09: Fifth and Sixth Tribulation Trumps
A Study of Revelation: Revelation Chapter 9 (part 1)
A Study of Revelation
David Brandt Berg
1981-05-01
In chapter 8, we studied the first four trumpets of the Tribulation, and now we’re going to be dealing with the fifth and the sixth trumpets in chapter nine of the book of Revelation. This Revelation of the future was given to the apostle John on the Isle of Patmos about 107 A.D. during the days of the Roman Empire, as God predicted to him the future of the world.
When we reached the eighth chapter, the Lord began to zero in on the very last days of the world, the very end of the world and its last terrible time of Tribulation. Now we’re reading the ninth chapter, beginning with the first verse:
“And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit.” You notice it calls this star a “he.” In other words, it’s an angel. God often uses the words interchangeably. He calls angels stars and He calls stars angels. And this falling star opened the bottomless pit “and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
“And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of the scorpion when he striketh a man. And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them” (Revelation 9:2–6).
Notice that these monsters released from the bottomless pit out of hell by this angel are sent by God to torment the ungodly, the wicked, the unsaved, because He gives them a strict commandment not to hurt those who have the seal of God in their forehead. He says, “Hurt not any green thing neither any tree, but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.” In other words, they were not to hurt the men who did have the seal of God in their foreheads—salvation in Jesus.
Anyone who loves Jesus will have God’s seal in his forehead. The people who are following the Antichrist—this Devil-man, Satan in the flesh, this horrible Beast—they will have the Mark of the Beast in their foreheads and in their hands as they follow and worship him. But those who love the Lord cannot accept that Mark of the Beast, and will not. If you love Jesus, you will refuse the Mark of the Beast, because you have God’s mark in your forehead and hand, a symbol of salvation.
Even though the Beast commands that no one can buy or sell without his Mark and that anyone who refuses to worship his image would be killed, God’s children will refuse. They will refuse both the Mark and the worship of the Image, and therefore the Antichrist government will try to kill them, and they will not be able to buy or sell food or clothing or shelter or the necessities of life, and will likely have to flee into the wilderness for survival. But God is going to take care of His own.
Notice that these plagues which are being released upon the earth don’t hurt God’s children! They don’t touch the people of God at all. They are sent to punish particularly the followers of the Beast, the Antichrist. They are sent to torment them, and no doubt even to defend His people. Think of that! God is going to send into this world, monsters such as the world has never known or seen before, to attack the wicked who are attacking the people of God.
During this Tribulation period when the Antichrist and his followers are attacking the followers of Jesus Christ, God is going to let loose pestilences and plagues and monsters to attack the kingdom of Satan. They’ll have so much on their hands defending themselves from these monsters and these plagues that they won’t have much time to persecute God’s people.
This is very similar to the days of Moses when he went in to rescue the children of Israel. When Pharaoh persecuted the Jewish slaves and wouldn’t let them go, Moses called on God and God sent terrible plagues upon the Egyptians. While the Egyptians were having these horrible plagues, over in the land of Goshen where the Israelites lived, all was well.
When great darkness fell upon all of the rest of Egypt, it was light in the land of Goshen. When the frogs were everywhere and even in their beds in Egypt, no frogs in Goshen. When the cattle were slaughtered by great hail from heaven, no hail in Goshen. When the horrible sores fell upon all the Egyptians, no sores on the Israelites. God was giving the Egyptians lots of trouble to make them stop causing so much trouble for God’s servants. (See Exodus 7–12.)
So that’s exactly what He’s going to do during the Tribulation—the last great hour of trouble and persecution for the saints of God. God is going to send great plagues upon the earth to protect His children, to make enemies take their hands off His people. These are terrible plagues. Listen to this description of the locusts:
“And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men. And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months” (Revelation 9:7–10).
Does that sound like anything you ever heard or saw before? Not likely. Because the prophet of God was seeing something in a vision that God was showing him, a revelation of the future of things which he had never seen before, so he had to describe them in a language that the people of his day could understand. He had to describe what he was seeing as well as he could by the things that he was already familiar with, because he had never seen such monsters before.
The prophet had never seen tanks or planes or guns, or heard their explosions and bombs, or the roar of their engines and motors. So if he was watching a terrible war, having never seen a tank or an airplane, how could he possibly describe such engines of destruction? He just did the best he could with what he was familiar with.
He said they look a little bit like locusts; they fly, so he may have been seeing an airplane. And yet they were like horses prepared to battle. Perhaps he was watching one of these steel chariots like a tank, and it rumbled along across the earth and it reminded him of the rumble of horses’ hoofs—war horses running rapidly in wartime.
He said, “On their heads were as it were crowns like as gold.” Tanks have turrets, and on the old bombers of World War II they had gun turrets which revolved sort of like crowns on the top. He said, “Their faces were as the faces of men.” Perhaps he saw them peering through the windows, or maybe when he looked at the front he saw those windows like eyes staring out.
