Zev Porat

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

The Unsealing - how all of the seals of Revelation were opened - and where we are now

By Michael D. Shoesmith

If there was ever a reason to snicker when people say there's no God and the Bible is just a book of myths this is it.

Carl Gallups of PPSIMMONS fame has given us nearly two hours of teaching on the seven trumpets of Revelation. He has brilliantly exposed the indisputable fact that these are the trumpet days of Revelation and the prophesied "End Time" is upon us. Click here to get a real education on the trumpets of the seventh seal.

We know without any doubt that we are currently in the trumpet days of the seventh seal but what about the first six? Let's examine the possibilities. (Note: The seals seem to be actual historical events which rules out stand-alone philosophies like Communism or Capitalism).

The first four deal with what is commonly known as the four horsemen of the Apocalypse. They appear to have begun their epic ride with Constantine as you will see... and they are riding even today. The fifth seems to be an entirely spiritual event taking place in heaven; the saints of God petitioning the almighty - asking Him when He will avenge the deaths of His people. "Not yet" is His reply. The sixth and seventh seals are so stunningly obvious that to remain a skeptic following the reading of this essay is to deny logic itself.

Not much information is given about the first two. We can safely point to two individuals whose exploits still impact the world today. Seals three through seven give us more detail and therefore more to work with. And so we have discovered that God is trustworthy and His book is a guide we ignore at out own peril.

The first seal...
Revelation 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.
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.


Constantine the Great (LatinFlavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus Augustus;[3] c. 27 February 272[2] – 22 May 337), also known as Constantine I or Saint Constantine,[4] was Roman Emperor from 306 to 337. Well known for being the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity,[notes 4] Constantine and co-Emperor Licinius issued the Edict of Milan in 313, which proclaimed tolerance of all religions throughout the empire.
Constantine defeated the emperors Maxentius and Licinius during civil wars. He also fought successfully against the FranksAlamanni,Visigoths, and Sarmatians during his reign — even resettling parts of Dacia which had been abandoned during the previous century. Constantine built a new imperial residence at Byzantium, naming it New Rome. However, in Constantine's honor, people called it Constantinople, which would later be the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire for over one thousand years. Because of this, he is thought of as the founder of the Eastern Roman Empire.

Constantine married the church with the political system. The bow and arrow was an important weapon for the ancient Romans and as you can see from the brief description of his reign he went "forth conquering and to conquer." For references to his white horse and other facets of Constantine's fulfillment of this prophecy see here.

Constantine represents the genesis of the Roman Catholic Church - the marriage between Roman government and the religious system of Christianity. This is the White Horseman of the Apocalypse. He will soon be joined with the other three.

The second seal...
¶And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see.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.Revelation 6:3,4


Charlemagne (c. 742 – January 28, 814 at Aachen), also known as Charles the Great (LatinCarolus Magnus or Karolus MagnusGermanKarl der GroßeDutchKarel de Grote) or Charles I, was the founder of the Carolingian Empire, reigning from 768 until his death. He expanded the Frankish kingdom, adding Italy, subduing the Saxons and Bavarians, and pushed his frontier into Spain. The oldest son of Pepin the Short and Bertrada of Laon, Charlemagne was the first Emperor in Western Europe since the fall of the West Roman Empire three centuries earlier.
Becoming King of the Franks in 768 following the death of his father, Charlemagne was initially co-ruler with his brother Carloman I. Carloman I's sudden death in 771 under unexplained circumstances left Charlemagne as the undisputed ruler of the Frankish Kingdom. Through his military conquests, he expanded his kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe.
Charlemagne continued his father's policy towards the papacy and became its protector, removing the Lombards from power in Italy, and leading an incursion into Muslim Spain. He also campaigned against the peoples to his east, forcibly Christianizing them along the way (especially the Saxons), eventually subjecting them to his rule after a protracted war. Charlemagne reached the height of his power in 800 when he was crowned as "Emperor" by Pope Leo III on Christmas Day.
Called the "Father of Europe" (pater Europae),[1] Charlemagne's empire united most of Western Europe for the first time since the Roman Empire. His rule spurred the Carolingian Renaissance, a revival of art, religion, and culture through the medium of the Catholic Church. Through his foreign conquests and internal reforms, Charlemagne encouraged the formation of a common European identity.[2][3] Both the French and German monarchies considered their kingdoms to be descendants of Charlemagne's empire.
Charlemagne died in 814 after having ruled as Emperor for just over thirteen years. He was laid to rest in his imperial capital of Aachen in today Germany. His son Louis the Pious succeeded him as Emperor.

