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6:1-2 6 IN THE PATH OF THE WHITE HORSE St. John brings us now to the breaking of the Seven Seals of the Book (six of the Seals are broken in Chapter 6; the Seventh Seal is broken in 8:1, and is connected to the Seven Trumpets). We have seen that the Book represents the treaty document of the New Covenant, the opening of which will result in the destruction of apostate Israel (see on 5:1-4). What then does the breaking of the Seals represent? Some have thought this to signify a chronological reading through the Book, and that the events depicted are in a straight, historical order. This is unlikely for two reasons. First, the Seals seem to be on the outside edge of the Book (which is in the form of a scroll): one cannot really begin to read the Book until all the Seals are broken. The Seventh Seal, consisting of a call to action by the blowing of the Seven Trumpets, actually opens the Book so that we may read its contents. Second, a careful reading of the events shown by each Seal reveals that they are not listed in chronological order. For example, in the Fifth Seal – after all the havoc wreaked by the Four Horsemen – the martyrs calling for judgment are told to wait. But the judgment is immediately poured out in the Sixth Seal, the entire creation “unseam’d from the nave to the chaps.” Yet, after all this, God commands the angels to withhold judgment until the servants of God are protected (7:3). Obviously, the Seals are not meant to represent a progressive chronology. It is more likely that they reveal the main ideas of the Book’s contents, the major themes of the judgments that came upon Israel during the Last Days, from A.D. 30-70. R. H. Charles pointed out the close structural similarity between the Six Seals of this chapter and the events of the so-called Little Apocalypse recorded in the Synoptic Gospels. As his outline (adapted below) demonstrates, “they present practically the same material.” 1 Revelation 6 1. War (v. 1-2) 2. International strife (v. 3-4) 3. Famine (v. 5-6) 4. Pestilence (v. 7-8) 5. Persecution (v. 9-11) 6. Earthquake; De-creation (v. 12-17) Matthew 24 1. Wars (v. 6) 2. International strife (v. 7a) 3. Famines (v. 7b) 4. Earthquakes (v. 7c) 5. Persecutions (v. 9-13) 6. De-creation (v. 15-31) Mark 13 1. Wars (v. 7) 2. International strife (v. 8a) 3. Earthquakes (v. 8b) 4. Famines (v. 8c) 5. Persecutions (v. 9-13) 6. De-creation (v. 14-27) Luke 21 1. Wars (v. 9) 2. International strife (v. 10) 3. Earthquakes (v. ha) 4. Plagues and famines (v. llb) 5. Persecution (v. 12-19) 6. De-creation (v. 20-27) This is very perceptive of Charles, and of the many commentators who have followed his lead. What is astonishing is that they should fail to see St. John’s purpose in presenting “the same material” as the Synoptic writers: to prophesy the events leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem. While all readily admit that the Little Apocalypse is a prophecy against Israel (see Matt. 23:29-39; 24:1-2, 15-16, 34; Mark 13:2, 14, 30; Luke 21:5-6, 20-24, 32), few seem able to make the obvious connection: The Big Apocalypse is a prophecy against Israel as well! The Four Horsemen (6:1-8) 1 And I saw that 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! 2 And 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. 3 And when He broke the Second Seal, I heard the second living creature saying: Come! 4 And another, a blood-red horse, went out; and to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from the Land, and that men should slay one another; and a great sword was given to him. 5 And when He broke the Third Seal, I heard the third living creature saying: Come! And I looked, and behold, a black horse; and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. 6 And I heard 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; and do not harm the oil and the wine. 7 And when He broke the Fourth Seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying: Come! 8 And I looked, and behold, a green horse; and he who sat 1. R. H. Charles, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Revelation of St. John, 2 vols. (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1920), Vol. 1, p. 158. 82
6:1-2 on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. And authority was given to him over a fourth of the Land, to kill with sword and with famine and with death and by the wild beasts of the Land. The central Old Testament passage behind the imagery of the “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” is Zechariah 6:1-7, which pictures the Four Winds as God’s chariots driven by His agents, who go back and forth patrolling the earth. Following and imitating the action of the Spirit (see 5:6), they are God’s means of controlling history (see below at 7:1, where the Four Winds are identified with, and controlled by, angels; cf. also Ps. 18:10, where the “wings of the wind” are connected with “cherubs”). Biblical symbolism views the earth (and especially the Land of Israel) as God’s fourcornered altar, and thus often represents widesweeping, national judgments in a fourfold manner. The Horsemen, therefore, show us God’s means of controlling