From the Book of Revelation    153 

during the first six seals, but will be spared many of the sufferings which will 

follow. 

    This pattern will also be repeated in the time of the nearly seven years of 

the Church's greatest suffering (about 400 years later). For nearly seven 

years, Christians will suffer severely, along with many unbelievers and 

sinners. Then, at the end of that time, after the Antichrist is cast down, there 

will be a series of worse sufferings, which fall only on the wicked (called the 

Seven Bowls of God's Wrath). The faithful will be preserved from these 

punishments. 

    In both cases, the last set of punishments, those from which God's 

servants are preserved, are more severe and come more directly from God. 

The earlier sufferings are more from human actions or from nature (each 

occurring under God's Providence). 

The Great Multitude (Rev 7:9 17) 

     After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no man could 

number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues, 

standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with 

palm branches in their hands....  (Rev 7:9). 

    The great multitude is those persons who repented from their sins and 

who died during the tribulation, that is, during the time of war and suffering 

described by the six seals. This multitude is described after the passage 

where the servants of God are sealed to protect them from the punishments 

which follow. The multitude is those souls who did not receive the seal of 

God on their foreheads. 

    Some of these may have been holy persons who died before the seal was 

given out. Others may have been among those who did not receive the seal. 

These would include sinners who suffered God's punishment for their sins, 

but who repented and went to Heaven, where they will rejoice and be happy 

forever. The servants of God who receive the seal are not the only souls who 

will be saved. God saves both saints and sinners. 

    Those who received the seal are  mostly  protected from the punishments 

which follow, but they are not immune to death, so it is possible that the 

great multitude mentioned here includes some who received the seal. 

However, this passage mainly refers to those who did not receive the seal, 

who died during the tribulation, and who went to Heaven.