“And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals.”
Revelation 5:1
The sealed book
In Revelation 5, no man in heaven or earth was found worthy to open the book. Then the Lamb came and took it out of the right hand of Him that sat on the throne. The book is the Book of Redemption, and the seals hold mysteries that were hidden from the foundation of the world. Daniel was told to seal up the book “even to the time of the end” (Daniel 12:4, 9). Revelation 10:7 promises that in the days of the seventh angel, the mystery of God would be finished.
March 1963
From March 17 to 24, 1963, Brother Branham preached eight messages on the Seven Seals at the Branham Tabernacle in Jeffersonville, Indiana. Some weeks before, on February 28, 1963, while he was in Arizona, a large ring-shaped cloud was seen and photographed high over the northern part of the state. A photograph of it appeared in Life magazine in May 1963. Brother Branham testified that this was connected with the visitation of seven angels and the commission to return to Jeffersonville to preach the Seals.
The series opened with The Breach Between the Seven Church Ages and the Seven Seals (63-0317E) and closed with The Seventh Seal (63-0324E). The messages were later published as The Revelation of the Seven Seals.
A short outline
- The First Seal (Revelation 6:1–2). A rider on a white horse with a bow and no arrows: the spirit of antichrist entering the church in religious form.
- The Second Seal (6:3–4). The red horse: the same spirit taking political power and the sword.
- The Third Seal (6:5–6). The black horse: the Dark Ages, when salvation was sold and the Word was hidden, while the oil and the wine were protected.
- The Fourth Seal (6:7–8). The pale horse: death, the rider combining all three into one.
- The Fifth Seal (6:9–11). Souls under the altar: the martyred people of Israel, given white robes.
- The Sixth Seal (6:12–17). Great physical upheaval and the time of tribulation, when God turns again to Israel.
- The Seventh Seal (8:1). Silence in heaven. The Seventh Seal is the coming of the Lord Himself, and it was not revealed in detail.
This outline is only a summary. We encourage everyone to read the full book and to check every point against the Bible.