Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation. Tonight is study #21 of Revelation, chapter 16, and we are going to be reading Revelation 16:17-18:

And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.

I will stop reading there. We see that the seventh vial is poured out into the air. In our last study we saw how the “air” identifies with this earth or this world, as Satan is called “the prince of the power of the air,” in Ephesians 2, verse 2, and in three other places in the Gospel of John, he is called “the prince of this world,” so God is using the word “air” to represent the world or that which was under the dominion and power of Satan. So this is the target of the wrath of God, as the seventh vial is poured out into the air.

Then it says, “and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne,” and we know that this great voice is God’s voice because God is the one seated upon the throne. He is the great King of kings and Lord of lords.

The Greek word “voice” is “phone,” and the Greek word translated as great is “megas,” and so the two words together are “megas-phone,” from which we get our English word “megaphone.” We do not use them so much today, but not too long ago they were used in order for a great crowd of people to hear a speaker. The speaker would speak into a megaphone and the police still use megaphones when working with crowds. So in our verse, God speaks with a “great voice” out of heaven and we will see later that “thunder” also identifies with the voice of God. We all know how loud thunder can be; it can “shake you” with its loud sound.

It goes on to say in Revelation 16:17:

… from the throne, saying, It is done.

This refers to the seven vials of the seven last plagues; they have been poured out and it is “done.” This is not the same kind of word or idea as the word used when the Lord Jesus went to the cross; he refused to drink of the vinegar they were offering Him as He hung on the cross, and then He exclaimed, “It is finished!” He was speaking of the demonstration of the things He had done in His atoning work for the sins of His people from the foundation of the world. His entire (earthly) life was a demonstration, especially that period from the Garden of Gethsemane to the cross. Then He said, “It is finished.” But that is not the Greek word that is used in our verse. It is not a word that means “finished” or “done,” in that sense, but this is a Greek word, Strong’s #1096, a form of “ginomai,” and “ginomai” is often translated as “come” or “came.” This word is translated in Jay Green’s Interlinear as “happened.” It would read, “It has happened,” or “It has come to pass,” or “It has occurred.” It is just indicating that God’s wrath has finally come – Judgment Day is here. It is not the sense that Judgment Day is over and done with, but that it has come and all seven vials have been poured out. It is the day of the Lord’s wrath and as we know from so many passages in the Bible, it is a prolonged Day of Judgment. It is not just a single day and, if we are correct, it will cover 1,600 days.

Then it goes on to say in Revelation 16:18:

And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake…

Now this language is almost typical for the Book of Revelation. I say that because it is used in a few places. For instance, it says in Revelation 4:4-5:

And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold. And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.

This is a glorious image and representation of God’s kingdom and His glorious throne and we read of “lightnings and thunderings and voices” that are present.

Also, it says in Revelation 8:5:

And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.

Here, we have the same four things that are mentioned in Revelation 16:18: voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake. In the context of Revelation, chapter 8, the seven messengers are going to sound the seven trumpets and the first four will sound in chapter 8, signaling the judgment on the churches and congregations. Then the final three trumpets are identified with “three woes” and that is the transition to Judgment Day on the world. But, here, the beginning of God’s judgment on the churches involves “voices, thunderings, lightnings and an earthquake.”

In Revelation, chapter 11, it says in Revelation 11:14:

The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly.

Remember that the “woes” line up with the trumpets. The second woe is past means the sixth trumpet has sounded; the third woe comes quickly means the seventh trumpet will sound. And that is what happens, as it says in Revelation 11:15-19:

And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned. And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth. And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.

So we have the same four things mentioned in our verse, plus “great hail.” By the way, the “lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake” are four things and the number “four” represents the universal nature of the judgment and its worldwide scope. The judgment is upon all the earth in the day of the Lord; it is judgment against the entire kingdom of Satan, including all the unsaved inhabitants of the earth. Revelation, chapter 11, again, is the time of the seventh angel sounding and the “three woes” and the “fifth, six and seventh trumpets” are all speaking simultaneously of Judgment Day, just as the seven vials that are being poured out in Revelation 16 are all speaking of Judgment Day.

The “lightning” speaks of the light of the Word of God going forth in judgment; the “thunders” point to the voice of God’s Word going forth in the Day of Judgment. We have already looked at these things many times in the Scriptures. The Book of Job or the Psalms are good places to turn to read about “thunder” in relationship to the voice of the Lord. The “voices” are also coming forth from the throne and it given in the plural case because of the triune nature of God; the Father has a voice and the Son has a voice and the Holy Spirit has a voice. God often uses plural pronouns to refer to Himself. When He created man, in Genesis 1, He said, “Let us make man in our image.” He is one God, but it is also accurate because it is the counsel of the Godhead – the Father, Son and Holy Spirit – that made man in His image. He can also refer to His “voices” and it is these voices that are coming forth in the Day of Judgment in “full agreement,” as they declare the same truth. Of course, that is always the case; there is never dissension or disagreement within the Godhead. The Father wills a thing; the Son carries it out and the Holy Spirit goes forth to confirm it. The will of God is always in line with each Person of the trinity.

Let us go back to our verse in Revelation 16:18:

And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.

