In this message we shall consider the fifth and sixth seals (Rev. 6:9-17). According to the record of Revelation, the first four seals are not consecutive. Rather, they are simultaneous. They all began to take place at nearly the same time and they will conclude at the same time. It is very similar to a four-horse race where the horses begin and end at almost the same time. The seven seals may be divided into two groups consisting of the first four seals and the last three seals. While the first four seals are not consecutive, the last three seals are consecutive.
As we have seen, the first four seals unveil the new testament age, which is an age of gospel preaching. Between Christ’s ascension and His coming back, the preaching of the gospel will continue. The other main things — war, famine, and death — work together for the advancement of the preaching of the gospel. God has a unique purpose in this age — to have the gospel preached that the church might be produced and built up for the fulfillment of His eternal plan. We need to have this overall view. But the great men on earth do not have this view. Not even the kings and the presidents of the nations know what they are doing. But we know. Everything these rulers do helps the preaching of the gospel. God is sovereign in this matter.
The book of Revelation begins with the local churches with Christ in their midst and it ends with the New Jerusalem with Christ as its centrality and universality. Between these two ends of Revelation, we have the church age and the kingdom age. In the church age, the new testament age, God is doing one thing: He is producing the churches through the preaching of the full gospel. All twenty-seven books of the New Testament are included in the full gospel. God’s purpose is not merely to save a group of pitiful sinners. This concept is too low, and many of the philosophical people refuse to accept it. They need to see that the preaching of the gospel has a much higher purpose and that it is on the highest plane — producing the churches for the composition of the New Jerusalem. After the church age, the kingdom age will come. In the kingdom age God will accomplish what has not been completed and perfected in the church age. After the age of the kingdom, God’s purpose will be thoroughly and absolutely completed. Then there will be eternity with the new heaven, the new earth, and the New Jerusalem composed of all the redeemed saints. This is a general view of the whole universe.
As we have already pointed out, through the first four seals, we have a view of what is taking place between Christ’s ascension and His coming back. Four things are transpiring: the preaching of the gospel, war, famine, and death. The second, third, and fourth horses help to speed up the preaching of the gospel. If there had been no war, I would not be in this country. In the past, none of us in the Lord’s recovery in China intended to come to the western world. We thought that perhaps after we had finished a certain amount of recovery work, the Lord would then use some other people or means, perhaps missionaries or the translation of the books, to bring the recovery to the western world. But suddenly, in 1949, mainland China was lost. As a result, the Lord’s recovery was brought to this country. Having been sent to Taiwan by the work, I was deeply troubled by the loss of the Lord’s recovery in mainland China. Day and night, I asked the Lord, “What is this? Why has the work been lost?” Eventually, the sovereign Lord brought His recovery to this country. This reveals that, in the sovereign hand of the Lord, there is only one thing in this age — the preaching of the full gospel to produce the local churches for the building up of God’s eternal dwelling place, the New Jerusalem. When we have this overall view, we can look into the book of Revelation and understand it adequately and properly.
The seven seals are firstly divided into four and three, and secondly into six and one. The number four signifies the creatures, as symbolized by the four living creatures, and the number six signifies creation, since creation was finished in six days. The number three signifies the Triune God, and the number one the unique God. Hence, both four plus three and six plus one indicate that the seven seals, through God’s judgment, bring God’s creation with all the creatures to God.
The fifth seal discloses the Christian martyrdom from the first century to the time near the end of this age. (It may include the martyrdom of the old testament saints — Matt. 23:34-36.) While the gospel is being preached, as indicated by the first seal, there is always the martyrdom of the faithful saints.
During the age of gospel preaching, many saints have been martyred because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. Stephen, Peter, and nearly all the other apostles were martyred. The apostle John was exiled, and Paul was imprisoned and later sentenced to death. Throughout the centuries, wherever the preaching of the gospel has gone, there has been martyrdom. Thousands of those who have been faithful to the Lord’s testimony have been martyred. In a sense, even Brother Nee was martyred. Nearly all my older co-workers suffered martyrdom during the past twenty-six years by being kept in prison until they died.
The martyrdom of the saints is not because of their opposition to any human rules, but because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. The word of God is the glad tidings, the gospel, they proclaim to people. The testimony of Jesus is the life they live. Human society with human culture is wholly under the evil influence of Satan, as it says in 1 John 5:19, “the whole world lies in the evil one.” Both the preaching of the word of God and the life of the testimony of Jesus are against the satanic trend in the world. Certainly Satan hates this. Hence, whenever and wherever the saints preach the word of God and live the testimony of Jesus, Satan instigates people to persecute them, even to death. This is a fighting, not between men and the saints, but between Satan and God. The time will come when God will avenge the saints by exercising His righteous judgment over the earth which is under Satan’s evil influence.
