What is the order of the seals, trumpets and bowls?

Introduction

Nothing seems to be as contentious in the eschatology world than the order of the seals, trumpets and bowl judgments.  Of course we all know that the Book of Revelation has a heptatic (sevens) structure but the question is how they all fit together.  A cursory reading of Revelation might lead one to think that they are in a linear progression starting with the seven seals with the seventh seal then opening the seven trumpets and then the seventh trumpet opening the last seven bowls of God’s wrath or plagues.  And how one sees the order of these 21 judgments has a huge bearing on what eschatology one takes whether pre-trib, post-trib or pre-wrath.  In this article I want to give you proof that the way we should see the order of the judgments is as in the diagram above.  In short, the seals and trumpets both have a 4/3 split with the first four seals and the first four trumpets occurring in the first half or 1260 days of the seven year tribulation period and the last three seals and trumpets occurring in the second half known as the “Great Tribulation”.  If you can see what I am saying in this article it will disprove the pre-wrath theory.  If one believes in the pre-trib theory then this is all a moot point because you won’t even be here to worry about the order.  But of course the Book of Revelation has a valuable and essential purpose for the end times church to prepare the church for what is coming and to instruct the church, otherwise why is it even in the Bible?  The proof texts for this article are Rev. 8:1-2,5; 11:19; 15:5 and 16:18-21.

Thunder, lightning and earthquakes

One theme that seems to run throughout Revelation is thunder, lightning and earthquakes.  It is apparent that each series of seven judgments ends with an emphatic statement by God who issues thunder, lightning and an earthquake to declare the finality and authority of His judgments.   A great hailstorm with 40 kg hail is also added at the end of the seven bowls of God’s wrath which occurs just before Armageddon.  Although these events all seem to happen at the end of each sequence of judgments which seem to be separate events, they are not.  Roughly, the seventh seal, the seventh bowl and the seventh trumpet all occur around the same time.  The thunder, lightning and earthquake at the seventh trumpet judgment happens at the same time as the last trumpet on the day that no man knows–Rosh Hashanah–The Feast of Trumpets–the 1st resurrection/rapture–Tishrei 1 which occurs ten days before the Day of the Lord on the Day of Atonement on Tishrei 10.  So there are earthquakes, thunder, lightning and a hailstorm all occurring roughly at the same period of time when the two powers of Heaven (God and Jesus) return to earth.

Revelation structure is a Hebrew pattern

The confusing thing with studying the Book of Revelation is that we think like Greeks.  We think linear and logical.  But John the Apostle despite having the vision on the Greek isle of Patmos around AD 96 was not Greek, he was a Hebrew and as such the vision is a Hebrew vision.  John was the younger brother of James, the sons of Zebedee, not to be confused with the half-brother of Jesus James who wrote the book of James and was not an apostle.  According to some traditions James’ and John’s mother was Salome who may have been Mary’s sister.  That makes them cousins of Jesus.  What I am saying is that John was a Hebrew of Hebrews raised in Galilee even though the Book of Revelation is believed by most scholars to be written in Koine (common) Greek.  What language John received the vision in is debatable but the trade language for the 1st century Jew was undoubtedly Aramaic.  So, I think it is reasonable to assume that the construct of the vision is Hebrew which means that the book is Hebrew which in turn means that it is a book of concepts, ideas and block narrative.  This means that there is much overlap because John writes down his vision as he sees it not necessarily in a chronological manner.  This is evidenced by the obvious interludes in the book such as chapters 7, 10-15, and 17-19.

So, what does this all mean?  It means that the order of the seals, trumpets and bowls is more than likely not in a linear progression.  The seals and the trumpets roughly occur at the same time in a 4/3 order.  That is the first four seals (four horsemen) and trumpets (four ⅓ judgments) occur in the first half and the last three in the last half.  This is obvious because the last three trumpets are separated by the label “woe, woe, woe”.

Seventh seal reveals the first trumpet error

In Rev. 8:1-2 many students of eschatology believe that when the seventh seal is torn open it reveals the seven trumpets.  This is an exegesis error in my opinion because verse 2 starts with the Greek phrase “kai eidon” (and I saw).  This phrase occurs 33 times in the New Testament.  The respected Word Biblical commentator David  E. Aune in his Revelation commentary says that “kai eidon” functions in three ways: (1) It introduces a new vision narrative (He includes Rev. 8:2 here). (2) It introduces a major scene within a continuing vision narrative.  (3) It is used to focus on a new significant action that occurs within a continuing vision narrative.¹  So because he includes Rev. 8:2 in number 1 this means that the seven trumpet judgments is introducing a new vision narrative not as part of a continuing narrative.  This then likely means that the seven trumpets do not come out of the seventh seal as required by the pre-wrath position but John is simply writing about a new topic.  Topic and chapter headings in our modern translations are misleading making one think that verse 2 is related to verse 1.  In my EDV translation you will see a more accurate split in the narrative on this passage.

This is where that erroneous Greek “logical” or linear thinking rears its ugly head again in a Hebrew based vision.  The wrong cultural framework is being applied.  I have experience in this area because that is often the mistake that missionaries make in interpreting foreign and tribal culture.  The danger in missions is in applying western answers to tribal cultural questions.  To reach a tribe or foreign culture with the gospel one has to think like them.  Get rid of your own biases and think tribal.  The reverse also happens when the tribal people applied their cultural grid to what we did when we lived with them.  In summary, there is a mismatch and we are in danger of misapplying our western modern thinking to the 1st century vision.

The bowls are poured out after the temple was opened

End times You-tuber Nelson Walters believes that the temple being opened serves as an indisputable transition between the trumpets and the bowls.²  And I think he is right on this particular point.³  The seven bowls most definitely are poured out after the temple is open after the seventh trumpet and it is proven by these two verses in two different places.

Summary

The seals and the trumpets occur at the same time with much overlap.  Both have a 4/3 construct with the seventh seal and the seventh trumpet occurring only ten days apart.  They both end with thunder, lightning and an earthquake.  The bowls however only occur after the temple is opened which is at the seventh trumpet and in between the sixth and the seventh seal in the last ten days just before the Day of the Lord.  The bowls also end with thunder, lightning, an earthquake and an added hailstorm.

The order as I have described it in this article means that the only eschatological view that fits all the parameters is the post-trib view.  The pre-wrath theory says that the rapture occurs one full year before the end at year 6 after the sixth seal before the seven trumpet judgments.  It sees both the trumpets and the bowls as a period of God’s wrath because of Rev. 6:17 which says the great day of their wrath has come.  V. 17 comes right after the sixth seal is opened and because the pre-wrath theory sees the seals, trumpets and bowls in a lineal progression their logic tells them that everything after that point is God’s wrath.  But I have shown in this article that everything is not logical or linear in the Greek western way, rather they overlap and the sixth seal occurs at the end.   

For a more detailed and granular look see my tribulation timeline.