THE SEVEN SEALS, PART 1

Revelation 6:1-2 (NASB)
David Bruce Linn, Pastor-Teacher
30 January, 2000
All Rights Reserved

[NOTE: EXPLAINS TIMING OF PREWRATH RAPTURE OF THE CHURCH.]

When we speak of the authority and power of Christ, what do we mean? How does the rule of an invisible King affect daily life on earth? This key question receives a dramatic answer in Revelation chapter 6, which contains the account of Christ's opening of six of the seven seals on the scroll of the title deed to earth. We saw in chapter 5 the revealing of the Lamb of God as the only one worthy of opening this scroll: "You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation" (5:9 --NIV). Christ's death for mankind gives him the right to rule on the eternal destiny of every person, and as we observe the successive opening of the seals we will be presented with an unfolding picture of his overwhelming power and consummate authority. By reference to this stunning portrait we can easily discern how we ought to live our daily lives under him.

Before we advance into the study of chapter six, we must give attention to some complicated matters of prophecy. So far, the interpretation of Revelation has not been too difficult. We have seen remarkable visions of God through the eyes of John, and through John's pen we have received direct instructions to Christ's church. But before we have a chance at understanding the seven seals we will have to examine the appropriate context. And since the seals speak of the consummation of history, the context to be examined is vast. We will not be able to study it all, but several key passages of Scripture will tell us what we need to know. As we proceed through the study of the book of Revelation, we will be required to make difficult decisions about the timing of the events we observe. The occurrence of these events is not in much dispute among Christians who read the Bible literally, but the order and timing remain matters of great dispute. It is incumbent upon every believer to "preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace," and so it is good for us not to hold our position on the timing issues as if they were as clear as the main doctrines of the faith. Nevertheless, without a coherent pattern to follow, the events would make no sense.

During the 1980's I began to reevaluate the traditional pretribulational explanation of events, and hundreds of hours of further study since then have led me to adopt what has come to be called the "prewrath" view, for want of a better term. Those who wish to explore this explanation more fully should read The Prewrath Rapture of the Church, by Marvin Rosenthal or The Sign, by Robert Van Kampen. I made the shift in my own thinking before discovering these books, but they have been invaluable resources. To avoid merely spouting the teachings of men, we will pursue our own study of Revelation with primary reference to the Scriptures, not popular devotional books. If our futures depend upon the understanding of the prophecies of Revelation, and they do, then we must develop our convictions directly from the infallible word of God.

These are the things we must understand before we understand the seals:

1. the prophetic timetable described by Daniel's "seventy weeks" of years;
2. the relationship of the "day of the Lord" to the seventieth week of Daniel, and
3. the timing of the seventieth week events as described by Jesus and Paul.

1. THE PROPHETIC TIMETABLE DESCRIBED BY DANIEL'S "SEVENTY WEEKS" OF YEARS -- Daniel 9:24-27
   
   Daniel was in a deep time of prayer, interceding for the oppressed people of Israel who had been taken into captivity in Babylon almost seventy years before. As he poured his heart out before God for his people, Daniel asked for the restoration of the nation to the land. God's answer was a sweeping vision of the entire course of Israel's history. Verse twenty-four gives the summary: "Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy place."
   
   What are these "weeks?" Obviously, they are not days, or regular weeks, or months, because the history of Israel was not completed by then--it's still not finished! Most scholars agree that these are "weeks" of years, or periods of seven years. This makes sense as the prophecy unfolds in verse twenty-five: "So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress." From the time that Israel was returned to the land and the reconstruction of Jerusalem was indeed about forty-nine years. Beyond that, the prophecy says, there will be a further stretch of sixty-two more weeks, at the end of which Messiah would be present.
   
   But even in the prophecy of Israel it was clear that Messiah would not immediately set up his earthly kingdom, as explained in verse twenty-six: "Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined." Amazingly, the 483 year stretch of time predicted (7 weeks plus 62 weeks equals 69 weeks times 7 years equals 483 years) from the issuing of a decree to return Israel to her land until Messiah is "cut off" lands exactly at the time of the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth!
   
