In this blog we are going to study the opening of the fifth seal judgment in Revelation 6:9-11. What I want us to do is read through it first and go back and break it down. Revelation 6:9-11 says, “When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witnesses they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, ‘O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?’ Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.” I have six observations I want to bring out of this text.
Observation #1: As we read our text the first thing we see is the fifth seal being opened.
“When he opened the fifth seal.” Now, we must remember who is opening the seals – Jesus. Remember, we discovered in Revelation 5 there is no one in heaven and no one on earth worthy enough to open the seven seals except for Jesus. And the reason Jesus is worthy enough to open the scroll is because he is the Lamb who was slain to ransom all people from every nation and every language for God by the shedding of his blood.
Observation #2: We don’t see any of the four living creatures summoning anyone when the fifth seal is opened.
If you recall the opening of seals 1-4 each time a seal was opened one of the four living creatures we had discussed in Revelation 4:6-9 were present calling out to one of the four horsemen to “come”. After the fourth seal is opened we don’t see that anymore.
Observation #3: But as the fifth seal is opened, the first object we see is an altar.
“When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar…” Now, this will not be last time you see this altar mentioned in Revelation. It is mentioned twice more in Revelation 14:18 & Revelation 16:7.
Since that is the case, my question is this: what is this altar? From my study of Scripture, this altar represents the altar of sacrifice in the Old Testament temple. In Exodus 27:1-8, after God delivered Israel from Egypt, God instructed Moses to make an altar out of acacia wood and overlay it with bronze. It was located within the Tabernacle that God had also instructed Moses to build, and it would have been the first object people would have seen as they entered into the Tabernacle.
What happened on this altar? What purpose did it serve? We know according to Leviticus chapters 1-5, the altar was the place of animal sacrifices. An animal would be slain on top of the altar, and according to Exodus 29:12, blood would run down the sides of the altar and be collected under the altar in a basin of some kind.
Why did they do this? The reason these animal sacrifices occurred was to make atonement for the people; to have their sins forgiven. The reason we don’t do them today is because the blood of Jesus has atoned for our sins once and for all.
Observation #4: If you notice, the Scripture says “I saw under the altar”, which means John was seeing something not on top of the altar but underneath it, which is where the blood would be collected from an animal sacrifice.
What is John seeing under the altar? John says when he looked under the altar, he saw, “the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne.” In other words, John is seeing the souls of believers who had been killed for bearing witness about Jesus.
Another term for these souls is martyr. A martyr is someone who willingly suffers and is put to death for their faith. Another way of putting it is this: It’s someone who would rather be put to death than renounce his or her faith in Jesus.
According to Jesus, as the world draws nearer to the rapture, Christian martyrdom will increase in the world. Jesus taught that one of the indications the rapture would be near is the hatred and murder of those who follow him. He put it like this in Matthew 24:9, “they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake.”
Truth is, Christian martyrdom has increased. According to The Center for the Study of Global Christianity in 2017, 900,000 Christians in the last decade have been martyred for the cause of Christ. That means 90,000 people a year or one person every six minutes from 2007 to 2017 was put to death for believing and bearing witness about Jesus.
Are these the souls of every person who has ever been martyred? The answer is no; these are not the souls of believers who have been or will be martyred prior to the rapture. The reason we know that is because according to 1 Thess. 4:13-18, when Jesus raptures his church, both living and dead believers will be called to be with him in heaven.
So, who are these souls then? You may have heard them referred to as Tribulation Saints. These are the souls of those who have come to believe in Jesus after the rapture of the church and the reason they are deceased is because the Antichrist will make war against them. If you recall, with the opening of the second seal there will be global warfare and bloodshed. One of the reasons the world will see war on the earth is because the Antichrist will make war against those who have come to believe in Jesus after the rapture.
Why will the Antichrist make war on those who come to believe in Jesus after the Rapture? If you recall, with the opening of the first seal the Antichrist will rise to world leader and as he does he will deceive many by claiming to be Christ, and will be very successful with this agenda. But those who have come to believe in Jesus post Rapture will oppose the Antichrist by bearing witness that Jesus is the Christ and not the Antichrist. As a result, the Antichrist will make war on these Tribulation Saints. So, one of the implications of Rev. 6:9 is that the Tribulation period will be a time of massacre and great persecution for anyone who believes in the name of Jesus.
Why are these souls seen under the altar? Remember, this altar is an example of the Old Testament altar where sacrifices were made on top and blood would be collected on the bottom. I think these souls are being pictured as living sacrifices for the cause of Christ.
Observation #5: Then, we see that these souls are shouting out from below the altar.
Verse 10 says, “They cried out with a loud voice.” The question is what and why are they crying out? Verse 10 says they are crying out, “O sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” They are lamenting over God bringing justice to the world on those who have put them to death for believing in Christ and preaching the gospel. They are asking how long will it be before God brings such justice? How long will it be before God takes vengeance out on those who have murdered these saints for beleiving in Christ and bearing witness about his name?
As I thought about this verse the thought occurred to me that some of us could ask the same question now. How long will it be before God has Jesus come and Rapture the church? How much longer do we have to bear the increasing wickedness of this fallen world? How much longer do we have to put up with the godlessness that is running rampant today in America? How much longer will it be before God pours out his wrath on this world for the evil that plagues our society?
I don’t know the answer to those questions. No one does. But what I do know is that we can all take comfort in knowing that God has his timetable and is working everything that is going on in the world accordingly.
Observation #6: In Revelation 6:11 those souls crying out from underneath the altar got their answer. And the answer is surprising.
Verse 11 says, “Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.” Notice they are “given a white robe”, which symbolizes victory and purity, and they are “told to rest a little longer.” In other words, for a little while longer, God will restrain his wrath against those who have persecuted and murdered those who had come to believe in Christ and preached the gospel post Rapture.
How long are they supposed to rest? They will have to rest until the very end of the Tribulation period. In Revelation 19 & 20, Jesus will make his Second Coming on earth and will reign for a thousand years before the final defeat of Satan in the battle of Armageddon. During the thousand year reign, these martyrs will come to life and reign with Jesus, and their rest will end.
Why is God waiting? What is God waiting on? Verse 11 says, “until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.” I take that to mean that God is restraining his wrath on those who persecute and murder those who come to believe in Jesus as their Lord after the Rapture until the last martyr has been slain. So, the answer seems to be that there are more martyrs to go. There will be more to lose their life on account of the gospel. And it’s likely that post Rapture believers will be slain throughout the entire seven year period, up to the very end.
How many will be slain? I don’t know. But I do believe there is a number. Verse 11, to me indicates, that there is a set number that God already knows, according to his foreknowledge, for how many more will be slain. And until that number is complete, God will not avenge those post Rapture Christians who have been slain.
When will God avenge these Tribulation Saints? There is a part of the Tribulation referred to as The Bowl Judgments or The Seven Bowls of God’s Wrath, which are towards the end of the Tribulation period found in Revelation 16. It’s during the outpouring of the third bowl of The Seven Bowl Judgments, when God will turn all fresh water, including all rivers and springs, into blood, that God will avenge those believers who have been martyred after the Rapture.