North Anderson Baptist Church
The Tribulation is coming! What is going to happen to the world when the church is taken from it through the Rapture? Jesus says the church is like salt and light. The Salt preserves and the Light gives the world warmth and illumination. What do you think will happen when the church is taken out of the picture here on earth? What happens to meat when there is no salt around? Putrefaction begins, it gets rotten and stinks; the world without the church begins to stink and evil is loosed upon the earth. When the light of the church is gone the world begins to be covered in darkness and evil. That will happen during the Tribulation because God releases great destruction by His power and the Holy Spirit will be gone and will no longer restrain evil.
Chapter 6 reveals the first six seals of seven that the Lamb of God opens. We will look at each of the six seals separately. Seals 1-4 introduces us to “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.”
Revelation 6:1-2 NIV
Seal 1
John is watching the events unfold before his very eyes. He sees the Lamb of God open the first seal and one of those four living creatures who are around the throne of God calls out with a thundering voice, “Come!” What do we see? The first of the four horsemen is revealed riding on a white horse and in the hand of the rider is a bow and on his head is a crown. John writes that this rider is bent on conquering. Conquering what? Some of the scholars say that this is the “Anti-Christ.” He has tried to imitate Jesus Christ forever and here he rides a white horse which is what Jesus will ride during His second coming, found in Revelation 19:11 (“I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war.”) And his purpose is to conquer the world for Satan. With evil intent, he desires to take control of all that is on the earth. Now we don’t have time to talk in depth of how he will do that but just think that when the Rapture happens there is great chaos world wide and things are falling apart everywhere on earth. This one man comes to conquer the world through his subtle “peace promises” and promises of gaining what the world once had before the Rapture but under his leadership. Even the Jews will be deceived by the Anti-Christ. (John 5:43, “I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him.”) But not just the Jews but all peoples of the earth will believe and follow him. This one will come with peace on his lips but conquering death in his heart.
Revelation 6:3-4 NIV
Seal 2
Again, the second horseman appears as the next cry comes for the second living creature, “Come!” A fiery red horse is what the rider is on when the second seal is opened by the Lamb of God. The sword that he carries symbolizes the power that he will have over all people as they begin to wage war on each other. The power of the Anti-Christ is such that he causes those in the world to bend toward war and taking of life. Without the Prince of Peace and the church in the world there is great lust for blood and power from all sides. Remember the salt is gone and the true nature of mankind comes forth without the restraint of the Holy Spirit. Not a very safe or nice place to be when the depraved mind and lives of mankind, with the bloodthirsty desires, are let loose on all societies over the world. All hell breaks loose. Just think that the problems we have now all over the world; when laws can’t control the lawbreakers and there is looting and killing without anyone to stop them, it just gets worse. Evil is free to do as it pleases.
Revelation 6:5-6 NIV
Seal 3
This third horseman is one of famine. The black horse indicates the conditions of the world that will come when all the war and wickedness has taken over. No one works or produces food like before and there is not enough to eat for the population of the world. The famine is symbolized by the rider holding the scales and the cry from the living creatures about buying food with a day’s wage. You and I know that when there is little of something the price grows. When there is little food it will take a day’s wage to buy a meal. This is a world-wide famine that we see as the 3rd seal is opened. It is a sad picture for us to see but when there is world-wide limited production then there will be world-wide economic deprivation. What a tragic picture this famine in the land but that is not the worst we will see.
Revelation 6:7-8 NIV
Seal 4
Again the fourth living creature calls out, “Come!” and the last of The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse rides out on a pale horse. This is devastating! This one has a name, Death! Also, with him is Hades close behind! Notice the power that they had. In fact, it was the power to kill by several means and killing and misery were their purpose. Their great power was over a fourth of the world’s inhabitants! The Bible says that ¼ of the world dies when the pale horse is let loose. Death comes in many forms and they are told to us here that it will be by one person killing another, maybe more war, maybe just evil premeditated murder. The other is that famine gets worse and a plague comes upon the earth. The last note of death I found interesting; people will die by wild beasts killing them. Something that several writers have suggested is that the wild beasts will be rats! Rats can cause all kinds of disease and cause famine by eating stores of food goods and contaminating others. The Black Death came upon the European continent and 20 plus million people died horrible deaths. The “beasts” doesn’t necessarily mean lions, tigers etc. but can be any four footed mammal. Whichever the way a ¼ of the world dies isn’t as important as that they die! Someone has said when the white horse steals the peace from all mankind and conquers by lies, that brings the red horse which breeds war as an absence of peace and war brings the black horse, famine to the land, which introduces us to the pale horse bringing death into the world. Sin causes hatred, hatred causes war and bloodshed, war causes famine and famine causes death. After death, hell and judgment comes. (Adrian Rogers and David Jeremiah) But more is still to come.
