Beyond Today Television Program

The Four Horsemen of Revelation

Jun 21, 2020

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What do they mean? Are they only symbolic or do they contain a critical message for us today? You need to know.

[Darris McNeely] The book of Revelation gives us hope. It gives us something that no other human writer, no other human source, no other medium or part of culture can give us. It is the hope of God’s intervention upon the world.

The Bible contains many dramatic scenes but nothing grabs the attention of readers of the Bible like the 4 riders of the horses of Revelation.

Across the landscape of history these 4 riders on these multi colored horses ride with dramatic fear, uncertainty, and wonder upon the world scene.

A white horse, a red horse, a black horse, and a pale horse all bringing scenes of judgment, all bringing a message of warning upon a world that is out of control at a critical moment in human experience. But also at a time that will show the dramatic ability of the God of creation to control history.

This story begins with a scene in heaven and a voice of great thunder. It begins with a scroll that has 7 seals that are found to be at the very throne of God. Multiple angelic beings are there at the presence of the Father and of the Son and the Lamb and no one is found worthy, it says in the scriptures, to open that particular scroll with its seven seals except for the one describe as the Lamb. Only the Lamb, we are told, is worthy to open and to reveal the meaning of these scrolls that will unfold.

The story begins in Revelation 5 and let’s read that for a moment and look and before we go into the story of the 4 horsemen that begin their ride upon human history in verse 8 of chapter 5 in the book of Revelation. The Lamb takes that scroll and it says when He had taken that scroll the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the Lamb. The Lamb represents Jesus Christ. Each have a harp and golden bowls full of incense which are the prayers of the saints and they sang a new song saying you are worthy, meaning the Lamb, to take the scroll and to open its seals for You were slain and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation and have made us kings and priests to our God and we shall reign upon the earth.

It’s fitting that the Lamb is the one who has the ability to take the scroll and open and break all of the seals. Because what we read here beginning in chapter 6 of Revelation is a parallel to the Olivet prophecy that Jesus Christ himself gave to his disciples as recorded in the book of Matthew the 24th chapter in what is called the Olivet prophecy of scripture. There the disciples came and they asked Christ, what will be the signs of your coming and of the end of the age? Christ began to unfold to them specific details about what would be taking place at the end of the age that would herald His appearance, His second coming and this parallels what we read in Revelation chapter 6.

So again it is fitting that it is the Lamb or Jesus Christ who is the one who is able to unroll the scroll and the seals and reveal what these horsemen all represent. So let’s look at the book of Revelation and what we are told from Christ who is the Revelation and what He says. Let’s look at that 1st seal and that 1st horseman.

In chapter 6 of Revelation we read this. John writes “Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals; and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder saying, ‘Come and see.’ And I looked, and behold, a white horse. He who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to Him, and He went out conquering and to conquer.” So here’s the first rider on a white horse. Now some commentators will look at this and they will think that this is Jesus Christ, a picture of Jesus Christ, but this is not Jesus Christ. In fact Revelation 19 a few chapters further into the story shows the actual appearance of Jesus Christ indeed on a white horse but with a sword, not with a bow. That sword will come out of the mouth of Christ and He will be wielding that and that represents the Word of God a two edged sword.

Some also say that this rider, this first rider, is an angel that appears. It’s not an angel. What is it? It’s a false christ. It is one who does appear like Christ and the very deception we find that people will have regarding this first rider tells us exactly why and how there is this misunderstanding about who Jesus Christ was and is and what his purpose is all about.

In fact Jesus Christ gave that very warning back in Matthew 24 when He said to His disciples beware. At the first sign of His coming He said many will come in my name saying they are the Christ and will deceive many. And that has happened throughout history beginning almost in the very beginning of the church in message of the gospel that did go to the world there was deception, there was false teaching, there were those who bore the name of Christ who said they represented Him but for a different teaching, a different gospel. In fact they came with a different spirit.

Given the history of experience from that time until present day of the 21st century tell us exactly what has happened in regards to so many different brands of religion.

Spirituality. Seeking to help people understand who God is and what God’s purpose is but also preaching a false version of the gospel and really in essence a false Christ. This is what is being described here. False religion sets up the scene for the 2nd seal that is unfurled or the 2nd horseman because that 2nd horseman brings something upon the earth that so often we find as we study history comes because of religious strife and religious confusion.

Let’s read what the 2nd seal or the 2nd horseman has to tell us as we look at this in Revelation 6 beginning in verse 3. John records this as he looks and he said “When He [meaning the Lamb again] opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, ‘Come and see.’ another horse, fiery red, went out. And it was granted to the One who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another; and there was given to him a great sword.”

This red horse with this rider brings war. To take peace from the earth means to leave it in a state of conflict. We’ve seen a great deal of that in human experience since Christ uttered these words and since John saw this Revelation. Some will say as they look at this and seek to understand it for modern application, well we’ve always had wars. That’s true. But this is different. This war that is described here again when we go back to Matthew 24 and we look at what Jesus described as a war that would come upon the world at the time of end as one of the signs that would have the ability to take not only take peace from the earth but also all life and a total war we come to a point where we have to understand that in the light of events from 1945 with the explosion of the first atomic bomb and then a few years later with the coming of the hydrogen bomb and the nuclear proliferation that has taken place ever since that has created the potential to kill all life on this planet with nuclear war.

