We'll get to that chart that's on your back, and I know you're probably going to need a magnifying glass for it, but it kind of does give a more of a summary of all of the seals and trumpets and bowls, and we'll look at that a little bit more in depth here as we go along. If you remember, last Sunday we started looking at the third main section in Revelation, and of course that covers a very significant portion of the book of Revelation as a whole, and that's from chapters 6 through 16. And in those chapters, we find what has been described as the judgments of the sevens, of the seven seals, the seven trumpets, and the seven bolts. And of course, we mentioned that a little bit last Sunday, and we'll get further into it. Certainly, we have a lot more detail to go through. But before we get into the text of those chapters, I thought it'd be helpful for us to see that there are different approaches to these chapters, and really to these different series of judgments. And there's three basic approaches, and we started looking at one last week. We're gonna finish looking at that one this week, start the second one, and then probably next week we'll look at the third. But this is similar to the different ways that we approach the book of Revelation as a whole. And you can kind of even classify those that would consider, you know, those who hold to a more futurist viewpoint of the entire book of Revelation will hold one approach. Those who look at more of a preterist or historical viewpoint overall in Revelation will hold to another approach to these chapters. And then those that really just look at Revelation as sort of a spiritual guide of what will take place in all ages at all times, they also hold to a certain approach to these chapters as well, which we'll get into. But each of these three approaches Again, they use the same literary arrangement of these chapters as the basis of their approach. So none of these are, we would say, outside the scope of Orthodox Christianity, just like the differing views of eschatology as a whole, the study of the last times. These are people coming to the same texts as we are, believing that it has been written by God under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and it's authoritative for us today. It's just they have a little different understanding of how these might play out either in the past, the present, or even the future. So just a quick review of this literary arrangement. This is not on your lesson guide, but hopefully we're going to go through this literary arrangement so that by the end of us going through chapters 6 through 16, you'll know what those chapters are about. I mean, we already know that chapter 1 is the vision that Jesus gives to John of himself, right? Chapters 2 and 3 deal with the seven churches, the messages to the seven churches. Chapters 4 and 5 are the heavenly vision of the throne room of God. And then we come to chapters 6 through 16, which deal with the seals, the trumpets and the bowls. All right. So everybody has this literary arrangement before them. But just to remember. In Chapter 6, the first six seals of the scroll are opened by the Lamb, but then in Chapter 7 there's an interlude, or what we can describe as a close-up, that will then lead to the opening of the seventh seal in Chapter 8. So, we see that there is a little bit of a break between the opening of the six seals, the first six seals, and the seventh and final seal. The rest of Chapter 8 into Chapter 9, we find the first six trumpets that are sounded by the angels in heaven. And then there's another interlude, another close-up that follows those six trumpets, and that is found in chapters 10 and 11. And that will eventually lead to the sounding of the seventh trumpet. So just like it was with the seals, there is also a break, an interlude between the first six trumpets and the seventh trumpet. And then at the end of chapter 11, After the seventh trumpet has been sounded, it is declared in chapter 11, verse 15, the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. And so again, we see just the moving forward of God's plan throughout these judgments, the scrolls, the seals, the trumpets, but then This break, this order is broken a little bit more in that chapters 12 through 14 where we would expect the bowls to start to be poured out. They're not. Instead, we have another close-up, and this is, some describe it as more of a prelude, if you will, and then all seven vials, or all seven bowls of wrath that are full of the last plagues of God are poured out in chapters 15 and 16. And then at the very end of the bowls being poured out in chapter 16, verse 17, it's pronounced, it is done. Again, so you can kind of see the scope of these chapters, from chapters 6 through 16. The message guide or the lesson guide that I gave you last Sunday that had that literary arrangement, hopefully, as you go through those chapters, you keep that handy, because I think it will kind of help you understand a little bit more about the structure of the book of Revelation as a whole. So it's this literary arrangement Again, that was just a summary of it. We need to keep in mind as we consider what a lot of people will look at now is the chronological arrangement, the chronological structure, if we come to these chapters as providing prophecy for the most part about the future. Again, like I said, there