What are the seven plagues in Revelation 15:8?
Revelation 15:8 “And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.”
The entire temple was filled up with smoke. Why? Because in Revelation 8, out of the altar the tribulation saints were giving their cry of vengeance, their pain and it was collecting up and storing God’s wrath. So God’s about to unleash the wrath here.
The smoke comes from God’s glory and God’s power.
They can’t go in until the seven plagues were fulfilled because that’s how exceeding God’s wrath is.
What is the sore of the first vial of wrath of God in the book of Revelation?
Revelation 16:1 “And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.”
A voice boomed out of the temple saying to the seven angels.
It’s telling the angels to go whichever way they’re supposed to go and pour out those vials that contain God’s wrath upon the earth.
Revelation 16:2 “And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.”
The first angel went out and poured out his vial all over the earth.
So people receive a sore that’s a lot of grief. Noisome actually means extreme or chaotic, we might go more literal and sometimes say it could be a loud sound. But we can open up to the possibility where it’s so extreme they can make a noise.
Those who received the Antichrist mark 666 and those who worship his image, receive this sore.
The sore that the unbeliever is going through is very likely to be leprosy, it could be a different sort. We’re going to look at some scriptural indications.
Why is the sore from the book of Revelation leprosy?
Revelation 13:2 “And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.”
So the beast is a leopard.
Revelation 13:17 “And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.”
Mark of the beast. The beast here is the leopard, so the mark of a leopard is black spots. In the Bible, what passage would talk about receiving a black spot and then this black spot can become a dangerous disease if it changes into a white spot?
Leviticus 13:42 “And if there be in the bald head, or bald forehead, a white reddish sore; it is a leprosy sprung up in his bald head, or his bald forehead.”
The sore can be leprosy.
Leviticus 13:24-26 “Or if there be any flesh, in the skin whereof there is a hot burning, and the quick flesh that burneth have a white bright spot, somewhat reddish, or white; Then the priest shall look upon it: and, behold, if the hair in the bright spot be turned white, and it be in sight deeper than the skin; it is a leprosy broken out of the burning: wherefore the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it is the plague of leprosy.But if the priest look on it, and, behold, there be no white hair in the bright spot, and it be no lower than the other skin, but be somewhat dark; then the priest shall shut him up seven days:”
In verse 27, you have to shut the infected person up 7 days if you have a dark-colored spot, to see if it will become leprosy.
Leviticus 13:27-28 “And the priest shall look upon him the seventh day: and if it be spread much abroad in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it is the plague of leprosy.And if the bright spot stay in his place, and spread not in the skin, but it be somewhat dark; it is a rising of the burning, and the priest shall pronounce him clean: for it is an inflammation of the burning.”
Notice that when it’s a physical mark like a black spot, that’s not where you get leprosy yet. You get leprosy when the sore becomes white.
If you look at other passages regarding leprosy, there are scriptural indications that this sore could be leprosy. It is possible that in the tribulation, they receive this black mark but once they receive the black mark, it’s going to transform into a white spot and become skin lesions which then kickstarts the infection of leprosy.
These will happen in biblical times, but not now (that would be a false doctrine that we are going through the tribulation), but rather, after the true church saints’ rapture, and when the tribulation is happening.
What is the second vial of plague in the book of Revelation?
Revelation 16:3 “And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea.”
The second angel pours out the second vial of plague upon the sea this time.
All the waters of the sea became the blood of a dead man. The water turned into blood.
Every living thing died in the sea.
Notice this is very similar to the seven trumpets. One of the trumpets is where the water turned into blood.
Are the trumpets and the vials in the book of Revelation happening in parallel?
Some people like to put the trumpets and the vials at the same time frame, but in Revelation 16, the vials are at the latter end of the tribulation. In Revelation 15:3 and Revelation 14:1, the tribulation saints were raptured up to heaven. Revelation 14:8, Babylon is fallen so we’re nearing the end of the tribulation here. You can’t conglomerate the trumpets and the vials as one of the same, they’re different, but you can’t totally separate the trumpets from the vials.
What we need to do with them is to understand that the trumpets and the vials can sometimes meet each other, and sometimes they’re going to be at different time periods.
Trumpets are at a much earlier time frame. When we read Revelation 9, 10, 11, that the seven trumpets were going on while the tribulation saints were on earth. How the seven trumpets are going to go with the vials is that the seven trumpets are going to go earlier, and then the vials are going to catch up with the trumpets. It’s the same thing with seals.
Why does God send His divine wrath in stages?
When God sends His judgment upon somebody or a group of people, He will start off with the first stage.
Then He gives the second stage of judgment so that you can learn your lesson but that first stage is not done yet.
When He gives the third stage of judgment, but the second stage is not done yet. The Lord doesn’t clean cut the time periods. They overlap or they’re gradual or transitional.
Why? Because God is trying to teach you something. That’s a working of God, the reason why God does this is because of His infinite grace and mercy.
Despite His wrath, God is trying to teach mankind a lesson.
Another interesting thing about this verse is that it says “and every living soul died in the sea.” So there are several theories about this:
- The antichrist could set up his own kingdom not just on earth but underneath the water.
That’s not so far-fetched to believe because we already have tourist attractions and buildings where people can dine underwater. - The soul does not have to refer to the real person inside you, it could just refer to any living being.
When you read passages throughout the Bible when it talks about the soul, it does not have to literally refer to the soul in you, it could refer to a living entity because animals don’t have souls.
So this could be referring to the fish of the sea. -
Or, do animals have souls?
It is generally taught that animals do not have souls, it is only man that has body, soul and spirit.
We know that animals have bodies and Ecclesiastes says that the beast has a spirit and you can complete that with Revelation 16:3 with the soul. When we say that animals do not have souls, we mean to say that they’re not the same soul as man where they live for eternity or they have the conscious decisions of mankind of right and wrong, or that they’re held accountable as a soul burning in hell for eternity.
Although they may not have all the same functions as a human soul does, they do have some inklings of it. But when the animal dies, it turns to dust. The Bible says that the spirit of the beast turns downward to the earth.