The Prophecy of the Seven Seals and the History of Rome

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. The prophecy of Revelation – not a prophecy as yet mainly unfulfilled, but rather a prophecy which has been unfolding in history ever since the apostle John received it from Jesus Christ. And one that is now approaching its climax. The majority of the book of Revelation concerns the prophecy of the seven-sealed scroll.

The Nature of the Seven-Sealed Scroll

It is likely the seven seals were actually arranged so that as each seal was broken more of the scroll and its writing could be unrolled and read. The content of this scroll is revealed in stages by the successive breaking or opening of the seven seals upon it. The visions contained and described in the scroll are an age-spanning revelation of Jesus Christ to his servants. They chart, in symbolic form, a chronological series of events and eras in the New Testament age, starting from the time the apostle John received them, through to the time of Christ's return and beyond.

The Structure of the Prophecy

The Seven Seals prophecy properly includes the three sets of visions called the Seven Seals, the Seven Trumpets, and the Seven Vials. To understand their relationship, one must recognize that the Trumpets and Vials all come under the heading of and are the subject of the Seventh Seal. Specifically, the Trumpets are a subset of the final Seal, while the Vials are a subset of the final Trumpet.

Vision Set	Scope and Focus
The Seven Seals	The glory, decline, and fall of Rome, in both its phases.
The Seven Trumpets	The fall of the Roman Empire in the West and East.
The Seven Vials	The fall of Papal Europe.

Rome: The Fourth Beast Kingdom

These three sets of approximately 21 visions are collectively the story of the Iron Kingdom, or final Fourth Beast, of Daniel's visions. This kingdom was and is the dominion of Rome. The idolatrous influence of Rome was to extend over the entire era between the first and second coming of Jesus Christ. It was to be the final, the greatest, the longest lasting, and the most terrible of the succession of four kingdoms – Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome – before Christ's return. It was the only one of the four to exist in and, indeed, throughout the era of the New Testament. The vision of Nebuchadnezzar's Image in the book of Daniel described a succession of four worldly kingdoms until the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The fourth and final kingdom is the era of the Seven Seals visions in Revelation.

The Two Phases of Rome

Rome was to have two phases. In Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the metallic idol, the first is represented by the legs of iron. The second is represented by the feet of iron mingled with clay. The iron of Rome continues from the thighs to the toes, but the clay mingled both weakness and division into the strength. In history, these phases represent Rome – pagan and papal. The original Western Empire and seat of Rome became Catholic Europe. Both were idolatrous, and both dominated by Rome.

The latter phase represented the empire of Rome being broken up and mixed with other peoples to form ten nominal kingdoms that remained under the dominion of Rome. In Daniel's vision of the four beast kingdoms, this later iron-and-clay phase corresponds with the era of the ten kingdoms, represented by the ten horns of the fourth beast. Another little horn was to arise among them and hold sway over them. The prophecies of Daniel and Revelation indicate the power dominating this final phase would, in its later stages, begin to fall and be consumed, even by the ten kingdoms, and at the return of Jesus Christ would finally be destroyed.

The Chronological Development

The Seven Seals prophecy, which constitutes the bulk of the book of Revelation, is the tale of the final two kingdoms of Daniel's visions – the kingdom of iron, and the kingdom of stone. It is a chart of the history of Rome, and its age-long conflict with, and ultimate defeat by, the Kingdom of God. The Roman Empire was established by Augustus, in whose reign Jesus was born. The Iron of the fourth kingdom of Daniel's visions was to extend until the coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven. These visions describe the glory days of Rome under the Five Good Emperors from Nerva to Marcus Aurelius, leading through the fall of pagan Rome and the decline of papal Rome.