Why Do You Blame God When Bad Things Happen To You?

Why do bad things happen to good people? According to God, there are no good people. That might offend someone reading this, but remember the Bible says that there are NONE righteous. Not one. So it begs to ask the question, why does any good stuff happen to any one of us? The wrath that is coming to the world, is for a world that has rejected God. That would be like standing outside in the rain and asking God, why are You allowing it to rain on me? It's your choice, put your umbrella up, go someplace it's not raining. Don't blame God. When things happen in our lives, it might beg to ask the question, have we walked out from under God's umbrella in our own lives? Is that why certain things are happening to us? What is coming to the world will be the result of unbelief. There is no one in hell right now blaming others to why they are there. They are there because they chose to be. Maybe they made the wrong decisions in life, they wind up in hell however, by their own choice. To accept God or reject Him.The things that are coming are what happens to man who has left the protection of God. He has no one else to blame but himself. If you cast aside your umbrella in the midst of a storm, you are the one responsible for getting wet.

You don't go out and live your life without God. He is the one who made you. He loves you. He has a plan for your life. He has a plan and path for you in mind to walk on. Why live your life on your own? It will never wind up good for you. You will come to a point, of living a life of unbelief and it hurts, and eventually it kills.

Revelation 13:14 ~ "and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived," promises that the Antichrist will deceive those who dwell upon the earth. The earth dwellers will make an image of the beast to worship. We will study that more in depth when we get to Revelation 13. 

Revelation 14:6 ~ "Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on the earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people."

Revelation 17:8 ~ "The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast, because it was and is not and is to come."

You can escape this stamp or title of earth dwellers, by the way, by coming to know Jesus as Lord and Savior. How can you escape God's judgment? Run to Him with all your sins in hand. What have I done to deserve God's judgment? Only one thing, you have refused to receive God's free gift.

When the judgment of God comes, the prayers of God's saints will be heard, and the Lord will represent His people.

Revelation 8:3 ~ "And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer, and he was give much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne."

1 Timothy 2:3-6 ~ "This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time."

When the judgment of God comes, the prayers of the saints will be heard, and the Lord shall be both Priest and Judge.

Revelation 8:4-6 ~  "and the smoke of the incense together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angel's hand. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake. Then the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to sound them."

Exodus 30:6-10 ~ "And you shall put it in front of the veil that is above the ark of the testimony, in front of the mercy seat that is above the testimony, where I will meet with you. And Aaaron shall burn fragrant incense on it. Every morning when he dresses the lamps he shall burn it, and when Aaron sets up the lamps at twilight, he shall burn it, a regular incense offering before the LORD throughout your generations. You shall not offer unauthorized incense on it, or a burnt offering, or a grain offering, and you shall not pour a drink offering on it. Aaron shall make atonement on its horns once a year with the blood of the sin offering of atonement he shall make atonement for it once in the year throughout your generations. It is most holy to the LORD." 

When the judgment of God comes, punishment must fall upon this world. This is the section of gross devastation. From here on out, it gets pretty intense. The first four trumpet judgments are all concerning nature. The created elements of nature, be it humans, things in the sea or the stars above. They are of a physical nature. The last three judgments of the trumpets are of a spiritual nature. In the first four judgments to come upon the earth, the environment will suffer.

Revelation 8:7-13 ~ " The first angel sounded his trumpets, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down upon the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up. The second angel sounded his trumpet and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the living creatures of the sea died, and a third of all the ships were destroyed. The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water - the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter. The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon and a third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark. A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night. As I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying in midair call out in a loud voice: "Woe! Woe! Woe! to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels!"

 Jesus laid all of this out in chronological order 2000 years ago about the last days, when he taught in Matthew 24:7 ~ "Nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places."

Can you imagine what is coming with the first trumpet blast on an ecological scale that " hail and fire mixed with blood, will be hurled down upon the earth" This means that hail and fire will strike down and kill those on the earth at that time. Hail will hit people so hard that it will break their bodies open. Blood will be mingled with it. Hail and fire? How can that be? Did you know that it is a meteorological fact that hail and fire have been found together throughout human history? Did you know that when Mount St. Helen's erupted that what followed was hail falling to the ground and lightning striking the earth at the same time? Did you know that when the gases were belched out of Mount St. Helen's, by the way it formed its own weather system, it formed such a violent reaction in the plumes above, that it rained hail and the gases caught fire by the virtue of the lightning. This is documented not only in Mount St. Helens but all major volcanic eruptions.

Jesus said that there will be famines as a result of this. Just look at the devastation that Mount St. Helen's caused. The dust cloud circled the earth 6 times before the dust began to settle. It changed the flight patterns of air craft. It changed weather patterns all around the globe.

Exodus 9:23-26 ~ "When Moses stretched out his staff toward the sky, the LORD sent thunder and hail, and lightning flashed down to the ground. So the LORD rained hail on the land of Egypt; hail fell and lightning flashed back and forth. It was the worst storm in all the land of Egypt since it had become a nation.  Throughout Egypt hail struck everything in the fields - both men and animals; it beat down everything growing in the fields and stripped every tree. The only place it did not hail was the land of Goshen, where the Israelites were." 

So when it says that hail and fire mixed with blood, what it means is hail coming down to the earth, and gaseous explosions in the atmosphere and and when it struck the earth it killed people.

Joel 1:19-2:1 ~ "To you, O LORD I call, for fire has devoured the open pastures and flames have burned up all the trees of the field. Even the wild animals pant for you; the streams of water have dried up and fire has devoured the open pastures. Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm"

Joel 2:30-32 ~ "I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved." 

This is volcanic eruptions that happen just before the Second Coming of the LORD, and it will devastate the earth. When Mt. Vesuvius erupted it cause devastation like the world had never known. If you read the eye witness accounts it was horror on a scale human history had never seen before. The Bay of Naples was unnavigatable due to a huge tsunami. (Zondervan Illustrated Background Commentary, Vol 4, Encyclopedia Britannica.) Do you know what triggers warning systems for tsunamis? There is an earthquake and the sea begins to drop and it sets off the alarm. It means you'd better head for the high ground. Why? Because when the sea drops, it comes back in a giant wave We have seen such things like this happen in history. We need to keep those things in mind.

When the judgment of God comes, punishment must fall upon this world, because of man's unbelief, the seas will suffer.

Revelation 8:8-9 ~ "The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned to blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed."

Remember when we see terms like " something like a huge mountain," means it wasn't a huge mountain. This means that something is going to impact the seas that 1/3 of those sailing on the waters and 1/3 of those living in the sea will be destroyed.

Hosea 4:3 ~ "Because of this the land mourns, and all who live in it waste away; the beast of the field and the birds of the air and the fish of the sea are dying."

Zephaniah 1:3 ~ "I will sweep away both men and animals; I will sweep away the birds of the air and the fish of the sea."

A polluted sea will kill 1/3 of the seas life, and 1/3 of the ocean going ships will be sunk (10,000 +). Punishment must fall upon this world because of man's unbelief, the heavens will shake.

Revelation 8:10-13 ~ "The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water - the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter. The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon and a third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark. A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night. As I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying in midair call out in a loud voice" "Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blast about to be sounded by the other three angels."