   This verse goes on to say that there will be a prince coming at some time in the future, and the people from whom he eventually will be born will be the ones who would destroy the Temple and the city of Jerusalem. We know that this unspeakable deed was done by the Roman army under Titus Vespasion in 70 A.D. That tells us that a prince with Roman roots will perform the deeds described in the seventieth week of years in verse twenty-seven: "And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate." Up until this point in the prophecy, it has been possible to see a literal fulfillment in history. The events in this last of the seventy weeks of years must yet be future, because it describes the ceasing of sacrifices in the Temple, which was destroyed in A.D. 72 and never rebuilt. That means that a most evil personage will arise to persecute Israel during the seventieth week. It also means that a gap, or parenthesis, has taken place in the seventy week timetable which ceased with the cutting off of Messiah, and which awaits the rise of an evil world ruler who will sign a covenant with Israel.
   
   So today we look forward to this seventieth week of Daniel, and we look for signs that the events described here might take place. If we survey the world, what do we see? After many centuries in dispersion around the world, the people of Israel have arisen as a secular state which is once again back in the land of promise. Now all we need is a temple, but the Islamic Al Aqsa mosque stands in the place where the temple must be rebuilt--or does it? The site may be some hundred yards away, according to some archaeologists. As we speak, there are certain Jewish people ready to rebuild the Temple, and the temple articles are said already to be made and in storage awaiting the proper time. We live in momentous days! That sounds remarkably like an old Chinese curse; "May you live in interesting times!" These are indeed interesting times, and the people of God need to be watching for the event which will restart this prophetic clock, namely, the rise of a deceptive world leader who will sign a covenant to protect Israel. Then we begin counting, because three-and-a-half years later, this mysterious personage will reveal himself in his full evil character by setting up an idol of himself in the Jerusalem Temple (cf. Daniel 11, especially verse 31). But those who believe and are alert already know this mysterious person by his Biblical name: Antichrist.
   
   A second matter we must understand in order to understand the seven seals is
   
   
2. THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE "DAY OF THE LORD" TO THE SEVENTIETH WEEK OF DANIEL
   
   What is the day of the Lord? These quotes from Isaiah reveal its nature:
   
   "Wail, for the day of the LORD is near!
   It will come as destruction from the Almighty.
   Behold, the day of the LORD is coming,
   Cruel, with fury and burning anger,
   To make the land a desolation;
   And He will exterminate its sinners from it.
   'Therefore I [the LORD] shall make the heavens tremble,
   And the earth will be shaken from its place'
   At the fury of the LORD of hosts
   In the day of His burning anger." (Isaiah 13:6, 9, 13)
   
   These verses make clear that the day of the Lord is the time appointed by God when he will vent all of his wrath over sin upon the sinful inhabitants of earth. The righteous are spared, as revealed by Paul: "For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ..." (1 Thess 5:9). In addition, the day of the Lord will be a time when all the pride of mankind will be humbled, and that will include the most evil person who will ever live, the Antichrist. As Isaiah wrote:
   
   "Enter the rock and hide in the dust
   From the terror of the LORD and from the splendor of His majesty.
   The proud look of man will be abased,
   And the loftiness of man will be humbled,
   And the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.
   For the LORD of hosts will have a day of reckoning
   Against everyone who is proud and lofty,
   And against everyone who is lifted up,
   That he may be abased.
   And the pride of man will be humbled,
   And the loftiness of men will be abased,
   And the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.
   But the idols will completely vanish.
   And men will go into caves of the rocks,
   And into holes of the ground Before the terror of the LORD,
   And before the splendor of His majesty,
   When He arises to make the earth tremble." (Isaiah 2:10-12, 17-19)
   
   The day of the Lord therefore cannot be the same as the seventieth week of Daniel, because that is the time of Antichrist's idolatrous self-exaltation. No one will be exalted in the day of the Lord except God. This piece of information only makes sense when we see it in light of
   
   
3. THE TIMING OF THE SEVENTIETH WEEK EVENTS AS DESCRIBED BY JESUS AND PAUL
   
   1. Paul wrote in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4, 8:
      "Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together to Him, that you may not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. 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. ...And 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..."
      
      The logic of this passage reveals the following order of events concerning the seventieth week of Daniel:
      1. The apostasy, or falling away, of Israel may be a reference to her selling her birthright to the Antichrist in order to gain political peace from her external enemies. This would then be a reference to the covenant mentioned by Daniel, and would be the marker for the start of the seventieth week.
         
