“When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” Then each of them were given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed.”  (Revelation 6:9-11)


Those in White Robes

When Jesus speaks forth the fifth seal or fifth ketubah provision, we get our first glimpse of the fallout from Seals 1-4 of the Revelation, because here we find countless Christians standing at the base of the altar in heaven, having been martyred for their faith by the Four Horsemen.

Some commentators teach that these are ‘left behind’ Christians that converted after witnessing a pre-tribulation rapture. However, the progressive revelation contained in scripture makes it quite clear that this is not the case, and that the rapture is still to come in Chapter 10. Instead, these are saints that will be martyred when the ‘beast’ empire runs amok during the upcoming ‘great tribulation’;

He gave me this explanation: ‘The fourth beast is a fourth kingdom that will appear on earth. It will be different from all the other kingdoms and will devour the whole earth, trampling it down and crushing it.” (Daniel 7:23)