Even though Charlemagne was instrumental in uniting Europe under his empire he was a man of war, doing so under the guidance and authority of the Roman Catholic Papacy (riding the red horse - red being the color of the Papacy) founded by Constantine. Charlemagne's exploits gave rise to the French and German monarchies; Germany giving birth to the Protestant movement. Rather than relying on the biblical template of allowing the Father God to draw people to himself using the preaching of the Word of God and the peaceful work of the Holy Spirit which convicts people of their need for salvation Charlemagne forced people to convert to the Roman Catholic religious system of superstition and relic worship effectively shutting down and usurping the work of almighty God.

The Third Seal...
Revelation 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  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 Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Although there were several competing theories as to the etiology of the Black Death, recent analysis of DNA from victims in northern and southern Europe indicates that the pathogen responsible was the Yersinia pestis bacterium, which causes the Bubonic plague, although these were different, previously unknown ancestral variants of those identified in the 20th century.[1][2]
The Black Death is thought to have started in China or central Asia,[3] before spreading west. The plague then travelled along the Silk Road and reached the Crimea by 1346. From there, it was probably carried by Oriental rat fleas living on the black rats that were regular passengers on merchant ships. Spreading throughout the Mediterranean and Europe, the Black Death is estimated to have killed 30–60 percent of Europe's population.[4] All in all, the plague reduced the world population from an estimated 450 million to between 350 and 375 million in the 14th century.
The aftermath of the plague created a series of religious, social and economic upheavals which had profound effects on the course of European history. It took 150 years for Europe's population to recover. The plague reoccurred occasionally in Europe until the 19th century.
In Europe, the Medieval Warm Period ended some time towards the end of the 13th century, bringing the "Little Ice Age"[17] and harsher winters with reduced harvests. In northern Europe, new technological innovations such as the heavy plough and the three-field system were not as effective in clearing new fields for harvest as they had been in the Mediterranean because the north had poor clay soil,[15] and the potato, otherwise ideal for Northern Europe, was an American crop unknown in Europe at the time. Food shortages and rapidly inflating prices were a fact of life for as much as a century before the plague. Wheat, oats, hay and consequently livestock were all in short supply. Their scarcity resulted in malnutrition, which increases susceptibility to infections due to weakened immunity. Consistently high fertility rates, at five or more children per woman throughout Europe, resulted in high population growth rates and contributed to food shortages. In the autumn of 1314, heavy rains began to fall, followed by several years of cold and wet winters.[15] The already weak harvests of the north suffered and the seven-year famine ensued. In the years 1315 to 1317, a catastrophic famine, known as the Great Famine, struck much of northwest Europe. It was arguably the worst in European history, reducing the population by perhaps more than 10 percent.[15]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Death

With the Black Death, the black horse of the Apocalypse is clearly fulfilled. Food shortages and rapidly inflating prices were a fact of life for as much as a century before the plague. The two are directly linked. Weakened immunity resulted from the malnutrition unleashing the black horse of the Apocalypse. With cases of the "black death" being reported to this day in many parts of the world this horse, as the other three, is still riding today.

The Fourth Seal...

And I looked, and behold a pale (green) 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.
Revelation 6:8
This one has to be Islam. The math is too solid to ignore. The prophecy states that power was given to them over the fourth part of the earth. High end estimates put the number of Muslims currently living at 1.8 billion (see here). With a world population sitting at roughly 7 billion that puts the high estimate of Muslims at exactly one fourth of the world's population.

Green is the official color of Islam (flags, etc). The prophecy states the color to be "pale" but should rather be interpreted green.


The color of Death's horse is written as khlōros (χλωρός) in the original Koine Greek,[14] which can mean either green/greenish-yellow or pale/pallid.[15] The color is often translated as "pale", though "ashen", "pale green", and "yellowish green"[12] are other possible interpretations (the Greek word is the root of "chlorophyll" and "chlorine"). Based on uses of the word in ancient Greek medical literature, several scholars suggest that the color reflects the sickly pallor of a corpse.[3][16]In some modern artistic depictions, the horse is distinctly green.[17]
Islam began in the seventh century with Muhammad and is the second largest religion on earth behind Christianity. The vast, vast majority of death by terrorism is the result of the teachings of Islam. As for the reference to "hunger" consider the fact that the Iranian Islamic regime would rather starve its own people than cooperate with the rest of the world and realize Israel's right to exist and halt their intentions to produce a nuclear bomb with which use to blackmail the world and rid the Middle East of Israel's presence. (See here)

The reference to "beasts" could easily refer to the way Islamic extremists treat people - even their own people - like brute beasts.