Revelation 6:10, speaking of “the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and because of the testimony which they held,” says, “And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O sovereign Lord, holy and true, will You not judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” In 6:9 we see that the souls are underneath the altar. This points to the sacrifices killed on the altar. When a sacrifice was killed on the altar, its blood flowed down to and under the bottom of the altar. The soul of the flesh is in the blood (Lev. 17:11). That the soul of the martyred saints are under the altar indicates that, in the eyes of God, they have all been offered to God as sacrifices on the altar and that their blood, their life, was shed there. Now their position is under the altar. In figure, the altar is in the outer court of the tabernacle and the temple, and the outer court signifies the earth. Hence, “underneath the altar” is underneath the earth, where the souls of the martyred saints are. It is the paradise where the Lord Jesus went after His death (Luke 23:43). It is in the heart of the earth (Matt. 12:40), and should be the comfortable section of Hades, where Abraham is (Acts 2:27; Luke 16:22-26).
Today, the martyred saints are in paradise underneath the altar, that is, underneath the earth. It is altogether erroneous to say that these saints are in heaven. The original Scofield Reference Bible has a note on Luke 16:23 that indicates that paradise was under the earth before Christ’s resurrection, but that by and with Christ’s resurrection it was transferred from under the earth to the third heaven. However, on the day of Pentecost, fifty days after the Lord’s resurrection, Peter said, “David did not ascend into the heavens” (Acts 2:34). Even at the time of the day of Pentecost, David was still not in heaven. In his book, Firstfruits and Harvest, on page 54, G. H. Lang, a late teacher among the Brethren, says that “the Scripture nowhere declares” that after Christ’s ascension paradise was transferred from under the earth to the third heaven, “but is wholly against it.” He also pointed out the verse in Acts 2 where Peter said that David was not in heaven. I mention this that we might realize that all the martyred saints are still in paradise underneath the altar.
Many Christians do not know that paradise is in Hades. The strongest proof that paradise is in Hades is the Lord’s word to the saved thief in Luke 23:43, “Truly I tell you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.” Acts 2:27, 31 reveal that after the Lord Jesus died He went to Hades. Matt. 12:40 indicates that Hades is in “the heart of the earth” where the Lord Jesus went for three days and nights after His death. In Hades there is a pleasant section likened to Abraham’s bosom where Lazarus went (Luke 16:23). This is not the paradise in the heavens, but the paradise in Hades. Using 2 Cor. 12:2-4, some have argued that when Paul was “caught away into paradise” he was “caught away to the third heaven.” But 2 Corinthians 12:2-4 does not prove that paradise is in the third heaven; rather, it proves the opposite. The word and at the beginning of verse 3 proves that Paul’s being “caught away to the third heaven” and his being “caught away into paradise” mentioned in verses 3 and 4 are two different things. The Greek word rendered caught up in verses 2 and 4 (KJV) may be translated caught away. On the one hand, Paul was living on earth, but on the other hand, he was “caught away” to the heavens and into “the paradise.” In this way, Paul received a full vision of the entire universe. As far as mankind is concerned, the universe is of three sections: the heavens, the earth, and under the earth (cf. Phil. 2:10). Paul came to know the things on earth, the things in heaven, and the things in paradise. He had the greatest revelation of the universe as it relates to man.
When the saved saints die, they all become naked, no longer having a body. For a human being not to have a body means that he is naked, not in a normal condition. No one can be in the presence of God in the third heavens in this naked, abnormal condition. Hence, the dead saints must be kept in a pleasant place until the time of their resurrection, when God will clothe them with a resurrected body and they will be a complete person in a normal condition.
Some may wonder about Phil. 1:23, where Paul said that he had a desire “to depart and be with Christ.” Paul seemed to be saying, “If I die, I will be with Christ.” To be with Christ is not an absolute matter; it is a relative one. Even now, we are with Christ. Wherever we are, we are with Him. Of course, while we are in this physical body, we are not as close to Christ as we are when we die, pass out of this world, and enter into another realm. But this does not mean when the believers die they are taken to the heavens. That will not occur until the day of resurrection and rapture.
