Eschatology #11 (Part 2) - Seven Vials of Wrath & the Millennial Reign of Jesus Christ

Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.

1. 0:00:11

   All right, good morning, everyone. We welcome our students this morning to Fire and Gray School of Ministry. This is second semester, and we are in eschatology block here. We've already covered the trumpets, the seven trumpets. We covered the seven seals last week, and now we're gonna cover the seven vials of wrath and the millennial reign, kind of an overview of the millennial reign. Hopefully today we'll get through all of this. But anyway, let's get started. Of course, we'll just review a little bit from last week. Remember the book of Revelation we said contains seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven vials of wrath. We made it very clear last week and pointed out that each of these are their own story. It's not like the seven seals happened, then the seven trumpets happened, then the seven vials of wrath happened. These are each their own story within the story of the end times and the second coming of Jesus, and they tell different aspects of it, just like the different gospels tell, a little bit different accounts. Some give a little less, some give a little more, some give details on certain things that happen and others don't, but you take the four gospels, you put them together, you get the whole picture. It's the same way with this. You take these, these are separate stories, but you put them together and you get the whole story, but the key to it is understanding how to put them together. So we made this timeline a number of years ago to kind of give a visual of how they work together. They don't all begin at the same time, the seven seals, the seven trumpets, the seven vials, but they do all end at the same time. I'm gonna show you that today. These are the seven seals, I believe actually were opened in the first century and will culminate at the end of the second coming. I'm gonna show you again, the sixth seal is the second coming of Jesus, just like it's spelled out in Matthew chapter 24. And then I'll show you where we get to the seventh vial of wrath today and it says the same thing about the sixth seal. And the reason it's the sixth seal, not the seventh seal is the end because the seventh seal is just 30 minutes of silence because everybody's in awe at what's happening. All right, but these overlap. And as I've told you, we did the seven trumpets and I believe they started with World War I. And so really with the Azusa street revival, so we'll say from say 1906 and the great earthquake for the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, believe that's actually detailed in Revelation. Hey there, but that's when the trumpet started, I believe you can disagree if you want to, but that's what I believe. And that the next event we're waiting for is the six trumpet war. And then of course the seventh trumpet says the mystery of God is finished. Kind of like the seventh vial says it is done.

2. 0:03:12

   Very similar wording. So that's what we'll go here and read this. This is Revelation 10.7. At the end of the trumpets, the blowing of the seven trumpets, it says this, but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall began to sound, the mystery of God should be finished as he hath declared to his servants the prophets. Now, if these don't overlap, how could you go with the traditional teaching and say you're gonna have these seven trumpets and then you're gonna have these seven vials of wrath that are gonna be poured out three and a half more years to go, how could the mystery of God be finished, everything that he spoke to the prophets? It's impossible, they have to overlap. So that's what I'm getting at. What you see here, the seventh trumpet is the last trumpet, it's the end of the tribulation period. It is the last trump that Paul speaks of. When the mystery of God, remember Paul said, I show you a mystery. We should not all sleep, but we shall be changed in the moment, the twinkling of an eye. At the last trumpet, the trumpet shall sound and when the dead and Christ shall rise first, of course, and then he talked about the corruptible, putting on incorruption, the immortal, the mortal body putting on immortality. And so that's found in 1 Corinthians 15. So here's the last trump, but the last trump actually is happening at the same time as the seventh vial and the sixth seal. They're all the same time period, and actually I believe they're all the same day. It is the great day of God's wrath, the second coming, and in that day, how many of you know, a lot of things can happen in one day, right? In a 24 hour period, a lot can go down, right? And so within this day, the mystery of God is finished. I believe the rapture takes place just as the second coming begins. It's an instantaneous thing. We meet the Lord in the air as he's on his way down. It's all happening at the same time at the last trumpet. And it goes along with what Jesus said in John 6 when he said that the dead and Christ, there are those that believe in him are the righteous. He said, I will raise him up at the last day. He says it like four times in that chapter, at the last day. So that's why I am a post tribulation rapture guy at the end, because I just believe it all makes sense. All the pieces of the puzzle come together and you don't have to do theological monkey gymnastics to make it work. It all flows together. The last trumpet, the end, the last day, Jesus said, in fact, Jesus said in Luke 17, he said, just like it was in the days of Lot, he said, the same day Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone and destroyed them all.

