Revelation 6.9-17-The Fifth and Sixth Seal Judgments (Doctrinal Bible Church in Huntsville, Alabama)
Doctrinal Bible Church
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday June 5, 2024
The Day of the Lord Series: Revelation 6:9-17-The Fifth and Sixth Seal Judgements
Lesson # 26
Next, we come to the fifth seal judgment, which is recorded in Revelation 6:9-11.
Revelation 6:9 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. 10 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?” 11 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. (NIV84)
The fifth seal judgment concerns itself with the martyrdom of both Jewish and Gentile believers during the last three and a half years of Daniel’s Seventieth Week.
The souls underneath the altar are not Old Testament martyrs but rather those who were martyred during the Tribulation portion of the seventieth week since their persecutors are still alive on the earth.
They were killed “because of the word of God” meaning that anyone who believes the Bible during the last three and a half years of Daniel’s Seventieth Week and proclaims its message of faith alone in Christ alone will be persecuted and killed.
These believers will witness for Christ by their life as they hold fast to the Word of God in the midst of a degenerate world, but they will also witness for Christ by their death.
John sees these martyrs very much alive.
Men may destroy our bodies, but they cannot kill the soul or the person who indwells the body, the house for the person.
At death, the soul or the person goes to be with the Lord (Phil. 1:21-22; 2 Cor. 5:6-8).
The body “sleeps” but the soul or the person is conscious, awake.
“Slain” is the Greek sphazō (σφάζω), which was a sacrificial term used for the slaughtering of the animals for sacrifice.
The emphasis seems to be on the fact they were not just killed, but slaughtered.
These martyred saints are in heaven, with no sinful natures and in God’s presence.
They are seen crying out for justice but this is not a cry for revenge, but for God’s justice and righteousness to prevail on earth against the sin and the atrocities of man in rebellion to God.
As in the disciples’ prayer, “Your kingdom come,” they are praying for the Second Advent which ushers in the millennial reign of Christ.
The martyrs are each given a “white robe” to symbolize their fully redeemed state and the gift of righteousness by Jesus Christ.
The Lord Jesus Christ’s prophecy in His Olivet Discourse of the martyrdom of believers during the last three and a half years of Daniel’s Seventieth Week recorded in Matthew 24:9-10 and 16-22 parallels the fifth seal judgment recorded in Revelation 6:9-11.
The sixth seal judgment is recorded in Revelation 6:12-17.
Revelation 6:12 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, 13 and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. 14 The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. 15 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. 16 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! 17 For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” (NIV84)
The breaking of the sixth seal judgment results in a tremendous earthquake that will rock the entire world (Compare Luke 21:11).
It will also result in the darkening of the sun (Compare Isaiah 13:10; Ezekiel 32:7-8; Joel 2:10, 31; Amos 8:9; Matthew 24:29; Mark 13:24-25; Luke 21:25).
The moon will also turn red (Compare Joel 2:31; Acts 2:20) and there will be an enormous disturbance in the stellar universe so that there will be a great meteor showers.
The sixth seal results in the direct intervention of the Creator upsetting the normal order of His creation.
The Lord used human agencies in the first five judgments but with the sixth, He intervenes Himself.
The nature and effect of this judgment is such that it causes all of mankind from kings to slaves to recognize that God the Creator is acting in human history in righteous indignation.
This enormous cosmic disturbance that is the result of the breaking of the sixth seal is a direct intervention of God in history.
Revelation 6:12-17 emphasizes that men see it as the direct hand and action of God.
When the sixth seal occurs God shakes the universe like a rag doll and all the world will know without a doubt not only that there is a God, but that He is acting catastrophically in righteous indignation against man’s rebellion.
This judgment affects the creation, which from the beginning of time has manifested God’s divine nature and is evidence of His existence.
However, mankind has rejected creation as evidence of God’s existence and has attributed creation to evolution (Rom. 1:19-22).
The Lord Jesus Christ’s prophecy in His Olivet Discourse of great disturbances in the stellar universe during the last three and a half years of Daniel’s Seventieth Week recorded in Matthew 24:29 parallels the sixth seal judgment recorded in Revelation 6:12-14.
Our Lord’s prophecy in His Olivet Discourse of God’s judgment upon the inhabitants of the earth at the end of Daniel’s Seventieth Week recorded in Matthew 24:32-25:26 parallels the sixth seal judgment recorded in Revelation 6:15-17.
The sixth seal is now over on earth and silence in heaven follows for about a half an hour according to Revelation 8:1.
However, then suddenly a new wave of judgments will begin to be poured out on the earth, which are called the “seven trumpet” judgments (8:1f).