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December 10, 2023 |
| The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse | ||
Until today, I didn't understand the Four Horsemen. When I wrote my book long ago, I had had no insight into the Four Horsemen and had to use someone else's interpretation, because I hadn't been given an understanding. Even then I had doubts about that interpretation but it was the one that seemed the best. Quite frustrating.
There are no end of interpretations of the Horsemen. The highly abstracted view is that "Each of the horsemen represents a different facet of the apocalypse: conquest, war, famine, and death"1. The majority view is that the White Horse is either Jesus or the anti-Christ. Other views include the Catholic Church, Roman prosperity, war, and pestilence. Such a range indicates that no one has a clue.
In the above we see two classic failures of prophecy interpretation, focusing on the physical world, and not resolving all of the symbols. God is spirit and his focus is on the spiritual world. God is much less interested in wars and famine and death. For us who live in the physical, it is very difficult to think in the spiritual. Our first reaction is to think in the physical.
The other failing is to use a best-fit-I-can-find methodology. We look at all the symbols to find those that we can match to our preconceived idea, and ignore the other symbols. In the case of the White Horse, these are the symbols:
In addition to the symbols described in the text, we need to look for absences of symbols that would be expected. In this case, there is one:
In addition to failing to resolve all the symbols, the process of building a general (preconceived) interpretation and fitting the symbols into it is doomed to failure. The interpreter needs to start by understanding the symbols and building the interpretation by bringing those together.
In addition to the above, the horsemen are plainly a set of symbols and their relationship to each other needs to be resolved. The set should form a narrative.
As an example of all these failures, the Wikipedia page "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" describes many of the different views. These views fail on all accounts. They even fail in an additional way - some add symbols that aren't in the text, "At his back swung the brass quiver filled with poisoned arrows, containing the germs of all diseases."
The message is about the final attempt to build the church before the end.
Horses are used here and in other places in Revelation to symbolize something that travels quickly. The horse was the fastest moving work animal they had. If Revelation was written in our time, we would use jets or rockets.
And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the Four Beasts speaking like the sound of thunder: "Come and see." 2 And I heard and I saw and behold, a white horse, and he who sat upon it had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he went out and gave victory, and was conquering and would conquer. (Revelation 6:1-2)
White represents purity. This White Horse is consistent with Revelation 19:11 that also uses White Horses to carry Jesus and his angels to battle at the Second Coming.
The rider has a bow, representing doctrine2. Notice that the rider isn't said to have arrows, which would represent individual teachings of truth. It could be that the arrows are implied. Who carries a bow without arrows or doctrine without teaching it? More likely, it could also be that this means that others will be led to carry the doctrine and to teach. As they say, teaching the teachers.
He will also lift up a standard to the distant nation, and will whistle for it from the ends of the earth; […] Its arrows are sharp and all its bows are bent; The hoofs of its horses seem like flint and its chariot wheels like a whirlwind. (Isaiah 5:26,28)
In this passage, as in other prophecies from Isaiah, the bow represents truth or doctrine. The arrows represent spiritual truths that strike deep in the heart.
The rider also has a crown, representing kingship. Notice that the crown was given, implying a higher power has made him king.
The phrase "and gave victory" doesn't appear in any Greek manuscript, only in Aramaic transcripts. This is probably due to the confusing image it presents, a conqueror who gives victory to someone else. The phrase is critical, though, to understanding this horse. Jesus conquers Satan by giving us victory over sin.
We can know the Aramaic is correct because "gave victory", "was conquering", and "would conquer" are different tenses of a single Aramaic word.
The phrase "was conquering and would conquer" indicates this is an ongoing effort that ultimately will conquer the world, though not by this crusade.
The rider is Jesus as King. He is carrying truth / doctrine and spreading it wherever his steed of purity will carry him. Overall, this horse represents God's effort to bring souls to himself - another outreach effort for Christianity. As we'll see though, this crusade will not have much success and will be the last such crusade.
Assuming that the 6th Seal is very near to us now, then we saw this crusade in history as the preachers of the late 1800s and early 1900s. These were men like Dwight L. Moody and Billy Graham sparked by a movement called the Second Great Awakening.
