The Book of Revelation: Chapters 15-18

Part 1

Nathan Jones: Well, too many Christians are convinced that they’re going to have to endure the wrath of God poured out during the Tribulation, and no wonder they are reluctant to dwell on such a discouraging thought, let alone study this book of prophecy. But nothing could be further from the truth. Paul assures us that even now we wait for Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come. And that is why this series on Revelation emphasizes the blessed hope that is ours if we belong to Jesus. And it is why we get excited about God’s prophetic Word, including Revelation, because the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

David Bowen: Exactly so, Nathan, if we focus on Satan or the Antichrist, or the condition of our world today, or the trajectory our own nation is on, we would be discouraged and full of despair. But we are full of hope because we are committed to keeping our eyes on Jesus. And as we study Revelation we seek to understand prophecies throughout the Bible, we intend to encourage one another all the more because we see the day drawing near. What day? The Day of the Lord, what Scripture also calls the End Times. You know, if our conversations during this series, if that whet your appetite to dive deeper into Revelation, we have some tremendous resources to aid you in your study of God’s Word.

Tim Moore: We certainly do. And more on those later. For now, let’s put a bottom line up front. Some people read how Satan is expelled from heaven and cast down to earth to possess the Antichrist and turn his rage on Christians and Jews, and they conclude, aha, since Satan is raging, this must not have anything to do with the wrath of God. Or they read Revelation 16:1 that says, the seven bowls contain the wrath of God, and they infer that the seal and trumpet judgments were not the wrath of God. So how about it? What say each of you?

David Bowen: Oh, I believe the whole Tribulation is the wrath of God, not just starting in chapter 16.

Tim Moore: Okay, Nathan?

Nathan Jones: Well, obviously it’s the wrath of God because when Jesus opened the seven seals, each seal, that whole scroll came from God. The angels that did the trumpet judgments that blew the trumpets came from the foot of the throne of God. And now that we’re in chapter 15, verse 1 it says, “Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels who have seven plagues, which are the last, because in them the wrath of God is finished.” So as we get into these seven final bowl or vial judgments, these are the last of His wrath. Well, you have to have the first of His wrath to have the last of His wrath.

David Bowen: Right.

Nathan Jones: And in another episode, Dave, you had mentioned, the Fifth Seal judgment, where the people are crying out for the rocks, or the sixth seal, excuse me, for the rocks, the mountains to fall down upon them because of the wrath of the Lamb. So we know that all 21 judgments are the wrath of God.

Tim Moore: And we also know this even though Scripture tells us Satan will come down filled with rage, Satan has already been raging against the Jewish people. He already is raging against the people of God, Christians, those who put their faith in Christ. So he has been raging, but he will be filled with rage. He will be enraged to an even higher degree when he is cast out of heaven, as we already discussed in a previous episode. And so when the Lord sends Satan out of heaven and he indwells the Antichrist, then we know that the Antichrist will turn his attention on the Jews, and yes on Christian still at an even higher sense of urgency because Satan knows his time is short.

David Bowen: And as we get here too, we see this Great Tribulation, we see the second half of the Tribulation coming into play and the plagues before they went towards the land, not so much on people, but now the wrath of God, the judgment of God is coming upon people as well.

Tim Moore: Well, you can’t say that a half of the earth is destroyed, and half the people are killed.

David Bowen: But the plagues were focused on the land.

Tim Moore: Yes. So you use the word Great Tribulation. Nathan, what do you think as we study Revelation and put it in context of all that was revealed in Daniel and other prophets, why is the second half of the Tribulation referred to as the Great Tribulation?

Nathan Jones: Well, if you go back to Jeremiah 30:7 it is called the time of Jacob’s Trouble. The prophet Joel and other prophets prophesied a time of intense persecution, particularly devoted to the Jewish people.

Tim Moore: Even more so than we see today?

Nathan Jones: Yeah, I mean, it’s going to be their worst, I mean, as bad as it was living under Pharaoh, as bad as the exile was, as bad as all these different times.

Tim Moore: The Holocaust.

