If there’s one thing about Revelation that I think I understand to some extent, it’s chapter six. God has gifted me with a love of outlines. I have fond memories of my first outline. I was ten. My homeschool curriculum is written in outline form. Basically, it’s one huge outline.

I say this because Revelation six reads to me like an outline, an end-times outline.

The first seal is opened. There’s a white horse. He has a bow and a crown and He rides out conquering, and to conquer.

I know that some people think this is the revealing of the antichrist. I consider it the opposite! I see this as Jesus. I think of this as the end-times revival that many of us expect.

Jesus is described on a white horse later. A crown is given to this rider; He’s not taking it. But the thing that first set me thinking this way was the bow. I found it curious that it didn’t mention arrows. All of a sudden this didn’t seem like a conquest of the world but of hearts. He will do what’s necessary to make us ready.

The second seal releases violence on the earth. People are killing each other. This could mean war.

The third seal releases economic collapse. There’s a command to not touch the oil and the wine. I’m sure at some point I’ve written about God’s economy. We live under a different standard. They have two fish and five loaves and we have overflowing baskets. The oil and the blood, those washed clean by the blood of Christ and who overcome by the power of the Spirit, aren’t touched.

The fourth seal releases death over a fourth of the earth. This could be a geographic location, not a number of who will die. This is very reminiscent of prophecies elsewhere in the Bible about how they will die by one of these different ways. You can’t escape. If the one doesn’t get you, the other will. Again, the destiny of the believer is not wrath. Tribulation, yes, but not wrath. We are kept from the hour of trial if we were living that oil-and-wine life!

The troubles are around us. They affects us, but they have no power over us.