The Sixth Seal of Revelation
Revelation 6:12-14
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.
The sixth seal of Revelation 6:12-17 presents terrifyingly vivid imagery. When Jesus tore open this seal, a great earthquake occurred, the sun turned black, the moon became like blood, and stars fell from the sky. After these calamities, Heaven disappeared like a rolled-up scroll, and every mountain and island was displaced. This seal signifies a historical event so momentous that it was represented by allegories of unnatural celestial phenomena.
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Verse twelve contains the first earthquake metaphor in Revelation, all of which represent monumental shifts in both Christian and world history. The earthquake represents a tumultuous religious event on earth. The metaphor is replicated later in both Revelation’s sixth trumpet and the final warning of Revelation, the seventh vial. Of these three earthquake prophecies, the sixth seal and the sixth trumpet will be similarly significant, but the earth would recuperate. The seventh vial is the most violent, and is defined in Revelation 16:18 as “a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth.” The fulfillment of the sixth seal prophecy would cause a substantial religious disruption in Rome following the Great Persecution.
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In Biblical prophecy, the sun, moon, and stars often represent leadership structures. The Old Testament prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel wrote remarkably similar prophecies foretelling the downfalls of the enemies of Israel. Ezekiel delivered a prophecy to the Egyptian pharaoh in Ezekiel 32:7-8 predicting Babylon’s victory over Egypt at the Battle of Carchemish in 605 BC. In it, the prophet describes a darkening of the sun, moon, and stars.[1]
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Isaiah’s prophecies often had both short-term and long-term meanings. In Isaiah 13, the short-term fulfillment was a physical battle—a prophecy fulfilled in 539 BC when Cyrus the Great, king of the Medo-Persian Empire, conquered Babylon. God used the Medo-Persians to exact revenge on the Babylonians for their defeat of Israel and the resulting Jewish captivity. The long-term fulfillment will be God’s eventual victory over Mystery Babylon.[2]
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Isaiah was later shown another prophetic vision, this time representing the fall of Edom, where “all the host of heaven” dissolves. Just as they do in the sixth seal of Revelation 6, the heavens roll up like a scroll, and the host—meaning a large number or multitude—falls from the sky. This represents another prophetic example of celestial objects falling like figs from a tree.[3]
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The heavenly bodies, always so structured and orderly, were suddenly disrupted upon Jesus’ opening of the sixth seal. The great politico-religious earthquake unleashed with the sixth seal signifies such a significant event that it would send shockwaves throughout the Roman Empire and forever change world history: Constantine’s conversion to Christianity following the 312 AD Battle of the Milvian Bridge.
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Verse fourteen predicts that every mountain and island would be “moved out of their places.” Scholars do not interpret this as a physical movement but as a symbol of the consequential shift in the Roman religious and political landscape caused by Constantine’s conversion. Albert Barnes, in his Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Book of Revelation, explained the sixth seal this way; “This would denote convulsions in the political or moral world, as great as would occur in the physical world if the very mountains were removed, and the islands should change their places. We are not to suppose that this would literally occur; but we should be authorized from this to expect that, in regard to those things which seemed to be permanent and fixed on an immovable basis, like mountains and islands, there would be violent and important changes. If thrones and dynasties long established were overthrown; if institutions that seemed to be fixed and permanent were abolished; if a new order of things should rise in the political world, the meaning of the symbol, so far as the language is concerned, would be fulfilled.”[i]
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Revelation 6:15-17 predicted people would be so terrified by the event these metaphors represent that both rich and poor, powerful and powerless, would hide from God. Imagine the uncertainty of dueling emperors battling so close to your city that you can see the commotion. A messenger enters Rome and spreads the news that Constantine and his men saw a vision of a Christian Chi-Rho symbol, of which he made a gold replica so that it could be carried into battle at the vanguard of his army as he led them to victory. Suddenly, the pagan persecutors risked becoming the persecuted. Rome’s military and political leadership abruptly faced an uncertain future. Would Constantine exact revenge on those who persecuted Christians? It is easy to imagine the Roman nobles hiding in fear upon hearing news of the emperor’s religious conversion.
Revelation 6:15-17
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 early nineteenth-century English theologian Joseph Benson wrote, “The great lights of the heathen world, the sun, moon, and stars, the powers civil and ecclesiastical, were all eclipsed and obscured, the heathen emperors and Caesars were slain, the heathen priests and augurs were extirpated, the heathen officers and magistrates were removed, the temples demolished, and their revenues appropriated to better uses.”[ii] The Roman aristocratic class—the same authorities who were slaughtering Christians only one year prior—now found their emperor had converted to the religion of their victims.
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Constantine quickly legalized all religions through the Edict of Milan. He then merged Christianity with Roman paganism, which laid the foundation for the Catholic Church and fulfilled Paul’s apostasy of II Thessalonians 2:3. The last verse of chapter six says, “For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?”
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Revelation 7: Marking God’s Servants
The answer to that question is found almost instantly, at the beginning of chapter seven. In this vision, John saw four angels holding back the four winds of the earth. A fifth angel told the others not to hurt the earth, sea, or trees until he first sealed the servants of God. This seal is not visible—it is a spiritual mark identifying followers of Jesus to protect them from Hell. The people righteous enough to receive God’s seal are those who “shall be able to stand” in Revelation 6:17.
Revelation 7:1-3
1 And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.
2 And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea,
3 Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.
This mark is the contrasting seal to the Antichrist’s mark of the beast in Revelation 13. The religious revolution caused by Constantine’s conversion created a dichotomy between the Catholics of Satan’s false church and the Christians of Jesus’ true church. For most, Catholicism was indistinguishable from Christianity, and it developed into the authority on what it meant to be “Christian.” At this consequential moment, God cut through the deception of pseudo-Christianity to identify and protect his followers.
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God’s purpose for labeling true Christians was not to protect them from the physical harm of the upcoming Great Tribulation but to save them from a second, spiritual death. Similarly, these four angels do not allow the earth, seas, and trees to be “hurt” until after this sealing occurs. God had promised the Smyrna church age, “He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.” The sixth seal occurred when the Smyrna church age ended with the Edict of Milan, and the seal of Revelation 7 was his way of identifying the souls who would not be deceived by Catholicism and would receive eternal life.[iii]
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However, Revelation 7:4 says the number of sealed believers is limited to only one hundred forty-four thousand “children of Israel,” far less than the number you would expect to see if Heaven contained souls from across all human history.
Revelation 7:4
4 And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.
Before agonizing over your eligibility to enter Heaven, verse nine should put you at ease. In it, John saw another group of Christians from all nations, kindreds, people, and tongues praising God. The number of believers in this group was so large that John wrote that they could not be counted.
Revelation 7:9-10
9 After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;
10 And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.
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[1] Ezekiel 32:7-8 7 And when I shall put thee out, I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light. 8 All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee, and set darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord God.
[2] Isaiah 13:1, 10 1 The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see. 10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
[3] Isaiah 34:4-5 4 And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree. 5 For my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment.
[i] Barnes, Albert. 1860. “Chapter VI.” In Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Book of Revelation, by Albert Barnes, 162-196. New York: Harper & Brothers.
[ii] Benson, Joseph. 1847. “Revelation Chapter VI.” In The New Testament of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ: With Critical, Explanatory, and Practical Notes, 728-729. New York: Lane & Tippett.
[iii] Rev. 2:11 (KJV).