The seventh bowl is emptied into the atmosphere.
A loud voice in heaven says,
"It is done!”
(Revelation 16:17).
The seventh bowl results in flashes of lightning and an earthquake so severe that “no earthquake like it has ever occurred since mankind has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake” (verse 18).
Jerusalem is split into three parts, and the cities of the world collapse
(verse 19).
Islands are flooded, and mountains disappear
(verse 20).
Giant hailstones, “each weighing about a hundred pounds, fell on people” (verse 21). Those under judgment “cursed God on account of the plague of hail, because the plague was so terrible” (verse 21).
One of the angels
of the seven bowl judgments then shows
John the fate of Babylon the Great
(Revelation 17),
as God avenges
"the blood of prophets and of God’s holy people,
of all who have been slaughtered on the earth”
(Revelation 18:24).
The world mourns the fall of Babylon
(chapter 18),
but heaven rejoices
(chapter 19).
Jesus Christ then returns in glory
to defeat the armies of the Antichrist at
Armageddon (Revelation 19:11–21)
and to set up His kingdom on earth
(Revelation 20:1–6).
The seven seals (Revelation 6:1–17; 8:1–5), seven trumpets (Revelation 8:6–9:21; 11:15–19), and seven bowls/vials (Revelation 16:1–21)
are three series of
end-times judgments from God.
The judgments get increasingly worse and more devastating as the end times progress. The seven seals, trumpets, and bowls are connected to one another.
The seventh seal introduces the seven trumpets
(Revelation 8:1–5),
and the seventh trumpet introduces the seven bowls
(Revelation 11:15–19; 15:1–8).
The seven seals include the
appearance of the Antichrist
(Revelation 6:1–2),
great warfare
(Revelation 6:3–4), famine (Revelation 6:5–6), plague (Revelation 6:7–8),
the martyrdom of believers in Christ
(Revelation 6:9–11),
a devastating earthquake causing terrible devastation, and astronomical upheaval (Revelation 6:12–14).
Those who survive the six seals are right to cry out, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!
For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”
(Revelation 6:16–17).
The seventh seal
introduces the
seven trumpet judgments.
The trumpets include hail and fire that destroy much of the plant life in the world (Revelation 8:7), the death of much of the world’s aquatic life (Revelation 8:8–9; 8:10–11), the darkening of the sun and moon (Revelation 8:12), a plague of “demonic locusts” that torture the unsaved (Revelation 9:1–11), and the march of a demonic army that kills
a third of humanity (Revelation 9:12–21).
The seventh trumpet calls forth seven angels who carry the seven bowls of God’s wrath (Revelation 11:15–19; 15:1–8). The bowl judgments include painful sores afflicting humanity (Revelation 16:2), the death of every living thing in the sea (Revelation 16:3), the turning of rivers to blood (Revelation 16:4–7), an intensifying of the sun’s heat (Revelation 16:8–9), great darkness and an intensification of the sores from the first bowl (Revelation 16:10–11),
the advance of the Antichrist’s armies at Armageddon (Revelation 16:12–14), and a devastating earthquake followed by giant hailstones (Revelation 16:15–21).
Together, the seals, trumpets, and bowls of the
end times comprise “the great day of [God’s] wrath”
(Revelation 6:17)
and serve to judge the Antichrist’s kingdom of wickedness. Revelation 16:5–7 declares of God, “You are just in these judgments, you who are and who were, the Holy One, because you have so judged; for they have shed the blood of your saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink as they deserve. . . . Yes, Lord God Almighty, true and just are your judgments.”
Following the sixth trumpet judgment is a literary interlude.
John sees an angel descend from heaven
with a little scroll in his hand.
A promise is given that
"the seventh angel is
about to sound
his trumpet”
(Revelation 10:7), and John is told that he must prophesy some more (verse 11). Next comes a description of the two witnesses who will preach in Jerusalem and perform miracles before they are murdered. God will then raise them back to life and take them to heaven (Revelation 11:1–13).
The seventh trumpet.
The seventh trumpet (and the third woe)
sounds, and
immediately there are
loud voices in heaven saying,
“The kingdom
of the world has become
the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah,
and he will reign for ever and ever”
(Revelation 11:15).
All is set for the seven angels with the seven bowls of God’s wrath.
These angels stand inside the
now-open temple,
ready to step forward and bring the final judgments on earth
(Revelation 15).