Red Moon Rising—The Rapture and the Timeline of the Apocalypse

 

 

Chapter Nine:
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The Four Horsemen

 

        The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are perhaps the most well-known but least understood symbols of the book of Revelation. They are introduced with the opening of the first four Seals of the seven-sealed scroll and their appearance announces the beginning of the process of transferring control and ownership of the earth away from Satan and into the hands of Jesus Christ.

To properly understand the meaning of the Four Horsemen it is important to know when they appear chronologically in their relation to the seventieth week of Daniel. Many scholars make the mistake of placing the beginning of the seventieth week prior to, or at the same time as, the opening of the first Seal, which means that the Four Horsemen are interpreted to apply to specific events during the first half of the seventieth week. Contrary to this approach, in our chronology we have placed the beginning of the seventieth week after the first Trumpet, so the Four Horsemen must be interpreted to apply to events that occur prior to the seventieth week and prior to the Day of the Lord.

This interpretation becomes quite natural when we take a look at what Jesus described as the “birth pangs” of the time of the end, and compare them with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. These birthpangs are described in the all-important Olivet Discourse that Jesus gave on a day just prior to his crucifixion,

    “And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.

    Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

    When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains...” (Matthew 24:4-16 KJV)

The Greek word translated in this passage as “sorrows” is the word odin, which refers specifically to the “pangs” or “pains” of a woman giving birth. The NIV translates the passage as “All these are the beginning of birth pains.” The Apostle Paul, as is his custom, again refers back to Jesus when he uses the same Greek word in 1 Thessalonians 5:3, “While people are saying, ‘Peace and safety,’ destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.” Jesus predicts the beginning of birthpangs, and Paul refers to the sudden destruction of the Day of the Lord as the onset of the actual labor.

The signs that Jesus describes in Matthew 24:4-9 leading up to the abomination of desolation can be put into three categories:

1. Signs that do not apply to the end-times.
2. Signs that predict the approach of the end-times (the beginning of “birthpangs”).
3. The sign that is a part of the end-times.

The two signs that do not apply to the end-times are (1) the appearance of many false Christs (plural) and (2) scattered wars and rumors of wars.

The four signs that should be understood as the beginning of “birthpangs” are the signs of (1) a major global conflict, (2) famines, (3) pestilences and (4) earthquakes in diverse places.

The sign that is a part of the end-times is the global persecution and hatred of those who believe in Jesus.

The preliminary signs relate directly to the appearance of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, while the sign of a global persecution of believers is again predicted within the fifth Seal:

“I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, ‘Come!’ I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.

   
When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, ‘Come!’ Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other. To him was given a large sword.

   
When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, ‘Come!’ I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, ‘A quart of wheat for a day's wages,  and three quarts of barley for a day's wages,  and do not damage the oil and the wine!’

   
When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, ‘Come!’ I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.

   
When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. They called out in a loud voice, ‘How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?’ Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed.” (Revelation 6:1-11)

 

The First Birthpang of the Apocalypse

The first Seal brings forth the conqueror on the white horse who holds a bow and receives a crown. Most scholars believe that this refers to the Antichrist, but I do not believe that this is the case. However, the rider is certainly a false Christ, and in this respect he parallels the warning of Jesus who said, “Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.”

The main difference between the first Seal and the words of Jesus, however, is that Jesus referred to false Christs (plural) that would not indicate the end-times, whereas the first Seal focuses on a single figure who must certainly be viewed as indicative of the approach of the end.

In any case, Jesus did not tell us to watch for a figure, but rather to watch for an event that would be the first “birthpang” of the time of the end. That event is a major global conflict that Jesus described saying, “For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom...” This event parallels the second Seal that introduces the rider on the red horse who is given a large sword and “power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other.”

When Jesus mentioned this sign he was describing something that is very well known within Judaism. In an ancient Jewish commentary, the Bereshit Rabbah, section XLII:4, it is stated, "If you shall see kingdoms rising against each other in turn, then give heed and note the footsteps of the Messiah."