“And they had hair as the hair of women.” Have you ever noticed a jet going by and the airstream following it like a long trail of hair? “Their teeth were as the teeth of lions.” Maybe he saw them firing guns? Or perhaps he saw the bombs or the missiles hanging down underneath and they looked like lions’ teeth. “And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron.” They were made of metal; they looked like iron shields.
“And the sound of their wings as they flew was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.” Doesn’t a jet roaring overhead sound like many horses running to battle? The prophet just described these things he was seeing, sights he’d never seen before, the best he could. I’m personally convinced that he was probably seeing airplanes and bombers flying. “And they had tails like unto scorpions, and stings in their tails.”
“And their power was to hurt men five months. And they had a king over them which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon” (Revelation 9:11). Obviously, if he’s out of the bottomless pit, you have an idea whose angel he is. Some say it’s the Devil himself; others say it’s one of the Devil’s archangels.
There’s such a horrible time of torment going on for men not sealed with God’s seal that these monsters, whatever they may be, whether you want to say that they were a modern jet bomber or they were actually some kind of a monster that looked just like he’s describing here, one way or the other, they’re not going to hurt the people of God.
God is going to protect His own from these planes and tanks and guns and bombs and bullets or even monsters, if it’s a new kind of monster that’s never been seen before. They’re not going to hurt His children, He said, just the unsaved who have the Mark of the Beast on them instead of the Mark of the Lord in their forehead. (to be continued)
08: The First Four Tribulation Trumps (Part 2)
A Study of Revelation: Revelation Chapter 8
A Study of Revelation
David Brandt Berg
1981-05-01
“And the first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of the trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up. And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood; and the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.” Sounds like atomic war, doesn’t it?
“And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; and the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.
“And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise. And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound” (Revelation 8:2–13).
There we have the first four trumpets of the Tribulation period. Actually this period is continued on into the ninth chapter, which we will deal with hereafter. But in case you didn’t understand exactly what we were reading, I wanted to read the whole chapter first, so that you could get the context of it.
First there is an awesome period of silence as all heaven and earth await in awed silence the most awful period in man’s history, and an angel—to emphasize this last time of terror and suffering—takes a censer [vessel for burning incense] from the throne of God and casts it down into the earth, and there are voices and thunderings and lightnings—symbolic of the judgments of God, symbolic of the terrible events to come.
The strange thing about this Tribulation period, unlike the period of God’s wrath which follows and the seven vials of His wrath which occur after the next seven chapters (the eighth through the fourteenth chapters), is that the Tribulation is like the wrath of Satan being poured out upon mankind and upon the earth. Nevertheless, God pictures it as actually all coming from Him, because these are some very supernatural things which occur. The last days of man’s history, a time to try men’s souls, and this censer being cast into the earth, showing that terrible things are about to come, gives an indication of what’s about to happen.
But at the same time, the prayers of the saints are ascending unto the Lord from His children; an encouragement that God is listening, a brief glimpse of the efficacy of our prayers. Though the believers are suffering through this period, the Lord hears their cries. He hears their prayers and He will not be deaf, but He will heed their cries for help and He will help them. This is a definite indication that the Lord is going to help His children through this terrible period of the last three and a half years of man’s history, the Great Tribulation.
The first angel sounds and hail and fire mingled with blood are cast upon the earth, and the third part of the trees are burnt up and all the green grass is burnt up. This sounds an awful lot like an atomic war, this hail and fire raining down from above, doesn’t it? Atomic bombs that destroy a third of all the trees and all the green grass, think of that. It’s possible it is an atomic war.
The second angel sounds and a great mountain burning with fire is cast into the sea, and a third part of the sea becomes blood. The third part of the creatures which were in the sea and had life die, and a third part of the ships are destroyed. Mountains in God’s Word almost always typify or symbolize great kingdoms, world powers, or empires.
What great world power or empire will be destroyed under the beast himself, this final worldwide government, this final world dictator, Satan, in the form of a man called the Antichrist? What government will he destroy? All man’s governments that have preceded him.
What kind of government does he destroy? What kind of world power that has preceded him does he cast into the sea? What else than capitalism, a world power that has ruled the earth now for centuries. And in the destruction of capitalism and capitalistic powers of the Western world in this atomic war, a third part of the sea will become blood and a third part of the creatures in it will die and a third of its ships will be destroyed.
“And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven.” Stars can be symbolic of angels, and the star falling here could indicate the fall of Satan himself, which we find later in another chapter when his fall is described at this particular time of the Tribulation. “Burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; and the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the water became wormwood and many men died of the waters because they were made bitter.”—The poison of the Serpent.
You can take these waters and rivers and so on as literal, and this is often interpreted as possibly representing the fall of a meteor to the earth (which would appear to be a great start falling from heaven). I’m inclined to believe that much of this is symbolic as well. When Satan is cast out of heaven (see Revelation 12:9), he poisons the sources of propaganda of the world, the rivers of information. He poisons the rivers which flow with feeding information to man through the media; Satan poisons them and makes them bitter. And many men die as a result of being poisoned with his bitter propaganda, his lies, his half-truths, his distortions, his deceits. “With lying wonders,” God’s Word says in another place (2 Thessalonians 2:9).
