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OPENING OF THE FIRST SEAL—RIDER ON A WHITE HORSE

The Lord Jesus Christ takes the seven- sealed book, and He breaks the first seal.

And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.

And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer [Rev. 6:1–2].

Here is my own translation of these verses:

And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as a sound of thunder, Go. And I saw, and behold a white horse, and one sitting on him having a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering, and to conquer.

Christ is going to break all the seals, ad seriatum, right in order. He is in full charge, and every creature in heaven is moving at His command. So the four horsemen are now to ride forth. He breaks the seal, and says, “Go.” Although the King James Version gives the impression that an invitation is given to John to “Come and see,” the phrase “and see” should be omitted, and since the order issues from heaven, the proper translation is “Go.”

It is restated by John that he “saw” and he “heard.” This is television that we are looking at.

Attempts to determine the symbolism of the rider on the white horse have given rise to many differences of opinion. The preponderate interpretation among commentators is that he represents Christ. They use Psalm 45 and Revelation 19 in support of their position. But most of the contemporary Bible expositors of the premillennial school say that the white horse and the rider is Antichrist. That is the position of Scott, Ironside, Chafer, Walvoord, Woodbridge, and Pentecost. And it happens to be my position also. It would be pretty difficult for the Lord Jesus, who is the One opening the seals, now to make a quick change, mount a horse, and come riding forth.

To me that would be a rather inconsistent and unbelievable position. I personally take the viewpoint that this is Antichrist, this is an imitation of Christ, this is one who pretends to be Christ, who comes forth.

We are moving today in the direction of a world dictator. More and more is this true. All the nations of the world are disturbed. Lawlessness abounds, and governments are not able to control as they should. This is all preparing the way for the coming of one who is going to rule.

Antichrist does not appear as a villain. After all, Satan’s angels are angels of light. He is not going to have horns or cloven feet. Rather, he is going to be the most attractive man the world has ever seen. They will elect him, and the world will acclaim him because he has come in his own name. But when he takes over, it sure is going to be bad for the world.

This is not just the ravings of a preacher here in California. This is something that other men in other walks of life, who apparently make no great claims to being Christians, have said. Professor A. J. Toynbee, Director of Studies in the Royal Institute of International Affairs, said:

By forcing on mankind more and more lethal weapons and at the same time making the whole world more and more interdependent economically, technology has brought mankind to such a degree of distress that we are ripe for deifying any new Caesar who might succeed in giving the world unity and peace.

That will be the platform that Antichrist will come in on—world unity and peace. I think that if anybody appeared on the scene now and offered the world that, the world wouldn’t ask whether he came from heaven or hell. I don’t think they would care, because they want peace at any price, and we have spent billions of dollars trying to obtain it.

G. K. Chesterton observed in his day: “One of the paradoxes of this age is that it is the age of Pacifism, but not the age of Peace.” There is a great deal of talking about peace.

In a news item some time ago, we read of a woman in Fayetteville, Arkansas, who named the United Nations as the beneficiary to her $700,000 estate “in the fervent hope that this relatively small contribution may be of some effect in bringing about universal peace on earth and good will among men.” I want to say that she poured that money down a rat hole, because you are not going to buy peace with $700,000 or even millions of dollars. We have given away billions of dollars throughout the world, and we do not have peace.

The Ford Foundation, one of the world’s wealthiest private organizations, has announced that their money eventually will be used to work for world peace and better government, living and education conditions—yet the world gets worse all the time.

When Antichrist comes to power, he is going to talk peace, and the world will think that it is entering the Millennium when it is actually entering the Great Tribulation. The Great Tribulation comes in like a lamb, but it goes out like a lion. A promise of peace is the big lie the world is going to believe.

This rider could not be Christ, therefore, in view of the fact that Christ is the Lamb in the midst of the throne who, as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, is directing these events from heaven and is giving the orders to the four horsemen to ride. Christ is clearly identified in Revelation 19, while here the identity is certainly obscure, which suggests that it is not Christ but an imitation of Him.

OPENING OF THE SECOND SEAL—RIDER ON A RED HORSE

And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see.

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 [Rev. 6:3–4].

