The Seven Seals--Where Are We? (Update)

John begins the book of Revelations thusly:

The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:

Revelation 1:1. This indicates that the purpose of the Revelation was on future events. However, anyone reading Revelation must also understand that the different parts of John's vision are placed into a context, so some past incidents and events are portrayed. One of the most obvious examples of this is in Chapter 12, which, in part, describes Christ coming from the Jewish nation. (See verses 2 and 5).

One of the critical symbols in Revelation is the Book with Seven Seals. See Revelation Chapter 5. The opening of the seals, particularly the first four, is probably one of the most well known portions of Revelation among both Christians and non-Christians, inasmuch as it pertains to the "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse." See Revelation Chapter 6. Unfortunately, it is also grossly misunderstood by the World.

Most Christian churches interpret Revelation to have either already occurred during the intense persecution the church suffered in the First Century, with the Emperor Nero fulfilling the role of the Anti-Christ; or as pertaining solely as to the Great Tribulation preceding the second coming. Under the latter view, the seals on the book are not opened until immediately prior to the Great Tribulation. This leads to some significant issues. Upon the opening of the First Seal by Christ, John recorded:

 And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.

Rev. 6:2. The most popular interpretation of this passage is that the rider of the white horse is the Anti-Christ. Thus, many Christians believe that events in Revelation will not occur until after the Anti-Christ is revealed. That is, the rise of the Anti-Christ is the first sign of the impending Tribulation period.

The problem with this overall view of the opening of the seven seals is two-fold. First, it doesn't follow from the narrative given in Revelation, where "the Beast" does not make his appearance until well after the opening of the Sixth Seal. Second, we know that it is incorrect based on latter-day revelation received by Joseph Smith.

In inquiring of the meaning of the Book with the Seven Seals, Joseph Smith stated: "We are to understand that it contains the revealed will, mysteries, and the works of God; the hidden things of his economy concerning this earth during the seven thousand years of its continuance, or its temporal existence." D&C 77:6. And of the seven seals? "We are to understand that the first seal contains the things of the first thousand years, and the second also of the second thousand years, and so on until the seventh." D&C 77:7.

In an article entitled "Seeing the Book of Revelation As a Book of Revelation," Gerald N. Lund explains:

With this information, we can see how the book is structured and where the primary emphasis lies. For example, if we know the white horse and the man with a bow who goes forth to conquer (see Rev. 6:1–2) are part of the first seal or first thousand years, we will not look for some interpretation from our own time. Elder Bruce R. McConkie suggested that this was a representation of Enoch and the Zion he established. (See Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, 3 vols., Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1973, 3:376–8.)

Knowing the chronology of the seals helps us see that John’s emphasis is primarily the future. He spends only two verses apiece on each of the first four seals, or periods of a thousand years each. Obviously, that constitutes the briefest of historical highlights. For the fifth seal, which was very likely the time in which John himself lived, the Apostle took only three verses! (See Rev. 6:1–11.)

The entire vision from beginning to end takes 317 verses, and yet John spends only eleven verses (or about 3.5 percent) on the first five thousand years of history, which is about 71 percent of the earth’s total seven thousand years of recorded history. Without a doubt, the vast majority of the vision focuses on things “which must be hereafter.” (Rev. 4:1.) Furthermore, on closer examination, we see that the focus is even more limited than that. The account of the opening of the seventh seal begins in Revelation 8:1, [Rev. 8:1] and yet the account of the Second Coming and the Millennium do not occur until chapters 19 and 20! The Millennium itself is treated in only seven verses. (See Rev. 20:1–7.) By far the largest portion of the book describes the events that immediately precede the Second Coming of the Savior. (See also D&C 77:13.)

An illustration or table setting out the chronology can be found here. Assuming that the fall of Adam was about 4,000 B.C., that means that the first seal was for the approximate period of 4,000 - 3,000 B.C.; the second seal covers the approximate period 3,000 - 2,000 B.C.; the third seal covers the period 2,000 B.C. - 1,000 B.C.; the fourth seal the approximately period of 1000B.C. - 1 A.D.; the fifth seal the approximate period of 1-1,000 A.D., and that we are now in the time of the sixth seal.

This actually matches up quite well with history. For instance, the opening of the Fourth Seal seems to indicate that the rider would kill with, among other things, pestilence. In the book, Germs, Genes, & Civilization: How Epidemics Shaped Who We Are Today, by David P. Clark, the author notes that most of the major infectious diseases we recognize today, did not originate until within the last 2,000 years (and many are younger than that). The collapse of the Roman Empire was more the result of major contagions that killed large numbers of people (post-Roman Europe had a population only 1/3 of the size during the Roman Empire) than foreign invasion.

The Fifth Seal describes the condition of Christian Martyrs. Although this has been described as the period of the early Church, it actually matches up more nicely with the destruction of Christianity in the Middle-East and Asia by Muslims. The Lost History of Christianity, by Philip Jenkins, describes a world that we little know about, where 1,000 years ago, much of Africa and Asia was Christian, with the center of Christianity--culturally, geographically and in population--centered in modern-day Iraq. However, these nations were first invaded by Muslim armies and the Christian inhabitants subject to periodic genocide and incessant persecution, so that by the 14th Century, most of the Christians had been killed off; and by the close of the 19th Century, Christianity was all but extinct in the Middle-East.

We are now in the time of the Sixth Seal, which takes up the majority of John's Revelation.

Update: corrected dating errors and removed one comment based on those errors.