Hi all,
Having last week established the 6th seal, trumpet, and bowl are the return of Jesus, and the 7th of each are the end of this age, let us now focus on seals, trumpets, and bowls 1-5.
As I said previously, the most common email on this subject that I receive is usually someone telling me we are in the time of seal #3, or the pandemic was seal 6, or asking me something similar.
Seal, trumpet, bowl #1, 2, 3
In Revelation 6:2 the apostle sees the first seal opened; A white horse, and the rider has a bow, a crown, and he goes forth conquering. The observation has been made and widely speculated, that this is a false messiah, a false peace, false righteousness as noted by the white horse. That he has a bow but no arrows are mentioned, yet conquers, suggests his first efforts are diplomatic, conquering by decree and political means, and taking possession, and at least at the first, not so much by military power.
In 6:3-4 he sees the 2nd seal opened: A red horse, red standing for blood. He takes peace from the earth and men begin fighting among themselves. This rider has a large sword, in other words a large military force. We can speculate that when the initial attempts of political gain by the rider of the white horse have gone as far as they can go, he resorts to outright war.
In 6: 5-6 he sees the 3rd seal opened: A black horse which means distress, calamity, things turning very bad, and he sees hyperinflation coming to grains. The measure of wheat and 3 measures of barley for a penny, while not touching wine and oil, are cereal grains or bread grains being most affected.
In the Greek ‘penny’ is denarius
It is a day’s wage in the time of the apostle John. The word ‘measure’ in the first century was a little less than 2 pints dry measure, or a little less than a liter. The prophecy therefore says inflation will become so high it will take a day’s wage to buy just about 2 handfuls of wheat. Of course that will mean many will starve, as seen in the next seal:
In 6: 7-8 he sees the 4th seal opened: It is a pale horse, which stands for death, and indeed it says one fourth of mankind will die by sword (war), hunger (starvation), death (diseases), and even wild animals (cities break down).
As you can see, one follows the other – war produces economic chaos, disruption of food production and distribution, and disease.
In 6: 9-11 the scene switches from earthly events to a scene in heaven where a multitude of people having been martyred, are before the Father’s throne crying out for justice. They ask that He take vengeance on those who murdered them – this scene is specifically about martyrs during this time of war and starvation. It isn’t the rapture as the text clearly shows they want vengeance for their murders. The Father gives them white robes of righteousness and tells them it isn’t over yet on the earth, but be patient.
As we’ve seen, what follows is the 6th seal which is the return of Jesus – so all these events of the first 5 seals occur in the 7 year time frame called ‘the tribulation’ by Christians, or ‘the time of Jacob’s trouble’ in Judaism.
Because this 5th seal is a scene in heaven and not on earth, we gain information of what is happening at the same time on earth by looking at the 5th trumpet and bowl. So let’s take them in order once again: The 1st seal is a white horse. What is the 1st trumpet and 1st bowl?
Chapter 7 is an informational chapter, about the 144,000 male Jewish evangelists who will preach in Israel during this time. Chapter 8 resumes with the blowing of the trumpets.
In 8:7 the first trumpet is blown and fire, hail, and ‘blood’ fall to earth, and one third (1/3rd) of trees and grass are burned up. This follows the 1st seal with the white horse, which suggests earth-shattering natural disasters will strike the earth at this time, and a man of sin will take advantage of the situation to conquer and take control.
We get a clearer vision of the events related to the 4 horsemen of seals 1-4 by reading about the trumpets 1-4:
In 8: 8-9 we are told trumpet 2 brings a ‘flaming mountain’ that falls into the sea and poisons 1/3rd of the sea, and destroys many ships.
In 8: 10-11 we see trumpet 3 bring another comet or asteroid, described as a star like a burning lamp falls onto rivers (earth) and poisons 1/3rd of fresh water lakes and rivers.
So now we have in the time of political upheaval and war, a double asteroid/comet hit on earth. One will fall in an ocean, and one will fall on land, with the results of 1/3 of all water, sea, and plants killed or rendered unusable.
What follows is exactly what science predicts if such a things were to happen:
In 8: 12 the 4th trumpet says (as a result) 1/3rd of sunlight and moonlight are obscured.
Putting seals 1-4 and trumpets 1-4 together we see a horrible time on earth of natural disaster and political and economic chaos, war, and persecution for believers who will live in that time. As Jesus said in Matthew 24: 21, it will be the worst time ever seen on the planet.
Chapter 9: 1-12 picks up with the 5th trumpet, and v2 tells us a huge column of smoke/dust will arise, obviously from the previous asteroid hits on land and sea, and block out the sun. The resulting skin diseases will plague mankind for 5 months, and those afflicted will seek death because of the pain, but it won’t be lethal – but very painful as they recover.
This is logical
If we take off the ‘religious’ glasses to see this in modern terms, the seals, trumpets and bowls follow a logical course in terms of political and events in nature. In the midst of political turmoil the earth will receive 2 direct hits from asteroids/comets which will affect the whole earth. What the apostles sees about 1/3 of sunlight being blocked lines up with scientific theories of ‘what if’. Economic crisis follows war and political upheaval, and additionally, the earth will deal with natural disasters of a scale not seen in man’s history.
Next week we will pick it up with what Revelation 9: 1-11 describes as a column of dust rising to blot the sun, and from that painful skin diseases will hit many people for a period of 5 months – which again is what scientists today say will happen if an asteroid hits the earth. Diseases like anthrax and more which lie dormant in the soil will be thrown into the air and circle the globe by the winds, causing widespread disease for a time.
And on that happy note we will close out this series next week, lol – glad the series following this one is entitled ‘Why the rapture is pre-tribulation’, lol. Be in peace, until next week, blessings,
John Fenn
