Growing up as a Catholic I never muddled through these. I googled it and it's interesting to read about the 7-Seals being opened. Now as an Atheist it's kind of funny, especially the part how the sky is going to 'roll up.'
As an adult and an atheist reading through these, I understand better why EVERY generation believes that the end if coming. If you read the below about 1,000 historical events from the time of Jesus until yesterday could be re-interpreted into the below.
The writers of the bible
really knew what they were doing to keep people afraid, faithful, and
THEIR servants.
THE SEVEN SEALS
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
When the first seal is broken, the Book of Revelations shows that Jesus Christ (sent by the Word) is able to make His appearance among men and to ride His white horse -- a steed called 'Integrity' -- across the earth. With His arm in full swing, He brings a sword, not peace to the planet, and victoriously cuts a path of righteousness wherever He goes. See Rev. 6:1
When the second seal is broken, the Gospel calls out once again, and this time it brings a red horse whose rider wields a huge sword that takes away peace from the earth and sets people killing each other. As this rider guides his red steed across the planet, war and violence rise to a fever pitch all across the globe. See Rev. 6:3
When the third seal is broken, the black horse of commerce appears. Toil and labor and greed consume the nations in the wake of its hoofbeats. Confronting one another, the red horse of war and the black horse of commerce battle for supremacy over the earth, setting the stage for the fourth horseman of the apocalypse to make his appearance. See Rev. 6:5
When the fourth seal is broken, a deathly pale horse whose rider is called plague appears, and Hades follows at his heels. A fourth of the earth, the Bible says, will be destroyed in the famine brought by Plague and Hades. The Black plagues of Europe, the Irish Potatoe famine, Syphillus, Gonorreah, Tuberculosis, AIDS and Ebola all had their conception in the silent hoofbeats of this fourth spiritual equestrian. And there is much more to come from this last rider of the Apocalypse and from the companion who follows at his heels. See Rev. 6:7
When the Lamb of God broke the fifth seal, John, in his vision, saw underneath the altar the souls of all the people who had been killed on account of the word of God, for witnessing to it. The angel told John that all these terrible things were happening for judgment and that patience was needed because God intended to carry out His entire secret plan to a pre-determined end. See Rev. 6:9
When the sixth seal is broken, there will be a violent earthquake and the sun will go as black as sackcloth; the moon turn red as blood, and the stars of the sky will fall onto the earth like figs dropping from a tree in a high wind. The sky itself will disappear like a scroll being rolled up and all the mountains and islands will be shaken from their places.
The seventh seal cannot be broken until all the lost children of God have been located and baptised into the safety of heaven. As the end approaches and plagues and troubles mount, the people of God -- those who have been sealed in water with the sign of the cross on their foreheads -- will be bypassed by these angels of death. Those with the mark of the beast, however, will be confronted by Hades, and fall under the wrath of the judgment God has sent against them.
The four angels whose duty it is to devastate land and sea and poison the waters with wormwood, have instructions by God to wait until the seal has been placed on the foreheads of God's people and and all His servants before they carry out the worst of their damage.
When the Lamb breaks the seventh seal, there will be silence in heaven for about half an hour. On earth, however, no such silence will occur. The silence in heaven translates on earth to the rise to power of the beast.
Victorious over the forces of God on earth, the beast will go from victory to victory as heaven appears to be silent and not to care about the Church's devastation -- all the terror that is destined to follow the final trumpet. See Rev. 8:1
over faith and how faith must trump over Evil Science in the end.
