Prophecy Chart Series: The Seal Judgments

Part 1: Prophecy Chart

Nathan Jones: And just to review, we’ve already covered the Church Age and the Rapture. And when we wrapped up last week, we’d taken a deep dive into the Rapture and then discussed the Bema Seat Judgment where Jesus will award Church Age saints for their righteous deeds.

Although the Rapture is an event that will happen in the blink of an eye, it has dramatic ramifications for followers of Christ and for those who rejected Him and thus are left behind.

Tim Moore: Well, Nathan, even as you say that, I think many people would assume that the Tribulation itself begins immediately following the Rapture, but we don’t think that’s true. Why not?

Nathan Jones: Well, we have passed the Church Age, which is number one. Now we’re at number two, the Rapture. And you’re right, I grew up thinking that the Rapture started at number three through five here.

Well, we know from Daniel 9:27 that the Tribulation does not begin until the Antichrist signs a peace covenant with Israel. That is the act, that is the exact countdown. And that is why we know exactly if you were in the Tribulation that it’s seven years, because you could count down seven years of 30-day months. So we know then, and we’ve put it here in this little empty area, we don’t know how long the gap is going to be, but there will be a gap in between the Rapture and the Tribulation. What do you think will fall in that gap?

Tim Moore: Well, I think what’s going to fall in that gap is absolute chaos. As the world descends into an economic collapse, I think violence and wickedness will explode, as you’ve already said, because the Church, which acts as a restraining influence–and just think of our country, Nathan, how oftentimes there are leftists and progressives as they call, who want to progress away from our Judeo-Christian roots and they want to move toward a totally atheistic and secular society. Well, with all the brakes removed, they will rush forward into a horrific time.

And of course we know that also nations will be raging against nations. But we also know that the Antichrist will use that opportunity to step forward and say, “I can restore order to the world. I can restore the global economy. I can even make the trains run on time.” And just like Adolf Hitler in the 1930s when Germany was such a chaotic mess following World War I, I think that that period is not going to be years and years, but it’s not going to be a mere matter of days. It’ll probably be months, maybe a handful of years before the Tribulation kicks off.

And that’s why Satan has always had a candidate ready to step into that role of Antichrist. But we believe the Antichrist is actually alive right now because we believe all the signs are indicating that we are very close to the Rapture itself.

Nathan Jones: I also think, too, that with the restraints, and the Bible calls it the Restrainer, and so folks will sometimes say, “Well, that’s the Holy Spirit.” Well, there’ll be salvation during the Tribulation. So it’s not the Holy Spirit being removed from the Earth as Paul taught, but it’s the Holy Spirit’s work through the Church.

And I think what’s going to happen, too, and this is where I believe from our research into the Gog-Magog war, is that without the United States and the UN restraining Russia and the Islamic world, they’re going to use that opportunity to attack Israel. And it shows, too, that God reveals Himself through that war by His amazing supernatural victory. And because of that victory, it says, “The world will know there is a God.” And so going into the Tribulation, I don’t think there’ll be any atheists because everybody will know that there’s a God, whether they follow Him or not.

Tim Moore: Whether they follow Him or not. Can you just imagine, folks, I mean right now our country has had a great divide, a growing divide between the left and the right, between the godly and the ungodly. But can you imagine without Christians in the world to try to stop some of the crazy legislation even that is proposed that there would be unrestricted abortion, flagrant homosexuality, and transgenderism.

You talk about drag queen story hour; it’ll be on steroids as even children are encouraged to change their gender rampantly around our country. Moral confusion and willful rebellion against Creation order. These things are already taking place before our eyes. But all these pathologies and more will be instituted and celebrated.

And in this chaos, the world will clamor for someone to straighten out the disorder and that’s where the Antichrist will step forward and offer himself.

Nathan Jones: Right, and the way the geopolitics of this world are, are totally different in the End Times. For one, like you said, the United States will be just with the Rapture, it’ll lose a lot of power and influence. It doesn’t play a role in End Time Bible prophecy.

