The Wrath (Revelation 15, 16)

There are a few traditional ways of reading Revelation. Some see it as merely a coded look at the events of John’s day and the fall of Jerusalem. Some see it as a key to the entire history of the church age from John’s day up to today (and perhaps beyond.) Others see it nothing more than a symbolic parable of life. Finally, most see it as a revelation of what will happen at the end of time. I’ve already talked about my frustration with limiting this book to the end times, but you can’t see it as just a spiritual metaphor. The book claims to be a revelation about the end times, so it is.

Where we miss out on all the book has to offer us is when we think that it is just there to speak to the end times. Even worse, when we engage in the tempting game of trying to decode the prophecy rather than see how it applies to us in whatever place we find ourselves in church history.

One futurist kept this in mind when he got to this point of the book:

“How little we can say of all these awful scenes of wrath coming upon the earth. It is far better to acknowledge our ignorance in some of these matters than to indulge in fanciful speculations.” -Arno C. Gaebelein

In chapters 15 and 16, we reach the end. Not of time, or of the Revelation, but the end of God’s patience. This is the third cycle of “signs” following the opening of the seals and the warning blasts of the trumpets. Now we see the actual wrath of God against a rebellious and unrepentant creation. It is pointless to try to figure out what that will look like when it comes. Suffice it to say, you hope you never find out!