Study – Grow – Know

Rethinking Revelation 6 Part 2

June 7, 2023 at 9:41 AM 3 comments

Audio for this article here: SermonAudio.com/StudyGrowKnow

In my previous article, I shared that I’ve been rethinking the timetable related to the first several seals that are highlighted in Revelation 6. I spoke mainly about the first seal, which is generally understood to be the coming of the Antichrist. I acknowledged that some folks believe this seal represents Jesus, but I don’t see that. However, I could be wrong. I don’t believe that I am the arbiter of biblical truth in all things. I wish I was but I’m not. I’m simply sharing questions and concerns I have regarding the way it’s always been interpreted.

That said, one of the main points I made previously about this coming rider on the white horse in seal one, is that he cannot come on the scene out of nowhere and immediately gain a high office and from there, become dictator of the world. It can’t happen that way simply because of the way God has chosen to fulfill prophecies about Jesus as well as numerous other prophecies throughout Scripture. Beyond this, there is a natural order to things that God has created and He’ll no more allow Satan to bypass that natural order than He would allow any of us.

There has always been an element of time involved in fulfilling the many prophecies occurring in Scripture. Certainly, from God’s perspective – as He is in the eternal dimension and is not confined to or hampered by time as we are – the fulfillment of prophecies are always before Him. He sees all things at once unlike us, in which we see fulfillment from our perspective takes time and sometimes it takes quite a bit of time.

All of this is something that has caused me to pause and consider in the back of my mind for some time. The first seal is where this individual rides onto the world’s stage. Okay, but as what? An infant? A grown man? Obviously, this individual has to be born into this world (not even Jesus simply appeared on the earth as a full grown man). So it’s possible that the first seal speaks of this Antichrist after he has become an adult and starts his climb to the top, after years of working in the political realm, yet within that first seal there is no specific situation mentioned, nothing that we can pinpoint as the starting point of the Tribulation. Unlike that particular Scripture regarding the Antichrist, let’s consider another Scripture about Jesus that seems to have that same sense, yet is far more specific.

Zechariah 9:9-10 speaks of Jesus, but clearly in this passage it speaks of Him as a full grown adult man.

9 “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your King is coming to you;
He is just and having salvation,
Lowly and riding on a donkey,
A colt, the foal of a donkey.
10 I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
And the horse from Jerusalem;
The battle bow shall be cut off.
He shall speak peace to the nations;
His dominion shall be ‘from sea to sea,
And from the River to the ends of the earth.’

Think of Zechariah, the prophet as he thought about those words and eventually wrote them down. What do you think he was thinking? Wouldn’t it be fair to conclude that Zechariah believed the specifics of verse 9 referenced the coming King of Israel as a full grown man when He would exercise His Kingship? In fact, Zechariah provides a very specific event in time that would highlight Jesus. We do not have that in Revelation 6:1-2. What we have instead is a timeline; something that would occur over a period of time and we are not even given any sense of how long that would take to occur. If someone can point to Revelation 6:1-2 and show unequivocally a Tribulation starting point in those verses, I’d love to hear it. And yes, I am very clear about other parts of Scripture that do note the very start of the Tribulation, but it appears that at that point, Antichrist has already established his position of leadership in the world. Revelation 6:1-2 only provides us with a quick glimpse of how Antichrist manages that and again, it will take time.

Referring back to Zechariah 9:9, no one in Israel expected their coming King to not be there one day, then ride into Jerusalem on a colt of a donkey the next. That’s not the way God does things and that’s not the way verse 9 was fulfilled. In fact, it took about 33 years for verse 9 to be completely fulfilled, yet verse 9 seems to point to one specific event in Christ’s life, occurring just days before He was killed. At the same time, everyone who knew and understood Zechariah 9:9 also believed there would be absolutely no gap in between the fulfillment of verse 9 and verse 10. They assumed Messiah would come, fulfill verse 9 and then immediately go onto fulfill verse 10. That did not happen because Jesus was rejected by the religious leaders of that day. So even when Scripture seems to tell us of very specific events and seems to indicate one will happen in quick succession after the one before it, it doesn’t necessarily occur like that in real time. Again though, since God resides in eternity, all of these things are always before Him so time is of little consequence to Him.

In the case of the first seal of Revelation 6, here’s what I’m seeing. I’m seeing a rider on a white horse (what John actually saw in the spiritual realm), that meant a particular guy was going to be “released” who already existed on earth and at the right time, would begin to conquer people and nations through political means and strategies and this would occur over some length of time. He will likely be very warm and friendly to many and have the uncanny ability to draw people to him. We talked about that last time.

