The Apocalypse
The Revelation of John is the last book of the Bible and the only one that deals throughout with the future. It was written around the year 95 on the island of Patmos, in a time of persecution — and ever since, each age has read it anew against its own catastrophes. Anyone asking today what the Bible says about the Third World War inevitably arrives here: at the horsemen, the trumpets and the bowls of wrath.
Caution is needed. Revelation names no countries, no weapons and no date. It works in images whose interpretation has shifted repeatedly across the centuries — what a sixteenth-century reader took for fulfilment is now considered outdated. The images themselves, however, are strikingly durable: a war that takes peace from the earth; a rule that decides who may buy and sell; a judgment no one can halt.
This page sets out the major sections in order — the seven seals, the seven trumpets, the two beasts, the mark with the number 666, the seven bowls of wrath, and the outcome: the new heaven and the new earth. What seers such as Alois Irlmaier report about the coming war is to be tested against these texts, not the other way round.
The Lamb opens the seals of the scroll, and the riders of the apocalypse go forth.
A rider with a bow and a crown goes forth, conquering and to conquer.
To him it is given to take peace from the earth, that men should kill one another — a great sword.
III
A balance in his hand: dearth and famine, a measure of wheat for a penny.
His rider is named Death, and Hell follows him; power over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, hunger and pestilence.
Under the altar the slain cry for justice and receive white robes.
The sun turns black, the moon like blood, the stars fall; the kings of the earth hide themselves.
VII
Half an hour of silence — then the seven trumpets are made ready.
Mingled with blood it falls on the earth; a third of the trees and all green grass are burnt.
Cast into the sea — a third of the sea becomes blood, a third of the creatures die.
It falls on the rivers and fountains; a third of the waters turn bitter, many die.
A third of the sun, moon and stars is darkened.
From the smoke of the abyss come locusts with the power of scorpions; they torment men five months.
Four angels are loosed; an army of two hundred million slays a third of mankind.
“The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever.”
“And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.”
Revelation 11:3
Two prophets arise — with power to shut heaven, to turn the waters to blood and to smite the earth with every plague. Fire proceeds out of their mouth against their foes. The beast from the abyss kills them; yet after three and a half days the spirit of life enters them, and they ascend to heaven.
Out of the sea rises a beast with seven heads and ten horns, full of names of blasphemy. Power is given to it for forty-two months, and all the inhabitants of the earth worship it.
A second beast rises out of the earth, with two horns like a lamb, yet it speaks like a dragon — the false prophet. It works great signs and makes fire come down from heaven to deceive men.
It makes an image of the first beast and gives it breath, that the image should speak; and whoever will not worship the image is to be killed. And it forces the mark upon all.
“And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads.”
Revelation 13:16
In its thirteenth chapter, the Revelation of John foretells a system that marks the whole human being: no one shall be able to buy or sell who does not bear the mark of the beast — in the right hand or on the forehead. It is total control over commerce, property and life.
Some recognise in the developments of our age the direction of this prophecy: the abolition of cash, digital identity, seamless surveillance — down to technologies such as the under-the-skin “quantum-dot tattoo” that stores data within the human body. Whether as reading or as warning: Scripture calls us to stay watchful and not to be marked.
Upon the men who bear the mark of the beast and worship its image.
As the blood of a dead man; every living thing in the sea dies.
The springs of water become blood — judgment on those who shed blood.
Power is given to the sun to scorch men with fire.
Upon the throne of the beast; its kingdom is darkened, and men gnaw their tongues for pain.
A way is prepared for the kings of the east — to the battle of Armageddon.
A great earthquake such as never was; great Babylon falls, with lightnings, thunder and a mighty hail.
“Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred threescore and six.”
Revelation 13:18
It is not the end of the world. According to the promise of Jesus, God intervenes and shortens the days, “else no flesh should be saved” (Matthew 24:22) — the nuclear undoing is halted before mankind wipes itself out. Yet many lives must fall, and what remains is a new beginning of human history.
The seer Alois Irlmaier beheld the end of the war thus: “Darkness will fall on one day. Then a hailstorm breaks out with lightning and thunder, and an earthquake shakes the earth.” A poisonous dust goes about — “whoever breathes the dust takes a cramp and dies.” Cover the windows with black paper, let the blessed candle burn, stay inside and pray. “After 72 hours it is all over.”
“And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection.”
Revelation 20:4–6
After the apocalypse begins what the prophets have longed for from of old: the thousand-year reign. Christ rules with the righteous, Satan is bound, and the Kingdom of God dawns — the holy reign of peace for which all creation has waited.
“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away.”
Revelation 21:1
To whoever watches and endures to the end, the promise belongs: not destruction, but the new heaven and the new earth. The end of the prophecy is not darkness, but light.
Finis