Nathan Jones: The Holocaust, tragically, the Holocaust of the 1940s is going to look actually tame compared to the Holocaust, the second one when the Antichrist comes. We’ve talked about this in other episodes is the reason for this is that Satan knows that when the Jewish people cry out for the Messiah, Jesus will come. And if you can eradicate all the Jews, it would thwart His plan. So when Satan is kicked out of heaven, he possesses the Antichrist, for the next 3 1/2 he tries to annihilate the Jewish people. But fortunately, as we read in Revelation 12, the Lord will protect a remnant in the wilderness. He can’t touch those.

Tim Moore: So we have said already that the seal and trumpet judgments were unleashed by Jesus. He broke the seals, He set forth the trumpets, and so they are an act of His wrath under His authority even, the Antichrist goes forth to enact war and to cause famine, and to bring about death, all under the authority of Jesus Christ. So it is the wrath of the Lamb. Just as those suffering that wrath recognized in chapter six. And just as Jesus used nefarious actors in the past. So He raised up the Chaldeans to be an instrument of judgment or of punishment to the nation of Judah. That is still going to happen. The Antichrist will serve His purposes in bringing the Jews to the end of themselves and bringing many to finally the end of themselves and repentance.

Nathan Jones: You bring up an excellent point, because the Jewish people, in the Bible are always called a stiff necked people, a stubborn people.

Tim Moore: Hey, I resemble that remark.

Nathan Jones: Yeah, they’ve got the blinders on. I mean, it’s not being racist, it’s just what the Bible teaches, that they have spiritual blinders on. But at this time, they have to go under such intense persecution, it’s when the people will finally bow a knee. When things are really bad that’s when people cry out to the Lord. And the Lord’s going to let it get so bad that the Jewish people are going to cry out to Him.

Tim Moore: Well, sadly, some will bend their knees.

David Bowen: And some will shake their fist.

Tim Moore: And some shake their fist. But we’re told, and this is what Paul talks about in Romans 9-11, that all the remnant of Israel will be saved. And so I take the Bible literally, and I believe all that survive this period of great wrath will indeed look upon Him whom they have pierced.

David Bowen: That word survive is important. They have to survive this time frame to get to that point.

Nathan Jones: Because up to now we’ve got what half of the world population is dead?

David Bowen: Yes.

Nathan Jones: And by the time we get to Armageddon, where the Antichrist gathers all the people left alive in the world to try to fight Jesus, and Jesus destroys them. And then, I’m getting ahead of myself, but when he brings them all to the Valley Jehosaphat, thank you, for judgment they fit in one valley. So, by the end of the Tribulation, when you say survive, there’s not going to be many survivors left.

David Bowen: No, and we know God’s behind this because He’s done this before. As we get into the bowls, the first bowl being the sores on people, well that goes back to Exodus 9. If we look at the second angel pouring out the second bowl, the blood to blood, the sea life dying, well, that goes back to Exodus 7. So, we know this is God’s hand, saying I’ve done this before, are you stiff necked or are you listening to Me? Do you understand the message? Repent, get right with Me, turn to Me before it’s too late. And we start seeing the bowls coming out, that’s becomes the Great Tribulation period.

Tim Moore: Certainly does. Well, you’ve already touched on two of the bowls that are outlined here in Revelation 16. What about the ensuing bowls that follow?

David Bowen: Well, the third angel is the fresh water. So, you had sea, then salt water first, and then you get the fresh water.

Nathan Jones: And not just a third of it, all of it.

David Bowen: Right.

Nathan Jones: All of it is destroyed.

David Bowen: No drinking water, so imagine not being able to have any drink.

Tim Moore: How long can this last?

David Bowen: Yeah, that can’t last. Well in the Great Tribulation things speed up as well.

Tim Moore: Jesus even said as He was describing the things to come, He said, “If those days were not cut short.” And let’s face it, they will be the full length that God described. But He said, “If they had lasted longer, no one would survive.”

David Bowen: Right.

Tim Moore: No one on earth. And we can understand that when there’s no fresh water.

David Bowen: I have a question for you because, verses 8 to 9 is the fourth angel, pouring out the fourth bowl and people are scorned by the sun. The sun is so hot it burns them. Does that affect technology?