In another Jewish commentary, the Zohar Chadesh, it is written, "At that time wars shall be stirred up in the world. Nation shall rise against nation and city against city; much distress shall be renewed against the enemies of the Israelites."

These are both non-canonical Jewish sources that draw from an oral tradition, but combined with the words of Jesus they are enough to show that both Jews and Christians should understand that a massive World War is a sign of the approaching end-times.

If we were to look back in history and try to identify a conflict that might possibly fulfill these predictions we need look no further than the Second World War. It encompassed eastern and western Europe as well as a significant part of Asia and Polynesia and parts of Africa, and it was fought throughout the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. It was also fought, as the Jewish source the Zohar Chadesh appears to have predicted, against the "enemies of the Israelites," who were the German Nazi's who exterminated up to six million Jews.

World War II ended with the use of atomic energy, a terrible power never used in warfare before or since, and it dwarfed World War I, which was fought mainly in Europe and the Middle East, which was more comparable in size to the Napoleonic Wars than to World War II. Truly the Second World War stands out as the most significant global conflict of the past two millennia, and it had a huge impact on the global Jewish community, leading to the creation of the modern nation of Israel.

When Jesus predicted a worldwide conflict as the first birthpang of the end-times it is very likely that he was referring directly to World War II. With this understanding for the second Seal in mind, then the identity of the rider of the first Seal becomes more obvious.

Most Bible scholars believe that the first Seal marks the beginning of the seventieth week, and that therefore the rider of the first Seal must represent the Antichrist. Chronologically we have determined that this cannot be the case because on our timeline the seventieth week does not begin until after the first Trumpet of Revelation. With this interpretation eliminated, identifying the rider of the white horse first requires an understanding of Satan’s agenda throughout history.

 

Satan’s Seven Kings

Satan is pictured in Revelation 12:3 as “an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads.” These seven heads are then shown as belonging to the Beast in Revelation 13:1,

“And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. He had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on his horns, and on each head a blasphemous name.”

In Revelation 17 this Beast is shown under the domination of end-times Babylon, which is represented as a “Great Prostitute.” The seven heads of the Beast are then explained as representative of seven kings:

“This calls for a mind with wisdom. The seven heads are seven hills on which the woman sits. They are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; but when he does come, he must remain for a little while. The beast who once was, and now is not, is an eighth king. He belongs to the seven and is going to his destruction.” (Revelation 17:9-11)

The seven heads of Satan that are also shown as seven heads of the Beast are explained as being seven kings. They are seven Satanic kings that have ruled on the earth during different periods in history, and they have all been enemies of God, each possessing “a blasphemous name.”

When John received his vision of the end-times that has come down to us as the book of Revelation he was told that five of these kings had already died, that one was presently ruling, and that the seventh was yet to come, who would remain only “for a little while.” The seventh king would then be followed by the Antichrist himself, who would be the eighth, but also one of the seven.

This aspect of Bible prophecy demands virtually a book-length study of its own, but I will summarize briefly what I have been led to believe. The first five kings can be identified as:
 

1. Nimrod.

2. Pharoah of Egypt who perished in the Red Sea during the Exodus.

3. The king of Tyre who is described in Ezekiel 28, a description that seamlessly transitions into a description of Satan himself in verses 12-19. This transition occurs simply because the king of Tyre was possessed by Satan.

4. King Sennacherib of Assyria who conquered Babylon. He is described in Isaiah 14 as the king of Babylon, and there is another seamless transition into a description of Satan in verses 12-14.

5. Antiochus IV Epiphanes. He is described in Daniel 8:9-14, 8:23-26 and 11:21-45. As with the previous two kings, the descriptions of Antiochus transition into descriptions that could not apply to a mere man. In the case of Antiochus they transition into descriptions of the Antichrist himself (11:36-45).
 

These five kings make up the five Satanic kings that had already died when John received his vision.

