Chapter 15.8
Four Horsemen
of the Apocalypse
White Horseman, Red Horseman, Black Horseman,
Pale Horseman
The Fifth Horseman – The Prophecy - The Book –
The Seven Seals
First
Word (Apocalypse
means the un-veiling or revelation)
Everyone
has certainly heard of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, but what is it?
The Four
Horsemen of the Apocalypse comes from the Apostle John’s book known as “Revelation”.
Specifically, John is reporting the horrors of the Great
Tribulation period; The Apocalypse.
The Tribulation starts like a lamb, but finishes like a
lion. This is NOT the end of the world, but is seven years before the first stages of Armageddon.
The tribulation period is about ISRAEL
with the rest of the nations
secondary.
Olivet Discourse
I
would be amiss if I didn’t mention the teaching that occurred on the Mount of Olives with Jesus and his disciples. Jesus had spoken about THE END TIMES and the disciples asked when all this
stuff would cut loose.
THE OLIVET DISCOURSE of Jesus falls
into three time periods to come in their FUTURE.[1]
1)
Pre-Tribulation: The beginning
of the birth pains... The time of
the False Christ... The rise of False Prophets... wars... rumors of wars...
earthquakes.[2]
2)
The
Tribulation period: The time of Great Distress[3] ... Death... famines... pestilence.
3)
Post-Tribulation: The time affecting the Heavens[4] ...
sun... moon... stars.
This study covers only the first period
and half of the second period of the Tribulations. All four horsemen are instruments of judgment on the unbelievers in Israel...
Testing their faith... Separating
the chaff from the wheat; the non-believers and make-believers from the
Believers. [5]
Background
John
the Revelator is in prison on the Island of Patmos and has a vision. He has
been caught up to Heaven and is shown a book that has SEVEN SEALS on it. (In
scripture then number seven means completeness.) There is some discussion in Heaven about who
is worthy to open the book and with sadness, none was found worthy.
I need to stop
here and explain that the book has seven seals that
are opened one at a time with each one letting loose plagues and horrors. But the interesting part is that the Seventh Seal contains Seven Trumpets that
will sound and the Seventh Trumpet contains Seven Bowls that will be poured out.
The Seals are filled with
horror; the
Trumpets are filled with exactly
the same thing, but with more of it and the Bowls are
also filled with the same thing, but with more intensity.
Imagine the 7th seal is like fireworks; like shooting a sky rocket into
the air, then seven
more burst out from that rocket (Trumpets), then
seven more burst from each of those (Bowls) Everything
speeds up like a trip hammer. Bam, bam, bam, bam,
bam, bam, bam. In other words, the tribulation period
starts off pretty bad, then it get progressively worse.
The First Four Seals being opened is
where we get the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. You can think of them as a TEAM of FOUR strong horses
pulling a hearse
named HELL that is
swallowing up the SPIRIT
SOULS of
the dead as it heads toward Hades.
The Book
John
sees a scroll or book with seven seals that contains the destiny of
mankind, but there seems to be no one that can open it,[6]
but at some point the LION from the tribe
of Judah; Jesus
Christ the LAMB of God comes forth to open the book[7]
and that’s where we pick up the story.
Important:
Jesus
and the plan
of salvation had already been
revealed, but no one; neither Angels, Men nor Demons knew what was to be
revealed in the
book, the scroll; only God knew.
The story starts off like a lamb, but finishes
like a lion.
NOTE: The
Prophet Ezekiel
prophesies about Earthquakes and as they progress, it will
become so dark that you can FEEL the darkness.[8] He prophesies of Wars, Famines,
Pestilence, Great fearful evens and signs in the heavens.[9] Jesus
opens the first four seals; the four housemen.[10]
Jesus also
prophesies about the beginning of the
tribulation period; the first four seals known as the Four Horsemen of the apocalypse are in the exact same order as the seals. Read below what Jesus Himself said about the
earth before His second coming.
The color of each horse answers to the mission of
its rider.
Matthew
24:5-8 Jesus Prophesying in the SAME ORDER
5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am
Christ;
(White Horse) and shall deceive many.
6 And ye shall hear of wars and
rumors of war: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to
pass, but the end is not yet
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom
against kingdom (Red
Horse): and there shall be famines (Black Horse), and pestilences (Pale Horse),
and earthquakes,
in divers’ places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
KJV
First Seal – First Horseman - White
For
your information: Nowhere
in the book of Revelation is the Church pictured as being involved in the
tribulation struggle. They are obviously
missing in the scenes that describe the end times on earth; they are gone...
