Missed any of our Revelation series? You can catch up here!

In the midst of the seal judgments, we find a hint that the political climate on the earth has turned viciously against the followers of Jesus. I believe that the individuals referred to in these verses are people who have come to Christ after the rapture of the Church, but regardless of your view of the timing of these things, it is clear that there is savage persecution happening.

When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed.

Revelation 6:9-11

Thoughts to ponder as we consider these sobering verses:

1. Persecution is a reality, and we need to wake up and be aware of it! At this point in time it will reach unprecedented levels, but even today persecution is rampant around our globe. If you are unfamiliar with the ministry of Voice of the Martyrs, the people behind this organization work tirelessly to raise awareness about real suffering that our brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ around the world face on a daily basis. I’d urge you to spend some time on their website, request a free copy of the book Tortured for Christ, and perhaps consider getting involved in their action pack ministry or in any number of other ways. You can also follow them on twitter for frequent updates – @VOM_USA.

2. Even as we become more aware of persecution and actively seek to pray and support the suffering body of Christ in tangible ways, we must know this: God is sovereign over everything, even the persecution of His saints. His timing and plan are beyond what we can comprehend. Even as we cry out, “How long, O Lord,” we can rest in the fact that He will judge sin, His plan will prevail, and everything is firmly within His control.

3. These individuals had been killed “because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained.” If you were dragged into court today, accused of being a follower of Jesus Christ… would the jury have convincing enough evidence to convict you? Has your faithfulness to the Word of God and your testimony as a follower of Jesus been so obvious and compelling that your sentence would be swift?

I am deeply grateful for the freedom we have in our country and for the relative lack of suffering for our faith. But is the thought of denying or failing to live faithfully for my Lord much more horrifying than the thought of real persecution?

May we love Him more than we love our very lives.

Missed any of our Revelation series? You can catch up here!

Here’s a first for the blog – take a minute to click here and listen to John Lennon’s “Imagine.” I want you humming it to yourself as we “imagine” what this idyllic world he describes would really be like. It is simply Babel reborn… and what he describes is a lie.

So, let’s imagine. Someday all the people of the earth will be living for today – all those “fools” who believe in heaven and hell removed, allowing everyone else to live in “peace.”

I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.

Revelation 6:1-2

“Imagine there’s no heaven, it’s easy if you try.
No hell below us above us only sky…
Nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too.”

As Christ opens the first seal, the first of four “horses” appears on the scene. [These are sometimes referred to as "the four horsemen of the apocalypse."] It seems most consistent with the descriptions of these horsemen to see them not as people, but as personifications of forces and events. This first horse and rider don’t appear terribly threatening.

This rider is holding a bow, but has no arrows. He has a crown of authority given to him. His battles at this point are peaceful ones fought on the battle grounds of politics and philosophy, as authority is given to him rather than claimed and he rides out victoriously with no arrows being shot. It appears that this first seal demonstrates a worldwide peace, fragile and temporary under seemingly peaceful leadership.

It will not last. As 1 Thessalonians 5:3 describes, “While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.”

When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other. To him was given a large sword.

Revelation 6:3-4

“Imagine no possessions- I wonder if you can?…
Imagine all the people sharing all the world…”

The fragile peace is broken as sinful men greedily turn on one another and the earth is engulfed in war, assassinations, conflicts, rebellions, and large-scale massacres. As Jesus describes in Matthew 24:7, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.” The result will be devastating.

When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “A quart of wheat for a day’s wages, and three quarts of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!”

Revelation 6:5-6

“No need for greed or hunger, a brotherhood of man.”

Following this worldwide outbreak of war and chaos, severe famine follows. A “quart of wheat” was enough food to feed one person for one day, while “three quarts of barley” could provide lower-quality nutrition for up to three people. In other words, one man would barely be able to sustain himself with food (not to mention other necessities), and those with families to support will find themselves severely lacking.

John Phillips describes the scene with vivid sobriety:

“It has happened before. It is with us today… More than half the world goes hungry to bed. Even the magnificent bounty of the United States cannot stave off forever the mass starvation of the world. Malnutrition stalks the globe. It claims ten thousand lives every day…

It has happened before. It is with us today. It will happen again. For this dread rider is not yet abroad; it is only his shadow we see. But when he comes, he will act as secretary of state for starving mankind, will wipe them out by the million, and will dispose the survivors to listen to the buttered lies of the Beast.” (115)

Hunger and starvation is not the end of the suffering, but only the beginning.

When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.

