οἱ λίθοι κράξουσιν (Luke 19:40)
The Tribulation Period begins when the Antichrist makes a covenant with the nation of Israel for seven years (Dan. 9:27). This event must follow the Rapture, because it is the Christians who are currently keeping the Antichrist from coming to power in the world (2Thess. 2:6-7). Once they are out of the way, he will be free to come on the scene as the ‘savior of the world.’ The Church is not mentioned in Revelation during its depiction of the Tribulation Period (chapters 4-18). Both it and the Holy Spirit of God are now removed from earth.
In the words of a radio pastor, after the Rapture, “the world will finally get what it’s always wanted; a world without God.”
Jesus speaks of the events of the Tribulation Period in a discourse to His disciples on the Mount of Olives (Matt. 24:3-26). He refers to it as a period of “great tribulation such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short” (Matt. 24:21b-22). Jesus is here saying that this future period of seven years will be so horribly devastating that if it were any longer, the human race would go extinct.
Roughly 6 billion people will be on earth when this period begins.
“For there will be great distress upon the earth and wrath against this people” (Luke 21:23b).
There comes now the judgment of God on the people of the earth in three sets of ‘sevens’. In the first set, the seven Seals are opened.
1st Seal: Revelation 6:1–2 (ESV)
Now I watched when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say with a voice like thunder, “Come!” 2 And I looked, and behold, a white horse! And its rider had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he came out conquering, and to conquer.
The rider on the white horse is the Antichrist. He came in peace initially, but now he comes conquering, and to conquer.
2nd Seal: Revelation 6:3–4 (ESV)
3 When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.
The rider on the red horse is War. The Antichrist came in peace, then he conquered, now he comes with a great sword to kill. The Bible does not say who these are that are killed, but it is clear that no one can stand in his way towards world domination.
3rd Seal: Revelation 6:5–6 (ESV)
5 When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” And I looked, and behold, a black horse! And its rider had a pair of scales in his hand. 6 And I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures, saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius, and do not harm the oil and wine!”
The rider on the black horse is Famine. In the aftermath of the Rapture, when nearly half of the population disappears, the U.S. will likely become a third world country. There will quickly become a need for a world currency after the collapse of Wall Street and other economic indices around the world. On top of this, Jesus predicted there would be famines during this time (Matt. 24:7). It is possible that economic collapse and famine will drive up prices for food…all of which will be controlled by the Antichrist. It seems that most people who were not killed by him will now feel indebted to him.
In my opinion, the probable cause of the famine during this time, early in the Tribulation Period, will be the massive earthquake and related volcanic activity of the 6th Seal (6:12-17 – see discussion below).
4th Seal: Revelation 6:7–8 (ESV)
7 When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” 8 And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed him. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth.
The famines during this early time of tribulation would be just one instrument of death. Here, death is personified as the rider of the pale horse. He comes for ¼ of the world’s population. After the Rapture, approximately 6 billion people will remain. By the time the rider of the 4th horse is finished riding, 1.5 billion people will have died in wars, famines or by wild beasts. Only 4.5 billion people will now inhabit the earth (the same population as in the early 1980’s).
5th Seal: Revelation 6:9–11 (ESV)
9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. 10 They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” 11 Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.
These souls are those who accepted Christ after the Rapture. These Tribulation saints were martyred for their faith by the Antichrist. Verse 11 suggests there will be more to accept Christ and die for their faith in the coming few years.
6th Seal: Revelation 6:12–17 (ESV)
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?”
In the 6th seal we find the first geologic event of the Tribulation Period. Some brave commentators postulate the possibility of the effect of an earthquake coupled with a volcanic eruption that would blot out the sun with an ash cloud. Then regarding verse 14, we are told, “This catastrophe will apparently bring about fantastic changes on the physical earth” (LaHaye, Revelation Unveiled, p. 147). Walvoord, in his commentary on Revelation, merely suggests we take the passage literally (Walvoord, The Revelation of Jesus Christ, pp. 135-138). While geologic phenomena were not the focus of these great commentaries, they will be the focus here. What on earth is going on?
To start, I will say that I like to take Scripture literally unless it is obvious or it states not to. There is a problem here, though, with being too literal. Did the sun become black? No, because it shines on later (8:12). Did all the stars fall to earth? No, because other stars fall later (8:10). Will the sky vanish? No, because it still exists later (based on observations in other judgments). Will every mountain and island be removed? No, because this same thing happens later in the 7th Bowl judgment (16:20). Since it is obvious these events will not happen in their strictest sense, we can use other interpretation techniques. What if these events are temporary phenomena and are being described by an observer based on earth in a specific location?
