Revelation’s Seven Seals

In the seven seals of Revelation, as in the seven churches and seven trumpets, John was shown a delineation of conditions that would characterize the successive stages of the Christian era. By studying the outline given in these prophecies, we are able to see where we stand in the stream of time.

As the first seal is opened (Revelation 6:1, 2), a white horse appears, “and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.” This is a description of the advance of the gospel in the first century. Through the missionary zeal of the early church the gospel “was preached to every creature which is under heaven” (Colossians 1:23). The white horse indicates the church in its original purity. The crown, or victory wreath, shows its conquest over the power of the enemy.

The second seal (Revelation 6:3, 4) reveals a red horse. In this bloody scene, peace is taken from the earth, and many are killed with a great sword. From the beginning of the second century until Constantine’s edict of A.D. 313, Christianity was illegal throughout the Roman empire, and Christians were terribly persecuted.

The opening of the third seal (Revelation 6:5, 6) provides a view of Christianity’s status for the two hundred years or so following its legalization in A.D. 313. The horse, now black, reveals that the church had lost its original purity. Its rider holds a pair of balances. A voice is heard declaring that a full day’s wage (Matthew 20:2) now buys only a quart of wheat. The devalued money symbolizes Christianity itself, which had been cheapened through its merger with paganism. Previously, to declare yourself a “Christian” might cost you your life. But by the end of the fourth century, Christianity had so lost its distinctive qualities that every heathen walking the street was a member of the church.

The opening of the fourth seal (Revelation 6:7, 8) ushers in a pale horse. Here is a church that has fully lost its spiritual life. Its rider is Death, and the Grave follows closely behind. This represents the period of the Dark Ages during which the spark of true godliness was almost entirely extinguished. “And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.” The tribulation of those days was so terrible that Jesus said, “Except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved” (Matthew 24:22).

When the fifth seal is opened (Revelation 6:9-11), the figure changes. The cumulative deaths of millions of God’s people through centuries of oppression are now pictured as crying out to God, calling for justice. “How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” The answer is given that the dead must “rest yet for a little season.”

The first five seals bring us down to early modern history. Next up would be the signs of the end, appearing at the opening of the sixth seal:

“And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind” (Revelation 6:12, 13).