Revelation Chapter 6

The First Seal

The Southern Wisconsin class; (Revelation Notes Southern Wisconsin) who hold to the second view as to the meaning of the horsemen have this to say in regards to the seals:

“The seals, as well as the trumpets, are in a pattern of four, two, and one. The opening of the first four seals, are introduced by each of the four living creatures, in turn. Each one of the four creatures reveals a different horseman, and what each one was doing. All of the problems caused by the first three horsemen are summed up by the fourth, which has all of the previous problems still in his church! Between the sixth and the seventh seals, as well as in the trumpets, more information is inserted in a parenthesis, to give us more detail on what has been happening during the gospel age.

One of the reasons that we had such a struggle with determining the correct interpretation of the first seal was that from the context of what is happening in the first four, it seemed obvious that seals second through forth were not doing good things. We could see each of the horses getting worse, as each seal was opened. It seemed likely that the first seal should be bad also, except for the question of, the white horse? Many think that this rider has to be Christ, since this is a white horse. We eventually came to a different conclusion, which we will outline further onward in our discussion.

We saw that some of the articles or items the riders had could be considered to be good or bad, depending on how you looked at them. For example, the first rider has a crown and a bow, which if looked at by themselves, could be bad, but they could also be interpreted as good in some circumstances. It would depend on how these symbols were being used in each scriptural area.

The second rider had a sword, which again, could be the sword of truth, but as we know, swords can and are used for evil also. The third rider had a balance scale, which could represent famine, or it could represent the ransom doctrine?

The Deciding Factor is in the Fourth Seal

The fourth rider is obviously bad, as we see death and Hades following him, as well as the fact that he is given the power to kill 1/4 of the earth. The interpretation of the fourth seal helps us to see the correct application of the first three seals, since the fourth had all of the same problems the first three riders had, such as killing with the sword, famine, pestilence. That he was killing with the wild beasts, as well as the other items, and that he had authority over the earth, pointed us right back to the first seal and the rider riding out to conquer! The second had the sword and in the fourth we see it being misused. In the third we find a description that makes us think of famine and again the fourth horseman is killing with this famine and pestilence. Since the fourth was obviously bad, we could then conclude, without a doubt that the first three seals were also bad.

So that this point is not missed, we are again going to repeat it.

The fourth horse sums up and continues the destructive work of the other three i.e. killing by (1) sword, (2) famine, (3) death and Hades and by (4) the wild beasts of the earth. The misuse of power in the time of the fourth church is what we see represented by the beasts of the earth (civil powers), that Papacy was controlling by the time of the fourth church!

This bad situation did not occur over night, but it came about gradually over the course of the previous three churches. The rider had ridden out to conquer and had eventually taken control over 1/4 of the earth, which we will explain later. The ones who were called Nicolaitans in the first church, had by the time of the fourth, taken complete control of the church and the known Roman world, through the misuse of civil and ecclesiastical power.

In examining the prophetic message of the seals, we will see how well they fit with what actually happened in history. As each seal is broken, we will see a further unrolling of events. A very important thing to notice in the case of the first four seals is that at the beginning of each of the first four, one of each of the four living creatures, we saw in Chapters 4 and 5, calls out to us to “come and see”.

That each of these four living creatures seems to personify one of God’s four attributes raised an interesting question in our study. We wondered if the message of each of the living creatures was related to a different attribute of God, either wisdom, justice, love, or power. We eventually concluded that this was indeed the situation, and as we go through each of these seals, we will suggest which living creature may be represented, and how it relates to what was happening in that seal and area of history. Unfortunately, we will not see the professing church exercising the attributes in the right way, but what we think is happening is that we are being shown how each attribute is being corrupted or used wrongly.

Satan is the exact opposite of God, and where we should see love, we see hate. Where we should see wisdom, we see darkness. Where there should see justice, we find injustice. God’s reign will be a blessed application of power, where Satan’s reign is a reign of terror. Each of the four living creatures will show us how its particular attribute, wisdom, justice, love, or power is being used wrongly by the declining church system.”

In our next post we will present a more thorough examination of this viewpoint as it is explained in the Revelation study done by the Southern Wisconsin class.