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BEGIN NOVEMBER 10, 2003 SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE

SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 145C

November 10, 2003

The Seals, the Trumpets, and the Vials of Revelation

Part 3 – The Third Seal

The first four seals of Revelation open before the period known as the tribulation period. They occur during the period of time Jesus called “the beginning of sorrows.”

Matthew 24:7-8
For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. [8] All these are the beginning of sorrows.

The first seal has already opened and then closed. The second, third, and fourth seals are already open, and will all remain open until the end of the tribulation period, and all three will rapidly intensify when it begins.

Their primary area of fulfillment is the maximum extent of land occupied by the Southern Roman Empire from what is now Morocco to Iranian the first and second century, and by the Umayyad Caliphate which followed it. The “whole earth,” “all the world,” and similar expressions in the prophetic writings of both the Old and New Testament periods, in many instances, are hyperbolic, and do not refer to the world as we know it today, but to the world as the people, to whom they wrote, knew it from 600 B.C. to 135 A.D. The most severe judgments of the second, third, and fourth horse riders, along with the mark of the beast, will occur in this area.

I have known for a long time that if I lived to my allotted threescore and ten years, I would see the third seal open in the area known to those that lived in the era of Roman domination. The African continent was known to exist at the time of John’s writings, and that is where I knew it had to start. Good ole Mr. Wills, my ninth grade teacher in Junior High School, is the one who introduced me to this in 1947. It was such a simple thing, but such a certain thing, that I had no fear of being wrong about it when I wrote my first book in the seventies. It was based on food supply and population increase.

Revelation 6:5-6
And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. [6] And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

The population explosion, particularly in Africa, which has suddenly burst on the scene, should be no surprise to the human race. The world’s population has roughly, in a somewhat similar pattern, followed a formula of daily penny doubling. Suppose someone proposed to give you five billion dollars if you would double a penny he gave you for forty days, and then give him all the proceeds of the doubling process on the fortieth day – Would you take the deal? A single penny on the first day would produce two cents on the second day, four cents on the third day, eight cents on the fourth day, sixteen cents on the fifth day, thirty-two cents on the sixth day, sixty-four cents on the seventh day, and only a dollar and twenty-eight cents on the eighth day. So, based on what you’ve read so far, it seems like a pretty good deal. But on day forty you would have to fork over more than five billion dollars. This principle has been the backbone of when the famine prophecy prediction would occur ever since eight people stepped off the Ark of Noah. This principle opened the famine seal, and will cause it to intensify until Armageddon.

The world’s famine outbreaks in its developing countries have been occurring closer and closer together in time since World War II, and the trend will accelerate until the Second Advent. Why? A few thousand years ago eight men and women descended in an ark “upon the mountains of Ararat,” and then began to multiply. At first, like the penny, the increase was insignificant from a numerical standpoint. When Jesus was born the world population had only reached about 200 million. When Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492 it had barely reached 400 million. But, like the multiplying principle of the penny, it began to accelerate noticeably about the time of the Civil War, and exploded after the Great Depression of the thirties. In 1989 the world population reached five billion and, the same year, eleven million of the earth’s residents died of starvation. The population of our planet passed six billion in October of 1999, and is predicted to reach ten billion in 2030. Some say it will only reach between eight and nine billion by 2030. But even if that is true, how can the additional three plus billion be fed, if eleven million died of starvation in 1989 with a population of only five million.

Some say, “don’t worry, agricultural technology is on the way to solving the famine problem.” No way! The latest U.N. study found ten percent of the world’s soil profile badly damaged. The three-year study accessed the soil conditions on a global scale, and involved more than 250 soil scientists. It marked the first time since World War II that soil profiles had been accessed on a global scale. As reported by Larry B. Stammer in the Los Angeles Times, the study found that “about two-thirds of all seriously eroded land is in Asia and Africa, home to most of the world’s poor. The article, using the report as its basis, proclaimed: “Despite the much acclaimed great green revolution of the past several decades, which have produced unprecedented gains in food production by the introduction of fertilizers and hybrid grains, per-capita food production has declined in some eighty developing countries in the past decade” The 1993 report, “Vital Signs, The Trends That Are Shaping Our Future,” as reported in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette of July 18, 1993, stated: “This new report shows the first clear sign that population is outpacing the available food supply for humans. The trend is mostly because of record world population growth, but also reflects a slowdown after decades of increasing food supplies. The main sources of food – farms, ranches, and oceans – all are approaching, or may have reached, their maximum per-capita output, according to the Vital Signs Report.”

