Revelation 6:9 ¶ And when he had
opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain
for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: 10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How
long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them
that dwell on the earth? 11 And white
robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they
should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their
brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.
The fifth seal opens with martyrs crying
out from under the altar asking why God has not taken vengeance on their
murderers. These people are already in heaven, not represented by angels in
heaven with their physical bodies being on earth. They have been martyred. Prophets
in the past have asked why the wicked were allowed to pursue their goals for so
long.
Jeremiah 12:1 Righteous art
thou, O LORD, when I plead with thee: yet let me talk with thee of thy
judgments: Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all they
happy that deal very treacherously?
The martyrs were given white
robes.
Revelation 19:8 And to her was
granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine
linen is the righteousness of saints.
They are told to rest because
there are more of them to be killed. God has previously told someone that a
promise would be fulfilled later when something was complete.
Genesis 15:13 And he said unto
Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not
theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;
14 And also that nation, whom they shall
serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.
15 And thou shalt go to thy fathers in
peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. 16 But in the fourth generation they shall come
hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.
If the seals and trumpets and
vials happen at the same time, as some have written, we have;
Revelation 9:1 ¶ And the fifth
angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was
given the key of the bottomless pit. 2
And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the
pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by
reason of the smoke of the pit. 3 And
there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given
power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. 4 And it was commanded them that they should not
hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but
only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. 5 And to them it was given that they should not
kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was
as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man. 6 And in those days shall men seek death, and
shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.
7 And the shapes of the locusts were
like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were
crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men. 8 And they had hair as the hair of women, and
their teeth were as the teeth of lions. 9
And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the
sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to
battle. 10 And they had tails like unto
scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt
men five months. 11 And they had a king
over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew
tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon. 12 One woe is past; and, behold, there come two
woes more hereafter.
Along with the agony caused by
these supernatural creatures from Hell there is;
Revelation 16:10 And the fifth
angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full
of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain, 11 And blasphemed the God of heaven because of
their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.
It appears that the trumpet seems
to be the spiritual cause of the physical agony the vial places on the kingdom of the Beast, who, I said, was
probably that conqueror in the first seal.
I believe then that these events
in the first five seals are future events with a disaster encompassing the
entire world never felt in human history since the Great Flood. The first rider
is the Beast, a conqueror. I do not believe the events of the seals, trumpets,
and vials, have to be happening at the same time like some write. I believe
they follow each other.
Pause for a moment. There is a
translation of the church, Christ’s physical body on earth, as promised, and we
will see the people in Heaven praising God. Then, God’s wrath descends on earth
as He unleashes Satan whose wrath comes in the form of a great conqueror and
the catastrophe for humanity that almost always follows one of those
malefactors of history. Although Satan has had his man in the wings in every
generation of history something, we are told, has held them back and thwarted
their plans until now.
2Thessalonians 2:7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already
work: only he who now letteth will
let, until he be taken
out of the way.
To Let also
meant to hold back, to restrain, when this Bible was translated in the early
1600s.
God
restrains Satan as we saw in the Book of Job but allows him to do his will with
restrictions to satisfy an ultimate purpose of God’s will. Satan’s final man is
unleashed and the people of God are removed from earth.
Let’s move on
to the sixth seal.
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