The Bible gives three words for the word heaven. Heavens where God lives in the spiritual realm.(2) where the stars and galaxies dwell, and (3) the atmosphere from sea level to about 126,000 feet. This means this will be impact the space heavens, like meteors or asteroids. It says a great star, blazing like a torch ( once again this is symbolism, it doesn't mean it was a torch). Think of the ecological impacts if the sun does not shine properly? Can you imagine what it will look like when a 1/3 of the stars cascade from the sky and fall to the earth? How will that happen? I don't know. The days will be radically shortened. Jesus says when people see this, their hearts will fail them, they will have heart attacks and die out of fear.

When you look the word "Wormwood" up it takes you to a study on pharmacology and leads you to a very fatal and toxic herb, a hallucinogenic, that used to be used primarily by the Europeans and most recently by now of the French, that was added to liqueur  to give you a tremendous buzz, rush or high, but it could also lead to a heart attack. But before it does that, it leads to great hallucinations. Do you remember when Jesus was on the cross, they offered Him vinegar mixed with gall?  It was a pain killer. When we look at the word "Wormwood" we have the pharmacology word, "thujone,"and it's fatal. It causes whatever it comes into contact with to turn extremely bitter, and it kills you. They actually did a study of what would happen if a meteor or comet struck the earth like what we see here, and evidence shows it would turn the waters of the earth to come forth and be bitter.  (NASA Indirectly Confirms Wormwood Prophecy).

On March 21, 1823, there was a volcanic eruption in the Aleutian21, 1823 Island and when the volcanic dust settled it poisoned the waters the dust came into contact with and it killed both animals and people.

When we look at the final verse in Revelation 8:13 ~ "As I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying in midair call out in a loud voice" "Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blast about to be sounded by the other three angels."

In some Bibles we have the world eagle and in other translations it is the word angel, It means the same thing. You don't ever want to hear Jesus or an angel say, "Woe!" It means condemnation, grief, or danger! The word "Woe" in Greek, means damnation upon you. Jesus, meek and mild, says this word as well in Matthew 23:13 ~ "Woe to you, teachers of law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!"

He's saying, "Condemnation be upon you, religious people who know so much and don't practice it."

Matthew 11:21 ~ "Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!" 

The city of Korazin has been annihilated from the earth. No one lives there. Jesus was warning these towns because they refused to believe when He came there. The towns of Korazin and Bethsaida are ghost towns, no one visits or stay there in Israel tours. 2000 years on the beautiful shores of the Galilee Sea.

Matthew 11:23 ~ "Woe to you Capernaum," 

What is left in the city of Capernaum is Peter's home and an old synagogue. Jesus warns this cities that of the miracle done there they should have believed but they didn't.

Luke 11:52 ~ " Woe unto you, lawyers," 

Matthew 23:16 ~ "Woe unto you, ye blind guides,"

These were people who wanted to lead others to spiritual enlightenment. Jesus proclaims damnation upon them.

Matthew 26:24 ~ "Woe unto that man who betrays the son of God" 

This is pretty serious stuff and you don't have to have anything to do with Revelation 8. It's your choice. No one knows how far away this time is, but the Bible says when the gospel is preached, you need to respond today.

Today is that day.

You know that Jesus died for your sins and He rose from the grave. Isn't it great to open your Bible and stand in the place of an empty tomb? To go to a place today that is carved like a skull, Golgotha or Calvary? What keeps you from trusting Jesus? You want more evidence? There is too much evidence! Evidence has nothing to do with it. It has nothing to do with your intellect either. If you'll use your brain, you'll become a Christian.

It has to do with a spiritual issue. Are you willing today to yield to King Jesus and to receive Him? That is my prayer to those of you reading this, that you never hear the words, "Woe unto you." For you heard the Word of God in the 21st century, and you saw the evidence, for some, you even stood in the place, but you would not believe. You rejected, neglected and denied, Woe unto you! That will only be your choice. May it not be your choice today.

Jesus isn't going around saying, "Eeny, meany, miney, Woe!" to people. Notice who He says, Woe" to. The Pharisees, the scribes, the lawyers," they had formed doctrinal beliefs that we not of God. They were not Biblical. In John 3, we read that God did not send His Son into the world to condemn it but to save it. The Bible says that we are all under condemnation because of our sins but that Christ has come to deliver us. All of us without Jesus are living under the sentence of condemnation, the woe! But you can have it lifted. the charges dropped, because someone has met the demands of God. All you have to do is believe and to put your trust in Him!

The Warning Signs Are Here!

As we open our study today into the Book of Revelation, people might ask the question, "Is God happy as He is unleashing the judgment upon the earth?"  God never wants to unleash harm upon His creation but remember, this is a world now that wants nothing to do with God. They have begged, pleaded and shook their fists as God and said, "Get out!" This is a Christ-rejecting world at the point we find ourselves today. Just like any good parent, it never pleases a parent to discipline a wayward child. The Bible even addressed this in Proverbs that a wayward child brings reproach to his mother. God is the same way, everyone He loves He corrects, chastens, and because He cannot sin, He has to execute judgment against evil because He is righteous, Holy and just! He wouldn't be God if He didn't judge evil.

Our culture believes that they can sin up a storm and there will not be any ramifications. He is Holy and just in His judgments and while most people believe that since nothing has happened yet, God must be passive, doesn't exist or is simply looking the other way. We can fathom God's understanding in His plans but we know this, He is just in His loving and He is just in His judgments. Therefore, He has to execute judgment on evil. We, as humans, are all for justice and that is why we can appreciate this as long as it is the other person, getting the justice administered to him. God doesn't have to make any apologies because He is Holy.

God will exercise His judgment and wrath on one group of people alone, a Christ-rejecting world. He takes no delight in what He has to do, but He has to execute judgment on evil and those who do it. Jesus died for all the sins of the world, no matter what you have done, that alone will not condemn you to hell despite what you may have been told. No murders, adulterers,  homosexuals, liars, thieves, fornicators, you name it. None of those gets you into hell. There is only one sin that condemns you to hell. It is rejecting Jesus Christ as your redeemer. That is it. Jesus died on the cross for your sins. If you don't make it to heaven it will be because of one reason, you have repeatedly day by day, neglected to come to Christ as your Lord and Savior.

There is no other religion in the world that can take a book and stand in the very places in history like believers of Christ can with our Bibles and relive those moments standing in the actual places, because they are still there today. We can stand in the valley of Megiddo and read Revelation and know that one day, the culmination of all wars will take place there. Even Napoleon said that in that place alone could the greatest battle on earth take place. That alone should make you excited as a believer in Christ! Only a Christian or Jew can open the Bible and say, "We are standing in that place!" Our faith is founded upon fact!

Neil Armstrong when taking a personal tour of Israel said to his tour guide he wanted to stand on the very same steps of the temple that Jesus did and the tour guide explained that the steps that they were at were the very same ones that Jesus walked up and down. He said, while he may have been the first man to step on the moon, it wanes in comparison to standing where Jesus stood! (Neil Armstrong Walks on Jerusalem). Funny how you won't read that in Time Magazine!

There will a pause in heaven because silence shouts the righteousness of God! The Bible warns over and over to be silent before the Lord because He is holy. When the judgment of God comes, solemn preparation must be made.

Revelation 8:2 ~ "Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them."

