And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.
The verse describes the fifth of the seven last plagues, the full outpouring of God's wrath upon the living wicked who worship the beast and receive its mark, poured out after Christ finishes His work in the sanctuary and mercy no longer intercedes. They fall just before Christ's second coming and the deliverance of the saints, as the modern counterpart to the plagues on Egypt. Those struck suffer agonizing pain and sores, yet instead of repenting they curse and blaspheme the God of heaven from stubborn, rebellious hearts fully set to do evil. Their suffering enrages them against the righteous, whom they blame for the judgments and seek to destroy, believing their death will stop the plagues. The plagues come because transgression of God's law and trampling of His Sabbath have reached their limit, and they are forewarned now by increasing calamities so that people may prepare and find shelter in God before probation closes.
Place Among Plagues
Revelation 16:11 belongs to John's vision of the seven last plagues, the vials of God's wrath poured out one after another upon the inhabitants of the earth. These seven contain the full outpouring of His wrath upon the living wicked in the future day of His wrath. They fall after Christ finishes His priestly work and takes up judgment, before the resurrection. Their pouring belongs to the final conflict when all the world will be on one side or the other and evil angels united with evil men make a desperate last struggle culminating in Armageddon, sure indications of Christ's presence directing every movement, vindicating His truth and sustaining His faithful as wise virgins under the Captain of the Lord's host.
The seven last plagues fall on the wicked who have no shelter from God's wrath. God draws a shelter over His people before they fall. Those suffering under them blaspheme God because of their pain and sores, yet do not repent of their deeds.
They fall on those who worship the beast and its image and receive its mark. They bring incurable sores and suffering from which the ungodly find no deliverance and are destroyed. These judgments on the living wicked are not the final execution of judgment, which takes place at the second death.
The verse belongs to the prophecies of Revelation 12-18 that are being fulfilled. The opening of the vials of wrath brings pestilence, famine and death upon the inhabitants of the earth as signs of Christ's coming. At the same time armies muster for battle and men's hearts fail them for fear, the earth is moved out of its place, the mountains are carried into the midst of the sea, and the waves roar and are troubled.
Time and Setting
The plagues are still future, to fall on the wicked who are living just before the second coming of Christ. Some who are then alive will live to be subjects of those plagues, distinct both from those who will die beforehand and from those who will be translated to heaven alive at His coming without seeing death. They contain the full outpouring of God's wrath on the living wicked, and fall after Christ finishes His priestly work and takes up judgment, before the resurrection.
They are poured out after Jesus finishes His work in the most holy place, lays off His priestly attire and clothes Himself with the garments of vengeance, steps out from between the Father and man, and stands up. They come after the angel of mercy leaves the world, when it is covered with sin, shame, sorrow and darkness. The anger of the nations, the wrath of God, and the time to judge the dead are separate events following one after another in order, and the plagues come after Michael stands up and after the time of trouble begins, while the four angels hold the four winds until the sanctuary work is done. When He begins to punish transgressors the storm of His wrath falls with bolts upon them and there is no period of respite until the end, and only those sanctified through the truth in the love of God will stand, hid with Christ in God until the desolation is overpast.
They come after the time for warning and mercy has passed, when those who have no shelter receive them. Refusal to accept salvation while mercy was offered leaves it too late to find cleansing or an intercessor, and when the wicked seek help the saints can no longer teach them how to escape God's judgments. They come after ministers and people have been called out of the fallen churches, and the honest have left them to join the remnant. Like the plagues on Egypt before and during Israel's deliverance from bondage, they fall on the wicked just before and at the saints' deliverance.
The judgments belong to the fast-approaching last great crisis and final conflict when all the world will be on one side or the other. Then evil angels united with evil men make a desperate last struggle, culminating in the battle of Armageddon, with the vials to be poured out one after another upon the inhabitants of the earth in solemn events yet to transpire that are right upon us. These scenes of stupendous interest are sure indications of the presence of Christ who has directed every aggressive movement, accompanied the march of His cause through all the ages, and will be with His people in all their conflicts to the end of the world. He will vindicate His truth and cause it to triumph, supplying His faithful ones with motive and power of purpose, hope and courage and valor for increased activity as the time is at hand, so none must sleep but all must be wide awake as wise virgins with oil in their vessels with their lamps, sustained by the power of God and the power of the Holy Ghost under the Captain of the Lord's host standing at the head of the angels of heaven to direct the battle.
