Say what you will about Kim and his nation, the Christians there who have braced themselves for torture and loss will be able to face with confidence the coming onslaught. This is one reason the true church, far from pitying our wonderful brothers, honors them and looks to them for guidance about carrying the cross. Yes, what book, what fine author is there who can tell us more about the suffering of Jesus today than the North Korean believers who live it out hour by painful hour?

What is coming? One who once lived on the planet, who is being hidden from view now, will suddenly return as the world's messiah, and deceive the nations by many signs and wonders. Our media-driven and media-crazed world will have no trouble giving their allegiance to this superman. In these early efforts he will be mimicking the real Christ who was and is (though now also is hidden from view) and is to come.

The first of the seals of chapter 6 reveals that, as Hitler and others before him, this newly crowned saviour will march into countries as conqueror, and no one will fire a shot. He will mesmerize and intimidate. No one will dare to speak against him. He will seem to have the answer to world peace.

Eventually, says seal 2, there will be a reaction. A bloodbath will ensue. World War III, so long talked about and feared yet denied, will occur. Truly a war to end all wars. Seal 3, poverty, and 4, death by many other means, will follow quickly.

These four seals are seen as horsemen, the quickest form of transportation in the days when this vision was given. These things will not be spread out over centuries, but over just a few years. In that short time, one fourth of the humans living will be killed. In many places the human population will be so scarce that animals will once more become a threat to man's safety.

Throughout this period, the church of Jesus Christ, called the "saints" in Revelation, will suffer greatly, and will be victims of a concerted effort for extinction. They will die in many ways, but they will die. They will visibly be defeated, but will by God's standards thus be overcomers. We have forgotten that losing one's life for Christ is winning it eternally. And that those who hold on to their lives here are the ultimate losers. Where did that teaching go?

As this relatively short era winds down, natural wonders will herald the immediate return of the true Messiah, an angry God whose stored-up wrath will now decimate the nations opposed to Him. And then will come to pass the Scripture we have sung and heard so often, "And He shall reign forever and ever."