Trumpets were used to call God's people for worship in the Old Testament. Trumpets were used, for calling God's people to war in the Old Testament and even in the 18th and 19th century. They were also used to call God's people together for announcements as well as the tolling of the church bells in many cultures more so in the Midwest and East coast today, not so much in the West. The angels will pull out their trumpets and these are NOT rams horns by the way. These are trumpets of judgment. Great ominous warnings! Solemn preparation must be made because God is holy and He is in heaven.

So why is this even important for us to study. I mean this is a pretty intense and horrible chapter. Because I want to make sure that YOU are NOT here when that time comes. Remember the church is no longer on the earth, they have been raptured to heaven! People these days want miracles and signs before they will be believe in Christ. The greatest miracle of all time wasn't the healing of the blind or deaf, or even the restoration of the lepers or the resurrection of Lazarus. You want to know what it was? It was that God who was not a human being, He was something all together different, came by the way of the virgin Mary, born in Bethlehem as prophesied by the Scriptures. Took on Himself, human skin, and stepped into the world. That to me, is the greatest miracle of all! That God who is not a human, became human to live a life and meet all the requirements of the law He gave, only He could do it. To meet its demands, to show its perfection, and then in association with our imperfection, Jesus who was innocent and we who are guilty, went to the cross and died in our place!

God is holy and therefore judgment must come upon the earth and preparations are needed to make that happen.

Habakkuk 1:13 ~ " You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong., why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?" 

You might ask yourself the question, "Why did God create man if He knew He was going to be evil?" Because of choice. You love choice right? Sometimes as parents, we often wish our kids didn't have certain choices in their lives. It would sure make raising them a whole lot easier right? Like when we tell them to clean their rooms. You know they have a choice right?  They may do it eventually, their way, but they have a choice. We all do. In every aspects of our life. From what we eat, what we wear, who we marry, what will want to do for work or school. Choices are available to all of us.

God engineered within the human being the ability to chose. That is the only way to have true love and worship. But man pirated such a privilege and responsibility and decided to go it alone with God. That man was called Adam. And we have been messed up ever since. We can't blame Adam because we probably would have done the same thing. Before God makes things right on this planet, sin has to be judged. Solemn preparation must be made because man sins and deserves judgment. The truth of the matter is that we are all sinners. Non believers love to use the Bible to quote, "Judge not, lest you be judged," but they fail to read the rest or even understand what the context of the word "Judge" means in that portion of the Bible. It means not to condemn. Jesus, Himself, told all of us to be fruit inspectors. Don't forget, "All of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God." ALL OF US. We are all in the same boat!

It's human nature to practice sin! It's in our blood and that is not a popular thing to say. Even from birth, no one taught us how to sin, we automatically know how to do it. Babies refuse to listen when you tell them No, you can't have another cookie. We have to remind our children, NOT to do certain things, because inherently we all know how to do them. When you tell your kids not to do something, what do they do? They do it anyway. When you call them on it and ask if they did it, they will lie about it. Not me! Where does that come from? The Garden of Eden. Adam. Eve.

Exodus 23:a~ "You shall not fall in with the man to do evil, "

2 Samuel 12:9a ~ "Why have you despised the word of the LORD, to do what is evil in his sight?"

2 Kings 17:17 ~ "And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings and used divination and omens and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger." 

Genesis 6:5 ~ "The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."

Solemn preparation must be made, because evil is about to run its course. We are a people and a race that wants its own way, without God, and when we get it, we mess it up. That is what Utopia is all about. It's man creating a world without God thinking he can govern himself. Not matter what your political affiliation or gender, we can not do it! It's flawed from the beginning. We need Jesus. He begins that when He comes into our life and makes us new. The greatest government of all is a theocracy, when God rules and reigns in men's hearts. That is how the world is changed. The Bible says, it won't be changed until Christ comes.

Didn't Jesus remind us in the pattern to prayer, Matthew 6:13 ~ " and lead us not unto temptation, but deliver us from evil." 

Why? Because evil is forever around us.

John 3:15-19 ~ "that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. for God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and the people loved thee darkness rather than the light because their works were evil."

This means that men schemed and looked forward to doing evil rather than following God. For each of us that knows Jesus now, knows exactly what that means. When the judgment of God comes, the prayers of the saints will be heard.

Revelation 8:2-6 ~ "Another angel (an 8th angel), who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne. The smoke of the incense together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angel's hand. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake. Then the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to sound them."

This is the answer to prayer but more specifically the answer to the prayers found in Revelation 6:9-10 ~ "When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, "O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge the earth and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?"

Remember they had died earlier during the first 3 1/2 years of the Tribulation period. Remember what the answer was to their question? Wait! We now come to Revelation 8, and their brethren have died and so the prayer is answered. Throughout all history both in the Old and New Testament, the last thing you want to be is an earth dweller. The word in both the Greek and Hebrew means those who live for the earth. It is in direct agreement with Romans 1 about those who worship the earth and its creation. Those who say the earth is their mother. The earth is our home. The earth, not God, has given us forth.

I believe that Christians should be the greatest custodians of nature on the planet earth. Just don't worship it. There are those who worship it. There is a balance and never are we called upon to worship the earth. Earth dwellers are those that live for the earth and worship planet earth. It's what they live for. It's your life, what you can extract from the earth. Gold. Power. Money. Prestige. Place. Position. It's what you live for. The earth dwellers.

Isn't it interesting that to counter that, the Bible says to those of us that are Christians, our citizenship is in heaven! That we are ambassadors for Christ! Diplomats sent into a dangerous world is what ambassadors means to the Christians.

People might look around today and ask if we are seeing God's judgment on the earth. No rain in California. Laws being passed that are contrary to the Bible. I believe what we are seeing is God's warning signs right now, not judgments. God warns, and He warns, and He warns and then once we make the final rejection, the final time we push Him off, remember the Bible says in Genesis, my Spirit will not always strive with man, I hate to tell you this, but we haven't seen anything yet. God is warning us. Here in California, we are under a severe drought and have been below our needed water levels for 9 years. Is this the judgment of God? No, we are not going to get away that easy. Violence and racial division, even political division, makes you wonder what is really going on in the world today. Even with CoVid 19, we wonder if that is a biblical plague. No, far from it. These are warnings based on Joel 1. The rains begin to stop, crops begin to fail. It's almost like you're reading the newspaper today. Read it later.

The culture is suffering because of the decisions we have made. Not because God is judging us. He is simply telling us to turn back to Him. He is asking the Christian, the believer, to turn back to God. That is what he is asking us to do. There is no judgment from God happening on the earth just yet, but it is coming one day. Will YOU choose Him today?

The Silence You Can Feel

We know that when the Rapture of the church happens, there will be plenty of left over Bibles laying around. If someone were to pick up your Bible, what would they find highlighted? You might be pleasantly surprised when you open your Bible and take a look at what has been important to you over the years and when you consider the things that are highlighted with the foreknowledge that one day someone will be opening it and reading what you highlighted, what will they think?

As we open up our study today into Revelation, Chapter 8, we find silence in heaven according to the Apostle John for about a half an hour. Whatever is coming is announced by silence in the heavenly realm. Then we see God's implements and instruments being gathered for the coming judgment He is about to unleash on the world. These various angels are appointed with specific packages, certain aspects of judgment to be delivered, to planet Earth during that time. Why? Because both earth and mankind had rejected God and because of that sin, these instruments and actions are levied to a Christ rejecting world.

