Sixth Seal - sun becomes black

Rev 6:12  And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;

(Daniel and Revelation by Uriah Smith - Excerpts)

The Darkening of the Sun.

--Following the earthquake, as announced by prophecy, "the sun became black as sackcloth of hair."

(((The following is based upon the fact this book was written only a little over a hundred years after this happened, 1897.   We know right now that people who are living today in the year 2015, have heard of things that happened over a 100 years ago, we know it as our history. In the early 1900's we will recall the following-

• 1901 - William McKinley assassinated

• 1901 - Theodore Roosevelt becomes President

• 1901 - U.S. Steel founded by John Pierpont Morgan

• 1902 - First Rose Bowl game played

• 1903 - Great Train Robbery movie opens

• 1903 - Ford Motor Company formed

• 1903 - First World Series

• 1903 - The Wright brothers make their first powered flight in the Wright Flyer

• 1904 - Roosevelt Corollary to Monroe Doctrine

• 1904 - Panama Canal Zone acquired

• 1904 - Worlds Fair St. Louis

• 1905 - Niagara Falls conference

• 1905 - Industrial Workers of the World

• 1906 - Susan B. Anthony dies

• 1906 - Pure Food and Drug Act and Meat Inspection Act

• 1906 - San Francisco earthquake

• 1907 - Oklahoma becomes a state

• 1907 - Coal mine explodes in Monongah, West Virginia, killing at least 361. Worst industrial accident in American history.

• 1908 - Ford Model T appears on market

• 1908 - Federal Bureau of Investigation established

• 1909 - The U.S. penny is changed to the Abraham Lincoln design

• 1909 - William Howard Taft becomes President

• 1909 - Robert Peary claims to have reached the North Pole

• 1909 - NAACP founded by W. E. B. Du Bois

• 1911 - First ever Indianapolis 500 is staged; Ray Harroun is the first winner

• 1912 - RMS Titanic sinks

• 1912 - New Mexico and Arizona become states

• 1912 - Girl Scouts of the USA was started by Juliette Gordon Low

• 1912 - Theodore Roosevelt shot, but not killed, while campaigning for the Bull Moose Party

• 1913 - Woodrow Wilson becomes President

• 1913 - 16th Amendment, establishing an income tax

• 1913 - Henry Ford develops the modern assembly line

• 1914 - Mother's Day established as a national holiday

• 1915 - RMS Lusitania sunk

• 1916 - U.S. acquires Virgin Islands

• 1917 - U.S. enters World War I

• 1918 - Treaty of Versailles ends World War I

• 1919 - Theodore Roosevelt dies

• 1919 - United States Senate rejects Treaty of Versailles and League of Nations

• 1919 - 18th Amendment, establishing Prohibition

• 1919 - Black Sox Scandal during the that year's World Series, wherein the fallout lasts for decades

1920s

• 1920 - 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote

• 1920 - First radio broadcasts in Pittsburgh and Detroit

• 1921 - Warren G. Harding becomes President

• 1924 - J. Edgar Hoover is appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation — predecessor to the FBI.

• 1925 - WSM broadcasts the Grand Ole Opry for the first time.

• 1926 - NBC founded as the U.S.'s first major broadcast network

• 1927 - Charles Lindbergh makes first trans-Atlantic flight

• 1927 - The Jazz Singer, the first "talkie" (motion picture with sound) is released

• 1927 - U.S. citizenship granted to inhabitants of U.S. Virgin Islands

• 1927 - Columbia Broadcasting System (later called CBS) becomes second national radio network in the U.S.

• 1928 - Disney's Steamboat Willie opens, the first animated picture to feature Mickey Mouse

• 1928 - Kellogg–Briand Pact

• 1928 - Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.

• 1929 - Herbert Hoover becomes President

• 1929 - St. Valentine's Day Massacre

• 1929 - Immigration Act

• 1929 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummets a record 68 points over a two-day period, setting off the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and triggering the Great Depression

• 1929 - The Museum of Modern Art opens to the public in New York City

• 1929 - American Samoa officially becomes a U.S. territory

• 1929 - The Great Depression Starts

From <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_United_States_history_(1900%E2%80%9329)>

This is history and people RECALL history.  While we might NOT recall this great dark day in 1897 they were still recalling it vividly.))))

This part of the prediction has also been fulfilled. We need not here enter into a detailed account of the wonderful darkening of the sun, May 19, 1780. Most persons of general reading, it is presumed, have seen some account of it. The following detached declarations from different authorities will give an idea of its nature:

"Dark Day, The. May 19, 1780--so called on account of a remarkable darkness on that day extending over all New England. . . . The obscuration began about ten o'clock in

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the morning, and continued till the middle of the next night, but with differences of degree and duration in different places. . . . The true cause of this remarkable phenomenon is not known."

