Seven Last Plagues

The designation in Rev. 15:1 for the fearful judgments ( v. 4 ) of God upon perversely impenitent sinners in the last days, in which it is said that the “wrath of God” is “filled up.” The seven last plagues are introduced in Rev. 15 and described one after another in Rev. 16 . What John was shown with respect to these plagues is said to be “another sign [Gr. seµmeion] in heaven” Rev. 15:1 ; cf. Rev. 12:1 , 3 ). It was a symbolic enactment in which seven angels were represented as pouring the plagues from seven bowls, or “vials” ( Rev. 15:7 ). The first plague consisted of a virulent and incurable sore. The second and third rendered useless the salt and fresh waters of the earth. The fourth subjected the earth to intense heat and was followed by the fifth, utter darkness. The sixth consisted in the drying up of the Euphrates, followed by “three unclean spirits” going forth to deceive the nations of earth into fighting “the battle of the great day of God Almighty” ( see Armageddon ). Under the seventh, Babylon is judged, and her judgments consist of an earthquake, lightning, and hail. In a sublime choral anthem, those who have suffered at the hands of the impenitent declare the justice of God in His ways ( Rev. 15:2–4 ). The plagues issue from “the temple . . . in heaven” ( v. 5 ). They afflict “the men which had the mark of the beast” and those who “worshipped his image” ( Rev. 16:2 ). “The fact that the first plague is poured out upon men who have received the mark of the beast and who worship its image ( Rev. 16:2 ) places the plagues after the setting up of the image and the affixing of the mark (see on Rev. 13:14–17 ), and also after the proclamation of the third angel, which warns against the beast and its mark (see on Rev. 14:9–11 ). Furthermore the fact that the seven last plagues constitute the fullness of divine wrath untempered by mercy ( Rev. 14:10 ; 15:1 ; 16:1 ) clearly implies that the probation of those upon whom they fall has closed (see on Rev. 22:11 ). The fact that at the time of the fifth plague men are still suffering from the sores of the first plague ( Rev. 16:11 ) clearly implies that the plagues are poured out successively and within a comparatively short period of time (see on v. 2 ). It appears also that the judgment of mystical Babylon, which takes place under the seventh plague ( v. 19 ), precedes that of the kings of the earth at the appearance of Christ (see on Rev. 17:16 ; 18:11 , 20 ; 19:2 , 11–19 ; cf. Rev. 6:15–17 ; 14:14 )” ( SDACom 7:838). The fact that one of the seven plague-bearing angels presents the judgment of mystical Babylon in Rev. 17 (see v. 1 ), and that this is the subject of the seventh plague ( Rev. 16:17–21 ), makes Rev. 17 an extended description of the seventh plague, explains its nature and purpose, and relates the great battle described in vs. 14–17 to the battle to which the same kings of earth have been gathered under the sixth plague. Rev. 18 is a highly figurative, poetic description of the judgment of Babylon, and Rev. 19:1–6 stands as a paean of praise to God for judging Babylon. Rev. 19:11–21 gives a figurative representation of Christ descending from heaven to destroy His enemies (see Second Advent ). Some early Christian expositors, as did some in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, assigned the seven last plagues to the future. However, Martin Luther and Protestant interpreters rather consistently explained the plagues as a series of consecutive historical eras similar to the seven churches, the seven seals, and the seven trumpets ( see Revelation, Interpretation of ). They generally applied the fifth plague to Rome. Practically all post-Reformation expositors, both in Europe and in the New World, held that the plagues were in progress, and some of them specifically assigned the sixth plague to the Turks. Expositors of the nineteenth-century Advent Awakening in America took the same position. William Miller believed that the plagues were all divine judgments on papal Rome, from Reformation times forward (William Miller, Evidence From Scripture and History of the Second Coming of Christ About the Year 1843, pp. 220–230). At least one of Miller’s colleagues differed on this point. Josiah Litch held that the plagues were in the future, but his view seems to have had little influence at the time, possibly because he said that they would fall after the Second Advent, in an interval while the saints were caught up for safety to the sea of glass before descending to the final victory (Prophetic Expositions, vol. 1, pp. 175, 190, 196, etc.). Probably the earliest exposition of the plagues by