are other different ways, different approaches to the book of Revelation as a whole. Some look at it as things that have already been accomplished. And most of them would say it was accomplished before the fall of Jerusalem or before the fall of Rome. And so they would say this is all past. There are others that would say this is just the ongoing present historical understanding of what the church is going through from the moment that Christ went up to heaven to the moment that Christ will return from heaven. And then, of course, we have the futurist view. which really does look at the chronological arrangement starting from John's perspective all the way until the coming of Christ. So, as I mentioned before, there are three basic ways that we can approach the arrangement of these seals and trumpets and bowls in time and history. And the first approach that we considered last week is known as the sequential approach. the sequential approach, which involves looking at all of the scenes that are taking place in these chapters as going from one to another in a timeline, if you will. So everything that happens in Chapter 7 follows Chapter 6. And you can kind of go through that as well. What you have there on the lesson guide as well as up here We saw this again last week. This is how the approach would diagram these judgments, and we would say this is a rather loose timeline. Sometimes you look at this and you think, well, it means that everything is happening in the same scale of time. And that's not what this timeline, if you will, this sequence means. In fact, most who would hold to the sequential approach would look at the seal judgments as taking longer than the trumpet judgments. And the trumpet judgments would take longer than the bowl judgments. So you could almost condense the bowls in, the trumpets in a little bit, as well as keeping the seal. So that's just kind of a loose timeline that they give us in looking at it in a sequential way. As I mentioned last week, even though this is a very natural way to read through these chapters, because you're starting in chapter 6 and you're reading through chapter 16, all of the seals and all of the trumpets and all of the bowls, as we just kind of touched on last week, and we'll get into more of the detail as we go forward, they seem to lead up to the very same point. The very same point which we can describe as the very threshold of the coming of Christ. And we mentioned that at the end of each seventh of the series, so at the end of the seals, at the end of the trumpets, at the end of the bowls, there is what's called a storm theophany that takes place at the end of each series of judgments. Theophany simply just means the presence of God, the manifestation of God. And in the storm, it's him making himself known in a storm. Now, some would look at these elements of the storm as more symbolic, but certainly, why couldn't there be a literal element, as well as the symbolic meaning behind those as well? Most would look back to Exodus chapter 20 as sort of the forerunner of these storm theophanies, because if you remember what happened in Exodus chapter 20, God gave his law to who? The children of Israel, that's right. And where was this at? Mount Sinai, that's right. And so at Mount Sinai, if you remember, there were lightnings and there were thunders and there were voices and there was an earthquake and there was fire on the mountain. The picture is this storm theophany, God manifesting himself in all his glory and power right there in those elements of a storm. And so, again, this is carried over into the throne room that we saw in chapter 4, verse 5, where John is up there, and what does he see? And what does he hear? He sees lightnings, and he hears thunders, and he hears voices. we see that there's something similar takes place at the end of each one of these judgment series. So when the seventh seal is broken, if you remember there in chapter eight, verse five, we're told that there were voices, and voices simply means, it could also be translated sounds. So it might be literal voices of angels or of God himself speaking, or it just could be other sounds that accompany storms, just like when we had the storm the other night. Not only do you have the sound of the thunder, but you also have the sound of the rain, right? You have the sound of the wind. And so it could also be just sounds, various sounds. It could include voices. But there were voices and thunderings and lightnings and an earthquake. Now that word earthquake can indicate just a shaking, a shaking whether it's in heaven or on earth. It doesn't just speak of something that is on earth, though it certainly can, as we'll see in Revelation 6, and also when the bowls are poured out, we can see that, yes, it does shake the earth. But that seismos can also be a turbulence in the sky, a turbulence in the heaven. At the sixth seal, you also hear about how the heavens are departing as a scroll. I mean, that would be a heavenly seismos that has its earthly counterpart with the earthquakes. And so you can kind of see the connection between heaven and earth. That's what these seals and trumpets and bowls are really meant to display. Obviously, there's a lot of details in all of the individuals, but if you take them all as a whole, what's going on? It is God showing his power on earth. So heaven is displaying itself