Revelation Chapter Sixteen Part I

Revelation 16:1 “And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.”

Here, at the beginning of the outpouring of God’s wrath on unbelievers, let us recall that at this time all of God’s people, which are believing Jews and believing Gentiles, are gathered near His throne at the glassy sea in heaven (Rev 7:9; 15:2). Only unbelievers, recipients of the mark of the beast, and those that worship the Dragon, the beast (the Antichrist) and his false prophet are remaining on earth. Thus all the things that occur in chapters 16, 17, and 18, are directed at those unbelievers, as well as the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet.

This is the voice of God. The wrath of God at the end of the age begins. Note that the harvest of the earth (Joel 3:13; Rev 14:15,16) has occurred as well as the vintage. The vintage, or the grapes of God’s wrath are gathered and are about to be trodden in the winepress of the wrath of God. (Isa 63:3; Joel 3:13; Rev 14:19,20).

We saw in Revelation chapter 14 that the harvest of the earth is the gathering of Christ’s “elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Mat 24:31). We also saw that the vintage is the gathering of the unsaved unbelievers into “great winepress of the wrath of God” (Deu 32:5,32,33; Isa 63:2,3,4; Rev 14:19).

Let us once again discuss the difference between tribulation and wrath. Starting with wrath, the first thing we must remember is that the wrath of God is cast upon His enemies—those that do not believe on Christ, the Son of God, as their Savior. In this context, it is poured out on those that are left on earth after all believers are gathered unto Christ at the end of the age (Mat 24:29,30,31; Mar 13:24,25; 1 Cor 15:52,53,54; 1 Thes 14:16,17; Rev 14:15,16). God would never pour out his wrath on faithful believers. That does not negate the fact the He will lovingly discipline believers when they occasionally stray (Deu 8:5, Pro 3:12; Heb 12:6,7; Rev 3:19). God’s wrath is reserved for the guilty, the sinful, the unrepentant, the unsaved, the Godless, and God haters. See Gal 4:19-21.

Tribulation, on the other hand, is the negative actions and circumstances of our daily lives, and is also the wrath of Satan and unbelievers against believers (Rev 12:17; Mat 20:22; Luk 6:22). We must endure such things on earth. We all experience tribulation; it is a natural occurrence in our lives. Some tribulation is worse than other periods of tribulation. There is a Great Tribulation coming that will separate the wheat from the tares (Mat 13:25-30) and the sheep from the goats (Mat 25:32). That is Satan’s tribulation against those whom he hates, which are believers in Christ (Eph 6:11; 1 Pet 5:8; Rev 12:17). That Great Tribulation Occurs before our gathering to Christ at the end of the age (Mat 24:29; Rev 12:17; Rev chapters 13-14).

There are many today that have the terms tribulation and wrath mixed up. They seemingly substitute the word ‘tribulation’ for the wrath of God. Accordingly, they believe in a “pre-tribulation rapture.” However, they seem to forget about the wrath of Satan taken against believers in Christ that occurs before God’s wrath is poured out on unbelievers. Thus, many of those folks wrongly believe that “we won’t be here“¹ when that tribulation occurs. Those people are in for a sore awakening if they are alive at the end of the age. Christians alive at the end of the age will experience this tribulation from the Dragon, who is Satan and from the two end times beasts who are the Antichrist and the False Prophet. The doctrine of pre-tribulation rapture is one of Satan’s deceptions that occur near the end of the age (Mat 24:11; 1 Tim 4:1; 2 Pet 2:1; 1 Joh 4:1; Jud 1:4; Rev 19:20).

In Revelation 14:18,19, & 20, we saw God gathering unbelievers to cast them “into the great winepress of the wrath of God” (Rev 14:19). This is the wrath of God against unbelievers. It is not the tribulation of Satan against believers we saw beginning in Rev 13:7.

Julia Ward Howe wrote, “Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword; His Truth is marching on! Glory! glory, hallelujah! Glory! glory, hallelujah! Glory! glory, hallelujah! Our God is marching on.²” This stanza sums up the entire span of the outpouring of God’s wrath against unbelievers at the end of the age. It includes the winepress of God’s wrath, the sword out of the mouth of the Lamb (Rev 14:20; 19:15), and the glory of Christ’s great victory over the dragon, the beast, the false prophet, and their armies (Rev.19,20,21).