The simple truth is this, in 1993, for the first time since records began to be kept, world food utilization exceeded world food production. Utilization continued to exceed food production until 1996, and a massive endeavor was made by technology to catch up with utilization. The endeavor allowed food production to pass utilization in 1996, and it continued to exceed utilization until 1999, but the population passed six billion in October of 1999, and the production again fell below utilization, where it has remained to the present. In April of 2003, a report published by the International Committee of the Fourth International, stated that 200 million people in Africa are malnourished. The world food production has not been able to keep up with the stork in the twenty-first century, and the disparity can only increase with an increasing population growth.

The third horse rider will gallop faster and faster as he heads for Armageddon. I contend that the famine now occurring in Africa, which was a part of the prophetic world when the prophecies were written, is the beginning of the fulfillment of those prophecies, and that famine will spread out of this area into all sections of the world that were known at the time the book of Revelation was written by John. There will be a serious food shortage in the United States, but it will in no way be comparable to the famines that ravage what is referred to as the “Old World,” or the pre-Columbus world. I believe the vast majority of “Old World” residents, both religious and nonreligious, will take the mark of the beast to get food without hesitation, but I do not believe the mark of the beast will be put on the residents of the United States. I believe that Revelation 13:16,17 applies only to that part of today’s world that was known when John wrote Revelation.

Revelation 13:16-17
And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: [17] And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

Followers of Islam pay no attention whatsoever about even the existence of this NT prophecy. The Catholic priests have not taught their masses in Europe about this, and only a handful of Catholics understand anything about it. The same is true among all the different sects of religion that are spread across the “Old World.” They will take the mark without hesitation to obtain food.

BEGIN NOVEMBER 10, 2003 SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE
SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 145C

The Seals, the Trumpets, and the Vials of Revelation
Part 2A – A Supplement to the Second Seal Number 2A

The first four seals of Revelation open before the period known as the tribulation period. They occur during the period of time Jesus called “the beginning of sorrows.”

Matthew 24:7-8
For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. [8] All these are the beginning of sorrows.

The first seal has already opened and then closed. The second, third, and fourth seals are already open, and will all remain open until the end of the tribulation period, and all three will rapidly intensify when it begins.

Their primary area of fulfillment is the maximum extent of land occupied by the Southern Roman Empire from what is now Morocco to Iranian the first and second century, and by the Umayyad Caliphate which followed it. The “whole earth,” “all the world,” and similar expressions in the prophetic writings of both the Old and New Testament periods, in many instances, are hyperbolic, and do not refer to the world as we know it today, but to the world as the people, to whom they wrote, knew it from 600 B.C. to 135 A.D. The most severe judgments of the second, third, and fourth horse riders, along with the mark of the beast, will occur in this area.

Revelation 6:1-2
And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see. [2] And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.

The first great world war to engulf all the known world that existed when John wrote the book of Revelation in about 96 A.D. during the great Roman Empire, which was the fourth beast of Chapter Seven in Daniel, out of which a final revived empire of antichrist was to arise in the latter days, was what we called World War I. Out of World War I came the Balfour Declaration, which did finally lead to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. The Balfour Declaration was a British statement of policy issued in 1917 by Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour. It stated British support for a Jewish national home in Palestine without prejudice to the rights of the non-Jewish population. The white horse rider represents the state of mankind that existed between the two great world wars that occurred between two German tyrants. The color of the horse, like a white dove, symbolizes the state of peace that existed between 1918 and 1932 across the territories recognized as the Roman Empire during its maximum extent. I believe most of the prophecies in the book of Revelation will be fulfilled across the known world of John’s day, not in the western hemisphere.

