Overview
In Revelation 7, an angel brings God’s seal to the world and tells four angels to hold back the Four Winds until all of God’s people (the 144000) are sealed. The purpose of this article is to determine where this Sealing fits in the end-time events.
Revelation 13 describes a severe end-time persecution in which the Beast and its allies attempt to force everyone to receive the Mark of the Beast. Revelation 14 is the response of God’s people, identified as the same 144000 as in Revelation 7. They refuse the Mark of the Beast.
Revelation 15 prepares for the Seven Last Plagues, and chapter 16 describes the Plagues. These chapters describe humanity as divided between those who refused the Mark of the Beast and those who accepted it. The Plagues fall only on the people who accepted the Mark.
So, where in these events will God’s people be sealed?
There would be no changing of sides after the plagues began to fall. None of the people with the Mark of the Beast will repent, and none of the people with God’s seal will fall away. Therefore, God’s people are sealed before the Plagues begin.
The persecution of Revelation 13 precedes the Plagues. During that persecution, everybody will be forced to choose between the Mark and the Seal. A person does not have either the Mark or the Seal until a choice is made. By refusing the Beast’s mark, persons receive God’s seal. Therefore, God’s people are sealed during and through that persecution.
Therefore:
The Plagues will begin to fall as soon as every person has made a final choice and when every person is marked, either with the Mark of the Beast or the Seal of God. Revelation 15 describes that moment in human history.
Since both the Seven Last Plagues and the Four Winds are released as soon as God’s people are all sealed, the Four Winds are the Seven Last Plagues.
Introduction
Purpose
In Revelation 7, an angel brings God’s seal to the world (Rev 7:2) and tells four other angels to hold back the Four Winds until God’s people are sealed (Rev 7:3). The chapter describes God’s sealed people as 144000, 12000 from each of the 12 tribes of Israel (Rev 7:4-8). (Read Article)
While the first 11 chapters of Revelation describe the entire Church Age, the last 11 emphasize the End Time. The purpose of this article is to determine where the Sealing fits chronologically in the end-time events. That will help to explain what the Seal is and why it is required. [Show More]
Revelation 13 – End-time Persecution
During the severe persecution of the Revelation 13, the end-time Image of the Beast will attempt to force all people, with death threats (Rev 13:15; 14:13) and economic sanctions (Rev 13:17), to receive the Mark of the Beast “on their right hand or on their forehead” (Rev 13:16-17):
A previous article identified the Beast as the Church of the Middle Ages. (Read Article)
The Image of the Beast will be an end-time replica of the system during the High Middle Ages when the Church reigned over the kings of Europe and trampled God’s true people.
The Mark of the Beast refers to long-standing (orthodox) but blasphemous Christian practices and beliefs. [Show More]
Revelation 14 – God’s Response
Revelation 14 describes the response of God’s people. It explicitly describes God’s people as the 144000, symbolically standing on Mount Zion and before God’s throne, which is in heaven (Rev 14:1, 3). [Show More]
They refuse to accept the Mark of the Beast. While they have the Seal of God on their foreheads in Revelation 7, in Revelation 14, they have “His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads” (Rev 7:3; 14:1). In other words, the Seal of God is God’s name.
While the Image of the Beast persecutes people who do not accept the Mark, God’s people will preach the three angels’ message (Rev 14:6-11). These angels fly “in midheaven” (Rev 14:6), symbolizing that this message will go out with exceptional clarity and power to provide all intelligent human beings with sufficient evidence for their decisions:
The first angel warns all to worship the Creator alone (Rev 14:6-7). This is the opposite of the Mark of the Beast. [Show More]
The second angel explains the corruption of the false religious system driving the persecution (Rev 14:8; see – Babylon, Mother of Harlots).
The third angel warns that accepting the Mark of the Beast has terrible eternal consequences (Rev 14:9-11).
Therefore, the crisis of Revelation 13 and 14 will be a period of final decisions. Everybody will be forced to choose.
Names of foreheads symbolize character.
In Revelation, names on foreheads symbolize character:
The harlot’s character is reflected by the name on her forehead (Rev 17:5).
Similarly, the Mark of the Beast is the name of the Beast on the foreheads of his people (Rev 13:16-17). To have his name on the forehead means to think like the Beast, meaning to have its character! [Show More]
But the 144000 have God’s name on their foreheads (Rev 14:1), meaning that they will think like God. [Show More]
Revelation 15 and 16
Revelation 15 describes the preparation for the Seven Last Plagues, and chapter 16, the Plagues themselves. They will fall on the people who have the Mark of the Beast. Despite the plagues, these people refuse to repent (Rev 16:9, 11, 21). [Show More]
Two Multitudes
In these chapters, humanity is divided into two groups:
1) “Those who had been victorious over the beast and his image” (Rev 15:2) are the people who refused to accept the Beast’s mark.
