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In the following commentary, words in CAPS indicate the biblical text, while words in lower case indicate the commentary on that text.

Studies in Revelation

by Dr. John H. Roller

Chapter 6

Introduction

Now we come to the beginning of the “exciting” part of the book of Revelation – the part that everybody likes to study. This is the part where history is predicted before it happens, and we get to see how these prophecies were fulfilled. The vision of the “seven seals” extends from Revelation 6:1 through Revelation 8:1.

Revelation 6:1

I SAW THAT THE LAMB (Jesus) OPENED ONE OF THE SEVEN SEALS (so that a portion of the scroll that represented the “title deed” to the earth – as we saw in our study of Chapter 5 – could be unrolled, unveiling the progress of a portion of the history of the earth, from the Apostle John’s time toward the time of the Second Coming), AND I HEARD ONE OF THE FOUR LIVING CREATURES SAYING, AS WITH A VOICE OF THUNDER, “COME AND SEE!”

Revelation 6:2

AND BEHOLD (“Look!”), A WHITE HORSE (the ancient equivalent of an armored car), AND HE WHO SAT ON IT HAD A BOW (he was preparing to go out conquering). A CROWN WAS GIVEN TO HIM (he had the authority to conquer), AND HE CAME FORTH CONQUERING, AND TO CONQUER. I think that the color of the horse is a clue as to what kind of “conqueror” this was, and from that clue we ought to be able to figure out who this “conqueror” represented. White is a symbol of holiness or purity. This “conqueror” was on God’s side. I believe that this first seal is a prophecy of the “conquest” of the Roman Empire by Jesus Christ (the One who was pictured as sitting on the white horse), which took place in history in the spread of Christianity throughout that empire between AD 30 and AD 395. During those 365 years, Christianity spread like a wild fire, starting in an obscure corner of Palestine (the Galilee) and working its way throughout Asia Minor and Greece, into Italy itself and around the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, until almost half of the people supposedly living under the rule of Caesar were actually living under the rule of Christ. This time period includes the entire Apostolic and Persecution Ages of Chapter 2 and the early part of the Constantinian Age. Dispensational Futurism would make this verse portray the coming of Antichrist instead of the coming of Christ. If that were the case, then why would he be riding the white horse of purity and holiness? This question, alone, is enough to convince me that Dispensational Futurism is a wrong interpretation of Revelation, but the theory has many other problems, as well. I believe that Historicism provides a clearer and more reliable interpretation.

Revelation 6:3

WHEN HE (Jesus) OPENED THE SECOND SEAL, I HEARD THE SECOND LIVING CREATURE SAYING, “COME!” (I don’t know why – this time only – the creature wasn’t also reported as saying, “and see!” – and, in some copies of Revelation, those words are, indeed, included.)

Revelation 6:4

ANOTHER CAME FORTH, A RED HORSE. TO HIM WHO SAT ON IT WAS GIVEN POWER (that word is “implied” in the text, rather than actually stated; what the text actually says is, “To him who sat on it was given) TO TAKE (the) PEACE (the “Pax Romana” – the Roman “peace” which prevailed in the territory controlled by the Roman Empire for almost 500 years, as the Roman armies enforced Roman law and prevented smaller countries from fighting each other, as they had previously been accustomed to doing) FROM THE EARTH (so, obviously, when “the peace” was “taken from” the earth, the result would be the coming of a war to the earth; that happened in AD 395, when the Roman Empire was split into East and West, and the Roman armies were no longer able to enforce the famous “Pax”), AND THAT THEY (the people of the countries that had formerly been ruled over by the Roman Empire) SHOULD KILL ONE ANOTHER (which they promptly did). THERE WAS GIVEN TO HIM A GREAT (big) SWORD (an obvious symbol for a major war; red, of course, is the color of blood, and it is easy to see why a red horse would be used to symbolize a war in which much human blood is shed). This time period includes the rest of the Constantinian Age and the beginning of the Medieval Age, up to about AD 606-610. Notable wars of the period include (among many others) the barbarian “sack” of Rome in AD 410 and the final collapse of the Western Roman Empire in AD 476.

