Revelation 16

Studies in Revelation
by Dr. John H. Roller

Chapter 16



Revelation 16:1
I HEARD A LOUD VOICE (it was either the voice of God, or of Jesus, or of an angel) OUT OF THE TEMPLE (in Heaven, in this vision), SAYING TO THE SEVEN ANGELS (who were described in Revelation 15), “GO AND POUR OUT THE SEVEN BOWLS OF THE WRATH OF GOD ON THE EARTH!”

Revelation 16:2
THE FIRST (angel) WENT, AND POURED OUT HIS BOWL INTO THE EARTH (representing, as we have seen before, the part of the earth in which most of the Christians that have ever lived, throughout the centuries, have lived – namely, the territory formerly controlled by the Roman Empire – that is, Europe), AND IT BECAME A HARMFUL AND EVIL SORE ON THE PEOPLE WHO HAD THE MARK OF (gave their political allegiance to) THE BEAST (the political/religious system that dominated those countries for 1,260 years – that is, the Papacy), AND WHO WORSHIPED (gave their religious allegiance to) HIS (the beast’s) IMAGE (the religious hierarchy that was under the Papacy’s control). The key to understanding this verse would be a knowledge of what is represented by the “harmful and evil sore” that is predicted to come on those people. I’m sure that it refers to something that is at least the spiritual, intellectual and/or moral equivalent in people’s lives of what a literal sore is in their bodies – something annoying, disgusting and dangerous – but I don’t believe that we can (at this point in time) know what it refers to. It might be something that has happened within the past few decades, or it might be something that will happen between now and the Second Coming – which means that it could happen as soon as today (if it hasn’t already happened)!

Revelation 16:3
THE SECOND ANGEL (went and) POURED OUT HIS BOWL INTO THE SEA (representing, as we have seen before, the generalized “mass” of humanity all over the world – non-Christian as well as Christian), AND IT BECAME BLOOD AS OF A DEAD MAN. EVERY LIVING THING IN THE SEA DIED. It would seem that a “literal” fulfillment of this prediction would mean that the entire population of the earth would die. Obviously, that hasn’t happened yet. Equally obviously (in my opinion), it isn’t going to happen between now and the Second Coming, either – because that would eliminate the people that the Apostle Paul says will be “alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:15)! The word “died” must be a symbol for something – but, again, at this time, it’s impossible to say what.

Revelation 16:4
THE THIRD (angel went and) POURED OUT HIS BOWL INTO THE RIVERS AND SPRINGS OF WATER (representing, as we have seen before, the sources of spiritual teaching), AND THEY BECAME BLOOD (making them “deadly”). In this case, I think that we stand on slightly more “solid” ground as we try to interpret this prediction. Within my lifetime, I have definitely observed what seem to me to be many negative trends in the “world” of spiritual teaching – the spread of “liberation” theology (which denies that Christians are responsible to obey the teachings of the Bible), the rise of “New Age” philosophy (which seeks to “combine” Christian beliefs with those of other – particularly, “Eastern” – religions), the encroachment of “pluralism” (which has led many people to believe that the followers of non-Christian religions are just as “saved” as the followers of Christ are), the growth of cults (small groups that claim to be “the one and only true Church” when, in fact, their beliefs and lifestyles demonstrate that they are not even “Christian” at all), and even the growing “movement” that I would call “isolationism” (the idea that an individual can be a Christian “all by himself” without participating in the life of the Christian community as a whole). And this “list” isn’t exhaustive! There are many, many other kinds of false teaching around today, just as there were in the time around the year AD 300, as we saw earlier in our studies. The “rivers and springs of water” (our sources of spiritual teaching) have “become blood” (been made spiritually “deadly” by the contamination of false teaching) right before our eyes in the past few decades, and it is a process that continues every day.

Revelation 16:5
I HEARD THE ANGEL OF THE WATERS (probably the “third” angel, the one who had poured out his bowl over the waters) SAYING, “YOU ARE RIGHTEOUS, WHO ARE AND WHO WERE (notice the absence of the phrase “and who are to come” – evidently, in my opinion, indicating that the prophecy is to be fulfilled just before the end of history, so that there is no more “to come” after it – at least, not in this world), YOU HOLY ONE (God), BECAUSE YOU (God) HAVE JUDGED (decided that) THESE THINGS (would happen). “The angel of the waters” put his “stamp of approval” on God’s decision to make human history “come out” the way it would. Not that God needed any such approval, but it’s a reminder to us not to criticize God for the things that He allows to happen. He has a plan, and He’s working the plan; and it’s not our responsibility to “grade” Him on whether we think that it’s a “good” plan or not.

