There is a day every person fears whether that be the day they have to go into an interview or going into the doctor to find out that they have cancer. People fear that which they cannot control. So with this said people shall not be able to control the Lamb who sits upon the throne. They shall know the Day of the Lord has come. The phrase day of the Lord is one of the central prophetic themes in Scripture. It appears nineteen times in the Old Testament and four times in the New Testament. It is a unique time in history where both God’s power and holiness are reveled bringing terror and death to His enemies. These judgments can be seen by the prophet’s description of that day, “Destruction from the Almighty” (Isaiah 13:9), a “time of doom” (Ezek 30:3), “great and very awesome” (Joel 2:11), and “darkness and not light (Amos 5:18) The phrase day of the Lord is also mentioned in reference to God imminent historical judgments such as in (Joel 1:15, Isaiah 13:6-22, Ezek 30:2-19, Amos 5:18-20, Obad 11-14; Zeph 1:14-18) Other times it refers directly to God’s final eschatological judgments at the end of human history (Joel 2:28-32; Zech 14:1; Mal 4:1, 5; Acts 2:20; 1 Thess 5:2; 2 Thess 2:2; 2 Peter 3:10) This final day of the Lord will unfold in two stages, first during the Tribulation (1 Thess 5:2) and then at the end of the Millennium (2 Peter 3:10) Those two stages are separated by a thousand years. It is noteworthy that peter as if to erase any questions about that separation, reminds the reader that “with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day (2nd Peter 3:8)
The most detailed New Testament exposition on the coming Day of the Lord is found in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-4, “I really don’t need to write you about how and when all this will happen, dear brothers and sisters. For you know quite well that the day of the Lord will come unexpectedly like a thief in the night. When people are saying, “All is well; everything is peaceful and secure ,” then disaster will fall upon them as suddenly as a woman’s birth pains begin when her child is about to be born. And there will be no escape. But you aren’t in the dark about these things, dear brothers and sisters, and you won’t be surprised when the day of the Lord comes like a thief.”
Macarthur points out, “The Thessalonians had apparently asked Paul about the timing and the sequence of events relating to the Day of the Lord. Many of the Thessalonian Christians were confused about the state of those who died before Christ’s return, which they believed would happen in their lifetime. Having taught them all that God intended them to know about the Rapture (1 Thess 4:13-18), the apostle cautioned the Thessalonians to live godly lives in light of God’s coming judgment (1 Thess 5:4-8). To focus on the esoteric speculation into the details of prophetic timing at the expense of growing in grace was (and is) unprofitable.” These judgments ought to spark us to live holy lives, in light of the clear Biblical teaching that we have already seen throughout these seals. God has chosen not to reveal the precise timing of the day of the Lord. (Matthew 24:36; Acts 1:7)
Today many will try to date the coming of the day of the Lord, even the day when we shall be raptured by the Lord but to do so goes against all the biblical texts. In fact if a person is doing this we ought to beware of them as a false teacher, and false prophet. Jesus said, “Be on alert for you do not know which day your Lord is coming” (Matthew 24:42) and again “Be on alert then for you do not know the day nor the hour (Matthew 25:13; Luke 12:35-40). Every generation but especially this generation more than ever ought to prepare itself for the coming of Christ. Peter says,”Since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless” (2 Peter 3:14).
The first five seals are paltry in comparison with this seal. The wrath of the Lamb shall shake the earth to its very foundations. Heaven will shake and earth will tremble at the name of the Lord. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess from every tribe, nation and kingdom that Jesus Christ is the Lord! The motivation for holy living doesn’t come out of living in fear of the Lord, (although the fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom) rather the motivation for holy living derives out of the fact, that these very things that we are talking about here will happen. This seal will enviably cause people to fear. People have many fears such as fear of heights, spiders, etc… but this fear will cause to call out in curse the day they were even born! What people ought to fear instead is what Jesus said in Luke 12:5, “I will warn you whom to fear; fear the One who, after He was killed has authority to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him!” Hebrews 10:31, “It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the Living God.”
This very view though of judgment isn’t popular today especially in the Body of Christ. We must prefer a God of love, rather than judgment, but God is not motivated by our human actions or understanding. Instead He is motivated by His divine will which is holy and wise to do that which He pleases; since He is also the One who created the foundations of the world and breathed life into us. He has our best interest in minds through and through. This judgment will show beyond a doubt who the liar is and who the Creator is and the world will then be forced to acknowledge that He is indeed the Lamb of God who died for the sins of all mankind. Jesus described this time in Luke 21:26, “Men fainting from fear and expectation of the things which are coming upon the world. “Fainting” is from apopsucho, which literally means to “stop breathing” or “to expire”. When this day comes people will be so frightened beyond anything that they will fall over dead or cry out for mercy but they will find only the fully fury of God’s devastating wrath.
