What Happens When Each of the Seven Seals Is Opened?

When Christ opens the seals, He does not open them all at once. He breaks them one at a time, and each one releases something specific into the world. The events come in order, each building on the one before, until the history of the earth reaches its final chapter. Here is what happens at each seal.

A reminder before we walk through them. None of this has happened yet. The Lamb is worthy and holds the scroll, but the seals are still sealed. What follows is the sequence that begins when He breaks the first one.

The first four seals: the four horsemen

The first four seals bring four riders, the horsemen of the apocalypse.

And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see. And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer. And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword. And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine. And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.

Revelation 6:1–8

One detail to clear up first. The "four beasts" in this passage are not the beast of Revelation 13. They are the four living creatures around the throne, and each one announces a horseman with the words "Come and see." Keep them separate from the end-times beast, which is a different subject entirely.

Now the riders.

The first seal, the white horse. A rider goes forth with a bow and a crown, conquering and to conquer. White is the color of righteousness throughout scripture, and this rider comes in the name of God, bearing real authority, to challenge the existing order and begin establishing God's kingdom. Many assume this rider is the Antichrist. The full case for why he is a servant of God, not His adversary, is its own subject.

The second seal, the red horse. Peace is taken from the earth, and men kill one another. This is what follows when the established powers are challenged. The reaction is violent. War breaks out, not at random, but because the forces of darkness will not tolerate the light being turned on them.

The third seal, the black horse. Famine and economic collapse. The rider carries a pair of balances, and a day's wages buys barely enough food. When peace is gone and war spreads, the systems that feed billions begin to fail.

The fourth seal, the pale horse. Death rides, and Hell follows. After war and famine come plague and pestilence and the breakdown of everything that keeps people alive. A fourth part of the earth is touched.

These four ride in every direction, north, south, east, and west. What the first seal sets in motion does not stay in one region. It crosses the whole earth.

The fifth seal: the martyrs

The fifth seal opens on the souls of the martyrs under the altar, crying out for justice and given white robes. That scene has its own page, because there is more in it than most people realize.

The sixth seal: the heavens shaken

The sixth seal brings the cosmic upheaval. A great earthquake that moves every mountain and island, the sun turning black, the moon to blood, the stars falling, the sky rolling back like a scroll, and the powerful of the earth fleeing into the rocks. These are the unmistakable signs no one can explain away, and they are the clearest proof that we are not in the sixth seal yet, because none of them has happened.

The seventh seal: silence, then the trumpets

Then the last seal opens, and what happens is not noise but silence.

And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.

Revelation 8:1

The silence in heaven is the pause before God's direct judgment. When the seventh seal opens, it gives way to the seven trumpets, and the trumpets bring the warnings and the outpouring that end with the kingdoms of this world becoming the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. The seventh seal is not the end of the story. It is the door into the final acts of it.

Why judgment runs through all of it

Read straight through, the seals are the unsealing of the events that bring the world to its reckoning. They start with a servant and a kingdom, move through the conflict that resists it, and end with God setting everything right. The judgment is not cruelty. It is the long-delayed answer to the martyrs' cry, the moment the scales are finally balanced.

And it has not begun. We are still in the silence before the first seal, not the silence of the seventh.

Each seal follows the one before, and not one of them has broken yet. I lay out the whole sequence, and why none of the seals has opened, here.

This is my own study of scripture, offered so you can test it against the word of God yourself. Open the passages I cite, read them carefully, and take them to the Lord.