.................................................................................................................................................................
The
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Joseph Candel
HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED WHY WE HAVE WAR, or why
there is such a disparity of wealth — why some people and whole nations are
rich and overfed while others are starving and deprived of other basic
necessities?
Why do governments spend billions on wars that
kill and maim while the poor continue to suffer?
I used to wonder why the world is the way it
is, why there couldn’t be more love and peace and cooperation among people and
nations to make the world a better place.
I found the answer to that in the Bible, beginning
with Revelation chapter 6, about the four horsemen of the Apocalypse.
In Revelation chapter 6, Jesus opens the book
of the future, the book of prophecy, which is sealed with seven seals, and
shows the apostle John the future of the world from that time (about 90 AD) to
the last days (the time in which we are now living) and beyond.
Another name for the book of Revelation is the
Apocalypse, which means “a revelation concerning the future.”
The four horsemen of the Apocalypse reveal the
truth about religion, war, and economics, and set the stage for what is soon to
come.
The first
seal
“And I saw when the Lamb [Jesus] opened one of
the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts
saying, ‘Come and see.’ And I saw, and behold, a white horse: and He that sat
on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto Him: and He went forth conquering,
and to conquer.” (Revelation
6:1–2 KJV.)
The first horseman, who wears a crown and goes
forth to conquer, is obviously Jesus.
What was happening at this time in world
history, in about 90 AD?—>
From the spiritual realm, the resurrected
Jesus was going forth to “conquer” the world with the Gospel through His
apostles and the early Christians — and they would eventually conquer the
mighty Roman Empire.
Jesus’ message of the love and forgiveness of
God would prove more powerful than all the legions of Rome! Jesus is this
mighty Conqueror on the white horse.
We find another picture of a white horse in
Revelation chapter 19: “And behold a white horse; and He that sat upon him
was called Faithful and True. ... His name is called The Word of God” (Revelation 19:11,13 KJV).
We know from John 1:14 that “The Word of
God” is Jesus: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld
His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and
truth.”
And following Jesus are the armies of Heaven,
the resurrected saints who are also riding white horses as they come down from
Heaven to defeat the forces of the Antichrist and take over the world at the
Battle of Armageddon (Revelation
19:14).
The second
seal
“And when He had opened the second seal, I
heard the second beast say, ‘Come and see.’ And there went out another horse
that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from
the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him
a great sword.” (Revelation 6:3–4 KJV.)
What takes “peace from the earth”? — War!
This red horse symbolizes war, the military
and their war machines.
The horse’s color, red, is appropriate because
it represents all the blood shed in man’s hellish wars — wars for which God is
not responsible, but which come from the pride, prejudices, and avarice of
man’s heart.
“From whence come wars and fightings among
you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?” (James 4:1 KJV).
The “great sword” given to the rider of
the red horse seems to suggest the great “improvements” in weapons of war and
the vastly greater devastation bought on by war since this prophecy was given
in John’s day.
The third
seal
“And when He had opened the third seal, I
heard the third beast say, ‘Come and see.’ And I beheld, and lo a black horse;
and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice
in the midst of the four beasts say, ‘A measure of wheat for a penny; and three
measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.’” (Revelation 6:5–6 KJV.)
This black horse’s rider with the pair of
balances in his hand symbolizes the rich capitalists that have a major impact
on world conditions through their manipulation of national economies.
Only one other verse in the Bible pictures a
man with balances, or scales: “The merchant uses dishonest scales; he loves
to defraud” (Hosea
12:7 NIV).
Another prophet, Amos, also said that the
merchants — the wealthy capitalists of his day who were robbing the poor
instead of helping them — “set forth wheat, making the ephah [unit of
measure] small, and the shekel [price] great, and falsifying the balances by
deceit ... that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to
fail” (Amos 8:4–6 KJV).
The black horse, then, represents famine and
poverty perpetrated by the rich who refuse to share with those in need.
This horse is largely responsible for today’s
economic situation. Oil and wine, throughout the Scriptures, symbolize
abundance or luxury.
The fact that the oil and wine were “hurt
not” indicates a situation where wealth and luxury exist alongside famine
and poverty — and the gulf between rich and poor is only growing.
The fourth
seal
“And when He had opened the fourth seal, I
heard the voice of the fourth beast say, ‘Come and see.’ 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 the sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of
the earth.” (Revelation 6:7–8 KJV.)
The fourth and final horseman of the
Apocalypse is death itself — death not only from war, but also from beasts and
plagues and famine and death in every other conceivable form.
Death has always been with us, of course, but
death by famine, natural disasters, new plagues such as AIDS, and new
pestilences such as the Ebola virus have reached unprecedented levels, just
like Jesus said they would immediately prior to His return: “Nation will rise
against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines,
pestilences, and earthquakes in various places” (Matthew 24:7).
The fifth
seal
“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: 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?’ 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 brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.” (Revelation 6:9–11 KJV.)
First comes the white horse, the proclamation
of its rider’s message, and the “conquest” of many souls.
Then comes the open rejection of that message
by the unbelievers, those in league with the other three horsemen on the red,
black, and pale horses, which crystallizes into persecution and the martyrdom
of “them that were slain for the Word of God.”
This is the way it’s been all throughout
history. These martyrs, though, are actually the exception.
Most of Jesus’ followers have usually escaped
martyrdom and lived on to help carry on His work.
War, greed, and death — the characters that
were revealed when the second, third, and fourth seals were opened — are almost
as old as the world itself, but the Biblical picture both here and elsewhere is
that each of these forces has taken on greater power since the time of this
revelation.
Again, Jesus predicted this in His famous
Endtime discourse, Matthew chapter 24, and said that it would culminate in “great
tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this
time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh
would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened” (Matthew 24:7, 21–22).
In other words, Jesus was saying, one day man
would reach such an impasse that if God were to let him continue unchecked, he
would annihilate himself.
However, when man finally reaches that
suicidal point, Jesus said that God would step in and stop man.
And the way God will stop him is at the Battle
of Armageddon that happens shortly after Jesus’ Second Coming & the
Resurrection & Rapture.
First the Saints will go to the Marriage
Supper of the Lamb (Revelation
19:7-9) & then return with
Jesus probably sometime near the end of Wrath of God & defeat the
Antichrist & his forces at the Battle of Armageddon. (Revelation 19:11-21; Revelation 16:16-21)
Only within the last 60 or 70 years has the
human race developed the potential to destroy itself.
The military (red horse) now have their
nuclear bombs, intercontinental missiles, chemical and biological weapons, and
other lethal technologies.
The rich, on their black horse, were complicit
in the last century’s great wars, and their hoarding and misuse of their riches
is threatening another one.
The rich also, in their relentless pursuit of
greater wealth, are finally succeeding in polluting the entire earth — a byproduct
of modern technology.
And following the others comes the fourth
horseman, on the pale horse — death in every form.
So, there you have the four horsemen of the
Apocalypse. They will continue to ride until the End, when Jesus returns to
take us to heavenly places with Him, before pouring out His judgments on the
perpetrators of the hell on earth below.
Then He will come back once more — He and all
the saints of God — to wipe out the Antichrist and all of his forces at the
Battle of Armageddon.
God will then cleanse and purify the earth and
set up His eternal kingdom, ruled by Jesus Christ & His Saints.
The Countdown site is devoted
to exploring the mysteries of Bible prophecies about the “last days” which
presage the end of this world as we know it, and to keeping a watchful eye on
the “signs of the times” that the Bible indicates will foreshadow these events.
Countdown features news
articles, blog posts, and editorials that address current events, trends,
culture, and technological advances, in light of biblical prophecy.
No comments:
Post a Comment