“And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.” What’s the result of all of this, whether you think it’s literal or symbolic, of this poisoning of the rivers and the waters, or the sources of information, the sources of propaganda, the media information of the world? Darkness.
As man is fed poison water, as he is fed poison information, as he is fed poison propaganda, poison news, his mind is darkened, his heart is darkened, even as the Lord said that if we stray away from Him, we become darkened in our understanding, alienated from the life of God, and past feeling (Ephesians 4:18–19). Even so will unregenerate man be in these last days of the Tribulation period; in spite of all of its terrors, most of the men of this earth will not turn to God.
They will believe the lies of this Devil-man, Satan incarnate, the Antichrist, and as he poisons the waters of information and propaganda, their hearts will become more darkened, their minds even more lacking in understanding as he darkens the world. Or if you want to take it literally, the very heavens are darkened, the skies are darkened, the sun and moon are darkened. Either way, it sounds pretty bad to me.
“I beheld and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe”—three woes—“to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpets of the three angels, which are yet to sound.” He says, “There are coming yet three more woes upon the earth.” Four have already occurred under the first four trumpets of the Tribulation, representing the first four periods of the Tribulation.
Each of these trumpets is like a herald; an angel sounds and heralds a new and more awful period of the Tribulation one by one. If you’re here and still alive, you’ll know exactly the progress of the Tribulation period by what’s happening, whether you’re under the first trumpet, the second, the third, the fourth, and so on.
He also tells us the exact amount of time this period of Great Tribulation will last, to where you can’t possibly misunderstand it, so that you will know exactly how much longer you have to wait for Jesus to come.
Copyright © 1981 The Family International.
08: The First Four Tribulation Trumps (Part 1)
A Study of Revelation: Revelation Chapter 8
A Study of Revelation
David Brandt Berg
1981-05-01
“And when He had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour” (Revelation 8:1).
We have at last come to the end of the seven seals of prophecy, with which the first seven chapters of Revelation were primarily concerned. As we told you in the introduction, the book of Revelation is very harmoniously, almost mathematically, designed.
The first seven chapters deal with the introduction, the letters to the churches and the first six seals of prophecy—history in advance. The next seven chapters have to do with the seven trumpets of the Tribulation, and then the last seven chapters have to do with the endtime events—the complete end of all these things, winding up in heaven itself.
The seventh chapter closes with the angels rejoicing and the saints in heaven rejoicing that the saints have been raptured to be with the Lord, and all the saved are now safely out of this world and in heaven. Then we sort of zero in on the last events of this prophetic period, on the very endtime, like a movie flashback.
It’s sort of like an inset on a map. Sometimes you see a map and then a certain particular part of that map or an island or a country comes zooming out at you in sort of an inset, or a zoom-out or zoom-in, to place the emphasis on a particular part of that map.
Now that the first seven chapters have concluded and you have seen a synopsis of world history from the time of John unto heaven itself, we’re going to zoom in. In this synopsis or bird’s-eye view of future events, the Lord very beautifully and chronologically is zooming in to give a closer view of some of these particular endtime events under the seventh seal. For when He opens the seventh seal, He begins to show what happens specifically at the very end just before the Rapture of the saints.
These are called the seven trumpets of the Tribulation—that last three-and-a-half-year period of man’s history, the last half of the Antichrist’s reign of terror against all religions, all faith, in which he tries to set himself up as God and abolish all other religions except the worship of himself and his idol, his own image. And he sits in the temple of God as though he were God, claiming that he is God (2 Thessalonians 2:4).
This is the last terrible Tribulation period of which the Scriptures have spoken for generations, for millenniums. For thousands of years God by His prophets has predicted this last terrible period of earth’s torment, Jacob’s trouble, the Gentiles’ trouble, tribulation, the worst in earth’s history (Jeremiah 30:7; Joel 2:11; Malachi 4:1). As Jesus Himself said, “There was not such a time of trouble until this time, no, nor indeed ever shall be” (Matthew 24:21). The end of man’s reign on the earth, the last of this demonic Devil-man’s reign, the last half of the Antichrist’s seven-year reign.
As we begin to read chapter eight on through the fourteenth, we find here a sort of an inset, almost a flashback, to zero in on the details of this last three and a half years, the period of these seven Tribulation trumpets.
Jesus Himself opens this seventh seal, and under this seal the book is opened to virtually the last chapter of man’s history on earth—that is, under his own government—to show what a mess he’s made of the world, what a holocaust he has made of man’s history on earth.
When Jesus opens this seventh seal to reveal what is going to happen in this last day of man’s history, this last three and a half years, it is so awesome, so awful, that there is a sudden stunning silence in heaven for half an hour before anything else happens, before anything else is shown. Before John hears anything else, there is a sudden half-hour of silence, as though all heaven is stunned, as though all earth is stunned by the horrors that are about to be revealed and occur. That’s the scene that’s being set.
