The Judgements
When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. And I saw the seven angels stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. Another angel, who had a golden censor, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne. The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angel’s hand. Then the angel took the censor, filled it from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake Revelation 8:1-5
Have you ever tried to answer the question posed by many today: if God is a good God, why is there so much evil and suffering in the world?
Chapters 8 and 9 of Revelation describe six of the seven trumpets that are blown by angels heralding great judgements on the earth. These judgements have probably been happening throughout the church age but might intensify as the time of Christ’s return draws closer. They are specific judgements that increase the more God’s people pray (8:3,4).
If we see these judgements happening, how will we explain them to non-Christians? Our answer has to embrace three great truths.
(1) God hates sin so much that His judgement increases as sin increases.
(2) our world is like a diseased tree. Non-Christians think it just needs a little pruning but God sees that the tree is rotten to the core. The world system is cancerously infected. It unjustly holds billions in sexual, financial, spiritual and other kinds of slavery. The system has to be brought down and replaced.
(3) these judgements (as well as the bowls of wrath from chapter 16) are very much like a re-run of the plagues that affected Egypt and led to Israel’s release from slavery. Why did God send those plagues? He was warning Egypt that He alone was God and those who follow Him were to be set free from Egypt’s “systems” that enslaved them. Nothing’s changed.
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