"In the month of May, 1780, there was a very terrific dark day in New England, when 'all faces seemed to gather blackness,' and the people were filled with fear. There was great distress in the village where Edward Lee lived, 'men's hearts failing them for fear' that the Judgment-day was at hand; and the neighbors all flocked around the holy man, [who] spent the gloomy hours in earnest prayer for the distressed multitude."

"The time of this extraordinary darkness was May 19, 1780," says Professor Williams. "It came on between the hours of ten and eleven A.M., and continued until the middle of the next night, but with different appearances at different places. . . .

"The degree to which the darkness arose was different in different places. In most parts of the country it was so great that people were unable to read common print, determine the time of day by their clocks or watches, dine, or manage their domestic business, without the light of candles. In some places the darkness was so great that persons could not see to read common print in the open air, for several hours together; but I believe this was not generally the case.

"The extent of this darkness was very remarkable. Our intelligence in this respect is not so particular as I could wish; but from the accounts that have been received, it seems to have extended all over the New England States. It was observed as far east as Falmouth [Portland, Maine]. To the westward we hear of its reaching to the furthest parts of Connecticut, and Albany. To the southward it was observed all along the seacoasts, and to the north as far as our settlements extend. It is probable it extended much beyond these limits in some direct-

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tions, but the exact boundaries cannot be ascertained by any observations that I have been able to collect.

"With regard to its duration, it continued in this place at least fourteen hours; but is probable this was not exactly the same in different parts of the country.

"The appearance and effects were such as tended to make the prospect extremely dull and gloomy. Candles were lighted up in the houses; the birds, having sung their evening songs, disappeared, and became silent; the fowls retired to roost; the cocks were crowing all around, as at break of day; objects could not be distinguished but at very little distance; and everything bore the appearance and gloom of night."

"The 19th of May, 1780, was a remarkable dark day. Candles were lighted in many houses; the birds were silent and disappeared, and the fowls retired to roost. . . . A very general opinion prevailed that the day of judgment was at hand." [20]

Whittier, in a well-known poem, pictures it thus:

" 'Twas on a May-day of the far old year

Seventeen hundred eighty, that there fell 

Over the bloom and sweet life of the Spring, 

Over the fresh earth and the heaven of noon, 

A horror of great darkness, like the night 

In day of which the Norland sagas tell,-- 

The Twilight of the Gods. The low-hung sky 

Was black with ominous clouds, save where its rim 

Was fringed with a dull glow, like that which climbs 

The crater's sides from the red hell below. 

Birds ceased to sing, and all the barnyard fowls 

Roosted; the cattle at the pasture bars

Lowed, and looked homeward; bats on leathern wings 

Flitted abroad; the sounds of labor died; 

Men prayed, and women wept; all ears grew sharp 

To hear the doom-blast of the trumpet shatter 

The black sky, that the dreadful face of Christ 

Might look from the rent clouds, not as He looked 

A loving guest at Bethany, but stern

As Justice and inexorable Law."

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You can go to the following link which will give a cause for this great dark day, and they'll tell you because it was explained by a fire in Canada that it wasn't important to prophecy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England%27s_Dark_Day

Truly, God doesn't HAVE to use events that are inexplicable for signs, why would He? Why CAN'T HE who controls ALL things use a forest fire to bring about this DARK DAY which brought to people's minds of that time the coming of the Lord?  Signs are used to herald events- near and far.  Who are WE to presume that the signs are not from God? How dare we make that assumption.  God works in HIS time, and allows people to who will see to see, but those who would be blind will remain blinded. If you WANT excuses NOT to believe, to NOT comprehend, they will be abundant! Satan LOVES to supply a wealth of excuses to keep people in the dark and all who want them - have at them. I pray to God that I NEVER accept any excuse of Satan's but that the Holy Spirit opens my heart and mind to ALL the truth I need to be HIS!

More on all of this tomorrow, all by the GRACE and MERCY of our LORD and SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST NOW AND FOREVER!

AMEN!

Life now- temporary to eternity

Heb 2:9  But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.

Heb 2:14  Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

Heb 2:15  And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

Heb 2:16  For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.

Heb 2:17  Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.

Heb 2:18  For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.

Glorious truth!

Do you have a fear of death? Many do. Many also have a fear of life. It's so easy to understand why. There are so many things in life that cause fear. Pain, sickness, injury, deprivation, poverty to the point of life endangerment. We have control over so little in life, and those who try to convince you otherwise, they are deluded. The deluded are filled with self-delusions based upon their own unique experiences. They have these experiences and then believe all who choose can share in their experience if only they do certain things. They can't comprehend the reality that others are not them, and therefore will not find life as they find it. Pain in one might cause them to rise, another might experience pain and it causes them to be bitter and angry, still another might take on an attitude of pure despair in their pain.  The uniqueness we hold as individuals should be recognized but by and large it isn't and we are thrust into a society of norms regulated by majority rule. 

