Previous Lesson -- Next Lesson
6. The Sixth Seal: The Beginning of the Catastrophes of the End of Time (Revelation 6:12-17)
REVELATION 6:12-17
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 were moved out of their places. 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?”
With his revelations John follows in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. The main points of what he describes in these verses, we find in Matthew 24:29 sketched out.
The Revelations About the End of Time in the Old Testament: The seer tries not to describe with his own words the catastrophes of the Last Days which the revelation angel had shown him, but he quotes out of his memory numerous visions about the future of the prophets of the Old Testament.
The scroll in the hands of the Lamb of God was still not opened yet. The breaking of the sixth seal did not yet provide an insight into the implementing provisions of the Last Day. What had happened when the previous seals had been opened was sketched roughly on the outside of the scroll and had already been known in outlines.
Yet in his vision John summarizes the message of the prophets of the Old Testament and deepens it, while he refers it to the Lamb of God. He presents a summary of all prophecies and so he becomes the seer of the seers. We are well advised if we do not just skim through his words, as if we think we could already have understood all these subjects.
The Cosmic Shaking: John was horrified when he saw the whole earth and the universe quake as the Lamb of God broke the sixth seal. There was no more use of any protection and human safeguard. During a big earthquake there is no hiding place at all.
In the Old Testament the shaking of the earth means that God is coming so as to judge the world (Isaiah 13:13; Ezekiel 38:19; Joel 2:10; Nahum 1:5-6; Haggai 2:6). Earthquakes are judgments of God which hit our hearts and reveal our own dubiousness. In one moment all our sins are before us when the earth trembles.
If you read the mentioned verses carefully, you will recognize that the spirit of prophecy revealed long before the return of Christ that the day of the Lord will come dreadfully with great fierceness and wrath. Every wrong in the world and in particular the suffering of the martyrs must be uncovered and judged. Ezekiel saw the prototype of an earthquake along with the invasion into Israel of Gog from Magog, who is often understood in the Middle East as "Russ of Russia" (Ezekiel 38:18-39:29),. The epistle to the Hebrews explains us that the old creation must be shaken so that the new creation that cannot be shaken may break forth (Hebrews 12:26-27). The Lamb of God unhinges the whole world so as to create a new spiritual world.
Muhammad heard from Christian evangelists in the area of the Kaaba, which has existed long before him, that Allah will come, even stands before the door and knocks. The earth will tremble and the mountains will fly away like tousled wool, smoke will go up, and stars will fall down from heaven. Allah will come for judgment and will demand from everybody a complete account of his life.
Muhammad was horrified. He fled and hid himself in the cave Hira' in the neighbourhood of Mecca, where later on he thought to hear a voice which called him so as to warn of the upcoming judgment. A third of all Surahs of the Qur’an contain the Islamic echo to the message of the Old and New Testament that God is coming so as to judge the world.
Men like to rely on their health, on the air, the water, the sun, summer and winter, all supposed to be constant facts, and forget to give thanks to the creator of all these things. Then the Lord shakes on the fundamentals of our existence vigorously so that we may understand that we should not take anything for granted! Everything is grace! If the Lord withdraws his grace from us, then we are not able to live any longer.
The Covered Sun: John reverts back to Old Testament prophecies so as to describe the depressive vision: The sun appears grey pale like a jute bag, its shine disappears, the sky is in a sign of worldwide mourning and repentance. The moon shines deep red like blood (Isaiah 13:9-12; 24:23; Ezekiel 32:7; Joel 2:10; 3:3-4; Amos 5:8; Matthew 24:29). This description reminds of a sand storm in the Middle East. Such a sand storm may last for days. During this time the sun is shining pale as through a sand curtain, and the moon turns pale and seems to get extinguished.
The Rain of Comets: John explains further that the stars fell down to earth as if ripe figs are shaken off its tree by a blast of air. Rationally thinking Christians had often being sneered at the pictorial language of the oriental people, until the Shoemaker-Levy comet broke into more than 22 pieces due to the force field of Jupiter which entered piece after piece between 16 and 22 July in 1994 the atmosphere of the biggest planet of our sun with a velocity of 60 km per second. Each of these pieces having a diameter of about one kilometre developed energy of 250,000 hydrogen bombs!! Thousands of pictures of this cosmic event were made by means of the largest telescopes; the best of them can be viewed in the internet (http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/sl9).
The falling down of these comet pieces reminds of the vision of John according to which stars fall from heaven like ripe figs shaken off their fig tree by a mighty wind.
The Shoemaker-Levy comet was a writing on the wall of God for the residents of our earth written by his hand on the invisible wall of the universe. Many scientists had been thrilled by this photogenic impact of meteorites. They did not understand that therewith God wrote us a warning signal on heaven so that we may turn back to him and repent.
