There is really nothing mysterious about the four horsemen.
Jesus Christ, the Word of God, was worthy to open the end-time seals. These are
the words that are being fulfilled by the releasing of the seals,
"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 divers places. All
these are the beginning of sorrows." Matthew 24:6-8
The four horsemen are not an events that will happen but events that have
already begun,
"Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for
the time is at hand" Revelation 22:10.
If all the prophecy of Revelation
was for a later date then the prophecy would have been kept sealed. The prophecy
began unfolding during the first century and continues unfolding today.
THE WHITE HORSE
The first horse is a white one and its rider is a conquering
spirit. White doesn't represent anything significant. Lucifer appears as a messenger of
light and yet he is not light.
"And no marvel; for Satan himself is
transformed into an angel of light" 2 Corinthians 11:14.
The rider is not the "Lone Ranger" riding upon a white stallion. Neither is he Christ riding upon
a white horse. He is a conquering spirit. He is the spirit that starts and wins
every battle. There are not necessarily good or bad victors, just mayhem that brings continual trouble to the earth.
The White horseman has a crown giving him great authority to initiate wars and then finish them. Jesus said,
The White horseman has a crown giving him great authority to initiate wars and then finish them. Jesus said,
"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" Matthew 24:6.
The
key to the previous verse is that these, "things must come to pass." Not might come to pass, they must
come to pass.
I think evil men should take all the blame for the four
horsemen. They think they are in control of their destiny but it is God who is in complete control. The four horsemen is God's way of showing who reigns world events. Men might plot their evil schemes but it is God who allows it through the four horsemen it its already predicted course of events.
We see from the Book of Revelation that it is Jesus Christ who releases the seals. He alone is found worthy to loose the seals. The white horse and its rider is set loose and goes forth conquering, and to conquer. The horseman will continue riding until God says, "STOP."
We see from the Book of Revelation that it is Jesus Christ who releases the seals. He alone is found worthy to loose the seals. The white horse and its rider is set loose and goes forth conquering, and to conquer. The horseman will continue riding until God says, "STOP."
THE RED HORSE
"And there went out another horse that was red: and
power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that
they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword"
Revelation 6:4.
This horse and rider has been busy. There were wars before
Christ and many more after Him. Take a look a list of all the wars after
Christ. Too many to list here:
Many pray for peace in the world as if it will come. I hate
to say it, but it will not come while the red horseman keeps riding.
THE BLACK HORSE
"And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the
third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that
sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst
of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of
barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine."
Revelation 6:5-6
A measure of wheat for a penny sounds like a good thing. Is
prosperity riding in the wind? It actually means a denarius, an ancient Roman
silver coin, originally worth ten asses. What did a denarius buy at the time
when John penned this Scripture? As far as I can tell it was about a day's wage.
Take a look at this site: https://sites.google.com/a/saintmarksschool.org/grade7rome/roman-money/what-can-i-buy-with-a-denarius
Look at these prices: Prices, in denarii in third century
Rome:
1 egg - 1
5 lettuces - 4
4lb of dessert grapes - 4
1 lemon - 24
1 sectarius of fine wine - 30
1 sectarius (about half a litre) of ordinary wine - 8
1 sectarius of beer - 4
Notice the price of an egg?
"One denarius bought 25 loaves of bread in Christ’s
time."
To be precise it was 0.04 denarius that bought 1 loaf of bread in Christ's time.
Revelation warns that 1 loaf of bread will inflate and cost
one denarius.
"A person reading the Book of Revelation in the first
century A.D. would have read that a denarius would buy only enough wheat to
make 1.5 to 1.875 one-pound loaves of bread instead of 25 loaves of bread. This would represent between a 1333% and 1667% increase in price!"
Before we start discussing this complex subject about
inflation let's read this commentary: http://www.prophecyproof.org/2011/02/revelation-66-the-end-times-cost-of-food-part-1/
The black horse rider has a pair of balances in his hand.
The Bible has a lot to say about fairness in measurements.
"Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just
hin, shall ye have: I am the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land
of Egypt" Leviticus 19:36.
"Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may
sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah
small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?" Amos
8:5.
"Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances, and
with the bag of deceitful weights?" Micah 6:11.
I don't know about you, I can understand why famine could
make prices go up but what about inflation? You work hard saving your money and
then in the future it is not worth as much as when you made it. Somebody took a
big chunk out of our savings and made us poorer. Old people who saved for
retirement have to work again in order to make up for the theft of their
savings due to inflation.
Look at the inflation in America: http://inflationdata.com/articles/2013/03/21/food-price-inflation-1913/
Bread that cost $ 0.056 in 1913 had risen to $ 1.422 in
2013. That is a 2439% increase. Wow!
I know we can blame our countries for not having a gold
standard and for being allowed to keep printing out money like there is no tomorrows, but it's
the black horse and its rider that influences men to inflate our prices and
cheat us. There is nothing we can do about it. It is and will be until God
stops the black horseman.
"Hurt not the oil and the wine."
There is plenty of oil and wine but their prices will continue to inflate along with
other food stuff. Wine and oil prices continue to be high priced and yet we see a continued increase in their production.
"Global wine consumption is estimated to 234 million
hectolitres in 2014. This is essentially a stable number for well over a
decade."
"Global olive oil production is likely to total at
least 3.2 million tons in 2013/14, according to a new, higher estimate from the
International Olive Council."
