Revelation 6:16–17 Is NOT a ‘Summary Statement’ of God’s Wrath

“They said to the mountains and to the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, because the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to withstand it?’” (Rev 6:16–17)

A host of pretrib teachers claim that Rev 6:16–17 is a “summary statement” on God’s wrath that occurred in the previous six seals.

The problem is that there is no evidence for this pretrib assertion. It ignores the context, and the meaning of Greek words in a context, which I have pointed out previously is fallacious.

Here are just a few reasons why Rev 6:16–17 is not a summary statement of God’s resultant wrath:

1. Pretribs make it sound as if John himself is making the statement in Rev 6:16–17: “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, because the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to withstand it?’” Rather, it is the wicked who are exclaiming this! They are running to the caves during the sixth seal—not because the wrath of God is in the past—but because they realize that the day of the Lord is about to come upon them. This suddenness of the day of the Lord is consistent with the apostle Paul’s teaching regarding how the day of the Lord will come upon the wicked: “sudden destruction will come upon them, as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and there will be no escape!” (1 Thess 5:3). The pretrib interpretation contradicts the inner logic of the narrative.
2. It is not a “summary statement” looking backwards—rather, it a cry of anticipation for what is about to come upon them. As one person wrote to me put it: “If this were a summary of the wrath of God, it appears at an unusual place, i.e. before the harshest part of the seventh seal of the wrath of God is opened [which is followed by the trumpets and bowl judgments].”
3. The sixth seal, the context of Rev 6:16–17 is drawing from Joel 2:31 “The sunlight will be turned to darkness and the moon to the color of blood, before the day of the LORD comes– that great and terrible day!” (Joel 2:31) See also Jesus’s teaching in Matthew 24 where the wrath of God begins when he returns, the point of the separation between the righteous and the wicked. That is the point that Jesus says the celestial disturbances will happen just before the wrath is poured out on the wicked (Matt 24:29–31; cf. Luke 21:25–28).
4. The fifth seal martyrs cry out to God asking when the wrath of God will begin: “How long, Sovereign Master, holy and true, before you judge those who live on the earth and avenge our blood?” (Rev 6:10). Their heavenly answer to them is to wait for the wrath “a little longer” (Rev 6:11). In other words, it is still in the future. They receive their new resurrected bodies depicted in Rev 7. The martyrs understand that they were not killed because of God’s wrath. And they understand that God will pour out his wrath in the near future. 
5. Between the sixth seal and the seventh seal there are two groups of people being delivered. Why would they be delivered at a point after God’s wrath? Rather, they are being delivered from what is about to occur when the seventh seal is opened: the trumpets and bowls of God’s wrath.

In summary (pun intended!), this is really a bad argument from pretribulationists. Any interpreter who values the principle of comparing Scripture with Scripture will see that the natural reading places the beginning of the day of the Lord’s wrath after the sixth seal, not before.

There is a progression in the final seals: the fifth seal promises wrath, the sixth seal portends wrath, an interlude in Revelation 7 protects from wrath, and the seventh seal pronounces wrath.

 

See also:

Do the Seals on the Scroll in the Book of Revelation Express the Day of the Lord’s Wrath? – Ep. 13