We have been living under that mushroom cloud of uncertainty ever since 1945 and still do to this day. As I look at this and you consider war and consider the scriptures and what we are actually being told in Matthew’s account and by this rider of war, we have to come to the point where we realize that it is only in today’s setting that we have this ability.

I have lived all my life under the threat of nuclear war. I remember as a young man going into my physical education class in my junior high school and walking by a civil defense sign which was kind of a yellow and black warning sign indicating this was a safe place in the event of a nuclear war for you to gain shelter. It made us feel good at the time but the reality was we probably never would have made it into that shelter should our area have come under such an attack.

We’ve lived in a very dangerous time all of our lives. For all the treaties, for all the negotiations that have been made in recent decades, well-meaning and well-intended, the world is still very dangerous. Today we see nations like Iran and North Korea developing nuclear weapons with overt threats as to how they would use them upon what nations and still creating a very tense and dangerous situation in the Middle East, in Asia and frankly for all of the world. It hasn’t changed. That ability to bring upon mankind events that these verses describe, a total war, is at the biggest peak that has been at any time in human history.

So when this horse rides we are seeing a time of not only more war but almost total war. But we have to remember that god controls history god controls these events and in fact it is the Lamb who is even controlling the breaking of these seals.

Matthew 24:22 Christ says that were it not for a group of people called the elect, all human life would be dissolved. But He says I will intervene for that. Understanding that gives us hope and hope is ultimately the message that we take away from the book of Revelation and must always remember.

This topic that we are going through in a very short time here in this program has a lot more detail to it. For those of you that are watching at home I want to make sure that you get this booklet, this Study Aid that we have The Horsemen of Revelation and you can get this by calling the number that is on your screen or writing to that address that is there as well and requesting a copy of a very helpful guide that will take you into greater detail in helping you to understand what these horsemen are all about and also the fuller message about the book of Revelation on this particular topic. So be sure and get your free copy of that. Call the number that is on your screen and look at that.

Now let’s go back into the book of Revelation. Let’s go back to the 3rd seal. Let’s talk about what we are seeing. We talked about religious strife and we’ve seen war and now let’s look at this 3rd seal beginning in verse 5 of Revelation 6. It says “When He opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, ‘Come and see.’ So I looked, and behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, ‘a quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine.’” These are symbols of the basic substance of food to nourish people. Oil and wine and grain and it indicates scarcity. It indicates a famine. What we are seeing with this third horse is that of famine. Now when you trace the progression that happens with religious confusion so often creating conflict historically and even to this day between nations and people the result is war and war always brings with it impoverishment and famine upon people.

Again, people will say well there’s always been famine. But what is described here is something even bigger and it almost seems like it is a contradiction of terms in our modern setting with so much food and the abundance that we have but if you look back at just even recent history and the 20th century we had famines in multiple part of the world that led to the deaths of upwards of 70 million people history tells us as a result of famine usually caused by politics in the 20th century.

In the 1930’s in Ukraine during the time of the Soviet Union Joseph Stalin the dictator of the Soviet Union at that time engineered a famine among the Ukrainians and upwards of 4 million people died because he wanted to take out that group of people within the Soviet Union.

In china in 1958 20-55 million people are estimated to have died again by another politically socially engineered famine under Mao Tse Tung.

In Ethiopia more recently in 1984 100’s of thousands of people died as well because of political strife, war, and the famine that resulted from that. And even as I speak here at this time in Yemen millions of people are at the brink of starvation as well again because of war and political mismanagement. Human cruelty sometimes upon its own people is unimaginable but we look at what is taking place here on a global scale and just multiply it out many many times.

Again people, the skeptic, will say there is food there is abundance, there is genetic engineering that has modified food created a Green Revolution and all of that is true. Remember again in the 1970’s the book called the Population Bomb that predicted millions of people in the world would die of starvation because there was not enough food to feed them. You know what happened? A man, a scientist, genetically modified the wheat corn grain and he multiplied the harvest and the millions of people in the developing world were saved and live today because of genetically modified food, what is called the Green Revolution. Yet today there is still the potential for even millions of people to die by famine all because of the events that are described here in religious spiritual strife and war, political confusion. It is still with us today almost as a warning for us to look at and realize that these dangers are still out there. For all of our science for all that has been done to seek negotiations of arms to create peace among even various religions there is still conflicts and there is still the resulting fruit from that of war and famine to warn us almost that it can come upon an even bigger scale as told here in the prophecies of Revelation and the book of Matthew in the hands of Jesus Christ who is the Revelator.

We’ve covered 3 horses. There is one more. A 4th. Let’s read about that in Revelation chapter 6 beginning in verse 7 this time. “When He opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, ‘come and see.’ So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was death, and hades followed with him [from death comes the grave] and power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth.”

This 4th horse is a pale horse. It’s green, some translations put it and that is the color of sickness. And what is being described here again is the natural flow from religious strife, war, and famine and that is disease, pestilence. Today we use the term called pandemic meaning a disease that can reach virtually around the globe and affect millions and millions – hundreds of millions – of people.

