Chapter BY Chapter

Revelation 6

The First Six Seals

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I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, “Come!”  I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.

 

When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!”  Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make people kill each other. To him was given a large sword.

 

When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand.  Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “Two pounds of wheat for a day’s wages, and six pounds of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!”

 

When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!”  I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.

 

When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained.  They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?”  Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers and sisters, were killed just as they had been.

 

I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red,  and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind.  The heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.

 

Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone else, both slave and free, hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains.  They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!  For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can withstand it?”

 

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In chapter 5, we saw that the Lamb was found worthy to take possession of the Book which was sealed like an inheritance deed.  He was worthy to take possession of the book and open it’s seal because he was slain, and with his blood he purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.  The Lamb is referred to in Messianic terms.  Going back to the gospel of John, we saw that

 

Jesus taught that the Messiah must be put to death for the sins of the world.  Out of 353 Messianic prophesies in the Old testament, only 16 are about the nation of the Messiah, and most are about saving people from sin. Chapter 5 refers to the Lamb that was slain in Messianic terms.

 

Now we get to see what happens when the Lamb starts to take possession of his inheritance and opens the first 6 seals.  After each seal is opened, John sees a judgment take place on the people of the earth. 

 

The first seal is opened.

 

“I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, “Come!”  I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.”

 

Opening the first seal reveals a rider on a white horse.  He is a ruler or an authority since he has a crown.  He conquers and is bent on conquering.  This has been equated with certain figures such as the Antichrist or Christ in his second coming.  This cannot be Christ in his second coming because he is bent on conquering.  Jesus won’t be bent on conquering.  He’ll just do it with one word out of his mouth. 

This could be the Antichrist, but that is not necessitated here.  It is simply a ruler that will be powerful and will conquer other nations and have the intent of conquering other nations.  Other have said that this was fulfilled before the Book of Revelation, but in chapter 4, verse one, John is told that he is being shown what must take place after this – in other words, in the future.

Some have said that the white horse is the apostolic church since the horse is white and white represents purity and righteousness.  However, this cannot be since the rider of the white horse is bent on conquering.  He simply rides a white horse because he portrays himself as a good guy.  He is conquering for the sake of conquest.  Since death and war are mentioned here, it is possible that this horseman conquers by the shear threat of his power.

 

The second seal is opened.

 

“When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!”  Then another horse came out, a fiery red one.

Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make people kill each other. To him was given a large sword.”

 

When each of these 4 horsemen are revealed, one of the living creatures say, “Come!”  This is not a call for John, since he is already there, but rather, the living creatures are calling the horsemen to come of work their destruction.

 

This rider personifies war.  It may be a person, but it may also be something other than a person.  This rider is given a large sword signifying that there will be much bloodshed.  With this rider, peace is taken from the earth and people start killing each other.

 

Worldwide bloodshed results from the coming of this rider.

 

Some people have said that each of the 4 horsemen correlate to a specific country, but that just cannot be confirmed.  The horsemen do not need to be countries or rulers, but could be certain systems, or even just conditions of the day.  The white horse could be the United Nations, for instance.  The red horse could be radical Islam.  We will not know exactly precipitates these judgments, but they will be so intense, that it will be known that these judgments are upon the earth.

 

The third seal is opened. 

 

“When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand.  Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “Two pounds of wheat for a day’s wages, and six pounds of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!”

 

Opening the third seal brings about famine.  Famine usually follows war.  A days wages will buy barely enough food for a small family if you buy wheat.  You might be able to feed a large family if you use barley.  But get used to eating cream of wheat 3 times of day because you won’t be able to buy oil to bake it with or wine to make sure you don’t get constipated. 

 

Barnhouse has an interesting comment from his own experience on this.

 

“Just after World War I, I spent a few days in Vienna at the time when misery was very great … There was a shortage of coal and the police had ordered everyone off the streets by nine o’clock. The city was filled with wealthy refugees from Russia and other countries. Walking along the boulevard one afternoon as the crowds were coming out of the opera which began early to conform with the curfew regulations, I saw men with bare feet in the snow, their skeletons covered with rags, their ribs seen through the holes in the cloths with which they attempted to cover their bodies. From time to time there was blood on the snow from their feet. Out of the opera came men escorting women with fortunes in jewels upon them. Never have I seen more wonderful displays in any of the capitals of the earth. The beggars blocked the way to the fine limousines that came for the rich. I saw the men striking the beggars with their canes to clear the way for the women. Poor girls not clad in the gaudy finery of prostitutes, but with poor clothing and in wooden shoes, clattered about clutching at the passerby and offering to sell themselves for a coin which at that moment could be purchased for one five hundredth part of a dollar. Mark well, there was no famine in Vienna. There was scarcity in the midst of plenty, but there was no hurt to the luxuries.”

