The judgment of God against a fallen world is one yield of the death and exaltation of Christ. The breaking of the seals, which opens the scroll and declares God’s decree of salvation, occurs as an essential part of Christ’s entrance into the heavenly throneroom. The seal judgments, and the trumpet judgments that follow, do not depict a sequence of future historical events; rather, they symbolize together God’s response to—and are in that sense co-terminus with—chapter five’s exaltation of the risen Lamb. Our commentary of this passage will assume, then, that, in keeping with the overarching intentions of his entire composition, John is making a theological point rather than a historical prediction.

6:1 There is a clear relationship between the visions of the exalted Lamb in chapter 5 and…