Part I ~ Lesson 6 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 …

Let's chart the elements found in our comparisons of the 6^th Seal, 7^th Trumpet, 7^th Vial, Matthew 24:29, and Ezekiel 38:18-22.

	Earthquake	Sun Black	Moon Blood	Stars Fall	Mtns. Islands	God's Wrath	Great 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		x	x	x				x
Ezekiel 38:18-22	x				x	x			x

Pulling all this together in our minds, our chart of comparing the elements in these 5 passages of scripture conclude that, because of the commonality of these elements, we are looking at one event ~ the Battle of Armageddon ~ the Wrath of God which takes place after the Great Tribulation.

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

There is one common ending point for all these stories. This is the big key to understanding the Book of Revelation. If you don't understand this, than everything is going to be very confusing.

We are now going to talk about the theory to the chronological order to the Book of Revelation from front to back. We are going to show how disconcerting it can be because you will see several events, repeated. For example, there is an account of Babylon falling several times in the Book of Revelation:

• Rev. 14:8 Babylon is fallen, is fallen
• Rev. 18:2 Babylon is fallen, is fallen

Does Babylon Fall Once or Twice? Or is there another explanation?

Another account we have already looked at is Great Shaking Powers from Heaven:

• Rev. 8:5 Voices, thunderings, lightnings (the conclusion of the 7 Seals)
• Rev. 11:19 Lightnings, voices, thunderings (the conclusion of the 7 Trumpets)
• Rev. 16:18 Voices, thunderings, lightnings (the conclusion of the 7 Vials)

If the Book of Revelation was written in chronological order, you are going to see this horrible event occur 3 times over the 7 year span ~ or maybe there is another way to look at it. Maybe it actually happens just once and we are getting 3 different accounts of it.

There are 5 different mentions in the Book of Revelation about earthquakes:

• Rev. 6:12 A great earthquake
• Rev. 8:5 An earthquake
• Rev. 11:13 A great earthquake
• Rev. 11:19 An earthquake
• Rev. 16:18 A great earthquake

How many great earthquakes are there? How many are there going to be; Five or One?

Some other events:

Great Hail:

• Rev. 11:19 Great hail (under the Trumpets)
• Rev. 16:21 Great Hail (under the Vials)

Mountains and Islands Move:

• Rev. 6:12 Every mountain and island was moved out of their places (under the Seals)
• Rev 16:20 Islands fled away, mountains were not found (under the Vials)

We can conclude that mountains and islands being moved only happens once.

God's Wrath:

• Rev. 6:17 The great day of God's wrath is come
• Rev. 11:18 God's wrath is come
• Rev. 14:9-10 God's wrath presented as future event
• Rev. 14:19 The wrath of God
• Rev. 15 God's wrath presented as future event
• Rev. 16 God's wrath is poured out
• Rev. 19:15 Wrath of the Almighty God

Did Revelation 14:9-10 and Revelation 15 happen before Revelation 6:17 or Revelation 11:18? How many “Wraths of God” are there? This illustrates our point and is tremendous proof that there is only one Wrath of God and that the Book of Revelation is not written in chronological sequence.

There is a sequence. There is an order. But it is not chronological. The Book of Revelation is in segments: 7 Seals / 7 Trumpets / 7 Vials. Coming up, this will all be laid out for you on a timeline so you can see exactly what the 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th Seals are, when they have or will happen and how this all meshes together.

If you take the Book of Revelation as being in chronological order, than each one of these things follow one another. That's the reason it is so essential to come to grips with this. As we go on down through these, I will show you how these accounts are repeated.

Remember … Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are 4 accounts of the same thing. Jesus Christ didn't do many of these things 4 seperate times. He didn't say many of these words 4 seperate times. It is 4 seperate accounts of the same thing.

Why did God do it this way? Because He wanted us to have a complete picture. These things are so important to God that He has designed it so we can hear it over and over again.

He also did this to veil it from those who are not supposed to understand. You need to understand that not everyone is supposed to understand these things. The Bible plainly says in Daniel 12:10:

“Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly, and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand.”

The Bible says if we study the events in the Book of Revelation, we are blessed. “Blessed is he that heareth and keepeth the sayings of this Book.” The Book of Revelation is designed for blessing. The people that the Book of Revelation is going to hurt are the ones that don't understand it because the people that don't keep the Book of Revelation, the Bible says, it's going to be a thing of cursing for them. So this shows us God is veiling these things in symbols, on purpose.

The 2 secrets to understanding the Book of Revelation are:

1. There are 3 categories for all the things in the Book of Revelation. John was told to write the things you have “Seen”, the things which “Are”, and the things which “Shall Be Hereafter”. Revelation 4:1 moves into the “Hereafter” part of Revelation.
2. The 6^th and 7^th Seal, 7^th Trumpet and 7^th Vial occur at the same time. They are actually different descriptions of the same event all with much commonality and all ending at the Battle of Armageddon.

Once you understand these 2 things, you are well on your way to understanding the order in which the Book of Revelation was written. You now have the keys in your hand to unlock it. The Bible says, ask and it shall be given you, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you.

Coming up we will see where we are now and discuss the Timeline for:

• Seals, Trumpets, Vials
• Great Tribulation
• God's Wrath
• Day of the Lord
• Second Coming of Jesus Christ
• Rapture

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.