And when He opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, Go. And another horse, fiery red (flame colored) went out. And there was given to the one sitting on him to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill (violently) one another, and there was given to him a great sword.

The first horseman could not be Christ, because when He brings peace to this earth, it is going to be permanent. This is a short-lived peace. Immediately after the white horse went forth, here comes the red horse of war on the earth. The peace which the rider on the white horse brought to the earth was temporary and counterfeit. The Antichrist presents himself as a ruler who brings peace to the world, but he cannot guarantee it, for God says, “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked” (Isa. 57:21). And that passage of Scripture certainly has been fulfilled.

Isn’t peace exactly what every candidate for office in our country has promised? Certainly that has been true in my lifetime. I never shall forget the candidate who said that our boys would never again go across the ocean to fight. What baloney that was! We were promised peace, and every candidate since then has promised peace. One of them dropped two atom bombs, and immediately afterward we began to talk about peace. Every candidate since then—no exception and regardless of party—has said he was going to bring peace. My friend, we are as far from peace today as we have ever been. Already the clouds are gathering for World War Ill.

Antichrist will be a phony. He won’t bring peace because here goes the fiery red horse of war riding throughout the earth again. And this is going to be a real world war. Don’t say that this has been fulfilled—it hasn’t been. It is future.

OPENING OF THE THIRD SEAL—RIDER ON A 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 [Rev. 6:5–6].

And when He had opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, Go. And I saw, and behold a black horse, and the one sitting on him having a balance (scales) in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures say, a choenix (a quart) of wheat for a denarius, and three choenix (quarts) of barley for a denarius; and do not hurt the oil and the wine.

John again says, “I heard” and “I saw.” He just wants to make sure that we know that. The color of the black horse indicates mourning (see Jer. 4:28; Mal. 3:14, “mournfully in black”), and it also speaks of famine. In Lamentations 4:8–9 we read: “Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick. They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field.”

The black horse represents the worldwide famine that is to come on the earth. Always after a war there is a shortage of foodstuff.

The Greek historian Herodotus says that a choenix (quart) of corn was a soldier’s daily supply of food. A denarius was a day’s wage (see Matt. 20:2). Therefore, a working man will be unable to support his family in that day.

The oil and the wine are luxuries that are enjoyed by the rich. Oil would correspond to our toiletries, the beauty aids and the body conditioners that we use today; that is, the luxuries of life. The wine corresponds to the liquor that will be in abundance. Isn’t it interesting that there will not be enough foodstuff, not enough barley for food, but there will be enough barley to make liquor! They will make it in that day, and the rich are the ones who will get it.

Let me be very frank. During World War II the rich, for the most part, were able to get meat. They were able to get the luxuries of life. A very wealthy man told me that he never missed getting a big T-bone steak anytime that he wanted it. But I can remember getting very tired of eating tongue, which was one thing we didn’t have to have blue chips to get and was something that was not rationed. In this day that is coming, things won’t change. The rich are going to get theirs, but the poor won’t be able to get theirs. That is the way it has always been. I feel like saying, “Ho hum,” when I hear these sincere egg-headed boys talking about how they are going to work out the poverty problem. All that it has accomplished is that it has given a good job to a lot of them, but so far it hasn’t filtered down and been a blessing to the poor. It has never helped the poor to lift themselves up with any degree of pride. Why? Because the only Man who can lift up the poor is Jesus Christ. None of these egg-headed boys is able to do it. I am sorry to have to say that, but somebody needs to speak out against all of this tomfoolery that our government is going through. All that this wasteful spending of money does is to create more bureaucracy and to sap our tax dollars. This is the sort of thing that is abroad today, but just think what it is going to be like in that future day. This which we are talking about in the Revelation is future. The only reason that I make application to today is to show that this is not unreasonable; it is going to take place.

