What are God's Seven Deadly Plagues?

Answer 1

In the book of Revelation is found "2 SETS" of seven plagues that make up the "Seventh" and last seal that Jesus strips from the scroll [book] that He takes from His Father's right hand [Rev.5:1&7].

The Seventh Seal symbolizes the "Day of the Lord" [or the end time prophetic fulfillment when Jesus Christ returns to earth with the Kingdom of God]. These 2 sets of plagues are: the Seven Trumpet Plagues and Seven Vial Plagues.

The symbols and wording of these two types of plagues suggests that the Trumpet plagues, because you have to "blow" into it to play it... shall be of a "wind-borne" nature.

"...I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree... till we have sealed the servants of God in their foreheads." (Rev.7:1-3)

The advent of the coming Vial Plagues is more evident in the books of the prophets. You "pour out" the contents of a vial... and this is a more readily seen description in prophecy. God's wrath [or 'fury'] poured out.

Ezekiel, who was one of the Jewish captives in Babylon, was sent by God [via his book in The Bible] to the"lost ten tribes" of the House of Israel ["...go, get thee unto the House of Israel..." - Ezek.3:4]; who had long disappeared from world history some 130 years before Ezekiel took on the burden of God's commission. In his written warning to the end time generations of ancient Israel [as well as all the nations on earth, since Christ opened the door of Salvation to all men]... Ezekiel records:

"AS I LIVE, saith the Lord God [Jesus Christ - John 1:3], surely with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and WITH MY FURY POURED OUT, will I rule over you: and I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye were scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and WITH FURY POURED OUT." (Ezek.20:33-34)

In Revelation... the Seven Vial Plagues [poured out] are the LAST thing God shall do before making His final descent onto the earth with His angelic armies. The Seven Vial Plagues are dispensed in the 16th chapter.

Prophecy speaks of a "Second Exodus" [Jer.16:14-15 & 23:5-8] in which not just scattered Israel... but all the surviving nations that shall be scattered [heading for the hills, as it were] during the Great Tribulation shall be brought back and gathered and "RULED OVER" by Jesus Christ, His saints and His Government after the last of His "fury is poured out" upon them.

It's just before Jesus returns... when the Vial Plaguesare being poured out... that Satan and his two human henchmen, the Beast and the False Prophet" will convince and command "the world's government leaders" to gather all of their military capabilities to a place called Aramageddon to stage and prepare to repel Jesus' pending "invasion from outer space" [see Rev.16:14-16]. [Jesus launches His attack in Rev.19]

A study of the Seven "wind-borne" Trumpet Plaguessuggests that these shall be dispensed at the command of the Two Witnesses [Rev.11] throughout the three-and-a-half year Great Tribulation period.

"These have the power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy [3 1/2 years - verse 3]: and have the power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with ALL PLAGUES, as often as they will." (Rev.11:6)

A parallel can be seen between the prophesied Two Witnesses' testimony before the Beast during the Great Tribulation... and Moses' and Aaron's before Pharaoh -- complete with devastating plagues.

In other words... the seventh seal of Revelation [and its two sets of plagues] will "overlap Seal 5," which is the Great Tribulation [the time of Satan's wrath upon God's church on earth; God's servants whom He seals in Revelation 7 before the wind-borne Trumpet Plagues are released upon the earth].

Like the first four seals of Revelation 6: False Religion, Wars, Famines, Pestilences, Diseases Earthquakes [called the 'Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse']... all of these ongoing events in the world "overlap" each other -- FEEDING OFF OF ONE ANOTHER. Religion doesn't stop... then a war happens, then stops... then a famine occurs, etc. These all cause the next to happen... feeding and repeating and replenishing themselves [sin perpetuating itself] upon the earth.

So, shall it be with the last two sets of the "plagues of God." They will overlap global events; man-made, cosmic and supernatural -- and lead to Jesus' return [the theme of the book of Revelation; the Seventh Seal: the Day of the Lord].

The first four Trumpet Plagues "blow" in Revelation 8 [NIV quoted].

1- "...Hail and Fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down upon the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and the green grass was burned up." [verse 7]

2- "...something like a Huge Mountain [volcano?], all ablaze, was thrown into the Sea [the Mediterranean?]. A third of the sea turned into blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed." [verses 8-9]

3- "...a Great Star [meteor? asteroid?], blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water -- the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter." [verses 10-11]

4- "...a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark. A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night." [verse 12]

Trumpet 4 coincides with the description of Revelation's Seal 6 of chapter 6, that cuts short the Great Tribulation [Seal 5]... to effectively stop or slow down man's activities on earth, from following through with killing every living thing on earth [see Matt.21-22].

Trumpet Plagues 5 & 6: are described by John in Revelation 9. He sees in his vision a "Star that had fallen from the sky to the earth [that sounds suspiciously like the angel, "Satan," {"...'I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.'" - Luke 10:18 NIV} having the key to open his "Abyss" {Bottomless Pit of perversity, evil and sin} for the beginnings of what looks like nuclear, chemical, biological; and who-knows-what other technological advances man has devised, to wage the final World War III?]

The Seventh and LAST TRUMPET sounds in Revelation 11, at the conclusion of the 3 1/2 year testimony of the Two Witnesses. And after three-and-a-half days with their dead bodies lying in the streets of Jerusalem [verses 7-11]... these "dead in Christ" saints of God RESURRECT!. And RISE FROM OFF THE EARTH INTO THE CLOUDS!

The "last trumpet sound" marks the prophesied moment of Jesus' return with clouds in which the "dead in Christ rise first" - [I Thess.4:16]. It's the time for "THE GATHERING OF THE SAINTS OF GOD TO HIM IN THE CLOUDS BY HIS ANGELS!"

And, IT'S THE TIME FOR SATAN-GUIDED MAN'S RULE ON EARTH TO COME TO ITS LONG-AWAITED END!!!

"The Seventh Angel sounded [the Last Trumpet Plague of God]; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, THE KINGDOMS OF THIS WORLD ARE BECOME THE KINGDOMS OF OUR LORD, AND OF HIS CHRIST; and HE SHALL REIGN FOR EVER." (verse 15)

And as Christ, His saints and His legions of angels hover in the clouds above the earth, and the armies of men on earth assemble at Armageddon to repel His final descent... the overlapping Last Seven Vial Plagues of God's Wrath are "poured out" [Rev.16]. And then... the Lord descends on the earth, "making war":

"...behold a white horse; and He that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in Righteousness He doth Judge and MAKE WAR... His eyes were as a flame of fire [see Rev.1:14], and on His head were many crowns... and His name is called The Word of God." [Rev.19:11-13)

The Seven Plagues of God come in a set of two: Seven Trumpets and Seven Vials of the final doses of God's Wrath upon unrepentant men:

"...and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great." (Rev.16:21)