The Third Seal
Revelation 6:5-6;
"When Christ opened the Third Seal, I heard the third living creature saying, Come. And I saw a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard as it were a Voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see you hurt not the oil and the wine."
This living being had the head of a man and is represented in the New Testament by the Gospel of Luke guarding the way to the throne of God on the South as the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and John were typed by the living beings that guarded the Presence on the East, West, and North. In the Old Testament the four divisions of the tribes of Israel camped around the Tabernacle to guard the way to the Presence above the Ark of the Covenant in the holy of holies.
The emblems of the four leading tribes of Judah, Ephraim, Reuben and Dan bore the likenesses of a lion, an ox, a man, and an eagle. So we see that all things in the Old Testament were temporary shadows and types of an eternal substance to be fulfilled in the New Testament, and that the heavenly temple seen in visions by God's prophets was a form of diagram for redemption signifying the way back into the Presence of God much like the witness of the stars - God's first Bible.
The most intelligent of all creatures is man. And under the Third Seal God raised up supremely intelligent godly men: great teachers who became the reformers of the Roman Catholic system of worship following the violent bloody excesses of the Dark Ages which were not completely put down until the mid-nineteenth century.
The Third Seal covers the Sardis (1520-1750) and Philadelphia Church Ages (1750-1906).
During the Dark Ages under the Second Seal, simony, the sale of bishoprics and even the office of Pope to the highest bidder, had flourished, and the Roman Universal church had devised unscriptural doctrines such as the primacy of the Roman pope, his temporal power, purgatory, his ability to remit sins upon payment, novenas, and indulgences for future, uncommitted sins - a kind of "get out of hell free pass," to the intent that this earthbound "church" might increase her temporal power and wealth.
Revelation 13:1-4, "
I saw a wild untamable beast rising out of the sea (or multitudes of people (Daniel 7:3; Revelation 17:15), having seven heads and ten horns, (this was the Roman Universal church united with the Roman State (Revelation 17:3,12,16), and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads (the deified emperors and the last pope were) blasphemous names. And the beast which I saw was like a leopard (the symbol of the Greek Empire), and his feet were as of a bear (signifying the empire of Medo-Persia), and his mouth as a lion's mouth (signifying the Babylonian empire): and the Dragon [Satan] gave him his power, and his throne, and great authority. (The false prophet was now crowned king of heaven, earth and purgatory and the nature of his rule incorporates all of the attributes of the previous three Gentile world empires). And I saw one of his heads (Imperial Rome) as if wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed (when Imperial Rome began its transformation to Papal Rome at the First Nicea Council): and the whole earth wondered after the wild, untamable beast. And they worshipped the Dragon because he gave authority to the beast: and they worshipped the wild beast, saying, Who is like the beast? who is able to war with him?"
The antichrist spirit was firmly ensconced in Rome where under the first two Seals he consolidated his spiritual and political power. Here, under the Third Seal, he is taking control over demon power by persuading the congregations of his Universal church to maintain Catholic dogmas in face of indisputable Scriptural correction brought by the Reformers.
To reject the vindicated Word of God is the unforgivable sin (here we can see the original author does not know that the unforgiveable sin is race mixing, not rejecting the word of God), and a repudiation of the Holy Spirit, with the certain removal of one's name from the Book of Life. For the Word is the Holy Spirit in a form we can receive by faith.
To reject the Holy Spirit by rejecting the revealed Word of God (as when a woman cuts her hair (I Corinthians 11:1-16) is to open oneself to the headship and possession of demons. Small wonder Jesus calls Rome,
"the home of demons, and the prison of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird" (Revelation 18:2).
During his ride on the red horse Satan killed all who refused to receive the mark of the beast: his Trinity doctrine with false baptism in three Titles. This almost extinguished the Light of the Gospel because the faith (or understanding of God's Word by the Holy Spirit) was in the hearts of the martyred saints, and went to the grave with them. The resultant spiritual ignorance produced what historians call the Dark Ages.
Under the Third Seal Satan's horse (or power) is colored black because his strategy is to perpetuate the spiritual ignorance of Roman dogma and papal servitude so savagely established under those long dark years of the Thyatira Church Age. He has a pair of balances in his hand, and Christ, the Voice from the throne of God in heaven, declares the meaning of this symbol which John records under further symbols.
Mimicking Satan and the outrageous behavior of his earthly church at this time, Christ cried out, "A measure (choenix - about two to three pints, or one day's provision) of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny." But, He warned, "See that you hurt not the oil and the wine."
