During a trip to a rural parish a church brother raised an interesting discussion, which seems to turn into an informal Bible study on Revelation 15. He told me that another brother indicated to him how that scene presented in verses 2-4 where the saints are standing on the sea of glass could be cited as proof to support the idea of a secret rapture, which is said to precede the great tribulation and the mark-of-the-beast crisis.

From a surface examination of the text it would seems to be so; from the outset, it would appear that the saints were already taken to heaven before the "wrath of God" is poured out. But on closer scrutiny we can observe at least one instance where this text just cannot fit into the rapture theory as it initially appeared. Concerning the saints who were seen on the sea of glass, the Bible said that they were victorious over the beast and his image! Even from a peripheral reading of the text it is clear that the saints will have some encounter with the crisis involving the mark of the beast. This will make the idea of a rapture untenable since it is supposed to come before the mark-of-the-beast event.

Despite the fact that we were able to establish that this text provides no evidence for a secret rapture, we were not able to explain the difficulty with explaining why the saints are represented as being in heaven just before the execution of divine judgment in the seven last plagues.

This conversation seems to be one of those discussions that would motivate anybody interested in Bible prophecy to get into a meaningful Bible study on Revelation. It certainly set me on a project to find the answers to what seems to be a somewhat tricky chapter in the book of Revelation. But when you come across challenges like these you must always be motivated in the belief that God always provides an answer for every difficulty in the Bible. We must learn to allow difficulties like these to stir up our minds to study the scriptures with more diligence and enthusiasm instead of throwing down the Bible in despair.

Actually, I got this problem solved in a twenty-minute Bible study on Revelation 14 and 15. What I realized is that you cannot understand chapter 15 without consulting the preceding chapter. And that is one of the reasons why we should study the chapters in the book of Revelation in coordination because the theme of one chapter sometimes flows into another chapter in a way that you will not readily notice. This particular situation has taught me the lesson that Bible study on Revelation would be meaningless if you cannot see an orderly progression of last-day events.

When I studied both chapters as having a connection, I can clearly see how the later chapters (16-20) fit into the whole picture. When you read the latter part of chapter 14 going into the fifteenth chapter, you will see where the Bible employs the principle of repetition and enlargement. Repetition and enlargement is a principle, often seen in Bible prophecy, where a particular event is mentioned twice; the first mention is in summary, while the second mention provides more details. Here is how this principle is illustrated (I wont be going into details; you can do a more detailed Bible study on Revelation 14 and 15 to verify what I am saying here).

In Revelation 14:14-20 the following events are mentioned:

The harvest of the earth. This harvest is clearly what would follow after the gospel proclamation spoken of in verses 6-12. This time of reaping seems to fall in line with the parable of the harvest in Matthew 13:24-30.

The clusters of the vine are cast into the great winepress of the wrath of God. This is a synopsis of how sinners will be punished by the seven last plagues. This event is fully documented in the sixteenth chapter. This death sentence on the impenitent will reach its apex in the destruction of Babylon in the latter part of chapter 16, flowing into chapters 17,18, and the first three verses of chapter 19.

The treading of the winepress outside the city (Rev. 14:20). This is in reference to the Second Coming of Christ in chapter 19:11-21. It is said that Christ "treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God" (vs 15).

The saints stand on the sea of glass (Revelation 15:2-4). It was at this point in my Bible study on Revelation 15 that I was able to see where we went wrong. The mistake that we made is to assume that because the seven last plagues is introduced in the opening verse, everything that comes after it is a subsequent event. Here is why this is not the case. After relating the vision of the saints singing the song of Moses and the Lamb in verses 2-4, here is what John says in the next verse,

"And AFTER that I looked, and, behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened: And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues......" Rev. 15:5, 6. (Emphasis supplied)

This is a clear suggestion that it was after the scene of the saints on the sea of glass that John beheld the seven angels! Therefore, this vision of the saints singing the song of the Lamb is a continuation of the summary that began in chapter 14, the details of which are found in chapter 20. Right after the treading of the winepress in chapter 19, the narrative flows into chapter 20 where it mentions the same group of saints "which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands" Rev. 20:4.

In your Bible study on Revelation 14 and 15, in connection to chapters 16-20, you will see a clear narrative progression as outlined below:

The first reaping of the earth (the gathering of the saints after the gospel proclamation),

The second reaping - the casting of the vine into the winepress of the wrath of God (the seven last plagues).

The treading of the winepress outside the city (the Second Coming of Christ)

The saints who got victory over the beast and his image stands on the sea of glass (judgment was given to them and they reign with Christ for a thousand years).