Posted on 01/28/2015 7:00:21 AM PST by Stingray
The identity of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse has mystified and intrigued people for centuries. Each symbolizes something, but what do they symbolize?
When you see the connection between Revelation, the gospels, and historical facts, then you, too, will begin to understand John's incredibly powerful letter.
Let's begin.
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!” 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. Revelation 6:1-2 (NIV2011)
Some people claim this rider with the crown and bow is Christ. Some claim it's an end-time anti-Christ. Truth is, it's neither. When Christ was among His disciples on Earth, He gave them a commission:
He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Mark 16:15 (NIV2011)
After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it. Mark 16:19-20 (NIV2011)
The rider on the white horse is Christ's apostles, sent out as a conquering force to change the world. Paul said as much in his second letter to the Corinthians:
The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 (NIV2011)
Christ also told the chief priests He would be sending His messengers out, and what He told them would happen then, gives us clues as to the identities of the other three horsemen.
Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. Matthew 23:34 (NIV2011)
When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 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. Revelation 6:3-4 (NIV2011)
While Christ was on earth, not one of His disciples was lost to persecution, and the only one whose life was lost, Judas Iscariot, took his own life out of guilt for betraying Christ.
But on the day of Pentecost, when Christ opened heaven and empowered His disciples to become His messengers, everything changed. Now they were as hated as He had been, just as Christ had foretold:
“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. John 15:18 (NIV2011)
Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. John 15:20-21 (NIV2011)
“All this I have told you so that you will not fall away. They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God. They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you, John 16:1-4 (NIV2011)
Jesus also made clear the coming fratricide in Matthew 24:
“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, Matthew 24:9-10 (NIV2011)
The rider of the red horse with the large sword represents those who persecuted, to death, Christ's messengers - those He sent to preach the gospel throughout the known world. What follows is what Christ prophesied in Matthew 23 & 24 about the persecutors of His messengers.
Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Truly I tell you, all this will come on this generation. Matthew 23:34-36 (NIV2011)
And whom does Christ name as the persecutors of the rider of the white horse?
Jerusalem.
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. Matthew 23:37-38 (NIV2011)
In just this brief passage from Matthew 23, two things are abundantly clear:
Jesus is prophesying desolation for Israel in response to the way its apostate priesthood treated Him and His apostles, and He prophesies that the guilt of their sins would be held against them: that very generation that crucified Him and persecuted His messengers.
Need I remind you at this point who is sitting on the throne in heaven opening the scrolls?
This leads us to the rider on the black horse:
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. 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!” Revelation 6:5-6 (NIV2011)
This passage - like so many others in Revelation - is a direct reference to a passage in the Old Testament. The passage in Ezekiel to which it refers is a passage about Jerusalem's impending judgment at the hands of the Babylonains:
“Now, son of man, take a block of clay, put it in front of you and draw the city of Jerusalem on it. Then lay siege to it: Erect siege works against it, build a ramp up to it, set up camps against it and put battering rams around it. Then take an iron pan, place it as an iron wall between you and the city and turn your face toward it. It will be under siege, and you shall besiege it. This will be a sign to the people of Israel. Ezekiel 4:1-3 (NIV2011)
And note this specifically from Ezekiel 4:
He then said to me: “Son of man, I am about to cut off the food supply in Jerusalem. The people will eat rationed food in anxiety and drink rationed water in despair, for food and water will be scarce. They will be appalled at the sight of each other and will waste away because of their sin. Ezekiel 4:16-17 (NIV2011)
The rider on the black horse is famine: the famine that was caused within Jerusalem after the Romans had sealed the people inside the city, as the Babylonians had, turning fortress Jerusalem into a prison.
Now of those that perished by famine in the city, the number was prodigious, and the miseries they underwent were unspeakable; for if so much as the shadow of any kind of food did any where appear, a war was commenced presently, and the dearest friends fell a fighting one with another about it, snatching from each other the most miserable supports of life.
The Works of Flavius Josephus.
Jerusalem, torn by civil war within its walls and the siege of Rome's legions without, saw thousands upon thousands of its citizens die by way of war and famine. And this is precisely what the pale horse's rider symbolizes.