The seventh seal unveils the seven trumpet judgment of God. When we get to the seventh trumpet it will open the seven bowl judgments. In the Book of Revelation as we get to Chapter 8, it should not concern you if you are trusting in Jesus Christ, because we will not be here at that time. The church has been removed from the earth in the Rapture before the Tribulation period began. Some of you might be thinking, well if we aren't going to be here, why even study the Book of Revelation, because we need to know the whole Bible not just parts that pertain to us from cover to cover.

Revelation 8:1-13 ~ "When he (Jesus Christ) opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. Another angel (an 8th angel), who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne. The smoke of the incense together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the agel's hand. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake. Then the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to sound them. The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down upon the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up. The second angel sounded his trumpet and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the living creatures of the sea died, and a third of all the ships were destroyed. The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water - the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter. The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon and a third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark. A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night. As I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying in midair call out in a loud voice: "Woe! Woe! Woe! to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels!"

When you hear the use of the words "Woe!" it is not about stopping a horse but a warning that is coming, Danger! Danger! Danger! or simply Damnation! Damnation! Damnation! is coming to the inhabitants of the earth! We have to remember that no matter where we look at in the Bible in the Old Testament or the New Testament that God is a God of love, mercy and forgiveness. It is hard when you read chapters like this one in the Bible, because we don't want to spend long reading about what is coming to the future of this world one day. We'd love to skip it in fact. These are not the chapters that cause prolific church growth. Believers and non-believers do not want to hear about judgment, unless we understand the Scripture and why it is given we will see answered prayer and we will see God answer prayer, and the prayer that He answers will be His vengeance upon the earth.

There is a prayer that is a holy righteous prayer and I am not saying that we should pray it, but I am saying that we often feel it. We just need to make sure that our will is yielded to the will of God. and that God is the One who exercises judgment and not us. We don't like to admit to the fact that one day God will bring judgment. We are living in an age of grace right now and we should be thankful for that. There will come a time when God consummates His grace and then the time of judgment will come. God will then answer the prayers of those who have prayed for God to avenge their blood. That is what the Bible teaches even if you disagree with that. God is a loving God, a Holy God and a Just God. It is God in His perfect love, holiness, and righteousness is the only one to exercise judgment. Did you know that? Keep that in mind.

Psalm 86:5 ~ "For you are forgiving and good, O Lord; abounding in love to all who call to you."

Jeremiah 31:3 ~ "The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: I have loved you with an everlasting love, I have drawn you with loving kindness."

Hebrews 7:25 ~ "Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them." 

Revelation 1:5 ~ "and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood," 

When we hear about God's judgment, we are tempted to see Him as an old man, with a sandwich board walking around that says, "Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand." But we need to understand that God is righteous and holy in his judgment of mankind. He is doing everything he can to give us an opportunity to be saved through our faith in Jesus and not have to face the coming judgment. Sometimes we are mistaken in thinking that God is judging even right now in the age in which we are living. He is not.

John 16:33 ~ "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

But there is a time of God's judgment and wrath that is coming to this world that will be like no other time in all of history or the future! God will allow evil to have its day for a time, and then God will bring judgment. This is exactly what Jesus was warning about in Matthew 24.

Matthew 24:21-22 ~" For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now - and never to be equaled again. If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened."

We see Jesus now as He opens the seventh seal. When the judgment of God comes there will be a pause in heaven. This section is of great preparation. What is interesting is that in the very nature of eternity there is no concept of time, but here the Bible says, there is silence for about a half an hour. How can we reconcile that where God dwells, time is eternal but John says a half an hour. Easy! John is seeing a vision. John is seeing the unveiling of things to come in heaven and in earth to come. It is announced or shown to John that there is a pause in time for about half an hour. The word in the Greek for silence is that it is a silence that can be felt. Have you ever felt a silence like that? You might be tempted to say, No. Have you ever been on a jury? When you are called back into the court after the jury has deliberated and you are seated there, and the judge turns to the jury and asks, "Have you reached a verdict?" If you have ever been there, it is an ominous moment. There is dead silence. It is a silence that can be felt. Why? Because a verdict is about to be given. The defendant stands, the judge asks the jury if they have reached their verdict and they respond that they have. There is silence until it begins so to speak, until the verdict is given. There is a silence at that moment that you can feel.

There is a time of silence before all of this judgment comes, that in that moment of silence, God does not delight in judgement. Do you know that? The Bible says that God created Hell for the devil and his angels. Not for humans. God doesn't want anyone to go there. This is an ominous moment, there is a pause, a silence. We have seen that up until this point, we have been reading that in heaven, there is great noise, great praise, great adoration going on. Now there is a great moment of silence. Why? Because God does not delight in judgment, but judgment must come. There is a pause. There is a silent pause in heaven because of what Jesus Christ is about to do. Jesus is the one who will preside over the judgment of God. It is Jesus that opens the seventh seal.

Luke 4:14-21 " Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him. He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue as was his custom. And he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."

This was Jesus' first sermon of Isaiah 61. It has a direct connection to Revelation, chapter 8. Notice that in the scripture of Isaiah he read, he ended on a comma before he sat down. This was the prophecy of the Messiah and Jesus was announcing that He was the one the prophecy was speaking about. Why did he stop at the comma in the midst of the book of Isaiah? What comes next in Isaiah 61:2 is ":and the acceptable day of vengeance of our God," He didn't say that, the very next statement. This is significant because at the comma in Isaiah 61:2 it correlates to Revelation 8 all the way out to Revelation 19.

Jesus paused at that comma, closed the book, because for the last 2000 years it would be time to preach the gospel of grace. Do you understand that? And so the gospel has gone out into the world. There is a day of vengeance of our God that is coming. God's judgment is the day of vengeance. It will come upon a certain group of people not believers. You might think you are under God's judgment now, but trust me you have no idea what God's judgment is! He is not doing that right now. God may discipline. God may chastise. God may scold you. But the truth is that right now, God is not operating in judgment or wrath or vengeance. There is also a pause in heaven for what they are about to see.

The grammatical picture that is painted here is very awesome and quite frankly it is frightening. Heaven is in awe of what is soon about to take place on the earth. I would venture to say that it is quite difficult to impress heaven. Heaven is where angels dwell. Heaven is where the saints have gone. Heaven is an awesome, wonderful and holy place. Yet heaven is aware of a future event that just before it happens John says that there is silence for about a half an hour. Heaven is about to witness the wrath of God.

This silence underscores a sense of foreboding, fear on earth as it were if you are a Christ rejecter, you're shaking your fist at God. Remember John said there was silence in heaven, not silence on earth. Apparently it is not very quiet in heaven until this very serious silence comes. This should underscore for us the terror and horror and awfulness of what comes to a Christ-rejecting world. We are heading in that direction. We are living in a country that was founded on Judeo-Christian values if you have read the letters of our founding fathers, the Mayflower Compact, and understanding what the believers believed in before they came to America. Now to see how far our nation has fallen from God. Imagine God saying, "You know, I have had enough. You don't want Me in school. You don't want Me in court. You don't want Me in your government any longer. You don't want Me in your culture. So I'll get out." People have no idea what this world would be like if God just got out. There is coming a day when He will get out. There won't be anything left for man to experience, except the wrath of his own sin.

Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?

Why do bad things happen to good people? According to God, there are no good people. That might offend someone reading this, but remember the Bible says that there are NONE righteous. Not one. So it begs to ask the question, why does any good stuff happen to any one of us? The wrath that is coming to the world, is for a world that has rejected God. That would be like standing outside in the rain and asking God, why are You allowing it to rain on me? It's your choice, put your umbrella up, go someplace it's not raining. Don't blame God. When things happen in our lives, it might beg to ask the question, have we walked out from under God's umbrella in our own lives? Is that why certain things are happening to us? What is coming to the world will be the result of unbelief. There is no one in hell right now blaming others to why they are there. They are there because they chose to be. Maybe they made the wrong decisions in life, they wind up in hell however, by their own choice. To accept God or reject Him.The things that are coming are what happens to man who has left the protection of God. He has no one else to blame but himself. If you cast aside your umbrella in the midst of a storm, you are the one responsible for getting wet.

You don't go out and live your life without God. He is the one who made you. He loves you. He has a plan for your life. He has a plan and path for you in mind to walk on. Why live your life on your own? It will never wind up good for you. You will come to a point, of living a life of unbelief and it hurts, and eventually it kills.

Revelation 13:14 ~ "and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived," promises that the Antichrist will deceive those who dwell upon the earth. The earth dwellers will make an image of the beast to worship. We will study that more in depth when we get to Revelation 13. 

Revelation 14:6 ~ "Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on the earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people."

Revelation 17:8 ~ "The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast, because it was and is not and is to come."

You can escape this stamp or title of earth dwellers, by the way, by coming to know Jesus as Lord and Savior. How can you escape God's judgment? Run to Him with all your sins in hand. What have I done to deserve God's judgment? Only one thing, you have refused to receive God's free gift.

When the judgment of God comes, the prayers of God's saints will be heard, and the Lord will represent His people.

Revelation 8:3 ~ "And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer, and he was give much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne."

1 Timothy 2:3-6 ~ "This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time."

When the judgment of God comes, the prayers of the saints will be heard, and the Lord shall be both Priest and Judge.

Revelation 8:4-6 ~  "and the smoke of the incense together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angel's hand. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake. Then the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to sound them."

Exodus 30:6-10 ~ "And you shall put it in front of the veil that is above the ark of the testimony, in front of the mercy seat that is above the testimony, where I will meet with you. And Aaaron shall burn fragrant incense on it. Every morning when he dresses the lamps he shall burn it, and when Aaron sets up the lamps at twilight, he shall burn it, a regular incense offering before the LORD throughout your generations. You shall not offer unauthorized incense on it, or a burnt offering, or a grain offering, and you shall not pour a drink offering on it. Aaron shall make atonement on its horns once a year with the blood of the sin offering of atonement he shall make atonement for it once in the year throughout your generations. It is most holy to the LORD." 

When the judgment of God comes, punishment must fall upon this world. This is the section of gross devastation. From here on out, it gets pretty intense. The first four trumpet judgments are all concerning nature. The created elements of nature, be it humans, things in the sea or the stars above. They are of a physical nature. The last three judgments of the trumpets are of a spiritual nature. In the first four judgments to come upon the earth, the environment will suffer.

Revelation 8:7-13 ~ " The first angel sounded his trumpets, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down upon the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up. The second angel sounded his trumpet and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the living creatures of the sea died, and a third of all the ships were destroyed. The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water - the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter. The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon and a third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark. A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night. As I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying in midair call out in a loud voice: "Woe! Woe! Woe! to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels!"

 Jesus laid all of this out in chronological order 2000 years ago about the last days, when he taught in Matthew 24:7 ~ "Nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places."

Can you imagine what is coming with the first trumpet blast on an ecological scale that " hail and fire mixed with blood, will be hurled down upon the earth" This means that hail and fire will strike down and kill those on the earth at that time. Hail will hit people so hard that it will break their bodies open. Blood will be mingled with it. Hail and fire? How can that be? Did you know that it is a meteorological fact that hail and fire have been found together throughout human history? Did you know that when Mount St. Helen's erupted that what followed was hail falling to the ground and lightning striking the earth at the same time? Did you know that when the gases were belched out of Mount St. Helen's, by the way it formed its own weather system, it formed such a violent reaction in the plumes above, that it rained hail and the gases caught fire by the virtue of the lightning. This is documented not only in Mount St. Helens but all major volcanic eruptions.

Jesus said that there will be famines as a result of this. Just look at the devastation that Mount St. Helen's caused. The dust cloud circled the earth 6 times before the dust began to settle. It changed the flight patterns of air craft. It changed weather patterns all around the globe.

Exodus 9:23-26 ~ "When Moses stretched out his staff toward the sky, the LORD sent thunder and hail, and lightning flashed down to the ground. So the LORD rained hail on the land of Egypt; hail fell and lightning flashed back and forth. It was the worst storm in all the land of Egypt since it had become a nation.  Throughout Egypt hail struck everything in the fields - both men and animals; it beat down everything growing in the fields and stripped every tree. The only place it did not hail was the land of Goshen, where the Israelites were." 

So when it says that hail and fire mixed with blood, what it means is hail coming down to the earth, and gaseous explosions in the atmosphere and and when it struck the earth it killed people.

Joel 1:19-2:1 ~ "To you, O LORD I call, for fire has devoured the open pastures and flames have burned up all the trees of the field. Even the wild animals pant for you; the streams of water have dried up and fire has devoured the open pastures. Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm"

Joel 2:30-32 ~ "I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved." 

This is volcanic eruptions that happen just before the Second Coming of the LORD, and it will devastate the earth. When Mt. Vesuvius erupted it cause devastation like the world had never known. If you read the eye witness accounts it was horror on a scale human history had never seen before. The Bay of Naples was unnavigatable due to a huge tsunami. (Zondervan Illustrated Background Commentary, Vol 4, Encyclopedia Britannica.) Do you know what triggers warning systems for tsunamis? There is an earthquake and the sea begins to drop and it sets off the alarm. It means you'd better head for the high ground. Why? Because when the sea drops, it comes back in a giant wave We have seen such things like this happen in history. We need to keep those things in mind.

When the judgment of God comes, punishment must fall upon this world, because of man's unbelief, the seas will suffer.

Revelation 8:8-9 ~ "The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned to blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed."

Remember when we see terms like " something like a huge mountain," means it wasn't a huge mountain. This means that something is going to impact the seas that 1/3 of those sailing on the waters and 1/3 of those living in the sea will be destroyed.

Hosea 4:3 ~ "Because of this the land mourns, and all who live in it waste away; the beast of the field and the birds of the air and the fish of the sea are dying."

Zephaniah 1:3 ~ "I will sweep away both men and animals; I will sweep away the birds of the air and the fish of the sea."

A polluted sea will kill 1/3 of the seas life, and 1/3 of the ocean going ships will be sunk (10,000 +). Punishment must fall upon this world because of man's unbelief, the heavens will shake.

Revelation 8:10-13 ~ "The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water - the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter. The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon and a third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark. A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night. As I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying in midair call out in a loud voice" "Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blast about to be sounded by the other three angels."

