A just judicial system will make mercy available even to convicted criminals. Though they are required to comply with court directives, a fair-minded judge will first look for the truth, impose a just sentence, and then make room for the defendant to receive appropriate mercy. If the defendant shows remorse for his crime and adheres to the stipulations set down by the law then mercy can be shown through devices like probation, parole, or even a full pardon. Judgment must come, but mercy can be dispensed if there is a willingness to live by the terms of the court.

So it is with God. Unrighteousness demands justice. We are told in His Word that He is a righteous judge and that He will not be mocked. But we also know He is a merciful father and wants us to escape the sentence prescribed under the law. God works continually to get us to accept His mercy so we do not have to suffer His judgment. That is why the Scripture declares, “Where sin did abound, grace did much more abound.” Rom. 5.20 Judgment or mercy? It’s up to us. It’s our choice.

Jesus told a parable which illustrates that God is simultaneously a God of judgment and a God of mercy. Paraphrased, the parable, from Matthew 18, goes like this:

A servant once owed an enormous debt to the king, so the king pronounced judgment ordering the man, his family, and his belongings to be sold into slavery in order to pay off the debt. The servant, however, came worshiping the king and begged his mercy. The king, being a forgiving soul, heard his plea and completely wiped out the debt. The servant escaped the sentence due him and escaped scot-free.
   But the servant, Jesus tells us, did not respond in kind. He went straight out and demanded that a fellow servant repay a much smaller debt to him. Jesus said the man even took his debtor by the throat and demanded payment. When the unfortunate debtor could not pay, the unmerciful servant had him thrown into prison. When their fellow servants heard about the hypocrisy of the first servant they “were very sorry”, and informed the king of the injustice done by the unforgiving servant.
   The king promptly summoned the wicked servant and turned him over for the judgment. For his hypocrisy the servant, who could have had mercy, received the judgment he had originally been sentenced to – and more.

The primary reason for this parable is to show us God’s forgiving character and to warn us that we shall be judged if we ourselves do not forgive our debtors. But there are some finer points of faith to be searched out in this story as well. We should know that God is both a righteous judge and a merciful father. If we take advantage of His mercy we shall escape judgment. If we abuse His mercy or reject it, we shall receive the full, unrestrained judgment due us under the law.

Seals Five and Six of Revelation: Pictures of Mercy and Judgment
Nowhere in Revelation is God’s duality as Righteous Judge and Merciful Father more evident than in the fifth and sixth seal judgments. In them we shall see mercy being offered and judgment being set; both exist side by side in a world besieged by the great and terrible Tribulation. During the Tribulation, mercy is ever available, while judgment continues to descend upon an unrighteous, unbelieving world and on those who deny their faith in Christ.

God’s terms of mercy are simple. We must accept that His Son, Jesus, died in our place and has paid the price for our sins. There is no other way or means to be saved, but to accept this and acknowledge that we deserve death, that Jesus died in our place, and that He is our Savior who is due our total devotion and worship. This is the only way to be linked up with His love. Those who do not take full advantage of this merciful offer will reap judgment as their final reward, just as the unforgiving servant reaped a terrible judgment for his evil works. During the judgment of the fifth seal, the line between mercy and judgment is dramatically drawn. People will be required to turn to God with a repentant heart and be forgiven. They will be required to die for their faith or suffer a fiery eternal judgment in Hell.

The Tribulation is a time of sorting. God will sort out the good from the bad, the wheat from the chaff, that which can be harvested and used from that which must be gathered and burned. The Tribulation is a time of burning and cleansing. It is the link between the Age of Grace, the time in which we now live, and the promised future Age of Christ’s perfect rule on earth. Once the Tribulation begins the Age of Grace is over and the Millennium of a perfect government is at hand.

When the Tribulation begins God’s offer of salvation will still stand, people will be saved during the Tribulation, but the price will be much higher than it is now during the current Age of Grace. The word Tribulation denotes pressure. The world has already become a pressure cooker because of the first four judgments that have already taken place. By the time Jesus opens the fifth seal the world is reeling from the effects brought on by the first four seals. The Antichrist has been in power for about three and a half years. He has set up his throne in Jerusalem and announced that he is god. He is now the supreme dictator and ruthless tyrant of the earth. Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Napoleon, all pale in comparison to this man of sin. He is the tyrant of tyrants. He and his allies wage war against any country or union of nations that oppose his will. Because of the stressed economic situation, he has commanded that no one be able to do business with any person or country that does not worship his image and bare the Mark of the Beast on their forehead or right hand. Among the lower classes and unfortunate masses, famine, plague, and disease are ravaging the population. Poverty and despair spread rapidly in various parts of the earth. Desperation grows on every continent as large parts of the population are forced to scrounge for the very necessities of life.

