God’s judgment affects global lands, oceans, terrestrial waters, and skies
Revelation is a complex system, not linear events, portraying global collapse and world war surrounding the second coming of Jesus Christ.
Revelation is a complex system, not a simple, linear sequence of events. As an analogy, World War II was a complex system composed of protagonists (Eisenhower as overall commander of the Alliance) and antagonists (Hitler and the Axis), each with multiple armies across many nations across time. In books, an author may analyze the war from the perspective of key players, countries, continents, or oceans. In that system, everything affected everything in the struggle for world domination (democracy versus totalitarianism).
In the same way, Revelation is a complex system composed of Christ (over angels and believers) and Satan (over demons and unbelievers, including the beast), each with multiple armies across all nations in massive interaction as they each struggle to rule the world (good versus evil). Revelation presents this war from numerous perspectives.
One simple proof that Revelation is a system is that the second coming of Jesus is directly or indirectly included in every major part of the book. For example, His one-and-only second advent occurs in the seals, the trumpets, and the bowls, which by the way, are the primary locations of global warming events and their ramifications. Global warming surrounds the second coming.
The bird’s-eye view of the seals, trumpets, and bowls displays the fact that the Lord Jesus alone is worthy to open the seals meaning that He alone is qualified before God to rule heaven and earth. The seals determine the rise and fall of nations during end-time events before, during, and after the Lord’s second coming.[1] Within the domain of the seals–under their umbrella–are the trumpets that gradually interact with and escalate to a tipping point–the bowls.[2] And yet, the fourth bowl (fierce heat) has already begun, will slowly escalate, spread, then fall of the cliff (cross a critical threshold) igniting roaring destruction.
Earth’s lands, oceans, waters, and skies along with population growth and limited resources, are in a complex web of interaction existing in fluid states of constructive integration or destructive disintegration. This is a dynamic physical system. This physical world is controlled by the spiritual world.
The Lord Jesus on heaven’s throne opens the seventh seal giving rise to the seven trumpets. Seven angels blow the seven trumpets.[3] Christ on heaven’s throne has authority and power over everything in the seals as well as over the seven angels with trumpets who are great commanders of massive angelic armies with specific missions.[4] Events portrayed in the trumpets gradually progress, amplify, and cross a critical threshold into nonlinear events; “The seven bowls” is another code name for seven more high ranking angelic commanders and their armies executing missions of global catastrophic proportions including “fierce heat.“
While the seals, trumpets, and bowls are the key passages on global disintegration, they function within the larger structure of the entire book of Revelation, which is simplified in the following chart presenting a literary structure found in seven sets of seven: 7 blessings; 7 churches; 7 seals; 7 angels with trumpets; 7 angels with bowls; 7 angels and the Son of Man; 7 angels of thunder.
The most obvious key to unraveling this complex system is to note where and how many times the one-and-only second coming of Jesus is either explicitly or implicitly located. Scripture only records one second coming of Jesus to earth–not two comings, not two parts to a coming, not an invisible and visible coming, not a secret and a spectacular coming (sets of twos describing two comings are not found in the Bible). Jesus says that “after the tribulation” when He appears in the clouds, all the tribes of the earth will see Him, and then He will bring all the Christians from heaven (who previously died on earth) and gather all the Christians from earth (aka the rapture). (Combine Mark 13:27-29 with Matthew 24:29-31 for all these facts on His return explicitly and clearly stated by the Lord Himself; He is the ultimate expert on His second coming.[5]) The fact that this spectacular, one-time advent shows up in set after set reveals that these sets are not always sequential but often consecutive, overlapping, interacting, cycling, or revealing different facets of the same event, operation, or time. Thus, Revelation is systemic.
In the Interrelation Chart of Revelation below, the second coming of Jesus is noted in bold print (2nd Coming of Jesus) approximately where it occurs in the timing in each set. Since Jesus stated that He would return “after the tribulation,” then His coming is placed accordingly. Har-Magedon (Armageddon) is marked in italics (Har-Magedon) with a symbol under it representing the war (the icon looks like a little explosion). Asterisks (*) indicate that one event is mentioned in two or more places, such as the fall of mountains shows up in the sixth seal and in the seventh bowl. Numerous arrows point out interrelationships of facts given for events across the sets. The circle of arrows indicates a complex feedback cycle of intensifying situations.
The first four trumpets, the first four bowls, and the first four seals in the chart below are interactive, create a vicious cycle, and worsen over time until a critical threshold (tipping point, hockey stick) drops them over a cliff of runaway global warming and adverse conditions for all life that no one can stop leading to the collapse of civilization in the sixth seal, the seventh trumpet, and the seventh bowl.[6]
Interrelation Chart of Revelation:
Seven Sets of Seven
The purpose of the Interrelation Chart of Revelation is to point out that Revelation is a complex, dynamic system. The trumpets, seals, and bowls are massive angelic military operations in coordination with the saints under the Commander and Chief, the Lord Jesus Christ, in this great endeavor to retake planet earth from the global tyrant–the beast–who has murdered millions. (It must be noted that while God uses forces of good to accomplish His purposes, He can also allow Satan, his demonic hoards, and unregenerate mortals to play their part in the destruction of the world. He turns us over to our evil desires–a terrifying act in righteous judgment.) Each set of sevens looks at this overall system from a different angle.
There is a general chronology of events within this system. A simplified timeline according to relevant verses throughout Scripture is given below:
The Chronology in Revelation
[1] Seals are in Rev 5; 6; 8:1-6.
[2] Rev 8:1-2, “The Lamb broke the seventh seal . . . the seven angels . . . were given (seven trumpets).”
[3] Trumpets – Rev 8; 9; 11:15-19.
[4] Since Christ is over the first four seals (the four horsemen that are under the command of the four living creatures), then the horseman on the white horse cannot be Christ Himself as some believe.
[5] Mark 13:24-27, “After that tribulation, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers that are in the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And then He will send forth the angels, and will gather together His elect from the four winds, from the farthest end of the earth to the farthest end of heaven.” Matt 24:29-31, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory, and He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.”
[6] Rev 6:12-17; 11:15-19; 16:17-21.
[7] “Jesus Christ Revelation” by pixundfertig on Pixabay. “Armageddon Disaster” by Pete Linforth on Pixabay. Pixabay: apocalypse.