Again this might seem like something that might not be possible in our world today because we’re living longer. Science has done a great deal to extend life to alleviate pain or other diseases and extend our lives by years and even decades in some cases by comparison with previous generations. We get our flu shots, we take our vitamins, we take our drugs and our medicines and we live in one sense in a very health world and something like this might again seem to be unlikely except when you look at history, even recent history, you look at what is available and possible today we see that there is still something that could be done to bring about what we are reading of here with this ride of the 4th horseman.

Let me take you back to 1918. An event called the Spanish flu took place. 1918 brought the end of what is called World War I and in the last months of that war an epidemic broke out they think it began in Kansas among troops that were being mustered and then sent to Europe in the final months of WWI and people began to die and they began to die very quickly and multiply. What was happening was that a flu virus was beginning to spread among soldiers and then to the general population and in a few months, actually about two years as it ran its course around the world, what is called the Spanish flu killed an estimated 50-100 million people in the world at that time a hundred years ago at the end of WWI.

Could that happen today? Well, you don’t have to google too far to find the answer to that question. Today scientists worry that a flu virus could begin in Asia, mutate very quickly, pass from fowl to the humans, from pigs to humans, and before a vaccine is created people could begin to die in parts of the world and because of the global travel that is available today what begins in Asia or in India or some other remote part of the world can be taken virtually to any part of the world in a matter of hours, a few very short days.

And it could happen again today under the best conditions and 200-400 million some experts say could die from even a flu virus that could erupt upon mankind before steps could be taken hopefully to create a vaccine to stem that problem. So it could happen today. Think about the world that is described in these verses that we’ve been reading about. This is a time of total war. This is a time of conflict that is unimaginable and unheard of in human history when these four horsemen begin to ride.

Revelation is describing human civilization that is coming apart. Spiritual deception, war, famine, and plague. That’s what’s being described here. Events that have always been with us and are still with us to this day, we can‘t ignore that. It is reality.

But as it is put within the context of the book of Revelation it is at a time when God’s judgment is coming upon a world that essentially has run out of time. God’s purpose and plan and it is a time of world trial.

Now we want all of us to have a very thorough understanding of what we are talking about in this and I’m only reading today a few verses out of the book of Revelation to describe this. The booklet that we are offering, the study guide, is something that we put together over the years and over a great deal of research that for those of us who are here today and those who are watching this later online or on television will want to go deeper into it. The guide that we have here called "The Horseman of Revelation" goes into more scriptural detail and more understanding from today’s events and history in the world seen today to describe exactly what is behind the ride of these four horsemen. We want all of us to have that understanding so that it is not lost upon us as to what we have, what is potentially there, but most importantly to have something beyond what is normally there when people talk about the horsemen of Revelation and it’s described in one word, hope. I want you to remember that word. Hope. Because as we’ve been talking about four horsemen, a white horse, a black horse, a red horse, and a pale horse, there is actually in the book of Revelation described a fifth horsemen. That fifth horseman has upon its back the one who is opening the scroll and unleashing the seals. It is Jesus Christ. He appears. Let’s read about that appearance in chapter 19 of the book of Revelation.

It is one of the great scenes too of the Bible but it is a scene of hope for it says in verse 11. “Now I saw heaven opened [again it’s almost like, you can imagine, a scroll being rolled back, the skies rolling back in that sense like a scroll but here is a different scene], and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. [You can see the similarity here and why people would get that confused with Revelation 6 again on a white horse but there is a difference here.] It says “He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called the Word of God. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses.” So there is a multitude here and what is critical is in verse 15 because “Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: King of Kings and Lord of Lords.”

This is a different horse, this is a different rider. This is the true Christ that appears at a critical moment in human history to stop what is taking place. The God of heaven will intervene to save mankind from killing himself at this particular point. This is what is going to happen. Now it describes in a sense another general time of warfare but I want you to stop and consider this. Sometimes people look at this and they see more carnage and more problems that take place but it’s more than that. This is a time when God intervenes upon the human scene and yes there is a time of intervention to save human life and it is one final war that takes place but in the context of all the other seals of Revelation it is a war that takes place almost like the explosion that takes place when they have to cap a burning oil well that is raging out of control and is an explosion of dynamite that stops the fire. When Christ intervenes it will be like that explosion that stops that fire in an out of control oil well that stops the carnage that stops the problems of human existence and actually spares mankind. That’s what happens when Jesus Christ intervenes. That’s why it’s different. That’s why the rider of the 5th horseman gives us a message of hope that is far different from any other message that we have.

Look, people read the book of Revelation. Sometimes they cannot understand what that book is saying because of the symbols and signs and all the images that are there and that is understandable, again, if you don’t have the proper understanding. But that can be put aside. There is also sometimes a bleak message that people only take away from the book of Revelation but when you go all the way to the message of the fifth horseman and beyond you have a message of hope and that gives us something far more than anything else we have in the world today by any other apocalyptic message that is available from culture, from media, from religion, from any other source that you look at. Look at the post-apocalyptic movies that are made about a world post nuclear war. They’re gray, they’re dark, they’re bleak, they’re hopeless. The book of Revelation gives us hope. It gives us something that no other human writer, no other human source no other media, no other part of culture can give us. It is the hope of god’s intervention upon the world and that’s unique. That’s why the book of Revelation is important and that’s why a proper understanding of where these four horsemen fit in human experience help us to that point along with what is there with the fifth horse.