"WASHINGTON — U.S. 2015 all wheat production was forecast
at 2,148 million bus, up 6% from 2,026 million bus in 2014, the U.S.D.A. said
in its July 10 Crop Production report. The forecast was near the average trade
expectation of 2,149 million bus."
Agriculture is alive and well on planet earth but inflation
continues to plague nations. It is interesting to note that while we pay higher
and higher food prices, the world is having bumper crops of agricultural surplus.
Here is an interesting article that shows how much harm the
Black Horse has done to our economy. We have the food and yet our money
is worth nothing. Without money we are in danger of not being able to buy the
food that is so plenteous and yet out of our reach. I think we better start growing our gardens of
plenty so we don't starve when we run out of money.
"While the Roman
empire was hit by severe monetary inflation from the late third century to the
early fourth century AD, the economic crisis largely abated by the mid-fourth
century (Whittaker 1980). The Eastern Roman empire had been hit by the jsame
inflationary crisis, but it never fell. Moreover, while the inflation had bad
social effects, the full effects are not clear to us. The majority of the
population of the Roman empire were peasants, but they were largely
self-sufficient: “modern scholars seem agreed that inflation only hurt a small
section of the population; maybe ‘craftmen’, or possibly only ‘the small
creditor class and urban professional (a teacher for instance)’, but neither
the peasant nor the magnate suffered. Whatever stratum of society suffered, it
did not do so across the whole empire. The Roman empire was never a unified
economy; each province followed its own trajectory” (Sidebottom 1998:
2800–2801)."
"Since the vast
majority of the population was rural and engaged in farming (the most important
productive activity in the empire), the inflationary crisis of the late empire
probably had no great effect on them."
If ever there was a day that the people of God need to
become more self-sufficient it is today. It may be too late but
as long as we are alive we should think about improving our lives by becoming
more self-sufficient.
THE PALE HORSE
"And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name
that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto
them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger,
and with death, and with the beasts of the earth" Revelation 6:8.
Commentators can prove that since the forth of the
population are going to be killed (which is a huge amount) then it must happen
in the future during the Anti-Christ's reign. I would agree with them if "over
the fourth part of the earth" was dealing with population numbers. Simple arithmetic
does reveal the huge numbers of the dead when a forth is subtracted by 7.2
billion people who live on this earth today. However, the forth is not taken from the population but from the
land. Not all of the forth of the world's population is contained in the fourth
of the land. The Greek language reveals the word "earth" means land
and not total population of the land. There is a difference. The black horse
and rider is riding on the land. It is only the few that are contained in the
fourth of the earth (land) that is affected. Let me make it clear. It is the
region that is in reference to Revelation 6:8 and not the earth's population of
billions of people.
Young's Literal Translation
"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."
Strong's Concordance
gé: the earth, land
Original Word: γῆ, γῆς, ἡ
Part of Speech: Noun, Feminine
Transliteration: gé
Phonetic Spelling: (ghay)
Short Definition: the earth, soil, land
Definition: the earth, soil, land, region, country,
inhabitants of a region.
The inhabitants of a region might be sparse or great. The
death rate fluctuates as the black horse moves around the earth. What quarter of
the land will he choose today?
"29% of Earth is land mass. Of that 29% humans occupy
less than 1% of that area. Of the remaining 28% about 40% is pure wilderness.
14% is true desert and 15% has desert like characteristics. 9% is Antarctica.
Most of the remaining 22% are agricultural areas."
Where is the Black Horse now? You can follow the black horse
and its rider as they move across the land or in some places stay a while:
http://www.undispatch.com/today-in-famine-2/
http://www.undispatch.com/today-in-famine-2/
The Black Horse especially likes Africa. It is a huge land
mass with a population of over a billion that live there. You can blame the
black horse and its rider for Aids, Ebola, famine, and wars that seem prevalent
in that part of the world.
Now that you see why I believe the four horsemen of the apocalypse
are alive and well on planet earth, how do we thwart their purpose from
destroying all us? We really can't help much, however there is the "Laban principle." Many
pastors have written on it:
"And Laban said unto him, I pray thee, if I have found
favour in thine eyes, tarry: for I have learned by experience that the Lord
hath blessed me for thy sake."
The Bible says,
"Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people" Proverbs 13:34.
"Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people" Proverbs 13:34.
Christians are like salt that preserves a nation. Many
nations have been blessed by having Christians living in them.
"Ye are the salt of the earth" Matthew 5:13.
Everything would be better for the Christian and their nation
except for the opening of the fifth seal,
"And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the
altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the
testimony which they held" Revelation 6:9.
Even though Christians bring blessings to a nation, there is
something about them that non-Christians hate. Jesus gave Christians many
warnings about the fifth seal being opened,
"And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake"
Matthew 10:22
"Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and
shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake"
Matthew 24:9.
"And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake"
Mark 13:13.
"And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake"
Luke 21:17.
"If ye were of the world, the world would love his own:
but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world,
therefore the world hateth you" John 15:19.
"Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you" 1
John 3:13.
Christians are not waiting for the fifth seal to open.
According to Jesus it has already opened. Demonic controlled men think that by
killing Christians they would also kill God's work within them. The world hates
the light and also the vessels of light called Christians.
Everything has already been set in motion. We are at the
edge of end-time events waiting for the sixth seal to manifest its events. The
Christian martyrs of all time have been crying with a voice of unity,
"How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge
and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" Revelation 6:19.
COME QUICKLY LORD JESUS.
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