a Sabbathkeeping Adventist writer was James White’s 1847 discussion in which he placed them in the future, but before the Second Advent: “For more than one year, it has been my settled faith, that the seven last plagues were all in the future, and that they were all to be poured out before the first resurrection. . . . “Now where shall we look for the day of wrath . . . ? Not to the crucifixion, nor while Jesus is fulfilling his Priesthood in the Heavenly Sanctuary. But, when he lays off his priestly attire, and puts on the ‘garments of vengeance’ to ‘repay fury to his adversaries, recompence to his enemies;’ then the day of his wrath will have fully come. As the ‘wrath of God’ on the living wicked is ‘filled up’ in the plagues, and as the day of wrath is future, it follows that the plagues are all future. . . . “The plagues come before, and not after the advent; for the wicked will not suffer by the plagues, after they are destroyed by the burning glory of his coming” ( A Word to the “Little Flock,” pp. 1–3). Ellen White’s first published mention of the plagues dates from 1849. She places the plagues at the end of Christ’s priestly ministry in the heavenly sanctuary, the time at which the four angels ( Rev. 7:1 ) will cease to hold the four winds (reprinted in EW 36). Thus early Seventh-day Adventist interpreters assigned all the plagues to the future, as falling subsequent to the close of human probation and culminating at the appearance of Christ in the clouds of heaven. This, they felt, was the only interpretation consistent with Adventism. The reasons for this were set forth by the editor (probably Uriah Smith) of the Review and Herald (11:72, Jan. 7, 1858). Noting that some Adventists were adopting the traditional Protestant position that six of the plagues were already past, he points out that this would invalidate the entire Advent message, including the 1844 movement. If even the first plague were in the past, he reasoned, then the image to the beast had already been set up and men had been compelled to worship it and to receive its mark, for it is on such persons that the first plague is poured out. Furthermore, the third angel’s message of Rev. 14 would then be in the past also. J. N. Andrews connected the seven last plagues with the third angel’s message, which warns ( Rev. 14:11 ) against the divine wrath that is announced in Rev. 15:1 . “The wrath of God as threatened by the third angel is poured out in the seven last plagues; for the first plague is inflicted on the very class that the third angel threatens. Compare Rev. xiv, 9 , 10 ; xvi, 1 , 2 . This fact proves that the plagues must be future when the third angel’s message is given” ( Review and Herald 6:209, Apr. 17, 1855). Comparing the seven last plagues with the 10 plagues visited upon Egypt at the Exodus, Andrews comments: “We see no reason why they will not be just as literal as those poured out on Egypt” ( ibid. ). Considering the plagues on Egypt as types of the seven last plagues, he asks, “Why will not the antitype be as real and literal?” ( ibid. ). Uriah Smith listed six reasons for considering the plagues as yet future: 1. They are said to be last. 2. The sealing work of Rev. 7 must be completed before they are poured out. 3. The wine of God’s wrath in Rev. 14:10 is evidently identical with the wrath of God in Rev. 15:1 . 4. The plagues must come after the third angel’s message has been given. 5. The statement in Rev. 16:15 , “Behold I come as a thief,” implies that Christ is about to come. 6. According to Rev. 15:8 , no one could enter the sanctuary in heaven while the plagues were being poured out; therefore Christ is not ministering there, no one can be saved, and probation has evidently closed ( ibid. 10:52, June 18, 1857. In summary, Seventh-day Adventists believe that the seven last plagues are future, that they begin to fall soon after the close of human probation, and that they culminate at the personal appearance of Christ in the clouds of heaven. All seven are literal in the sense that they consist of visitations of divine wrath upon impenitent sinners in the form of intense physical suffering. The plagues are poured out upon all who are guilty of complicity in earth’s last great apostate movement, symbolically represented in the Revelation as mystical Babylon the great, and as the worship of the beast and its image. The plagues have the effect of unifying all the finally unrepentant in earth’s last generation, in a universal conspiracy to annihilate God’s people and to take over control of this world, and of permitting them to demonstrate that they are, indeed, rebels against divine authority.