Note that the last aspect of the four seal judgments was Hell. The fourth judgment is death, and it has been given free reign over a fourth of the earth’s population to search out people who are ripe for Hell. Death is given the power to kill its prey in four ways; by the sword, hunger, disease, and wild beasts. But Hell, you’ll observe, is overseeing this deathwatch as it scans the earth looking for any “unsaved” victims that can be cast into eternal fires of damnation. The verse of the Bible that reads, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” I Peter 5.8, has its greatest fulfillment in the days of this judgment. It is against this backdrop of turmoil, disease, hunger, confusion, intimidation, war, terror, and death that Jesus readies Himself to open the fifth and the sixth seals.

While attacking the people of the earth with death under the fourth seal, Hell has not been interested in those who have the testimony of Jesus Christ and are saved. They will not go to Hell if he just simply kills them outright. He is only interested in the unfaithful and unbelieving population in the time of these judgments. His tactics against the Church of Jesus Christ must be different. He must persecute them so they will lose their faith and deny Him before he kills them. Otherwise, they would not go to Hell and he would lose their souls. He must cause them, somehow, to renounce God and His Son before he can devour their souls in his devilish jaws. Hell is Satan’s purpose and prime agent, the Antichrist his arm of flesh. Together, Antichrist and Hell are now given power over the saints to make war and prevail against them.

Fixing The Time Of The Fifth and Sixth Seals
The fifth and sixth seals are opened back to back at about the midway point of the Tribulation. We draw this conclusion because of what we know from our study of Daniel and from what we shall later find in Revelation. Chapter 12 of Revelation is a vision of the Church. She is pictured as being protected for three and a half years, or the first half of the Tribulation. In chapter 13 we are informed that “it was given unto him [the Antichrist] to make war with the saints, and to overcome them:” Daniel 7.25 gives us this word about the Antichrist and the saints. “And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.” The meaning of the phrase a time, and times and a dividing of times is three and a half years (a time being a year, a times being two years, and a dividing of times being a half year, all adding up to three and a half years). So we are told that the Antichrist will have power to persecute and kill the saints for three and a half years. If the Church is protected for the first half of the Tribulation then the Antichrist’s power to kill and persecute must not begin until the second half of the seven year period. Also, when we get to the study of the seventh seal in the next chapter we shall see that the seventh seal judgments last more than two years. Therefore the fifth and sixth seals have to be opened before the fifth year of the Tribulation begins. Since the seals are opened in order, one through seven, and the saints are overcome for three and a half years we can safely and logically conclude that seals five and six are opened at the midway point, or three and a half years into the Tribulation.

The Fifth Seal: The Tribulation Martyrs

“And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:
    And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
    And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.” Rev. 6.9-11

The opening of the fifth seal changes the focus and tone of the judgments. The fifth seal, curiously enough, deals exclusively with the Church and specifically with those who are martyred during the Tribulation. It is a judgment – a judgment on those who did not heed the calling of Christ in better times when faith did not require the allegiance of martyrdom. The first four judgments were concentrated on the world as a whole. They were directed at the masses of mankind and were confined to the military, social and political spheres. The fifth and sixth seals segregate particular groups of mankind for specialized treatment and judgment. Since God has promised that judgment must always begin at the house of God, He begins the judgment of these segregated groups by judging His own. When the fifth seal is opened John sees the souls of those who had been killed on earth for two reasons and two reasons only. (1) They had kept the word of God and, (2) for the testimony which they held. These are people who have the testimony that they are born again, that they know Jesus Christ in a personal way and they had refused to deny this testimony or the name of Christ. But they also are slain for the word of God.

Apparently, their preaching will be very public, quite out in the open, not secretive or hidden. The Tribulation saints will not be hiding in Montana on some compound or riding out the storm in some mountain cave in Tibet waiting for the end of the world. They will not be hiding in cellars of city slums as many Apocalyptic and end times movies and fiction have them. They are not killed for sedition or rebellion against the government. They will not be forming underground militia groups as is popularly conveyed in Revelation shoot-‘em-ups. Nor will they hold out any hope whatsoever of reforming the Antichrist Kingdom. And they will not be trying to “hang on” until Jesus comes to the rescue. They will be standing humbly, but unswervingly, on the Word of God and the name of Christ. Their love of Christ and faith will be a matter of public record. And they will be martyred for them. 

In verse ten we see this group of saints crying out to God to avenge them. They yearn for the day of vindication. God’s answer is short, but reassuring. They are given white robes, the symbol of salvation and the righteousness of the saints; and they are told to rest a little longer until the full number of saints should be martyred. The fifth seal is wholly about the death of the saints. We are told in this passage from Psalms that God holds dear the martyred saints, it even  speaks of a day when saints would be required to publicly testify that God is their salvation.