And when he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, `Come and behold!' and I saw, and lo, a pale horse, and he who is sitting upon him--his name is Death, and Hades doth follow with him, and there was given to them authority to kill, (over the fourth part of the land,) with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and by the beasts of the land. Revelation 6:7-8 (YLT)
I've chosen Young's Literal Translation for this verse because people need to understand that what's being represented here is not the earth as we know it, but the land of Judah and Jerusalem. This is made perfectly clear in Luke's gospel:
“When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those in the city get out, and let those in the country not enter the city. For this is the time of punishment in fulfillment of all that has been written. Luke 21:20-22 (NIV2011)
In closing, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse represent events that occurred from the sending out of the apostles after that first post-resurrection Pentecost, to the judgment of Jerusalem and the "wicked generation" that killed Christ and His messengers. And how do I know this?
Because it had all happened once before.
The LORD, the God of their ancestors, sent word to them through his messengers again and again, because he had pity on his people and on his dwelling place. But they mocked God’s messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the LORD was aroused against his people and there was no remedy. He brought up against them the king of the Babylonians, who killed their young men with the sword in the sanctuary, and did not spare young men or young women, the elderly or the infirm. God gave them all into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar. He carried to Babylon all the articles from the temple of God, both large and small, and the treasures of the LORD’s temple and the treasures of the king and his officials. They set fire to God’s temple and broke down the wall of Jerusalem; they burned all the palaces and destroyed everything of value there. 2 Chronicles 36:15-19 (NIV2011)
Just as God had sent Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians to judge Judah and Jerusalem in 586 B.C., so Christ sent the legions of Rome, first under Vespasian then under Titus, to judge them starting in 66 AD, when the Jewish war with Rome began. It ended with the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple in 70 AD, just as Christ had also foretold:
Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.” Matthew 24:1-2 (NIV2011)
.
>> “The identity of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse has mystified and intrigued people for centuries” <<
.
Sorry, but no, only those that don’t accept the plain words of the beginning of the Revelation have any difficulty.
The revelation events began to run shortly after it was given to John in 91 or 92 AD.
It signaled the end of the apostolic era, and the beginning of Yeshua’s schedule of breaking the seals off of Satan’s title deed to planet Earth. It was to be a 2000 year process, the end of which is approaching.
We are in the 5th seal period, nearing the 6th seal.
.
“And in a futurist understanding they are going to be resurrected to see this avenging... I thought you had a more complex argument than this.”
Nope. Not when you have Jesus saying this to His disciples in Matthew:
For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done. “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” Matthew 16:27-28
No less than Christ Himself said He would come in His Father’s glory (read up on what that means in the OT) While some of them lived, not in the resurrected sense but in the still-living-on-earth, flash-and-blood sense.
Or perhaps you think Christ was mistaken?
.
The problem with basic preterism is that it turns Yeshua’s millennial reign into a complete failure, and violates the timing of the grandest event in all of time, the First Resurrection, the event that marks the end of the rule of men, which is the beginning of the millennial reign.
.
.
“The bible and faith harmonize.”
Only when one’s faith is based on what the Bible actually says. And if I have done nothing else, I have tried to impress on people that the futurist’s understanding of apostolic eschatology is wrong to the point that a number of cults - some dangerous to their adherents, have sprung from it.
“Sorry, but no, only those that don’t accept the plain words of the beginning of the Revelation have any difficulty.
The revelation events began to run shortly after it was given to John in 91 or 92 AD.
It signaled the end of the apostolic era, and the beginning of Yeshua’s schedule of breaking the seals off of Satan’s title deed to planet Earth. It was to be a 2000 year process, the end of which is approaching.
We are in the 5th seal period, nearing the 6th seal.”
Can’t agree with a word you wrote on this. Sorry.
.
Matthew 16 is not about the first resurrection!
It was speaking of the transfiguration.
Matthew 24 is where he begins to speak about the end of the rule of men, and the first resurrection.
.
“The problem with basic preterism is that it turns Yeshua’s millennial reign into a complete failure, and violates the timing of the grandest event in all of time, the First Resurrection, the event that marks the end of the rule of men, which is the beginning of the millennial reign.”
No, the problem with preterism (for the futurist) is that it places the words of Christ and the apostles in their proper place, and destroys all the false teaching that has sprung up around apostolic eschatology.
.
No surprise, but you will agree soon.
WE are presently on the cusp of the slide that will place the last Earthly world ruler in power.
.
“Matthew 16 is not about the first resurrection!
It was speaking of the transfiguration.”
Where was the judgment Christ promised at the Transfiguration?