The Bible gives three words for the word heaven. Heavens where God lives in the spiritual realm.(2) where the stars and galaxies dwell, and (3) the atmosphere from sea level to about 126,000 feet. This means this will be impact the space heavens, like meteors or asteroids. It says a great star, blazing like a torch ( once again this is symbolism, it doesn't mean it was a torch). Think of the ecological impacts if the sun does not shine properly? Can you imagine what it will look like when a 1/3 of the stars cascade from the sky and fall to the earth? How will that happen? I don't know. The days will be radically shortened. Jesus says when people see this, their hearts will fail them, they will have heart attacks and die out of fear.

When you look the word "Wormwood" up it takes you to a study on pharmacology and leads you to a very fatal and toxic herb, a hallucinogenic, that used to be used primarily by the Europeans and most recently by now of the French, that was added to liqueur  to give you a tremendous buzz, rush or high, but it could also lead to a heart attack. But before it does that, it leads to great hallucinations. Do you remember when Jesus was on the cross, they offered Him vinegar mixed with gall?  It was a pain killer. When we look at the word "Wormwood" we have the pharmacology word, "thujone,"and it's fatal. It causes whatever it comes into contact with to turn extremely bitter, and it kills you. They actually did a study of what would happen if a meteor or comet struck the earth like what we see here, and evidence shows it would turn the waters of the earth to come forth and be bitter.  (NASA Indirectly Confirms Wormwood Prophecy).

On March 21, 1823, there was a volcanic eruption in the Aleutian21, 1823 Island and when the volcanic dust settled it poisoned the waters the dust came into contact with and it killed both animals and people.

When we look at the final verse in Revelation 8:13 ~ "As I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying in midair call out in a loud voice" "Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blast about to be sounded by the other three angels."

In some Bibles we have the world eagle and in other translations it is the word angel, It means the same thing. You don't ever want to hear Jesus or an angel say, "Woe!" It means condemnation, grief, or danger! The word "Woe" in Greek, means damnation upon you. Jesus, meek and mild, says this word as well in Matthew 23:13 ~ "Woe to you, teachers of law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!"

He's saying, "Condemnation be upon you, religious people who know so much and don't practice it."

Matthew 11:21 ~ "Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!" 

The city of Korazin has been annihilated from the earth. No one lives there. Jesus was warning these towns because they refused to believe when He came there. The towns of Korazin and Bethsaida are ghost towns, no one visits or stay there in Israel tours. 2000 years on the beautiful shores of the Galilee Sea.

Matthew 11:23 ~ "Woe to you Capernaum," 

What is left in the city of Capernaum is Peter's home and an old synagogue. Jesus warns this cities that of the miracle done there they should have believed but they didn't.

Luke 11:52 ~ " Woe unto you, lawyers," 

Matthew 23:16 ~ "Woe unto you, ye blind guides,"

These were people who wanted to lead others to spiritual enlightenment. Jesus proclaims damnation upon them.

Matthew 26:24 ~ "Woe unto that man who betrays the son of God" 

This is pretty serious stuff and you don't have to have anything to do with Revelation 8. It's your choice. No one knows how far away this time is, but the Bible says when the gospel is preached, you need to respond today.

Today is that day.

You know that Jesus died for your sins and He rose from the grave. Isn't it great to open your Bible and stand in the place of an empty tomb? To go to a place today that is carved like a skull, Golgotha or Calvary? What keeps you from trusting Jesus? You want more evidence? There is too much evidence! Evidence has nothing to do with it. It has nothing to do with your intellect either. If you'll use your brain, you'll become a Christian.

It has to do with a spiritual issue. Are you willing today to yield to King Jesus and to receive Him? That is my prayer to those of you reading this, that you never hear the words, "Woe unto you." For you heard the Word of God in the 21st century, and you saw the evidence, for some, you even stood in the place, but you would not believe. You rejected, neglected and denied, Woe unto you! That will only be your choice. May it not be your choice today.

Jesus isn't going around saying, "Eeny, meany, miney, Woe!" to people. Notice who He says, Woe" to. The Pharisees, the scribes, the lawyers," they had formed doctrinal beliefs that we not of God. They were not Biblical. In John 3, we read that God did not send His Son into the world to condemn it but to save it. The Bible says that we are all under condemnation because of our sins but that Christ has come to deliver us. All of us without Jesus are living under the sentence of condemnation, the woe! But you can have it lifted. the charges dropped, because someone has met the demands of God. All you have to do is believe and to put your trust in Him!

Why Did God Create Humans if He Knew They Were Going to be Evil?

As we open our study today into the Book of Revelation, people might ask the question, "Is God happy as He is unleashing the judgment upon the earth?"  God never wants to unleash harm upon His creation but remember, this is a world now that wants nothing to do with God. They have begged, pleaded and shook their fists as God and said, "Get out!" This is a Christ-rejecting world at the point we find ourselves today. Just like any good parent, it never pleases a parent to discipline a wayward child. The Bible even addressed this in Proverbs that a wayward child brings reproach to his mother. God is the same way, everyone He loves He corrects, chastens, and because He cannot sin, He has to execute judgment against evil because He is righteous, Holy and just! He wouldn't be God if He didn't judge evil.

Our culture believes that they can sin up a storm and there will not be any ramifications. He is Holy and just in His judgments and while most people believe that since nothing has happened yet, God must be passive, doesn't exist or is simply looking the other way. We can fathom God's understanding in His plans but we know this, He is just in His loving and He is just in His judgments. Therefore, He has to execute judgment on evil. We, as humans, are all for justice and that is why we can appreciate this as long as it is the other person, getting the justice administered to him. God doesn't have to make any apologies because He is Holy.

God will exercise His judgment and wrath on one group of people alone, a Christ-rejecting world. He takes no delight in what He has to do, but He has to execute judgment on evil and those who do it. Jesus died for all the sins of the world, no matter what you have done, that alone will not condemn you to hell despite what you may have been told. No murders, adulterers,  homosexuals, liars, thieves, fornicators, you name it. None of those gets you into hell. There is only one sin that condemns you to hell. It is rejecting Jesus Christ as your redeemer. That is it. Jesus died on the cross for your sins. If you don't make it to heaven it will be because of one reason, you have repeatedly day by day, neglected to come to Christ as your Lord and Savior.

There is no other religion in the world that can take a book and stand in the very places in history like believers of Christ can with our Bibles and relive those moments standing in the actual places, because they are still there today. We can stand in the valley of Megiddo and read Revelation and know that one day, the culmination of all wars will take place there. Even Napoleon said that in that place alone could the greatest battle on earth take place. That alone should make you excited as a believer in Christ! Only a Christian or Jew can open the Bible and say, "We are standing in that place!" Our faith is founded upon fact!

Neil Armstrong when taking a personal tour of Israel said to his tour guide he wanted to stand on the very same steps of the temple that Jesus did and the tour guide explained that the steps that they were at were the very same ones that Jesus walked up and down. He said, while he may have been the first man to step on the moon, it wanes in comparison to standing where Jesus stood! (Neil Armstrong Walks on Jerusalem). Funny how you won't read that in Time Magazine!

There will a pause in heaven because silence shouts the righteousness of God! The Bible warns over and over to be silent before the Lord because He is holy. When the judgment of God comes, solemn preparation must be made.

Revelation 8:2 ~ "Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them."