Revelation 6:5

WHEN HE (Jesus) OPENED THE THIRD SEAL, I HEARD THE THIRD LIVING CREATURE SAYING, “COME AND SEE!” AND BEHOLD (“Look!”), A BLACK HORSE, AND HE WHO SAT ON IT HAD A BALANCE (a set of scales, used for weighing items against a standard set of weights to determine their weight – also, a universally-recognized symbol for justice and fairness) IN HIS HAND. If the rider on a white horse represented Christ, doesn’t it make sense that the rider on a black horse would represent Christ’s opposite – Antichrist? So the third seal represented conditions that would prevail during the time of the Antichrist. I believe that time began in AD 610, and that the Antichrist was the Roman Catholic system of government headed by the Papacy (the succession of Popes) from then until AD 1870.

Revelation 6:6

I HEARD A VOICE IN THE MIDST OF THE FOUR LIVING CREATURES SAYING, “A CHOENIX (about a quart) OF WHEAT FOR A DENARIUS (the coin that would be paid to a “minimum wage” worker for one day’s work), AND THREE CHOENIX (about three quarts) OF BARLEY FOR A DENARIUS (the coin that would be paid to a “minimum wage” worker for one day’s work)! Those would be extremely high prices, so this verse represents a famine – not a scarcity of food, in my opinion, but a scarcity of the Word of God. One of the major “crimes” of the Antichrist system was withholding access to the Bible from people – only allowing the Bible to be in the hands of its priests and bishops. Here’s how that came about. The first step was for the Popes to declare that the Bible is not the only source of authoritative teaching; there are three other sources – logic, tradition and (especially) the teaching of the Church (as promulgated by the authority of the Papacy). The next step was to declare that the authority of the Church (as expressed in the teachings promulgated by the Papacy) superceded the authority of the Bible. Then it became logical to restrict access to the Bible to avoid the possibility of an “unauthorized” person reading it and coming up with their own interpretations, which might go against the teachings of the Church. At first, only laypeople were denied access to the Bible; later, even local priests were denied access. At that point, only bishops, archbishops, cardinals and popes were allowed to read the Bible (and a lot of them didn’t bother, since they already knew what the Church taught, and knew that it wouldn’t do them any good to read the Bible and come up with a different interpretation of it). Eventually, it came down to where the only people who knew much about the Bible were the monks who lived in monasteries. They made handwritten copies of it and wrote commentaries on it that hardly anybody ever read. The “cost” of gaining access to the “bread” became prohibitively high. DON’T DAMAGE THE OIL AND THE WINE!” Oil and wine are symbols of the Holy Spirit. The Papacy was unable to withhold the Holy Spirit from people, so the “oil” and the “wine” flowed freely during this time, even though people didn’t have access to the “bread” of life. Many true Christians, led by the Holy Spirit, refused to follow the Church’s unbiblical teachings and were persecuted to death (as individuals) and to extinction (as groups) for doing so.

Revelation 6:7

WHEN HE (Jesus) OPENED THE FOURTH SEAL, I HEARD THE FOURTH LIVING CREATURE SAYING, “COME AND SEE!”

Revelation 6:8

AND BEHOLD (“Look!”), A PALE (sick-looking, light green colored) HORSE, AND HE WHO SAT ON IT, HIS NAME WAS (the) DEATH. This is not just “ordinary” death, but a prediction of the specific historical experience known as “The Black Death” – the bubonic plague that struck Europe in AD 1347-1351. HADES (the grave) FOLLOWED WITH HIM (people were dying so frequently, during those four years, that there wasn’t enough time to bury them individually; many thousands were buried in mass graves). AUTHORITY OVER ONE FOURTH OF THE EARTH (in this context, the expression “the earth” refers to the territory controlled by the Papacy – basically, Europe), TO KILL WITH THE SWORD (thinking back to the red horse), WITH FAMINE (thinking back to the black horse), WITH (the) DEATH (described here by the pale horse), AND BY THE WILD ANIMALS OF THE EARTH (thinking ahead to the fifth seal) WAS GIVEN TO HIM (“Death”). The bubonic plague alone accounted for the death of over 20% of the people who had been alive in Europe at the time that it started, and the other factors (war, famine, etc.) accounted for almost another 5%; by the time the plague had run its course, Europe’s population was down to only 75% of what it had been when the plague started.

