Bible Lesson 92

END TIMES

The four horsemen of the Apocalypse

Revelation chapter six (#2 in series)

We began our study of the end times in the last lesson by dealing with the facts that the Apostle John was given to write to the seven churches of Asia, and to us who read them to today. This series of lessons is being given to those who care to read and heed the Word of our Almighty, Creator God; and I hope that many will see their need to repent of sin and ready themselves for this time of Judgment. I suppose that many will even say, ‘What’s this about a Judgment’; and I remind you that God has told us definitely that there will be a final judgment (Revelation 6:12-17; Hebrews 9:27-28).

At this judgment, all of those who have failed to live up to God’s standards will be summarily judged and cast into hell. I know too that some choose to say that there will not be a hell ( a place of fire, darkness, loneliness, eternal torment where the flames are never quenched and the worm never turns), but our denying the inevitable does not change it one bit!

God speaks plainly about hell being a place of eternal torment, a place where those who go there will be conscious of their responsibilities, and who will know that they did not have to come there, but all too late. (See Luke 16:19-31; Psalms 9:16-17; Psalms 55:16; Matthew 18:8-9; Matthew 5:21-22; Matthew 23:29-33; Matthew 25:31-46).

Jesus Christ preached more about hell than He did heaven and the reason that He did that was that there are many more sinners in danger of hell than there are Saints who will inherit heaven (Matthew 7:13-14; Mathew 13:1-23; John 14:4621-24; John 6:44; Hebrews 5:8-9).

Those of us who are born again and obedient to God has already been judged (for condemnation), and we won’t stand the Great White Throne judgment. The truly saved and obedient children of God had their sin judged at the cross of Christ, and forgiven and redeemed by Christ’s blood.

As we look at chapter 6 beginning with verse 3, we read, ‘And when he opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. And there went out another red horse: 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.’

This horse is red, the color of blood and fire and the man that sat upon this horse was given a great sword, the instrument of war. This rider has the power to take peace from the earth and to cause the death of many. The first horse had been a white horse and we can see the significance of that color, it is the color of power and authority and we know that the rider of the white horse brings with him a pseudo-peace, a false peace that will last only a few months at the most, and then as the second seal is broken in heaven, the red horse with its warrior rider is loosed to take even that false peace away from the earth and cause war to reign on the earth.

None of this unfolding judgment should surprise any of us who have been serious students of the Word of God; because God has clearly told us what will be happening and Christ even informs us in the first chapter of the Revelation or unveiling, that those who read the Revelation and really hear with spiritual ears and operate accordingly in this life, will be blessed (Revelation 1:3).

I think it is significant that our Savior ‘.the resurrected Lord would call that to our attention in the beginning of the Revelation; and that He even emphasizes that we should not simply read but read and understand and heed what is written in the Revelation. I will remind you that one of the Lord’s first order of business in the unveiling or revelation is to warn the churches, and I believe that these seven letters to the seven churches in Asia are written to inform and warn all of us who ever read this stunning revelation of what will happen in the Judgment.

It also interests me to note that at the first appearance of Christ, when He came as the suffering servant, He straight forwardly addressed the error of the religious leaders, the Jewish Pharisees and Sadducees, who were recognized as the teachers of the law or the Word of God.

In addressing their error Christ also addressed the error of all of the Jews because they had been influenced by these ‘teachers of the law’. The Pharisees could be equated to the leaders of the institutional church of our day, because they were the source of interpretation and people then were much like we are today, they were too busy or too lazy to attempt to understand the Word of God. The Pharisees despised anyone they did not consider their equals and were arrogant because they believed they were truly the only interpreters of God’s Word.

The Sadducees were confused also in that they did not believe in the resurrection, or the immortality of the soul. These were both groups that had segregated themselves so as to be special in the eyes of the people and they were leading people astray, just as many of the so-called preachers of our day are doing to simple people who are too busy or too disinterested to apply themselves to learn and understand God’s word.

They were, just like many in our day ‘winging it’, making it up as they go and following only what appeals to them. Jesus did not let them slide by unnoticed and He accused the Pharisees of being blind, he admonished the Jews and us today that our righteousness would have to exceed that of the Pharisees and the Scribes, Jesus told his disciples to beware of the leaven, or doctrine of the Pharisees, Christ accused the Pharisees of tithing mint, rue and all manner of herbs, but pass over judgment and the love of God, and they appeared as unmarked graves, ready to corrupt those who came in contact with them, and Christ even called them snakes (vipers) and said that they were evil ( See Matthew 5:20; Matthew 12:17;Matthew 16:6,12; Matthew 23:26; Luke 11:42,44).

It certainly appears that when Jesus began His ministry, that the Jews were practicing works religion and what they strove for was to hide their sins as they put up a false front to fool those who observed them. That’s pretty close to what we find in many places in our day.

Now as Jesus appeared to the Apostle John on the Isle of Patmos to give him the message of the unveiling or the Revelation, Christ found the same problem in most of the churches in Asia, there was a church that had forgotten their love for Christ, a church that apparently had invited into its midst people who were against the principles of the gospel, a compromising church, a corrupt church, a dead church, a lukewarm church, and one faithful church out of seven! Jesus Christ is head of the true church and is always careful to advise it to be correct in its doctrine.

He commands each person in those seven churches, to hear what He is saying to them through the Spirit and to be over-comers and reap the benefits of their faith; and immediately the scene shifts to the Throne room in heaven, in chapter six of Revelation, where first we witness the breaking of the first seal and the appearance of a white horse and a rider with a bow, and wearing a crown.

This informs us that we are at this age on a train heading for a false peace that will grease the skids for us to slide right into war, famine and death. Simple people who have not bothered to know and serve the Lord will be walking about slapping each other on the back and bragging about their expertise in gaining this great period of peace they will be overshadowed by destruction.

