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CHAPTER
SIX We
now come to the part of
this book of prophecy that deals with the time of the greatest trouble
this old
world will ever experience. Nothing like it has ever been known in the
history
of the world. It is called “the time of
Jacob’s trouble” Jeremiah 30:7, and “a time of
trouble such as never was since there was a nation” Daniel
12:1. In the New Testament we are told, “Then shall be
great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of
the world to this time, no nor ever shall be” Matthew 24:21.
These
world winning Baptists are going to think they slipped up somewhere
along the
way when this awful time comes. In this life none of us could enjoy
seeing all
these terrible things coming upon this evil world, but in that day when
we have
been raptured, and are seeing all this as God sees it, we will rejoice
in it.
In
Chapter Five we saw our
Lord taking the seven sealed book from off the hand of the Father
because He
was the only one who was found worthy to do so. Here in this chapter we
see Him
as He begins to open these seals. When he opens the first one John
hears one of
the four living creatures saying in a voice that sounded like thunder “come.” Due to the King James
translation at this point I once thought this living creature was
telling John
to come and see. But John is already there seeing what is going on.
Then, too,
the words “and see” are not in the
original. So I have come to see that the living creature is saying “come” to the rider on the white horse.
It is now time for him to come on the scene and play his part. There is
much
speculation among Bible commentators as to who this white horse rider
is. Some
say he is Christ, but if we keep this whole scene in view and look to
our Lord
to help us in keeping our feet on firm Scriptural ground we should be
able to
see that Christ is still in Heaven breaking the seals on this book. The
white
horse rider is down here on the earth where this terrible tribulation
is to
take place. Then, too, when Christ does come down to earth on the white
horse (Revelation
9:11) there will be no differences of opinion. All guess work will
have
come to an end. Everyone will know who He is.
Others
say this white horse
rider is the anti-Christ, but here, too, we need to keep our feet on
firm
Scriptural ground. It seems to me that those who say this is the
anti-Christ
are confusing the two beasts of Revelation 13. There are two of
these
beasts in chapter 13. The first one
John saw “rise up out of the sea”.
Let us bear in mind that these two beasts that John saw are really two
men with
the nature of ferocious beasts. In Revelation 19:20 these two
are cast
into hell alive. So let us keep in mind these two beasts are men, and
that
there are two of them. In Revelation 17:15 we
learn that water represents “peoples, and multitudes, and
nations, and tongues,” that is,
chaotic conditions in the world. So this first beast is a political
figure, the
head of the ten kingdom revived Roman Empire, who is the product of
chaotic
conditions in the world. The second beast that John saw rose “up out of the earth”, or the land, that
is, out of the land of Palestine. He will be the false prophet, or
anti-Christ.
In
the light of all this we
believe this white horse rider to be the first beast of Revelation
13.
He is the head of the revived Roman Empire. You notice he has a bow,
but there
is no arrow so far as we can see. We see this fellow in Daniel 11:21
where he obtains a kingdom by flattery. He makes the people think he
will give
them peace. In other words he will make them think he will bring in the
age of
peace without the prince of peace. His being on a white horse fools the
people,
even some of our great Bible commentators of today, but let us remember
that
when our Lord does come on the white horse (Revelation 19:11) no
one
will have to guess as to who He is. This rider in Revelation 6:1
promises the people peace, but in 1 Thessalonians 5:3 we read,
“When they shall say, Peace and safety then
sudden destruction cometh upon them.” Our Lord warned of all
this in Matthew 24. In verse 4 He says, “Take
heed that no man deceive you.” Was He not speaking of this
very
time?
So
when our Lord opens the
second seal the second living creature says, “come”.
When this takes place we see another horse come on the
scene. This one is red, a symbol of blood. This speaks of war. The
rider of the
red horse is given power to take peace from the earth. He is the same
person we
saw upon the white horse. He who rode to power on the promise of peace
and
safety now plunges the whole world into war. The great sword that was
given him
speaks of bloody war. No doubt but that this will be a war between
races of
people as well as between nations. In Matthew 24:6-7
speaking, I think concerning
this terrible time, Jesus says, “Ye
shall hear of wars and rumor of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for
all these
things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall
rise
against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.”
