The Opening Of This Seventh Seal
Spiritual Building-Stone No. 179
Revelation 8:1,
“And when He had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.”
Listen to what God’s Prophet in this endtime said about it:
Now, the 8th chapter only reveals the scene of the Seventh Seal where nothing else is revealed. Now, nothing is not revealed in the Seventh Seal. Now, has nothing to do with the 7th chapter of Revelation. It's the revealing of the Seventh Seal is perfectly mute. And if I only had time - I'll try a few places - to show you all the way back from Genesis this Seventh Seal is spoke of. From the very beginning in Genesis, this seventh--these Seals moved right up.
Now, do you notice on the opening of this Seventh Seal, it's also in a threefold mystery. This one I will speak and have spoke, that it is the mystery of the seven thunders. The seven thunders in heaven will unfold this mystery. It'll be right at the coming of Christ, because Christ said no one knew when He would return. [1]
Why, there wasn't, I guess, one-third of the whole Jewish race ever knowed that Jesus Christ was on earth. They might've heard of some fanatic down along there somewhere, but they didn't pay any attention to it, just going on. "He came to His own, and His own received Him not." (John 1:11).
Now, there's where I believe even... Now, it didn't say He'd secretly come, but the rapture will be a secret. So if that was so secret when He come, how much more will the rapture be unknown. See? They want to... Directly they'll say, "Well, I thought we were supposed to have a rapture and all this judgment upon the earth."
He said, "It's already taken place, and you didn't know it." It'll be so--just like a thief at the night (Luke 12:37-40; I Thess. 5:1-3). [2]
Now, God's secret mystery He had before the world began... Now, back in the back part of God's mind, there was something that He was trying and was going to achieve, and He had a motive in doing it, in order to let Himself be expressed. Because first, there wasn't even a moon, star, atom, molecule, or anything; He was God. But He exactly wasn't God at that time, because God is an object of worship, and there wasn't nothing to worship Him. So in His great mind He wanted these attributes to be expressed. And in Him was love; in Him was to be Father; in Him was to be Son; in Him was to be a Saviour; in Him was to be a Healer. And all these great attributes that we see already expressed, they were in God.
So my opinion, the first thing that He made was Angels (Isaiah 6:1-4; Heb. 1:4-14 + 2:1-9). And then they worshipped Him and that made Him God. And He started from there... And now, then when Angels began to worship Him, that was before there was even a molecule in the earth; there was nothing. It was all darkness; there wasn't no sun, or no moon, no stars, no nothing; then He was God. As He asked Job, "Where was you when I laid the foundations of the world? when the morning stars sang together, the sons of God shouted for joy?" See? "Where were you?" See? That was way back before the earth (Job 38:4-7).
Now, God had a purpose and a hidden mystery. And that's what I want to speak on to the church: the hidden mystery of God that He had in His mind before the world ever began and how that it's unfolded itself right down to this present hour that we're living. See? Then you will understand clearly then on, I believe, what is being done.
God's great mystery of how... It's a secret. He kept it a secret. Nobody knowed nothing about it; even the Angels didn't understand it. See? He didn't reveal it. That's the reason under our seventh mystery, when the seventh seal was opened, there was silence (Rev. 8:1).
Jesus, when He was on earth, they wanted to know when He would come. He said, "It's not... Even the Son Himself don't know when it's going to happen." (Matt. 24:36; Mark 13:32). See, God has this all to Himself. It's a secret. And that's the reason there was silence in heaven for a space of a half hour. And Seven Thunders uttered their voices, and John was even forbidden to write it (Rev. 10:1-4) --the coming of the Lord.
That's one thing He hasn't revealed yet, of how He will come, and when He will come. It's a good thing that He doesn't. No. He has showed or revealed it in every type that's in the Bible.
Therefore, the entire Bible is the revelation of God's mystery in Christ. The entire Bible is an expression of one goal that God had, one purpose. He wanted to achieve in the entire Bible, and all the acts of the believers in the Bible has been in type and expressing what God's great goal is. And now in this last day He has revealed it and shows it (I Cor. 2:6-16). And God's help, we'll see it right here this morning: what the Lord has had in His mind all along and has expressed it. Therefore, you can see the great meaning of what it's been to know this and then try to bring it to the people. See? And then you don't... I haven't went into details and tried to explain it as God has revealed it to me.
See? What was He doing?--identifying Himself to these apostles that all of the prophets, and all of the Psalms, and everything was Him expressed (Luke 24:25-47).
