1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,100 this can be understood, but what you need to understand is that there's actually four main 2 00:00:04,100 --> 00:00:11,100 views that when it comes to interpreting Revelation in general, but especially the seven bowls, 3 00:00:11,100 --> 00:00:15,920 and these views differ greatly, and each one puts a unique spin on it. 4 00:00:15,920 --> 00:00:24,600 So one of the first ones that we have is the view that's called the historicis, and historicis, 5 00:00:24,600 --> 00:00:27,920 they typically view these things as unfolding throughout history. 6 00:00:27,920 --> 00:00:33,080 Now the thing that you need to understand, anytime you see historicis, you need to just 7 00:00:33,080 --> 00:00:40,560 go ahead and think about the pope, because pretty much every single thing in Revelation 8 00:00:40,560 --> 00:00:45,760 they believe is an indictment against the pope and the papacy in general. 9 00:00:45,760 --> 00:00:49,920 So they're going to read this, and they're going to see this has something to do with 10 00:00:49,920 --> 00:00:52,480 and something to say about the pope. 11 00:00:52,480 --> 00:00:56,160 So the whole book of Revelation is basically an indictment on the papacy. 12 00:00:56,160 --> 00:01:00,200 Personally, I don't hold to this view, but I love where they're going with this, so I 13 00:01:00,200 --> 00:01:01,720 sympathize with them. 14 00:01:01,720 --> 00:01:07,160 Alright, Preterus, anytime you see Preterus, they're the people who pretty much think everything 15 00:01:07,160 --> 00:01:11,760 in Revelation has to do with the events of 8070. 16 00:01:11,760 --> 00:01:16,840 That's when Jerusalem fell, and so pretty much every Preterus believes that everything 17 00:01:16,840 --> 00:01:23,920 in Revelation has to do with the fall of either Jerusalem or the fall of Rome, but they would 18 00:01:23,920 --> 00:01:29,320 say that everything in Revelation is talking about 8070 because they believe the book of 19 00:01:29,320 --> 00:01:32,360 Revelation was written before 8070. 20 00:01:32,360 --> 00:01:35,560 Futurists, that's going to be your easiest one. 21 00:01:35,560 --> 00:01:42,120 They just think everything in Revelation happens at some point in the very, very distant future. 22 00:01:42,120 --> 00:01:48,320 And then finally you have the idealist, and the idealist is basically someone who says, 23 00:01:48,320 --> 00:01:53,520 well, what we read in Revelation, you can find some fulfillments throughout history, 24 00:01:53,520 --> 00:01:57,640 but it's not referring to a very specific thing at the time. 25 00:01:57,640 --> 00:02:02,000 But basically what you're seeing is that the things written in Revelation are cyclical. 26 00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:05,080 They're going to continue to happen throughout history. 27 00:02:05,080 --> 00:02:10,600 So you'll see a fulfillment in, for instance, the fall of Jerusalem, but that's not the 28 00:02:10,600 --> 00:02:11,600 only fulfillment. 29 00:02:11,600 --> 00:02:16,240 You also see something similar in various things throughout history. 30 00:02:16,240 --> 00:02:20,400 I'm not going to tell you where I land on this, but I wouldn't take a lot of work to 31 00:02:20,400 --> 00:02:22,800 figure out where I land on this. 32 00:02:22,800 --> 00:02:29,480 So Revelation 16, 1, then I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels, 33 00:02:29,480 --> 00:02:34,640 go and pour out on the earth seven bowls of the wrath of God. 34 00:02:34,640 --> 00:02:38,720 Verse 2, so the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth. 35 00:02:38,720 --> 00:02:40,480 Now here's what we need to note here. 36 00:02:40,480 --> 00:02:43,960 When you're in your Bibles here and you're needing to note what's going on here with 37 00:02:43,960 --> 00:02:49,200 this first bowl, the thing to focus on are the sores that people are going to have on 38 00:02:49,200 --> 00:02:55,560 them and the people who have the sores on them are those who have the mark of the beast 39 00:02:55,560 --> 00:02:58,600 and who worship its image. 40 00:02:58,600 --> 00:03:04,360 So that's who is going to suffer the wrath that's described in these bowls. 41 00:03:04,360 --> 00:03:10,320 Those who have the mark of the beast and those who have worshiped the image of the beast. 42 00:03:10,320 --> 00:03:13,960 And we've talked about the beast and the image of the beast a lot throughout Revelation, 43 00:03:13,960 --> 00:03:17,040 so you should have a pretty good idea of what that is. 44 00:03:17,040 --> 00:03:20,040 But the really the thing to focus on are these sores. 45 00:03:20,040 --> 00:03:22,240 And you say, okay, what are these sores? 46 00:03:22,240 --> 00:03:24,240 They're painful sores. 47 00:03:24,240 --> 00:03:25,480 What does that mean though? 48 00:03:25,480 --> 00:03:30,840 Is it referring to actual sores that are going to be on people's bodies, boils of some sort? 49 00:03:30,840 --> 00:03:33,560 What do these sores actually mean? 50 00:03:33,560 --> 00:03:38,720 And that's where we're going to get into view one, the historicists. 51 00:03:38,720 --> 00:03:42,080 The historicists, so we just, we all read that together, right? 