Under the Altar
And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held.
At the first four seals John gives us a panoramic view of four spiritual horsemen dispatched in heaven, and plying their labors upon the earth. What stands out is that these seals seem to zero in more on the spiritual world than on the physical world. The four riders and their spiritual assignments are the main focus. This makes the most sense because the book full of terrible judgments is not yet open. Once it is opened, we begin to see physical details of the painful sufferings meted out upon humanity. But the invisible riders appear to paint with a much broader stroke. Their work is spiritual in nature, with a tsunami of spiritual influx and influence exerted upon the spirits of men. Invisible to the naked eye, but a preparatory, massive altering of the spiritual landscape on earth.
John’s vision is from a unique vantage point where he can see the throne, the lamb, the four beasts, the twenty four elders, and the glass sea before the throne. At each of the four seals, the four beasts…one by one…bid John to change his vantage point…to come and see…the spiritual rider and his departure to accomplish his spiritual works upon the earth. Does he move to that modern, mythical balcony of heaven where all of the dear departed peer down at loved ones upon the earth? Or perhaps he is invited to look into that sea of glass before the throne, like the witch from the Wizard of Oz spying on Dorothy, Toto and the boys.
At the fifth seal everything changes. The four beasts in the midst and round about the throne are no longer telling John to come and see. His original vantage point is sufficient to see the results of the fifth seal being opened. This is possibly because the earth is no longer the focus at the fifth seal, as the entire account transpires in heaven.
When Jesus opens the fifth seal, John see’s saints of God underneath the heavenly altar. Each saint is clothed in white raiment, like as Jesus promised the overcomers from the fifth church of Sardis. These brethren were all slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held. The word “slain” here denotes: to butcher, to slaughter, or to maim violently. These did not simply die in the Lord. They were ruthlessly and viciously killed…their lives cruelly snuffed out…their departure painful and horrifying. Their commitment to that testimony and that holy word was challenged and tested to the very highest degree. They cry now for an avenging of their bloody deaths from beneath the altar, upon those who slaughtered them upon the earth.
These all lived sometime between Pentecost and today. Clearly they are not saints from politically correct, modern day America, nor the civilized, industrialized nations of today’s world. We are not granted the privilege of so dying for our Lord. No, these violent deaths seem to hearken back to a much more barbaric time upon the earth. Here is perhaps Stephen, and Antipas, and the apostles of the Lord. The rampages of Saul of Tarsus before his conversion come to mind, as do the catacombs and those fed to hungry lions for sport at Circus Maximus. Given the opening of the seals @1900 years ago, and the extreme violence perpetrated upon the new testament church shortly after her birth, these appear to be saints from the early centuries after Pentecost.
John didn’t see these martyred saints under the altar when the first four seals were opened, which seems to suggest that time has transpired. Time at least for the four horsemen to begin their latent, spiritual work upon the spirits and events of humanity. How far into John’s future this crowd extends is hard to say. The martyred saints are simply told that they should:
Rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.
Maybe the little season is fulfilled within the first two or three centuries after Pentecost. Or maybe not. History’s pages are a bloody tale of the carnage suffered for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held…albeit some were anemic in doctrine. Does the little season extend to the Boxer Rebellion in China, or Mexico’s revolution? Does it include the Turkish massacre’s in Armenia? It has been estimated that over 70 million souls have been killed for their Christian faith in the last 2,000 years. Were they all
Acts 2:38 apostolics? Arguably not. Will my Lord give these a pass because they were nevertheless slain for the word of God and the testimony which they held through the fires of slaughter? Thankfully, as the thief on the cross whispers, that right and judgment belong to my Lord alone.
Even today the crowd beneath the altar grows. History is clear. About 47 million of that 70 million souls came as a result of Islamic extremism in East Timor, Indonesia, Sudan, Egypt, Pakistan, India, Rwanda, and Latin America. So also has the Soviet Union, China, and Nazi Germany joined in this slaughter. Since 1990 alone, about 160,000 souls per year have been brutally slain for calling themselves Christian. Across the pages of time, its hard to determine who is included among those beneath the altar. We are only given two time specifics:
1.) This crowd has already begun to gather after the opening of the first four seals.
2.) In the future, from the fifth seal forward, the crowd will get bigger.
Outside of that, my Lord appears to have left it open ended.
Linear Mode