in the affairs of this world. And that is really the whole point of especially these storm theophanies. So when the seventh seal is broken, we see that. When the seventh seal is sounded, in chapter 11, verse 19, we see a similar storm theophany, where it says there were lightnings and voices or sounds and thunderings and a quaking and earthquake, and then is added to that a great hail. And then you go all the way to chapter 16, verse 18, and you find that storm Theophany one more time when there were voices, sounds, thunders, lightnings, and there was a great earthquake, and along with great hail, as it says there in verse 21. So again, all of these. flow from the storm Theophany that was associated in the heavenly throne room back in chapter four, verse five. And again, the forerunner of that is Mount Sinai in Exodus chapter 20. And again, it indicates that the power of heaven has made its way to earth. The power of heaven has made its way to earth. Now, even though in each of the descriptions that we see up here, there's something added, if you will. to the lightning and the thunder and the voices that come out of the throne. Because that's all that we hear from John's perspective in chapter four. But when we come to the seventh seal being broken, we have the earthquake added, right? Then when the trumpet is added, we have the hail that is added. And then when the bowl is poured out, it's Great earthquake and great hail and even more information is added to it, such as never been seen in the world before at that point. So there's always something added in each of these descriptions. But that doesn't mean that these refer to different events. They could probably, and I personally think they do, deal with the same event and the same thing. And the reason why the earthquake and the hail would be added is to emphasize what is yet to come, to emphasize the power and intensity of the final judgment that will come when Jesus returns to earth. Now, I briefly mentioned last time that There is a literary device in Revelation that is known as progressive expansion in which more information is added to a scene for effect. And so if you just think about the storm theophany, right? And really, if you think about a storm that we might face, you know, you think, okay, you've got the wind coming through, right? Some of you were familiar with what took place on the day of Paige's wedding or the night before Paige's wedding when we had that tent set up and it blew down, right? Well, usually when we have a great storm coming through Indiana, what comes first? The wind, right? And then what happens? Then you start to feel some of those drops of rain coming down on your head, right? And then what happens? Then the full fury of the rain coming, just a deluge. And then, of course, you've got the lightning and the thunder. And then sometimes you can have an experience of hail. It doesn't happen all at once, right? It kind of does it in stages. And sometimes you might get those little pea-sized hailstones. And then they might turn into quarter-sized hailstones. And every once in a while, they become baseball-sized hailstones. I mean, we haven't experienced the hundred-pound hailstones that is referred to here in Revelation 16 yet. but that's kind of the picture of this progressive expansion. So it's like God is saying in a verbal way to get us to picture what storms are like, what this heavenly storm is going to be like as it brings forward the plan of God to the very point where Jesus is about to return. We've already seen this. expansion, this progressive expansion in Revelation. In fact, it's something that's found all throughout Revelation. If you go back to chapter 5, chapter 5 verses 3 and 4, this is just one example of it. In verse 3, it talks about how no man in heaven nor on earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon." All right, so those are two things that deal with the scroll, right? But then we see that for emphasis, that that is expanded. Those words are expanded in the very next verse. "'And I wept much,' John says, because no man was found worthy to open the book, and to what? To read the book, neither to look thereon.'" So obviously, they're talking about the same thing. It's just there's more of an expansion in the literary, in the words, to be able to show that this book need to be open. If you look, if you think back in chapter four and chapter five and the various songs that are being sung, sometimes there's only three descriptions, you know, holy and honor and glory be to the Lord. And then you might have even more words that are heaped on. And so this is a common literary device throughout the book of Revelation to really show that there's something that we need to pay attention to. And so I think personally, as far as it comes to the last seal and the last bowl and the last trumpet, that they're referring to the same thing because it is referring to the same real supernatural storm that will announce and even accompany the coming of Christ. Like I mentioned, it's very similar to the storms that we face, right? One person would say, did you hear the wind last night? Oh yeah. Well, did you hear the wind and see the hail last night? Oh yeah. Did you hear the wind, see the hail and feel the thunder last night? Yes. And so everybody has that different perspective, but it's all talking about the same event. And