He is the principal Theme of the entire Bible. If you read the Bible and don't see Christ in every verse of It, go back and read It again. See? If you can't see Christ in every verse of the Bible, then you read It again, because you've missed something. The Bible is Christ. He is the Word. When you read, "In the beginning God created..." there's Christ (John 1:1-4). See? From that to the "Amen" in Revelation is every Word testifying of Jesus Christ. [3]
And these things that we're talking about was to be revealed at the last day, just before the last trumpet, at the end of the message of the last church age. That's right. If you want to read that now, you can turn to... I just referred to you last night two or three times, Revelations 10:1-7: "And in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel's message, the mystery of God would be revealed and finished." And there's only one thing left when this Seven-sealed Book is open, then the entire mystery of God, why, we probed at through years, and according to the Scripture then when there was no way to understand it until this day, because it's been hid. We've seen the symbol, what it was symbolized by, but it could not be correctly revealed until the last day. See? Now, then we must be there at the end time.
Now, remember, and don't forget now that He does nothing until He reveals it; and don't forget also, that He does it in such a simple way that the wise and the prudent miss it. Now, if you want to mark that down, that's Matthew 11:25, 26. [4]
Now, we'll turn now to the 8th chapter, of Revelations 8:1. And God of heaven help us, is my prayer. We must remember that this Seventh Seal is the end of time of all things. That's right. The things written in the Seven Seal Book (sealed up of the plan of redemption from before the foundation of the world), it every bit ends. It is the end; it is the end of the struggling world. It's the end of struggling nature. It's the end of everything. In there is the end of the trumpets. It's the end of the vials. It's the end of the earth. It's even the end of time. Time runs out; the Bible said so.
Revelation 10th chapter and 1 to the 7th verse. Time runs out. The angel said, "Time will be no more," when that--in the days of this great thing to happen. Everything runs out in this time, at the end of this Seventh Seal.
Notice, it's the end of the church age. It's the end of the Seven Seals. It's the end of the trumpets. It's the end of the vials, and even ends the ushering in of the millennium; that's on the Seventh Seal.
It's just like firing a rocket into the air, and that rocket explodes here, and it goes up, then it explodes again. It puts out five stars. One of those stars explodes and blows out five stars from it; and then one of them stars explodes, blows out five stars from it; it fades on out. That's what the Seventh Seal; it just ends the time for the world. It ends the time for this. It means the time for that. It ends the time for this. It ends the time... Everything just ended up on that Seventh Seal.
Now, how is He going to do it? That's what we don't know, isn't it? We don't know. It's even the time for all these things, and the ushering in of the millennium.
Notice, the breaking of this Seal was so great that heaven was hushed by it in silence for the space of a half hour. Now, is it great? What is it? It was hushed: heaven. There wasn't a thing moved for a half hour.
Now, a half hour might not be long if you're having a good time, but in the suspense of between death and life, it seemed like a millennium. It was so great, Jesus never mentioned it: none of the rest of them. John couldn't even write of it. No, he was forbidden to write here. See, there's just... He just... He didn't write, but it's just is silence.
And the four and twenty elders that stood before God there harping with their harps, they quit playing their harps (Rev. 5:8). The Angels hushed their singing in heaven. Think, the holy Cherubims and Seraphims, that Isaiah saw it in the temple with six sets... or three sets of wings, three on--two over his face and two over his feet, and flying (Isaiah 6:1-4). And he's day and night they're before God, saying, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty." And even when they walked in, or come into the temple, the posts of the temple moved with their presence. And these holy Seraphims hushed up. Angels quit singing. Flying in the Presence of God, singing, "Holy, holy, holy..." they shut up.
No angels singing, no praises, no altar service, no nothing. There was silence, hush, deadly silence in heaven for a half hour. All the host of heaven was silent for this half hour, when this Seventh Seal mystery in the Book of Redemption was broke open. Think of it; but it's broke. The Lamb breaks it. You know what? They were awed by it, I believe. They didn't know. There it was; they just stopped. Why? What is it?
Now, none of us know; but I'm going to tell you my revelation of it. And now, I am not prone to be a fanatic. If I am, I'm ignorant of it. See? I am not given away to such as "leerious" or carry-ons and imaginary things. I've said some things might been kind of strange to some people, but when God comes around behind it and vindicates it and says it's the Truth, then that's God's Word. It may seem strange that way. See?
And now, as certain as I stand in the platform tonight, I had the revelation that revealed... It's in a threefold manner. That, I will speak to you by God's help of a fold of it. Let's go over there first. Here's the revelation to begin what... I want to tell you what it is. What happens is that those seven thunders that he heard thunder and was forbidden to write, that's what the mystery is laying behind those seven consecutive thunders rolling out.