The Fifth Seal...
Revelation 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:
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.
This appears to be an entirely spiritual event; a reaction to what was going on in the earth.  The text speaks for itself. The dead were petitioning God - asking how long the killing would go on until He does something about it. This could also be a reference to the holocaust of abortion which is responsible for the deaths of millions or even billions of children around the world. It is also clearly a direct reference to deaths resulting from testimony about their beliefs. We must never forget the millions who have given their lives to the flames and wild animals rather than denounce the Lord their God.

The Sixth Seal...
Revelation 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;
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?
This prophecy was fulfilled with stunning accuracy with the 1556 Shaanxi earthquake. It was a catastrophic earthquake and is also the deadliest earthquake on record, killing approximately 830,000 people.[1] It occurred on the morning of 23 January 1556 in Shaanxi, during the Ming Dynasty. More than 97 counties in the provinces of ShaanxiShanxiHenanGansuHebei,ShandongHubeiHunanJiangsu and Anhui were affected.[2] An 840-kilometre (520 mi)-wide area was destroyed,[3] and in some counties 60% of the population was killed.[4] Most of the population in the area at the time lived in yaodongs, artificial caves in loess cliffs, many of which collapsed with catastrophic loss of life.

Verse 14 of the prophecy states mountains and islands were literally moved. In the annals of China the earthquake was described in this manner:
In the winter of 1556, an earthquake catastrophe occurred in the Shaanxi and Shanxi Provinces. In our Hua County, various misfortunes took place. Mountains and rivers changed places and roads were destroyed. In some places, the ground suddenly rose up and formed new hills, or it sank abruptly and became new valleys. In other areas, a stream burst out in an instant, or the ground broke and new gullies appeared. Huts, official houses, temples and city walls collapsed all of a sudden.[7]
The Portuguese Dominican friar Gaspar da Cruz, who visited Guangzhou later in 1556, heard about the earthquake, and later reported about it in the last chapter of his book, A Treatise of China(1569). He viewed the earthquake as a possible punishment for people's sins, and the Great Comet of 1556 as, possibly, the sign of this calamity (as well as perhaps the sign of the birth of the Antichrist). Read more here.

The prophecy states in verse 16 and 17 that people will in fact view it as punishment (wrath) from God.

The astronomical anomalies connected  to the prophecy could very well be explained by the Great Comet of 1556 which happened contemporaneously.

The Great Comet of 1556, known as C/1556 D1 in modern nomenclature, appears to have been seen in some places before the end of February; but it was not generally observed until the middle of the first week in March. Its apparent diameter was equal to half that of the Moon, and the tail resembled " the flame of a torch agitated by the wind,"—an expression doubtless referring to the coruscation which are sometimes visible in the tails of comets. Cornelius Gemma (the son of Gemma Frisius) says, the head of the comet, when it first appeared, was fully as large as Jupiter; its color resembled that of Mars. Read more here.

The Seventh Seal...

The Seventh seal is most abundant with information. We are currently in the trumpet days of the seventh seal with the first five having already blown. We will not cover that here because we have already done so with remarkable clarity in a separate article here.

Even though there may be room for refinement in the views expressed in this article my hope is that you will see your need to be right with God - to receive the free gift of salvation available only through the finished work on the cross. Jesus opened the doors to the adoption agency allowing all who come the ability to be called sons of God. Do it now... because the "End Time" is not coming... the "End Time" is now.

BONUS! For our "pretrib" friends!

 

================================
MAKES A GREAT CHRISTMAS GIFT!
 

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DON'T FORGET TO CHECK OUT Carl Gallups' Home Page -  http://www.carlgallups.com/   This is a daily site of devotions, videos, articles and Biblical inspiration. Use it in your life and use it as a witnessing tool!  Listen to this clip of Carl leading a talk show host back to the Lord - largely because of the host landing on Carl's site - amazing!  HERE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3gX-Buf_7s&feature=plcp


Pastor Carl Gallups is a best selling author, a conservative talk show host veteran, former Florida law enforcement officer and a long-time Senior Pastor of a large Gulf Coast Baptist Church. He is the founder of the mega-viral and world famous PPSIMMONS YouTube channel. His face, voice, opinions, and ministry materials are known to millions around the world.

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