A Study of The Book of Revelation, Part #26

Earl Gillespie

THE SECOND SEAL

Revelation 6:3-4:

It is apparent after reading the seven letters to the churches, that the church progressed from an organized and saved body to an organized body with a few or  no true believers.  The letter to the church of the Laodiceans, a church that is representative of the church age today, is a message to a church that has lost its way.   The promise changed from a promise to the assembly to a promise to the overcomers.  Jesus is now saying to the church in Revelation 3:15-16  I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth."  The question many will poses is how can this be?  We are doing the programs, we are lifting up the name of Jesus, how can this be?  The truth is we have  taken the God of the bible and redefined him and shaped him in the type of God we want him to be.  Isn't this what the children of Isreal did at the base of the Holy mountain.   The messengers of the church  need to become more concerned about the image they are creating.  There is no fear of God.  Romans 3:18  There is no fear of God before their eyes.  When the messengers wants to arouse the church, they lay back and roar, "God is a good God, he woke me up this morning and started me on my way.  Everybody can relate to that.  He put food on my Table and money in my pocket. Ain't he a good God?"  If that don't get  the church rocking the part about a doctor in a sick room  is enough to get the church shouting.   How about this, "God is a consuming fire,  he is a jealous God, and  he will kill you," we don't want to hear that.  How did Moses describe God in Deuteronomy 4:24  For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.  In Deuteronomy 9:3 he said, " Understand therefore this day, that the LORD thy God is he which goeth over before thee; as a consuming fire he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down before thy face: so shalt thou drive them out, and destroy them quickly, as the LORD hath said unto thee."  Paul brought the same message to the church in Hebrews 12:29  For our God is a consuming fire.  From that statement of Paul and a study of the Book of Revelation we ought to conclude that if we play with fire we will get burned.   As they say in the church, "tell somebody to stop playing with God's word."

 One of the greatest tricks of the Devil was to convince the church that he was not in charge of world affairs.  This allows for us to blame God for  everything that happen.  When the drunk driver killed the little child, we can blame it on God.  Many fail to understand the signification of Adam's contract with the Devil and the terms necessary to redeem man and the earth.  The Devil has fooled many into believing that Christianity is about looking in the Bible for promises and claiming them.  A great con game is being played out and God is not pleased.  The book of Revelation was written to the churches and for the churches, but it is the most widely ignored book in the bible.

In the book of Revelation, the scroll with the seven seals set and defines the terms of redemption.  Redemption is what Christianity is all about.  Another falsehood perpetrated by the Devil is  God's goodness would not allow him to punish evil.  Or it's ok to do evil just remember to ask God for forgiveness.  This is a falsehood perpetrated by surgically  removing a certain segment of  a scripture and treating it as a complete thought.  Another false concept of God is that God is in charge of mans day to day affairs and he is working behind the scenes to make things come out right for us.   This is not scripturally sound.  When we run up against an obstacle, all we have to do is ask God to fix it.   Pastors and members are holding prayer meetings asking God to fix problems in the home and community, they are even praying for God to bring peace in this world of confusion.  We want God to adapt to our standards and make life easier for us. Luke 12:51-53  Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division: For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.  Mankind under the guidance of the Devil, created these problems and Jesus's message to the church in the book of Revelation was simple, I am coming back to fix all of these problems and  if you can endure till I get back, I will give you a crown of life.

In our study of Revelation we must not forget Revelation 1:1  The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:  Signs and symbols is an important and intricate part of conveying the message.  We cannot understand the message by just reading it, we must see the message in order to understand it.

3. And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see.
4. 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. 

In all seven seals the statement is made, “I saw” (or “I beheld”), except the  second seal. Here, John says, “I heard.” He does not say he saw it, but that does not mean that he was not an eyewitness. The second beast said to John, “Come and see,” and verse 4 simply states, “There went out another horse that was red.” Instead of the word “behold,” the word “another” is used. The use of the word “another” instead of “I saw” may seem very trivial and unimportant to the average reader; but I believe in the verbal inspireation of the Bible. I believe every word in the Bible is inspired. I do not believe there is one word in it to fill up space, nor do I believe there is one word out of place. The reason words: “I saw” and the word “behold” are used in connection with the first seal and omitted in connection with the second seal, is that the seals are opened one after the other, and the white horse and the red horse do not appear at the same moment.

