The Seven Seals Of Revelation (Part Six)

In that hour Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. … Then He turned to His disciples and said privately, “Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see; for I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see, and have not seen it, and to hear what you hear, and have not heard it.”

Luke 10:21,23-24

From generations, mankind has always been captivated by the signs of times, but the interesting thing is they still couldn’t decode; the more men focus on signs, the more clueless we become in the apocalyptic scheme of things.

In Luke 12:54-56, Jesus said, “Whenever you see a cloud rising out of the west, immediately you say, ‘A shower is coming’; and so it is. And when you see the south wind blow, you say, ‘There will be hot weather’; and there is. Hypocrites! You can discern the face of the sky and of the earth, but how is it you do not discern this time?” And Jesus goes on to warn us of the urgency of settling our earthly matters in Luke 12:57-59, as the time is near and that no one departs until they have paid the very last mite.

The statement made by Jesus is but a smack in the faces of hypocrites; pointing out to man’s ability to anticipate weather trends but yet unable to tell the signs of times. What more, we are living in times equipped in modern technology, which makes it more difficult for anyone to deny and to say they do not know. Not only we have technology at our disposal, but we also have information websites from our respective national weather agencies continually providing weather forecast expectations, summarized for us in one or two webpages at a time.

Cosmic Disturbances

The sixth seal is the prophetic sign that will be visible to the entire world and will proclaim that the signs of times is imminent. This is specifically a sign of hope for followers of Jesus, to let them know that phase one of God’s judgment, is nigh. The sixth seal consists of at least six unparalleled cosmic disturbances, indicating that the final period of Daniel’s 70th week – the Day of the Lord, of God’s divine wrath, is about to begin.

These cosmic disturbances are as follows: great earthquake, unusual solar eclipse, the moon turning blood-red, heavenly stars falling from the sky, the sky splits apart and mountains and islands destroyed.

In Matthew 24:27-28, Jesus said, “For as the lightning comes from the East and flashes to the West, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together.”

“One vulture circling overhead does not mean much, but a gathering of vultures means that a dead body is nearby. Likewise, one sign of the end may not be significant, but when many of these signs occur, the death of the age and the second coming is near.” This statement from prophecysigns.com, couldn’t have been said better.

In Joel 3:14-15, “Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and moon will grow dark, and the stars will diminish their brightness.”

The Day Of Reckoning For The Wicked & The Evildoers

The last time when the Lord came to the temple, He said to His people, “It is written, my house is a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.” Luke 19:46. And as He was drawing near to the city, He wept and said, “If you had known in this your day, the things that make for your peace, BUT NOW THEY ARE HIDDEN FROM YOUR EYES. For the days shall come upon you when your enemies shall build an embarkment around you, surround and close you in on every side, level you and your children with you to the ground, and not leaving any one stone to stand, BECAUSE THEY DID NOT KNOW THE TIME OF THE VISITATION.” Luke 19:41-44

What Jesus said about His people, was a far cry from the people who dwell under His shadow and refuge, far from those being delivered from the snare of the fowler and far from those who would not be afraid of the terror of the night, the pestilence that walks in the dark and the destruction that lay waste at noonday. These are people who still went about their affairs as if nothing is happening, paying attention only to what they eat, what they drink, what cars they are driving or which party they’ll be invited to attend next.

And inside our churches, many have totally misunderstood the Day of the Lord and what comes with it. Preachers and pastors told the crowd it is the day they see the Lord face to face and to be reconciled with Him. It is the day that everyone gets their ride tickets to heaven. It is the day the old is gone and the new has come. Yes, to a certain extent. But the way the truth is spun by our preachers to feed the cravings of itching ears, is beyond belief.

It is unmistakable that the Bible is very clear on the fact that the Day of the Lord is not going to play out as what many expected it to be. To start with, it is the day when no one even knows the time of His visitation. It is the day that shall descend on the earth like a thief in the night.

Amos 5 describes vividly the misconception of the Day of the Lord. While many sees it as a desirable event, but instead it will be a day of darkness and not light. And men shall conduct themselves as though they are fleeing from a lion. Or as though he went in to a house, lean on the wall and a snake bit him. The way the minor prophet Amos describes this day, certainly do not fit the descriptions given by modern church leaders.

And he did not stop there, he went on to say it is the day the Lord declares that He hates our feast days, and he finds no pleasure in the company of our assemblies. Our offerings of praise and worship from the mouth and lips will not be acceptable to Him.

After describing how bad the situation is going to be on this day, the Lord said, “But let justice run down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.” Well, “love-only” preachers ought to take note; in light of how the Bible gave description of the Day of the Lord, it is certainly not a day He speaks anything about love or even forgiveness. If we read between the lines, the sequence of things coming are arranged in such a way that justice and righteousness shall be the first to arrive before anything else good follows through thereafter.

From the way Bible describes the Day of the Lord, it appears to be more of dreadful day that is anything but appealing to the souls of men. And the the only group of people whom shall find the coming Day of the Lord to be any welcoming, is none other than those who loves justice and righteousness like the Lord Himself.

The Sign Of Times

The sixth seal is described in Revelation 6:12-17:-

“I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”

These are the signs mentioned in the last book of the Bible, of physical things that shall happen. These are not hidden things, but things that are visible to the naked eye and to all on the earth. Well, unless or course if you are an ostrich having its head buried under sand and desperately trying to do all that’s within your powers to stay blissfully ignorant, there is no way one can miss an earthquake or blood moons or severe flooding.

Nature have shown us the signs, the weather and the abnormalities. The rest is up to you and me.