Revelation 6:12-14

Revelation 6:12: “And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;
13 And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.
14 And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.”

When the sixth seal is opened there is a “great earthquake”. This one is off the charts: it causes every mountain and island to be “moved out of their places”. It is catastrophic and planet-wide – and yet, for all that, it is not the worst earthquake of all time. Toward the end of Revelation we will see one that is even worse.

As if the earthquake were not enough, the sun becomes “black as sackcloth of hair”. We saw this back in Egypt as one of the plagues; there was three days of thick darkness. When the sixth seal is opened the sun becomes black, the moon becomes as blood, and there will be a great meteor shower. What we are seeing is a series of supernatural, cataclysmic events. The Bible does not say how many people are killed in these events, but I imagine it will be a tremendous number.

To recap: first, the antichrist launches a war and the whole world becomes engulfed in it. Famine breaks out, and a quarter of the world’s population dies. Many people are murdered for their faith in Jesus. Then there is a terrible earthquake, a darkening of the sun, and a meteor shower. And we are still in the first half of the 7-year Tribulation; there are much worse things to come.

This is the point when people realize that God is at work. The reality is that it has been God all along; God was the one who unleashed the antichrist, the war, the famine, and all the rest. But here, as a result of this seal being unleashed, people finally realize Who is responsible – and they are terrified.