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)
“Revelation was written around 96AD...”
It was written no later than 68 AD, but that will be an argument for another time.
Your beliefs are not new, nor are they remotely acceptable to the original Apostles.
“It says that all things will be fulfilled. It doesn’t say they have already been fulfilled.”
To the writers of the New Testament, the coming of Christ in judgment hadn’t happened yet. The Temple was still standing. When Luke writes “will be fulfilled” he does so knowing that it hasn’t happened yet, but expecting it to happen in his lifetime.
What was future to them is past to us.
“Do you even know the subject of 2 Peter? He was writing it to address the very heresy you are espousing today—that Christ isn’t coming back.
Your beliefs are not new, nor are they remotely acceptable to the original Apostles.”
And why do you think he was writing to the churches he planted about scoffers in his day???
Because he had told them Christ was coming SOON, and didn’t want them to be mislead!
Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.” 2 Peter 3:3-4 (NASB)
Peter also wrote this to those people in Asia and Europe:
The end of all things is near; therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer. 1 Peter 4:7 (NASB)
Now, why would he warn them about scoffers saying, “where is Christ” if he also hadn’t already told them that Christ was coming soon?
And if he was coming soon for them, it means nothing to say he’s coming soon for us. It’s an utterly and completely meaningless statement given what the apostles actually wrote!
“Your beliefs are not new, nor are they remotely acceptable to the original Apostles.”
You’re right: they are not new. But you’re wrong: my view comes from the apostles, hence the term “apostolic eschatology.”
“I thought you said that what John wrote we hyperbole? Now you say parts are not? Who decides which are and which are not?”
Context and precedent. You should try them.
Only in the fictional fantasy world of Preterists. You still haven't answered my question about where is the new heaven and the new earth.
At least be consistent.
“Preterists have a huge problem with most of scripture and much of history. All of which proves them in error.”
I’ve demonstrated my scholarship on the issue with my very first post that started this thread. Futurists, on the other hand, seem to excel at chest-thumping and fist-pumping for little or no reason at all. It’s certainly not warranted by the amount of “thought” you’ve displayed in your posts, CB.
Nero was still in power in 68AD. Show where he EVER exiled people to Patmos.
When did the Euphrates dry up?
“You still haven’t answered my question about where is the new heaven and the new earth.”
“What a pathetic “new heaven and a new earth” Preterists think God constructed.”
First of all, it wasn’t a question. Secondly, it was beneath my dignity to address it.
It’s clear you’ve come here to argue. Some would call it “trolling.” Troll somewhere else. You’re bringing down the signal-to-noise ratio in the room.
Bookmarked for later. Sleep is calling.
Bwahahahahaha! And the wolf is dwelling with the lambs!!! And the leapard is laying down with the lamb!! And lion and the calf are frolicking in the grass!! Right? And all the nations have beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. And there are no nations fighting other nations!!! Wow!
Where is this la la land you speak of?
Defend you position with scripture and not by personal attacks.
Preterists do have some scripture to ignore, allegorize, or simply dismiss as “hyperbole” don’t they. They also have some history to rewrite.
I’m not a preterist...I just won’t argue the points with you anymore.
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