This Will Be the Real War of Terror
We've already covered the first five seals opened by the Lamb of God and now we're about to read of the opening of the sixth seal which is to be the most frightening yet. Opening up this seal is like the first act of an end time play revealing a very disturbing scene with more to come. First the text:
12I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. 13And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. 14Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. 15And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, 16and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! 17“For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”
Why is He telling us this? It's very clear when one reads scripture that God is a God of many chances. He's not one to surprise us without giving us every chance available. Here, He's warning us. He wants us to know that there will be a day of wrath. There will be a day of judgment. The world says "no." The prevailing thought of today is the world will not end anytime soon. Certainly, a loving God will not close down this earth as we know it. There will be no final curtain call. Right?
Well if scripture is correct, this earth will end as we know it. There will be a day of judgment. We need to be motivated to tell the world there is a way out. We need to tell others there is a Savior who will save us from the wrath to come.
We see from the Epistles, mostly written by Paul, a sense of urgency. The first Christians were anxious for the day to come. They wished and waited for justice to be had in their lifetime. The desire was to be reunited with God.
So here the opening of this seal starts with an earthquake. In the latest news we've read of an earthquake in Peru and Jamaica, but this is just a small taste, a warning of what is to come. How many went into eternity without Christ after hearing the message?
Our Pastor believes the "Day of the Lord" starts here. Some say earlier, some say later. The opening of this seal initiates wrath coming from heaven, not the earth.
We know that scripture is clear that while the believer is to have tribulation in his life, wrath is only for the unbelievers. The believers will not be here. The believers will be saved from God's wrath. We read in Romans 5:9:
Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.
Now going back to Matthew 24 as we have been doing with all these seals we see a connection here with 24:29 which says:
“Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken"
Jesus gave a complete picture in Matthew as did John in Revelation and the two fit perfectly together. Here's the seals' timeline.
Beginning............................Middle.......................................End.
l______________________l____________________ l
#1,2,3,4....................................#5 .............#6
Birth Pangs.....................Persecution Wrath
So first we see nature responds with a great earthquake. This will be worldwide, not like what we are seeing today. This quake will receive the attention of the world. Every place will shake. This quake will put the insurance industry out of business. This will be an extreme world makeover like never before, and it will not be a good thing.
We see:
Sun turns black
Moon like blood
Stars fall
Sky recedes
Mountains and Islands move
We see the Sun turns black. What happens when the earth quakes? Dust, debris, gases rise blocking out the Sun. Remember Mt. St. Helens? Remember the stories of complete blackness that surrounded the whole area? It will be similar but oh so much worse than a local volcano spillover.
Sackcloth is a symbol of mourning, dark and drab and not a pleasant article of clothing by any means. Somehow the gases of the earth will even change the color of the moon to blood red.
The stars falling is likened to a shaken fig tree and reminds us of meteor showers. The earth is shaken with such force it seems as tho there will be meteorites crashing to the earth, as figs falling from the tree, as this whole thing takes place.
John also sees the earth split apart and every mountain and island moving out of it's place. Oh the fear and dread John must have felt as he took pen to scroll to capture this down in writing. His horror will never be fully known this side of eternity.
Now this must not have totally surprised John nor should it us. The prophets wrote about this. They looked ahead and saw these future events. but it was John who put it all together from start to finish. Here's a few examples in the OT.:
“And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: Blood and fire and pillars of smoke.The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord." Joel 2:30-31
The great day of the Lord is near; It is near and hastens quickly. The noise of the day of the Lord is bitter; There the mighty men shall cry out.That day is a day of wrath, A day of trouble and distress, A day of devastation and desolation, A day of darkness and gloominess, A day of clouds and thick darkness,A day of trumpet and alarm Against the fortified cities And against the high towers.“I will bring distress upon men, And they shall walk like blind men, Because they have sinned against the Lord;
Their blood shall be poured out like dust, And their flesh like refuse.”Neither their silver nor their gold Shall be able to deliver them In the day of the Lord’s wrath; But the whole land shall be devoured. Zeph 1:14-18
The unrepentant sinful people will not be saved. They had no wish to be so. They made it quite clear. Their wealth will be useless. It cannot deliver.
God wants us to know this stuff. He wants it proclaimed from the rooftops. This world will not last forever. We are now living in the age of Grace, but this will not last forever.
Come near, you nations, to hear; And heed, you people! Let the earth hear, and all that is in it, The world and all things that come forth from it. For the indignation of the Lord is against all nations, And His fury against all their armies; He has utterly destroyed them, He has given them over to the slaughter. Also their slain shall be thrown out; Their stench shall rise from their corpses,
And the mountains shall be melted with their blood.All the host of heaven shall be dissolved, And the heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll; All their host shall fall down As the leaf falls from the vine, And as fruit falling from a fig tree.: Isaiah 34:1-4
When we look at the list of who's who in V15 we have to ask ourself, "Who are greater than these?" We see:
Kings (Political
Great Men (Princes)
Rich (Economic
Commanders (Military)
And with the mighty, slave and free we've just about covered everyone that would be on the face of the earth during this time.
This will be a time of terror, fear, trembling. Notice they will try to hide themselves. Why? The guilty always hide before God. Remember Adam and Eve hiding before God after they sinned? It's interesting they will hide in the rocks. To a Christian Christ is THE ROCK. He is our Rock of Refuge. These people will know where this is coming from. There will be no "I didn't know."
There is a God. He's not happy. They will hide in caves as pure panic captures the earth. Isaiah says in 2:19-21:
They shall go into the holes of the rocks, And into the caves of the earth, From the terror of the Lord And the glory of His majesty,
When He arises to shake the earth mightily. In that day a man will cast away his idols of silver And his idols of gold,
Which they made, each for himself to worship, To the moles and bats,To go into the clefts of the rocks, And into the crags of the rugged rocks, From the terror of the Lord And the glory of His majesty, When He arises to shake the earth mightily.
How about this from the lips of Christ himself? In Luke 23:28-31 he says:
28But Jesus, turning to them, said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. 29“For indeed the days are coming in which they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, wombs that never bore, and breasts which never nursed!’ 30“Then they will begin ‘to say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!” ’ 31“For if they do these things in the green wood, what will be done in the dry?
While he was here on earth his message was fresh and green but now we are in the dry period. He's talking about now. The world says, "Nonsense, go read your book." And we do.
The word wrath is "orge" and means, "agitation of the soul, any violent emotion, anger, wrath, indignation, anger exhibited in punishment."
What we are seeing here is the lamb of God metamorphising into the Lion of Judah.
Sin has to be punished. A just God cannot leave sin unpaid. Who is able to stand? No one. Those who think they are going to stop God and are shaking their fist at Him all over the world haven't a clue who and what they are dealing with. Other scriptures that should give one pause are:
Psalm 2, 76:7, Malachi 3:2, Nahum 1:6 and Luke 21:25-26 we will end with:
25“And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; 26“men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of heaven will be shaken
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