Many Christians struggle to reconcile how a loving God could destroy the earth and kill millions of people in Revelation, but amidst His wrath, God strives to reach the repentant.
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The God of Mercy in Wrath
One of my sons has a very different take on the Book of Revelation than I do, and he is not alone among Christians. Like many, he struggles to reconcile how God, in His loving nature, could kill and destroy the people of the earth. After all, Satan is the one who has come to kill, steal and destroy, not God.
But while God is love, He has more attributes than solely love. Another attribute demonstrated throughout the Bible is that He is just and loves justice. Hebrews 12:23 says that God is the Judge of all. And like any judge, God must render a verdict to achieve justice.
However, our God is a God of mercy. And a careful reading of Revelation shows that God goes to unprecedented lengths to call the lost to Him during this time of judgment.
Though in this period of wrath, salvation comes at a higher cost. This is a time when death becomes a blessing and comes with a promise.
The Post Rapture Shift
We see the results of the rapture in Revelation 7, as the resurrected and raptured saints stand before the throne. This occurs after Jesus opens the sixth seal. I explain this position in the post, The Rapture – Scripture Settles the Pre-Tribulation and Post-Tribulation Debate.
But as we see with the parable of the ten virgins, while the five virgins who kept their lamps full leave with the bridegroom (i.e., the rapture), the other five return with their lamps full. Jesus has closed the door before they arrive, but their lamps are now full. So while they have missed the rapture, they have become the group commonly referred to as the tribulation saints. These saints will face the Antichrist during the time of his peak power and will experience the trumpet judgments.
It is at this point that death becomes a blessing.
Revelation 11-14 gives us an overview of the events that occur during the great tribulation. In Revelation 14, after Jesus stands with the 144,000 Jewish elect, a voice tells John to write, “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!… so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them.”
This revelation unveils a new post-rapture reality. The choice is simple and harsh:
- Withstand the Beast/Antichrist and die a martyr with the promise of everlasting life, or
- Comply with the Beast/Antichrist and live, but face God’s wrath on earth and eternal fire.
For this reason, death becomes a blessing for those in Christ who persevere.
The Escalating Judgments
It is easy to see that the judgments God sends upon the earth escalate in intensity as they progress.
The first judgments, the seals, are intended to tear down the established institutions to prepare the world for the end of this age. When we see these things, we should take care to keep our lamps full of faith. (see the post Six Seals Revealed in the Olivet Discourse for details). God rewards the saints on earth for their faithfulness by sparing them the wrath of the hour of testing, as Jesus promises in Revelation 3:10 and Paul confirms in 1 Thessalonians 5:9.
God’s wrath starts after the sixth seal, which leads to the trumpet judgments. The trumpets are far worse than the seals, causing catastrophic damage to one-third of the land, sea, and freshwaters. It is during this time that all people have the opportunity to repent. In this window, God sends both angels and prophets to call the people to him. This is their last chance.
By the end of the trumpet judgments, the Beast and his armies have killed all who have repented. And all who remain alive have pledged their allegiance to the beast. For this reason, the bowls of wrath specifically target the Beast’s unrepentant followers. Like the Antichrist, they blaspheme God because of His judgments.
The Angel and the Gospel
As believers, Jesus has charged us with delivering the gospel to the lost. But after the rapture, God’s most faithful are no longer on the earth to spread the word. So at this time, God sends angels to preach to the world.
After the angels have raptured the saints and concurrently sealed the 144,000 Jewish elect, an angel appears in midheaven preaching the gospel to “those who live on the earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people…”
Then another angel announces to the people of the earth, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead or his hand, he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God… and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone… forever and ever…”
This is unprecedented. In His desire for everyone to be saved, God sends angels to preach the gospel to every person on earth and warn them not to accept the Beast’s mark or suffer the consequences.
This is God’s answer to those unreached by the saints’ evangelism. After this announcement, all on the earth will have heard the gospel and know the consequences of complying with the Beast.
But He then goes further, sending two witnesses to the truth in a time of great deception.
The Two Witnesses
You could easily read about the two witnesses in Revelation 11 and miss their purpose.
We know from the text that these prophets will torment the people of the earth with plagues. But this is not their intent. They intend to give testimony. This is evidenced by the fact that God allows the beast to kill them as soon as they complete their testimony. Their testimony of 3 1/2 years is largely concurrent with the Beast’s dominion over the earth.
Clues to the purpose of their testimony are revealed in the plagues they summon. One such plague is the ability to turn the waters into blood. This mimics the first plague that God brought upon Egypt. God did this in Egypt 1) because “Pharaoh’s heart is stubborn and he refuses” to comply with God’s command, and 2) so that Pharoah would “know that I am the Lord.” The witnesses bring this plague upon the people for the same reasons.
The second plague mentioned is the ability to stop the rain during their testimony of 3 1/2 years. This is the exact plague and length of time that Elijah placed upon Israel in the time of King Ahab. Ahab promoted idol worship more than any other king of Israel. And like Israel in those days, the people in the great tribulation are coerced to worship an idol of the Beast. The witnesses send this plague to turn the people’s hearts to God and away from worshipping the Beast’s idol. (In accordance with the first commandment.)
It is fair to say that these two witnesses may even be Moses and Elijah as they also witnessed Jesus’ transfiguration and possibly His resurrection and ascension.
So will these measures be successful in turning people back to God?
Repentance and Promise
When the Beast kills the witnesses, the people celebrate their death because of the torment they caused during their testimony. But, when God resurrects the witnesses, all those still alive in Jerusalem “gave glory to the God in heaven.” Amazingly, this is the first and only time that Revelation states that the people turned towards God.
For those who repent, death is swift. I say this because the witnesses’ death and resurrection mark the end of the second woe. The second woe is the sixth trumpet, and Revelation states that the rest of mankind not killed by the sixth trumpet do not repent. So we can infer from this statement that the armies of the sixth trumpet kill all who repent.
But even in death, there is a great promise. After Jesus’ victory over the Beast’s armies, those who were martyred are resurrected. As a reward, they reign on the earth with Christ for a thousand years.
So while it is hard to see God’s mercy among the destruction and bloodshed, it remains a central theme of the Book of Revelation. The signs of the end of this age are all around us. Now is always the best time to repent.