Are The Seals Of Rev. 6 Broken?
I blog on (another site) and one of the most debated topics of late has been whether the first 5 seals of Revelation are open or not. Deep down in my spirit I feel that this is wrong. How do I go to people who think this way backing it up scripturally that the seals are not open?
Q. Thanks for your website as always you seem to be able to answer all the tough questions through the help of the Holy Spirit, and now I have another one for you, and you may have already answered, but here it goes.
I blog on (another site) and at times we have heated debates. One of the most debated topics especially of late has been whether or not the first 5 seals of Revelation are open. One argument is that “there is NO mention in Revelation (or elsewhere) that the Seals are Judgments – I think that this is just tradition – and again has no foundation in Scripture. Remember, the seals are being broken one by one by the Lord Jesus, as he opens the Scroll.”
Deep down in my spirit I feel that this is wrong. How do I go to people who think, and feel this way backing it up scripturally that the seals are not open?
A. As far as I can tell the idea that the seals are broken came from a recent book where the author presents a unique view of the seals that I don’t think is consistent with a literal interpretation of Scripture. The use of personal pronouns in the first four seals indicates that they’re brought about by people and are not general conditions. I don’t see any of those people on the world scene yet. And a straight forward reading will lead us to believe that they’re sequential events, not overall conditions.
I also see the Church in Heaven in Rev. 5 and that hasn’t happened yet either. In my opinion, viewing the seals as already opened requires abandoning a literal interpretation of the text and the sequential nature of the Book with the Church age represented in chapters 2-3 the Rapture in 4-5 and the 70th week of Daniel beginning in 6.
As far as the seals not being called judgments, I don’t think the Trumpets and Bowls are specifically called judgments in the text of Revelation either, but no one is suggesting that they aren’t.