“I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD.
    I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people.
    Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.
    O LORD, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds.
    I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of
the LORD.
    I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people” Ps. 116 13-18

Many of these saints will be those who were like the five foolish virgins of Matthew 25. They had lived foolish Christian lives and had not received and yielded to the Holy Ghost. They had no oil in the lamps and their lights were not burning when Christ, the Bridegroom, came for His bride. Holiness and the fruits of the spirit will have been foreign to their souls. Like a man who comes home to find his wife has left him without a word of warning, many will suffer utter shock when the presumption they held that they would be raptured proves false and they are left behind. They had not taken the warnings of Jesus seriously; they were not on the lookout and neglected to take care not to be deceived. Once the rapture has taken place many will instantly know that they are now destined to be Tribulation martyrs. Their only other choice will be to take the Mark of the Beast and deny Christ.

This will be the greatest time of harvest in the history of the world. People will gain in spiritual power and courage. Multitudes will stand up for the Word of God and give powerful testimony of the love and salvation of Jesus Christ. They will have missed the prize of the high calling in Christ Jesus because they will have missed the Rapture. But God will be with them mightily. Gordon Lindsay, in his series on Revelation, agrees. Lindsay notes that the Tribulation saints are “not the highest order of the redeemed” but believes that, “since nearly as many people will live during the twentieth century as in all previous centuries, the number of Tribulation saints could be a substantial fraction of all that are saved during the New Testament Age. They are a ‘great multitude which no man can number’”.

There is a great deal of disagreement about the timing of the Rapture and the Tribulation. Many people insist that all Christians will go through the Tribulation. Many others insist that all Christians will be raptured. Neither idea makes sense in the context of the fifth seal. We see that a multitude of redeemed saints will reside in heaven before the first seal is opened, showing that they are the believers who were raptured. The raptured saints are clothed with white garments and have crowns and harps and worship before the throne of God. The group of the fifth seal is under the altar, not yet resurrected. They are pleading to God for vindication and final restoration with the saints who have been raptured. Therefore, they must be a separate “company” of saints. The saints depicted under judgment seal five are of two primary types: (1) those who had refused to die to self and had not totally given their lives over to Christ before the rapture occurred, but repented during the Tribulation; and (2) those who had refused to accept Christ prior to the Tribulation, but accepting Him after the Tribulation’s reign of terror had begun, won salvation through death.

The first type of Tribulation martyr will be those who did not live righteous lives in Christ. Whether it was poor teaching, spiritual laziness or just having been choked by the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, or the lusts of other things (Mark 4.19); these Christians lived with one foot in the world and one foot in Christ. They may have believed the faulty doctrine that all Christians would be raptured regardless of the quality of their spiritual walk. They may have hoped to ride into heaven on the coattails of their devout Christian brothers and sisters, or the faith of their grandmother. They may have figured that answering that altar call was their “insurance policy”. For whatever reason, they lived an “unsalted” life in Christ, and it cost them dearly. But once the Rapture happens and the Tribulation starts they readily see the error of their ways. Thousands and thousands of Christians will repent of their lackadaisical relationship with Christ.

The second type may be even more zealous than the first. These will be the relatives, friends, neighbors and co-workers of raptured Christians. They certainly did not believe in Christ, but they had heard the Gospel. They may have mocked and scoffed at the notion of following Jesus and the idea of the Rapture during the days and years which preceded the “catching up” of the saints, but their skepticism turned to faith when they realized the Rapture had actually happened. The shock of finding out all they were told was true will make many of them fanatical in their faith. They will suffer for the cause of Christ with joy and assurance willing to stretch their necks under the guillotine, just as the early Christians succumbed to the teeth of wild beasts in the Hippodrome, stood before the gladiator’s sword in the Circus Maximus and endured the torture chambers of the Roman Empire.

During the Tribulation, there will be an ocean of public pronouncements of faith and world-wide flood of testimonies for Christ. There will be a sea of martyrs whose blood will run like a river, but the miracles will flow like a torrent of hope. They will be as lambs led to the slaughter, but it will all be for the glory of God and to show forth the staying power of His love. Serene faces will mirror the sweetly sung hymns as death liberates them from the clutches of Satan and the Antichrist. Their shed blood will glorify God and tell the people of the Antichrist Kingdom that, though mortal, these people have conquered death through faith in Christ. To be a Christian during the Tribulation will be synonymous with being a martyr, but it will also be synonymous with eternal glory.

Taken from the book Revelation Pure & Simple by Terry Myers Smith