Revelation 16:10: And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,

In Revelation 16:10, the fifth Vial Plague of the Third Woe pours out darkness upon the seat of the beast to reverse the effects of the fifth trumpet plague called the First Woe. The plague of the fifth trumpet angel (First Woe) and fifth Vial Plague are antithetically symmetrical.¹ This means that during the First Woe in Revelation 9:1-11, a cloud of spiritual darkness will ascend from the bottomless pit to engulf the earth² and during the fifth Vial Plague spiritual darkness will descend upon and engulf the seat of the beast. The symbolic images of ascending and descending spiritual darkness are mirror opposites.

At the time of the First Woe the cloud of darkness will symbolically ascend from hell in Revelation chapter 9 as unembodied and disembodied spirit sons of perdition, called devils or demons,³ are given much greater power on earth than what they now possess. John's vision shows this symbolically with the image of swarming locusts that are unleashed upon the earth⁴ with all the accumulated powers of hell.⁵ In this swarm of evil spirits from the bottomless pit, Satan is king over the unembodied spirit sons of perdition that have been with him since the beginning.⁶ Cain is king over the disembodied spirits of those that die as mortal sons of perdition.⁷ Satan promised to give this power and kingship to Cain when Cain killed his brother Abel. The realization of that promise literally occurred when the disembodied spirit of Cain ascended from the sea (abyss) in the image of the First Beast in 70 AD with the power of the Dragon as recorded in Revelation 4 and 13:1.⁸

The powers of spiritual darkness that exist on the earth today, and those that will be unleashed during the First Woe, must be removed from the earth as part of its spiritual cleansing before the millennium. This spiritual cleansing will begin when the fifth angel pour[s] out his vial upon the seat of the beast.⁹ This image symbolically depicts how evil spirits (both unembodied and disembodied) will begin to lose their earthly power and influence¹⁰ and they will gnaw their tongues for pain.¹¹ They will be tormented by the spiritual darkness that will engulf the seat of the beast in hell.¹²

The darkness in Revelation 16:10 is spiritual, not physical.¹³ Many scholars take the opposite view because the physical darkness of the ninth Egyptian plague¹⁴ is assumed to foreshadow the darkness of the fifth Vial Plague.¹⁵ The foreshadow exists, but the physical darkness of Egypt foreshadows the spiritual darkness of the fifth Vial Plague.

The spiritual darkness that exists on earth today darkens the minds of many people.¹⁶ The darkness holds them captive to Satan in the chains of hell.¹⁷ During the role-reversal of the fifth Vial Plague, Satan and all other evil spirits will become the captives to the darkness that engulfs the seat of the beast (bottomless pit)¹⁸ until it becomes full of darkness,¹⁹ disorder, and chaos.²⁰ The seat of the beast will be filled with spiritual darkness as the light of Christ's glory rises from the east at the Second Coming²¹ to disperse darkness from off the earth.²² The spiritual darkness that fills the seat of the beast is the first preparatory step that leads to the spiritual battle of Armageddon that begins in Revelation 16:13.²³

The antithetical images of the fifth trumpet angel (First Woe), and the fifth Vial Plague of the Third Woe are rather remarkable. In these related images, the spiritual darkness that ascends on earth during the First Woe is a preparatory precursor to Physical Armageddon during the Second Woe in Revelation chapter 9.²⁴ The spiritual darkness that descends upon the seat of the beast during the fifth Vial Plague is a preparatory precursor to Spiritual Armageddon that begins in Revelation 16:13. Thus, the evil spirits that will be completely unleashed on earth during the First Woe will be completely leashed during the Third Woe. Spiritual Armageddon won't end until all disembodied spirit sons of perdition are consigned to the lake of fire in Revelation 19:20, and all unembodied spirit sons of perdition are bound in the bottomless pit in Revelation 20:1-3.²⁵

Revelation 16:11: And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.

When the spirit sons of perdition (both unembodied and disembodied) are subjected to intense suffering during the fifth Vial Plague they will blaspheme the God of heaven.²⁶ They will do so because they know that the God of heaven is the source of their torment²⁷ and they repent[] not of their deeds.²⁸ Their willful refusal to repent is their defining trait that qualifies them to remain in outer darkness (hell) forever.²⁹ This is true for all unembodied sons of perdition who remain without physical bodies forever, and all disembodied sons of perdition who will be resurrected, but will then exist forever in the same kingdom of complete physical and spiritual darkness.³⁰