Nathan Jones: I always wondered if the Tower of Babel, the new Babylon system is also technology driven if possibly that would affect the satellites, communication? In other words, God, is, like you said in the Exodus, God was defeating each of the Egyptian gods. Here He’s destroying the gods of our day and age, and a lot of that is technology. So, it could be when we read verses about how you get to Armageddon and people are fighting on horses and with swords and stuff, and we’re like, well, that’s just a first century John trying to explain the future. It could be that the technology is so wiped out by the end that people have to resort to more primitive weaponry.

Tim Moore: And they still go to battle, because it’s in the heart of man.

David Bowen: And in Zechariah it says they get confused and again God intervenes there. So, but while we wonder about that, the fifth angel, verses 10 to 11, is darkness. And again, look how people respond here in verse 11, they curse the God of heaven because of their pain and their sores, but they refuse to repent.

Tim Moore: Again, even as God is pouring out wrath, trying to force people to the end of themselves to end up in repentance. I always think of Jonah, you know, if you read the book of Jonah, how he was called of God to go to Nineveh to preach repentance because God cared even for those pagan evil people. Well, Jonah didn’t want any part of that because he didn’t want them to be saved. And he ran away from God. Jonah is described as going down, down, down, down, down, down to Joppa, down to the boat, down into the ship, down into the hole, eventually being thrown down into the sea, going down the gullet of a fish, until he came to the end of himself and repented, and was ready to serve as God had directed. And then he was vomited up, and he went up. In other words, it was a downward trajectory until he came to the end of himself. I think the Lord’s mission in this time of the Tribulation is so that many would turn from their wicked way, would repent, and would accept His Son in salvation. But tragically, so many do not. And that’s the same story today. We preach the Gospel. We call upon you to be saved now and escape the wrath to come. But many just say no. They blaspheme God and they go about their evil ways.

David Bowen: But is apathy the same as blaspheming God? Because I may not see people shaking their fists and getting mad at God. Some do. But I think we get very lax in our relationship with God. I think we take sin very casually so we don’t repent. The whole thing is about repentance. It’s what they are doing, and God is calling them to repent. And I think our world right now doesn’t do that. Even people who may call themselves Christian.

Nathan Jones: Well, apathy comes from comfort. These people aren’t comfortable. They are in open rebellion. Well, it is interesting too is you’ve got the darkness, but we just had the sun scorching the earth, so we’ve got heat, but now we have darkness. And I wonder if it’s not because of the wars and the meteors hitting the earth and all that there’s so much particulate in the atmosphere and smoke, it’s blocking out a lot of sun. And what’s causing all the pain? Why do the people hurt? I don’t know, I speculate, maybe nuclear fallout or something like that, but something causes it and the darkness actually hurts them.

Tim Moore: Yes, it does. And we know that some of these, speculations we will make.

Nathan Jones: It’s just speculation.

Tim Moore: We try to make holy speculation. We trust that the Word of God is faithful and true, and it will be a pain that no one wants to endure. You don’t have to, but it is a warning to those who have rejected the grace, mercy, and offer salvation of the Lord.

Nathan Jones: So, this is a question, now, a lot of these are these punishments, these wraths of God are against the unbelieving world at that time. Do you guys see that in any of these where the Tribulation Saints are exempt from any of these?

Tim Moore: Well, I think that the Tribulation Saints obviously are preserved at times, although not all of them are, because sometimes they’re martyred. But as far as the loathsome sores, and the stinging of the scorpions they don’t get stung. And so sometimes they’re protected, sometimes they’re not. And it is the providence of God to know why Christians aren’t immune from cancer. Christians aren’t immune from tragedy in our lives now. And yet we have the assurance that God only allows us to be exposed to things that we can endure, and there going to be for His greater good and glory. And we have to trust in that.

Nathan Jones: And I ask that because of the parallel, because what do we got here? We’ve got things affecting the earth. We’ve got the darkness. We’ve got the heat. We’ve got the water destroyed, the drinking water, that can only affect those who have taken the mark. It’s got to affect everybody. Even in our day and age, even though we’re children of the Lord, the evil in this world affects us as well and hurts us. And the Lord loves us, and He wants to take care of us, but we have to get through that, and He helps us through that.

