Article 14

UNDERSTANDING REVELATION – 14

The Cry of the Martyrs

Genesis 6:9 records God’s query to Cain as to his brother’s (Abel) whereabouts.  Cain endeavors to deflect the question with his answer.  God’s response is, “What have you done?  The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground” (6:10).  It is in this metaphorical sense that we are to understand the souls “under the altar who had been slain” as Christ breaks the fifth seal, Rev. 6:9-11.  The place where Abel’s blood was spilled became an “altar” where his blood now “cries out” for judgment and vindication.  As long as the rider on the white horse is “conquering” souls (people) for God’s kingdom, so the riders on the following-colored horses are, with intensity, opposing to destruction God’s faithful followers.  To reemphasize – what we see here in the seals is the steady tread of the progressive movement of the history of the Christian era! 

Please note the cry of the martyrs and the response, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”  Then a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed” (vs. 9-11).  We need to always remember that God never forgets His faithful children and holds their murderers accountable!  God considers the ground where His witnesses died as an “altar” where their sacrificial blood was poured out (compare Lev. 4:7).

There are numerous other passages in Scripture, particularly in the book of Daniel, that give us a fuller picture of this fifth seal.  Daniel 7 unfolds to us the best advance pictorial of world history from Daniel’s time to the end of this world.  This vision stretches from 4 successive world empires through the division of Rome, to the rise of the little horn and the persecution of the saints during the Middle Ages, until the time of the amazing judgment seen in the throne room of God.  At that time, the “Ancient of Days” will pronounce his verdict in favor of the saints of the Most High, and their time comes to “possess the kingdom” (7:21-22).  Daniel 8 asks the same question as that of the maligned saints of Rev. 6, saying, “How long will the vision be, …the giving of the host to be trampled underfoot” (v. 13)?  Verse 24 states that the “little horn” of v. 9 “shall be mighty, but not by his own power; He shall destroy fearfully and shall prosper and thrive; he shall destroy the mighty, and also the holy people.

Indeed, we find similar language in John’s vision of Revelation 13 where the beast that rises from the sea blasphemes God, His name, His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven; “It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them” (v. 6-7).  These prophecies, which we will study in detail in future articles, predict a persecution to the death of God’s faithful people down through the ages. 

What is heaven’s answer to their cries?  “A white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed” (6:11).  The white robes given to the martyrs expresses the fulfillment of Daniel’s prediction of a vindication of God’s ravaged saints when “a judgment was made in favor of the saints of the Most High, and the time came for the saints to possess the kingdom” (Daniel 7:21-22).  Revelation 19 rivets our attention to the same subject as the great multitude in heaven are ascribing glory, power, and honor to God “for true and righteous are His judgments …because He has avenged on her the blood of His servants shed by her” (19:1-2).

Thus, we conclude that the fifth seal reaches down to the time of the end of the Christian era when finally, the Rider on the white horse of Revelation 19 “treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God” (19:15).

The question is asked, “What was the cause for which all the true martyrs died?  The fifth seal itself give the reason, “for the word of God and for the testimony which they held” (6:9).  At first glance we might conclude that this “testimony” was simply their personal faith in Christ as their personal Savior, and of course, this would be true.  However, the wider context of the Revelation shows it to be more than that.  Notice that John was exiled on Patmos “for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ” (1:9).  John, in his gospel, penned for all following ages his “testimony” of Christ in His life, ministry, death, and resurrection so that we all might believe that Jesus is the Christ.  Furthermore, at its very inception this book of Revelation is “The Revelation of Jesus Christ …to His servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw” (1:1-2).  The entire book of Revelation is the “testimony of Jesus Christ”!  Christ Himself stated, “I, Jesus, have sent My Angel to testify to you these things in the churches” (22:16).  The true church of Jesus Christ down through the ages has proclaimed the “testimony of Jesus Christ” with many, yea millions, paying the ultimate price with their lives.  Revelation 12:17 presses the matter to the very end.  “And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring (“the remnant of her seed” KJV), who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”  They “have” it in the sense that they embrace it, they “hold to” this testimony.  They will not give it up even in the face of death.  Revelation 13 unveils how the dragon “makes war” with the remnant, that is, God’s people, in the very last days, urging the whole world to receive the Mark of the Beast (that is the beast which comes up from the sea (13:1).  Much more on this later.  The apocalypse calls the church to be faithful to this twofold standard of truth.  This repeated expression in the book of Revelation serves as the demarcation line between true and apostate worship of God during the entire Christian era.

The breaking of the sixth seal (please read Rev. 6:12-17), brings us to Christ’s final response to the cry of “the souls under the altar” in 6:10.  The natural upheavals described in the sixth seal are well attested in the Old Testament when Jehovah moves and acts on behalf of His people (Josh. 3:13; 4:22-24; 5:1; Judges 5:20-21;  1 Sam. 7:10: 14:15; Joshua 10:11-14).  In the context of the seals the entire world is involved in the judgments of God – the end has come for planet earth “and who shall be able to stand” (v. 17).  The whole of Revelation whether the historical section ( chs. 1-11) or the end-time section (chs. 12-22) is moving to the birthing of a “new heavens and a new earth” (21:1).

Earthquake, rain, hailstorm, and darkening of the sun and stars became a part of the announcements of God’s appearance in the predictions of the Day of Yahweh (see Ezek. 38:19-23; Joel 2:30-31; Isaiah 24:1-4, 13, 18-23; Jeremiah 4:23-28).  Please notice Haggai 2:6-7 and its application in the NT in Hebrews 12:26-29.  God’s purpose in judgments is to motivate and encourage us to move and act according to His will in repentance NOW – not when the earthquake shakes the whole world.  Daniel and Jesus also agree with the above.  Please read Daniel 12:1, then compare it to Matthew 24:21-22, 29-30.  It is a supernatural intervention in both cases.  In Matthew 24 Christ’s end-time prediction teaches us that the “Day of Yahweh” in the OT has become the day of the Lord Jesus Christ.  This was the shocking, overwhelming new for Judaism.  At the very end in Rev. 6:15-16 there is no shelter for the opposers of God and His people.  Their search is in vain.  Notice how Revelation progressively enlarges God’s judgments: compare 6:12-14; 8:5; 11:19; 16:18, 20-21.

The sixth seal is the consummation of the previous five seals.  The martyrs of the fifth seal had to “rest a little while longer …until the trials of “their brethren” would “be completed” under the sixth seal.

The seventh seal adds no further event, only “silence in heaven for about half an hour”.  This suggests that God’s judgments are at an end, fully executed.  The covenant blessings promised to the church in revelation 2-3 will be bestowed on those who persevere in the faith or testimony of Jesus until the end! This theme of fulfillment becomes a central comforting focus in John's vision of Revelation 7.  This will be the subject matter of the next article.

~Rex Frost