Transcript Revelation 6 - God's Character

“The Seven Bowls of the
Wrath of God”
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“Then I heard a loud voice from the temple
telling the seven angels, ‘Go and pour out on
the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of
God.’” (Revelation 16:1)
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T: Hail, fire, and blood fall on the earth
B: The bowl is poured on the earth
T: A blazing mountain falls into the sea; 1/3 of
the sea becomes blood, 1/3 of the sea creatures
die
B: The sea turns to blood; Every living thing in
them dies
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T: A blazing star falls on 1/3 of rivers and
fountains
B: The bowl is poured rivers and fountains
T: 1/3 of sun, moon, and stars are struck:
darkness
B: The bowl is poured on the sun, resulting in
suffering
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T: Shaft of the bottomless pit is opened; sun
and air are darkened with smoke; locusts
torture people who are not protected by God’s
seal
B: The bowl is poured out on the throne of the
beast, plunging it into darkness. People
“gnawed their tongues in agony.”
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T: The four angels bound at the great river
Euphrates are released; 2 million cavalry kill
1/3 of humanity
B: The bowl is poured out on the great river
Euphrates; kings assemble for war,
Armageddon
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T: The seventh trumpet ends with loud voices
in heaven that announce the coming of the
kingdom of God and Christ; a scene at “the
Covenant Box” and with “flashes of lightning,
rumblings and peals of thunder, an earthquake,
and heavy hail.” (Revelation 11:19)
B: The seventh plague ends with “A loud voice
from the throne in the temple” and with
“flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of
thunder, and a terrible earthquake.”(Revelation
16:17-18)
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“And I saw three foul spirits like frogs coming
from the mouth of the dragon, from the mouth
of the beast, and from the mouth of the false
prophet. These are demonic spirits, performing
signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole
world, to assemble them for battle on the great
day of God the Almighty” (Revelation 16:13,14)
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“Satan works through the elements also to garner his
harvest of unprepared souls. He has studied the secrets of
the laboratories of nature, and he uses all his power to
control the elements as far as God allows. When he was
suffered to afflict Job, how quickly flocks and herds,
servants, houses, children, were swept away, one trouble
succeeding another as in a moment. It is God that shields
His creatures and hedges them in from the power of the
destroyer. But the Christian world have shown contempt
for the law of Jehovah; and the Lord will do just what He
has declared that He would-He will withdraw His
blessings from the earth and remove His protecting care
from those who are rebelling against His law and teaching
and forcing others to do the same. Satan has control of all
whom God does not especially guard. He will favor and
prosper some in order to further his own designs, and he
will bring trouble upon others and lead men to believe that
it is God who is afflicting them.” (GC, pg. 589)
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“I was shown that the judgments of God would
not come directly out from the Lord upon
them, but in this way: They place themselves
beyond His protection. He warns, corrects,
reproves, and points out the only path of
safety; then if those who have been the objects
of His special care will follow their own course
independent of the Spirit of God, after repeated
warnings, if they choose their own way, then
He does not commission His angels to prevent
Satan's decided attacks upon them.”
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“It is Satan's power that is at work at sea and
on land, bringing calamity and distress, and
sweeping off multitudes to make sure of his
prey. And storm and tempest both by sea and
land will be, for Satan has come down in great
wrath. He is at work. He knows his time is
short and, if he is not restrained, we shall see
more terrible manifestations of his power than
we have ever dreamed of.” (E.G. White, Last
Day Events, pg. 242)
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Sin:
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God’s law
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Inherent natural consequence
External imposed penalty
Descriptive of how things are
Proscriptive (imposed)
God’s wrath
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Natural consequence
Imposed
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“Judah, you have brought this on yourself by the
way you have lived and by the things you have
done. Your sin has caused this suffering; it has
stabbed you through the heart.” (Jeremiah 4:18)
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“The only obligation you have is to love
one another. Whoever does this has
obeyed the Law…If you love others, you
will never do them wrong; to love, then, is
to obey the whole Law” (Romans
13,8,10).
“For the whole Law is summed up in one
commandment: ‘Love your neighbor as
you love yourself’” (Galatians 5:14).
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“Jesus answered, ‘Love the Lord your
God with all your heart, with all your
soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the
greatest and the most important
commandment. The second most
important commandment is like it: ‘Love
your neighbor as you love yourself.’”