52 00:03:42,080 --> 00:03:46,120 Painful sores are going to come on people who have the mark of the beast and who worship 53 00:03:46,120 --> 00:03:47,120 the image of the beast. 54 00:03:47,120 --> 00:03:51,520 The historicists says, well, brother, this is the French Revolution if I've ever seen 55 00:03:51,520 --> 00:03:52,520 it. 56 00:03:52,520 --> 00:03:58,920 Okay, so they say that this bowl is referring to the French Revolution and they see it as 57 00:03:58,920 --> 00:04:03,400 an indictment against the papacy because the French Revolution was an event in history 58 00:04:03,400 --> 00:04:06,440 that greatly weakened the papacy. 59 00:04:06,440 --> 00:04:09,680 Anybody remember something else that was kind of going on around the same time as the French 60 00:04:09,680 --> 00:04:10,680 Revolution? 61 00:04:10,680 --> 00:04:13,760 Kind of a pandemic in the world? 62 00:04:13,760 --> 00:04:14,760 The plague, right? 63 00:04:14,760 --> 00:04:17,320 And what was common during the plague? 64 00:04:17,320 --> 00:04:19,400 What did you have on you very often? 65 00:04:19,400 --> 00:04:21,200 Sores, right? 66 00:04:21,200 --> 00:04:25,920 And so they see that people had a bunch of sores during the black plague that went all 67 00:04:25,920 --> 00:04:32,000 around the European nations there for a while and they say, painful sores, the papacy is 68 00:04:32,000 --> 00:04:35,360 weakened, that's what this bowl is referring to. 69 00:04:35,360 --> 00:04:37,880 Now let me ask you, let's just all be honest with each other here. 70 00:04:37,880 --> 00:04:40,160 I'll be honest with you, you be honest with me. 71 00:04:40,160 --> 00:04:45,320 When you read Revelation 16, 1 and 2, how many thought about the French Revolution? 72 00:04:45,320 --> 00:04:46,320 Anybody? 73 00:04:46,320 --> 00:04:48,680 It's not really your first thought, right? 74 00:04:48,680 --> 00:04:51,120 I mean, you can see where they're coming from though. 75 00:04:51,120 --> 00:04:52,120 They're piecing it together. 76 00:04:52,120 --> 00:04:54,720 They're saying, I'm looking for an event in history. 77 00:04:54,720 --> 00:04:58,160 This is what it is, but it's just not the natural reading to us. 78 00:04:58,160 --> 00:05:01,640 It's not something that we typically think about. 79 00:05:01,640 --> 00:05:09,440 The sores, they come as either a reference to the effects of the plague or they sometimes 80 00:05:09,440 --> 00:05:14,200 will say it's moral corruption and atheism that became prominent at the time. 81 00:05:14,200 --> 00:05:19,080 So some people say they're literal sores and boils that you get on you. 82 00:05:19,080 --> 00:05:25,200 Other people say, well, that's a way of referring to moral corruption that happens in the world, 83 00:05:25,200 --> 00:05:26,800 especially at that time. 84 00:05:26,800 --> 00:05:28,400 Then you have the Preterist. 85 00:05:28,400 --> 00:05:31,320 So remember, what do we think of when we think of Preterist? 86 00:05:31,320 --> 00:05:36,280 P past 80, 70, that's what you need to be thinking of with the Preterist. 87 00:05:36,280 --> 00:05:40,600 You're divided because some see the bulls as referring to the fall of Jerusalem, while 88 00:05:40,600 --> 00:05:43,200 others see it as the fall of Rome. 89 00:05:43,200 --> 00:05:47,080 So remember, it's either going to be the fall of Jerusalem or it's going to be the fall 90 00:05:47,080 --> 00:05:49,240 of Rome. 91 00:05:49,240 --> 00:05:54,400 They see this as a fulfillment of that because at the time when Jerusalem was sieged, one 92 00:05:54,400 --> 00:05:57,960 of the first things that went was sanitation. 93 00:05:57,960 --> 00:06:01,840 When sanitation went, people started getting a lot of different diseases. 94 00:06:01,840 --> 00:06:06,260 So they had a lot of boils, sores, things like that during that time. 95 00:06:06,260 --> 00:06:10,960 So they see this as referring to the fall of Jerusalem. 96 00:06:10,960 --> 00:06:12,720 Now here you have the Futurist. 97 00:06:12,720 --> 00:06:15,560 Futurist, some point, very distant future. 98 00:06:15,560 --> 00:06:19,880 And they think, typically, Futurists are all about literalism. 99 00:06:19,880 --> 00:06:23,240 So everything has to be literal. 100 00:06:23,240 --> 00:06:26,960 If it says a painful sore, it's going to be a literal painful sore. 101 00:06:26,960 --> 00:06:31,080 They very rarely branch out into symbolism. 102 00:06:31,080 --> 00:06:36,240 So some people do interpret them symbolically, but most people stick to a literal interpretation 103 00:06:36,240 --> 00:06:43,120 and their literal interpretation is that these are going to be the sores and boils that people 104 00:06:43,120 --> 00:06:46,880 get on them as a result of nuclear war. 105 00:06:46,880 --> 00:06:49,760 So basically, nuclear war is going to happen. 106 00:06:49,760 --> 00:06:55,200 The air is going to be polluted because of the toxic fumes, the radioactive fumes, and 107 00:06:55,200 --> 00:06:59,040 then people are going to break out into all different types of sores and boils. 108 00:06:59,040 --> 00:07:04,840 And something you'll notice a lot about the Futurist is when they're reading the judgments 109 00:07:04,840 --> 00:07:11,680 in Revelation, they typically look for some future nuclear catastrophe, nuclear war, things 110 00:07:11,680 --> 00:07:12,680 like that. 111 00:07:12,680 --> 00:07:14,400 So that's what they think. 