Revelation 11:18: And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.

In Revelation 11:16-17, the 24 Elders who are exaltation-worthy saints in heaven sing a song to praise Christ for the establishment of his earthly kingdom at the Second Coming.¹ The song continues in this verse² as both an introduction and overview of what Christ will do to establish his kingdom in chapters 15 through 19, as he destroys all earthly kingdoms during the Third Woe.³

John used the prophetic past tense to describe the nations that Christ will destroy without fail, saying, the nations were angry.⁴ The angry nations are corrupt governments and evil institutions,⁵ including all the wicked (telestial) people⁶ of Modern Babylon.⁷ They will already be angry and filled with rage⁸ when Christ's wrath is come upon them during the Second Woe.⁹ The rage-filled anger and hatred of wicked people will reach a boiling point as the seven-year battle of Armageddon reaches its climax.¹⁰ God's wrath will then be poured out on the angry nations during the Third Woe¹¹ until his complete wrath is come.¹² Metaphorically speaking, God's wrath during the Third Woe will pour out on the wicked like liquid released without restraint from a wide-mouth bowl called a vial.¹³ For this reason, the seven final plagues of the Third Woe are called Vial Plagues.¹⁴ The seven Vial Plagues will cleanse the earth of all the angry nations, mortal people, and evil spirits until the earth is transformed into a terrestrial paradise.¹⁵

The time of the dead in Revelation 11:18 refers specifically to the Third Woe,¹⁶ when physical death and spiritual death will come as a judgment of vengeance¹⁷ upon all wicked people¹⁸ and evil spirits still on the earth.¹⁹ All telestial-worthy people will physically die during the Third Woe,²⁰ including those that survive the physical battle of Armageddon during the Second Woe as stated in Revelation 9:21-22.²¹ The Second Woe will undoubtedly be a time when many people die as the armies of 200 million men clash in conflict. However, the Second Woe is not called the time of the dead because only a third part of men‒qualitatively speaking‒will die as stated in Revelation 9:18.

All evil spirits on the earth will also die spiritually during the Third Woe. These evil spirits are of two kinds,²² including: (1) the unembodied spirit sons of perdition²³ that were cast down to earth with Satan at the time of the creation,²⁴ and (2) the disembodied spirit sons of perdition, which are spirits of the dead²⁵ that have been loosed on the earth since at least the resurrection of Jesus Christ.²⁶ During the Third Woe all disembodied spirits will be cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone²⁷ where they will suffer the second death permanently.²⁸ The unembodied spirits will be separately bound in the bottomless pit.²⁹ There they continue to suffer spiritual death³⁰ until they are loosed again after the 1000-year period of the millennium.³¹

The unembodied and disembodied spirits share the name of perdition, which means destruction.³² They are in very deed the destroyers of the earth through their evil influence.³³ However, the influence of these destroyers will be destroyed during the Third Woe as these evil spirits are consigned to the lake of fire or bound in the bottomless pit.³⁴ Telestial-worthy people are also destroyers of the earth and they must be destroyed during the Third Woe.³⁵ Therefore, the Third Woe is truly the time of the dead when Christ will destroy them³⁶ that destroy the earth.³⁷ Wicked mortals and evil spirits shall reap what they have sown in the time of the dead during the Third Woe.³⁸

Some scholars believe that the time of the dead refers to dead martyrs whose blood will be avenged during the Third Woe.³⁹ This includes the martyrs represented by the 24 Elders who fall on their faces and worship God in Revelation 11:6.⁴⁰ However, since these righteous martyrs will be resurrected at the end of the Second Woe, just before the start of the Third Woe,⁴¹ it seems unlikely that the time of the dead refers to them. Other scholars more correctly observe that the time of the dead refers to the resurrected status of the dead during the Third Woe.⁴²

The morning of the first resurrection⁴³ will resume with the resurrection of the Two Witnesses at the end of the Second Woe and just before the Third Woe. The resurrection of exaltation-worthy saints comes very soon before the Second Coming. They will be caught up to meet Christ in the clouds of heaven⁴⁴ to stand with him on mount Zion as described in Revelation 14:1. This is the Lord's reward⁴⁵ to his servants the prophets⁴⁶ and the saints, who will be protected during the time of the dead during the Third Woe.⁴⁷ The saints are those that fear his name,⁴⁸ small and great.⁴⁹ This broad characterization appears to include terrestrial-worthy people who survive the calamities of the Third Woe on earth.⁵⁰ They will survive beyond the time of the dead during the Third Woe because they are the honorable people of the earth.⁵¹