Now, why? Let us prove it. Why? It is the secret that no one knows about. John was forbidding to write about it, even, even write a symbol about it (Rev. 10:3-4). Why? This is why there was no activity in heaven; it might give away the secret. Do you see it now? If it's so great it must be included, because it's got to happen, but when the seven thunders... [1]
And each time, if you who take the tapes and listen, and I hope and trust that you have had a spiritual understanding of what that God has been in trying to get over to the church without saying it right out. See? It's a thing sometime... We have to say things in such a way, that it might thin down, it might bring some to go out, some to leave, and some to ponder over. But that's done purposely. It must be done that way.
Then it might be that some would say, "You mean God would purposely do a thing like that?" He certainly did. He does yet.
He said one day, when He had thousands around Him; He said, "Except you eat of the flesh of the Son of God, Son of man, and drink His Blood, you have no Life in you." (John 6:53-66).
What kind of a statement do you think that a medical doctor or a nurse, or any fine intellectual person would think of a statement like that, for a Man that had a ministry like He had? Why, he would say, "Eat the flesh? That's cannibal. To drink human blood, it's a vampire. In other words, He wants us to be cannibals and vampires." And the whole audience walked away from Him.
And there was a ministerial association with Him, of seventy that had been chosen. And He turned to them, and He said, "What will you think when you see the Son of man ascending up from where He came from?" Now, He didn't explain that. He never explained how. Paul did that later on. He just said it. See? And then when this... He said, "What will you say to these ministers when you see the Son of man ascending up from where He come from?" [5]
And I do not think that heaven is a place that my mother used to tell me about. I believe that the church has grown from that. To think that it used to be... A hundred years ago or two, I think the old-timers used to think that every one that died went up to heaven, and had a harp, and set up there on the clouds, and played a harp. Now, they knowed that there was a place called heaven, but they... If that be so, all the musicians would have it on us. You see? But it isn't that kind of a place. It isn't playing harps at all. I don't believe the Bible teaches that. But that was a conception that they had before the fullness of the Word come into existence or the opening of the Seven Seals that's promised to us in this age. That we then understand. I believe that heaven is a real place just the same as this is a real place, for God started us in our spiritual growth in this place. And I believe that heaven is a place just as real as this, where we don't set up there for eternity and just set there on a cloud.
You wonder why you did it. But after while when you mature, as matured Christians, then you understand it. See? There's something picks up and you see why you had to do it. Your natural birth types your spiritual. How it fitted to you. In this life as you grew, everything fitted right in, because you were made for that (II Peter 3:18).
Wasn't it a strange thing the night that you staggered into the mission, the tent meeting, or the little church somewhere on the corner, and something, a preacher preached on a certain subject, and you just fell right at the altar? See, see? God knew that before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4). See? It seemed strange to you why you did it then, but now you understand. [6]
Notice, notice this, there was an auction one time, and they got an old fiddle up. You've heard it many times, an old violin. And the auctioneer said, "What am I offered for it?" And they picked up the old fiddle; it didn't look very much: looked scrummy, everything. He couldn't even get a bid on it. Finally I think he got a bid for a dollar or something like that.
And there was one standing there that didn't think it ought to sell for that, so he went and picked it up. He struck it in his hands, picked up the bow and rosined it, and he played a tune. And when he did, everyone started crying. They never heard such music in their life.
Then the auctioneer said, "What am I offered?"
"Two thousand." "Five thousand." "Ten thousand." See? What was it? The master's hand revealed what was veiled in the old instrument.
Same now. The old Book, It's ragged; It's been laughed at, burnt, made fun of. But the time has come that they've got a denominational auction, the World Council of Churches. They're selling It like nobody's business. There's a denominational auction coming.
But remember there's something in the old Book that promised that there'd be a predestinated, ordained hand come one day, that would pick It up and make the Word of this Book, to a predestinated heart, to the task that It's made for, reveal the promises that's in It. It might look old, like an old bunch of holy-rollers, or something other; but it just takes the Master's hand, the Word on It, to reveal that Word; and it becomes more than a holy-roller. It's become that to every one of us, hasn't it, friends? It's not a bunch of fanaticism. It depends on whose hand the bow's in. [5]
Do you see Him now in His Word and all of His Word made manifest right here before us? Oh, church of the living God, get to your feet; believe Him with all that's in you. Hold to that little Wheel in the middle of the Wheel (Ezek. 1:15-21); let It stabilize every move and every motion that you make. Every thought that you have, may it be controlled by this Power on the inside of you, because God is setting right in His Word of this hour in the evening Light, showing forth the Light.
