The Seven Bowl Judgments

The seven bowl judgments of Revelation have historically been considered to be the final outpouring of God’s wrath and judgment. First there are the seven seals of Revelation (ch 6 and 8), then there are the seven trumpet judgments (Rev 9-11), and then wham, bam, God lets go with his heavy artillery, in rapid fire (Rev 16). I was always taught that the seven trumpet judgments and the seven bowl judgments would be meted out on mankind during the Great Tribulation, after all the saints were raptured. That may be what you believe. Furthermore, I was told that the bowl judgments were after the trumpet judgments, at the very end of the Tribulation, leading up to the second coming of Christ.

But that is not the way it is going to happen. The bowl judgments are the same judgments as the trumpet judgments, just repeated from God’s perspective rather than man’s own doing. (That has become a theological debate­-- whether the two sets of judgments are concurrent, or whether they are successive.) Furthermore, the series of seven trumpet-bowl judgments are not during a seven-year Great Tribulation period. Rather they have been unfolding before our very eyes, in current events. Interpreters can speculate all they want what each judgment is foretelling, but when history interprets prophecy, then it becomes very clear.

If you were to lay out, side by side, the seven trumpet judgments and the seven bowl judgments you discover that they are not just similar, but they mirror each other quite obviously. The first judgments in each series are upon the land, the sea, and the rivers and streams. The first judgment is World War I, when vast tracts of land were burned, aircraft were used in warfare for the first time, and chemical warfare was deployed, causing painful, ugly sores. The second judgment is World War II, a war in which over 70 million soldiers were killed. Much of that war was fought on the Pacific front, and as many as one-third of all ships in the war were destroyed. It was also the first deployment of the atomic bomb. The third judgment is Chernobyl, the largest nuclear meltdown in history. The very word Chernobyl means wormwood. Radiation rained down upon eastern Europe killing people and polluting the rivers and streams. The fourth judgment is climate change. The sun and moon are blocked in one vision and in the other vision the sun scorches and sears with intense heat. Yes, go ahead and bellyache and disagree all you want. What I find interesting is that conservative Christians try to deny both prophecy and science when it comes to climate change, while the liberals believe science and are trying to do all they can to turn back the effects and causes of climate change. The fifth judgment is the invasion of Kuwait by Saddam Hussein, the dark black cloud from burning 600 oil wells, and the killing of fifty thousand Iraqi soldiers on the “highway of death”, many so burned and maimed they could only wish that they could die.

You probably ask the question, why would God prophesy two sets of judgments that are the same? The reason is rather strategic, actually. The seven trumpets are actually warnings, more so than judgments. And they are events that mankind brings upon himself, serving to warn us of God’s impending judgment. They are like shots across the bow of a ship. The bowl judgments are a repetition of the same events, but from God’s perspective. The events are a sequence of His judgment meted out on mankind for their evil, lawlessness, rebellion, and refusal to repent. Both sets of judgment crescendo into the sixth judgment, the battle of Armageddon, and then the seventh and final judgment, God’s divine outpouring of massive natural calamities, world-wide,

The reason to present the series of events from man’s perspective, and then God’s perspective is to demonstrate that this final descent of mankind into judgment is not just by his own doing, happenstance or fate, but also brought about by God’s design and purpose. Both mankind and God have a part in these judgments. The final judgments are yet another playing out of the balance between man’s free-will and God’s sovereignty.  That is a huge theological conundrum to try to resolve, but I have a very simple way to explain it: “It’s not a me thing, it’s not a He thing, it’s a we thing.”

You may need to reconstruct your end times theology if you are going to believe the truth about these two sets of seven judgments. They are not in a seven-year Great Tribulation period. They are spread out over a period greater than 100 years. And if five of the judgments have already been fulfilled, then it is the sixth judgment that is next on the horizon, the build up to the battle of Armageddon, the event prophesied in the sixth trumpet judgment and the sixth bowl judgment. Then there is the matter of the second coming of Jesus, when he gathers up the saints. That happens in Revelation 16:15, between the sixth and seventh judgment. Or you might recall Paul’s teaching, “at the last trumpet”.

We as Christians will not escape these judgments. They are not for someone else who is stuck on earth during the Tribulation. No, we are in the midst of them. And turmoil, tribulation, violence, and persecution are likely to ramp up as we approach the very end of the age. Are you ready? Are you prepared? Is your faith and trust in Jesus deep enough that you will stand strong until the end?