But likewise, China, which has a tremendously large Christian population, doesn’t show up until the other, with other kings of the East at the very end of the Tribulation. So China’s not a world player. The Lord will defeat Russia and the Islamic world. So that will leave two superpowers at the end of this gap period. And that’ll be Israel, which will be a greater Israel and it’ll be the European Union.

And Daniel prophesied the Antichrist would rise from the European Union. So Daniel also prophesied that the world would divide into 10 regions or 10, under 10 kings. The Antichrist will rise up, overthrow three, and then officially become the world leader. So there’s a tremendous amount of geopolitics and we look at that today and we say, “Oh, that’s got to take decades if not hundreds of years to happen.” But when you have a climatic, chaotic event like the Rapture happen, that’s going to change things very quickly.

Tim Moore: It will accelerate things very quickly. And you know this idea that mankind has always clamored for a great leader. I said the Fuhrer in Germany, but this has been true from ages past. So you had Nimrod on the plains of Shinar, you had Pharaoh in Egypt, Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon, we’ve talked a lot about him before. Alexander the Great in Greece, the Caesars in Rome, we’ve had czars in Russia.

Even in New York City, the bastion of capitalism here in the United States and perhaps a pinnacle for the whole world, recently elected a Muslim socialist, Zohran Mamdani. And even at his speech when he had won the election, he said this. He said, “We will prove that there is no problem too large for government to solve and no concern too small for it to care about.”

This whole idea we’ve heard before. As a matter of fact, back in the last century, Paul-Henri Spaak, first president of the UN General Assembly, a former president of the European Parliament and a one-time Secretary General of NATO, said this, “We do not need another committee. We have too many already. What we want is a man of sufficient stature to hold the allegiance of all people.” You hear that one-world government aspiration? “And to lift us out of the economic morass into which we are sinking. Send us such a man and be he God or a devil, we will receive him.”

Nathan, I can’t think of any more haunting statement than that, that really clamors for the very figure of the Antichrist who will eventually emerge. But we know that the Antichrist who is coming will be a single charismatic leader, as Nathan said, who will emerge from the territory of the Roman Empire.

Like Mamdani and others, he will be a smooth, convincing talker. He will be a man with a plan even offering to restore order, usher in prosperity once again to the world, end violence and war, even though he will use violence and war to gather his power. And Nathan, given the unrest that’s happened for years in the Middle East and as you said, the likelihood of another war breaking out, he will even have a proposal to bring about peace in the Middle East and allow the Jews to rebuild their Temple.

What are some of the other indications Scripture tells us that will mark this particular singular Antichrist?

Nathan Jones: Well, the very fact that the Bible and the Book of Revelation prophesies an Antichrist. The Apostle John spoke about it frequently in his letters that a man of lawlessness. Daniel called him the little horn; he will rise up amongst the horns of the final form of world government. The Bible describes his personality as incredibly boastful. He is very proud, says that he doesn’t seem to have the affection of women. And so wonder, with all this push towards the homosexual agenda, if he’ll be LGBT and I believe he will.

He will have great power, but he will also be driven mad by that power. And in the midpoint of the Tribulation, we’ll get that in another episode, but he will be possessed by Satan and then be obsessed with wanting to kill the Jewish people and whoever gets saved, we call them the Tribulation saints, during that time. So he’ll be a complete madman by the time we get to the end of the Tribulation.

Tim Moore: He certainly will. So you’ll remember that as John described being transported spiritually into the Throne Room of Heaven, and he sees a book that is sealed but no one could open it until Jesus is revealed as the Lamb and he looks and sees a lion and Jesus is able to open the seals. So once again, we’ve gone through this gap period. We’ve arrived at the point where the Tribulation is about to begin, based on the signing of that peace treaty with Israel by the Antichrist. And now it’s as if God says, “All right, it is time,” and the Earth’s fate is sealed. And that is a horrific period.

