Name: Harry Franklin Chamberlin
Question: You said in the article about two tribulations: Gods wrath is part of the same tribulation. I have to disagree.
Rev 6:10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? They are at the fifth seal and they are asking when will the wrath come? Answer was “when the last martyr is killed” Which is at the 7th trumpet.
Rev 11:15 And the seventh angel sounded; ….
Rev 11:18 And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, (present tense)
Rev 16:1 And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. (vials are the wrath) but tribulation has ended:
Rev 6:16 And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:
Rev 6:17 For the GREAT DAY OF HIS WRATH IS COME; and who shall be able to stand? (End of seals and wrath starts) but also at the end of trumpets:
Rev 11:15 And the seventh angel sounded;
Rev 11:18 And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, (present tense)
Wrath comes at the same time seals and trumpets end. BOTH ARE HAPPENING AT THE SAME TIME!
Answer: Harry, thank you for the question.
Seals, Trumpets, and Vials
We need to talk about the Seals, Trumpets, and Vials.
It is not:
- Seal 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and then…
- Trumpet 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and then…
- Vial 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.
The Trumpets and Vials actually overlap one another. Yes, they are very closely related, but the Seals are a completely different animal.
The Seals are the playbook.
A playbook is simply the plan, then the plan must be put into action.
The Trumpets and Vials are the action.
- Seals = The Plan
- Trumpets and Vials = The Plan In Action
Now that we understand that, we can see what you laid out is not accurate. When the Seventh Angel sounded in Revelation 11:15, that does not kick off the Vials. In fact, the Vials were already being poured out.
Let me show you…
The Fifth Vial
Revelation 16:10
And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,
Who is the beast?
Well, there are two in the Book of Revelation, you can read about them in Revelation 13 specifically. One is the Devil, and the other is the government of the Devil, his kingdom.
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So then, when the Fifth Vial is poured out, it’s poured out on the Devil’s kingdom (on earth), which happens as the Trumpets are sounding, which happens during the Tribulation.
That right there proves, the Trumpets and Vials overlap.
One Tribulation
In the article you referred to, I left some citations that discuss the Tribulation.
Now, I want you to understand what “tribulation” means,
Pressure (literally or figuratively): – afflicted, (-tion), anguish, burdened, persecution, tribulation, trouble.
There it is…
Now, people face tribulation all the time, right?
Of course.
However, during “the Tribulation,” as in, the end of the world as we know it, the whole world will face a Tribulation. Which simply means, we’re going to be “pressured, burdened, and persecuted” in a great time of “trouble.”
Not “times,” but “time.”
When the Devil appears, and when the time of Great Apostasy begins. That kicks off the Tribulation.
For the world, it’ll be a pretty unifying time, except for God’s Saints, right? We know they’re Sealed with the Word of God, and they will stand against this unified kingdom of the Devil, (Revelation 7).
However, everyone else, they’re going to be deceived by the Devil and his grand entourage that he brings with him. It numbers 200 million, quite impressive, (Revelation 9:4, 16)!
Now, later down the road, those Vials will be poured out on the “seat of the beast,” as we learned.
What causes that?
The Two Witnesses and the Saints are going to cause that, that’s the “plan in action.”
So that begins a great shift during the Tribulation. Eventually, we know the Two Witnesses are killed, and then, Jesus Christ returns, and ends the Devil’s kingdom, (Revelation 11). So that wraps up the Tribulation, and by then, all the Trumpets have sounded, and all the Vials have been poured out.
There’s no other event, just the Millennium, which is a completely different era of time.
Biblical Caution
So outside of that, if we’re not careful, we can start to play semantics with words and events… We don’t want to do that, it can lead us to incorrect conclusions and distort what the Bible actually says.
There’s one great time of trouble for the earth, when the Devil appears on it, claiming to be the Messiah, which is rectified by the appearance of Jesus Christ.
