The Book of Revelation consists of a vision given to the Apostle John by Jesus Christ.  Though written in past tense, the book describes the future, specifically the time leading up to the return of Jesus.  Upon His arrival He will put an end to man’s rebellion against Him and His Father and send man’s god (Satan) into the abyss for 1000 years.  In Revelation chapter five we find the Lamb receiving from His Father a “book” that has been “sealed” with seven seals.  An angel proclaims that no man is worthy to remove the seals and open the book.  He announces that only the Lamb of God is worthy.  Beginning in chapter six we find Him opening the first seal.  The rest of the Book of Revelation depicts what will happen on the earth and in the heavens following that moment.  These events were foretold thousands of years earlier by the Lamb, then known as Jesus of Nazareth and recorded in Matthew 24.  What He (Jesus) described in verses four through seven would be merely “… the beginning of sorrows.”  Mankind is just now entering into the beginning stage of man’s “sorrows.”  Man, having sown the “wind” of rebellion against God’s Word, is about to reap the “storm” his winds have generated.  The world is feeling the first breezes that portend the coming “storm” (God’s wrath) that will make the combination of all previous storms (wars, pandemics, financial and “natural” disasters, etc.) pale by comparison.  Revelation six gives us a summary of what is soon to come upon the earth.  Mankind’s only hope of avoiding the coming storm is a total, universal reversal of spirituality.  That, I say with utmost sorrow, is not going to happen.  Hopefully, a few individuals will embrace God’s Truth and obey it.  Only those who do so will be protected as first Satan (the Great Tribulation–2 1/2 years), then God (the Day of the Lord–1 year) pour out their wrath on mankind.  Let us now join John as he tells us about the vision the Lord gave him concerning the future from the time of the vision (approximately 100 A.D.).

Removal of the first seal revealed a white horse whose rider (Satan) would be the cause of all of the world’s problems.  Pretending to be Christ, this rider would “go forth conquering (men) and to conquer (more men)” those who would follow him instead of the Biblical God.  Matthew 24 and Revelation beginning with chapter six graphically reveal what man has seen manifested over the past 2000 years with more of the same on the horizon.  Future manifestations of God’s wrath will be more destructive and deadly than those of the past.

All of the world’s religious “isms,” including Catholicism and Protestantism, are the products of man’s worship of and service to the rider on the white horse who takes the form of whatever god mankind chooses to worship.  To sun worshipers he is the sun.  To Muslims, he is Allah.  To Christians he is the Lord.    ALL WORSHIP AND SERVE A FALSE GOD–SATAN because none obey the Biblical God.

In Revelation six we watch as the remaining seals are removed from Daniel’s book, giving us a look into our past, present and future.  The tragedies people have experienced historically have been the result of their allegiance to and worship of the rider on the white horse as their god.  I can attest to this fact because of personal experience.  In the past I suffered a great deal of pain, sorrow and failure.  I can every trace every such incident to a sin I had committed.  Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 explain the cause and effect law better than I can.  Please study those chapters carefully.

The seals the Lamb opened reveal how the Lord has responded to man’s rejection of Him in the past, continues to respond, and will respond in the future in increasingly disasterous and deadly ways.  As He prophesied in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28, He has sent death, destruction and misery in the form of war, famine, sickness, disease, floods, storms, fire, drought, etc. upon sinning man.  The Lamb’s removal of seals two through four attest to this fact.  The seals were, are and will continue to be used as God’s “voice” by which He “speaks” to mankind.  The fifth seal’s removal revealed the souls of those who will be martyred because of their stand for the Lord during the Great Tribulation.  These people will realize that God has sent the terror on them and why.  They will truly repent and serve him.  Their dedication to Him will cost them their heads, literally.  The removal of the sixth seal ushers in the Day of the Lord (vs 16,17).  The Prophet Joel describes this day (year) as “great and terrible” (2:11,31).  As horrific as the Great Tribulation will be, those who experience the Day of the Lord will yearn for those days.

The opening of the seventh seal is described in verse one of chapter eight.  Chapters eight and nine describe the wrath of God as He pronounces three “woes” upon the world’s sinners, including those who were supposedly saved by His grace.  During this Day of the Lord men will pray for death but will not be able to die.  I suggest that the reader carefully study Revelation chapters six through nine.  We have briefly examined the prophecy and revelation segments of this series.  Let us now move on to the final segment.

Historian and author George Orwell wrote: “In a time of universal deceit, speaking the truth is a revolutionary act.”  Earlier, the philosopher Plato noted that, “No one is as hated as he who speaks the truth.”  Jesus Christ said that God’s Word is Truth (Jn. 17:17).  Speakers of Scriptural Truth, though few in number, are the most hated men within the world’s church system because the Truth they tell exposes the lies that Catholics and Protestants hear from Satan’s false prophets.  As the prophets, Jesus, His apostles, their ministerial descendants, Orwell and Plato have noted, MAN HATES THE TRUTH.  And no one hates it more than the uber religious.  Nothing makes church people angrier than to hear someone quote Truths from the Book they claim to believe.  The only reason true believers in free societies are alive today is because social law prevents the church from killing them.  Anyone who doubts this should read Simon of Samaria: The Heritage.

During the Tribulation beheadings for professing faith in Jesus Christ will become commonplace (Rev. 20:4).  Jesus and His apostles warned time and again that those who spoke and lived God’s Truth would suffer persecution, some unto death.  Jesus confessed that He did not come to bring peace to the earth, but rather a sword which He identified as the Word of God.  That word, He noted, would cause divisions within families and friends.  Some would be killed because of it.  The question is: Why do professing Christians harbor so much hatred toward God’s Holy Scriptures?  The answer: Revolution.  L.J.