Lesson Four

The Fifth Seal - The Martyred Saints (part 3)

Revelation 6: 9-11

a) Martyred saints: After the four seals have been opened and the four horsemen have been released, the fifth seal is opened. This releases the martyrdom of the saints. Their blood is spilled and running under the temple of heaven, symbolizing the sin offering sacrifice before God. They are dressed in white robes, demonstrating their righteous purity before God that was purchased by the blood of Christ.

b) Martyred saints are seated around the throne dressed in white robes. This is before the second coming of God because they are asking the question, "How long?" This is pointing to when the Lord is going to put an end to the killing of the saints by Christ's return and the final judgement against sin and evil. This speaks about the baptism with fire that John the baptist said Jesus would bring.

c) Questions:

• How is it possible for the saints in heaven to ask this question if they don't see the injustices that have transpired on the earth?
• How is it that there is time in heaven?
• How did they get to heaven without the rapture?
• What form are they in: physical, disembodied?
• Does this disprove the doctrine of soul sleep, which teaches that after one dies, there is no more consciousness or existence of that person until the resurrection?

d) Soul Sleep: this verse disproves the notion of soul sleep. The martyred saints are able to see the events that are still being unfolded in earth as they are before the throne of God. In other words, as Paul puts it: "to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord" (2 Corinthians 5:8). And Jesus said this to the thief on the cross: "Today, you will be with me in paradise" (Luke 23:43). When a believer dies in Christ they are still in a conscious state of existence. Hebrew word "refa'im" describes the person after death as shadowy existence or "ghost." This term is used in Isaiah 14:9 about the dead.

e) Time in Heaven: We also see the saints in heaven having to wait, indicating that there is time in heaven of some kind. They asked the question: "How Long?" It is the same questions that the disciples as Jesus in Acts 1:6-7. Jesus answered no one knows the answer to that question but the heavenly Father. Time is a notion of not just earth but also heaven. In Genesis 1:1, it states: "In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth." Heaven has a beginning just like earth.

f) What is the significance of the Rapture? Is it the for the purpose of transporting God's people from earth to heaven? This is what soul sleep doctrine teaches, but how then do you explain the martyred saints who are already in heaven? If the martyred saints are already in heaven, why do they need to be raptured again? Depending what millennial view you have, it will determine how you understand the rapture. The millennium doctrine is from Rev 20 that describes 1000 year reign of Christ. We will go more in detail when we get to Revelation 20. But for now, there are three views of interpretation of the Rev 20 passage:

i. Amillennial view which believes the rapture happens at the end when Jesus comes back. Here, the rapture is synonymous to the resurrection of the saints; this does not include the sinners. However there is no such thing as two different resurrections in time. The resurrection of the saints and the sinners are happening at the same point in time. This view uses Rev 20 millennium as an analogy of the church today. The church is going through the millennium now as the kingdom of God reigns in the church through suffering.

ii. Premillennial view believes that the rapture happens to transport the church (living and dead believers) out of the earth into heaven before the tribulation period happens. Christ will come back with the church after the tribulation period to do the battle of Armageddon against the antichrist and the world. This is the most popular Hollywood view i.e. Movie, "Left Behind." The millennium comes after Jesus and the Church return to earth and win the battle. In this view, there are two resurrections and two different times in history: resurrection or rapture of saints before tribulation and the resurrection of sinners after the millennium period.