Revelation 16:8-9 “Then the fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and power was given to him to scorch men with fire. (9) And men were scorched with great heat, and they blasphemed the name of God who has power over these plagues; and they did not repent and give Him glory.”
In this section we want to discuss the fourth bowl of God’s wrath being poured out on the earth and the corresponding judgement that will be initiated because of that bowl’s outpouring. The above quoted passage of scripture describes the angel pouring out the fourth bowl on the sun, thus scorching men with fire and great heat. We can only speculate as to how God will cause this judgement to take place. There are three main possibilities for causing the earth to experience scorching heat during that time. Firstly, the sun’s temperature could increase thus increasing the earth’s temperature. Secondly, the earth’s orbit around the sun could change moving it closer to the sun thus increasing the earth’s temperature. Thirdly, and this is the more likely reason, a thinning out of the earth’s atmosphere could take place which will allow more sunlight to reach the surface of the planet thus increasing the earth’s temperature. The reason I say that this will be the more likely reason, is because we have already seen that the destruction of the earth’s marine life will cause a decline in the level of oxygen, thus thinning out the earth’s atmosphere. Nevertheless, however God chooses to cause this judgement to take place, the people living during that time can expect the midday temperatures to reach at least the mid fifty degree Celsius range. In those sorts of temperatures people will be forced to find shelter from the sun, because being exposed to that degree of heat for too long will lead to heatstroke and even death. We must not forget that by this time all infrastructures in the earth will have been destroyed, and so mankind will not have access to modern cooling systems such as air conditioners, etc, in order to try cope with these extremely high temperatures. Mankind will also not have access to any sources of water to try cooling themselves, because all the earth’s oceans and rivers will have been turned into blood. And so we see that as mankind enters the final stages of God’s wrath, this planet will become progressively dryer and hotter. That fact, coupled with the extremely limited amount of drinking water available, will make existence for men on the earth to be completely unbearable. What is still amazing to see from this passage however, is the fact that faced with all of these judgements; mankind will continue to refuse to repent before God.
Revelation 16:10-11 “Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom became full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues because of the pain. (11) They blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores and did not repent of their deeds.”
In this section we want to discuss the fifth bowl of God’s wrath being poured out on the earth and the corresponding judgement that will be initiated because of that bowl’s outpouring. The above quoted passage of scripture describes the angel pouring out the fifth bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom becoming full of darkness while they continue to gnaw their tongues because of the pain of their sores. As we saw when the first bowl was poured out, God will continue to single out the kingdom of the anti-Christ for specific punishment, because this judgement will only be visited on his kingdom. The painful sores that are mentioned in this passage refer to the foul and loathsome sores that God put on them when the first bowl was poured out. And so we can clearly see that the kingdom of the anti-Christ will suffer from their sores throughout the period of God’s final judgements being poured out. Nevertheless, in this judgement we see that God will bring darkness over the whole of the kingdom of the anti-Christ, beginning from his throne. Those outside the kingdom of the anti-Christ will observe a thick dark cloud covering the nations of that kingdom, nevertheless being unable to see into the cloud they will be powerless to assist them in any way. Again, what is amazing to see in this passage is that men still choose not to repent of their deeds through all of this.
Exodus 10:21-23 “Then the Lord said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, darkness which may even be felt." (22) So, Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days. (23) They did not see one another; nor did anyone rise from his place for three days.”
As with the judgement of the springs and rivers being turned into blood, we also have a scriptural example of a judgement of darkness taking place. The passage of scripture quoted above is the account of the judgement of darkness that God brought over the land of Egypt. This passage teaches us that God judged Egypt with darkness that was so thick that it could even be felt. This passage goes on to tell us that because of the severity of the darkness no-one could rise from their beds because it was too dark to even move. Clearly the darkness that will come over the kingdom of the anti-Christ will be just as severe, forcing everyone in that kingdom to refrain from all movement. Don’t forget that by this time the earth would have been without power for well over a year, and so even battery operated light sources would be inoperable. So what about more primitive light sources i.e. oil lamps, etc? Egypt had access to oil lamps and yet scripture teaches us that it was still too dark for them to move. In other words the light generated from the oil lamps was unable to penetrate the surrounding darkness, thus making them completely ineffective. We see in this passage that Egypt was judged with darkness for a specific period of time i.e. three days. There is no time period indicated in the judgement of the fifth bowl however; nevertheless because this judgement will take place towards the end of God’s wrath it is very likely that this period of darkness will not extend very much longer than the three days of darkness that Egypt experienced. One of the main reasons for that is because the human body cannot survive much longer than three days without water, and being blinded by darkness during that time, people will be unable to access water sources.
Michael E.B. Maher
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