Revelation: Chapter 6 Timelines

Setting

Revelation 6 shows the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, opening the first six of seven seals. This chapter implies that these six seals are opened in rapid succession. The following timeline shows the opening of the first seal. It is the revealing of the Antichrist. This initiates the tribulation, followed immediately by the Antichrist confirming the seven-year covenant with Israel, Daniel 9:27, which is the sign for Israel and the world that they have just entered the tribulation. The chart represents the influence of the Antichrist from the beginning of the seven years of tribulation to the end of those seven years, when Armageddon occurs.

The first seal opened revealed the Antichrist riding on a white horse.

The opening of the second seal brings war to the entire world. This is unlike the previous world wars, but this image of the red horse resonates with every country. There will be no neutrality during the tribulation. Like the first seal, the red horse's influence will dominate the world from the moment the seal is opened until the end of the tribulation.

The second seal opened, revealing the rider on a red horse, which is war.

Just as with the first two seals, the impacts of the third seal begin when the Lord opens the seal and will end with the other seals at the end of the tribulation. This seal’s impact is also worldwide, sudden, and devastating for all but the very wealthy. There will be no difference between the poor and the multi-millionaires; they will all struggle for their daily subsistence to survive. Multibillionaires and government leaders will likely not be hurt by this global economic collapse.

The third seal opened, revealing the rider on a black horse, which is famine.

The fourth seal, when opened by the Lord, reveals a time of significant death and destruction. Its worldwide impact results in a quarter of the world’s population being destroyed by war, hunger, increased death rates, and by the animal kingdom. As with the first three seals, this will continue to the end of the tribulation.

The fourth seal opened, revealing the rider on a pale horse, which is death, and hell followed after him.

As the fifth seal was opened, it revealed under the altar, the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held. This group of saints does not reveal the start of saints beginning to be slain for their belief in Christ Jesus, but it reveals all who have already been killed before the opening of the seal. The time frame covers the period from the pre-tribulation to the mid-tribulation. Afterwards, the saints killed during the last half of the tribulation, called the great tribulation, for their belief in Christ Jesus, are known as great tribulation saints, Revelation 7:13-17. The arrow in the following graphic represents the “time” when the slain saints were revealed to all who will be slain afterward, without regard to which of the three groups of saints they come from, to the end of the tribulation.

Near the bottom of the chart is a green horizontal bar. This represents those slain by the false religion, Babylon the Great, Revelation 17:1-6. This is the primary source persecuting the saints after the rapture of the New Testament church, until near the mid-tribulation. Then the primary source of persecution will originate from the Antichrist, when he attains his Satanically derived world power, Revelation 13:1-9.

Unlike the previous five seals, this seal reveals the results of all the judgments that will occur at the end of the tribulation, which is the literal, physical, visible, earthly return of the Lord Jesus Christ to sit on the throne of David. The main source of judgment on Earth comes from heavenly sources and the shaking of the globe. So, the arrow on the following chart is colored grey with an explosion as the end of the tribulation.

The sixth seal opened revealed the Lamb's wrath.

The following is the aggregated chart for the first six seal judgments.