People explain the seals in the book of Revelation in many different ways and have them mean many different things. Labeling, and placing things in categories is not really important. Essentially, the seals are just a way of explaining some ongoing events. There is nothing really mysterious about it. What is really important is how we live our lives in anticipation of these last days.

The mystery surrounding the seven seals and especially the first four seals, also known as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, can be incredibly confusing and also very frightening. For clarification concerning the four horses see Zechariah 6:1-8.

God allows some terrible things to happen to fulfill his purposes. God continually gives humanity a choice. How are we to choose if there is only good and no evil from which to choose?

The process of winemaking illustrates the point. A vintner will pour the juice of crushed grapes into a clean container. According to his recipe he will add a certain amount of sugar to the grape juice. If nothing else is added to the recipe there will be no wine. It will eventually be only vinegar. In order for the grape juice to make wine another element must be added to the recipe and that element is yeast. Yeast is an agitating force in the making of wine just as evil is an agitating force in the human condition. The vintner separates the dregs from the good wine at the end of the winemaking process. Our struggles between good and evil on the earth are nothing more than the fermentation of the plan of redemption. Whether we live in a condition of eternal death or eternal life depends on how we react to the yeast that God puts into our lives. God will separate the righteous from the unrighteous at the end of days. God gives us the choice.

God has a plan. Satan tries to subvert that plan with his own plan…a devious plan…a clever plan. He is a master at marketing his demon resources. Satan is dealing with a finite number of evil spirits and demons. If his goal is to deceive a thousand people, which would be more resourceful and time efficient… to send out a thousand evil sprits or one evil spirit who would inhabit a religious leader who would deceive a thousand people? All Satan has to do is influence one strong leader who will deceive and influence many people. The choice is set before us. We can choose to believe Satan’s lie or God’s truth. The choice is ours.

The first five seals are ongoing and have been since Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden. False teaching (the white horse) began in the garden and has plagued mankind since. Satan taught Eve that God did not have ultimate authority. She believed it. That is the spirit of the white horse. False religion is any spirit that teaches against God. That is exactly what Satan did to Eve. While professing to teach the truth he taught against God and she believed it. This is what is symbolized in the first seal.

Our world has been inundated with oppressive governments (the red horse) and greed (the black horse) that takes many forms. All these choices made by mankind illustrate man’s freedoms to choose. These choices have consequences. The consequences of all three horses are illustrated by the fourth horse, the pale (green) horse. Mankind’s freedom of choice ends with the fifth seal.

The evil spirits of the four horses are the mixer, the yeast in the wine that God has put in place to keep things agitated so that humanity has an opportunity to choose between God and Satan. These spirits are catalysts that God has put in place to give us a legitimate choice.

What will we as Christians choose?