112 00:07:14,400 --> 00:07:16,160 What does the idealist think about this? 113 00:07:16,160 --> 00:07:23,080 Well, the idealist, as you can read here, they see the trumpets as a warning and they 114 00:07:23,080 --> 00:07:27,920 see the bowls as being a punishment, a final judgment. 115 00:07:27,920 --> 00:07:31,640 So idealists, the trumpets are a warning. 116 00:07:31,640 --> 00:07:34,880 The bowls are a punishment or a final judgment. 117 00:07:34,880 --> 00:07:35,880 Have we heard that before? 118 00:07:35,880 --> 00:07:36,880 Does that sound familiar? 119 00:07:36,880 --> 00:07:41,360 Okay, again, I'm not showing my hand, but it's not hard to figure out. 120 00:07:41,360 --> 00:07:46,880 So idealists typically don't rule out a possibility of like a literal interpretation, but they 121 00:07:46,880 --> 00:07:49,840 do favor a symbolic interpretation. 122 00:07:49,840 --> 00:07:56,520 And they would argue that the sores depict human, moral, spiritual depravity that consumes 123 00:07:56,520 --> 00:07:59,400 humanity basically. 124 00:07:59,400 --> 00:08:06,760 Verse three, all right, the second angel poured out his bowl into the what? 125 00:08:06,760 --> 00:08:10,040 Here's our key word here, into the sea. 126 00:08:10,040 --> 00:08:18,680 And the sea became blood, like the blood of a corpse and every living thing that was in 127 00:08:18,680 --> 00:08:20,640 the sea died. 128 00:08:20,640 --> 00:08:23,440 So what does this remind us of right off the bat? 129 00:08:23,440 --> 00:08:29,720 Here we have the second plague and the sea is turning to blood and everything in the 130 00:08:29,720 --> 00:08:32,240 sea dies. 131 00:08:32,240 --> 00:08:35,440 What does that remind us of? 132 00:08:35,440 --> 00:08:39,120 Yeah, yeah, the plague's in Egypt, right? 133 00:08:39,120 --> 00:08:40,920 But this was the first plague in Egypt. 134 00:08:40,920 --> 00:08:44,000 So I had a chart that I printed out for y'all tonight that I promised you on, then I left 135 00:08:44,000 --> 00:08:45,000 it in my office. 136 00:08:45,000 --> 00:08:46,960 So next week I'll bring it to you. 137 00:08:46,960 --> 00:08:47,960 It's in there. 138 00:08:47,960 --> 00:08:53,160 So yeah, so it's reminiscent of the plagues of Egypt and it's saying that the sea is going 139 00:08:53,160 --> 00:08:54,600 to be turned to blood. 140 00:08:54,600 --> 00:08:58,600 Now again, the question is, well, what does that mean? 141 00:08:58,600 --> 00:09:00,800 Is the sea literally going to be turned to blood? 142 00:09:00,800 --> 00:09:03,040 Is every living thing literally going to die? 143 00:09:03,040 --> 00:09:06,920 You'd be surprised that people read this differently. 144 00:09:06,920 --> 00:09:12,320 So the Historicists, they say that this bowl represents the massive amount of bloodshed 145 00:09:12,320 --> 00:09:16,160 that occurs in naval battles, fought by who? 146 00:09:16,160 --> 00:09:17,160 Here's our key word. 147 00:09:17,160 --> 00:09:20,680 If you're remembering, papal naval forces. 148 00:09:20,680 --> 00:09:23,600 So they say, okay, here we have the sea turning to blood. 149 00:09:23,600 --> 00:09:27,360 This has to be something against the pope and the papacy. 150 00:09:27,360 --> 00:09:28,360 Here's what it is. 151 00:09:28,360 --> 00:09:33,560 It's referring to the massive amount of bloodshed that is spilled during the naval battles fought 152 00:09:33,560 --> 00:09:34,560 by papal forces. 153 00:09:34,560 --> 00:09:40,560 And of course, that's going to reference countries like France, Spain, and Portugal, 154 00:09:40,560 --> 00:09:45,120 which were the only papal countries that had a navy. 155 00:09:45,120 --> 00:09:50,320 And they look primarily to the British defeats of naval forces during the years of 1793 to 156 00:09:50,320 --> 00:09:51,320 1805. 157 00:09:51,320 --> 00:09:52,720 They give a specific date. 158 00:09:52,720 --> 00:09:56,000 These guys get very specific with their dates. 159 00:09:56,000 --> 00:10:00,080 And they claim that descriptions of verse three apply appropriately to the bloodshed 160 00:10:00,080 --> 00:10:01,320 of those naval battles. 161 00:10:01,320 --> 00:10:05,040 So Historicists, they look at this and they say bloodshed on the water. 162 00:10:05,040 --> 00:10:07,760 It's got to be against the pope, the papacy. 163 00:10:07,760 --> 00:10:13,080 So that's going to refer to all the naval battles fought by the papal countries during 164 00:10:13,080 --> 00:10:14,080 these times. 165 00:10:14,080 --> 00:10:15,920 Again, was that your first thought? 166 00:10:15,920 --> 00:10:16,920 I'm just curious. 167 00:10:16,920 --> 00:10:20,200 Anybody, did you go to papal naval forces? 168 00:10:20,200 --> 00:10:21,720 Okay, no Historicists here. 169 00:10:21,720 --> 00:10:22,720 That's fine. 170 00:10:22,720 --> 00:10:23,720 That's okay. 171 00:10:23,720 --> 00:10:24,920 All right, Preterus. 172 00:10:24,920 --> 00:10:29,160 So Preterus passed 8070, followed Jerusalem, followed Rome. 173 00:10:29,160 --> 00:10:31,040 That's where they land. 174 00:10:31,040 --> 00:10:35,560 If you remember your biblical history, the Jews believed that blood made a person unclean. 175 00:10:35,560 --> 00:10:36,960 We know this from the Bible, right? 