part 24: four Horsemen of the apocalypse
Puzzled About Revelation, may 6 2022
“In the book of Revelation, God shows John the events which MUST take place prior to the Second Coming, particularly during the second half of Daniel’s 70th Week (Great Tribulation).”
Main texts: Revelation 6:1-17, Matthew 24; Mark 13; Luke 21
Introduction to Revelation
Is Revelation chapter 6 simply symbolic, figurative language about the struggle of good versus evil, or is it actually speaking of real world events? Is this something that was rooted in history in John’s day, or is the emphasis and the weight of it on the end of the age and the second coming of Christ? We are given the answer in the text, as three times, leading up to chapter 6, John was told to write down what “must take place” before the Lord returns.
Revelation chapter 6 takes us through the opening of the first 6 seals.
Overview of Revelation 6:1-17:
Seal 1: The White Horse of Deception (6:1-2) (deception, false prophets, false teachers, false messiah offering false peace)
Seal 2: The Red Horse of War (6:3-4) (war, strife, hatred, division on the earth)
Seal 3: The Black Horse of Famine (6:5-6) (famine, economic collapse, starvation)
Seal 4: The Pale Horse of Death (6:7-8) (death, plagues)
Seal 5: The Martyred Souls (6:9-11)
Seal 6: The Day of the Lord’s Wrath (6:12-17) (signs in the heavens)
The seals follow the SAME PATTERN as Jesus’ teaching on the end of the age in Matthew 24, Mark 13 & Luke 21 (The Olivet Discourse), giving us even greater insight into their meaning.
The Six Seals and The End of the Age:
Seals #1-4 are CONNECTED (4 horsemen) and occur during an undisclosed period of time leading up to…
Seal #5 - the Great Tribulation, when the Antichrist and False Prophet will begin their great persecution of the saints of God (See Rev. 13:5-10). This will continue for 42 months (3.5 years) until…
Seal #6—the Day of the Lord’s wrath.
Seal judgements global in nature: According to Jesus’ teaching in the Gospels, these events will be GLOBAL in nature. This fits with the GLOBAL language of the kingdom of the beast (Rev. 13:3,7-8) as well as the GLOBAL scope of Messiah’s Kingdom and redemption (Rev. 5:9-10). Noah’s flood (a prophetic type) was also GLOBAL in nature, a prophetic type of the judgment to come.
“ I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, “Come!” 2 I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.
3 When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make people kill each other. To him was given a large sword.
5 When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. 6 Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “Two pounds of wheat for a day’s wages, and six pounds of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!”
7 When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” 8 I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.”
Seal 1: The White Horse: Deception, False Prophets/Messiahs:
Matt. 24:4-8: “Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. 6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of birth pains.”
Matt. 24:23-28: “At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. 24 For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive [Seal #1], if possible, even the elect. 25 See, I have told you ahead of time. 26 “So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. 27 For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 28 Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.”
One of the major deceptions that the apostles dealt with in their letters was the nature and timing of the return of Jesus - deceptions about when Jesus would come and how Jesus would come. The disciples were writing to churches where people were being deceived into believing either that Jesus wasn’t going to come again, or that He had already come and they had missed it, or that He was going to come secretly, and only a select few would see or experience it. But what did Jesus teach? DO NOT BE DECEIVED, “the coming of the Son of Man” will be like “lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west.”
Luke 21:8-9: “He replied: “Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not follow them. (Seal #1) 9 When you hear of wars and uprisings, do not be frightened. These things must happen first, but the end will not come right away.” (Seal #2)
2 Thess. 2:1-3: “Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, 2 not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us—whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter—asserting that the day of the Lord has already come. 3 Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that Day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.”
2 Tim. 2:17-18: “Their teaching will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, 18 who have departed from the truth. They say that the resurrection has already taken place, and they destroy the faith of some.”
2 Tim. 4:3-5: “For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.”
2 Peter 2:1-3: “But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2 Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. 3 In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.”
1st Horseman: “WHITE”: Deception, false prophet(s), false Messiah, false peace
“BOW”: Gk. toxon = toxin, poison (“poison arrows”) or venom (v.8)
o “Venom” is the original Latin word for “VIRUS”
“CROWN”: Latin Corona, worn by KINGS and POPE (VICAR)
“CONQUER”: Gk. nikao, as in the Nicolaitans (Rev. 2:6,15)
o The Nicolaitans divided the priesthood of all believers into a class system of priests and laity, elevating some above others. This ecclesiastical hierarchy conquers the people of God. None embodies this godless system more than the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church.
CORONAVIRUS = KING (COBRA)VENOM, POPE’SVENOM, ANTICHRIST’S VENOM!
Seal 4: The Pale Horse: Death: “7 When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” 8 I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and [death], and by the wild beasts of the earth.” (Rev. 6:7-8)
The Four Horsemen will be given power to kill 25% of the earth’s population by sword (red horse), famine (black horse), and death (pale horse) “by the wild beasts of the earth” (white horse)
“PALE”: Gk. chloros = pale whitish/yellowish-green, the colour associated with death orpoison(venom).
“WILD BEASTS”: Gk. therion = SNAKES!
Q: How will multitudes be deceived and killed by snake venom poisoning…???
Dr. Bryan Ardis on Stew Peters Show: “Watch the Water”
Rev. 18:23 NKJV: “For your merchants were the great men of the earth, for by your sorcery (Gk. pharmakeia) all the nations were deceived.”
Moses and the bronze serpent on a pole for Israelites bitten by snakes: a picture of the TRUE MESSIAH
FALSE PROPHET/MESSIAH: WEF, WHO and Big Pharma (snake on pole) + Pope: The Great Harlot riding the Beast (Rev. 17:7).
o Multitudes are looking for salvation in a shot, not in the nailed-pierced hands of Yeshua!
Q: Doesn’t the Bible say that the Antichrist will make a “covenant” with Israel at the start of the 7-year Tribulation? How can we say that the first seal has been broken if we haven’t yet seen a peace deal with Israel? (Next week)