But is the first seal talking about the time that this guy (the Antichrist), comes on the scene at first, or is the first seal referring to the time he begins or even is heavily involved in his climb to the top of the heap? The word “conquering” is a clue. That implies a period of ongoing activity. It is not a once for all, in one specific moment of time occurrence.

I’m beginning to think that Revelation 6:1-2 is referring to the important time in Antichrist’s human life when he is either beginning to “conquer” politically, early in his adult career, or it describes the time the Antichrist is already heavily involved in the political drama conquering other politicians and/or leaders of nations so that he can position himself where he will ultimately be. In either case, this actually could be in play now at some level because it seems to me to indicate a process, not one specific act, as when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the colt. If this is the case (that the first seal unveils a process), then it is at some point during that process that the Tribulation is initiated but not specifically listed there. This means that the process undertaken by Antichrist must begin before the start of the Tribulation and we may well begin seeing it and we may well see some guy rise to the top of the heap. Remember, he is only “revealed” for who he is when he goes into the Temple of God declaring himself to be God (2 Thessalonians 2). This is when his true identity is understood by the Jews of Israel who were taken unawares by his charm, flattery, intelligence and seeming concern for the nation of Israel.

To reiterate, when I look at Revelation 6:1-2, I’m not seeing a starting “event” that pinpoints the start of the Tribulation in the text (though the starting point is made clear in Daniel 9:24-27). It is implied but not specifically stated because God chose to simply let us know that He released seal one, which begins the process Antichrist goes through to gain dominance over the world. Antichrist will do enough conquering to give him the type of power he needs in order to be the guy who has enough power to decide that he will actually confirm the covenant that is in place spoken of by Daniel in Daniel 9:24-27. Again though, what I see in the first seal is the beginning of a process.

So in and of itself, I’m not seeing a “start” point of the Tribulation in Revelation 6:1-2. I see a process that allows for the Antichrist to:

• arrive on the political scene as an adult male
• choose a career in politics
• become known to other political leaders
• gain insight into the system
• work to elevate himself
• eventually “conquering” people (bureaucrats, politicians and leaders of nations) so that they admire him and want to follow his lead
• get rid of three “kings” who try to withstand him (gee, maybe David Rockefeller, Jr. in the USA and the two Rothschilds; one in UK and the other in Europe?)
• become top dog having gained enough power to be the guy who decides whether or not the covenant of Daniel 9:24-27 should be confirmed or not

All of the above takes time. It cannot occur in one event on the timeline. I don’t know where we are in the process because I cannot see behind the scenes in the spiritual realm and no one else can either. Like everyone else, we are left to try to look at conditions in the world and determine if the Bible speaks to those things. Beyond this, I don’t even know if Antichrist has been born yet because I have no idea who he is though I believe he has but in this case, belief is not fact. If he has, then we are somewhere on that timeline above. But again, the question is what exactly does the first seal reference?

In the case of Zechariah 9:9-10, we know (because we are looking back at completed events), that verse 9 was referring to the day Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a colt just days before He was crucified. But Jewish people reading those two verses would have seen them happening together, not separated by over 2000 years!

If I saw a starting point in Revelation 6:1-2 with the action specifically pointing to the same confirmation of covenant that Daniel points to, then it would far easier to understand that Revelation 6:1-2 is referring to that specific action. It could be doing that, but I’m simply saying it is difficult for me at least to know. Because of this, the verse can be taken several ways. Either it’s outlining how the Antichrist will win people to his side over years of hobnobbing and work or the verse speaks specifically of the time when he will actually conquer enough people to grant him power to make unilateral political decisions. I hope I’m making myself clear here. There is simply so much we do not know and the more I study Scripture where future prophecy is concerned, the more difficult I find it is to create specific timelines.

In essence, if the Antichrist is “released” into this world through birth (just as Jesus was), it would be decades before he would have the ability to power himself up through the ranks to gain the amount of power needed to run things. A reader wrote me after my first installment and asked if I thought Antichrist would be about Jesus’ age? I tend to think so for the same reason she does; because Satan is trying to impersonate God and he’ll want to bring forth a man that could fit over the prophetic narrative and even resemble in many ways, Jesus Himself to confuse the masses on one hand, and at the same time, make them believe that Antichrist is the guy – not Jesus – who actually fulfills Scripture.

In my next part, I may either wrap the first seal up or simply move onto seal two, which removes peace from the earth.

Entry filed under: 9/11, agenda 2030, Agenda 21, christianity, Demonic, devil worship, eternity, Global Elite, israel, Religious - Christian - End Times, Religious - Christian - Prophecy, Religious - Christian - Theology, salvation, Satanism, second coming, Shadow Government.