It has been 6 1/2 years since the Vanishment. Less than six months remain until Armageddon and the return of the Lord. Although the unbelievers are bearing most of the judgments, the faith of believers is being severely tested. Only those faithful until the very end of the Tribulation will go into the Millennial Kingdom and live another 1000 years in perfect environment. The testing has caused some believers to take the Mark of the Beast, and most of them died at the hands of the Swarm demons. Many believers have acted like unbelievers to hide their faith from the unbelieving world. And some others refused to obey the specific commands in the Bible which were meant for them, including some believers in Israel who refused to flee at the Midpoint. Among those who fled to the mountains from Israel, some departed their hiding place and died. This was not a time for being a casual believer. There were only two sides, and each person had to choose one side or the other. There was no middle ground. Decisions meant life or death.
Back in Israel the remnant of believers who had fled to the mountains east of Israel see that the time of the Lord's return is drawing near. Josh Simmons, the leader of the Jews in exile, talks to the Jews who are gathered about the next series of judgments which are about to commence. Josh speaks to the assembled congregation:
"It is now time for the seven Bowl Judgments to avenge the killing of believers during the Tribulation. These judgments will be the worst seen in all of human history, and lead up to the return of Jesus Christ at the Second Advent. God does not cause misery without a good reason. These Bowls occur very late in the second half of the Tribulation between the 6th and 7th Trumpet Judgments, after God has sent many forms of evangelization to those who are about to be severely judged." Josh reads from his book:
"So far during the Tribulation there have been natural disasters, man-made disasters, and divine judgments revealed by the Seals, including the first six Trumpet Judgments. Now the seven Bowl Judgments will be unleashed on the earth, which occur after the Sixth Trumpet Judgment. God's patience is at an end."
Then Josh reads from Revelation:
Revelation 15:1 “I saw in heaven another great and marvelous sign: seven angels with the seven last plagues—last, because with them God’s wrath is completed.”
Revelation 16:7 “And I heard the altar respond: “Yes, Lord God Almighty, true and just are your judgments.”
"Those in Heaven who have offered prayers to have the deaths of the martyrs avenged acknowledge the perfect Justice of God."
Josh continues, providing encouragement that they are nearing the end of their time in the mountains: "These seven last plagues or Bowl Judgments are executed between the 6th and 7th Trumpet Judgments. Since they are called the “last plagues” they occur very close to the end of the Tribulation. The Trumpet Judgments are executed throughout the period of the Great Tribulation, which is the last 3 ½ years, so the Bowl Judgments fit in very near the end. We have about six months remaining until the Lord returns, then we will depart these mountains and return to our homeland."
At the same time Josh is addressing the Jews in the mountains near Petra, Jill Steiner is in her LA apartment unable to sleep. She knows there is a next round of judgments about to be revealed. She reads from her book so she will know what to expect.
"Upon the command of the Lord the seven Bowl Judgments begin, and the first Bowl causes unbelievers on earth to break out in awful, thick, painful sores in judgment for worshiping the Antichrist and taking the mark of the Beast. This judgment hearkens back to the Pharaoh of Egypt and the plague of sores in ancient Egypt. The unbelievers of the Tribulation took the Mark of the Beast, and since they like marks on their skin, God is about to give them pockmarks all over their bodies. And the pain associated with them will be excruciating. As Revelation 16:1 says:
“Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, “Go, pour out the seven bowls of God’s wrath on the earth.” 2 The first angel went and poured out his bowl on the land, and ugly, festering sores broke out on the people who had the mark of the beast and worshiped its image.”
Jill closes her book and thinks about what that means. The current world is about to be judged for how it has treated the believers of the Tribulation, just as the Pharaoh of Egypt was judged 3000 years ago using numerous plagues for refusing to free the Jews from captivity after 400 years of slavery. She goes to sleep thinking about the parallelism of the two time periods.