Further, about a week after the Transfiguration, Jesus said this to the Sanhedrin:
“You have said so,” Jesus replied. “But I say to all of you: From now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” Matthew 26:64
Having said essentially the same thing to the Sanhedrin in Matthew 26 that He said to His disciples in Matthew 16 rules out the Transfiguration as the fulfillment of Matthew 16:27-28.
Get it?
“No surprise, but you will agree soon.
“WE are presently on the cusp of the slide that will place the last Earthly world ruler in power.”
I know that’s what you believe. I know that’s not what the Bible teaches.
.
Preterism is just as false as dispensationalism.
The seal events have been playing out on the world stage for 2000 years.
.
Have these things already taken place ?
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
“16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
Jesus said it would happen while some His disciples still lived. Don’t you believe Him?
“Preterism is just as false as dispensationalism.
The seal events have been playing out on the world stage for 2000 years.”
I know that’s what you believe. I also know that’s not what Christ or His apostles taught.
.
It is exactly what the Bible teaches. (to those that read it for understanding, rather than manipulation)
.
.
>> “Jesus said it would happen while some His disciples still lived.” <<
.
He said no such thing.
The event that he referred to that some disciples would witness was the transfiguration..
.
There was no judgement promised until the end of all time!
That judgement is at least 1000 years away.
You may not “get it” until its too late, the way you’re going.
The question was a yes/no question.
You imply that they did happen instead of explicitly responding yes, so I’ll take your response as a yes.
Can you point to Biblical evidence that ALL of those things happened ?
Where is it recorded it the Bible that those things happened ?
Cite chapter and verse.
The dead in Christ rose - and those which are alive were caught up together in the clouds.
That sounds like somewhere someone who have noted that in history. Sounds like a rather momentous event.
Dead people rising into the clouds, living people rising into the clouds.
Yet nowhere in recorded history and nowhere in the Bible is there a record of that momentous event having happened.
Please cite historical evidence that that event has already happened.
“Revelation was written around 96AD...”
Revelation was written no later than 68 AD, and here’s why:
“This calls for a mind with wisdom. The seven heads are seven hills on which the woman sits. They are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; but when he does come, he must remain for only a little while. Revelation 17:9-10
Jerusalem, kike Rome, is a city built on seven hills. But that’s not really relevant to the dating of the book. This, however, is:
“They are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; but when he does come, he must remain for only a little while.”
The progression of the Roman Caesars is as follows:
1. Julius
2. Augustus
3. Tiberias
4. Caligula
5. Claudius
6. Nero (under whom Christians were first persecuted by Rome)
7. Galba (whose reign lasted only 7 months and 7 days.)
John wrote that the “sixth is”, meaning that Nero was still alive: the same Nero who had Paul beheaded and Peter crucified upside down.
Now, some will argue that John was on Patmos under Domitian’s reign. Robert Young, cited below, argues otherwise.
Robert Young, author of Young’s Analytical Concordance, wrote a commentary on Revelation published prior to 1885 wherein he makes the following statement: “It was written in Patmos about A.D. 68, whither John had been banished by Domitius Nero, as stated in the title of the Syriac version of the book; and with this concurs the express statement of Irenaeus in A.D. 175, who says it happened in the reign of Domitianou - i.e., Domitius (Nero). Sulpicius, Orosius, etc., stupidly mistaking Dimitianou for Domitianikos, supposed Irenaeus to refer to Domitian, A.D. 95, and most succeeding writers have fallen into the same blunder. The internal testimony is wholly in favor of the early date.”
http://www.preteristcentral.com/Dating%20the%20Book%20of%20Revelation.html
Now, what was Nero’s given name?
Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, the future Nero, was born on 15 December 37 in Antium (modern Anzio and Nettuno[11]), near Rome.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nero
The belief that Domitian placed John on Patmos in the mid-90’s ultimately boils down to the similarity between the names Domitious and Domitian, and a typo. Nero placed John there.
“>> “Jesus said it would happen while some His disciples still lived.” <<
.
He said no such thing.
The event that he referred to that some disciples would witness was the transfiguration..”
Already addressed here:
Where was the judgment Christ promised at the Transfiguration?
Further, about a week after the Transfiguration, Jesus said this to the Sanhedrin:
“You have said so,” Jesus replied. “But I say to all of you: From now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” Matthew 26:64
Having said essentially the same thing to the Sanhedrin in Matthew 26 that He said to His disciples in Matthew 16 rules out the Transfiguration as the fulfillment of Matthew 16:27-28.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.