Transcript

ANNOUNCER: We are continuing from yesterday’s episode to talk about the seven bowl judgments in the book of Revelation. This is part of the Great Tribulation. God pouring out His wrath on the nations for rejecting Him. And today we look at the sixth and seventh bowl judgments. Unprecedented earthquakes, great hailstones, horrible and amazing. Glad you’ve joined us, friend. This is Grace in Focus. We are a ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society. Our website, faithalone.org. Right now we’re telling people about our national annual conference coming up in 2026, May 18th through the 21st. Right now there is an early bird registration and we also waive our registration for first timers. So take advantage of those, get all the information you need at our website, FaithAlone.org/events. 

And now with today’s discussion, here are Bob Wilkin and Philippe Sterling. 

BOB: We’re in the bowl judgments, the seven bowl judgments, part two. We’re going to be looking at the last two. So what are the first five? We had the derma bowl. 

PHILIPPE: Yeah, the derma bowl, the sores on the skin. Dermatologists who are, you know, skin doctors. 

BOB: They’ll be in high demand during this judgment. And then we’ve got two Alabama bowls. Yeah, so what are those? 

PHILIPPE: Of course the Alabama crimson tide, the seas turning to blood. And then the inland water. That will be the rivers, the springs, the fountains, the lakes presumably. So that will be three. 

BOB: And four relates to the sun. 

PHILIPPE: The scorching heat of the sun. 

BOB: So the sun bowl, and then the opposite of the sun bowl is the dark bowl. 

PHILIPPE: Yes, the kingdom of the beast is turned to total darkness. So painful even.

BOB: Now. by the way, we didn’t discuss this the last time. But there is something ironic about that because in Scripture, God is light and in Him, there is no darkness at all. But Satan is darkness. He’s the father of lies and his kingdom is the kingdom of darkness. And in fact, in 2 Peter, chapter two and verse 17, it says, for whom the darkness is reserved for the blackness of darkness. And so actually this darkness is associated with Satan and his kingdom, right? 

PHILIPPE: Right. And so here, this is the kingdom of the beast. So the kingdom is turned to darkness, reflecting of the fact that it is. 

BOB: It’s called the unholy trinity, isn’t it? 

PHILIPPE: Yes, the dragon, who was a devil of old, Satan, the serpent of old and the beast from the sea, which is the, we just call him the man of sin, you know, the beast. And the beast from the earth who is the false prophet, who gets the whole world to worship the beast. 

BOB: Okay. So we’ve got those five bowls followed by two more. Now the sixth bowl, we’re calling the dried river bowl. 

PHILIPPE: Well, we’re told here that the Euphrates river is dried up. And by the way, we’re told too that it’s three, demonic frog-like creatures who go out of the mouth of the dragon and of the beast, and of the false prophet to call forth all the armies of the east, basically, and drying up the Euphrates to allow them to come to Har Megiddo. 

BOB: But that’s also part of the, one of the judgments, right, that’s one of the bowl judgments?

PHILIPPE: Yes, the bowl judgment is the drying up of the Euphrates River in preparation for laying the way open for the vast armies of the world, basically, to gather together at the Valley of Megiddo.

BOB: So why would this be a terrible thing for people on earth? If the Euphrates, of course, the Euphrates is one of the original four great rivers, right? 

PHILIPPE: That float out of Eden. 

BOB: And the Tigris and Euphrates have long been known to be—

PHILIPPE: The cradle of empires. That’s where Babylon and then with Nineveh too just end that area between the Tigris and the Euphrates.

BOB: So why is this sixth bowl, the dried river bowl, why is this a terrible judgment?

PHILIPPE: Well, it’s preparing for the great culminating battle that will occur between Christ and the kingdom of the beast and the armies of the world as they come for the final destruction of Jerusalem and of the Jewish people. 

BOB: Okay, and it does say that the spirits of demons, for they are spirits of demons, verse 14 of chapter 16, they are spirits of demons performing signs which go out to the kings of the earth and to the whole to gather them to the battle of the great day of God Almighty. So it sounds like the signs they will be producing, of course, be false signs, right? And basically then it sounds like this dried river bowl is going to be a prelude to the seventh bowl judgment. So that even though it in itself is not causing great pain, the loss of the water.

PHILIPPE: Right, it’s not like the sun bowl and all the others, you know that we had. But it’s preparation for the coming of Christ and the great feast, all the birds of the air will be called to feast on all the bodies that will be decimated. 

BOB: But in many ways, it’s kind of an interlude that’s scary, because people know that this great conflict is about to occur and it’s like, you know, in all those movies, it’s kind of like that, right? So that even though nothing particularly terrible is happening at this point, it’s very frightening. 

PHILIPPE: You sense, there is going to be this great sense of worldwide calamity that will occur. 