So we want you to be sure to get that booklet that is available, a study guide that will go into more detail and show exactly what is here and what is behind that hope that we all have.

The four horsemen of Revelation, they’re going to ride in the last days. But it’s the ride of the fifth horseman Jesus Christ that will end spiritual deception, war and suffering. When Christ rides to end human history then “the kingdoms of this world will become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ and He shall reign for and ever.”

Let’s all pray for the coming of God’s Kingdom to this earth.

[Narrator] Please call for the free literature on today’s program “The Horsemen of Revelation.” When you do we’ll also send you a free one year subscription to our Beyond Today magazine. The Beyond Today magazine brings you understanding of today’s world and hope for the future. Six times a year you’ll read about current world events in the light of Bible prophecy as well as practical knowledge to improve your marriage and family, and godly principles to guide you toward a life that leads to peace. Order now. Call toll free 1-888-886-8632 or write to the address shown on your screen. Call today to receive your free booklet and your free 1 year subscription to Beyond Today magazine. 1-888-886-8632 or go online to beyondtoday.tv

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The Horsemen of Revelation

Darris McNeely

Darris McNeely works at the United Church of God home office in Cincinnati, Ohio. He and his wife, Debbie, have served in the ministry for more than 43 years. They have two sons, who are both married, and four grandchildren. Darris is the Associate Media Producer for the Church. He also is a resident faculty member at the Ambassador Bible Center teaching Acts, Fundamentals of Belief and World News and Prophecy. He enjoys hunting, travel and reading and spending time with his grandchildren.

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Here is a rider who appears to come in the name of and bearing a message of peace. But he is a conqueror, one who imposes his version of peace on the world.

The Horsemen of Revelation

The White Horse of False Religion

Darris McNeely

Jan 1, 2004

13 minutes read time

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Some confuse this rider with Jesus Christ, whom Revelation 19 shows riding a white horse at His second coming. But a careful examination reveals important distinctions.

Mankind's destiny hanging in the balance

To understand the seals in Revelation 6, we first need to examine chapter 5. John is experiencing a vision of the throne of God when he sees "in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals" (Revelation 5:1).

No one in heaven or earth is able or worthy to open the scroll and reveal its contents. John bemoans the absence of anyone capable of opening the scrolls. But a voice from one of the elders around the throne says: "Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals" (Revelation 5:5).

What John saw next was the sight of the glorified Jesus Christ in the commanding position to receive and dispense the full power of God. "And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne ... stood a Lamb as though it had been slain ... Then He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne" (Revelation 5:6-7).

What follows from this awesome scene of angelic praise is the stirring anthem to Christ's role in the plan of God. The four living creatures and 24 elders sing a new song. "You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals," they proclaim in unison.

To this scene is now added the voice of many angels, perhaps numbering into the hundreds of millions, all loudly proclaiming, "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing!" (Revelation 5:11-12).

With a thundering crescendo the next stanza arrives from "every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them ... saying: 'Blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!'"

Such is the scene that stands as a prelude to the opening of the seals. The fate of mankind rests in God's hands, and His patience is at an end. Christ alone is pronounced worthy to open the seals that announce God's judgments on the nations. The destiny of humanity is not a matter of chance or whim, but has been spelled out in the seals that He opens.

Setting for the horsemen's ride

What is the time setting of these prophecies? Scholars offer divergent opinions, but the book of Revelation itself reveals the time setting as the prophetic "Lord's day" (Revelation 1:10), elsewhere called "the Day of the Lord." Notice how the prophet Joel described this period: "The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD" (Joel 2:31).

The Day of the Lord begins with God's intervention in world affairs to spare human life during a period of unparalleled global conflict and catastrophe. Mankind has suffered for centuries from the combined impact of war, famine and disease, but no previous period of turmoil will compare to this age-ending storm described in Revelation.

When the seals open before John, he sees the first four uniquely pictured. Four ominous horsemen arise in an eerie sequence.

To better understand what these horsemen represent, let's look at another key prophecy Jesus Christ gave during His ministry.

The gathering storm

Jesus' disciples were visiting Jerusalem with Him. After admiring the temple's buildings, they crossed the Kidron Valley, climbed the Mount of Olives and paused to ask Christ for signs of His coming and the end of the age (Matthew 24:1-3).

Jesus gave four signs that correspond with the first four seals of Revelation 6: "Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in diverse places. All these are the beginning of sorrows" (Matthew 24:4-8, King James Version, emphasis added throughout).

Here Jesus reveals an overview of trends and conditions from the first century until the end of the age. Take note of the four significant developments He foretold: Religious deception, war, famine and disease.

As this and later articles in this series will show, humanity has long suffered from the effects of these four signs. But nothing in history will compare to the catastrophes unleashed at the opening of the seals by the Lamb. The unprecedented devastation brought by the opening of the four seals will set the stage for the return of Christ as King of Kings.

Let's now look more closely at what John saw.

The first seal: Conqueror on a white horse

As the first seal opens, John writes the following: "Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals; and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder, 'Come and see.' And I looked, and behold, a white horse. He who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer" (Revelation 6:1-2).

