Some years ago one could hear the exclamation, “Let the good times roll!” and then begin to get ready for a party. Now, not so much. People are seeing their retirement funds, if they have any, overcome by inflation that is denied by the government.
Constant promotions on television and radio that buying gold or silver as a hedge is the way to go. But if the basic means of exchange, the money system, has fallen apart, who will take your antique gold coin for a loaf of bread? What can you get for cash back in change?
Some people deny the truth of Bible prophecy, but a close look at current events and news reports, shadows of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse of Revelation 6 are evidence of the rapidly approaching realities. Those four horsemen represent four major areas of devastation coming upon the earth and its inhabitants:
The white horse appears with a rider carrying a bow but no arrows, presumably a man of peace. But he “comes conquering and to conquer.” The white horse reminds me of that advertising campaign of some years ago that pitted the guys with white hats against those wearing black hats, as the “good guys” against the “bad guys.”
It begins to take on the likeness of our United States, where it has been required that soldiers go on guard duty without bullets for their weapons, even in hostile areas. Political correctness policies render protection requirements meaningless, as recent White House break-ins, for example, reveal.
So-called “peace agreement” formats are one-sided and politically motivated to gloss over real issues and deny realities. Only a false peace will come of such negotiations, not a permanent one. The supposed agreement with Iran to not produce nuclear weapon capability only delays any action until Iran can accomplish its plans. Hidden behind those smiles and reassurances is the age-old commitment to wipe Israel off the face of the earth, followed by those western nations which do not bow down to Allah.
If one reads further into chapter 17 of Revelation, he will see how this white horse rider eliminates his opposition, taking control (conquering) the whole world under his leadership and becoming the eighth head of that seven-headed beast which will have become visible as the One World Government. Appropriately, it also says he will go into perdition, and we find out in chapter 19 that “perdition” is the lake of fire!
The rider on the red horse brings warfare like no one has ever seen before. The evil that is seen spreading from the Middle East’s newest threat called an Islamist State, ISIS, with beheadings now in mid-America has been promised by that growing force, and it does not appear that Western entities are willing to take them seriously. Certainly not so with the current leadership in America’s White House so reluctant to affirm their existence nor their threat.
It is quite likely that Israel, having its “ear closer to the ground,” because of the reality of closer proximity with its enemies, may be the only one which dares to destroy those capabilities of Iran, ISIS, Hezbollah and Hamas, but the rider on that red horse will not be Israel’s Prime Minister. The Scriptures picture Russia joining with Iran (Persia) and others of the Islamic faction coming upon Israel (Ezekiel 38-39). However, how will that first rider accomplish his conquering, except by warfare?
The rider on the black horse portrays the economic chaos that has been predicted in the news reports that a collapse of the American dollar, now the world’s dominant currency, is imminent. Shortages of food and water, and no negotiable currency with which to buy it, if there is any available, will abound.
I was recently shopping late one evening in a super market where the employees were moving goods into the aisles and restocking shelves for the next day’s shoppers. I asked one of them, who seemed to be in charge, “If truckers were shut down and no goods could get here, how long would all these things in the store last?” He replied, “Probably three-to-four days.” And I thought, ‘And it won’t clear through the cash registers, either!’
Some years ago the global warming guru, Al Gore, was guest speaker at the annual convention of the Future Farmers of America in Philadelphia where he “encouraged” young farmers-to-be, to get out of farming because in a few short years America’s food supply would all be imported. (A mother who attended the affair with her son and his classmates reported this to me.)
And more recently, an northeastern Congresswoman promoted a bill that would make it a crime for any citizen to have a backyard garden plot. (It was reported that her husband was employed by a major seed company.) The longing for power and control in the hands of a few is a diabolical motivation existing since those early days in the Garden of Eden.
Finally, the rider on the pale horse is one who dishes out death in abundance. Thinking of the results of what those other horses and their riders will have brought upon the people of the earth, it seems possible that all of the riders arrive at the same time. In their shadows, right now, death and destruction are rampant around the world. Warfare, pestilences, major storms on land and sea, earthquakes, tornados, volcanos, all are bringing a rising death toll. The future for earth dwellers looks bleak, for sure.
There is a possibility that the first rider, who is on the white horse, turns out to be the same rider on all the horses, for he is described as one who conquers and continues to conquer, as we see him doing in the later chapters. All these seals are opened by “the Lamb who was slain,” while the trumpets are sounded and the bowls of judgment are carried out by angels. The impression made is that as a seal is opened, it is accomplished, and the next one is done and over with, etc. It appears that this section is an overview of the judgments of God that are spelled out in the trumpet and bowl judgments.
There are those who believe that Christians will have to endure some or all of the seven years of the Tribulation. If this is a preview we are beginning to experience now on this planet, then those years ahead will not be any kind of picnic. As you read the book of Revelation, after those four horsemen show up, the fury of destruction and devastation only gets continually worse.
Apparently God is showing those who think they have a better plan of running things than God can how incapable they really are.
Based on the facts of biblical truth that believers, in whom dwells the one called “He who resists,” will have been removed from the earth, and that man of sinfulness faces no opposition, there is no limit to what atrocities might occur. Especially will it be so, when the judgments of God begin to force his hand and back him into a corner. His motivating spirit, Satan himself, is described in Revelation 12 as a “great, fiery red dragon” whose anger rages against the Jewish people and the whole world.
These days are beginning to be like the early morning hours of a new day when the shadows of darkness begin to recede and light begins to show in the eastern sky. Reality is stripping away the façade of deception with this administration. Almost every week there is some new defiance of the United States Constitution with the most flimsy of justifications for the lawless actions.
What is so astounding is that those who should be the “watchers on the wall” seem to be as limp as dishrags in any kind of cooperative effort to block the obvious, but subtle, push toward a dictatorship.
If that seems to be approaching heresy, remember that Henry Kissinger stated that Barack Obama “has been primed to lead us into a New World Order,” and there can be no such thing—meaning, in full disclosure, one world government–if the United States remains as a sovereign nation. Actually, there can be no independent sovereign nations. Those who are watching can see the shadows begin to fade away from the awful truth that the global elite have set in motion.
But wait! Don’t forget God! He is sovereign over the whole universe, and circumstances do not move Him—He moves circumstances, and He moves nations to do His bidding, to fulfill His plan for the ages.
In the days of Moses it was God’s desire that the Jewish people would leave the bondage of Egypt and return to their Promised Land, now known as the land of Israel. And that is what He did, but their rebellion caused them to be scattered among the nations of the world. In these last days, He has been calling His chosen people, those physical descendants of Abraham, back to that Promised Land.
Many have returned, but many more are still enthralled with the “leeks and garlics” of their economic bondage of their respective cultures—thinking mainly of those Jews in the western world. So the Lord will be bringing pressure to bear upon those in a time which He has called the “time of Jacob’s trouble“ (Jeremiah 30:7), the seven years of Tribulation that focuses on the Jewish people to bring them to recognize Jesus as their true Messiah.
“But you, Beloved,” (as Paul would say), will not be a part of that series of activities, traumas, catastrophes, and judgments, for you will be taken out of the way that the evilness of mankind can reach its full potential and measure so that God’s condemnation of evil will have its full exposure. Paul has written this, in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17:
“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.”
And with full and complete enthusiasm, we who believe can exclaim, “Amen. So be it!”