As we can see, witness to the Kingdom can turn out to be for the world not only a word of God's love, but also an outpouring of God's wrath. At first glance, such a turn of events seems strange for the God of love. But the explanation appears to be that this is the end of history, a situation in which everyone has already made his final choice and is now reaping its fruits. The one who accepts God and the Messiah sent by Him enters the Kingdom, and the breath of God that permeates this Kingdom opens to him as the breath of love. But the one who rejects God experiences His breath as a fiery, cleansing power, which seems merciless to him because there is no place for him in the renewing world, the place he himself had already refused.

Earlier, seen from the earth, the proclamation of the approaching day of Judgment and the triumph of the Kingdom was revealed to John as the sound of angelic trumpets. Now, seen from heaven, from the Throne, it is revealed to him as bowls of God's wrath poured out on the earth. There are seven of them, just as there were seven angelic trumpets. The first four bowls, like the first four trumpets, affect nature and humanity (vv. 2-9; compare Rev. 8:7-13). "Fiery hail" that produces certain "sores" on those it strikes, a "fiery mountain" falling into the sea and destroying every living thing in it, a "star from heaven" that makes the water in the rivers turn "bloody" and unfit to drink, scorching rays of the sun burning people: all of this, of course, can be explained by natural causes, but then one has to admit that natural cataclysms become the norm at the end of history. As we can see, God no longer has any reason to restrain the world from chaos by upholding the covenant-union once made with Noah, for there are no righteous people left in the world.

The remaining three bowls directly affect the "throne of the beast," provoking resistance from the dark powers and eventually leading to decisive confrontation, to that final battle of the forces of light with the forces of darkness that precedes the definitive triumph of the Kingdom (vv. 10-21; compare Rev. 9). John describes its coming using the language and style of the later prophets (vv. 18-21; compare Isa. 2:19-21). For those who refuse to perceive the reality of the Kingdom, however, what is happening appears not as the renewal and transformation of the world, but as a catastrophe destroying the whole order of things to which they are accustomed. Even then they remember God only in order to accuse Him of all their misfortunes and sufferings (v. 21).

From the Throne of glory, Judgment is perceived as the outpouring of God's wrath, which causes cataclysms and catastrophes. It would seem that God, who loves His creation, should not give free rein to His wrath: before this He did everything to save the world He created. But this salvation was always part of His plan, which He carried out throughout all world history. God is a Person, not a faceless Absolute. He has His own will, and therefore His own preferences.

In the Bible it is often said of God that He "forgot" someone or something, and then "remembered." God is obviously not a human being, to forget or remember something in our human sense of the word. But in the fallen world there is always something at which He does not want to look and in which He does not want to participate. And then He turns away. He forgets.

Of course, He knows what is happening, but He does not want to see it and does not want those who participate in the works of darkness to see Him. To sense His presence. So that people who do not follow His will and do not participate in His plans will have no illusions about His participation in their affairs. But even at the end of times such people, and not only people, remain. More than that: they become as active as possible. They affirm their "no" to God's will, God's plans, and God's love. And this final "no" of theirs also means God's final withdrawal.

His final departure from their life. Those who have said the final "no" to God will no longer see God's love. But they will collide with God's power: this world still remains God's, whatever anyone may think about it and however anyone may want to appropriate it to himself finally and irrevocably. This very power of God without God's love becomes God's wrath for those who collide with it. A wrath from which it is easy to escape - and at the same time infinitely difficult for many. Because for this one must entrust oneself to God. And renounce opposition to Him once and for all.

The punishments described in this chapter resemble the plagues of Egypt, but exceed them in severity. The first four angels punish those who worshiped the Antichrist; the last three bowls are poured out upon the Antichrist’s city, which is hostile to God. At that very time judgment draws near: “Behold, I come like a thief”—secretly, unexpectedly, as a thief comes when breaking into a house. This comparison, close to the Lord’s words in the Gospel, tells us that a person will be caught unawares. He will not be ready for judgment, for the Lord’s coming in glory. Nor will he be ready for the final battle between good and evil, which is inevitable. But what that final battle in history will be like, we do not know.