(Matthew 22:37-39 – GN)
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“Whoever hits his father or his mother is to be put
to death…whoever curses his father or his mother
is to be put to death” (Exodus 21:15,17)
“Put to death any woman who practices magic. Put
to death anyone who has sexual relations with an
animal. Condemn to death anyone who offers
sacrifices to any god except me, the LORD”
(Exodus 22:18-20)
“Do not have sexual intercourse with any of your
relatives. Do not disgrace your father by having
intercourse with your mother. You must not
disgrace your own mother…No man or woman is
to have sexual relations with an animal; that
perversion makes you ritually unclean” (Leviticus
18:7,23)
 “We
know that the Law is good if it is used
as it should be used. It must be remembered,
of course, that laws are made, not for good
people, but for lawbreakers and criminals,
for the godless and sinful, for those who are
not religious or spiritual, for those who kill
their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for
the immoral, for sexual perverts, for
kidnappers, for those who lie and give false
testimony or who do anything else contrary
to sound doctrine.” (1 Timothy 1:8-10)
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“What, then, was the purpose of the Law? It
was added in order to show what
wrongdoing is…” (Galatians 3:19).
“The law was added because we needed it
when we were such rebels. Until the time
when we were mature enough to respond
freely in faith (trust) to the living God, we
were carefully surrounded and protected by
the Mosaic law….” (Galatians 3:23-26, The
Message).
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“Do not cook a young sheep or goat in its mother’s
milk” (Exodus 23:19)
“Weave the tunic of fine linen. Make the turban of
fine linen. The sash will be the work of an
embroiderer. Make tunics, sashes, and hats for
Aaron’s sons to express glory and beauty. Dress
your brother Aaron and his sons in them. Anoint,
ordain, and consecrate them to serve me as priests.
Make linen underwear to cover their nakedness
from waist to thigh. (Exodus 28:39-42 – The
Message)
“Don’t use steps to climb to my Altar because that
will expose your nakedness.” (Exodus 20:25,26 –
The Message)
LOVE
Love God and
Man
10 Commandments
Many Commands given for a
specific time
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“We obey for hope of reward and/or for fear of
punishment”
“We obey because we love God”
“We obey because we agree with God and see
that everything he has asked us to do makes
sense.”
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“And now I give you a new
commandment: love one another. As I
have loved you, so you must love one
another. If you have love for one another,
then everyone will know that you are my
disciples.” (John 13:34,35)
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“Whoever sins is guilty of breaking God's law,
because sin is a breaking of the law.” (1 John
3:4 GNB)
 A-nomia
“Everyone who makes a practice of sinning
also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.”
(1 John 3:4 FBV)
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Sin is a state of internal rebelliousness against
God and his law of love
“How terrible for you, teachers of the Law and
Pharisees! You hypocrites! You clean the
outside of your cup and plate, while the inside
is full of what you have gotten by violence and
selfishness. Blind Pharisee! Clean what is inside
the cup first, and then the outside will be clean
too!” (Matthew 23:25-26)
This leads to external “sinful actions”
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Bacterial Meningitis
Symptoms: headache and fever
 Treatment: narcotics, NSAID’s
 Root cause: bacterial infection
 Treatment: antibiotics
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 Treating the root cause is what ultimately leads to
resolution of the headache and fever
 Untreated: death
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Sin
Symptoms: murder, selfishness, stealing, lying
 Treatment: Rules
 Root cause: breakdown in our trusting
relationship with God; rebelliousness against
God’s way; “Anything that is not based on
faith is sin.” (Romans 14:23)
 Treatment: restored trust and relationship
with God
 Untreated: death, self destruction
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Is God’s law is an imposed legal decree? If so, the
punishment is externally imposed
 In this model, Jesus saves us by suffering God’s
imposed punishment for the breaking of the law
Is God’s law a principle of how God’s universe
operates (the law of love)?
 In this model, God seeks to save us from the sin
that inherently seeks to destroy us; Jesus
restores our trust and the broken relationship;
Jesus reveals the terrible consequences of
separation from God caused by sin
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“But if you will not listen to me and carry out all these commands, and if
you reject my decrees and abhor my laws and fail to carry out all my
commands and so violate my covenant, then I will do this to you: I will
bring upon you sudden terror, wasting diseases and fever that will
destroy your sight and drain away your life...I will set my face against
you so that you will be defeated by your enemies; those who hate you
will rule over you, and you will flee even when no one is pursuing you.
