The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Then I saw when the Lamb broke one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder, “Come.” I looked, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.
— Revelation 6:1-2˄ New American Standard Bible (NASB)
This could refer to Empire building such as the Roman Empire, the Nazi-German Empire and the current Americo-Fascist Empire. The result is totalitarian rule. Totalitarianism involves State Rule over everything; public and private.
This could also mean pestilence-spreading disease far and wide for population eradication. We now have lab created diseases with patents such as the Ebola Virus patent and AIDs virus.
When He broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, “Come.” And another, a red horse, went out; and to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from the earth, and that men would slay one another; and a great sword was given to him.
— Revelation 6:3-4˄ NASB
The red horse is symbolic of war. War after war after war would be more depopulation or mass killings and death.
When He broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, “Come.” I looked, and behold, a black horse; and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; but do not damage the oil and the wine.”
— Revelation 6:5-6˄ NASB
A denarius was a small Roman coin made of silver and what is being stated is that the price of food becomes so high after working an entire day the person would have only enough to feed self or self and two others of the less nutritious barley-leading to mass starvation or famine. The California drought is a good example of a drought leading to higher food prices and less availability of food.
In the passage it is read that the indicated price of grain is about ten times normal (thus the famine interpretation popularity), with an entire day’s wages (a denarius) buying enough wheat for only one person, or enough of the less nutritious barley for three, so that workers would struggle to feed their families.[3]
When the Lamb broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, “Come.” I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth.
— Revelation 6:7-8˄ NASB
Hades was the Greek God of the underworld or the Greek God of the dead. The color of Death’s horse is kronos in Greek and it means “pale.” With the death of masses of people at once there would be pestilence and the wild beasts would take over the depopulated areas.
As for the wild beasts of the earth, according to Elliott, it is a well-known law of nature that they quickly occupy the scenes of waste and depopulation — where the reign of man fails and the reign of beast begins. After the reign of Gallienus and 20 or 30 years had passed, the multiplication of the animals had risen to such an extent in parts of the empire that they made it a crying evil
.[5]:194
If anything the Four Horsemen speak of a Depopulation Agenda via War, Famine, Pestilence, Hyperinflationary Pricing of Goods and Food, and the resultant Depopulation.
Who Wrote Revelation?
| Many Christians believe that the Revelation was written by Apostle John. What is the prevailing opinion among the biblical scholars? There is no concensus. The majority of early church leaders such as Melito, bishop of Sardis, Ireneus, Tertullian, Clement, Eusebius and Papias, bishop of Hierapolis believed that the Revelation was written by John, the son of Zebedee, who wrote the Gospel of John. On the other hand, Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria and a disciple of Origen, asserts that it is written by Cerinthus. St. Jerome also expressed doubts of Johannine authorship. | |
| Who is right? |
Both camps are right and wrong partly. Both schools are erroneous in that they both believe the Revelation was written by a single author. Both are right partly because some parts were written by Apostle John but more than 90% of the Revelation was written by another person, perhaps long after the Gospel of John was written (about 100 AD). It was also the tradition for a disciple to attribute his own writing to his teacher.The seer states that the Revelation (at least some verses in Chapter 1) was written while he was banished on the island of Patmos, probably toward the end of Domitian’s reign (81 – 96 AD).
Those who believe in Johannine authorship asserts that “logos” or “Word” appears in both the Revelation and the Gospel of John. John was the only apostle who witnessed the crucifixion of Jesus.
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| Which part was not written by John? |
Most of the Revelation, except some verses in Chapter 1, was written by another, who may also have been called John. Words like “life,” “grace,” “light” and “truth” do not appear in the Apocalypse. Hades or “hell” does not appear in John’s Gospel, because Jesus did not teach the doctrine of hell to his apostles, at least according to John. Revelation 14: 4 states that only 144,000 Jewish men who have not defiled themselves with women were redeemed. Thus, the latter part of the Revelation was written by a Jew.“Dragon” never appears in the four Gospels, never in Jesus teachings, but appears numerous times in the Revelation. John never heard the word “dragon” from Jesus’ teachings.
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