The sixth king that was ruling when John received the vision of Revelation was most likely Nero Caesar. This would demand an early date for the writing of the book of Revelation, but there is compelling evidence for just such a date [1]:

- The Church Father Clement of Alexandria asserted that all revelation ceased under Nero's reign.

- The Muratorian canon (ca. 170 AD) has John completing Revelation before Paul had written to seven different churches (Paul finished these writings in 67-68 AD).

- The Church Father Tertullian placed John's banishment to Patmos at the same time as Peter and Paul's martyrdom (67-68 AD).

- The Church Father Epiphanius (315-403 AD) twice stated that Revelation was written under Nero.

- The Syriac version of Revelation (6th century AD) begins with the heading, “written in Patmos, whither John was sent by Nero Caesar.”

- The Byzantine scholar Arethas, from the 9th century wrote, “When the Evangelist received these oracles, the destruction in which the Jews were involved was not yet inflicted by the Romans [70 AD].”

Nero was a merciless persecutor of Christians and by the end of his life he exhibited erratic personality traits that pointed towards insanity or, perhaps, Satanic possession. He a likely candidate for being the sixth of Satan’s seven kings, the one who lived at the time John received the vision of Revelation.

The seventh king, who would precede the Antichrist and “remain for a little while,” must certainly be Adolf Hitler. He is the same king that is introduced at the opening of the first Seal who “rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.”

It cannot be argued that Adolf Hitler took power in Germany with a boldly aggressive foreign policy agenda. In other words, he took power for the purpose of conquest. Other facts about Hitler that in hindsight cannot be argued are the facts that he was steeped in the occult and probably possessed by Satan, that he hated genuine Christianity, and that he also passionately hated God’s unique people, the Jews, and worked for their complete eradication. A final fact that reinforces our identification of Hitler as Satan’s seventh king, is the fact that his career was, thankfully, rather brief. He ruled only “for a little while.”

Jesus specifically spoke of a great world war as the first birthpang of the Apocalypse, and indeed this was the first sign that became visible on earth. It corresponds with the second Seal of Revelation.

The appearance of Hitler, Satan’s seventh king, preceded World War II, just as the first Seal precedes the second Seal, but Jesus did not mention Hitler as the first sign because the extent of Hitler’s evil agenda and influence only became known to the world after World War II had begun.

In heaven the birthpangs of the Apocalypse began with the appearance of Hitler—the first Seal, but on earth the birthpangs became noticeable only with World War II—the second Seal, when nation rose against nation and kingdom against kingdom on a truly unprecedented global scale.

 

Famines, Pestilence and Death

The second “birthpang” of the end-times that Jesus referred to was the sign of “famines.” This is paralleled by the third Seal that brings forth a rider on a black horse holding a pair of scales, after which a voice cries out saying,

“A quart of wheat for a day's wages, and three quarts of barley for a day's wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!” (Revelation 6:6)

The third “birthpang” that Jesus referred to was that of “pestilences.” This is paralleled by the fourth Seal that brings forth a rider on a pale horse:

“Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.” (Revelation 6:8)

The second and third birthpangs, those of famines and pestilences, described in Revelation as the third and fourth Seals, are also signs that could easily be already fulfilled.

Today’s global economic order (maintained by an Anglo-American financier elite centered in New York and London) brutalizes the Third World and keeps it continuously indebted and in a pre-industrial state. While a vast portion of the Third World remains in poverty and hunger the developed nations continue their plundering, while their economic engines are fueled by the foundational resource of oil ("do not damage the oil..."), and their people focus on being entertained and inebriated (“...and the wine!”).

In this age of technological advancement and comfort for the West the entire continent of Africa has suffered a drop in its basic standard of living over the past thirty years. Perhaps this lack of fairness is signified by the scales held by the rider of the black horse. Scales are a universal symbol for justice, and perhaps the third Seal is pointing out the terrible injustice promoted by the established economic order and maintained by the world's most powerful political forces.

Regarding the fourth Seal, it should also be noted that it does not predict the death of one-fourth of the world's population, but rather that the power the fourth Horseman possesses will be effective over one-fourth of the earth. Compare the fourth Seal to the sixth Trumpet: the fourth Seal speaks of a fraction of the world's territory, whereas the sixth Trumpet speaks of a fraction of the world's population.