Consider what John (the author of Revelation) saw in his vision of the 6th Seal judgment. First there was a great earthquake. In the Greek, this is a seismos megas. This is in the singular, which means it will be a single, large earthquake, not a global chain of mega-quakes. Then the sun became black, and the moon became like blood (red). While a total solar eclipse could make the sun appear black, the other signs would not accompany this event. There is probably a better interpretation here. The Greek word for earthquake is seismos, from which we get our word ‘seismic’. Seismic activity is often associated with volcanic activity. It is often our only warning before a volcanic eruption. It was observed in Iceland that the eruptions of two of its volcanoes (Grimsvotn and Laki) from 1783 to 1785 “blotted out the sun” as it killed about 9,000 people through poisoning or famine (BBC News - A guide to Iceland's volcanoes - accessed 1/5/2011). Read now this description of the eruptions from a local observer, parish priest Jon Steingrimsson,
"This past week, and the two prior to it, more poison fell from the sky than words can describe: ash, volcanic hairs, rain full of sulfur and saltpeter, all of it mixed with sand. The snouts, nostrils, and feet of livestock grazing or walking on the grass turned bright yellow and raw. All water went tepid and light blue in color and gravel slides turned gray. All the earth's plants burned, withered and turned gray, one after another, as the fire increased and neared the settlements." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laki - accessed 1/5/2011).
The language in this description sounds very much like that in the Book of Revelation. All statements are literal and can be backed up with historic witness. But the events were all locally observed, not globally, even though we read things like “all the earth’s plants burned.” From his vantage point that was 100% true. From a witness here in the Americas, just after the Revolutionary War, this was not true at all as the only effect was climatic (1784 was one of the coldest winters on record). There was no observation of the sun going black like there was in Iceland.
The moon is then said to have become like blood (v. 12). This just means it looked red, which is another common side effect of a volcanic eruption. The fine ash and dust particles in the air will tend to scatter the dominant blue and green light away while allowing only the red light to pass through more easily (http://www.universetoday.com/19969/red-moon/ - accessed 1/5/2011). While a red moon is common when it is low on the horizon, the phrase “became like blood” suggests it had a normal appearance, and then it was altered.
So what can we make of the following phenomena…the stars of the sky fell (v. 13), the sky vanished (v. 14), every mountain and island was removed from its place (v. 14)? The word for ‘star’ in the Greek is aster, from which we get many words such as ‘asteroid’, ‘astronomy’ and ‘astrology’. According to the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (TDNT), the ancients believed the stars were “beings”. This may account for John’s description of the one possessing the key to the bottomless pit in Rev. 9:1 as a fallen star. And later in 12:4 he writes that Satan fell from heaven and took a third of the stars of heaven with him. These are clear references to demons, or fallen angels.
That said, our passage here does not clearly speak of any sort of “being”, but we know they cannot be literal stars as we know them because the earth would be destroyed in such an event. So, perhaps a better explanation again lies with the perspective of the observer. One other effect of a volcanic eruption is the ejection of volcanic bombs. Volcanic bombs are masses of molten rock larger than 2.5 inches that are ejected during an eruption. They cool and harden during flight. In the 1935 eruption of Mt. Asama in Japan, bombs as large as 5-6 meters were reported, and they traveled up to 600 meters from the volcano (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanic_bomb - accessed 1/5/2011). It would be easy for an observer to describe these red, fiery, molten masses as falling stars raining down on the earth.
Another possible interpretation of these ‘stars’ is that they are ‘shooting stars’. These are the popular names for meteors. When several of these occur within seconds or minutes of each other, it is called a meteor shower. While this could easily fit the description of the passage, the stars would be completely unrelated to the volcanic eruption. The stars mentioned in the passage do not seem to be the main event, but rather an effect that falls in the middle. It is still possible that God could have a meteor shower lined up with an eruption here on earth, but this appears to be a better interpretation for judgments to come (i.e. 8:8).
When we read “the sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up”, we can envision either a mushroom shaped cloud of volcanic ash, or perhaps two adjacent volcanic ash clouds racing towards each other. The effect is the appearance of the sky vanishing as the clouds completely block out the sky.