When
the third seal is
opened we see a black horse come into view. This black horse speaks of
the
famine and pestilence that naturally goes with war. Let us remember
that by
this time Uncle Sam will have played Santa Claus to the rest of the
world until
he will be unable to feed his own people much less the whole world. So
the
balances, or scales in the hand of this rider who is still the same
fellow we
saw on the white and red horses speak of food rationing. We have
experienced
food rationing to some extent in our day, but we have not seen anything
to
compare with what we see here. The measure here means about one quart,
that is,
about enough for one good meal for a man, and the word penny comes from
the
word DENARIUS which means a man’s daily wage. How can a man support a
family in
a time like this? This before us has to do with the food of the common
people
whereas the oil and the wine may very well speak of the food of the
ruling
class. They will eat well so long as there is anything to eat. Our
Lord,
knowing all this as He did, says in the latter part of verse 7
of Matthew
24, “There shall be famines.”
In
view of all this is it
any wonder that when the fourth seal is opened a pale horse comes on
the scene?
This horse is a sickly pale, or better a livid color, the color of
death without
the work of the mortician. The rider, though still the same one, is
called
death. Death is stalking the land and we are told that hades followed
after
him. “Sheol (hades in the Greek) hath
enlarged herself, and opened her mouth
without measure” Isaiah 5:14. We learn here that as a
result of all
this we have seen, one fourth of the earth’s population dies. As our
population
stands today that would be more than six hundred million people. And
this is
just the beginning of sorrows. Our Lord said there would be pestilence,
and how
terrible all this will be, and how near it seems to be to our door, and
how
frightful to see how few are expecting it.
It
is needful that we lean
heavily upon our Father as we approach the Scripture before us. May it
please
Him to guide us by His Holy Spirit that what we say may be pleasing to
Him. It
is evident that the saints are not in agreement as to who these under
the altar
are. But it is also evident that when we differ on anything concerning
the
precious Word, somebody is wrong. There are those who believe the ones
John saw
under the altar are the martyrs of the church age. And certainly there
have
been untold thousands of our Lord’s saints martyred during the church
age.
Others hold that these are tribulation saints, and I am persuaded there
will be
many of them.
I
find two reasons for
believing that these martyrs in verse 9
are tribulation martyrs. First, I must believe that the martyrs of the
church
age will be resurrected (1 Thessalonians 4:16) before the real
tribulation begins here on the earth. I must believe that our Lord will
come
for His saints (all of them, whether dead or living) before the
tribulation
begins in order that I may believe that He may come today. If He is to
come
after any part of the terrible tribulation, I am not able to see how we
can look
for His imminent coming, and I must believe that He could come before I
get up
from this typewriter. And since these under the altar here are
disembodied, and
since the church age saints will be clothed in their glorified bodies
when this
fifth seal is opened, therefore I am unable to see how these under the
altar
could possibly be the church age saints. In Revelation 13:15,
however,
we see another group of martyrs who, as I see it, fits into this
picture
perfectly. These are the tribulation martyrs. My second reason for
believing
that these martyrs under the altar are tribulation martyrs is that
these under
the altar are praying for vengeance upon their enemies on the earth.
This is
foreign to our Lord’s instructions to us in this dispensation. In Matthew
5:44, Luke 6:28 and again in Romans 12:14 we are to
pray
for -
to
bless those who
persecute us. But in Psalms 143:12 the Psalmist prays, “And of thy mercy cut off mine enemies, and
destroy all them that afflict my soul: for I am thy servant”.
The grace dispensation will end with the rapture of the saints, and
again the
Jews will be permitted to pray for vengeance on their enemies. So far
as I am
able to see, these martyrs under the altar can only be the tribulation
martyrs.