176 00:10:36,960 --> 00:10:37,960 Everybody good? 177 00:10:37,960 --> 00:10:44,040 And so they largely consider that this plague is referring to the fact that the nation of 178 00:10:44,040 --> 00:10:48,360 Israel as a whole was going to become unclean. 179 00:10:48,360 --> 00:10:53,360 And because of that, they say that that's referring to this bull. 180 00:10:53,360 --> 00:10:57,520 What's interesting though about the Preterus is that there is this little bit of history 181 00:10:57,520 --> 00:11:03,040 here with the Jewish historian Josephus, who was not our pastoral intern. 182 00:11:03,040 --> 00:11:04,040 That's a different guy. 183 00:11:04,040 --> 00:11:09,160 But the Jewish historian Josephus, he records a battle on the Sea of Galilee in which the 184 00:11:09,160 --> 00:11:12,160 Romans massacred the Jews upon the water. 185 00:11:12,160 --> 00:11:18,840 And many Preterus believed that that event was the fulfillment of this bull. 186 00:11:18,840 --> 00:11:23,880 So bull two, sea turned to blood, and they look to an event between Rome and the Jews. 187 00:11:23,880 --> 00:11:29,560 They see this battle on the Sea of Galilee, and they say that's the fulfillment there. 188 00:11:29,560 --> 00:11:34,760 Do you see how people can read things differently, just depending on kind of your own presuppositions 189 00:11:34,760 --> 00:11:36,640 and where you're coming from? 190 00:11:36,640 --> 00:11:39,960 Not everybody is going to read things the exact same. 191 00:11:39,960 --> 00:11:41,560 All right, the Futures. 192 00:11:41,560 --> 00:11:43,640 Here's where we go. 193 00:11:43,640 --> 00:11:46,560 Futures, they see the sea as representing the Gentiles. 194 00:11:46,560 --> 00:11:47,560 Okay? 195 00:11:47,560 --> 00:11:49,160 Everybody got that? 196 00:11:49,160 --> 00:11:54,320 The sea represents the Gentiles, who will now suffer the wrath of God, bloodshed. 197 00:11:54,320 --> 00:11:59,440 So the Futures say the sea is the Gentiles, and they are going to be turned to blood because 198 00:11:59,440 --> 00:12:03,080 they're going to be the ones to suffer the wrath of God. 199 00:12:03,080 --> 00:12:08,720 However, it's fun to note that there are other Futures who are more literal, and they point 200 00:12:08,720 --> 00:12:13,280 to something interesting, there's this very interesting microorganism that's found in 201 00:12:13,280 --> 00:12:20,840 certain waters that when it multiplies, it turns the water a scarlet color in all the 202 00:12:20,840 --> 00:12:26,160 wildlife, all the sea life that's in those areas, they actually die. 203 00:12:26,160 --> 00:12:32,240 And so Futures would look at events like that and see a fulfillment of this prophecy, this 204 00:12:32,240 --> 00:12:35,160 bull in that example there. 205 00:12:35,160 --> 00:12:40,360 They just say it's microorganisms in the water, it's turning the water red, that's what 206 00:12:40,360 --> 00:12:42,800 it is. 207 00:12:42,800 --> 00:12:44,600 What's the idealists say? 208 00:12:44,600 --> 00:12:48,680 I don't want to say the idealists are fence riders, they never come down, but they're 209 00:12:48,680 --> 00:12:52,800 just kind of like, it's not specific, you know? 210 00:12:52,800 --> 00:12:58,120 They understand this bull is referring to the fact that when God judges people of earth, 211 00:12:58,120 --> 00:13:02,520 he often uses the sea as a punishment. 212 00:13:02,520 --> 00:13:04,000 It could just be that simple, right? 213 00:13:04,000 --> 00:13:09,800 Like, revelation is filled with symbols and symbolism, and so maybe it's just as simple 214 00:13:09,800 --> 00:13:14,960 as the fact that God uses the sea as a source of judgment, and you can think of things like 215 00:13:14,960 --> 00:13:20,840 shipwrecks, sea battles, drowning, tsunamis, hurricanes, all sorts of catastrophes happen 216 00:13:20,840 --> 00:13:21,840 at sea, right? 217 00:13:21,840 --> 00:13:24,120 Like the sea is a terrifying place to be. 218 00:13:24,120 --> 00:13:26,880 I don't know if you've ever seen one of those shows where they go out on like a crabbing 219 00:13:26,880 --> 00:13:31,040 boat or something, you've got like a 50 foot wave and you're thinking, okay, well you're 220 00:13:31,040 --> 00:13:33,960 just dead in the water, there's nothing you can do. 221 00:13:33,960 --> 00:13:39,160 This point in the fact that God uses the sea as a source of judgment sometimes, and that 222 00:13:39,160 --> 00:13:48,400 God often does that, and idealists would see that as a fulfillment of this bull. 223 00:13:48,400 --> 00:13:52,520 Others would see this bull as a destruction of the world economy. 224 00:13:52,520 --> 00:13:54,400 Anybody know how we got there? 225 00:13:54,400 --> 00:13:56,000 I did write it out for you. 226 00:13:56,000 --> 00:13:57,000 That's not bad. 227 00:13:57,000 --> 00:13:59,480 I won't do that next time. 228 00:13:59,480 --> 00:14:02,720 So people see this as a destruction of the world economy because if you think about the 229 00:14:02,720 --> 00:14:06,800 ancient world, the sea was a source of their economy. 230 00:14:06,800 --> 00:14:09,560 One of the main sources, that's where they did all their trading, that's where they would 231 00:14:09,560 --> 00:14:13,000 travel for economic purposes to trade with other nations. 