We could be a bit frivolous and perhaps say as one preacher once told me—preachers love jokes—he said, “Dave, I can prove to you that there are no women in heaven.” I said, “What do you mean, no women in heaven? Of course there are women in heaven!” “No, Dave,” he says, “I don’t see how there can be any women in heaven, because right here in this eighth chapter, first verse, it says there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.” He said, “How could there be any women in heaven if there was silence for half an hour?”
A bit of humor can provide some relief from the awfulness to come. That reminds me of the missionary who’d been in Tibet for 25 years. I was washing dishes with him elbow to elbow at the Soul Clinic in Los Angeles at one time, and he had been a missionary in Tibet even when the communists took over. He spent four years there under the communists, operating a hospital in the heart of the mountains of Tibet, the Forbidden Land, as it used to be called.
Because I knew he was a veteran missionary, a soldier who had been in many battles and on the field for many years, and I wanted to be a missionary and to know just what it took to be a missionary, I asked him, “Sir, what would you consider the most important qualification of a missionary? What does a missionary really need to serve God under such severe conditions as you did in those mountains with those strange people and that strange language for 25 years, operating a hospital, and then for four years after the communists took over, continuing to work even clandestinely preaching the Gospel under the communists?”
There we stood with our arms elbow-deep in dishwater, washing dirty dishes for over 100 people who were attending the Soul Clinic school in Los Angeles, and he looked at me and he smiled. I guess perhaps he was thinking of the humor of our situation.
Here he was a 25- or 30-year veteran, and I was just a young greenhorn, as green as the greenest grass, still wet behind the ears when it came to missionary work. I had been an evangelistic helper and a very short-lived pastor of a church that I’d built, my first and last pastorate, and now I wanted to be a missionary. But I had never been outside of my own country except to Mexico and Canada. I had never been on a far-off mission field.
He looked at me, both of our arms immersed in dirty dishwater, and I guess he was thinking about our present situation—him a veteran missionary, me a veteran evangelist and former pastor, and here we were washing dishes together. What were we doing here washing dishes for 100 people? He looked at me and he chuckled and said, “David, a sense of humor!” He said, “You know what a sense of humor is? It’s to know how things ought to be, and to see how funny it is when they aren’t like they ought to be.” And I often thought about that for a long time afterward—to see how things ought to be, and yet to see how funny it is when they’re not like they ought to be.
He said, “I’ll never forget when we were hiding in a bus trying to escape the communists. When the soldiers came on board to check the passengers, we were down on the floor hiding under the seats. My fellow missionary and I almost gave ourselves away, we got to chuckling and laughing so. We thought it was so funny, us crawling under the seats while the communist soldier was checking the passengers. Here we were staring at each other under two bus seats, and we just almost got to laughing until we gave ourselves away!”
He said, “A sense of humor is almost indispensable if you’re going to be a missionary”—and I’m sure that many of you who are missionaries in far-flung fields around the world have often found that in the most serious kind of situation, in the most sober, somber, almost terrifying situation, somehow God has suddenly come to your rescue and your relief with something funny to relieve the tension. In the teaching of public speaking they call it comic relief. You’re very serious on a very sober subject, but suddenly you tell a joke to ease the tension of your audience and they laugh and they can relax and they can stand the next heavy section.(to be continued)
We’re proceeding now with the eighth chapter of this marvelous revelation. We’ve been through seven chapters which predicted in advance what the history of the world was going to be from the day of John until this terrible Tribulation. Now the Tribulation begins, and these great angels of the seven trumpets of the Tribulation begin to blow their trumps. Chapter 8, verse 2:
“And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets. And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.” That is the throne of God in heaven.
“And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand. And the angel took the censer, and filled it with the fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake. And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.
07: God’s Seal On His Servants
A Study of Revelation: Revelation Chapter 7
A Study of Revelation
David Brandt Berg
1981-05-01
Revelation chapter 7 is the last chapter in the first part of Revelation, which has to do with the introduction of this marvelous Revelation, and a preview of the immediate history of the world from the time of John, who was receiving the Revelation about 107 A.D. He was about 90 at the time, on the Isle of Patmos in the Aegean Sea off the coast of Turkey, near the seven churches which he talks about and to whom he is writing and giving this Revelation which he had received from the Lord.
This seventh chapter is almost like a pause in the revelation and it is at the very end of this whole preview of the future that was to begin in John’s day.
He says, “And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the winds should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree” (Revelation 7:1). These are the winds of God’s judgments upon man for refusing the love and laws of God and His Savior Jesus Christ. “And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea” (Revelation 7:2). There were four angels being prepared to execute the judgments of God upon sinful man and his wicked earth.
But this angel came first, who had the seal of God in his hand, and he said to the four angels of judgment, “Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads” (Revelation 7:3). He said, “Wait! Don’t mete out the judgments of God on wicked men until we have sealed the good men—the servants of God—with the seal of God in their foreheads.”