The three features of the sixth seal are first the motivation for the fear, the breadth of the fear, and the reaction of the fear.
Revelation 6:12-14, “I watched as the Lamb broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake. The sun became dark as the black cloth and the moon became as red as blood. Then the stars of the sky fell to the earth like green figs falling from the trees shaken by mighty winds. And the sky was rolled up like a scroll and taken away. And all of the mountains and all of the islands disappeared.”
The thing that separates immediately this seal from the others is the fact that the others had humans involved. This one starts out immediately with The Lamb broke the sixth seal which also means God acts alone. By the time this seal is opened we will be in the three and a half year period known as the Great Tribulation (Matthew 24:21). The result of this opening of this seal was that there was a great earthquake which was only one of six of the frightening disasters that would fall upon mankind. Earthquake is comes from the Greek word Seismos literally meaning “a shaking”. In Matthew 8:24 it describes a great storm on the Sea of Galilee and in John 2:10 to describe the heavens trembling. The earthquake is only the beginning of these judgments associated with this the sixth seal. The removal of the restrained the Holy Spirit, the divine One who has held back Satan and Antichrist until God’s appointed season (2 Thess 2:6-8), will allow the world to plunge headlong into immorality, vice, wickedness, and godlessness. Antichrist will be worshipped as god and his false prophet will be proclaiming that utopia is at hand-as soon as the believers in the true God are done away with. In an instant, however, the lie of Satan is exposed and the world’s false hopes are shattered by the violent shaking of the very earth underneath their feet.
Right after this occurs the second disaster comes the sun became dark as the black cloth. Sackcloth was a rough cloth worn by mourners usually made from the hair of black goats. Following the violent earthquake that devastates the earth the sun will be as black as a mourners robe. Scientist Dr. Henry M. Morris explains what could cause that phenomenon: “The great earthquake described here... for the first time in history is worldwide in scope. Seismologists and geophycists in recent years have learned a great deal about the structure and nature of earthquakes. The earth’s solid crust is traversed with a complex network of faults, with all resting upon a plastic mantle whose structure is still largely unknown. Whether the crust consists of great moving plates is a current matter of controversy among geophysicists, so the ultimate cause of earthquakes is still not known. In all likehood, the entire complex of crustal instabilities is a remnant of the phenomena of the great Flood, especially the breakup of the fountains of the great deep.
In any case the vast worldwide network of unstable earthquakes belts around the world suddenly will begin to slip and fracture on a global basis and a gigantic earthquake will begin to slip and fracture on a global basis and a gigantic earthquake will ensue. This is evidently and naturally accompanied by a tremendous volcanic eruptions, spewing vast quantities of dust and gases into the upper atmosphere. It is probably these that will cause the sun to be darkened and the moon to appear blood-red.” (The Revelation Record {Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale, 1983}, 121). The Prophet Joel said in Joel 2:31, “The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and awesome day of the Lord. Darkness is associated with judgment elsewhere in Scripture (Ex 10:21-22; Matthew 27:45)
The third disaster the moon became as red as blood means that there will be vast clouds of ash and smoke spewed out by the volcanic activity associated with the great worldwide earthquake. That ash and smoke will eclipse the moon, coloring it bloodred as it attempts to pierce the smoke-darkened sky. Isaiah 13:10 says, “the sun will be dark when it rises and the moon will not shed its light.” Joel adds again in 2:10, “the sun and the moon will grow dark.” This disaster will affect every face of life as the normal cycle of daylight and darkness is disrupted. The total eclipse of the sun and moon will add more reason for the world to be in panic. It is likely that the Antichrist will also blame the believers for this event throwing accusations at them and further persecuting them but this disaster will also work in their very own benefit. It will show the world who is on the Throne that God is still in control to the believers of this time.
Then out of the sky will come the then the stars of the sky fell to the earth. Asters (stars) can refer to actual stars, but can also describe any heavenly body other than the sun and the moon. Obviously this context does not refer to actual stars, since they are too large to fall to the earth and would incinerate it long before striking it. Also the stars are still in place later when the fourth trumpet sounds (8:12) This is most likely a reference to asteroid of meteor showers bombarding the earth. Modern experts believe that the impact of large asteroids, coments and meteors striking the earth would be devastating and cause unprecedented destruction. There will be so many such bodies hitting the earth that John in a vivid analogy likens the scene to green figs falling from the trees shaken by mighty winds. With all these going on there will be nowhere for people to flee, nowhere for them to hide.