BOB: Now notice in 16:15, Jesus in the Olivet Discourse said He was coming as a thief in the night and the Apostle Paul picked up on that on 1 Thessalonians 5 referring to the Rapture. And Peter picked up on that in 2 Peter 3, ultimately talking about the destruction of the current heavens and the current earth. But as part of the day of the Lord, that the day of the Lord is coming as a thief in the night. Now here we get the thief in the night imagery again and I have a red letter addition. And verse 15 is in red. 

PHILIPPE: Yes. Jesus speaking, “Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.”

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BOB: Okay, so now watching is also found in the Olivet Discourse and Matthew 24. And it’s also found in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. The word for watching the Greek verb is gregoreo, we get the name Gregory. And we’re all to be watchful believers, right? Even though we won’t be in the Tribulation, we’re to be watchful for the Rapture, but people who are in the Tribulation are to be watchful for the Second Coming. 

PHILIPPE: Yes, and particularly believers. Of course, in one of the parables of the ten, five who were prepared and five who were unprepared. So even for believers, Jesus is going to come suddenly. so we have to look for that and anticipate that. 

BOB: Okay, so the parable of the ten virgins is Matthew 25:1-13, also part of the Olivet Discourse. And I should point out that Zane Hodges made an interesting observation that starting in Matthew 24:45 to the end of chapter 25, there are three parables followed by the judgment of the sheep and the goats. So four elements. And he said, the elements go A, B, A, B, the two A elements refer to Church age believers, the two B elements refer to Tribulation age believers. So 24:45-51 refers to believers right now, the parable of the just and the unjust servants. The parable of the ten virgins refers to ten Tribulation believers. And when the midnight cry goes out, that’s the abomination of desolation, right? Five are ready. They’ve got extra oil and they can keep their torches burning or their lamps burning depending on your translation. And the other five don’t. Those five represent believers who died during the second half of the Tribulation because they did not develop sufficient spiritual strength in the first half. And so they weren’t watchful. They didn’t remain watchful. And this point here in 16:15 applies to believers of every age that we should be watchful whether we’re in the Church age or the Tribulation age. We should be watchful for the Lord soon return. 

PHILIPPE: Yes. And that impacts rewards and ruling with Christ.

BOB: Okay. So this opens up to the seventh bowl judgment and which we call the Elvis bowl. 

PHILIPPE: One of the songs that Elvis was known for is “I’m All Shook Up.” 

BOB: The whole earth gets all shook up here, right? 

PHILIPPE: Yeah. We’re now at the seventh bowl. There are vast earthquakes throughout the world. And we’re told that every city of the world is leveled, completely destroyed. And then in addition, there’s large hailstones that come upon all of the earth. And we’re told that the hailstones weigh a talent. 

BOB: And how much is a talent? I guess it depends which time period you’re looking at.

PHILIPPE: A talent of gold throughout much of the Old Testament period was about 75 pounds. 

BOB: So a 75 pound hailstone is going to shake up things big time. This kind of hail may knock down houses. And so we call the seventh bowl, the Elvis ball or the all shook up bowl. And it’s going to be in anticipation of Armageddon, right? This is followed by the great battle at the end of the seven years. 

PHILIPPE: Yes, that will be later seen with the return of Christ with His holy ones and with all the host of heaven to confront these armies that were gathered by these three demonic frog-like beings that perform signs to gather them all, presumably by tens and perhaps a few hundred million to come to Har Megiddo to the great feast of the Lord that it’s also called. 

BOB: So har is the Hebrew word for mountain, and meggido is a place, so Har Megiddo is where we get the expression Armageddon, but it’s really Har Megiddo. 

PHILIPPE: Yes, the mountain of Megiddo, I’ve been to Israel and there’s a tel there. A tel is where basically there have been multiple buildings through the millennia that were there and gradually rose up to form a great mound. So a tel is only a great mound. 

BOB: And tel is one ell, right, tee-ee-ell, not two ells, right? And so when we’re saying there’s a tel, we’re not saying some of us saying something, we’re talking about this excavation site basically where archeologists have done all these studies and you say you’ve seen a tel at— 

PHILIPPE: That’s called the tel of Megiddo, Har Megiddo, you can go up it and it’s quite high actually and view the valley that extends all the way out to Jerusalem from there from the north and in this great valley, even Napoleon one time was there and he viewed that whole valley and said, “Oh, this will be a great marshalling area for a great army.”

BOB: Well, thank you, Philippe, I have enjoyed going through the seven bowl judgments. These judgments will actually be a good thing because they will be an end to wickedness on the earth. 

PHILIPPE: And that’s what we’re told specifically in this chapter is that with this judgment, the wrath of God is complete. It is in fact, the statement will be, “It is done,” similar to the words of Jesus on the cross. It is finished. 

BOB: Amen. Well, thanks so much y’all and remember, let’s all keep grace in focus. 

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On our next episode: what will happen at the second coming of Christ? Plan to join us and until then, let’s keep grace in focus.