Trumpets were used to call God's people for worship in the Old Testament. Trumpets were used, for calling God's people to war in the Old Testament and even in the 18th and 19th century. They were also used to call God's people together for announcements as well as the tolling of the church bells in many cultures more so in the Midwest and East coast today, not so much in the West. The angels will pull out their trumpets and these are NOT rams horns by the way. These are trumpets of judgment. Great ominous warnings! Solemn preparation must be made because God is holy and He is in heaven.

So why is this even important for us to study. I mean this is a pretty intense and horrible chapter. Because I want to make sure that YOU are NOT here when that time comes. Remember the church is no longer on the earth, they have been raptured to heaven! People these days want miracles and signs before they will be believe in Christ. The greatest miracle of all time wasn't the healing of the blind or deaf, or even the restoration of the lepers or the resurrection of Lazarus. You want to know what it was? It was that God who was not a human being, He was something all together different, came by the way of the virgin Mary, born in Bethlehem as prophesied by the Scriptures. Took on Himself, human skin, and stepped into the world. That to me, is the greatest miracle of all! That God who is not a human, became human to live a life and meet all the requirements of the law He gave, only He could do it. To meet its demands, to show its perfection, and then in association with our imperfection, Jesus who was innocent and we who are guilty, went to the cross and died in our place!

God is holy and therefore judgment must come upon the earth and preparations are needed to make that happen.

Habakkuk 1:13 ~ " You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong., why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?" 

You might ask yourself the question, "Why did God create man if He knew He was going to be evil?" Because of choice. You love choice right? Sometimes as parents, we often wish our kids didn't have certain choices in their lives. It would sure make raising them a whole lot easier right? Like when we tell them to clean their rooms. You know they have a choice right?  They may do it eventually, their way, but they have a choice. We all do. In every aspects of our life. From what we eat, what we wear, who we marry, what will want to do for work or school. Choices are available to all of us.

God engineered within the human being the ability to chose. That is the only way to have true love and worship. But man pirated such a privilege and responsibility and decided to go it alone with God. That man was called Adam. And we have been messed up ever since. We can't blame Adam because we probably would have done the same thing. Before God makes things right on this planet, sin has to be judged. Solemn preparation must be made because man sins and deserves judgment. The truth of the matter is that we are all sinners. Non believers love to use the Bible to quote, "Judge not, lest you be judged," but they fail to read the rest or even understand what the context of the word "Judge" means in that portion of the Bible. It means not to condemn. Jesus, Himself, told all of us to be fruit inspectors. Don't forget, "All of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God." ALL OF US. We are all in the same boat!

It's human nature to practice sin! It's in our blood and that is not a popular thing to say. Even from birth, no one taught us how to sin, we automatically know how to do it. Babies refuse to listen when you tell them No, you can't have another cookie. We have to remind our children, NOT to do certain things, because inherently we all know how to do them. When you tell your kids not to do something, what do they do? They do it anyway. When you call them on it and ask if they did it, they will lie about it. Not me! Where does that come from? The Garden of Eden. Adam. Eve.

Exodus 23:a~ "You shall not fall in with the man to do evil, "

2 Samuel 12:9a ~ "Why have you despised the word of the LORD, to do what is evil in his sight?"

2 Kings 17:17 ~ "And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings and used divination and omens and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger." 

Genesis 6:5 ~ "The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."

Solemn preparation must be made, because evil is about to run its course. We are a people and a race that wants its own way, without God, and when we get it, we mess it up. That is what Utopia is all about. It's man creating a world without God thinking he can govern himself. Not matter what your political affiliation or gender, we can not do it! It's flawed from the beginning. We need Jesus. He begins that when He comes into our life and makes us new. The greatest government of all is a theocracy, when God rules and reigns in men's hearts. That is how the world is changed. The Bible says, it won't be changed until Christ comes.

Didn't Jesus remind us in the pattern to prayer, Matthew 6:13 ~ " and lead us not unto temptation, but deliver us from evil." 

Why? Because evil is forever around us.

John 3:15-19 ~ "that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. for God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and the people loved thee darkness rather than the light because their works were evil."

This means that men schemed and looked forward to doing evil rather than following God. For each of us that knows Jesus now, knows exactly what that means. When the judgment of God comes, the prayers of the saints will be heard.

Revelation 8:2-6 ~ "Another angel (an 8th angel), who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne. The smoke of the incense together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angel's hand. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake. Then the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to sound them."

This is the answer to prayer but more specifically the answer to the prayers found in Revelation 6:9-10 ~ "When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, "O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge the earth and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?"

Remember they had died earlier during the first 3 1/2 years of the Tribulation period. Remember what the answer was to their question? Wait! We now come to Revelation 8, and their brethren have died and so the prayer is answered. Throughout all history both in the Old and New Testament, the last thing you want to be is an earth dweller. The word in both the Greek and Hebrew means those who live for the earth. It is in direct agreement with Romans 1 about those who worship the earth and its creation. Those who say the earth is their mother. The earth is our home. The earth, not God, has given us forth.

I believe that Christians should be the greatest custodians of nature on the planet earth. Just don't worship it. There are those who worship it. There is a balance and never are we called upon to worship the earth. Earth dwellers are those that live for the earth and worship planet earth. It's what they live for. It's your life, what you can extract from the earth. Gold. Power. Money. Prestige. Place. Position. It's what you live for. The earth dwellers.

Isn't it interesting that to counter that, the Bible says to those of us that are Christians, our citizenship is in heaven! That we are ambassadors for Christ! Diplomats sent into a dangerous world is what ambassadors means to the Christians.

People might look around today and ask if we are seeing God's judgment on the earth. No rain in California. Laws being passed that are contrary to the Bible. I believe what we are seeing is God's warning signs right now, not judgments. God warns, and He warns, and He warns and then once we make the final rejection, the final time we push Him off, remember the Bible says in Genesis, my Spirit will not always strive with man, I hate to tell you this, but we haven't seen anything yet. God is warning us. Here in California, we are under a severe drought and have been below our needed water levels for 9 years. Is this the judgment of God? No, we are not going to get away that easy. Violence and racial division, even political division, makes you wonder what is really going on in the world today. Even with CoVid 19, we wonder if that is a biblical plague. No, far from it. These are warnings based on Joel 1. The rains begin to stop, crops begin to fail. It's almost like you're reading the newspaper today. Read it later.

The culture is suffering because of the decisions we have made. Not because God is judging us. He is simply telling us to turn back to Him. He is asking the Christian, the believer, to turn back to God. That is what he is asking us to do. There is no judgment from God happening on the earth just yet, but it is coming one day. Will YOU choose Him today?

Silence in Heaven You Can Feel!

We know that when the Rapture of the church happens, there will be plenty of left over Bibles laying around. If someone were to pick up your Bible, what would they find highlighted? You might be pleasantly surprised when you open your Bible and take a look at what has been important to you over the years and when you consider the things that are highlighted with the foreknowledge that one day someone will be opening it and reading what you highlighted, what will they think?

As we open up our study today into Revelation, Chapter 8, we find silence in heaven according to the Apostle John for about a half an hour. Whatever is coming is announced by silence in the heavenly realm. Then we see God's implements and instruments being gathered for the coming judgment He is about to unleash on the world. These various angels are appointed with specific packages, certain aspects of judgment to be delivered, to planet Earth during that time. Why? Because both earth and mankind had rejected God and because of that sin, these instruments and actions are levied to a Christ rejecting world.

