Revelation Chapter 6

Rev. 6:1, Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals; and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder, "Come and see."

Remember, the scroll is not being opened here, it is just one of the seven seals that the scroll is bound with and what is written on that seal happens before the next seal is broken.

Where were we introduced to the four living creatures? In chapter four, we found out that these were seraphims, and they were responsible for overseeing the purification of who comes before God. So one of these seraphims tells John to come and see what was contained in the seals that were about to be opened. We will see that the seraphim will be actively involved in the first four seals because all of their events have to do with the purification of the compromising church that goes into the seventieth week of Daniel. It is important to know that the authorization comes from God, that is, God permits these things to happen to accomplish His purpose in the church but He does not initiate them. In other words He is not the one doing the things. Without His permission none of the events of the seals could take place, for He is the only one worthy to open the seals and allow the events to happen.

To make the point more clear that this is not the wrath of God, let me ask this question, does anyone know what is happening when the fifth seal is opened? The Cry of the martyrs, "how long oh Lord before you avenge our blood..." Is the Lord killing His own servants, no, He wouldn't kill His own people, if He did the martyrs would not be asking for vengeance on those responsible for their killing. So He is not the cause of these things, but in His sovereignty He is permitting those things to happen. Therefore we can take comfort in the fact that nothing will happen to us unless He permits it, to accomplish His purpose. God allows this fiery testing to come upon the church to purify her so she can stand before God, (1 Peter 1:7), rather than shrink away in shame, (1 John 2:28).

Rev. 6:2, And I looked, and behold, a white horse. He who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.

Here we have the emergence of a white horse, with a rider who has a bow but no arrow, this rider goes out conquering and to conquer. This rider is not ready for military combat because he is not fully equipped, he has no arrows for his bow. The question then is, how and whom does he try to conquer? He is out to conquer the elect of God, those who have held to the testimony of Jesus Christ. This rider portrays the spirit of Antichrist through false christs and false teachers according to Matt. 24, and Luke 21, and if he can convince Christians in the professing church and if it were possible the faithful believers, he will have conquered them.

If this were the wrath of God, God would be responsible for initiating false religious teachers to deceive His own elect. Is it the nature of God to deceive His own elect? Of course not, it is preposterous to even think that God would try to deceive His own elect, let alone teach it. But this could not happen if He did not allow it, so He is the one to open the seal, He is in control of when this takes place. I believe that this starts to happen immediately after the Antichrist confirms the seven-year peace pack with Israel, which starts the seventieth week of Daniel. I believe when that covenant is made there is going to be bedlam in the church world, because they believe that these events have already happened in the past, or as the pre tribbers believe, they will have already been raptured so these events do not apply to them. The church of Thessalonica thought they had gone into the day of the Lord and there was bedlam, so much so that Paul had to write and tell them, listen it cannot occur until certain things happen, turn to 2 Thess. 2:1-8.

1 Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you,

2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come.

3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition,

4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things?

6 And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time.

7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way.

8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.

I believe that there is going to be such confusion on the part of the professing church that when you have this proliferation of false christs many will be easy targets to be conquered. They are going to be easy targets because they have listened to the doctrines of man instead of God and have not been faithful to their calling and when God permits this testing many will not be able to stand the test.

To understand this we must look at the characteristics of the typical church that will go into the seventieth week. Severe moral and spiritual decay will have griped the church in general (as it already has) long before Antichrist begins to operate. Because their leadership will lack spiritual discernment, because they will not have the resolution to teach the truth when it is unpopular, and because they will refuse to take measures to protect their congregations, many churches will be infested with false teaching. As a consequence, those spiritually weak and compromising churches will lose their desire to accurately learn and understand God's truth and to act accordingly, including their understanding of the end times and how these last days will directly affect them.

These false christs are on white horses indicating that they are going to resemble the real Christ by the signs and wonders they perform. This is going to look like the real thing therefore it is not hard to understand how compromising believers will fall for it. These false christs will convince many within the professing church that they (the false christs) are indeed the true Christ who has now returned to earth. They will claim His second coming! For this reason, the Lord's warning about those counterfeit messiahs is a clear and stern command to every believer: "You... do not go after them." But remember this is only the beginning of the deception greater deception is yet to come.

Rev. 6:3,4, When He opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, "Come and see." Another horse, fiery red, went out. And it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another; and there was given to him a great sword.