and bringing judgment upon the disobedient nation of Israel. Milton Terry’s comments are helpful: “The true interpretation of these first four seals is that which recognizes them as a symbolic representation of the ‘wars, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes’ which Jesus declared would be ‘the beginning of sorrows’ in the desolation of Jerusalem (Matt. 24:6-7; Luke 21:10- 11, 20). The attempt to identify each separate figure with one specific event misses both the spirit and method of apocalyptic symbolism. The aim is to give a fourfold and most impressive picture of that terrible war on Jerusalem which was destined to avenge the righteous blood of prophets and apostles (Matt. 23:35- 37), and to involve a ‘great tribulation,’ the like of which had never been before (Matt. 24:21). Like the four successive but closely connected swarms of locusts in Joel 1:4; like the four riders on different colored horses in Zechariah 1:8, 18, and the four chariots drawn by as many different colored horses in Zechariah 6:1-8, these four sore judgments of Jehovah move forth at the command of the four living creatures by the Throne to execute the will of Him who declared the ‘scribes, Pharisees, and hypocrites’ of His time to be ‘serpents and offspring of vipers,’ and assured them that ‘all these things should come upon this generation’ (Matt. 23:33, 36). The writings of Josephus abundantly show how fearfully all these things were fulfilled in the bloody war of Rome against Jerusalem.” 2 Just as important as Zechariah in the background of this passage is the Prayer of Habakkuk (Hab. 3), the traditional synagogue reading for the second day of Pentecost, 3 in which the prophet relates a vision of God coming in judgment, shining like the sun, flashing with lightning (Hab. 3:3-4; cf. Rev. 1:16; 4:5), bringing pestilence and plague (Hab. 3:5; Rev. 6:8), shattering the mountains and collapsing the hills (Hab. 3:6, 10; Rev. 6:14), riding on horses against His enemies (Hab. 3:8, 15; Rev. 6:2, 4-5, 8), armed with a Bow (Hab. 3:9, 11; Rev. 6:2), extinguishing sun and moon (Hab. 3:11; Rev. 6:12-13) and trampling the nations in His fury (Hab. 3:12; Rev. 6:15). Habakkuk clearly interprets his imagery as a prophecy of the military invasion of Judah by the Chaldeans, God’s heathen instruments of divine wrath (Hab. 3:16; cf. 1:5-17). Under similar imagery, St. John portrays Israel’s destruction at the hands of the invading Edomite and Roman armies. 1-2 The Book-visions begin, as the Messages did, with Christ holding a cluster of seven in His hand. As the Lamb breaks each of the first four Seals, St. John hears one of the four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder: Come! This is not spoken as a direction to St. John to “come and see.” 4 It is, rather, that each of the living creatures calls forth one of the Four Horsemen. The four corners of the earth, as it were, standing around the altar, are calling for God’s righteous judgments to come and destroy the wicked – just as the apostolic Church’s characteristic cry for judgment and salvation was Maranatha! O Lord, Come! – and bring Anathema! As the first living creature calls, St. John sees a white horse, its rider armed for battle, carrying a Bow. The Rider is already victorious, for a crown was given to Him (St. John generally uses the impersonal passive throughout the prophecy to indicate that something is done by God; cf. 6:2, 4, 8, 11; 7:2, 4; 8:2, 3, etc.). Having achieved victory, He rides on to further victories: He went out conquering, and to conquer. Amazingly, the run-of-the-mill Dispensational interpretation claims that this rider on the white horse is the Antichrist. 6 Showing where his faith lies, Hal Lindsey goes all the way and declares that the Antichrist is “the only person who could accomplish all of these feats.” 7 But there are several points about this Rider that demonstrate conclusively that He can be none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. First, He is riding a white horse, as Jesus does in 19:11-16. Second, He carries a Bow. As we have seen, the passage from Habakkuk that forms the basis for Revelation 6 shows the Lord as the Warrior-King carrying a Bow (Hab. 3:9, 11). St. John is also appealing here to Psalm 45, one of the great prophecies of Christ’s victory over His enemies, in which the psalmist joyously calls to Him as He rides 2. Milton Terry, Biblical Apocalyptics: A Study of the Most Notabie Revelations of God and of Christ in the Canonical Scriptures (New York: Eaton and Mains, 1898), pp. 329f. 3. M.D. Goulder, The Evangelists’ Calendar: A Lectionary Explanation for the Development of Scripture (London: SPCK, 1978), p. 177. 4. Contrary to the reading in the King James Version, which is not supported by most manuscripts. 5. 1 Cor. 16:22 (cf. Rev. 6:10); according to the Didache (Ch. 10), Maranatha was repeated at the end of the Eucharistic liturgy. If John A. T. Robinson’s hypothesis is correct (that the Didache was written in A.D. 40-60), this represents the closing prayer of every worship service for decades prior to the Fall of Jerusalem. See his Redating the New Testament (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1976), pp. 324-27, 352. 6. This is not true of all Dispensationalists. Among the dissenters on this point I am happy to note Henry Morris, The Revelation Record (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 1983), p. 112, and Zane C. Hodges, “The First Horseman of the Apocalypse: Bibliotheca Sacra 119 (1962), pp. 324ff. 7. There’s a New World Coming: A Prophetic Odyssey (Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 1973), p. 103. 83