Nobody on our earth is known who had been killed in the last 1000 years by a meteorite, according to scientists. Yet at the same time they confess that the "Nördlinger Ries" having a diameter of 25 km was generated 15 million years ago by an asteroid having a diameter of 1500 m. This asteroid is supposed to have cast a vast amount of pulverised sand, dust and rock into the atmosphere so that the sun had lost its shine for a long time and the moon had shone only glutton. Perhaps one of the ice ages on our earth may have been a result of this catastrophe.
If one of the 2000 bigger asteroids having a diameter of more than one kilometre or only one of the 320,000 smaller ones having a diameter of only 100 meter is deflected from its orbit by the force field of Jupiter, then a downfall to our earth is possible. A bombardment of Jupiter as an "example" is not only thinkable but had already been photographed.
Are we Hard of Hearing? Who hears the voice of God from the universe? Who realizes his warning? Who repents earnestly and recommends his neighbours to turn to God and his Lamb? The day of the Lord will come suddenly like a thief in the night. Who prepares himself for his coming?
The old Germans are supposed to have said that at the end of times heaven will fall on their heads. Were they wiser then their highly specialised great grandsons?
In our days even science-fiction movies prepare the coming generation for the dangers from the universe. Approaching asteroids are being observed day and night by the best observatories and people think whether the approaching rocks may get pulverised by means of missiles. Do the saints pray for leading of the church by the Spirit in the Last Days of our little earth?
The Expansion of the Universe: The description of John that heaven is like a rolled up scroll which will be blown away by invisible forces, can be found again nowadays in the objective discussion of astronomers. The red-shift of light in photographs of far stars shows that they move away from each other with increasing speed as if they flew away. They are supposed to move in spiral-shaped paths which remind of a rolled up coil.
The visible sky is not a firmament. The universe is on the move. Heaven and earth fly before the face of him who had created them, for he is coming to judge the living and dead.
The Decay of the Mountains: John saw in his vision that all mountains and islands were moved away from their positions.
Scientists nowadays try to observe by constant measurements whether Vulcan Etna, as they assume, slumps down and disappears in the Mediterranean Sea. In California there are deep rifts in the earth's crust as a continental plate and an ocean plate drift apart. So, in Pacific Ocean besides devastating earthquakes also sinking land has been conceivable. From Portugal similar facts are reported. Not only heaven, but also the earth is set in motion, because the Lord is coming for judgment.
Self-Rescue Attempts: Catastrophes occur very often as quickly as a flash. Yet sometimes they can be diagnosed beforehand. John writes that the persons in authority, the rich men and the mighty men try to hide themselves in caves and clefts against the impact of pieces of comets likewise as in an air-raid shelter. For in such an event not only the direct impacts are disastrous, but also the shockwaves and the innumerable tons of pulverised soil and rocks which are similar to a rain of explosive fragments resulting from a great blasting operation or an oversized sandblaster.
Also servants and maids, man slaves and female slaves will try to escape on the spur of the moment from the wrath of God. He is going to avenge his martyrs on the inhabitants of the earth and condemn everybody who had rejected the gospel. These miserable people do not know that the catastrophes at the coming of Jesus Christ will take on such a dramatic scale that all protection measures will be of no avail.
The Prayer of the Desperate: In such a moment godless people start praying! Yet they do not ask God and his Lamb for forgiveness and salvation, but they beseech mountains and hills that they collapse over them and grind them to dust so that they may escape the confrontation with God and his Lamb. Only at this point of the Bible we read about the wrath of the Lamb! The holiness of God and the wrath of the gentle little Lamb are so tantalising and judging that people long for death. The countenance of God is just and glorious so that before him trespasses, sin, rebellion, faithlessness, pride and hardening, any lie, any uncleanness, any theft and lack of love of parents and spouses are exposed and lie open without saying any word.
Who had not confessed his sins to Jesus and had not got his heart and conscience cleansed through the blood of the Lamb, will try to escape from his judge as he is terrified but will not be able to. In this very moment every man will realize that the decisive day of the world history has come. The gentleness of the crucified One will judge the rebellion of the pride without saying any word.
The wrath of the Lamb of God is justified. Not only has Jesus carried all sins for every man and atoned for the punishment in his stead, but the enemies of the Lamb have even rejected deliberately his love and killed those who he had been sent to them so as to testify to them his grace. Moreover, they have kept their relatives or fellow citizens from the salvation in Christ. They preferred a collective possession to the redemption through the unique atoning sacrifice of Jesus.
The enmity of an unbeliever against God and his Lamb is deep and originates from the source of God's arch-enemy being full of hatred.
In this decisive hour the enemies of the cross will realize what they had always suspected but refused to believe: that Jesus Christ is alive and reigns with his Father forever and ever. The horror of having mocked, denied or rejected that one, who is the sole hope of the world, must be dreadful. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
PRAYER: We thank You Lord Christ that You promised Your disciples, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away". We magnify You assuredly because Your promise is firm and the power of Your life in Your followers continues and will never end.
QUESTION:
- What are the disasters of the last times, which the Revelation of John tells us in advance?