Raptured.
Note; as of today, nothing else prophesied in
scripture has to happen before the Rapture can occur... It can be today... God
in His mercy and grace has delayed it for somebody.
The First Seal will be opened
immediately after the Rapture when Christ returns to the Father with
the Saints who contain The Holy Spirit, thus removing the restraining
force on Satan.
John sees the Lamb or Jesus Christ open
the first of the Seven Seals and one of the four living creature’s voice
thunders out one word; “COME”... The first seal has been broken.[11]
A
White Horse
comes forth and its rider has a bow, but he has no arrows. He is “given” a conqueror’s crown and rides
out bent on conquest.
Who is
the rider?
- I should note that many commentaries believe that because of the White Horse
and the crown, that the rider is Jesus Christ charging
forth with the gospel of truth conquering the foes of God; BUT IT IS NOT, we have
already been warned in scripture about
the coming of False Christs.
Jesus Christ is
the one opening the seals of the book and revealing what’s behind them. Since these are things that have not yet been
reveled before, it cannot be Christ, who is already revealed. Furthermore, the first rider cannot be Christ
because Chronologically, Christ comes “to the earth” at the end of the
Tribulation period. The Rider pretends
to be Christ; he is an imitation of Christ; an imposter[12]
seeking to be a World Dictator.
The
Crown
“given to him”[13]
is Sovereign
Permission to carry out his acts and is symbolic of his rise to
power. This is actually the rise of the
false Christ; the
Anti-Christ[14] who will head up the Revived Roman Empire and
will ultimately become the World Ruler. He is the pseudo “Prince of Peace” who will bring order to a
trouble world. The absence of arrows
mentioned in scripture pretty much indicates that during the first 3 ½ years of the tribulations he will
conquer without bloodshed and without war.
The anti-Christ’s rise and notability will
come through peace
negotiations and through the
power of politics
as well as through the power of the operation of Satan. He will probably be the recipient of the Nobel Peace
Prize... He will present his
wares like we are entering the PEACE of the “Millennium”
when we are actually entering the HORRORS of the Great Tribulations.
He is a phony...
Peace will not come PERMANENTLY to the earth
until the return of Jesus Christ.
He will provide safety with a TEMPORARY, counterfeit, false Peace,[15]
becoming the world ruler or world dictator; but Deception, Destruction and Devastation is on the way.[16] He will prosper and display counterfeit
miracles, signs and wonders[17] and be of fierce countenance and understanding;
his power will be mighty.[18] We will not know the name of this Antichrist
rider until 3 ½ years into the tribulations.
He will be the catalyst of what follows
with the next three seals or horsemen.
Welcome to the Knight riding
on the White Horse
If
our nation gets into unthinkable debt, deep recession and depression,
no social security, or health insurance, joblessness, can’t buy or sell, people
stealing just to eat, war upon war.… In our despair, wouldn’t we welcome a
knight riding in on a White Horse who would save us,
bring peace
and give us a special numbered VISA card (666) so we could buy
and sell.
Did you know that Executive order #11921 and #11490 gives the President Emergency Power without
the approval of congress to FREEZE bank accounts; CONTROL
money and credit, control food supplies, transportation, communication and
utilities? He can CONFISCATE “excess” or “surplus” personal property, RATION
the output of industry, SHUT DOWN schools and TAKE POSSESSION of buildings for government use.
How about a president, not for a four or eight year term; but for life... A “Dictator”, who comes on a white horse; conquering
nations through peace just long enough till his buddy “WAR” on the Red Horse is let
out of the corral to do his bidding
The
Antichrist will come from the
European Union or a country or confederation that was once part of the Roman
Empire. The Roman Empire stretched from
Ireland to Egypt and included Turkey, Iran and Iraq. He will push for a New World Order, a One World
Currency, and a One World Religion, which is nothing new. This goes back to the time of Nimrod and the Tower of Babel when
he tried the same thing. He will be
about 30 years of age; about the same age as Christ when he comes
on the scene just after the Rapture.
Genesis 11:1-4 – One World Religion and Language
1 Now the whole
world had ONE
language and a common speech
4 Then they
said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to
the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and
not be scattered over the face of the whole earth." NIV
Show me your way
It would be my “hearts desire” that every
believer would be able to hear Glen
Campbell’s song, “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse”. It will bring tears to your eyes. He was
obviously inspired by God during the recording session.
