Revelation 12-17 - Sixth Seal

12 I watched as He opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, 13 and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. 14 The heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.

One interpretation is that all these things are future. The earthquake, blotting of the sun, blood moon, and meteors are a time when the earth buckles from space events. If meteors fell from space so plentiful as described, all the other events would happen also. The dust that would enter the atmosphere from many meteor strikes would cover the earth and so the heavens would recede. The moving of mountains and islands indicate a cataclysmic even that moves land masses and water.

Another view is that these have all happened already. There have been documented times of great earthquakes, documented times when the sun didn’t shine, times when the moon was red as blood, and times of great numbers of meteors falling. However, I do not see how this view answers verse 14 in any real discernible way.

15 Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone else, both slave and free, hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. 16 They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! 17 For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can withstand it?”

Under such extraordinary events, all that man has built is laid waste and man, for all his pride in his advancements, is reduced to the basics of a caveman. The people described here do not call to God for protection and help, but to the earth for protection from God. This is a direct reference to the unsaved when they realize that there is a God, yet they do not call to Him. I find this very disturbing as it further verifies that some people will never accept God, even when they know He is real.

Whatever view you have in this as to what the symbols represent, the main point is to realize that God is in control and it is Jesus Himself who is causing these things to happen. Everything is being done to restore man and the earth back to God.