Revelations how many seals

It also seems a bit odd that Christ would be both the one who opens the seal and the content of the seal itself. Thus, the rider on the white horse symbolizes every form of tyranny and oppression that comes with war. If the first rider introduces war into the earth, the remaining three delineate specific consequences of war. The second horseman has power to take peace from the earth so that people kill one another. This may also include persecution of Christians cf.

The third horseman is the agent for famine. A voice surely that of Christ; note its origin then issues a command that would indicate a limitation on the severity of the famine.

The prices mentioned here are anywhere from 8 to 16x the average for the Roman Empire at that time. The overall picture here is of both scarcity and plenty, an economic imbalance in the supply of food and the necessities of life.

There are two things to note. First, this horseman is given authority from God to inflict death by four means: sword war , famine, pestilence lit. This preliminary, partial judgment of the earth is designed to prepare us for the final, consummate judgment that will come with the seventh in each of the three series of woes. These judgments of the four horsemen are a wake-up call to humanity. They are an appeal to everyone everywhere to repent. What should we do? Is it permissible to give our money, time, and labor to overcome or bring a remedy to those who suffer in this way?

Disease is an expression of divine judgment because of human sin, yet Jesus healed the sick. The measure of our commitment to Christ is often seen in our willingness to sacrifice in order to bring relief to the hungry and hurting Luke ; James But we are still responsible to do everything we can to alleviate suffering wherever it occurs and to call everyone everywhere to repent.

The reality of tyranny, oppression, and the loss of human life in the 20th century alone is one with which we are all too familiar. May I remind you that Hitler and Nazi Germany were responsible for the deaths of more than 6,, Jewish men, women, and children.

Mao in China slaughtered tens of millions of his political enemies. Pol Pot ruled over a country, Cambodia, which at the time had some 10,, citizens. He slaughtered more than two million of them, one in five. And Joseph Stalin killed more than 20,, of his own citizens some say the number is closer to 30,, And all this in the 20th century alone. More than , died in our Civil War in the 19th century. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind.

The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. In a nuclear explosion, the atmosphere literally rolls back on itself. A tremendous rush of air flows outward from the initial explosion creating a tremendous vacuum. It is the air flowing back into the vacuum which creates such destruction. Meteors strike the atmosphere and glow fiery red.

When they hit the earth, they pulverize dirt and other materials that remain in the atmosphere, shutting out the sun, for two or more years.

These can strike several cities simultaneously. When these missiles streak through the air, they'll look like meteors entering the atmosphere.

Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face 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 can stand? The greatest prayer meeting the world has ever seen takes place. Instead, they begin praying to the rocks.

What's the result of all this shaking? Do people turn to God? For some reason, their hearts are harder! There is a lesson here. I recall the family which called me and said that their year-old father would not receive Christ as his Savior. They had shared the gospel with him on many occasions with no success. He was now in the hospital waiting to die. They asked me if I would go to the hospital and share the gospel with him one more time.

I carefully led him through the gospel and invited him one more time to come to Christ. His response was chilling. When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. I believe that when those in heaven saw the horror which was about to be unleashed on the earth, their jaws fell open.

They stood in rapt silence. Then, the first trumpet blows. There is an old rabbinic story about the Israelites departing Egypt as the Red Sea split so they could cross on dry land. The Israelites make it across just as the Egyptian army began charging toward the Israelites with the Red Sea waters stacked up on each side of them.

On the afternoon of January 12, the four seals of the constitutional scroll were broken. The seal of silence was broken. Judges, by the nature of their office, do not go to the press. Judges do not try to defend themselves nor do they accuse any one in public. This seal was broken on that day. A year ago, when a judge of a constitutional court held a press conference, it was declared sacrilege. He broke no seals but was sealed from society for six months. First of the four horsemen released a letter written by them to the primus inter pares.

Judges are not covered under the Right to Information Act. Judicial omerta is as sacred as the original. Yet, voluntarily, a letter written by the four to the top judge was revealed to the press and through them to the public. The second seal which was broken that day was all is peaceful inside the sanctum sanctorum. The letter spoke about quick and rapid departures from conventions and how it has led to unpleasant and undesirable consequences affecting the integrity of the institution.

It implies, first, that the power of allotting benches has been surrendered to someone else. Secondly, it also implies that in important cases, litigants have on the bench of the Supreme Court persons of their choice. It not only tends to question the exercise of power by the CJI but also questions brother and sister judges.

If such a statement had been made by any other person, the sword of contempt would have swiftly visited her. There, supreme, at the center of power of the whole universe, is the Lamb of God who died for us.

In Him we see infinite power in self-sacrifice. Lucifer in heaven sought power in self-exaltation, but Jesus humbled Himself and was awarded exaltation above every name—something He had never sought. He came to save the lost and to glorify His Father. As by faith we see the shining ones above bow before Him in loving adoration, declaring Him worthy to open the seven-sealed book. These seals cover seven eras or periods of time from the time of the apostles to the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; and, to a large extent, they depict: religious affairs in the world.

In the first seal we see Christ with the wreath of a conqueror. He rides the white horse, white being the emblem of victory and also of purity. This prophetic picture shows the apostolic church led on by its divine Captain to victory over a pagan world, its doctrines pure, and its victorious Leader, Christ Himself. Read more about the first seal. But after the apostles died, a change came. The next seal flashes a sad picture on the screen of prophecy.

From a white horse, denoting victory and purity and truth, the color is changed to red—the red horse of bloodshed. These days, from the death of the apostles to exaltation of the worldly church by the great emperor Constantine, depicted the times of pagan persecution. Nero, Diocletian, and other emperors of Rome put the followers of Christ to death and also attempted to destroy all copies of the Bible.

Many Christians found refuge in the catacombs or underground rock quarries in Rome. But, when one Christian was thrown to the hungry lions or burned at the stake to make a Roman holiday, another took their place, and faith spread more and more. Read more about the second seal. What a strange picture this is! The color black surely implies a departure from the purity of the faith of Jesus, represented by the white horse of the conquering apostolic church.

Black also signifies sadness and want. The pair of balances is a symbol of scarcity of bread representing spiritual food or the scarcity of the holy Word of God—being doled out by weight. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves.

And so it happened.