Nathan Jones: Absolutely. Well, folks, we’re going to head over to the desk and we’re going to dive into Revelation 6 and the Sealed Judgments so we could better understand what is coming. Stay with us.

Part 2: Back at Desk

Tim Moore: Nathan, today, it’s interesting we spent a lot of time on this gap between the Rapture and the Seals, but I think it’s important to set up what happens after the Church is removed. And I think we should even talk about how the Seals come about being broken in Heaven.

Nathan Jones: Because the second half of the gap, we talked about the gap on Earth, but let’s talk about the gap in Heaven because John has experienced a rapture in type. He is before the Throne of God. There’s great sadness. He’s weeping because there’s no one worthy to open what he sees as the seven-sealed scroll, the title deed to the Earth.

No one of all of that’s ever been born or created except the One who was never created, Jesus Christ–and He shows up in the imagery of a suffering, a sacrifice lamb, the part of this shows that His sacrifice made Him worthy or added to His worthiness, I should say, to the point then where the angels erupt in chapters four and five.

Revelation 5:9 says, “And they sang a new song saying, ‘Worthy are You, Jesus, to take the scroll and to open its seals because You were slain and purchased for God with Your blood, people from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. And you made them to be a kingdom and priest to our God and they will reign upon the earth.'”

So the angels are crying out, “Yes, yes, yes. Jesus is the worthy One to open the seals.” And that is when we get to the opening of the first seal, which is tied to the very beginning of the Tribulation.

Tim Moore: You know, that’s exactly right, Nathan. He is worthy. Over and over again, He’s celebrated and worshiped as being the worthy Lamb. But when He’s first introduced, the elders say, “Oh look, it is the lion from the tribe of Judah.” And so John turns to think he’s going to see a lion, but what he sees is a lamb. That’s why our name is Lamb & Lion. It is nothing less than a point to Jesus Christ, the Worthy One who is able to open this sealed book or scroll.

We realize that in today’s vernacular, we talk about books. But in John’s day and age it probably would’ve been a scroll and it would’ve been sealed. Just like a king would take a signet ring, pour wax on a document, and then seal it. Well, you could do the same thing with a scroll to make sure that no one could open and read the contents unless they had the authority to break a seal. And this one is sealed seven times, signifying that it’s a very important document. And in fact, as these seals are broken, we know that great horror befalls the Earth.

Nathan Jones: Okay, so folks, we’re about to dive into the 21 judgments of the book of Revelation. It’s divided into seven Seal Judgments, seven Trumpet Judgments, and seven Bowl Judgments. And as terrible as the Seal Judgments are, they’re going to get worse and worse as we get closer to the end of the Tribulation.

All right, so Jesus; picture Him as this suffering lamb, but victorious lion. He cracks open that first Seal and it releases the first Judgment. So the wrath of God is poured out from the very beginning of the Tribulation. That’s a very important point to make.

We go to chapter six and we read, “Then I looked and when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures, the seraphim saying, with a voice of thunder, ‘Come.’ Then I looked and behold, a white horse and he who sits on it has a bow and a crown was given to him and he went out overcoming and to overcome.”

Now, Tim, I find that when it comes to Bible prophecy and a timeline, that a timeline needs time indicated. And when people interpret the Tribulation apart from Daniel’s 70th week prophecy, then they stretch out the Tribulation to be almost all of the Church Age. And they’ll say, “Well, Napoleon was this white horse,” or Charlemagne or something like that. But folks, Daniel was very specific that the Tribulation time period is exactly seven years. So it can’t have been Hitler, it can’t have been Pol Pot. It has to be a future antichrist, a future world leader.

Tim Moore: It certainly does. And we know that when this seal is broken and this rider is sent forth, some would say this is the Antichrist, he’s sent forth to conquer. Now let’s think about this. The Antichrist has already signed a peace treaty with Israel. They’re busy rebuilding their Temple. For a season, the house of Israel there in the land of Israel is almost set aside by the Antichrist while he is consolidating his power around the world. And how is he going to do that?

