The Seven Seals: Symbols of Jerusalem's Fall in A.D. 70

Below is the 10th of multiple excerpts of commentary on the Book of Revelation from The Parousia, the late 19th-century masterpiece on the Second Coming by James Stuart Russell: 

"The Second Vision

"THE SEVEN SEALS, CHAPS. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. 1. [Rev. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8:1]

"Introduction to the vision, chaps. iv. v. [Rev. 4, 5]

"...Nothing can be more vivid and dramatic than the scenes which are successively exhibited as the Lamb opens the seals. The four cherubs that guard the throne, one after another announce the breaking of the first four seals, with a loud cry of ‘Come!’ And as each is opened the Seer [John] beholds a visionary figure pass across the field of view, emblematic of the contents of that portion of the scroll which is unrolled. ... 

"What, then, do these symbols represent? It needs only a glance to see their general nature and character. Everywhere it is WAR, and the concomitants of war,---blood, famine, and death, all leading up to and terminating in one dread and final catastrophe, in which the elements of nature seem to be dissolved in universal ruin --- ‘the great day of wrath’ (chap. vi. [6]) [Rev. 6:17]. 

"Of what events does the prophet [John] speak? ...We have only to place ourselves in the time and circumstances of those primitive [1st-century] churches, and these visionary symbols shape themselves into historical facts before our eyes. The Seer [John] stands on the verge of the long-predicted, long-expected crisis, for the coming of which in their own day the Saviour had before His departure prepared His disciples. As the prophecy which He delivered on the Mount of Olives [as recorded in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21] commences with wars and rumours of wars, and goes on the speak of ‘Jerusalem compassed about with armies’  [Luke 21:20], and ‘the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place’ [Matt. 24:15, Mark 13:14], till it culminates in the seeming wreck of universal nature, and ‘the coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven’ [Matt. 24:30, Mark 13:26, Luke 21:27], so the prophecy in the Apocalypse [Revelation] proceeds in the same method.

"Here, then, the vision is representative of the approaching destruction of Jerusalem [in A.D. 70] and judgment of the guilty land [1st-century Israel]. It is ‘the last time' [1 John 2:18]; and the beloved disciple [John], who heard the prophecy on the Mount [of Olives], now sees its fulfilment in vision. His heart is filled with one thought, his eye with one scene. The storm of vengeance is gathering over his own land; his own nation --- the city and temple of God [Matt. 23:34-36, 24:1-3; Mark 13:1-4; Luke 21:5-7, 21:20]  The [Jewish and Roman] armies are mustering for the conflict [as documented by the 1st-century Jewish historian Josephus]; and, as seal after seal is broken, he [John] beholds the successive waves of that tremendous deluge of wrath which was about to overwhelm the devoted [i.e., set apart for destruction] land of Israel. This we believe to be the signification of the symbolic vision of the seven seals. It is only another form of the selfsame catastrophe foretold [in circa A.D. 30 on the Mount of Olives in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21] by our Saviour to His disciples; but now the hour is come; the close of the [Old Covenant] aeon is at hand, and the ministers of the divine wrath are let loose upon the guilty nation."

[On the subject of Revelation's date of composition, see Russell's commentary on the significance of the measurement of the Temple (Rev. 11:2) in a subsequent excerpt on the Parousia blog at russellparousia.blogspot.com. In previous excerpts on this subject, see https://russellparousia.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-pre-ad-70-date-of-revelations.html and https://russellparousia.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-pre-ad-70-date-of-revelations_22.html

[For further reading, see Rethinking the Dates of the New Testament by Jonathan Bernier (2022), Before Jerusalem Fell: Dating the Book of Revelation by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr. (1989), and Redating the New Testament by John A.T. Robinson (1976).]