No serious study of the Apocalypse can be undertaken without
addressing exactly who is going to be involved in these horrendous
events. The Day of Wrath is one of the main names given to the time of
tribulation also called the Day of the Lord. To nail down this concept
so as we are in no doubt as to what this term means, we use on of the
main means of scripture interpretation, prior usage. That is, we examine
where phrases or words are used before in order to establish what the
exact meaning is.
In this regard, let us listen to what is said by the prophets
of old concerning the Day of Wrath. Joel 2:30-31 says:
“And I shall show wonders in the heavens and in the earth,
blood and fires and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into
darkness and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible Day of
the Lord come.”
Isaiah gives it thus:
“Behold the Day of the Lord cometh cruel both with WRATH and
fierce anger to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners
thereof out of it. For the stars of heaven and the constellations
thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his
going forth, and the moon shall not cause their light to shine.
And I shall punish the world for their evil and the wicked
for their iniquity and I will cause the arrogancy of the wicked to cease
and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
Therefore I will shake the heavens and the earth shall remove
out of her place in the WRATH of the Lord of hosts and in the day his
fierce anger. Isaiah 13:9-13
In an earlier instalment we saw how that when the Bottomless
Pit was opened, black smoke ushered forth from it and caused the light
from the sun to become darkened. The Abyss now opened meant that the
Fallen Angels who were incarcerated there are to be released into the
earth once again to wreak their havoc. Now consider how this ties in
with a similar prophecy yet to come as recalled by the seer in
Revelation 6:12-17
“And behold when he opened the sixth seal, and lo there was a
great earthquake: and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair and the
moon became as blood.
And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig
tree casting her untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind.
And the heavens departed as a scroll when it rolled together:
and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
And the kings of the earth, and the great men and the rich
men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men and every bondman and
every freeman hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the
mountains.
And said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us
from the face of Him that sits on the throne and from the wrath of the
Lamb.
For the great Day of His Wrath is come and who shall be able
to stand?”
We surmised earlier that the smoke from the Pit of the Abyss
is a literal smoke that may indeed blot out the sun and be the precursor
for the emergence of the Antichrist from his hiatus in Tartarus. And in
the opening of the sixth seal we are told that the sun will become black
and the moon will turn blood red. It would appear that these verses
concur with the Joel and Isaiah who foretold of the coming of the Day of
Wrath in a similar fashion.
A cataclysmic shaking of the earth will result in what sounds
like a volcanic eruption, the smoke of which blots out the light of the
sun and causes the moon to become red. Thus the angels who are locked up
in the Abyss are released and these evil spirit men are free to go to
their destruction. But wait. Could this same event herald another
celestial incident resulting in the expulsion of the remainder of the
rebel angels from the heavenly domain? For we note from this last
passage in Revelation 6:12 that:
“The stars of heaven fell unto the earth even as a fig tree
casts her untimely figs…”
“Stars,” as already noted, are a figure of speech meaning
angels. Regular stars do not fall to earth. They burn up in the
stratosphere and vanish. But these “stars” fall from heaven to earth as
figs falling from a fig tree, shaken by a mighty wind. What could cause
these angels to fall to earth. We look to chapter 12:7-9 for more clues
as to what may well be the case.
“And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought
against the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he (
the dragon) was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven.
The great dragon was hurled down-that ancient serpent called
the Devil or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to
the earth and his angels with him.” (NIV)
This is not a battle but a war. And it is between two sets of
warring spirit men who are here called angels. Michael is the arch angel
who is responsible for military action in the spiritual realm. He and
his good angels war against the one third of the evil angels that
rebelled with and are under the control of the ancient serpent, Satan.
We know the number of rebel angels is one third because verse
4 tells us; “His tail swept a third of the stars (angels) out of the sky
and flung them to the earth.” These are the same stars that fall to the
earth like figs falling from a fig tree.
Most commentators teach that Satan and his band of evil
spirits were expelled from heaven eons ago after his unsuccessful coup
to usurp the Throne of God. But verse 10 contradicts this doctrine for
it utters; “For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our
God day and night, has been hurled down.” Accuses here is in the present
tense. Apparently Satan has access to heaven and to God and he spends a
lot of his time rehearsing the sins of Christians before the face of God
24/7.
So what occurs that might cause a seismic shift in power and
authority that might result in defeat in this future war in heaven for
the serpent and his hordes occasioning them to fall to earth? Could it
be what is called the marriage feast of the Lamb?
There is to be a future wedding to take place in heaven. The
bride is the Church of God who are the born from above spirit filled
believers who are a part of the Body of Christ. The Messiah promised his
disciples that one day he would return from heaven and take them to the
place he was going to. John records this vow in chapter 41:1-3 which
states;
“ Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust
also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms: if it were not so, I
would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and
take you to be with me that YOU ALSO MAY BE WHERE I AM.”
Please note that Jesus here begins this pledge with, “Let not
your hearts be troubled.” Later in the first epistle to the
Thessalonians, when Paul is explaining that the Lord would meet the
saints in the air, he concludes by saying, “Wherefore comfort one
another with these words.” The reason that we can comfort one another is
because Jesus said he would come back and take us to be with him in
heaven. Then in chapter 4 of 1 Thessalonians we have the account of just
how that is going to happen.
So this is why our hearts do not need to be troubled. Because
the bridegroom is returning to receive hid bride and take her to the
marriage feast which is to take place in heaven. So we have no need to
fear the Day of Wrath or the coming Apocalypse.
At present, because we are human and frail, we sin. All men
are liars and fall short of the glory of God. So the serpent has plenty
of ammunition when it comes to accusing the believers before God day and
night. But when the Messiah returns briefly to catch away his church,
then we become immortal and receive a new spiritual body like unto his
immortal body. With the putting on of this new body, the old impurities
of the flesh and blood sinner is no more. We become the pure and chaste
bride of the Messiah and will be without sin.
As such, now Satan cannot accuse us anymore before God. And
with the arrival of all the Christians who are the saved of God from
Pentecost down through the ages to this time, space will become scarcer
in heaven. God and His son will not put up with his bride being
blasphemed in their presence anymore. So the dragon and his entourage
must go. War ensues and Satan and one third of the angels of heaven who
sided with him, are ejected. They fall to earth like figs falling from a
fig tree. The wrath of the Devil will be soon coming after his demise.
Thus is filled the prophetic utterance of Jesus in Luke 17 when he said,
“I beheld Satan as lightening falling to earth.” We conclude this part
with a warning from John the Revealator in this same chapter 12 and
verse 12:
“But woe to the earth and the sea, because the Devil has gone
down to you.
He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is
short.”
