Judgment Day Comes to Planet Earth:Armageddon Has Arrived

REVELATION 15–16

Main Idea: God is directing history toward the day when He will finally pour out His wrath on His enemies, where His glory and majesty will be on full display.

1. God Will Make Preparation for Judgment Day (15:1-8).
   1. God’s wrath will be finished (15:1).
   2. The nations will worship (15:2-4).
   3. God’s glory and power will be displayed (15:5-8).
2. God Will Pour Out His Wrath on Judgment Day (16:1-21).
   1. God will send disease (16:1-2).
   2. God will destroy the seas (16:3).
   3. God will pollute the waters (16:4-7).
   4. God will torment unrepentant humans (16:8-9).
   5. God will destroy the kingdom of the antichrist (16:10-11).
   6. God will gather His enemies for a final battle (16:12-16).
   7. God will conclude His judgment giving sinners what they deserve (16:17-21).

Throughout the Bible we are warned that judgment day is coming. The eschatological Day of the Lord is inevitable. It will happen. Joel 1; Zephaniah 1; Malachi 4; Matthew 24; 1 Thessalonians 5; and 2 Thessalonians 2 are just a sampling of the passages that guarantee its arrival. Here in REVELATION 15–16, that day has arrived. The context is significant. Revelation records three series of judgments as follows:

There is a spiraling and intensifying nature to these judgments as the seven trumpets emerge from the seventh seal and the seven bowls emerge from the seventh trumpet. In a sense the seventh always takes us to the end.

A lengthy interlude (Rev 10–14) precedes the final series of judgments. Chapter 15 serves as a prelude to the bowl judgments of chapter 16. There we learn that there is glory in God’s wrath. In fact, we should worship God in His wrath because He is holy, just, and righteous in all His ways. Sinners, apart from Christ, will receive “what they deserve” (16:6). No one will call God unfair or unjust at the judgment. The evidence is too great. It is overwhelming. He is the just Judge of the universe.

God Will Make Preparation for Judgment Day

REVELATION 15:1-8

Chapter 15 is easily structured around the phrase “I saw/looked” in verses 1, 2, and 5. Suffering Christians in the first century and in every century would be encouraged and given hope to remain faithful by this chapter. God is in control. He hears our cries, He sees our tears, and He knows all about our hurting hearts. The Lord God, the Almighty (15:3; 16:7,14), is advancing His kingdom. It will be established.

God’s Wrath Will Be Finished (15:1)

John sees another “sign in heaven.” This looks back and connects to the vision in 12:1. This sign is “great and awe-inspiring” as he sees “seven angels with the seven last plagues”—plagues that will finish or complete “God’s wrath.” History is at its end, and horrible judgments will come. Judgment patterns in history reach a climax in the tribulation. That they are called the last plagues sets them apart from the seals and trumpets. There are similarities, to be sure, but there are also differences. Now God’s wrath is brought to its appropriate and climactic conclusion (see Lev 26:21). Mounce says, “These are the last of the plagues in that they complete the warnings of God to an impenitent world. All that remains is final judgment itself” (Revelation, 284).

The Nations Will Worship (15:2-4)

Before judgments falls, the redeemed appear beside “a sea of glass mixed with fire” (a sign of judgment) to sing a victory song. They have conquered the beast (i.e., antichrist), and now they take harps to sing what is called the song of Moses and of the Lamb. The themes of God’s redemptive work for the Hebrews now resounds in the redemptive work of the Lamb. Exodus 15:1-8 and Revelation 5:8-14 provide source material for this song of worship.

The God who is praised is great and amazing in His deeds, ways, and righteous acts. He is the “Lord God, the Almighty” and the “King of the Nations.” This is a God we should “fear” and “glorify” because He alone is holy—pure, undefiled, separate from His creation. There is no God like our God.

And who will come and worship this great, amazing, just, true, holy, and righteous God? “All the nations will come and worship before You” (see 5:9; 7:9). Every tribe, language, people, and nation will gather to sing and worship this awesome God. What a great missionary promise!

The saints do not sing of their victory over the beast (15:2). They sing about the sovereignty, glory, justice, and righteousness of their Almighty God and King. As all the nations come together to worship, the focus is as it should be: on our God. David Platt well notes that there is a high view of God in heaven (“How Do We Worship God in His Wrath?”). If that is true, and it is, then there should be a high view of God on earth. There should be a high view of God in our churches. There should be a high view of God in my life.