      2. "The man of lawlessness is revealed" by taking his seat in the temple of God. We know from Daniel 9:27 that this takes place at the midpoint of the seventieth week. This is the so-called abomination of desolation.
         
      3. Sometime after the midpoint (we do not know how long) the "coming [parousia] of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him" takes place. Note that these things are at the same time: the second coming of Christ and what we have come to call the rapture of the saints. The Thessalonian passage (1, 4:13-18), also reveals the gathering of the saints and the "parousia" (:15) at the same time.
         
      4. The day of the Lord can then come, by which the Lord will pull down every falsely exalted human and vent his wrath on sin. This takes the Antichrist down from his idolatrous pedestal with all the fury of divine vengeance: "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord" (Romans 12:19b).
         
   2. If this timetable is correct, then we should see Jesus revealing it in his teaching. So he does in Matthew 24:
      
      1. In verses four and following there are various events which probably begin with the so-called four horsemen of the apocalypse revealed in Revelation 6.
         
      2. Verses nine and following (concerning martyrdom) reveal the beginning of what Jesus called the great tribulation, starting at the midpoint of the seventieth week with the abomination of desolation (:15).
         
      3. The second half of the seventieth week is "cut short" "for the sake of the elect" (:22).
         
      4. The heavenly bodies will be darkened (:29).
         
      5. The sign of the son of Man will appear in the sky for all to see (:30a, cf. :27).
         
      6. Christ will return for all to see "coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory" (:30b).
         
      7. The chosen ones of God (all believers) are then gathered from the earth and taken to heaven. 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 says that the dead in Christ are resurrected and gathered first, and then those who are still living at Christ's coming. How long after the midpoint does this occur? We will never know exactly.
         
   3. Without being argumentative, it is obvious that we have nowhere seen a secret rapture of the saints at the beginning of the seventieth week of Daniel. The preceding pattern of events is natural to the text, unstrained, and unforced. It means that the church of Jesus Christ will be on the earth for the dastardly deeds of Antichrist, but will be removed some time after the midpoint when Christ returns. Then the day of the Lord will begin, and all unrighteousness will receive its just punishment on the earth. With this pattern understood, we can now approach the breaking of the seals in Revelation 6.
      
      
4. WHY THE BREAKING OF THE SEALS MATTERS TO US -- Revelation 6:1-2
   
   "And 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.' And 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."
   
   The opening of these seals will draw the age to a close by the supreme authority of Christ. The breaking of the first seal in heaven reveals the release of a white-horsed rider on earth who has often been confused with Christ (cf. Rev. 19), but who is better seen as the Antichrist. Technically, the white horse represents all of the false christs who will be at work in the last days, as described by Matthew 24:23-27. Antichrist is the most powerful human embodiment of this deceptive program of Satan. He is also the culmination of the collective will of sinful mankind to reject God. He signs a pact with Israel and begins in earnest to take over the earth and gain worship for himself. By this we see the permissive will of God at work. God does not desire that any should perish, but he will not force faith on those who disbelieve. The first chapter of Romans repeatedly says that when mankind chose to sin, God gave us all over to the sin and its consequences. With each new downward step of rebellion there is a new "giving over," which leaves us worse off than we were before. The low point occurs at the end of the church age with the unveiling of the Antichrist and the great tribulation. The seventieth week of Daniel with its horrors is the end product of the sinful choices of mankind. It's our fault!
   
   John wrote to his beloved brothers and sisters that the work of antichrist is not merely a future reality but a very present danger: "...And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; and this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world" (1 John 4:3). Every action or belief of the church or individual believers which does not explicitly affirm Christ's ultimate rule is a concession to the spirit of antichrist. Every time we disregard the explicit teaching of the Word of God and every time we willfully sin we give aid and comfort to the Enemy of our souls. What concessions are you making? Do you see what is at stake? Even small sins add to the reason why the Lamb of God must break the seals and let spiritual destruction flow down upon the earth. Let it be said of us that we fought the good fight, we refused to concede anything to the spirit of antichrist, and that we were found faithful at the coming of our Lord.
   
   [See attached chart on paper version, or go to www.signministries.org and see some beautiful charts which they have prepared for online use.]