• | Chris McCann
  • Audio: Length: 28:46
  • Passages covered: Revelation 6:12, Joel 2:10, Joel 3:15-16, Isaiah 13:9-13, Isaiah 24:17-18, Genesis 7:11-12, Matthew 27:50-53, Matthew 28:2,6.

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Revelation 6 Series, Study #16, Verses 12-14

Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #16 of Revelation, chapter 6, and we are going to be reading from Revelation 6:12-14:

And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.  And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.

Now we have progressed to the opening of the sixth seal.  The Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ, is taking the seals off of the Book that was in the right hand of God; this Book is the Bible and it is pointing to the Gospel program of God that will be revealed.  Some of these things already occurred throughout the church age.  For instance, when Christ was riding on the white horse and went forth conquering and to conquer and when Satan is typified as being on a red horse and is also going forth, taking peace from the earth; that is describing the spiritual battle that took place all throughout the New Testament era, including the church age.  But God is indicating that all of the information concerning His program of salvation and judgment – His Gospel – will now be opened up at the time of the end, as was said to the prophet Daniel: “shut up the words, and seal the book, to the time of the end…and knowledge shall be increased.

So God is giving us an overview of the sending forth of His Word during the church age and of the Great Tribulation and of Judgment Day and of the souls “under the altar” (with the opening of the fifth seal) that were crying out and asking how long would it be before God avenges their blood. 

And now with the opening of the sixth seal, it is describing a great earthquake and the sun becoming black as sackcloth of hair and the moon becoming as blood and the stars of heaven falling to earth.  Now that language is familiar to us, although it is somewhat different, yet, it fits in with the language of Matthew, chapter 24, and let me read this verse in Matthew 24:29:

Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:

So we have all the same elements: the sun, moon and stars, the shaking of the heavens, and so forth.  This is describing what is taking place “immediately after the tribulation of those days,” and we have learned, by God’s grace as He has opened up this information, that the Great tribulation lasted for twenty three years, from May 21, 1988 to May 21, 2011, an exact twenty three year period and an exact 8,400 days. 

And notice that Revelation 6:12 refers to a “great earthquake” when the sixth seal is removed: 

… and, lo, there was a great earthquake…

This is tying together a “great earthquake” with the darkening of the sun which happens immediately after the Tribulation.  Now you may remember that it was thought in the days leading up to May 21, 2011, as we approached that day, that on May 21 there would be a great, worldwide earthquake.  And one of the reasons was that this verse and a couple of other verses make this link between the “darkening of the sun” and an “earthquake.”  We know that the darkening of the sun identifies with May 21, as it is immediately after the Tribulation.  This is why we had thought it would be the end of the Great Tribulation and, therefore, there will be a great earthquake which God will use to raise the dead.  Now it was assumed that it would be the resurrection, but we were incorrect about a physical earthquake and we were incorrect about the resurrection of the dead on that day.  Let us just look at Matthew 27 and we will see how the language of an earthquake made us also think of a resurrection.  It says in Matthew 27:50-53:

Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.

It says in Matthew 28:2:

And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.

And then in Matthew 28:6:

He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.

In both of these cases, a “great earthquake” was identified with “resurrection.”  In Matthew, chapter 27, “many bodies of the saints arose” in connection with the earthquake; and in Matthew 28, Christ arose as the earthquake rolled back the stone.  So we see this language of resurrection in combination with an earthquake and darkening of the sun, and these things (from our position of looking toward the Day of Judgment) caused us to think, “Here is what is going to happen.  It is Judgment Day, after all, and we were right about that.  And it is the time for a great earthquake; the Bible says this and we noticed that an earthquake is used by God to bring about resurrection – what a perfect means to open the ground to resurrect the dead.” 

We thought it was the time to resurrect the bodies of the saints and they would go to be with the Lord and the living saints would be raptured on that day, too, because if that were the day of the resurrection, 1st Thessalonians, chapter 4, joins together the resurrection and the rapture, and so forth.  We thought the unsaved dead would rise up in a physical way and their bodies would be left scattered, literally, upon the earth; and this was incorrect because we were thinking physically.  We were thinking of a great physical earthquake.

