When speculating on the event order of the book of Revelation the diversity of paradigms are legion. Strict chronological is problematic in that events seem to repeat and not all events are future. In chapter 12 verse 5 we clearly have the birth of Christ. In chapter 6 at the 6th seal we have (6:14-KJV)
“And the heavens departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.”
That sounds pretty final in terms of devastation, yet we something very similar presented in Rev 16:20 where we have:
“And every island fled away and the mountains were not found.”
Also,shortly after 6:14 we have in Rev. 7:14-15 a multitude around the throne of God who have (KJV)
“14 …come out of great tribulation…15 Therefore are they before the throne of God…”
Here they have come out of great tribulation. That sounds like some sort of rapture or gathering.
And then after that in the trumpets we have much more tribulation to come! Aside from that interpretative difficulty, the thing that I notice from 7:14 is that this as the first mention of any widespread gathering of saints (parousia) in the book of Revelation. Then we have another big gathering of saints consisting of 2 pronged harvest later in Revelation 14. From the core teaching in section #3 we see just one parousia where the believers are gathered.
Consider then that we have many in the Pretribulational camp who even chose another place to insert the parousia which is at the point where John is told to change his focus from one vision to the next. (Rev 4:1) That puts a third gathering before the other sections of gatherings.
Given the difficulties presented thus far, then to interpret the order was are pushed into some overlapping or repeating of events.
What I am going to present is largely based on someone else’s teaching that I though was intriguing. I won’t die one this hill but here it is. This paradigm draws the understanding of the crucifixion week having death occurring on day 4 given that Jesus spent a full 3 days and 3 nights (72+ hours) in the “belly of the earth” and superimpose that week on to the seven years of Daniel’s last week better known as the tribulation week. Even if that is not the case the last week can still play out in this paradigm.
Now, look at the seven seals and notice that at the rider of the 4th horse’s name is death. Hmm… The prophecy community generally accepts that the last seven years are the last “week” of Daniel’s 70 weeks prophecy described in Daniel 9:24-27. Given Daniel’s prophecy of “the confirmation of the covenant” starts the last 7 years and the last 3.5 years even more significant because that is the point where the “abomination of desolation” is spread. (Dan 9:27) Revelation also echoes the significance of the last 3.5 years after when Satan is thrown down to earth by Michael the archangel and targets the “woman” and the “remnant of her seed”. (Rev 12:13,17) For the seven years we have in Daniels final week if the first seal starts in the first year and the 4th seal is death then at the rate of approximately one seal per year then death to Israel would happen in the 4th year or about half way through the week. That would in a sense mirror the crucifixion week.
More significance of the last 3.5 years is that when Satan starts woman then she flies and is nourished in the desert for “a time, times, and half a times (3.5 years). So, Satan is clearly on the earth for the whole last 3.5 years, yet, I don’t believe the “Mark of the Beast” (Rev 13:16) is enacted immediately but I believe it is later yet could be gradual as well.
Going on further to Rev 14:1 and we see the “Lamb”(Jesus) standing on mount Sion with his saints and 3 angels make proclamations (Rev 6-13) First one preaches the Gospel, Second one proclaims Babylon has fallen, and the third one warns people not to take the mark of the beast. He says in verse 9 to 10
“…If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead or in his hand, 10 the same shall drink the wine of the wrath of God…”
That sounds present or future tense to me! Shortly after a “voice from heaven” says in verse 13
“Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth; Yes saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them”
That sounds like we have ample warning and realize, Jesus is standing on the earth at that time. That should give us strength at our time of decision knowing he is physically near!
Going on further in that chapter the very next verses (14-16) describe the harvest of the righteous. That appears like it’s not really a long time the mark goes on. But then again, this is John and don’t believe anybody is certain of the order of Revelation.
Back to the overview of the seals the 1st seal does not appear all that perilous and could very well be unnoticed by most people. The 2nd seal on the other hand I think going to be pretty obvious when we are in it. The 3rd seal of economic collapse seems like a direct consequence of the 2nd seal. In the 4th seal not only do we have the continued death from the previous two seals but now we have Death personified in the advent of the man of sin. The 5th seal we see the consequence of all the previous seals. Also, now looking forward in the book of Revelation we see chapter 13 that just appears without a designated time frame just waiting to be plugged into a sequence. Chapter 13 could very well be describing the peril of the 4th and 5th seals showing more detail of the beast’s grip on the inhabitants of the earth.
Now the 6th seal appears to be showing the beginning of a turn of events were the emissaries of Satan have been in the drivers seat and then we see celestial disturbances (which look like many of the trumpet judgments) starting happening. They see that God now is beginning to have his say and they are worried about impending wrath. Incidentally, the sun becoming black is not mentioned again in Revelation after this point but stars falling from the sky certainly are in the trumpets. One particular thing to note is that mention of the word wrath in the 6th seal is not mentioned again until there in the seventh trumpet. (Rev 11:18) The operative word that is used in the between section of scripture is “woe” which comes from a different Greek word than “wrath” does. I’m not forgetting 1 Thes 5:9 where Paul says “…we are not appointed to wrath but to attain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” It’s not clear to me whether any of God’s wrath really does come before the bowls. Now the bowls are clear wrath of God and that appears to be indisputable. (Rev 15:1)
As for the 7th seal in the beginning of chapter 8 we have the half hour of silence then we go right into the trumpets sounding. The trumpets could easily all fit into that last one or two seals or years of the tribulation.
And what about those bowls? They don’t need to be in the 7 years and there are two reasons for that. For the first, look right after the 6th seal and we have an angel and seven thunders speaking. The angel lifted up his hand and swore in Rev 10:6 (KJV) “…by him that liveth forever…that there should be time(Chronos) no more“. (See footnote) The second reason is at the beginning of the 7th trumpet the seventh angel says in Rev 11:15 (KJV) ” The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ: and he shall reign for ever and ever.” (I caught myself singing Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus) Other translations read “has become”. This is it! The end of the 7 years! Jesus has taken total reign of the kingdoms at the start of the millennium. Jesus now starts to quickly clean house by pouring out the bowls of wrath.
Another interesting thing to point out in this section is something that happens after the 6th trumpet Rev 10:7. I’ll wait to discuss that passage until section #7 — Thief in the night because it relates that subject directly.
The teaching that compared the tribulation week to the crucifixion didn’t stop there. He also saw the week of history also displaying that same pattern. (That works if you are a young earth-er like he and I both are)
The postulate goes like this and it all has to do with the ethnic people of Israel. History from creation to the new heavens and new earth of Revelation 21 consists of 7 thousand year “days”. (Remember this from section #7) Then, counting from Creation forward Israel was created as a nation on the second day and then Jewish nation was split and ultimately destroyed and then the diaspora of the nation on the late end of the fourth day. If Jesus was crucified on the fourth day of the week then it parallels that in less that 50 years of the nation of Israel was “crucified” in the 4th week of history.
Currently during the end of the 6th week of history the ethnic nation has been formed but still there is no life in it until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in (Rom 11:25). Then in the 7th week of history we have Israel’s resurrection for the millennium. Again, I’m not sure if this is an intended pattern in scripture but it seems rather intriguing to me . This is certainly an interesting time to be alive. This whole world seem to be stirring up for something soon. Has the first seal been loosed? I don’t know but when we see world war happening that could very well show us we are in the second seal.
Footnote: A note on translation. This is circumstance where I do agree that the King James translates the Greek in Revelation 10:6 most accurately. My biggest disappointment with the King James is the rendering of Deut 32:8. I will cover that discussion in section #11 – Did we learn anything from the Tower of Babel.