 Let's begin reading at verse 1, Revelation chapter 6. Now, I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder. I looked, come and see, and I looked and behold, a white horse and he who sat on it had a bow and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer. When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, come and see. And another horse, fiery red, went out and it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth and that people should kill one another. There was given to him a great sword. When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, come and see. And I looked and behold, a black horse and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand and I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, a quart of wheat for a denarius and three quarts of barley for a denarius and do not harm the oil and the wine. When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, come and see. And I looked and behold, a pale horse. The name of him who sat on it was death. Eighties followed with him. Power was given to them over a fourth of the earth to kill with sword, with hunger, with death by the beast of the earth. When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they had held. And they cried with a loud voice saying, how long, O Lord, holy and true, until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth and a white robe was given to each of them. It was said to them that they should rest a little while longer until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who would be killed, as they were, was completed. I looked when he opened the sixth seal. Behold, there was a great earthquake. Sun became black as sackcloth of hair. The moon became like blood. The stars of heaven fell to the earth as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. The kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave, every free man hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains and rocks, fallen us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb for the great day of his wrath has come and who is able to stand. Cherry passage that we'll be looking at. As we look at this, we need to remember a few basic things. One is that the Bible teaches that we presently are moving towards what has been called the final war. We're moving towards Armageddon. We'll be looking at that when we get to chapter 16 here in the book of Revelation. But until then, the world is gonna continue to experience more confusion and the world will continue to experience more sin. We know that there will be earthquakes. We know that there'll be floods and famines. There'll be violence. There'll be wars. There'll be a host of other events. You see, instead of moving towards a time of peace and prosperity, the opposite is actually true. Paul, when he was speaking concerning the last days in 2 Timothy in chapter three, verse one, said this. He said, know this, that in the last days, perilous times will come. So in spite of the obvious, there will be an increasing number of people who will be preaching peace. It will be similar to the time of Jeremiah, the prophet, when God was warning the nation of coming judgment. Jeremiah in chapter six, verse 14 reads, they have healed the herd of my people slightly, saying peace, peace, when there is no peace. The false teachers, the false prophets during the time of Jeremiah were telling the people, don't worry, everything's gonna be fine. And they were preaching a false peace. Well, that's what's gonna happen in the last days. How do we know that? Well, 1 Thessalonians, chapter five, verse three, Paul writes, when they say peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them as labor pains upon a pregnant woman and they shall not escape. So God's word, I believe, is very clear on this matter. As the final days come to their conclusion, there will be escalating judgments on the world. What we're looking at here in chapter six is the beginning of a period of time that is referred to in Scripture by various names. It's called Daniel's 70th week. It's called the time of Jacob's trouble. It's called the tribulation. It's also referred to as great tribulation. These are events that will take place in the very last days. Now in chapter five, John had introduced, and that's what we'll be looking at, this seven sealed scroll, this book, and this book is in the hand of the Lamb, Jesus Christ. Well, chapter six, we see the first six seals of the book broken. And each of the seals represents judgment that is coming upon the earth. Now the events that are unfolding, are events that were still in the future to both John and are still in the future to us. Now, as we look at this, the opening of the seals will proceed and introduce the judgments that come. And they come after what is called the rapture. You see the picture of the church in heaven has already been revealed in chapters four and five. The church is not seen in the tribulation that is recorded in chapters six through 19. As I shared earlier, the church was very prominent in chapters two and three of Revelation. The church will not be seen again until chapter 19. The church is reintroduced at the second coming of Jesus Christ and then it'll be mentioned once again in chapter 22, verse 16. The church, now as we look at that for a moment, I remember someone writing a letter to the editor and the sentiment of this individual who wrote to one of the local newspapers, this letter to the editor was very clear. His sentiment was, I can hardly