The Chronological Narrative of the 7 Seals, & Trumpets & 7 Bowls of Revelation.
(Jeff Unsworth)
Chronology: (from Latin chronologia, from Ancient Greek χρόνος, chrónos, "time"; and -λογία, -logia) is the science of arranging events in their order of occurrence in time.
Noun: 1. The arrangement of things following one after another in time:
Contemporary definitions for chronological order
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Noun: A sequence according to time of occurrence
Parenthesis.
Noun: 1. A word or phrase inserted as an explanation or afterthought into a passage which is grammatically complete without it, in writing usually marked off by brackets, dashes, or commas.
Parentethical.
adjective: relating to or inserted as a parenthesis. "parenthetical remarks"
A parenthetical remark is said in addition to the main part of what you are saying.
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The Chronology of the Book of Revelation
The Chronological Narrative of the 7 Seals, 7 Trumpets & 7 Bowls in Revelation.
The 1st 6 Seal are opened in Chapters 1 to 6 and the 7th in Chapter 8.
The Trumpets are blown in Chapters 8 to 11.
The Bowls are poured out in Chapters 15 and 16.
The Battle of Armageddon, The Judgement, The New Heaven and Earth are in Chapters 19 to 22.
This is the chronological order of the 7 Seals, 7 Trumpets and 7 Bowls.
The Narrative of Revelation goes like this: (Main Part.)
Narrative Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, 22.
Parethetical Chapters: 7 12, 13, 14 17, 18
The insertion of parenthetical chapters at intervals in the timeline, is the writers way of highlighting or giving extra information of events that occur within the timeline or events that are happening at the same time.
i.e What is happening in Heaven at the same time as things are happening on earth.
Remember a parenthetical remark or in this case a Chapter, is said in addition to the main part of what you are saying. Which chapters are parenthetical chapters in the Book of Revelation?
Chapter 7: The sealing of the 144000 and the appearing of the Tribulation saints in Heaven . Additional information, that happens between the 6th and 7th Seal.Chapters 12, 13, 14: A recap of what happened in the Great Tribulation of Chapters 5 and 6. Chapters 17 & 18: Information re The fall of Babylon, which occurs during the end of the Great Tribulation and the Wrath of God, which is from the end of Chapter 6 to Chapter 11.
When reading the whole narrative of the book of Revelation, it is very plain, that the New Heaven and Earth could not precede the Great Tribulation. Nor could the seven year covenant happen after the Wrath of God.
Each event has it’s place in the timeline.
The Chronological timeline after the Introduction and letters to the seven churches is this:
1. The seven year covenant. 2. The Abomination of Desolation. 3. The Great Tribulation. 4. The Rapture of the church. 5. The Wrath of God. 6. The Battle of Armageddon. 7. The Judgement. 8. The New Heaven and Earth.
This is the chronological timeline that shows events happening one after the other.
However this narrative is paused at certain places and the writer gives additional information in the form of parenthetical chapters.
This in no way takes away from the chronology of events but simply adds extra information to the narrative.
This added information tells us about other things that happened within the timeline, or events that where happening in heaven, at the same time that things were occurring on earth.
If one was writing a biographical account of someone’s life, a timeline of the persons life would explain about his birth, his childhood, his teenage years, his 20s, 30s, 40s and so on.
This would probably take up quite a few chapters of the book. Around chapter 15, the writer may be giving an account of his 21st year.
The writer could at this point in the story pause for a while and return to the fourth chapter that dealt with the subject of his tenth year.
There may be something that happened in the subjects life when he was 10 yrs old that was relevant to his behaviour in his 20s.
This new information that is added at this point into the narrative would be described as “Parenthetical”.
This new addition in no way breaks the chronology of the overall narrative it just gives additional information that happened at a certain point in the subjects life.
The writer could also, knowing the future narrative, insert something relative to the future life of the subject or some event that was occurring in some other place at the same time.
Again this would not take away from the chronology of the whole life story of the individual.
This is what happens in the book of Revelation:
The writer John writes the chronological events through chapters one to six which includes the first six seals being opened and then there is a pause at the end of chapter 6.
He then adds a parenthetical chapter, namely, chapter seven. The information in chapter seven is concerning the sealing of the 144,000 witnesses from the tribes of Israel and the Tribulation saints appearing in Heaven.
He then continues the chronology of events picking up the narrative in chapter eight. The seventh seal is then opened, which instigates the seven trumpets.
This begins the Wrath of God.
He continues the narrative up to chapter eleven and then again inserts three more parenthetical chapters, 12, 13 and 14.
In these chapters he gives further additional information that deals with signs that appear in Heaven, relative to things that occurred sometime earlier .
This happens again after chapter 16, with the parenthetical chapters of 17 and 18,
where John highlights events that again took place earlier in the timeline.
These parenthetical chapters are added information to the chronological events of the last days.
Note, that from the meaning of “Parenthesis”. A word or phrase ( or in this case, a chapter) inserted as an explanation, added information, a deeper understanding or afterthought into a passage which is grammatically complete without it.
Conclusion:
The book of Revelation reveals the chronology of events that happen during the last days of this present age on the earth.
Remember also, that these events are happening in “Time”.
From a Biblical point of view, time is in eternity and there are events occurring in the heavenly realm at the same time.
The narrative is interrupted at certain intervals with parenthetical chapters that give added information contained in the chronology or things that are occurring elsewhere at the same time.
The object of this leaflet is to show that the Book of Revelation can be read and understood by a literal reading of chronological events. The fact that there are chapters that seem to suggest the book is not chronological, can be understood, when we see that certain chapters are pauses in the narrative and are deliberately inserted to give an exploded view of earlier events or an explanation of things that are occurring at the same time as those that are happening on earth.
E.G. A record of someones life.
The life story begins at birth and continues through childhood, then through the following years into adulthood and old age.
At the time of the persons twenty first year, the writer may insert a chapter that relates back to a childhood year, or the writer could jump forward to a time in the persons sixtieth year.
The writer could if they please insert a chapter of an event that ran parallel to a particular time in the subjects life.
These would be considered parenthetical chapters..
However they do not take away from the chronology of the story of the persons life.
