SECTION TWO OPENING OF THE FIFTH AND SIXTH SEALS Revelation 6:9-17 1. THE FIFTH SEAL OPENED Revelation 6:9-11 Preliminary Note: The central idea of the first four visions was war. The first was victorious and the second disastrous for the Roman Empire. The third and fourth picture various calamities that came as a result of internal strife and enemy invasion. But all these refer primarily to the Romans. Since the church was mainly in Roman provinces, it was affected by whatever befell the empire. While the Christians suffered in some measure, along with others, the calamities that came to provinces, yet during these two centuries the government was so much concerned with political and economic conditions that the church enjoyed religious liberty more than would otherwise have been possible. Naturally this resulted in a marvelous growth of Christianity. The persecutions they endured doubtless strengthened their faith and courage. So the first four seals bear strongly, but indirectly, upon the spread of the church. Following a Savior who had been crucified made them willing to suffer for the truth. With the fifth seal the scene changes and the horses and riders disappear. The experience of the church now is the primary thing, and the fifth vision presents the martyred saints. But, as the Roman Empire is the persecutor, no exposition can be correct that does not include it. The history of the persecuted involves that of the persecutor. 9 And when he opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of them that had been slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:--We should continually remember that John saw these visions in heaven, and that we are not to confuse them with the things they represent. John did not see saints in the body, but their "souls"; for they had already been slain. Their souls were in the Hadean state, but the picture John saw was in heaven. In the temple service the animal sacrifices were made at the brazen altar in the court. (Leviticus 4:7.) As they had been slain because of their faithfulness to God's word, it was appropriate that they appear under the altar as if they had been sacrificed and blood poured at its base. As they suffered martyrdom because they held to the testimony concerning Christ, it was consistent that they ask that their blood be avenged. The altar which represented that suffering was an appropriate place for their cry to be made. 10 and they cried with a great voice, saying, How long, O Master, the holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?--These words show that the soul or spirit of man does exist in a conscious state after it leaves the body. Their referring to those that "dwell on the earth" shows that they were in the spirit abode --Hades. Those souls knew that vengeance belongeth unto God (Hebrews 10:30), and that only just and righteous punishment would be administered. This is evident from the fact that they called the Master "holy and true." They were, therefore, not crying for revenge upon their persecutors, but rather that justice be done, and their lives vindicated. Their cry was not so much an asking for God's vengeance to be meted out as to know how long they must wait; for they did not doubt that it would be done. 11 And there was given them to each one a white robe; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little time, until their fellow-servants also and their brethren, who should be killed even as they were, should have fulfilled their course.--White robes were given them as an emblem of their innocence, purity, and victory over sin. This is the significance of white robes in other places in this book. (Revelation 3:4; :9, 13.) They had sealed their testimony with their blood and were entitled to such an emblem of victory. Giving to each a robe, which John saw in the picture in heaven, was to signify that the martyrs in the Hadean world were approved and in a state of joy. (See Luke 16:20-23.) To "judge and avenge" means that the martyrs in some way were to be approved and vindicated. How that would be done is not stated here. It might have meant the truth preached by the martyrs would so prevail that the Roman Empire would accept or endorse it. If so, this vindication occurred in the reign of Constantine about A.D. 325. With this view of the seal, the martyrs seen in it would probably refer to those who suffered before the reign of Diocletian, which began about A.D. 303, and their fellow servants and brethren who were yet to suffer would mean those who suffered in his reign. But if those John saw represented those who were to be slain during his reign, then the fellow servants would have to mean a class of martyrs that later suffered under papal Rome--the "man of sin." With this view the time of vindicating the martyrs would have to be when their murderers will be punished at the judgment. This would require that the expression "a little time" would have to be understood as God sees time, not as we do. According to the former view they were to rest--patiently wait--a little time for their vindication to take place according to the latter they were to remain in the rest of Hades till all martyrs for the truth had been slain, and at the judgment they would enter upon the full measure of their reward. All things considered, the first view seems more probable. In either case the persecution in the reign of Diocletian fits the main point in the vision. Historians and commentators generally agree that in the last few years of Diocletian's reign occurred one of the bitterest persecutions known in the history of the church. At first he was disposed to show kindness to the Christians; but, later under the influence of others, he began in A.D. 303 a series of edicts that subjected multitudes to the most inhuman kinds of torture and death. The passage from Gibbon which is usually quoted to prove this is the following "The resentment, or the fears, of Diocletian at length transported him beyond the bounds of moderation, which he had hitherto preserved, and he declared, in a series of cruel edicts, his intention of abolishing the Christian name. By the first of these edicts, the governors of the provinces were directed to apprehend all persons of the ecclesiastical order; and the prisons, destined for the vilest criminals, were soon filled with a multitude of bishops, presbyters, deacons, readers, and exorcists. By a second edict, the magistrates were commanded to employ every method of severity, which might reclaim them from their odious superstition, and oblige them to return to the established worship of the gods. This rigorous order was extended by a subsequent edict, to the whole body of Christians, who were exposed to a violent and general persecution." (Decline and Fall, Vol. II, p. 69.) What John saw in the vision, this skeptical historian shows to have actually transpired in this reign. No other occasion known fits the symbol better. The glorious promises here made to those who had been faithful "unto death" were as strong incentives as could be offered for fidelity to Christ, even though it cost martyrdom. It also shows that the death of the body does not end the soul's existence; consciousness between death and the resurrection must be a fact. Such passages are a deathblow to the "soul-sleeping" doctrine of materialism.