7:1
There is now a gap between the sixth seal having been opened and the opening of the seventh seal. The seventh seal is somehow more significant than the previous sixth. I think that this would support the view that the seals (along with the trumpets and bowls, and indeed the whole book of Revelation) both represent how things are throughout time, along with there being a climactic ending. So in terms of means of interpreting Revelation, a combination of the idealist approach (i.e. giving general lessons on how things work, and how to deal with severe situations) and the futurist view. And this must be mixed with the preterist view as well, in terms of awareness of the historical situation at the time also being essential to a right understanding of Revelation.
So we now see four angels “standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds”. Everything is under God’s control, even the most climactic events. Events do not happen until and unless God permits them to occur. So the end of the age will not happen until God says so. It is God who is in control.
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