White is a symbol of purity and peace. Here is a rider who appears to come in the name of and bearing a message of peace.

But he is a conqueror, one who imposes his version of peace on the world.

Possibly this rider will even bring about a pseudo peace, a condition described by the apostle Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:3: "For when they say, 'Peace and safety!' then sudden destruction comes upon them ... And they shall not escape."

Some confuse this rider with Jesus Christ, whom Revelation 19 shows riding a white horse at His second coming. But a careful examination reveals important distinctions. Christ is wearing "many crowns" at His return, not just a single crown as worn by this first horseman. And instead of wielding a bow, Christ is brandishing a sword with which He strikes the nations.

To be consistent with Christ's statements in Matthew 24, we must conclude that this rider represents not Jesus, but instead false teachers who appropriate His name while corrupting His plain teaching and leading many into destructive heresy.

Remember His warning: "Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name ... and will deceive many" (Matthew 24:4-5).

A different gospel takes root

It didn't take long after Christ's death for a "different gospel" (Galatians 1:6) to invade the Church, causing division and confusion. The apostles were forced to deal with this problem, as evidenced by their writings to the Church.

Paul warned the elders of the congregation at Ephesus to beware of false teachers: "Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves" (Acts 20:28-30).

As the apostle Peter neared the end of his life, God compelled him to give a stern warning about the apostasy that he saw looming on the horizon.

The second chapter of his second epistle is a powerful rebuke of those who would bring false teaching into the Church: "But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction" (2 Peter 2:1).

He went on to say, "Many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed" (2 Peter 2:2). Peter calls the Church's doctrine the "way of truth." It is like a trail of truth along which the faithful have always walked. Christ called it a narrow and difficult way that few find (Matthew 7:13-14).

The Church corrupted by deception

Near the end of the first century the apostle John, last of the original 12 apostles, saw a rapid escalation in the heresy and persecution that was plaguing the Church. During the reign of Roman Emperor Domitian a virulent strain of antagonism was unleashed on Christians. For a time, the government even exiled the aged apostle to the Aegean island of Patmos. It was there that he received the book of Revelation in vision.

The three epistles bearing his name reveal the mounting tension in the churches and John's desire to warn the members of the devastating impact of false teaching. He wrote of their individual and collective responsibility to examine those teachers who presented themselves as spiritual guides and experts.

He knew it was easy to claim divine authority and thereby deceive people into following ideas that were spiritually destructive. "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world" (1 John 4:1).

We see the apostles warning of the corruption of the true faith brought by Jesus Christ. Jude summed it up perfectly when he wrote of the need to "contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 1:3).

Within decades, the truth of God was gravely corrupted by false teachers. The result was teachings that no longer resembled the gospel brought by Christ. In Galatians 1:6, Paul had to reprimand the Galatians for "turning away ... to a different gospel." (To learn more about the apostasy that corrupted Christianity, and Christ's repeated warnings of it, be sure to read "Many False Prophets Will Arise and Deceive Many" .)

From the teachings of these corrupters evolved a church bearing Jesus' name, but vastly different in doctrines and practices from the Church we see in the New Testament. In fact, two vastly different "Christian" faiths were now locked in a struggle—the true followers of Jesus' teachings and the tarnished followers of a spiritually corrupt, counterfeit Christianity!

Over the centuries, persecution from the Roman authorities took its toll. This counterfeit church further compromised the faith under threat of death from the state.

Roman Emperor Constantine combined the power of the state with the ecclesiastical structure and authority of the false church. This created a union of church and state with the ability to create order by squelching dissent. Thus, Constantine and succeeding Roman emperors allied themselves with a deceptive religious system represented by the symbolic white horse of peace.

Their mission was to conquer, in the name of Christ, all those who opposed them.

A final great deception to come

Christ's prophecy of false teachers coming in His name, claiming He is the Christ but deceiving many, indeed came to pass. Church history is largely a story of teachings and practices of the counterfeit Christianity, with its system of beliefs and practices fundamentally different from what the early New Testament Church believed and taught. The story of those who held to or at times recaptured the essence of true Christianity is not easy to follow through history.

Today those who strive to practice the teachings that Christ put into His Church are few in comparison to the thousands of churches that call themselves Christian but are in fact descendants of the counterfeit movement begun in the first century. Christ said that "wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it ... Narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it" (Matthew 7:13-14).

Yet even for these few, there is danger from a coming deception—Satan's end-time effort to defeat and enslave humankind.

Christ's Olivet prophecy progresses, in concert with the book of Revelation, toward the final events before His return. He said, "For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect" (Matthew 24:24). Even the elect, the people of God who "keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ" (Revelation 12:17), will be susceptible to this great deception.

The apostle Paul spoke of this time of deception in 2 Thessalonians 2. This prophecy of a "man of sin" to arise before Christ's return stands out within Paul's writings.

This end-time deception is led by a figure "who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped" and who will even sit "in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." In Paul's day, this opposition to the law and doctrine of God was already at work. But before the coming of Christ it will expand "according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders" (2 Thessalonians 2:3-9).

This "son of perdition" matches the description of the figure described in Revelation 13 as a "beast," one of two beasts in this section, this one with two horns like a lamb and speaking like a dragon (Revelation 13:11).

