Chapter Six

Chapter Six

Opening of the Seven Seals - The Fall of Paganism

In chapter five we were introduced to the book, which at first no one could open. Finally the slain Lamb, Christ, was found to be worthy to loose the seals and reveal the secrets of the book. In this chapter we will see the opening of six of the seven seals. We will find that the seals will reveal conditions in Rome that will take us up to the point at which paganism falls. This does not mean the fall of Rome as an empire, but the fall of paganism in Rome. The reason this is so significant is that Satan had extensively used this great heathen power to try and destroy the Lord’s Church. The pagan deities of Rome, by their very nature, were in direct opposition to God. When these time-honored gods were thrust aside it was testimony of the strength of Christianity in the Empire. What occurred in the Roman Empire certainly didn’t end paganism in the world, but it did end a string of six successive pagan empires who had in turned ruled the Mediterranean world; Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Media-Persia, Greece and then Rome. Until the fourth century A.D. paganism, in its various forms, had always been the world’s dominant religion. Since then it has been Christianity.

Verses one through eight of this chapter contain the description of four men riding four differently colored horses. These four men are quite often referred to as the “Four horsemen of the Apocalypse.” We will find, however, that they merely represent conditions within the Roman Empire during the first three centuries of the Lord’s Church.

History also provides us with insight into the corruption that plagued the Roman Empire during this period, corruption that would play a vital role in its downfall.

“From the earliest days of the republic, the noble families of Rome had valued honesty, simple living, and strict moral conduct. But few could resist the lure of the riches that now poured into Rome from across the seas. Senators were required by law to hold most of their property in land and were forbidden to engage in business. Many of them, however, found ways of sharing in the new opportunities for profit-especially those who secured appointments as provincial administrators. Gradually the old republican virtues were eroded by the temptations of wealth. Plain living and discipline gave way to indulgence and moral decay.”[1]

6:1 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.

After all of the ado about the book, we are finally going to see what it contains. John watches as Christ breaks the first seal. Then he heard one of the four creatures which had been worshipping God, call out to him. The creature told John to come forward and see what the first seal would reveal. The voice of the creature was mighty and powerful like thunder, similar to the other voices John has heard in Heaven (Revelation 1:10; 4:1; 4:5).

6:2 And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.

John saw that the first seal revealed a white horse. Upon the horse was a warrior equipped with a crown and a bow, who went about conquering. This does not symbolize Christ as so many assume. The Bible never pictures Christ with a bow, He always has a sword. This horse and rider symbolizes the period of prosperity in the Roman Empire. The bow represents their military might, and the crown their great power and authority.

“…the Romans owed much of their military superiority to armies of skilled archers.”[2]

This was the time when Rome conquered who they would; they were supreme upon the face of the earth; no one could stand in their way.

“(27 B.C. - A.D. 180) The reign of Augustus marked the beginning of the Pax Romana (Roman peace), which lasted for 200 years. No country was strong enough to wage a major war on Rome, or to pose a serious threat to the frontiers. Commerce flourished, and the standard of living rose.”[3]

“The dynasty of Vespasian and his sons (Titus, A.D. 79-81, Domitian, A.D. 81-96) became extinct on the murder of the last named, whose high-handed treatment of the senate earned him the name of a tyrant; his successor, Nerva (A.D. 96-98), opened the series of ‘adoptive’ emperors (Trajan, A.D. 98-117, Hadrian, 117-138, Antonius Pius, 138-161, Marcus Aurelius 161-180) under whose rule the empire enjoyed a period of internal tranquility and good government. Its boundaries were extended by the subjugation of northern Britain by Agricola, A.D. 78-84, by the annexation of the districts included in the angle of the Rhine and Danube under the Flavian emperors, and the conquest of Dacia (the modern Transylvania) under Trajan (completed in A.D. 106). Trajan also annexed Arabia Petraea and in his closing years invaded Parthia and formed provinces of Armenia, Mesopotamia and Assyria; but these conquests were surrendered by his successor, Hadrian, who set himself to the task of consolidating the empire and perfecting its defenses. To him is due the system of permanent limits of frontier fortifications, such as the wall which protected northern Britain and the palisade which replaced the chain of forts established by the Flavian emperors from the Rhine to the Danube. The construction of these defenses showed that the limit of expansion had been reached, and under M. Aurelius the tide began to turn. A great part of his reign was occupied with wars against the Marcomanni, Quadi, Sarmatians, etc., whose irruptions seriously threatened the security of Italy. Henceforth Rome never ceased to be on the defensive.”[4]

