I pray Holy Spirit for Your blessing and favor upon this thread. That we keep only that which You want us to keep,and part with that which You don't want us to keep. That we would come to know Jesus better. For He is the Revelation for which the Book was written. Rev 1:1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:
Rev 1:2 Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw.
In Christ Jesus Amen.
Rev 6:1 And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.
Rev 6:2 And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.
Hi SC,
Sorry to be so late getting to the discussion. It's the gospel of Jesus Christ. As I understand the release of the four horseman of the apocalypse, that event occurred shortly after Jesus resurrection. The revelation of Jesus the Christ gives us a look at what was to come upon the earth throughout the times of the Gentiles right on through to the day of judgment and the final fulfillment of the promise of God to His children.
It opens with Jesus giving unto John several letters addressed to the various fellowships of the believers, what we have translated as 'churches', that were active upon the earth at the time of John's writing and offering correction and rebuke and praise for the things they were then doing. I believe that we should understand these letters as corrections, mostly, that the fellowships needed to address at the moment and also for future believers to be looking out for among the fellowships to as the future unfolded.
Then John sees the Lamb looking as though he had been slain, which at that point he had been, and the Lamb is given authority to begin opening the scroll in the right hand of Him who was seated on the throne. Before unrolling the scroll the seals had to be broken and each seal was broken one by one and the event of that seal was visited upon the earth. The very first event to unfold was the release of the four horseman. The first was the white horse and it's rider which represents the gospel sent out to conquer the hearts of men. He has since then and still today, rides about proclaiming the gospel and through the proclamation of the gospel was and is conquering the hearts of men. Also released in order at that time were the other three horsemen and they also have been and continue to ride about the earth doing their work.
I believe that we stand right now somewhere between the fourth or fifth seal having already been opened and the sixth is yet to come. In other words, again as I understand it, Jesus doesn't just take the scroll and start ripping off the seals all in a moment, but there is a passing of time between some of the seals and the time is not necessarily equal between each opening. It seems obvious to me that the four seals that released the four horseman have already been opened and were likely opened shortly after Jesus ascended into heaven. Then there is a period of waiting for them to travel to and fro about the earth accomplishing their given tasks.
The fifth seal may have already been opened as it describes many of the saints crying out to God for justice for their martyrdom, but God tells them to wait yet a while longer until the number of them is completed. So, it is possible that we are now in that time of waiting. I believe that the next event to occur in the opening of the seals is the opening of the sixth and seventh seal. The events of these two seals do not seem to have happened yet. Some say that the sun turning black as sackcloth may have been the day of our Lord's crucifixion, but I'm not convinced of that as there are other things that are written that haven't happened. As yet, we have no indication that all the mountains and islands of the earth have been moved. Nor do I see any indication that the kings and great men of the earth are yet crying for the mountains and rocks to fall on them for the great day of God's wrath has not yet come.
Between the sixth and seventh seal the angels will place a mark on those who belong to God still living upon the earth and that number is said to be 144,00 of the tribes of Judah. So, I believe that this seal will be represented by a great awakening of Israel to the truth of the gospel and this is when God will turn their hearts back to Him. Then the seventh seal is the last seal before Jesus opens up the scroll on which God has written all the sins of man, and the event is said to be that seven angels will take their place to announce the various woes of God's wrath that is visited upon the earth at the sound of their trumpets.
At the sound of each of the seven trumpets a different woe is visited upon the earth. These events have definitely not happened yet. The first speaks of fire and hail mixed with blood falling upon the earth. The second tells us that 1/3 of the seas will turn to blood and a third of the living creatures in the sea and ships upon the sea will be destroyed. The third trumpet brings disaster to the rivers and springs of water and tells us that many people will die because of the bitter waters. The fourth tells us that there will be strange things happening to the stars in the heavens. That many of them will go out and that a third of the days and nights will not have any light. Then we are told that an eagle will proclaim to all the inhabitants left upon the earth that the last three trumpets will herald disasters even worse than the previous ones. And they are terrible events that are now sent against all of mankind upon the earth. However, we again seem to have a lengthy delay between the sixth and seventh trumpet. It is during this time that the two witnesses will appear to make one final plea to all mankind to repent and turn to God. At the sound of the seventh trumpet all men will see the temple of God in heaven.
At that point the chronology appears to change. John now goes back, and it may well be that this is a different vision given to him at a different time, and tells the story of Jesus and his birth and how it was Satan who drove men to try and destroy the Savior and finding that he had failed in that, then turns his attentions to the born again believers that have come from the new covenant of God.
There seems to be a lot of backtracking in John's writing from here to the day of judgment. Perhaps like in the opening Genesis account where God first gives a quick overview of how He created all things and then goes back and deals strictly with the creation of man and his sin. For example the seven bowls of God's wrath seem to very closely parallel the seven trumpets and it may be that this is a repeating of the seven trumpets seen with a slightly different perspective. After each angel blows his trumpet he then overturns his respective bowl of wrath upon the earth.
So, it's almost as if after John writes of the seven seals and seven trumpets he goes back to the life of Jesus and gives another view of different things that will be happening while all of the previous things are occurring. It mentions again the 144,000 and instead of telling us what is going on in heaven he explains what is going on on the earth. The beast rises up out of the sea of people to lead them astray and the harlot is wreaking its havoc upon the people of the earth.
So, near as I can tell the Revelation gives two accounts of the coming end. One from the perspective of what God is doing in heaven and the other from the perspective of what men are doing upon the earth.
God bless you.
In Christ, Ted.