And when he opened the second seal, I heard the second Beast which said, "Come." 4 And a red horse went out, and to him who sat upon it was given to take peace from the Earth and to kill each one, and a great sword was given to him. (Revelation 6:3-4)
The Red Horse is decay beginning in the efforts of the White Horse.
I explain it in my book so I won't explain why the symbols mean what they mean. For this study, just accept that "Earth" is a symbol for the place of the believers. On this symbolic Earth, the weakest believers are "grass" and that progresses upward through "bushes" and "shrubs", to the strongest believers, which are "trees".
This horse takes peace away from believers. Jesus said "my peace I leave you" but now that is gone from the church.
That peace is replaced with infighting as each believer tries to conquer other believers who disagree with him. Biblical killing is not just murder but diminishment within the conqueror. This infighting results in the spiritual death of some. Contending for the faith is one thing but bickering over small matters is a good way to kill believers. Focusing your conversion efforts on other Christians, produces no new converts.
A great sword would represent a word of God. The idea behind this horse seems to be fighting over the word of God. The word "great" must mean something. I'm not certain if a particular teaching from God's word is in focus here but it could be.
And when he opened the third seal, I heard the third Beast saying, "Come," and behold, a black horse, and he who sat upon him had a balance scale in his hand. 6 And I heard a voice from among The Beasts, which said, "A two-quart measure of wheat for a denarius and three two-quart measures of barley for a denarius, and you shall not harm the wine and the oil." (Revelation 6:5-6)
Because of the balance scale, we expect to hear weight measurements or at least measurements of some sort. Instead of hearing the volume measure of the grains, we hear the market value of them. Instead of hearing the volume measure of the wine and oil, we are told "don’t harm them." This seems to make no sense.
The Black Horse represents a valuing of Christians. The rider carries a weigh scale which was used to measure the weight of many things, commonly produce. Liquids and grains were measured by volume. So, the easily recognizable balance represents measurement, generally.
After something was measured the price for it could be set. This valuing takes us back to Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin in Daniel, when the Babylonian Kingdom was weighed.
The harvest is measured and the value is given to us as a market price. A denarius was roughly an average wage for a day of work. These amounts of grain are enough for a small family. The value is not good - not much grain for the money. People would be just scraping by.
The spring harvest grain and the fall harvest grain are both measured. The verse could have said only "grain" but it chooses to say "wheat" and "barley." There must be a reason for this.
Both grains are harvested in the spring but the barley harvest comes before the wheat harvest. Later in Revelation, at the 7th trumpet, there are also two reapings, the resurrection of the dead and the translation of the living. Most likely these grains are a reference to the dead and the living. But, it could be that they refer to Jews and Gentiles. Jews could be thought of as the first harvest and Christians as the second. Or, it could also be that they refer to new converts and filled-out disciples. These later interpretations are a bit tenuous for sure.
The wine, representing the blood of Jesus, and the oil, representing the Holy Spirit, are not measured and valued. It is said the measurement process could harm them - which seems bizarre.
Despite the reference to a balance scale, this is not a weight measurement. It’s a volume measurement for liquids and grains. They didn’t have see-through glass containers, so they used a straight-walled container that had been calibrated using a measuring stick.
A known volume of something was poured into the container and a stick was used to measure its depth. After that, any amount of that thing could be poured in and the stick would give the measure.
When measuring like this, there is a risk of spillage. Even with care, there would be a few drops lost. Also, unlike grains, some of the liquid would remain in the measurement container, usually only a thin film on the bottom and sides.
That leads us to the meaning of this verse. There is so little of both wine and oil that even the smallest loss would be a disaster. The danger of that loss makes it unwise to even try to measure them.
It's a bit hyperbolic but it gets the point across. Christians have not used much of the blood of Jesus to wash away their sins. Christians are not led much by the Holy Spirit.
"For where two or three are assembled in my name,"
… there are two or three different opinions about what I want them to do.
When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of a Beast saying, "Come." 8 And I saw a pale horse, and the name of him who sat upon it was Death, and Sheol joined him and authority was given to him over a fourth of Earth to kill with the sword, with starvation, with Death, and by the animals of Earth. (Revelation 6:7-8)
The Pale Horse has a color problem. In the Bible, the only time this word or its lexeme is translated as "pale" is here. The other times it is used it is translated as "green herb".