Way back in 1798, the Rev. Thomas Malthus concluded that “the power of population is infinitely greater than the power of the earth to produce subsistence for man.” His prediction had little weight in his day. In 1959 the United Nations’ seventy-seven-nation Food and Agriculture Organization met in Rome to talk about “the fight against hunger and malnutrition.” At this meeting Toynbee declared: “Sooner or later food production will reach its limit. And then, if population is still increasing, famine will do the execution that was done in the past by famine, pestilence and war combined.” Sir John Boyd Orr, at one time the Director-General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, warned, “I shall finish my office by giving a last warning to the world. If it is not solved there will be world chaos in the next fifty years. The nations of the world are insane.” Someone has reported, “There are today 750 million people getting hungrier in countries bordering the Communist sphere.” This thing is growing, my friend. Famine always follows war.

OPENING OF THE FOURTH SEAL—RIDER ON A PALE HORSE

And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.

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 [Rev. 6:7–8].

And when He had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, Go. And I looked and behold a pale (greenish-yellow) horse; and the one sitting upon him, Death was his name; and Hades followed with him. And there was given unto them authority over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with the sword, and with famine, and with death (pestilence), and by the (wild) beasts of the earth.

Here is a pestilence that is going to take out one-fourth of the population of the earth. There will not be enough antibiotics and penicillin to go around in that day to stop it.

“Death was his name.” Death is no more personalized here than is war—although the rider is given the name of death. There is more involved in physical death than meets the eye, for the human being is more than physical, and death is more than cessation of physical activity. While death takes the body, hades is the place where the spirit of a lost man goes (see Luke 16:23, ASV).

A literal translation of Romans 5:14 reads thus: “And nevertheless death became king from Adam down to Moses, even over them who did not sin after the fashion of Adam’s sin [transgression] who is the type of Him [The Adam] who was to come [The Coming One].”

“Death was his name; and Hades followed with him.” The word for hades is sometimes unfortunately translated by the word hell as in Luke 16:23 where, speaking of the rich man and Lazarus, we read: “And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.” Hell is a very unfortunate translation there; it is this same word hades, and, actually, it does not refer to hell at all. It speaks of physical death—either where the spirit goes or of the grave where the body is placed. In other words, while death takes the body, hades is the place where the spirit of a lost man goes. The Lord Jesus spoke of it in that way.

Paul personifies death in Romans 5:14, as he does sin in that same section, and he does it for emphasis. Sin and death entered the world at the same time. Death is the result of sin. During the interval from Adam to Moses, men did not commit the same sin as did Adam, nor was their sinning a transgression of a law, as was Adam’s, because the Ten Commandments had not been given. Yet it was a period when men sinned and died. Adam’s sin became their sin, for they died as Adam died. Even babies died in the Flood.

Death evidently has an all-inclusive, three-fold meaning that we do not ordinarily attach to it. We think of death as referring only to the body. (1) This is physical death, and it refers only to the body. It comes to a man because of Adam’s sin. (2) Then there is what is known as spiritual death, which is separation from, and rebellion against, God. We inherit a dead nature from Adam; that is, we have no capacity for God and no desire for Him at all. (3) Finally, there is eternal death, which is eternal separation from God. Unless a man is redeemed, this inevitably follows. This is the second death that we will find later on in chapter 20, verse 14.

Before Adam sinned, God said to him, “… for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Gen. 2:17). Well, Adam lived physically for more than nine hundred years after that, but he was dead spiritually to God. He ran from God. He no longer had a desire for fellowship with God. He died spiritually, and physical death followed and has come into the human family. More and more it deteriorates mankind. Most of us are being propped up today by modern medicine and the marvelous developments of science in order to stay alive. Actually, the human race is deteriorating all the time. Human life would be much shorter than it is if it were not for all the modern gadgets which keep us alive down here.

Adam is definitely declared here to be a type of Christ. Death must be laid at Adam’s door as his total responsibility. You see, God did not create man to die. It was a penalty imposed because Adam transgressed God’s command. Because Adam is the federal head of our race, his transgression is our transgression, and his death is our death. Now Christ is the head of a new creation, and this new creation has life only in Christ. He alone can give life. He is totally responsible for the life and eternal bliss of those who are His own.

Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer put it like this, and this is a theological statement:

Thus spiritual death comes mediately through an unbroken line of posterity. Over against this, physical death is received from Adam immediately, as each person dies in body because of his own personal share in Adam’s first sin.