wait until the church is out of here. I wish the church was no longer on the face of the earth. Very interesting perception of the church. He didn't see the value of the church in the world. You see, the church has been given a task. There are various things that we, the body of Christ, are to do. We're to evangelize. We're to disciple people into maturity. We do good works, we minister to those in need. We're to be evidences of the grace of God, the love of God. We're to be evidences of truth. But the church also has the purpose of restraining evil. The church restrains evil from completely dominating. Jesus in Matthew 5, 13 and 14 said it like this. He said, you are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it, the world, how shall it be seasoned? It's then good for nothing, but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You, he said, are the light of the world, a city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. And so this individual's desire for Christians just to get out of here. We don't need him anymore. Well, Revelation chapter six through 19 will give us a glimpse into what will happen when the church has disappeared. This is what's going to take place. Now, in chapter five, verses six and seven, we saw the lamb in the midst of the throne. He took the scroll out of the hand of the father and the scroll went open, revealed the future of the earth and the future of the earth will be time of unparalleled judgment. It's the seven seal judgments. The seven seal judgments are gonna lead to what are called the seven trumpet judgments. Then the seven trumpet judgments will culminate in what is called the seven bowl judgments. And so we need to remember that the number seven in scripture refers to completion. And so these judgments are a picture of what would be called total or complete judgment. This will be a total and complete judgment that we see through chapters six through 19. And so as we look at this, verse one, John says, I saw when the lamb opened one of the seals and I heard one of the four living creatures. Well, the first seal is open and John hears a voice. Notice it's like thunder. And when he says that he hears a voice that's like thunder and it says, come and see. We need to remember that in scripture, thunder can be representative of a coming storm. And in Exodus 923 it says Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven. The Lord sent thunder and hail and the fire ran along the ground and the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt. So this thunder is a picture of judgment that is to come. And what is happening is we now have this period of judgment that is called the tribulation being revealed. You see, Jesus was revealed as the one who is worthy and now he's opening the seals and now the tribulation begins. This is what is called a seven year period of God pouring out wrath on a Christ rejecting world. In Jeremiah in chapter 30, verse seven, it says there alas for the day is great so that none is like it. It is the time of Jacob's trouble. Jesus and Matthew 24, 21 said then shall be great tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time no, nor ever shall be. And that's what we're looking at this time of tribulation. Now in verse two, in the opening of the first seal we're introduced to a horseman. It says, I look behold a white horse and he who sat on it had a bow and a crown was given to him and he went out conquering and to conquer. So who is this unidentified writer? Some would say they think that it is Jesus. J. Vernon McGee, how many of you know him or know of his, you know, J. Vernon McGee, my beloved, he's just a great man. J. Vernon McGee said this. He said it would be pretty difficult for the Lord Jesus who is the one opening the seals now to make a quick change, mount a horse and come riding forth. And so this is not a picture of Jesus. The better answer would be that this is an introduction to somebody in history that will be referred to and we know as the Antichrist. Now he's known by various names in scripture. I don't wanna spend an awful lot of time looking at him. I don't like to spend much time with the Antichrist. I prefer being with the true Christ. But you find him mentioned in scripture in various ways in 2 Thessalonians chapter two, verse three, he's referred to as the man of sin, the son of perdition. 2 Thessalonians chapter two, verse eight, he's referred to as the lawless one. In Revelation chapter 11, verse seven, we're gonna see him as the beast. Daniel in chapter seven, verse eight, as well as chapter eight, verse nine refers to him as the little horn. But he is best known by the name Antichrist. Antichrist has, the word anti can mean in opposition too. It also speaks of being in place of. He's in opposition to the true Messiah, the true Christ. He's in opposition and desires to replace him. And that's what you find in scripture with this one referred to as Antichrist. Now this name Antichrist is mentioned, especially in 1 John. You see, for example, in chapter two, verse 18 of 1 John, little children, it's the last time. And as you have heard that Antichrist shall come, even now are there many Antichrists whereby we know that it is the last time. 1 John 222, who's a liar? But he who denies that Jesus is the Christ. He is Antichrist who denies the father and the son. 1 John four, three, every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming and now is already in the world. So this is the Antichrist. I want you to notice the rider on the