The Wrath of God

“Wrath” consistently refers to the final judicial sentence of God on His enemies in the Book of Revelation.

The “wrath of God” is not synonymous with the plagues unleashed by the series of Seals, Trumpets, and Bowls of Fury. Despite the devastation they inflict, impenitent men refuse to repent. The Greek term translated as “wrath” refers to the judicial sentence of God on His enemies on the day of judgment, the everlasting punishment men earn because of their sins, refusal to repent, and allegiance to the Beast.

The term “wrath” or ‘orgé’ (οργη) occurs six times in the Book of Revelation, and it always refers to God’s final punishment on His enemies. The calamities caused by the Seals, Trumpets, and Bowls of Fury are never called wrath, although God’s “wrath” is manifested at the end of each series.

[Storm - Photo by Johannes Plenio (Munich) on Unsplash]

For example, after the Seventh Trumpet sounded, the “wrath [‘orgé’] came, the time for the dead to be judged.” The effect of this wrath is everlasting, not temporary, and its ultimate expression is “the Lake of Fire, the Second Death” that rebellious men experience at the final judgment. There will be no escape or reprieve - (Revelation 6:16-17, 11:15-19, 20:11-15).

In contrast to the wicked, the righteous receive everlasting life in “New Jerusalem.” What determines whether we receive wrath or life is how we respond to the Lamb, Jesus Christ. If we follow him, our names will be “written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.” If we swear fealty to the Beast, our names will be excluded from his Book - (Revelation 7:9-17, 22:15).

SEALS AND TRUMPETS

The Fifth Seal reveals the souls of the Lamb’s martyrs “underneath the altar.” They cry for vindication against their murderers. The Sixth Seal is the Divine response to their collective plea. God’s wrath is unleashed on the persecutors of Christ’s witnesses:

• “When he opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God, and for the testimony they had. And they cried with a great voice, saying, How long, O Master, the holy and true, do you not judge and avenge our blood on the inhabitants of the earth? <…> And I saw when he opened the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake. And the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the whole moon became as blood. And the stars of the heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts her unripe figs when she is shaken by a great wind. And the heaven was removed 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, and the princes, and the chief captains, and the rich, and the strong, and every bondman and freeman, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains. And they say to the mountains and to the rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him who is sitting on the throne, and from the wrath [‘orgé’] of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath is come [‘orgé’], and who is able to stand?” - (Revelation 6:9-17).

This passage describes the Day of the Lord, which will be accompanied by terrestrial and celestial upheaval, and there will be no escape from God’s wrath for the wicked (“Who is able to stand?”).

The sounding of the Seventh Trumpet produces the overthrow of “the kingdom of the world.” All political powers hostile to the Lamb are defeated, the kingdom of God is consummated, and the faithful from every rank of society receive their rewards. It will also be the arrival of the day of God’s wrath - His ‘orgé’:

• “And the seventh angel sounded. And there followed great voices in heaven, and they said, The kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ: and he shall reign for ever and ever <…> And the nations were enraged, and your wrath came [‘orgé’], and the time of the dead to be judged, and the time to give their reward to your servants the prophets, and to the saints, and to them that fear your name, the small and the great; and to destroy them that destroy the earth” - (Revelation 11:15-18).

The Seventh Trumpet is the moment when God rewards His saints. Both the righteous and the unrighteous receive what they deserve. The Day of the Lord will result in the vindication of the righteous and the destruction of the unrighteous.

THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL

• “And a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice: If anyone gives fealty to the beast and his image, and receives the mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God [‘orgé’], which is prepared unmixed in the cup of his anger” – (Revelation 14:6-11).

Here, the angel announces the time of God’s final judgment - of his “wrath.” Everlasting wrath will fall on every man who gives allegiance to the Beast. Condemned men will never know rest again. The effects of this wrath are everlasting. What the angel is describing is the Lake of Fire, the “Second Death,” from which no condemned man or woman will escape - (Revelation 20:11-15).

Another angel announced that the time had arrived for Babylon to drink of the “cup of the wine of the fury of God’s wrath [‘orgé’].” Just as the men who took the "mark of the Beast" drank of this cup, so also Babylon will receive God’s undiluted wrath - (Revelation 14:10).

The Seven Bowls of Fury are also called the “seven last plagues.” When they are released, the “fury of God is made complete.” The bowls are “full of the fury of God.” The English term “fury” translates the Greek noun ‘’thumos’, a different word from the noun ‘orgé’, which is used consistently for “wrath.” In the Greek text of Revelation, they are the seven bowls of fury, not the seven bowls of wrath - (Revelation 15:1-8, 16:17-21).

The seventh and last bowl results in “flashes of lightning, and voices, and claps of thunder, and a great earthquake,” the same phenomena that accompanied the opening of the Seventh Seal and the sounding of the Seventh Trumpet. The verbal parallels are deliberate and demonstrate that the same event is in view. The series of Seals, Trumpets, and Bowls of Fury each end with the time of God’s wrath, on the Day of the Lord - (Revelation 11:19, 15:1-8, 16:17-21).

THE FINAL BATTLE

• “And he is trampling the winepress of the wrath [‘orgé’] of the fury of God the Almighty” - (Revelation 19:15-16).

In chapter 19, the "rider on a white horse" arrives to judge the nations and “trample the winepress of the wrath of God.” This is the same winepress seen previously when the angel announced the “everlasting gospel.” In chapter 14, the winepress was “trampled outside the city,” and “trampled” in both passages translates the Greek verb ‘pateō’. The Rider on the White Horse is the one who tramples the winepress of God’s wrath - (Revelation 14:14-20, 19:15-21).

The Rider does not unleash another in a series of plagues. He ushers in the final battle between the "Lamb" and the “Beast,” and it is followed by the judgment. This is substantiated by the fact that the Beast and the False Prophet are thrown alive into the Lake of Fire at the end of the battle – (Compare Revelation 20:11-15).

In the Book of Revelation, the term “wrath” or ‘orgé’ does not refer to punitive or temporary judgments and plagues. It points to the final judgment and judicial punishment of God’s enemies at the end of the present age. All men and women whose names are not “written in the Lamb’s Book of Life” will be sentenced and cast into the Lake of Fire.

Consistently in the Book, God’s judicial sentence is issued on the final day and called “wrath.” The plagues and catastrophes that precede the Day of the Lord are never called wrath.

The men and women whose names are found in the Book of Life do not receive wrath. Instead, they are vindicated and rewarded for their faithfulness with everlasting life in the Holy City, “New Jerusalem.”

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SEE ALSO:

• The Final Hour - (The Book of Revelation moves from the Death of Jesus to the final day when God judges the wicked and vindicates the righteous)

• His Righteous Judgments - (At the end of the age, Satan and his minions will launch an all-out cosmic war against the saints, the followers of the Lamb)

• The Day of the Lord - (Jesus will arrive to gather his people to himself on the Day of the Lord, and in the New Testament, this event becomes the Day of Christ)

• La Colère de Dieu - ("Colère" se réfère systématiquement à la sentence judiciaire finale de Dieu sur Ses ennemis dans le Livre de l'Apocalypse)