Big Picture
Their fear was palpable. Failure was unthinkable. Thick dark clouds forebode a day of bickering and arguing. But slivers of sunlight radiated insights and breakthroughs. The 16 member demon council was grappling with the structure of the book of Revelation – the big picture. Their success in understanding the book was vital to Diabolis and millions of demons. Evility typically ran the council meetings much like a dictator runs a country.
Evility began to pace as he talked, “Pay close attention. I despise repeating myself.”
His face contorted and then softened into a grin as he continued, “You all know that I enjoy working on puzzles. The book of Revelation is the ultimate, giant, jigsaw puzzle. It is extremely difficult to put together because it has thousands of unusually shaped pieces. Some of them are big but most are tiny.
"Today I am going to describe the big pieces and show you how they fit together. I will write the important points on the white board as I talk."
| 7 churches | Rev 1:9 - 3:22 |
| 7 seals | Rev 4:1 - 8:1 |
| 7 trumpets | Rev 8:2 - 11:19 |
| 7 bowls | Rev 15:1 - 16:21 |
“The 7 churches have names but are not numbered. The 7 seals, 7 trumpets and 7 bowls are numbered but not named. They each have an introduction before number one and all but the churches have a break between the 6th and the 7th.” Evility paused as he wrote the names and numbers on the board.
| Churches | named | Introduction | Ephesus, Smyrna . . . |
| Seals | numbered | Introduction | 1 2 3 4 5 6 Break 7 |
| Trumpets | numbered | Introduction | 1 2 3 4 5 6 Break 7 |
| Bowls | numbered | Introduction | 1 2 3 4 5 6 Break 7 |
“The seven churches all exist at the same time but the seven seals, seven trumpets and seven bowls portray events that will occur in numerical order. For example, the 1st trumpet will sound, then the 2nd, then the 3rd etc. The 5th trumpet will not sound before the 4th. The primary fulfillment of each of these events will be in the near future. The trumpets and the bowls relate directly to us and our demons. For now we will skip the churches and the seals.
“The last part of the 7th trumpet and the introduction to the bowls describe the same event so we can use it to create a timeline of the trumpets and bowls. Notice these two descriptions:
“The last part of the 7th trumpet says:
"19 Then the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple. And there were lightnings, noises, thunderings, an earthquake, and great hail." Rev 11:19
“The introduction to the bowls says:
"5 After these things I looked, and behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened." Rev 15:5-6
“Both of these verses describe the temple of God in heaven being opened. The temple is opened during the 7th trumpet, just before the 7 bowls are poured out. I will use an Int for the introduction. The seven trumpets sound in order and then the seven bowls are poured out in order. This is the timeline for the trumpets and the bowls:
| Trumpets | Bowls |
| Int 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 | Int 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 |
“Notice something interesting. Noises, thunder, lightning and an earthquake occur together exactly three times in Revelation:
| 1 | Introduction to the trumpets | Rev 8:5 |
| 2 | 7th Trumpet | Rev 11:15-19 |
| 3 | 7th Bowl | Rev 16:17-18 |
“These three earthquakes will be worldwide and will be accompanied by noises, thunder and lightning. People will be terrified when they feel the earthquake and hear the thunder and noises. I will use NTL to stand for noises, thunder and lighting and an E for earthquake. This is how the picture looks now:
| Trumpets | Bowls | |||
| NTL E | NTL E | NTL E | ||
| Int | 1 2 3 4 5 6 | 7 Int | 1 2 3 4 5 6 | 7 |
“The first earthquake will be severe. The second earthquake will be more violent and will be accompanied by hail. The third earthquake will be the greatest earthquake that has ever occurred. Hailstones will fall that weigh about 100 lbs. each. Every mountain and island on earth will be moved out of its place during this devastating earthquake.
| Trumpets | Bowls | |||
| NTL E | NTL E Hail | NTL Big E, Hail | ||
| Int | 1 2 3 4 5 6 | 7 Int | 1 2 3 4 5 6 | 7 |
“The seven trumpets and the seven bowls are judgments from God. He will send 14 plagues to the earth in a sequence of events during the Great Tribulation.