The truth of the matter is, pain is frightening. Depravation is discouraging. Injuries are depressing. Life is filled with many pains- emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual. And while I can sit back and spout my personal advice based on my personal experience, it has no weight behind it because it is unique to me and my personal unique life not another's.

We all have things in common, but not necessarily unique in details. 

Our Savior took on our flesh and blood, God in the flesh, choosing not to take on the flesh of angels.

Our Savior acknowledges that the Devil has the power over death.

How does the devil have this power?

God told mankind they would surely die if they did not trust in Him, their Creator.

Mankind believed God and trust Him.

The Devil didn't want mankind to trust God.

The Devil lied to mankind.

Mankind believed the Devil's lies.

Mankind stopped trusting their Creator.

The Creator allowed mankind to choose.

Mankind chose death, because God was true- in disobedience- no longer trusting, mankind would surely die.

Death is so much more than the mere ending of our lives. Death is living in the knowledge of death to come, it's living in a world that no longer has God as their all in all, but rather the Devil.

In choosing to believe the Devil over believing God, mankind switched allegiances to the Devil by that choice. 

The Devil- in who sin was birthed, gave to all mankind all that sin entails.

Jesus came to redeem mankind, to buy them back by the sacrifice of HIS LIFE, HIS GODLY, SINLESS LIFE.

We choose to believe that we've been redeemed, and the promise of that redemption is to be revealed fully at the last trump, when Christ shall appear and all those alive and dead in Him, will be reunited to live forever without sin, without death, without fear, without the Devil.

We have HOPE for the future promise to be fulfilled even as we suffer life and all its horrors right here and now.

Our hope is heaven, all else is TEMPORARY to eternity, even the worst of all things we may ever encounter.  And even the most chronic and awful of circumstances that we may endure for years and years and years, are still temporary to eternity! We need to have this HOPE, this eternal hope found only in our SAVIOR, not in ourselves or anything, any situation we are found in here and now in our temporary home.

Please Father, please, we would be YOURS. We would cling to YOU and YOUR promises just as the closest of all to you have had to do, cling to the promises through FAITH even when by all appearances in our lives there should be no hope, in You we MUST hope! 

By YOUR grace and mercy, Lord, by YOUR love now and forever!

In the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Amen! 

We are all equally...sinners.

1Ti 2:5  For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus

ONE MEDIATOR between God and men.

So how do people explain their attempts to put others as mediators between them and God?

We have ONLY ONE means of mediation.

Each of as INDIVIDUALS must accept Christ Jesus ALONE as our mediator.

We can ask for prayers from each other, but those prayers are for the ONLY MEDIATOR to intercede for us.  We cannot ask others to be our mediator- we cannot ask for mediators between us and Christ Jesus, there are NONE.  The mediator facilitates the way for reconciliation, and only ONE- Christ Jesus can bring reconciliation and Christ Jesus would have us come to HIM, not to any other.  Christ Jesus did NOT instruct His disciples to look to one another for salvation, but to look to Him for salvation. Yes, we are to pray for each other, and help each other but NEVER put each other, or any human whatsoever, upon a pedestal. We are truly ALL equal as sinners, every one of us! We cannot make any other person a sainted person, special in some unique way. Only GOD knows the hearts of men and only GOD knows the truth of what is within each of us. To put another person as special so as deserving honor and recognition is to say we know their hearts when we can't.  We don't have that power and we aren't expected to have that power. The most saintly seeming person in the entire world could in truth be the most deceptive in the art of satan's counterfeiting ways.  To ask such a one, a human being, to be mediator for us with God, with Jesus, is to be led astray by satan himself.

We are to PRAY to God the Father in Heaven and to Him alone, through the grace and mercy of our Savior, Jesus Christ!

We are NEVER to pray to another, not ever! To do so is to pray to a false god.

We must not be deceived! 

The Sixth Seal- The Great Earthquake

The Great Earthquake

Daniel and Revelation by Uriah Smith - Excerpt.

Revelation 6 -

Verse 12 And I beheld when He had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; 13 and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. 14 And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. 15 And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens 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 that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: 17 for the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

The Sixth Seal.--

Such are the solemn and sublime scenes which occur under the sixth seal.

A thought well calculated to awaken in every heart an intense interest in divine things is the consideration that we are now living amid the momentous events of this seal, as will presently be proved.

Between the fifth and sixth seals there seems to be a sudden and complete change from highly figurative to strictly literal language.

Whatever may be the cause, the change cannot well be denied. By no principle of interpretation can the language of the preceding seals be made to be literal, nor can the language of this any more easily be made figurative.

We must therefore accept the change, even though we may be unable to explain it.

There is a significant fact, however, to which we would here call attention. It was in the period covered by this seal that the prophetic parts of God's word to be unsealed, and many run to and fro, or give their attention to the understanding of these things, and thereby knowledge on this part of God's word was to be greatly increased. We suggest that it may be for this reason that the change in the language here occurs, and that the events of this seal, taking place at a time when these things were to be fully understood, are not couched in figures, but are laid before us in plain and unmistakable language.

