Revelation 6's fallen star

Revelation 6:

The Final Seal Judgments

Revelation 6:9-17

Timothy McKeown 

The first four seal judgments, or the four horsemen, represent the peaceful world conquest by the antichrist (1^st seal), the taking of peace from the earth, killing, and a great sword (2^nd seal), the world-wide famine, an inflationary economy, and the world’s wealth is protected (3^rd seal), and one-fourth of the world dying from war, starvation, martyrdom, and “beasts” of the earth. 

Note: this is the only place where “beast” (Gr.: therion) is not linked with the antichrist or the false prophet.
Antichrist: 11:7, 13:1-4, 14-15, 17-18, 14:9,11, 15:2, 16:2, 10, 13, 19:19-20; 20:4, 10;
Beast ridden by woman/whore: 17:8, 11-13, 17:3, 7, 11-13, 17:16-17;
False Prophet: 13:11-12. 

It’s possible that this foreshadows the two beasts killing people and especially believers in the Great Tribulation. After the fourth horseman of Death, followed by Hades, comes a scene from heaven.

 

⁹ When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. ¹⁰ And they cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” ¹¹ Then a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed.

 

The fifth seal depicts those who have been killed for the word of God and the testimony. Isaiah 34:2-3 says that God gave the nations for judgment and describes a stench because of the corpses. John does not list how many are slain, but these are among the first and they reveal at least five truths:
 ¹⁾ The dead are aware of events on earth and care about justice of those responsible.
 ²⁾ There is a concept of time and are told to wait “a little while longer,” so time in heaven is comparable to time on earth.
  ³⁾ While they have not been resurrected yet (see Revelation 20:4-6), they can receive robes, which they wear in Revelation 7:9.
 ⁴⁾ Saints cry in anguish, remembering their injustice, but recognizing God as “holy and true.” At some point in the future, God will wipe away their tears (Revelation 7:17, 21:4 with Isaiah 25:8).
 ⁵⁾ They were killed for word of God and testimony of Jesus (compare to Revelation 20:4, 12:11 and 17, and Revelation 1:9).

Why under the altar? According to John Gill’s Exposition of the Bible, “burning coals were taken off from the altar …and were brought in within the vail (sic), where incense was put upon them, which covered the mercy seat” (See Leviticus 16:12-13). Faithful martyrs are brought into heaven, like the burning coals were brought into the holy of holies, and with the prayers, are a sweet aroma of sacrifice before God (see Revelation 8:3-4).

It may be that this fifth seal is an interlude showing all of those who have been martyred during the Tribulation, and the sixth and seventh seal are at the end of the Tribulation. If so, the trumpet and bowl judgments would occur prior to the sixth seal being broken. See more about this at the end of the study. 

¹² 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. ¹³ 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. ¹⁴ Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place.

This parallels with Isaiah 34:4 and with an inexplicable event which occurred less than 100 years ago.

On June 30, 1908, what is believed to be a meteor or a comet vaporized above the earth with fantastic consequences near the Tunguska in Russia. An eyewitness described what he saw: “I suddenly saw that directly to the North… the sky split in two and fire appeared high and wide over the forest. The split in the sky grew larger, and the entire Northern side was covered with fire. At that moment I became so hot that I couldn't bear it, as if my shirt was on fire; from the northern side, where the fire was, came strong heat. I wanted to tear off my shirt and throw it down, but then the sky shut closed, and a strong thump sounded, and I was thrown a few yards…After that such noise came, as if rocks were falling or cannons were firing, the earth shook, and when I was on the ground, I pressed my head down, fearing rocks would smash it. When the sky opened up, hot wind raced between the houses, like from cannons, which left traces in the ground like pathways, and it damaged some crops. Later we saw that many windows were shattered, and in the barn a part of the iron lock snapped.”

The mass of the object has been estimated at about 100,000 tons and the force of the explosion at 12 to 40 megatons of TNT, 2,000 times the force of the atomic bomb exploded over Hiroshima in 1945. It destroyed everything within a radius of 20 miles. Four hundred miles away, fishermen were knocked from their boats. A black rain fell over the valley and scabs broke out on animals not destroyed by the blast.

While the Tunguska explosion was not a fulfillment of Revelation’s prophecy, it is easy to imagine what devastation would occur if one or more “falling stars” actually hit the earth, and even split into various parts “as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind.” According to reports, that one meteor sent shock waves around the world twice. So devastating was that singular event that Vladimir Shaidurov of the Russian Academy of Sciences has theorized that the current global warming trend which has been experienced over the last hundred years could have been caused by the Tunguska Event. (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/03/060314170208.htm)

The sun turning black is not likely a solar eclipse, they are frequent, predictable and limited in scope (a partial eclipse went over Israel this year and a full eclipse went over Turkey). While lunar eclipses make the appearance of the moon “like blood,” they are even more frequent than solar eclipses. Something of a magnitude greater than a natural occurrence is mandated from the text.

 

¹⁵ 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, ¹⁶ 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! ¹⁷ For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”

 

The sixth seal concludes similar to that of Matthew 24:29-31 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened (not blackened), and the moon will not give its light (not like blood); the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” 

However on a closer reading there are some differences (it occurs after the tribulation, just before Christ’s return, see also Mark 13:25). Also, later on in Revelation, there are more catastrophes in the sky (Revelation 8:12, 9:2, 16:8) and the islands “flee away” and the mountains will not be found (not just be “moved”).

While the beginning of the Tribulation is bad, imagine the earth becoming so violently rocked that Isaiah says, (from the people of the earth’s vantage point), the stars shake and the earth moved in its orbit. “Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth will move out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of hosts and in the day of His fierce anger.” (Isaiah 13:13) This occurs at the end of the Tribulation, described also by Joel “The sun and moon will grow dark, And the stars will diminish their brightness. The Lord also will roar from Zion, And utter His voice from Jerusalem; The heavens and earth will shake; But the Lord will be a shelter for His people, And the strength of the children of Israel.”(Joel 3:15-16).

Jesus does give a description like Revelation 6:16 in Luke 23:30, but not in the “Olivet Discourse.” In Luke, He is not speaking of the end times. Rather, it is likely in regard to the destruction of Jerusalem, as He was speaking directly to people and their children who might be living in 70 A.D. Hosea also said there would be some who would call on the mountains and hills to fall on them as far back as the Assyrian captivity (Hosea 10:8).

The description Jesus gives in the Olivet Discourse is more like the end of the Great Tribulation, which is also found in Isa 13:6-10 “Wail, for the day of the Lord is at hand! It will come as destruction from the Almighty. Therefore all hands will be limp, every man's heart will melt, and they will be afraid. Pangs and sorrows will take hold of them; they will be in pain as a woman in childbirth; they will be amazed at one another; their faces will be like flames. Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate; and He will destroy its sinners from it. For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be darkened in its going forth, and the moon will not cause its light to shine.” Hebrews 12:26 suggests more than one “shaking” of the earth and sky, based on Haggai 2:6-7, but again this is just before “the Desire of the Nations” appears.

If the seals are chronological and are completed before the trumpet judgments begin, then the people of the earth very well may mistakenly think He “who sits on the throne” and Christ is about to return. However, Revelation records that there are still more things which will take place in chapter 7 and following. If, on the other hand, the seals (especially the final two) run overlappingly and culminate with the final trumpet and bowl judgments, then all that is recorded in Revelation 7 and thereafter occurs during the fifth seal. The sixth and seventh seal would then occur just prior to the Lord’s return in chapter 19. 

Either way, the final seal judgments reveal to us how awesome is our God.