Revelation 6:9

WHEN HE (Jesus) OPENED THE FIFTH SEAL, John might have been expecting to see another horse, probably of a different color, but that didn’t happen; instead, he reports, I SAW UNDERNEATH THE ALTAR (in the heavenly temple that he was seeing in this vision) THE SOULS (literally, the blood; see Leviticus 17:14, where the “life” – same Hebrew word that is usually translated as “soul” – “of all flesh is the blood thereof”) OF THOSE WHO HAD BEEN KILLED FOR THE WORD OF GOD, AND FOR THE TESTIMONY OF THE LAMB WHICH THEY HAD. This verse refers to the persecution and martyrdom of many millions of true Christians in the Inquisition (which actually began before the bubonic plague of AD 1347-1351, and continued after the great earthquake of AD 1755, but was concentrated mostly in the 400 years between those two events), and views their deaths as if they were sacrifices to God.

Revelation 6:10

THEY (the “souls” – literally, the blood) CRIED WITH A LOUD VOICE (like Abel’s blood, in Genesis 4:10, which is also referred to in Hebrews 11:4 and Hebrews 12:24), SAYING, “HOW LONG, MASTER, THE HOLY AND TRUE, UNTIL YOU JUDGE AND AVENGE OUR BLOOD ON THOSE WHO DWELL ON THE EARTH?” The murder of an innocent human being – particularly the politico-religious church/state-authorized murder of a follower of Jesus Christ – “calls out” for the judicial execution of the murderer(s). The call is just, and it is a call for justice, but it is a call that will not really be answered until the Judge appears (that is, until the Second Coming of Christ).

Revelation 6:11

A LONG WHITE ROBE WAS GIVEN TO EACH OF THEM. THEY WERE TOLD THAT THEY SHOULD REST (sleep in their graves) YET FOR A WHILE (literally, from the time that they were killed until the time when the Judge comes), UNTIL THEIR FELLOW SERVANTS AND THEIR BROTHERS, WHO WOULD ALSO BE KILLED EVEN AS THEY WERE, SHOULD COMPLETE THEIR COURSE. Persecution and martyrdom was particularly intense during the Inquisition, but it didn’t completely end when the Inquisition ended. It is still going on today, and it is actually increasing in many parts of the world, although not particularly in those countries in which the Papacy sponsored it during the middle ages. See Daniel 12:7 and my comment on it – “WHEN THEY HAVE MADE AN END OF BREAKING IN PIECES THE POWER OF THE HOLY PEOPLE, ALL THESE THINGS SHALL BE FINISHED. But, the ‘breaking in pieces’ (persecution) of God’s people has not yet completely ended, even now….”

Revelation 6:12

I SAW WHEN HE (Jesus) OPENED THE SIXTH SEAL, AND THERE WAS A GREAT EARTHQUAKE (the most violent earthquake in recorded history took place on November 1, AD 1755; it was centered in Lisbon, Portugal – a city of over 60,000 – which was completely destroyed; the earthquake was felt all over western Europe, northwestern Africa, and the western half of the Atlantic Ocean; geological evidence indicates that it may have affected, in some way, 1/4 of the total surface of the Earth, though, fortunately, much of the area it affected was either ocean or uninhabited desert, so that not as many people were killed by it as have been killed by less violent earthquakes that were centered in places like China, where hundreds of millions of people live). THE SUN BECAME BLACK AS SACKCLOTH MADE OF HAIR (I believe that this is a prediction of the infamous “Dark Day” – May 19, AD 1780 – on which, in some places, particularly in New England, it became, by 12:00 Noon, almost as dark as it normally is at 12:00 Midnight, for reasons that have never been explained by science), AND THE WHOLE (full) MOON BECAME AS (red as) BLOOD (that same night, although it was not a normal eclipse; astronomers can predict those with 100% accuracy, and this was not one that was predicted).