Wheat and barley are the staff of natural life. Those better-off ate wheat while common folk ate barley since it was only a third the price of wheat. These grains type the Word of God and prayer which sustain the Spiritual Life of believers.
Rome withheld the Word of God, and even though many of her priests were illiterate, lay people were forbidden to read the Bible. Until the advent of the printing press only the very wealthy could afford to own a Bible, at which time Rome was charging for prayer - novenas, masses for the dead, or candles to burn before an image of the virgin Mary or some other dead person.
In the natural, oil lamps provided light in darkness whereas in the Spiritual, "oil" signifies the Holy Spirit which illuminates God's Word so we can walk in its beautiful Light despite the spiritual Darkness that envelops the world (Leviticus 8:12; 4:12-14; Matthew 25:3-4).
The alcoholic spirit in "wine" which stimulates and makes the heart merry, types the Holy Spirit which, when It brings Life to the letter of God's Word, rejoices the soul with the stimulation of revelation.
It is the Voice of Christ that warns Satan away from His elected whose souls were being quickened by the "oil and the wine" ministered by His inspired servants such as Martin Luther, Wesley, Knox and Whitefield, in the Protestant reformation of the Roman Catholic system of worship.
The Message of Martin Luther, the angel to the Sardis Church Age, taught justification is by grace through faith alone, whereas Rome still teaches contrary to Scripture, that justification is by personal works. Luther supported all of his teachings from the Bible which he translated into the vernacular and published on the newly invented printing press so that every man could personally
"receive the word with all readiness of mind, then search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so," and "study to show himself approved of God by rightly dividing the Word of Truth."
This revelation showed the Roman church to be full of spiritual Darkness that could be felt, and like the plague of natural darkness in Egypt when there was light in the land of Goshen, under the Third Seal and Fifth Vial there was Spiritual Light in the camps of the Protestant saints, while those serving the Vatican, like Pharaoh and the magicians in his kingdom, "gnawed their tongues in rage" at the frustration of their hopes and the overthrow of their kingdom. Men in mental or bodily anguish bite their lips and their tongues.
Rome had planned revenge, at first through ecclesiastical courts and armed conflict, but she was defeated by the Light of God's Word which exposed her corruption.
And later, through the Counter Reformation, which arose from the Jesuit-inspired Oxford Movement (1833) and was a major effort to reunite the Church of England with the Roman Catholic church (and ultimately, to unite all denominations and all religions into one world religion as is taking now place under direction of the Vatican, World Council of Churches, UN and other "Jewish" instruments of influence, particularly World War III for which they are now uniting the non-Christian Judaeo-Christians to 'tame' Islam).
Rome was unable to effect its revenge back then because the elect of God in the Protestant camps could not be deceived on the revealed Word of God. Hence their frenzy. (Today, since Vatican II, and under the general apostasy at end of the Fourth Seal, Rome will have her way).
Revelation 16:10-11,
"The fifth angel poured out his Vial upon the throne of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds".
Martin Luther's ministry under the Third Seal was God's rebuke to Rome. And under the Fifth Vial it was too late for them to repent of their works, and they blaspheme the God of heaven.
The blasphemy is directed no longer simply against the Name, or revelation, but against the God of heaven, the primeval revelation of God. God in His universal revelation - hence, against all that is Divine.
Thus they pass from their unbelief to demonic belief in which they do recognize God as the author of their plagues and sores, but recognize Him only consciously to blaspheme Him.
The throne of the beast in Vatican City, Rome, is the principal system upon which the power of the antichristian life of the people rests. Rome rules from behind the scenes in every nation.
What other 'front' organization but the Roman Catholic church, and who else but the pope, could qualify as the antichrist with authority to offer peace through one world government, granting hegemony to Satan and his sinister group?
Under manipulated circumstances this proposition is sure to be accepted, even implored by earth's inhabitants, stressed beyond sanity by the chaos now beginning to be stirred by Satan's dupes the likes of Bush, Blair and Howard.
Rome's pope is the only plausible candidate for the antichrist, "the man of sin, the son of perdition;" his qualifications are tailored for the vocation. Already fully a third of the earth's inhabitants lovingly, willingly, and loyally regard him as vicar over heaven, earth (and purgatory).
Rome's religion, apart from the fact it is blasphemous and false, is of no value whatever to the 'hidden hand' save inasmuch as it has a strong base of billions. Mass power is its sole value.
