Chapter Seventeen - 'Slaughtered Souls' Rewarded

'Those Who Are Dead Rise First'

The insight granted by the opening of the fifth seal agrees completely with  other scriptures that have to do with  the heavenly  resurrection.  For example, the apostle Paul wrote:  "For this is what we tell you by Jehovah's Word, that we the living who survive  to the presence of the Lord shall in no way precede those who have fallen asleep in death; because the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a commanding call, with an archangel's  voice and with God's trumpet, and those who are dead in union with Christ will rise first.  Afterward  we the living who are surviving will, together with them, be caught away in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and thus we shall always be with the Lord." -1 Thessalonians 4:15-17. 

What a stirring story these verses will tell!  Those of Jesus' anointed brothers who survive  on earth during  his presence, are preceded into heaven by those who have already died. Such ones, dead in union with Christ, rise first.  Jesus descends, that is turns his attention to them, and resurrects them to spirit life, giving them "a white robe."  Afterward, those who are still alive a s humans finish their earthly course, many of them dying violently at the hands of opposers.  They do  not, however, sleep in death as their predecessors did.   Rather, when they die, they are instantly changed-"in the twinkling of  an eye- caught away to the heavens to be with Jesus and fellow members of the body of Christ.  (1 Corinthians 15:40-52; compare Revelation 14:13)   Thus, the resurrection of anointed Christians starts soon after the four horsemen of Apocalypse begin their ride.  

The opening of this fifth seal of the scroll has provided good news  concerning anointed integrity keepers who have conquered, faithful to the death. But it provides no good news for Satan and his seed.  The ride of the Conqueror on the white horse continues irresistibly and culminates  in a time of reckoning for the world that  is "lying in the power of the wicked one."  (1 John 5:19)  This is made clear when the Lamb opens the sixth seal.

Next time: Chapter Eighteen - Earthquakes in the Lord's Day

From the book of Revelation