2) The seven angels will pour out the Plagues (Rev 15:7) on “the people who had the Mark of the Beast and who worshiped his Image” (Rev 16:2). [Show More]
In other words, these people will be alive when the Image attempts to force all people to accept the Mark of the Beast, as described in Revelation 13 and 14.
When Sealed?
People are marked with the Beast’s Mark during the persecution of Revelation 13 (Rev 13:16), but when are God’s people sealed?
No Changing of Sides during the Plagues
For the following reasons, there would be no changing of sides after the plagues began to fall:
None of the people with the Mark of the Beast will repent (Rev 16:9, 11, 21).
The Seal of God implies that the eternal destiny of God’s people has been permanently secured. Therefore, NONE of them will fall away during the plagues.
In Revelation 15:8, the temple closes, and nobody is allowed to enter. Since the temple symbolizes where people go to receive forgiveness (e.g., Heb 10:10, 19), the closing of the temple symbolizes that nobody else will be saved after this point in time.
Since there is no changing of sides, both the Mark of the Beast and the Seal of God have been applied to people before the Plagues begin.
All God’s people are sealed when the plagues begin.
15:2 confirms that the sealing will be complete before the Plagues begin to fall:
Revelation 15, describing the moment just before God pours out the Plagues (Rev 15:7), describes God’s people as “those who had been victorious over the beast” (Rev 15:2). They, therefore, are the people who have resisted the efforts of the Beast to put the Mark of the Beast on them. In other words, these victorious ones are the 144000! [Show More]
John saw “those who had been victorious over the beast” (Rev 15:2). By implication, he saw ALL of them. This means that, at the point in history represented by Revelation 15, which is when the plagues begin to fall, all of God’s people have ALREADY been sealed.
Sealed during the Persecution
The persecution of Revelation 13 precedes the Plagues. The question is: Are God’s people sealed before or during that persecution? In other words, are they sealed to protect them during the Persecution or the Plagues?
It is proposed that the persecution in Revelation 13 will divide humanity into two classes: the people with the Mark of the Beast and the people with the Seal of God. In other words, God’s people will also be sealed during and through that persecution. This conclusion is justified as follows:
| 1) People will be forced to choose. By refusing the Mark, persons accept the Seal. |
Since people will be forced to accept the Mark of the Beast, the crisis of Revelation 13 will be a valley of decisions. Everybody will be forced to choose between the Mark and the Seal. Their choices will reveal their faith or lack thereof. A person does not have either the Mark or the Seal until a choice is made. By refusing the Mark, persons receive the Seal. Since people receive the Mark during this period of persecution, God’s people are sealed during and through that persecution [Show More]
| 2) Revelation mentions the Mark and the Seal together, and both are names on foreheads. |
Sometimes, chapter divisions, added centuries after the Bible was written, obscure the meaning of the text. Revelation 13 ends by describing the Image of the Beast forcing people to accept the Mark of the Beast (Rev 13:16-17). Revelation 14 begins by describing the 144000 with the Seal of God on their foreheads (cf. Rev 7:1-3). Since these two descriptions are in two different chapters, people sometimes fail to associate them. But they form a unit. By mentioning the Mark and the Seal together in the context of the end-time persecution with respect to the Mark of the Beast (13:11-14:13) and by describing both as names on foreheads, these verses indicate that Mark and the Seal have a similar function and identify the class to which a person belongs. It implies that the persecution in Revelation 13 will divide the population of the world into these two classes.
Revelation 15 is the moment before the Plagues.
Since people will be sealed and marked during the end-time persecution, and since there will be no switching of sides after the Plagues begin to fall, Revelation 15 describes the moment in human history when every person has made a final choice and when every person is marked, either with the Mark of the Beast or the Seal of God. [Show More]
Further Conclusions
1) Since God’s people will be sealed during and through the persecution in Revelation 13, they are NOT sealed to protect them during that persecution, but during the plagues that follow AFTER that persecution! [Show More]
2) As discussed, there will be no switching of sides after the plagues begin to fall. Since Revelation 15 describes the point in history when God sends forth the plagues (Rev 15:7; 16:1), the plagues will begin to fall as soon as EVERY person on earth is marked either with the Beast’s mark or God’s seal.
3) God delays the plagues because His people are not sealed (Rev 7:3), meaning they are not ready. The plagues serve an essential function, and God’s people must be prepared. (Read Article) See also, Why has Christ not yet returned? What is God waiting for?
4) Since both the Seven Last Plagues and the Four Winds are released as soon as God’s people are all sealed, the Four Winds are the Seven Last Plagues.
5) The persecution of God’s people will continue during the plagues.
6) Both the Mark and the Seal indicate that the person’s eternal destiny is fixed.
Other Articles
The Seven Seals
Other
I recommend Jon Paulien’s commentary on Revelation for further reading. For general theological discussions, I recommend Graham Maxwell, who you will find on the Pineknoll website.