TODAY'S TECHNOLOGY IN BIBLE PROPHECY
Lesson 12: The sixth seal overview of the world's first atomic war is
compared to today's observable features of atomic explosions.
I The nature and design of the seven seals that bind the book
of Revelation.
A The seal prophecies are an introductory outline only of
the greater prophetic communication of the book.
B The first five list a series of events leading up to the
opening, or arrival, of the sixth seal event.
C The sixth seal presents an overview of the world's first
atomic war (AWWI).
D The breaking of the seventh seal opens the full contents
of the book of Revelation for man's inspection.
E The first four seals list a successive series of
disasters involving conquest, wars between nations,
famine, plagues, and death.
F Christ specifically stated that these calamities were not
to be included in the final list of milestone events to
look for immediately preceding His return.
6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that you
are not alarmed; for this must take place, but the end is
not yet.
7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against
kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in
various places:
8 all this is but the beginning of the birth-pangs
(Mt. 24:6-8, RSV).
A Despite Christ's plainly spoken instructions: "the end is
not yet," Christians have consistently taken the view
during times of war and natural disasters that these
calamities are signs of the final countdown to Christ's
imminent return.
B This persistent misunderstanding among Christians through
the centuries, is the central theme of the fifth seal
prophecy.
II The breaking of the fifth seal answers the question: "How
long" will it be before God judges the earth's inhabitants?
9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the
souls of those who had been slain because of the word of
God and the testimony they had maintained.
10 They called out in a loud voice, "How long, Sovereign
Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the
earth and avenge our blood?"
11 Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were
told to wait a little longer, until the number of their
fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they
had been was completed (Rev. 6:9-11, NIV).
A The Christians in heaven who suffered for "the testimony
they had maintained," ask: "how long" will it be before
God judges the earth's inhabitants?
B They are told "to wait a little longer" until their
brothers on earth, "who were to be killed as they had
been" (for preaching the gospel) "was completed."
C What is the main message of the fifth seal prophecy?
- Christians will go through the sixth seal events.
D What does this passage tell us about the days leading up
to the opening of the sixth seal?
- They will be difficult times; so difficult that
Christians will be asking why God hasn't judged the
evil in the world yet.
E When will God intervene and vindicate His name?
- When Christians complete the task of preaching the
gospel to a lost and dying world.
III On the first day of the sixth seal time period the world
will witness the planet's first atomic war.
12 I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great
earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of
goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red (Rev. 6:12, NIV).
A A great earthquake will break open the sixth seal time
period.
B Loss of light from the sun and moon is named as the most
damaging consequence of the great earthquake.
1 John compared the great loss of sunlight to what would
occur if the sun was covered with a great cloth made
of goat hair.
2 John explained later that the darkness will be a side
effect of atomic war-generated smoke.
C Ezekiel also predicted that a great earthquake will
trigger the world's first atomic war--"there will surely
be a great earthquake in the land of Israel" (Ezek. 38:
19, NASB)--on the day a Russian-led army commences its
invasion of Israel.
D (Bible prophecy confirms that John and Ezekiel
described the same all-out atomic war.)
13 and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig
tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind
(Rev. 6:13, NASB).
A The stars could not be literal since even a star as small
as the sun would incinerate the planet in a collision.
B Furthermore, the falling stars do not represent meteor
showers since John eliminated this possibility in a later
chapter.
C John compared the exploding atomic bombs he saw in
vision to falling stars because they have several
observable features in common.
1 The fiery streak of a falling star and the rocket
exhaust of a nuclear-tipped missile hurtling through
the heavens at speeds up to 8,000 miles per hour, are
similar in appearance.
2 Like a free-falling star, once the missile's rockets
burn out, the warhead continues its fall toward the
target under the influence of gravity.
3 Even as a meteor ignites with a burst of bright light
during the course of its fall, so does an air-borne
nuclear warhead explode into brilliant light in the
midst of its fall to the earth.
D John compared the suddenness of the escalation from a
conventional to a nuclear war, immediately after the
great earthquake, to people not expecting a sudden
violent windstorm to shake unripe figs from a tree.
14 And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled
together; and every mountain and island were moved out of
their places (Rev. 6:14).
