turbulence. See also Luke 21:25-26
Transition-Seal Judgment 7: Silence in heaven
o Scripture (Rev. 4) tells us that heaven is always filled with the unceasing praise by the living creatures, the elders, and angels who continually praise God and His holiness. At the Seventh Seal, there is silence, which indicates the intensifying sense of foreboding about those things which are coming upon the earth
Trumpet Judgment 1: Vegetation Struck (1/3rd of trees, all grass burned up)
o As indicated in a previous brief, the Americas (North, Central, and South) make up approximately one-third of all the trees and vegetation on the planet.
Trumpet Judgment 2: Seas struck (1/3rd of sea turned to blood, 1/3rd sea creatures and ships destroyed).
o The Atlantic Ocean makes up one-third of the earth's water. (Do you see a pattern here?)
Trumpet Judgment 3: Waters Struck (Wormwood-1/3rd of fresh waters poisoned)
o “Over 68 percent of the fresh water on Earth is found in icecaps and glaciers, and just over 30 percent is found in ground water. Only about 0.3 percent of our fresh water is found in the surface water of lakes, rivers, and swamps. Of all the water on Earth, more than 99 percent of Earth’s water is unusable by humans and many other living things!” (Source)
Trumpet Judgment 4: Heavens Struck (1/3rd of the sun, moon, stars darkened)
o Trumpets 1-4 may indicate God confining mankind to one geographic location on the earth, by making up to a third or a fourth of the planet uninhabitable. One-fourth of the earth’s landmass is found in the Americas (North, Central, South, and Greenland).
o If a third of the celestial bodies are darkened, then it must be from darkened from earth by smoke, dust, or some other form of obscuration that blocks our view of the sky. Super volcano?
o If this is the case, then the Antichrist will have a short period of time between the Rapture, and the first Trumpet Judgment, to get the people, equipment, and weapons he needs from the America’s over to Europe to consolidate his power. If this is the case, then it will become the world’s greatest migratory movement of people, as well as its greatest wealth transfer, ever.
Trumpet Judgment 5: (First Woe) Locusts from the Bottomless Pit (not normal locusts, pain for five months from stings, death flees from those afflicted)
o Although we are giving a great physical visualization of what these demonic locusts look like, we are not told that the people they inflict can see them. The late Clarence Larkin believed them to be disembodied demonic spirits who possess and torment those men who do not have the seal of God on them.
o Joel 2:1-9 seems to fit their actions very closely. Joel also distinguishes between normal locusts, and what these demon-locusts are in 2:25.
o Although it seems illogical that Satan would allow these demons to torment the same people he is using to thwart God’s plan, John was told these demon-locust answer to another master, Abaddon (or Apollyon), and not to Satan. Here, it seems, God is using these fallen angels to disrupt Satan’s plans.
Trumpet Judgment 6: (Second Woe) Angels from the Euphrates (1/3rd of mankind killed)
o Certainly these are fallen angels of some type, because holy angels are not bound, and because their sole purpose is to kill a third of mankind. Their loosening sends forth an army of 200,000,000 horsemen bent on war.
o Whether this is a supernatural army, or human military force, we cannot be certain. Regardless, by adding the previous fourth of the population killed (by the 4th Seal Judgment) with this third, equal half the world’s population to date, has died.
Seven Thunders uttered then sealed up. Since we are not told what these are, we can only speculate that they are some type of transition judgments between the Trumpets and the Bowl judgments that further decimate the Antichrist’s kingdom.
Transition-Trumpet Judgment 7: The Kingdom Proclaimed by an angel
o The angel takes up the task of proclaiming the everlasting gospel in the air since the Church has gone (at the Rapture), and the 144K are missing, and the two witnesses have been killed (Rev. 11).
o Much akin to Babe Ruth’s famed called shot in Game 3 of the 1932 World Series, here, the angels proclaim what will happen as already having happened with 100% certainty.
Bowl Judgment 1: Loathsome Sores (afflicts those with the mark of the beast)
o The mark of the beast, which required mankind to insert some form of bio-tech into their bodies as a form of worship that allowed them to buy and sell, has now become an abhorrent reminder of their fateful choice.