During the Great Tribulation, death will ride unbridled. The Lord Jesus put it like this: “And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened” (Matt. 24:22).

At the Great White Throne judgment, death will be finally destroyed (see Rev. 20:14). This is confirmed by Paul who writes, “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death” (1 Cor. 15:26). And John reasserts it in Revelation 21:4: “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”

The sword, famine, pestilence, and wild beasts will decimate this earth’s population by one-fourth. This is something that, through His prophet Ezekiel, God had said would come: “For thus saith the Lord God; How much more when I send my four sore judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast?” (Ezek. 14:21).

The pale horse represents plague and pestilence that will stalk the earth. It also encompasses the possibility of germ warfare. Dr. Frank Holtman, head of the University of Tennessee’s bacteriological department, said, “While the greater part of a city’s population could be destroyed by an atomic bomb, the bacteria method might easily wipe out the entire population within a week.”

We have seen the riding of the four horsemen, and this follows exactly the pattern that the Lord Jesus gave while He was on the earth. In Matthew 24:5–8, in the Olivet Discourse, He said: “For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many [the white horse]. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars [the red horse]: see that ye be not troubled: for all these 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 [the black horse], and pestilences [the pale horse], and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.” This is the opening of the Great Tribulation.

McGee, J. Vernon: Thru the Bible Commentary. electronic ed. Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 1997, c1981, S. 5:940-944

6:2 white horse. The animal represents an unparalleled time of world peace—a false peace that is to be short-lived (see note on v. 4). This peace will be ushered in by a series of false messiahs, culminating with the Antichrist (Matt. 24:3–5). He who sat on it. The 4 horses and their riders do not represent specific individuals, but forces. Some, however, identify this rider with Antichrist. Although he will be the leading figure, John’s point is that the entire world will follow him, being obsessed with pursuing this false peace. bow. The bow is a symbol of war, but the absence of arrows implies that this victory is a bloodless one—a peace won by covenant and agreement, not by war (cf. Dan. 9:24–27). crown. This word refers to the kind of laurel wreath awarded winning athletes. It “was given to him.” Antichrist becomes king, elected by the world’s inhabitants regardless of the cost, and will conquer the entire earth in a bloodless coup.

6:4 Another horse, fiery red. Its blood-red appearance speaks of the holocaust of war (cf. Matt. 24:7). God will grant this horse and its rider the power to create worldwide war. But as horrible as this judgment is, it will be only the “birth pangs,” the beginning pains of God’s wrath (Matt. 24:8; Mark 13:7,8; Luke 21:9). people should kill one another. Violent slaughter will become commonplace. sword. Not the long, broad sword, but the shorter, more easily maneuvered one that assassins often used and that soldiers carried into battle. It depicts assassination, revolt, massacre, and wholesale slaughter (cf. Dan. 8:24).

6:5 black horse. Black signifies famine (cf. Lam. 5:8–10). Worldwide war will destroy the food supply which spawns global hunger. pair of scales. The common measuring device—two small trays hung from each end of a balance beam—indicates that the scarcity of food will lead to rationing and food lines.

6:6 quart of wheat. The approximate amount necessary to sustain one person for one day. denarius. One day’s normal wages. One day’s work will provide enough food for only one person. three quarts of barley. Usually fed to animals, this grain was low in nutrients and cheaper than wheat. A day’s wages provides enough for only a small family’s daily supply. oil and the wine. Although the point could be that these foods will not be affected by the famine, a more straightforward meaning is that bare staples—oil was used in the preparation of bread, and wine was considered necessary for cooking and purifying water—suddenly will become luxuries that have to be carefully protected.

6:8 pale horse. “Pale,” the Gr. word from which the Eng. word “chlorophyll” comes, describes the pale, ashen-green, pallor characteristic of the decomposition of a corpse. God grants this horseman the authority to bring death to 25 percent of the world’s population. Hades. See note on Luke 16:23. The place of the dead, which is identified as a common and fitting partner for death (20:13; see note on 1:18).

Gr. Greek

MacArthur, John Jr: The MacArthur Study Bible. electronic ed. Nashville : Word Pub., 1997, c1997, S. Re 6:2