The fifth disaster in this seal affects in some way the earth’s atmosphere because And the sky was rolled up like a scroll and taken away.”This refers to the magnitude of the judgment and also the motivation for the judgment. That the judgment is used in such a way to scar the people to hide in the caves, the same places that were being attacked (the whole earth wasn’t safe) is astonishing. They shall run to the places they shall know will reap the destruction but it shall not matter. This destruction shall open the eyes of those who have ears to listen, eyes to see that the one who is leading them is a liar (Satan) and the person they should be following whom they should embrace is the Messiah the Savior who died for their sins. Don’t harden your heart against God, or He will harden your heart as He did with Pharaoh to show how serious His divine judgment is. Here the culminating feature of the “terrors and great signs from heaven” (Luke 21:11) that will terrify people. The vivid picture of the scroll finds paraell in Isaiah 34:4, “All the host of heaven will wear away, and the sky will be rolled up like a scroll all their hosts will also wither away as a leaf withers from the vine, or as one withers from the fig tree.” God will strike a blow at the domain of Satan, the “prince of the power of the air” (Ephesians 2:2).
Returning to his vision to events on the earth John describes a six devastating natural phenomenon, noting all of the mountains and all of the islands disappeared.” The whole unstable earth begins to move and shift. Dr. Morris also explains how this could happen: The earth’s crust, highly unstable ever since the great flood, will be so disturbed by the impacting asteroids, the volcanic explosions and the worldwide earthquakes that great segments of it will actually begin to slip and slide over the earth’s deep plastic mantle. Geophysicists for many years have been fascinated with the idea of “continental drift” (although strong evidence has been accumulating against any such phenomenon occurring in the present age). Several have published theories of a past naturalistic catarophism involving what they call “the earth’s shifting crust.” Some such phenomenon may actually be triggered under this judgment of the sixth seal, dwarfing the damager occasioned by all the mighty earthquakes of the past. (The Revelation Record, 123).
The devastating disasters that accompany the sixth seal will be the most terrifying events ever to affect the earth. Their cumulative impact will be far more destructive than any of the current doomsday scenarios about asteroids hitting the earth. And the even more intense trumpet and bowl judgments are still to come! The total flattening of all mountains will come later at the seventh bowl judgment (16:20).
Revelation 6:15a, “Then the kings of the earth, the rulers, the generals and the wealthy people, the people with great power, and every slave and every free person.”
This verse pertains to the effects of these disasters in the sixth seal on unbelievers. The class of people listed here is used to show that regardless of class, wealth or status in society all people will be judged. This shows the breadth of God’s judgment during this period to show that He is God. All will be equal judged.
Revelation 6:15b-17, “Hide themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. And they cried to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of their wrath has come and who will be able to survive.”
The reaction of the unbelieving world at this point will not be repentance (9:21; 16:11) but instead mindless panic. They will believe and fear at this point (but even the demons fear God (James 2:10) but they will still not repent. They will willfully follow Satan believe his lies and embrace his messenger, Antichrist. As a result God will judicially abandon them. “For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness. (2nd Thess 2:11-12). Those who repeatedly harden their hearts will have their hearts hardened by God; they will be unable to repent and believe. On a side note here, this is something that I deeply questioned but then came to a peaceful conclusion that we will not understand everything for God’s ways are not our ways, and some things are not given for us to know here on earth.
The people will foolishly hide themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains (Isaiah 2:17-21)- the very places that are being shaken. These people are no doubt seeking refuge from the meteors and asteroids that are hitting earth causing all havoc and the many other things that are going on as well but as a result of all these things going on, there will be no refuge for them no rest.
The fact that they pray, “And they cried to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of their wrath has come and who will be able to survive.”
Even though they cry out they acknowledged to late in the process and more than likely there hearts will already have been hardened against God to the point where even if they wanted to repent, it will not happen. Unwilling and unable to repent they will scream for the mountains and the rocks to fall on them and crush them. Two similar cries can be seen in Scripture (Hos 10:8; Luke 23:30), both in a time of national calamity for Israel. They are, to some degree, prophetic of the time referred to in the sixth seal. People will be so terrified that they would rather die than fact the wrath of a holy God-foolishly ignoring the fact that death will provide absolutely no escape from divine judgment, rather casting into the eternal lake of fire (20:11-15) .
