In the Book of Revelation things come in sevens: seven churches, seven Spirits which are before His throne, seven seals, seven trumpets, seven bowls of wrath… Is God trying to tell us something? Dr. Chuck Missler thinks so. He also noticed that if you take this “rule of seven” seriously, and look for places where this structure is somehow broken, you will notice that the whole text has a peculiar sevenfold structure.
In his commentary on the Book of Revelation he writes: “In each of the major series of “sevens”—the seals, trumpets, and bowls—we notice that there always appears to be an inserted parenthetical passage between the 6th and 7th of each series. Having completed 6 of the 7 seals, Chapter 7 pauses for some amplification before we continue with the 7th seal in Chapter 8” (Dr. Chuck Missler – Book of Revelation, An Expositional Commentary).
With the opening of the 7th seal the trumpets are introduced and then between the 6th and the 7th trumpet we can read (in chapters 10 through to 14) a commentary about what is happening on the earth. Note that 7th trumpet is blown in chapter 11 but bowls of wrath are described in chapters 15 and 16. The same pause or parenthesis is found in chapter 16 (verses 15 and 16) between the 6th and 7th bowl of wrath (see the diagram above – borrowed from Dr. Chuck Missler’s notes).
We can see that trumpets come out of the 7th seal and bowls come out of the 7th trumpet. This means they are chronological (as traditionally assumed) but also that we could assume they represent different time durations (as per Irwin Baxter’s suggestion), with seals having the longest duration and bowls being relatively short in duration.
However, I like Perry Stone’s explanation that the 7-seal scroll contains “the legal right to redeem the earth” or a “title deed to the earth” as Dr. Chuck Missler puts it. So, in that sense, seven seals represent the types of events that must happen in order for God’s kingdom to be established upon the earth.
In the ancient times when a title deed or contract was signed it was sealed with wax seals created by the rings worn by the witnesses of the signing. So, in order to later open the same scroll the same people would have to be present, or better said, the same rings would have to be present. If the original witnesses passed away their descendants would come bearing the original signet rings. Only when all rings were present the scroll could be fully opened.
In Revelation 5:1-7 we read that no man was found worthy that could open the “title deed to the earth” except Jesus Christ. It does say that He had “seven Spirits of God” and I think that is the very reason why Y’shua (i.e. Jesus’ real name, which in Hebrew means”the Lord saves”) was able to open the scroll – He had the original seven rings – the seven Spirits of God. These are: Spirit of the LORD, spirit of wisdom, spirit of understanding, spirit of counsel, spirit of might, spirit of knowledge and spirit of the fear of the LORD (see Isaiah 11:2).
And the scroll could be opened only by a man that has these seven original spirits. Think of it. There were no people present when God the Father created this scroll, which was at the time He planned the redemption of the earth, and that was before He actually created it. There were only His Son and the Holy Spirit (and the 7 spirits thereof) present. So, it’s clear that the Messiah Jesus, who has the seven spirits is the only one who could open this scroll with the seven seals.
Breaking each seal unlocks the particular type or a series of events that are like major tasks in God’s ‘Redeem The Earth’ project plan, containing (or defining) the steps to execute before earth is redeemed. Trumpets and bowls are like milestones in the same project. For example, 6th seal and the 7th bowl refer to the same great earthquake. Such earthquake “had not occurred since men were on the earth” (Revelation 16:18), and “every island fled away, and the mountains were not found” (Revelation 16:20), so the 6th seal earthquake where “every mountain and island was moved out of its place” (Revelation 6:14) refers to the same earthquake.
Stay tuned. In part 5 we will revisit the timeline and potentially do some changes. I’m starting to believe that the events of the 6th trumpet don’t necessarily have to fully finish before the 7th trumpet blows. I also believe that the events of the 6-trumpet nuclear war will include the events of the Psalm 83 war, which describes what will happen around Israel and her victory over the neighbouring enemies.
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