The seventh seal unveils the seven trumpet judgment of God. When we get to the seventh trumpet it will open the seven bowl judgments. In the Book of Revelation as we get to Chapter 8, it should not concern you if you are trusting in Jesus Christ, because we will not be here at that time. The church has been removed from the earth in the Rapture before the Tribulation period began. Some of you might be thinking, well if we aren't going to be here, why even study the Book of Revelation, because we need to know the whole Bible not just parts that pertain to us from cover to cover.

Revelation 8:1-13 ~ "When he (Jesus Christ) opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. Another angel (an 8th angel), who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne. The smoke of the incense together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the agel's hand. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake. Then the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to sound them. The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down upon the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up. The second angel sounded his trumpet and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the living creatures of the sea died, and a third of all the ships were destroyed. The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water - the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter. The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon and a third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark. A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night. As I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying in midair call out in a loud voice: "Woe! Woe! Woe! to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels!"

When you hear the use of the words "Woe!" it is not about stopping a horse but a warning that is coming, Danger! Danger! Danger! or simply Damnation! Damnation! Damnation! is coming to the inhabitants of the earth! We have to remember that no matter where we look at in the Bible in the Old Testament or the New Testament that God is a God of love, mercy and forgiveness. It is hard when you read chapters like this one in the Bible, because we don't want to spend long reading about what is coming to the future of this world one day. We'd love to skip it in fact. These are not the chapters that cause prolific church growth. Believers and non-believers do not want to hear about judgment, unless we understand the Scripture and why it is given we will see answered prayer and we will see God answer prayer, and the prayer that He answers will be His vengeance upon the earth.

There is a prayer that is a holy righteous prayer and I am not saying that we should pray it, but I am saying that we often feel it. We just need to make sure that our will is yielded to the will of God. and that God is the One who exercises judgment and not us. We don't like to admit to the fact that one day God will bring judgment. We are living in an age of grace right now and we should be thankful for that. There will come a time when God consummates His grace and then the time of judgment will come. God will then answer the prayers of those who have prayed for God to avenge their blood. That is what the Bible teaches even if you disagree with that. God is a loving God, a Holy God and a Just God. It is God in His perfect love, holiness, and righteousness is the only one to exercise judgment. Did you know that? Keep that in mind.

Psalm 86:5 ~ "For you are forgiving and good, O Lord; abounding in love to all who call to you."

Jeremiah 31:3 ~ "The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: I have loved you with an everlasting love, I have drawn you with loving kindness."

Hebrews 7:25 ~ "Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them." 

Revelation 1:5 ~ "and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood," 

When we hear about God's judgment, we are tempted to see Him as an old man, with a sandwich board walking around that says, "Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand." But we need to understand that God is righteous and holy in his judgment of mankind. He is doing everything he can to give us an opportunity to be saved through our faith in Jesus and not have to face the coming judgment. Sometimes we are mistaken in thinking that God is judging even right now in the age in which we are living. He is not.

John 16:33 ~ "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

But there is a time of God's judgment and wrath that is coming to this world that will be like no other time in all of history or the future! God will allow evil to have its day for a time, and then God will bring judgment. This is exactly what Jesus was warning about in Matthew 24.

Matthew 24:21-22 ~" For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now - and never to be equaled again. If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened."

We see Jesus now as He opens the seventh seal. When the judgment of God comes there will be a pause in heaven. This section is of great preparation. What is interesting is that in the very nature of eternity there is no concept of time, but here the Bible says, there is silence for about a half an hour. How can we reconcile that where God dwells, time is eternal but John says a half an hour. Easy! John is seeing a vision. John is seeing the unveiling of things to come in heaven and in earth to come. It is announced or shown to John that there is a pause in time for about half an hour. The word in the Greek for silence is that it is a silence that can be felt. Have you ever felt a silence like that? You might be tempted to say, No. Have you ever been on a jury? When you are called back into the court after the jury has deliberated and you are seated there, and the judge turns to the jury and asks, "Have you reached a verdict?" If you have ever been there, it is an ominous moment. There is dead silence. It is a silence that can be felt. Why? Because a verdict is about to be given. The defendant stands, the judge asks the jury if they have reached their verdict and they respond that they have. There is silence until it begins so to speak, until the verdict is given. There is a silence at that moment that you can feel.

There is a time of silence before all of this judgment comes, that in that moment of silence, God does not delight in judgement. Do you know that? The Bible says that God created Hell for the devil and his angels. Not for humans. God doesn't want anyone to go there. This is an ominous moment, there is a pause, a silence. We have seen that up until this point, we have been reading that in heaven, there is great noise, great praise, great adoration going on. Now there is a great moment of silence. Why? Because God does not delight in judgment, but judgment must come. There is a pause. There is a silent pause in heaven because of what Jesus Christ is about to do. Jesus is the one who will preside over the judgment of God. It is Jesus that opens the seventh seal.

Luke 4:14-21 " Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him. He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue as was his custom. And he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."

This was Jesus' first sermon of Isaiah 61. It has a direct connection to Revelation, chapter 8. Notice that in the scripture of Isaiah he read, he ended on a comma before he sat down. This was the prophecy of the Messiah and Jesus was announcing that He was the one the prophecy was speaking about. Why did he stop at the comma in the midst of the book of Isaiah? What comes next in Isaiah 61:2 is ":and the acceptable day of vengeance of our God," He didn't say that, the very next statement. This is significant because at the comma in Isaiah 61:2 it correlates to Revelation 8 all the way out to Revelation 19.

Jesus paused at that comma, closed the book, because for the last 2000 years it would be time to preach the gospel of grace. Do you understand that? And so the gospel has gone out into the world. There is a day of vengeance of our God that is coming. God's judgment is the day of vengeance. It will come upon a certain group of people not believers. You might think you are under God's judgment now, but trust me you have no idea what God's judgment is! He is not doing that right now. God may discipline. God may chastise. God may scold you. But the truth is that right now, God is not operating in judgment or wrath or vengeance. There is also a pause in heaven for what they are about to see.

The grammatical picture that is painted here is very awesome and quite frankly it is frightening. Heaven is in awe of what is soon about to take place on the earth. I would venture to say that it is quite difficult to impress heaven. Heaven is where angels dwell. Heaven is where the saints have gone. Heaven is an awesome, wonderful and holy place. Yet heaven is aware of a future event that just before it happens John says that there is silence for about a half an hour. Heaven is about to witness the wrath of God.

This silence underscores a sense of foreboding, fear on earth as it were if you are a Christ rejecter, you're shaking your fist at God. Remember John said there was silence in heaven, not silence on earth. Apparently it is not very quiet in heaven until this very serious silence comes. This should underscore for us the terror and horror and awfulness of what comes to a Christ-rejecting world. We are heading in that direction. We are living in a country that was founded on Judeo-Christian values if you have read the letters of our founding fathers, the Mayflower Compact, and understanding what the believers believed in before they came to America. Now to see how far our nation has fallen from God. Imagine God saying, "You know, I have had enough. You don't want Me in school. You don't want Me in court. You don't want Me in your government any longer. You don't want Me in your culture. So I'll get out." People have no idea what this world would be like if God just got out. There is coming a day when He will get out. There won't be anything left for man to experience, except the wrath of his own sin.