The tribulation period is this time of reclaiming the earth and fulfilling His promises to Israel. Dr. Tony Evans talks about the events laid out in the book of Revelation.
All of this is God's renovating process to purify the earth and reclaim it. This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. The book of Revelation describes seven seals on a prophetic scroll being opened before the return of Christ. Well, today, Dr. Evans explores the contents of those seals and helps decipher their meaning for creation and human history.
Let's join him as he begins. There's this magnificent scene in heaven around the throne where the elders and the living creatures are worshiping God, verse 8, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come. Verse 11, Worthy are you, our Lord and our God, to receive glory, honor, and power, for you created all things, and because of your will they exist and were created.
So they're giving God the glory due His name because of who He is and, of course, the work of creation that He has done. This is being brought out because God is now going to move into a creation that has rebelled against Him. Chapter 5, I saw the right hand of Him who sat on the throne, a book written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book and to break its seals? And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the book or to look into it.
Then I began to weep greatly because no one was found worthy to open the book or to look into it. And one of the elders said to me, Stop weeping. Behold the lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals. We're now introduced to the first series of judgments in the book of Revelation. And I saw, verse 6, between the throne with the four creatures and the elders, a lamb standing as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. Please notice the contrast in verses 5 and 6. In verse 5, he's a lion. In verse 6, he's a lamb, because he's both. The lion, he's king. The lamb, he's the savior. He says, I saw the lion, and he was the lamb. Because the king, by virtue of his work of salvation, has been duly authorized, having completed the word seven, all that he needed to do, Scripture calls it fulfilled all righteousness, is qualified to bring judgment on the earth for the purposes of reclaiming the earth.
And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne. When he had taken the book, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb, each one holding a harp, golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And so, what you have is the prayers being answered for vindication in history. And they sang a new song, saying, Worthy are you—you notice there's a lot of worthy in Revelation—worthy are you to take the book and to break its seals, for you were slain and purchased for God with your blood men from every tribe, every tongue, every people, and every nation. Well beginning in chapter 6, we now see the seals begin to be unveiled. The first series of judgments. The book has been opened and the seal. Then I saw when the lamb broke one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying, as with a voice of thunder, Come.
It's going to be interesting hearing those angels. I looked, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer. What's missing? Arrow.
There's a bow, but there's no arrow. The rapture has occurred. Christians have been taken to heaven, worshiping God around the throne, and now it's the time of tribulation.
Tribulation is a seven-year period that comes after the rapture of the church, where God brings judgment to the earth in order to reclaim it. The first series of judgments are the seals. When the Antichrist comes, he will insert himself into the world, claiming victory—because he has the crown—as the future world leader in order to bring order out of chaos.
Since there is no arrow, it will be a bloodless coup. The second seal, verses 3 and 4. When he broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, Come. And another, a red horse, went out, and to him who sat on it it was granted to take peace from the earth, and that men would slay one another, and a great sword was given to him. The Antichrist is going to switch from being a seemingly peaceful person to one with a great sword. Now he's wielding a sword.
So he's now moved from pretending to be peaceful to being a slayer of men, and so things are going to devolve into social chaos and social conflict. So that's the second seal that's open. The third seal. When he broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, Come.
Look at this. I look and behold a black horse, and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius, and do not damage the oil and the wine. A denarius is a day's wage. In Roman, finance is a denarius with like 16 cents, which was like a day's wage. He says, When chaos breaks out, there will be economic instability so bad that it will take a day's wage to buy a quart of wheat.
In other words, inflation run crazy. The fourth seal, verse 7 and 8, And when the lamb broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, Come. I looked and behold an Asian horse, and he who sat on it had the name Death. And Hades were following with him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth.
This fourth seal is a doozy because this is a pale—that color means pale—it's a pale horse who brings in the aftermath of social conflict and famine due to high inflation and all of that, and he brings to the earth Death to one-fourth of the earth. Verse 9 through 11, the fifth seal, When the lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and because of the testimony which they had maintained. And there was given to each of them a white robe, and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed, even as they had been, would be completed also. In other words, there is a prayer meeting going on in heaven, and the question of those who were there who had been slain because they would not follow the antichrist is, how long before you bring justice and judgment to the unrighteous who are doing this? God tells them, hold on, because I'm going to wait till I finish with all that's taking place here to really unleash.