Bowl Judgment 2: Sea turns to blood (the rest of the sea turns to blood)
o If the Atlantic was the first third that turned to blood, then it would seem this judgment poisons the rest of the world’s oceans. This absolutely cripples the shipping industry as well as killing every living thing in the ocean. Boats do not sail well through blood, and the world’s commercial and military ocean might come to a complete halt.
o Desalinization would no longer be an option for drinking water
o For those people who are still in the Americas, they would largely be trapped there.
Bowl Judgment 3: Fresh water turns to blood (the rest of fresh water turns to blood)
o With the seas turned to blood, and now the fresh water, man’s options are extremely limited.
Bowl Judgment 4: Men are scorched by the sun
o Although scientist say that our sun does not have enough mass to supernova, our God is the God of the impossible. The Sun experiences what appears to be a supernova-like event and superheats the planet.
Bowl Judgment 5: Darkness and pain
o In a traditional supernova, the sun superheats and expands, then explodes and dies, which would mean total darkness. We are not told that the sun completely dies, but that the ‘throne of the beast, and his kingdom’ is engulfed in darkness. So it seems that either the sun partially dies (as if a percentage of the sun darkens).
Bowl Judgment 6: the Euphrates dries up (unclean spirits gather world army for Armageddon)
o Three unclean spirits that appear froglike, stir or possess the world’s leaders to gather their armies at the valley of Megiddo (Armageddon) for one final battle. With all that has transpired, it appears that Satan is rallying mankind to both destroy Israel so Christ cannot return, or fight Christ as He returns.
Transition-Bowl Judgment 7: World’s greatest earthquake (Islands and mountains disappear, all cities leveled, 100 lb. hail stones)
o Not only would 100 lb. hail stones decimate civilian structures, but it would do devastating damage to any exposed military equipment and facilities such as missiles, tanks, planes, radars, and runways. This may in fact limit man’s only option for moving to Armageddon, by land.
o Since (if my theory is correct) the America’s are no longer in play, armies are moving primarily from the south, the north, and the east towards Israel. Note that Daniel 11 excludes the west (as a cardinal direction) from the armies listed in how they move against Israel.
o By this point, the militaries of the world cannot utilize the oceans for a water-borne assault since they were turned to blood. Neither could men use the air for an aviation assault on Israel. The supernatural heat wave, darkness, and 100lb hailstones make airborne operations untenable.
The Second Coming of Christ (Rev. 19)
o As all the armies of the world converge on the plains of Har Megiddo (Armageddon), the sky is literally peeled back, and Christ returns with His own armies in tow.
o The world’s armies then begin to fire their weapons and wage a ground to air assault on Christ, but are stopped when Christ singlehandedly defeats them simply by His speaking their destruction.
Now, it may seem that I am insinuating that God allows the varying judgments to happen to weaken Satan’s defenses on the earth. Absolutely not. If God wanted to, He could simply think the thought or say the word and our entire existence could blink into nothingness. The judgments were for signs so that the Jewish people (all that are supposed to be saved) are saved (Romans 11:26-27, 1 Corinthians 1:22).
Furthermore, the judgments were not only signs, but are pattern, pattern’s the Jewish people would be familiar with. The locusts, the darkness, the hailstones, and so forth, are reminiscent of the Ten Plagues and their exodus from bondage in Egypt. By the time Christ finally appears in the sky with His armies at the Second Coming, they will see that He is the Christ, the Messiah, and they will mourn at this for not having believed sooner.
And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn. Zechariah 12:10
Nevertheless, their faith will be confirmed because of the judgments, the signs, the patterns, and finally the deliverance as all the armies (not just the Romans as in the first century) are gathered against them. Their deliverance will be mind-blowing. It will be Christ and his armies moving through the air slaying the greatest military assembly the world has ever seen.
Then the Lord will go forth And fight against those nations, As He fights in the day of battle. And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, Which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, From east to west,
Making a very large valley; Half of the mountain shall move toward the north And half of it toward the south. Zech. 14:3-4