Book Review: Earthquake Resurrection

Are we already in the seal judgments?

In his book Earthquake Resurrection: Supernatural Catalyst for the Coming Global Catastrophe, Bible researcher David W. Lowe has put together a prophetic model of both past and future events that is not quite like anything I'd heard before as a student of Bible prophecy. His model is a departure from what's typically taught and believed in dispensational circles, but it's based on careful and thorough exegesis and, while I don't agree with all of his interpretations or conclusions, over all he makes an extremely compelling case for his main thesis.

Central to this thesis are two earthquakes mentioned in scripture -- one in Matthew 27 & 28, and one in Revelation 11. While the first one appears at first glance to take place at the death of Christ on the cross, a parenthetical statement in Matthew 27:53 makes it clear that it occurred in conjunction with his resurrection (and chapter 28 reiterates that an earthquake accompanied the resurrection). Not only that, but the resurrection power that raised Jesus to immortal life and apparently caused the earthquake that opened his tomb also opened other tombs and raised "the bodies of many saints."

Here's one of the places where I don't follow Lowe's reasoning. He assumes that these saints were also raised to immortal bodies, and not simply resuscitated, and he also assumes that "many" means "a vast multitude." He argues that such a number would have to include Old Testament saints who had been long dead and would therefore have to have been given new resurrection bodies, and goes on to speculate that these resurrected Jewish saints will return during the Tribulation as the 144,000. I don't follow -- for one thing, "many" can simply mean "more than a few," and considering the mortality rate back then, I have no trouble believing that enough devout Jewish people had recently died and been entombed around the same time as Jesus to qualify as "many," and thus there would be no need for them to receive imperishable bodies rather than simply be revived to life. And I tend to believe that if 144,000 people came out of their graves and appeared to people, the Bible would have given that occasion more ink than a seemingly offhand parenthetical statement in just one of the synoptic gospels. As for connecting them to the 144,000, his reasoning strikes me as being quite a stretch. But none of this has any impact on his main thesis.

(Sidebar: all of this makes me wonder whether the thief who expressed faith on the cross next to Jesus was among the people who were raised.)

The second earthquake in Revelation 11 occurs just as the two witnesses, after lying in the street dead for three days, are raised to life and then raptured up to Heaven as the whole world watches. This earthquake is powerful enough to topple a tenth of Jerusalem and kill 7,000 people.

Based on this seemingly causative, link between God's resurrection power and earthquakes, Lowe posits that the earthquake and subsequent events in the sixth seal judgment in Revelation 6 are triggered by the global resurrection and rapture of the Church.

From there, he makes a solid exegetical case that Jesus received the scroll and began opening the seals the moment he arrived in Heaven following his ascension, and that the first five seals are the birth pangs that Jesus spoke of in Matthew 24. According to this phrophecy model, the Day of the Lord arrives with the opening of the sixth seal, and the 70th week of Daniel's prophecy begins with the trumpet judgements.

I have to tell you, he makes a very compelling case. As someone who has long agreed with the traditional dispensational pre-trib prophecy charts, when I first heard this view described by Derek and Sharon Gilbert on their Unraveling Revelation series, I was quick to dismiss it. But as I aim to be teachable, and to give everything a fair shake, I put aside my cognitive dissonance and began carefully searching the scriptures to see if it was so. Even before I broke down and ordered this book, scripture itself did a pretty good job of overcoming my objections as I realized a few things:

1. That my primary objections, such as the identity of the 24 elders, are based on assumptions (and maybe a little wishful thinking) and not on anything in the actual text. In fact, upon closer examination, it's pretty clear to me that the 24 elders can't represent the Church. Also, grammatically, the argument that the panicked unbelievers in Revelation 6:17 are referring to all of the seal judgments as God's wrath and not just the events of the 6th seal (an argument I've often made myself) doesn't really work. Grammatically, it seems more clear that the day of wrath has arrived with the opening of the 6th seal.

2. The seal judgments actually line up perfectly with the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24). So perfectly that I can't believe I didn't see it before, but now I can't unsee it.

3. The link between resurrections to immortality and earthquakes is undeniable. With that in mind, it's hard to believe that the raising of billions of believers to eternal life at the same moment WOULDN'T cause a global cataclysm.

This book, once I started reading it, confirmed my realizations and also provided several new ones. I don't have time to get into everything here, but here are some of the things that stood out to me:

- "After these things" in Rev. 4 could simply be referring to John's first vision and writing of the letters to the churches, and the throne room scene he's shown after that. We tend to read in that "these things" refers to the Church age and assume that the throne room scene occurs after this age is finished.

- Rev. 5 opens with there being no one in heaven, on earth or under the earth worthy to open the seals. This has always bothered me. Where is Jesus? John has time to break down in tears over this conundrum before Jesus suddenly appears to take the scroll. Lowe concludes that this chapter begins during Jesus' ascent to Heaven from Earth, moments before his arrival and before he has sat down at the right hand of the Father. This would place the initial opening of the seals _before_ the Pentecost and the beginning of the Church age.

- Many assume that the White Rider of the first seal is the person of the Antichrist. But considering that the other riders appear to be spirit beings, it makes more sense to me that this is the spirit of Antichrist, which John tells us in his first epistle is already in the world. Lowe sees this as being a false religious spirit that goes forth to conquer in the name of Christ, distorting the Church into a powerful religious and political institution that it was never intended to be. I think this is consistent with the spirit of Antichrist -- offering a very seductive and convincing (and ultimately destructive) alternative to true Christianity.

- Exegetical evidence that the souls of the martyrs awaiting justice are a different group than the Tribulation martyrs (seen later in Revelation), and a compelling argument that it makes more sense for them to be asking when they'll be avenged if these are OT and Church-age martyrs who don't know how much longer they'll have to wait than Tribulation martyrs who should already know that God's wrath is underway and it'll all be done in a few years.