Revelation 16:6
FOR (because – that is, the reason why it’s logical that the world would be afflicted by such a “plague” as this is that) THEY (the people who followed the world’s “system”) POURED OUT THE BLOOD OF (killed) THE SAINTS (God’s true followers) AND THE PROPHETS (God’s true spokesmen), AND YOU (God) HAVE GIVEN THEM BLOOD (false teaching) TO DRINK (believe in). THEY DESERVE THIS.” The reason that God allows so much false teaching is because people have rejected the true teaching that is given in His Word, the Bible, which was revealed to His true followers and preached by His true prophets (whom they have killed – either literally, as has often been the case, or symbolically, in the sense of not paying attention to the true messages that they brought). Put that way, it certainly sounds logical to me. It’s an illustration of the principle that “what goes around, comes around,” or, more exactly, “you reap what you sow” (Galatians 6:7).

Revelation 16:7
I HEARD THE ALTAR (in the temple in Heaven, in the vision) SAYING (notice: altars don’t normally “say” anything; that’s the sort of thing that can only happen in a vision – what it means is that those who had been killed for their faith in Christ would, if they could speak, say), “YES, LORD GOD, THE ALMIGHTY, TRUE AND RIGHTEOUS ARE YOUR JUDGMENTS.” The martyrs add their “stamp of approval” of God’s plan to the “stamp of approval” given by the “angel of the waters.”

Revelation 16:8
THE FOURTH (angel went and) POURED OUT HIS BOWL ON THE SUN (representing the political leadership of the world – what we would call “the government”), AND IT WAS GIVEN TO HIM (the sun, representing the government) TO SCORCH MEN WITH FIRE. I would think that that would mean that in the time that we are speaking of (the time right before, and leading up to, the Second Coming of Christ), the government(s) of the world would become a bothersome and oppressive force in people’s lives. Again, it seems to me that we have been seeing a growing fulfillment of that prediction in the past few decades, with spiraling taxes, ever-growing public debts, and more and more intrusive regulations (and I’m not just talking about the United States; these things are happening in almost every country on earth – indeed, in most countries, the situation is far worse than it is in the United States).

Revelation 16:9
PEOPLE WERE SCORCHED WITH GREAT HEAT (oppressed by the power that government was exercising over their lives), AND PEOPLE BLASPHEMED THE NAME OF GOD (do I even need to comment on the way in which the word “God” is used in modern conversation, all over the world?) WHO HAS THE POWER OVER THESE PLAGUES. THEY DIDN’T REPENT AND GIVE HIM GLORY. That’s the really sad part of this prophecy (in my opinion). The way that this verse states that people “didn’t repent and give Him (God) glory” implies (to me) that God had “hoped” that by sending these “plagues,” He would “get” people’s “attention” – that they would realize that it was their sins that had brought all this upon them, and that there would be hope that things would “get better” for them if they would turn away from their sins and worship Him – but He knew ahead of time that it wouldn’t work, and it certainly hasn’t been working during my lifetime. No matter what troubles God sends our way, in an effort to get us to acknowledge Him as God, the vast majority of us curse Him and keep on sinning. I do not see where Revelation predicts that there will be another great “revival” in the years right before the Second Coming. On the contrary, even Jesus expressed a sort of “uncertainty” as to whether there would be any faithful people left in the world by the time of His return (see Luke 18:8b). Of course, the Apostle Paul assured us that there will (1 Thessalonians 4:15), but he didn’t say that there would be very many of them.

Revelation 16:10
THE FIFTH (angel went and) POURED OUT HIS BOWL ON THE THRONE OF THE BEAST (since the beast represents the Papacy, its “throne” must represent the specific place from which that system exercises its authority – that would have to be the Vatican), AND HIS (the beast’s) KINGDOM (known, throughout most of its history, as “Christendom” – the territory over which the Papacy held political power) WAS DARKENED (darkness, in prophecy, usually represents ignorance – a lack of knowledge, or of understanding, about what is going on). Isn’t it true that the people on whom these “plagues” are coming are “clueless”? They don’t recognize that it is God who is the ultimate source of these problems, so they are unable to figure out what the true source of the problems is. THEY GNAWED THEIR TONGUES BECAUSE OF THE PAIN (I think that that’s a symbolic expression of their frustration at being unable to figure out why they are having so many problems, rather than meaning that people will actually gnaw on their tongues because of the actual, physical pain that they’re experiencing – though, in this case, at least, it could possibly be taken literally),

Revelation 16:11
AND THEY BLASPHEMED THE GOD OF HEAVEN (again!) BECAUSE OF THEIR PAINS AND THEIR SORES (the fact that the “sores” are mentioned again shows, in my opinion, that all these “plagues” are happening at pretty much the same time, not scattered over a period of several centuries, as we saw in previous visions in the book of Revelation). THEY DIDN’T REPENT OF THEIR WORKS. There it is again – no matter what God does to get people to change their ways, they refuse to do so, thus demonstrating how necessary it is that God ultimately punish and destroy them. He simply can’t put up with rebellion forever.