Revelation 6:9-11 NIV
Seal 5
I wish I had a lot more time to talk about this seal. Dr. David Jeremiah in his book “Agents of the Apocalypse” talks a lot about this seal. He speaks of the millions upon millions of Christians that have be “martyred” for their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice, this seal takes us back away for the devastation of the earth and the death there, into the realm of heaven and “under the altar.” We see souls of them who died in the Tribulation for the name of Christ. Are they just those martyrs from the Tribulation? Dr. Jeremiah says, “Yes.” He says that all the church had been taken up and these are those in the Tribulation under such great persecution that they were found faithful to stand before the foes of Christ... (“They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death” Revelation 12:11)...
and proclaim Him Lord no matter what. Jesus says in Matthew 24:8-10, 8 “All these are the beginning of birth pains. 9 “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 10 At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other…”
How do people get saved in the Tribulation so that there would be martyrs? There are no Christians left and the Holy Spirit withdrew from the earth with the church (2 Thessalonians 2:7), so how could they get saved. There were still Bibles around and the influence of the world-wide disappearance of millions of believers in Christ, must have had a great effect on many. There are people who believe that only Jews will be saved, I think it will be be more than Jews, but others believe that if someone had heard the Word of God and rejected it before the Rapture of the church then they would be “blinded to the truth.” In fact, Adrian Rogers says, those who once heard the Gospel and rejected it will then believe the lie not the truth. He uses this scripture from 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12, 10 “and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12 and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.” This is a powerful argument for his belief. Again many believe the Lord has mercy on the Children of Israel and they have a place in His heart. So, could it be that they are the only ones who will be saved in the Tribulation. There are some good evidence to this thought later on in the Book.
First, let’s note that they are under the altar. This symbolizes that their lives were given “sacrificially” to the Lord for His glory. The altar was where the sacrifices for the Lord took place in the temple. The Greek word “martus” is where we get our English word “martyr” and that simply means “a witness.” These souls under the altar were witnesses to Christ. By the way, that is what we are to be too. Jesus said in Acts 1:8, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” We may be one day called ourselves to be martyrs for the faith we claim; it is happening all over the earth even as I speak. John says that they were martyred “because of the Word of God and the testimony they maintained.” Even in the midst of all those around them who followed the Anti-Christ they were the few who claimed allegiance to the Lamb of God.
Notice that the martyrs cry out to the Lord saying, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” They wanted vengeance for what had happened to them. A comment was made by Dr. Jeremiah that because of that statement we know that the Age of Grace has past. Instead of asking God to forgive them for what they did like Stephen did before he was martyred; these souls whose lives were taken violently in the Tribulation call for those who took their lives to be judged. Notice this scripture, Revelation 20:4, “I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” Their lives were taken violently by being beheaded. Judgment is now upon the earth and grace is passed; except in the case of the souls who were being saved, God had grace on them to be able to withstand such great persecution.
God told the souls of those who died to be patient and wait until the time had come until the full number of martyrs, fellow servants and brothers, were to be fulfilled; it would not be long, He said. Also notice that they were each given a white robe and told to rest. Leave all things up to the Lord because He was in charge and knew what was best. We don’t have time to talk about it but it is believed that these were souls that had some kind of body so the robe could be placed upon them. That was what we see when the 5th seal was opened by the Lamb.
Revelation 6:12-17 NIV
Seal 6
Catastrophic things happen when the 6th seal is opened by the Lamb. Here we see worse! Can this be taken literally? I believe it can and some may very well be symbolic also. As soon as Christ opens the seal an earthquake of tremendous volume strikes the earth. This would not be one like hit Ecuador or Japan this week, no this is a world shaken earthquake. Heavenly bodies change by the hand of God; the sun turns black. There is no light from our primary warmth giving heavenly body. The moon turns blood red. People are talking about the blood moons even now. But by the time you see this blood moon if you are a believer you will be watching from heaven’s glory. Whatever John received from Christ about the stars falling down on the earth we can’t conceive of that without the whole earth being destroyed unless He is talking of pieces, like small asteroids. We have had some objects hit the planet but this would be more than we can imagine. The destruction from an object like this is beyond our total understanding. Verse 14 seems like the world is coming apart and destruction of monumental proportions comes to the earth. Listen to this scripture, Colossians 1:17, “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” If Jesus restrains from “holding all things together” regarding the earth, everything thing about the earth will begin to fall apart.
Notice what happens to the people of the earth because of the events in nature, really caused by God Himself; they call, rich and poor, kings and slaves, everyone...they call upon the earth Christ made to “fall on them” so they could hide from the face of God. Rather than recognizing that God has a purpose for what He has done, they don’t want to worship God they want to hide from Him! Notice they say, “From the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!” They have acknowledged God but have done nothing to repent from the wickedness of the world and their sin. I am intrigued that they know who He is but all they now can acknowledge is His wrath and the wrath of the Lamb, not even a touch of His love. This is a time of WRATH and JUDGMENT.
How does all this make you feel when you hear of the great destruction and evil upon the earth during the Tribulation? Are you able to rejoice that God’s love is real and that He has a plan for the church, you and me, and that we will not have to go through such evil times? Or, are you a great bit sorrowful and afraid because you know that if Jesus were to come and get His church right now, you would be left behind and have to go through this Tribulation? Or do you even care? Make sure you understand that there is nothing that is holding back the Lord’s great plan for the end times right now except His great love and desire that people everywhere repent and come to salvation. For now is the time to be saved and then their will be the judgment. (The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9)
If you are a believer rejoice with the church of Jesus Christ for your salvation and eternal destiny with Him forever. But if you are lost please consider today as your day to give your heart to Jesus and be saved and cleansed of your sin.