Revelation 6:7-8

“I hope someday you’ll join us and the world will live as one…”

Inevitably, war and famine are followed by disease and death. This judgment is the first of many that are hard to wrap your mind around as the text says that a fourth of the earth’s population will be killed. War and resulting famine will kill many, followed by rampant disease and “wild beasts of the earth.” Some commentators theorize that these “beasts” are rats with increasing populations, wiping out mankind with the diseases they carry and by further decimating and contaminating food supplies. Phillips notes that the rat has “killed more people than all the wars of history, and it makes its home wherever man is found. Rats carry as many as thirty-five different diseases. Their fleas carry bubonic plague… [and also] typhus, which in four centuries has killed an estimated two hundred million people.” (117)

With God’s people and the restraint of the Holy Spirit removed, mankind is spiraling into the worst version of itself. Greed, violence, depravity of all kinds, and their natural consequences are allowed to increase unchecked.

John Lennon’s dream of “all the people living for today” will be realized, but it will not result in “no greed or hunger, a brotherhood of man… all the people sharing all the world.” The world engulfed in an unrestrained spirit of Babel will not be a pleasant place to be.

Mankind seeking their own good in rebellion against God. Babel reborn.

And God’s judgment will be poured out.

Missed any of our Revelation series? You can catch up here!

In Revelation 5 we found that Jesus Christ was the only one worthy to take the scroll and reclaim ownership of the earth. Through the following chapters of Revelation we find several series of judgments against sinful and rebellious humankind; each of these judgments is detailed in the scroll and comes about as the seals are broken and the scroll is unrolled.

It seems that the best way to understand the sequence of these events is that all of these judgments “telescope” out from one another.

• The scroll is described as having seven seals.
• The seventh seal contains a series of seven trumpet judgments.
• The seventh trumpet judgment contains a series of seven bowl judgments.

All of the judgments are found within the scroll, detailed in the seven seals; these judgments form the main outline of the remainder of the book.

John Phillips summarizes this well:

“For two breathtaking, soul-inspiring chapters, we have been in heaven. The scroll has changed hands, and the right to judge and rule the world has been placed upon Jesus. Now we must come down fromt he mount and out of the ivory palaces. Down here, on the rebel planet of earth, the tempo is increasing, passions are rising. Evil men and seducers are waxing worse and worse. Disobedience to parents has grown up into brawling maturity, defying all authority. Men have become inventors of evil things, and their fearful inventions have become Frankenstein monsters, threatening to destroy the globe. The time has come for God to intervene in human affairs, so judgment is given to the Son. The seals on the scroll are to be broken.

There are three principal series of judgments in Revelation – the seal judgments, the trumpet judgments, and the vial [bowl] judgments. The action of the book is carried forward, for the most part, by these series. The rest of the book is mainly parenthetical, either anticipating or reviewing a phase of that action.” (110)

These judgments are hard to read. They describe conditions on this earth that are nearly unthinkable. Before we plunge into studying these judgments you must settle in your own mind the fact that our God is loving and gracious, but He is also holy and full of righteous wrath against man’s sin and rebellion.

I urge you to take some time to look through these two posts which dealt with this topic in the past.

• Is God Loving, or is He Angry? Can He Be Both?
• The Wrath of God and Extravagant Grace

The wrath and judgment of God in these coming chapters stand in stark contrast of the grace and forgiveness we have been offered through Jesus Christ. They stand as sobering reminders that we all deserve that judgment… the only dividing line is being covered by the righteousness of Christ and saved from God’s holy anger.

“Dr. Donald Gray Barnhouse once noted that there are four things out of place in the universe:

1. The church, which should be in heaven
2. Israel, which should be living in peace occupying all the land promised to her
3. Satan, who belongs in the lake of fire
4. and Christ, who should be seated on His throne reigning.

All four of these anomalies will be set right when Christ takes the scroll from His Father’s hand.”

-MacArthur, pg. 170

Do you long for that day? I surely do.

In the meantime… we are still in a desperately broken world. If you’re wrestling with the injustice and cruelty of this world, I’d encourage you to take a look back at this post from our “Understanding Pain and Loss” series – When Life Isn’t Fair.

Next week we will begin to look at the specific judgments against sinful mankind described in the book of Revelation. God is just. He is holy. And one day, all will be made right.

To catch up on any of the Revelation posts you may have missed, you can find them all listed here. For more daily encouragement, come join us on the blog page on facebook!  You can also subscribe by email to receive daily posts sent right to your inbox.