232 00:14:13,000 --> 00:14:19,600 So the sea became this valuable economic resource, and so some people would say that when God 233 00:14:19,600 --> 00:14:26,560 is turning the sea to blood here, he's destroying world economies and destroying them in that 234 00:14:26,560 --> 00:14:27,560 way. 235 00:14:27,560 --> 00:14:33,520 I don't know where you fall on that, but it's just something to think about. 236 00:14:33,520 --> 00:14:37,560 All right, Revelation 16, verses 4 through 5. 237 00:14:37,560 --> 00:14:41,640 The angel poured out his bull, and this time we're not in the sea, we're in the rivers 238 00:14:41,640 --> 00:14:46,040 and the springs of water, and they also became blood. 239 00:14:46,040 --> 00:14:49,000 And I heard the angel in charge of the waters, which is interesting. 240 00:14:49,000 --> 00:14:50,000 Can we just pause? 241 00:14:50,000 --> 00:14:51,640 This has absolutely nothing to do. 242 00:14:51,640 --> 00:14:52,880 I don't even have it in my notes. 243 00:14:52,880 --> 00:14:56,400 You have all my notes right here, so I'm seeing what you see. 244 00:14:56,400 --> 00:14:58,440 Is this not interesting? 245 00:14:58,440 --> 00:15:08,240 This one little phrase, God is saying there's an angel in charge of the waters. 246 00:15:08,240 --> 00:15:10,360 There are little nuggets like this in Scripture sometimes. 247 00:15:10,360 --> 00:15:11,360 We've talked about them sometimes. 248 00:15:11,360 --> 00:15:16,560 You remember when we had our lesson on Arthur, guardian angels, and we looked in the Bible, 249 00:15:16,560 --> 00:15:21,160 and there's that section in Matthew where Jesus says, they're angels in heaven, and 250 00:15:21,160 --> 00:15:23,200 he's referring to the little children, and you're like, hold on a second, what do you 251 00:15:23,200 --> 00:15:25,240 mean they're angels in heaven? 252 00:15:25,240 --> 00:15:28,680 This is another one of those instances where the Bible just says something and then it 253 00:15:28,680 --> 00:15:29,880 immediately moves on. 254 00:15:29,880 --> 00:15:30,880 There is no explanation. 255 00:15:30,880 --> 00:15:34,800 It's just like, oh hey, by the way, the angel over the waters, this is what he says. 256 00:15:34,800 --> 00:15:35,800 You're like, pause real quick. 257 00:15:35,800 --> 00:15:38,360 What do you mean the angel over the waters? 258 00:15:38,360 --> 00:15:40,280 What does that mean? 259 00:15:40,280 --> 00:15:46,680 It does play into this ancient Jewish belief though that God assigned angels to different 260 00:15:46,680 --> 00:15:51,560 realms in nature, some over the springs, some over the sea, some over the woods, and things 261 00:15:51,560 --> 00:15:52,560 like that. 262 00:15:52,560 --> 00:15:59,720 And that God operated his sovereignty, he sovereignly ruled over the world through placing angels 263 00:15:59,720 --> 00:16:04,720 in the places of authority so that they could have authority from God in those areas. 264 00:16:04,720 --> 00:16:06,280 So that's just something interesting. 265 00:16:06,280 --> 00:16:10,480 I have nothing else to say about that, just something for you to consider. 266 00:16:10,480 --> 00:16:19,560 It says, just are you, oh holy one, who is and who was, for you brought these judgments. 267 00:16:19,560 --> 00:16:25,920 Now this is going to be very important as we read the next verse. 268 00:16:25,920 --> 00:16:28,240 Verses 6 through 7. 269 00:16:28,240 --> 00:16:34,360 So this bull is being poured out on people and the angel says, for they have shed the 270 00:16:34,360 --> 00:16:35,360 blood of the saints. 271 00:16:35,360 --> 00:16:36,360 Now this is important. 272 00:16:36,360 --> 00:16:38,640 They've shed the blood of the saints. 273 00:16:38,640 --> 00:16:41,240 This is the crime that these people committed. 274 00:16:41,240 --> 00:16:42,240 What did they do? 275 00:16:42,240 --> 00:16:49,360 They shed the blood of the saints and the prophets and you have given them blood to 276 00:16:49,360 --> 00:16:50,360 drink. 277 00:16:50,360 --> 00:16:53,320 So you've given them blood to drink. 278 00:16:53,320 --> 00:16:56,320 It's what they deserve. 279 00:16:56,320 --> 00:16:57,800 Notice what God is doing here. 280 00:16:57,800 --> 00:17:03,160 He is making sure that the punishment fits the crime. 281 00:17:03,160 --> 00:17:04,520 Do you see that here? 282 00:17:04,520 --> 00:17:05,520 Here's what they did. 283 00:17:05,520 --> 00:17:10,960 They spilled the blood of the saints and the prophets and so what do they get in return? 284 00:17:10,960 --> 00:17:12,400 Blood to drink. 285 00:17:12,400 --> 00:17:17,880 Their punishment fits their crime which is why the Bible says it's what they deserved. 286 00:17:17,880 --> 00:17:25,680 And I heard the altar saying, yes, Lord God, the Almighty, true and just are your way. 287 00:17:25,680 --> 00:17:31,040 So whatever happens next, no one can complain that God is not fair. 288 00:17:31,040 --> 00:17:34,360 No one can complain that this is unwarranted. 289 00:17:34,360 --> 00:17:38,880 Whatever happens next, the Bible says true and just. 290 00:17:38,880 --> 00:17:40,960 This is exactly what they deserve. 291 00:17:40,960 --> 00:17:45,080 God always makes sure the punishment fits the crime. 292 00:17:45,080 --> 00:17:51,240 All right, so how did the historicists understand this? 293 00:17:51,240 --> 00:17:52,240 French Revolution. 