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The book of Revelation is a hard book to understand and that is for sure. That is why it is important to understand the way God had it written and the way God has spoken to us in the Word time and time again.

I believe that the greatest mistake in understanding the book of Revelation is that peer pressure dictates opinion to many people and they are in bondage to someone’s belief because of it. The true understanding of Revelation is not the popular belief. I wish that it were that simple but it just isn’t true. I followed the popular opinion for many years before the Lord began to open my eyes to see that there are keys to understanding the book. I am an old man and sometimes I grow weary watching the Church burn unnecessary oil when it comes to sharing Bible prophecy. For the most part it is just simply not understood.

I know that I do not sound very humble, in fact I seem to be somewhat opinionated but I simply do not know how to say it without sounding as if I know all the answers. The truth is that I don't know everything but what I do know I am very sure it is the truth or I wouldn't teach it. I apologize for anything that I am about to say that sounds boastful. Please bear with me and try to see what I believe to be the truth.

We as humans would like for God to tell us everything without a mystery but it just isn’t the way God chose to speak to us. Jesus himself was a mystery all the way through the Old Testament and was not revealed until the New Testament. God had his reasons for this and I don’t claim to know exactly what they were. Having said this we must realize that God spoke to us in both the Old and New Testaments through repetition. Some people have read the Bible all their lives and have never noticed that he does this. For example: 1^st and 2^nd Chronicles is a repeat of many of the same stories from 1^st and 2^nd Kings. It is sometimes hard to recognize this because some names are different and some of the events are told a little differently, yet they are one and the same.

In the above scriptures we see that there is a difference. That difference is that in the account of 2^nd Kings Hezekiah's mothers name is Abi. In 2^nd Chronicles it is Abijah. The names were not contrary the one to the other though, it was all in the usage of the people for example: Joseph in Egypt was known as Zaphnath-paaneah and among his own he was simply Joseph.

And I do hope that you understand what I am saying. Deuteronomy is a repeat of Leviticus and was told a little differently as well. The difference in all of these comparisons is always to give us a greater understanding of the things that were done and said.

The New Testament does the same thing by telling and retelling. The four Gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are all the same story. They all tell certain things about the life and crucifixion of our Lord yet are told in different ways. One of the keys to understanding scripture is found in these books that often seem to repeat one another. This is where the keys begin to happen. In all four of the Gospels we read that Jesus was crucified and many other things about his life. We understand that the four Gospels are a separate telling of the same story so we do not have a problem with this. But sometimes a new Christian has problems because he tries to read the books in the Bible like a storybook with one book following the other in sequence. If they thought this they might be confused and think that Jesus was crucified four different times. The reasons we know that they are separate books are because we identify the things that happened to Jesus and realize that they only occurred once. Therefore we are able to conclude that the four Gospels are a retelling of the story of Jesus.

The book of Revelation is written in the same manner as the rest of the Bible. Only here we see this retelling and expounding working this way within a single book. It is commonly believed that the book of Revelation is written in chronological order. First the Seals then the Trumpets followed by the Vials of Wrath. It would be easy to believe this except for one thing. We find many of these same events happening in all three of these. It would be like thinking that the four Gospels were in chronological order and that Jesus was crucified four different times. For example the end of the World happens in all, both the Seals, the Trumpets and the Vials of Wrath. If Revelation was written in chronological order the world would come to an end three different times one following the other. Since the end of the World happens only once then it is only logical to believe that all three times is one and the same. And it is only logical to believe that the seals, trumpets and vials of wrath all happen parallel rather than being in chronological order. If we have an agenda to prove we are often blinded by it because in proving our agenda we must spin the scriptures to make it happen the way we want it to. But, if we seek the truth we will try and follow the principles that God has laid out for us through demonstration.

The end of the world is found in the sixth seal, the seventh trumpet and the seventh vial of wrath. At this time I would like to pin point one line of thought within these scriptures so that you can understand. This is concerning the great earthquake that happens at the time of the end moments before he comes back to judge the world. This great earthquake is the one spoken of in the Old Testament that speaks of the time that the earth will be moved out of its place. In the sixth seal it says that every island and every mountain is moved out of its place. In the seventh trumpet we see this earthquake and then again in the seventh vial of wrath. In the seventh vial of wrath it gives the impression that the mountains would be shaken out into a plain and that the islands would disappear into the sea. Looking closely at this and believing that these are three different earthquakes and that they are in chronological order we have a problem. If the mountains and islands were destroyed in the sixth seal then God would have to rebuild them in order to destroy them again in the seventh vial of wrath. He isn’t going to destroy the mountains and islands several times during the last seven years.

All of the above are the same account of the great earthquake that happens at the time of the end.
Isaiah 1313: Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.

The old saying, "if something looks like a duck, walks like a duck and talks like a duck then it probably is a duck" should be applied to this. God gives us a sound mind but it is up to us to use it. We should be spiritually minded but common sense must play a role in what we do with our reasoning.

As we continue to understand event identification we begin to see more and more things about the book of Revelation that we never saw before. Back at the time God began to reveal the mysteries to me he said something that literally astonished me. He said, "the trumpets and vials of wrath are one and the same". I was really excited about this because it was very clear that each one was talking about the same thing until I got down to the 4^th trumpet and vial of wrath. You see, one of these is a curse of darkness, the other a curse of sunlight and heat. This really threw me and caused me to begin to question, I was very confused. My son asked me what was wrong because he could tell that I was shaken. I told him that God had told me that the trumpets and vials of wrath were one and the same and what I had just read didn’t make sense. How could there be a curse of darkness and a curse of light at the same time? He looked at me and all of a sudden his face lit up and he said Dad, it has to do with the earth. The earth stands still! If it did this then it would be a curse of darkness and a curse of light all happening at the same time, darkness on one side of the world and light on the other. I understood and I thanked God for having my son sitting there and for using him to help me understand what he wanted me to understand.

I will continue on this event identification idea and proceed to the Trumpets and Vials of Wrath comparisons. While looking at the Trumpets and Vials of Wrath the thing that will catch your attention first is that the 2^nd, 3^rd, 5^th, 6^th and 7^th Trumpets and Vials of Wrath all have something in common. The 1^st and 4^th Trumpets and vials of Wrath are not that easily spotted but they are there none the less.