Before we jump into the opening of the second seal lets review for a brief moment. The seal judgments in Revelation 6 mark the beginning of the Tribulation period, which is a period of seven years of God’s wrath on the unbelieving world. The church of Jesus will have been raptured before this period begins, I personally believe, according to the Scriptures. Now, the first seal has been opened and with the opening of the first seal we have the rise of the Antichrist.
The Antichrist will come into the world in an attempt to deceive many to believe that he is the Christ and he will be victorious in this deception. The reason he will be victorious is because he will have power to do signs and wonders and miracles. But his power does not come from God, it comes from Satan. In addition, with his rise to global power during the Tribulation period, he will run on the campaign of world peace. He will bring a peace treaty between Israel and all those nations who have always opposed Israel. He will even bring about a one world religion. That is a general summary of the opening of the first seal. Now, lets look ahead to the second seal.
We read the opening of the second seal in Revelations 6:3-4. It states, “When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, ‘Come!’ And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.” Remember, with the opening of each seal a horseman is summoned, and each horseman represents God’s judgment. This seal reveals the rider on the red horse.
This horseman represents warfare and bloodshed, hence the color of the horse – red for the color of blood. So, as the second seal is broken, there will be great warring and violence across the globe. Many even believe the opening of the second seal will result in World War 3. Dr. David Jeremiah says, “nation will rise against nation during the Tribulation and individuals will rise against each other. It will be a time of murder, assassination, bloodshed, revolution, and war.”
Think about that for a moment. Look at the world about you as it is now. Turn on the news. Listen to your radio. What seems to be abounding these days is lawlessness. I have heard many imply how bad these days are that we live in now. But if you believe now is bad, you do not want to be left on this earth when Jesus rapture’s His church. We haven not seen the likes of lawlessness compared to what will be during the Tribulation period.
Also, if you read yesterday’s blog on the opening of the first seal, I told you that the thought is that everything that happens with the opening of the next three seals are the result of the Antichrist’s rise to power. So then, we can safely say, as the Antichrist rises to power warfare and bloodshed will spread across the globe.