Every parable, everywhere we go to nature, to the Bible, to the statues that Daniel saw and the king of that day, all of them saw, and all these things, everybody, every form, every move, every place in the Body positionally shows us the very hour that we're living in. Not another move can come above it. There was a move of foundation, Luther. There was a move of the hand, charity, Wesley. Charity... There never was a greater. It's taught the Wesley move, they sent missionaries to all the world. One of the greatest moves that was made in the age before that. Then come the Pentecostal age; then come in the different fingers and things, the Pentecostal age of tongues, and nose, and so forth. Now, it's in the eyes. What good will you need eyes, or need Light, if that eyes wasn't there to see. There has to be eyes first to see, and then when that come, He opened the Seven Seals and revealed the evening Light, taking all the mysteries that's been hid down through these church ages and now revealed them as He promised to do in Revelations 10:1-7. Here we are today setting in the midst of the Word, and the Word being revealed to us by Jesus Christ. Then this is God's Word. [7]
When our Lord was on earth, the disciples asked Him and said, "Master, will You at this time restore the kingdom back to Israel?" (Acts 1:6-8).
And Jesus said that, "It's not for you to know this hour or time." And no one would know, said even the Son, as yet, did not know." But after His death, burial, and resurrection, and ascension into glory, He receives from God the future of the church. Then He returned back to bring this Message to the church, and this message of His coming and the condition of His churches down through the age.
He could not do it before His death, burial, and resurrection, because He had not yet knew it. But did you notice how the Scripture reads here?
“The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him...” (Christ),...
How that God the Father gave the revelation to His Son Jesus Christ. And He sent His Angel to John to signify these things which was, which is, and which shall be. Oh, it's set beautifully (Rev. 1:1-2). [8]
But this is my ministry that He give me a gift. And that gift is to shake the church to bring it to a recognition of the coming of Christ, the return of the Spirit of God in the church. It's on you, the same Spirit. It might not be the same gift, but the same Spirit. There's different manifestations, but the same Spirit all the time. The same Holy Ghost you got is the same Holy Ghost I got, the same Holy Ghost we all got. It's all the children of God. [9]
My ministry is a different ministry from a pastor or teacher. I'm not. And if I say things wrong, brethren, forgive me. I don't mean it. But this is my ministry to declare Him, that He's here. [10]
And so there He spoke to me and said, "The Seven Seals will be opened. The seven mysteries, sevenfold mystery of the Bible that's been closed up since the foundation of the world will be revealed." And we, yet a humble little group compared with all the world, we've enjoyed these blessings and hearing those mysteries: Marriage, Divorce, Serpent's Seed. All those different questions has been completely revealed to us, not by man but by God Himself, that's opened those seven mysteries of what the church was, how it was in Christ at the beginning, and how it would be revealed in the last day.
Remember. Look what we seen in this day. The Quickening Power has come to us to open the Seven Seals. What was that? The intelligence of a man? No, the Quickening Power of God. See? The Quickening Power of God foretold this would take place. See? But the Quickening Power of God made the world testify to It, it's the Truth. The Angel of the Lord, what I told you was around, that Pillar of Fire, Quickening Power, let the world testify that It's the Truth. And in that, they didn't know what It was, and we who just look this way... and It's our Lord up there. You see?
He is the One Who opened those Seals; He is those Seals. For the whole Word of God is Christ, and Christ is the Seals that was open. What is the opening of those Seals then? Revealing Christ. And the very seven Angels which represented the Seven churches was all completed, and we couldn't even see It. They took the picture, not us. And there He is standing there, supreme Judge, showing that He is Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. What identification.
Well, if you'll turn the picture like this and look (and you can probably see it from the audience), it's Christ. See His eyes looking here just as perfect as it could be, wearing the white wig of supreme Deity and Judge of all heavens and earth? Can you see His eyes, nose, His mouth? Just turn the picture from this (the way they had it), this a-way, the way it's supposed to be. Can you see it? He is supreme Judge; there's none other but Him (Rev. 1:12-16). And that is a perfect identification again, a vindication that this Message is the truth. It is true. And making Him, not a third person, but the only Person with the white...
Quickening Power did that to us. Quickening Power lets us see His coming. Quickening Power snatched us from death to Life. [11]
References:
[1] “The Seventh Seal”, Seal’s Book pg. 536/575/555-557
[2] “The Third Seal”, Seal’s Book pg. 238
[3] “Christ Is The Mystery Of God Revealed”, pg. 16-19
[4] “The Second Seal”, Seal’s Book pg. 187
[5] “Unveiling Of God”, par. 22-26/347-352
[6] “Things That Are To Be”, par. 40-42
[7] “Christ Is Revealed In His Own Word”, par. 161-162
[8] “Revelation Chapter One” (60-1204M), par. 80-84
[9] “Be Not Afraid” (62-0620), par. E-85
[10] “From That Time” (62-0713), par. E-102
[11] “Rising Of The Sun”, pg. 2/45