If after all this you will not listen to me, I will punish you for your sins
seven times over. I will break down your stubborn pride and make the
sky above you like iron and the ground beneath you like bronze…If you
remain hostile toward me and refuse to listen to me, I will multiply your
afflictions seven times over, as your sins deserve. I will send wild
animals against you, and they will rob you of your children, destroy your
cattle and make you so few in number that your roads will be deserted.”
(Leviticus 26:14-22)
LOVE
Love God and
Man
10 Commandments
Many Commands given for a
specific time
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“You shall not make for yourself an idol in the
form of anything in heaven above or on the
earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall
not bow down to them or worship them; for I,
the LORD your God, am a jealous God,
punishing the children for the sin of the fathers
to the third and fourth generation of those who
hate me, but showing love to a thousand
{generations} of those who love me and keep
my commandments.” (Exodus 20:4-6)
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“A son is not to suffer because of his father’s
sins, nor a father because of the sins of his son.
Good people will be rewarded for doing good,
and evil people will suffer for the evil they do.”
(Ezekiel 18:20)
“Turn away from all the evil you are doing,
and don’t let your sin destroy you.” (Ezekiel
18:30)
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“We are not to regard God as waiting to punish the
sinner for his sin. The sinner brings the
punishment upon himself. His own actions start a
train of circumstances that bring the sure result.
Every act of transgression reacts upon the sinner,
works in him a change of character, and makes it
more easy for him to transgress again. By choosing
to sin, men separate themselves from God, cut
themselves off from the channel of blessing, and
the sure result is ruin and death.” Letter 96, 1896
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“After this I saw four angels standing at the four
corners of the earth, holding back the four winds so
that no wind should blow on the earth or the sea or
against any tree.” (Revelation 7:1)
“Then another angel, who is in charge of the fire,
came from the altar. He shouted in a loud voice to the
angel who had the sharp sickle, ‘Use your sickle, and
cut the grapes from the vineyard of the earth, because
the grapes are ripe!’ So the angel swung his sickle on
the earth, cut the grapes from the vine, and threw
them into the wine press of God’s wrath.” (Revelation
14:18-19)
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“My anger will flame up like fire and burn
everything on earth. It will reach to the world
below and consume the roots of the mountains.
I will bring on them endless disasters and use
all my arrows against them.” (Deuteronomy
32:22,23 )
“They fail to see why they were defeated; they
cannot understand what happened. Why were
a thousand defeated by one, and ten thousand
by only two? The Lord, their God, had
abandoned them; their mighty God had given
them up” (Deuteronomy 32:29,30)
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“I will fight against you with all my might, my
anger, my wrath, and my fury. I will kill
everyone living in this city; people and animals
alike will die of a terrible disease…. Anyone
who stays in the city will be killed in war or by
starvation or disease...
It will be given over to the king of Babylonia,
and he will burn it to the ground. I, the LORD,
have spoken.” (Jeremiah 21:5,6,9-10)
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God’s anger is revealed from heaven
against all the sin and evil of the people
whose evil ways prevent the truth from
being known. God punishes them,
because what can be known about God is
plain to them, for God himself made it
plain.” (Romans 1:18,19)
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“They say they are wise, but they are fools; instead
of worshiping the immortal God, they worship
images made to look like mortals or birds or
animals or reptiles. And so God has given those
people over to do the filthy things their hearts
desire, and they do shameful things with each
other. They exchange the truth about God for a lie;
they worship and serve what God has created
instead of the Creator himself, who is to be praised
forever! Amen. Because they do this, God has given
them over to shameful passions….Because those
people refuse to keep in mind the true knowledge
about God, he has given them over to corrupted
minds, so that they do the things that they should
not do.” (Romans 1:22-26,28)
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“In this way they have brought to
completion all the sins they have always
committed. And now God’s anger has at
last come down on them!” (1 Thess. 2:1416)
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“Because of our sins he was given over to
die…” (Romans 4:25)
“At noon the whole country was covered
with darkness, which lasted for three
hours. At three o'clock Jesus cried out
with a loud shout, "Eloi, Eloi, lema
sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my
God, why did you abandon me?" (Mark
15:33-34)