With
the exception of the identity of the rider of the white horse who is actually
the antichrist
and not Jesus, it is straight from the word of God. You should be able to hear it on the internet. https://www.youtube.com › watch
The
album is “Show
me Your Way”. It WILL touch you. I promise…
Second Seal – Second Horseman – Red
The Second Seal is opened and the Second Horseman comes forth on
a Red horse having a “large” sword which is symbolic of the large
number of people he will kill... It signifies that he has been given power to
take peace from the world... War is a dreadful judgment.
Both Red and the Sword are symbolic of War[19]...
Nation against Nation... Possibly nuclear warfare.
Note: Red is associated with blood, death, slaughter and terror:
ü The Red Horse of War in Revelation
6:4; [20]
ü The Red Dragon in Revelation
12:3, and [21]
ü The Red Beast in Revelation
17:3[22]
The
Rider of this Second horse, according to some commentaries seems to be the FALSE PROPHET who emerges at
the same time as the Anti-Christ.
Authority
is given to the rider to take Peace from the world as part of God’s Divine
plan for men to violently
kill one another... War is fought in
countries that have not seen war on their own soil.
Third Seal – Third Horseman – Black
The Third Seal is opened and the Third Horseman comes forth on
a Black horse having a set of scales in his hand.[23]
Black
is the symbol of mourning, suffering, poverty and famine.[24] There is worldwide economic collapse; a financial catastrophe.
The rain will be withheld; the sun will scorch the land and men;[25]
the ground
will dry up and form cracks.[26] It will be so dry that your tongue will stick
to the roof of your mouth.[27]
The scales are symbolic of measurement during famine. There will be inflation with food prices
souring to about 12 times higher than normal.[28] A
denarius would be about a penny, a day’s wage,[29]
and would buy only ONE MEAL of quality
Wheat, or you could get three meals of cheaper Barley for the same wage, but
still no money left over for any other essentials.
Barley produced a black bread which was eaten by the slaves and the
very poor. You would have to share
whatever you did get with your family.
Paradox; The Famine of bread is a terrible judgment, but how much more so is the
judgment of the Famine
of the bread of life; God’s word.
SELAH, ponder that.
The Ephah was a unit of
dry measurement... It was found on medallions and was a symbol of
commerce. The medallion had a two winged
woman holding the Ephah and a balance scale.
It is symbolic of the satanic world system.
Restrictions: The rider of the black horse has some
restrictions... The oil and the wine cannot be touched allowing
only the wealthy to still enjoy its luxuries.
It can be made into beauty aids, toiletries and the badly needed skin
lotions and ointments for the sun scorched bodies, but the middle class common
man and the poor will just not be able to afford them.
NOTE: The third seal is “Limited Judgment”... This is a
partial drought, not as bad as it’s going to get... As we move through the Seals
to the Trumpets
and Bowls,
the drought gets worse and worse. The olive and grape vines need
no cultivation for them to thrive, but I don’t know for how long without water.
Fourth Seal – Fourth Horseman – Pale greenish yellow
The Fourth Seal is opened and
the Fourth Horseman comes forth on a Pale
horse (greenish)
having power to KILL a fourth of the earth by Violence, by famine, by plague and by wild breast.
The name of the rider is Death...
This is the king of terrors... Worldwide death comes through famine, hunger,
disease, epidemics, pestilence and civil violence. Starving animals roam the streets and attack
men.
The skin, when a
pale
greenish yellow color is symbolic
of sickness
and death
and is suggestive of a physically sick person with a deadly fever. This Greenish yellow color
suggest perhaps an epidemic of leprosy. Sickness of this magnitude is referred to as a
plague
such as Malaria,
Cholera and AIDS which are deadly. With ¼
of the population sick, there won’t be enough medicine to treat them ALL.
Some
plagues today are even given COLOR names;
ü Smallpox (The Red Death),
ü Bubonic Plague (The Black Death),
ü Tuberculosis (The White Death).
The Worst Plague... History
verifies that when you have drought, famine and death, it propagates
disease. Fleas from diseased rats seek
out warm human bodies and transmit to them the Bubonic Plague. [30]
The Second Worst
Plague...
Diseases become progressively more and more sophisticated; today we have AIDS,
and at this writing there is no cure; you will die. When we find the cure for AIDS there will be a worst more
sophisticated disease right behind it.
The Invisible
Plague...
