What Is the 2nd Seal of Revelation?

The second seal can be found in Revelation 6:3-4.

“When He opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, ‘Come and see.’ Another horse, fiery red, went out. And it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another; and there was given to him a great sword.”

Learn More:

>> The 7 Seals of Revelation
>> The 3rd Seal and the Black Horse
>> The 1st Seal and the White Horse

The Second Seal: A Red Horse

The color of the horse changes from white to red—the color of bloodshed. This seal depicts the time of intense persecution suffered by the early church under the Roman Empire.

Many Roman emperors such as Nero, Diocletian, and others used the unpopular Christian sect as a scapegoat for their many ongoing political problems. Many Christians were forced to find refuge in the catacombs or the underground rock quarries of Rome. But other followers of Christ were put to death by the Roman authorities for refusing emperor worship and for holding true to the gospel of Christ. Great numbers of faithful Christians were imprisoned, tortured and killed in wild spectacles in Roman colosseums. These martyrs of Jesus “loved not their lives unto death” (Revelation 12:11) but rather kept “the testimony of Jesus Christ” burning in their hearts (Revelation 12:17).

When one Christian was thrown to the hungry lions or burned at the stake to celebrate a Roman holiday, another took her place. The Christian faith, instead of dying out, grew stronger as more and more people found Jesus as their true and eternal Friend.