“And I heard the number of them which were sealed, and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel” (Revelation 7:4). He said, “Before we mete out these judgments here upon wicked men and the Antichrist kingdom”—these are about things that are to happen in the very end—“we must seal the believers, the true children of God, the true Israel.”
Now you can interpret this passage one of two ways: You can say that this meant the early church, all of those early Christians who were Jews, who were saved, and therefore were sealed of God. He talks about how the number of them which were sealed were 144,000, and of each tribe 12,000. It’s possible that this 144,000 were the early Jewish Christians that Jesus is saying are sealed here.
Others believe that this means that there will be Jews in the very endtime, in the time of the Antichrist and the Tribulation, who had previously thought that he was not their savior, the Messiah, or the Son of God, and wake up to the fact that Jesus is the Christ. They will realize that they have ignored their true Messiah and will be saved then and God will seal them then. Because it speaks pretty specifically about these people being of the children of Israel in the fourth verse, and of the various tribes, naming the tribes one by one in the succeeding verses. (See Revelation 7:5–8.)
After having sealed these Jewish believers, apparently 144,000 Jewish Christian believers, 12,000 of each tribe of Israel, the ninth verse says: “After this I beheld, and lo, a great multitude which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.”
This is the great mob, the great hosts of heaven and earth who believe in Jesus Christ—be they Jews or Gentiles—because there’s no longer any Jew or Gentile in Christ Jesus, no male nor female, no black or white, no rich or poor, no difference in the kingdom of Christ now. (See Galatians 3:27–29.) We’re all the same to Jesus, all brothers and sisters in the one family of God.
“And they cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen” (Revelation 7:10–12).
You notice the angels could only say “Amen.” Because as my mother used to sing: “For angels never knew the joy that our salvation brings.” They can only witness it. They were never lost, at least God’s angels were not, so they can’t know the joy of salvation. But they can say amen to it and witness it and help us and love us and comfort us and protect us, thank God.
“And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes and whence came they?” “One of the elders answered”—sounds more like he’s asking questions to me. “And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest” (Revelation 7:13–14). John says, “I don’t know. You’re the guy that’s supposed to know.” Notice that there were 24 elders; possibly the 12 outstanding leaders of the Jews before Christ that God considers the most important, such as Abraham, Moses, and the prophets of God down through the ages, the most important Jews and descendants of Abraham who truly loved God and really knew the score.
The other 12 are possibly the 12 apostles or leaders of the Christian church, pioneers of the Christian faith, or maybe the leaders down through the ages. Who knows? It could be that the 24 are going to be the 12 most important leaders of the Jewish church of the Old Testament and the 12 most important leaders of the Christian church of the New Testament. God’s going to honor the 24 most outstanding leaders of His people for the past 6000 years.
John said, “You know.” Yes, the elder knew. He was just asking a rhetorical question; he wanted to see if John knew. “And he said to me, these are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:14). Those who are saved. This is the mighty host, the multiplied millions and billions of the saved who are getting this mark of God in their foreheads to protect them from the Enemy and from the Beast and the forces of hell. “Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple.” This is the host of God in heaven.
“And He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them” (Revelation 7:15). He’ll sit on the throne and dwell among them. It doesn’t say we’re going to go up and dwell with God. It says that God’s going to come down and dwell with us. It says that all through the Bible, down to the very last chapter, that God is going to come down and dwell with us here on the earth eventually—in the New Earth.
Our heaven’s going to be here on earth. John saw the Holy City—that place called heaven—coming down from God out of heaven, unto the earth, unto man. And God, he said, will now make His dwelling with men below (Revelation 21:2–3). He’s come down to man’s level to love him and to live with him and to keep him forever.
This seventh chapter ends here with a beautiful vision of heaven—the raptured saints in heaven. “They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat” (Revelation 7:16). They lived in a hot country where they didn’t appreciate sunshine; they liked the clouds better than the sunshine.
“For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes” (Revelation 7:17). God’s going to wipe away all tears. We shall neither hunger nor thirst anymore, nor suffer pain or agony or death anymore.
God doesn’t say there aren’t going to be any tears in heaven. I think a lot of people when they get to heaven and face the Lord are going to cry over their sins and their failures and faults and be ashamed, some to live in everlasting contempt for their failures and disobediences and sins against God, but nevertheless forgiven and saved (Daniel 12:2).—But no crown, no reward, no “Well done, thou good and faithful servant,” only tears and shame when they meet God.
But isn’t the Lord wonderful and loving and merciful? He says He’s going to wipe away all those tears, and He’s going to wipe away all that memory of those evil years, and there’ll be no more pain, no more death, no more sorrow, no more tears, only eternal happiness, joy, and paradise on earth forever and ever.
These first seven chapters cover the whole history of man from the days of John until the days of our final heaven on earth. It is a kind of a résumé, a preview of the history of man.
In these first seven chapters, we’ve covered what was future in John’s day, but is now mostly history except for these last few scenes of the saints in heavenly places. From here on, it’s all about the endtime that hasn’t happened yet, under the seventh seal with the seven trumpets of the Tribulation period, the last most horrible day in earth’s history and in man’s rule, and man’s inhumanity to man.