"God will use the 7 trumpets to wake up people in the world to spiritual realities. Each trumpet will be a devastating, supernatural event designed to get the attention of every person on earth. The trumpets contain the wrath of God, but His wrath is mixed with mercy. There is still time for people to worship God, repent of their sins and receive salvation.
"During the 7th trumpet the door to salvation is forever closed. The bowls contain God’s wrath without any mercy. His wrath will be poured out full strength on those people who refuse to worship Him and choose to worship Diabolis (Satan) instead. There will be no possibility of salvation during the bowls. People have no second chance to be saved after the 7th trumpet.
“The first four trumpets are great physical disasters that wreak havoc on the earth. They may be caused by meteorites and asteroids hitting the earth and the ocean.
| 1 | Hail, fire and blood thrown to the earth. 1/3 of trees and all green grass burned up | Rev 8:7 |
| 2 | Mountain burning with fire thrown into ocean. 1/3 of sea becomes blood. 1/3 of creatures in the sea die. 1/3 of the ships destroyed | Rev 8:8,9 |
| 3 | Burning star falls on 1/3 of rivers and springs. People die from drinking the bitter water | Rev 8:10,11 |
| 4 | 1/3 of the sun, moon and stars become dark | Rev 8:12 |
“The 5th, 6th, and 7th trumpets are called woes and they will be absolutely devastating.
| 5 | The bottomless pit is opened. Diabolis, Archimel, Mordality, myself and our millions of demons will be released from the bottomless pit. We will visibly appear on earth. Diabolis will appear to be Jesus. Archimel and Mordality will appear to be Moses and Elijah. The rest of us will appear to be angels from heaven or people who died and have supposedly been living in heaven. For five months we will torture people who don't have the seal of God on their foreheads. | Rev 9:1-12 |
| 6 | An army of 200,000,000 people will combine forces with. Diabolis and his demons to kill 1/3 of the people on earth. | Rev 9:13-21 |
| 7 | There are noises, thunder, lightning, a great earthquake and great hail occur. The kingdom of this world is given to Jesus and He will reign as King of kings forever. The door of mercy is shut. Human probation ends. People can no longer receive salvation and eternal life. Each person will continue to worship the master he has chosen - either Jesus or Diabolis (Satan, the beast). | Rev 11:15-19 |
“The 7 bowls containing the wrath of God full strength will be poured out on the people who have chosen to worship Diabolis (Satan, the beast). Rev 16:1-12, 17-21
| 1 | Loathsome sores appear on people who wear Satan's mark |
| 2 | Sea becomes blood and all the creatures in the sea die |
| 3 | Rivers and springs of water become blood |
| 4 | Sun scorches people |
| 5 | Satan's kingdom becomes dark - darkness causes pain |
| 6 | Great river Euphrates dried up |
| 7 | From His throne in heaven God declares 'It is done'. There are noises, thunder, lightning and the greatest earthquake ever. Every island and mountain are moved. Hailstones fall that weigh one hundred pounds each. |
Evility sighed deeply. “So, there you have the big picture. The most significant events for us are the 5th and 6th trumpets. During the 5th trumpet we will physically invade the earth and torture people for five months. We will use the torture to convince them to worship Diabolis. He will appear to be Jesus and Archimel and Mordality will appear to be Moses and Elijah. This is when we will implement Operation Takeover.
“During the 6th trumpet we will have the pleasure of killing 1/3 of the people.” Evility paused to savor the thought and then continued soberly. “The 6th trumpet is also the most serious time for us because it is our last opportunity to secure the worship of the people.
"As soon as the 7th trumpet sounds the people that have managed to escape our grasp will be forever safe from us. So we need to be totally sure that every person has chosen our side before the 7th trumpet sounds.”
The demons sat in stunned silence contemplating how they could exact worship from every human being. Failure was unthinkable. Their fear was palpable.
Read the Bottomless pit next.