Monday evening Bob Kroeger, Nichole Mathis, Yvonne and I studied Revelation together. We compared the seals, the trumpets, and the bowls of Revelation 6, 8 & 9, and 16. It was an interesting study!
Most of the book of Revelation covers the seven years known as the Tribulation.
Daniel 9:27 gives the overall timeline of the period.
It begins with the covenant the Antichrist makes with many for seven years. This happens when the Lamb, Jesus Christ, opens the first seal in Revelation 6:1-2. Paul talks about this in 2 Thessalonians 2:3. In the middle of this seven year period, at the three and one half year mark, the Antichrist sets himself up in the temple in Jerusalem and proclaims himself to be god. That's called the Abomination of Desolation that Jesus talked about in Matthew 24, and Paul wrote about in 2 Thessalonians 2:4. Finally, the end that has been decreed will be poured out on the Antichrist; which occurs at Jesus' second coming according 2 Thessalonians 2:8.
In the book of Revelation, when Jesus opens the first seal, the rider on the white horse, the Antichrist, goes forth to conquer, bent on conquest. That seal being opened sets everything in motion. Paul wrote in 2 Thessalonians 2 about someone holding back the revelation of the Antichrist. That somone is Jesus Christ. When He opens that first seal, the Antichrist will be revealed.
When you look at the sixth seal, the seventh trumpet, and the seventh bowl, each of them are describing the exact same event - the second coming of Jesus Christ to earth.
When you use this overall framework as a skeleton for the timeline of the events in the book of Revelation, it is interesting how well other details in the book fit together.
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