Difficult times will come. Revelation 6:12-17 and the sixth seal.

 Do you understand why I am writing about the Revelation and trying to explain it?

It is because, I, like you, wanted to understand what was going on around me. Having grown up I church I have heard every absurd teaching – some not so ridiculous, but I could not comprehend nor remember what they said; and, none of it made sense. My attempts at understanding the prophetic aspects of the bible, were, for years, like swimming in dirty water, the more you move about in it, the muddier it gets.

One day, many years ago, after my life collapsed around me, I had to move back in with the parents. I was walking back to my room after a shower and my father was watching Glenn Beck, when he was still on Fox News, he interviewed the author Joel Richardson. Joel was talking about his recent book, The Islamic Antichrist, and explaining it; suddenly, the Bible began to come clear. I ordered the book and began looking at the scriptures he used.

Since that time, there is rarely a time when I find myself struggling to understand end-time events (Eschatology.) To be honest, I have been looking at end-times events in my Bible for over ten years, and there is hardly a day that goes by in which I am made aware of something I have been looking at improperly; an example of that would be 2 Thessalonians 2:3.

The passage has been read and quoted just as you see here.

(3) Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction. [NASB]

I would read this verse above and think, by this standard, the apostasy, which is understood to be the falling away of the church, must happen first. (The church, being understood as the body of Christ, and therefore, the Christians.) Why would that be important? I don't know. Does it mean the entirety of Christians, or simply a majority; or, does it mean that the religious organizations under which we stand will fall away? Just this morning (05/07/2021) I saw that a Methodist church was going to install a transgender pastor. No matter, for the church body, as a whole, and the religious organizations have in en-mass, fallen away.

Just trying to think through 2 Thessalonians 2:3 used to cause me grief. The solution to my grief came just within this last year as Dr. Andy Woods explained that the original word apostasia was originally perceived as the departure of the church back to Jesus.

If departure is the correct way of understanding this, then it makes sense that the church has to be gone for the antichrist to come on the scene, as we are the thing that has been holding back the advance of the antichrist.

Add this new understanding to what I see in 2 Thessalonians 2:7-8, where there is no false allusion about the need for the church to be removed to allow for the antichrist to come on the scene, for it is easy to see that one verse validates the other, and no longer stands out as a conflicting statement.

With that exhausting introduction let's jump in.

A quick overview of Revelation chapter six gives us the antichrist, the rider on the white horse. This character goes out conquering and to conquer. Next, virtually all peace is removed from the earth; this is primarily accomplished through people.

Isn't that enough?

Much like the frying pan salesperson at the county fair, who exclaims, “Is that all? No, there is more,” for the people of the earth will be hit with hyper-inflation; we are already beginning to see that happening - if you don't think so, try to buy a sheet of plywood. Here in California that seven dollar sheet is now over ninety-five dollars a sheet. If I was looking for reasons for this monetary madness I could look at truckers who value their lives and are not making deliveries into unsafe areas. (For the most part, we don't have that problem in California.)

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I can see how shipping costs could worsen the situation; and yet, another would be price gouging. We have seen price gouging in states affected by hurricanes, as there is a mad rush to board up buildings. Price gouging of this sort would make more sense if we had perpetual riots, much like Portland Oregon, where boarding up windows is an attempt at preventing looting. Since the elections ended rioting seems to be isolated to Portland Oregon, Seattle Washington, and Michigan. Lumber is not the only thing to go through the roof, as food and gasoline will quickly become un-affordable.

You would think that having peace removed from earth would be bad enough, and yet the next riders are death and hades.

Here in this sixth seal, there is NO defined character riding a horse, and yet, as the result of God's wrath being poured out, there will be upwards of two billion people dying.

What comes under this sixth seal?

Revelation 6:12-17 NASB (12) I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; (13) and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. (14) The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. (15) Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; (16) and they *said to the mountains and to the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; (17) for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?"

In breaking it down:

• Another massive earthquake.

• The sun becomes black as sackcloth and the moon becomes like the color of blood.

