The Lamb opens the seventh seal.   Rev. 8:1-2,6 "...when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for he space of about half an hour.  And I saw the seven angels which stood before God: and to them were given seven trumpets...and the seven angels...prepared themselves to sound."

So far, there have been seven churches, seven candlesticks, seven stars, seven attributes of the Lamb, seven lamps, seven spirits of God, seven trumpets, seven angels, and seven seals.  And I am sure I didn't get them all.  I am always suspicious of preachers who say that they know exactly what all of this means.   Obviously, the number seven is a holy number to God.  He created the world in seven days.  The number is used over and over again in the Bible.  Like I told you the other day, my friend Carolyn--who is a researcher--says there are fifty-five "sevens" in Revelation.

This vision that John is having is from God, and we must simply recognize that it is a vision of the end of time that God is sharing with John, and with us.  In Rev. 1:11, God says to John, "...What you see, write it in a book..." And remember he said we are blessed if we read it.  I know...it's hard.

Our preacher gave a sermon today titled, "Ready or not, here I come."  Jesus is coming again.  People who tell you what day, year, month, etc. are ignoring what Jesus told us in Mark 13:32 "But of that day and that hour no man knows, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father."   Jesus doesn't even know when he is coming again.  He tells us to watch and pray.

Once the seventh seal is broken, the angels--one at a time--begin to sound the trumpets.  This is where it gets ugly.  I am not going to cover what happens here.  You need to read that for yourself.  It is found in Chapters 8-10.  Everything goes to pot.

Of course, we want to hear about the "Tribulation, and the thousand year reign of Christ on the earth.  There is so much controversy on that subject.  There are many books on the subject that can do a better job of explaining it than I can.  Suffice to say, I personally don't think we will be here for the tribulation.  But there are many who disagree.  One way or another, we are going to see Jesus.  Here, or there.   We shouldn't be alarmed, we should be alert.