The Seven Seals

[Michael Sherwin]

The way the seven seals is commonly understood breaks the mechanics of the scroll analogy that is used. First of all if all seven seals were on the outside of the scroll as often pictured then the scroll cannot be read until all seven seals were opened. Therefore for the mechanics to work there is one seal on the outside of the scroll and the rest are internal. Assuming the scroll was written in correct chronological order and sealed internally as it was written then when the scroll was opened the first seal broken would reveal what happens last. The Bible does not say the first seal placed was the first seal opened. It says, "And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals", Rev 6:1. That language implies the numbering of the seals is not in the same order as placed. But, it does become the first seal opened so that the second seal opened becomes called the second seal. This all means that the first seal happens last and the seventh seal happens first. The Bible does not use analogies without a purpose. The only purpose I can see for using the scroll analogy is because of the mechanics of writing, sealing and opening a scroll.

We can also make the assumption that the scroll was not sealed as it was written and when the scroll was finished it was rolled in the opposite direction than it was written and sealed as it was rolled. In either case the first seal placed is on the innermost part of the scroll. In either case the first seal opened is the last seal placed.

Given that either case above is possible we need to look deeper. In Daniel 12:1 we are told that a "time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time and at that time thy people shall be delivered". The time called "that time" is a span of time. It is not an instant. First the time of trouble must come for it to be "that time". The deliverance is in relation to that time. It can be at the start, middle or at the end. We need to look deeper.

Matthew 24:29 gives the time of trouble as being first followed by the sixth seal. Then in Matthew 24:31 is the gathering. When people talk of the great tribulation they think of only one tribulation. But there are two periods of great tribulation. Seal five is the tribulation of the saints under the man of sin for their witness of Christ. They are killed. In the other great tribulation of the seventh seal the wicked are tormented but the sealed of God are not hurt. So which is first? If the saints are killed in seal 5 then they being protected in seal 7 makes zero sense if seal 7 is after seal 5. The time of great trouble talked about in Daniel 12:1 and Matthew 24:29 is a tribulation of natural disasters. That time is not the tribulation of the saints under the man of sin. Therefore The seventh seal is first and the fifth seal is later. And remember the sixth seal is after the time of great trouble (the seventh seal) in Matthew 24:29.

The gathering happens at the end of the seventh seal.

Revelation 10:6 And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer:

Revelation 10:7 But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.

1Corinthians 15:51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

1Corinthians 15:52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

In Revelation 12:6 there is time no longer because the terrible and dreadful day of the LORD is finally here. And the mystery of God is completed. That mystery includes the gathering and everything that entails. Only after that is the man of sin revealed in the fifth and 4th seals that are concurrent. However the situation is not good in the third seal so that the war of armageddon breaks out in the second seal and Christ riding a white horse returns in the first seal.