The Sixth Seal

Foreword “The Sixth Seal” is a masterful assembly of drama, exhortation, expository investigations, competing doctrines and worthy speculations, all of which will hold any reader or investigator seeking to understand the “Sixth Seal” of forthcoming terrors in Revelation chapter 6. Trent Perkins is a masterful writer and has proven he can intertwine skillful imagination along with dedicated research that will satisfy readers of all levels of inquiry, and help them understand the complexities and ramifications of the Book of Revelation. When Trent suppled a draft of “The Sixth Seal” for my review, I was eager to begin reading to assess its focus and exhibition of doctrine within the context of the sixth chapter of Revelation. With over 40 years of personally developing practical theology and discipleship courses, I focused on the suitability of this book across many levels of Biblical interest. I discovered that while this book can easily be understood by a biblical novice, or even someone who knows nothing about the Bible, it also has a lot to offer the serious Bible scholar, especially those interested in eschatology. The generous end notes at the bottom of each page provide references and additional information to facilitate further study, and show where Trent got his ideas… he didn’t just make them up! Finally, as with all well-written expositions of Bible literature, Trent presents real-time applications for readers to prepare for the eventual realities of the Sixth Seal in Revelation 6. Along with Trent, I, too, pray you will be ready when that time comes! Dana Yentzer Pastor of Voyager Chapel, Tucson Arizona Founder of Ministry Resources International Preface Great! ANOTHER book on prophecy! Someone else finally thinks he has it all figured out! Why should we care anyway? Historically speaking, the church that has its eyes fixed on heaven and things to come is much more urgent about sharing the gospel in the present with a sense of urgency. As more and more preconditions fall into place that begin to make sense of prophecies that seemed utterly unimaginable less than 100 years ago, we should be more compelled than ever to share the gospel with as many people as possible to keep them from experiencing the horrors of things that could very easily now happen in our lifetimes. But another reason I decided to write this book is because I think sometimes traditions that we just accept as “the way things are” (or in this case, will be) seem to conflict with each other and even make the Bible look somewhat invalid or at the very least, less than inerrant. While the Bible is written in such a way that you need a pretty good grasp on the whole thing to solve the more complicated puzzles, sometimes the standard explanation of one passage leaves serious confusion and therefore doubt about other passages that seem to directly contradict each other. But what if the whole thing was actually true? True believers already know the Bible is inerrant by definition and just hand-wave the stuff that doesn’t appear to make any sense, letting God be God and being OK with that. However, unbelievers and skeptics can easily be confused by our theological explanations and sometimes use those conflicts to question the whole thing. But what if instead of studying theology books we just took the Bible at face value and let it speak for itself? Would it be possible to make much more of a compelling argument for the validity of Scripture when we meet people with doubts about its veracity because they point to all of the people with varying views? In the end, the Gospel requires faith. Faith in Jesus, faith in the Word of God, and faith that regardless of what might appear to be contradictions, God and His Word are without error… He wrote the Book! But if we can make sense out of what appear to be contradictions so that they no longer contradict each other, there may be one less barrier to someone developing their faith in Christ. Finally, if you have not yet taken the plunge to let Jesus be your Savior and Lord, this book was very much written with you in mind. I encourage you to read this with an open mind, and pray that by the end of the book you too will be prepared for the end of the world as we know it! It is in that spirit that this book was written. Trent Perkins Introduction My dad once told his pastor that the preacher was paid to be good while my dad was just “good for nothing.” Although I have no theology degrees, and I am not a famous pastor (or a pastor at all), I have been a lifelong student of the Bible having grown up in a Christian school where I was thankfully “forced” to memorize a lot of the Bible as a kid, I have been involved in an evangelical church my entire life, I attended a Christian university where I studied Chemistry and Music, worked for a Christian ministry called Jews for Jesus (originally as a bus driver and soundman and later as a sales manager), I worked at a Christian radio station where I listened to a LOT of great preaching by a variety of preachers, and I read the Bible myself with an innate sense of curiosity and a pretty good mind (thanks to God for that!). While I understand that there are a variety of positions regarding the Rapture (Pre-Trib, Mid-Trib, Post-Trib, A-Trib, and my dad’s favorite-- “Pan-Trib”—it will all pan out in the end!), I have always been curious as to where the Rapture happened in the book of Revelation. It is interesting that the Rapture seems very apparent in a variety of Scriptures, but it seems to be assumed or skipped altogether in the book of Revelation. Where/when does it actually happen? But the Book of Revelation is not the only source we have about events still to come. The Bible, and especially prophecy, is written in somewhat of a puzzle which can be partially solved in a variety of ways. Of course, everyone would like to think they got it “right,” but I am convinced that much of the Bible is written in ways to keep us humble enough to realize that those people convinced they “got it right” probably didn’t! So why am I writing this book? Not because I think I am the first person in history to think I finally solved the end times prophecy puzzle! But I have come to some conclusions that make a lot of sense to me that I have not really seen entertained before, and I pray these observations may also be useful for you as you continue to make sense of God’s Word. I am a story guy. I love what can be learned from a great story and I am convinced that is why so much of the Bible is based upon stories. Even so, I need to acknowledge that the inspiration for including a story in this book (and for writing this book at all), is an excellent book by Dr. David Jeremiah called “Agents of the Apocalypse.” At the end of the day, one thing is very certain—Jesus is coming back. The clock is ticking, and you don’t want to be left here after what is commonly known as “The Rapture”—whenever it happens!