This person acts in tandem with the first beast (Revelation 13:1), actually causing people to worship the first beast with great adulation (Revelation 13:12). "He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived" (Revelation 13:13-14).

What is this talking about? Here we find the description of Satan's final attempt to engineer a system based on his lying words of deceit and confusion. That it involves false religion is obvious from all the markers we have seen in the New Testament Scriptures.

A man claiming to be God, in the temple of God, performs signs with the intent of persuading men to worship a system that appears to be doing good for the world. This is the final resurgence of a system God calls "MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH " (Revelation 17:5).

His allure will likely lie in bringing about a peaceful solution to a world crisis where no one else has succeeded. The world will wonder in amazement at the ability of this system to impose a "peace" that will seemingly bring security in which the world can prosper economically. It will be a global system unlike any previous system, and it will seem to work.

An unparalleled religious movement

The ride of the first horseman, false religion, will greatly impact the nations in the last days. It will mark the expansion of a religious movement without parallel in history.

Religion continues to be a powerful force among the nations. A great wave of religious change is moving continually throughout the world. Not only are the large world religions, such as Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism, growing and changing, but countless other new faiths are springing up, almost on a daily basis.

Scholars who keep track of the world religious scene identify more than 9,900 distinctive religions. Despite predictions at one time that religion would become extinct, it continues to grow, reinventing itself after the personal interests and whims of people.

False religion marches on at the same time that the world's citizens are desperately in need of hope and solutions for survival. Their desperation provides fertile ground for religious extremism. The rise of fundamentalist Islam has precipitated a cultural clash that could lead to dramatic changes in the world geopolitical structure. Religious-based terrorism has implicated this major religion in a radical movement that will drag others, including Christian-professing nations, into a clash of civilizations—one that could possibly trigger the age-ending crisis foretold by Jesus Christ.

Christ spoke of false religion as the precursor to "wars and rumors of wars." The second seal of Revelation 6 is a rider on a red horse described as taking peace from the earth. Religious strife has often been the cause of war. We will see the connection between the two as we look at the ride of this next horseman.

Darris McNeely

Four Horsemen of Revelation

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

white horse

Revelation

false prophets

false teachers

Bible Prophecy

Pale horse of death described in Revelation 6.

Illustration: Sherwin Schwartzrock & Jonathan Koelsch

One can only imagine the worldwide impact to come from the culmination of the ride of the pale horseman. The world has seen relatively mild precursors.

The Horsemen of Revelation

The Pale Horse of Pestilence

Darris McNeely

Aug 10, 2020

13 minutes read time

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Previous articles in this series covered the meaning of the first three of the horsemen of Revelation—religious deception, war and famine. What does the fourth, the pale green horse and its rider, signify?

Disease travels in tandem with fear. While the first can lead to the death of thousands, the second can unravel the social fabric, disrupting the precarious balance of relationships essential for the stability of nations.

The most recent disease fear was covid-19 (coronavirus disease 2019), which killed hundreds of thousands and panicked millions more. Before that it was ebola, which killed thousands in Africa before being largely contained. Before that it was aids, which has killed tens of millions and even today is still decimating the populations of some countries. Tomorrow it could be another, even greater plague to sweep across the landscape, leaving death and destruction in its wake.

In this booklet we have been examining each of the first four seals of Revelation 6. These seals, dramatically depicted by four horsemen, show the effect of false religion, war, famine and plague among the earth’s population in the days leading to the return of Jesus Christ.

Each of these seals represents powerful forces that devastate human life on the earth. The cumulative effect will lead to such conditions that if Jesus Christ did not intervene and cut short the time of trial, “no flesh would be saved” (Matthew 24:22).

We now come to the fourth seal, the fourth horseman, and his ride of death by plague. How will the ride of this horseman affect the nations of the earth?

The ride of the fourth horseman

Revelation 6:7-8 tells us this about the fourth seal: “When He opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, ‘Come and see.’ So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him.”

The Expositor’s Bible Commentary says this about the color of the fourth horse: “‘Pale’ (chloros) denotes a yellowish green, the light green of a plant, or the paleness of a sick person in contrast to a healthy appearance.” Put bluntly, this horse is the color of death.

In Jesus’ parallel prophecy in Matthew 24, He explained that in the wake of religious deception, war and famine would come “pestilences” or disease epidemics (verse 7).

The seals have a cumulative effect. False religion causes instability within relationships leading to war. Famine follows war, and when malnourishment occurs and social systems break down, human beings are more susceptible to disease. These seals depict the ferocity of problems unleashed on the world in the lead-up to “the Day of the Lord.”

There would be other calamities as well. Jesus also listed in the same context “earthquakes in various places” (verse 7). “Plague” in Scripture denotes not only pestilence but also other calamities in nature that God uses to punish a disobedient humanity. Of course, any such calamity make populations that much riper for the spread of disease epidemics.

The latter part of Revelation 6:8, speaking of all four horsemen, states: “And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth to kill with sword, with hunger, with death and by the beasts of the earth.”

By the time the fourth horseman completes his ride, a fourth of earth’s inhabitants will experience incredible devastation. The death toll will be unlike any from plague and disease in human history.

