Article by: Kenneth J. Ester
The Wrath of God
Before I get into this, there are a couple things I need to go over.
1) There are multiple verses that tell us the rapture will be before the wrath of God.
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1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 (NASB)
9 For they themselves report about us what kind of a reception we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, 10 and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come.
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Romans 5:9 (NASB)
9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.
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Revelation 3:10 (NASB)
10 Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.
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2) It takes hardly no time for a seal to break, for a trumpet to sound and for a bowl to be poured out.
Imagine a room with a hundred people. In the corner is a cage with a raging mad tiger inside it. Its gate is held tight by a single piece of wire. With a pair of wire snips, it would only take a second to cut the wire, but the ensuing carnage would last much longer. That is how the judgments work.
It will only take a second to break each seal, but the event that begins once the seal is broken will last much longer. With that in mind, I give you the 6th Seal.
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Seal-6
Revelation 6:12-17 (NASB)
12 I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; 13 and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. 14 The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. 15 Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; 16 and they *said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; 17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”.
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A lot of Christians try to claim the Wrath of God begins in the first or second seal, or that it actually begins in the 7th Seal. There is no logic in that thinking. God is not going to have His word say it has begun in one seal when it begins in another. If it began in the first seal, God would have had it mentioned there. If it began in the 7th Seal, it would have been mentioned in the 7th Seal. But God didn't place it in the early seals and He didn't place it in the 7th Seal. He put it in the 6th Seal, so we should accept that is where it begins.
The 1st Seal is the Antichrist going out to conquer nations. The 2nd Seal is a world war. The 3rd and 4th Seals are consequences of that war. Famine and death. It is only logical that if a world war happened in this day and age, it would not take long for one of the more insane leaders in this world to decide that if he was going down, he would take his enemies with him, and send his nukes. That is what we have in the 6th Seal.
John is not giving some symbolic message here. He is simply seeing a nuclear war break out and trying to describe it the best he can from a first century mentality.
He sees a dark night skyline and in the distance he sees a bunch of nuclear warheads descending. In the dark, he thinks he sees stars falling to the ground.
He sees nuclear blasts and describes them as great winds.
He sees a mushroom cloud and says the sky rolls up into a scroll.
He sees people hiding in their underground bomb shelters and says they are hiding in caves.
Those people are filled with fear and dread because they know the nukes are coming. They cry out that Gods wrath has come.
Every step of Johns description fits a nuclear war perfectly. Not one thing doesn't work. It fits perfectly. When you consider it happens after WW3 is going, it is the most logical interpretation of the 6th Seal as well.
When the people claim that Gods wrath has come, they are not thinking about what is coming in the trumpets or bowls. They are fearing the coming nukes. It is God who puts it in the mind of the leader who first sends his nukes. The nukes are the beginning of Gods wrath.
In the 7th Seal, it says there is a half an hour of silence in heaven. I had this thought that the half hour is the time the nukes are in the air heading to their targets. Almost as if once the nukes are sent, heaven holds its breath while waiting for the destruction to begin. I Googled a simple question. "How long does it take a missile to go from Russia to America. The answer if it is a land based missile? 30 minutes!
The wrath of God begins in the 6th Seal. And then we have the 7th Seal and there is a half hour of silence as the nukes head to their targets. But there is a second event mentioned in the 7th Seal as well.
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Seal-7
Revelation 8:1-2 (NASB)
1 When the Lamb broke the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. 2 And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.
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Along with a half an hour of silent, here in the 7th Trumpet we have the seven angels being given their seven trumpets. What this means is that if the angels are getting the trumpets here in the 7th Trumpet, they cannot possibly sound any of them before the 7th Seal. Which in turn means that all the trumpets must be sounded 'after' the 7th Seal is broken. And if the 6th Seal is where the Wrath of God begins, it also means that all 7 Trumpets are sounded 'after' the Wrath of God begins.
It also means something else. IF the rapture happens before the wrath of God, it means the rapture must happen before any of the trumpets are sounded.
Here is where it gets good. I give you the 5th Trumpet.
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Revelation 9:1-6 (NASB)
1 Then the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth; and the key to the shaft of the abyss was given to him. 2 He opened the shaft of the abyss, and smoke ascended out of the shaft like the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened from the smoke of the shaft. 3 Then out of the smoke came locusts upon the earth, and power was given them, as the scorpions of the earth have power. 4 They were told not to hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but only the people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. 5 And they were not permitted to kill anyone, but to torment for five months; and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings a person. 6 And in those days people will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, and death will flee from them!
-----
The 5th Trumpet prophecies that the people will suffer for 5 months. If the second coming was to happen any sooner than 5 months after the 5th Trumpet is sounded, it would literally render the 5th Trumpet a false prophecy because they will not suffer for 5 months.
This means that 'after' the rapture happens, there must be at the very least, five months before the second coming can happen.
Which means the Post-Trib rapture is literally impossible to happen!