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The Great Earthquake.--

The first event under this seal, and perhaps the one which marks its opening, is a great earthquake. As the most striking fulfillment of this prediction, we refer to the great earthquake of November 1, 1755, known as the earthquake of Lisbon. Of this earthquake, Robert Sears says:

"The great earthquake of 1755 extended over a tract of at least four millions of square miles. Its effects were even extended to the waters, in many places where the shocks were not perceptible. It pervaded the greater portions of the continents of Europe, Africa, and America; but its extreme violence was exercised on the southwestern part of the former."

 "In Africa, this earthquake was felt almost as severely as it had been in Europe. A great part of the city of Algiers was destroyed. Many houses were thrown down at Fez and Mequinez, and multitudes were buried beneath their ruins. Similar effects were realized in Morocco. Its effects were likewise felt at Tangier, at Tetuan, at Funchal in the Island of Madeira; . . . It is probable . . . that all Africa was shaken by this tremendous convulsion. At the North, it extended to Norway and Sweden; Germany, Holland, France, Great Britain, and Ireland were all more or less agitated by the same great and terrible commotion of the elements."

"The city of Lisbon . . . previous to that calamity . . . contained about . . . 150,000 inhabitants. . . . Mr. Barretti says, 'that 90,000 persons are supposed to have been lost on that fatal day.' "

Sir Charles Lyell gives the following graphic description of this remarkable phenomenon:

"In no part of the volcanic region of Southern Europe has so tremendous an earthquake occurred in modern times as that which began on the 1st of November, 1755, at Lisbon. A sound of thunder was heard underground, and immediately afterwards a violent shock threw down the greater part of that

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city. In the course of about six minutes, sixty thousand persons perished. The sea first retired and laid the bar dry; it then rolled in, rising fifty feet above its ordinary level. The mountains of Arrabida, Estrella, Julio, Maravan, and Cintra, being some of the largest in Portugal, were impetuously shaken, as it were, from their very foundations; and some of them opened at their summits, which were split and rent in a wonderful manner, huge masses of them being thrown down into the subjacent valleys. Flames are related to have issued from these mountains, which are supposed to have been electric; they are also said to have smoked; but vast clouds of dust may have given rise to this appearance. . . .

"The great area over which this Lisbon earthquake extended is very remarkable. The movement was most violent in Spain, Portugal, and the north of Africa; but nearly the whole of Europe, and even the West Indies, felt the shock on the same day. A seaport called St. Ubes, about twenty miles south of Lisbon, was engulfed. At Algiers and Fez, in Africa, the agitation of the earth was equally violent, and at the distance of eight leagues from Morocco, a village, with the inhabitants to the number of about eight or ten thousand persons, together with all their cattle, were [was] swallowed up. Soon after, the earth closed again over them.

"The shock was felt at sea, on the deck of a ship to the west of Lisbon, and produced very much the same sensation as on dry land. Off St. Lucar [s], the captain of the ship 'Nancy' felt his vessel shaken so violently that he thought she had struck the ground, but, on heaving the lead, found a great depth of water. Captain Clark, from Denia, in latitude 36 degrees 24' N., between nine and ten in the morning, had his ship shaken and strained as if she had struck upon a rock. Another ship, forty leagues west of St. Vincent, experienced so violent a concussion that the men were thrown a foot and a half perpendicularly up from the deck. In Antigua and Barbadoes, as also in Norway, Sweden, Germany, Holland, Corsica, Switzerland, and Italy, tremors and slight oscillations of the ground were felt.

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"The agitation of lakes, rivers, and springs in Great Britain were remarkable. At Loch Lomond, in Scotland, for example, the water, without the least apparent cause, rose against its banks, and then subsided below its usual level. The greatest perpendicular height of this swell was two feet four inches. It is said that the movement of this earthquake was undulatory, and that it traveled at the rate of twenty miles a minute. A great wave swept over the coast of Spain, and is said to have been sixty feet high in Cadiz. At Tangier, in Africa, it rose and fell eighteen times on the coast; at Funchal, in Madeira, it rose full fifteen feet perpendicular above high-water mark, although the tide, which ebbs and flows there seven feet, was then at half ebb. Besides entering the city and committing great havoc, it overflowed other seaports in the island. At Kinsale, in Ireland, a body of water rushed into the harbor, whirled round several vessels, and poured into the marketplace."

If the reader will look in his atlas at the countries mentioned, he will see how large a part of the earth's surface was agitated by this awful convulsion. Other earthquakes may have been as severe in particular localities, but no other supplies all the conditions necessary to constitute it a fitting event to mark the opening of the seal.

*******

Revelation 6-

Verse 12 And I beheld when He had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake…

Prophetic understanding. It truly does make sense that in the same time the LITTLE BOOK would be open-

Dan 12:4  But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

Rev_10:10  And I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.

