A Study of Revelation

In the book of Revelation there are three major judgments that come to the earth. The first wave is called the seal judgments. They unfold as the Lamb breaks the seals of the scroll. As each seal is broken, it unleashes a new barrage of God’s judgment against an evil and Christ-rejecting world. Then, in chapter 8, another round begins as the angels blow the seven trumpets. Finally, the bowl judgments begin in chapter 16, as the final measure of God’s wrath is poured out on a world which refuses to budge from its position of willful unbelief. Each series of judgments is worse than the other, and the bowls complete the work during the great Tribulation, just prior to the return of Christ.

It is not pleasant to read about the carrying out of God’s judgment on the world. There are plagues, famine, war, and death. There is great suffering in the world as a result of what God is doing. There are many questions surrounding God’s activity and his purpose in all this. It all seems so terrible. Why would God do these things which cause such misery and pain?

The purpose of these judgments is redemptive. It is an effort to get people to turn from their sin and turn to God — so that they might live. We need to remember that the Lord has said, “As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die. . . ?” (Ezekiel 33:11).

As these judgments are being carried out, it is the express purpose of the judgments to turn people from their sin so that God can turn from carrying out from his judgment against their sin and forgive them. He wants to save, not to harm. The purpose of the judgments is redemptive, not punitive. God seeks through these measures to correct, not merely to punish. God desires reconciliation, not retribution. In fact, the word for punish if found only one time in the entire book of Revelation (17:1), and then it is speaking about the punishment of the great prostitute who represents the evil, one-world government of the end times.

What is interesting is that there is a sense of wonder on the part of the inhabitants of heaven that the people of earth are experiencing all these judgments and still remain willfully and stubbornly rebellious.

It says in chapter nine: “The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood — idols that cannot see or hear or walk. Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts” (Revelation 9:20-21).

JOIN US EVERY WEDNESDAY AT 6:30 PM AS WE CONTINUE OUR STUDY IN THE BOOK OF THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST.