This is a condensed summary of a very detailed study of the letters, trumpets, bowls and seals of The Book of Revelation which goes verse by verse through the relevant sections of the Book. The Interpretations in the study and the summary below are based on the replacement of the numbers and Biblical symbols in the Biblical text with their interpreted meanings.
The seven seals appear to summarise the Church age from the viewpoint of a series of enfolding events. The opening of the seals reveals the state of God's people at their various stages, what is in store for them (declared by The Trumpets) and what the outcome will be (the Bowls) during that period in time. The opening of each seal details the successive external forces that would be at work, both collectively on the church as a whole, and individually, in the life of the followers of Jesus. They are called seals, because the events spoken of were sealed or hidden away, having been determined by the foreknowledge of God, but their contents hidden and unknown until they came to pass, or are revealed in prophecy, as is the case here.
The Trumpets are the declarations of the key events of that era relating to the followers of Jesus, both collectively and individually. They delineate the conditions which would characterize the successive stages in their progress.
The bowls represent what is "poured out" on the people of that era, and are therefore the consequences or outcome of the events taking place at that time.
This fourth period of church history was the darkest time for religious decline. During this period the perversion of Christ's teaching and its worldly power were at their height, with the knoeledge of spiritual truth at its lowest in the church.It had mutated by taking pagan worship and doctrines and introducing them into the Christian religion. Boasting that it was the representative of Christ on earth, the false church made war with the true followers of Jesus who would not bow to its idolatry, murdering them as heretics.
A woman and self-proclaimed prophetess is now introduced, called Jezebel, who seduces the church leaders to commit spiritual fornication, disregarding of the principles of the christian faith. A woman symbolises a mother, the carer of a family. But this one is a rebellious prostitute who comes in the guise of one speaking on God's behalf (The Pope?), but instead is a harlot who leads God's people away from their foundation faith with a substitute that is but an immitation of the real thing.
A woman adds three measures of leaven to her flour and pollutes it.
This is the shortest but most controversial of all the parables Jesus told. When he said to his disciples that the Kingdom of Heaven was like leaven in bread, that would not have sounded right at all, because they knew what leaven represents in scripture: corruption. Leaven is symbolic of things that disintegrate, break up, and corrupt. How can the Kingdom be likened to leaven?
We know from the previous parables in this chapter that the seed is the word of God, therefore it is logical for the loaf being baked here to be a reference to the process of taking the various recorded "words of God" and putting them together into one, easily read and digested product. This could only be a reference the time when The New Testament was compiled (The Old Testmant had already been compiled years before and does not contain the message of the Kingdom of Heaven as taught by Jesus). So is Jesus saying The New Testament has been corrupted by some of its ingredients? Are part of its ingredients false doctrine? There is no other logical explanation.
We know that the canon of The Bible was set during the early 4th century, the period of church history covered by the fourth of the "Seven" eras; the fourth parable fits the timeframe perfectly. We also have a carer of God's people who was responsible for the selection of its ingredients. His name Marcion, who inserted Paul's epistles into his draft Canon. Though numerous bishops and theologians expressed concern at the inclusion of Paul's epistles because they were not inspired by God, they were not removed when Marcion was later excommunicated for his heretical theology.
The development of the Biblical Canon took centuries and was finally settled in the 4th century, specifically at the Council of Carthage in 397 and 419. At that time, Marcion's draft canon was accepted without change. As already stated, some members of the council questioned why Paul's writings had been included, but it was agreed to leave them in as parts were seen to have merit, though they were not recognised and are still today not recognised by the Roman Catholic Church as being totally divinely inspired.
For the next thousand years after their initial inclusion, Paul's Epistles remained in the Bible, largely unread, until the Reformation and the emergance of The Protestant movement. Martin Luther criticsed the Roman Catholic Church for offering absolution from sins through the payment of indulgences, and used Paul's gospel of salvation through grace to show that the church was not following The Bible. Paul's writings became the cornerstone of the Protestant Church's doctrine and have remained so ever since.
A rider on pale horse bring famine, disease, war.
Interpretation: The fourth seal reveals the fourth and last of the riders on horses. This horse is a sickly yellow green (the Greek word for pale here is chloros, from which the word chlorine comes from) as though it is barely alive. Death and Hades, the abode of the dead, are personified here, as in Rev 20:13.
A third of the day and night was without light.
Interpretation: God's people (third), both as individuals and as the church collectively, are in spiritual darkness. In prophecy, the sun's light represents God's truth, Heavenly wisdom, direction and counsel; the moon signifies the law and statutes, being a reflection of the light (truth) of the sun (God); the stars are representative of the religious leaders, being lesser lights in the process of spirtual guidance. All three have have been extinguished. It is now against the Law for God's people to read The Bible, and what the their spiritual leaders are teaching is not Biblical truth but religious dogma based on the Mithraian religion with a sprinkling of Bible theology throw in for good measure. The people under the church's care have no spiritual guidance or light in their lives. These are truly the dark ages.
Summary: This is similar to the plague of darkness put on the Egyptians (Exo 10:21). The constant allusion to the Egyptian plagues is a way of saying that God will always bring punishment upon the hostile powers which oppress his people. In the book of Exodus, thse plagues are the prelude to the greater Exodus in which God's people are released from spiritual captivity and are free to serve God in spirit and in truth.
The sun scorches people with fire. They curse the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify him.
Interpretation: The sun symbolises God, so these curses are from God. Note that these curses do not scorch "the third" of the people (God's elect, the followers of Jesus), nor "the people" as in all the people, but just "people". Looking at the Fourth 'age' as a whole, the people refered to here could only be the heirarchy of the Holy Roman Church, those who weild their might and athority over the people, and have given themselves absolute power - both physical and spiritual - over all people throughout the empire. They rule with a rod of iron, destroying those who refuse to comply.
Summary: This outcome - people are seared by the intense heat of the sun - is in contrast to "the third" who will not be scorched by the sun, Rev 7:16. Compare with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego who were not scorched by the blazing furnace. These people did at least recognise God as the ultimate cause of these plagues but not the immediate cause in their own sin. The indictment of the people is that they refused to repent. They cursed the name of God as they had taken on the character of the Beast (the exaltation of man, elevating of the creation to be above the creator).
313 - 1300 AD. The Fourth Era of the Church age appears to be that of the Holy Roman Church's rise to the time it was at its most powerful. In this era, the Christian world was gradually overcome by a spiritual darkness; no wonder this period in world history is known as the Dark Ages.
The length of the reign of the First Beast as prophecied by the Book was a "one thousand two hundred and threescore days" in 'prophetic time', which in real time is - 1,260 actual years. From 313 AD, the Church grew in strength, power and influence, so much so that in 533 AD, the supremacy of the Roman Church in ecclesiastical affairs was acknowledged by Justinian. 538 AD was the year in which the last of the Barbarian tribes were removed from Rome, allowing the Bishop of Rome to exercise his full power over the Roman Empire from 533 AD. Pope John II became the 56th pope of Rome, and the first to adopt a regnal name (that of a reigning monarch) upon elevation to the papacy. From that time, the christian church came under the authority of Rome, an era described in the Book as when "the Temple was trampled underfoot by the Gentiles".The authority of Rome over its 10 European kingdoms ceased in 1798, exactly 1,260 years after its establishment, just as it had been prophesied in the Book of Revelation.
The ninth plague of Egypt was complete darkness that lasted for three days. But in 536 AD, much of the world went dark for a full 18 months, as a mysterious fog rolled over Europe, the Middle East and parts of Asia. The fog blocked the sun during the day, causing temperatures to drop, crops to fail and people to die. It was, you might say, the literal Dark Age.
Three years earlier, christianity had came under the authority of Rome, and the christian world entered its bleakest period. As if repulsed by the spiritual darkness that was now decending, nature responded with a burst of physical hellfire of her own, the likes of which had never been seen before and might never be seen again. What John saw and wrote down in the Book of Revelation might well have been a snapshot of the world in 536: "And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him."
Chapter 10: The Fifth Era of the Church Age
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