Revelation 16:2 “And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.”

In the curses and blessings lists in Deuteronomy 28, one of the curses is similar to this plague: If the Israelites would not listen to the voice of Yahweh and observe all His commandments and statutes, several curses would come upon them and one them is described in Deu 28:35, “The LORD shall smite thee in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore botch that cannot be healed, from the sole of thy foot unto the top of thy head.”

However, this is much more comparable to the sixth plague in Egypt (Exo 9:10-11). There Aaron took handfuls of ashes from a furnace tossed them into the air toward heaven and the resulting dust spread over the land of Egypt causing boils on both humans and animals. The boils were numerous on each individual and very painful. Even the Magicians who were members of the King’s Council were afflicted to the point where they could not stand. If the reader has ever suffered from just one boil, it is obvious how painful many would be. Those boils were grievous sores upon all the people of Egypt.

The Greek word in our verse, rendered ‘noisome’ in the KJV is rendered loathsome, painful, foul, malignant, festering, harmful, etc. in other translations. The Lexicons define it as bad, base, wrong, wicked, troublesome, injurious, pernicious, destructive, etc.

The rendering of the word ‘sore’ by the KJV translators, is from a Greek word meaning an ulcer. An ulcer is a generic term for a lesion that is painful, necrotic, and accompanied by the formation of pus. That is also the definition of a boil, which is a lesion.

Notice that this outpouring of God’s wrath falls on people that take the mark of the beast and worship him and his image. In Egypt the plagues fell upon the Pharaoh and his subjects because of Pharaoh’s hardened heart. If the leader’s heart was hardened it is likely that the leading citizens’ and most of the peoples’ hearts were hardened as well and in agreement with Pharaoh.

We need to realize the most important thing we should understand about these plagues in Egypt and in the future kingdom. That important thing is that God sent the plagues upon Egypt to get the Pharaoh to repent and to let God’s people go. Pharaoh did repent³ for a time after the death of the first born of Egypt and he did let the people go. But he also repented of his earlier repentance and pursued Israel in order to enslave them again. We know the result of that. Pharaoh’s army was drowned in the Red Sea.

In the bowls’ plagues here in Revelation we are told over and over that even though men will suffer greatly under these great plagues, they will refuse to repent. Almighty God knows the future and He knows that unbelievers will not repent; they will just get angrier because of their hardened hearts.

Eventually they will become angry enough to attempt to attack and defeat Christ by gathering together as a massive army to meet Christ on the battlefield where they will be killed (Dan 8:25; Rev 16:14,16; 19:19).

God knew that Pharaoh would change his mind, about releasing the Israelites and He knows that those under the wrath of God will never repent. Thus, God is justified in his dealings with such people (Romans 1:18-23).

Revelation 16:3-4 “And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man; and every living soul died in the sea. {4} And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood.

The vials of the second and third angels parallel the second and third trumpets in chapter eight of Revelation (Rev 8:8,9,10,11) as well as the first plague in Egypt (Exo 7:20,21). This is a recapping or recapitulation of those trumpet judgments, while the plague in Egypt was a historical precursor or type. Remember that recapitulation re-examines a subject previously revealed that John further elaborates, giving greater details and deeper insight.

These two vials or bowls that the angels poured out turned all the waters on the earth to blood. That includes seas (gulfs, bays, estuaries, etc.) rivers (streams, creeks, etc.) springs (wells, water tables, etc.), which basically includes every water source on earth.

A note here, the TR and the Majority Texts state: “and the second angel poured…” The Critical Texts leave out the word angel: “and the second poured…” Of course, angel is implied due to the introduction of the seven angels in Rev 16:1. In the Critical Texts, this and the succeeding five verses concerning the vials of God’s wrath, only the ordinal is used leaving out the word ‘angel.’ However, we will continue with our convention of using the KJV (except where noted), which is from the TR (Textus Receptus).

We read that, when the first of these vials is poured out, the sea becomes like “the blood of a dead man.” A study of the blood of the deceased shows us that the blood of a living person is fast-flowing and vibrant, unlike the ‘blood of a dead man.” After death, blood flow immediately stops, gravity causes the blood to pool in the lower areas of the body, putrefaction begins, blood separates, there is some coagulation, and eventually, if the body is left unattended, the blood will completely coagulate. As putrefaction occurs the odor becomes offensive. This adds to the total dreadfulness of the situation.