Poverty is as much a natural disaster as any plague. If you don’t have any money, you can’t buy
food... That brings us up to the MARK OF THE BEAST, if you want to buy or sell, you must
have HIS MARK; or starve.[31]
First Four Seals unpacked
The Four Horsemen: The
First horse marks conquests, the next three mark civil wars, scarcity and
mortality. War gives birth to a wasting
calamity which draws scarcity and famine; that draws pestilence and sickness;
followed by death and sorrow; a vicious whirlpool. When we are at our weakest and all seems to be
at its worst; brutish, cruel savage men depopulate the world by the sword in
order to GET what you have
and then the beast of the field are unleashed on the easy prey bringing on more
sore judgment. SELAH
The Prophet Ezekiel prophesized about the FOUR Horsemen of the Apocalypse hundreds of
years before John the Revelator had his vision of the end times. All this occurs in the first 3 ½ years of the tribulation period which also includes the 5th and 6th
seal.
The 144,000 witness’
are sealed between the 6th and 7th seal; this
kicks off the SECOND HALF of the Tribulation
with the opening of the 7th seal.
In the last 3 ½ years of the Tribulation
period, unprecedented trouble comes on Israel as they move from
being protected
from their enemies to being persecuted by their enemies.
Eventually, Russia and its allies will
invade the Middle East and finally attack Israel. The battle will escalate until it involves
all the major powers on earth and after the tribulation period it finally
becomes the greatest battle in history; The Battle of
Armageddon.
Ezekiel 14:21-
Prophecy – war, famine, wild animals and disease
21 “Now this is what the Sovereign LORD says: How terrible it will be when
all FOUR of these dreadful punishments fall upon Jerusalem—war, famine,
wild animals, and disease—destroying all her people and animals. (NLT)
Fifth Horseman - Hades
In my Belief
System, I actually feel like there are FIVE horsemen of the Apocalypse.
The name of the fifth horseman
is Hades,
the Grim
Reaper.[32] Since Hades is now also present, you can bet
that the majority of those killed are the unrighteous.
As the
fourth horseman Death
was claiming their body; Hades the fifth horseman followed right behind,
swallowing up “Death’s”
victims, claiming their souls; their spirits...
GOOD GRIEF
As of
2013, there were 7,172,000,000,000 people in the
world. - Using that number and accepting that the saved have already been
“raptured”; a fourth of them, 1,793,000,000 people will be killed. – That’s
1.8 Billion dead carcasses not including the wildlife. Now don’t get too mathematical with me here,
but just run with the concept of the staggering number of dead carcass’s that
God feeds to the birds and wild animals.
THIS
IS NOT EVEN THE FINAL BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON.
The
four horsemen ride throughout the entire tribulation period with escalated activity. If the fourth of the population that’s killed
is confined to a specific area instead of being spread over the world, then the
results will be catastrophic, staggering with maybe no survivors at all.
World War III takes place
shortly just after the rapture; if you will just open your eyes you can see the
clouds are already gathering. Russia
invades Israel, but is defeated by divine intervention. It lasts only one day.
Death Vacation... At some point
later on, Death takes a five month holiday.
The torment is so intense that men will wish they could die; BUT CAN’T.[33]
Here’s where we are – The Take Away
The rapture has taken place – The church
and the restraining force of the
Holy Spirit are no longer on earth. The
False Prophet and Antichrist are already on the scene deceiving the nations.
The seven years of the Great Tribulation
period has just begun. Jesus opens the first four seals on the apocalyptic
book and the Four Horsemen are cut loose to do wreak havoc on earth and man.
ü
The
First Horseman is the Antichrist and comes on a White Horse pretending to be the Messiah and will gain his power
through politics and peace negations in order to fool the world.
ü
The
Second Horseman is War and comes on a Red Horse and has been given power to take peace
from the world.
ü
The
Third Horseman is Famine and comes on
a Black Horse bringing suffering,
and famine
and worldwide economic collapse. The
rain will be withheld, the sun will scorch man and the land will dry up and
form cracks.
ü
The
Fourth Horseman is Death and comes on a Pale greenish horse to KILL a fourth of the
earth. There will be worldwide death
through famines,
hunger, disease, epidemics, pestilence and civil violence. -
Starving animals will roam the streets and attack men.
ü
The
Fifth Horseman is HADES and follows the
fourth horseman DEATH, taking the
souls of the dead to HELL.
