Worldview people refuse to submit their lives to God – or to believe that He even exists at all. This devotional reading looks at what will occur when the wrath of the Lamb is unleashed.
Nuggets
- It can be easy to believe that God isn’t real because we can’t see Him.
- Worldview people will react wrong to the sixth seal.
When the Lamb opened the fifth seal, the martyrs under the altar asked when the Day of the Lord is going to get here. The events of the sixth seal makes it look like that day has finally arrived.
Let's Put It into Context
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Devotions in the Opening the Seals series
The Setting
“When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place” (Rev. 6: 12-14 ESV)
It can be easy to believe that God isn’t real because we can’t see Him.
One day, every living person will now understand that the Day of the Lord has arrived. Nature will feel God’s wrath.
Great Earthquake
I don’t think this is going to be a report of an earthquake in the Middle East. Many are going to feel it.
Is this going to be globally? I originally thought so.
Now, I am not so sure.
Maybe it will go both ways. Earthquakes will happen more frequently all over the place as the earth is winding up for the Day of the Lord.
I think Revelation 20: 11 could be described as an earthquake. We would be like John, using our knowledge and experiences to describe what is happening.
The Sun, Moon, and Stars
The sun, moon, and stars are another matter. That is going to affect everyone.
We only have one sun and one moon. We all see stars in the night sky, even if they may not be the same stars seen elsewhere.
This has been foretold, also.
- “And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls” (Joel 2: 30-32 ESV).
- “Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining” (Joel 3: 14-15 ESV).
- “The Lord roars from Zion, and utters his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth quake. But the Lord is a refuge to his people, a stronghold to the people of Israel” (Joel 3: 16 ESV).
Seiss talked about this being an eclipse. I don’t think so. This isn’t something that is going to be over in five or ten minutes.
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This is permanent.
Plus, I don’t think it will be the sun going dark because the moon is passing between it and us. I think the sun, moon, and stars will completely vanish.
Everything Vanishes and Is Removed
How could the worldview people explain away all of this? Earthquake, sun, moon, stars, sky, mountains, and islands will be having issues all at the same time.
You know, it really does sound like it is Revelation 20: 11 happening. “… From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them” (Rev. 20: 11 ESV).
If this is Revelation 20, they aren’t going to have time to explain it. Or are they?
The Players
“Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?’” (Rev. 6: 15-17 ESV)
Worldview people will react wrong to the sixth seal.
Some sermons that I read said that this was the last thing that happened on this earth. It was the last prayer meeting.
If we look back at Revelation 6: 14, it says, “The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up …” (Rev. 6: 12-14 ESV). This doesn’t sound like it will happen instantaneously.
There will be time to pray.
Kings, Great Ones, Generals, the Rich and the Powerful — Everyone, Slave and Free
Everyone — including the rich and powerful — face the ultimate choice.
Ooo, baby. That is a bunch of people who will attend what many have been calling the last prayer meeting.
And it isn’t going to be just a select group of people who don’t believe. Representation is going to be from every group of people.
Well, Jesus said that is the way it is going to be. “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Mt. 7: 13-14 ESV).
I can see one of their issues. It is a control thing. They either think they are in control of everything, or they feel life is so out of control, that is their only focus.
We may be great in this world, but we are not greater than God. “Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him” (Jn. 13: 16 ESV).
Were they going to accept Jesus as their Savior and Redeemer now, or continue the way they had always been and reject Him? If this is the last prayer meeting, this is going to be their last chance.
I don’t know if I agree with that. It reads all judgment to me. If this is Revelation 20: 11, the time for choosing God has passed.
We know there will be a time when our fate is sealed. There will be no deathbed confession available.
If God allowed people to turn to Him when the Day of the Lord is upon us — and this sounds like it is it — it wouldn’t be faith – it would be sight. Turning to God on the Day of the Lord wouldn’t be because we wanted to obey Him. It would be so He could save us.
God isn’t going to accept that. Blackburn told us why. He wrote,
“No real Christians will be there. Mere professors and pretenders, deceived in heart or deceiving the very elect, and prayerless in their lives, may be expected; and when there they will contribute their part for the first time to the interest of a meeting, for they will pray voluntarily and with an earnestness they never knew before. What are to be the exercises, the services? No reading of the Word of God. None in that assembly will wish to hear it read or explained. They disowned it once, they dislike it still, for it must expose their sins and neglects. No preaching, because the day for that has passed. No psalms nor spiritual songs. To what will they pray? Not to God. At sea, when the tempest is raging, and all human control of the ship is lost, when the masts are torn away and the next wave that sweeps the deck may bury the company in the deep, the passengers and crew lift their entreaties, not to the storm, not to the waves, but to God, their only resort and refuge. But the prayer at this last meeting is not to God, nor is it to men. In their fears they call upon the mountains. Unwilling to call upon God in the day of prosperity, and disliking to have friends pray for them, their aversion clings to them as a fixed habit, and they are still determined not to cry unto the Lord.”
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In Elaine-speak – even then, their prayers — regardless of how earnestly offered — won’t be sincere.
So, no. Their prayers won’t be answered. They don’t really believe in prayers because they really don’t believe in God.