The same might be said of Protestantism, Judaism and all the other isms on an inferior scale, and which all come with Rome since they are certain to side with the beast system at the appropriate time.
Unsettling the unthinking mind of the programmed mass, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, retiring Prime Minister of Malaysia, made this point when he stated the obvious: "a few million" Jews rule the world by controlling the strongest nations. He might have added that by various means they also control the strongest religions.
John Wesley was the angel to the Philadelphian Church Age which was also under the Third Seal. His Message added sanctification to Luther's Message of justification by grace through faith and it stressed the necessity for experientially living a holy life.
The Sixth Vial that was poured out to distinguish the false believers from the "saved" non-elect at the close of his Church Age
"dried up the water of the great river Euphrates; that the way of the kings of the East might be prepared" (Revelation 16:12).
In the natural, the great river Euphrates was the Eastern boundary of the Roman Empire at its most expansive form (in about AD117). In the Spiritual it represents the most easterly influence of the Holy Spirit: the border of Christendom beyond which people are held in cults and pagan religions.
In a previous teaching we said, "In the Sixth Vial, the protection of what little Holy Spirit existed in Rome's creeds and the power of her traditions and superstitions is atrophied. "But He that restrains will restrain until the Bride is taken out of the way."
The Sixth Vial identifies Rome's destroyers as the rulers from the East. They are invading the minds and hearts of men through propaganda, which people accept because they have no unction of the Holy Spirit with which to defend themselves. These evil spirits are empowered through Roman apostasy, symbolized by the drying up of the Euphrates."
Expressing this in another way we might say that the rejection of Wesley's Message of Scriptural holiness, which was a rebuke to Rome's Anglican (Episcopalian), Presbyterian, and Lutheran daughters, left man in the uncleanliness of his self-starched righteousness.
Without obedient faith in this further revelation they succumbed to Satan's reasoning, for without knowledge the people perish (Hosea 4:6).
We can see the kings of the East uniting under Judaeo-Communism, Judaeo-Capitalism, Judaeo-Christianity, all manner of pagan religious superstitions and philosophies and the Talmudic filth oozed by mass media and the entertainment industry to destroy morality and human kindness world-wide. As I write, the 'hidden hand' is forcing this union by the barbarous actions of the United States, Britain, Australia and Canada in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine and elsewhere in the Middle East.
The Sixth Vial occupies one verse in the Bible, followed by four verses of explanation in parenthesis beginning with Revelation 16:13-14,
"I saw three unclean spirits like frogs (an abominable creature (Leviticus 11:10) come out of the mouth of the Dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty."
The Bible says, "How can two walk together except they be agreed on the Word." Here we have Rome and her image in the natural (the USA), and in the spiritual (Protestant denominations), going off to buy friendship with their enemies. Their strength is not by faith in the arm of the Lord but in political alliances (Isaiah 8:9-13).
When John Wesley's Message of Scriptural holiness was rejected, the churches became subject to unclean spirits from Eastern philosophies and religions, Talmudic influences which Jesus said "make the Word of God of none effect," evolution, communism, and sympathies for heathen cultures whereby faith has been usurped by humanism and reasoning as seen in Vatican II.
These unclean Roman spirits released under the Sixth Vial are influencing Bush II, Blair, Howard and the kings of the whole earth to serve the 'hidden hand' and war with one another and God to gather the whole world to Armageddon, the third, and world-wide revolution, planned in the mid-nineteenth century to yield Lucifer world hegemony.
The Third Seal is also written in Matthew 24:7,
"For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there will be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places."
The demonic Darkness perpetuated and increased by Satan, whose spur drove the Black horse under the Third Seal, should be obvious to us all in that despite almost 500 years of teaching and preaching by the Reformers of the Roman Catholic system of worship there are more Roman Catholics today under the Fourth Seal than at any time in history.
People having forsaken the Word of God and the common sense of thinking, no longer "prove all things, hold fast that which is good" but rest in the comfort of a second-hand religion, the welfare state and puerile entertainments. And instead of praying from the heart, "say a prayer" (Matthew 6:7).
The demonic Darkness of the Third Seal perpetuated and multiplied, produces the three Woes of Fascism, Nazism and Communism under the Fourth Seal
"for the Lord visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of them that hate Him."
Unrecognized by the world, Christ has "come as a thief," and the "kings of the earth" are now blindly gathering the whole world to Armageddon in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, with the object of creating a dumbed-down new Dark Age of serfdom.
Once again there is
"a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water, but of hearing the Words of the Lord" (Amos 8:11).