God’s Glory and Power Will Be Displayed (15:5-8)

For the third time John sees something. This time it is “the heavenly sanctuary—the tabernacle of testimony,” another Exodus theme (15:5). This is the place where God manifests His presence. From here the seven angels with the seven plagues emerge. They have the appearance of holy priests with their “clean, bright linen” and “gold sashes” (15:6). One of the living creatures (i.e., the angelic beings introduced in ch. 4) gives them seven bowls full of the wrath of the eternal God (15:7). Immediately “the sanctuary was filled with smoke from God’s glory and from His power” (15:8). So great was this display of glory and power that no one could enter the sanctuary until judgment was finished.

This imagery is familiar to students of the Old Testament. When God made a covenant with Abraham, He passed through the divided pieces of the sacrifice in the smoking fire pot and burning torch (Gen 15:17). When Moses received God’s law on Mount Sinai, God revealed His holiness with fire and smoke (Exod 19:18). After Israel placed the ark of the covenant in the tabernacle, God’s presence was symbolized with smoke and fire (Exod 40:34-35). In Solomon’s temple the glory of the Lord filled the holy place in the form of a cloud (1 Kgs 8:10-11). This is an ongoing reminder of God’s holiness. God’s glory is always manifest during the time of His judgment. Smoke from God’s glory made entering the temple impossible until His seething indignation was poured out. What a sign to the ungodly people on the earth who chose to shun the worship of a holy God and to follow the beast.

God Will Pour Out His Wrath on Judgment Day

REVELATION 16:1-21

Human beings should have a high view of God and a humble view of man. Instead we have a low view of God and a high view of ourselves. We have invited justly the wrath of God in our lives and on our world. These last seven plagues, the bowl judgments, are similar to both the exodus plagues (Exod 7–12) and the trumpet judgments (Rev 8–9). However, their worldwide scope and intensity are of such a nature that they are said to be “like no other since man has been on the earth” (16:18). Precursors have appeared throughout history, but they have been less spectacular. The final and climactic manifestation is now poured out (16:1), never again to be repeated. Do not miss the fact that all of this is God’s doing (Mounce, Revelation, 291–305).

God Will Send Disease (16:1-2)

John hears “a loud voice,” a phrase occurring 20 times in Revelation. It is certainly the voice of God. He commands the angels to “go and pour out the seven bowls of God’s wrath on the earth” (see 15:1,7; 16:19). The fierce anger of God and His righteous judgment are to be poured out in full measure on an unrepentant world, a rebellious world.

The angel pours out his bowl, and harmful and painful sores appear on those who follow and worship the beast (16:2). This recalls the sixth Egyptian plague (Exod 9:9-11) and the stories of Job (Job 2:7) and Lazarus (Luke 16:21). Only unbelievers experience this foul and loathsome plague. Zechariah 14:12 teaches,

This will be the plague the Lord strikes all the peoples with, who have warred against Jerusalem: their flesh will rot while they stand on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths.

God Will Destroy the Seas (16:3)

The second angel pours his bowl, and the sea becomes like the blood of a corpse. There are parallels to the first Egyptian plague in Exodus 7:19 and the second trumpet of 8:8-9. Every living thing dies in the seas of the earth. The oceans, which occupy 70 percent of the earth’s surface, become a pool of death, a toxic wasteland of water. The term watery grave will take on a whole new and tragic meaning.

God Will Pollute the Waters (16:4-7)

Blood follows blood. What God did through His angel to the seas He now does to the fresh waters. All turns to blood. This recalls also the first Egyptian plague, the third trumpet (8:10-11), and the drought brought on by the two witnesses (11:7). Water is already scarce. It now becomes even more so.

Suddenly the third angel breaks into a song that sounds much like the Song of Moses and the Lamb in 15:3-4. The eternal God (“who is and who was”) is just in bringing these judgments because He is the Holy One. The earth dwellers “poured out the blood of the saints and the prophets” so He gives them “blood to drink” in return. Indeed, He gives them what they deserve (16:6). Verse 7 provides a word of confirmation: the judgments of the “Lord God, the Almighty” are “true and righteous.” Genesis 18:25 teaches, “Won’t the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” Psalm 19:9 says, “The ordinances of the Lord are reliable and altogether righteous.” The Apocalypse is fully in agreement: God is never arbitrary, capricious, or vengeful in His judgment. He is always fair, just, and true. His is the only bar of perfect justice. There is a logic and rightness in His judgment. We glorify Him in His righteous wrath.

