Who are the People Described in Revelation 6:15-17?

Revelation 6:15
And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;

Revelation 6:16
And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:

Revelation 6:17
For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

There are those who teach that the people described in Revelation 6:15-17 are the elect of God. An honest study of the Word of God easily proves that such an idea is simply untenable when comparing Scripture with Scripture.

1 Corinthians 2:13
Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

Thankfully, God has not left us in darkness about who these people are.

Revelation 6:16
And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:

By comparing this verse with what we read in Deuteronomy 32, we find our first clue as to their true identity and what these rocks in actual fact represent.

Deuteronomy 32:31
For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.

Deuteronomy 32:32
For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter:

Deuteronomy 32:33
Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps…



Deuteronomy 32:37
And he shall say, Where are their gods, their rock in whom they trusted,

Deuteronomy 32:38
Which did eat the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink offerings? let them rise up and help you, and be your protection.

God says that natural, unregenerate man trusts in every other rock, other than Christ Jesus, Who is the true “Rock”.

Notice, He tells them to call upon the rocks (false gods, in fact, anything other than the True God in whom men seek refuge) to “rise up and help you, and be your potection” (Deuteronomy 32:28).

And so, this is the character of natural man. They trust in lying words, false christs, false gospels, false religions, the false ideas of men, and every other thing that opposes the truth to protect them in times of trouble. They put their trust in gods who cannot save (Isaiah 45:20). How sad it will be for many on that great day who shall shall seek refuge in their false christs which inevitably arise from the false gospels of lying men to protect them and hide them from the wrath to come. They shall say “Lord, Lord, have we not, did we not…” But the Lord Jesus shall say “I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” (Matthew 7:22-24).

If we turn now to Jeremiah 51:25 we see a further clue in uncovering just who these people are that we have read about in Revelation 6.

Jeremiah 51:25
Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith the LORD, which destroyest all the earth: and I will stretch out mine hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain.

God says that the “destroying mountain” (which represents Babylon) will be rolled away, exposing the rocks, that is, as we have seen in Deuteronomy 32:31-38, the false gods in whom they take shelter and in whom they trust.

So, although they call upon the mountains and rocks to protect them, hide them, and cover them from the wrath of the Lamb, God will strip it all away and they will have nothing to hide behind. On the last day they shall be found spiritually naked before the judgment throne of God, without any place to hide.

The clearest passage of Scripture which identifies these people is found in the tenth chapter of Hosea, and proves without a shadow of a doubt that Almighty God, in Revelation 6 is speaking of those who are without Jesus Christ as their Saviour.

Hosea 10:8
The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed: the thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars; and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us.

Hosea 10:9
O Israel, thou hast sinned from the days of Gibeah: there they stood: the battle in Gibeah against the children of iniquity did not overtake them.

We will finish by looking at two more passages of Scripture found in both the Old and the New Testament which lead us to the same conclusion that he have come to thus far.

Isaiah 2:12
For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low:



Isaiah 2:17
And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.

Isaiah 2:18
and the idols he shall utterly abolish.

Isaiah 2:19
And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the LORD and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.

Isaiah 2:20
In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats;

Isaiah 2:21
To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.

Clearly the above verses are talking about the ungodly who trusted in idols – and indeed these idols shall be worthless on that great day and will be of no help or comfort to them.

These verses cannot be separated from the verses that we are looking at in Revelation chapter 6, in fact they speak of the same event, and therefore we can safely conclude that the people of Revelation 6:15-17 are the reprobate found in Babylon on the last day who have taken pleasure in unrighteousness, believed the lie, and loved not the truth (2 Thessalonians 2:10-12).

This is further clarified in the twenty third chapter of the gospel of Luke.

Luke 23:30
Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us.

This is a clear statement of the timing of the end of the world. People are hiding from the Lord Jesus Christ when He is coming as the Judge of all the earth at the end of time, to take “vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thessalonians 1:7-10).

Copyright © 2011 By Chris – http://www.TestAllThings.com