Revelation Bible Study

January 24, 2007

Focus: 6:1-8:5, part 2

What about the horses? (Revelation 6:1-8)

The imagery comes from Zechariah. In Zechariah 1:8-11, the prophet has a vision of a man riding a red horse; behind him are red, brown, and white horses. Zechariah learns these have been sent by God to go throughout the earth. Zechariah 1:8-11 says: ⁸ In the night I saw a man riding on a red horse! He was standing among the myrtle trees in the glen; and behind him were red, sorrel, and white horses. ⁹ Then I said, "What are these, my lord?" The angel who talked with me said to me, "I will show you what they are." ¹⁰ So the man who was standing among the myrtle trees answered, "They are those whom the LORD has sent to patrol the earth." ¹¹ Then they spoke to the angel of the LORD who was standing among the myrtle trees, "We have patrolled the earth, and lo, the whole earth remains at peace."

The first horse – white: this is the conquering horse. John could be reminding the readers that God is in control.

The second horse – red: this is the war conflict / war horse. John could be reminding his readers again that God will bring about justice to those who soak in injustice.

The third horse – black: this is the famine horse. John could be reminding his readers about the affects of famine on the earth. Food becomes very high-priced and scarce. But again, God is in control.

The fourth horse – pale: this is the death horse. John could be reminding his readers that death often accompanies sin and sinful living.

What about these first 4 seals?

Are they chronological events in human history? They don’t seem to be presented that way. The only chronology is the order in which they are opened.

Are they 4 distinct plagues? Again, it doesn’t seem so.

What about the overlap? The 2^nd and 4^th seals seem to involve death. The 3^rd and 4^th seem involve famine. And the 1^st seal seems to stand alone…but doesn’t seem necessarily bad.

The 1^st seal has a white horse. White often has positive associations with it (Revelation 1:14; 3:18; 6:11; 14:14; 19:11). It seems that John presents the white horse and its rider as positive and most likely it’s Jesus. The bow that the white horse rider carries could by pointing to a judge-like characteristic of the rider. See Psalm 7:11-13. The opening of the 1^st seal also sets in motion judgment.

The 1^st four seals begin and end with Jesus.

Last time, our discussion brought in the figure of the Antichrist. It’s probably as good a time as any to stop and look at this figure.

First, the passages the specifically mention the antichrist:

1 John 2:18 Children, it is the last hour! As you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. From this we know that it is the last hour.

1 John 2:22 Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.

1 John 4:3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming; and now it is already in the world.

2 John 1:7 Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh; any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist!

Note these passages are all in 1^st and 2^nd John. In these passages, the antichrist is defined as anyone who denies the reality of the human Jesus.

Two passages refer to “false Christs.”

Mark 13:22 False messiahs and false prophets will appear and produce signs and omens, to lead astray, if possible, the elect.

Matthew 24:24 For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and produce great signs and omens, to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.

We should remember about these passages that there were many false messiahs running around.

Apocalyptic thought as it developed in the Hebrew culture came to see history as divided into two ages – a present evil age in which there was no hope for redemption and a second age, a new age, which would be a glorious time for the people of God.[1]

Before a new age could begin, a period of persecution must happen or run its course. See Mark 13; 2^nd Thessalonians 2.
This period of persecution is often described as the Tribulation. Those who believe in a literal tribulation believe it comes immediately before the return of Jesus where he sets up his millennial kingdom.
It is during this period of the tribulation that the figure of the antichrist appears.

Was/is the antichrist a literal person?

It was characteristic of Hebrew thought and culture to describe entire movements or eras in terms of one person or era. Usually the name of the person was thought to have inaugurated the movement. For example, since Moses was the first great law giver, all law goes back to Moses. Solomon was the first to champion wisdom in the biblical world so wisdom goes back to Solomon. When persecution came, people spoke of it as if all persecution went back to the one who was considered the leader of the persecution.
In Daniel, the persecutor was Antiochus IV Epiphanes, ruler of the Seleucid Empire. He’s depicted as a little horn with a big mouth (Daniel 7:8, 20, 25; 8:9-12, 23-25; 11:36-39).
In Revelation, the persecutor is pictured as a beast (Revelation 13) and a harlot seated on a beast (Revelation 17).
To people familiar with apocalyptic imagery, there was no real mystery about what these images represented.

What about Revelation 13 for further study?

Revelation 13 seems to be the most often used passage to identify the one persecuting the Christians.
Throughout history, different figures have been speculated about as to whether they were the one: (a) during the crusades, it was the Muslim Empire; (b) during the Protestant Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church and the pope was considered…and we should remember that the Protestant leaders were considered by the Roman Catholic side! (c) Napoleon was considered during the 18^th and 19^th centuries; (d) two Germans, Kaiser Wilhelm and Adolf Hitler, were considered; (e) Russian leaders – Joseph Stalin and Gorbachev were considered; (f) even Henry Kissinger!
In Revelation 13:16-17 it speaks of a “mark.” Social Security numbers have been pointed to as the “mark.” The UPC codes on products have been pointed at. There’s a giant computer in Belgium called, “the beast” that assigns everyone a number in 3 groups of 6 numbers each…i.e., 666!
Revelation does not predict or identify any of these. We should remember again that Revelation was offering hope for people in that present time.