We Are Here To Serve You
Greetings!
THE SEALS OPENED
December 14, 2020
FIRST SEAL OPENED

Dr. Stephen R. Phinney

Why is it so important for us to understand Heaven? Even the unsaved people, who disregard God, who disregard Jesus Christ, and who certainly do not have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, wonder about Heaven. Many times people convert their lost dead ones into having some kind of paradise after death, so their funerals are filled with exaggerations of hope. 
 
Heaven is more than just hope for a better future. It is at the heart of God’s plan for all of creation. It is also the center of the human heart. The common experience of losing loved ones and eventually the loss of our own lives, make the issue of heaven one with which everyone must wrestle. 
 
We wonder what happens when we die; when a loved one dies. Have we lost our loved ones forever? Are they in a better place? Will we see them again someday? What is life after death? What is Heaven? Can we even know something about Heaven? I can assure you that Heaven is a source of hope, guidance, and meaning for every believer—for those who have received the Holy Spirit into their lives. Heaven gives us hope for our future destination and strength for our life in the present. It also gives us guidance for living as God’s people today in the here and now by giving us the certainty that there is more to life than this world. That applies both to the saved and the unsaved. The unsaved will have a type of life after death, but it simply will not be the eternal life on the New Earth.
 
We are going to be exploring some of the identity statements of true believers being people who are possessed by God. We are going to cover some of the seals that are being opened and how God used these seals to warn the people of what is to come. We will also broaden our perspective of Heaven. We will realize that Heaven is not only about hope but also about faith and the love of God, but a born-again experience can only inherit this.
 
THE LAMB BREAKS OPEN A SEAL
 
“Then I saw when the Lamb broke one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder, ‘Come.’ I looked, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer. When He broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, ‘Come.’ And another, a red horse, went out; and to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from the earth, and that men would slay one another; and a great sword was given to him. When He broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, ‘Come.’ I looked, and behold, a black horse; and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, ‘A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not damage the oil and the wine.’” Revelation 6:1-6
 
OVERVIEW | THE ANTICHRIST
 
Many of the teachers through the ages claimed to know who the Antichrist is: Martin Luther and John Calvin said it would be a Roman Catholic Pope, a generation or two believed it to be Adolf Hitler, and a growing percentage of Christians today believe it is a UN figure. Many ask if I believe the “he,” the Antichrist is living and active in the world today. That is an easy question to answer—it would be “yes!” The Antichrist is always alive and temporarily well. I believe that he, “Satan,” possesses a human leader each generation since he does not know the “appointed time” of his seven-year reign. For him, in every generation, it could happen. Therefore he is always setting up and preparing for the finals days. And this is why we will be spending the next few topics laying the foundation for this big topic. We need to stay away from conspiracy ideas and topics and focus our efforts on a historical blend of Biblical Eternal World View of modern times.
 
No matter how you look at it, things are certainly heating up in our world today. Revelation, chapter six, begins to unfold this great mystery. One of the four creatures shouts out the word like it was coming from a thundering rain cloud. John fixes his eyes on that long-awaited moment. He is an eye witness to the Divine revelations of God—he saw and heard them! Keep in mind that John previously was in tears due to the weight of the urgency of these seals being broken. Now the time has come, he responds to the thundering voice, and he sees the opening of the first seal—the revealing of the false Christ. Also remember that the rapture has already taken place, and now we are looking into the window of what is to come.
 
CRITICAL NOTE
 
The great white judgment of the seals and trumpets do not occur at the same time. One follows the other. The judgments that come with the seals are lesser than those that come from the trumpets. The Lamb of God is directly related to the judgments of the seals, and the angels are directly related connected to the judgments of the trumpets. God, Himself, is intimately connected to the vials (bowls) of wrath. 
 
 
THE FIRST SEAL — THE WHITE HORSE
 
Revelation 6:1-2
 
“Then I saw when the Lamb broke one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder, ‘Come.’ I looked, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.”
 
In this passage, we find Satan replicating Christ once again. There is much controversy regarding who is on this white horse. Most theologians mutually agree it is not Christ Jesus. We know this to be true because of Psalm 45 and Revelation 19:11. Second, we find this rider with a bow but no arrow and not a sword. The bow has been a Hebrew symbol from the beginning of man’s time as an instrument of terror in conquering with an iron hand. The sword, on the other hand, has been an eternal symbol of the sword of Truth. Plus, Jesus is to come from the sky, riding a white horse with a host of other riders clothed in white, also riding white horses. The rider I am referencing today is a fake. 
 
We can conclude that this seal is revealing none other than the false Christ known to all of us as the one of sin, the Antichrist. It is not just an antichrist; it is Satan himself in the flesh. The reason Satan is so deceptive and why he is such a suitable replicator is that he steals the pure symbols of Christ and uses them to accomplish his objectives. He has studied the customs, manners, symbols, and life of Christ with a mind of absolute intent. He knows how to deceive humanity because he knows mankind looks more to the externals than they do from the heart, and this is why so many will be deceived in the end. He will “look,” “sound,” and “act” just like the Original. It will take a believer in knowing the heart of Jesus to know the fake from the real.
 
When the bow is mentioned in Hebrew, it is always connected to “bow and arrow.” In this case, there's no arrow (Numbers 24:8; Psalm 45; Zechariah 9:14). When a ruler rides a white horse carrying a bow with no arrow, it is to symbolize he comes in peace, and this is what ushers in Satan’s first three and a half years of his tribulation of peace-peace-peace, but there will be no peace.
 
That the crown was given to him is another exciting factor. Crowns are always presented on the day of victory and not before. The rider comes into the scene with a crown that has been earned, a common mistake Satan makes throughout history. He probably does this because he knows that the Lord thy God will not give him one of his own. The passage begs for a question to be asked: who gave him this crown? The answer is simple: the people of the world—the lovers of this new “Christ.” These lovers will primarily be the Jewish people that are on earth during this time. They make a covenant agreement with Satan in their land with the promise that Satan will bring “peace” to all of Israel. But this “peace” will only last three and a half years, as I previously stated, and then all hell will break loose. If you remember from previous teachings, the first three and a half years of the tribulation will be based on socialism, and the second three and half years will be based on a monarchy.
 
Finally, he went out conquering and to conquer. Satan does obtain many victories in the land. He is undefeated in all that he does. He gives that grave appearance of being the great victor of all time. He then becomes worshiped by all nations for conquering and bringing “peace” to the entire world, but not for long. In the second half of his reign, he reveals his true character, or should I say the lack of it.

2020-21 Eschatology Series | Dr. Stephen R. Phinney
The "Eschatology Series" is an outreach of www.IOM America.net. All writing, and video productions are based on a study of the book of Revelation. All publications & media are from Dr. Phinney's book, "Eschatology, Unfolding the Power of Prophecy" - a two volume commentary.
Help us get these messages out to a panicked world. GIVE TODAY