A long series of conquests by Hitler’s shaking of the bow, without firing any arrows, allowed the relative peace to continue until 1939. He was able to occupy several of the lands to his west, southwest, south, and southeast by a series of bluffs, without firing a shout. They succumbed to his threats, and he occupied large sections of nations around Germany. Threats, rather than arrows, secured him much land. The Prime Minister of Great Britain, Arthur Neville Chamberlain, followed a policy appeasing Hitler, rather than confronting him. So, in 1938, he went to Germany and signed the Munich Pact, which allowed Hitler to occupy part of Czechoslovakia. It was a time of peace where those who “went forth conquering, and to conquer,” did so by bluff rather than by blood. He returned home with the cry “Peace in our times.” The first of the four horse riders has come and gone. He departed the scene when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939. That is when the red horse rider came on the scene.. The number of wars did increase after World War II then declined after the great Soviet Union collapse, but they have never stopped, and the red blood of Americans and the rest of the world is still flowing in the Middle East. The Tectonic Chaos of the Tribulation Period will not begin until the opening of Seal 6, and its full wrath fury will not come on the earth until Vial 1 is poured out on an unbelieving world, which ends with the greatest wrath of Vial 7.

Revelation 6:12
And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;

Their primary area of fulfillment is the maximum extent of land occupied by the Southern Roman Empire from what is now Morocco to Iranian the first and second century, and by the Umayyad Caliphate which followed it. The “whole earth,” “all the world,” and similar expressions in the prophetic writings of both the Old and New Testament periods, in many instances, are hyperbolic, and do not refer to the world as we know it today, but to the world as the people, to whom they wrote, knew it from 600 B.C. to 135 A.D. The most severe judgments of the second, third, and fourth horse riders, along with the mark of the beast, will occur in this area. War in this area has produced the blood shed of the Red Horse Rider continuously since the end of World War II from 1948 up the present time with three major conflicts twixt Islam and Jews, conflicts between the West and Islamic terrorists, and wars between the Islamic nations. Soon the Red Horse Rider will release his maximum amount of rivers of blood during his ride in the final great war of the Age of the Gentiles. The excerpt from the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs/Daily Alert gives a partial account of Arab vs. Arab vs. Persian Red Horse Rider bloodshed since World War II.

Begin Excerpt from Hurriyet via Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs/Daly Alert

April 25, 2011

Why Golda Meir Was Right

Burak Bekdil

Hurriyet – Turkey

It has been more than two and a half years since Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Israel’s President Shimon Peres, “You (Jews) know well how to kill.” In this holy month of Ramadan full of blood on Muslim territories, let’s try to identify who are the ones who know well how to kill.

As the Syrian death count clicks every day to come close to 2,000, the Turkish-Kurdish death count does not stop, already over 40,000 since 1984. Only during this Ramadan, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK’s, death toll has reached 50 in this Muslim Kurds vs. Muslim Turks war. This excludes the PKK casualties in Turkey and in northern Iraq due to Turkish military retaliation since they are seldom accurately reported.

But a simple, strictly Middle East research will reveal one million deaths in the all-Muslim Iran-Iraq war; 300,000 Muslim minorities killed by Saddam Hussein; 80,000 Iranians killed during the Islamic revolution; 25,000 deaths in 1970-71, the days of Black September, by the Jordanian government in its fight against the Palestinians; and 20,000 Islamists killed in 1982 by the elder al-Assad in Hama.

Muslim Arab deaths in the Arab-Israeli conflict are estimated at 46,000 including 11,000 during Israel’s war of independence. That makes 0.05 percent of all deaths in all conflicts, or 0.4 percent of all Arab deaths in the Middle East conflicts.

Golda Meir, the fourth prime minister of Israel, had a perfectly realistic point when she said that peace in the Middle East would only be possible “when Arabs love their children more than they hate us.” (Hurriyet – Turkey)

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AN EXPOSITION OF THE SEVEN SEALS OF REVELATION – PART 2

BEGIN NOVEMBER 9, 2003 SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE

SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 145B

November 9, 2003

The Seals, The Trumpets, and the Vials of Revelation

Part 2 – The Second Seal

The first four seals of Revelation open before the period known as the tribulation period. They occur during the period of time Jesus called “the beginning of sorrows.”