There was a great “earthquake” that is taking place in the Day of Judgment. Because of verses like this, we had thought there would be a literal earthquake. Remember, it spoke of an earthquake in Revelation 6:12-13:

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…

We had recognized that the sun being darkened, as it said in Matthew 24:29, would take place immediately after the tribulation of those days. When was the end of the Great Tribulation? It was May 21, 2011; so this verse in Revelation 16:12 joins together the “darkening of the sun” with an “earthquake.” We had other Scripture that spoke of a tremendous worldwide earthquake such as the world had never seen and we erroneously thought that on May 21, 2011 God would bring to pass a physical, literal earthquake and through that earthquake, He would bring about the resurrection of the dead, as it opened the ground. We had assumed (as the churches and theologians have always taught) that the believers would not go through Judgment Day and it was always just a matter of pre-Trib rapture or post-Trib rapture, but only the unsaved would go through Judgment Day. After all, we had thought we were going to judge the unsaved with God, so how could we also be involved in the judgment? So, given those previous doctrines that taught we would not go through Judgment Day on the earth, this was our thinking. We thought there would be a literal “five months” of judgment on the earth in which the believers would not be on the earth.

So the mistakes we made were in thinking that the earthquake would be literal, the five months would be literal and the believers would not be literally present on this earth during the Day of Judgment. All these mistakes were connected to one another. But now we have learned the “five months” is a figurative period of time to represent the entire duration of Judgment Day, which will very likely be a period of 1,600 days. The first thing we learned was that the “earthquake” was not literal, because it did not happen on May 21, 2011. That is where hind sight is helpful, because we immediately knew we had a wrong understanding, so we looked at the Bible again and we saw a “spiritual earthquake,” just as the sun had been darkened, spiritually, and we had known that would be the case. It really makes no sense in hind sight that we knew the darkening of the sun, moon and stars meant the removal of the Gospel from the world and, yet, God had joined these ideas together in Revelation 6:12, so how could we have understood the one aspect spiritually and the other aspect literally? But now we understand that not only was the darkened sun spiritual, but the earthquake was spiritual and the “five months” was a figurative time period. Now we see in many places in the Bible that it was always God’s plan to leave His people on the earth (during the Day of Judgment) and that is why it speaks, in 1Thessalonians, of those that “are alive and remain” unto the coming of the Lord. They are “left” and that is what it means to “remain.” They have been left on the earth to go through the spiritual fire of Judgment Day. The Lord tells us this in Zechariah 13:8:

And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith JEHOVAH, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein.

Here are the “elect,” typified by the “third part,” in Zechariah 13:9:

And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, JEHOVAH is my God.

The “third part shall be left therein,” just as it said in Isaiah 24:6:

… therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.

As the Bible says, “Many are called, but few are chosen.” The elect are left, alive and remaining unto that final day when God will lift up His people that are alive in the rapture and He also will resurrect the bodies of the elect that have gone into the ground.

Now these things are becoming clearer and we are gaining understanding about them. Of course, many that have been tested and put through the spiritual fire now do not want to hear it. They will not even check it out or go back over it. They just respond, “We were wrong, so let me go back to the world.” Or they respond, “We were wrong, so let me go back to the churches.” They ignore the fact that the Bible is overflowing with Scriptures that indicate the church age ended and the churches have been judged by God. You do not just say it is wrong and go back to former doctrines, but you say, “Well, obviously, we were wrong because there was not a physical earthquake, but what could it be?”

It says of the army of God (His elect) that comes forth in the Day of Judgment, in Joel 2:10-11:

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: And JEHOVAH shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of JEHOVAH is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?

Again, God ties the darkened sun with the earthquake and when we look at the language of the Bible, we find something very interesting concerning a “great earthquake,” in Acts, chapter 16. In this chapter, the Apostle Paul and Silas have been unjustly put in prison. We read in Acts 16:25:

And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.

Paul and Silas praying and singing praise to God at midnight points to declaring the Gospel in a “dark place.” Just as that prison was a dark place, this world was a dark place and it was at “midnight” in the midst of the Great Tribulation that God sent forth His Word into the “dark place” of this world. The “prisoners of hope,” the elect that were predestinated to salvation, heard the worldwide declaration coming forth from the Word of God at that time: “Behold, the bridegroom cometh,” as we read in the parable of the ten virgins, in Matthew, chapter 25, when at midnight this cry was made.

Then it goes on to say in Acts 16:26-28:

And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed. And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here.

This is about as strange as anything could be. There is a great earthquake. We know what kind of damage a great earthquake can do and even a tremor can do damage, but a great earthquake (a “megas-seismos”) could do tremendous damage and kill tens of thousands of people and it can level a great city. But this great earthquake only accomplished certain and specific things. For instance, it did not collapse the prison, as a great earthquake would do and, yet, “the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed.” It was not just 90% of the doors that were opened and it was not just 90% of the bands that were loosed – it was all the prison doors and all the bands. This meant that all the prisoners were free; they could have left. But the Apostle Paul told the prison keeper not to do himself any harm because they were all there and not a single prisoner had left the prison. Is that not incredible? Is that not amazing, especially when we understand that men are imprisoned to sin and to Satan and in the dungeon of sin, spiritually speaking, and salvation is that which “frees men”? If the Lord sets you free, you are free indeed.

The Gospel went forth and it was typified by the Jubilee, in which the captives are set free. The great multitude was delivered during the second Jubilee period which began in 1994 and now the final effect of it all at midnight and at the time of the great earthquake was that all the prisoners were set free. By May 21, 2011, when Judgment Day came, every last one of God’s elect had been delivered out of spiritual bondage and they were free; they had become saved. But none of them had left the prison; none of them had left this dark world, physically. As the Apostle Paul said, “We are all here,” and we are, are we not? None of us were raptured; none of us were taken up into the clouds to meet the Lord in the air at the point of the great earthquake. We are all alive and remain. The (unsaved) inhabitants of the earth are burned “and few men left.”