I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! “For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” (Rev 6:12-17 NKJ)
This is a problem text, not because of some deep theological treatise, but because John probably knew just fraction of what we know today about the world, the universe, climate, environment, and seismology. John probably thought the earth was small, flat and that the Sun revolved around the earth. Cosmic events that a 5th-grade student could have explained would have held terror for a person living in the ancient world. History shows that John would have experienced or at least heard of three major earthquakes, in fact, science believes that Pompeii had a category 5 earthquake in AD. 62.
So what does this text show us? Remember, the slain Lamb opened the seal. Man has removed God from creation; scientists want to desperately find some other way to explain how the earth and everything in it came into being. No matter how hard they try, it comes back to God. In the meantime, man has set about destroying what God created. We’re frackin the earth to extract more oil and gas, causing earthquakes and pollution. We’ve polluted the air and the water so that only 3% of the world’s water is drinkable and that is diminishing. We’ve raised the temperature so that the ice caps are melting and arctic wildlife is suffering. And now, having messed up the earth we want to visit Mars.
The seven seals were opened, and the Lamb of God released unto the earth the judgements of God. Hebrews 1:3 tells us how that the ‘Son of God is upholding all things.’ In a sense, Jesus is the glue. Remove him and everything starts to unwind. Our present systems cannot be sustained; everything will come to an end.
