Revelation 16:1

REV:16

This is the famed chapter of the bowls; and what we have here is a "free adaptation, with modifications and amplifications,"[1] of the series of trumpet judgments depicted in Revelation 8 and Revelation 9, which "the prophet wishes to emphasize by recapitulation."[2] "These bowls are final but not complete."[3] God's saints are not harmed by them. What they represent is the total corruption of earth's environment, not the physical environment which is here used as a symbol, but the moral, intellectual, religious, and spiritual environment. This perversion of the moral and cultural world of mankind will be the final culmination of evil upon the earth, presenting the true saints of God with their final and most effective challenge.

It is the literalism of scholars, quite unconsciously in many, it seems, that totally dismantles the efforts of some to understand this marvelous chapter. "These plagues cannot be interpreted in a literal sense."[4] "It is difficult indeed to believe that any such happenings as these would take place in history."[5] Some who see this, however, fail utterly to come up with an answer as to just what is symbolized. For example, Pieters, who enthusiastically accepted the principle that "literalism here is hopeless,"[6] " did not even hazard a guess as to what the various bowl symbols mean, declaring that, "The true interpretation has not been found, and probably cannot be found."[7] Roberson, another highly respected scholar, speaking of interpreting these bowls, wrote, "It may be that no attempt to do so will ever be successful."[8] Such views are a little embarrassing to this writer who confidently believes that a valid understanding of what is symbolized by the bowls can be presented, an interpretation that is both logical and fully in harmony with what the rest of the New Testament teaches. This will be spelled out below.

These seven bowls are poured out, if not simultaneously, then nearly so; because, as Beckwith noted, "The pains and sores of Revelation 16:11 (in the fifth bowl) refer to the first plague,"[9] thus showing that the plagues were operating co-extensively. We might refer to all seven bowls as ""Satan's Propaganda Apparatus." But does not God send this? Of course. It is the divine judicial hardening of mankind due to sin and rebellion against God which is undoubtedly in view here, as several very discerning scholars have observed. "This means that the great and final interdiction of God has come."[10] Exactly the same hardening is here which Paul discussed in Romans 1:24,26,28. "God gave them up." This means that God darkened their minds, hardened their hearts and delivered them over to the devices of Satan whom they preferred to serve. It is impossible to understand this chapter without due attention to God's hardening of the entire pre-Christian world, because this chapter is a prophecy of exactly the same thing happening again before the Second Coming of Christ. That is the reason that the ominous shadow of the plagues of Egypt falls over these bowls, as so many have pointed out. See discussion of, "When God Gives Men Up," my Commentary on Romans, pp. 38-51, and "The Hardening of Israel," and also at pp. 392-395. The principle that God does what he allows and requires fully hardened people to do is clear. A good New Testament example is the command of Jesus to Judas, ""Get on at once with the betrayal" (John 13:27, a paraphrase). Thus, these bowls are actually the culmination of human wickedness; but they are also, in a very real sense, the judgments of God upon the incorrigibly evil. Wicked men, hardened finally by God himself, due to their obduracy and rebellion, at last "receive in themselves that recompense of their error which was due" (Romans 1:27). When God at last allows sinful man to walk fully and unrestrained in the evil ways he has chosen, the total pollution of the moral, intellectual, spiritual, and religious environment will happen again, just like it did in the case of the pre-Christian Gentiles; and that ultimate hardening of all mankind is the dreadful eventuality symbolized by these seven bowls. The repeated mention in Revelation 16:9,11,21 of the absolute refusal of people to repent proves this view to be correct. The chapter deals with the final and ultimate hardening of the human race.

[1] James Moffatt. Expositor's Greek New Testament, Vol. V (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1967), p. 446.

[2] Ibid.

[3] William Hendriksen, More than Conquerors (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1956), p. 190.

[4] R. C. H. Lenski. The Interpretation of St. John's Revelation (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Augsburg Publishing House. 1943), p. 463.

[5] Michael Wilcock, I Saw Heaven Opened (Downers Grove, Illinois: Inter-Varsity Press. 1975), p. 154.

[6] Albertus Pieters, Studies in the Revelation of St. John (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1954), p. 243.

[7] Ibid., p. 244.

[8] Charles H. Roberson, Studies in Revelation (Tyler, Texas: P. D. Wilmeth, P.O. Box 3305,1957), p. 118.

[9] Isbon T. Beckwith, The Apocalypse of John (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1919), p. 681.

[10] W. A. Criswell, Expository Sermons on Revelation in IV Vols. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1962), III, p. 174.

And I heard a great voice out of the temple, saying to the seven angels, Go ye, and pour out the seven bowls of the wrath of God into the earth. (Revelation 16:1)

Go ye, and pour out ... In the chapter introduction, it was noted that these seven bowls are poured out quickly and almost simultaneously. Criswell commented on this:

The Greek indicates that these come one after the other in rapid succession. Just like that! When the judgment (or hardening) finally comes, it comes in a hurry.[11]

Some interpreters apply these to the destruction of Rome, as Summers, for example, who saw them as, "The swiftly executed wrath of God ... on the Roman Empire";[12] but whatever fulfillment occurred in that does not mitigate against the application of them in a much more extensive frame of reference to the final judicial hardening of the entire race of man. The fact of the totality of these judgments (all instead of merely one third, as in the trumpets) forbids our limitation of it to pagan Rome alone. What happened in the fall of Rome is a preview of what is yet to happen, or may indeed be in the process of happening now. Furthermore, there have been many fulfillments of this historically, Pharaoh being the great Old Testament example of it; and all such occurrences are types of these seven bowls of wrath which are the final, ultimate, and "last" manifestation of the same phenomenon. Many have associated these bowls of wrath, and for very good reasons, with the French Revolution.

[11] Ibid.

[12] Ray Summers, Worthy is the Lamb (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1961), p. 186.