The second seal will usher in warfare like the world has never known. Now a lot of people say, "we have had a lot of these things going on already." What has happened down through history and at the present time cannot compare to what it is going to be like when the second seal is opened. Scriptures use the analogy of a pregnant woman who experiences "beginning birthpangs." Even though mild in comparison to final labor, beginning birthpangs are immediately recognizable, bringing discomfort to a higher degree than previously experienced. The same is true of the wars associated with the second seal. Although throughout the ages, and especially recently, wars and rumors of wars have always been present, during the first half of the seventieth week they will be far more evident, resulting in public alarm causing people to look for a leader to bring peace where there is no peace. Because His true intentions to rule the world, to demand the world's worship and to annihilate God's people will not yet be evident, Antichrist will still be viewed by much of the world as a beneficent warrior who uses his military might to bring order to a chaotic world.

Rev. 6:5,6, When He opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, "Come and see." So I looked, and behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, "A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine."

This rider on the black horse represents famine, but it is not a world wide famine where there is no food available anywhere in the world, because it says that wheat and barley are available for a price and the fact is that this rider was not to touch the oil and the wine, so there is food available. What it does depict is inflation and scarcity. Basic necessities of life will be scarce and prices extremely high and hunger will spread throughout the world because of this. Though famines have occurred throughout history, this passage is dealing with a specific famine during the seventieth week of Daniel.

So, you can see how these events are setting the stage for this world ruler who has already risen and made a covenant, to continue to put his ten nations together that will control the Mediterranean. Because of these wars and famines you have economic chaos causing many major problems, setting the scene for worldwide acceptance of this leader to be worshiped when he sets himself up as God in the middle of the week.

The signing of Israel's covenant with death, will set in motion the last seven-year timetable of the end times. The first half of this seventieth week is made up entirely of the events resulting from the opening of the first three seals that we have just looked at. The first three and a half years are merely the beginning of birth pangs. Now the stage is set for the great tribulation, depicting the fourth horseman, to begin.

Rev. 6:7,8, When He opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, "Come and see." So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth.

Most pre tribbers see this verse this way. They say that this death is a result of the second and third seals meaning, that wars and famine result in death therefore they conclude that the beginning of birth pangs end after the forth seal, but that is not what it says. The beginning of the birth pangs end after the third seal. Look back with me to Matt. 24, for a second because I want to make a point. Verse 7, nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, that is the second seal. Then we have the famines, that is the third seal. Verse 8, says, "this is the beginning of sorrows", this ends the first half of the seventieth week and the beginning of birth pangs, because verse 9, says, then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you..." Death is not talked about until the fourth seal and death is not a factor during the seventieth week until Antichrist sets himself up to be God in the temple and forcing people to take a mark or be killed, therefore the fourth seal occurs during the great tribulation.

Let me try and shed some light on this seal. We see here that Death is riding the horse and Hades follows after it. I suggest for your evaluation, that what is offered here is a choice and I will explain why in a second. It goes on to say that authority was given to them over a quarter of the earth. What is the quarter? Is it America, is it Europe, is it China, maybe, then it may not be, it may not be referring to any landmass. It may be referring to Christianity.

Dr. Henry Mooris wrote a book back in the seventies that listed all the religious populations in the world. At that time there were about three and a half billion people on earth, today it is about six billion. At that time, out of the three and a half billion the religions that claimed Christ in any sense, including Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Protestants groups was one billion out of the three and a half billion. Just about 25%. Today you are up to six billion and I would say that Christianity has not held pace with the rest. If you look at Cathaolism, they are crying out because they are in trouble, people are turning to New Age, and to the cults. Christianity as a group is probably as close to that 25% as you will ever see. It says here that "authority was given to them to kill" to kill who? The people that name the name of Christ, the ones in the compromising church for refusing to take the mark of the beast. The Church has always supposed to have been the manifestation of the kingdom of heaven on this earth. The Church is not the kingdom of heaven because within the Church we have wheat and tares and it is only the genuine Christian that is in the kingdom of heaven. But the Church today, like Israel in the Old Testament, is the means that God manifests Himself to the world today. That is why I believe when it says in Matt. 24, "that death comes and many fall away" it is referring to the beginning of the separation of the true from the false. Because within Christianity 60% make up Catholicism and 15% make up Eastern Orthodox and 25% is Protestantism. So the seven churches in Revelation represents the whole spectrum of those who acknowledge Christ in some way or another. So the seraphim gives them authority over 25% of the earth's people or Christendom. This will prove whether they are saved or not, by going through the fiery testing. The testing forces a choice, the choice is according to Rev. 14, do you worship Antichrist by taking his mark and live for awhile, but end up in the Lord's day of wrath with your final destination being hell. Or do you refuse his mark and be killed by him, but end up going in the rapture.

The choice is yours, are you going to worship this image or not? You may say, it is a foregone conclusion that we won't. I want to tell you something, when you have the economic chaos on the scale that is going to be and you can't buy or sell without the mark, when you have wars and civil authorities on top of you, that can cause you to be put to death if you don't worship the image some will give in and take the mark because they are still believing for Jesus to come before the tribulation, therefore this is not the mark of the beast, for that only comes after the church is gone. So if you refuse the mark and die you have won the test. That is why Death is followed by Hades because it is a choice, death to the ones that pass the test, Hades or hell to the ones that don't.