First Thessalonians chapter five and verse three, that tells us what will happen to these folks and it says, ‘For when they shall say, peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape’; And they shall not escape; And they shall not escape’!

Listen carefully now’.because this is the difference between eternal torment and spiritual death and heaven with all of its beauty and peace, in the presence of God, if you find yourself in the Tribulation you are, in all probably, out of luck because that will be a terrible time for anyone to go through and the antichrist will be on you like ugly on an ape.

The antichrist will be a person, much like Adolph Hitler was in the 30’s when he came on the scene in Germany and found it rift by inflation, its economy destroyed and people out of work and malcontent. Hitler was a great speaker and captured the hearts and minds of the German people with His visions of grandeur and they followed him into a war that decimated not only other countries but their own. They even sat quietly by as Hitler instituted the systematic destruction of the Jews.

The people in Germany were willing to follow a raving maniac in order to receive some imagined benefit for themselves and that will be the mindset of the world in the end time. The antichrist will even convince the Jewish nation, the elect nation of God that he is just the answer to their problems and he will be the match that lights the fuse for the end time that we are looking at today. This system of false peace will picture the rider of the first horse’.the first horseman of the Apocalypse, the rider on the white horse. What’s the significance of the horses in our study’

Well, historically, the horse has always been associated with triumph, majesty, power and conquest. Don’t confuse this white horse rider with Christ because, first, Christ comes at the end of the Tribulation period, and this rider comes at the first of it. This rider wears a crown that marks one won as a prize, Christ wears many diadems, royal crowns and Christ carries a sword, while this rider carries a bow (Revelations 19:15). As soon as this period of false peace begins it is over and in rides another of the horsemen’.this one on a red horse and this ride has the power to take peace from the earth.

This world turns from this momentary peace, to unprecedented violence as there will be ‘Wars and rumors of wars, nation against nation and kingdoms against kingdom’. Just imagine if you will what it will be like when men kill men simply to demonstrate their power of life. The first people that read this account of the Judgment of sin could not imagine the degree of destruction that man would come to possess. Think about the many ways that men can kill each other today.

Don’t misunderstand me now because dead is dead and whether you are killed with a rock or an AK-47 doesn’t matter, you are dead. What will change is the amount of killing that will take place in a short time. Be advised, there is no treaty, no agreement, no peacemaker that can short-stop this time of war, this is God’s plan and His decree and it will happen. This rider on the red horse carries what the Scriptures describes as a ‘great sword’.

He does not carry a switch-blade or a razor knife, or even a machete but instead a great sword which is to indicate the extent of this massive war or wars that will take place. It is good for us to remember that this tribulation period begins and ends focused in and on Jerusalem; but it will spread to every nation in the world.

While the red horse and it’s rider take the spot-light for the moment, the rider of the white horse has not dismounted, because he now has to go to war to protect his interests and ‘He shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper and practice, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people (Daniel 8:24).’ That ought to remind us that we need to be careful what we pray for because many times we get what we pray for, and it ends up destroying us.

The question now becomes ‘Who can imagine that people who know the Bible and have the power to reason and understand what is going on around us, ever be tricked into electing someone or allowing someone who would be this power-crazed and ignorant to a position of authority” The answer is ‘..look around you, the American people have, on more than one occasion, blindly listened to the siren song of politicians that we have to have known had no idea about what the position there were running for and the promises that they were making to gain the office, they were not capable of performing.

Universally, people have slowly come to think of medical aid, food, drugs, access to many of the ‘goodies’ of this life were actually their ‘entitlements’ and all you have to do to be elected or appointed is to ‘promise’ them to people. One of the founders of our democracy in America warned us that when the people find out that they can vote themselves the largess of the country, we would be in danger.

That is not an exact quote but it certainly captures the idea that he wanted us to understand. Look back over the last few centuries and you will see, that we are now ready to accept ‘One world government, one world financial institutions, one world religion which is not religion at all’, and all of this has to be in place for the antichrist to come to power.

At the present time we see little nations that have never registered as a consequence on an international scale, thumbing their noses at the rest of the world as they work to achieve atomic weaponry. In order to keep from having any confrontation with these kinds of rogue nations we who have the power to change the equation, fold our hands and agree to treaties that we know beforehand that will not be honored by these nations and we tolerate all kinds of attacks on our people our principles and our prosperity.

This is all setting the stage for the horsemen of the Apocalypse to begin their ride. Our job now is to prepare ourselves, not to suffer the tribulation and all the torment and pain and death that will come with it; but to prepare ourselves to meet Jesus Christ when He comes back in the clouds to rapture His Bride, the True Church.

Let me be quick to advise you that Jesus will not come back and take all of the congregations of all of the denominational or non-denominational groups that exist today. Jesus is come back for those who belong to Him: Those who have been Predestined, Called, Born again, Justified, Sanctified, and Glorified’ and are obedient to Him (Romans 8:28-30; Hebrews 5:8-9). Jesus Knows those that belong to Him (2nd Timothy 2:19; John 10:14). Do you know that you know that you know, that you have been born again, and are a changed person, not like the old sinful man but a new man with all things having become new).

Are you striving to obey all that you know God wants you to do and not to do’ Do you have the assurance that if Jesus came to rapture His Bride that you would go to meet Him in the sky’ If you don’t you are poised to suffer the time of trouble, the Tribulation, something like you have never seen nor will ever see again. I beseech you that if you are not sure that you put everything else away and take you Bible, which is the only place you can learn about God and His Christ, and stay at it until God calls you, and quickens you and give you that New Birth from above. My job is to tell you the truth and I have done that, now it is your job to seek the face of God; because there is no other way”.

Until next time,

may God bless and keep you

This is Bro. Bob