It is important to first understand, as we take up this passage, that all seven of the vials here in Revelation 16 do not necessarily come in a strictly chronological order. Some of them might be. But the seven vials go together as one unit. That is true of the seals and of the trumpets too. The first four seals are the four horsemen that run. But it is not the case that the first horse (the white horse) runs, and then only when he is done running does the second horse (the red one) run, and then only when he is finished the third one. Rather, the four horsemen run at the same time. They function as a unit. So too with the vials. We must look at them really as one whole, as one unit. So though our interest [in this lecture] is especially in that sixth vial that reveals the battle of Armageddon, we have to take the other six vials into consideration as well in order to fully understand this battle. They all go together.1
Cory Griess
1 Then I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels, “Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.”