Your question:

Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us!!!
May I ask a question, which none of the preachers have the time or do not want to be bothered with me (or the fact maybe they know very little of the tribulation.
My question is:
Jack Van Impe mentioned that there were 21 plagues from Rev. 6 thru 18, aren't some of these plagues duplicated???
I truly hope you will be able to answer this!

In Gods name, & His Blessings on you & yours,
A. N.

again thank you very much!

 My answer:

Hi A.,
Thanks for the e-mail and encouragement.

You said: Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us!!!

My response: I praise God for using, me, an imperfect tool!

You said: May I ask a question, whitch none of the preachers have the time or do not want to be bothered with me (or the fact maybe they know very little of the tribulation.

My response: I'm am grieved to here such reports of the treatment of fellow brothers and sisters. I answer every single email and because of the sufficiency of my God I have found not one too difficult. Some of the email I receive is extremely harsh, but I answer them just the same, in God's loving truth.

You said: Jack Van Impe mentioned that there were 21 plagues from Rev. 6 thru 18, aren't some of these plagues duplicated???

My response: Absolutely they are duplicated. The book of Revelation is set up exactly the same way God spoke to all the prophets. Even though we read them in consecutive order does not mean they are one continuous linear order of events. The human mind can not fathom all God is to carry out after revealing his will through a prophet. He gives us a series of dreams, visions or revelation that repeats the same event but gives us different perspectives. The first part may be from an earthly vantage point and then suddenly we are seeing the same thing repeated from a spiritual vantage point. Each time these vantage points change they do not change what will happen but instead offer us insight by the varying details given in each perspective. Here is an illustration:
Picture yourself seated alone in a circle of chairs and staged in the center is a play which is always performed facing the same direction. When the play is over you get up and move to the next seat and the play will start all over again. The play won't change, but each time it ends you move over to the next seat until you have sat in all the seats. The major sequences of the storyline will always be familiar to you, but the details will differ, even between just one seat and the next. If you put all of the varying details together you will have the benefit of deeper meaning of the story. So it is with prophecy, the basic chain of events always appears to be similar but the change of perspective in each cycle changes the details and thereby enhances the big picture. In doing this God has furnished us with an amazing amount of details about what is to come.

In Revelation we start with the first vision of the things to come in chapter 6 when the Lamb opens the first of seven seals. The rest of the chapter gives us a preliminary idea or a nutshell of the desolation (tribulation) and the last day. There is much to be gleaned from this first vision but not everything is spelled out. For instance only a true Bible truth seeker would see the resurrection between the lines of 6:14 & 15. They would know from the prophets and Jesus that when we see the signs in the sky and Jesus appears that we who have been faithful will be resurrected.

Notice the first words of Chapter 7? It says, "After this I saw. . . " John is being given a new perspective. The perspective comes in just before the resurrection where the faithful Jews are sealed. Verse 9 changes perspective to the true believers having been raptured.

The trumpets are a complete repeat, but now we are given a new perspective and much more detail about each event. The trumpets are interrupted by chapter 12:1-13:18 and then come back to finish with the resurrection and the wrath of God. The bowls are another repeat with the resurrection being hinted at in 15:10-16 when the signs in the sky happen (darkness) and Jesus says, "Behold, I come like a thief!"

People like Van Impe have a problem with this because the seals, trumpets and bowls do not seem to line up. But on closer inspection we see the same events but with different details.

That is a nutshell on the subject, but I would be blessed to have the opportunity to answer any further questions you may have.

I pray that I have served you well.

In the service of the LORD Jesus,

Randy