The Christian message that God has entrusted to the Church is a message of hope. I believe that not only do Christians have a future hope in Jesus but everyone alive right now has a future hope that they can call upon if they choose to. Unfortunately, not everyone will call upon that hope that is being declared through the Gospel and there will be large sections of humanity left behind after the rapture to face the judgement of God.
Although I believe in a future hope, I also never deny that humanity’s darkest days are actually in front of them. There is coming a time in earth’s history that if Jesus didn’t bring to a conclusion, no person would survive (Mat 24:22).
It is important at this juncture to remember that the description we already know about Jesus is that He has …eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass (Rev 2:18). How that works in chapter 6 is that the judgments that He is treading out in these 7 seals are from His perfect vision and understanding of justice. He sees all things with burning precision, even the intents of the heart and no one on earth will be able to accuse Him of being an unjust judge.
The scene switches from worship to justice, from glory to wrath, from heaven to earth and the first seal is broken by none other than Jesus Himself. This is one of the main reasons for a pre-tribulation rapture. What’s in view here is the wrath of the lamb (Rev 6:17) and to suggest Jesus would not remove His Bride before He pours out His wrath on the world not only seems entirely against the narrative of Scripture but also an accusation of unrighteous behaviour on the part of our perfectly just Lord. To me, it seems preposterous that He would pour out His anger on His bride in the moments before He marries her. Besides that, the wrath of God was poured out on Jesus for her already (Romans 3:24-25, 1 Thess 5:9-10, Galatians 3:13)
What Jesus initiates in His judgements is what He foretold in His Olivet discourse. There are numerous parallels between Matthew 24 and Revelation 6 and 7. We are introduced to the 4 horsemen of the Apocalypse (6:1-8) the Tribulation saints, and the terror that comes upon everyone still living on the earth.
The first horseman is white which causes him to be mistaken for Christ Himself. Christ does indeed come on a white horse in Revelation 19, but this first rider is not Jesus, it is the Antichrist. There are many names for this individual, (Daniel 7:8, 8:23, 9:26, 9:27, 11:36-45, Zech 11:15-17, 2 Thess 2:3, 2:8, Rev 6:2, 13:1-2) and John uses the title Antichrist in the singular, as well as plural in 1 John 2:18. The Antichrist definitely represents a system on the earth but it will also be an individual.
At this juncture, it is important to highlight and reiterate that all the judgements starting from chapter 6 and onwards are all God’s doing. It is Jesus opening the seals, (Rev 6:1) and those that are experiencing the judgements do testify themselves that it is the ‘wrath of the Lamb’ that they are experiencing (Rev 6:16). The reason this needs clarifying is that with Antichrist on the scene and the following horseman being, the red horse of war, the black horse of famine and the pale horse of Death and Hell, one could be tempted to say this is the wrath of man or the wrath of Satan. Not true. Jesus is in complete control at all times.
This is also true of His first coming. They couldn’t take His life until the exact moment He decided to lay it down. He even told Judas the betrayer when to do His betraying when He said, ‘what you do, do quickly (John 13:27). In the midst of the darkest evil to ever be present on the earth and at the height of their greatest power over humanity, every knee bows and tongue confesses that He is Lord (Phil 2:10-11, Rom 14:11, Isa 45:23). Death and Hades which is the pale fourth horse had ‘power is given to them’ (Rev 6:8). Jesus has already testified that He has the keys to death and hades (Rev 1:18), and now, here they are answering to the Lord of Glory, doing their worst but bound by a leash and the parameters that His righteous judgment allows.
The fifth seal flashes back to heaven (which we will look more tomorrow) and the chapter ends with the sixth seal demonstrating a righteous upheaval and destruction of the Heavens. Two important things to take away from this is that all creation is being restored and that includes the heavens and secondly when the heavens start falling apart, the world leaders, the world’s rich list, the military leaders, the world’s highest accomplishers as well as the rest of humanity recognises that this is divine judgement and they attempt to hide in caves and the mountains realising that in actual fact there is no way of hiding from God’s judgment (Rev 6:12-17).
These will truly be days that no one will want to live through and quite frankly, no one has to. Everyone has an opportunity to accept the invitation of King Jesus now, to bow their knee and confess with their mouth now. It is also our privilege as the church to carry that Good News to the nations now. We have been entrusted with a message of future hope that truly is Good News to our friends, family and neighbours but once the Church is removed, time will be up but interestingly not the invitation. Tomorrow we will look at who the baton is passed on to and the next evangelists of the Gospel of His Kingdom.
What these verses look like in our life today:
- The Church carries a message of hope in these days It is rare to find someone with an optimistic view of the future. Most people would say the world is falling apart and going crazy. No one really has a message that tomorrow is going to be better than today. Not environmentalists, not conservationists, geopolitical experts are saying world war three is here and sociologists are saying humanity’s woes are getting worse. The Christian Church, however, has a message that the future is held by a benevolent King who is going to rule the world in perfect justice and through his providence and better than that, everyone is invited to belong to His Kingdom that will usher in worldwide peace and prosperity. The future hope of the Gospel has never been more relevant to your neighbour.
- All judgment and justice belong to God None of what is being poured out on the earth throughout the Tribulation is because evil is winning or because Satan is powerful. All the events are being brought about through the perfect justice and power of the risen Lord, Jesus Christ. Because we know who holds the future, always keep in mind, no matter how much the world looks like it is falling apart, everything is falling into place.