We KNOW that the book of prophecy - Daniel was a CLOSED book, it was SHUT UP until the time of the end.  This book was OPENED to comprehension in the 1700-1800's.  Not only was is opened so that one person was given comprehension, but several all over the world. What was once hidden was NOW seen.   THIS is TRUTH.

As the sixth seal was OPENED, this was the same time frame as the book of Daniel was being opened.

What an amazingly wondrous and devastatingly awful opening it was. Talk about something to give people pause, to get their attention, to draw them to comprehend their mortality, to look to things eternal, this great earthquake did all that.

Time- history going hand in hand with prophecy- this is undeniable proof.

All that has come to pass means all WILL come to pass. WE will live through prophecy as the Savior prepares to return for His elect.

By the grace of our LORD may we be among HIS ELECT!

More tomorrow, by His will.

In our Savior's name, in His love always!

Amen!

The fifth seal- a little season of rest

Excerpt from Daniel and Revelation by Uriah Smith-

Revelation 6 -

Verse 9 And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were 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, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? 11 And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.

The Fifth Seal.--

Under the fifth seal the martyrs cry out for vengeance, and white robes are given to them.

The questions that at once suggest themselves for solution are, Does this seal cover a period of time, and if so what period?

Where is the altar under which these souls were seen?

What are these souls, and what is their condition?

What is meant by their cry for vengeance?

What is meant by white robes being given to them?

When do they rest for a little season, and what is signified by their brethren being killed as they were?

To all these questions we believe satisfactory answers can be returned.

It seems consistent that this seal, like all the others, should cover a period of time, and that the date of its application cannot be mistaken if the preceding seals have rightly located. Following the period of papal persecution, the time covered by this seal would begin when the Reformation began to undermine the papal fabrication, and restrain the persecuting power of the Roman Catholic Church.

The Altar.--

This cannot denote any altar in heaven, as it evidently the place where these victims had been slain--the altar of sacrifice. On this point, Adam Clarke says: "A symbolical vision was exhibited, in which he saw an altar; and

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under it the souls of these who had been slain for the word of God--martyred for their attachment to Christianity--are represented as being newly slain as victims to idolatry and superstition. The altar is upon earth, not in heaven."

A confirmation of this view is found in the fact that John is beholding scenes upon the earth. The souls are represented under the altar, just as victims slain upon it would pour out their blood beneath it, and fall by its side.

The Souls Under the Altar.--

This representation is popularly regarded as a strong proof of the doctrine of disembodied spirits and the conscious state of the dead. Here, it is claimed, are souls seen by John in a disembodied state, and yet they were conscious and had knowledge of passing events, for they cried for vengeance on their persecutors. This view of the passages is inadmissible, for several reasons.

The popular view places these souls in heaven, but the altar of sacrifice on which they were slain, and beneath which they were seen, cannot be there. The only altar we read of in heaven is the altar of incense, but it would not be correct to represent victims just slain as under the alter of incense, as that altar was never devoted to such a use.

It would be repugnant to all our ideas of the heavenly state to represent souls in heaven shut up under an altar.

Can we suppose that the idea of vengeance would so dominate the minds of souls in heaven as to make them, despite the joy and glory of that ineffable state, dissatisfied and uneasy until vengeance was inflicted upon their enemies? Would they not rather rejoice that persecution raised its hand of their Redeemer, at whose right hand there is fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore?

But, further, the popular view which puts these souls in heaven, puts the wicked at the same time in the lake of fire, writhing in unutterable torment, and in full view of the hea-

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venly host. Now the souls brought to view under the fifth seal were those who had been slain under the preceding seal, scores of years, and most of them centuries, before.

Beyond any question, their persecutors had all passed off the stage of action, and according to the view under consideration were suffering all the torments of hell right before their eyes.

Yet, as if not satisfied with this, they cry to God as though He we delaying vengeance on their murderers. What greater vengeance could they want? Or, it their persecutors were still on the earth, they must know that they would, in a few years at most, join the vast multitude daily pouring through the gate of death into the world of woe. Their amiability is put in no better light even by this supposition. One thing at least is evident: The popular theory concerning the condition of the dead, righteous and wicked, cannot be correct, or the interpretation usually given to this passage is not correct, for they are mutually exclusive.

But it is urged that these souls must be conscious, for they cry to God. This argument would be of weight were there no such figure of speech as personification. But while there is, it will be proper on certain conditions to attribute life, action, and intelligence to inanimate objects. Thus the blood of Abel is said to have cried to God from the ground. (Genesis 4: 9, 10.) The stone cried out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber answered it. (Habakkuk 2: 11.) The hire of the laborers kept back by fraud cried, and the cry entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. (James 5: 4.) So the souls mentioned in our text could cry, and not thereby be proved to be conscious.