So he hadn't gotten started yet. So this thing—what you see here is nothing. God is going to allow things to disintegrate. Why is this a seal? Because all the other seals that have been opened, people were not involved with it.
In other words, people were not involved in making it happen. On this seal, God is responding to people who are calling for justice. As a great principle here is, even though you don't see justice right now, even though it's not fair right now, he tells them, hold on, I ain't miss nothing. He says, let me complete what I'm doing, and there will be complete justice on the earth.
We'll move on to the sixth seal when we continue our message in just a moment. First though, I want to tell you about a brand new resource from Dr. Evans called Trusting God in Turbulent Times. This is a 30-day devotional guide that will help you find comfort and strength in God's faithfulness clearly displayed in God's Word, in church history, and in the personal experiences of millions of believers around the world. Every entry in this book contains a relevant scriptural passage and encouraging devotion designed to help you grow through life's difficult seasons and emerge stronger than you were before. We'd like you to be one of the first to receive this new devotional guide, so it's yours with our thanks when you make a contribution to help us keep Tony's teaching on this station. And for a limited time, we're also including all 10 messages from Tony's Revelation series on either CD or digital download. Get in touch with us right away to request it at tonyevans.org or reach out to our resource center at 1-800-800-3222 any time of the day or night. That's 1-800-800-3222. I'll repeat our contact information for you after part two of today's lesson.
Here's Dr. Evans. The sixth seal. I looked when he broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake. And the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood. And the stars of the sky fell to the earth as a fig tree cast its unripe fruit when shaken by a great wind. The sky was split apart like a scroll when it rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of their place. And the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the cave and among the rocks and the mountains. And they said to the mountains and to the rocks, fall on us, hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?
I don't know about you, but I don't want to be here. He says in the sixth seal, there's going to be the disruption of nature, earthquakes so violent mountains are going to crash, you're going to have volcanoes going everywhere creating ash that blocks out the light of the sun. You're going to have people running for their lives, but notice, notice something.
People running for their lives. They're telling the rocks to fall on them from the presence of Him who sits on the throne. That means they know they're under judgment. You would think, if I know I'm under judgment, I'm going to call for help, mercy, deliverance, salvation. But in this context, so many people's hearts will have been hardened toward God. That's how hard the hearts of many will be during this season of the sixth seal, recognizing that they're in the great day of the wrath of God. When the Lamb broke the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. Before I unleash this, does anybody have anything to say? Is there any repentance? You'll see this come up again. Before I let this go, have you had enough? Some have because in chapter seven, many get saved.
But now I'm going to open this thing up. So you got 30 minutes because it don't take that long. If you're serious, you can repent real quick. I saw the seven angels who stand before God in seven trumpets were given to them. Another angel came and stood at the altar holding a golden censer, and much incense was given to him so that he might add it to the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar which was before the throne. So remember, we had saints praying, right? So this incense, which was putting the coals on the altar, illustrating sending up prayers.
You got 30 minutes before I answer these folk prayers, so there's the link. Smoke arises with the prayers of the saints. Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire of the altar and threw it on the earth, and there followed peals of thunder and sounds and flashes and lightning and an earthquake. And the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound them. So what is the seventh seal? The seventh seal is the seven trumpets. In other words, when he gets to the seventh seal, he's opening up a whole new series of seven. So embedded in the seven seals are the seven trumpets, or the new round of wrath, with a 30-minute break. So when you get to this seventh, you didn't open up a whole new round, because the trumpets are in the seventh seal.
And so now that this is opened up, they prepare themselves—we'll look at a couple of these. The first sounded, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and they were thrown to the earth, and a third of the earth was burnt up, and a third of the trees were burnt up. You think them fires in California were something? And all the green grass was burnt up. So you now have a firestorm that affects a third of the whole planet. The second angel sounded, and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood. So that means that there is a scorching taking place of all the fish. A third of the sea—do you know a third of the sea?