Suffering Without Repentance
During the seven last plagues the wicked suffer intense pain and sores, yet they blaspheme the God of heaven because of their pains and curse Him rather than turn from rebellion or repent of their deeds. Those afflicted refuse to repent even while the judgments are meant to warn the world and lead sinners to fear God, for those who continue to disobey do not necessarily turn back. This unrepentant suffering falls especially on those who break the law and the Sabbath while accepting a spurious rest day in its place.
The plagues do not bring the wicked to repentance. Their pain and blasphemy spring from deep infernal enmity and hatred toward God rooted in depraved, stubborn hearts that beat back divine compassion. They trample the holy law under foot and make it void while making human laws supreme, cooperate with evil angels, and are fully set to do evil, having exceeded the bounds prescribed and outrun grace until long forbearance ends in reckoning and vindication of divine honor.
One or two plagues are not enough, for divine wrath continues until its purposes are fulfilled. When punishment of transgressors begins the storm falls with bolts upon them and there is no period of respite until the end. Under these plagues human pride is brought low, so that kings and nobles, rich and poor alike, bow before God.
Rage Against Righteous
The seven last plagues enrage the wicked against the righteous, for they blame the saints for bringing God's judgments upon them. They imagine that if they can rid the earth of the saints the plagues will be stayed, and therefore they seek to destroy them. Amid these judgments they blaspheme and refuse to repent, cursing rather than turning from rebellion.
After the saints are delivered by God's voice, the wicked turn their rage against one another, and their bodies lie across the earth. Sinners bitterly reproach the faithful witnesses who had warned them, so that the hearts of those witnesses faint. They blame one another for rejecting the truth that would have saved them from that awful hour, with parents bitterly reproaching children and children parents, and brothers and sisters reproaching each other.
They turn upon their ministers with bitter hate for not warning them of this hour. Those ministers had told them all the world was to be converted and had cried Peace, peace to quiet every aroused fear, while calling those who warned of that hour fanatics and evil men who would ruin them. The ministers do not escape the wrath of God but suffer tenfold greater than their people, for the false shepherds are singled out as objects of wrath so that their eyes and tongues are consumed while they remain standing. They will then worship at the saints' feet and acknowledge that God loved them because they held fast to the truth and kept His commandments, and ultimately all the unrighteous will be destroyed from the earth.
Cause and Justice
The plagues fall upon a godless world when human unrighteousness and contempt for God's law reach a fearful pass and their limit. Men exceed the bounds He prescribed and outrun the limits of His grace, so He ends His long forbearance and silence, keeps a reckoning of guilt, and comes to vindicate His honor and punish the inhabitants of the earth for iniquity. Their pain and unrepentant blasphemy spring from deep infernal enmity and hatred to God rooted in depraved, stubborn hearts that beat back divine compassion, trample His holy law under foot and make it void while making human laws supreme, cooperate with evil angels, and are fully set to do evil.
They are poured upon a world whose inhabitants have transgressed His law and defiled the earth. That transgression is trampling upon His Sabbath to accept a spurious rest day in its place and breaking His covenant. The judgments falling on the earth are meant to warn the world and lead sinners to fear God, yet those who continue to disobey their Maker do not necessarily turn back.
The Lord will not interfere to protect the property of those who thus transgress His law, break His covenant, and trample His Sabbath. Fire consumes riches men have hoarded, much of it gained by oppression of the poor, and sweeps away the most costly structures as by a breath of fire from heaven. These come in awful calamities by sea hurling vessels into eternity without warning and accidents by land.
Warning and Preparation
The prophecy of the coming plagues must be understood so that people can shape their course of action and not receive them. Its symbols and figures require close, prayerful study and must not be interpreted by human ideas. God permits the judgments now falling on the earth to come so that professing Christians will come to their senses, the world will take heed, and sinners will be afraid and tremble before Him. They are meant to warn the world and lead sinners to fear God, but those who continue to disobey their Maker do not necessarily turn back. The Lord will not interfere to protect the property of those who transgress His law, break His covenant, and trample upon His Sabbath to accept a spurious rest day in its place.