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But when you see Jerusalem surround
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Copyright @ 1987 by Dominion Press
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FOREWORD Foreword Readers of the Bo
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PUBLISHER’S PREFACE Publisher’s
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PUBLISHER’S PREFACE case for esch
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PUBLISHER’S PREFACE this book bec
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PUBLISHER’S PREFACE In contrast,
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INTRODUCTION St. Irenaeus is somewh
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INTRODUCTION we must be saved” (A
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INTRODUCTION previous relationship
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INTRODUCTION You have lain down as
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INTRODUCTION are only elaborating a
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INTRODUCTION early churches had suc
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INTRODUCTION actions mean more than
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INTRODUCTION Some will complain tha
Page 32 and 33: INTRODUCTION Outline of Revelation
Page 34 and 35: 1:1-3 that must shortly take place.
Page 36 and 37: 1:4-6 accomplishment. We probably h
Page 38 and 39: 1:7-8 observe that a central aspect
Page 40 and 41: 1:9 14 And His head and His hair we
Page 42 and 43: 1:16 That all the peoples, nations,
Page 44 and 45: 1:20 things that must shortly take
Page 46 and 47: INTRODUCTION TO PART TWO Part Two H
Page 48 and 49: INTRODUCTION TO PART TWO The confli
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Page 52 and 53: 2:9-10 dead, and has come to life:
Page 54 and 55: 2:14-16 expression (none of which m
Page 56 and 57: 2:18-23 and leads my servants astra
Page 58 and 59: 2:26-29 end, to him I will give aut
Page 60 and 61: 3:4-6 church, or even against a nat
Page 62 and 63: 3:8-11 And I will clothe him with y
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Page 66 and 67: 3:21-22 the elders of a church, and
Page 68 and 69: INTRODUCTION TO PART THREE The laws
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Page 74 and 75: 4:5-8 19) led Biblical writers to s
Page 76 and 77: 5:1-4 family worship; it is radical
Page 78 and 79: 5:5-7 St. John; and it seems as if
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Page 86 and 87: 6:9-10 And authority was given to h
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Page 90 and 91: 7:4-8 Though he flourishes among th
Page 92 and 93: 7:4-8 they were listening to the Ap
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Page 96 and 97: 7:10-14 inheriting the Kingdom (Mat
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Page 102 and 103: 8:6-7 rout the Midianites, in Judge
Page 104 and 105: 8:12 13 And I looked, and I heard a
Page 106 and 107: 9:13 The vegetation of the earth is
Page 108 and 109: 9:20-21 lations advanced by some co
Page 110 and 111: 9:20-21 men much more atheistical t
Page 112 and 113: 10:2-4 beyond reasonable doubt that
Page 114 and 115: 10:8-10 the Spirit at Pentecost was
Page 116 and 117: 11:1-2 angelic priest measures the
Page 118 and 119: 11:7 have the power to shut up the
Page 120 and 121: 11:11-14 climax with the murder of
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Page 124 and 125: 12:1-2 12 THE HOLY WAR The Book of
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Page 128 and 129: 12:4 Daniel repeats the same idea i
Page 130 and 131: 12:5-9 Chronologically, this explan
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12:12 And when we see the Lord warr
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12:17 for the action of Pharaoh, wh
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13:3-4 of the ten imperial province
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13:8-10 The Beast was given authori
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13:13-14 character and office (1 Co
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13:18 work throughout Revelation ar
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13:18 ✩ ✩✩ ✩★✩ ✩★
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14:1 14 THE KING ON MOUNT ZION St.
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14:6-7 have seen, the Church on ear
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14:9-13 understanding (Prov. 9:1-6)
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14:14-16 I may find them prompt; na
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14:19-20 And now, O inhabitants of
