THE POPULAR ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLE PROPHECY

BOWL JUDGEMENTS Part II

DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVEN BOWLS

The first bowl causes loathsome ( Greek, Pornon ) or possibly putrefied sexual sores to break out on those who have the mark of the beast ( 16:2 ).The word for “sores” is helkos, meaning abscesses or ulcers. The sores are also called “malignant” ( Greek, Kakos ) to emphasize their severity. The Second Bowl is poured upon the seas, and its become blood meaning that it turns to a coagulated vile and terrible soup “and every living thing in the sea died” (16:3).

The third bowl is poured out upon the rivers and the springs of water, and they too become like blood or are terribly polluted ( 16:4-7 ). The angel of this judgement cries out that God is the Righteous One who ever lives and who is judging these things. He is judging not only the people of the earth but also the earth itself, and specifically here, the waters of the planets. The apostle Paul reminds his readers in Rome that “the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth” because of sin ( Romans 8:22 ). The Lord has subjected it to futility, and someday “the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption ( Romans 8:20-21 ). But there is more about this third bowl of judgement: John says that God has given men this pollution ( the blood ) to drink because ” they deserve it.” The evil men on the earth during this Tribulation period “poured out the blood of saints and prophets”( Revelation 16:6 ). The martyrs near the heavenly altar cry out, “Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are your judgments” ( 16:7 ). The vast majority of people on the earth are more than deserving of what is coming upon the world because of their sins and their collective revolt against God and His Christ.

The Fourth bowl of the wrath of God falls upon the Sun “to scorch men with fire” and with fierce heat ( 16:8-9 ). Does this horror bring about repentance? No. The people of the earth “blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues; and they did not repent so as to give Him glory”. No matter how painful the tribulation, most people will not come to God, give Him honor, and repent of their sins.”Are they humbled and made repentance thereby? Are they crushed in spirit under the repented and increasing severity of these judicial chastisements? No! They blasphemed the name of God.’ What an answer on man’s part to the expressed wrath of the Almighty! How incorrigibly bad and thoroughly corrupt is the will of man!” ( Scott, pp. 328-29 ).

The Fifth angels pours out his bowl upon the throne of the Antichrist and his kingdom ( 16:10-11 ). His kingdom, the vast empire that controls the peoples and the nations of the earth, becomes “darkened; and men gnawed their tongues because of pain.”Again there is no repentance. Instead, “They blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores; and they did not repent of their deeds.” Some think “the kingdom of the beast does not refer to the whole world but only to his own particular kingdom, the base from which he later will acquire control over all others kingdoms” ( Morris, p. 306 ).

The Sixth angel pours his bowl upon the great river Euphrates ( 16:12-16 NASB ), “and its water was dried up, that the way would be prepared for the kings from the east.” At this same time, three unclean spirits as loathsome as frogs proceed from the dragon ( Satan ), the beast ( the Antichrist ), and the false Prophet ( see Revelation 13 ). They are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them together for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty”(16:14 ). This meeting place for the final conflict of the armies of the earth will happen in the Holy Land at the “Hill of Maggido” ( or Har- Magedon ). This event will bring on one of the worlds greatest battles ( 19:17-21 ). The leaders of the world will converge with their armies and be defeated by the Lord Jesus Christ when He returns at His Second Coming.

Why is the river Euphrates mentioned in 16:12? “Running for almost 2000 miles from Turkey through present day Syria and Iraq to the Persian Gulf, the Euphrates River serves as a kind of cultural barrier to armies to the east. In places it is almost two thirds of a mile wide. In the Tribulation, God will dry it up so that kings from the east will be able to cross it on their way to Israel” ( Couch, p. 276 ). “When this judgement falls on the river Euphrates it will be to dry up its waters as a preparation for certain kings known as the kings of the East.” They are coming! Zechariah also mentions this gathering and coming of Kings and also drying up of the River. ( See Zechariah 10:10-11 ). These Kings may be designated as the Kings of the Sun-rising.’ They are the Kings of the East” ( Tucker, P. 328 ).

When the Seventh angel pours out the final bowl of wrath down upon the earth ( 16:17-21 ), a voice from the temple in heaven says, “It is done.” After that comes lightning and thunder and a great earthquake “such as there had not being since man came to be upon the earth, so great an earthquake was it, and so mighty.” A great city, either Jerusalem or Babylon, is split into three parts, and the Lord remembers Babylon for her evel. He give her “the wine of His fierce wrath.” This islands are moved, the mountains leveled, and huge hailstones fall from heaven. Do men repent? They do not. Instead, they “blasphemed God because of the plague of hails” and because of its severity. With this seventh and final Bowl, “not only does every city of the world come under terrible judgement as a results of the great earthquake which leaves all monuments of men’s ingenuity in shambles, but the scriptures also indicates great changes in the topography of the entire world. The sweeping statement is made in verse 20 that every island is affected and mountains disappear. The fierceness of the wrath of God in verse 19, literally the anger of His wrath, is manifested in the entire physical earth” ( Walvoored, p. 241 ). The seal, trumpet, and bowl judgement probably form the spine of the Tribulation events. “THese seven angels, pouring out the seven bowls of wrath, are indeed a ‘Great’ sign, for ‘in them is finished the wrath of God. ‘We shall see them proceed ‘from the temple of God in heaven’ — all patience from God having been now exhausted” ( Newell, P.236 ) — MAL COUCH

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Couch, Mal, gen. ed. A Bible Handbook of Revelation. Grand Rapids; Kregel 2001

Hindson, Ed. The Book of Revelation. Chattanooga: AMG Publisher, 2002.

Morris, Henry M. The Revelation Record. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1983.

Newell, William R. Revelation. Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1994.

Scott, Walter. Exposition of the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Grand Rapids, Kregal, 1982.

Thomas, Robert L. Revelation 8-22: An Exegetical Commentary. Chicago: Moody Press, 1995.

Tucker, W. Leon. studies in Revelation. Grand Rapids: Kregal, 1980.

Walvoord, John F. The Revelation of Jesus Christ. Chicago: Moody Press, 1966.