The incongruity of the popular view on this verse is apparent, for Albert Barnes makes the following concession: "We are not to suppose that this literally occurred, and that John actually saw the souls of the martyrs beneath the altar--for the WHOLE REPRESENTATION IS SYMBOLICAL; nor are we to suppose that the injured and the wronged in heaven actually pray for vengeance on those who wronged them, or that the redeemed in heaven will continue to pray with reference to things on

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earth; but it may be fairly inferred from this that there will be as real a remembrance of the wrongs of the persecuted, the injured, and the oppressed, as if such prayer were offered there; and that the oppressor has as much to dread from the divine vengeance as if those whom he has injured should cry in heaven to the God who hears prayer, and who takes vengeance." [12]

On such passages as this, the reader is misled by the popular definition of the word "soul." From that definition, he is led to suppose that this text speaks of an immaterial, invisible, immortal essence in man, which soars into its coveted freedom on the death of the mortal body. No instance of the occurrence of the word in the original Hebrew or Greek will sustain such a definition. It most often means "life", and is not infrequently rendered "person." It applies to the dead as well as to the living, as may be seen by reference to Genesis 2: 7, where the word "living" need not have been expressed were life an inseparable attribute of the soul; and to Numbers 19: 13, where the Hebrew concordance reads "dead soul." Moreover, these souls pray that their blood may be avenged--an article which the immaterial soul, as popularly understood, is not supposed to possess. The word "souls" may be regarded as here meaning simply the martyrs, those who had been slain, the words "souls of them" being a periphrasis for the whole person. They were represented to John as having been slain upon the altar of papal sacrifice, on this earth, and lying dead beneath it. They certainly were not alive when John saw them under the fifth seal, for he again brings to view the same company, in almost the same language, and assures us that the first time they live after their martyrdom is at the resurrection of the just. (Revelation 20: 4-6.) Lying there victims of papal bloodthirstiness and oppression, they cried to God for vengeance in the same manner that Abel's blood cried to Him from the ground.

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The White Robes.--

These were given as a partial answer to their cry, "How long, O Lord, . . . dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood?" They had gone down to the grave in the most ignominious manner. Their lives had been misrepresented, their reputations tarnished, their names defamed, their motives maligned, and their graves covered with shame and reproach, as containing the dishonored dust of the most vile and despicable of characters. Thus the Church of Rome, which then molded the sentiment of the principal nations of the earth, spared no pains to make her victims an abhorrence to all people.

But the Protestant Reformation began its work. It began to be seen that the church was corrupt and disreputable, and those against whom it vented its rage were the good, the pure, and the true. The work went on among the most enlightened nations, the reputation of the church going down, and that of the martyrs coming up, until the corruptions of the papal abominations were fully exposed. Then that huge system of iniquity stood forth before the world in all its naked deformity, while the martyrs were vindicated from all the aspersions under which that persecuting church had sought to bury them. Then it was seen that they had suffered, not for being vile and criminal, but "for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held." Then their praises were sung, their virtues admired, their fortitude applauded, their names honored, and their memories cherished. White robes were thus given to every one of them.

The Little Season.--

The cruel work of Roman Catholicism did not altogether cease, even after the work of the Protestant Reformation had become widespread and well established. Not a few terrible outbursts of hate and persecution were yet to be felt by the true church. Multitudes more were to be punished as heretics, and to join the great army of martyrs. The full vindication of their cause was to be delayed a little season. During this time Rome added hundreds of thousands to the vast throng whose blood she had already become guilty.

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But the spirit of persecution was finally restrained, the cause of the martyrs was vindicated, and the "little season" of the fifth seal came to a close.

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Revelation 6 -

Verse 9 And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were 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, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?

Our Savior opened the fifth seal. No beast spoke, not one of the 24 elders talked, simply- the fifth seal was opened.

John saw under the altar … and as all the previous seals were showing prophetic visions of symbolic things to take place upon earth, this one was no different.  John saw symbolically under the altar - just as John saw various colored horses in the first four seals- people who had been murdered because they believed in the truth of God and kept it. These dead when they were living, just as we live, know we would want vindication (by God) that all evil endured is done so knowing all good will come. All the tortures of our lives little and small will one day vindicated. Satan and all evil people will meet their end one day, their eternal end and they will suffer proportioned to the evil committed. This is truth in God's word!

Heb 10:27  But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.

Heb 10:28  He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:

Heb 10:29  Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?

Heb 10:30  For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people.

2Th 1:6  Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you;

2Th 1:7  And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,

2Th 1:8  In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:

2Th 1:9  Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;

2Th 1:10  When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.

11 And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.

More up until the end of time will be martyred, this is truth!

During this time many will WANT Christ to come- as through each age- but we are told- not yet.

Time is passing inevitably, each age unfolding.

We are in an age of prophecy as well, not a single person can escape this truth. Prophecy does not end until it's all fulfilled and that isn't until our Savior returns for us!