3. 0:06:12

   Well, the same day we go up to meet the Lord in the air is when the vial of wrath pours out and destroys all the cities of the nations as we're gonna see in a moment. So remember, the Bible talks about it. It uses the phrase, the great day of God's wrath, not the great seven years, not the great, you know, three and a half years, not the, it says the great day. So, you said, well, Pastor Dean has God not poured out wrath in different times and judgments on different nations in different seasons throughout, yeah, throughout time he's done that. But we're talking about this specific in time one here. All right, so let's keep going here. And this is, just to show you, this is Revelation 16. We're gonna go ahead and read about the seventh vial, just so you can compare, I'm gonna show you, prove what I'm saying, the seventh vial, then we're gonna look at the sixth seal again, those verses. But here's Revelation 16, 16 through 21. And it says, he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air. And there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven from the throne saying, it is done. Now, if you say it is done, do you have three and a half years left? No, there's no time left. It is done, same thing. If you say the mystery of God is finished, would you say we have anything else to do? Right, no. All right, so same wording. And he says, and there were voices and thunders and lightnings and there was a great earthquake, a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake and so great. So a great and mighty earthquake. And the great city was divided into three parts and the cities of the nations fell. This is important. And the cities of the nations fell. The cities, doesn't say some of them, it doesn't say a few of them, doesn't say a couple of them. It says the cities, meaning all of them. All the cities of the nations fall. This earthquake will shake them down to the ground, to rubble. That's a, would you say it's a great day of wrath? Right there. All right, and it says, and great Babylon came in remembrance before God to give unto her the cup of the wine or the fiercest of her wrath. And of course, great Babylon, I believe the Bible is clear, Revelation 17 and 18, that all the clues around mystery Babylon point to the Vatican and the city of Rome. And so Rome is a city. So also comes into this falling under judgment. So this is when Babylon is judged. There's a lot of people out there teaching that the United States is mystery Babylon and that United States is gonna be destroyed and that's what's gonna throw us into the tribulation period. But where do they get that from? First of all, it's not the United States. And second of all, mystery Babylon is judged or destroyed

4. 0:09:14

   not at the beginning of the 70th week of Daniel over the last seven years, but at the very end. And that's what the Bible teaches. At the very end, mystery Babylon is destroyed. God gives her the cup of the wine or the fiercest of his wrath. And look at verse 20. So remember that. And every island fled away and the mountains were not found. That's, this is at your seventh vial of wrath. And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent and men blaspheme God because of the plague of the hail for the plague thereof was exceeding great. That's the seventh vial of wrath. And as I said, we'll get back to it in a second. But here, look at the sixth seal. This is Revelation 6, 12 through 17. Let's read about the sixth seal and see if it sounds exactly the same or at least very similar to what we read at the seventh vial of wrath at the very end. Let's just, again, this proves my point. We compare scripture with scripture. We don't put our own interpretation on it. That's why I believe these overlap is because it's clear the sixth seal and the seventh vial of wrath are talking about the same event, the same time period, the same series of event. This is Revelation 6, 12 through 17. Verse 12, and I beheld, and when he had opened the sixth seal and lo, there was a great earthquake. Can we just read about that and the seventh vial of wrath? A great earthquake, not just an earthquake, but a great earthquake. And the sun became black as sackcloth of hair and the moon became as blood and the stars of heaven or the firmament fell into the earth even as the fig tree casteth her untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven, the firmament departed as a scroll when it is rolled together. And what does it say here? And every mountain and island were moved out of their places. Is that exactly what we read happened at the seventh vial of wrath? Yes, so these go together. And he says, and the kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men and the chief captains and the mighty men and every bond man and every free man hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains and rocks, fallen us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb for what? For the great day of his wrath is come. Who shall be able to stand? When preacher of rapture people talk about, the verse in 1 Thessalonians chapter five, when they talk about that, about God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation. It's clear here, I believe, just like they believe, I agree with them, that we're gonna be taken up right before the severity of this wrath comes down. The dead in Christ will rise first, then we which are alive and remain will be caught up.

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