What happened to the lights

Today we are going to look at the 5th bowl judgment

Revelation 16:10–11 (NIV)   The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness. People gnawed their tongues in agony 11 and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done. 

So let’s think about what has happened up to this point. Those who received the mark of the beast have been afflicted with painful sore. All ocean life has died. All natural sources of drinking water have been made undrinkable. Many have been scorched by the sun from the intense heat.

The death toll by this point is unthinkable. On Nov. 1, 2021, it was reported that the number of people who died from covid reached 5,000,000 worldwide. That will pale in comparison to the death toll at this point of the tribulation period, which is near the end of the 7 years. The death toll has likely reached 4,000,000,000 – 5,000,000,000 people if not more.

To add insult to injury so to speak. When the 5th angel pours out his bowl, the kingdom of the antichrist is plunged into darkness. Some believe this darkness will be localized to where the antichrist rules from. I don’t believe so, because the kingdom of the antichrist will be worldwide.

It is unclear at the time of writing this what exactly this will look like or what the indirect cause will be, but what we do know is that this darkness will be similar to when the fourth angel blew their trumpet earlier in the tribulation period. At that time the world experienced a period of time when daylight was 9 hours rather than 12 hours and nighttime was completely dark for 3 hours.

Now the whole world is plunged into darkness. This means for whatever reason there is no daytime because the light of the sun isn’t shining through. Neither will you see the stars or the moon at night. In addition, there will likely be worldwide blackouts. People will already be miserable because of all that has happened up to this point. This will only compound their suffering.

So how will people respond? They will curse God. It’s funny how companies will have written into their policies that they won’t cover acts of God, yet they don’t believe in God. As the world is plunged into darkness and their suffering is magnified, people will know that it is God who is judging them, but instead of repenting, they curse Him. Consider this passage in Hebrews 3:

Hebrews 3:12–14 (NLT)  Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters. Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God. 13 You must warn each other every day, while it is still “today,” so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God. 14 For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ. 

Don’t harden your heart. Turn to Jesus for the salvation of your soul.