The first plague in Egypt included all the waters in that land and there was no source of water to drink for seven days. The Egyptians searched in vain for sources of water and eventually had to dig into the ground near the river to find potable water (Exo 7:24). Thus, it is possible that the people on Earth when this vial is poured out will still have some potable water available somewhere, though not in great quantities.

There must be some water available for consumption in order for the unbelieving peoples on earth to remain alive during these judgments. There will be people living on earth until at least the sixth vial is poured out. That is when “the kings of earth and the whole world” will come together battle at Armageddon. (Rev 16:14,16).

The lack of water is a very terrible event even if there is some potable water available. The stench of the putrefied blood and the dying and rotting sea creatures should be enough to bring people to their senses, but it does not. Even with some drinking water available the suffering will be unbearable. There is a distinct reason for the water becoming blood. The angel tells us the reason in verse six: the evil people that persecuted the saints, “have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink” (Rev 16:6).

This author lived in Tampa Florida, during the toxic red tide⁴ blooms that occasionally occur there. The stench of dead sea creatures lying on the beaches because of the red tide was unbearable. However, that was a small location. Living things in all the waters everywhere will die making for extreme malodorous conditions worldwide. Let us be certain though; John is not discussing the red tide, but the judgment of God.

The second trumpet was sounded and a mountainous object was cast into the sea and turned the sea to blood killing sea creatures (Rev 8:8). The third trumpet sounded and a star called Wormwood dropped on to the waters on the land. The waters include the rivers, streams, creeks, springs, wells, water tables, etc. Those waters turned bitter and were unfit for consumption, killing many. The parallel of waters turning to blood and killing sea creatures and causing people to not be able to drink is similar to the waters being bitter, which has the same effects on people.

We must note that the plagues in Egypt were unsuccessful in moving Pharaoh’s heart to let God’s people leave until the most horrendous plague of all—the death of firstborn of both humans and animals occurred. Yet, even after Pharaoh let the Israelites go, he changed his mind and pursued them until he lost thousands of his men, and Pharaoh himself; they all drowned in the sea (Psa 136:15).

The parallels are unmistakable. The seven vials will not persuade people to repent, they will refuse to do so. They will assemble an army (Rev 16:14) that will eventually all die by the spoken word of Messiah at a place called Armageddon (literally the hills of Megiddo). Just like Pharaoh, the Kings of earth will not repent and will curse God (Rev 16:11; 21). The kings and their army will be destroyed just like Pharaoh and his army.

Revelation 16:5 “And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus.

The angel of the waters is the angel in the previous verse that “poured out his
vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters.” These are righteous and just judgments. They are fair. Did not an angel circumnavigate the globe presenting the Gospel to all nations, kindreds, and tongues? Everyone alive during the time of the beast will have an opportunity to repent and get right with God. It appears that most won’t (See also Ps 119:137).

We have heard that ignorance of the law is no excuse but in this case the angel gave everyone a chance to repent and turn from his or her sins and be delivered from these plagues and judgments. Thus there is no ignorance of that judgment. Each one that received the mark of the beast had a choice. Many chose to take the mark. Their choice was already made by this time and they are worthy of God’s wrath (Gal 5:19,20,21).

Revelation 16:6 “For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.

History shows that the Israelites entangled themselves with pagans and began to worship their idols. In doing so they joined in the practice of sacrificing their children to demons such as Moloch at Tophet, and to Pan at Bania, which was later called Caesarea Philippi. It sits at the base of Mt. Hermon, and at the headwaters of the Jordan, where Pan was worshipped. Many also sacrificed to other pagan gods like Cronus and the Baals.

We read where prophets were mistreated, scourged, slain, sawn in half, and tormented (Heb 11:36-37). King Saul had priests killed (1 Sam 22:16,17). Jezebel murdered some of the prophets (1 Kin 18:4, 13). We read in Rev 17:6 where Mystery Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots was “drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus” (Rev 17:6)

In history and in the future the blood of God’s people was shed will be shed. Those that shed that blood during the time of the dragon, the beast, the false prophet, and their followers will be recompensed by turning all the waters on earth to blood. God is worthy for He tells us, “To me belongeth vengeance, and recompense; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste” (Deu 32:35). Additionally this verse tells us that all those that have sinned throughout history will be judged for their sins on judgment day if they do not have Jesus as their Savior.