Copyright © 1981 The Family International.
06: Warriors of the Faith
A Study of Revelation: Revelation Chapter 6:9–17
A Study of Revelation
David Brandt Berg
1981-04-01
Revelation chapter 6, verse 9: “And when He had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the Word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.
“And I beheld when He had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” (Revelation 6:9–17).
We’re reading from the sixth chapter of the book of Revelation, beginning with the ninth verse. We’ve already covered the first eight verses in the previous class on the four horsemen of the Apocalypse. Do you remember what these horses were? The first one was Jesus on the white horse with a crown and a bow going forth to conquer. The second was the war horse. The third was the commercial system, buying and selling. And the last one was death by every means—hunger, famine, pestilence, plague.
You may wonder, “Were these separate times? Did Jesus first go forth and conquer, and then war came, and then after that the commercial system came, and then came death?” No, these horses, although they’re pictured one by one, began to ride almost immediately. God told John when He first started giving him this revelation that these are things which shortly must come to pass, for the time is now at hand. Therefore, these things began to come to pass in John’s day; in fact, they were already existent in John’s day. These horsemen were already riding in John’s day. God was just revealing them to him one by one to show him the difference.
The horse of Christ and Christianity, the great white horse with Him with a golden crown and a bow in His hand to go forth conquering and to conquer: Jesus had been riding that horse for many years already, and the church spread around the world—the whole Roman world of the day. There had been wars and rumors of wars, and there had been much commercialism and buying and selling, and plenty and poverty and famine, and finally all kinds of death. So these horses had been riding continuously. In fact, He’s just picturing here what has been going on for the last 2000 years.
These seven seals of the book of Revelation are the seals of history, you might say, history in advance. They cover the time from the days of John, about 100 A.D., down to the very end of the world. So these seals of this seven-sealed book are a picture of the future from the days of John to the very end. The first seal was the four horsemen of the Apocalypse—Christ and His kingdom, war, commercialism, and all forms of death—riding from John’s day till the end.
This whole first part of the book, almost the whole first seven chapters, has to do with history from John’s day until the end, particularly until the Tribulation period. But the first six seals here, as you can see, cover the entire period. It’s sort of a summary. As they say in the movies, it’s a flashback of what has happened since John’s day to the present. Under the first four seals were these four horsemen of the Apocalypse.
Under the fifth seal we have another picture of heaven, this time not exactly the throne scene, but an altar scene. We see the souls of the martyrs, their spirits, clothed in white robes, pictured under the altar of God, meaning they are waiting there, in a sense, where they were sacrificed as living sacrifices for the Lord. God’s Word says that we are to “yield our bodies a living sacrifice unto the Lord,” which is His perfect will, and your perfect sacrifice, “that ye may know what is that good and acceptable will of God” (Romans 12:1–2).
You want to know the will of God? Yield your body a living sacrifice, which is good and acceptable unto the Lord, which is His perfect will for you, and then you’ll know God’s will. But not until you’re willing to give yourself in His cause as a martyr for Christ—not necessarily to die but to die daily, to live and die daily for Him, in witnessing and serving Him in winning souls. That’s what He expects of you. In a sense, every one of us is a martyr. In a sense, every one of us dies daily for the Lord.
I remember a lady in one of our Bible school classes in Miami, Florida. She loved to sit in church and listen to beautiful sermons and organ music and lovely choirs, but she finally felt that really she needed a little more Bible study to know more about the Bible.
So she decided she wanted to go to Bible school. She picked our little Bible school because it was free. Not only free tuition, but free room and board, too. So she came to our school to take this Bible course and learn more about the Bible.
But then she found out that a part of our schedule, about half of it, was spent out in the field, not just studying theory and just studying the Bible—which is all very good and a necessary preparation, because it’s your tool, you’ve got to do it—but she had to spend half her time out with the other students in the field, with her teachers going door to door or on the street corner or in the park learning how to preach the Gospel, how to witness, how to win souls.
She came back after her first day out witnessing and said, “Oh my God! Do I have to do that again?” She said, “This just kills me! That business of going out and passing out tracts on the street corner—me a respectable, reputable, well-to-do woman, standing there like a beggar on the street corner begging people to take my literature. This just kills me. Do I have to do that again, brother?”
I said, “Yes, sister, you do, because that’s exactly what it does, and it’s good for you. It just kills your pride, and it kills your reputation, and it kills your vaunted idea of yourself, and it kills you in the eyes of man, when out there on the corner you get his contempt and his scorn and ridicule.”
It kills you, all right. It makes you a martyr every day. Every single day, you’re a martyr for Jesus and you die daily, as the apostle said (1 Corinthians 15:31). These are the martyrs for Jesus Christ. We’re all martyrs in that sense. You don’t have to die physically on a cross or be beheaded or whatever in the long run; you’re a martyr every day. Do you know what the word means? Martyr is a Greek word meaning “a witness.” And you’ll find out that witnessing is martyrdom to your pride and your self-respect and the opinions of men.