It seems that this horse does not have a color but a pattern, like paisley … but not paisley, maybe patterns of herbs and grasses, which, we'll see, will fit in well here.
This horse represents more decay of the church, this time due to rejecting doctrine, weak teaching, persecution, and attrition due to worldliness. This results in spiritual deaths. Four causes are listed:
The verse says this authority to kill is limited to ¼ of believers. This could mean a specific geographic area or area(s) is seeing the attack. Other places in Revelation use ⅓ this way. More likely, it could mean ¼ of believers fall away. Revelation also uses ⅓ this way. These would be the weak believers - the young sprouts, herbs and grass.
This campaign and its failure should be easily identifiable if it has already happened.
It is outside the scope of this document to explain why but there are good reasons to believe each Seal marks off a period that is very close to 50 years, perhaps 49 years. We also know the recognizable part of the 6th Seal event has not happened yet. As we look around the Christian world now, we can hardly help saying it is collapsing.
If that collapse is the event of the 4th Seal, then we are now somewhere between late in the 4th Seal to late in the 6th Seal.
That would mean a uniquely identifiable spiritual campaign should have begun 200 to 300 years ago. That would be the Great Awakenings.
The First Great Awakening was a period when spirituality and religious devotion were revived. This feeling swept through the American colonies between the 1730s and 1770s. The revival of Protestant beliefs was part of a much broader movement that was taking place in England, Scotland, and Germany at that time. (USHistory.org)
The First Great Awakening was a "holiness movement." Christians became concerned again with living holy lives and becoming closer to God. One of the early resonating moments was a sermon by Jonathan Edwards in 1741 entitled, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God."
The Awakenings came in faltering steps, with each one fading away before the next starts. Just as the White Horse is said to continue to conquer, presumably past the end of the 1st Seal, so it seems it did.
It needs to be noted from the dates above, their beginnings appear to be on a roughly 50-year schedule.
Were the effects of the other horses seen in that campaign? The answer for the Pale Horse (decline) in our time is self-evident. The decline has continued.
We aren't able to see the hearts of people as God does, so we can't really validate the Black Horse (measurement).
The Red Horse, however, makes a testable prediction that there would be in-fighting very early on.
Newer denominations, such as Methodists and Baptists, grew quickly. While the movement unified the colonies and boosted church growth, it also caused division among those who supported it and those who rejected it. (History.com)
We shouldn't be surprised at that. God's moves among his people have always been opposed by some of his people - as strange as that might seem.
It should be mentioned that Zechariah 6:1-8 describes a very similar scene; however, Zechariah mentions four spirits of heaven riding chariots that are different from the Revelation horses with riders and, therefore, these passages symbolize different things.
The narrative for the horsemen is this. God sends out Jesus to spread the doctrine. From time to time in history it has been necessary to restore the church to the correct path and begin winning converts again. Not long after that, the church is back to fighting with itself. This is making it ineffective and even driving some away. Not long after that, a measurement is taken to see how this campaign has gone. The answer shows there are very few converts for the effort that was made. There is also very little of the atoning blood of Jesus in action and little of the spirit guiding. Not long after that, the church begins to decay rapidly as various forces attack it.
The final picture is of a church that is about to go into the end of the end times weak and unprepared. We would expect that it would suffer badly under the severe persecution of that time.
We might ask why God would charge out on what would prove to be a largely unsuccessful campaign. Of course the answer is that it was done to show the church what the church had become. The church has not seen the Great Awakenings that way though. Instead, they see them as a time of revival and restoration of the church. Yes, it came and went, but that is the way of things. It was good while it lasted, they say. Now they pray for God to send another revival.
The way of things is that, when God starts calling the church back to him, most are too deaf to hear him.
1 Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, accessed Dec. 13, 2023, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Horsemen_of_the_Apocalypse
2 s.v. "Bow," Bible Meanings, accessed Dec. 12, 2023, https://www.biblemeanings.info/Words/Artifact/Bow.htm
3 Balance Scale image by rawpixel.com on Freepik