Revelation 16:7 “And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.”

God’s works have been manifested before humans since the Garden of Eden. His works are readily seen in the heavens and in the beauty and majesty of the earth and the entire creation. Thus humans are without excuse when rejecting God. It is their own choice to refuse to repent so they are righteously judged and they have no defense (Psalm 19:1-7; 119:137,142,144,152; Rom 1:16-32). Therefore all the judgments, of the Lord God Almighty, including those listed in our passage are indeed righteous and true.

Revelation 16:8 “And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.”

The angel only pours out his vial upon the sun. The angel does not scorch men; the sun and the fiery heat do that. The Greek word for sun, ηλιος, helios, is a masculine noun. Thus, in the Greek, the pronoun for the sun is “him.” In English we would say “it was given to it to scorch…” The KJV retains the original Greek gender when translating this verse.

Let us restate the verse a bit: “The fourth [angel] poured out his vial onto the sun. Power was given to it [the sun] to scorch men with fire.

There are understandably some commentators that disagree with this position. Many say the word, ‘him’ refers to the angel. Others opine that the use of the pronoun ‘him’ means that John personified the sun. The angel did his job by simply pouring out his vial. That angel himself did not scorch humans—the sun did.

Unlike the first three angels, who poured their vial into (εις, eis) the earth, the sea, and the rivers, this angel poured his vial upon, (επι, epi) or onto the sun. Since this vial was poured upon or onto the sun, this seems to have an effect on the surface of the sun. The verse tells what the effect is.

The cause is that the sun was able to somehow increase its output of heat. Some commentators point out that this is a curse, and the sun was cursed causing its heat and radiation output to dramatically increase. Rev 16:9 explains that this is not actual fire, but great (fierce, intense) mega-heat from the sun. The Greek literally says καυμα μεγα, or mega-heat.

Almighty God, Yahweh is all powerful. He created he universe, the earth, our solar system, and our sun. If He created the sun, He certainly has the power to increase its heat output. The sun also does that naturally. The sun has a natural eleven year cycle of sunspot activity. Sunspot occurrences increase and decrease during this cycle.

When sunspot activity is lower the temperature of the sun lowers and as sunspots increase, so does the sun’s temperature. These cycles are known as solar minimum when activity is at its lowest, and solar maximum when activity is highest. As sunspot activity waxes and wanes, the earth’s global temperature responds accordingly. Since God originally created it this way, He quite obviously can alter that activity and cause the heat to intensify.

In midsummer, the heat of the sun can be unbearably hot is some places. Death Valley in the USA is one where in summer one can expect high temperatures of 110°F to 120°F+. Normally, the sun can scorch and blister skin, cause lesions, cause skin cancer, etc. In summer, barren wildernesses like those in the Levant⁵, the sun can be unbearable. God is able to make the sun much hotter than that. He makes it so hot that it scorches like naked flame at all times.

Revelation 16:9 “And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.”

These folks suffered intensely. Jesus tells about a sower who sowed some of his seeds on rocky ground where there was little soil. When the seeds germinated, the soil was thin and lacked moisture to support the plants, so the hot sun scorched them. The scorching sun dried the moisture out of them and took away the life of those plants. We see a similar situation here. Instead of causing them to repent and turn to God for mercy, they blasphemed Him.

Speaking of the enemy that would come against Jerusalem, God told Jeremiah, “In that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A scorching wind from the bare heights in the wilderness in the direction of the daughter of My people–not to winnow and not to cleanse, a wind too strong for this–will come at My command; now I will also pronounce judgments against them.” (Jer 4:11-12, NASB)

God was comparing the assault of the Babylonian armies to the scorching of the sun on a hot day. This wind was not to sort the good people from the evil, or cleanse them, but to judge them for their sins. Many lost their lives when Babylon exiled the people of Jerusalem. We see a similar thing here in our verse. These vials of wrath were judgements against evil people that reject Yahweh and His mercy.

There are many places in the Testaments where fire is used as punishment. If the virgin daughter of a priest commits adultery win a man, the daughter was to be burned to death with fire (Lev 21:9) and the man stoned to death (Deut 22:24). Adultery with both a man’s wife and daughter would result in all three being burned to death (Lev 20:14).

