The Tribulation Pt 3: The Lamb Breaks the Seals

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The Tribulation Pt 3: The Lamb Breaks the Seals​

In Part 2, we left off where Jesus, the Lamb of God, stood holding the scroll he had taken from God the Father, ready to break the first seal on it;

“Then I saw when the Lamb broke one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder, “Come.” I looked, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.” (Revelation 6:1-2, NASB)

Looking at this verse, we see that the first horseman is upon a white horse. Historically, a white horse has symbolized a victorious war, and we are told in this verse that the rider rides out as a conqueror (i.e. someone who has already conquered). As a side note: the Jewish never used horses as beasts of burden, but rather reserved them for war. The ox and the donkey took on the role of burden in that society.

The rider carries a bow, which was used as a distance weapon rather than an up-close melee weapon. We can infer from this fact that the rider himself will not get personally involved in conquering, but will instead command and conduct his warfare from a distance.

We also see that he wears a crown, in this case, the Greek word stephanos, a wreath of victory instead of the diadema of authority. This indicates that he has already won a battle or competition, and is therefore a victor.

So, what we are seeing then is a rider who is already a victor, has conducted war successfully, who rides a hose of victory, and conducts warfare from a distance without getting into the battle himself. This cannot be Christ, as he wears crowns of AUTHORITY, carries a sword which proceeds from his mouth, and gets into the battle HIMSELF. In fact, at Armageddon, He will be the ONLY one who does any sort of fighting at all! As John is seeing all of this, Christ is in heaven, present with His Father, reading from the scroll.

An important clue that we have to his identity is found in 2 Thessalonians:

"Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God. Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things? And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed. 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. Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming; that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.." (2 Thessalonians 2:3-10, NASB, emphasis mine)

The one who holds back the lawlessness in this world, i.e. "the Restrainer" is the Holy Spirit; once He is no longer restraining the evil in this world, then the Antichrist can come forth unopposed. Because the Body of Christ is sealed with the Holy Spirit, at least some Christians would have discernment to recognize the Antichrist for who he is, and would begin praying and preaching against him. So, by necessity, the Church would have to be removed from the planet before he could be revealed; in fact, the elders, as mentioned in part 1, represent the Church in heaven.

I think we can then put everything together and see for ourselves who the first rider is.

The Lamb then breaks the second seal:

"When He broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, “Come.” And another, a red horse, went out; and to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from the earth, and that men would slay one another; and a great sword was given to him" (Revelation 6:3-4, NASB)

Normally, the Greek word for sword, machaira, means a small sword or dagger; here, a LARGE sword means that the sword is a massive bladed weapon. In battles during that era, warriors usually favored swords that were about 16-18 inches long, such as the Roman Gladius. But for executions, a large axe or sword was used to ensure a clean cut. The rider rides as an executioner, taking lives in a pre-ordered, methodical manner. The red color, a fiery red at that, shows the fire of battle and violence, as men fought and killed one another because of this rider. Red is also the color of blood, and one can imagine that blood indeed would be spilled freely in such circumstances.

Another thing to note: this is yet another reason the First Horseman is the Antichrist, as you cannot take peace from somewhere that it is not. The only one who can pull this one off is “Satan’s Masterpiece”, and the world is being turned over to its’ sin as a judgment at this point, much as Romans chapter 1 reads. The Antichrist, though not fully in control yet, is using his influence and satanically-given abilities to “smooth over” age-old enmities in order to further his position.

The Lamb breaks the third seal:

"When He broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, “Come.” I looked, and behold, a black horse; and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not damage the oil and the wine.” (Revelation 6:5-6, NASB)

A black horse whose rider carried scales was an ominous vision indeed, and the instructions he is given tell us a great deal of his purpose. A quart of wheat was about 1/8 of a bushel, and was the daily allowance of a servant or a slave. Barley, cheaper than wheat and less nutritious, was allowed in more quantity. A penny, in Greek, dēnariou or denarius, was a day's wages for a laborer in John's time. We are essentially being told that famine would follow, and that food would be measured out to such an extent that oil and wine, used in medical treatment in ancient times (see Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan) would be scarce. Food and medical supplies (the FDA covers both in the US, incidentally) would be in short supply in the time immediately after the ride of the Second Horseman, and it makes perfect sense: war usually brings those things. With the command for the oil and the wine not to be harmed, medical treatment can be seen as being "doled out" as well, as supplies would be needed for war.

