What are the seven seals of the Apocalypse?

Answer:
It's long (which is why I didn't just copy and paste) but here is a great site that will answer your question:

http://www.keyway.ca/htm2002/sevnseal.htm


Preamble

These are symbols and should be interpreted as such to the basic meaning, rather than with other symbols and metaphors.

The '7Ss of the A' are perhaps:

1. The class of impossibility of the compound interest by attaching money to time.

2. The replacement of the gold standard of money with a debt standard.

3. 'Granting rights' to a 5-storey financial system to 'print money on its discretion & without any limits'.

4. Sending the real world economy 'in the Dimension X'.

5. The Global warming and the pending energy & food crisis.

6. The time bomb of the world debt clock at http://www.economist.com/content/global_debt_clock

7. The inability to understand the problem and to take it seriously.

Answer:

The first six of Revelation's seven seals are all located in the sixth chapter. They are prophetic "symbols" that represent ongoing... and future... global events that lead up to the "seventh seal," which takes up the remaining 16 chapters of Revelation.

The "seventh seal" is the final future event that will remove man's governments from the earth and establish the rulership of the Kingdom of God. The "seventh seal" is the event called "The Day of the Lord" by the prophets of old.

"...for the Day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty..." (Isa.2:12).

"...they shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and gold shall not be able to deliver them in the Day of the wrath of the Lord..." (Ezek.7:19).

"...let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the Day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand; a Day of darkness and of gloominess..." (Joel 2:1-2).

"...Woe unto you that desire the Day of the Lord! To what end is it for you? The Day of the Lord is darkness, and not light." (Amos 5:18)

"...for the Day of the Lord is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee..." (Obadiah 15).

"...for the Day of the Lord is at hand: for the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice, He hath bid His guests. And it shall come to pass in the Day of the Lord's sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king's children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel." (Zeph.1:7-8)

"Behold, the Day of the Lord cometh..." (Zech.14:1).

"...I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful Day of the Lord..." (Malachi 4:5).

Revelation is written as a "parable"... a tool Jesus uses to "hide the meaning of what He's saying" from the majority of mankind, as He used them exclusively when He spoke to the multitudes in the days of His flesh.

"...Jesus spake unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake He not unto them..." (Matt.13:34).

When the multitudes were gone, however... Jesus spoke plainly the meanings of the parables to His disciples in private.

"...then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the (His own) house: and His disciples came unto Him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field." (Matt.13:36)

So, if we go to a place in the Bible where Jesus spoke "privately" with His disciples about the end time... the last days, the same time frame about which the parable of Revelation prophesys... we have to go to Matthew 24 and what is called the "Olivet Prophecy."

Here, in Jesus' own words of clear and plain explanation to His disciples, is where we find the "meanings of the seven seals" of the Apocalyptic parable.

"...the disciples came unto Him PRIVATELY, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy coming [presence; when would He reveal Himself as King], and of the end of the world [age; the end of man's rule on earth]?" (Matt.24:3)

At the time the disciples asked Jesus this... they didn't know He was going to leave earth and ascend into heaven. They weren't asking "when He would be coming back to earth"... they were asking Him "when will you reveal yourself as the KING, the MESSIAH, to the world?"

They were asking Him what they had wanted to know for the past 3 1/2 years... "WHEN WILL YOU SET UP THE KINGDOM OF GOD ON EARTH AND CRUSH THE TYRANNICAL ROMAN EMPIRE?!?"

They thought the Day of the Lord was upon them as they stood in the presence of the prophesied Christ. "...We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ." (John 1:41)

So, Jesus told them "the signs" to look for at the "end of the age."

What follows in Matthew 24, is Jesus' explanation of the seven seals of the Apocalypse.

These are the first four seals: The famous first four "horsemen of the Apocalypse" are the "common, ordinary, everyday global ordeals" in our daily lives in a world that sinful man has created for himself: false religions [specifically, false Christianity], wars, famines, pestilences and earthquakes.

Jesus tells us plainly: "...see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet." (verse 6)

"All these are the beginning of sorrows." (verse 8)

The first four seals of the Apocalypse have been going on in the world from the creation of man and shall continue until man's out-of-control technology and his rebellious, Godless existence and lifestyle creates a global distress that shall bring about "SEAL 5."

THE GREAT TRIBULATION.

A deceived modern professing Christianity [seal 1], thinks God's church will be "raptured" into heaven and be safe from the Great Tribulation. But Jesus says otherwise.

"Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and SHALL KILL YOU: and YE SHALL BE HATED OF ALL NATIONS FOR MY NAME'S SAKE." (verse 9)

Revelation's "seal 5" opens with "the blood [souls; for the LIFE {soul} of all flesh is the blood thereof - Lev.17:14] of all the slain saints calls out to God for vengeance, like the blood of slain Abel cried out to God from the ground - [Gen.4:10]. But they are told to wait a little while longer... until the last of their faithful brothers, who shall be deemed worthy of martyrdom, are killed in the Great Tribulation as they were killed in their time.

The Great Tribulation won't be a time of safety in heaven for God's church. It will be a time of global persecution for it... where some will be protected... and others who possess the deepest faith and spiritual strength and conviction will be murdered for daring to speak Jesus' name in public.

And many among the modern professing Christian communities who were taught the "rapture" and were expecting to be safe in heaven will: "...be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another." (verse 10)

"...many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold..." (verses 11-12).

Many deceived "Christians" [seal 1] finding themselves trapped in the Great Tribulation will question their beliefs and wonder why they weren't carried away to heaven. Even though Jesus never made such a promise.

"But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." (verse 13)

During the Great Tribulation, God's Two Witnesses [Rev.11] will be under God's divine protection, and witness and testify against the Beast [Antichrist] and the False Prophet, who will be set up in Jerusalem as God. And through their power and testimony to the coming Kingdom of God:

"...this gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world [by satellite TV?] for a witness unto all nations; and THEN shall the end come." (verse 14)

"For then shall be Great Tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake [God's church that is still on earth] those days shall be shortened." (verses 21-22)

Jesus' lengthy description of "seal 5," the Great Tribulation continues until verse 29 of Matthew 24. At which time... God shortens the Great Tribulation so that all life on earth doesn't end. And He shortens it with "SEAL 6."

THE HEAVENLY SIGNS.

"Immediately AFTER THE TRIBULATION OF THOSE DAYS shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: and THEN SHALL APPEAR THE SIGN OF THE SON OF MAN IN HEAVEN..." (verses 29-30).

Remember the prophets of old telling of the dark Day of the Lord? It happens AFTER the Great Tribulation [seal 5].

According to the prophecies... "seal 6" happens AFTER the Great Tribulation... and BEFORE the Day of the Lord:

"...the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, BEFORE the Great and the Terrible Day of the Lord come." (Joel 2:31)

"SEAL 7"

THE DAY OF THE LORD:

...is what the book of Revelation is about, because six of the symbolic seven seals are stripped away in one chapter... leaving the remainder of the 22 chapters of Revelation to reveal the return of Jesus Christ to earth with the Kingdom of God.

The "seventh seal" is composed of "two sets of seven plagues": seven trumpets and the seven vial plagues that completes the wrath of God on earth just before He descends upon the Mount of Olives and makes war against the surviving nations on earth and smashes man's governments and all of man's war-making capabilities.

Prophecy states that Christ will "gather His elect" with Him into the clouds during His return "AT THE LAST TRUMP." That means, when the last "trumpet plague" is sounded... His saints will be gathered by His angels to Him in the clouds before the last seven vial plagues of God's wrath is poured out on the earth.

Revelation's 11th chapter tells of this: "...the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord [the Father], and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever." (Rev.11:15)

This is what the seven seals of Revelation are. The prophesied global events leading up to the second coming of Jesus Christ at the end of the age of man's rule on earth.

They are the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: sinful man's daily misery, suffering and subsequent woes leading up to and eventually bringing about enough global distress to cause the nations to submit to a central government system [a resurrected Roman Empire, the fourth Beast of Daniel's dream - Dan.7] that will launch a concentrated global persecution against the public use of the very name of Jesus Christ.

The resulting Great Tribulation and man's destructive activities will have to be "cut short" by the "heavenly signs"... or no life would survive on earth. The darkened planet earth, then, will be the sign for the faithful of God to look up for their salvation... and for the unrepentant on earth to look up in terror.

"...when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." (Luke 21:28)

"... the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said unto the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for THE GREAT DAY OF HIS WRATH IS COME; and who shall be able to stand?" (Rev.6:15-17)

"...then shall ALL THE TRIBES OF THE EARTH MOURN, and they shall SEE THE SON OF MAN COMING IN THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN with power and great glory." (Matt.24:30)
First answer by Hawaiianmonkey. Last edit by Carbonado. Contributor trust: 0 [recommend contributor recommended]. Question popularity: 2 [recommend question].