Shabbat shalom kol beit Yisra'el and Mishpachah and welcome back to Part 26 of our series on the Book of Revelation and to the second and final part of the Overview of chapters 6-16. I hope you all had the opportunity to read those chapters and/or study the chart on the website. Today we must consider some of the ways these events can be viewed and determine which the right one is.

Last week I pointed out the need to:

• 1. Come to a sure knowledge of the order of events represented in these chapters;
• 2. Discover what all the symbols mean, with
  • a. Some symbols being clear and needing no further explanation; and
  • b. Some symbols being explained in the text, though others (like the pregnant woman of chapter 12) are not explained; and
• 3. Find out when the fulfilment of the predictions is: in our past, our present, or our future - have they already happened, are they happening right now, or are they yet to happen?

These are obviously important questions. But there are others too:

• 1. The first thing we must establish is the actual order of events and that is not as simple as you might at first suppose;
• 2. The second we must do is look at the symbols as we come to them; and
• 3. To make things even more complicated, we find three features inserted into the text which are out of order, seemingly scattered at random throughout the chapters.

What are these troublesome features? Well there are three of them:

• 1. Digressions in the form of 'interludes' or 'parentheses', a bit like footnotes, which deal with subjects that seem to be outside the main stream of events. We have come across these many times in the past - they're often commentaries made by later nevi'im (prophets) or even the accidentally incorporated magrinal notes of scribes. Examples we've already studies in the past would include such degressions as the endings to the three different endings to the Gospel of Mark or the last verse of Judges where someone, for the benefit of the more 'modern' readers of his day, long after the book was written, inserted a footnote in parentheses: "(There was no king in Israel in those days, and every man did whatever he thought was right" (Judg.21:25, LB);

• 2. Recapitulations when the narrative seems to go back on its track, recalling events already mentioned; and

• 3. Anticipations, events mentioned without explanation until later in the story: for example, Armageddon, which first appears in 16:16 and then isn't mentioned again until chapter 19.

These three features - and we'll come to examples of them presently - have led to lots of misunderstanding and speculation, particularly in the 'cyclical historicist' school of interpretation. We talked about this particular school, you'll remember, in Part IV, The Four Methods of Interpretation right at the beginning of this course. To avoid the pitfalls of unnecessary, and potentially harmful, speculation, what we're going to do is follow the simpler route of working from the obvious to the obscure. Once we have the obvious mapped out clearly, all neatly laid out, then like a jigsaw puzzle under construction steadily growing out from a framed (using edge pieces) and an already completed central core that was early identified as the easiest place to start (because of the many easily recognisable features), it will become easier to figure out the difficult ones.

In this I am reminded of an Agatha Christie murder mystery in which Hercule Poirot is stumped by the initials on the corner of a handkerchief at the crime scene which don't match any of the suspects' names, only to realise that these letters were cyrillic and not Roman letters where, for example, a cyrillic 'P' is the equivalent of a Latin 'R', a cyrillic 'C' is the equivalent of a Latin 'S', and a cyrillic 'B' is the equivalent of a Latin 'V'. You see, the guilty party was Russian, and the Russians, like the Ukrainians, Bulgarians and Serbs use the cyrillic alphabet. We will avoid getting confused as we examine the clues in chapters 6-16 by remembering that must think like a Hebrew and not like a Westerner.

Let's turn our gaze to the chart (see below) and to the 11 chapters I asked you to read last week. The most striking features are the three sequences of seals, trumpets and bowls/vials. Fortunately the symbolism of these is relatively easy to decode so let's make a start with the Seals:

• 1. White horse - military aggression
• 2. Red horse - bloodshed
• 3. Black horse - famine
• 4. Pale Green/Blanched/Pallid/Sickly-looking horse - disease, epidemics

  ---

• 5. Persecution & prayer
• 6. Tremour & terror

  ---

• 7. Silence in heaven, listening to prayers which are then answered in a final catastrophe: a severe earthquake

Next, in the second sequence, we come to the trumpets or, to be more accurate, shofarim (shofars, rams' horns):

• 1. Scorched earth
• 2. Polluted sea
• 3. Contaminated water
• 4. Reduced sunlight

  ---

• 5. Insects and plague (for five months)
• 6. Oriental invasion (200 million army)

  ---

• 7. The Kingdom comes, the world is taken over by Yahweh & Yah'shua (Jesus) after a severe earthquake

Finally, in the third sequence, we come to the seven bowls or vials:

• 1. Boils on the skin
• 2. Blood in the sea
• 3. Blood from the springs
• 4. Burning by the sun

  ---

• 5. Darkness
• 6. Armageddon

  ---

• 7. Hailstorm (OB 368:11-12) and severe earthquake, leading to international collapse

Hopefully those of you gifted in spotting patterns will have noticed quite a few already. Last week I hinted that there was something similar in each of the seventh items - in fact, its the only thing that the seals, trumpets and bowls/vials have in common: and what's that? Yes, earthquakes! I've marked them in large red letters. There are some other similarities or correspondences but only between the trumpets and bowls...between the second, forth and sixth items, namely: sea, sun and invasion. These partial matches should tell us that we aren't looking at only seven events - at three sets of layered images-all-in-one (as some believe) - but 21 separate events, some of which are similar in each sequence. If at once we can understand that, we can save ourselves a lot of confusion as we get deeper into this.

But these are the not the only things we must make careful note of here. Indeed, the events themselves ought to be familiar to you because they are vaguely reminiscent of the plagues in Egypt when Moses confronted Pharaoh - something similar is going on here. We recall the water turned to blood, we remember the frogs and the locusts too (Ex.7-11) which though I have not described them in my summaries here, they are in the text which you have read. Indeed, don't we see some of these plagues happening today on a local or regional scale? Do you remember the plagues of locusts that in recent years have caused such destruction in East Africa?

But something even more familiar to us is the well-known sequence of four horses, each the result of the previous one. 'Well known?' you may ask. Yes, they are very familiar indeed even though we are unaccustomed to describing them in the way they are described here. War leads to bloodshed which leads to famine which leads to pestilence - the white, red, black and pale green horses. We're observing the white and red horses in action in the Ukraine as I speak, and soon they will be followed by the black horse (we're already being told there's going to be a major shortage of grain this coming year) and finally, the pale green one - pestilence and plague. The only novelty as far as this is concerned, here in the Book of Revelation, is the universal, global scale on which they happen, because the troubles have spread worldwide.

In other words, this is a prophecy about world war - not the third one, as it's usually touted as being, but literally the first and only, albeit in three phases. Why do I say that? Because the First and Second World Wars were not genuine 'world' wars - there were many neutral countries whom the war did not directly touch, like Sweden, for instance. Indeed, the First World War was originally called The Great War (in which there were 9 neutral countries [1]) and when a second one rolled along 21 years later, it was initially (and correctly) called the Second Great War (in which there were 14 neutral countries [2]). Only later were they (incorrectly) 'upgraded' to the status of 'world wars' because that's what it seemed like to so many who experienced them. In this apocalyptic scenario, though, all the nations are at war, and there are no safe havens like Sweden or Switzerland once were. There's no place to escape to or hide in this time.

Now the 'Covid plague' is part of a different kind of warfare that the élites have been waging on mankind - a war, incidentally, which isn't over yet. The war against the soul, and even life itself, follows a similar pattern. But what those intentially, and murderously, waging it don't realise is how it all ends for them, which the Book of Revelation is serving them notice of, as well as Satan and the demonic hosts whose human slaves they are: they don't win. However, there's 'other stuff' between now and then, and you will notice that the fifth item in the first series is persecution (which is already happening locally in places like Nigeria and Pakistan) leading to much prayer. In the final, global scenrio, which the Book of Revelation describes, it goes much further, unfortunately. Persecution and prayer are followed by global tremours leading to terror which then, in the seventh event, culminates in earthquakes.

Now you can apply the same pattern on all, and every, sort of level of existence. Using this code, you'll be able to trace the consequences of wrong thinking patterns and bad choices in your life too. Scripture talks about a famine of knowledge, "a famine through the land - not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of Yahweh. Men will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of Yahweh, but they will not find it" (Amos 8:11-12, NIV). Those who neglect scripture study and prayer experience all the symptoms described here, leading to metaphorical 'earthquakes' in their lives - in other words, traumatic experiences. So there is a spiritual and psychological dimension too. This, in turn, can lead to sickness as descirbed in the sequence of trumpets. But we'll unpack this in greater depth further along the line - I just wanted to whet your appetite a little!

Now you will notice in the Table I have created that I have inserted some gaps between the 4th and 5th items in each sequence of seals, trumpets, and bowls/vials, and between the 6th and 7th items too. These are not something I have made up but represent clear boundary lines between events, represented in the seals series by half an hour of silence...the metaphorical 'calm before the storm'. Just when you think the trial and tribulation are over, the 'biggie' suddenly strikes and then it's over! Why does this happen? To allow you to gather your strength for the 'final push' or the 'final assault' because nothing is going to interfere with Yahweh's goals, chief of which here is the rolling back of the original curse and the final destruction of the rebels, angelic and human.

