Bible Study on Revelation 16 – The Outpouring of God’s Wrath

The outpouring of God’s wrath is severely warned in the fourteenth chapter of the book of Revelation (Rev. 14:9-12). In his Bible study on Revelation 16 he will get details of what God’s wrath entails. He speaks of the punishment that will be fulfilled in the last days in the form of seven plagues that will be poured out on the earth. The fact that it is designated as “the wrath of God” seems to indicate that this particular retribution will be something out of the ordinary.

In my analysis of this particular topic, I did a scriptural comparison between chapter 16 and other scriptures and found that this type of expression of displeasure from God has the following characteristics:

• It is not different from the way the Lord responds to similar offenses in the Old Testament.
• It is God’s direct response to the widespread adoption of the new religious order that will be implemented in the last days.
• It is a direct result of nullifying God’s laws.
• The inhabitants of the earth are so punished because they have made the final decision to reject God outright.

In your Bible study on Revelation 16, you will see that God’s people were not affected in any way by this retribution. According to the scriptures, the curse of the plagues will only be directed at those who received the mark of the beast and worshiped its image (Rev. 16:2). Similar to the case of the seven trumpets (Rev. 8-11), when the seven angels pour out their vials, only those who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads (Rev. 9:4) will be punished with these plagues. .

In order for us to gain a better understanding of this chapter, we need to do a Bible study on Revelation 13 to find out what the problem with the mark of the beast really is and why it attracts such severe punishment. That chapter is essentially about how the world will worship the beast and take its mark. Taking the mark of the beast is the means of sealing one’s allegiance to the beast in the same way that God’s seal on the forehead of his people means that his allegiance to God is fixed forever.

During the time of the plagues, those who have trusted in God will receive his protection (Ps 91,10). But those who chose to join the beast and become its worshipers will be forced to rely on its unreliable protection in times of trouble. Under the protection of this apostate religious system, the worshipers of the beast, by virtue of the possession of its identifying mark, will be able to access social services and live the life of which they are accused. But that is as far as protection ends because they are not guaranteed safety from the curse of the seven plagues. By rejecting God, they have rejected their only guarantee of safety from this end-time affliction.

As it stands today, the world has not yet reached the place where God would see fit to mete out a punishment of this magnitude. Fortunately, there are enough of us who still call on his name and acknowledge his sovereignty over our lives. But the day will come when the vast majority, even among the Christian fraternity, will reject God’s commandments (Isaiah 24:5, 6) and cause the world to descend into a new devil-worshipping religious culture. It is precisely for this reason that the Lord will remove his protection from this apostate world and leave the ultimately unrepentant to the scourge of the seven last plagues.

An advanced Bible study on Revelation 13 (and beyond) covering the subject of plagues, among other end-time topics, is now available for download.