B. God’s Judgment on the World

B10

1) The sixth seal of the apocalypse is a chronological marker associated with the coming of Jesus Christ; 2) In parallel with the description of the seventh bowl of wrath, the Second Coming of Christ will be accompanied by extraordinary natural cataclysms: “lightning, thundering, and voices,” hail the size of a talent, the most catastrophic earthquake in history, “every island fled, and the mountains were not found/every mountain and island moved out of their places,” “the sun was darkened, the moon turned to blood,” “the stars fell to the earth,” “the sky disappeared, rolling up like a scroll;”¹ 3) A feature of this earthquake will be a lowering of the land level, at least the elevations of the earth: land (mountains) and underwater (islands). A parallel with Isaiah 2:11, 17; 64:3; Micah 1:4; 4:1 (the only mountain that will rise is the Temple Mount); Psalm 97:5; Judges 5:4-5; Habakkuk 3:6; Luke 23:30; Rev. 6:16; Zechariah 14:10.²

The Book of Revelation

Chapter 6

¹² I saw when he opened the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake. The sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became as blood. ¹³ The stars of the sky fell to the earth, like a fig tree dropping its unripe figs when it is shaken by a great wind. ¹⁴ The sky was removed like a scroll when it is rolled up. Every mountain and island was moved out of its place. ¹⁵ The kings of the earth, the princes, the commanding officers, the rich, the strong, and every slave and free person, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains. ¹⁶ They told the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, ¹⁷ for the great day of his wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”

The Book of the Prophet Isaiah

Chapter 34

¹ Come near, you nations, to hear! Listen, you peoples. Let the earth and all it contains hear, the world, and everything that comes from it. ² For the LORD is enraged against all the nations, and angry with all their armies. He has utterly destroyed them. He has given them over for slaughter. ³ Their slain will also be cast out, and the stench of their dead bodies will come up. The mountains will melt in their blood. ⁴ All of the army of the sky will be dissolved. The sky will be rolled up like a scroll, and all its armies will fade away, as a leaf fades from off a vine or a fig tree.