Let us look at some other verses where God describes an earthquake and in the context it has to do with Judgment Day.  It says in Joel 2:10:

The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining:

Then it says in Joel 3:15-16:

The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. JEHOVAH also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but JEHOVAH will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.

Now in both of these places, we read of an earthquake (where it says “the earth shall shake”) and we read of the sun and moon being darkened and the stars not shining and this relates to the verse in Matthew 24:29: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened.”  So we began to form this conclusion.  Now in Isaiah, chapter 13, it says beginning in Isaiah 13:9-13:

Behold, the day of JEHOVAH cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir. Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of JEHOVAH of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.

The word remove in Isaiah 13:13 is the same word as shake that we read in Joel 3:16: “The heavens and the earth shall shake.”  And, here, in Isaiah 13:13, it says: “I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove (or shake) out of her place.”  Again, in the context of the darkened sun and moon, there is an earthquake.

Now what really should have caught our attention and should have put us on guard was that we were understanding (prior to May 21, 2011 and in the days leading up to that point) that the darkened sun, moon and stars were spiritual; no one thought and no one was teaching (that I am aware of) that it would be literal.  It was understood that this was a spiritual reference to the removal of the Gospel lights.  Obviously, since we thought there would be five months of torment on earth after that great earthquake, there could not be that duration of time without a sun, moon or stars; and if stars were literally falling to the earth, as Revelation 6 describes, there would not be any earth; as soon as one star got near us, we would be burned up and there was no way that five months of time could pass, especially since the sun, moon and stars are the time keepers that God put in place to keep track of time and to measure the twenty four hour period.  Without them, you would have no time and you would not have days and weeks and months. 

So it was very obvious that it was a spiritual removal of the Gospel.  Yet, hand in hand, God joined together the darkened sun with the language of an earthquake and we were mistaken; we were incorrect and we thought, on the one hand, that the darkened sun would be the removal of the Gospel and salvation; and, on the other hand, we thought the great earthquake would be physical and we were completely wrong.  We made an error in that regard because we misunderstood the nature of the Bible.  We misunderstood what would happen on the Day of Judgment.  We were thinking that God would physically make the judgment apparent to all those that were under His wrath, and that is not what He did at all.

He took the cup of wrath that He had first given to the churches (which was entirely spiritual in nature) and He gave the identical cup to the unsaved inhabitants of the earth; and they are drinking of it from May 21, 2011 and up until our present day and it will continue until the time period for the Day of Judgment elapses.  And it is all spiritual – until we get to the last day of the total length for Judgment Day and then God will, literally, destroy the earth and universe and the entire corrupt creation and recreate a new heaven and new earth.

We see that the great earthquake that we are reading about in Revelation 6 is not a physical or literal earthquake.  Let me read it, again, Revelation 6:12:

And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair…

You see how they are joined hand in hand?  They are joined together.  You cannot understand one part as spiritual and the other part as physical – a plain, literal statement.  Both are describing something spiritual.

Well, what could God have in view (spiritually) through that earthquake?  Let us look at a couple of verses and then we will take a look at that question.  Isaiah 24 is a chapter that extensively details the Day of Judgment, our present time period, in verse after verse.  God uses the word “earth” repeatedly, so there is no mistaking what is being described – it is not describing the judgment on the churches, but the judgment on the whole world.  For instance, it says in Isaiah 24:4-6: 

The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish. The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.

By the way, that last statement is Isaiah 24:6 is describing the true believers.  “The inhabitants of the earth are burned” with a spiritual fire that has been kindled in God’s anger as He brought to pass the Day of Judgment and, yet, the true believers are living on the earth in the Day of Judgment and, therefore, there are “few men left.”  Why is He saying that?  Well, we know the believers are a remnant of the whole, but also the Bible tells us, “Many are called, but few are chosen.”  So as the rest of the inhabitants of the earth are burned, there are a few men left that are not burned.  We are placed in the “fire,” spiritually, and a fiery trial is trying our faith, but we are not burned, just like when Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were cast into a fiery furnace that was heated “seven times more than it was wont to be heated,” and, yet, they were not burned at all.  God is using this time period to try the faith of His people and they will come forth safely and perfected, as gold and silver is purified in the fire and made better.  It will not harm them in the slightest way.