Yahweh is, in effect, offering the wicked one last chance to repent before they cross that final point of no return. And I am speaking here of humans - not demons who long, long ago crossed that line and can never return because they, the malakim (angels), rebelled in complete knowledge of what they were doing. Once a human has crossed the 'point of no return' you are, as the Bible calls it, 'ripened in iniquity' and shall be cut down and burned up like useless, noxious weeds:

"Therefore as the tares (weeds) are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. The Son of Man will send out His malakim (angels), and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice Torahlessness (lawlessness), and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!" (Mt.13:40-43, NKJV).

So clearly the 'four horses of the apocalypse' (as they have come to be known since the German artist Albrech Dürer portrayed them) belong together, as do the scorched earth, polluted sea, contaminated water and reduced sunlight and as do the boils on the skin, the blood in the sea, the blood from the springs and the burning [of the skin] by the sun. The next two items in all three sequences are not, perhaps, so obvious, but the last one - earthquakes - really stands on its own.

So what's going on here? Clearly the three series aren't depicting the different aspects of the same seven activities even if there are sometimes clear parallels. As we move from the one series to the next and then to the final one, we observe that there is an intensification in the severity of events. We're a stubborn species and often have to be battered by being tossed to and fro by circumstances until we finally repent because what we might think as 'repentance' often isn't radical enough. I learned this as a deliverance minister because most demon-troubled people wanted to be set free, of course, but not to change their lives at all - but to resume sinning. They just want the pain and suffering of their bad choices to go, but not to turn over a new leaf; and usually (if they do actually turn over a new leaf), they would rather do it in their own strength than to follow Christ. But Christ didn't die for us so that we could just continue idolatrously sinning afterwards. And yet, unbelievably, I have known people who do just that, often after having experienced incredible, dramatic healing after meeting with the resurrected Messiah! Unbelievable, but true.

I knew one lady, who as an unbeliever was dying in hospital and who cried in desperation to Yah'shua (Jesus), who physically manifested in her hospital room and was supernaturally healed there and then of an incurable illness. Who wouldn't give an arm or a leg to experience Him so tangibly and be rescued from death! What a testimony she had! Yes, she still had issues to work out, even after converting to Messianic Judaism, to be sure, but you'd have thought such an incredible supernatural experience would have been incentive enough for her to stay on the straight-and-narrow path forever. But no, after she abandoned her believing Messianic husband and desperately needed a home to stay in a country where there are next to no social safety nets, when her daughter and Orthodox Jewish husband cruelly refused to let her live with them and see her grandchild unless she converted to Yah'shua-rejecting Judaism, she relented, rejected Christ, and chose Talmudic Judaism for the sake of a roof over her head and to see her grandchild...and she did this after all she had seen and experienced!!

Which only goes to prove one thing: that miracles do not necessarily convert the soul, as the rebellious Israelites in the wilderness, who had experienced the parting of the sea and witnessed Pharaoh's army drown, proved conclusively. Miracles don't save! Only a choice to trust the resurrected Messiah saves. That is why tribulation, which is often a blessing in disguise, in order to purify us, typically comes in three waves so that we do not falsely attribute our blessings and discover what Yahweh's grace is actually all about, and that is deliverance from sin and death for eternal life. That's the end goal! The Third Wave in a series of three tribulations/waves is what separates out the Remnant for the Final Gathering from all the rest. Miracles, if and when they occur, are an extra, added blessing to those who already believe. Fancy throwing such undeserved love back in the Saviour's face like that for the modern equivelent of a 'pot of lentils' (Gen.25:29-34). I still shake my head in utter disbelief whenever I think back on this, because I knew this woman and I know a lot of people, including myself, who desperately need healing!

There are other reasons, of course, for these three sequences. In the 'seals' sequence, a quarter (25%) of mankind perishes. That's about 2 billion out of 8 billion, leaving 6 billion. In the trumpets section, a further third (33%) of the survivors perish. That's nearly another 2 billion our of 6 billion, leaving about 4 billion. So we're talking about 4 billion deaths in all. There is a progression in the causes of this disaster: the seals are of human origin, the trumpets appear to be the consequence of the deterioriation of the environment (just as the deterioration of health globally appears to be a function of the assault on our immune systems by chemicals, radiation, GMOs, etc.), and the bowls/vials are directly poured out by Yahweh Himself through His angelic agents. So, importantly, there are three causes for these three sequences:

• 1. Man's own personal sin and folly;
• 2. A deterioration in the environment, including health, cause by man's personal sin and folly; and finally
• 3. Yahweh's own wrath for disobedience and rebellion resulting in separation and punishment.

