Revelation's main prophetic message is unveiled primarily through seven
sets of symbols sketched on a scroll fastened with seven successive seals.
Jesus Christ breaks the seals and opens the scroll before John's eyes (Revelation 6:1). John sees and describes the symbols of the vision, each having a
specific prophetic significance.
As we have already seen, Christ alone has the right to unveil the meaning
of the seals. But He does not fully explain each seal in this context.
In fact, He had already-before His death and resurrection-revealed
the keys we need to understand the seals.
This information is recorded in Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21. The
writers of each of these three Gospel accounts record Jesus' answer to
the questions His disciples asked Him concerning when He would come again
and what would be the sign of His coming and the end of the age. "Now as
He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying,
'Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your
coming, and of the end of the age?'" (Matthew 24:3).
Jesus revealed to them the trends and conditions that would dominate
the world until His return. The seals of Revelation 6 symbolically portray
the same conditions in the same sequence Christ had earlier described.