The period of peace and prosperity represented by the white horse prevailed during the first 150 years of the Church. It gave the fledgling Church time to grow and mature to the point that it was able to withstand the rough ride to come, as the Empire began to experience serious problems. The ending of the so-called ‘Pax Romana’ in A.D. 180 coincides with the end of the period of time covered by the church at Ephesus. This is no coincidence.

6:3 And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see.

6:4 And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.

Now the second seal is opened, and the second of the four creatures tells John to come forward and see what it will reveal. This seal reveals a horse, as did the first one. But this horse is red instead of white. The red color represents blood. The period of prosperity known as the ‘Pax Romana’ has ended and a period of great internal strife and chaos ensued. The rider of the horse had been given power to “take peace from the earth,” and that is exactly what he did. And he did it with a “great sword” which shows his impact was to be very significant and very violent. “That they should kill one another,” implies that this is to be an internal struggle, where Romans would fight against Romans. And indeed history records that this is exactly what happened.

“The third century was a time of revolts and civil wars and of fierce attacks against Rome’s distant frontiers.”[5]

“During the turbulent third century even the pretense of lawful succession was discarded; the provincial armies battled to advance their favorite candidates. One ruler after another was assassinated, and the succession was determined by the clash of legions. (Because of this fact, the third century is often referred to by historians as the period of the ‘barracks emperors.’) Surprisingly, many of the emperors so chosen proved to be forceful and competent leaders. But this did not save them from violent death, and their terms of office were generally short. At a time when the Empire was crying out for wise leadership, its human resources were being squandered.”[6]

“Rome’s two centuries of prosperity ended with the death of Emperor Commodus in 192. In the following years the political balance shifted to the military. Leaders of the Praetorian guard and the army began to murder emperors almost at will and to replace them with new rulers, who in turn were murdered one after another. During the third century dozens of emperors claimed the throne, but many of those men were really no more than political gamblers or warlords who for a short time purchased the loyalty of soldiers within the army.”[7]

“(180 - 285) Warfare lasting 100 years followed the two-hundred years of peace. Rome found itself threatened in both the east and west by barbarian tribes. To meet these threats, the empire doubled the size of its army. The increased drain on men and resources caused an economic crisis. For almost 100 years, the army put emperors on the throne and removed them at will. During one 67-year period, there were 29 emperors and claimants to the throne, only four of whom died natural deaths. These ‘barracks emperors’ engaged in almost continuous fighting, and usually lived in camps near the frontiers.”[8]

Clearly we can see that this period is very aptly described by a red horse. Roman blood flowed freely during this time, and most of it was shed at the hands of other Romans.

6:5 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.

6:6 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.

Now the third seal is opened and the third of the four creatures tells John to come forward and see what is revealed. Again it is a horse as was the case with the first two seals. This horse is black in color, representing doom and despair, a time of want, poverty, and famine. This is a natural consequence of the bloodshed and internal chaos that has just occurred. Rome is now feeling the results of the violence which has nearly torn it apart from the inside. The rider of this horse was carrying a scale in his hand which showed that he was to affect the buying and selling of goods. The scale represents commerce and trade, because most commodities, even today are weighed before they are sold.

“A measure of wheat for a penny.” A measure was approximately 1 quart. A “penny” or denarius, was about one days wages. These prices were about ten times normal, showing very high inflation. This period is reminiscent of the times predicted in Ezekiel 4:16-17 concerning Israel. “Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight, and with care; and they shall drink water by measure, and with astonishment: that they may want bread and water, and be astonished one with another, and consume away for their iniquity.” The Roman Empire was now experiencing similar conditions. It was collapsing militarily, socially, and economically.