The fourth of the earth under the power of the fourth horseman may refer to the poorest quarter of the earth including areas such as Africa and Southeast Asia. Certainly the people in these areas are much more acquainted with death in the form of war, famine, plague and wild animals, than the rest of the earth. The terrible AIDS epidemic throughout Africa may be another result of the rider of the pale horse exercising his power.

The fourth birthpang, that of "earthquakes in divers places," is not mentioned in Revelation, but as prophecy scholar Hal Lindsey has shown, there has been a major rise in earthquakes over the past sixty years or so [2]:

- From 1940 to 1950 there were only 4 major quakes recorded in the world (6.0 or greater).

- From 1950 to 1960 there were 9.

- From 1960 to 1970 there were 13.

- From 1970 to 1979 there were 51.

- From 1980 to 1989 there were 86.

- From just 1990 to 1993 there were over 100 quakes that measured 6.0 or greater.

Scientists have been able to track these huge quakes worldwide since the late 1800s, and so this is not simply an indication that science has advanced in its ability to find earthquakes. It is in fact the fulfillment of Jesus' prediction of a rise in earthquakes worldwide leading up to the end-times.

Three of the four birthpangs described by Jesus are paralleled in the second, third and fourth Seals of Revelation, and all of these can be viewed as having been fulfilled. The fourth birthpang is easily demonstrated by scientific records and can also be viewed as having been fulfilled. Jesus referred to these signs saying, “All these are the beginning of birth pains.”

 

Persecuted, Killed and Hated

The last sign from our passage from the Olivet Discourse, a sign that the end has come, is the sign of worldwide Christian persecution. Jesus said,

“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me.” (Matthew 24:9)

This global persecution of believers will occur after the rapture and after the Day of the Lord has begun. It is predicted within the fifth Seal when the martyrs are told that the final judgment must wait “until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed.”

This prediction is fulfilled during the Day of the Lord and those who die during this time will be resurrected after the Second Coming as shown in Revelation 20:4,

“And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years.”

Note again that the fifth Seal does not describe a worldwide persecution of believers, it merely predicts a worldwide persecution of believers. This prediction of future martyrs compares with that found in Matthew 24:9, which comes after the birthpangs have been fulfilled.

The persecution of believers is one of the main characteristics of the end-times period. After the Day of the Lord begins, and after all believers have been raptured, those new believers who turn to Christ can expect to be hated for their faith and hunted down and killed throughout the entire world. Revelation 14:13 offers a word of encouragement for believers who will face this persecution,

“Then I heard a voice from heaven say, ‘Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’ ‘Yes,’ says the Spirit, ‘they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them.’”

 

Conclusion

In this chapter we have shown that the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse signify events that lead up to the actual beginning of the Day of the Lord.

The first Seal, instead of being viewed as bringing forth the eighth king, the Antichrist (Revelation 17:11), is better understood as bringing forth the seventh king, Adolf Hitler, who “rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest” but remained only “for a little while” before suffering a suicidal fate typical of many of Satan’s kings.

The second Seal is a description of the greatest global conflict that the world has ever seen, which was World War II.

The third Seal is indicative of an unfair global economic order. Oil, wine and cheap labor all relate in some way to this unfair system.

The fourth Seal indicates the degeneration in the safety and welfare of the poorest quarter of the earth and this area’s susceptibility to death in the form of violence, famine, plague and wild animals.

The Four Horsemen that are brought forth with the breaking of the first four Seals have already made their impact upon the global stage and the birthpangs of the Apocalypse have already been felt. The next chapter will examine one last event that might possibly be the final prelude to the Apocalypse.

 

Notes

1. The Dating of Revelation, Jack Van Deventer, http://www.credenda.org/issues/9-3eschaton.php

2. Planet Earth 2000 AD, Hal Lindsey, 1996, pp.85-86

 

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