(Barnhouse, pp. 127-128)

 

The rider of the black horse is given a scale.  This implies that the food is carefully rationed to every person.  This also implies that every daily function of a person’s life is controlled or regulated by a governmental authority.  In other words, everyone is under a socialist form of government.  The idea behind socialism is that if you make sure everyone has the same, then there is no crime because everyone is equally provided for.  The fallacy of this idea is that you spend so much on trying to equalize everything that you soon run out of resources.  By the time you hand out the two pounds of wheat to the fourth person, the first person did some work for the second person for a pound of wheat and the third person sole the last pound of wheat the second guy had.  Venezuela is an example of this.  Venezuela is a very rich country with vast oil resources.  Yet, they have people starving and rioting constantly.  There are always going to be people who want more.  So, when you take away their right to make more legally, then they will resort to crime or cheating.

 

The fourth seal is opened.

 

“When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” 8 I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.”

 

The fourth rider has a name – Death!  And Hades was following close behind him.  In Revelation 1:18, Jesus said he has the keys to death and hades.  Now he has let them loose for judgment!  Hades and death are given the power to kill a full quarter of the earth’s population.  The color here in Greek is “chloros,” the word that we get chlorophyll from.  It means green.  It is surely a sick looking horse.  Translators mistakenly translate it as a “pale horse.”  God can make any color of horse he wants.  The reason that the horse is green is because a decomposing corpse turns green.  The Black Death, caused by the bacterium Yersinia Pestis, wiped out 30 percent of Europe's population between 1347 and 1351.  Imagine that happening to the whole world!  Famine follows war and disease follows famine. The horsemen are given authority to bring 4 plagues upon the land, which is a summary of the all the covenantal curses in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28.  It also parallels God's list of His four basic categories of curses with which He punishes the wicked and disobedient nations:  Ezekiel 5:17 and 14:21.  This should not be a surprise though.  War is always followed by famine, and famine is always followed by disease. 

Already, these judgments have caused the deaths of ¼ of the world population, and these judgments are just getting started.  There are three seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowls of wrath to go. 

 

The fifth seal is opened.

 

“When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained.  They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?”  Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers and sisters, were killed just as they had been.”

 

What is the judgment in that?

 

Going to heaven is a reward.  And these martyrs are rewarded with a white robe. 

 

Is a reward a judgment? (Yes)

 

Is there any punishment for these people?

 

(They could have believed in Jesus before the tribulation started, but since they waited, they had to become martyrs).

 

“Because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained.” or we could translate, “on account of the witness which they continually had.” The Greek text uses the imperfect tense of the repeated and continuous witness these saints maintained under the various persecutions that eventually led to their death. Of course, this is all future since this is a prophetic scene of the persecutions of believers in the time of the Tribulation that John is privileged to see.

 

“Testimony” is the Greek word marturia from marturew which means “to bear witness, be a witness, give testimony.” Marturew comes from martus meaning “a witness.” But martus is also translated “martyr” because it is used of those who have witnessed for Christ by their death. These believers will witness for Christ by their life as they hold fast to the Word of God in the midst of a degenerate world, but they will also witness for Christ by their death.

 

Notice that the souls ask how long must they wait till the inhabitants of the earth are judged and their blood avenged.  The answer is for them to wait a little longer till the full number of their fellow Christians are killed.  So there is going to be more martyrs, and perhaps more Christians to come out of the tribulation.  Until the end of the Tribulation believers will suffer persecution and death on behalf of Christ as a proof of their love of Christ, the reality of God, and as a testimony to the world that God is worthy of the creature’s worship and obedience.

 

The sixth seal is opened.

 

“I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red,  and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind.  The heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.”

 

If there is a great earthquake that made every mountain and island fall, there would be so much ash in the sky that the sun would look like it was black, and the moon would look red.  The sun can also look black during an eclipse.  The moon turns red during an eclipse as well.  We also know that there are sun spots on the sun that look black, and scientists have noted that these sunspots have been growing. 

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(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxcEKEpM1e0)

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What would make it look like all the stars disappear?

1. All the galaxies are now going away from us so fast that the light doesn’t reach us anymore. Galaxies are moving at the speed of 1.3 million miles per hour.The speed of light is 670,616,629 mph.The speed at which galaxies are moving away from each other keeps increasing. The time it will take to reach the point where everything will rip apart like this has been estimated to be 20 to 22 Billion years from now.

2. Disappearing stars have also been noted. Stars can undergo physical changes that make them disappear. God can make stars change at will.

3. A curious thing happened at 3:16am on March 17, 2016. The stars briefly disappeared and the sky turned an electric blue.The culprit was a very bright green , or bolide. The color green in a meteor trail typically indicates the presence of magnesium or nickel. () So, a meteor or asteroid could have this effect as well.

I favor possibility #3 – a large meteor or asteroid causes this because we will yet see another 1,000 years on the planet earth.  This would also cause a great earthquake.

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