PHIL HARRIS
Introduction
Starting with chapter six we see the final phase of God’s plan for the redemption of fallen mankind.
Before we begin looking at this chapter, however, we need to remember that the book of Revelation is about the final redemption of those who trust and believe in Jesus as their Savior. Contrary to Adventist false doctrine, Satan is never mentioned, either in Revelation or anywhere else in Scripture, as having any role in that redemption. He is already a defeated foe, having been disarmed and humiliated (Col 2:15) at Calvary as testified by the resurrection of Jesus Christ three days later.
In other words, Satan is not engaged in a cosmic battle with Jesus hoping to win enough humans to his side to win the war. Even more, Satan is not the scapegoat who carries the sins of the saved to the Lake of Fire. Jesus carried our sins away as far as the east is from the west.
Satan plays no role whatsoever in our redemption.
Now, as we open chapter six, the apostle John, who is an eye witness of “the end times” from the perspective of God, has been invited into heaven and commanded to record first hand what will soon be happening here on earth.
While the coming “great tribulation” is the final desperate act of Satan, what is recorded in Revelation focuses primarily on the work of God and the Lamb who is qualified to open the seven seals.
I. Release Of the Four Horsemen
When the Lamb breaks open the first four seals, what we see is a sequence of events first told to us by Jesus his Olivet Discourse:
As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” And Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ’I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains” (Matt. 24:3-8).
Remembering these words of Jesus, let us look at John’s vision.
- The first seal: verses 6:1-2
The lamb opens the first seal. One of the four living creatures with a voice like thunder says, “Come.” John beholds a rider on a white horse with a bow and a crown, and this horseman is to conquer.
A bow without arrows suggests the rider conquers without using his weapons. The Greek word for “crown” is stephanos, or a crown (of laurels) given because of victory in games. While there are various understandings of the identity of this horseman, I agree with those who say he is the one who brings forced world peace. In other words, this would be the long-predicted antichrist, thus suggesting the beginning of the seven year tribulation’which begins with false peace.
Paul tells us about the antichrist—“the man of lawlessness”—in 2 Thess. 2:1-12.
Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God (2 Thess. 2:3-4).
Of course, “that day” which we all anticipate is the return of our Savior Jesus Christ. The preceding conquest by evil is set in motion when God allows it to happen as the first seal is opened:
Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness (2 Thess. 2:11-12).
- The second seal: verses 6:3-4
Next the Lamb opens the second seal. John hears the second living creature say, “Come,” and out comes a rider on a red horse with a great sword. He takes peace from earth so that people riot and kill each other.
Peace being taken from the earth by the rider on the red horse suggests that the second half of the end-times tribulation has begun. Not until the opening of the second seal does God permit what is brutal world-wide civil anarchy.
- The third seal: verses 6:5-6
Then the Lamb opens the third seal, and John hears the third living creature say, “Come.” John sees a rider on a black horse holding balance scales, and he hears a voice from among the four living creatures say, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius, and do not harm the oil and wine!”
The scales in the hand of the rider of the black horse signify the introduction of world-wide famine, or simply or runaway inflation.
- The fourth seal: verses 6:7-8
When the Lamb opens the fourth seal, John hears the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come.” He looks and sees a rider on a pale (sickly, unhealthy) horse named Death with Hades following him. They have authority over a fourth of the earth to kill with weapons, famine, and sickness and by wild beasts.
II. How Long, Sovereign Lord: the Lamb opens the fifth seal
When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne (Rev. 6:9).
Until now in our study of Revelation, we haven’t seen an altar mentioned at the throne of God in the temple of heaven.
This verse introduces an account that exposes one of the core lies of Adventism. As we will see in the next verse, these slain saints are able to petition God from under the altar at the throne of God. In other words, while still dead, these saints are aware of who they are, they know why and what happened to them, and are able to talk to God concerning the subject of His coming vengeance. This passage alone shows there is no such thing as “soul sleep”. Instead, these are souls who are able to talk to God.
The martyrs introduced here are identified in chapter seven when the Lamb opens the next seal.
- Those slain for the word of God: verse 6:9
We see reference to people being slain for the word of God in the Olivet Discourse:
“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake…” (Matt. 24:9).
