SUMMARY OF THE SEVEN SEALS It will be remembered that the seven trumpets were within the seventh seal. When the seventh seal was opened, seven angels appeared, having seven trumpets; in the hand of each angel, a trumpet. The significance of the sounding of the trumpets was to signal the commencement of the impending events which had been revealed by the opening of the seals. (1) The first trumpet--chapter 8:7--was the signal of devastation, signified by the smitten earth, indicating divine judgments on the land of the Jewish powers. (2) The second trumpet--chapter 8:8-9--was the signal of the smitten sea. Casting the burning mountain into the sea signified the divine judgments on the sea power, the Roman monarchy, burning with the lust of war; the destruction of the power of the sea beast persecutors to make war against Christ. (3) The third trumpet--chapter 8:10-11--was the signal of smitten rivers, which signified by the great burning star the fall of the rulers, as spent meteors, from their former dominion; and the dissipation of the source of their power was symbolized by the drying of the fountain which supplied the river which flows through its channel. (4) The fourth trumpet--chapter 8:12-13--was the signal of the smitten sun, signifying the darkness that would settle over the Jewish state in the divine judgments to descend on Jerusalem, bringing an end to Judaism. (5) The fifth trumpet--chapter 9:1-12-was the signal of the fallen star, personified in a degenerate leader of impious forces, designated as an army of locusts from the smoke of the pit, and symbolizing the invasion of Judea by terrifying armies led by Satan personified in the persecuting emperor--the resulting calamities of which brought to pass the first of the three woes enumerated by John. (6) The sixth trumpet--chapter 9:13-21--was the signal of loosing the four angels, the imperial agents which had been restrained from hindering the messengers of Christ until the true Israel of God was sealed " of all the tribes of the children of Israel.” The spiritual Israel was symbolized by the hundred forty-four thousand--the holy seed. With the completion of this mission of “ sealing the servants of God,” the suspension period was declared ended, and the four angels of destruction were loosed to proceed with the encompassing desolation of Jerusalem. (7) The seventh trumpet--chapters 10-11--was the signal of the finale, “ in the days of the voice of the seventh angel” --the last days of the political Jewish state and the dispensation of Judaism--accompanied by the testimony of the two witnesses as necessary to establish testimony. It symbolized the two-fold mission and work of the prophets and apostles in the unfolding of the scheme of redemption, begun by Old Testament prophets, but completed by New Testament apostles, and fulfilled in the church. The tragic calamities surrounding these representatives of the church marked the passing of the second woe and the immediate pronouncement of the third woe in the sounding of the seventh trumpet, ending in the conquest of the kingdoms of the world by Christ the conqueror. VI. A OF THE FIRST The apocalypse known by all as the Book Of Revelation is comprised of two parts--two series of visions--therefore, essentially two apocalypses, but consisting in a repetition of import under a second set of symbols. The first series surrounded the conquering Christ; the second series surrounded the victorious church. The object of the visions of the first part, beginning with chapter four and ending with chapter eleven, was mainly the end of both spiritual and political Judaism, resulting in the expansion of the new “ kingdom of God and Christ” over the whole Roman world. In harmony with this objective the first century persecutions, with that generation of martyrs, were represented by a system of signs and symbols, consisting in the opening of seven seals and the sounding of seven trumpets. The seven seals contained the successive events of divine judgment in the symbols of the destruction of the city of Jerusalem and the temple of the Jews. The opening of the seals represented the making known, or the revelation, of these judgments; and the sounding of the trumpets signaled that the time to commence had come. This first series of apocalypses include chapters 4-11 of Revelation. (CHAPTER 4) The Revelation began and proceeded from the Throne in heaven, with Him who sat on it; Christ in the midst of it, surrounded by twenty-four elders, symbolic of the complete New Testament church-the totality of spiritual Israel, based on the twelve patriarchs and apostles of the old and the new dispensations. (CHAPTER 5) The book with the seven seals could be opened only by Christ the slain Lamb, who had risen to prevail and who had become the Lion of the tribe of Judah, able to defeat and conquer all the forces set in opposition to his Cause. The seven seals portended the overthrow of the persecuting powers both Jewish and Roman. (CHAPTER 6) The four seals were in the order portrayed by the four horsemen of the apocalypse. The white horse and its Rider of the first seal symbolized Christ, the Conqueror, the leading figure of the imagery, who appeared again at the end of the visions as the Rider of the white horse in the procession of victory in chapter 19. The red horse and rider of the second seal signified the persecutor waging war against the Cause of Christ. The black horse and rider of the third seal, represented distress, calamity and deadly famine, indicated by the symbols of the balances and scales for the weighing and measuring of all food allowances. The pale horse and rider of the fourth seal were designated as death and hades, and signified death, not death by martyrdom, but by pestilence and scourge. The fifth seal was the martyr scene of souls “ under the altar” asking for avenging judgment, which, though delayed in a waiting period until the procession of events “ should be fulfilled,” was in due time and order received; and John saw them receiving this judgment in chapter 20:4, for which he had heard them asking in chapter 6:1O--thus signifying the resurrection of the Cause for which they had been slain. The sixth seal was the earthquake, which signified the shaking of the existing powers of government by revolutions, upheavals and wars; and the various divine visitations on the persecuting authorities. This was symbolized by the darkened sun, the falling stars and the scrolled heaven, all of which meant the folding up of the powers of persecution and the fall of Judaism. The events of this seal ended in the scene of the great day of wrath, where these portents of judgment descended on the great and mighty men of the earth, who are envisioned as calling upon the mountains for a hiding place from the face of God on the Throne, and from the wrath of Christ, whose Cause they had persecuted. (CHAPTER 7) The seventh seal, the last in the book of seals, displayed seven angels standing before God, to whom seven trumpets were given; and they “ prepared themselves” to sound the seven trumpets as signals that the time had come to accomplish the seals, and that they were ready to proceed. ( 8-9) In the sounding of the seven trumpets seven angels proclaimed the judgments which were attended by the woes which John periodically announced in the progressive vision of the seventh seal, which have been summarized in the preceding section of these comments. ( 10-11) Lastly, the culmination of all the events of the first apocalypse was depicted when the seventh angel sounded the seventh trumpet, and the great voices in heaven in grand unison proclaimed: “ The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ.” The Rider of the white horse had conquered. Judaism, the arch enemy of Christ had fallen; the stars of Jewish rulership had been plucked from their orbits of dominion; the Jewish state was ended; the temple was no longer standing. The New Jerusalem and the spiritual temple of New Israel had prevailed. From the apocalypse of the Conquering Christ, the visions turned in chapter 12, to his tortured but triumphant church.