(tm)The fifth bowl
Back to The End Time Judgments
And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain, And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds. (Revelation 16:10,11)
The kingdom of the Beast will include the world centers of commerce and politics. It is likely that the seat of the Beast will be in a rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem.
When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: (Matthew 24:15,16)
The only "holy place," outside the human heart, is Jerusalem—in particular, the Most Holy Place of the Temple in Jerusalem.
If, as we believe, Antichrist (in imitation of Christ) will take his place between the cherubim in the Most Holy Place of a rebuilt Temple, then there would be standing in the Holy Place an abomination that causes desolation.
Such a blasphemy would cause enormous desolation and destruction in the earth, beginning in Jerusalem. The devout Jews would be well advised to flee for their lives from Judea in that day.
It may be at this point that the spiritual darkness converges with the physical realm so there is an actual, tangible, visible darkness surrounding the people who have striven to gain security, pleasure, and achievement apart from the Presence of God and His Christ.
The "civilized," sophisticated peoples of the earth, the nations that just a short time before had been boasting of peace and safety under their godless world system, will find themselves in spiritual and perhaps physical darkness, their bodies swollen with grotesque tumors, boils, and other disfigurements. They will be in agony from their pain. The superheated sun will enhance the effect of monsters moving about in a hell, roaring their obscenities in their rage against their Creator.
How different this will be from the scene of the first man and woman in the garden of Eden!
Rather than repent of their deeds, the response of the wicked to the pain and darkness will be to blaspheme the God of Heaven.