“The economy of the empire nearly collapsed during this period. Defense costs had risen as raiders plundered the holdings of the empire on several frontiers. Moreover, the emperors had been supplying the inhabitants of Rome with free food and public games-a fairly effective means of political domination, but a heavy drain on the economy. Adding to these financial problems was a shortage of silver, on which the imperial currency was based. The emperors resorted to depreciating the currency, but this forced people to hoard what silver they had and actually drove more of the metal out of circulation. The result was a disastrous inflation. In fact experts conclude that during the third century prices in Egypt soared to between fourteen and twenty times their earlier level.”[9]

“To the north, German tribes continued to threaten the Empire’s borders, while the Parthian Kingdom challenged Rome’s frontiers in the East. The imperial coffers had been drained by the earlier military campaigns of Marcus Aurelius; finances were henceforth to be a problem that plagued all Roman leaders. Marcus Aurelius had made matters worse by devaluing the Roman currency 25 per cent and by selling imperial treasures to raise additional revenue. Now Severus devalued the money by another 25 per cent, and in addition raised existing taxes and devised new ones. One source of income came to be the confiscation of the property of Severus’ political enemies, or of those citizens who contributed too slowly to his campaigns.

But none of these measures was sufficient. Just as the age of peace had brought Rome prosperity for which all emperors could take credit, so the age of wars brought economic and social difficulties which no emperor could resolve. The increasing taxation which war required depleted the treasuries of provincial cities and also of individual citizens: some members of the upper classes were driven to forfeit their rank and retire to lower social orders where the financial burdens were less. Thus, paradoxically, higher taxes led to a decline in revenues. At the same time, the numbers of the poor increased. To ease their burden-and allay their unrest-Severus systematically distributed food, money and medicine, putting an additional strain on the imperial budget. The state, it seemed, could not meet all the demands that were placed upon it, yet could not endure without meeting them.”[10]

The problems multiplied many times over as the Empire weakened and its enemies, who were now quite numerous, no longer trembled at the mention of the Roman name.

“Such was the state of Rome under the reign of Honorius, at the time when the Gothic army formed the siege, or rather the blockade, of the city. By a skilful disposition of his numerous forces, who impatiently watched the moment of an assault, Alaric encompassed the walls, commanded the twelve principal gates, intercepted all communication with the adjacent country, and vigilantly guarded the navigation of the Tiber, from which the Romans derived the surest and most plentiful supply of provisions. The first emotions of the nobles and of the people were those of surprise and indignation, that a vile barbarian should dare to insult the capital of the world; but their arrogance was soon humbled by misfortune; and their unmanly rage, instead of being directed against an enemy in arms, was meanly exercised on a defenseless and innocent victim. Perhaps in the person of Serena the Romans might have respected the niece of Theodosius, the aunt, nay even the adoptive mother, of the reigning emperor; they abhorred the widow of Stilicho; and they listened with credulous passion to the tale of calumny which accused her of maintaining a secret and criminal correspondence with the Gothic invader. Actuated, or overawed, by the same popular frenzy, the senate, without requiring any evidence of her guilt, pronounced the sentence of her death. Serena was ignominiously strangled; and the infatuated multitude were astonished to find that this cruel act of injustice did not immediately produce the retreat of the barbarians and the deliverance of the city. That unfortunate city gradually experienced the distress of scarcity, and at length the horrid calamities of famine. The daily allowance of three pounds of bread was reduced to one-half, to one-third, to nothing; and the price of corn still continued to rise in a rapid and extravagant proportion. The poorer citizens who were unable to purchase the necessaries of life, solicited the precarious charity of the rich; and for a while the public misery was alleviated by the humanity of Laeta, the widow of the emperor Gratian, who had fixed her residence at Rome, and consecrated, to the use of the indigent, the princely revenue which she annually received from the grateful successors of her husband. But these private and temporary donatives were insufficient to appease the hunger of a numerous people; and the progress of famine invaded the marble palaces of the senators themselves. The persons of both sexes, who had been educated in the enjoyment of ease and luxury, discovered how little is requisite to supply the demands of nature; and lavished their unavailing treasures of gold and silver to obtain the coarse and scanty sustenance which they would formerly have rejected with disdain. The food the most repugnant to sense or imagination, the aliments the most unwholesome and pernicious to the constitution, were eagerly devoured, and fiercely disputed, by the rage of hunger. A dark suspicion was entertained that some desperate wretches fed on the bodies of their fellow-creatures whom they had secretly murdered; and even mothers (such was the horrid conflict of the two most powerful instincts implanted by nature in the human breast), even mothers are said to have tasted the flesh of their slaughtered infants! Many thousands of the inhabitants of Rome expired in their houses, or in the streets, for want of sustenance; and as the public sepulchers without the walls were in the power of the enemy, the stench which arose from so many putrid and unburied carcasses infected the air; and the miseries of famine were succeeded and aggravated by the contagion of a pestilential disease.”[11]

The above passage obviously requires no comment on my part.

