“And I beheld when He had opened the sixth seal, and, lo there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood, and the stars of heaven fell to the ground as when a fig tree casts her untimely figs when she is shaken by a mighty wind.”  Following his description of the thing that happened after the opening of the sixth seal, the Apostle John goes on to describe how heaven departed like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island moved from their natural locations.”  Then he describes the reaction of the earth’s inhabitants who had lived through the previous 2 1/2 year Tribulation terrors.  Everyone–rich and poor, strong and weak, important and unimportant, free men and slaves–hid in caves and rock overhangs and prayed for the mountains and rocks to hide them from the face of God who sits on His throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.  Note it: THESE PEOPLE WILL KNOW WHO IS CAUSING THEIR MISERY.  They will know that they have sinned and that the living hell they are experiencing is retribution for rebelling against Him.  They will know what few church people know today–that the worst is yet to come. They will say: “For the great day of His wrath has arrived, and who will be able to endure it?  Knowing that God would not hear their prayers, and that the future is beyond anything they could imagine, they prayed to the mountains and rocks to hide them from this and His Son’s faces (Rev. 6:12-17).

In chapter 7 John tells about four angels standing in the four directions who are capable of causing unheard-of damage to both the earth and the seas.  An angel tells them not to, until, that is, 144,000 Israelites are sealed in their foreheads.  We will discuss these people later.  John mentions another group described as a great (innumerable) multitude which was mentioned in the previous posting.  The sixth seal involves a short time space between seals 5 and 7 in which God sends terror into the hearts of men by physical acts on earth and in the heavens.  It is because of the terror produced by His demonstration of power that the Great Multitude are converted (7:9-17).

In chapter 8 John describes the opening of the seventh seal.  Chapters 8 & 9 describe how God will p