“The one who sits on the throne” refers to God (4:2; 3,9,10). People at this time will undoubatly understand and know but the reaction will not be repentance as we have already seen but further persecution as we will see later on in this study of those who have put their trust in the Messiah.
“And from the wrath of the Lamb” is what the people fear. They will know that they cannot turn to the Messiah because they have chosen their allegiance. Today we must declare publicly who our allegiance to the Messiah is who we will stand for, in the midst of this and every generation, people who have made a stand for Jesus have either been shot, have there heads chopped off, or worse, but they have stood the test, endured the race called out for them by our Lord. There blood is not in vain nor will it ever been for the blood of the martyrs is the purification by which the church can be made holy and pure. The Spirit flows through such churches whose witness is pure before the Lord. Such a sweet incense is the offering of the martyrs (witnesses) for Jesus that it causes the Lord to say “Ah this is a sweet smelling offering to me” Jim Elliot once said “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” This judgment is coming and the wrath of the Lamb is coming. Are you ready, are you standing against what the world says is right and true. Are you making a difference or are you like a person looking into a mirror seeing what they are doing, but turning away? Those who turn away from the Lord will not be acknowledged by Him on that day rather they will be shown that they are lukewarm and unfit for Him! The wrath of the incarnate Jesus was seen only twice before in Scripture, w hen He cleansed the temple (John 2:13-17; Matthew 21:12-13). In the future he will judge like a lion (5:5). The panic-stricken people of the world will recognize the Lamb as the executioner.
For the great day of their (God’s and Christ’s) wrath is another term for the Day of the Lord. Apparently the world will understand that the final wrath has come.
The Old Testament passages from which the images in the sixth seal are drawn prove that the great day must be the Day of the Lord (Isaiah 2:10-11, 19-21; 13:9-13; 34:4, 8; Ezek 32:7-8; Hos. 10:8; Joel 2:21,30; Zeph 1:14; Mal 4:5). These Day of the Lord horrors precede the coming of the Lord and even anticipate the worst that is yet to come in the seventh seal, which includes the trumpet (8:1-9:21) and bowl (16:1-21) judgments. The scene closes with asking the rhetorical question “and who will be able to survive?” The answer of which is easy, absolutely no one. Nahum 1:6 says, “Who can stand before His indignation? Who can endure the burning of His anger?” 1st Thessalonians 5:3 declares, “Destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape.”
While all these judgments are going on the church (3:10) will be spared from going through this and great multitudes while this is going on will also be saved both Gentiles (7:9) and Jews (11:26). While this is a frightening and often not preached on topic God is a God of judgment. While in His love He gave us an offering in His Son, at the same time it was because of His judgment that His Son has to come in the first place to die for our sins. It is this same judgment that God judged His only Son by on the Cross that unbelievers will have to face in this judgments and the incurring one’s as well. It is not motivated by God’s judgment these judgments are, but by the fact that He has been patient. He must act according to His Character. Those who refuse to repent the words of the writer of Hebrews says, “Dear friends, if we deliberately continue sinning after we have received a full knowledge of the truth, there is no other sacrifice that will cover these sins. There will be nothing to look forward to but the terrible expectation of God’s judgment and the raging fire that will consume his enemies. It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Hebrews 10:26-27, 31)
Salvation message
Jesus died for your sins my dear friend reading this according to the age old prophecies concerning Himself throughout the Old Testament, from the Books of the Law to the last chapter of Malachi. The very New Testament opens records the Ancestry of Christ from the Old Testament! Jesus death on the Cross paid for your sins-He was crucified, buried, risen and Ascended to the right hand of the Father where He sits now on the Throne. It is only by this gift that we can have salvation in His Son. You don’t have to fear eternal wrath, my friend reading this, because God has chosen you to hear His precious Word. Hear His voice calling to you today to come into a relationship with His Son. All you must do to be born again is to turn away from your sins, which is repentance and believe, and accept what His Son Jesus Christ did on the Cross to pay for your sins.
If you did that today Praise God! and if you didn’t Praise God anyway. He is deserving of all Praise and glory. If you would like to talk please email me at
david@servantsofgrace.net and I will respond to your email in a prompt fashion. I would love to hear your testimonies of what God is doing or if God touched you by his grace through the words written here. I look forward to hearing from you dear friend.
May our Lord bless you this day and everyday!
In His Arms,
Pastor David
