Six Seals - Revelation 6

6:1-2 - Jesus is standing in the midst of millions of angels, 24 elders in seats with crowns, 4 beasts, and God sitting on His throne and he holds in his hand a scroll with seven seals on it. Here is where “the Lamb” opens the first seal. Now, what do these seals represent, the IM explains saying, “each of the seven seals of the book was opened, John saw visions concerning a thousand-year period of earth’s history (see D&C 77:7). Thus, the first seal related to the first thousand years of earth’s revealed temporal history (from about 4000 to 3000 B.C.), and so forth.” As I read through chapter 6, I was just sad. I’m a white, American woman living in 2021 which is probably one of the most privileged existences to be had in all of human history, and even with all that, I’ve lived a life of violence. I’ve partially checked out of this life and I have had probably one of the easiest lives ever in comparison. This all begs the question, if my experience as one of the ultimate lucky ones has been so horrific that I am dead inside, then how bad was it have been for everyone else? All of these seals mostly just represent death and blood and horror, and it just makes me reflect on what the terror was that almost all of the human population lived and died through, and it makes me sad. The First Seal is opened and there is a man holding a bow riding a white horse, “and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.” To me, the white horse might indicate righteousness, the bow warfare obviously, and a crown victory in combat. We know through so much of the rest of the scriptures that the righteous are almost always called to battle. Well, almost everyone is called to combat, and some of those people happen to be righteous. It’s what happens to those righteous when in combat that is different however. I actually want to write a book about the Book of Mormon as a combat guide. I was in the army so I feel like I have a little bit of insight into the military, etc. Remembering that we are spanning a one thousand year timeline, I would imagine that this seal starts with Adam and all the craziness that goes into that. However, the IM quotes Elder Bruce R. McConkie as commenting that he believed that the man riding the horse was Enoch. He continues, “It is interesting to note that what John saw was not the establishment of Zion and its removal to heavenly spheres, but the unparalleled wars in which Enoch, as a general over the armies of the saints, ‘went forth conquering and to conquer.” This quote is cross-referenced with Moses 7:13-18 which describes Enoch as the leader of his people possessing such great faith that when their enemies came to battle against them, “he spake the word of the Lord” and invoked the power of nature, earthquakes, rivers, lions, tsunamis, all natural occurrences that the Lord employed to protect his people from their enemies. 6:3-4 – The second seal is opened and out comes a red horse and the man riding that horse was given power “to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.” These are the years between 3000 to 2000 B.C. Again, our historical record keeping is pretty much nothing at this point. The IM notes “widespread wickedness and violence characterized this time period, which included the Great Flood during the days of Noah.” Sitting here in 2021, it’s difficult enough to look back a couple of hundred years but to remember that there are millennia of time before mine, time and people and events of which I have absolutely no clue, to think that there was a time in earth’s history where people had become so evil and wicked that they ALL had to be drowned, the ENTIRE world’s population. That is unfathomable to me. Who was sitting on the red horse with the power to take away peace from the world? The IM suggests possibly Satan “for surely that was the great day of his power,” or it could have been “a man of blood, or a person representing many murdering warriors, of whom we have no record.” I struggle with the concept of someone being allowed to “take peace from the earth.” I feel like there is a balance between the amount of temptation Satan is allowed to offer, and the Spirit, and all types of other factors that go into the evilness of the world. I dispute that Satan has power to take peace from the earth, we know that those who have bodies have power over those who do not. But maybe I’m reading too much into this concept and what it really means is that humans took peace off the earth with their violent ways and it was Satan’s temptations that lead them down that path. I think back to our own most recent history with all the war and bloodshed and I can’t imagine a how much worse the time was when war and bloodshed were the hallmarks. 6:5-6 – The third seal is opened representing 2000 to 1000 B.C. and out comes a black horse and the man riding it is holding “a pair of balances in his hand… 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 IM suggests that this indicates famine with the balances, penny, wheat, and barley ratios showing that “a person could purchase only enough food to live on with a whole day’s wages, indicating extreme famine prices.” I don’t imagine that those people ate a lot during that time, so let’s say that we could live off of $20 worth of food a day, I don’t really have any idea about the math, etc. And what we make in a day, let’s say $200, I don’t know. Let’s just imagine that if food prices were such that $200 could only buy a loaf of bread and an apple of something like that. Talk about inflation. The IM references Genesis 41-42; Abraham 1,2,17,21 and notes, “As recorded in the scriptures, famines are characteristic of this time period.” 6:7-8 – The four seal is opened and here is a pale horse. I read that to mean an emaciated horse, but maybe it’s just a lighter color. Death sat on this horse which was followed by Hell. These were given power “over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.” This begs the question, what about the other ¾ of the earth, what was going on there at this time, maybe not terrible things. Then it occurred to me that this book of Revelation was meant for the people in that quarter of the world so it would make sense that the account given would be about that quarter. These are the years from 1000 B.C. to the birth of Christ, and we know a lot about what happened during that time. First, the IM suggests that Death and Hell represented “destruction of the wicked and their reception into spirit prison.” The IM comments further, “As recorded in the scriptures, great warring empires characterized this era: Assyria, Egypt, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome.” I find it interesting that we think about Alexander “the Great” and all these “Great” kings and rulers, and they are regarded as being “Great” because they conquered so much land and made their empire so large. But to the Lord, these men are “Death and Hell,” they aren’t doing amazing work, they aren’t doing anything positive at all. It’s just an interesting contrast between God’s definition of greatness and the world’s. 6:9-11 – The fifth seal covers the time from the birth of Christ until about 1000 A.D. There are no horses here, but an altar under which were “the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held.” We know that the beginning of this thousand year era was marked with mass Christian martyrdom, and there were many wars of religion. These souls who were under the altar could represent those who were martyred, and they were given white robes and told to “rest yet for a little season” until the rest of your martyred brethren get here. 6:12-17 - The sixth seal time period is from “about” 1000 to 2000 A.D but the IM clarifies “this thousand-year period will continue until just before Jesus Christ returns in glory and reigns personally on the earth,” so I’m not sure which one we’re in, but maybe we’ll figure it out here soon enough. The sixth seal is associated with seven events, a great earthquake, the sun being blacked out, the moon turning to blood, the stars of heaven falling unto the earth, the heavens opening like a scroll, mountains and islands moving out of the places, and finally every single type of person hiding “from the wrath of the Lamb.” The groups of “men” that were mentioned included seven categories, “kings, great men, rich men, chief captains, mighty men, bondmen, and free men.” The IM speculates, “the number seven suggests completeness or wholeness: no enemies of God will escape His wrath in the last days.” This might mean that there is all types of wickedness in all people regardless of their station or circumstances in this life and they will all be held accountable, or should I say we all will be held accountable. Another thing is that I’ve always heard it described as these “signs of the times” were supposed to be happening now at the end of the thousand year period in the seals, but I can’t seem to find anything indicating that. So we might be speculating which signs have happened and when, when in fact they might have been going on throughout the last one thousand years.