John speaks of those who are under the altar as “the souls” because they have not yet been given a resurrected body. They were slain because of their preaching the word of God and for their witness—a description which refers to their loyalty to Jesus Christ. The timing of this account contained within the fifth seal of the saints slain for God’s word suggests that this seal marks the beginning of the Tribulation when the Antichrist demands that he alone be worshiped.
(Note: when the Lamb opens the seventh seal in Revelation 8:3-5 we learn that this altar under which the saints are crying out is for sending the smoke of incense with the prayers of the saints before the throne of God.)
- How long before you avenge: verse 6:10
They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (Rev. 6:10).
Christians are instructed to pray for their enemies and to leave vengeance to God. These “souls” under the alter are simply asking, “How long, Sovereign Lord”, before He carries out the vengeance He has promised to accomplish. Furthermore, they are asking about His vengeance which is rooted in two of God’s attributes: He is a holy and a true God.
Based on God’s word, we know that there soon will will be a time when God does take vengeance:
Do not say, “I will repay evil”; wait for the LORD, and he will deliver you… (Prov. 20:22).
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord” (Rom. 12:19).
- God’s promise: verse 6:11
Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been (Rev. 6:11).
The “souls” under the altar are given a white robe, meaning they are clothed in God’s righteousness. In fact, as we will soon learn, their robes are white because they have been washed in the blood of the Lamb. This righteousness through faith in the finished work of Jesus is a gift that comes with a promise:
The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels (Rev. 3:5).
The Sovereign Lord Jesus Christ is the one who gives the souls these robes and answers their question of “How long?” He tells them, “Rest a little longer,” until their “brothers” are killed as they have been. Now we see that their prayers lead to what God does next.
III. The Lamb Breaks Open the Sixth Seal
- Earthquake, sun, moon and stars: verses 6:12–14
When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place (Rev. 6:12-14).
Jesus Christ, in the Olivet Discourse recorded in Matthew chapter twenty-four, outlines these same last day events. Significantly, these passages are misinterpreted by Adventists in several ways.
These are events that must occur throughout the whole world at the same time in order to have biblical meaning and fulfillment. Furthermore, they all must happen together in such a way the whole world will know, experience, and understand what is happening.
Most importantly, these are last day events that are restricted to the end of the world. They are not a series of events falsely predicted to occur on or near Oct. 22, 1844. Rather, we know from Scripture that these concurrent upheavals will culminate with the return of our Savior.
Adventist preachers twist these Scriptures to support their embarrassing foundation in a failed prophecy that Jesus would return in 1844. They illegitimately appropriate these prophecies by cherry-picking both the contents of the Olivet Discourse and the words in Revelation 6, while at the same time ignoring the context and the details that do not fit their warped narrative. For instance, the night the stars fell in the sky of North America on November 12-13, 1833, eleven years before Oct. 22, 1844, not only had nothing to do with what failed to happen on that night in 1844 but also certainly had nothing to do with the event described here in Revelation. Yet Adventism claims that the 1833 event fulfilled these prophecies.
In order not to be fooled by false prophets and false Christs, we must consider the whole of what is recorded in Scripture. In fact, in the Olivet Discourse Jesus warned and admonished God’s people to pay attention to what God has told them and to faithfully do the work His gives them to do. Those who are not distracted but continue to obey God’s commands to them in spite of upheavals will be rewarded, but those who act abusively and distrust what God has revealed will be punished with the hypocrites (Matt. 24:45–51).
The meaning of these events foretold in Revelation 6:12–14, however, when taken together as a whole, announce to the world that the wrath of both God on the throne and of the Lamb and has arrived. All will understand, both the righteous and the wicked, that God in his wrath is in control.
- Great day of God: verses 6:15–17
Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” (Rev. 6:15-17).
The massive worldwide nature of these events leaves no doubt that they can only be acts of God. When these things happen, all unbelievers who refuse to repent—both the elite elements of society and the common people—will express the common reaction of sinners before a holy God. In overwhelming fear they will beg for the rocks and mountains to fall on them, and they will cry out, “Who can stand?” In other words, who can withstand the wrath of God?
- Sealed servants of God: verses 7:1–3
Chapter seven of Revelation is parenthetical. It comes before the Lamb breaks open the seventh seal in chapter eight and is the response to the question of who will be able to withstand the wrath of God.
After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, that no wind might blow on earth or sea or against any tree. Then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, with the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea, saying, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads” (Rev. 7:1-3).
