Great Earthquake
The final day of wrath is characterized by unprecedented celestial and terrestrial events, including the “great earthquake” – Revelation 6:12-17.
When John was summoned
to ascend to heaven, he observed the “throne” at the center of the
universe and “One sitting on it.” The “throne” was surrounded by
twenty-four smaller thrones occupied by “four and twenty elders arrayed in white garment, wearing golden crowns.” A series of visual
and audible phenomena proceeded from the divine “throne… flashes of
lightning, loud voices, and claps of thunder” – (Revelation
4:1-5).
Later, when the “Lamb”
opened the “sixth seal,” the “great earthquake”
shook the earth, accompanied by celestial upheaval. The entire Cosmos was
shaken to its foundations:
- “The sun became black as sackcloth, and the whole moon became as blood. The stars of the heaven fell to the earth… And the heaven was removed as a scroll when it is rolled up; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places” – (Revelation 6:12-17).
The description of
cosmic chaos echoes Old Testament passages about the “Day of Yahweh,”
the dreadful time of His judgment. For example:
- (Joel 2:30-31, 3:15) - “And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of Yahweh is coming. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. And Yahweh will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake.”
- (Isaiah 13:9-11) - “ Behold, the day of Yahweh is coming, cruel with wrath and fierce anger; to make the land a desolation, and to destroy the sinners thereof out of it. For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light; the sun shall be darkened in its going forth, and the moon shall not cause its light to shine.”
So, also, when the “sixth
seal” was opened, it was the time for the “wrath of the Lamb” and
that of the “One who sits on the throne,” the “great day of their
wrath” and the judgment of the “kings of
the earth, the
princes, the
chief captains, the
rich, the
strong, and every bondman and freeman.” On
that day, “Who will be able to stand,” and no one will escape.
The “great earthquake” and the awesome celestial events unleashed by the “sixth seal” do not portend the imminence of the end. Instead, these phenomena accompany the arrival of that day, as the entire creation reacts to the approach of the “Day of the Lord.” Mountains are laid low, and “every island flees” before the presence of the “Lamb” and the “One who sits on the throne.”
At the close of the “seven
seals,” an angel filled his “censer with the fire from the altar” and
cast it onto the earth, which produced “claps of thunder, loud voices, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake,” the same phenomena seen around the “throne,” only now, the “earthquake”
is added to the mix - (Revelation 8:5).
After the Spirit of God
raised the “two witnesses” from the dead, a “great earthquake” overthrew a “tenth of
the city,” identified as the “great
city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt,
where also our
Lord was crucified.”
Elsewhere, the “great city” is identified as “Babylon,
the Great Harlot.” Just as God shook the city of Jerusalem following the
death of Jesus, so He shook the “great city” after the death of the “two
witnesses” – (Matthew 27:51, Revelation 16:19, 17:18).
The ascension of the “witnesses”
was followed by the sounding of the “seventh trumpet,” which produced
the victory of the kingdom of God, the time of “wrath” on the nations,
the judgment of the dead, the punishment of the wicked, and the vindication of
the righteous. The “seventh trumpet” concluded with “flashes of
thunder, loud voices, claps of thunder, and an earthquake,” but
now, “great hail” is added to the series – (Revelation
11:15-19).
When the seventh angel
emptied the final “bowl of wrath,” a great voice declared, “It is
finished!” The “seven bowls of wrath” completed the “wrath of God.”
The declaration was followed by “flashes of lightning, loud voices, claps of
thunder, and the great earthquake.” The earthquake was so massive
that “every island fled away,
and the mountains were not found,” the same terrestrial upheavals caused by the “sixth
seal.” The parallel descriptions are not coincidental; the same final event
is in view here.
Once again, the “great city” suffered. It was “divided into three parts,” signifying
the fall of the “cities of the nations,” and
the time for “Babylon the great” to
drain the “cup of the wine of the fierceness of God’s wrath.” This judgment was anticipated in chapter 14, where an angel declared
the fall of “Babylon the great,” because she made “all the nations to drink
of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” So, here, with her
fall, the “great city” drank the full “fierceness of
the wrath of God” – (Revelation 14:8).
The same fall of “Babylon” is
presented in greater detail in chapter 18. The day of her judgment arrived:
- “For her sins have reached even to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities… Therefore, in one day shall her plagues come, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire; for strong is the Lord God who judges her.”
The “kings of the earth” who
committed fornication with her stood afar off, crying, “Woe, the great
city, Babylon, the strong city, for in one hour is her judgment come!” Likewise, the
merchants and mariners of the earth enriched by her wailed:
- “Woe, woe, the great city…for in one hour so great riches is made desolate… and they cried out as they looked upon the smoke of her burning, saying: What city is like the great city?... Woe, woe, the great city, for in one hour is she made desolate.”
What is described is nothing less than the final overthrow and
destruction of “Babylon.” As the chapter concludes, “Thus with a
mighty fall shall Babylon, the great city, be cast down, and she
shall be found no more at all.”
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| Photo by Josep Castells on Unsplash |
In Revelation, all three sevenfold series conclude with the same phenomena, “flashes of lightning, great voices, claps of thunder,” along with the “earthquake” and “hail.” Not coincidentally, the last two items intensify as the final series completes the “wrath of God.” So much so, the final seismic event is greater than any in human memory, as is the “great hail” that tormented humanity, “for the plague thereof was exceeding great.” These are not everyday storms and quakes, but extraordinary events never experienced by humanity prior to the final day.
The verbal links between the final events of each sevenfold series are
deliberate. The end of each series reaches the same endpoint, the “day of
the Lord,” the time for the “wrath.” With the arrival of that day,
the entire Cosmos is shaken to its core. Stars fall, the earth shakes,
mountains and islands flee.
Whether the “great earthquake” is literal or
figurative, it is final. It is NOT
a harbinger of things to come, but one of the unprecedented events that characterize
the arrival of THE final day, the “day of the Lord” and
the time of “wrath.” For the wicked, there will be no escape. For the righteous,
however, it will be the time of resurrection, vindication, and victory, as the reign
of God is consummated throughout the Cosmos.
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