The scroll of history has been revealed in heaven and the Lamb has stepped forward to unseal it.
Revelation 6: 1-2, The lamb opens the first seal
I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, "Come!" I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.
The white horse and its rider are bent on conquest. (Military conquest, one nation over another?) Does this character affect history or merely prepare to affect history?
Revelation 6: 3-4, The second seal
When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, "Come!" Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other. To him was given a large sword.
The rider of the red horse destroys peace. So presumably these first two riders bring war.
Revelation 6: 5-6, The third seal
When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, "Come!" I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, "A quart of wheat for a day's wages, and three quarts of barley for a day's wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!"
The Greek word "choinix" (probably about a liter) is translated here as "quart" and the Greek word "denarius", representing a Greek coin that was roughly one day's wage for the common man, is translated as "a days wage" by the NIV.
This third rider, on the black horse, apparently brings economic chaos?
This third rider, on the black horse, apparently brings economic chaos?
Revelation 6: 7-8, The fourth seal
When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, "Come!" I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.
The fourth rider is on a pale horse and this time it is clear that this rider brings death and destruction, killing a quarter of the population.
These are the "four horsemen of the Apocalypse." What is their role in history? Are they literal creatures? Or symbols?
Why are there four, and not seven? Does four have any meaning here, after the extensive use of the number seven?
Revelation 6: 9-11, The fifth seal
When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. They called out in a loud voice, "How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?"
Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed.
A theme of the book of Revelation is that the people of God are waiting for some type of culmination of history. This requires patience but that completion will occur, says this book.
Revelation 6: 12-16, The sixth seal
I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.
Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?"
What occurs with the breaking of the sixth seal? Is this a historical event (in past or future time)?
Why does the chapter end here? What is left to do? The seventh seal is about to be broken and the scroll unrolled. But before that happens, there will be a brief interlude.
So I like the way you titled ch. 5 "the scroll of history," because I think that's what is going on here: the release of forces that shape history and yes, bring it toward a culmination, but one that is not able to be predicted precisely by deciphering some code embedded in the text. That was certainly Hal Lindsay's problem and I think is the mistake generally of Dispensationalists.
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