They didn’t accept a loving God, so how are they going to become obedient to a wrathful God? They didn’t accept Jesus when He came in love. They aren’t going to like it when He comes as Judge.
Those who haven’t ABCDed should be afraid of God on the Day of the Lord.
The saddest part is they won’t accept God even when the evidence is right in front of them. Instead of admitting they are getting what they deserve, they want to run and hide. They would rather be killed by the mountains and rocks rather than face God.
That isn’t going to go their way either, but that is for another chapter.
What we see here is abject fear.
We need to decide now whether to accept or reject God’s offer of salvation before the decision is taken away from us. A non-decision is a decision to reject God.
We need to make our prayers count now.
Hid in the Caves and Mountains
They chose wrong. They chose to hide from God, not run toward Him.
This was foretold, also. “The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed. Thorn and thistle shall grow up on their altars, and they shall say to the mountains, ‘Cover us,’ and to the hills, ‘Fall on us.’” (Hos. 10: 8 ESV).
They chose sin. Aitken contended there is a unity in sin but not an overall unity.
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Ooo, baby. I get that. Everyone just wants their way to be right. They want what they want.
Now, they are just desperate. They presumed they knew how everything was going to end. They were wrong.
But then, it doesn’t really sound like God’s offer of salvation is still open.
From the Wrath of the Lamb
When we think of wrath, we generally think of the wrath of God. The worldview people here just want to hide from God.
It is the wrath of the Lamb that scares them.
Oh, yeah. That is the direct opposite of the Jesus-just-came-to-love-us mentality.
No, it is not contradictory.
The Homilist’s explained how this is. It is written in The Wrath of the Lamb that “This wrath of the ‘Lamb’ is not a passion, but a principle. It is not malign, but benevolent. It is not against existence, but against its sins and its crimes.”
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Okay, I get that. God doesn’t have emotions that fluctuate. He has attributes that are unchanging.
Love isn’t an emotion. It is an attribute.
Wrath isn’t an emotion. It is an attribute.
That is why the Lamb’s wrath is not contrary to His nature, as Matheson believed. It is His nature.
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If the Lamb loves purity, He hates impurity. He hates sin. (By the way, I think Matheson got to this realization before the end of his sermon when he said that this is the wrath of love.)
If we believed wrath wasn’t the Lamb’s nature, we may try to justify a sin by saying He’ll let this one slip by.
That isn’t going to happen.
Bushnell explained why we can’t only see the Lamb as gentle. We can’t see Him as a victim. We must see Him as the King of kings.
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We’ve got to believe that God and Jesus hate what God has established is sin.
The Great Day of Wrath
So, are the sixth seal and Revelation 20: 11 the same thing?
Are the Day of the Lord, Judgment Day, and “… the great day of their wrath…” (Rev. 6: 17 ESV) the same thing?
I think so. (This is another argument for Revelation not being in chronological order.)
If it is, why go into it twice?
Well, there is precedence. Genesis 1 and 2 do the same thing. Chapter 1 is more of an overview. More detail is given in Chapter 2 on part of it.
One day, God’s patience and Jesus’ patience is going to run out. Their wrath will come spreading over the universe.
This is no mere idle threat.
There is something we cannot forget. The worldview people brought this on themselves by not believing in the Lamb.
God didn’t set out to punish them for no reason. They were and are condemned (Jn. 3: 18 ESV).
Yeah, people will be crying out to have the terror stop. The rocks and mountains aren’t going to be of any help to the worldview people.
In truth, I don’t think it will last long.
But there will be eternal consequences.
Who Can Stand
The only ones who will be able to stand are those who have ABCDed.
We have just seen that we cannot stand on our own. We must have put our faith in Jesus as our Savior. “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock” (Isa. 26: 3-4 ESV).
The Homilist had an interesting take. In Who Shall be Able to Stand in the Last Judgment, it talked about not having enough evidence to convict.
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Isn’t this a little different than we think?
When we think about separating the sheep from the goats, we think the sheep will be culled first (Mt. 25: 32-40). We call this the Rapture.
But then we have Matthew 7: 21-23. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
Jesus is saying there won’t be enough evidence to convict them.
Making the Connections #1
Aitken made a fantastic observation. He wrote, “People seem rather to aim at employing vague expressions than making their wants known in a spirit of believing supplication to God.”
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I agree, and I disagree. We are very general about praying for forgiveness for our sins but are every explicit in outlining what we want.
Our prayers to God must not only be genuine but must be specific. A blanket forgive-me-of-my-sins could mean we really don’t think we have sinned because we can’t name them.
Or it could mean that we don’t think God will forgive us even if we ask.
Our prayers have to be genuine.
How Do We Apply This?
- Acknowledge that God and Jesus have both attributes of love and wrath.
- Accept that Their patience is going to be gone one day.
- Don’t reject the gospel — embrace Jesus as your Savior.
- Walk in the Spirit until Jesus returns.
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Father God. We praise Your name because of the love You have shown for us. You sent Your Son to die to redeem us. Lord, it breaks our hearts that some refuse to acknowledge You and submit to Your Will. Your Word says that even to the end, when they see things vanishing, they will still refuse to acknowledge You. Lord, we don’t want to be among their number on the Day of the Lord. Help us grow closer to You. Amen.
What do you think?
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