white horse has a bow, he has a crown, notice he goes forth conquering. So Antichrist will go forth the peering as Messiah. And initially he's going to conquer but do so in a peaceful way. You see the bow he has has no arrows. So that gives to us some insight into the fact that he conquers but not necessarily through violence or force. So the question has to be asked, how is the Antichrist going to make his appearance? And how is the Antichrist going to get into the position that he ultimately will be in? How is he going to accomplish this? Well, the answer is very simple. He does it through deception and the deception of the Antichrist in bringing a false message with a false spirit revealing a false God that is being presented by a false Christ. All of this deception when it's received by people is going to produce a false peace. Can people have a false peace in the religious faith? Absolutely, of course they can. You who give your faith away, you who share, you who ever sit down and speak to anybody about the Lord and you start sharing with them how God can give you peace and joy and love. There are people who hold fast to a religious system that isn't a Christian faith at all and they'll tell you, I already have those things. I already have peace. I already have joy. I've already got love. Bible makes it very clear that you can't have those things if you don't have the Lord. But there are false religious systems that can give to you a sense that you have certain things when in reality it's simply deception. And that's what's gonna happen. It's interesting how that when Jesus was on one occasion asked a question concerning when he was going to return, it's interesting how Jesus responded to that question. It's found in Matthew 24, verses three through five. Let me read this to you. Matthew records as he, as Jesus, sat upon the Mount of Olives. The disciples came to him privately saying, tell us when shall these things be? What shall be the sign of your coming and of the end of the world? And Jesus answered and said to them, take heed that no man deceive you, for many shall come in my name, saying I am Christ and shall deceive many. It's interesting, and we're gonna look at this as we go through this chapter, how that Jesus in Matthew 24 gave quite a number of things as evidences of the last days and his soon return. He speaks of earthquakes. He speaks of pestilence. He speaks of a variety of things, wars, rumors of war. But I want you to remember what the question actually was. The question that was asked, and it's an important thing to note, is what shall be the sign? I want you to note that, that singular, what shall be the sign of your coming? They did not say what are the signs of your coming. Plural, they said what is the sign of your coming? So what is the primary sign that were in the last days? Jesus gave it to us. As a matter of fact, if Jesus says something one time, you think that's enough? If he says it twice, do you think he's emphasizing something? If he says it three times in the same conversation, do you think he's making a point? In Matthew 24, no less than three times, Jesus says the same thing, take heed that you're not deceived. Three times in the same message, take heed. Now what's interesting, and I wanna point this out to you, take heed, that simply means be aware or have personal responsibility. It's my job not to be deceived. There are people who say, well, he told me, that teacher told me. Now wait a minute, Jesus said, you have personal responsibility not to be deceived. Well, how could I take personal responsibility? I'm no Bible teacher, do you read your Bible? That's where a lot of people, that's the root of deception. Not reading the word of God, not being safeguarded by God's word. So when somebody comes and begins to quote scripture, they think that, well, it's in the Bible. This guy seems to be sincere. His face is on a TV program. He certainly wouldn't lie to me. He's using the name of Jesus. Take heed, Jesus said, that no one deceives you. What is the primary sign of the last days? Guys, deception. There are other things that are precursors to his return. We'll look at those in a moment. But the primary sign is spiritual deception. That's how the antichrist is gonna get his toehold and that's how he's gonna get his following through deception. That's why I, as the pastor of this fellowship, encourage all of us be in the word of God. Study the word of God, meditate on the word of God. When you're able to memorize the word of God, live by the word of God, walk by the word of God, trust in the word of God. If there's any mark of the Calvary Chapel movement, I'll give it to you immediately. It is the exposition of the word of God. We really believe that we ought to go verse by verse through scripture. Not just teaching out of the Bible, but actually teaching the Bible. There's a difference between teaching out of the Bible and teaching the Bible. And the way you teach the Bible is verse by verse, which is why we go verse by verse through this, right now, the book of Revelation. But what we have here is an antichrist, the antichrist. And deception will be his tool. Notice with me, he has given a crown. Now, when you look in the New Testament and you see the word crown, there are various Greek words that are translated by the single word crown. And so, what you need to do is get a Greek lexicon and you need to look up the word crown to see which crown is this speaking of. And so, this particular crown has been referred to