Revelation Chapter 6

The First Seal continued

VERSE 1 and 2 “Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals; and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder, “Come and see. And I looked, and behold, a white horse. He who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.”

RULING AND JUDGING OTHERS IN THE EARLY CHURCH

The problem seems to be that the rider and the ones that the apostle is complaining about, thought that they could actually rule and judge over others. This is what Papacy did openly later on when he did get civil power. He claimed he had the right to rule, and that he was the Vicar of Christ on earth. This meant that he had the right to make decisions for Christ!

Again, we are looking at the small beginnings of a bad attitude in the early church that eventually led to the Papacy.

If any still doubt that this was happening in the first church, consider that Paul tells us that “the mystery of iniquity” already worked even in his time and that the one that was holding him back would continue to do so until he stepped out of the way. One thought is that it was the Apostles who kept this under check, until they died and were off the scene. Another thought is that the one restraining was the Roman Empire, and that those who would like to get power could not do so until Rome fell. Historically this was true in either interpretation. The power grab by Papacy began as soon as the apostles were gone, but didn’t fully succeed until (Civil) Rome began to fall. When this happened Papacy filled the power vacuum and began the rise to power. The church was only to make disciples of the people and to baptize them, not force them to join.

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matt 28:19, 20 NAU)

CONSTANTINE AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

The problems with the so called heresies and doctrinal disputes going on in the early church eventually attracted the attention of the emperor Constantine. Because of the strife that it was causing in the empire he set precedence for the government to settle church affairs and doctrinal controversies which the church should not have allowed him to do (325 A.D.).

Sadly the council of Nicene which Constantine called was where many false doctrines were formulated that we still have to deal with today. After that other church councils soon saddled the church with more false doctrines and bad ideas that the church still retains today.

In conclusion, we see that if each of the living creatures represents an attribute of God, then this one definitely represented power. This living creature is pictorially showing us how power is already being abused, even in the first church. That abuse led to the great falling away.

In our next post we will take a look at the First Trumpet and see how it relates to the First Church.