- That -- if this timeline is correct -- the fullness of the Church-age martyrs is a side-by-side criteria with the fullness of the gentiles for determing God's timing for the rapture.

Which, assuming Lowe is right about the 5th seal representing Church-age persecution and martyrdom, makes me think these two criteria go hand-in-hand. Extreme persecution tends to backfire on the enemy by resulting in MORE people coming to the Lord, so it could be that as last days persecution ramps up, we'll see more people coming to Christ, as well as more people being martyred for the faith, and the fullness of both the gentiles and of the martyrs may well be reached at the same time. That makes sense to me, but then, even before I encountered this view, I was already thinking that persecution would ramp up and result in sifting the Church and bringing in the fullness of the gentiles. Of course, this is all speculation, but even if this timeline is incorrect, I think we still need to be preparing for major persecution here in the West.

- Jesus "appearing in the clouds like lightning" doesn't only mean that he'll be visible across the whole sky, but that he'll be there in a flash and gone the next. This description certainly seems more consistent with the rapture than with the second coming, when he'll return to the earth accompanied by the entire heavenly host and split the Mount of Olives in two when he lands.

- Evidence in Matthew's geneology that God measures generations according to His covenants, not according to human years, which, if true, throws our attempts to determine the length in years of the "Fig Tree generation" out the window.

So, with all of that in view, I guess the big question is: am I convinced?

I'm convinced that a lot of what I thought I knew and what I thought was based on careful exegesis was not as careful as I thought, and that we all need to be SO careful about not trying to force scripture to fit our pet ideas or viewing it through a framework instead of the other way around. And even before I encountered this view or read this book, I was growing frustrated and impatient with the world of prophecy watchers and teachers over a tendency to hold speculation as truth and treat theories as facts.

As far as whether the six seals are leading UP TO the Tribulation and the first five are already in play, I think that's a possibility, but we can't really know for certain. I tend to think that makes more sense, though. Ultimately, I don't think it really matters all that much to us from a practical standpoint whether the seals are the birthpangs leading up to the rapture and ending with the dawn of the Day of the Lord, or whether they're all part of God's wrath unleashed during the first half of the Tribulation. It's certainly not worth arguing over, so if you're attached to your timeline and wholeheartedly reject this one, more power to you. But I think, at the very least, it's worth considering as you do your due diligence and study what scripture actually says on the matter.

But as far as the link between earthquakes and resurrections? That's undeniable. And I think we all need to take a moment to let it sink in what that means -- what it's going to be like on the earth when billions of dead believers all over the world are raised to immortal life all at the same time, while that same power also transforms "in the twinkling of an eye" those of us who are still alive. Lowe speculates a cataclysmic, planet-wide earthquake that will change global geography and shift the earth's axis to a degree that will literally shorten the days during the Tribulation and return the world to a 360-day year. He also speculates that the stars "falling" from the sky in both Revelation 6 and Matthew 24 describe what it will look like during this giant earthquake when the planet suddenly shifts and the stars appear to streak across the sky, kind of like how it looks when they go to light speed in Star Wars.

(I have my own speculation that involves satellites falling out of orbit -- Starlink, anyone?)

If this actually does happen concurrently with the opening of the 6th seal, then we see that the world's leaders, as they flee to their underground bases and bunkers, as well as the people who are left behind, KNOW beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Day of the Lord has arrived and their time of judgement has come. God is going to announce Himself in such a way and make His resumption of direct interference in human affairs so blatantly obvious that there ain't no way anybody is going to be fooled into believing aliens are responsible.

Another thing Lowe points out is that, while scripture says we'll be changed in the twinkling of an eye, it doesn't say that's how we'll be caught up. I think that the sky rolling up like a scroll is perhaps a very visible portal opening up between the earth and Heaven, and our ascent will be plainly visible, just as was Jesus' ascent and as will be that of the Two Witnesses.

This is not the sudden, mysterious disappearance of believers as in the Left Behind scenario. This is the very visible, very public herald of the Day of the Lord.

I think we also need to think about the massive devastation and death that will follow in the wake of such a global cataclysm. If you're someone who is thinking and hoping that your unsaved loved ones will still have time to come to faith after they realize they've been left behind, that may not be the case. This should ignite an even greater sense of urgency in us to pray for our lost loved ones, share the gospel and warn people that they're running out of time.

One final thought -- in the wake of all of this world-wide destruction and chaos, not only will the geography of the planet change, but I think probably also will the geopolitical landscape. Many of the people whom we're assuming will be players in setting up and running the Beast's kingdom may well be killed when this happens. I think probably it's out of all this catastrophic destruction that the 10 Kings and their kingdoms will emerge, ultimately giving their power to the Antichrist.

All in all, I heartily recommend this book. But even more, I hope you'll be a Berean and humbly and prayerfully search the relevant passages of scripture mentioned above to arrive at your own conclusion. If you'd like to know more, you can watch a two-part interview with David Lowe below, and here's where you can get his book.

And for balance, here's a recent Prophecy Watchers podcast in which they discuss the Sixth Seal. While they dispute the view that the Seal judgements precede the Tribulation or that we're already in them, they seem to be addressing the view that the Seals started recently, in 2020 or 2012. They don't really address this view that the Seal judgements are the birth pangs and have been in play for the last 2,000 years. They also seem to make some of the interpretive assumptions I described above.

It all comes down to what this whole newsletter is all about: know your Bible, seek the Spirit's leading, be a Berean, test everything and think for yourself!

Until next time, may you grow in grace and knowledge and be led into all the truth.