Please, Lord Jesus, please come soon, save us! We would be yours!

By the grace of God, through His love now and forever!

Amen.

The fourth seal- death in many ways

Excerpt from - Daniel and Revelation by Uriah Smith

Revelation 6-

Verse 7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. 8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.

The Fourth Seal.--

The color of this horse is remarkable. The original word denotes the "pale or yellowish color" that is seen in blighted or sickly plants. A strange state of things in the professed church must be denoted by this symbol. The rider of this horse is named Death, and Hell (hades, "the grave") followed with him. The mortality is so great during this period it would seem as if "the pale nations of the dead" had come upon the earth, and were following in the wake of this desolating power. The period during which this seal applies can hardly be mistaken. It must refer to the time in which the papacy bore its unrebuked, unrestrained, and persecuting rule, beginning about A.D. 538, and extending to the time when the Reformers began their work of exposing the corruptions of the papal system.

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"Power was given unto them"--"him," says the margin, that is, the power personified by Death on the pale horse, namely the papacy. By the fourth part of the earth is doubtless meant the territory over which this power had jurisdiction; and the words "sword," "hunger," "death" (that is, some infliction which causes death, as exposure or torture), and beasts of the earth, are figures denoting the means by which it has put to death millions of martyrs.

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AD 539-1500's.

Who among us hasn't heard of the awful things the Papacy- the church of the ruling power- did to people? Who hasn't heard of the corruption of the Papacy?  It's HISTORY!  We treat it as a sordid tale to be used for entertainment on television. We strip away the horror and call it all said and done.

Here is one article on the horrors of the Papacy-

1096 Roman Catholic crusaders slaughter half the Jews in Worms, Germany.

1098 Roman Catholic crusaders slaughter almost all of the inhabitants of the city of Antioch.

1099 Roman Catholic crusaders massacre 70,000 Muslims and Jews when they capture Jerusalem.

1208 – 1226 The Albigensian Crusades in southern France. Roman Catholic crusaders slaughter approximately 20,000 citizens of Beziers, France, on July 22, 1209. Albigensian Christians and Catholics were slain. By the time the Roman Catholic armies finished their “crusade,” almost the entire population of southern France (mostly Albigensian Christians) has been exterminated. During the six centuries of papal Inquisition that began in the 13th century, up to 50 million people were killed. Read what J. A. Wylie's The History of Protestantism has to say about the Crusades against the Abigenses

1236 Roman Catholic crusaders slaughter Jews in the Anjou and Poitou regions of western France. The Catholic crusaders trample to death under their horses 3000 Jews who refuse baptism.

1243 Roman Catholic mobs burn alive all the Jews in Berlitz, Germany (near Berlin).

1298 Roman Catholic mobs burn alive all Jews in Rottingen, Germany.

April 26, 1349 Roman Catholic mobs burn to death all Jews in Germersheim, Germany. 

1348 – 1349 The Jews are blamed for the bubonic plague. Author Dave Hunt tells us, “Accused of causing the ‘Black Death’ Jews were rounded up [by Roman Catholic mobs] and hanged, burned, and drowned by the thousands in revenge.”

1389 Roman Catholic mobs murder 3000 Jews in Prague when they refuse to be baptized.

1481 – 1483 At the direction of the Roman Catholic inquisitors, authorities burn at the stake at least 2000 people during the first two years of the Spanish Inquisition. 

1540 – 1570 Roman Catholic armies butcher at least 900,000 Waldensian Christians of all ages during this 30-year period.

1550 – 1560 Roman Catholic troops slaughter at least 250,000 Dutch Protestants via torture, hanging, and burning during this ten-year period. 

1553 – 1558 Roman Catholic Queen Mary I of England (aka “bloody Mary”) attempts to bring England back under the yoke of papal tyranny. During her reign, approximately 200 men and woman are burned to death at the sake. Her victims include bishops, scholars, and other Protestant leaders. 

Public Domain https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Assassinat_de_Coligny_et_massacre_de_la_Saint-Barth%C3%A9lemy.jpg...

1572 St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre. French Roman Catholic soldiers begin killing Protestants in Paris on the night of August 24, 1572. The soldiers kill at least 10,000 Protestants during the first three days. At least 8000 more Protestants are killed as the slaughter spreads to the countryside.

From <http://amazingdiscoveries.org/R-Reformation_Rome_crusade_slaughter>

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History.   No one made this up. No one invented these facts. This happened. Prophecy-history.

Do we dare believe? Do we dare not to?

Some will say that we are crazy and making things up to suit our personal agendas.  Let them talk, let them believe what they will.  History unfolds and prophecies come to pass and we are either allowed to see because we want truth, or we are allowed to remain blind because we would rather believe lies, fables, fairy tales that are meant to destroy us, not save us.

We will continue on with our prophecy study, and by the GRACE of GOD we will know only truth!