The vials of wrath are already falling on land and sea and air in mere sprinklings and limited drops that faintly represent the full plagues to come in the near future. God has not restrained the powers of darkness from vitiating the air with deadly miasma, and the result is awful calamities by sea hurling vessels into eternity without warning and accidents by land. Fire consumes riches men have hoarded, much of it gained by oppression of the poor, and sweeps away the most costly structures as by a breath of fire from heaven. There are unusually destructive fires, earthquakes burying cities and villages, terrible railway accidents, tornadoes and floods such as at Johnstown and Williamsport, pestilence and unexplainable diseases, cholera and diphtheria gathering its harvest of little ones including gathering little ones, with pains and sickness upon men and vegetable life affected. These present limited disturbances warn of greater shocks when the earth shakes and opens, cities become nearly extinct, thousands are buried, lordly palaces become heaps of ruins, the earth's crust is rent, wealth gained by oppression is swept away, and the religious world is terribly shaken, bringing great mortality, greater crimes, weeping and lamentation and woe.
The judgments the Lord is now sending upon the earth have special meaning in connection with the final judgments of Revelation 16:1-21 that belong to the fast-approaching last great crisis. Those who claim these present judgments have no special meaning, and who spend time in strife and contention instead of preparing, will soon be forced to understand what they now choose not to understand. The plagues will soon fall and many of God's professed people are unready without a shelter. When they begin to fall the unready will wring their hands in distress and the hour will be too late to get ready.
Now is the time to get ready for Christ's coming and to receive the Holy Ghost. Even now God still holds out the precious privilege of exchanging darkness for light, error for truth, and sin for righteousness, but His patience and mercy will not always wait. The bolts of God's wrath are gathering to fall, and when He begins to punish transgressors the storm falls with bolts upon them and there is no period of respite until the end. Only those sanctified through the truth in the love of God will stand, hid with Christ in God until the desolation is overpast. Those who fail to recognize the signs of the times in this wicked and adulterous generation will perish under the vials and be found with those who perish.
The verse describes the fifth of the seven last plagues, the full outpouring of God's wrath upon the living wicked who worship the beast and receive its mark, poured out after Christ finishes His work in the sanctuary and mercy no longer intercedes. They fall just before Christ's second coming and the deliverance of the saints, as the modern counterpart to the plagues on Egypt. Those struck suffer agonizing pain and sores, yet instead of repenting they curse and blaspheme the God of heaven from stubborn, rebellious hearts fully set to do evil. Their suffering enrages them against the righteous, whom they blame for the judgments and seek to destroy, believing their death will stop the plagues. The plagues come because transgression of God's law and trampling of His Sabbath have reached their limit, and they are forewarned now by increasing calamities so that people may prepare and find shelter in God before probation closes.
Place Among Plagues
Revelation 16:11 belongs to John's vision of the seven last plagues, the vials of God's wrath poured out one after another upon the inhabitants of the earth. These seven contain the full outpouring of His wrath upon the living wicked in the future day of His wrath. They fall after Christ finishes His priestly work and takes up judgment, before the resurrection. Their pouring belongs to the final conflict when all the world will be on one side or the other and evil angels united with evil men make a desperate last struggle culminating in Armageddon, sure indications of Christ's presence directing every movement, vindicating His truth and sustaining His faithful as wise virgins under the Captain of the Lord's host.
The seven last plagues fall on the wicked who have no shelter from God's wrath. God draws a shelter over His people before they fall. Those suffering under them blaspheme God because of their pain and sores, yet do not repent of their deeds.
They fall on those who worship the beast and its image and receive its mark. They bring incurable sores and suffering from which the ungodly find no deliverance and are destroyed. These judgments on the living wicked are not the final execution of judgment, which takes place at the second death.
The verse belongs to the prophecies of Revelation 12-18 that are being fulfilled. The opening of the vials of wrath brings pestilence, famine and death upon the inhabitants of the earth as signs of Christ's coming. At the same time armies muster for battle and men's hearts fail them for fear, the earth is moved out of its place, the mountains are carried into the midst of the sea, and the waves roar and are troubled.
