We Only Know Part Of The Story

God will judge the world, and he has given us an outline of how that judgment will go.  It will start with God allowing mankind to try to control human relations, proving they aren’t even capable of making peace or preventing starvation or diseases such as COVID 19.  Then he will allow nature to run amok to demonstrate they can’t control nature either, despite their claims that they can control global warning. With the first four trumpets he begins to actively punish them for their lack of belief, causing supernatural events that destroy nature as we know it.  The fifth and sixth trumpets are creatures that attack those who do not serve God personally.  Despite this, most of mankind chooses to follow Satan. 

While those seals and trumpets are taking place, other things will be happening as well.   In Acts 1:7, Jesus told his disciples, “…It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.”  In Revelation 10:1-4 we learn there are other things we do not know either.  “And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire: And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth, And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices.  And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not.” 

In Daniel 12:9. The Lord told Daniel, “… Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.”  The Angel told John the same thing about what the seven thunders said.  People tend to get distracted about details and forget what they are supposed to do.  To prevent this, God has only told us what we need to know in order to trust him in the situations we face.  They are not to frighten us, but to encourage us by reminding us that it is all going according to God’s plan.

The angels were very clear that when the last trumpet sounds, the world we know will be changed, and people will clearly see God’s working, as Revelation 10:5-7 tells us.  “And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer: But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.”

John wrote the book of Revelation about 90-95 AD.  He had been preaching for almost sixty years, and probably felt it was almost time to retire especially after some of the persecution he had experienced.  At the time, he had been banished to Isle of Patmos so that he couldn’t preach to anyone.  The Lord made it clear his ministry was not finished, in Revelation 10:8-11.  “And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth.  And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.

And I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.  And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.”  The message John would give would be sweet initially, but later it would upset his stomach.  Today, as we talk about the Lord’s return and spending eternity in heaven, it is very sweet, but it can be very troubling to realize what people will go through before it happens. 

For those who are alive at the time, it will be very unpleasant.  In Matthew 24:15-22 Jesus warned, “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.  And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!

But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.   And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.”  As we saw in the fifth seal in Revelation 6:9-11, many believers will be killed and some who claim to be believers will turn away.  If God didn’t limit the time, no one would survive.  It isn’t hard to understand why such a sweet message would leave John with an upset stomach.  While the Judgment will be for those who reject God, believer’s lives will be affected by them as well.