Part I ~ Lesson 4 of 6 – The Secret of Understanding Revelation

The Sequence of Endtime Events

Equipping God's Saints (Believers of Christ) through the prophecies of the End Times …

Moving to the next passage, The 7^th Vial, Revelation 16:16-21 says:

“And 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.

And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, shuch as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.

And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.

And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.

And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.”

This is the only place where the word, Armageddon actually appears in the Bible. Other references will use Meggido. The Plain of Meggido is in northern Israel. “Arm” comes from the Hebrew word “har”, which means hill, and Meggido is the name of the place. So it means Hill of Meggido -or- Armageddon.

Armageddon is where the final battle takes place. Armageddon is where Jesus Christ returns to the earth. He defeats the Antichrist and his world governmental armies. That is when the Antichrist is thrown into the lake of fire. Satan is bound for 1,000 years and thrown into the bottomless pit. We crown Jesus Christ as King of kings and Lord of lords. That is when the Kingdom of God is established and the 1,000 year reign of Jesus Christ begins.

As the picture forms more completely in your mind, let's look at the elements of the 7^th Vial:

• Great earthquake
• Islands fled away
• Mountains not found
• God's Wrath
• Great voice from temple in heaven. [this would include voices, thunderings and lightnings}
• Great hail

God's Wrath has appeared in each of these scriptures, so far. It is also known as the Day of the Lord in other places throughout the Bible.

Comparing these scriptures, you will notice the common elements forming between the 7^th Vial, the 6^th Seal and the 7^th Trumpet. So far, our comparison chart looks like this:

	Earthquake	Sun Black	Moo Blood	Star Fall	Mtns. Islands	God's Wrath	Grea Voices	Lightnings	Great Hail
6th Seal	x	x	x	x	x	x
7th Trumpet	x					x	x	x	x
7th Vial	x				x	x	x	x	x
Matthew 24:29
Ezekiel 38:18-22

As you look at the 7^th Trumpet and 7^th Vial, you can see how they both have amazing parallels and fit together as the same event. Adding at the common events of the 6^th Seal, you can see how this is all beginning to fit together.

There are two other very important things that we do not want to slide over:

First, this happens at the Battle of Armageddon.

If the 6^th Seal, 7^th Trumpet, 7^th Vial, Matthew 24:29 and Ezekial 38 are all the same event, they are all describing this final, cataclysmic, apocalyptic battle called Armageddon. Now we are seeing different view points of some of the same things. We are seeing the Battle of Armageddon being described in Revelation Chapter 6 where the Seals are. We are seeing the Battle of Armageddon being described again at the end of Revelation Chapter 11. We are seeing it described a third time at the end of Revelation Chapter 16. There are not three Battles of Armageddon ~ there is only one Battle of Armageddon.

We have established something very important, here. With the 6^th Seal, 7^th Trumpet and 7^th Vial all being the exact same event, we now see some of the structure of the Book of Revelation.

• The Seals are the Long Story ending at Armageddon.
• The Trumpets are the Much Shorter Story ending at Armageddon.
• The Vials are the Really Short Story ending at Armageddon.

One more thing before we leave the 7^th Vial:

The great hail mentioned in Revelation Chapter 16 weighs one talent. A talent is equal to 125 pounds. That's some really heavy hail!

The Battle of Armageddon is the Wrath of God. This is when God loses His temper and pours out His wrath upon mankind for all the things mankind has done.

Resources: The anointing of the Holy Spirit and God Almighty, of whom I am accountable to. I have prayed diligently and am led to follow and support the teachings of Pastor Irvin Baxter from Endtime Ministries and his teachings of Understanding the End Times. I encourage you to visit his website at endtime.com.