Well, that brings us to the very next seal, a rider on a red horse as the second seal is broken, who wages war. And then a third seal is broken, a rider on a black horse to bring famine. Folks, every time some dictator decides he is going to conquer all the peoples he will subject, he uses war. War leads to famine, which in turn leads to this rider on the fourth horse or the fourth seal, a pale or ashen horse that brings death.

And so to conquer, war, famine, and death, these first four horsemen of the apocalypse will result in a quarter of the world’s population being killed using the sword. And as a result, a pestilence and wild beasts, and indeed, famine.

And here’s another important point, I think a lot of people say, “Well, this couldn’t be Jesus actually pouring out wrath because this is a rider, this is the Antichrist.” But folks, if you read the text of Scripture, it says authority was given to these individuals represented again through this series of the first four judgments. Who gives authority? Jesus Christ. Authority to do what? To exact His wrath upon the Earth. And you think, wait, He’s giving authority to the Antichrist?

Well, Nathan, we know in the Book of Job that God gave authority to Satan to allow him to inflict Job. His authority went so far and then stopped and then it went a little further and stopped and it went a little further. So God controls what happens on the Earth. He raises up kings; He brings down kings. In this case, He’s using even an evil actor. And you say, “Well, has that ever happened before?” Yes, every evil actor in history has been allowed to have authority to actually serve the will of God.

So He raised up the Babylonians to be able to take into captivity the people of Israel. He raised up the Assyrians. And of course, once they had performed His will, an act of judgment even against Israel, they faded into history and were obliterated. Once again, all these individuals are given authority by Jesus Christ because it is His wrath that is being poured out through their instrument, if you will.

Nathan Jones: And that’s a very important distinction because some will say, “Well, the wrath of God is the Bowl Judgments, so it’s at the end.” But we see here that Jesus is the one who opens the seals. And yes, there’s the wrath of man and the wrath of Satan, but the Lord uses them as tools to dole out judgment. And the first half of the Tribulation, He does pretty much use people and Satan to do what He wishes to do. But you know, as we get to the Bowl Judgments later, that’s when some really incredible supernatural things–it’s all His wrath.

Tim Moore: Jesus has control over the winds, over the waves, and yes, down even to the microbes. And He has given them or will give them authority to exact His will. Well, Nathan, and this brings us to the fifth seal, I know we’ve moved pretty quick, where John witnesses a host of martyrs who were slain during the Tribulation. Why were they slain? Why will they be slain?

Nathan Jones: Yeah, it’s a tough one because you’re like, wait a minute, a judgment of God is the martyrdom of Christians? Now first we’ve got to ask, where are these Christians coming from? They’re obviously not the Church because we’ve been raptured up to Heaven. They’re those left behind who accept Jesus Christ as their Savior.

Could be that the result of the Gog-Magog war and the end of Islam as we know it, that many Muslims will convert to Christianity. But either way, we know that there are many, many Christians who will get saved during that time, either through the judgments of God. We’ll get into the 144,000 Jewish evangelists, the two witnesses, the gospel angel, all the materials, maybe this series that we’ve left behind, that brings many people to accept Jesus as Savior.

But because the world hates Christ, they’re going to hate His followers. And to be a Christian means there’s no safe place on the planet where you can go that the government isn’t trying to hunt you down and kill you. And as a result for these people left behind, they’re not protected yet by God’s protection. There’re a few judgments we’ll get to later where they’re protected, but for the most part they’re suffering.

And why does the Lord allow Christians to die? Because it builds up His wrath against those who kill them. So the allowing of the martyrs to die will increase God’s wrath upon the world and make the judgements that come after this grow worse and worse.

Tim Moore: But Nathan, anytime there’s calamity that befalls the Earth, whether it’s natural disaster, whether it’s war, there are innocent people who are harmed. And that is not because God is inflicting harm on them, but because as Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble.”