Time and Setting
The plagues are still future, to fall on the wicked who are living just before the second coming of Christ. Some who are then alive will live to be subjects of those plagues, distinct both from those who will die beforehand and from those who will be translated to heaven alive at His coming without seeing death. They contain the full outpouring of God's wrath on the living wicked, and fall after Christ finishes His priestly work and takes up judgment, before the resurrection.
They are poured out after Jesus finishes His work in the most holy place, lays off His priestly attire and clothes Himself with the garments of vengeance, steps out from between the Father and man, and stands up. They come after the angel of mercy leaves the world, when it is covered with sin, shame, sorrow and darkness. The anger of the nations, the wrath of God, and the time to judge the dead are separate events following one after another in order, and the plagues come after Michael stands up and after the time of trouble begins, while the four angels hold the four winds until the sanctuary work is done. When He begins to punish transgressors the storm of His wrath falls with bolts upon them and there is no period of respite until the end, and only those sanctified through the truth in the love of God will stand, hid with Christ in God until the desolation is overpast.
They come after the time for warning and mercy has passed, when those who have no shelter receive them. Refusal to accept salvation while mercy was offered leaves it too late to find cleansing or an intercessor, and when the wicked seek help the saints can no longer teach them how to escape God's judgments. They come after ministers and people have been called out of the fallen churches, and the honest have left them to join the remnant. Like the plagues on Egypt before and during Israel's deliverance from bondage, they fall on the wicked just before and at the saints' deliverance.
The judgments belong to the fast-approaching last great crisis and final conflict when all the world will be on one side or the other. Then evil angels united with evil men make a desperate last struggle, culminating in the battle of Armageddon, with the vials to be poured out one after another upon the inhabitants of the earth in solemn events yet to transpire that are right upon us. These scenes of stupendous interest are sure indications of the presence of Christ who has directed every aggressive movement, accompanied the march of His cause through all the ages, and will be with His people in all their conflicts to the end of the world. He will vindicate His truth and cause it to triumph, supplying His faithful ones with motive and power of purpose, hope and courage and valor for increased activity as the time is at hand, so none must sleep but all must be wide awake as wise virgins with oil in their vessels with their lamps, sustained by the power of God and the power of the Holy Ghost under the Captain of the Lord's host standing at the head of the angels of heaven to direct the battle.
Suffering Without Repentance
During the seven last plagues the wicked suffer intense pain and sores, yet they blaspheme the God of heaven because of their pains and curse Him rather than turn from rebellion or repent of their deeds. Those afflicted refuse to repent even while the judgments are meant to warn the world and lead sinners to fear God, for those who continue to disobey do not necessarily turn back. This unrepentant suffering falls especially on those who break the law and the Sabbath while accepting a spurious rest day in its place.
The plagues do not bring the wicked to repentance. Their pain and blasphemy spring from deep infernal enmity and hatred toward God rooted in depraved, stubborn hearts that beat back divine compassion. They trample the holy law under foot and make it void while making human laws supreme, cooperate with evil angels, and are fully set to do evil, having exceeded the bounds prescribed and outrun grace until long forbearance ends in reckoning and vindication of divine honor.
One or two plagues are not enough, for divine wrath continues until its purposes are fulfilled. When punishment of transgressors begins the storm falls with bolts upon them and there is no period of respite until the end. Under these plagues human pride is brought low, so that kings and nobles, rich and poor alike, bow before God.
Rage Against Righteous
The seven last plagues enrage the wicked against the righteous, for they blame the saints for bringing God's judgments upon them. They imagine that if they can rid the earth of the saints the plagues will be stayed, and therefore they seek to destroy them. Amid these judgments they blaspheme and refuse to repent, cursing rather than turning from rebellion.
After the saints are delivered by God's voice, the wicked turn their rage against one another, and their bodies lie across the earth. Sinners bitterly reproach the faithful witnesses who had warned them, so that the hearts of those witnesses faint. They blame one another for rejecting the truth that would have saved them from that awful hour, with parents bitterly reproaching children and children parents, and brothers and sisters reproaching each other.