Matthew 24:7-8
For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. [8] All these are the beginning of sorrows.

The first seal has already opened and closed. The second, third, and fourth seals are already open, and will remain open until the end of the tribulation period. All three of them will intensify rapidly in the tribulation period.

In Part 1, we placed the first seal before the tribulation period in the time period from 1918 to 1939, from the end of World War I to the beginning of World War II. The second seal was opened by the appearance of the red horse rider when Hitler attacked Poland in 1939 to start World War II. The Second Advent will close it.

Revelation 6:3-4
And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. [4] And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.

The bloody 1939 German invasion of Poland marked the arrival of the red horse of war. As its rider spread out a carpet of blood by war across what was once the old Roman Empire, across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Eurasia, it began to fulfill verse four’s prophecy. We have had no lasting peace on the earth since 1939, with blood continuing to be shed off and one during the cold war across the northern half of the ancient Roman Empire, and intermittent bloody wars have continued to occur across the great African and Middle East sections of what made up the vast southern half of the Empire in John’s day. The landmass of Roman conquest in Africa and the Middle East was greater in size than the land it took over in Europe. The antichrist will arise out of this section of a revived Roman Empire, not out of Europe. The ten toes of Daniel’s great statue, the 10 horns of his fourth beast, the ten horns found on each of John’s two beasts, and the ten horns on his Dragon, are all the same ten kings, but they are not European horns, they are the horns of ten Islamic nations, and the horn that leads them comes out from the section of the Roman Empire that once covered the ancient Assyrian Empire. The Antichrist is likely to arise out of that section of the Assyrian Empire which came to be known as “Greater Syria.”

The rider on the red horse is still on the move in guerilla warfare across northern Africa, and the entire Middle East. The suicide bombings, the hit and run tactics, and all the terrorist activities in the Middle East will continue to increase until a false peace comes in to lull Israel into a false sense of security. The false peace will not last for three and one half years. I believe it will last for less than three months, and be broken by a surprise Jihad of lightning quickness out of Syria and Lebanon. The total number of wars in any given year peaked in 1987, but the character of it changed from army against army to terror again everyone. However, the coming Jihad will break a brief false truce suddenly, and massive blood shed will occur across southern sections of the old Roman Empire, which was replaced by the vast Umayyad Islamic Caliphate. The initial red horse blood bath will occur from Syria to Egypt, but by the end of the tribulation period, which ends with the battle of Armageddon, it will have engulfed all of what was once the Umayyad Caliphate. It will be the revived Islamic Beast Caliphate Head Number 8, approximately the size of Caliphate Head Number 7, out of which it will have risen from the dead. The Lamb will destroy the Islamic Beast Caliphate Head Number 8 at His Armageddon Second Advent, which ends the 3 and ½ year of entrapment of Israel in the Negev Wilderness, and the beginning of the Lamb’s Millennial Reign.

Daniel 11:41-43
He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. [42] He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape. [43] But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.

Zechariah 13:8
And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein.

Daniel 7:23-27
Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces. [24] And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. [25] And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time. [26] But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. [27] And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.

THE SONG OF SOLOMON INTERPRETED IS AN ALLEGORY OF THE CHURCH AS JESUS’ BRIDE

MARCH 10, 2008

Jewish interpreters took this book to be a deep revelation of God’s love for Israel as his Wife.

Most Christian interpreters believe it to be a deep revelation of Christ’s love for the Church as his Bride.

The Redeemed – All those saved by God’s Grace

Church = The faithful in one of Christ’s Churches

Song of Solomon 2:1
I (church) am the rose of Sharon, and the lily (church) of the valleys.

Song of Solomon 6:3
I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine: he feedeth among the lilies.

Ephesians 2:22
In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

Isaiah 35:1-10
The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. [2] It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God. [3] Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. [4] Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you. [5] Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. [6] Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. [7] And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes. [8] And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. [9] No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there: [10] And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Song of Solomon 2:2
As the (faithful church) lily among (unfaithful churches) thorns, so is my love (faithful church) among the daughters (unfaithful churches).

