UPDATE 9:48 AM, WEDNESDAY: Bible study is ON. 6:30 PM. Free pizza served 5:00-6:30 PM. —AF

WEATHER UPDATE: I’ll update this space on Wednesday mid morning to confirm whether Bible study is actually going to happen tonight.

Stay tuned. —AF, 10:51 PM, Tuesday

BIBLE STUDY TONIGHT (2/1) | 6:30 PM | SANCTUARY LIVESTREAM: asburytulsa.online.church

Parents, I LOVE having elementary and especially middle and high school students at Bible study. Bring ‘em!

REVELATION 6:12-17

12 When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, 13 and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. 14 The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. 15 Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, 16 calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”

The opening of the sixth seal brings with it the beginning of the final judgment—the End. We can see this because the world itself is shaken; even the very stars begin to fall.

Still, humanity does not repent and turn toward God but merely wants to be protected from God’s judgment.

The message of the seals is that rebellious humanity is so hard-hearted that even death and cataclysm will not be enough to have people turn back to God.

Is John describing what has happened or what will happen? I think the answer is “Yes.”

Since the time of Jesus, there have been war and violence and pestilence on the earth, and yet humanity has not turned back to God. There will be more and greater judgments in the future, and they will have the same result.

What, then, will cause the world to turn back to God?

The seventh seal is the final judgment, but before we get to it, John relates an interlude that will begin to answer the question. Keep reading.