The following morning Jill is on her way to work, walking down the sidewalk near her news studio building. Suddenly a collective shriek goes up from nearly all the people on the street around her. They are jumping and swatting and crying in pain. People jump out of cars in the middle of the street and writhe and jostle their clothing. At first Jill did not know what happened, but then she sees everyone is covered with red sores on every inch of their exposed skin. It is apparent from the expressions of pain that the sores cover their entire bodies.
Jill hurries on into her building and gets to the news room as fast as she can. She looks at her own skin, but nothing unusual. Jack Ford meets her as she is entering the studio, and his skin is clear. But then she starts seeing the staff, and most of them are affected by the painful skin sores. For the crew the pain was so intense that most could not continue to work. Jack had to take over the camera duties to allow Jill to go on with her news show.
Jack was doing double duty, putting up video and handling the camera. Jack showed video and Jill described what she had seen on the street near her news studio. Eyewitness accounts from around the world all showed the same thing. Most of the people of the world now had painful red sores all over their bodies. And the emphasis was on pain. Nothing could reduce the intensity of it except to try to avoid having the skin touch anything at all. Even soft clothing irritated the sores.
Within the next few days it became obvious that the skin sores had an enormous impact on people everywhere. The pain was intense. Sitting on the sores was very painful, and lying down was almost impossible since so many of the sores became involved. Sleep was therefore nearly impossible, except in very short sessions under extreme exhaustion, only minutes at a time. Just wearing clothing was painful. Within days the world was full of people sleep-walking through their miserable existence. They walked bow-legged with their arms outstretched to avoid touching any sores. While most of the early disasters had been either localized or affected people indirectly, even though severely, the sores put the pain right to each person directly and continually, much like the stinging Swarm had done. It was highly effective at getting people's attention that they were being judged.
Jill noted that very few turned to God as the answer. The world was now in a state of extreme hardness. The Second Swarm had killed so many people, nearly 1/3 of all those who were on the earth. And that was after many had been already killed by famine, disease, war, and disasters. Except for believers who were spared these judgments, those unbelievers who had survived the Swarm of killer demons were mainly those who had no remaining conscience. While most of the judgments lasted for a relatively short duration and then ended, the sores remained and did not go away. They turned people into the walking dead, living at the most basic level of bare existence, waiting for their final end. It would not be long.
But in the meantime more judgments were coming. Jill provided her viewers a preview of what was about to happen next. She began to summarize for her audience at the end of each news broadcast what was coming in the near future. She still had many who watched her news show from all over the world. But most refused to accept the truth of what was behind all of it.
Jill's summary at the end of her daily broadcast started out as:
"All sea life will soon die, all drinking water will become undrinkable, the sun will scorch the skin, the world will be plunged into darkness, the way will be prepared for Armageddon, and then Armageddon will finally come, and it is less than six months away."
Within a few days the second Bowl Judgment hit. It targeted sea life.
Residents of the ocean-side community of Malibu, California awoke to see red waves breaking on the beach. It was a disgusting sight, and looked to these residents like blood. In fact, it turned out to actually be blood. This scene repeated in beach communities all over the US, and all over the world. The ocean waves were blood. Soon afterward dead sea creatures began washing onshore. First fish, then starfish and turtles, then whales. The rotting carcasses became even more disgusting than the blood waves. Soon the stench became unbearable. Oceanographers from around the world used sophisticated instruments to try to determine the extent of the issue. Why were these sea creatures dying in droves? Which types were affected, and which types survived? What they found shocked them. They found no living sea creature of any type in any ocean or sea anywhere on earth. None. All sea creatures were dead, down to the last krill. They concluded this was not a natural event, but an unnatural one. But they refused to see it as a supernatural event.
It was just as Jill had been telling her audience. And as she had become known for doing, Jill read to her audience from Revelation and from her book:
Revelation 16:3 “The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it turned into blood like that of a dead person, and every living thing in the sea died.”
"The 2nd Bowl turns all the oceans to blood and kills all remaining sea life. The rain cycle is also disrupted by this judgment since the oceans are key to rain formation. Recall that the Trumpet Judgment had previously killed 1/3 of all sea life, so this Bowl occurs later since all sea life is now killed."