To understand how bad it can be, let’s go back and look at some of the great plagues of history.

The Black Death

Perhaps the most famous plague in history is the Black Death of the 14th century, thought by most to have been bubonic plague. Estimates are that more than 20 million people (a third to half of Europe’s population) died in the outbreak.

In 1346, reports reached Europe of a devastating disease from China that was affecting many parts of Asia. The next year a mysterious disease appeared in Italy. Ships from the Black Sea sailed into Messina with sailors infected with black boils in their armpits and groins. It was the bubonic plaque.

The disease was so lethal that people were known to go to bed well and die before waking. There were two types of this plague. The first was internal, causing swelling and internal bleeding. This was spread by contact. The second concentrated in the lungs and spread by coughing airborne germs. There was no known prevention or cure.

Whole towns were depopulated. The social structure completely broke down. Parents abandoned children; husbands and wives left each other to die. In many cases no one was around to bury the dead, both from fear of contagion and lack of concern. One writer of the time tells of observing 5,000 bodies lying dead in a field.

In that age, the Bible was the primary means to measure any natural calamity. The only way to understand what was happening was to believe the world was coming to an end. There seemed no hope for the future.

The bubonic plague has appeared in more recent times as well. The Great Plague of London in 1664-65 resulted in more than 70,000 deaths in a population estimated at 460,000. An outbreak in Canton and Hong Kong in 1894 left 80,000 to 100,000 dead, and within 20 years the disease spread from the southern Chinese ports throughout the whole world, resulting in more than 10 million deaths.

The plague came to America from Asia in 1899. Today cases are still reported, and an average of 15 people die each year. The disease originates in rodents and is usually transmitted to people by fleas, although animal bites can also be the means of transmission. It is still a virulent disease. As few as 10 bubonic plague cells can cause a person’s death.

Perhaps disease transmission from rodents is part of what Revelation 6:8 means by death from “the beasts of the earth.” Microbial and viral infection could also be intended.

Human-engineered plague

Throughout its history, plague has been used as an offensive weapon against populations. The Mongols would catapult plague-infested corpses over the walls of besieged cities. Thousands would die as the disease spread through the walled-in population.

During World War II, Japan dropped plague-infested fleas on China. American research growing out of the war experience led to a decades-long research project at Fort Detrick, Maryland, proving that biological warfare was a feasible method of waging war.

In 1969 U.S. President Richard Nixon ordered the research stopped, and in 1972 the United States signed a treaty with 70 other nations outlawing the production, stockpiling and use of biological weapons as a means of war. Despite this treaty, it is known that many nations, rich and poor alike, have developed biological weapons.

The former Soviet Union conducted a sophisticated effort to manufacture biological weapons during the Cold War years. For years scientists researched ways to genetically alter bubonic plague so as to make it resistant to many forms of modern treatment.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1992, the tracking and inventory of all this work has been a great concern. The United States and its allies fear that some of it could have fallen into the hands of terrorist groups and could one day be used against them.

After the first Gulf War in 1991, weapons inspectors confirmed that Iraq had developed biological weapons and had even equipped some warheads with germs to use against Saddam Hussein’s enemies.

Are nations prepared?

Today America and the West brace themselves for further attacks from terrorist groups. What is perhaps feared most is a biological attack with smallpox or some other widely communicable germ. Experts know that the West is woefully underprepared for such an attack.

In June 2001, the Center for Strategic and International Studies hosted a senior-level war game examining the security challenges of a biological attack on the American homeland.

The premise was the appearance of a case of smallpox in Oklahoma City, rapidly spreading throughout the country. Among the lessons learned from the exercise: “An attack on the United States with biological weapons could threaten vital national security interests. Massive civilian casualties, breakdown in essential institutions, violation of democratic processes, civil disorder, loss of confidence in government and reduced U.S. strategic flexibility abroad are among the ways a biological attack might compromise U.S. security” (heritage.org/node/19110/print-display).

Other estimates say that within days a million people would be dead and two to three times that many infected. No one knows what lies out there waiting
to be used by groups wishing other nations harm. We only know that it could happen.

Naturally caused disease

Beyond the human-engineered biowarfare, another type of pestilence is waiting as well. The pandemic spread of the recent novel coronavirus strain covid-19 has, following an explosion of cases into a worldwide pandemic in 2020, given us another real-time example of how quickly world conditions can change and give rise to fear and panic.

Stock markets were destabilized, with whole nations diverting resources and attention to containment and cities and regions quarantining citizens. It’s been like a storm that rises quickly on the horizon and, before anyone can discern what’s happening and take shelter or other precautions, it slams into society and upends normal life.

This virus is serious for several reasons. First, like flu viruses, it causes death in a significant number of cases, the elderly being most vulnerable. Second, as of this writing, there is no vaccine, and development takes months. Third, many who have the virus show no symptoms, making it hard to tell who does or doesn’t carry it and may be spreading it to others. covid-19 is simply the latest worldwide pandemic to suddenly arise and wreak havoc around the world.

“[One hundred] years ago a sudden mutation in the virus that causes influenza initiated a worldwide epidemic that in only 18 months killed an estimated 25 to 40 million people around the world. Many consider this to be the worst natural disaster in history” (Hillary Johnson, “Killer Flu,” Rolling Stone, Jan. 22, 1998). Some historians feel this epidemic hastened the end of World War I.