294 00:17:52,240 --> 00:17:53,240 Come right back to that. 295 00:17:53,240 --> 00:17:54,720 I know that's where your mind went this time. 296 00:17:54,720 --> 00:17:56,840 You read this, you're like, I'm on top of it. 297 00:17:56,840 --> 00:17:59,240 It's got to be the French Revolution. 298 00:17:59,240 --> 00:18:00,960 And that's where they go for this. 299 00:18:00,960 --> 00:18:05,440 But they would see it, especially a fulfillment in Napoleon's invasion of Italy. 300 00:18:05,440 --> 00:18:10,520 I don't know how much of your history you know, but those wars primarily, they took 301 00:18:10,520 --> 00:18:17,840 place primarily on the Rhine, the Poe and the Alpine streams of Piedmont and Lombardi. 302 00:18:17,840 --> 00:18:19,000 So rivers and streams. 303 00:18:19,000 --> 00:18:20,520 This isn't a sea battle. 304 00:18:20,520 --> 00:18:22,240 This is rivers and streams. 305 00:18:22,240 --> 00:18:23,320 And so here's what they're doing. 306 00:18:23,320 --> 00:18:25,040 Put yourself in the mind of a historicist. 307 00:18:25,040 --> 00:18:28,400 They're saying, revelation, it's written against the papacy. 308 00:18:28,400 --> 00:18:30,720 Probably going to have something to do with French Revolution. 309 00:18:30,720 --> 00:18:32,000 So where do we see this? 310 00:18:32,000 --> 00:18:37,000 And they look to certain events and they find them here in Napoleon's invasion. 311 00:18:37,000 --> 00:18:40,080 And all these affected regions were papal states. 312 00:18:40,080 --> 00:18:42,840 And so they say, that's what this bull is about. 313 00:18:42,840 --> 00:18:46,120 Bull number three has to be about Napoleon. 314 00:18:46,120 --> 00:18:49,720 I don't know which one that is. 315 00:18:49,720 --> 00:18:51,200 It's mine or yours. 316 00:18:51,200 --> 00:18:53,200 I think it's mine. 317 00:18:53,200 --> 00:18:54,680 All right. 318 00:18:54,680 --> 00:18:56,080 We're going to tune that out. 319 00:18:56,080 --> 00:18:58,920 And we're going to talk about Preterus for a second. 320 00:18:58,920 --> 00:19:03,640 So many Preterus see the fulfillment in the fall of Jerusalem, in which part the water 321 00:19:03,640 --> 00:19:05,480 sources were polluted. 322 00:19:05,480 --> 00:19:10,880 And literally there were streams of blood flowing in the streets of Jerusalem at this 323 00:19:10,880 --> 00:19:11,880 time. 324 00:19:11,880 --> 00:19:16,600 Preterus also point out the fact that the judgment falls upon those who shed the blood 325 00:19:16,600 --> 00:19:21,840 of the saints and the prophets, which was one of Jewish people's main sins. 326 00:19:21,840 --> 00:19:24,600 You remember Jesus said this when he came to Jerusalem. 327 00:19:24,600 --> 00:19:29,080 He said, oh Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets. 328 00:19:29,080 --> 00:19:31,000 And then he's going in there and he's going to die. 329 00:19:31,000 --> 00:19:35,880 So this was one of Israel's main sins was that they slaughtered the prophets that God 330 00:19:35,880 --> 00:19:37,080 sent them. 331 00:19:37,080 --> 00:19:44,920 And so the Preterus says, hey, when Rome besieged Jerusalem, it was God paying back the nation 332 00:19:44,920 --> 00:19:51,640 of Israel for this sin of actually slaughtering the prophets. 333 00:19:51,640 --> 00:19:57,800 The futurists, they advocate for a purely literal interpretation, insisting that this plague, 334 00:19:57,800 --> 00:20:03,640 along with the seals and trumpets, would reduce the world's population by 50, which is staggering, 335 00:20:03,640 --> 00:20:04,640 by the way. 336 00:20:04,640 --> 00:20:05,640 But note this. 337 00:20:05,640 --> 00:20:09,960 This would see the deaths of over 3.5 billion people in a short span of time. 338 00:20:09,960 --> 00:20:14,240 And also the pollution of all the drinking water would kill all the remaining survivors 339 00:20:14,240 --> 00:20:15,640 in just a few days. 340 00:20:15,640 --> 00:20:21,960 So if you go strictly literal on this, the world ends very, very quickly in a matter 341 00:20:21,960 --> 00:20:25,520 of days. 342 00:20:25,520 --> 00:20:29,520 And then there's the idealist. 343 00:20:29,520 --> 00:20:35,000 They don't typically commit any specific fulfillment, but they do see specific or fulfillment in 344 00:20:35,000 --> 00:20:41,360 occurrences, which means you can see instances where people are destroyed by rivers and inland 345 00:20:41,360 --> 00:20:42,360 water. 346 00:20:42,360 --> 00:20:43,360 So think about drowning and poisoning. 347 00:20:43,360 --> 00:20:46,000 So it's not very different from the sea. 348 00:20:46,000 --> 00:20:51,520 People would just say, if you're drinking water that's polluted in any type of way, it's going 349 00:20:51,520 --> 00:20:55,200 to have something to do with this judgment upon the world. 350 00:20:55,200 --> 00:20:59,440 If you are drowning in water, that's also a possible fulfillment of this. 351 00:20:59,440 --> 00:21:06,360 But primarily, the idealist view on this is primarily that you see this bowl as an example 352 00:21:06,360 --> 00:21:11,040 of God making sure that the punishment always fits the crime. 353 00:21:11,040 --> 00:21:17,680 And so the empires that make blood run like water can now only find blood to drink in 354 00:21:17,680 --> 00:21:18,680 the place of water. 