Tim Moore: We are in a sinful world, and sometimes that sin has a collateral damage for those all around.

Nathan Jones: Collateral damage, that’s good.

Tim Moore: Yes, that’s the military term. Alright, so we’ve talked about how this second half of the Tribulation, and we’ve gotten through most of the bowl judgments.

Nathan Jones: Just the sixth one next.

Tim Moore: Yeah, the sixth one is next. But a lot of focus is turning to the Jewish people. When we talk about the sixth angel pouring out a bowl that dries up the river Euphrates so that armies can come from the east. We began to see this culmination at the very end, as the forces of the world that are starting to rebel against the Antichrist come together to revolt against him. But they come to Israel in the valley that everybody knows, the valley of Armageddon. You called it the Valley of Jehoshaphat. It is also the Jezreel Valley.

Nathan Jones: Jehoshaphat is a judgment valley.

Tim Moore: Yeah, so we refer to the Valley of Jehoshaphat as a valley of judgment. But the Jezreel Valley is the large plain around the Tel or the city of Megiddo, which is why we refer to it as Armageddon.

Nathan Jones: Yeah, you get quite a view of it when you go up to Mount Carmel and you look out across from it. Didn’t Napoleon say that you could field all the armies of the world in it?

Tim Moore: He thought it was the greatest battlefield he’d ever seen. Because of the way various avenues feed in.

David Bowen: And it will be. But look at what happens here with these three evil spirits that pop out here too. And you got again you got Satan, you got the devil, you’ve got the Antichrist. What’s happening here? What do you see happening here when you have the dragon out of the mouth, the beast, the frogs. They go back to Exodus as well with the plague of the frogs.

Tim Moore: They certainly do.

David Bowen: Is that a message that when God sends these plagues, is He not sending a message as well because He’s repeating Himself of what He’s done before?

Tim Moore: He certainly is. You know, I think we see Satan in rage. We see the mask of the Antichrist finally come off as he turns in rage. But all this again, part of the outpouring of God’s wrath. I think that there’s a warning for us even today, so many people are clamoring for a one world government. They want someone to rescue us from the economic collapse and from all the other chaos and confusion. They want order in terms of, you know, government being in control, and they’re willing to exchange liberty. That’s exactly what the Antichrist is going to take advantage of. He’s going to promise, hey, I’ll make you all equal. You know, you can have equity in the terms of the modern DEI crowd, but it’s at the expense of liberty. And yet he does bring a period of supposed prosperity because he creates a Babylonian system, and the merchants of the earth thrive for a brief period of time. Tell us about this.

David Bowen: They rebel against that, though they call it the great prostitute, going back to their idolatry and so on, so forth. But they use that for their own gain for a period of time, and then they turn around and destroy the prostitute.

Tim Moore: So even the dictators of this age, and of past ages have oftentimes brought about a brief period of prosperity. I think about Adolf Hitler and how he restored Germany’s pride. He restored Germany’s military. He restored Germany’s economy to the point that even Henry Ford was amazed at how effective this German leader was. But there’s always another side to a dictator. And so the mask came off Hitler. The mask will come off the Antichrist. And let’s just ask this what and where, because some people like this parlor game, Dave, is this Babylon that is referred to in Scripture?

Nathan Jones: Right, so after we finish the seventh bowl judgment, which is the worst earthquake in history, we move then to the next two chapters, and that’s chapter 17 and 18. And that is where we get the Babylon religion. So, we’re studying this chronologically, but 17 and 18 covered, 17 is the religious aspect of the Antichrist empire.

David Bowen: The global government, the system.

Nathan Jones: And then you’ve got the system, and then the next chapter is the political side. And so it’s not like they just happened next. What we’re getting is an overview of what those systems have been like throughout the entire Tribulation. And basically the old Babylon system, the plains of Shinar, the idolatry that Babylon was known for will consume the world with its headquarters in either a literal or metaphorical city of Babylon.

David Bowen: But whatever that city is, that will be chapter 18 would be the physical destruction of the headquarters of the Antichrist, 17 is the global system. And you go back to Babylon, you go back to Nimrod, back to Genesis. You know, the false religion. That’s where all false religion began. And really, Babylon has been a thorn in Israel’s side from the very beginning, a thorn in God’s side, going against everything that God has designed.

