With the order and chronology of the seven seals and trumpets established, there still remains the chronology of the seven plagues.  There is ample evidence that the seven plagues occurred at the culmination of the great tribulation as a brief look at Revelation 15, which occurs just before the pouring out of the Seven Plagues in Revelation 16, shows.

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It should be no surprise, though, that there is also a line of evidence that the Seven Plagues parallel  the Great Tribulation itself and not just the culmination.  The most compelling argument for this comes from comparing the Seven Plagues with the Seven Trumpets:

As discussed in chapter 29, “Decreation to Recreation” both the Seven Plagues and Trumpets followa a reverse pattern of the Creation recorded in Genesis, that is, a pattern of Decreation.  Most affect the exact same object.  The first affects the earth, the second the sea, the third the Rivers and Springs, the fourth the sun, the fifth rebellious men, the sixth the river Euphrates, and the final the presence of God himself (compare Rev 11:19, Exo 19:16-17, etc.).  These parallels are striking and calls for a second review to see if the two can be truly parallel chronologically with each other, and if so how can the evidence from Revelation 15 be explained?

A study of the the plagues alone do reveal some other interesting insights that show that the events occur BEFORE the culmination of the Tribulation:

a)  If one recalls, the deadly wound to the Beast occurs just before the beginning of the tribulation (Rev 13) where the beast reigns for 42 months.   The 5^th plague actually seems to refer to this event.  This would place the 5^th plague at the BEGINNING of the Tribulation…a conclusion we reached independently from the “split series model” found throughout the book of Revelation.

b)  The fourth plagues refers to fire:

Rev 16:8 ….and power was given unto [the fourth angel] to scorch men with fire…

In chapter 29 “The Four Horseman II” we concluded from Old Testament allusions and additional references in Revelation that “fire”, the burning of the Great City, corresponded to the CULMINATION of the Tribulation, that is, the Day of the Lord (Rev 18:8).  Therefore the evidence suggests that while the Fifth seals begins the Tribulation, the Fourth ends it, again a conclusion drawn from the “split series model” and an analysis of the Seven Seals and Plagues.

c)  All three of the septets are end virtually the same, with “voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.”  This implies they are all referring to the same event…the Day of the Lord, the opening of the Holy of Holies in heaven and the “glory of the Lord” coming forth from the Holy of Holies.

d)  The Sixth Plague refers to the GATHERING of the nations to Armageddon for the Great Day of God, in other words, the Day of the Lord…The Greath Day of the His Wrath.  Therefore, the Sixth Plague must occur BEFORE the Culmination of the Tribulation or the Day of the Lord.

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There is some counter-evidence that has to be stated though,

THE SEVEN TRUMPETS CONSISTENTLY AFFECT ONLY A THIRD OF THE OBJECTS EFFECTED WHILE THE PLAGUE CONSISTENTLY AFFECTS “ALL” (the scripture never says “all” but it never limits it either).  This is a strong indicator that the Seven Plagues occur AFTER the Seven Trumpets.  But can this be resolved?

Actually an interesting set of scriptures has already been discussed in Chapter 20 that can be used to resolve this issue.  It was shown in that chapter that the Fourth Seal actually parallels the preceding Three Seals themselves.  

What is so interesting is that if we allow that the “beast” of the Fourth Seal = “the Conqueror” of the First Seal, then there is an exact correspondence between the Fourth Seal and the all the Four Seals combined.  Why does the Fourth Seal repeat all the first Three Seals?  A simple explanation is that EACH SEAL BRINGS ON THE NEXT, CULMINATING IN DEATH AND  HELL.  Even though the Fourth Seal occurs at the culmination or the Tribulation with Death and @#!*% , it lists all the previous seals before it because they lead to and cause each seal after it.

In graphical form it would look like this:

So it can be argued that although the Seven Plagues APPEAR to occur at the Culmination of the Tribulation, they are actually revealing events that take place BEFORE its culmination.  The angels themselves do in fact pour out the plagues AFTER the Sixth Trumpet, but they do not describe events that occur AFTER it.  They describe parallel events that led up to the culmination of the Tribulation, just like the Fourth Seal reviewed the first Three Seals before it. 

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How do you explain the fact that the Seven Trumpets typically only affect 1/3 of the objects while the Seven Plagues appear to affect all of them?  Actually the simplest explanation is the that the Plagues do in fact follow the Trumpets.  But not in the obvious manner…the First Plague follows the First Trumpet, the Second Plague follows the Second Trumpet, and so forth, as the following diagram shows.

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Created and Copyrighted by Patrick Stone