God Will Torment Unrepentant Sinners (16:8-9)

In contrast to the first three bowls, which were poured out on the earth, the fourth angel pours out his bowl on the sun. People are scorched with fire, “by the intense heat.” This is in contrast to the fourth trumpet (the judgments are not concurrent), which darkened the sun, moon, and stars (8:12). MacArthur says, “Searing heat exceeding anything in human experience will scorch men so severely that it will seem that the atmosphere is on fire” (Revelation 12–22, 155).

The specifics of exactly what will happen are not revealed to us. We need not speculate. However, the human response is crystal clear: they cursed God and “they did not repent and give Him glory.” What an undeniable and sad commentary on the depravity and wickedness of Adam’s sons and daughters. Knowing full well from whom these plagues come and why they come, they do not repent; they revile. They do not bless God; they blaspheme God (see also 16:11,21). God has been longsuffering and patient with sinful man (2 Pet 3:9). Multiple opportunities have been given for people to repent and run to the redeeming Lamb. Repeatedly and with willful disregard for the grace of God, men and women refuse to repent (see 6:16-17; 9:20-21). They refuse to give glory to the only God deserving of glory. They turn away from Him. He rightly brings divine, retributive torment to them.

God Will Destroy the Kingdom of the Antichrist (16:10-11)

The fifth bowl judgment is reminiscent of the ninth Egyptian plague (Exod 10:21-29). It starts locally but extends worldwide. The throne of the beast, the antichrist, is the object of this judgment. He and his kingdom are “plunged into darkness.” We do not know precisely in what way this happens. It could be economic, physical, political, spiritual, or any and all of these (but see Mark 13:24-27). What we do know once again are the results: “People gnawed their tongues because of their pain,” they “blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores” (16:2), and “they did not repent of their works.”

The phrase “God of heaven” is from Daniel 2:44. It speaks of the God who sovereignly destroys the false kingdoms of this world and establishes His own rightful kingdom. Daniel 7:13-14 tells us this kingdom is given to the Son of Man! We know this refers to Jesus.

This is the final time we are told that mankind would not repent. The day of grace is at an end. God’s deadline is now past. Neither mercy nor judgment changed the heart of sinful humanity. They loved their idols too much. They loved their sin more than the Savior who would have set them free from their bondage and slavery. It is hard not to weep.

God Will Gather His Enemies for a Final Battle (16:12-16)

The sixth angel pours his bowl out “on the great river Euphrates,” a river designated this way five times in the Bible (Gen 15:18; Deut 1:7; Josh 1:4; Rev 9:14; 16:12). It runs 1,800 miles from Mount Ararat to the Persian Gulf and was seen as the eastern boundary of the land God promised to Israel. It continues as the lifeblood of what is called the Fertile Crescent. The river is dried up to prepare for the coming of an army, “the kings from the east” (16:12). Who they are and why they come is not revealed, but there certainly seems to be a relationship to the army from the east when the sixth angel blew his trumpet in 9:13-19. Ultimately, they come as God allows and directs.

Coupled with the coming of these kings are three unclean spirits, or demons, who spring from the mouth of the unholy, counterfeit trinity of the dragon, beast, and false prophet (16:13). These demons are said to be like frogs, an unclean animal (Lev 11:10,41). Once more they act with spiritual deception via the miraculous, which reminds us again that not every miracle is a miracle from God. Their goal is for “the kings of the whole world to assemble them for the battle of the great day of God, the Almighty” (16:14). I believe they think they are gathering to battle earthly powers, perhaps Israel (Ezek 38–39; Zech 14), or the people of God as a whole. Actually God is the One who has bought them there to do battle with Him (see 19:11-21).

Almost parenthetically, verse 15 interjects the third of seven beatitudes in Revelation:

“Look, I am coming like a thief. The one who is alert and remains clothed so that he may not go around naked and people see his shame is blessed.”

Christ can come any moment on any day. “Coming like a thief” means many will be caught by surprise, unprepared, not ready (see 1 Thess 5:2). Do not find yourself in that camp. Be alert; “stay awake.” There is a blessing for those who do! Have your spiritual clothes on at all times (see 3:18). Do not allow your spiritual vigilance to flag or wane so that you are found naked or exposed. On this day everything will be made plain. The “deceptive propaganda” of the false trinity will be fully exposed.

