The Book of Revelation Decodedಮಾದರಿ

What Is the Big Picture?

Why? Why such extensive damage and destruction? Why such an elaborate strategy to break down the world? Is all this really necessary? Why will God go through so much trouble to destroy His own creation?

We may ask questions like these after seeing such a long list of terrifying judgments. In fact, it’s easy to wonder how a loving God could plan something we think is so over the top in terms of pain, destruction, and utter ruin. Before we tackle this difficult issue, we must first address the deeper reason behind God’s wrath being unleashed in the first place. When we look only at God’s end-times judgments and do not consider the bigger picture as God sees it, we can easily be confused or even offended by His end-times plan. But when we discover more about His heart and character, it becomes easier to understand His actions and even find answers to our deeper questions, by focusing first on the who of this equation—God—we eventually will discover more about the what, why, when, where, and how of the tribulation.

So, why would a loving God unleash such awesome wrath upon His own creation?

To answer, we must keep in mind two of God’s primary attributes: His mercy and His justice. Sin is what spoiled God’s creation, yet He has tolerated sin’s presence on earth since the fall of Adam and Eve. This does not change how God feels about sin; it is still abhorrent to Him. Whereas God is life, sin is death; it pollutes and destroys what He created perfect.

Because of God’s supreme love for mankind, He has been patient in not bringing about justice. Direct justice would be for Him to destroy the earth immediately and its inhabitants for their sinful condition. After all, we know “the wages of sin is death”—this is its price tag (Rom. 6:23). Yet God loves people so much that He has repeatedly given them the opportunity to renounce sin and turn to Him in repentance so they can be saved. Peter communicated this truth when he spoke about the delay of Jesus’ return:

"Beloved, do not be ignorant of this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow concerning His promise, as some count slowness. But He is patient with us, because He does not want any to perish, but all to come to repentance." — 2 Peter 3:8–9

Peter was saying that Yeshua has not yet returned because He is waiting for others to come to Him. The Lord is patient in His return because He doesn’t want to destroy people. He has given humanity much time to turn to Him so that He doesn’t have to extinguish them. His heart is not to destroy but to save. As Luke 9:56 says, “For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.” The Lord longs to completely remove the stain of sin from this world so that we can enjoy a perfect existence with Him. Because of His mercy and His love for you and me, He sent His Son to deliver us from sin’s destruction. For more than two thousand years, His message of salvation has gone out, calling for mankind to repent and return to Him, to be forgiven, and to be spared from the just punishment for sin. Although sin’s power on earth was overcome when Jesus died on the cross, this does not mean the effects of sin were removed. We see these effects daily on display in the increasing evil that permeates and defiles this world, and this evil will continue to expand to unprecedented levels in the last days.

During His time on earth, Jesus compared the rampant sin of the end times to the days of Noah and Lot. In our current times, we see a startling increase in sin. However, in the end times, sin will be so ever-present and cause such destruction that God will have no choice—because of justice itself—but to cleanse the planet through His judgments and start over with a new creation, just as He did with the flood in Noah’s day. That means by the time God’s judgments and wrath fall upon the earth through the seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowls, all those who would be willing to respond to His merciful call will have already done so. Those who remain on earth will have, sadly enough, chosen to reject God’s invitation and to cling to sin willingly. (See 2 Timothy 3:2–5.)

This is a crucial point to understand when answering the question of how a loving God could bring about such seemingly “harsh” judgment. In truth, His response won't be harsh, unfair, or excessive; it'll be completely necessary and just, given the extreme sin destroying His once-sinless creation. God shows His mercy, not His cruelty, in that He has waited as long as He has to destroy sin and all those who love it. Remember, Peter said this when he explained that Jesus has already been patient—by waiting now for more than two thousand years—because “He does not want any to perish” (2 Pet. 3:9).