Unrepentant people are shown to be killed by fire in Rev 9:18, and again at the sounding of the first trumpet in Rev 8:7. God used fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 19:24). He rained fire mixed with hail on the Egyptians in the seventh plague (Exo 9:24; Psa 105:32). Fire from Yahweh consumed Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron for burning incense in the tabernacle with unauthorized fire (Lev 10:1; Num 3:4; 26:61). Let us not forget the flames of Hell/Hades (Luk 16:24).

This verse shows exactly how black the heart of humans can be. Rather that admit they were sinners and turn away from their sin and worship Christ, and get relief from these plagues, these folks cursed and blasphemed God for giving them their just due. The heart of mankind is desperately wicked (Jer 17:9). They were unrepentant (Rev 9:20; 16:11). This begs the question, will those cast into Hell also be so unrepentant?

Revelation 16:10-“And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,”

The seat or throne of the beast is the capital or the seat of the government of his kingdom. There have been many suggestions as to location of this seat. Some suggestions have been Rome, Jerusalem, a major financial center like New York, or London, etc., or Mecca, or the rebuilt city of Babylon in Iraq.⁶ However we are not given the exact location.

This city is described as the great prostitute sitting upon many waters with whom the kings of earth have committed fornications and made the inhabitants of earth drunk with the wine of her fornication in Rev 17:1,2.

It is a kingdom with whom the world had committed idolatry, which the Scripture refers to here as “fornication.” This is the kingdom of the beast and false prophet described in Revelation chapter13. John gives us a description of this kingdom that provides some insight into its location.

It is a kingdom made up of the geographical areas of ancient Babylon, Persia, and Macedonia combined. Read the comments beginning in Revelation 13:2, where the kingdom of the Beast or Antichrist is described.

The seat or capital of the dragon’s kingdom is what this plague is directed at. That is where the leaders of the apostate peoples of the world will worship the Beast; it is a place deserving of God’s wrath, and the heat of the scorching sun will torment those there. John gives a complete description of the over-all workings of that dreadful place. We will read about its destruction in Revelation chapter 18.

The darkness filling his kingdom is as the darkness in the ninth plague in Egypt (Exo 10:21). The darkness there is described as thick or dense, and able to be felt by the people. One may think of thick of dense fog that prevents one from seeing more the a few inches from one’s eyes. The effect of the darkness on the people of Egypt is also described in Exo 10:23, “They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days.” That is similar situation to what the followers of the beast experience.

I addition to the all-consuming darkness that nearly completely obscures men’s vision, the scorching heat of the sun is still present in this darkness. This causes excruciating pain, which when added to the disorientation caused by the darkness, causes people to gnaw their tongues in pain.

Revelation 16:11 “And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.”

No matter what occurs, the folks that have worshipped the beast and joined in his evil, will never admit to wrongdoing. They will feel like they have been abandoned by God, when the reality of their situation is that He never abandoned them; they have rejected and turned away from Him. They will never turn aside from their hardened hearts and in the end will be destroyed (2 Tim 3:12,13). The purpose of the Egyptian plagues was to produce repentance in Pharaoh’s heart so he would release the Israelites from their bondage. It was also to show the Egyptians that their gods were no gods at all and to place their trust in Yahweh instead. Often God brought trouble on His people Israel to repent of their sins and turn back to God. This they often did, but not always. When they would not repent after God gave them ample time to do so, He would punish them. That is what is going on here, but God already knew they would not repent. So they suffered.

Revelation 16:12 “And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.”

In Rev 9:15 the sixth angel sounds his trumpet and the four angels bound at the river Euphrates are released “to slay the third part of men. See the notes there. The similarities between the two are important. The first is the number six and the second is the river Euphrates. It is the sixth angel in each case that takes some action associated with the same river, the Euphrates.

God created the heavens and the earth. On the sixth day of Creation, God created humans, which are to labor for six days and rest on the seventh. Six hundred thousand men left Egypt in the Exodus. Pharaoh took six hundred chariots with him in pursuit of the Israelites that fled Egypt. The people gathered manna for six days and on the sixth day they gathered enough to last through the Sabbath. The glory of the LORD stayed six days upon mount Sinai before calling for Moses to go into the midst of the cloud. There are several sixes in the Tabernacle: six curtains, six boards, and six branches of the menorah. Men were allowed to farm the land for six years, then let it lie fallow every seventh year. When numbering the armies of men, the number six is frequently used.