6:7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.

6:8 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.

Now the fourth seal is opened and John is told by the fourth creature to come forward and see what is revealed; it is yet another horse. This time it is pale in color, this represents sickness and death. As a body loses blood it becomes pale in color, revealing its imminent death. As a result of the black horse, which represented famine and want, times become even worse in the Roman world. Death from various causes became widespread throughout the Empire.

“After A.D. 200 the economic situation was made even worse by a decline in population. This came about mainly from repeated outbreaks of disease, first brought to Italy by Roman troops that had campaigned in Syria. The disease was evidently a type new to the Mediterranean region (possibly measles or smallpox), for the population showed little resistance to it. Many additional deaths were caused by the warfare and famine that accompanied the Germanic invasions of Italy.”[12]

“The Severan Dynasty ended in 235 with the death of Severus Alexander, last of the line, who was murdered by his own troops on the Rhine frontier; they were outraged at his attempt to bribe invading barbarians whom they preferred to fight. In his place they proclaimed as Emperor a crude, towering Thracian soldier, Maximinus. A shepherd who had risen through the ranks, Maximinus had never even been to Rome. With his rise to power, also, the Empire’s internal peace came to an end. The reign of Maximinus ushered in a half century of civil wars, compounded by barbarian incursions, financial collapse, spreading famine and recurring plague. The Severan policy of placating the Army had brought Rome to a state of military anarchy.

Under Maximinus, the demands of Rome upon its people and provinces grew more rapacious than ever. Herodian says that ‘after reducing most of the notable houses to poverty, and finding the income obtained thereby small and insufficient for his purpose, Maximinus began to lay hands on the public treasuries.’

Maximinus lasted as Emperor only four years, but his successors did little better. In the chaotic fifty years from the death of Severus Alexander to the advent of Diocletian, there were some 20 emperors and a host of usurpers who held parts of the empire for short times. The reign of these emperors averaged about two and a half years and, with the exception of one who died with the plague and another who was captured by Persians, emperors and usurpers alike all met violent deaths. Most of them were made and unmade at the whim of the Roman soldiers, who proclaimed and assassinated emperors mainly for their own profit.

During these dark years, enemies breached the Empire’s frontier on almost all sides. In the East, the reviving Persian Empire menaced, Egypt, Syria, and the whole of Asia Minor; on the Rhine, Franks and Alemanni broke into Gaul and even Spain. In Africa, Berber tribes raided Roman cities and towns. Often the Roman armies sent against these invaders did as much damage to Roman communities as the aggressors.

As the wars raged-including civil wars: for 14 years Rome actually was governed as two separate nations-the finances of the Empire utterly collapsed. The denarius and the antoninianus, chief silver coins of the realm, lost more than 90 per cent of their silver content: in effect, they were copper coins washed with silver. Soldiers and civil servants were increasingly paid in goods and commodities. Inflation gripped the money market, and the price of goods soared. A peck of wheat which sold for half a denarius in the Second Century was fixed at 100 denarii by the end of the third. In the Egyptian town of Oxyrhynchus, bankers refused to handle Roman money and tried to return to the Ptolemaic coins used some 300 years earlier.”[13]

In reality the black and pale horses could be considered together. The want and famine of the black horse and the death of the pale horse are directly related; both were going on at the same time.

We have now seen a successive weakening of the once mighty Roman Empire. It is on the verge of total economic and social collapse. Its borders are being quickly eroded on several fronts by advancing barbarians. Although Rome had yet to fall it was definitely teetering.

