The End Times

God’s Wrath

“Immediately after the anguish of those days,
the sun will be darkened,
    the moon will give no light,
the stars will fall from the sky,
    and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.”

Matthew 24:29, NLT

Not years, not months, not weeks, but IMMEDIATELY after the tribulation God will respond to all that the wicked have been doing on His planet. It’s time now for the Almighty Creator to show His power, His majesty, His indignation, and His glorious face.

The return of Christ is what we are seeing here. He does not come in humility and meekness like before. This time He comes in power, with righteous indignation for all who have ignored Him and mistreated His people.

The first thing that the Lord does is blot out the sun, moon, and stars. These have been objects of worship for mankind from a very early time. No more! He will remove these things that He made so that no one will have any excuse for worshipping them any longer. He also shakes the “powers in the heavens”. I believe that these powers are none other than the fallen angels that have been wreaking such havoc for so long among mankind. People have worshipped them, followed them, listened to them, been influenced by them, and tyrannized by them for far too long. Notice that they are shaken. In Revelation 20:3 we see that Satan is thrown into the abyss, where he can no longer influence anyone. I believe that he will not be alone there. I think that all of his angelic rebels will be there with him. Jesus establishes His dominance immediately, swiftly, and completely, right from the start. But He doesn’t do it in an instant.

In Revelation, we see all of the things that Jesus does as His acts of vengeance. He presented these things to His servant John (the apostle) while John was on the Isle of Patmos. He gave John several visions. These visions can at times be confusing to the reader if the whole message of God is not consulted. We look back at all that God gave us in the rest of His Bible to see if we can make sense of His Revelation to John. (Maybe someday I’ll do a commentary on Revelation but I can’t do that right here. That would be a book.)

For now, let’s just look at a few of the cosmic, torrential, shattering, and frightening things that Jesus unleashes upon His rebellious planet. He presents these visions to John in two series: Trumpets (or Trumps); and Bowls (or Vials). Although they are presented in a particular order, it does not need to be that the order of the actual events is the same as the order of the visions. And although the Trumpets are shown first, it does not mean that every Trumpet act will precede every Bowl act. In fact, it is my belief that the Bowls (to a certain degree) complete the Trumpets. Or you could say that the Trumps herald the Bowls. Either way, I think it is easier to understand these acts of judgment (wrath) if we see them being mixed in with each other and not necessarily in sequential order.

As you can see, there are similarities between a few of the Trumpets and Bowls of God’s wrath. While the acts of Satan and antichrist were violent, brutal, and lasted seven years; God’s actions are on a planetary scale with cosmic matter plummeting to Earth, beings great and small obey his commands, the whole Earth is finally paying attention to Jesus as He orbits the planet in the atmosphere, doling out His wrath. His actions are swift, lasting a mere 5 months or so.

Some of these things could be happening simultaneously. The Sun, Moon, and stars diminishing could be the result of the first 3 trumpets, or it could be that God just makes them dim (or gone altogether). We’ll know when it happens, I guess.

Perhaps the best way to view these acts of wrath are to look at the Trumpet first, then see its Bowl counterpart. The first three Trumpets could all happen at once, as a huge meteor shower. The first three Bowls could be the result or culmination of those Trumpets.

The fourth Trumpet could be the result of the first three (due to atmospheric obscuration), or it could be a miraculous act of God that is separate from them. The fourth Bowl could be a Coronal Mass Ejection, which spews out toward us as a result of what Jesus does to it in the Trumpet.

The fifth Trumpet is the only event with a timeline given (5 months). Whether this pain actually lasts for 5 months or not will have to be seen (certainly the potential is there). The darkness of the 5th Bowl reminds me of the plague against Egypt in Exodus 10. Of course, there were locusts then too. But these little beasties here are on another level altogether over those.

The sixth Trumpet has an army led by angels; the sixth Bowl has the armies led by demons. I think it’s both. This may be a description of the Chinese Army marching toward their doom in the Holy Land. The Trump and Vial seem to be simultaneous.

The seventh Trumpet has to follow the seventh Bowl. In this regard it’s different than the others in how we view it. Personally, I think that the cataclysmic earthquake of the Bowl occurs after all of Christ’s faithful followers have been pulled up into the atmosphere with Him and His angel armies. But the battle of Armageddon has to happen first.

Armageddon is the final battle in Ezekiel’s War. It comes on the heels of the sixth Bowl. While the antichrist’s army is assembled on the hills and valleys of Israel, waiting to fight the Almighty, His angel armies, and His holy saints, I believe the final earthquake of all earthquakes will strike Earth.

At Armageddon all of the warriors for evil are destroyed. The antichrist and his false prophet are immediately judged by Jesus and thrown awake and fully aware of what’s happening to them into the lake of burning sulfur, where they’ll remain forever and ever.

While Jesus orbits the earth, meting out His vengeance, He calls to Him His dead followers from the Spirit Realm. Immediately after, and along with them, He calls His living faithful up into the sky as well. We call His dead saints being brought back to life “the resurrection”; His calling of the living saints up into the air is called “the rapture”. In 1 Thessalonians 4 we see how His return, the resurrection, and the rapture all happen on the same day. (The pretribulational rapture is a false idea, unsubstantiated by a correct view of scripture.)

Once Jesus, His angel armies, and His now glorified saints touch back down on terra firma (near the Mount of Olives), He will begin His millennial reign over the earth. We call this thousand-year period “the millennium”.

The millennium will be a very interesting time in Earth’s history. God will rule in the Person of Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus the Christ) from His throne in His new temple in Jerusalem (not the one that antichrist defiles). His holy angels will be here serving Him and mankind. His holy, glorified saints will be ruling with Him over the survivors of all that transpired prior to the millennium. But that will be the next age in the human experience and is not a part of the age that we are in now.

This study has taken us through all of the horrible events that are about to befall the human race on planet Earth. It can be a very frightening revelation for those who take these things seriously. I know that I suffered through some depression when it all hit me as a very real thing that is on the horizon. If you are feeling a bit anxious as well from all of this, please take heart and know that Jesus will take care of you through these very trying times to come. He will not rescue His Church from the tribulation as many teachers are eager to teach. But He will be here with us through it all. Remain in Him and He will remain in you!

Ever your servant in Christ,

Gary

You can read more about this in my book, End Times Made Easy, available on Amazon.