That's a lot of water. And a third of the sea became blood, and a third of the creatures which were in the sea and had life died, and a third of the ships were destroyed because of this firestorm from heaven that obliterates a third of the earth. The third angel sounded, and a great star, meteor, asteroid, or something, fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. You know, you see some of these movies where this thing is getting ready to fall, and they talk about the damage that something that big, when it hits, would cause throughout the earth.
This is exactly what he's describing here. The name of the star is called Wormwood. The word Wormwood means bitter. A third of the waters became wormwood, bitter.
You couldn't do anything with them, use them, anything. And many men died from the waters because they were made bitter. We'll finish 12 and 13, verse 12 and 13.
The fourth angel sounded, and a third of the sun, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars were struck, so that a third of them would be darkened, and the day would not shine for a third of it, and the night in the same way. All of this is God's renovating process to purify the earth and reclaim it. To do so, he must rid it of evil, and while it is harsh, it is only harsh because of a refusal by men to respond to God.
Behold then the kindness and severity of God, to those who fail severity, but to you, God's kindness, if you continue in his kindness, otherwise you will also be cut off. There are two sides to God. We talk about the side we like—love, grace, mercy, all that—and he is all of that. In fact, that is the side he prefers. But that's not the only side he has.
He has a severe side. The death of Jesus Christ has freed God up when God poured out his wrath on Christ for us to see his good side. We see the dominance of his good side. Right now, when you see all the evil in the world, you're seeing God's passive wrath, not his active wrath. But once the tribulation period hits, you now flip and you see how serious God can be. So there are two sides to God.
Grace is an invitation to be on his good side. The tribulation period is this time of reclaiming the earth and fulfilling his promises to Israel. Israel is the center of all of this. There's a lot to that, but Israel is the center, which is why there's never any peace over there. And God did something that has never happened in human history.
I'll just throw this out. It's never happened in human history, and only God could do it. A nation stopped being a nation because Israel was dispersed all over the world. God says, I will regather you. God predicted, I'm going to scatter you, but I'm going to regather you. In May 1948, Israel came back together as a nation, never having lost its language.
That's never happened in human history, where a nation stopped being a nation, came back as a nation to their same property without losing their language, even though they were dispersed worldwide. It's never happened before, but God says, I'm going to bring you back together to the four corners of the earth, and when you see revelation unfold, you will see God now keep his promise he made to Abraham way back in the Old Testament. Dr. Tony Evans, on the terrifying yet awe-inspiring truth of God's justice and mercy, as revealed to us in the pages of Revelation. He'll return with a personal follow-up for you in just a moment. Before he does that, though, I encourage you to take advantage of that special two-part resource package I mentioned earlier, all 10 messages from Tony's current sermon series on Revelation, along with his brand new 30-day devotional guide, Trusting God in Turbulent Times. They're both yours with our thanks when you make a donation to help keep this listener-supported program coming your way. Just visit tonyevans.org to make the arrangements, or call our resource center at 1-800-800-3222, where team members are standing by to assist with your request.
That's 1-800-800-3222, or online at tonyevans.org. With the Christmas season just around the corner, you and your kids can experience the animated Stories from the Storyteller Christmas episode. In The Incredible Christmas Dream, Cam's secret plan to rediscover the true meaning of Christmas plays out in surprising ways, and your kids will enjoy seeing how it all comes together.
Be sure to check out The Incredible Christmas Dream and all the other episodes of Stories from the Storyteller at tonyevanstv.com. And now here's Dr. Evans with an important offer to close our broadcast today. If you want to know for certain that you're on your way to heaven when you die, then I invite you right now to go to Jesus Christ and let Him know that you believe He died for you, that you believe He arose for you, and that you want to put your trust in Him alone for the forgiveness of your sins and the gift of eternal life. If you really want to go to heaven, He'll give you a free ticket there, but you must go to Him for it and believe Him to give it to you. If you do that, you'll be saved right now. If you're ready to accept that free ticket to heaven, take the time to visit tonyevans.org and click on the link at the top of the home page that simply says Jesus. Tony has more information there about becoming a follower of Christ as well as free resources to help in your journey. Well coming up tomorrow, a dramatic pause sets the stage for intensifying judgment as God's plan is further exposed through the pages of Revelation. Be sure to join us for that.
