We need to understand something about Almighty God. He is fearfully holy; extremely intense in it. That is not an overstatement! It is not made lightly, and it is a fact. He is deeply offended, and rightly so, by our sins. If it weren't for the Lord Jesus Christ, we'd all face God's just wrath, because we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God.

Today, people live in adultery, fornication, thefts, murders, and take offense if anyone reproves them for their wickedness. For instance, think of the thirty million babies that have been "legally" slaughtered in this Nation. Despite nice sounding names that people give their sins God has warned mankind of impending judgment. His judgment will be plentifully justified when the time comes. Per Daniel 2:21, God changes the times and the seasons. In Revelation chapter eighty He makes such changes. The Scripture notes that the people in those days could repent, but they don't Despite all the calamities that shall occur, they won't repent. They shall be determined to carry out their evil deeds.

In Romans 1:32, Paul wrote that people know the judgment of God; that for certain deeds people are worthy of death. They not only commit such sins, but have pleasure in others that do them. Some people today are indignant if certain lifestyles are reproved. Even people who know that such sins are wrong, get indignant with those who don't agree to them. They call such people 'intolerant, and bigots'. Well, let's see them effectually make God appear as a bigot! He calls them sins.

It is wonderful that we can be in God's favor through Christ, and avoid His indignation. Romans 5:8 shows that God commends His love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 2 Thessalonians 2:11 shows that God shall send upon impenitent sinners strong delusion that they should believe a lie. They shall refuse to believe the Truth, therefore, they shall have already conditioned themselves to believe the lie. In effect, God says, O.K.., have it your own way. And they will go astray.

Certainly the atrocious crimes of mankind against God have 'moved' Him Who is Love (1 John 4:8) into such a frame of mind. He's not unjust, but He shall be moved to indignation by the wickedness of mankind. In Revelation 6:16 the Lamb Himself (Jesus) is moved to wrath by the wickedness of humanity.

Revelation 8:1. There is one half hour of silence in heaven. That is different than in chapters 4-6, where quite a bit of sound occurs in heaven. But here, one half hour of silence. Surely, in that half hour, God moves into the mode of judgment towards mankind. From there onward, His attitude and dealings are in the context of judgment and wrath. Others have speculated that the silence may be a kind of an awe of the impending doom.

With the opening of the seventh seal, prophecy is completed, and angelic action begins. It consists of stern judgment and of rapid occurrence of events. It is not just God's displeasure with people; this is the full thrust of Divine indignation at the sins and wickedness of mankind.

Chapter 8:2: John saw seven angels to whom were given seven trumpets. This reminds us of the two silver trumpets that Israel was to sound in their camps. their sounding signaled a march, or an assembly, or an alarm. These trumpets in Revelation 8 announces the judgments that are to be called forth.

Chapter 8:3: An angel with a golden censer stood at the altar. He was given much incense to be offered with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar before God's Throne. Notice that just before the judgments begin, there is the final offering of prayer. There is a final effect of prayer. What's the response to these things?

Verse 4: From the angel's hand there ascended smoke with the prayers of the saints before God. Then he took the censor and filled it with fire from the altar and cast it into the earth. There were voices, thunderings, lightenings and an earthquake. The seems to be God's response to those prayers.

In chapter five the prayers of the saints were also offered up before God by the Elders. Therefore, this seems to be the prayers of a different group of saints. I doubt not that the martyrs of chapter seven had prayed during their ordeal. There is also the prayers of the souls under the altar in chapter 6:9-10. This prayer time is chapter seven comes near the end of the half hour of silence in heaven. There had been an abatement of activity, and silence. Then the offering of prayers, and the immediate response from heaven.

Chapter 8:6: The seven angels prepared to sound. Previously, the action had been the result of the Lore Jesus opening the six seals. Then in chapter 8:1 Jesus opened the last seal. The action switches from the Lord Jesus, to the angels with the trumpets, later it shall pass to the seven angels with the seven vials.

Verse 7: The first angel sounded and hail mingled with fire followed. A similar event was one of the ten plagues in Israel's exodus from Egypt: But this judgment is not only hail and fire, but hail and fire mingled with blood. They were cast upon the earth. As a result all the green grass and one third of the trees was burned up.

I have framed a name for these judgments as being the "Judgments of Thirds." In these trumpet judgments, there is not a full blown destruction; it is limited to one third, under each of the seven trumpets. There remains some restraint in God's wrath at that time.

People today can't feature how verse seven might come about, so they suppose that it must mean atomic warfare. But this trumpet produces hail and fire mingled with blood. It doesn't say anything about warfare, else it would mention a response from the people on the earth involved in such a war.

This trumpet produces what appears to be a purely Divine activity, and I don't know what it is, other than what is said here. People today mourn about the loss of the rain-forests, and the resultant effect on earth's atmosphere. What will be their response when ALL the green grass and one third of all the trees are burned up?

This information is to be testified in God's Churches. Be reminded that Jesus Christ showed these things to His servants (Revelation 1:1). Therefore, God wants us to know them. It is not intended to be a mystery to us. We're supposed to study and find it out. In things like this we must have God's help, because otherwise our mind 'locks up' on such things as atomic bombs, or comets, etc. At this point, we don't know what it is. But don't count out God's Own devices.

We will look at the three woes. Each of them are different, successive, calamities. They are all BIG woes to the inhabitants of the earth. God has assigned them to try mankind. (In chapter 3:10 Jesus promised to keep the Church of Philadelphia out of The Hour Of Temptation that shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth. The Raptured Church shall escape the trial.) Therefore, the Great Tribulation time is a time of Trial. It will give people an opportunity to express what they really have in their heart. Chapter 9 notes that they didn't repent of their evil deeds. They LIKE what they do, and WILL not quit, even under the most extreme conditions. God is going to exert justice in dealing with them.

I believe that the Church, the Body of Christ to which we presently belong, is "out of here" by means of the Rapture at that time. Those left behind will be "on their own," without benefit of Christian compassion and intelligence. Imagine their bewilderment with no one to tell them what it all means. They will not have the mitigating influence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as it has been preached for nearly 2,000 years. Jesus' invitation will still stand: "Whosoever will may come..." but they will refuse. Their heart will be so hard that they will refuse to believe on the Lord and receive His mercy; so they will get His wrath.

The Scripture says that God Himself TRIES the nations, to sift them with the sieve of vanity, Isaiah 20:27-28. Well, in Revelation chapter 8 the sifting time shall have arrived. Can we not conceive that God tried the hearts of the people before the flood in Noah's time? Today, the same as then, people ignore the dealings of God. They don't believe or respond to the things that we are studying. But in our hearts, where God's grace has worked, we want to know what God's Word means.

There is a chronology in the events of the Book of The Revelation. Jesus does not begin to open the seals until He has taken the book from God's right hand. He doesn't take the book until AFTER chapter 4:1. The Great Tribulation shall have begun when Jesus begins to open those seals. There will be seven years from then until the end of the Tribulation.

Wonderfully, 1 Thessalonians 5:9 says that God has not appointed believers in Christ to wrath. That must mean that the Rapture takes place before the Tribulation begins, because the tribulation time is a time of WRATH. Wrath is going to be the common disposition. God, people, nations and the devil are all going to be angry. But God has not appointed us to His wrath.

Jesus bade us to pray that we may escape ALL these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man. Our prayers then, can have an effect on our future. But the prayer activity in chapter 8:1 seems to induce God's judgment. Even so, right up until things start to 'get hot', God attends to the prayers that are offered. QUESTION: "If we can't escape, why pray?" But Jesus said to pray! He does not intend us to pray in vain!