Witnessing is martyrdom, and if you are a faithful witness unto God, you will be a martyr for Jesus Christ. So these folks were martyrs. They had died daily and died the final death and were in heaven with the Lord, waiting to be avenged for the blood that they had shed. They’re waiting there for God to avenge them against their enemies who tormented them and persecuted them and ridiculed them and made it hard for them.
These saints wanted retribution. “How long, O Lord, are You going to not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?”—Their persecutors their tormentors, their torturers. And the Lord said, “Just be patient, just rest a little while longer for all of your fellow servants who are dying daily right now for Me and will die for Me. Wait till the whole flock is in, and then I’m going to turn loose My judgments on them. When I’ve called out My sheep from among the goats, when I’ve reaped My good grain from among the tares, so that they don’t get hurt.”
God always has to call His people out and get them out from among the wicked and the sinners. He says, “Come out from among her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins,” so you won’t be punished for her sins (Revelation 18:4). He says, “Come out of Babylon, the world system. Get out of it! Start serving Jesus.”
That’s what these martyrs have done. They died daily for Jesus.
Copyright © 1981 The Family International.
05: The First 4 Seals and 4 Horsemen
A Study of Revelation: Revelation Chapter 5 and 6:1–8
A Study of Revelation
David Brandt Berg
1981-04-01
“And I saw in the right hand of Him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.
“And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And He came and took the book out of the right hand of Him that sat upon the throne. And when He had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.
“And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. And the four beasts said, Amen, amen, amen and amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped Him that liveth for ever and ever” (Revelation 5).
Praise the Lord for this wonderful scripture, this marvelous revelation! It’s a very mysterious passage, but when you understand who the Lamb is, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, then it’s not difficult to understand. If you realize that this seven-sealed book—called a book, but actually a scroll—was the book of the future, the book of the Revelation that God had promised to give to John, and herein, in this marvelous throne scene, then we discover it is about Jesus.
When no other man could be found worthy to open the book of the future, the book of prophecy, Jesus, the Lamb of God, was found worthy to open the book.
When He took the book, then the four beasts and the 24 elders had to praise Him and say, “Amen, amen” and to praise God. They fell down and worshipped Him and so on. Every one of them had harps and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of the saints. I’ve seen this in some of the dreams and visions that I’ve had, that prayers were like beautiful vases or golden vials full of perfume rising unto the Lord like beautiful flowers and angels and fragrances to God in heaven.
They sang as Jesus opened the book; they sang that He was worthy: “For thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation.”
Thank God, some people from everywhere are going to be saved. We’re doing our best to reach the whole world with the Gospel. Our Family is doing its best to go into all the world and preach the Gospel unto every creature just as Jesus commanded (Mark 16:15). We’ve preached it on six continents to over 100 nations in 40 languages. For one little outfit of at most 8000 missionaries, I think that’s a pretty good record.
So they sang this song praising the Lord, for He had made Himself worthy by shedding His blood. “And Thou hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.” We are already kings and priests unto God as far as He’s concerned. We may not look like it to the world, but we are already kings of this earth, and priests of our people unto God, because we’re already in the kingdom of God, the kingdom of God that is within us in our hearts, the kingdom of God composed of His saints, His children everywhere throughout the world.—All those who love Jesus, all those who have received Him as their Savior, the Son of God, and His sacrifice on Calvary for their sins, and His forgiveness and His cleansing from sin.
John beheld and he heard the voice of many angels. First of all the beasts and the four and twenty elders and the saints, and then many angels are singing. This is a real praise service up in heaven—a great, victorious session in the great throne room of heaven! There before that crystal sea through which God can look upon the earth and see everything that’s going on. And the number—how many angels? How, many beasts? How many elders? How many saints?—Ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, from everywhere—billion and millions! Hallelujah!
We’re not going to be the poor persecuted minority; we are then going to number in the billions and the millions, and we are going to rule the earth with Jesus Christ!
Jesus comes. He stops the earth, the history of this world, and He lets us off right in full view of our enemies. We rise in immortal victory over the forces of the Devil and of the Antichrist and right before the eyes of our enemies, now out of their reach forever, to be with Jesus in the air. This hasn’t happened yet here, but John is being given a vision of this to see what was going to happen in the future. He’s shown that Jesus opens this book of the future, this book of prophecy, sealed with seven seals.
It’s such an amazing and marvelous occasion that all heaven is rejoicing! All the angels are rejoicing, the beasts, the four and twenty elders, and the millions of saints. Beloved, you are not alone. “Wherefore seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us run the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1). What a cloud of witnesses! Never in the history of this world has there been such an audience for such a performance. You literally have billions upon millions of souls and saints and angels watching you from above in those heavenly galleries while you perform here on the stage of God’s history, His story, in this final act of His story, history. Isn’t that wonderful?