Another view is that they will be given influence over one quarter of the earth, it does not mean that one quarter of the earth's population will die, they just have authority over that part of the earth.

Death or Hades, it is one or the other, if you have not gone into hiding like the faithful woman has, the faithful Jews, if you wait until it is too late you are going to get slaughtered. The bible says in Rev. 12, that Satan is cast down and he has great wrath because he knows that he only has a short period of time to destroy all that won't worship him, he must destroy them or he will lose his rule over the kingdom of the earth. And what makes it worse, 2 Thess. 2: tells us that the restrainer has been removed, Dan. 12:1, says that Michael, the protector of Israel has been removed, and Satan is given the authority to come after the saints. Why? because God knows that the one who stands true during this time are truly His. The one that is truly His will either be in hiding or have to die for his stand. The ones that are truly His are not going to fall away, they will be overcomers, that is why it says what it does in Rev. 14:11-13, "And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name." Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, "Write: 'Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.'" "Yes," says the Spirit, "that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them."

This is the test. Now if you are a part of the faithful church God will protect you in the sphere of danger and you will be alive at the rapture, but at the same time, if you refuse to be faithful and obedient to God's word, when you enter the seventieth week, you will be bombarded by false christs, wars and famines, the Antichrist gets into power and all of a sudden you're caught with no place to go. It will be very difficult for you to survive because you are unprepared. So when Satan is cast down he goes after the woman, Israel, and when God provides protection for her, he goes after the woman's offspring who hold to the commandments of Jesus.

Let's look at the phrase "killed by the beasts of the earth." What do you think this means? The Greek word for wild beasts here is THERION, this word is used in Revelation about ten times and the word means wild beast or beast. Now this word is used only one way in this book, always referring to the Antichrist, the false prophet (Rev. 13:11&14), Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived.

This word never refers to wild beasts meaning animals. Therefore taking the normal usage of the word in the book of Revelation the beasts of the earth mean, the Antichrist and the false prophet who get their power from Satan.

Rev. 6:9,10,11.

9 When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held.

10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?"

11 Then a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed.

This fifth seal has nothing to do with the purification of the church, there is no seraphim involved with this seal as it was with the first four seals. What we see here are the souls of those who have passed the test, who died for their testimony by staying true to Christ during the events of the first four seals. These were martyred during the great tribulation.

Now I can hear the pre tribbers say, "God will not allow His children to go through this awful time. Do you think we are any better than the first century believers? God allowed, He did not cause, but He allowed those believers to be burned at the stake, to be torn and eaten by the lions, to have their children taken from them and killed, and to suffer untold agony, because of their stand for Christ. Do you think we are any better than the believers that have suffered for the cause of Christ down through the centuries?

The Church is an army; the Church is in a battle; the Church is to be about the Lord's business; the Church is to bring glory to God. Why do we think that when the big battle comes, we are to be taken out of it before it happens? Why would the Church want to be out of the earth when the greatest attack that ever came against the bridegroom is going to happen, when a false christ is going to rise and people are going to praise the false christ and all that represents godliness is going to be trampled underfoot by man. Listen, Jesus rendered Satan helpless at the cross; Satan knows that he can not get at Jesus directly because he knows that Jesus defeated him. Since Calvary, the only way Satan can get back at God is through attacking the Church, God's people and this attack will be the greatest during the great tribulation because Satan knows that his time is short (Rev. 12,12). Therefore the faster you get the idea out of your mind that you are going to be gone when these things happen, the better off you will be because you will prepare yourself by being obedient and faithful to God's word and not man's philosophies.

I believe that the fifth seal martyrs are made up of Jewish witnesses who die in pursuit of the salvation of their fellow Jewish countrymen. They will also include other faithful Christians ("their fellow servants") who, before the day of the Lord begins, likewise choose to lay down their lives for the sake of the lost or compromising church in other parts of the world, paralleling the work of the Jewish witnesses in the land of Israel. These would be people who could claim the protection promised the faithful church, but choose to minister to those who are unprepared for the intense persecution of Antichrist. Many of these faithful people will die assisting their fellow countrymen, "waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ...hav[ing] mercy on some, who are doubting; sav[ing] others, snatching them out of the fire..." (Jude 21-23). Now, we know for sure that these martyrs go through the great tribulation (Rev. 20:4-6).

Does this group include the believers who will die from within the compromising church because of their complete lack of preparedness for the great tribulation. If the time frame of their remaining faithful refers to the seventieth week of Daniel, then yes.