Others may use 1 Thes. 4 to argue that the dead saints are with Christ in heaven. They say that when Christ comes back, He will bring the dead believers with Him, and that this proves that they must be with Him now in heaven. But read this chapter carefully. It says that “the dead in Christ shall rise first” and that those who “are living, who remain, shall be caught up at the same time together with them in clouds” (1 Thes. 4:16-17). According to 1 Thessalonians 4, the dead saints will be resurrected and, along with the living ones, will be caught up to the air to meet with Christ. We should read the Bible carefully and not follow today’s traditional, superficial teachings. We must be clear that the saved saints are not in the heavens, but in a pleasant place which the Bible calls paradise, the place the Lord Jesus visited after He died.
After waiting for a long time, near to the end of this age, the martyred saints cry out for revenge, urging the Lord to judge and avenge their blood “on those who dwell on the earth.”
Verse 11 says, “And to each of them was given a white robe; and it was said to them that they should rest yet a little while, until the number of their fellow slaves and their brothers who are about to be killed even as they were should be completed also.” The white robe here signifies that their martyrdom has been approved by God. Those “who are about to be killed” refers to those who will be martyred during the great tribulation (Rev. 20:4).
According to the word, “yet a little while until the number...should be completed,” this cry of the martyred saints should transpire near the end of this age. We are still in the first four seals. The fifth seal has not yet come. However, I believe that we are close to the time of the fifth seal.
The sixth seal (Rev. 6:12-17), which marks the beginning of supernatural calamities, is God’s answer to the cry of the martyred saints in the fifth seal. After the opening of the sixth seal, the Lord comes in to shake the earth and the hosts of the heavens. The earth will quake greatly, the sun will become black as sackcloth made of hair, the moon will become as blood, the stars of heaven will fall to the earth as a fig tree casting its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind, the heaven will recoil as a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island will move out of its place (6:12-14). This great shaking will be a warning to the dwellers on the earth. It will warn them to repent and return to God. God may seem to be saying to them, “You earth dwellers are only for yourselves. You don’t care for Me. Now is My time to shake the earth as a warning to you.” While some people have blasphemously said that they are God, the Lord will shake the earth and the heaven as a reminder to them that He is God. What a terrible shaking this will be! The earth, the sun, the moon, and the stars will all be affected.
In verses 15 through 17 we see the reaction of the earth’s dwellers. They will hide themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains and they will beg the mountains and rocks to hide them from the face of God and from the wrath of the Lamb. Verse 15 reveals the feeling of their conscience, for they fear the coming of the judgment of God, considering that the great day of the wrath of God and of the Lamb has come. However, the sixth seal is not the proclamation of God concerning the coming of His judgment. Rather, it is a warning to the dwellers of the earth. The kings and all the great, rich, and noble men of the earth will be shocked by this earthquake and will think that the day of the wrath of God and of the Lamb has come. Actually, this will not yet be that day, it will be just a foretaste and a warning to them to repent. In this warning God seems to be saying, “Return to Me. Do not say that you are God. You are the poor dwellers on the earth created by Me. I created the sun, the moon, and the stars for your living. But you forget Me and oppose and blaspheme Me. Now is the time for you to be warned in order that you might repent.”
The significance of this calamity is that it is a warning to the earth’s dwellers. It is not yet the actual wrath of the Lord. It is God’s answer to the cry of the martyred saints in the fifth seal and it reveals that God is soon to come in to avenge them and to vindicate Himself. God is coming to avenge the blood of His dear saints.
The sixth seal, being an introduction to the great tribulation, is a warning before the day of the Lord. According to Joel 2:30-31, there will not be much difference in time between the sixth seal and the first five trumpets (Rev. 8:6-11). Joel 2:30-31 firstly has the blood of the first and second trumpets, the fire of the first, second, and third trumpets (Rev. 8:7-10), and the smoke of the fifth trumpet (Rev. 9:1-3), and then the sun and the moon of the sixth seal. Chapter Rev. 9:4 compared with Rev. 7:3 indicates that the fifth trumpet is very close to the sixth seal.
There will be two calamities in the shakings and changes of the earth and of the hosts in heaven. The first will occur before the day of the Lord, before the great tribulation (Joel 3:11-16; 2:30-31; Luke 21:11). And the second will occur after the day of the Lord, after the great tribulation (Matt. 24:29-30; Luke 21:25-26). What is covered in the sixth seal is the first calamity. It may be considered not only as a warning but also as an introduction to the coming great tribulation. Following the sixth seal, at the opening of the seventh seal, are the first four trumpets as indicators that the great tribulation is coming (Rev. 8:1-2, 6-13). Then the great tribulation will be carried out in the last three trumpets (Rev. 9:1-21; 11:14-19).
