Revelation 11:17 “Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.”
“and hast reigned.”
Notice right here that this is past tense, He already reigned.
This is where your modern versions, Greek and Hebrew scholars, throw a fit and don’t understand it. Why? Because they don’t understand the double application, the prophetic application, dispensational application.
So what’s going on over here is that in verse 13, this was during the tribulation. In verse 15, when the seventh angel sounds the seventh trumpet, it could go in this manner: it could be that at verse 15, this is the end of the tribulation.
At verses 16 and 17, it jumps to the end of the Millennium, or it could be that verse 15-17 is all one thing, and it jumps to the end of the Millennium.
Why is that possible? That’s why you can’t do sequence with Revelation. We already saw this with the seventh seal, where we are going back to the past. You can’t read Revelation like it’s a nice flowing sequence. You got to realize that in the seventh trumpet, it’s like jumping ahead to the Millennium time. During this time, we see the 1000 year reign of God. God didn’t reign during the tribulation timeline. He’s taking it back for Himself. So why would it be put in the past tense? Because it jumped.
Some might argue that ‘It doesn’t make sense that he says He has reigned and in verse 18 that the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged.’ It does make sense. Verse 18 is not referring to before the tribulation where God does His wrath against the nations. If we look at Revelation 20:4 briefly, He’s reigning 1000 years, but the nations get angry.
Revelation 12:4: “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.”
It’s accurate so far that God has reigned for 1000 years so far here and that the nations are coming after this, and God’s wrath is poured? Yes.
Revelation 12:7-8: “And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.”
Satan gets bound a 1000 years during this Millennial reign, but he gets loosed out of his prison and deceives.
Comparing Revelation 11 and 20:
- Revelation 11:18 “And the nations were angry“
- Revelation 12:8 “ And shall go out to deceive the nations”
- Revelation 11:18 “and thy wrath is come”. Does God’s fiery wrath fall on them?
- Revelation 12:9 “And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.“
When you keep thinking this dumb post-tribulation mindset that the wrath is only a singular term and it’s only referring to hell, that’s not true. There are many different wraths.
- Hell
John 3:36: “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”
2. Tribulation
Luke 21:22-23: “For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people.”
We’ve seen that Luke 21:21 is referring to the Jews running for their lives. Notice that verse 22 says “days of vengeance“, it’s not just one day.
3. Second Advent
This is the wrath that post-tribs are only looking at in Revelation 6.
Revelation 6:16: “And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:”
Do you honestly believe God only has one single wrath in His entire eternity?
No, there are many different operations how He performs His wrath.