'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 are the living who survive to the presence of the Lord shall 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 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 verse tell! Those of Jesus' anointed  brothers who survive to Jesus' 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 as humans finish their earthly  course, many of them dying voilently at the hands of opposers.  They do not, however, sleep in death as their predessors 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 15:50-52; compare Revelation 14:13)  Thus the resurrection of anointed Christians starts soon after the four horsemen of Apolypse begin their ride.

The opening of the fifth seal  of the scroll has provided  good news concerning anointed integrity keepers who have conquered, faithful to the death.  But it provides no goo news for Satan and his seed. The ride of the conqueror  on the white horse continues irresistibly and culminates 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.

Mc Clintock and Strong' Cyclopedia quotes John Jortin, an 18th-century English Protestant born of French Hugenot parents, as saying:  "Where Persecution begins, Christianity ends . . . It was after Christianity had been established as the religion of [Roman] empire, and after wealth and honor had been conferred on its ministers, the monostrous eveil of persecution  aquired gigantic strength, and threw its blasting influence over the religion of the Gospel." 

Next time: Earthquakes in the Lord's Dat

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