There are three more seals with the 144,000
witnesses being sealed between
the 6th and seventh seal, but all that is another Word study. When you are born again, repent and confess
your sins you are SEALED with the Holy Spirit against that day of the Lord; you are marked
as owned by the Lord.
This brings us up to the closing thoughts... Will you go
through the Great
Tribulation period or has God already MARKED
YOU as
His, and you are slated for the Rapture.
If
serving the LORD seems undesirable
to you,
then
CHOOSE
for yourselves this day whom you will serve…
But
as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.
Joshua
24:15
[1] Revelation 1:19 – Things which will take
place in the FUTURE
[2] Matthew 24:5 – First Period Discourse -
False Messiah
[3] Matthew 24:21 – Second Period Discourse -
Great Distress never to be equaled again
[4] Matthew 24:29 – Third Period Discourse - Sun – Moon - Stars will not give its light;
heavenly bodies will be shaken
[5] Luke 3:17 - Separate the chaff from the wheat; believers from
non-believers
[6] Revelation 5:3 – No one could open and look inside the book
[7] Revelation 5:5 – The LION of the Tribe of Judah is able to open the book --
Revelation 5:6-7 – The LAMB of
God took the book from the right hand of God the Father
[8] Joel 3:15 – Sun, moon and
stars will be darkened -- Exodus 10:21 – Darkness that can be felt
[9] Ezekiel 14:21 – I send my
FOUR sore JUDGMENTS: Sword,
Famine, Wild Beast and Pestilence -- Luke 21:10 – War; Nation against Nation and kingdom against kingdom
-- Luke 21:11 – There will be great Earthquakes,
Famines, Pestilences, Fearful Events and great signs from heaven --
Matthew 24:28 – The vultures will gather and eat
the dead carcasses -- Ezekiel 39:17-21 – Call out every sort of Bird and Animal to eat flesh and drink blood
[10] Revelation 6:1-8 – Four Horsemen; white horse, red horse, black
horse, pale horse
[11] Revelation 6:1 – The Lamb; Jesus Christ opens
the First Seal
[12] Matthew 24:4-5 - The anti-Christ will come claiming he is the Christ -- Daniel
11:37-38 – The anti-Christ will exalt himself
and not regard any god.
[13] Revelation 6:2 – The White Horse with a conqueror riding on it was
GIVEN a crown.
[14] Daniel 9:26 – The anti-Christ is the
prince who is to come
[15] Daniel 9:27 – The anti-Christ will institute a false peace covenant
-- 1 Thessalonians 5:3 – The anti-Christ will
say peace, but only bring destruction
-- Isaiah 57:21 – There is no peace for the wicked
[16] Daniel 8:24-25 – Deception – Destruction
- Devastation The
anti-Christ will become very strong and consider himself superior;
destroy many and take his stand against the Prince
of princes
[17] 2 Thessalonians 2:8-9 –The anti-Christ will Display counterfeit miracles,
signs and wonders
[18] Daniel 8:23 – He will be of
fierce countenance and power
[19] Nahum 2:3 – RED - soldiers shields of War -- Joshua 10:28 – Sword
of Destruction
[20] Revelation 6:3-4 – RED horse
rider had the power to take peace -- Matthew
24:6-8 - Wars & rumors of wars - Famines & Earthquakes
[21] Revelation 12:3 - I saw a large RED dragon with seven heads and ten
horns, with seven crowns on his heads
[22] Revelation 17:3 - I saw a woman sitting on a SCARLET beast that had seven heads and
ten horns
[23] Revelation 6:5-6 – Black
horse – The rider has a set of scales; famine
[24] Jeremiah 4:28 – Black is symbolic of mourning
[25]Lamentations 5:10 – The
heat will scorch the land and man skin will be blackened -- Lamentations 5:10 – Bodies will be hot with
fever and hunger -- Lamentations 4:8 –
Black; their skin has shriveled on their bones
[26] Jeremiah 14:4 – The
ground will crack because of lack of rain
[27] Lamentations 4:4 - Your
tongue will stick to the roof of your mouth
[29] Matthew 20:2 - A day’s pay -
A denarius – A penny
[30] Revelation 6:7-8 – Human Violence – famine – plagues - pestilence
[31] Revelation 13:17- NO Mark – NO Food
[32] Luke 16:23 – Hades; Torment, a place for the lost
[33] Revelation 9:5 - Men will
beg for DEATH
but it will elude them for 5 months
No comments:
Post a Comment