Hebrews 5:12 to 6:12
For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. [13] For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. [14] But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. [1] Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, [2] Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. [3] And this will we do, if God permit. [4] For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, [5] And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, [6] If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. [7] For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: [8] But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned. [9] But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak. [10] For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister. [11] And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: [12] That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

I Corinthians 9:24-27
Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. [25] And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. [26] I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: [27] But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

The saved will not be rejected from heaven, but many will be castaways from bridal relationship with Christ, many will be rejected from the city of the New Jerusalem, many will have their works burned as thorns by the fire of judgment.

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU BUILD ON THE FOUNDATION OF YOUR SALVATION.

1 Corinthians 3:11-17
For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. [12] Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; [13] Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. [14] If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. [15] If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by (through) fire. [16] Know ye not that ye (plural) are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in (among) you? [17] If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are (plural).

Song of Solomon 2:3a
As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my (church) beloved (Christ) among the sons.

Romans 8:29
For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Hebrews 2:6-13
But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him? [7] Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands: [8] Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. [9] But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. [10] For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. [11] For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, [12] Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. [13] And again, I will put my trust in him And again Behold I and the children which God hath given me.

Song of Solomon 2:3b
I (church) sat down under his (Christ) shadow with great delight, and his (Christ) fruit was sweet to (church) my taste.

Luke 10:38-42
Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. [39] And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word. [40] But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. [41] And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: [42] But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.

AN EXPOSITION OF THE SEVEN SEALS OF REVELATION – NUMBER 1
August 15, 2011

BEGIN 2003 NOVEMBER 8, 2003 SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE
SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 145A

November 8, 2003
The Seals, the Trumpets, and the Vials of Revelation
Part 1 – Beginning with comments about all the Seals followed by Seal 1

In October 2003, I presented the seventh trumpet pre-wrath position at the Missionary Baptist Seminary in Midwest City, Oklahoma, over a period that lasted from 8 A.M. to 10:30 P.M., with a break for lunch and dinner, and several short breaks for water and circulation relief. I am very grateful to one of the fine pastors there for a question he asked concerning the seven seals. He asked me where I placed them. I had not discussed them, and he wanted to be able to envision where I put them. I am grateful he asked me, because it suddenly made me very aware of something I knew, but had not really thought about for years. I covered the seals in my second book, “The Tribulation Triad,” when I wrote it in the late seventies, but during the 25 years I have lectured in more than 700 churches, seminaries, colleges, and universities I have never, to the best of my recollection, discussed the six seals as to “where” they fit in the tribulation period. I have discussed what they represent at great length, but simply did not position them as to where they belong in the tribulation period. There is a very good reason as to why I never placed them specifically in the tribulation period – I do not believe the first five occur during the tribulation period, and that the first four describe the events Jesus referred to as “the beginning of sorrows” in Matthew 24:7,8, Mark 13:8, and Luke 21:10,11.

Matthew 24:7-8
For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. [8] All these are the beginning of sorrows.

Mark 13:8
For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.

Luke 21:10-11
Then said he unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: [11] And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

I certainly do not believe we are now in the tribulation period, because I have long taught the first seal opened following the end of World War I on this planet, and that the others began to open in chronological when World War II began. I should have presented this series at the time we started on this web site several years ago, but better late than never. It is diagrammatically pictured on page 154 of my book, “The Tribulation Period – 777.” Even though I did not believe the first part of the tribulation period would last three and one-half years because I believed the three “he’s” in Daniel 9:27 are Messiah the Prince, and not the antichrist, knowing the vast majority of the prophetic teachers of today believe it is the antichrist, I showed the first three and one-half years on my diagram, and jammed all of it as occurring during the fifth seal. I believe when seal six opens it starts the last three and one half years of the tribulation. I do believe there will be a brief period of false peace just before the opening of the sixth seal, during the time of the fifth seal, but it will be of much, much shorter duration that most believe today. I have always taught that the sixth seal is a preview of all the horrifying events that will occur from the seventh seal through the seven trumpets and seven vials. At the time I wrote “The Tribulation Triad” I placed the time of Satan’s casting out of heaven (Revelation 12:7-12) in what most identify as the first three and one half years of a seven-year tribulation period. I have since changed my mind. Do I still change my mind about prophecy? I do not change my mind about the doctrines of salvation, the ordinances of the church, or that Jesus is coming, but I do indeed continue to change my mind about the many things in prophecy. If you are not prepared to do that, you will never learn anything. The only one who could lecture about prophecy, and never have to correct what he taught, is the Great Three-In-One. I feel sorry for all those who think they got it right the first time, and still teach exactly the same things they taught when they first taught prophecy fifty years ago. I have changed what I once believed about some things, and hopefully, if I don’t grow to think I am God, and understand it as well as He does, I will continue to change. God got it right the first time, the rest of us will have to keep changing our minds if we want to be more accurate in our interpretation of what God already knows.