Well, in this chapter, there is verse after verse after verse describing the Day of Judgment and we read in Isaiah 24:17-19:

Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth. And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.

And that is a significant statement: “for the windows from on high are open.”  Why is that significant?  Well, remember what God said when He brought the flood upon the world.  It says in Genesis 7:11:

In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month…

Now let me stop there because this is the day that the flood began.  It was the seventeenth day of the second month.  Let me remind you (because we really have not covered this extensively like we did before May 21, 2011 and we are prone to forget) that May 21, 2011 had the underlying Hebrew calendar date of the seventeenth day of the second month and the year 2011 was exactly 7,000 years from the flood.  So this date, historically, in Genesis 7, was exactly seven days from the time that God had forewarned Noah: “For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth.”  And seven days later, on the seventeenth day of the second month, God did so and He shut Noah and his family (all eight souls) into the ark; they were protected and their safety was guaranteed.  They were safe from the destructive forces of the flood waters.  And that is a picture of salvation in Christ, as that ark typifies the Lord Jesus.

And, likewise, God tells us in 2nd Peter, chapter 3, to “be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”  He makes that statement in the context of Noah’s day and links it together with the “end of the world,” and right in the middle of those two judgments, He tells us:  “that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”  So we have Biblical justification to look at the “seven days” mentioned to Noah and to understand it as though God is saying to the world: “You have 7,000 years to find salvation from this point – 7,000 years from the flood date of 4,990 B.C. and then 7,000 years later, I will shut the door to heaven once every one of the elect whose names are recorded in the Lamb’s Book of Life have been found and saved.  Then I will shut the door.  There are no more to become saved and I will bring judgment on the world.”

And that is exactly what God did 7,000 years later, to the selfsame day, because May 21, 2011 had the underlying Hebrew calendar date of 2/17 which matched up perfectly with the day that God shut the door upon the ark, and then He shut the door to heaven.

And notice the language here in Genesis 7:11-12:

In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.

Now the Lord is describing the historical deluge of the flood that began on that day and He describes it as “the windows of heaven were opened.”  And Isaiah 24 is describing Judgment Day which took place on May 21, 2011 (the seventeenth day of the second month) and notice at the end of Isaiah 24:18:

…for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.

That language matches and agrees with the flood language that began on the day that ties in with May 21, 2011, and the word shake is the same word that is found in Joel 3:16 and Isaiah 13:13.  The “earthquake” is taking place at a time when “the windows from on high are open.

You know, it is also significant that God speaks of the flood and the rain and it raining for forty days and forty nights, so that would mean (in the spiritual dimension in that account, as 2/17 relates 7,000 years later to May 21, 2011) that there will come a time of “testing” from the point of judgment – from the point from when the door is shut and the rain begins.  The Lord speaks of raining for “forty days and forty nights,” and it just so happens that we have learned that Judgment Day may continue for 1,600 days, which is forty times forty, which would mean that God has been “testing” since May 21, 2011, since He opened the windows from heaven, as Isaiah 24:18 tells us, since the foundations of the earth began “to shake;” a great earthquake took place, spiritually, on that day.  It was a spiritual earthquake and a spiritual darkening of the sun and moon and a spiritual falling of the stars.  There is so much for us to look at and so much for us to learn, as far as what God has done.  And now we have the superior vantage point of entering into the Day of Judgment past May 21, 2011, so we can readily see and quickly realize that, of course, it was not a physical earthquake – it never was meant to be physical.  It was all spiritual and now we can make correction to that faulty understanding we held previously.  Since there was no physical earthquake (and that is what led us to think it would be the time of the resurrection), so we were also “off” on the resurrection; that will take place on the last day of the Day of Judgment.

Lord willing, when we get together in our next study, we are going to continue looking at a “great earthquake” and we will see how God connects something very unusual to the language of a “great earthquake” and, yet, it fits precisely.  It fits what God did on the Day of Judgment and in these days that have followed.