I think that's probably, especially as we get into the details of the seals and the trumpets and the bowls, hopefully that understanding will play out a little bit more for us. And that's why I personally believe and hold to the idea that the seventh of each refer to the same thing So the the exact sequential order I think is missing something Where you just look at chapter 6 all the way through chapter 16 and put it on a straight timeline a strict timeline. I Think there's something that we kind of miss when we're when we're looking at it that way but that does not mean that The rest of the seals and the rest of the trumpets and the rest of the bowls refer to the same thing. So there are some who would say that, well, because all seven seem like they're talking about the same thing, then all the sixth would appear to be talking about the same thing, and you go on the way back. But it does appear to be some progression in the first six of each series. But after each series of judgments, I think probably the reason why we have this storm theophany is because God wanted to take John to the very threshold of his return after each series of judgments. That is the entire theme of Revelation. In fact, if you go back to chapter 1, verse 7, we were introduced to this theme when the Lord says, Behold, he cometh with the clouds. Or John says about the Lord, he cometh with clouds. I mean, that's the second coming. That's the final full second coming where he will eventually put his feet on this earth, and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierce him, and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. And then John adds, even so, amen. And that's why after both the seventh trumpet and after the seventh bowl, there are actually descriptions of the coming of Christ in glory. We saw that earlier. And so we see that there's a point in time that is just the focus of this entire book. It's the coming of Christ. And really, that's the focus of the church. It's the coming of Christ. And so the purpose of this repetition the seventh seal, the seventh trumpet, the seventh bowl, would be that none of us take our eyes off of our blessed hope, which as Paul says in Titus 2.13, is the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. And so even though at the end of the seventh seal and the end of the seventh trumpet, the end of the seventh bowl, we don't see Christ coming right then, right there, it's taking us to the very cusp of that. Because then he's gonna go back and share some more information that will help us anticipate we want Christ to come now. Even so, amen, John says, and may we add that to it as well. One writer puts it this way. The repetition of the seventh seal, the seventh trumpet, and the seventh bowl is to never permit our gaze to drift from the invigorating center of our hope, our returning Lord Jesus." And certainly that's one of the reasons why we can look at it that way. So I think the absolute sequential approach of chapters 6 through 16 of the seals, trumpets, and bowls breaks down a little bit for us, especially when you read through the text and it seems like there's some We're going back a little bit here. There's some recapitulation. There's some more information added as you go forward. I think just looking at it at a strict timeline scale is probably not the best way for us to understand the book of Revelation. However, to account for these similarities, In the seventh of each series, there's, you know, the whole pendulum thing, right? Some have suggested an entirely different approach, which is something that probably we're not totally familiar with. I just briefly alluded to it. It's known as the simultaneous approach. The simultaneous approach. And this approach looks at all of the scenes of the seals, trumpets, and bowls as basically describing the same events that take place at the same time. So the first seal, the first trumpet, and the first bull would all refer to the same time period, maybe kind of different aspects of it, but they would all refer to the same thing. Same with the second, same with the third, same with the fourth, all the way to the seventh. So what do they do? They see the similarities of the seventh, and then they say, well, then everything else must be the same as well. Of course, they look at it from different perspectives. This is a diagram here, and it's on your guide as well, of those who would hold to this approach look at. And by the way, those who hold to this approach probably approach the entire book of Revelation not as future prophecy. They would look at this, they would consider this the idealist approach. So this is just basically a lesson plan of what Christians will face in their life as a Christian, no matter when you are in the church. So it's basically just bringing word pictures out for us to kind of get an understanding of the battle between God and man, between man and the devil, and all of those things. So it is kind of interesting. One fellow that we've listened to before, Dr. Robert Godfrey, he's more of a church historian, but we've enjoyed some of his lessons on Psalms and church history as well. He is an idealist when it comes to the book of Revelation. He doesn't see it all as future prophecy. I think he does see chapters 21 and 22 as future. Most do. But he would look at these in this simultaneous parallel way. This approach is