  China has experienced the sun like sackcloth, to the point that the government had to put up video screens to reminded people of what they were missing. As for blood moons, didn't many of us pursue the theories associated with the blood moons, just a few years ago? What made them appear to be blood moons? For us, in California, the aerial spraying of chemical trails created lovely, deep red moons, especially if you could catch it in the horizon. Can the sun being darkened and the mood turning to blood cause you much grief? Strangely, this is exactly what Bill Gates has proposed to do. Perhaps he rarely emerges into the atmosphere and is not aware of the damage his friends are already doing.

• The stars of the sky fell to the earth.

  What is the practicality of that? It seems impossible, however, there is the potential for massive asteroids striking the earth, and NASA has already been making ineffective contingency plans for just such a thing. Based upon the potential size it will be devastating, and that is what we are seeing here.

• The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up.

All we have is imagination, but I can tell you the prospects are horrifying.

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• Every mountain and island were moved out of their places.

  We have already seen several massive earthquakes, but what of the magnitude which decimates mountains and islands?

• And then there is this: Revelation 6:15-16

  (15) Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains;

  These are not rocks and caves as we often picture, but it could be.

  
  
  

  Or, would you prefer an old missile silo?

  
  
  
  

  Eventually, they will be crying out in fear of the Lord.

  
  
  
  

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(16) and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb

These are things that will happen in the last days, specifically the time of God's wrath, the time that most call the Great Tribulation.

Calling it the Tribulation has been a source of constant friction and confusion to “Christians,” as they start ranting about how we will have to go through the tribulation years (post-tribulation), or, at least half of it (mid-tribulation).

As I have migrated through seals, I pointed out that all of these things are God's wrath.

NONE of it is directed at the body of Christ – the church. In short, because we are out of here before the wrath starts. If you can think of the church as the body of Christ, which it is, then it should be easier for you to comprehend that Jesus took ALL the wrath that is due those who have rejected Him.

Here are some passages that help to define this wrath being poured out upon the world, and why.

Romans 1:18 “What is revealed is God's anger from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people who in their wickedness keep suppressing the truth;” [CJB]

Did you notice that these wicked people keep suppressing the truth?

1 Peter 2:24 [ERV] “Christ carried our sins in his body on the cross. He did this so that we would stop living for sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you were healed.”

Jesus took SIN to the cross in His body, so that we could live without sin.

Romans 8:3 [NIV] “For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh,

God bypassed a huge problem, and that was a genetically broken human nature and its propensity to go after its own will. To do this meant that God would have to provide His own fertilized egg and convince Mary to be a surrogate mother, that way there was NO damaged genetic material transferred into Jesus.

With that in mind, you should recognize that Jesus had done nothing, legally, to get Himself put on that cross. Instead, he put Himself there voluntarily. To prove my point He told Pilate, that Pilate could do nothing unless He and the Father allowed it.

John 19:10-11 NASB “So Pilate *said to Him, "You do not speak to me? Do You not know that I have authority to release You, and I have authority to crucify You?" (11) Jesus answered, "You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above; for this reason he who delivered Me to you has the greater sin."

All this wrath, placed upon Jesus, was done for our benefit; and that is why we, the church, will NOT suffer God's wrath.

1 Thessalonians 5:9-10 [NASB] “For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, (10) who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him”

So things are getting tough; these are the tribulations that Jesus said would come. For many, they surround us daily, and for some they are deadly, but it is NOT God's wrath; it is merely life, in most cases.

Paul, in writing his second letter to Timothy, said,

“But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.” 2 Timothy 3:1 NASB

Here, in 2 Timothy 3:1, Paul is NOT talking about the things that will happen in the “tribulation,” but a lead into God's wrath. As you can see above, chapter six is filled with bad news.

The last seal we have seen opened is the sixth seal.

At this point you need to understand something; the Revelation works on a pattern: there are six seals, bowls, and trumpets signifying some form of God's wrath being poured out upon the nations and Israel. The seventh occurrence of these items: seals, bowls, trumpets; ALWAYS announce the next set of events to be poured out.

We DO NOT see the seventh seal opened until we get to Revelation 8:1

“When the Lamb broke the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.” NASB Revelation 8:1

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