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their Chalices of wrath, one of the
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15:3-4 sacrifices; and the Glory of
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15:8 We should be reminded in this
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16:1-3 5 And I heard the Angel of t
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16:10-11 the heat of the sun by the
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16:15-16 established here, for the
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16:19 thereof, concerning which the
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17:1 17 THE FALSE BRIDE While some
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17:3 action throughout history in s
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17:8 Jerusalem’s whole history, i
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17:13-16 (v. 2), as the instruments
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18:1-2 priority over the kingdoms o
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18:6-8 His people to come out of Ba
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18:17-19 sanctuary two lampstands r
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18:20-21 They went down into the de
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19:1-2 19 THE FEASTS OF THE KINGDOM
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19:3-8 of vengeance, in order that
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19:10 Church admitted its members t
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19:12-15 Let the heavens be glad, a
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19:16-18 of wealth, or wasting dise
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20:1 20 THE MILLENNIUM AND THE JUDG
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20:1-3 Christ established His media
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20:1-3 The great fathers and teache
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20:4 The relationship between the p
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20:5-6 earth? The answer should be
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20:7-8 ministry; that was Satan’s
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20:9-10 St. John’s image for the
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20:12 redeemed with Thy precious bl
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21:1 21 THE NEW JERUSALEM The Bible
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21:1 Pet. 3:5-7; cf. the same analo
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21:3-5 will be established finally,
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21:9-11 The New Jerusalem (21:9-27)
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21:15-21 Covenant of Grace; the fac
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21:24-27 And deep darkness the peop
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22:3-4 Paradise is not, therefore,
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22:6-9 Final Warnings and Blessings
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22:17-21 unconquerable strength and
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CONCLUSION the pure Bride-City, is
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CONCLUSION does not exempt us from
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APPENDIX A it is reflected in “It
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APPENDIX A make him a pillar in the
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APPENDIX A and wine the night befor
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APPENDIX A Babylon, falsely priestl
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APPENDIX A B. CHRISTIAN WORSHIP 1.
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APPENDIX B been the defining mark o
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APPENDIX B The Bible teaches us tha
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APPENDIX C APPENDIX C Common Grace,
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APPENDIX C for all eternity because
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APPENDIX C better arrangement cultu
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APPENDIX C be destroyed. The two ex
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APPENDIX C universe. It is governed
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APPENDIX C completed, the world was
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APPENDIX C deceive the nations. The
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APPENDIX C creeds and theological u
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APPENDIX C coherence that at least
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APPENDIX C There is continuity in l
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Athanasius. On the Incarnation of t
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________. The Institutes of Biblica
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