Return to the Real Rapture Truth
Go to The Marriage of the Lamb
Go to The Dead who come to life
1) There are multiple verses that tell us the rapture will be before the wrath of God.
-----
1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 (NASB)
9 For they themselves report about us what kind of a reception we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, 10 and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come.
-----
Romans 5:9 (NASB)
9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.
-----
Revelation 3:10 (NASB)
10 Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.
-----
2) It takes hardly no time for a seal to break, for a trumpet to sound and for a bowl to be poured out.
Imagine a room with a hundred people. In the corner is a cage with a raging mad tiger inside it. Its gate is held tight by a single piece of wire. With a pair of wire snips, it would only take a second to cut the wire, but the ensuing carnage would last much longer. That is how the judgments work.
It will only take a second to break each seal, but the event that begins once the seal is broken will last much longer. With that in mind, I give you the 6th Seal.
-----
Seal-6
Revelation 6:12-17 (NASB)
12 I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; 13 and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. 14 The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. 15 Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; 16 and they *said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; 17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”.
-----
A lot of Christians try to claim the Wrath of God begins in the first or second seal, or that it actually begins in the 7th Seal. There is no logic in that thinking. God is not going to have His word say it has begun in one seal when it begins in another. If it began in the first seal, God would have had it mentioned there. If it began in the 7th Seal, it would have been mentioned in the 7th Seal. But God didn't place it in the early seals and He didn't place it in the 7th Seal. He put it in the 6th Seal, so we should accept that is where it begins.
The 1st Seal is the Antichrist going out to conquer nations. The 2nd Seal is a world war. The 3rd and 4th Seals are consequences of that war. Famine and death. It is only logical that if a world war happened in this day and age, it would not take long for one of the more insane leaders in this world to decide that if he was going down, he would take his enemies with him, and send his nukes. That is what we have in the 6th Seal.
John is not giving some symbolic message here. He is simply seeing a nuclear war break out and trying to describe it the best he can from a first century mentality.
He sees a dark night skyline and in the distance he sees a bunch of nuclear warheads descending. In the dark, he thinks he sees stars falling to the ground.
He sees nuclear blasts and describes them as great winds.
He sees a mushroom cloud and says the sky rolls up into a scroll.
He sees people hiding in their underground bomb shelters and says they are hiding in caves.
Those people are filled with fear and dread because they know the nukes are coming. They cry out that Gods wrath has come.
Every step of Johns description fits a nuclear war perfectly. Not one thing doesn't work. It fits perfectly. When you consider it happens after WW3 is going, it is the most logical interpretation of the 6th Seal as well.
When the people claim that Gods wrath has come, they are not thinking about what is coming in the trumpets or bowls. They are fearing the coming nukes. It is God who puts it in the mind of the leader who first sends his nukes. The nukes are the beginning of Gods wrath.
In the 7th Seal, it says there is a half an hour of silence in heaven. I had this thought that the half hour is the time the nukes are in the air heading to their targets. Almost as if once the nukes are sent, heaven holds its breath while waiting for the destruction to begin. I Googled a simple question. "How long does it take a missile to go from Russia to America. The answer if it is a land based missile? 30 minutes!
The wrath of God begins in the 6th Seal. And then we have the 7th Seal and there is a half hour of silence as the nukes head to their targets. But there is a second event mentioned in the 7th Seal as well.
-----
Seal-7
Revelation 8:1-2 (NASB)
1 When the Lamb broke the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. 2 And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.
-----
Along with a half an hour of silent, here in the 7th Trumpet we have the seven angels being given their seven trumpets. What this means is that if the angels are getting the trumpets here in the 7th Trumpet, they cannot possibly sound any of them before the 7th Seal. Which in turn means that all the trumpets must be sounded 'after' the 7th Seal is broken. And if the 6th Seal is where the Wrath of God begins, it also means that all 7 Trumpets are sounded 'after' the Wrath of God begins.
It also means something else. IF the rapture happens before the wrath of God, it means the rapture must happen before any of the trumpets are sounded.
Here is where it gets good. I give you the 5th Trumpet.
-----
Revelation 9:1-6 (NASB)
1 Then the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth; and the key to the shaft of the abyss was given to him. 2 He opened the shaft of the abyss, and smoke ascended out of the shaft like the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened from the smoke of the shaft. 3 Then out of the smoke came locusts upon the earth, and power was given them, as the scorpions of the earth have power. 4 They were told not to hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but only the people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. 5 And they were not permitted to kill anyone, but to torment for five months; and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings a person. 6 And in those days people will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, and death will flee from them!
-----
The 5th Trumpet prophecies that the people will suffer for 5 months. If the second coming was to happen any sooner than 5 months after the 5th Trumpet is sounded, it would literally render the 5th Trumpet a false prophecy because they will not suffer for 5 months.
This means that 'after' the rapture happens, there must be at the very least, five months before the second coming can happen.
Which means the Post-Trib rapture is literally impossible to happen!
Return to the Real Rapture Truth
Go to The Marriage of the Lamb
Go to The Dead who come to life