Notice how often that the number six is used in conjunction with people. Thus we see that a major use of the number six often refers to the numbers and activities of people. We could say, as many commentators have indicated, that, in the Scriptures six is the number of man.

The Euphrates river is mentioned several times in the Scriptures. It is one of the rivers flowing out of the Garden of Eden. It is the northern boundary of the land God gave to Abraham. It was a barrier that protected Israel from invasion by the kings north and east of the river. Yet God allowed both the Assyrians and the Babylonians to attack and conquer Israel and Judah and to exile them from their lands because of their sin. The kings of the east, that is, those that crossed the Euphrates and conquered Israel over the centuries include the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Grecians, Romans, Ottomans, and others.

There were two major crossings of waterways in the Scriptures: the crossing by the Moses and the Israelites of the Red Sea and the crossing of the Jordan by Joshua and Israel. In both cases the waters dried up and left dry ground for the people to cross (Exo 14:22; Jos 3:17). In both cases God forced the water to move aside and allow the people the walk through the waterway on dry ground.

We know that the vial poured out by the angel causes the Euphrates to dry up. This is to prepare a way for the kings of the east. We see from our history above, that the kings of the east represent the enemies of Israel. We also note that they each crossed the Euphrates to enter the Levant to do their conquering.

Israel has always represented God’s people beginning with the Ten Tribes in the Old Testament. Since the advent of Christ, God’s people now include faithful Israelites/Israelis and Christians or the people, both Jew and Gentile, who believe in Christ as Savior (Rom 1:16; 2:9,10; 3:29,30; 10:12; 1 Cor 12:13; Gal 3:28,29; Col 3:11).

In Rev 16: 13-14 We see unclean spirits in the shape of frogs go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle on “that great day of God Almighty.” We see these kings prepared for battle in Rev 19:15 & 19. What we see here is the people of God being attacked by the kings of the east and the whole world. These armies are made up of those same types of people we saw in Rev 16:11; they are arrayed against God Almighty and His people.

Revelation 16:13-14 “And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. {14} For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.”

John says that these spirits that are like frogs are demonic—the spirits of devils. The word rendered “devils” is from daimon, which means demon. These demons go out and cause the kings to come together to do battle with God. Symbolically speaking, the Dragon, the beast, and the false prophet issue proclamations to the kings of earth to come together prepared for battle.

The unclean spirits issue forth with from the mouths of the Dragon, the beast, and the false prophet, because they are edicts from them. An edict is a statement with the power of enforcement behind it. Statements come from a mouth. These statements come from the mouths of the Dragon, the beast, and the false prophet and are delivered via the unclean spirits. These demons are able to perform supernatural signs and wonders.

Do you know Jesus Christ as your Savior? He is going to return to the world soon. Are you ready? When He does if you do not know Him as your Savior, you will join all those who do not know Him in “Outer Darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Mat 22:13-14).

Click for More Information.

Mark Oaks,  December 7, 2021

Series Navigation

<< Revelation Chapter FifteenRevelation Chapter Sixteen Part II >>

1. I have heard many folks, including preachers, make this woefully incorrect statement. As a Pastor, I at one time made the same mistaken comment. After years of study, I now decry the pre-tribulation rapture doctrine.
2. “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” (also known as “Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory”), Juliet Ward Howe, The Atlantic Monthly, 1862.
3. To repent in this context means to regret an action, to turn away from something, or to change one’s mind.
4. A red tide is an event that occurs on the coastline when algae—a plant-like organism—grows out of control. The name “red tide” comes from the fact that overgrown algae can cause the water to change color. Red tides can be hazardous to human health and sea life. — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), SciJinks, https://scijinks.gov/
5. The Levant today includes the modern states of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, and Palestine. It historically applied to the Entire Mediterranean area.
6. Sadam Hussein began reconstruction of Babylon on the ancient city’s ruins. Several structures were completed, including rebuilding the Ishtar Gate and the Ninmakh Temple. The reconstruction was halted when the 2003 Invasion of Iraq began. See the Wikipedia Article. See also “Babylon Rising” by Joel Ricahrdson.