One expert, W.I.B. Beveridge, said, “There is no known reason why there should not be another catastrophic pandemic like that of 1918 or even worse. The flu always has the capability of becoming a global plague: a spark in a remote corner of the world could start a fire that scorches us all. Should a super flu like that of 1918 make a comeback now that the population has quadrupled and more than a million people cross international boundaries on jets each day, experts say it could kill hundreds of millions” (ibid.).

As we’ve witnessed with the novel coronavirus in 2020, influenza is one of the most underrated biomedical hazards in today’s world. Medical science takes eight months or more to create a vaccine once a new strain appears. Researchers know they cannot stop a pandemic, hence draconian measures like total lockdowns to try and “flatten the curve” of infections to buy time for medical workers to learn how to treat the disease and researchers to develop treatments. In the meantime other mutant strains are waiting to jump the species barrier from animals to humans. When they do, the results could be catastrophic. A breakdown caused by war in one part of the world, coupled with an outbreak of influenza, as in World War I, would be all it would take to set in motion a major disease pandemic on the scale of those described in the book of Revelation.

The seals in context

When we look at the four seals of Revelation 6, we have to understand them in the context of God’s agelong message to mankind. False religion, war, famine and disease are the results of man’s broken relationship with Him. And when these horsemen make their rides, it will be after repeated warning and pleading from God to turn from sin and live righteously based on His eternal law of love toward God and man.

When God first set ancient Israel in a land of promise, He gave them instruction on how to live and conduct their affairs in a way that would bring peace and harmony. God wanted them to live with blessing and abundance, not suffering and misery. In His basic instruction, our Creator explained how to avoid the problems that will devastate the world with the opening of these seals.

Notice the pattern set in Leviticus 26: “You shall not make idols for yourselves; neither a carved image nor a sacred pillar shall you rear for yourselves; nor shall you set up an engraved stone in your land, to bow down to it; for I am the Lord your God” (Leviticus 26:1).

Here is the solution to false religion, represented by the first seal and its horseman. Any form of worship other than that given by God is a false idol having no value or validity. Lacking meaning or sense, it is worse than nothing because it leads to willful ignorance and lack of understanding of the true God and His purpose for human life.

False religion and deception breaks the bond between God and His creation and leads to false systems of religion. When this bond is broken, human relationships suffer, leading to conflict and war, represented by the second of the seals.

Verse 6 says: “I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none will make you afraid.” This peace, in contrast to the second horsemen of war, is a gift from God when man obeys Him from the heart and puts His laws and ways first.

“If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments, and perform them, then I will give you rain in its season, the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit” (Leviticus 26:3-4). For obedience, God promises the opposite of the third horseman of famine—plenty of food from abundant harvests.

And the antidote to the fourth horseman of disease? When God brought the Israelites out of Egypt, He told them: “If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you” (Exodus 15:26). However, if they disobeyed and broke the covenant, they could expect disease to afflict them, their families and their nation.

Notice: “But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God . . . the Lord will make the pestilence cling to you until He has consumed you from the land into which you go to possess. The Lord will smite you with consumption, with fever and inflammation . . . and the tumors, the scurvy and the itch, from which you cannot be healed. The Lord will smite you with madness and blindness and dismay of [mind and] heart” (Deuteronomy 28:15, 21-22, 27-28, Amplified Bible).

Bound within the promises of blessings and curses is the larger context for the four seals of Revelation 6. The human race is bound to its Creator in a relationship that will reach a conclusion. God will accomplish His purpose of “bringing many sons to glory” (Hebrews 2:10). Mankind eventually will come face to face with God and admit that He is the one and only true God.

The book of Revelation shows God’s merciful intervention in human affairs to both correct and save man from destruction. God will bring justice to the earth, but first there will be a time of unparalleled tribulation.

The fifth horseman

All around the world, covid-19 has forced governments to shut down virtually all public life.

The world media machine contributed to both an awareness of the disease and a fear that’s led many to anxiety and paranoia. The economic impact is disastrous, with the long-term consequences still uncertain. We will likely be feeling the impact for years to come.

One can only imagine the worldwide impact to come from the culmination of the ride of the pale horseman. The world has seen relatively mild precursors. What will happen when modern communications and travel allow people to see literally millions of deaths?

Which brings us to the only hope this world has to survive this devastating stampede. People commonly refer to these four seals as “the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.” Because the last word here is often synonymous with global destruction, there is typically no hope in this reference. But “Apocalypse” is simply the Greek name of the book of Revelation—meaning “revealing” or “unveiling.” And this book reveals more than the gloom and doom that lie at the end of the age.

Indeed, John saw more than four horsemen in his vision. He saw five. Revelation 19:11-16 shows us the ride of the fifth horseman. It is the appearance of Jesus Christ, on a white horse from heaven, intervening in world affairs at its most crucial point. Next we will focus on this “horseman of hope,” the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, whose appearance will bring an everlasting Kingdom of truth, peace, plenty and ultimate well-being.

Darris McNeely

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Four Horsemen of Revelation

The Four Horsemen of Revelation

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