6:9 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:

Now the fifth seal is opened, but instead of a creature calling John to come see another horse, he sees something entirely different. He sees something very sad and disturbing, the souls of many faithful Christians who were murdered because of their faith. The fact that they are under the altar shows that they were “sacrificed” to God. Because of their faith they allowed themselves to be slain rather than deny the Lord. From the first days of the Church there had been persecution. At first most of it came from the Jews, but later on the Romans also joined in, fearing the rapid spread of Christianity to be a threat to the Empire. This persecution climaxed during a ten year period from 303 to 313, during which the Roman Emperor Diocletian sought to destroy Christianity. In times of such great social and economic distress that we have just witnessed, leaders often look for scapegoats or diversions. Someone to either pin the blame on, or to distract the people’s attention from the real problems. Christians were often a convenient target for desperate Roman emperors.

“Sporadic persecutions, the severity of which is hard to judge, and long periods of peace marked the history of the Church into the third century. Then only amid general social crisis, did some emperors attempt a systematic suppression of the Christians. Decius in 250-251, Valerian in 257-260, and above all Diocletian in 303-313, sought to extirpate the Christian name; their concern with this menace to the state was a tribute to its now established strength.”[14]

“Diocletian was also desirous of reviving the ancient pagan religion of Rome. He himself took Jupiter as his patron, and Maximian chose Hercules. The Manichaeans, followers of a dualistic religion that stressed the conflict between good and evil, were persecuted under his regime. Their religion had been preached first in the 3d century by a Persian named Mani, and Diocletian probably persecuted them because he distrusted their eastern connections at the time of his campaign against Persia. At the opening of the 4th century the Christians had been largely undisturbed by the imperial government for more than 40 years. But largely, it seems, at the instigation of Galerius, who came more and more to dominate the aging emperor, Diocletian, by a series of edicts commencing in 303, began the ‘Great Persecution’-the last, probably the bloodiest, and the longest of the persecutions of the church.”[15]

“At the ascension of Diocletian the Church lay under an ancient ban of the state, though it enjoyed de facto toleration. The numbers of Christians had grown so remarkably that perhaps 10 per cent of the Empire was Christian, including members of the imperial government and the army. On the other hand, pagan opposition on the intellectual level had become much sharper. Porphyry, pupil of Plotinus, had once spoken well of Christ but later wrote a slashing attack ‘Against the Christians’ in which he assailed Paul as incoherent and coarse and pointed out inconsistencies in the Bible. The eucharist, to Porphyry, was cannibalistic, and Christian doctrine nonrational. By 300, a considerable body of directly anti-Christian material was in circulation, ranging from the philosophic to the scurrilous.

In restoring order to the Empire Diocletian was unusually tolerant toward political foes, but displayed no enthusiasm for intellectual deviations. The first general prohibition of astrology came in his reign. The alchemists of Egypt were banned and their writings burned. In about 297 he fulminated against the Manicheans, who also seemed connected with the revolt in Egypt; his edict sweepingly proclaimed his ‘great desire to punish the obstinacy of wicked mind among the most evil men.’ Unlike Aurelian, Diocletian did not favor a syncretistic Sun worship and sought rather to reinvigorate the old state faith of Jupiter Capitolinus, ‘Jupitor conservator,’ as he was called on coins among other titles; to emphasize his divine protection Diocletian was called Jovius, and Maximian-the active protector of the realm-was termed Herculius. Nevertheless Christianity continued to exist in an uneasy toleration down to 303, when Diocletian’s illness perhaps reinforced his prejudices and weakened his political sensitivity.

The Diocletianic persecution was the worst the church ever experienced. In the opening blow, on February 23, 303, the Christian church at Nicomedia-in sight of the palace-was invaded and burned, and the Holy Scriptures within it were deliberately given to the flames. Edict followed edict to sharpen the punishments for the recalcitrant and broadened the persecution from the honestiores and office-holders to include the clergy and then all the laity; but at the abdication of Diocletian the persecution had not achieved its ends. Galerius, who may have had considerable responsibility for starting it in the first place, continued the assault intermittently down to 311, when he issued an anguished decree of toleration on April 30.”[16]

“It is somewhat surprising that having for many years maintained his predecessors’ policy of tacit toleration of the Christians, Diocletian should have taken drastic action toward the end of his reign, and it seems likely that, as stated by Lactantius, Galerius, who was undoubtedly a rabid pagan and whose influence increased in Diocletian’s latter years, was the prime mover of the persecution. It is unlikely, however, that Diocletian acted contrary to his own convictions. He seems to have been a religious man of rather old-fashioned piety. There is extant a law of his against incestuous marriages which is strongly religious in tone: in it he declared that the continued favor of the immortal gods to the Roman empire was dependent on the subjects’ leading pious, religious and chaste lives. In another law he enacted the severest penalties against the new sect of the Manichees, partly because they derived their doctrines from the hostile race of the Persians, but more on the general ground that the established religion was inspired by the immortal gods and that all innovation was impious. Diocletian is therefore unlikely to have viewed with favor a sect which denied all the gods in favor of a newfangled deity, but it was apparently with reluctance that he undertook the formidable task of trying to extirpate it.