also known as the concurrent approach because all the seals, all the trumpets, and all the bowls are seen to occur, and you can just draw a line between them, right? They all seem to occur at the same time. So they would say that the trumpets review what is covered in the seals, and then the bowls review what is covered in both the seals and the trumpets. And again, the main reason why people hold to this approach is because of the similarities that they have found in each of the series. Like, again, the similarity between the sevens, the Storm Theophany that we just looked at, but they also note the similar pattern, the similar pattern in this literary arrangement of these chapters. Because if you remember, there's a pattern of four seals that deal with the four horsemen, then you have two more seals, You have a break, an interlude, and then the final seal. And what do you have in the trumpets? You've got the four trumpets that deal, for the most part, with nature. Then you have the next two that deal with judgments of man, for the most part, another interlude, and then the seventh trumpet. And then they would say, then you've got the prelude, and then you've got all seven bowls being poured out. But the first four bowls deal with mostly nature, the next two bowls deal with man, and certainly the last one deals with that storm Theophany. So they would say that this pattern of four, two, one occurring in the seals, the trumpets, and the bowls would indicate that they are similar, and they're really talking about the same thing. So if you look at the chart, That's on the back there. And again, you might need a magnifying glass. But in the seals, again, you see that the first four are connected to the four horsemen, right? The next two are connected to the effects of the judgments on mankind, both saved and unsaved. And then that seventh one has the storm theophany leading to the return of Christ signaled by that great storm. If you look at the trumpets, The first four are connected because they deal, for the most part, with the judgment of nature. The next two are connected because they deal with the judgment of men. And the seventh trumpet, again, leads to the return of Christ, signaled by that great storm. And you can say the same thing about the bowl judgments. But there is another similarity that they would say is why they hold to this particular view, is especially the content between the trumpets and the bowls. the content between the trumpets and the bowls. So now look at the bowls, because when the bowls are poured out, the first four are also connected because they deal mostly with the judgment of nature in similar ways as the trumpets. And you can kind of see that. The first trumpet deals with the grass. Well, look at more of the second trumpet. That deals with the water, the sea, the rivers. in the third trumpet, the bowls, the second plague deals with the seas, and the third plague deals with the rivers. So they would look at those similarities, and they would say, because of those similarities, we're talking about the same thing. Talking about the same thing. Now this also, this view has I think more challenges than the sequential view, because As you look at this, and even as you look at that chart, even though there are similarities, we're not saying that there aren't similarities. It also does not take into consideration the clear differences of the judgments, the major differences, which indicate that they're not necessarily referring to the same thing. So even though they would say a lot of the content is similar, there's a lot of the content that's different as well. So if you look at the seals and the trumpets and the bowls, some of the trumpets and the bowls do affect the same area of nature, but not all the rest. And as I mentioned, the first trumpet and the first bowl are different. They don't affect the same area of nature at all. But one of the key differences is the seals are not part of this pattern at all. I mean, you have the four horsemen in seal one, two, three, and four, and they affect the earth, but you don't see the same stress as dealing with the grass, or the trees, or the seas, or the rivers, or anything like that. So that's one of the differences that they don't really take account of when they hold this simultaneous view. It's clear that none of the trumpets or bowls actually repeat the seals, except for the seventh, as I've mentioned earlier. But perhaps the biggest difference is the difference in what is affected between the seals and the trumpets and the bulbs. Between what is affected. Make sure we're there. Because let's look at some of the text here. Look at chapter six, verse eight. All right, so we have The first four horsemen, which, again, we'll get into a little bit more detail here in the next few weeks. But when you come to verse eight, and here we have the fourth horseman, John says, I looked, and behold, a pale horse, and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed it with him. And power was given unto them, Death and Hell, over what? The fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and with the beasts of the earth. So we clearly have the fourth part being affected of the earth. Now, when we come to the trumpets, so if you go all the way to chapter 8, and if you come to chapter 8 and you look, let's go to where the trumpets actually start, which