Seals are pinnipeds along with walruses and sea lions. It’s fairly simple to tell a seal apart from a sea lion. But I’m not going to talk about pinnipeds nor am I going to talk about Ingmar Bergman’s “The Seventh Seal”, 1958. Instead I’m going to talk about the Biblical Seventh Seal.
The Bible was translated “seven ways ’till Sunday” and no amount of unsupported assurances will dispel the large possibility that things were lost in translation. Unless of course one claims the author was God. Unfortunately, we lost the originals. That leaves us with the Stephen King-like book of horrors: the Book of Revelation of the New Testament.
To sum up the first 6 seals, the first 4 seals will release the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The seals are opened by the Lamb and Four Horsemen summoned, riding distinctive horses: conquest or pestilence; war; famine; death. Next, Seals 5 and 6 are opened. Seal 5 deals with martyrdom. With the opening of Seal 6 the whole earth will be shaken and the population of earth will witness the events and all will know that the Almighty exists.
That brings us to the Seventh Seal. This seal is divided into seven subsections, each introduced by a trumpet blast, each trumpet sounded by an angel. With each trumpet blast nasty event(s) occur. The first trumpet blast signals the Great Tribulation. With the blast of the 7th trumpet comes the climax of human history on earth, the End-time. The mystery of the Almighty God is revealed and the last battle between good and evil occurs. The Almighty deals the world seven last plagues, known as the Wrath of God. All those who make it through the Tribulation and still remain unbelievers–disobedient– will be subject to His undiluted Wrath. After crushing the Beast, the anti-Christ, the son of God will rule the earth for 1000 years and there’s a resurrection. At the end of the thousand years, Satan will be pulled out of the Abyss one more time and humanity will be tested again and this period sees another resurrection. There is more Wrath for the disobedient and finally, a new universe along with a new earth and a ruling New Jerusalem, will be created and there will be no more death.
That is the prophecy for humanity. Revelation is a scary book. The nasty events up until the Wrath of God were warnings: Worship God and be obedient or else. So, there is hope, in a helpless sort of way, for all who will be left behind and have to face the horror. And if one survives and pledges fealty and absolute obedience, then salvation is a given. That is outright coercion from an angry God. Does he have a right to be angry? Supposedly God’s mystery will be revealed. How many times have you asked yourself, “why am I here?” Or even more profound, “is this all there is?” These are questions that have been verbalized since ancient humans first mastered language.
The Bible is the diary of ancient man trying to understand his place in his small world and coming to terms with his Creator. There is nothing strange about that. The Book of Revelation, in my opinion, is an epic tale of madness and mayhem. We so often use the phrase “of Biblical proportions” to describe an occurrence so “Wrath of God”–on such a huge scale as to”bring to mind biblical accounts of horrific catastrophes”(Wikitionary). As such, they are ancient tales meant for ancient times. And those times have passed.
We have enough to worry about with the zombie apocalypse.
This post is a rewriting of a post from my other blog, Sapient Chronicles. Click Here to see the original post.
the EXCESSIVE GARDENER 
This is quite thick, Lucy, and I’m not schooled enough to compare, contrast or discuss despite being brought up Catholic and going to religious instruction through confirmation. Now my belief in God, Jesus and practice of faith is more of a personal relationship. But your tales of the seventh seal are certainly a thinking point about the bigger why.
Hey, me Catholic/agnostic. But one does have to look at the way the bible was written and by whom and when. Those were really awful times those poor people lived in. And that affected the way they wrote the Bible. Lucy .
Agreed. I appreciate the way you approach this consideration of it, Lucy.
I agree that the zombie apocalypse is more than enough to worry about. 🙂
Exactly.
In my humble opinion, God is good. (See the connection?) Whatever name we label God, we invented them for our own purposes.
As to the Bible, it was written as a guide, not a collection of books to scare people. Fear was a useful instrument in ancient times, and unfortunately, it still is today.
Religion should be used to bring out the good in us. Otherwise, it is just a simple philosophy to attract followers for whatever motives its leaders wish to propagate.
You are a wise man. Lucy
You are too kind. 🙂
You are always interesting, Lucy. This post ‘seals’ it.
Ha Ha.