Revelation 6 — The Fifth and Sixth Seals

Session 20 | The fifth seal (martyrs under the altar) and the sixth seal (cosmic upheaval). The martyrs’ prayer, priestly imagery, the question of the state of the dead, and the rhetorical question “who is able to stand?” Source: A2K Online Church Archive — Revelation 6:9-17

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Recap: The Scroll and the Purpose of the Seals

The seven seals are the approach to the scroll’s contents — not the contents themselves. As the Lamb opens each seal, the realities of the fallen world are progressively revealed and God’s sovereignty over them is asserted. The seals are not a detailed timeline of future events but a theological disclosure of what the world looks like under Fallen Babylon’s influence, and what God is doing about it.

The First Four Horsemen reviewed:

1. Conquest — imperial violence
2. War — false peace unmasked
3. Famine — economic exploitation
4. Death — the final result of a world organized around power

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Transition to the Fifth Seal

With the fifth seal, the vision shifts from what is happening to the world to what is happening to God’s people. The focus narrows to the fate of those who have given their lives for faithful witness.

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The Fifth Seal: Souls Under the Altar (Rev 6:9-11)

“When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?’ And there was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, would be completed also.”

Who Are These?

Christian martyrs — believers who were “slain because of the word of God and the testimony which they had maintained.” The “word of God” = the gospel message; the “testimony” (martyria) = their witness to Jesus and the kingdom. They died for faithful gospel proclamation.

The Altar and Priestly Imagery

The martyrs are described as being under the altar. This draws on the Jewish sacrificial system: when an animal was sacrificed on the altar, its blood was poured out at the base of the altar (Leviticus 4:7). The blood represents the life of the animal.

The martyrs are positioned like the blood of sacrificial animals — their lives (blood = life) have been poured out in service to God. They are the living sacrifices Paul spoke of in Romans 12:1, taken to their ultimate conclusion.

The altar here is the incense altar before God’s throne (compare Rev. 8:3-5, where the incense offering and the prayers of the saints are presented at the same altar). The martyrs are in the most sacred proximity to God — right before his throne.

The Martyrs’ Single Voice

“They cried out with a loud voice.” — The collective group speaks with one voice, not many individual voices. The church’s witness is corporate, unified. Their prayer rises as one.

The Prayer: “How Long?”

“How long, O Lord, holy and true, will you refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”

This is a lament prayer in the tradition of the Psalms (Psalms 6, 13, 35, 74, 79, 89, 94). The martyrs are not asking for personal vengeance — they are asking for God’s justice to be done, for the world’s moral order to be restored, for the wicked to be held accountable and the righteous vindicated.

“Those who dwell on the earth” — again, the technical phrase in Revelation for the unbelieving world, the citizens of Fallen Babylon.

Are the Dead Really Alive?

This passage raises the question of the state of the dead: the martyrs are described as having “souls” and being able to cry out and pray. Are they conscious? Are they in an intermediate state?

Revelation’s imagery here is symbolic and visionary — we should not press it into a systematic theology of soul sleep or conscious intermediate existence. What the vision communicates is:

1. The martyrs’ deaths were not the end — they are in God’s presence
2. God hears their prayers
3. Their cause has not been forgotten
4. Justice will come

How literally we should understand “souls under the altar” crying out in a bodily sense is a question the text does not fully answer. The point is the assurance of God’s awareness and eventual action.

The Response: White Robes and “Rest a Little Longer”

Each martyr receives a white robe — the garment of righteousness, holiness, and the faithful who have not soiled their garments (as in Sardis’s letter). This is Jesus’s vindication of them.

They are told to rest until the number of their fellow servants “who are to be killed even as they had been would be completed.”

What does “completing the number” mean?

The teacher argues this is about completing the testimony — the full witness of the church must go out before the final judgment comes. There is still gospel work to be done. The martyrs’ deaths are part of a larger witness that is not yet finished.

This connects to the “two witnesses” vision in chapter 11 — the church’s corporate witness must run its course before the end comes.

Completing the Work of Gospel Witness

This is a profoundly practical point: the martyrs’ prayer for justice is answered with a call to more witness. Before God wraps up history, the full testimony of the church must be completed. Christians dying for the faith are not a sign that the cause is failing — they are part of the completion of the witness.

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The Sixth Seal: Cosmic Upheaval (Rev 6:12-17)

“I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.”

Why This Is Not Meant Literally

Several indicators:

1. If the sun went entirely dark and every star fell to earth, there would be no one left to hide in caves. The earth would be annihilated. But people are still alive, hiding, and crying out.
2. The imagery is drawn from Old Testament prophetic language used to describe God’s intervention in history — not literal astronomical events:
   • Isaiah 13:10 (Babylon’s fall): “For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not flash forth their light; the sun will be dark when it rises and the moon will not shed its light”
   • Isaiah 34:4 (God’s judgment on Edom): “All the host of heaven will wear away… the sky will be rolled up like a scroll”
   • Ezekiel 32:7-8 (against Egypt): “I will cover the heavens and darken their stars; I will cover the sun with a cloud and the moon will not give its light”

In every one of these Old Testament passages, the cosmic imagery describes God’s decisive intervention in human history — not the literal destruction of the solar system. The same interpretive principle applies in Revelation.

1. Earthquake + cosmic upheaval = the standard biblical shorthand for a divine theophany — God appearing to act in history. When God “shows up” in judgment or redemption, the earth shakes and the heavens are disturbed. This is the language of God’s overwhelming presence, not a physics textbook.

Seven Categories of Hiding Humanity (Rev 6:15-17)

“Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains.”

Seven categories covering all of human society:

1. Kings of the earth
2. Great men (nobles, powerful officials)
3. Commanders (military leaders)
4. Rich men
5. Strong men
6. Every slave
7. Every free man

The spectrum goes from the most powerful (kings) to the least (slaves). No one is exempt from God’s judgment. Social status, wealth, military power — none of it provides cover when God acts.

They call to the mountains: “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.”

The wrath of the Lamb — this is a striking paradox. The Lamb is associated with weakness, sacrifice, and gentleness. But his wrath is something even the most powerful people on earth would rather die than face. The gentle, sacrificial Lamb is also the just Judge.

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“Who Is Able to Stand?”

The sixth seal ends with the question: “For the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”

This question echoes through into chapter 7 — which serves as the answer. Chapters 6 and 7 are deliberately structured as question and answer:

• Chapter 6 ends: “Who is able to stand?”
• Chapter 7 answers: Those who are sealed — the 144,000, the great multitude washed in the blood of the Lamb

The question creates narrative tension and drives the reader forward. And the answer is both sobering (no one can stand by their own merit) and hopeful (those identified with the Lamb can stand).

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Summary

Seal	Image	Meaning
Fifth	Souls under the altar	Martyred believers cry for justice; they are vindicated with white robes; they must wait for the witness to be completed
Sixth	Cosmic upheaval	God’s decisive intervention; the language of divine theophany; no social status provides cover from God’s judgment

Key Theological Points

1. The martyrs are remembered — their deaths are not random; they are “under the altar,” held in God’s presence
2. God hears the lament prayer — “How long?” is a biblical, faithful prayer that God takes seriously
3. Witness must be completed — the delay of final judgment is for the sake of completing the church’s testimony
4. Cosmic language is symbolic — drawn from Old Testament prophetic patterns, not a literal astronomy forecast
5. No one can stand alone — the question sets up chapter 7’s answer: only those in the Lamb can stand

“The martyrs are not asking for personal revenge — they are asking for God’s justice. And God’s answer is: wait just a little longer. The testimony of the church is not yet complete.”