In this series, we've been exploring an enigma which has been receiving increased coverage in the media. In 1993, we were fixated on Waco, Texas, as David Koresh hurled Biblical threats which included references to the seven seals of Revelation. This year, the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building refanned the flames of that firestorm.
The opening of the
Sixth Seal
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The Web has endeavored to show that the opening of the seven seals has already come and gone. The movement of the Vernal Equinox across specific stars in the constellation Pisces is simply an astronomical calibration which can be verified by any astronomer with a computerized precessional program. This 'random' system of timing produces the specific years during which each alignment took place. Is it a coincidence that the first and last seals mark important chapters which may easily be viewed as the first and final days of Roman ascendancy, or that the remaining seals also earmark major periods of social disintegration within that time frame?
The first seal opens with a rider on a white horse, going from victory to victory. In that year, Rome defeated the neighboring city of Veii, historically viewed as the beginning of her wars of expansion. The second seal called for war, and Hannibal marched up and down the Italian peninsula for twenty years. The third seal finds Tiberius vacating Rome in order to more fully embrace his vices. With the opening of the fourth seal, Plague rides on a deathly pale horse with Hades at his heels, and the Empire finds itself in an era of attack after attack on her borders, assassination after assassination of its emperors, and the irreparable loss of many of its merchants and infrastructure. Under the fifth seal, all the souls beneath the altar cry out to the Lord for justice. At this time the Lombards sweep across Italy, the first invasion which showed total contempt for the old Roman Empire and its ways, wiping out the continuum of history before them. The sixth seal seems the most graphic of all when the whole population of slaves, citizens, and wealthy must take to the hills. This is the beginning of the Viking raids on the British Isles, Europe, Russia and any other country with a navigable coastline or river. These raiders even attacked Europe from the Mediterranean. Lastly, the seventh seal marked the final schism of the East and West, as a dead Roman Catholic pope excommunicated his Greek Orthodox contemporary, and the papal chair sat vacant for a year.
But is it really appropriate that the seven seals should mark periods of suffering and social chaos? This is what Revelation says of those who have been killed during the opening of the seals:
The last of the Seals
Delta Piscium: 1054 AD
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"'Do you know who these people are, dressed in white robes, and where they have come from?' I answered him, 'You can tell me, my lord.' Then he said, 'These are the people who have been through the great persecution...'" -Revelation 7:13-14
In fact, this is precisely the theme that Revelation calls for. Our point in examining this record is not, as some would suppose, simply for astrological corollary or historical investigation. It is because the next step called for in the Book of Revelation is due to take place during our lifetimes.
Next week:
The Alpha and The Omega
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