as the victor's crown. So, this crown that he's wearing is a picture of one who's going forth to conquer. So, in the last days before the rapture, the church will be increasingly influenced towards apostasy. And this enemy, antichrist, is going to be able to enter into that wave of rejection of truth and is going to be able to use it in order to deceive many. Now, the overwhelming testimony of scripture reveals that bad doctrine is going to undermine the church. Deception is going to continually increase and it will negate the place of the church as the disseminator of truth. You may or may not know this. I would hope that you do. If not, let me say this briefly. The church is actually the disseminator of truth on the face of the earth. I don't know if you know that or not. It's not Fox News and it's not CNN. They are not the disseminator of truth. They were not established by God to disseminate truth. The church, you, me, we. Somebody says, I don't even know what truth is. Pontius Pilate said the same thing. What is truth? He was so calloused and so influenced by the philosophies of his day that when truth itself personified, incarnated Jesus, who is the truth, the way the truth in the life, standing before this Roman governor when he says, I bear witness of the truth and Pontius Pilate's response there. What is truth only shows the secular mentality of the Roman of that day. But guys, guess what? We have that same mentality in our day. You speak truth, well, you have your truth and I have my truth. You'll hear people say that. Well, what is the truth? Well, the church is the disseminator of truth. In 1 Timothy chapter three, verse 15, that scripture refers to the church as the pillar and ground of the truth. And the Bible tells us in 2 Thessalonians chapter two, verses nine and 10, the coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan, displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders. And in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. And he said, they perish. Now listen, because they refused to love the truth. And so be saved. Here's something for you. Don't just admire truth. Don't just admire it. Philosophers are truth likers. Philosophers, that's basically what that means, they're wisdom likers. Philo in Greek, Phileo speaks of a lover affection and Sophia in Greek is wisdom. So my granddaughter Sophia is actually a Greek name. It speaks of wisdom. I hope she lives up to her name. A philosopher is a person has an affection for wisdom. And there are a lot of people today who are philosophic. They appreciate, but they don't love. Jesus Christ is the truth. So basic application, love the truth. Because you're not loving a concept, you're loving a person. You're loving Jesus, who is the truth. And so they did not receive the love of the truth and be saved. And so that will be a symptomatic of the last days. Now, so we have first in verses one and two, the appearance of the Antichrist introduction and the onset of tribulation. He begins through deception. He's on this white horse and he goes out to conquer. Well, the second seal in verses three and four is open. He opened the second seal and I heard the second living creature saying, come and see another horse. Fiery red went out. It was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth and that people should kill one another. And there was given to him a great sword. And so the second seal is opened. So from deception, you progress to war. Now, this war is really a succession of wars and it's symbolized by the sword. This is occurring early in the tribulation. You see the Antichrist is going to resort to war to maintain his power in order to control the world. He's going to be an extraordinary military leader. We'll see more of him and we'll see this as Revelation reveals him to us, but he will be an extraordinary military ruler. In the Old Testament book of Daniel, the prophet Daniel said in chapter eight, verse 24, he will become very strong, but not by his own power. He will cause astounding devastation and will succeed in whatever he does. He will destroy those who are mighty, the holy people. So he's going to be a conqueror. We'll see in Revelation later on, they'll say, who is able to make war against him? Who can stand in opposition to him? So he's going to be known as a conqueror. So he begins with deception, but then he moves into military kinds of strategies. He's going to resort to war because he's going to attempt to maintain his power through that. Now, Jesus said that escalating wars would occur before his return in Matthew 24, six and seven. He said, you'll hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you're not troubled for all these things must come to pass. But the end is not yet. Nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines, pestilence, earthquakes in various places, wars and rumors of war, escalating war. Billy Graham, all of us know his name. Billy Graham once said, out of the 5,000 years of history, there have been 4,000 years of war. In the first portion of the 20th century, over 60 million people died in the two world wars. 60 million people died in two world wars. The world is poised by the way for that even right now. I find this interesting, perhaps you will too. At this time, there are some 30 countries. I looked this up today. There are 30 countries in which nuclear power plants are already operating, 30 countries. Of these, only France, Belgium and Slovakia use them as a primary source of electricity. According to