After the three great signs of the earthquake, the darkness, and the falling stars, the heavens split apart, with nearly half of mankind turning to the new religion called secular humanism. We now come to truly remarkable events as described in Revelation 6:15-17:
Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains;
and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb;
for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”
In biblical prophecy, mountains often speak of governments, such as the Lord referring to His kingdom as “the mountain of the house of the Lord.” Rocks seem to represent smaller societies. Since the three great signs, secular leaders have been in a mad rush to make government the people’s god. Likewise, many societies emerged that seemed intended as a counter to the purpose of New Covenant church life.
What happens next in John’s prophecy points directly to what is happening now:
After this, I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth holding back the four winds of the earth, so that no wind would blow on the earth or on the sea or on any tree.
Then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the seal of the living God. He cried out with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea,
saying, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the bond-servants of our God on their foreheads” (Revelation 7:1-3).
The “four winds of the earth” are the four powers that have shaped human history: 1) military, 2) religion, 3) politics, and 4) economics. These “winds of the earth” are earthly powers that emerge from the earthly minded.
The earthly wind of religious power is not the true faith in God. It is what mankind built in the name of Christ, but not by Christ. These are the powerful religious institutions that have, since their founding, sought to control the “seas”—the masses of humanity. They have also persecuted the true and faithful seekers of God.
We will dig down on these four powers a bit more later—Revelation has much to say about them. For now we must grasp the most important event taking place on the earth at this time. God is holding back the greatest conflicts to unfold at the end of this age, the “great time of trouble,” while His bondservants are sealed. That they are being sealed on their foreheads speaks of the sealing of their minds, their understanding. As Paul wrote to the Romans, they are “not conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of their minds” (Romans 12:1-2). True servants of the Lord think differently from the earthly-minded in profound ways. These are the ones given eyes to see and ears to hear what the Spirit is saying.
These are also the ones who will not take the mark of the beast. The devil cannot place his mark on those who have God’s mark. These are the key elements we must comprehend to understand the times:
1) The four winds of the earth
2) The present restraint on these winds
3) The bondservants
4) How bondservants are sealed in their minds
5) Why the angels restrain the damaging of the earth, the sea, and the trees
6) The mark of the beast
7) The beast itself
These we will cover over the next few weeks.