Tim Moore: In Genesis chapter 11, it says the reason that they stayed gathered there in the plain of Shinar and decided to build a great city, Babylon is because mankind said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city and a tower whose top will reach heaven. Let us make a name for ourselves, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the earth.” And obviously they built a tower so they could reach the heavens and become godlike. Rejecting what God had declared, I want you to spread out. I want you to repopulate the earth. They said, no, we want to make a name for ourselves. There’s that human pride, that hubris and we see that in Satan, we see it in the heart of man. And it’s going to come back again with this, occultic religion that the false prophet leads the world into an ecumenical worship of the beast, the Antichrist.

Nathan Jones: And that’s why she’s called the scarlet woman or the harlot religion. The Lord always compares spiritual adultery with harlotry, and so she is a harlot religion. She draws people. She entices people away from the true religion of following the Lord Jesus and following evil and lies, and ultimately Satan. And that’s the definition of the religious part of this system. Now there is, you mentioned the political side, people are making money. There are businesses, there are jobs.

David Bowen: Yeah, there gets to be three groups that rebel against her because the merchants and the leaders and so on, so forth. But Satan will use that for his own advantage, for his own time. And then when he’s done with it, he discards it. And that’s how he treats people. That is what he is to the culture, especially, you know, people who want to follow Jesus. He will drag us in, drag us in, and then discard us.

Tim Moore: You know, like Dorian Gray realized when he made a deal with the devil and thrived and one aspect of his life. And yet he was becoming more, and more, evil on the inside. And it was manifest in the portrait, the painting of him. I think sometimes people think they can make a deal with the devil, and for a season they almost seem like they’re getting away with it, but there’s always a price to pay. One of the prices is eventually destruction and of course, damnation of their eternal soul.

Nathan Jones: It’s interesting how the Lord displays the destruction of Babylon. A stone angel with a great millstone comes and he hurls it into the waters, in other words the waters representing the seas of humanity, the Gentile nations. And the Lord Himself destroys it in one hour. And the smoke rises up and it says, the peoples of the earth mourn the fact that the Antichrist Empire has been destroyed.

Tim Moore: Well, I like it when you see that seventh bowl being unleashed and this is in Revelation 16:17, I know we’ve already been talking about chapter 18 as well with the destruction of the Babylonian system. But in chapter 16, with the seventh bowl, the seventh angel pouring it out, does so as a loud voice comes from the temple and from the throne. So this is God who says, “It is done.” And to me, this reminds me, I mean, my mind immediately goes to the words of Jesus on the cross as His work of salvation was finished there as He uttered His last breath, “It is finished.” And really, that was the will of God there. This is the will of God, and there is a finality that is coming just in the ensuing chapters.

Nathan Jones: Yeah. I mean like you said, we are down at the end of the Tribulation. If it went on an extra day, everybody would be dead. There’s no way that the earth can sustain life anymore. The Jewish people are being besieged by the Antichrist. And that brings us into chapter 19 for the next episode.

Tim Moore: It surely does.

David Bowen: But He does provide a way out for the Jewish people too, in chapter 18, we see He tells them to flee. So, God does still protect His remnant. He still offers a way to protect those He loves. Yeah, He wants people to survive. They have to, we have to have believers that survive the Tribulation or you have nobody to populate the Millennial Kingdom.

Tim Moore: Surely don’t. Today’s episode we focused a lot on the Great Tribulation, this time of Jacob’s Trouble, where the attention of the Antichrist and Satan turns back on the Jewish people. We’ve also kind of previewed Satan’s doom, the Devil’s doom, as we say. We’ll get to more of that next week and the final conclusion of this series. But if we can read Scripture and we can understand plainly that the Devil is doomed, why is he even trying to be victorious? How does he delude himself into thinking he can prevail over the Lord God?

Nathan Jones: Well, he’s the great deceiver and he’s the father of lies. He is so good at it He has deceived himself.

Tim Moore: Wow. That’s well-put Nathan. I mean, I knew that you had brought up this point, self-delusion is one of the purest forms of delusion. And that’s exactly what Satan has done.