Please, let the Holy Spirit open our hearts and understanding to YOUR TRUTH, YOUR LOVE!

All by the Grace and Mercy of our SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST our LORD!

AMEN.

The third seal - corruption and want

Daniel and Revelation by Uriah Smith

Revelation 6 -

Verse 5 And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see.

And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.

 6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

The Third Seal.--

How rapidly the work of corruption progresses! What a contrast in color between this symbol and the first one: A black horse--the very opposite of white!

A period of great darkness and moral corruption in the church must be denoted by this symbol. By the events of the second seal the way was fully opened for that state of things to be brought about which is here presented. The time that intervened between the reign of Constantine and the establishment of the papacy in A.D. 538 may be justly noted as the time when the darkest errors and the grossest superstitions sprang up in the church. Of a period immediately succeeding the days of Constantine, Mosheim says:'

"Those vain fictions, which an attachment to the Platonic philosophy and to popular opinions had engaged the greatest part of the Christian doctors to adopt before the time of Constantine, were now confirmed, enlarged, and embellished in various ways. From hence arose that extravagant veneration for departed saints, and those absurd notions of a certain fire destined to purify separate souls, that now prevailed, and of which the public marks were everywhere to be seen. Hence also the celibacy of priests, the worship of images and relics, which in process of time almost utterly destroyed the Christian religion, or at least eclipsed its luster, and corrupted its very essence in the most deplorable manner. An enormous train of different superstitions were gradually substituted in the place

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of true religion and genuine piety. This odious revolution was owing to a variety of causes. A ridiculous precipitation in receiving new opinions, a preposterous desire of imitating the pagan rites, and of blending them with Christian worship, and that idle propensity which the generality of mankind have toward a gaudy and ostentatious religion, all contributed to establish the reign of superstition upon the ruins of Christianity."

Again he says: "A whole volume would be requisite to contain an enumeration of the various frauds which artful knaves practiced, with success, to delude the ignorant, when true religion almost entirely superseded by horrid superstition."

These quotations from Mosheim contain a description of the period covered by the black horse of the third seal that answers accurately to the prophecy. It is seen by this how paganism was incorporated into Christianity, and how during this period the false system which resulted in the establishment of the papacy, rapidly rounded out its full outlines, and ripened into all its deplorable perfection of strength and stature.

The Balances.--

"The balances denoted that religion and civil power would be united in the person who would administer the executive power in the government, and that he would claim the judicial authority both in church and state. This was true among the Roman emperors from the days of Constantine until the reign of Justinian, when he gave the same judicial power to the bishop of Rome."

The Wheat and the Barley.--

"The measures of wheat and barley for a penny denote that the members of the church would be eagerly engaged after worldly goods, and the love of money would be the prevailing spirit of the times, for they would dispose of anything for money."

The Oil and the Wine.--

These "denote the graces of the Spirit, faith and love, and there was great danger of hurting

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these, under the influence of so much of a worldly spirit. And it is well attested by all historians that the prosperity of the church in this age produced the corruptions which finally terminated in the falling away, and setting up the antichristian abominations."

It will be observed that the voice limiting the amount of wheat for a penny, and saying, "Hurt not the oil and the wine," is not spoken by anyone on earth, but comes from the midst of the four living creatures, signifying that although the undershepherds, the professed ministers of Christ, had no care for the flock, yet the Lord was not unmindful of them in this period of darkness. A voice comes from heaven. He takes care that the spirit of worldliness does not prevail to such a degree that Christianity should be entirely lost, or that the oil and the wine--graces of genuine piety--should perish from the earth.

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The progression through history, through prophecy fulfilled continues…

A black horse.  We all know that black and white are opposites.  White was the purity of the church before it became corrupt, red the descent into corruption, black the corruption so incredibly deep that its influence would be felt until the end of time. This corruption is the blackest.

Rev. 6 Verse 5 And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see.

And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.

 6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

The third beast speaks and says to John- 

Come and see.

John looked and saw a black horse.

The one who sat upon the black horse held a pair of balances. 

And a voice in the middle of the four beasts spoke saying-

A measure of wheat - for a penny.

Three measures of barley -  for a penny.

See thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

A time of want, a time of very little  justice, very little fairness. A time filled with selfish gain. A time of deception as truly truth was perverted by lies. Lies were introduced, melded with truth to give the appearance of truth. Lies that became so entrenched in what people believe is Christianity that unless people truly desire only the truth they will be allowed to believe the lies.

A dark time, but not dark enough to kill the Spirit and the Blood, the truth.  They could wound the truth deeply, but not destroy it. Throughout all time there have been those who have been allowed to know the truth and keep it so that it could be passed down.

Do we want truth? Only a few will.

Please, Father in heaven, let us be among those who would know ONLY Your truth!  We would NOT be deceived!

May we receive the blessing of the Holy Spirit upon us.

All through the mercy and love of Your only begotten Son, Jesus Christ!

Amen.