How many people die in the seal judgments and over what period of time?
In the seal judgments, one-fourth of the world's population will be gone—over a billion people—within a matter of two or three years. With population between five and five and a half billion, this means more than a billion die from pestilence and disease at the tribulation's beginning.
Les explains that the seal judgments open the tribulation, and by the end of the pestilence and disease, one-fourth of the population will be gone. He notes the current population is between five and five and a half billion, making that over a billion people in just two or three years. He compares this to World War II, where fifty million died, calling that a drop in the bucket. He then says that within a matter of months the human race will lose one-third of the world's population, and he mentions the army of horsemen numbered 200 million in verse 16.