355 00:21:18,680 --> 00:21:22,480 So that's what I was trying to get at when we were reading these verses together, is 356 00:21:22,480 --> 00:21:28,280 that I think the main point of this bowl is just trying to get us to see that God is a 357 00:21:28,280 --> 00:21:34,200 just God, that he only does what is right and good, and God never dishes out a punishment 358 00:21:34,200 --> 00:21:36,280 that doesn't actually fit the crime. 359 00:21:36,280 --> 00:21:41,920 So what this verse is trying to show us is that God always makes sure the punishment 360 00:21:41,920 --> 00:21:44,520 fits the crime. 361 00:21:44,520 --> 00:21:45,520 We're not going to get far. 362 00:21:45,520 --> 00:21:49,560 But we're on the fourth angel, so let's just look at this one real quick. 363 00:21:49,560 --> 00:21:56,640 The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was allowed to do what? 364 00:21:56,640 --> 00:22:03,360 It was allowed to scorch people with fire, and they were scorched by the fierce heat, 365 00:22:03,360 --> 00:22:07,800 and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues. 366 00:22:07,800 --> 00:22:10,760 And what is the final response of the people? 367 00:22:10,760 --> 00:22:13,160 What is the ultimate thing that happens? 368 00:22:13,160 --> 00:22:18,520 They did not repent and give him glory. 369 00:22:18,520 --> 00:22:25,760 Remember God has already sent six trumpets warning people to turn from their sinful ways, 370 00:22:25,760 --> 00:22:29,520 warning them of what's going to happen in the final judgment, telling them to repent. 371 00:22:29,520 --> 00:22:31,160 They've ignored everything. 372 00:22:31,160 --> 00:22:37,240 Now he's pouring out the bowls on the earth, and people are still not repenting of their 373 00:22:37,240 --> 00:22:41,240 sins. 374 00:22:41,240 --> 00:22:47,960 So the historicist, he's gunning for the pope again. 375 00:22:47,960 --> 00:22:54,680 Historicists liken the papal powers to the sun, and they see the weakening of papal powers, 376 00:22:54,680 --> 00:22:57,720 the imperial sun, to be a fulfillment of the sun's darkening. 377 00:22:57,720 --> 00:23:03,720 So the historicist, even though the verse says that the sun is going to scorch people, 378 00:23:03,720 --> 00:23:08,080 they interpret that to mean that the sun is going to be weakened and darkened, which seems 379 00:23:08,080 --> 00:23:11,360 the opposite of what the verse is saying, but this is just their interpretation. 380 00:23:11,360 --> 00:23:13,040 They're free to it. 381 00:23:13,040 --> 00:23:17,480 And they would say that this has to do with the pope losing a lot of power. 382 00:23:17,480 --> 00:23:22,760 He was called the imperial sun, and so that's what they see here. 383 00:23:22,760 --> 00:23:27,760 The preterist, of course, he's going to see the sun as a symbol of mighty political power, 384 00:23:27,760 --> 00:23:32,320 or possibly religious leaders, and the tyranny of these leaders and how they terrorize the 385 00:23:32,320 --> 00:23:36,480 people is how the sun is able to scorch the people. 386 00:23:36,480 --> 00:23:41,320 And alternatively, some have seen this as referring to the Gothic and Vandal kings who besieged 387 00:23:41,320 --> 00:23:42,320 Rome. 388 00:23:42,320 --> 00:23:46,120 So a couple different people believe in different things. 389 00:23:46,120 --> 00:23:50,720 Futures are split on this, but it all comes back to Rome, in the fall of Rome, and what's 390 00:23:50,720 --> 00:23:52,800 happening there. 391 00:23:52,800 --> 00:23:59,160 The futurists, as you can see from my picture here, they interpret this with the sun representing 392 00:23:59,160 --> 00:24:04,280 ultimate government, which means that Satan, the ruler of this world, will severely harm 393 00:24:04,280 --> 00:24:06,360 and oppress the people of the world. 394 00:24:06,360 --> 00:24:12,160 However, other futurists who prefer, remember, a literal interpretation believe that this 395 00:24:12,160 --> 00:24:19,040 verse, in this bowl in particular, are referring to atmospheric changes due to nuclear war 396 00:24:19,040 --> 00:24:20,840 or to solar flares. 397 00:24:20,840 --> 00:24:26,480 So again, when they see the sun is scorching people, they say that is nuclear war, that's 398 00:24:26,480 --> 00:24:32,560 radiation from nuclear war, or that's possibly sun flares, solar flares, that are affecting 399 00:24:32,560 --> 00:24:38,000 the people of the earth in many different ways, causing them to be burned. 400 00:24:38,000 --> 00:24:39,600 Then there's the idealist. 401 00:24:39,600 --> 00:24:45,440 They, again, try to avoid any specific fulfillments, but many idealists see fulfillment in cases 402 00:24:45,440 --> 00:24:51,800 in which people die due to exposure to the elements, people perishing in deserts without 403 00:24:51,800 --> 00:24:57,480 water, cancer due to sun rays, and heat exposure, things like that. 404 00:24:57,480 --> 00:25:04,240 So again, if you're noticing what the idealist does, he's saying, I'm not seeing one particular 405 00:25:04,240 --> 00:25:11,440 fulfillment, but I'm seeing examples throughout history of how this kind of a thing occurs. 406 00:25:11,440 --> 00:25:16,040 Where do we see the sun scorching people, people dying of things like that? 407 00:25:16,040 --> 00:25:21,040 It's possible that this could refer to instances like we just mentioned. 