And yet He has promised because He overcame the world, we too can be overcomers. And that applies now in the Church Age. It will apply even during the Tribulation. Those who put trust in Him, they may become martyrs, but their eternal salvation will be secured because of their faith in Christ.

Nathan Jones: And that leads then into the sixth Seal Judgment, which is just mind-blowingly destructive.

Tim Moore: Yeah, a great earthquake, a darkened sun, a blood-colored moon, and actual stars falling from the sky. Now when we read the word stars, I think it’s best understood as we use the term ourselves, shooting stars. And there’s some speculation that this seal could be referring to natural consequences or supernaturally caused natural consequences. But there’s others that think that this is a perfect description in first century terms of an actual nuclear exchange and the fallout from a nuclear war.

Nathan Jones: Oh yeah, look at verse 14. The sky was split apart like a scroll. And what is the result? And this is why I think you’re right about nuclear in nature, every king, great man, commander, slave, where do they go? They go underground to hide from the destruction. And they call out; they say to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.”

Tim Moore: And even those who recognize that the wrath is falling from God, and at one point they say the great day of their wrath. So there’s even a reference to God in His Trinitarian nature. They recognize where this wrath is coming from, but they do not repent. And that is tragic because the day of their wrath, the Lord God’s wrath is being poured out, and the question is, who is able to stand?

Nathan Jones: When it gets to the worst it can be and humanity seems out in the brink of being destroyed, the Lord gives a flash forward or a hope in certain chapters. And now we’re up to chapter seven. There’s going to be a break before we get to the seventh Seal Judgment and He gives us a little bit of hope here with the 144,000. Tim, 144,000 Jewish evangelists. We know they’re evangelists because the second part of Revelation 7 shows, as a result, millions upon millions of people get saved.

So imagine, you know, these Apostle Paul’s indwelt by the Holy Spirit out there and they’re empowered and they go out and they spread around the world. The Lord supernaturally protects them. They will live through the entire Tribulation and they will help repopulate along with those other survivors, the Millennial Kingdom, when we get there. And Tim, that gives me hope that the Lord isn’t just going to destroy the world. He’s still building a crop of people, a harvest of people who wish to live with Him forever in Heaven.

Tim Moore: That’s an excellent point. The Lord’s motives are not just pouring out condemnation and punishment; it is also driving people to repentance. Thankfully there will be many who embrace Him during the Tribulation but also dealing with Israel.

Nathan Jones: We’re already at a half the world’s population dead by the midpoint of the Tribulation, so it’s still ramping up. But when we get to Revelation 8:1-6, we read the seventh Seal Judgment. And what’s interesting about that is that “though there was silence in Heaven for half an hour,” in other words, God takes a break per se, gives the world a break, a breathing room.

But at the same time there’s also quite a number of judgements natural that go with it. Verse five, peals of thunder, sounds and flashes of lightning, and a great earthquake, great noises. So there’s still a lot of tectonic plates shifting…

Tim Moore: Rumbling.

Nathan Jones: And weather going bananas. But in Heaven God says, “Okay, I’m going to take a little bit of break before the worst judgments to come are still coming.” And that starts with the Trumpet Judgments.

Tim Moore: I think there’s a reason for this and I think God in His mercy recognizes the human nature and imagine if you are a Tribulation Saint, someone who is left behind but then came to your senses. We pray that is not you because we pray that everyone watching this program will trust in Christ before the Rapture. But for those who come to faith after the Rapture, it offers a glimmer of hope. If we lose our hope as human beings, we quickly die. I think the Lord offers hope even here in the midst of calamity.

Let’s hear from Pete Garcia, a gifted Bible prophecy writer and see what he has to say about what will be unleashed during this outpouring of God’s wrath.

Pete Garcia Interview

Tim Moore: Here at Lamb & Lion Ministries we’re in the midst of a series addressing the End Times and specifically God’s revealed plan for the Rapture and the Tribulation contained in the book of Revelation. And you have just completed a project focusing on the First Horseman of the Apocalypse, the rider on the white horse. So Pete, who is this mysterious rider?