Following on from an intensification of events, we also observe an acceleration of events. As the folly of man leads not only to war, bloodshed, famine and pestilence, and as these in turn lead to a rapid collapse of the environment, so Yahweh must step in quickly to ensure that both man himself, and the earth he is responsible for as a stewardship (that's the 'environmentalism' part of the equation), are not completey destroyed. Left to his own devices without divine intervention, egged on by the demonic which he has given legal grounds to interfere, man would destroy everything. The seals appear to be quite spread out in time, but the last two series (trumpets and bowls) appear to be measured in months or even days.

Certainly, it can be argued, that the ecosphere as been subjeted to man-made destruction following the initial success of the industrial revolution which elevated man out of grinding poverty but which, because of greed and carelessness, resulted in a neglect of health and environment. Now I am not here endorsing the bogus claims of the élites who claim all our ills, including global warming, are the result of alleged man-made 'carbon dioxide poisoning' (which is scientific nonsense, and is merely a devilish way to tax people into poverty leading to feudalistic, totalitarian governmental control) but I am saying that we are responsible for taking care of the environment, the mandate given to Adam by Yahweh, by not poisoning it with heavy metals, radioactive material (Chernobyl, Fukushima) or creating acid rain, destroying ecosystems (as the Soviet system did by exploiting, and finally destroying, the Aral Sea). Christians/Mesianics are properly-speaking, environmentalists but we are not eco-fascists who seem hell-bend on taking us back into the grinding poverty and misery of the pre-industrial world.

So the three series of seven events each strongly suggest a series which brings us to the important question of their relationship to one another. The most obvious answer is that they are successive, in other words, Seals #1,2,3,4,5,6,7 are followed by Trumpets #1,2,3,4,5,6,7 which are followed by Bowls/Vials #1,2,3,4,5,6,7. In other words, the series simply follow each other, with 21 events in all.

But...it might possibly not quite as simple as this. I am sure most of you have wondered if the 7th seal, and the 7th trumpet, and the 7th bowl/vial, refer to the either the same or at the very least, similar events. The common factor between them all is a severe earthquake on a world scale setting off every earthquake zone in every tectonic plate area from the 'Ring of Fire' in the Pacific rim to those in Europe, Africa and the rest of Asia. The reason I suggest this as a possible interpretation, and not simply three global earthquake events, is what John records in three places throughout Revelation which I'm going to read to you now:

"Then the malak (angel) took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it to the earth. And there were noises, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake" (Rev.8:4-6, NKJV).

"Then the temple of Elohim (God) was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple. And there were lightnings, noises, thunderings, an earthquake, and great hail (OB 267:8; 368:11-12)" (Rev.11:19, NKJV).

"And there were noises and thunderings and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since men were on the earth" (Rev.16:18, NKJV).

Those who maintain that all three earthquakes are, in fact, one-and-the-same earthquake are the 'cyclical historicists' who maintain that the three sequences cover the same sequential event, usually held by them to be the the entire period of time between the First and Second Advents, but viewed from different angles. So they would juxtapose the three series thus:

A more sophisticated and complicated pattern combined both the sussessive and overlapping models, treating the first six items as successive and the seventh as simultaneous:

In other words, proponents of this model claim, each series advances on the previous one but all climax in same same catastrophic end. I reject both this and previous models on two grounds, the first of which I have already explained. My second ground is that the last one is unnecessarily complicated but that's not the main reason. The main reason I believe there are three separate earthquakes is because the ones on the second (or trumpets) and third (or bowls/vials) sequences are described differently. The first describes the earthquake as simply "an earthquake" (Rev.8:6; 11:19), the second earthquake is accompanmied by hail, whereas the third and last one, describe it as "a great earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since men were on the earth" (Rev.16:18). There are qualitative and quantitative differences between all three earthquake events, with a progressively marked major increase in intensity in the second and third earthquakes - they are not identical. The language is plain enough. I was taught to follow the rule of Occam's Razor as a scientist, namely, that the simplest explanation is usually the correct one, and this seems to me to be the plain, uncomplicated sense of the text.

