The war relationship between mankind and God began when Satan made war against God. Mankind's persistent efforts to avoid submission to God's sovereign rule cause ongoing warfare against Him. The carnal mind remains enmity against God and cannot be subject to His law. Adam and Eve initiated sin through an act of war by stealing what God had forbidden. This hostility stems from the desire to obtain what one wants through violence or intimidation. The carnal nature's competitive drive leads to war within nations, families, marriages, communities, politics, businesses, and athletic programs. Leaders who multiply horses create a standing military force that tempts them and the people to initiate war. Political divisions between parties establish potential for war because sides disagree on direction. Conspiracies in national governments proceed against God and His anointed. As long as carnality exists, some degree of warfare remains possible.

Military war serves as the outward expression of an inward human nature and functions as the continuation of politics by other means. Politics itself operates as a genteel form of warfare among nations, and when combined with emotions and chance it becomes the direct precursor to battlefield conflict, so that unresolved disputes in council chambers, congresses, and parliamentary halls find their resolution through bloody military action. Economic conflicts extend this pattern, as nations employ tactics such as forcing competitors into bottlenecks or wielding resources like oil as weapons, while business dealings treat greed as a virtue and rely on physical and economic intimidation as routine practices. Similar dynamics appear in competitive sports that emphasize physical contact, in cinematic portrayals that center on warfare, and in gang and drug-related violence that spills across borders and into cities. The underlying cause remains constant: war is intrinsic to human nature, as illustrated by the psalmist's description of a deceitful companion whose words were smooth yet whose heart harbored war, and it supplies the fundamental method by which people attempt to settle disputes.

In the unfolding of end-time events, the Seven Seals mark a critical sequence of divine judgments as depicted in Revelation. The opening of the first six seals reveals escalating catastrophes that set the stage for the trumpets. The first seal unveils a white horse, symbolizing a false Christ and deceptive religion, initiating the beginning of sorrows with misleading miracles. The second seal brings forth a red horse of war, stripping peace from the earth through global conflicts. The third seal introduces a black horse, representing famine, with ruined vegetation and contaminated water supplies following in war's wake. The fourth seal releases a pale horse named Death, accompanied by Hades, bringing widespread destruction through sword, hunger, death, and beasts, affecting a fourth of the earth. The fifth seal reveals the persecution of the faithful, with the souls of martyrs crying out for justice, indicating a time of intense opposition to God's truth. The sixth seal triggers cosmic disturbances—a great earthquake, a blackened sun, a blood-red moon, falling stars, and a sky receding like a scroll—causing terror among all people as they hide from the wrath of the Lamb. The seventh seal, when opened, ushers in a profound silence in heaven for about half an hour, signaling the gravity of the events to follow. This silence precedes the sounding of the seven trumpets, each heralding further divine judgments upon the earth. The first trumpet brings hail and fire mixed with blood, destroying a third of the trees and all green grass. The second trumpet sees a burning mountain cast into the sea, turning a third of it to blood, killing a third of sea creatures, and destroying a third of the ships. The third trumpet causes a great star to fall, poisoning a third of the rivers and springs. The fourth trumpet darkens a third of the sun, moon, and stars, diminishing light for both day and night. The fifth trumpet releases locusts from the bottomless pit, tormenting those without God's seal for five months with unbearable suffering. The sixth trumpet unleashes four angels bound at the Euphrates, leading a vast army of two hundred million to kill a third of mankind through fire, smoke, and brimstone, yet survivors still refuse to repent. These seals and trumpets collectively portray a crescendo of divine wrath, culminating in the ultimate correction of humanity, leading to the final trumpet that heralds the return of Jesus Christ and the establishment of His kingdom.