The question of verse 10 is really, how much longer until your wrath comes to avenge our blood? How can I say that this is the wrath of God, because the question asks, how much longer before You avenge our blood and judge those who dwell on the earth and this only takes place during the day of the Lord's wrath. The Lord's wrath had not come yet. Why? Because His wrath does not come until after the sign in the sun, moon, and stars and He comes in power and glory, then the day of the Lord begins. This had not happened yet, therefore the question, how long before...?

These souls are here because of the fourth seal Death, which is before the wrath of God is unleashed. God permits this death to faithful Christians who voluntary refuse the protection they have been offered, to win people to Christ during this time. Verse 11, These martyrs are told to rest a little longer until the final condition that must take place in order that their blood may be avenged happens. What is this condition? It is until "the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they were, should be completed also."

Rev. 6:12-17.

12 I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood.

13 And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind.

14 Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place.

15 And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains,

16 and said to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!

17 "For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?"

At the opening of this seal John describes cosmic disturbances that happen suddenly and without warning. This astounding sign in the heavens announces that the Day of God's wrath is about to begin and will bring terror to every person’s heart except the elect of God. This cosmic disturbance, is precisely the same event which signals the approach of the Day of the Lord and outpouring of God's wrath according to Old Testament prophets, see (Joel 2:30-31, 3:14-15; Isaiah 13:9,10; and Zephaniah 1:14). Repeatedly, the prophets give the warning of cosmic disturbances prior to the Day of the Lord. The opening of this seal teaches the same truth.

The earth’s wicked will recognize the awesome significance of the heavenly signs, because they will have been warned by the third angel's announcement at the midpoint of the seventieth week to those who are considering taking the mark of the beast or worshiping his image. Because the "whole earth" will be amazed by the recognition of who Antichrist really is and will " follow after the beast" (Rev. 13:3), this warning has incredible significance to everyone who has refused the gospel of Christ. This announcement is given in (Rev. 14:9-11).

What seal are we looking at? The sixth seal. How many seals must be removed to open the scroll? Seven. The scroll opens with the trumpets, which begins the wrath of God. This sixth seal, cosmic disturbances, indicate that God's wrath is about to commence and who is able to stand when God's wrath begins. It is clear that men will flee from God's wrath after the sixth seal is opened. Why are they fleeing? To hide because the day of His wrath has come. If the wrath begins with the opening of the first seal at the beginning of the seventieth week, as pretribulationism teaches, why do the people not flee from God's wrath until after the sixth seal is opened--a considerable period of time after the wrath begins in their interpretation?

The solution sometimes offered by them is that God's wrath started years earlier but that men did not recognize it as God's wrath until after the sixth seal is opened. Such a strained, unsubstantiated view is not to be taken seriously by those who love and honor God's Word. Even a cursory look at the Day of the Lord texts indicates that when God's wrath begins, the world will know it. There will be no question about it. His wrath will be awesome in its intensity. This planet will be shaken to its very foundations. One portion of scripture that shoots this theory to pieces is Luke 21:25-28, "And there will be signs in the sun, moon, and stars and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them from fear and the EXPECTATION (not something that has been going on and now people just realize what it is) of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of heaven will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to happen lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near."

So the opening of this seal scares the world to death, but for the Christian it is time to lift up their heads because their redemption is near.

People the seals are not God's wrath, the seals are the ultimate effect of the rebellion of man inspired by the Antichrist, who in turn gets his power from Satan, against God. Now God is allowing this to take place but He is not the instigator of it. God's wrath is about to occur. What did Paul tell us that we are not appointed to? The wrath of God, not the wrath of Satan against God's people, not the emergence of the Antichrist. Every instance of the wrath of God mentioned in this book is after Rev. 6:17, because prior to that the wrath of God is not happening. God's wrath is associated with the Day of the Lord, a day when the earth is going to reel under the judgment of a Holy God. The events of the seals are nothing compared to the outpouring of God's wrath on a world that has rejected His grace, spurned His mercy and refused His love. Please remember that God is a Holy God and what His righteousness condemns, His love can never embrace. There is coming a day when the Holy God will judge the earth because His love cannot embrace the rejection of His love. It will not be a pretty scene but it will be holy, righteous and just. Judgment is coming and there will be no question in anybody's mind that it is the judgment of God. But, praise God, this wrath will not be poured out on His bride because they are not appointed unto His wrath, they will be raptured before this occurs.

What seal was just opened? Sixth. Has the seventh seal been opened yet? No. When does the wrath of God begin? At the opening of the seventh seal. The sixth seal tells us that the wrath is about to start shortly. Now we have a whole chapter interlude before the opening of the seventh seal in chapter 8. This break between the sixth and seventh seal is to allow certain things to take place before the wrath of God is poured out.