"These plagues cannot be interpreted in a literal sense." "It is difficult indeed to believe that any such happenings as these would take place in history." Some who see this, however, fail utterly to come up with an answer as to just what is symbolized. It is the literalism of scholars, quite unconsciously in many, it seems, that totally dismantles the efforts of some to understand this marvelous chapter. This perversion of the moral and cultural world of mankind will be the final culmination of evil upon the earth, presenting the true saints of God with their final and most effective challenge. What they represent is the total corruption of earth's environment, not the physical environment which is here used as a symbol, but the moral, intellectual, religious, and spiritual environment.
This is the famed chapter of the bowls and what we have here is a "free adaptation, with modifications and amplifications," of the series of trumpet judgments depicted in Revelation 8 and Revelation 9, which "the prophet wishes to emphasize by recapitulation." "These bowls are final but not complete." God's saints are not harmed by them.