The Scroll with Seven Seals

My late husband, Rich, used to tell a joke that when the authorities went looking for David Koresh* they found him at Sea World looking for the Seven Seals.

All joking aside, people today have gone crazy trying to analyze the scroll with seven seals. In my research, I looked at Section 77 of the Doctrine and Covenants. In this section are several questions posed by the Prophet to the Lord regarding the Book of Revelation, along with the inspired answers given to each. The scroll, he was told, is the temporal history of the earth from the time of Adam until Christ's Second Coming. The seals represent the seven key periods of time or millenia of the earth's temporal history.

Very little is said in each of the first four seals, represented by four horses (more on them tomorrow), leading to great speculation. Richard Draper likes to joke that these are not wild horses, but that people have run wild with them. From my online research, this is certainly true! I recall that Joseph Smith said about his early search for truth that "the teachers of religion of the different sects understood the same passages of scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible." (Joseph Smith History 1)  That is never more true than today, particularly the apocalyptic scriptures of John, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel.

The thing that comes through to me about the scroll with seven seals is that Jesus Christ is the only one in heaven or on earth who is worthy to hold the entire history - and fate - of the earth in His hands.  I find that truly comforting.

* For those of you who are not old enough to remember the name, David Koresh was the charismatic leader of the cult in Waco, TX. He was particular interested in scriptural references to the End Times prophecies.

Text copyright Gebara Education 2013

Picture of scroll from www.truthstreams.com