Revelation 7:3

Context

After the sixth seal is opened and great calamities are depicted in Revelation 6, chapter 7 presents a pause before the opening of the seventh seal. The apostle John sees four angels holding the four winds of the earth. Then another angel, ascending "from the east" with the seal of the living God, cries out to the four angels who have been given power to hurt the earth and the sea. This cry is verse 3: "Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads" (KJV).

Here a "seal" is a stamp or signet, and "to seal" means to impress such a stamp as a mark of ownership and authenticity. The number of those sealed is then given as 144,000 from the twelve tribes of Israel (7:4–8), followed immediately by the vision of "a great multitude, which no man could number," drawn from every nation and kindred (Revelation 7:9–17).

Interpretations

• As a mark of protection: This interpretation is widely held among Reformed and evangelical commentators. The seal indicates that a person belongs to God; it is understood to mean not that such people escape persecution but that they are protected from the judgments of God's wrath. In support, interpreters cite Revelation 9:4, where the locusts harm only "those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads." Many see the background in Ezekiel 9:4, where a mark is set upon the foreheads of those in Jerusalem who sigh and cry, setting them apart from judgment. Some also connect the seal with the sign of the blood at the Passover during the Exodus.
• As connected with the sealing of the Spirit: This reading sees the passage as a symbolic portrayal of the same reality Paul describes when he says that believers have been sealed with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13; 4:30; 2 Corinthians 1:22). On this reading, those who are sealed are the whole church.
• The dispensationalist reading: Dispensationalism regards most of Revelation as describing future events. Dispensationalists often interpret those sealed as 144,000 believers literally drawn from the tribes of Israel, who are sealed during the Great Tribulation after the church has been raptured.
• As a contrast with the mark of the beast: This reading holds that the seal on the forehead stands in parallel with the mark received by those who follow the beast (Revelation 14:9–11; 13:16–17), showing to whom a person belongs. Most of the interpretations above share this contrast.

Controversies and Issues

Among the major denominations, views on whether those sealed symbolize the whole church or refer to ethnic Israel diverge according to their eschatological frameworks. This difference, however, has not led to conflict between denominations.

Sharper disputes arise when certain groups use this verse as a basis for their own doctrines.

• Shincheonji is known to regard its own organization as the twelve tribes and to teach that the "sealed 144,000" are being completed within it. Several denominations, including Korea's major Presbyterian denominations, have formally declared Shincheonji heretical.
• The World Mission Society Church of God is known to teach that keeping the Passover communion is the seal of God.
• The Seventh-day Adventist Church has traditionally linked observance of the seventh-day Sabbath with the seal of God and has interpreted the mark of the beast in connection with the enforcement of Sunday worship (see Sabbath and the Lord's Day).

Other denominations raise a common objection to these interpretations: the text does not specify what the seal is, nor does it identify any particular organization or rite as the seal. They further criticize such readings for detaching symbolic apocalyptic literature from its context and applying it to a specific group. Each of these groups, for its part, maintains that its interpretation correctly explains the prophecies of Scripture as a whole.

Related Passages

• Ezekiel 9:4
• Revelation 9:4
• Revelation 14:1
• Revelation 22:4
• Ephesians 1:13