Revelation 6:13

THE STARS OF THE SKY FELL TO THE EARTH, LIKE A FIG TREE DROPPING ITS UNRIPE FIGS WHEN IT IS SHAKEN BY A GREAT WIND. The greatest meteor shower in recorded history took place on November 13, AD 1833, when the Earth passed through the tail of Comet Tempel-Tuttle. At one point during the shower, the “stars” were “falling” at a rate of over 100,000 per hour (a “normal” meteor shower is usually less than 100 meteors per hour).

Revelation 6:14

THE SKY WAS REMOVED LIKE A SCROLL WHEN IT IS ROLLED UP. EVERY MOUNTAIN AND ISLAND WERE MOVED OUT OF THEIR PLACES. Is there any record of an event that could have been described by this statement? I’m not aware of any. Does that mean that it hasn’t happened? Not necessarily! Certainly there have been events that have happened, and have been reported, but I don’t happen to have read those reports. It’s also possible that events have happened, and have been reported, but the records have been lost, or destroyed, and no one now living has ever read them. Perhaps events have happened and no one has reported them. It’s also possible that whatever this verse is predicting hasn’t happened yet, but will happen just before Jesus comes. That doesn’t mean that Jesus couldn’t come today, because this event doesn’t need to take much time. The great earthquake only took about four days. The dark day only took about four hours, and the same is true of the blood-red moon and the great meteor shower. Whatever this verse is describing could take place in only a few minutes. According to the sequence of events in this “seal,” it seems that it should have happened sometime in either the nineteenth century or the twentieth century, but since we don’t know what it’s referring to, we obviously can’t pinpoint the date.

Revelation 6:15

THE KINGS OF THE EARTH, THE PRINCES, THE COMMANDING OFFICERS, THE RICH, THE STRONG, AND EVERY SLAVE AND FREE PERSON, HID THEMSELVES IN THE CAVES AND IN THE ROCKS OF THE MOUNTAINS. I don’t know that this took place, literally, but we have a similar expression: they “hid their faces in the sand”: which means they saw these things happen, and thought that the day of God’s judgment had come (that’s exactly what many people thought in 1755, and 1780, and 1833), and then, when they realized that it hadn’t, chose to ignore these “warnings” and to pretend that these things hadn’t happened at all, or, at least, that they didn’t mean that the judgment day was coming, or, in any case, that they weren’t the fulfillments of the biblical prophecies that I am suggesting that they were.

Revelation 6:16

THEY TOLD THE MOUNTAINS AND THE ROCKS, “FALL ON US, AND HIDE US FROM THE FACE OF HIM WHO SITS ON THE THRONE (that is, God), AND FROM THE WRATH OF THE LAMB (Jesus),

Revelation 6:17

FOR THE GREAT DAY OF HIS (God’s) WRATH HAS COME; AND WHO IS ABLE TO STAND?” Well, since no one is capable of “standing up” to God’s judgment, no one wants to “face up” to the possibility that today is the day that we will have to do that – so, whenever things happen that make it look like the judgment day is upon us, people shut their eyes, plug their ears, and pretend they don’t see and hear what’s happening. That was certainly true on these historical dates, when these prophecies were fulfilled, and it will undoubtedly also happen when Jesus comes, as well.

Conclusion

The opening of the first six seals introduces us to the events of the New Testament Era – that period of time between Christ’s first and second comings. It covers, specifically, events that took place between AD 30 and AD 1833 (or maybe later). It does not predict he Second Coming itself. Before we get to that prediction, which (I believe) is found in Revelation 8:1, we will need to take a look at another chapter – Revelation 7.