Revelation 16:12
THE SIXTH (angel went and) POURED OUT HIS BOWL ON THE GREAT RIVER, THE EUPHRATES (the Euphrates River, which runs down the middle of Iraq, was mentioned in God’s original promises to His people, the Israelites, as the eastern border of the promised land, although, in history, it was only under King Solomon that the nation of Israel actually extended that far). ITS WATER WAS DRIED UP (remember, John saw this in a vision; he wasn’t predicting that the literal water of this literal river would literally be dried up), THAT THE WAY MIGHT BE MADE READY FOR THE KINGS THAT COME FROM THE SUNRISE. Drying up the water of the Euphrates River – if such a thing could actually be done – would make it easier for an army, marching on foot, to cross from the territory to the east of the river (from the direction in which the sun appears to rise) into the territory to the west of the river (thus, into the territory that is supposed to belong to God’s people). I think that this symbol might represent an “invasion” of the true church of Christ by the political powers of the world. It seems to me that we have already seen this “invasion” begin, as various governments have passed more and more laws restricting the activities of the church (not allowing pastors to preach on issues considered to be “political,” requiring churches to employ people that they have moral objections against employing, using zoning laws to prevent Christian activities from taking place in certain places, etc.) – and it seems very likely to me that during whatever time still remains between now and the Second Coming, we are likely to see more of such “invasion.”

Revelation 16:13
I SAW (in this vision) COMING OUT OF THE MOUTH (what comes out of mouths? words! – statements, messages, teachings – in this case, the false teachings) OF THE DRAGON (representing, as we saw earlier, the political leadership of the world, as directed by Satan and manifested through the great empires of history – Babylonia, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome), AND OUT OF THE MOUTH OF THE BEAST (representing, as we saw earlier, the political/religious power of the Papacy, as it was exercised during the 1,260 years between AD 610 and AD 1870), AND OUT OF THE MOUTH OF THE FALSE PROPHET (representing, as we saw earlier, the Roman Catholic religious hierarchy, as it gave its allegiance to the Papacy, especially during those same years), THREE UNCLEAN SPIRITS (in this context, the word “spirits” probably means “prophetic messages” and refers, I think, to the “preaching” and “teaching” done by these three institutions), SOMETHING LIKE FROGS (to be absolutely honest, I have no idea what John meant by saying that, to him, these unclean spirits seemed “like frogs” – sorry about that! – except to say that the word “frogs” inevitably reminds me of the “plague” of frogs that took place in Egypt just before the Israelites’ Exodus from that country);

Revelation 16:14
FOR THEY ARE SPIRITS (prophetic messages) OF (inspired by) DEMONS (evil spirits, as opposed to true messages inspired by God’s Holy Spirit), PERFORMING SIGNS (we saw, in an earlier study, the emphasis that was placed by the Roman Catholic Church, during the time of its political ascendancy, on alleged “miracles” performed by its “saints”); WHICH GO FORTH TO (reach and influence) THE KINGS OF THE WHOLE INHABITED EARTH (particularly, the governments of Europe, which were subject to the authority of the Papacy during those centuries), TO GATHER THEM TOGETHER FOR THE WAR OF THAT GREAT DAY OF GOD, THE ALMIGHTY. This statement – along with many other statements in the Bible – seems to indicate that the day on which Jesus returns will be a day on which a tremendous battle is about to take place. Given our present-day world situation, especially with many nations possessing nuclear weapons – and the capability of delivering them to faraway locations in an amazingly short time – it seems to me that every single day on the calendar is a day on which a tremendous battle might take place. So, this statement doesn’t give us a clue as to when that particular day will be. It could be today, or tomorrow, or some other day.