When the white horse had completed his mission, the red horse immediately rode out. The summons from the Speaker was, “Come,” and when John looked, there was a red horse. Why is the second horse red? The white horse denotes peaceful victory. The red horse denotes slaughter and rivers of blood (Isaiah 63:2, Revelation 12:3). Again, the rider is not named. However, the pronoun “him” is used, and we know the rider is a man permitted by God to ride the red horse of blood. “To him it was given,” signifying that the man was appointed by God for that specific purpose. God used Pharaoh, and He has used others in like manner, and in this hour of judgment God will use appointed men to carry out His appointed program. 

Verse 4: “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..” The power possessed by the red horseman was given to him, he did not have power within himself, nor did he merit the power he demonstrated. The power was given to him by another. Jesus said, “all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth” (Matthew 28:18). Therefore the devil, nor anyone of his cohorts could have any power except it were permitted by God. When Jesus was on trial, Pilate asked Him a question, and then reminded Him that he (Pilate) had the power to either crucify or release Him. Jesus answered, “Thou couldst have no power at all against me except it were given thee from above!” (John 19:11).

There will be a period of peace and progress here on earth immediately following the Rapture; and it will last approximately three-and-a-half years. It will be a time when there will be little, if any, bloodshed, from the standpoint of war. But the mighty conqueror who will ride the red horse will be a bloody conqueror. He will not go forth with a bow minus the arrow. Power will be granted to him - and also “a great sword" "weapons of mass destruction.” His conflict against mankind will be unchecked, and blood will run like rivers! This rider of the red horse is commanded to take peace from the earth, and he has the power to cause “that they should kill one another.” He will have the ability to stir up angry passions in men; they will crave blood - and blood will be shed. We are living in a day of hatred, a day of madmen - dictators who do not value human life even as much as most of us value the life of an animal. Jesus asked, “What is man?” If we should ask that question of some of the modern dictators, if they answered with the truth of their hearts, they would say, “Man is a living creature, to be destroyed or annihilated if he gets in my way!” Only the Lord Jesus values man with a true sense of value of the personality created in the image of Almighty God. Jesus said, “What shall it profit a man if he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26).

After the Rapture, the devil will be loose on this earth, and truly nations will rise against nations. The wild passions of wild men will be let loose. There will be a time of wholesale slaughter.  War is surely, at all times, deplorable, and certainly thinking men do not desire war. But this is a different type of slaughter. It will be a state of open, armed, civil rebellion - man against man, fellow against his fellowman, brother against brother, sister against sister, pouring out their vengeance upon each other and spilling each other’s blood as water runs from a faucet. Certainly this is the worst state of war, and it is hard for us to conceive of such a conflict. Yet this is what happening now and this is exactly what will happen when the rider of the red horse rides through the earth during the Great Tribulation period, even more so.

THE THIRD SEAL

Revelation 6:5-6:

5. And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and 1o a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. 

6. 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. 

The white horse, we have learned through the symbology of Revelation, is the symbol of power and victory without bloodshed, the rider carried only a bow - no arrow. The red horse denotes power in wholesale bloodshed such as this world has never known. The rider has a command to take peace from the earth, and this rider carries a great  sword, (weapons of mass destruction).  The black horse is a symbol of lamentation and mourning. Here, as in the book of Zechariah, the black horse follows the red (Zechariah 6:2). The weeping prophet laments, “Our skin was black like an oven, because of the terrible famine” (Lamentations 5:10). Also read Jeremiah 4:28 and Jude 13. The rider of the black horse holds a balance in his hand. Wheat and barley, the two grains which constitute the staff of life (the things that constitute the necessities of life), are to be rationed out by careful weight and sold for fabulous prices. 

