I the apostle John after witnessing the conquerors in heaven singing the song of Moses and the Lamb, looked, and the sanctuary of the tent of witness in heaven was opened. Out of this the Lord’s tabernacle, came the seven angels with the seven plagues. These angels were clothed in pure, bright linen, with golden sashes around their chests.
Unlike any of my previous visions this one had a feeling of completion associated with it. I sensed like never before that relief was coming. One of the four living creatures gave to these seven angels, seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God who lives forever and ever.
And just like in the days of Moses, the sanctuary was filled with smoke from the glory of God and his power, and no one could enter until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished. The air of anticipation was so thick you could feel it.
Then I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels, "Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God." I realized that this was simply a more detailed account of what I had seen before. This is the end, the destruction of the old earth and heavens to make way for the new heaven and new earth. This was the final answer to the voices under the altar who asked “how long do we have wait Lord?”
So the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth, and harmful and painful sores came upon the people who bore the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. The people were in so much constant pain that they treated each other terribly and human relations were awful.
The second angel poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became like the blood of a corpse, and every living thing died that was in the sea. The sea all over the earth was completely destroyed, there was no life left in it at all. There would be no more fishing.
The third angel then poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood. There was no fresh water to drink on the entire earth. And I heard the angel in charge of the waters say,
"Just are you, O Holy One, who is and who was,
for you brought these judgments.
For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets,
and you have given them blood to drink.
It is what they deserve!"
I remembered all the times that the earth dwellers shed the blood of innocent people of God, including the children, and though Jesus said we should not give an eye for an eye, when we let God do the judgment he often provides punishment that fits the crime.
And I heard the altar, which must have been the martyrs under the altar, saying,
"Yes, Lord God the Almighty,
true and just are your judgments!"
The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was allowed to scorch people with fire. They were scorched by the fierce heat, and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues. The sores had not healed, there was no water to drink, and now they all had painful sunburns, yet still they did not repent and give him glory.
I know I said earlier that the sun was dimmed, but now it explodes in a burst of heat. I found out that this is scientifically possible. That the sun could go dim and seem to be burning out, only to have a giant final burst of energy when it finally burns out completely.
The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom, the earth was plunged into darkness. Nothing could now grow on the entire earth. Systematically God was cutting off everything that these people who worshipped the beast needed to survive. People actually gnawed on their tongues in anguish and cursed the God of heaven for their pain and sores, rather than repenting of their deeds.
By now I was noticing that these bowls were very similar to the seven trumpet judgments, only they seemed more severe, more final. I am quite sure God is reminding us of the plagues he brought to Egypt when God’s people were protected in Goshen. That is probably why heaven sang the song of Moses, and of the Lamb.
The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, to prepare the way for the kings from the east. Most of us thought that the evil Nero would bring kings of the east across the Euphrates from the Parthian empire.
Don’t make too much of this “from the east” description though. That was used for my time and people and was symbolic, east was always evil. Some people of your time have made this into Russia or China, or even Iraq and Iran which is the geographical equivalent on the other side of the Euphrates. But this is the symbolic way of saying that the restraints have now been removed from Satan, and he is now free to gather the four corners of the earth against God.
But this has often caused false persecution of the innocent people from those cultures. Satan wants you to be racist and afraid of other cultures, but remember what God tells us, we are to love these people, and most of them are just like you, victims of propaganda and exaggeration.
Every culture has its extremists and crazy people. Unfortunately for you in North America you have just as many, but most of your’s victimize their own people while many from the so called enemy nations, take it to other cultures with a false sense of justice that was taught to them. Which is worse?
Please don’t judge other nations based on a few satanically influenced people, and remember they are doing the same with you. That is Satan’s tactic to create fear and hate rather than peace. Remember who your real enemy is.
Moving on in my vision I saw, coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs. For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty.
Our people saw frogs as the most grotesque, unclean and vicious of creatures, especially when they came from another creature’s mouth. Think of these frogs as spreaders of deception empowered by Satan.
Here Jesus reminds us, ("Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!") And the frogs assembled them, all of these kings and their armies, at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.
In my previous vision I didn’t really understand how the beast was going to gather the kings from the four corners of the earth, but now I see he is going to do it through very convincing propaganda represented by the frogs coming out of the evil trinity’s mouths. Their signs and words will convince the entire world to gather in the valley of Megiddo.
My world was full of Satan’s deception and I hope you see that yours is as well. Satan isn’t just going to start this at the very end, he will be more successful then, but he has always been doing this. Do you have any idea how much deception there is in big business, in politics, in medicine, even in slander-filled churches. Wherever there is the opportunity for power and money there is deception and false accusations. And your technology makes this much easier to spread quickly.
Your relativistic culture makes this easier because people are sceptical of any truth claims. Oppressors, child abusers, dictators, terrorists can more easily use this moral ambiguity to fool people into believing them, sometimes even using sympathy for their own rights to their advantage even though they are the ones creating the victims.