Eruption of the Tavurvur stratovolcano in Papua New Guinnea. As the ash plume rises and gets caught in the wind currents, it would appear as if the sky was vanishing like a scroll. Image credit: Taro Taylor and Wikipedia.
The final natural phenomena we encounter are “every mountain and island was removed from its place”. Here again is proof that we cannot take the passage too literally and with a global perspective, because even locally after this event, people were hiding in caves…in the mountains (6:15-16). Also, this same event happens during the 7th Bowl judgment in 16:20), so obviously not all mountains on earth were removed here. Also, there are problems with the islands being removed on a global scale, because at some level, all land is an island. But there have been cases in the past where islands have been physically removed, and they just happen to have been mountains, and more specifically, volcanoes.
On August 27, 1883, the volcanic island of Krakatau (or Krakatoa), exploded in a series of four blasts that could be heard over 3,000 miles away. The island, which was a collection of three distinct volcanic peaks before that date, almost completely collapsed into the sea after the eruption. The effects of the eruption killed nearly 40,000 people and the average global temperature fell over 2 degrees Fahrenheit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krakatoa - accessed 1/5/2011). You see then how a single volcanic eruption can remove a mountain and an island from their place. Another possibility is a tsunami that, perhaps temporarily, inundates a group of islands, or destroys them altogether.
The 6th Seal judgment can easily be interpreted as an earthquake coupled with a volcanic eruption. This divinely ordained natural disaster will doubtless be catastrophic and will be responsible for many direct casualties, in addition to prompting severe climatic changes. This death toll is possibly included in the total given in the 4th Seal judgment. It is apparent, however, that the people in the vicinity of this catastrophe who did not die will wish that they did (6:15-16). All these people, both great and small, will cry out in terror to be hidden from the judgment of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. The great day of His wrath has come, and who can stand (v. 17).
So all this discussion on the possibility of this 6th Seal being a catastrophic volcanic eruption triggered by a great earthquake leads to the obvious question…where will this take place? It should be clear that this is not a global event, and that it will only be witnessed by local observers. Let us now summarize our clues from the text.
In order to figure out where this catastrophe will take place, we must limit ourselves to places where all four conditions can be met. We can effectively rule out places like Yellowstone which could deal the catastrophic combination of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, but would not cause any islands to disappear. We can rule out the Aleutian Archipelago in Alaska because there is no significant population in that area (i.e. kings, generals, rich, slaves, free, etc…). The same could also be said of the Indonesian volcanic arc, Hawaii, Iceland and New Zealand.
In my opinion, there are at least two good possible locations that fit all the above criteria, Japan and the Central-Eastern Mediterranean Sea. While Japan certainly fits the description with lots of quakes, volcanoes, islands and people of all status, the Mediterranean Sea seems like a better fit overall here in the Tribulation Period. John himself is located in the eastern part, the Aegean Sea, on the Island of Patmos while he sees this end-time vision (Rev. 1:9). Also, since the majority of events in the Tribulation Period are centered around Israel and its surroundings, it makes sense how an event in this region could disrupt life there as well.
The Italian and Greek sectors of the Mediterranean are presently located in a very active and complex tectonic setting. The Nubian (African) Plate is currently moving to the north and subducting under the European Plate. In the process, the Hellenic volcanic arc formed in the eastern Mediterranean to form the southern boundary of the Aegean Sea. The Calabrian volcanic arc formed in the central Mediterranean from Sicily up through the length of Italy bounded by the Apennines on the west and the Adriatic Sea on the east. These two regions have been home to very catastrophic earthquakes (such as the 1908 Messina earthquake which registered a magnitude 7.2 and killed over 100,000 people) and volcanic eruptions in the past.
Two of the most intense volcanic eruptions in the last 100,000 years occurred in parts of these two arcs. The Campi Flegrei near Naples, Italy exploded about 39,000 years ago with an eruption that registered a 7 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI). Somewhere around 200 km3 of magma was extruded during this event, and its signature is seen in Greenland ice cores (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campi_Flegrei - accessed 1/11/2011). Santorini, in the Hellenic Arc in the South Aegean Sea, erupted in about 1600 BC (the Minoan eruption), an event which also registered 7 on the VEI. Estimates of around 100 km3 of ejecta make that eruption four times larger than the 1883 eruption of Krakatau in Indonesia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minoan_eruption - accessed 1/11/2011). Both the Campi Flegrei and Santorini have produced tsunamis as well, which added to the destruction and loss of life.