Revelation 16:15
“BEHOLD (“Look!”), I (Jesus) (will) COME LIKE A THIEF (unannounced and unexpectedly – not preceded by a list of specific, time-dated “signs” that would enable us to figure out exactly when He will come). BLESSED IS HE (any Christian) WHO WATCHES (studies these prophecies, and observes how they are fulfilled, increasing his sense of expectation that the coming of the Lord will be soon), AND KEEPS HIS CLOTHES (lives right), SO THAT HE DOESN’T WALK NAKED (exposed and vulnerable to God’s punishment because of living wrong), AND THEY (everyone) SEE HIS SHAME (at being rightly judged for wrong behavior).” This little message is placed in the text at a point just before this particular vision’s description of the Second Coming. I think that that placement indicates that in the time period that is covered by this vision there will be an emphasis on the preaching of the Second-Coming message. That emphasis began with the Millerite movement in the 1840s (as we have seen in earlier studies), and it continues today, and (I certainly hope!) will continue right up until Jesus returns.

Revelation 16:16
HE (“God, the Almighty” – verse 14 – who is ultimately in control of all the events of history) GATHERED THEM (“the kings of the whole inhabited earth” – verse 14) TOGETHER INTO THE PLACE WHICH IS CALLED IN HEBREW, (Armageddon, which means, the mountain of) MEGIDDO. Many great battles of history have been fought on the Plain of Esdraelon (also known as the Valley of Jezreel), which is located right below the hill known as “Mt. Megiddo,” on top of which whoever was in charge of the land of Palestine at the time usually maintained a major military fortress. I don’t know if this verse means that the great battle that will be about to take place on the day when Jesus returns will literally be “set up” at this actual location, or if the name of the place is simply being used as a symbol for whatever place that battle will literally be “set up” in. The word “Armageddon” has come a long way from simply meaning “the mountain of Megiddo” to become a word that can be used to describe this great final battle no matter where it might be “set up” to take place.

Revelation 16:17
THE SEVENTH (angel went and) POURED OUT HIS BOWL INTO THE AIR. (Before the great battle could actually take place,) A LOUD VOICE (again, as in verse 1, it was either the voice of God, or of Jesus, or of an angel) CAME FORTH OUT OF THE TEMPLE OF HEAVEN (in this vision), FROM THE THRONE (of God), SAYING, “IT IS DONE!” This statement is very similar to what Jesus said, on the Cross, just before He died: “It is finished!” It is a shout of triumph at the completion of a planned task. In this case, the word “it” refers to God’s entire plan for human history. That plan has been completely finished. All prophecies have been fulfilled. It is time for the Second Coming and the Judgment Day.

Revelation 16:18
THERE WERE LIGHTNINGS, SOUNDS, AND THUNDERS; AND THERE WAS A GREAT EARTHQUAKE, SUCH AS WAS NOT SINCE THERE WERE MEN ON THE EARTH, SO GREAT AN EARTHQUAKE, SO MIGHTY. We have seen all of these symbols in previous studies. They are “background noise” to tell us that the Second Coming is occurring.

Revelation 16:19
THE GREAT CITY (Rome – the headquarters of the kingdom of the Antichrist) WAS DIVIDED INTO THREE PARTS, AND THE (capital) CITIES OF (all of) THE (other) NATIONS (throughout the world) FELL. BABYLON THE GREAT (which will be described in more detail in Revelation 17) WAS REMEMBERED IN THE SIGHT OF GOD, TO GIVE TO HER THE CUP OF THE WINE OF THE FIERCENESS OF HIS WRATH.

Revelation 16:20
EVERY ISLAND (the term “island” – as used in biblical prophecy – doesn’t really mean “a small piece of land completely surrounded by water”; what it means is “a country that you can’t get to – from Israel – except by boat”; that would include all of the countries in North and South America, as well as all of the countries that we usually think of as “islands” – like Cuba, Jamaica, England, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Japan, and so on) FLED AWAY (were destroyed), AND THE MOUNTAINS (the term “mountains” – as used in biblical prophecy – is often a symbol for powerful governments) WERE NOT FOUND (because they, too, were destroyed). From other passages of Scripture (such as 2 Peter 3:10, for example), it seems clear to me that the entire world “as we know it” will be destroyed when Jesus comes.

Revelation 16:21
GREAT HAILSTONES, ABOUT THE WEIGHT OF A TALENT (a “talent” was a measurement of weight, about equal to 100 pounds), CAME DOWN OUT OF THE SKY ON PEOPLE (killing – or at least severely injuring – any that they actually hit). PEOPLE (who weren’t actually hit – or, at least, weren’t killed – by these hailstones) BLASPHEMED GOD (just like in verses 9 and 11) BECAUSE OF THE PLAGUE OF THE HAIL, FOR THIS PLAGUE IS EXCEEDINGLY SEVERE. The “stage” is now “set” for the more detailed “explanation” of the destruction of “Babylon” that will be given in Revelation 17 and 18.