Pete Garcia: In reading verse one, chapter six, Revelation. “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, 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.”

So just using those two passages there, we’re going to garner a whole bunch of information about who this individual is and whether he is the individual or he is coming out of the system. But nonetheless, we know that, well, we’ll just break the passage down as it is.

It says, “When I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals.” So we know that in chapter five of Revelation that Jesus is the one that initiates these judgments. And we know that the Seal Judgments are followed by the Trumpet Judgments, which are followed by the Bowl Judgments. So they are all initiated right here with Christ opening the first one because He’s the only one that was found worthy. And the reason that Christ alone is worthy is that He is our Kinsman-Redeemer. He is God who became flesh in order to redeem mankind. So He’s the only one like Him.

And secondly it says, “And I heard as it were the noise of thunder.” So when Christ opens this seal, it initiates this thunderclap, I guess. It is going to be heard and it’s going to be heard and it’s going to ring throughout the heavens. I don’t know if it’s heard on the Earth, but it is for sure heard throughout the heavens.

The living creatures that we see in chapter four, these cherubim angels and they have the four-faced angels, and so I’m curious if this first living creature that comes forward to say come and see, if that’s not the lion that we see that is mentioned first in chapter four. So that’s an interesting thing to think about. He says, “Come and see, and I saw and behold a white horse.”

So the white in Scripture and in, you know, pretty much throughout the rest of human history, we associate white with purity, with righteousness. And here, this is not the white horse that we see in Revelation 19. Satan can’t create anything. He can only mimic and copy what God does. So this is his copy, counterfeit messiah going forward and he’s going to seem very regal. He’s going to seem very appealing, right? So we hear right after that that he, so we know it’s a man, it’s not a woman, that he sat on him, on this horse, and he had a bow.

So we know when Christ returns in Revelation 19, He doesn’t carry a bow. He has a sword that comes out of His mouth and He doesn’t have one crown, but many crowns and the crown that He’s given here, and this is something that was given to the Antichrist, in here in passage 6:2, this crown, the Stephanos crown is not something that he inherits. It’s something that he earns. It’s something that is given to him and he goes forth with one mind to conquer.

He goes forth to conquer in his conquering. So that is who we find in this passage as the First Horseman of the Apocalypse.

Closing

Tim Moore: We so appreciate Pete Garcia and all of the other experts who have participated in this series and all those who ongoingly are part of Christ in Prophecy. You know, as we reflect on what John saw, we realize that the record of what he saw and heard in Revelation can be overwhelming.

Nathan Jones: Ironically, many Christians are reluctant to read, and heed, Revelation because the images and descriptions fill them with fear and anxiety. Since we know there is no condemnation for those who’ve trusted in Christ for their salvation, that fear is being stoked by Satan. He does not want followers of Christ to heed this book of prophecy because heeding would mean sharing the Gospel with great urgency to keep lost souls from being subjected to the wrath of God.

Tim Moore: We’ve often said that when Revelation 1:3 and 22:7 offer a blessing for reading and heeding the book, the heeding requires believing. But Nathan is right. If we really believe that every lost person is standing at the precipice of eternity and facing a fate worse than death, we’d be motivated to be bold in our advocacy for the Gospel of salvation Jesus died to offer.

Nathan Jones: Our consistent appeal is that if you have not believed in Jesus Christ as the sole means of your salvation, meaning the forgiver of your sin and provider of eternal life, you’ll humble your heart and call on Him today, right now. Do not delay. You are not promised another day or hour in this life. Satan is accusing you right now, but Christ will not call you His brother or sister until you’ve trusted in Him.

Tim Moore: Like the Tribulation Saints revealed in Revelation 7:16-17, you can live forever with no hunger, no thirst, and no tears. Embrace the Lamb of God right now and join them and both of us in crying out, “Salvation is to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
Godspeed!

End of Program