According to Lactantius he was first roused to action when at an official sacrifice the priests, unable to obtain omens, declared that Christians present, by making the sign of the cross, had offended the gods. Infuriated by this contumacious obstruction of public worship, Diocletian ordered that all Christians be discharged from the army and civil service unless they sacrificed. This probably happened about 298, and it was not until about five years later that Diocletian, having consulted the oracles, issued his first general edict against the Christians (Feb. 23, 303). It enacted that all copies of the scriptures should be surrendered and burned, that all churches should be closed and meeting of Christians banned. Two fires in the palace at Nicomedia-alleged to have been engineered by Galerius-were imputed to Christian incendiaries, and a second edict was issued, ordering the arrest of all the clergy. Some months later the imprisoned clergy were all forced to sacrifice, and then, with the exception of a few obstinate recusants, released. Finally in the spring of 304 an edict was issued, ordering all the inhabitants of the empire to sacrifice. The persecution ceased in the west after Maximian’s abdication, but in the east continued intermittently until 313.”[17]

This was without doubt the most intense period of persecution the Church has ever seen. There are no accurate records of how many Christians died during this time, but certainly many lost their lives holding on to their faith. This is all synonymous with the ten figurative days or ten literal years spoken of by Christ in His letter to Smyrna. “Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life” (Revelation 2:10).

6:10 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?

The martyred saints asked God how long He would allow to stand the nation which had so cruelly brutalized and murdered many of them. There were murdered saints present from almost three centuries of persecution. The Roman Empire had been responsible for their deaths both directly and indirectly. At first indirectly by consenting to the Jewish persecution of Christians, then, later by directly persecuting Christians as a danger to the Empire. These saints wanted to know how long it would be before God would bring judgment on this pagan Empire.

In this request by the saints their reverence for God’s wisdom can be seen. They refer to Him as “holy and true.” They know that His judgments are just and that when the time is right He will indeed take vengeance on these murderers. “Avenge our blood” simply means to avenge their deaths. The Bible equates blood with life; “For the life of the flesh is in the blood” (Leviticus 17:11). Therefore the shedding of blood can be equated with death. So when the saints ask God to avenge their blood, which was shed in their deaths, they are actually asking Him to avenge their deaths.

6:11 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 fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.

The sad picture of all these saints who were brutally murdered, turns out not to be so bad after all. They may have met an untimely and cruel end in their physical lives, but they are being rewarded beyond measure in their spiritual lives because of their faith. White robes were given to them which signifies their purity and innocence, having been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb.

Then they received an answer to their question which was asked in the previous verse. They were told to wait and be patient for a little time and then their deaths would be avenged. There were still others who had to meet a fate similar to theirs before God brought an end to paganism in Rome. As mentioned earlier this long period of persecution was capped off during a very harsh ten year period from 303 to 313. Finally, in 313 the Emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Toleration which officially recognized Christianity and ended the persecutions. Certainly God did not enjoy seeing His people suffer, but He knew what was best. He knew when the proper time would come to bring down the pagan Empire which had so terrorized His people.

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;

6:13 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.

We have now come progressively forward in this chapter from the first century to the year 313. All of the first five seals have revealed something describing conditions in the Roman Empire, but now we come to the sixth seal. This is the first occurrence of the type of language in Revelation which some people find very disturbing. But we must keep in mind that these things are symbolic, and only represent some significant world event. When the sixth seal was opened there was an earthquake, which represents a time of great upset and trouble for the Roman Empire. The sun, moon, and stars are often used in the Bible to represent positions of authority and power.