David Bowen: Right. He tried it once before. He thinks he can be victorious this time, but he’s not going to be victorious.

Nathan Jones: Well, I’ll tell you Satan’s strategy. You get enough people, enough angels, whatever together, you form a big army and you try to overthrow the Lord. He tried it with the angels in heaven. He’ll try it at the midpoint of the Tribulation. He’ll gather all the people of the world to Armageddon to stop Jesus. At the end of the Millennial Kingdom, he’ll gather all the people together to destroy. It fails every time.

Tim Moore: I think there’s one other aspect, and this came to me recently. I think the devil may, in some part of his intellect realize he’s going to lose, but he still wants to gain a Pyrrhic victory. In other words, yes, the Lord may win, but I want to make it so costly that even the rejoicing that would be had at the Lord’s victory is at a great cost. And how would you hurt someone most, devastatingly? You would attack someone they love. To break their heart. And so, Satan is going after the ones God loves, both the Jews and His own children, if he can, to try to break God’s heart. And let’s face it, God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. It is something beyond my comprehension. But I know that even all the evil that Satan is trying to perpetrate now and during the Tribulation will come together for the glory of God. In terms of sheer numbers, it would seem that, or maybe percentages that Satan is winning. But we know at the final hour God doesn’t need a majority, and He has a habit of turning apparent defeats into resounding victories, all to His glory.

David Bowen: Amen.

Closing

Tim Moore: Seeds of the Tribulation are being sown today. Or perhaps I should say that evidence of the approaching Babylonian system and satanic rage is increasing all around us.

David Bowen: We see how technology is quickly enabling an evil dictator to control buying and selling, along with the lives of people all around the world. We witnessed a tragic demand for a one world government that will eliminate personal liberties but ensure equity of outcome to the masses.

Nathan Jones: And clearly, Satan’s hatred for Christians and Jews is becoming more obvious by the day. He has succeeded in diluting the masses to either scoff at his very existence or willingly accept his ideology and rule. The sign of society, alarming spiritual signs, signs of world politics, signs of technology, and signs of Israel, including the satanic hatred being expressed against Israel right now, all testify that the world is ripe for the Tribulation.

Tim Moore: So where is the hope in that message? There is no hope in that message. Jesus said so Himself, He told us in this world you will have trouble. We cannot put our hope in the next election, our favorite political candidate, another law or system of government, or anyone or anything on earth. Our only hope is Jesus, and only in Him will we have peace, a peace that passes all understanding.

Nathan Jones: If you want to know more about our Blessed Hope, visit our website and explore the online and printed resources that focus on Jesus Christ. And if you want to expand your study of Revelation, visit our online store or call the number on the screen to order our new and updated Overview of Revelation Study Guide. It is designed to accompany a verse-by-verse audio series recorded by Dr. David Reagan.

David Bowen: We’ve also added a number of new commentaries and videos to our website to expand on the information we can present here on Christ in Prophecy. Obviously, you need to begin your study of Revelation with the Word of God, including the foundational prophecy scattered throughout the Bible. But we’ve purposed to bring you material that always stays true to the plain sense of Scripture. While claiming the promise God gave to Daniel that as the end times approach, the people of God who have ears to hear and eyes to see will understand His prophetic Word like never before.

Tim Moore: Many of you have expressed appreciation for our Deep Dive with Pastor Dave videos, and there are several of those on our website pertaining to Daniel and Revelation. You’ll also find a link to purchase Dave Bowen’s extensive study of Revelation. We could expand this series on Revelation to address each of its 22 chapters on a weekly program. All 404 verses could be discussed for many hours, but this overview of Revelation will conclude next week as we focus on Jesus glorious return. We’ll address the Millennial reign of Jesus and explain what awaits us in the Eternal State. If your spirit longs for the New Heavens and New Earth and yearns to dwell in the presence of the Lord forever, you won’t want to miss Christ in Prophecy next week. For now, we’ll end this show with the other half of the Song of the Lamb we cited last week. “Who will not fear you, O Lord, and bring glory to your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before you for your righteous acts have been revealed.” Amen and Godspeed.

End of Program