That day, verse 16 tells us, will happen “at the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon.” Har-Magedon is probably a reference to the hill of Megiddo, “the ancient city lying on the north side of the Carmel ridge . . . between the coastal plain and the valley of Esdraelon” (Mounce, Revelation, 301). It is a famous battlefield with many strategic conflicts having occurred there. Armageddon has taken on the idea of the place and time of the war that ends all wars as history draws to a close. I believe history will end in cataclysmic world war. I think Armageddon will serve as the focal point (14:14-20; 16:10; 19:17-21; see Joel 3:2; Zech 14). Still I am in full agreement with Mounce, who clarifies that

geography is not the major concern. Wherever it takes place, Armageddon is symbolic of the final overthrow of all the forces of evil by the might and power of God. The great conflict between God and Satan, Christ and antichrist, good and evil, that lies behind the perplexing course of history will in the end issue in a final struggle in which God will emerge victorious and take with him all who have placed their faith in him. This is Har-Magedon. (Ibid., 302)

God Will Conclude His Judgment Giving Sinners What They Deserve (16:17-21)

There are similarities between the seventh trumpet and the seventh bowl, even the seventh seal, because in a telescopic and spiraling manner each brings history to a close. The seventh angel pours out his bowl in the air, the space encompassing the earth. Again a “loud voice” comes from “the sanctuary,” and specifically from “the throne.” God speaks, saying, “It is done!” “It is completed” (see 15:1). Like the seventh seal (8:5) and the seventh trumpet (11:19), there is lightning, rumblings (sounds or voices), and thunder. There is also an earthquake that is unprecedented in human history (16:18).

Verse 19 says, “[T]he great city split into three parts.” Good arguments can be made that this is historical Jerusalem (see Zech 14:8). Context, however, would seem to point to spiritual Babylon, the subject of chapters 17–18. Some would identify the city with Rome, and also with good reason in light of the first-century historical context and chapter 18. I believe it would certainly include Rome, but it is more. Babylon in Revelation is the city of man that stands in opposition to the city of God, the new Jerusalem (Rev 21–22). Babylon falls completely, and all the cities of her world fall with her. God remembers her; she is not forgotten. She will drink in full measure “the cup filled with the wine of His fierce anger.” What Jesus drank for His own (Mark 10:38-39), she will be forced to drink herself.

Verse 20 is a simple statement of cosmic upheaval and eschatological trauma. It recalls the cosmic disturbance of the sixth seal in 6:12-14. Here is a snapshot meant to leave a lasting impression of a world now experiencing in totality the fury and wrath of its Creator.

The cosmic storm of God’s wrath reaches its climax and culmination with great hailstones of one hundred pounds falling to earth and on people (16:21). We have seen this before (Josh 10:11; Ezek 38:18-22). The heaviest hailstone on record in modern times was a mere 1.93 pounds! The earth, what little remains, will be pummeled and pulverized. Tragically, but now expected, men curse God for His righteous judgment (16:9,11). Beaten, they again blaspheme. Conquered, they curse. One last time they shake their fist in God’s face and curse His name. Judgment day has come. The results are certain. The response of humanity is stunning. So great is their hatred for God, they curse His name with their final, dying breath.

Conclusion

At the cross God demonstrated His wrath and poured it out on His beloved Son. His great love for sinners was on full display. In the great tribulation He will pour out His wrath on rebellious and unrepentant sinners who curse His name. There will be no middle ground in that day. There is really no middle ground today. What will you do?

Will you believe in Him or blaspheme Him?

Will you confess Him or curse Him?

Will you repent or continue to rebel?

The choice is yours, and the choice is mine. The time to make the choice is now. Time will soon be gone for all of us. Judgment day is on its way to planet Earth.

Reflect and Discuss

1. Why will no one be able to accuse God of being unfair when they receive His judgment?
2. Have you ever felt like you were being treated unfairly by God? How does this feeling line up with the testimony of Scripture?
3. How do these chapters give hope and encouragement to God’s people?
4. Read through Exodus 15:1-8. What parallels do you see between that text and Revelation 15:2-4?
5. What does it mean to have a high view of God? How can you cultivate a high view of God? How can we communicate that view to others?
6. Why are the glory and the judgment of God so often seen together? How do these two aspects of His character relate?
7. Why do people fail to repent even upon seeing God’s judgment? How might this inform our evangelism and disciple making?
8. The passage tells us that the time of God’s gracious patience with mankind will come to an end. How should this influence our missionary drive and strategy?
9. What does it mean to stay alert and remain clothed in preparation for Christ’s return? What are some marks of being prepared? Unprepared?
10. Why do people continue to curse God, even to their dying breath? How were you changed from cursing to praising God?