Seven Seals, Trumpets, and Bowls

Text and Content

The Book of Revelation presents God's judgments in three successive series of seven.

• The seven seals (6:1–8:1): The Lamb opens, one by one, the seals of the scroll in God's hand (5:1).
• First through fourth seals: Riders on a white horse, a red horse, a black horse, and a pale horse come forth, bringing conquest, war, famine, and death.
• Fifth seal: The souls of the martyrs beneath the altar cry out, "How long?"
• Sixth seal: A great earthquake occurs, and disturbances appear in the sun, moon, and stars.
• Then, in chapter 7, the servants of God are sealed. When the seventh seal is opened, there is silence in heaven for about half an hour.
• The seven trumpets (8:2–11:19)
• First four trumpets: A third of the earth, the sea, the rivers, and the sun, moon, and stars are struck.
• Fifth trumpet: Locusts come up out of the bottomless pit.
• Sixth trumpet: Four angels bound at the Euphrates are released, and a third of mankind is killed.
• Seventh trumpet: The proclamation is made, "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ" (11:15).
• The seven bowls (chapters 15–16): These are called "the seven last plagues" (15:1). Angels pour out bowls filled with the wrath of God, in turn, upon the earth, the sea, the rivers, the sun, the throne of the beast, the Euphrates, and the air. At the sixth bowl the kings gather at Armageddon, and at the seventh bowl a voice declares, "It is done" (16:17).

Background

In the ancient world, important scrolls were sealed with wax so that only a person with proper authority could open them. In Scripture, seven is commonly read as a number signifying completeness.

The Old Testament background includes the following:

• The four horses recall the visions of Zechariah 1:8 and 6:1–8.
• Trumpets signaled war and festivals, and seven trumpets were also used at the fall of Jericho.
• Plagues such as hail, water turned to blood, darkness, locusts, sores, and frogs overlap with the ten plagues.

The bowl (Greek phialē) was a wide vessel used in temple worship. In 5:8 it also appears as a bowl of incense containing the prayers of the saints.

Significance in the Whole of Scripture

The three series of judgments are patterned on the plagues of the Exodus, carrying forward the theme that God judges oppressive powers and delivers His people. The martyrs' plea (6:10) and the prayers of the saints (8:3–5) are also shown to be answered through judgment. The scope of the devastation widens from a fourth, to a third, to the whole. Even so, the text repeatedly records that people did not repent (9:20–21; 16:9).

Interpretations and Issues

• Relationship among the three series: Futurist interpretations, such as dispensationalism, regard the three series as end-time events occurring in chronological sequence. The recapitulation (parallel) interpretation holds that they depict the same period repeatedly with increasing intensity; this view dates back to the early church and is widely used among Reformed scholars. A mediating view holds that the trumpets are contained within the seventh seal and the bowls within the seventh trumpet.
• Interpretive frameworks: Preterism holds that these events were fulfilled in the first-century Roman era. Historicism correlates them with events in church history. The symbolic (idealist) interpretation reads them as principles applicable to every age.
• The first horseman: Some identify him as the Antichrist, while others, appealing to the rider on the white horse in 19:11, see him as Christ or as the triumph of the gospel.
• Readings beyond the text: The framework of a "seven-year great tribulation" is an interpretation constructed by combining Daniel with other books; it is not stated as such in the text of Revelation. Likewise, readings that identify the locusts as modern weapons or match the judgments to specific events and dates go beyond what the text itself says.

In the Korean Church

In Korean Protestant churches, these visions are frequently treated in expository preaching on Revelation and in sermons on eschatology. At the same time, some groups in Korea, such as Shincheonji, promote a so-called "actual reality" (silsang) interpretation, claiming that the events of Revelation have literally been fulfilled in their own organization's history. Major Korean denominations are reported to have cited such teachings as one of the grounds for judging these groups heretical. For this reason, Korean churches commonly caution members to be wary of invitations to Bible studies that promise to "unlock the Book of Revelation."