in verse 7, you're going to notice that there's actually a different fraction mentioned. It says, the first angel sounded, and there followed hail, fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth, and the what part? Third part. All right, so we have the third part of trees was burned up and all green grass was burned up. And then the second angel, and you're gonna notice a similar pattern. A great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea and a third part of the sea became blood. And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea and had life died. And the third part of the ships were destroyed. And so you can kind of see that progression. If you go to verse 12, the fourth angel sounds, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars, so that the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise. So that's a key difference, I think, between the seal judgments and the trumpet judgments. And then when we come to the bowl judgments, and this is all the way in chapter 16, And again, this is kind of a, as they all almost come, it seems like one right after another. But if you go to verse one of chapter 16, I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, go your ways, pour out your vials, your bowls of the wrath of God upon the earth. And the first went, poured out his vial upon the earth, and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast and upon them that worship the image. There's no percentage there, right? It's basically talking about everyone. It's talking about all of those who had the mark of the beast. Verse 3, the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea. No fraction there. And it became as the blood of a dead man, and every living soul, every living soul died in the sea. And you can see the progression as well. So we have everything affected by the bowls. Now those who hold to this view could say, well, this is another example of progressive expansion, right? Because if you have something that is a whole, you have a whole piece of pie. Not only do you have a whole piece of pie, but you also have a third piece of pie. And you also have a quarter piece of pie. And so they would say, well, this is just another example of progressive expansion. But I think we see also that there is a clear intensification in the judgments. Yes, there are these differences. Yes, there is this expansion. There is this intensification. But the judgments do deal with things that are different in each of these series, whether it's the seal, the trumpet, or the bowls. And so if these judgments are talking about real events, which I do believe they are, then there will be a timeline in which they occur. And so it's not just going to all happen, you know, the ones, the twos, the threes, the fours, the fives, the six, the seventh. But it does seem like there's more of a installment of these judgments to really get the people's attention. Because all throughout Revelation, there's this call, this clarion call for repentance as well. God is showing grace and mercy, even in a time of wrath, to bring people, convince people to repent of their sins. And yet, we find also over and over again, they don't. How often do they not? So as I mentioned last Sunday, when it comes to whatever approach that we take, whether it's the seals, the trumpets, and the bowls, we need to remember to let the content determine the structure. And so that's really going to be my goal after I introduce the third approach of these judgments. But whatever structure we come up with, and you know, it's okay if my structure is a little different than yours and your structure is a little different than mine. Even if our structure becomes a little messy, we need to make sure that we don't impose our structure on the text, but rather draw our structure from the text. And I think that's one of the reasons why we have a lot of different approaches, is because that's what most people are trying to do. They're looking at the differences, they're looking at the similarities, and they're trying to inform whatever future happenings will be based on the text that we have. There is another approach that we're not gonna start looking at, I'll just introduce it here briefly, that draws on both of these approaches, both the sequential and the simultaneous approach, that I think will help us understand more about the similarities and the differences that we find in these chapters. This approach has been called the telescopic approach. And we'll look at that next time. But we're not going to really get into the details of that. But those are the three basic approaches. You've got the simultaneous. You've got the sequential. And then you have something called the telescopic, which kind of holds to all sevens being the same, but there's progress in each, the seals, the trumpets, and the bowls, all culminating in that seventh. All right, next week we'll look at the third approach. Let's pray. Father, we thank you again for this day. Thank you for your word. Thank you, Lord, that we know that you hold the future in your hands. And we're just trying to understand a little bit more of it, not to so much speculate, Lord, but to really, again, see how your powerful hands are just in control of everything, every event, even the things going on today. Now, Father, I pray that you'll bless our service to follow in Jesus' name. Amen.