Joseph had a dream in which he saw the sun, moon, and stars bowing down to him. The sun represented his father, the moon his mother, and the stars his brothers. “And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, ‘Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.’ And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, ‘What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?’...And Joseph was the governor over the land, and he it was that sold to all the people of the land: and Joseph’s brethren came, and bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth” (Gen 37:9-10; 42:6). So it is here in Revelation that these heavenly bodies are used to symbolize those in positions of high rank and esteem within the Roman Empire. Some great catastrophe is about to occur which will be very devastating to them.

If the sun were actually to become black this would be devastating to all the inhabitants of the earth. Without the light and warmth of the sun life could not exist here. This symbolically shows that the light and comfort which the Roman Empire has given to its citizens will cease. This will then leave them ‘out in the dark,’ as it were.

Figs are an important source of food in the area of Palestine, everyone looks to the fig tree to supply good things. Similarly, many look to the stars of the sky for assistance; the stars provide a means for navigation at night, they also can be used to determine the time of year. Were these stars to fall from the sky their usefulness would fall with them. Similarly, if a fig tree loses its figs in a windstorm before they are ripe, then they are of use to no one. This portrays the great feeling of loss in the Roman Empire from the impending disaster.

This is one of the places where we are able to determine with certainty that the language is figurative and not literal. Stars could not literally fall to the earth. The reason for this is that all stars are much more massive than the earth. If one star were to “fall to the earth” the earth would be completely annihilated by the impact. The so-called ‘shooting stars’ which are often witnessed at night throughout the year are not actually stars at all. Rather, they are pieces of space debris, generally fragments of rock and ice from comets which have crossed our orbit sometime in recent centuries, which burn up in a most spectacular fashion as they impact the earth’s atmosphere at tremendous speeds. If the earth ever were to collide with an actual star we would never survive to see it happen. All life on earth would have ceased to exist long before the actual collision, since no known life form can withstand the heat and radiation from a star.

6:14 And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.

“The heaven departed as a scroll,” means that the sky just curled up into a roll. Of course this will not literally happen, but it demonstrates the feeling of many in the Roman Empire. Their lives were going to be so altered, that it would seem like the sky was rolling up away from them.

Mountains and islands represent world powers and governments in the Bible. This is illustrated by a prophesy which predicted the establishment of the Church, which is here referred to as the “mountain of the Lord’s house.” “And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, ‘Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem’” (Isaiah 2:3). So this great upheaval which John speaks of that is about to occur, will affect many governments and powers around the world.

6:15 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;

6:16 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:

6:17 For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

Continuing the description of the impending disaster, John says that men, both small and great, will feel the bitter effects of what is about to happen. It is going to be widespread and affect all kinds of people. No amount of power or wealth will exempt anyone from what lies ahead. Its effect will be such that men will want to run away and hide from it, even preferring to be crushed by falling rocks than to be forced to endure the horrible crisis. They will also realize that God is the one who is bringing about these events as punishment for their evil deeds.

These last six verses have painted a very disturbing and unsettling picture. What could possibly be represented by all of these ominous signs? We must again recall that all of this is speaking of the Roman Empire. The fifth seal has brought us up to the year 313, now we need to look for the next great world event, and see if its impact on Rome would fit the description we find here in Revelation.

The same emperor, Constantine, who had put an end to persecution of the Church, was the very one who presided over this period of great turmoil and strife. First let us get a flavor of Roman life during this time.

“Constantine expanded the bureaucracy that Diocletian had established. By the end of his reign in 337 Constantine had set the pattern that remained throughout the fourth and later centuries. The whole state was now one rigid structure, almost one massive corporation, that brutally discouraged individual initiative.

Economic life suffered. Members of all trades and professions were grouped into corpora, or corporations, and to change profession was difficult. To make sure that the various services would be performed, the state made professions hereditary. We have seen that the state bound the tenant farmers, or coloni, to the soil. A small class of independent farmers clung to their existence, but the general trend was toward converting agricultural workers into near slaves.