Here we read of four angels who are about to harm the earth by restraining “the four winds of the earth”, but before this happens another angel appears, one who has the seal and authority of God, with instructions to hold back the devastation until the servants (bond-servants) of God have each received a seal on their foreheads.
- Of every tribe of Israel: verses 7:4–8
And I heard the number of the sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel:
12,000 from the tribe of Judah were sealed,
12,000 from the tribe of Reuben,
12,000 from the tribe of Gad,
12,000 from the tribe of Asher,
12,000 from the tribe of Naphtali,
12,000 from the tribe of Manasseh,
12,000 from the tribe of Simeon,
12,000 from the tribe of Levi,
12,000 from the tribe of Issachar,
12,000 from the tribe of Zebulun,
12,000 from the tribe of Joseph,
12,000 from the tribe of Benjamin were sealed. (Rev. 7:4-8)
The simplicity of the text is clear. The twelve tribes listed here are of Israel. The 144,000 are all Jews.
Ellen G. White teaches that God has permanently abandoned Israel and that the prophetic promises given to them have been transferred to the Seventh-day Adventist denomination. Because of her appropriation of God’s promises to the nation of Israel, Adventists refer to themselves as the “remnant church”. Further, they believe that the 144,000 are the special class of Adventists who were able to emulate the perfect character of Jesus Christ. However this is what the apostle Paul teaches us in Romans chapter eleven about Israel:
I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew…Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”; “and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins” (Rom. 11:1-2 & 25-27).
God has not abandoned Israel. Instead, we gentiles have been grafted in with the remnant of Israel.
When we get to Revelation chapter 14 we will see that the 144,000 are Jewish evangelists personally commissioned from the throne of God and sent out to all the world to preach the one and only eternal gospel: the message of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection for all who would repent of their sins. I believe this last, Jewish-driven, worldwide evangelism will finally fulfill what Jesus said must happen:
Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come (Matt. 24:9-14).
The prophet Hosea records what will happen before “the end will come”; however, take time to read the first two chapters of Hosea for an understanding of why Israel is without a “king or prince”:
For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods. Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the LORD their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the LORD and to his goodness in the latter days (Hosea 3:4-5).
- A great multitude from every nation: verses 9–12
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen” (Rev. 7:9-12).
A great multitude of saints beyond number and from every nation is obviously not the 144,000 sealed sons of Israel. However, as we shall see, they are the result of that group’s witness under the leadership and direction of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is appropriate that we take our own parenthetical break and consider several related passages of Scripture to establish just who these saints are. First, in Revelation 4:4 we first learn of the 24 elders who are worshiping God. Additionally, when we consider Hebrews chapter 11 we find a great cloud of witnesses (see Heb. 12:1) who possibly represent persecuted saints who believed God in spite of apparently insurmountable obstacles from all ages of human history. Nevertheless, these witnesses are in heaven before the throne of God. Furthermore, the writer of Hebrews says that those who believe, who come to Mount Zion, come to “the church of the firstborn…and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect” (Heb. 12:23). All of these saints are enrolled in heaven during these end times events.
Finally, looking forward to Revelation 14:1–5 and 12–13 we learn that the 144,000 sealed Jewish evangelist are redeemed from the earth, but they go out preaching to all the world.
In Revelation 7:13–17, then, we learn specifically where this multitude is from.
- They are from the Great Tribulation: verses 7:13–17
Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
“Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Rev. 7:13-17).
As John looks, one of the elders asks him, “Who are these…?” Obviously, he doesn’t know the answer and responds accordingly, but from the elder’s answer we learn something important: many will be saved during the “great tribulation”.
Just like all the persecuted saints in heaven whom we’ve met in other places in Scripture, this great multitude has been killed for their faith. Unlike those other saints, however, this is the last group of martyrs we meet in Scripture; these are the tribulation saints. Nevertheless, they have been saved and covered by the shed blood of Jesus Christ exactly as have all the other saints of God. In John’s vision we see they are now wearing white robes, sheltered before the throne of God.
Now they have no more hunger, thirst nor pain of any kind while awaiting the promised resurrection where they will be guided to “springs of living water”. These tribulation saints along with every other person who has believed God and has been saved by the shed blood of the Lord Jesus are worshiping God and waiting for that great day when Paul’s words will be realized:
When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 15:54-57).
All biblical quotes from the ESV.
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