I will begin this series with the first seal and, if the Lord is willing, will go through the seals, and then identify how I believe the seals, trumpets, and vials are laced into a pattern from the seventh seal through the last vial.

Again, I am grateful I was asked where the seals fit in the tribulation period, because it made me realize that what I have long believed about it had become such so engrained in me that I proceeded like the hearer already knew where I placed them, which was a real goof on my part. I knew that the vast majority of writers place the seals in what is known as the tribulation period. Knowing this, I should have explained the seal positioning at some point before he asked the question, and it suddenly made me realize that I should have put this on our web pages when we first began. So I will be putting it out on updates for some time, giving the seals in chronological order.

The riders on the first four seals do not picture specific individuals – they do not represent men, but rather all of mankind. They represent four phases through which mankind will pass preceding the tribulation period. I do not believe the tribulation period has seven full years, because Jesus fulfilled more than three years of it after his baptism. The horse colors portray the characteristics of four phases in chronological order: white for peaceful conquests, red for the blood shed in wars, black for the dark eyes associated with famine, and pale for the color of death associated with pestilence or a corpse.

Seal 1

Revelation 6:1-2
And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see. [2] And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.

The first great world war to engulf all the known world that existed when John wrote the book of Revelation in about 96 A.D. during the great Roman Empire, which was the fourth beast of Chapter Seven in Daniel, out of which a final revived empire of antichrist was to arise in the latter days, was what we called World War I. Out of World War I came the Balfour Declaration, which did finally lead to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. The Balfour Declaration was a British statement of policy issued in 1917 by Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour. It stated British support for a Jewish national home in Palestine without prejudice to the rights of the non-Jewish population. The white horse rider represents the state of mankind that existed between the two great world wars that occurred between two German tyrants. The color of the horse, like a white dove, symbolizes the state of peace that existed between 1918 and 1932 across the territories recognized as the Roman Empire during its maximum extent. I believe most of the prophecies in the book of Revelation will be fulfilled across the known world of John’s day, not in the western hemisphere.

A long series of conquests by Hitler’s shaking of the bow, without firing any arrows, allowed the relative peace to continue until 1939. He was able to occupy several of the lands to his west, southwest, south, and southeast by a series of bluffs, without firing a shout. They succumbed to his threats, and he occupied large sections of nations around Germany. Threats, rather than arrows, secured him much land. The Prime Minister of Great Britain, Arthur Neville Chamberlain, followed a policy appeasing Hitler, rather than confronting him. So, in 1938, he went to Germany and signed the Munich Pact, which allowed Hitler to occupy part of Czechoslovakia. It was a time of peace where those who “went forth conquering, and to conquer,” did so by bluff rather than by blood. He returned home with the cry “Peace in our times.” The first of the four horse riders has come and gone. He departed the scene when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939. That is when the red horse rider came on the scene. I will cover his activities in Part 2. The number of wars did increase after World War II then declined after the great Soviet Union collapse, but they have never stopped, and the red blood of Americans and the rest of the world is still flowing in the Middle East. The Tectonic Chaos of the Tribulation Period will not begin until the opening of Seal 6, and its full wrath fury will not come on the earth until Vial 1 is poured out on an unbelieving world, which ends with the greatest wrath of Vial 7.

Revelation 6:12
And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;

Revelation 16:1-2
And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. [2] And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.