I understood now that God is once again fooling Satan into believing he has the upper hand, but God is actually gathering them for their destruction just like Joel, Micah, Zephaniah and Zechariah portrayed in their prophecies. These nations were coming for battle, but God was gathering them for bird food. It reminded me of the Psalmist’s words, “He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury.”
The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple, from the throne, saying, "It is done!" I remembered Jesus saying something very similar from the cross. And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a great earthquake such as there had never been since man was on the earth, so great was that earthquake.
This was it, the final end of the old world. The fact that the angel poured his bowl into the air or heavens shows that this is the time that the old earth and the old heavens pass away, to make way for the new just as the prophet said in Isaiah chapter 65.
The great city, the kingdom of the beast was split into three parts, (I believe these are the beasts three domains, his religious system, his political economic system, and his military system), and all the cities of all the nations fell, and God remembered Babylon the great, to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath.
And every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found. And great hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, fell from heaven on people; and they cursed God for the plague of the hail, because the plague was so severe.
Remember when I told you about the sixth and seventh seals? These seven bowls occurred during those seals, and you will recall back in chapter 6 that I saw a great earthquake, the sun became black, stars fell to the earth, the sky vanished like a scroll being rolled up, every mountain and island was moved from its place, smoke filled the sanctuary and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, and flashes of lightning. This is the same event I tell you about today, but now I know it is the end of the old world to make way for Christ’s coming. He could not come back to stay in His glory to a defiled world.
Why did these people not repent? Jesus said right to my face at the last supper that he was going to prepare a place for us and would come again to take us there, if we believed in Him, if we loved Him, if we obeyed Him. Why do people not believe this?
I remember what my friends Matthew and Luke wrote, and I heard Jesus say;
“For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man.
They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, normal, everyday activities, but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulphur rained from heaven and destroyed them all— so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed.
On that day, let the one who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away, and likewise let the one who is in the field not turn back. Remember Lot’s wife.
Whoever seeks to preserve his life, the life of sin and disobedience, will lose it, but whoever loses his life, and surrenders to Jesus, will keep it. I tell you, in that night there will be two in one bed. One will be taken and the other left. There will be two women grinding together. One will be taken and the other left. "And we said to him, "Where, Lord?" He said to us, "Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather."
My friends this is not a rapture as we think of it. The so called rapture is simply your soul going to be with God in heaven before he comes again to earth with you as you will see in chapter 21. Those who are left, are left to their own choices to live for Satan and dwell with Him in His eternal place. This has already happened to some degree on a spiritual level, but will be complete when your body dies and you are fully released from it.
I told you in my last vision that I saw this harvest, a final separating of the redeemed from the damned at the final judgment. If you believe and put your faith in Jesus as Lord, you have already been reaped. Woe to those who don’t believe. He is coming like a thief in the night, oh how I wish everyone would be prepared. Why do they not believe, why do they not accept the truth. God showed me these things so people could be ready, so that you people could let everyone know.
But people, God clearly knows that not all people will accept the truth about Jesus, and some of you may wonder, why try so hard to spread the word when we hear that many will never accept it? The only thing I can tell you is because that is what Jesus asked us to do. That is really the only reason he leaves believers on the earth, otherwise he would just beam you up to heaven the moment you decide to follow him. You have already been resurrected with Him.
Remember in your sport of baseball, legends only hit 3 out of ten times up to bat. Baseball doesn’t stop because there is a low percentage of success. I tell you that trouble is coming to this world, and is already here. Don’t even worry about what you say to spread the Gospel. Like your brother Michael said last week, be people, be churches that others will seek out when trouble comes, because you are the only ones with the real answers.
I admit that I thought these things might happen in my lifetime. I remember walking with Peter and Jesus after he was resurrected. I over heard Peter ask Jesus about me, “what about this man?” Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me”.
Many thought he meant that I would not die. I was both embarrassed and excited. “Would he keep me here to see him come again in glory at the end?” Of course by the time I received these visions on the island of Patmos, I pretty much knew that I would not see these things living on the earth.
Let these words encourage you my children. It is possible to be victorious over this beast. When you see movement of armies, confederations of nations, world economies, and worldwide opposition to God, remember that man and Satan cannot hinder the Lord from fulfilling his word and his purposes.
People think they are free to do as they please, but in reality they are being moved and used by God to accomplish his plans and purposes.
I don’t think this Armageddon will be world war three, there may be a third world war, but this so called battle of Armageddon will be a very brief massacre at the hands of God, of those who follow the beast, and none of you who follow what I and the rest of the authors of this book have written, who follow our Lord Jesus, will be touched by this. As the Lord told us, we will all judge with him and reign with Him at the end. You will read more about this in future chapters.