In
verse 11 these martyrs are comforted and told
to rest until the remainder of their brethren who were to be killed had
been
martyred as they were. Those who die in the Lord are at rest. They are
comforted as Lazarus was in Luke 16:25. Another thing
we see in
this verse is that there is a certain number to be martyred. The quota
is to be
completed. In Luke 21:24 we see the expression, “until
the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” This word “fulfilled”
is from PLEROO which means
to fill, or to complete. So it can mean “until
the quota of the Gentiles be brought in.” While discussing the
terrible
times of the tribulation with His Jewish disciples our Lord tells them
in Matthew
24:9 that they (the Jewish remnant) would be afflicted and killed
for His
name’s sake. Here we see some of them crying out for vengeance on their
enemies.
Beginning
with verse 12 we have given to us the results of
the opening of the sixth seal. Some truly great Bible scholars tell us
that we
should take this literally just as it says. But when I go back to the
first
verse in this book of Revelation I find that God showed these things to
John by
signs. Our more modern translations try to, and in fact they do, smooth
over
this expression. The book of Revelation does not fit in with modern day
theology. Therefore it is completely ignored in so many Baptist
churches of our
day. For them to translate the word SEMAINO
here in Revelation 1:1 as signify would make it all the harder
for them
to make this wonderful book of prophecy (Revelation 1:3, 22:7) just a book of history.
But in spite of all their efforts to weaken the prophecy of this book, SEMAINO still means to give a sign.
Therefore, are we not doing the book of Revelation an injustice if we
fail to
look for the signs and symbols?
We
know from other Scriptures
such as Isaiah 29:6, Zechariah 14:4-5
and Matthew 24:7 that literal earthquakes will
have a prominent part in the judging of this old evil world during the
terrible
tribulation. He will “shake
terribly the earth in that day,” Isaiah 2:19. And I
am
convinced by Matthew 27: 51-54
that the literal earthquakes will cause great fear on the
part of
God’s enemies. This fear will, no doubt, cause these enemies of God to
flee to
their great religious system for comfort.
Now,
let us look closely to
see what is signified (Revelation 1:1) in the Scripture before
us. Going
back to the first chapter of this book we see our Lord holding seven
stars in
His right hand, verse 16. These were
not literal stars. In verse 20 we are told that these stars are the
angels of
the seven churches. This word “angels”
is from ANGELOS which means
messenger, or one who delivers a message. Therefore, these angels of
the
churches are the pastors who deliver a message. In the case of our
Lord’s true
churches, the pastor delivers a message from God to His people. In the
case of
old Satan’s churches, the pastor naturally delivers a message from his
master,
old Satan himself, to his people. I believe that in the months
immediately
following the rapture of the saints old Satan’s churches will flourish
as never
before. People are by nature religious. They are not Christian by
nature, but
they are religious. The sudden disappearance of God’s saints from their
midst
will cause great fear and anguish to come into the hearts and minds of
the
enemies of God. This fear coupled with the fear and consternation
brought on by
the terrible wars, famines, pestilence and literal earthquakes of
tribulation
days will cause these people to flee to their false refuge, old Satan’s
churches. But here in verse 13 we
see the stars falling. These stars, no doubt, are both literal and
symbolic.
The falling of literal stars will add to their consternation, and will
make
them all the more anxious to lean upon their false refuge. But in Revelation
17:16-18 we see the
fall and utter destruction of Satan’s churches, and of course this will
include
the pastors of these churches, the stars of Revelation 1:20.
They will
claim heavenly origin, therefore, they are called the stars of heaven.
Now
that the dread and fear
of these enemies of the Lord increases with every coming day and they
have seen
their false refuge utterly destroyed before their very eyes, they have
nowhere
to go but to the dens and rocks of the mountains. So there we leave
them
(verses 15-17) praying fervently,
feverishly and with great anguish of soul,
not to God for deliverance from their sins, but to the rocks and
mountains that
they may be hid from the God of heaven. Fear and sorrow can never bring
people
to Christ (John 6:44). These things can only bring people to the
dens
and the rocks.
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