With all sea life dead, there was no food from the seas or oceans. This had been one of the few remaining food options, and now it was gone. And if that were not enough, the painful red sores persisted. And the pain never became any more bearable. Not to mention how ugly everyone had become, which ruined their self-esteem.
Jill reported on how the Bowl Judgments were affecting people. How it disrupted their entire life. Work, play, eating, social life, sleep -- everything was affected. The little pleasures of life were gone. She continually reminded her audience of why these were occurring, and how close the end of the Tribulation is at this point.
Within a month of the blood waves, the third Bowl Judgment hit. The drinking water supply was targeted. Again. Now the entire remaining drinking water supply turned undrinkable. The world was already starving and thirsty. But now that would be taken to a new level. Jill reads to her audience:
Revelation 16:4 “The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood. 5 Then I heard the angel in charge of the waters say: “You are just in these judgments, O Holy One, you who are and who were; 6 for they have shed the blood of your holy people and your prophets, and you have given them blood to drink as they deserve.”
It is not an accident that the "blood" theme recurs over and over. God is reminding the unbelieving world of what they did to His own people. Believers had been murdered by those following, and those not resisting, the Antichrist. Millions of believers had been murdered, beheaded, or starved to death during the past several years. A holocaust targeted Jewish believers. Those who did not oppose the Antichrist were with him. Regardless of how innocent any of the remaining unbelievers seemed, they were on the wrong side of history, meaning they were not on God's side. Bad choices led to bad outcomes. God gave everyone plenty of chances to change their minds, but most had refused. Now they were being judged, and judged severely.
This 3rd Bowl Judgment targeted the remaining supply of drinking water. The 3rd Trumpet had previously targeted 1/3 of all drinking water, now the remainder was taken away by this Bowl Judgment. The unbelievers were bloodthirsty while killing so many believers, so God now gives them blood to drink, making them very, very thirsty. Believers will have special provisions during all these judgments, but the intensity of the adversities will be felt by all as God removes the most basic necessities for sustaining life from unbelievers. Since the people on earth could not survive very long without drinking water, Armageddon and the Second Advent are very near.
The next two Bowl Judgments would come in rapid succession. Within a month after the drinking water was destroyed, the fourth Bowl Judgment hit. Scorching sun began to burn the flesh of everyone who ventured outdoors. There was no way to avoid the sun's scorching heat. The scorching was immediate on any exposed flesh. Even a tiny opening in clothing led to instant first degree burns. And due to the painful red sores, people had turned to wearing as little clothing as possible. So when the scorching sun began, they were caught with much of their skin exposed. That made the scorching even worse, since there would be no time to cover up for anyone out in the open.
The scorching sun also burned up the remaining vegetation. There had not been enough sun to grow crops due to the decreased sunlight, but now the low sunlight also scorched what little vegetation was growing.
Jill reported on the fourth Bowl as unbelievers suffered from severe skin pain, which went along with their starving and intense thirst. This Bowl added more skin pain on top of the already painful skin sores. This skin pain was a very direct targeting of individual comfort.
Jill reads to her audience:
Revelation 16:8 “The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and the sun was allowed to scorch people with fire. 9 They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify him.”
The 4th Trumpet Judgment had diminished the sun, and now the 4th Bowl Judgment causes the remaining daylight hours to yield scorching heat on the inhabitants of the earth as the protective layers of the atmosphere are removed. The world switches from freezing cold to scorching heat on their skin. The world is colder but their skin is burning. The unbelievers of the world are in intense pain. The red sores never went away, then scorching was added. The skin is a major source of pain, since it is so near the nerve endings. God puts the pain where it is felt the most -- on the skin.
Jill wonders if anyone was listening. Really listening. She doubted that any were. They were just moths to the flame. They could not stay away. They watched her news show because they were mesmerized, not because they had any belief system.