the World Nuclear Association, over 45 countries are giving serious consideration to introducing a nuclear power capability with Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Vietnam, Belarus and Jordan at the forefront. There are presently nine countries designated nuclear weapons states. China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel. There are NATO nuclear weapons sharing states, weapons sharing states, Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Italy and Turkey. Third world nations with aggressive designs continue to increase and as we know, terrorism is on the increase. We are already being set up for a continuing escalating series of wars. We as a people here in the United States have become very familiar with warfare and the military and all because of what has happened in our recent history. And so when anti-Christ comes, he's gonna simply continue moving in and escalating these things. It'll happen through war. So part of his strategy, deception, second part, military conquest. Third, verse five, when he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, come and see. And I looked and behold, a black horse and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, a quart of wheat for a denarius and three quarts of barley for a denarius and do not harm the oil and the wine. Now that's interesting. With the escalating wars comes famine. Famine will hit because the world's food supplies are going to be destroyed. We saw in Matthew 24, verse seven, the second portion Jesus saying they'll be famine, pestilence, earthquake in various places. With famine comes inflation. What's interesting here is that the poor are gonna get even more poor, but the rich initially are gonna be doing just fine. Therefore, we should hate all rich people, right? No, of course not, but that's what's gonna happen. When he speaks of a denarius, a denarius is equal to a day's wage. So what that is basically suggesting here is that there's gonna be an inflation that causes food prices to go 12 times higher. But what's interesting along with that is notice how he says in verse six, harm not the oil and wine. Now why would that be brought out? I want you to see that. See a quart of wheat for a denarius, three quarts of barley, barley is one of the grains that the impoverished, it was accessible to the impoverished because it was a low grade. And so what you're seeing here is just foodstuffs. But when you look at harm not oil and wine, oil and wine are luxury items. And so what you have here is an interesting statement related to what's taking place. While millions are starving, luxury items are gonna continue to be there and the affluent will survive, but the poor are not. I was reading something today, and by the way, I should say this before I read these things. I don't think about it when I prepare these messages. I think this is just factual, we ought to look at it. But I forget how it could appear when I make these statements. To you, you may look at me as some old hippie who hates capitalism, et cetera and all of that. And then that's really not the point I'm making when I make these points. I'm simply saying that it's not the one percent or let's hate them kind of mentality that I find is really the root of that is more envy than anything else and I have a real problem with that and I could go on and on and I won't. But I will say this, very often there is an inequality in times of war and in this particular case, what you're really seeing here is you're seeing people who are continuing to benefit when others are not because it's gonna be unequal at that time in a tremendous way. And I was just thinking about that. Today, while millions are starving, this is interesting and I hope this isn't offensive to you, it's not intended to be. While millions are starving, I found this interesting. One out of three Americans are not simply a bit overweight. One out of three Americans are obese. Very, very heavy in other words. Now, we used to use the word heavy, man, he's so heavy, but no, I'm not talking about being heavy. I'm talking about being heavy. And a lot of people today are considered obese. And do you know that with the obesity that we have, that's led to $190 billion in added medical expenses and it's contributed to over 120,000 preventable deaths? So this mentality of making sure that I get enough and more than enough is something we already have right now. So we shouldn't be surprised when we read in the Bible that at this time, there are those who are poor and not able to have enough, but there will still be luxury items that some people will go out of the way to make sure that they get. It's interesting. I was looking this up. I've seen different figures on this and sometimes I wonder which one is really most accurate. So I actually looked up various sources for this one thing. And that is in the United States, we spend as a nation $8 billion a year on cosmetics. And I think that those are dollars well spent. But we, the point I'm making is our priorities. That's the point I'm making and I'm teasing with you in some ways, but I'm trying to make a point. The point is our priorities. Our priorities sometimes they suffer. And even during the time of the tribulation when the enemy anti-crisis establishing his power base using a war is also going to be taken advantage and encouraging people to continue to live well so that they themselves think that everything's really going fine. And that's what's going to happen. And we can see that that