This will be the greatest show on earth, and all heaven will be watching.—All the saints of God that have gone on to be with the Lord, all the angels of God that have ever been created, including even Satan and all his angels, have to watch this grand and glorious performance and the final victory in the biggest hit that ever hit this world. That is going to involve millions of people, a cast not of half a dozen or a dozen or a score or two, not a cast of hundreds or even thousands, but a cast of millions upon billions acting out the last scene of God’s marvelous drama here on earth.
In John’s vision in this chapter, they’re all watching while Jesus begins to open the book of prophecy and future history begins to unfold. What a performance! What a cast! What an audience! No play or movie or television series on earth ever had such an audience as Jesus had as He began to open this book of the future—a history from John’s day down to our day, and on to the end. So Jesus is about to open the book now in chapter 6.
Let’s swing out into space and travel into the future, shall we? We are time travelers, space travelers. We even travel beyond the realm of space and time in this marvelous book.
Chapter six of the revelation of God to Jesus Christ and His angel unto John, first verse: “And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were, the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see. And I saw, and behold, a white horse: and He that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto Him: and He went forth conquering, and to conquer” (Revelation 6:1–2).
Now begins the marvelous revelation of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse.—These four mysterious horsemen of the book of Revelation, or the Apocalypse, depending on whether you want to use the Latin name for the book, the Revelation, or the Greek name Apocalypse.
The first horseman is obviously Jesus, with a crown all in white, going forth conquering and to conquer. What was happening in John’s day? Jesus was going forth to conquer the world with the Gospel through His saints and His apostles and the early Christians in a mighty conquest of the Roman Empire—more powerful in its message of love than all the legions of Roman force, cruelty, and war. Jesus is this mighty conqueror on the white horse in verse 2.
“And when He had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword” (Revelation 6:3–4). This second horse of the Apocalypse was obviously the horse of war, and there have been nothing but wars ever since the time of Christ and the early church.
The red horse of the Apocalypse is the horse of war, and certainly nothing could have been predicted more truly of the two millenniums of history which followed from John’s day to ours. There has seldom been a day in the world’s history that there has not been a war going on somewhere, with slaughter and massacre and killing and wounding and maiming and the horrors of hell. What does it matter whether they kill with stones and clubs and bare hands or knives and swords and spears or planes and guns and tanks and atomic bombs? It’s all the same horror in the sight of God, the same horror of man brought on by the Devil’s inspiration to inspire man to kill one another and destroy each other.
“And when he had opened the third seal”—Jesus opened the third seal, another chapter in the book—“I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse, and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.”
Here comes the horrible horse of famine and the horse of commerce, the horse of money, the horse of commercialism, the horse of capitalism, and the horse of plenty, feast and famine both.
“And I beheld this black horse, and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine” (Revelation 6:5–6). Doesn’t that sound like your typical salesman, your typical merchant? Your typical high-pressure TV commercials, always hawking their wares? So this next horse was to become one of the curses of the earth: commercialism, moneymaking, capitalism, making precious every little bit of material and food and so on. That’s the third horse; we’ve now had three horses of the Apocalypse.
Seventh verse: “And when He had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked, and behold, a pale horse.” The actual meaning here is a pale yellowish-green horse. “And his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with the sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth” (Revelation 6:8).
Here the final horse, the fourth horseman of the Apocalypse, was death itself in every form. Death not only in war, but death from beasts and death from plagues, death from famine and hunger, death in every conceivable form. Haven’t we had that kind of death ever since the days of John? Haven’t we had commercialism and trading and capitalism and greed since the time of this revelation?
But praise God, we’ve had Jesus.—Crowned with many crowns, the King of kings riding on His great white horse of victory! He’s been riding throughout the earth for the past 2000 years, conquering nation after nation and tribe after tribe and people after people with the wonderful message of the Gospel, until at least half the world has become Christian. Half the people of the world confess Christ and are at least nominally Christian.
So there you have the four horsemen of the Apocalypse: First Jesus, the Son of God conquering the earth with His Gospel of love. Second, war, the opposite of love—hate and killing and death. And then commercialism, capitalism, greed, trading, moneymaking, one of the curses of the earth that deprives the poor and makes the rich. And finally, the fourth horse, death in every form, from war and beasts and famine and plague.
Have we not had all four of these horses riding rampant for the past 2000 years since John? Have we not had Christianity spreading throughout the world? War throughout the world? Commercialism throughout the world, the commercial system, Babylon? And all forms of death and destruction? We’ve had them all, and they have ridden rampant for 2000 years since John until this very day.
They will continue to ride right until the end, when Jesus comes and takes His children out of the hell on earth this world becomes into the heavenlies, while He pours out His judgments upon the hell below.—Until we come again in the Battle of Armageddon and we conquer the forces of hell and death and satanic power, and wipe out the Antichrist and his mark-of-the-beast forces and destroy his Image and destroy the wicked who follow him, and we cleanse and purify the earth, and set up the kingdom of God upon this earth to be ruled by Jesus Christ with a rod of iron.
Copyright © 1981 The Family International.