408 00:25:21,040 --> 00:25:26,520 One point the idealist bring up is that the sun, which God intended to be a blessing to 409 00:25:26,520 --> 00:25:32,240 the world, now in a fallen world has become a curse to the world. 410 00:25:32,240 --> 00:25:34,040 Do you all notice that switch there? 411 00:25:34,040 --> 00:25:39,720 God created the sun and he created it to be a blessing to the people of earth, but now 412 00:25:39,720 --> 00:25:44,880 in a fallen world, the world is such that the sun, which was meant to be a blessing, 413 00:25:44,880 --> 00:25:47,720 has now become a curse to people. 414 00:25:47,720 --> 00:25:51,720 So I think the idealist is trying to get you to see this is the nature of living in a fallen 415 00:25:51,720 --> 00:25:52,720 world. 416 00:25:52,720 --> 00:25:57,560 This is the kind of thing that we can expect in the type of world that we live in. 417 00:25:57,560 --> 00:26:01,800 I don't have time for this, but I do want to just read it with you real quick. 418 00:26:01,800 --> 00:26:05,120 The fifth angel, he poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast. 419 00:26:05,120 --> 00:26:06,120 Here's your homework. 420 00:26:06,120 --> 00:26:08,480 If you all want homework, I'm going to give you some homework. 421 00:26:08,480 --> 00:26:13,280 All right, I'm going to read this and then here's your assignment. 422 00:26:13,280 --> 00:26:18,280 I just want you to guess what you think each one of the groups would think about these 423 00:26:18,280 --> 00:26:19,280 two verses. 424 00:26:19,280 --> 00:26:20,920 That's all I'm going to ask you to do. 425 00:26:20,920 --> 00:26:22,400 Fun little exercise for you. 426 00:26:22,400 --> 00:26:28,000 Remember, you've got historicists, you've got preterists, you've got futurists, and 427 00:26:28,000 --> 00:26:29,620 you've got idealists. 428 00:26:29,620 --> 00:26:32,080 Just a fun little Bible study for you. 429 00:26:32,080 --> 00:26:37,680 Revelation 16, 10 through 11, the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast. 430 00:26:37,680 --> 00:26:42,320 So I'm going to circle or underline some key phrases. 431 00:26:42,320 --> 00:26:43,480 Make notes of this for your homework. 432 00:26:43,480 --> 00:26:46,600 I'll take it up next week and grade it. 433 00:26:46,600 --> 00:26:52,040 And its kingdom was plunged into darkness. 434 00:26:52,040 --> 00:26:54,640 All right, so we have a throne of the beast. 435 00:26:54,640 --> 00:26:56,080 We've got a kingdom. 436 00:26:56,080 --> 00:26:57,680 We've got darkness. 437 00:26:57,680 --> 00:27:05,760 And people gnawed their tongues and anguished and cursed the God of heaven for their pain 438 00:27:05,760 --> 00:27:08,280 and sores. 439 00:27:08,280 --> 00:27:11,480 They did not repent of their deeds. 440 00:27:11,480 --> 00:27:12,480 Don't read that. 441 00:27:12,480 --> 00:27:13,480 That was the answer. 442 00:27:13,480 --> 00:27:15,560 All right, so here's your homework assignment. 443 00:27:15,560 --> 00:27:21,040 I just want you to read these two verses and then I want you to try to guess what you think 444 00:27:21,040 --> 00:27:28,040 each one of the four groups would read or how they would interpret these verses, particularly 445 00:27:28,040 --> 00:27:33,640 the phrases, the throne of the beast and what that refers to, the kingdom of the beast, 446 00:27:33,640 --> 00:27:41,880 what that refers to, this darkness that people were plunged into, and also the pain and sores 447 00:27:41,880 --> 00:27:44,680 that they experienced. 448 00:27:44,680 --> 00:27:48,800 I think I've made this real easy for you because there are some answers right off the bat that 449 00:27:48,800 --> 00:27:50,000 you should just be getting. 450 00:27:50,000 --> 00:27:53,200 They're like, I know it's going to be about the Pope, probably the French Revolution. 451 00:27:53,200 --> 00:27:54,480 I know it's going to be about this. 452 00:27:54,480 --> 00:27:56,160 There's some easy answers, okay? 453 00:27:56,160 --> 00:28:02,000 But just have that little homework assignment and we'll finish studying the seven bulls next 454 00:28:02,000 --> 00:28:03,000 week. 455 00:28:03,000 --> 00:28:05,880 This will be our most in-depth study we do of Revelation. 456 00:28:05,880 --> 00:28:11,720 I'm not going to do this with every passage because we don't have the time or the patience 457 00:28:11,720 --> 00:28:15,960 to go through every single verse of Revelation and show you all four views every time. 458 00:28:15,960 --> 00:28:21,360 So when we come to a section like this, which is highly debated and if we're honest with 459 00:28:21,360 --> 00:28:23,760 each other, it's not easily understood, right? 460 00:28:23,760 --> 00:28:25,720 The seven bulls, they're not easily understood. 461 00:28:25,720 --> 00:28:30,440 I think it's helpful to put different views in front of you to show you that different 462 00:28:30,440 --> 00:28:37,200 people who are very smart, who have more letters after their name than my name does, okay? 463 00:28:37,200 --> 00:28:41,240 Very qualified people, they come down on different answers for these things. 464 00:28:41,240 --> 00:28:46,840 And I think it's wise for us to consider different possibilities as we read Scripture together. 465 00:28:46,840 --> 00:29:12,160 All right, Michael Stevenson.