would happen. In verses seven and eight, when he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, come and see. Behold, and I looked and behold a pale horse. This word pale here for those who take notes. It's pale green, a pale green horse. Now why would it be a pale green horse? Because anybody who's ever worked in a morgue or been around a body that a person who's died and his body has been there for a while, there's actually a green power that begins to take place. So this green here is actually the color of death. That's what the color green here represents. That's what he's saying here in verse seven and eight. He says, I look and behold a pale green horse. The name of him who sat on it was death and Hades followed with him. Power was given to them over a fourth of the earth to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, beast of the earth. Now pale green horse, death and Hades. When you see death and Hades, that speaks of dying. Hades is in the New Testament, another way of speaking of what is called the abode of the dead, Hades. So at this point, death and destruction are gonna be limited, but note with me, they're limited to a quarter of the earth's population. We have, and I looked this up today too, what is the current estimated amount of human beings on planet earth and the current estimated population of the world is 7.1 billion. And so when you begin to think about that, you're looking at a quarter of 7.1 billion people dying. The amount is unbelievable of people who are gonna be dying. When you begin to look at a quarter of the world's population dying, that is so staggering that we really can't get our minds around that. You really can't, I can't. And I don't think it's one of those things you can. The idea that one out of four people are gonna die is just, it's too difficult for us to grasp. But the Bible is saying this is what's gonna take place with this war and with this famine and the things that are gonna take place. This destruction, a quarter of the earth's population, death is gonna use four tools. Sword, which is war, famine, starvation, death. Now it's interesting because the word death there, and I'll give you a little lesson here about that, the word death, as I was looking at that, I'm thinking, now why is death repeated? You have death in Hades followed with him and power was given to them over the fourth of the earth to kill with a sword with hunger, with death, that seems redundant. Well, the word death in the Greek is Thanatos. And the word Thanatos is translated death, but it's also translated pestilence. And so that's another way that it's gonna happen, it's gonna happen through pestilence. So it's gonna be pestilence, natural disasters even, and then there're gonna be animals. Well, look at that for a moment. When it speaks concerning famine, do you know that in 1959 through 1959 through 1961, it was reported that 30 million people died of starvation in Northern China? 30 million, 30 million people died of starvation in our lifetime, my lifetime, not yours, my lifetime and some of us older people's lifetime. 30 million. Pestilence. Did you know that in the United States in 1918 and 1919, did you know that there was an influenza epidemic in the United States? Did you know that? How many of you know that? See some of you didn't listen in history, did you? Two of my, well, an uncle and an aunt died because of the flu in 1918 and 1919. My mother's oldest brother, older brother and older sister died in this influenza outbreak. So I have relatives who died of this influenza outbreak and 30 million Americans died of the flu. That's hard to believe, isn't it? I mean, we talk about the flu and everything now and have you gotten your flu shot? See, pestilence is not something new and the United States has suffered with pestilences in the past. The World Health Organization estimates that six million children die of hunger a year. In 2011, extreme poverty in the United States, meaning households living on less than $2 a day before government benefits, was double 1996 levels at 1.5 million households, including 2.8 million children. Worldwide, there are reported 627,000 malaria deaths per year. Worldwide, 1.3 million die from tuberculosis. One million children die each year of pneumonia. And so when you're looking at this, don't get to the belief none of this could really happen because indeed, that's what's going to happen. The Bible's very clear, these things do happen. It's interesting how animals are on the list though. They're gonna die through animals, which I found interesting as I was looking at that. Now it says, and by the beast of the earth, how's that gonna happen? Does that mean that lions are gonna escape the zoo and chase people throughout San Diego and LA? Here's another history lesson for you. It'll take you just a moment. You remember something called the Black Death? The bubonic plague. The bubonic plague was in Europe. And between a quarter and one third of Europe's population was wiped out by it. And what was it? It was a disease that was born by rats and the people were bitten by the fleas on the rats and that's how they were getting the bubonic plague. And so that has happened in the past. I mean, even to this day, there are certain kinds of viruses that are transmitted to us through mice and various things we've seen that happen in our day. So that's what's gonna happen. When you have war, war leads to famine. As war leads to famine and unclean conditions and people are dying, animals begin to