Barley produces black bread, and in Bible days was eaten only by slaves and the very poor. It was much cheaper than white bread, and slaves and poor people could buy more of it for their meager earnings. The English word “penny” mentioned here, in that day was one day’s wages for a soldier or for a laboring man. Read Matthew 20:2. One Bible commentator tells us that in the day of John, eight measures of wheat could be purchased for a penny. So you see, here the price of wheat will be eight times the normal price. For the sake of comparison, let us compare a candy bar. If you now pay one dollar for a chocolate bar, when this rider rides out, the same chocolate bar would sell for eight dollars.  The price at the gas pump will jump to eight times their normal rate. Certainly there will be much hunger, suffering and death during the time of the ride of the black horse.

The statement “See thou hurt not the oil (Olive oil) and the wine,” signifies that the rich will be excluded from this famine. Oil and wine were regarded as luxuries, and were to be found only on the tables of the rich. (Read carefully Proverbs 21:17, Jeremiah 31:12, Psalm 104:15.) The chastisement under the seal that produces the black horse falls on the working classes, the poor people. The rich, governing classes will be exempt from this suffering; but they shall not escape. Under the sixth seal (Revelation 6:12-17) judgment is meted out to all alike - from the king down to the slave. So the rich will not escape, even though they do escape hunger when the black horse rides out.

THE FOURTH SEAL

Revelation 6:7-8:

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

8. 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.

 Here another power is summoned. The judgments are increasing in severity. In the three preceding seals, the riders are not named. Here, the name of the horseman is Death. Hell follows alongside. The Greek word here does not mean that Hell comes along behind - but that Hell follows along with the rider of the pale horse. These two - Death and Hell - are the custodians of the bodies and souls of the men butchered during these terrible days. At the close of the thousand-year reign of Christ, they will give up their prisoners and they themselves will be cast into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone (Revelation 20:14). Again we are reminded of the fact that these judgments in sequence, in character, in duration and in severity have their source in the throne of the eternal God. Authority was given to him (Death).” The authority to kill and to destroy was not his, but was given to him. Death, by which they are carried off, is most prominently represented, and Hell followed along with Death to receive those cut off by Death, acting as Death’s hearse, on which account no separate horse is assigned to him. Death deals with the living; Hell with the souls of the dead.

Under the three previous seals, we note one instrument of judgment under each seal; but here.  there are four instruments of judgment. It is interesting to note that the four judgments named here are the same four with which the Lord threatened guilty Jerusalem of old: “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?” (Ezekiel 14:21). The word “Death” in Revelation 6:8 means “pestilence.” The sword named under the second seal, and hunger named under the third seal, are here reproduced, coupled with two others - pestilence and the beasts of the earth. The Bloody sword in the hand of the rider of the second horse will not be withdrawn until the divinely appointed task is finished. Hunger will not be withdrawn until its deadly work and painful death has come to completion. Many times hunger brings a much more painful death than the sword. Pestilence will reap its harvest - and last, but by no -means least, the beasts of the earth will rush upon the poor victims, to finish the ghastly destruction of the enemies of Jesus Christ! When the Rapture of the Church takes place, it stands to reason that percentage wise, more farmers and working people will be taken than will be those of the rich class. 

When the farmers who produce food are taken there will be a scarcity of food, and when the red horse rides out with the sword, no doubt the farmers will be using a sword instead of a plowshare. They will be so busy protecting their lives, they will not have time to till the ground. We refer, of course, to farmers who will be left behind when the Rapture takes place. All born again farmers will go in the Rapture. Those who are not born again will be left behind. There will be few to till the ground - and the few who are left under the second, third, and fourth seals will be so busy protecting their lives that they will have no time to grow crops and produce food. There will therefore be a time of terrible famine and starvation. A little later in Revelation we will study the mark of the beast. No man will be allowed to buy or sell without that mark, and those who receive the mark will have committed the unpardonable sin, they cannot be forgiven. To receive the mark of the beast is to be damned. This will take place after the Rapture of the Church. The unpardonable sin now is blasphemy against the Holy Ghost (Matthew 12:31,32); but when the Holy Ghost is gone with the Church, the unpardonable sin will be to receive the mark of the beast.

 ...and the preacher said, "tell somebody to stop playing with God's word."