Revelation 15:1 –
Then I saw in heaven another marvelous event of great significance. Seven angels were holding the seven last plagues, which would bring God’s wrath to completion.
The word “completion” caught me here. We get to see what happens after all this mess is finished. It’s really unclear how long this will take, if it’s months, years, decades or even longer. We have some glimpses into part of the time as far as a period when they will trample the holy city of 42 months (Rev 11). And then the beast being “allowed to speak great blasphemies against God” lasts another 42 months. There are also two 5 month periods where the locust will be allowed to sing and then torment people. But other than that we have little idea on the time this will take.
We are not even sure if these periods described and sequential or “concurrent” so to get an idea on how long before the “completion” is difficult to grasp. I am sure of one thing and life on this earth will stink! One thing that’s not clear is life after death. Is heaven only open to the 144,000 and before the gates a fully open we are in what many have described as purgatory or the middle between heaven and hell? I again did a search and found that “purgatory” does not appear in the NLT, KJV or the ESV so again we have made terms which are attributed to the Bible and Revelation yet never appear.
I am sure you could spend months in Revelation trying to decipher John’s writings and visions. You would eventually try to link all these events to history and current happenings, which takes you down a slippery slope missing much of God’s gifts. You become obsessed in the hellish future and stop focusing on the glorious present. I have been to many houses of worship that are obsessed in the “lake of fire” and your soul that they scare people away from God.
A common question from many is why would anyone follow a God who would allow such misery? The key here is be aware and think of the future for each and every person you meet who do not know Christ. But at the same time, we don’t need to dwell on that eventuality in trying to show God’s love. Sure I have seen this approach work on some, but at the same time that approach may have been more steeped deeper messages to that person then hell fire. At the same time that may have been what they needed to jolt their mind to God, I don’t know for sure in that instance. The key in reading Revelation is this is a future that may never happen, be right around the corner or have already occurred. We need to focus on the present and grace with knowledge of the future, but not an obsession.