A John then described the fantastic power of the bombs.
B The continuing force of a nuclear blast wave drives
everything away from its super-heated center, with winds
up to 400 miles per hour.
1 After a few seconds the winds rush back to fill the
partial vacuum left from the blast.
2 A column of fiery dust and smoke-filled air promptly
forms and proceeds to rise miles into the darkening
sky, like "a scroll being rolled up" IGENT.
C John equated the visual effects of this wind reversal
phenomenon to the suddenness of a fully extended scroll
rolling itself up upon being released.
1 During the three minutes it takes for the rising hot
gases to reach the thin air of the stratosphere (where
the smoke immediately spreads out into a mushroom
shape), the column of smoke looks like a scroll being
rolled up.
2 The Effects of Nuclear Weapons, published jointly by
the U.S. Department of Defense and the Energy Research
and Development Administration, confirms John's
account of this fleeting obscure feature of a nuclear
explosion: "the radioactive cloud ascends several
miles before spreading out abruptly into a mushroom
shape."
D Isaiah, in addition to reporting the scenic view of
nuclear explosions, wrote about the terribly destructive
heat released by the bomb.
4 All the stars of the heavens will be dissolved and the
sky rolled up like a scroll; all the starry host will
fall like withered leaves from the vine, like shriveled
figs from the fig tree.
5 My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens;
(Isa. 34:4-5, NIV).
1 Isaiah's report is scientifically accurate. For at
the moment of the explosion, boiling and surging
atomic particles instantly gasify, or "dissolve," the
star-like bomb.
2 The thermal pulse from the growing fireball vaporizes
people one mile below within two seconds.
a Fiery updrafts subsequently carry the victims
gaseous remains miles into the heavens.
b When it's over, the star-like 'nuclear' "sword has
drunk its fill in the heavens."
E What is the greater significance of the Bible's
impeccably flawless descriptions of atomic explosions?
- Their presence eliminates any sound reason for
doubting the Bible's most important message--namely,
the proclamation that Jesus Christ is the only one who
can save a man's eternal soul.
F John's closing comment: "And every mountain and island
were moved out of their places," details the awesome
power unleashed by these star-like bombs.
1 This does not mean that every mountain and island on
the planet will be moved, but rather, when these
star-like bombs go off in the vicinity of a mountain,
or an island, the targeted mountains and islands will
be severely moved and shaken by the intense heat and
violent forces of the nuclear blast wave.
2 Super warheads have been deployed to knock out top-
priority targets such as command and control centers
located deep in mountain redoubts and hardened, well-
fortified, air and naval bases located on islands.
3 The 15-megaton thermonuclear bomb tested at Bikini
Atoll on March 1, 1954--the BRAVO shot of Operation
Castle--demonstrated that at least one island on the
planet has already been "moved out of its place."
4 For when the atomic fire, dust and smoke cleared,
observers found that the island had literally
vanished from the sea.
IV John followed his documentary on the extent of damages
inflicted on the planet by the nuclear war with a report on
the plight of the victims.
15 Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the
generals and the rich and the strong, and every one, slave
and free, hid in the caves and among the rocks of the
mountains, (Rev. 6:15, RSV).
A John noted that everyone in the target zones will be
subjected to the horrors of this nuclear war.
B Everyone surviving on the perimeter of the radioactive
bombed-out areas will head for the hills, since staying
near the blast area would invite death by severe
radiation poisoning.
16 and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, "Fall
on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the
throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb;
17 for the great day of their wrath has come; and who is
able to stand?" (Rev. 6:16-17, NASB).
A When the survivors take stock of their injuries,
exposure to radiation, lack of food, water, shelter, and
medical support, they will consider death from a falling
rock a better fate than the calamities engulfing them.
B The language: "and hide us from the presence of Him who
sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for
the great day of their wrath has come;" shows that the
survivors will believe that God and the Son of God, Jesus
Christ "the Lamb," are about to return at that very
moment and judge them.
1 Their assumption that the end of the world is upon
them will be incorrect.
2 John did not say God would return immediately after
AWWI, but rather, "they said" (the uninformed
survivors) "the great day of their wrath has come."