Taxation continued to be oppressive. Constantine installed a system by which farmers paid taxes in the form of goods, but it is not clear that this change improved the plight of common citizens. There was a deep gulf between the monarch’s court and the common people.”[18]

We can see the worsening conditions within the Empire were affecting everyone. The common people as well as the upper class were suffering the effects of the changes sweeping the Empire. The acceptance of Christianity in 313 was another severe blow to many within the Empire. For almost a thousand years the same Gods had ruled the Mediterranean region. (The Romans adopted the Gods of the Greeks into their religious system and renamed them.) Now suddenly they were being thrust aside in favor of Christianity. To the devout pagans in the Empire this was a catastrophe. It would be just like the American government today declaring Islam the official religion of the United States. All Christians would feel crushed, and would seek some way to escape these changes.

“Constantine, however, observed that persecution had failed to crush the determined and well-organized sect. Instead, martyrdom seemed only to nourish its growth. At last, in 313, Constantine gave his personal support to Christianity and ordered complete freedom of worship throughout the territories under his control (Edict of Milan).

Although he continued to tolerate other faiths after 313, the emperor showed his preference for Christianity. The pagan cults survived for another century or more, but most citizens followed the emperor’s example.”[19]

“The last persecutions, which took place at the beginning of the fourth century, were failures. Many martyrs earned their reward, but public opinion had shifted from contempt to compassion for the Christians. It was clear that the Church could not be broken. At last, when Constantine came to power and was won over, people began to accept the fact that the cross had conquered the crown and had actually enlisted it as an ally against the pagan rear guard.”[20]

The final blow to the pagan Empire came in 330 when Constantine moved the capital of the Empire from Rome to Constantinople.

“Constantine, having rebuilt Byzantium in 324, moved the imperial capital to Byzantium, which he dedicated in 330 as the city of Constantine, or Constantinople, now Istanbul. From his new capital, he ruled unto his death.”[21]

Rome had been the center of the world for almost 500 years. Now suddenly it had lost its importance and became second city in the Empire. So much of the city was built around the government, as is the case with any capital. Imagine how Washington D.C. would react if the U.S. government said it needed to be more centrally located, and moved the federal government to Nebraska. The loss of jobs and tax revenues would destroy the city. It would lose its glamour and appeal. Its population would drop dramatically. For the people remaining behind there would be widespread unemployment, poverty and a certain increase in crime. And what of all the businesses which depend on the city for their livelihood? The economic and political consequences would be disastrous for that region.

This is exactly what happened to Rome. Their heart was ripped right out from their chest. All the people of Rome felt great despair and horror. A calamity worse than anything they could have ever imagined had just happened to them. And it was much worse with Rome than it would be with Washington D.C. Rome was almost literally the center of the world. As the old saying went “All roads lead to Rome.” Rome had been the center of all economic, political, social, and religious activity for centuries. Now, suddenly, all of that changed.

It is reminiscent of the stock market crash of 1929, the so-called “Black Thursday.” People actually threw themselves out the windows of tall buildings because of the money they had lost in the stock market. Their world had come crashing down, and they could not bear to even think about it. Just like John’s description “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.” The people of Rome, for the most part, would not have known that all of their problems were the result of the wrath of God coming upon them. But they could certainly see that the acceptance of Christianity occurred at the same time as their great disaster. The first emperor to embrace Christianity was the one who shattered their world. Thus they could have quite easily felt that there was some relationship between the two events. This is the reason they would say, “For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?”

Satan had attempted to destroy Christianity with paganism, but he failed. Instead of Christianity succumbing to paganism, just the opposite occurred. Satan’s hopes of triumph over God’s people now seem to have been shattered right along with the lives of those in Rome. But we need not think Satan will give up so easily. Throughout history he has been repeatedly defeated by God, yet, to his credit, he always keeps coming back and trying again. The destruction of paganism in Rome will not be the end of Satan. He still has a few tricks left up his sleeve, as we shall soon see.

[2] Funk & Wagnall’s, 1973, s.v. “archery.”

[3] World Book, 1985, s.v. “Roman Empire.”

[8] World Book, 1985, s.v. “Roman Empire.”

[10] Moses Hadas, Imperial Rome, (New York, NY: Time Inc., 1965), p. 183.

[15] Encyclopedia Americana, (New York, NY: Americana Corporation, 1989), s.v. “Diocletian.”

[16] C. G. Starr, A History of the Ancient World, (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1965), pp. 678-9.

[17] Britannica, 1972, s.v. “Diocletian.”

[21] Funk & Wagnall’s, 1973, s.v. “Constantine I.”