Revelation 6:1-2 Seal #1

Chapter 6

Now that it has been established that the kinsman redeemer is worthy to open the scrolls, they are going to be opened. It must be remembered that these seals do not represent God’s wrath. They are the conditions which Satan apparently demanded for the earth to be reclaimed. It will be seen that there is a progressive plan to destroy mankind. It begins subtly with spiritual deception. Satan first tries to destroy man spiritually. When that is not sufficient he moves on to destruction through political means. That is followed by environmental devastation, then attacks upon the physical person by means of disease and famine. When that is not sufficient to destroy mankind, he has people executed in mass numbers. Satan’s last resort is an attempt to destroy the very planet itself to wipe out mankind. The purpose of this plan by Satan is to make God a liar by rendering it impossible for Him to keep His promise to Israel of a golden age when He would reign and they would be the premiere nation on earth. If he can wipe out mankind and make God a liar, he has won.

It will be seen that the following seals directly correspond to the list of events in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. As a reminder, the list of events encapsulated are: false christs, wars and rumors of war, famine, pestilence, martyrdom, 70th week begins, abomination of desolation, tribulation, heavenly signs (sun, moon), the Lord returns and gathers His elect. There are also more signs from the O.T. that correspond if one takes the time to go back and review those signs. In particular the "threatening army" that cannot be killed (from Joel) is mentioned here.

There are some that see these seals as the wrath of God simply because they are originating in heaven. It must be remembered that Satan can do nothing without God’s permission. It will be seen that one of these seals is restricted to only affect Christians. That one thing alone refutes the idea of these being the wrath of God. The heavenly catastrophes that will occur are under God’s control only. He controls the heavenly bodies, and Satan can only request that these things be allowed. God is the one from whom they have to originate. He is not perpetrating these things as His wrath, but rather allowing them as part of an agreement with Satan, for his own purposes, just as he allowed all that befell Job.

Verses 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. 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.”


One of the four beasts at the throne speaks in a thundering voice. He speaks to a rider on a white horse telling him to come forward to receive a crown and then he goes forth to conquer. This is the first of the “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse”. There are some who believe this to be Christ, but that is nonsensical as 1) Christ is opening the seals, 2) the parallel with the gospels tells us that this stands for false christs and, 3) these seals are Satan's ideas to deceive and destroy mankind, not God's wrath. This rider is a pseudo facsimile of Christ. “And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.” Rev. 19:11. This verse describes the real Christ. The horseman in verse one is a counterfeit Christ, a spiritual deceiver. In the gospels it says that the first sign of the beginning of sorrows is false christs. While this rider stands for many false christs that have and will deceive many, the ultimate false christ is antichrist. The horseman has a bow showing he intends to conquer. He is given a crown. Antichrist will be allowed to reign over the entire earth as its spiritual and political leader, in fact as its Messiah, albeit a false one. It was said in Daniel that antichrist would come in and obtain the country peaceably. Note that the rider has a bow, but no arrows are mentioned. It had been surmised that antichrist might be a military man or a man with military might behind him, hence the bow; but he does not come in and conquer by making war. He does it by making peace, as do many false spiritual leaders. People are much more easily duped by this method than forcefully being conquered by might. His objective, though, is still to conquer mankind.