So what we have here are 3 x 7 successive events, some of which are similar or repeats but (in the case of the earthquake) increasing in intensity to the maximum. So the correct model, I would like to suggest to you, is this, showing both increasing intensity and increasing rapidity:

These series cover chapters 7 (the Seals), 10-11 (the Trumpets) and 12-14 (the Bows/Vials), respectively. Because all the events described in all three sequences are global, then I have to state that I believe - relative to to John himself - what we are seeing described is the model held by the futurist school. From John's perspective, all these events still lay ahead in history. And I would like to suggest to you that what is described has either just begun in my generation, or is about to begin in the next and final generation. We'll narrow down the possibilities as we make our in-depth study of Revelation 6-16 in the next few months.

We should now take care to note the reaction of humans to these 21 events. Whilst all the unsaved people come (too late) to recognise that these terrible tragedies are evidence of the wrath of Elohim (God) the Father and of the Lamb, their response is one of abject terror (6:15-17) and they curse Yahweh (16:21) rather than repent (9:20-21), even though the Gospel of forgiveness is still apparently available to them (16:6) so long as they haven't fully ripened in iniquity, as we discussed earlier. What we read is a sad, sad comment on the hardness of the human heart, but it is definitely true to life. In disasters we either turn to Elohim (God) or against Him - did you know that the last words of crashing airline pilots often to curse Elohim/God? - they are usually edited out of the 'black box' recording before it is played at the enquiry). Mass murderer Stalin, it is alleged, died cursing and shaking his fist at Yahweh.

Let's end by quickly reviewing the 'extra' chapters inserted between the three series of seals, trumpets and bowls - or to be exact, within them, as we shall see. There are three such 'insertions' - chapter 7, chapters 10 & 11, and chapters 12-14. The first two sections are put between the 6th and 7th seals and trumpets, respectivwly, but the third is put before the first bowl/vial or right after the 7th trumpet, depending how you want to view it. A simple table will help you visualise this:

So what about these insertions? What are they really doing there? Simply, whereas the seals, trumpets and bowls/vials are primarily concerned with what will happen to the planet/world, the three insertions (consisting of ~5 chapters), deal with what will happen to the Messianic Communuity, Body of Christ, Messianic Israel or 'Church'. Here we are given alarming information about Yahweh's people during this terrible upheaval. How will they be affected? Since the Book of Revelation is all about preparing the qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones) for what is to come, these insertions are more important and relevant for us as we make both short- and long-term preparations.

Brethren and sisters, we now have a complete outline of chapters 6-16, so that is where we will end today. Next week we'll take a close look at the first half of chapter 6 (verses 1-8) where we have one or two surprises in store. I would again encourage you to go over the charts and in particular to mentally separate out the 'insert chapters' (10-11, 13-14). Through careful and painstaking study we will be able to weed out all the false teachings about these chapters that have emerged over the years. Yahweh bless you all. Amen.

Endnotes

[1] Argentina, Chile, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Venezuela, Sweden and Switzerland
[2] Afghanistan, Ireland (Eire), Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Yemen (+ the microstates of Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino and Vatican City)

Acknowledgements

[1] David Pawson, Unlocking the Bible: A Unique Overview of the Whole Bible (Collins, London: 2007)
[2] Tom Wright, Revelation for Everyone - The New Testament for Everyone Commentary Series, Vol.19 (SPCK, London: 2011)
[3] E.W.Bullinger*, Number in Scripture (Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, Michigan: 1967)
[4] E.W.Bullinger*, Commentary on Revelation (Kregel Classics, Grand Rapids, Michihan: 1984)
[5] E.W.Bullinger*, The Companion Bible being the Authorized Verion of 1611 with Structures & Critical Explanatory Notes (Samuel Bagster & Sons Ltd., London: 1974), pp.1883-1914
[6] David H. Stern, Jewish New Testament Commentary (JNT Publications, Clarksville, Maryland: 1992)

*E.W.Bullinger was a brilliant Anglican clergyman and scholar whose works merit careful study by serious students of the Bible. He was, however, seriously in error in at least three main areas, namely, (1) he believed the 'Church' has been raptured before the Book of Revelation opens, (2) he believed that the 7 churches in Revelation 2-3 are 7, literal Jewish churches or assemblies yet to come, and (3) he believed in a pre-tribulation, pre-millennial rapture.

Comments from Readers

[1] "I am grateful for your study of Revelation 6-16!!! EXCELLENT" (GL, Sweden/Rwanda, 30 July 2022)