TOPIC:“The Execution of the Bowl Judgments”
by Rev. Dr. Reg Dunlap
TEXT:Revelation 16:1-21
“And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels,
Go your ways, and pour the bowls of the wrath of God upon the earth” (16:1)
As we come to this chapter in Revelation, the pouring out of the seven bowl judgments, it is most important that we understand something of the continuity of this section as it relates both to the seal and trumpet judgments. After the sounding of the seventh trumpet the heavenly Temple is opened according to 11:19. Putting aside the interluding material of chapters 12 through 14 which was injected by the author, we find John with the second sight of the same opened Temple as recorded in 15:5 and 6, with the seven angels coming out of it with the seven plagues or seven bowl judgments. This is where chapter 16 begins with the pouring out of these bowl judgments during the last half of the Tribulation, and with some coming near the very end of the great Tribulation just prior to the Lord's return in glory.
These bowl judgments fall successively, but not simultaneously, and increase in severity and intensity as they are poured out. That they follow one another with a brief period separating each one, and the effects of each continuing while the next one is being released upon the earth, is supported by the following facts. (1) The bowls are poured out one by one and are listed by number indicating they follow in relatively rapid succession. (2) The effects of the painful sores of the first bowl judgment (16:2) are still being felt by the worshippers of the beast at the time of the fifth bowl judgment. The sores are originally given in the first bowl. (3) At the end of the bowl judgments the call goes out from the Temple, “It is done” (16:17). In other words, the successive judgments have been completed.
A great voice is heard by John, undoubtedly the voice of God, out of the smoke filled Temple commanding the seven angels to go forth and pour out the bowls of divine wrath upon the earth. Each angel as the call comes successively pours out the contents of their bowl. The word “bowls” or as the King James Version has it “vials,” comes from the Greek word “phiate” which means a “bowl.” Both words are acceptable to use. The bowl judgments, often called plagues, are directed primarily to the beast and his followers during the great Tribulation. They differ from the seals and the trumpets as they are not partial in their effects, but universal in their judgments on the inhabitants of the earth. Their intensity is far greater than either of the seal or trumpet judgments as God not without mercy inflicts His divine wrath on a deserving earth. These bowl judgments come out of and make up the seventh trumpet.
Let us consider the fundamental character of each of . . .