When we follow all the clues of the 6th Seal judgment given in Scripture we find that a Campi Flegrei or a Santorini eruption would fit well. Perhaps we will not know for sure where the events will take place, but in studying the rock record, we see that similar events have happened in the past, and they have had a catastrophic impact on human life and the environment. Just one of these eruptions could easily account for tens of millions of deaths worldwide due to the immediate and long-term effects.
Those in the immediate vicinity who did not die, will wish they had. Others around the globe will suffer from famine (a part of the 3rd Seal judgment) and colder temperatures as the ash stays in the atmosphere and blocks out much of the sun’s light. As the volcano erupts, it would explode violently which would obliterate the volcanic mountain(s) and send car-sized blocks of magma thousands of feet in the air. The tsunami(s) generated would wash away what’s left of the volcanic island and also cover the surrounding islands. This would truly be an event…of biblical proportions.
The interpretation given above is just a possible one, but it starts in Scripture. Then the ideas are taken into the natural world to try and find a plausible interpretation. There is a tendency for a lot of biblical commentators to take passages that deal with the Creation in a global sense with a global perspective (i.e. from God’s perspective). Cases in point are the Creation accounts (Gen. 1-2), the Fall/Curse account (Gen. 3), and the Flood account (Gen. 6-8). As shown on this website, the better interpretations are those that see these events from a localized perspective; a perspective that the Bible’s recipients would understand. There are certain elements of each of these events which are universal in purpose, but not necessarily global in geographic extent. Some examples are the Curse of all humanity with a sin nature and death, and the death of all humans save Noah and his family in the Flood. The effects of the 6th Seal will no doubt be felt globally, but it will most certainly be a local, catastrophic event.
After this judgment, four angles are said to hold back the four winds of the earth so that they did not blow on the earth. The reason was to keep the earth from being harmed while another angel place God’s protective seal on the foreheads of 144,000 Jews who have believed in Jesus, the Messiah, during this early part of the Tribulation Period (Rev. 7:1-8). After they are sealed, a countless multitude of Tribulation Period believers who had already died sing praises to God in heaven because He spared them from the remaining judgments on earth.
7th Seal: Revelation 8:1–5 (ESV)
8 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.
After the great chorus in heaven, the Lamb breaks the 7th Seal. A half an hour of silence follows. This final Seal is the transition into the seven Trumpet judgments. As the seven angels receive their trumpets, another angel offers incense with the prayers of the Tribulation believers up to God. The angel then fills his golden censer with fire and threw it on the earth.
It is hard to tell from the text if this is a literal fire that falls to the earth, or if it is symbolic of the judgment. In this case, the judgment is accompanied by thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightening, and an earthquake. Interestingly, these same four signs occur together at the 7th Trumpet (11:19) and the 7th Bowl (16:18) judgments with increasing intensity. This similar phrasing should then be considered significant. It may be that this particular series of phenomena denote finality and transition.
The word for thunder is bronte, and it is used 12 times in the NT. Based on the other uses, the word could mean actual thunder, or a loud voice (i.e. God’s – John 12:28-29). The word for rumblings here is phone, and it is used 139 times in the NT. This is a fairly common word that can mean any noise, sound or voice. Often, the voice of an angel is described as megale phone (loud voice – Rev. 5:12; 14:7; etc…). The word for lightening is astrape, and it is used 9 times in the NT. It can be seen as literal lightening in a storm or symbolically as a suddenness, such as the Second Coming of Christ (Matt. 24:27) or the fall of Satan (Luke 10:18). Our word for earthquake is again seismos, which is used 14 times in the NT. In addition to the literal earth shaking, it can also be used as any violent movement or disturbance (such as the great storm in Matt 8:24). Notice here the word is singular and stands alone, without the adjectival megas (large, or great as in Rev. 6:12), although the NLT wrongly tries to add destructiveness with its paraphrase, “terrible earthquake”.
So how are we to take this judgment? There can be a temptation to view these judgments as symbolic because they are restated in every 7th judgment. However, the series in the 7th Bowl judgment should be taken literally because of the emphasis given to the earthquake (16:18-19). It will be the most powerful quake since man has been on the earth, and it will split the great city in three. There appears to be no way to take that judgment figuratively, so we should lean towards a literal interpretation here as well for the 7th Seal.
With that said, there are no clues in the passage to determine the magnitude or location of the earthquake. The entire Mediterranean and Middle East regions are very tectonically active, so we cannot be certain on any details.
Seven Trumpet and Bowl Judgment Commentaries Coming Soon...
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