Is it just me or is the price of food through the roof? A couple friends now like to discuss eschatology. One wonders if any of the seals in the Revelation have already been broken. But I think not. Things need to get a bit worse first. But, in the meanwhile, we keep a close eye on the sky, if you know what I mean [Luke 21:28]. There are many interpretations of the Revelation usually influenced by current events because it is difficult to look into a future that might be drastically different from now.
I like to view the seals as seven scrolls which only Jesus, the Lamb of God, can break and unravel, i.e. fulfill the prophecies written on them [Revelation 5:5]. It seems reasonable to believe that the seventh scroll is the prophecy of the seven Trumpets [Revelation 8:2] and the last trumpet blown introduces the seven vials which brings everything to a quick end [Revelation 11:15].
Here are the 7 scrolls of a future global history yet to be revealed by the Lamb [Revelation 5:6]. Many believers see the Church caught up [1 Thessalonians 4:17] Perhaps, the Lamb initiates these events by taking His people out along with the Holy Spirit who has been holding such evil in check [2 Thessalonians 2:7]. Perhaps, the last trumpet sound of 1 Corinthians 15:52 is the Trumpet sound of 1 Thessalonians 4:16 and the seventh trumpet in Revelation 11:15.
- Rev. 6:1-2 First seal – A persecution, an unleashed evil that opposes the Christian message.
- Rev. 6:3-4 Second seal – A global conflict focused initially on Israel, the Pearl of the East.
- Rev. 6:5-6 Third seal – An economic collapse with famine, bankrupting nations including America.
- Rev. 6:7-8 Fourth seal – A man-made pandemic, either accidental or intentional, killing 1/4th mankind.
- Rev. 6:9-11 Fifth seal – A martyrdom, an escalated attack on Christians and not only their message.
- Rev. 6:12-17 Sixth seal – Extinction level natural disasters: volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, meteors.
- Rev. 8:1-2 Seventh seal – The Trumpets and the final harvest and Judgment [Revelation 14:6, 14] .
As we know, the focus is on Israel—or more specifically, the “land” of Israel or the Holy land which makes the persecution—in effect—a war on the Judeo-Christian faith. It is here at the finality of time Israel will finally embrace Jesus as their Messiah on a national level [Romans 11:26].
American will play no major role in the global drama the ensues, which we call “The Great Tribulation” because its government of, now 235 years—of a Constitutional Republic with its Bill of Rights will have collapsed inevitably through debt and mismanaged resources into a globalized form of a social democracy controlled by a global economic culture and a global government under a ten nation plutocracy [Revelation 17:12]. This finally happens within the seventh seal.
The conflict spoken of in the 2nd seal is, as all wars are ultimately, territorial, but through political alliances expanded globally. Wars cost and we expect the global economy to be conscripted to finance it. Whereas previous conventional warfare has strengthened the U.S. dollar because factories were refitted for weapon production, for 3 reasons, that will not happen this time: (1) We have been remade into primarily a service and not a manufacturing economy. The market thrives now because of the Tech sector not through a free market system. The balloon will bust because people cannot fill empty bellies with computer chips; (2) the American debt has exhausted America’s potential for support. Expect the U.S. dollar to lose face globally as the reserve currency and expect the government to endorse a digital currency which is controlled by a world organization-Central Bank Digital Currency, CBDC [Revelation 13:17]. Look for the interest on the U.S. debt to exceed the total cost of the social programs designed to subsidize national poverty (socialism). The flood of immigration currently underway and the efforts to convert to “green” energy alternatives too quickly will prove catalytic; (3) Nuclear war on some level can be anticipated. The pandemic will be a global reset effort to stabilize societies. Expect this to be a 7 year period of massive unrest which Christ’s coming alone can rectify.
The key to understanding the general timing of the prophecy is Israel [Daniel 9:24].
But I am free to change my view on all this tomorrow, except we are given to understand that it will be “Great” and a “Tribulation” [Matthew 24:21]. How do we soften this landing!