come out of the woodworks. The animals coming out of the woodworks, many of them will be diseased. The diseases that the animals carry are gonna be transmitted. And so this is just how it's gonna happen. And as a result, a quarter of the population and this is just the beginning will be destroyed. They're gonna die. Now, it goes on in verse nine and I almost stopped here, but I'm not going to. I was just so blessed by everything up to this point. When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice saying, how long, oh Lord, holy and true, until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth. The white robe was given to each of them and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who would be killed as they were was completed. These are called tribulation saints. He opens this fifth seal. Now, this seals events begin in the first half of this seven year period, marking the midpoint and some would say moving a bit past the midpoint during the tribulation. All of the things you've seen have taken place within the first three and a half years. Now notice, these who are being spoken of are those who are martyred. They're martyred after the rapture. They're martyred during the tribulation. Now notice how he says, he saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain. These martyrs have not yet experienced bodily resurrection. That's gonna occur when we get to Revelation chapter 20, verse four and you'll see that clearly. But notice what they're doing. They're crying out for justice against their living persecutors. Now, these are the overcomers. These are what are called tribulation saints. The tribulation is not complete. So there will be even more who die for their faith. And that's what's gonna take place. Now, somebody says, and there was a time when people here in the United States would say, you know, the problem with you Christians is you've got persecution complexes. You think everybody's against you. And there's no evidence that people are against you. There was again a letter to the editor that was written and I had copied excerpts from it just to illustrate this. The letter to the editor said this, listen carefully. This is somebody writing so that all can read. All Christians who knowingly obey instructions that threaten to destroy the United States and replace it with the stated biblical goal of a totalitarian kingdom must be identified as anti-American traders. They publicly display their 10 commandments, several of which are anti-constitutional demands. Gullible and ignorant Christians who have not realized they have been duped into being part of an un-American subversive organization should be given a second chance and the opportunity to repent their ways and find salvation in our US Constitution, our Bill of Rights, and the Democratic freedoms and equality guaranteed to all patriotic Americans. And so for those who say that there's no anti-Christian sentiment, probably not reading the newspapers or the books or watching the news probably aren't noticing that there is a huge anti-Christian sentiment without going off on a tangent with this one. There are cartoons in the past that have taken the figure of Jesus and made him look ridiculous in prime-time TV shows. I've never watched one of them, but I've read and I've heard and I've seen excerpts and all of that related to that. They take my Jesus and they make him look ridiculous. But they'd never do that with Muhammad because they know that if they did that, a follower of Islam would make sure that they never did something like that again. So here in the United States, of course, it's easy to browbeat or put down or vilify or whatever you want, Christians. And some of you know this as a fact because you've been in the college classes where the professor will tell you, he will say, I've had this happen to me as a young college student when I went to Cal Poly Pomona. And the first day of the class, one of my sociology professors said, how many of you are born again Christians? So I raised my hand along with two or three others. And he looked at us and he said, I feel sorry for you. I pity you because you live your life according to the dictates of this little black book called the Bible. He says, when I trust in scientific fact and evidence. So that was my introduction to this particular class with this open-minded professor at Cal Poly. And I've had that happen in more than one college class. I went to several universities. That's not nothing to brag about. I didn't graduate from any of them. But I went to a lot of them. I went to seven of them. And I had that occur more than once where there was a bias and this I'm talking about being in the 70s. And I have members of my church, young people in my church who occasionally will write me and say, pastor, my professor is saying this, can you give to me a response for them? Can you give me some information, maybe a book or something that I could read? And so that happens all the time. It still happens. Some of you know that, some of you have experienced that. Or if you bring your Bible, say you're working, and you bring your Bible into your workplace and you put it on your desk. And a supervisor can walk up to you and can say to you, is this happened? I've had people in my church tell me this. You can have your Bible there. It's very offensive to people. And as they swear to you and tell you to move it. Because it's okay to use God's name in vain. The thing that's not good is to actually use it to praise him. That's