They turn upon their ministers with bitter hate for not warning them of this hour. Those ministers had told them all the world was to be converted and had cried Peace, peace to quiet every aroused fear, while calling those who warned of that hour fanatics and evil men who would ruin them. The ministers do not escape the wrath of God but suffer tenfold greater than their people, for the false shepherds are singled out as objects of wrath so that their eyes and tongues are consumed while they remain standing. They will then worship at the saints' feet and acknowledge that God loved them because they held fast to the truth and kept His commandments, and ultimately all the unrighteous will be destroyed from the earth.
Cause and Justice
The plagues fall upon a godless world when human unrighteousness and contempt for God's law reach a fearful pass and their limit. Men exceed the bounds He prescribed and outrun the limits of His grace, so He ends His long forbearance and silence, keeps a reckoning of guilt, and comes to vindicate His honor and punish the inhabitants of the earth for iniquity. Their pain and unrepentant blasphemy spring from deep infernal enmity and hatred to God rooted in depraved, stubborn hearts that beat back divine compassion, trample His holy law under foot and make it void while making human laws supreme, cooperate with evil angels, and are fully set to do evil.
They are poured upon a world whose inhabitants have transgressed His law and defiled the earth. That transgression is trampling upon His Sabbath to accept a spurious rest day in its place and breaking His covenant. The judgments falling on the earth are meant to warn the world and lead sinners to fear God, yet those who continue to disobey their Maker do not necessarily turn back.
The Lord will not interfere to protect the property of those who thus transgress His law, break His covenant, and trample His Sabbath. Fire consumes riches men have hoarded, much of it gained by oppression of the poor, and sweeps away the most costly structures as by a breath of fire from heaven. These come in awful calamities by sea hurling vessels into eternity without warning and accidents by land.
Warning and Preparation
The prophecy of the coming plagues must be understood so that people can shape their course of action and not receive them. Its symbols and figures require close, prayerful study and must not be interpreted by human ideas. God permits the judgments now falling on the earth to come so that professing Christians will come to their senses, the world will take heed, and sinners will be afraid and tremble before Him. They are meant to warn the world and lead sinners to fear God, but those who continue to disobey their Maker do not necessarily turn back. The Lord will not interfere to protect the property of those who transgress His law, break His covenant, and trample upon His Sabbath to accept a spurious rest day in its place.
The vials of wrath are already falling on land and sea and air in mere sprinklings and limited drops that faintly represent the full plagues to come in the near future. God has not restrained the powers of darkness from vitiating the air with deadly miasma, and the result is awful calamities by sea hurling vessels into eternity without warning and accidents by land. Fire consumes riches men have hoarded, much of it gained by oppression of the poor, and sweeps away the most costly structures as by a breath of fire from heaven. There are unusually destructive fires, earthquakes burying cities and villages, terrible railway accidents, tornadoes and floods such as at Johnstown and Williamsport, pestilence and unexplainable diseases, cholera and diphtheria gathering its harvest of little ones including gathering little ones, with pains and sickness upon men and vegetable life affected. These present limited disturbances warn of greater shocks when the earth shakes and opens, cities become nearly extinct, thousands are buried, lordly palaces become heaps of ruins, the earth's crust is rent, wealth gained by oppression is swept away, and the religious world is terribly shaken, bringing great mortality, greater crimes, weeping and lamentation and woe.
The judgments the Lord is now sending upon the earth have special meaning in connection with the final judgments of Revelation 16:1-21 that belong to the fast-approaching last great crisis. Those who claim these present judgments have no special meaning, and who spend time in strife and contention instead of preparing, will soon be forced to understand what they now choose not to understand. The plagues will soon fall and many of God's professed people are unready without a shelter. When they begin to fall the unready will wring their hands in distress and the hour will be too late to get ready.
Now is the time to get ready for Christ's coming and to receive the Holy Ghost. Even now God still holds out the precious privilege of exchanging darkness for light, error for truth, and sin for righteousness, but His patience and mercy will not always wait. The bolts of God's wrath are gathering to fall, and when He begins to punish transgressors the storm falls with bolts upon them and there is no period of respite until the end. Only those sanctified through the truth in the love of God will stand, hid with Christ in God until the desolation is overpast. Those who fail to recognize the signs of the times in this wicked and adulterous generation will perish under the vials and be found with those who perish.