7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth. 

This one is different from the red horse.  The red horse brought wars, this horse, the horse of death is a more individual spirit. Later in Revelations we will hit on Satan and when he was cast from heaven to the earth, and how now he is angry because he has been cast down and there is no place found in heaven for him. The result has been religious bigotry. Christians were thrown into the arena to be attacked and eaten by the lions and tickets were sold for the entertainment value of watching the slaughter of humans.  they were nailed to city walls, dipped in tar and lit on fire to light the royalty gardens.  Until Christ came and conquered sin, religious differences were tolerated.  The Jews were considered a peculiar people, but there was not a spiritual war against them for being Jewish.  Since that time and even unto today, Christians and Jews alike have been persecuted simply because they believe in God the Father.  A hatred for a supreme being and our accountability exploded when Jesus came to the earth and had the ability to spread a personal belief and love for God to all mankind. The Devil hates it and wants us all eliminated, and as we are told later in Revelation, he will make war against the saints and he will prevail.

9 And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:
10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?

In this verse, we are approaching the tribulation time, and as a record, there are many souls who have suffered at the cost of the 2nd and 4th seal. These spirits have been at war for the souls of men for the past 2,000 years, (this is assuming that we are now at the door of the end times), and are waiting for the Father to avenge them.He tells them to wait for there are more saints who must suffer the same persecution as they have, (see next verse), then will be the time for the pouring out of the wrath of God. Noticed the saints are numbered, also notice that more must suffer persecution, which would conflict with a salvation of a pretrib rapture.

11 And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.

There are more saints yet to die for their faith.  We are about to go through an event that will mark the beginning of the tribulation.  All of these things are occurring in sequence, as The Lamb of God is breaking one seal at a time... During the Tribulation the Beast will make war with the saints, and he will prevail, killing more saints than any other time in History. Above and beyond my post tribulation rapture study, let me interject this.  Despite Jesus clearly stating in Matt 24, that His followers would be hated by the nations and be delivered up for persecution and put to death, but if those who are true believers were all taken off the earth before the tribulation begins, the rest of society would be totally deceived and the only saints for the beast to make war with would be the 144,000.  however when we get to the next chapter you will see the numbers of people who come out of the tribulation is far more than 144,000, and is from all kindreds, tongues and nations. 

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