what's happened in just the last several years, you guys. So these persecutions that we see right now are just precursors. This is just setting the tone. Because this is gonna continue. And so what happens is you have these people who are their souls under the throne and they're saying, how long? How long verse 10, holy and true? Oh Lord, holy and true, until you judge in avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth. Well, the Bible says a white robe was given to each of them. And they were told, rest a little while longer until both the number of the fellow servants and the brethren who would be killed as they were was complete. In other words, the time is gonna come. Just rest. And then he says, finally, verse 12, I looked when he opened the sixth seal, behold, there was a great earthquake and the sun became black as a sackcloth of hair. The moon became like blood. The stars of heaven fell to the earth as a fig tree drops its late figs when it's shaken by a mighty wind. The sky receded as a scroll when it's rolled up. Every mountain and island was moved out of its place. The kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave, every free man hid themselves in the caves in the rocks of the mountains, said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne from the wrath of the lamb for the great day of his wrath has come and who is able to stand? Again, Jesus said that there would be earthquakes in different places. This earthquake that we're looking at, by the way, we Californians, we understand earthquakes. But this is the mother of all earthquakes. Notice the sun becomes black. The moon becomes as blood. Stars of heaven fall like ripe figs. Heaven departs as a scroll. Every mountain, every island actually moved. The earth is under such incredible bombardment that people are beginning to cry out that God is judging them. The sun is blackened. There are those who say, how could that take place? I don't get into the postulating. I don't know, it simply says that, but one writer said, perhaps this is what would be called the nuclear winter. It could be smoke from destruction. There's no way that we literally actually know. It speaks of stars that are falling and maybe speaking of meteors. You see in Naim, chapter one, verses five and six, it says, the mountains quake at him, the hills melt, the earth is burned at his presence. Yes, the world and all that dwell therein. Who can stand before his indignation? Who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? His fury is poured out like fire and the rocks are thrown down by him. So that's a picture of judgment. Now with all of this taking place, what is man's response? They're hardened. They actually pray. But what are they praying? They're praying to the rocks and they're praying to the mountains and they're saying, fall on us and hide us. So what you have here is pagans finding comfort in their crystals, if you will. They're high places. They don't turn to the Lord. They say in verse 17, it's a great day of his wrath. They say it has come. They even asked the question, who is able to stand? They know that it's a wrath of the lamb. This isn't the wrath of man. This is the wrath of the lamb. They know that this is coming from Messiah and it says it. It gave us from the wrath of the lamb, the one who's on the throne. Then they recognize it, but do they repent? No, they don't. Just because they're being judged doesn't mean it causes their heart to turn to God. Spend some time reading Jeremiah and Isaiah, guys. Read it and you'll see. Now I'm reading through Jeremiah right now every morning. That's what my devotional time is. And as I'm reading through Jeremiah, one thing after another and God is saying all through the chapters so far that I've gotten to chapter 17 and he's just saying, I'm going to do this. I'm going to bring judgment and people are going to be responding to it, but they're not going to repent. Their false prophets are going to be telling them it's going to be okay, peace, peace. He says when there is no peace. And that's what's going to take place in this time. Can that happen? Yes. As a matter of fact, it's not a can it happen. Is it going to happen? Yes. When will it happen in the future? It will happen. One of the things that I have to say this before I close though is one of the things, I believe this very deeply, this will happen, but I also believe that the church will be removed before this happens. I thank God for the hope of the coming of Christ, the rapture of the church, because we will not be part of this. Now I have had people say, so I'll say this and then close. Well, I really don't believe that that's going to happen. But when it does happen, I'm going to turn to God. No, I'm serious, I'm not making that up, please. I'm going to turn to God. No, you're not. If you can't walk with God right now, what makes you think you're going to walk with Him when these things take place? So perhaps I have somebody in this room right now who's not saved, and this may seem melodramatic and even corny to you. It's not intended to be. When the rapture of the church happens, you'll know the Word of God is true, and I'll say this, I'll get ahead of myself. Don't take the mark of the beast. Don't take the mark of the beast. Don't take it, because if you take it, there's no hope for you. But why wait to see antichrist when you can have the real Christ right now? Why wait? Why not open your heart to Jesus Christ? Because when you receive Jesus Christ, you refuse antichrist.