Jesus breaks the fourth seal:

"When the Lamb broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, “Come.” I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth.” (Revelation 7-8, NASB)

Upon a pale horse green horse (Greek chlōros, "green"), Death rides across the planet, as the toll from the wars and famine mount. Hades is in tow with him, following behind as would be logical: many would not be going to heaven, but instead the holding place for lost souls until the Judgment.

As described in the verse, 1/4 of the planet is given to them, to kill with violence (sword), famine and plague. This follows the red and black horses, and is a natural result of war and shortage of food. People get sick, are injured, and die of disease, shortage of medical care and starvation. Considering that right now there are 7.4 billion people in the world (as of this revision), 1/4 of the population would be 1,850,000,000 people. That's almost 2 BILLON people that would die by the time of the 4th seal! To put it into plainer terms, that’s nearly the entire populations of China and Europe put together.


That's a lot of people to die, and this is only the BEGINNING of the Tribulation!

Jesus Christ breaks the fifth seal:

"When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” And there was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, would be completed also.” (Revelation 6:9-11, NASB)

We see in this verse that those who have been murdered for sharing their testimony and the Gospel are crying out to the Lord to avenge them; we don't see a particular judgment happen here, or so it would seem. Some may ask "how is this judgment on mankind?" Those that were killed by rebellious man for their faith have essentially accused man to the Lord. And unlike Satan, who accuses out of spite and rage, these accuse out of anguish and a desire for justice. And God is not about to let their cries for justice go unheard: they were given white robes, a symbol of righteousness and purity. If they were not just in asking for justice, God would not have given them something symbolizing righteousness. They are told they have to wait because their number is not yet complete. There will be more on the way, sadly, and God cannot jump the gun on this. Once their number is full, his judgment can be completed against those that have shed their blood.

The Lord Jesus breaks the sixth seal:

"I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.” (Revelation 6:12-14, NASB)

At this point, a tremendous quake strikes the planet with concussive force, so hard that every island and mountain is moved!! The Sun is blacked out as if someone dropped a burlap sack over it, and the moon turns a deep, blood red. This sort of thing can happen with such phenomena as volcanoes erupting, which can follow especially violent earthquakes. Another thought is that eruptions of volcanoes can send tremors through the ground as well. The sky disappearing as a scroll begin rolled up refers to how fast the sky is obscured, which can also happen when a volcano erupts; ash is shot into the sky, and in a matter of minutes, all is pitch black and a eerie silence fills the land. As for the reference to the stars in the sky, this could be either "shooting stars" (meteorites) or possibly ejection from volcanoes, which would appear like shooting stars. Literal stars would be a bit of a stretch here, as literal stars in the sky dwarf the planet and would incinerate it. Another possibility is a nuclear exchange (Hal Lindsey seems to think this is the case in his take on the Tribulation, in several of the judgments). Since John had probably never seen a volcano erupt during his lifetime on Earth, he was most likely putting all of this into the best description he could.

We also read the reaction of the people on the earth after all of this:

"Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence 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 is able to stand?” (Revelation 6:15-17, NASB)

The planet is in absolute terror, to the point they have taken refuge IN the mountains. It's known that at NORAD's base in Cheyenne Mountain in the US, the complex is built INSIDE a mountain. It's conceivable that other shelters for the rich and for government personnel have been constructed inside mountains or at the very least, within the ground. But for someone to be so scared that they literally want tons of rock to obscure them from the outside says a great deal. It also says how little they care for those they 'control": they would just as soon leave the masses to fend for themselves, while THEY themselves get to safety.

But in this time, there IS no true safety, save in the Lord

As a note: in this passage, the people say “Fall on us and hide us from the presence 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 is able to stand?” All of this is still the first seal, and each seal is opened one after another; “When” the second seal is opened, for example, indicates that these things are happening in a chronological order, and that the seals are opened one after another. And the entire time of the Tribulation is the “wrath of the Lamb”. It’s not just a third or even a half; it’s the whole time, and all of this is happening in a chronological order thus far. In a bit, we’ll see scripture go back and explain what has just happened in parts, but that is the Semitic style of writing.


In Part 4, we'll see the Lamb break the last seal, and unleash the first of the Trumpet Judgments.


I bid you all peace.


YBIC,

-Sojo414