"12 When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, 13 and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. 14 The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. 15 Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, 16 calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” - Revelation 6:12-17
Once again, we continue to investigate the evidence for the resurrection of the saints and the "catching up" coinciding with the pronouncement of the coming of God's wrath in the Sixth Seal of Revelation 6:12-7:17. Points 1-6 listed below have been addressed in previous weeks. We'll add three more to that list this week:
- Without question, the Sixth Seal (v. 12-17) is a coming of the Lord.
- Scripture is undeniably clear that God's people will not undergo His wrath, but will be rescued prior to it.
- It seems that in the Fifth Seal (Revelation 6:9-11), God's people are still present on earth and are undergoing severe persecution.
- The pattern in Scripture is that God delivers His people at the last moment...just prior to His judgment upon the ungodly. (Peter and Jude - Noah and Lot)
- We are told explicitly by Paul (II Thessalonians 2:1-4) that there are two things in particular that must occur before God's people are "gathered together". 1) the rebellion (apostasy) and 2) the man of lawlessness (antichrist) is revealed.
- Paul also reveals (I Thessalonians 4:15-17) that the resurrection of the saints and the catching up will occur essentially simultaneously, at the coming of the Lord.
- God has never left himself without a witness (remnant) on this earth. The events within the Sixth Seal do not end with chapter 6, but continue to be described in the following chapter and do accommodate this principle quite well. Revelation 7:1-8 - "1 After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, that no wind might blow on earth or sea or against any tree. 2 Then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, with the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea, 3 saying, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.” 4 And I heard the number of the sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel: 5 12,000 from the tribe of Judah were sealed..." Here, God has assigned a new group of witnesses for the time remaining: 144,000 Jews. Why did He do this? And why now? There is much that could be said here, but for the purposes of this discussion we will simply say this: the reason that these 144,000 Jews are now functioning as God's witnesses on earth is because the Christians, who have been His witnesses since the book of Acts, just left to be with the Lord and the Jews, after observing the "catching up" are beginning to repent! Notice, too, that God's angels were forbidden from harming the earth until the 144,000 were sealed. God was not harming the earth yet...He is about to!
- It is at this precise moment that an innumerable multitude, previously not present, appears in Heaven. See here what John says,"9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” 13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” 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." - Revelation 7:9-17. It says it right there, does it not? This great multitude are the "ones coming out of the great tribulation". These folks just arrived in Heaven!
- The Seventh Seal occasions the silence of that multitude in Heaven whose prayers are, at that time, set upon the altar. “1 When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. 2 Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. 3 And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer, and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne, 4 and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel. 5 Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth, and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.” – Revelation 8:1-5. The prayers of the saints under the altar in the Fifth Seal are here answered. The silencing of the entire population of Heaven reveals a jaw-dropping occurrence…God’s judgment that comes from the altar and down upon the earth’s inhabitants.
Well, I reckon that's enough to ponder for this week. I will conclude my thoughts on this matter in next week's article. Thanks for reading!
Pastor Jeremy
