The four horsemen of the apocalypses will always reap mayhem upon the earth.

There is only one species of creation that can ever come to know, to appreciate, and to delight in the glory of God’s kingdom on earth. Although all of creation experiences the life that is only of God, it is only the human being that has been given the capability not only to know but to know that he knows the glory of the Life that never dies. The unique size and capability of the human brain gives mankind the opportunity to experience God like no other creature on earth can. It is a marvelous revelation that the mind of man can know, appreciate, and delight in the glory of the glorious God.

Unfortunately, this capability of the mind of man also brings with it the opportunity for man to think too highly of himself. Although created in the innocence of a newly created brain, it is not long however until the mind of man turns the focus of life upon itself. Mysteriously, this seems to be a natural and necessary step in the development of man. For example, a new born baby is experiencing the glory of being a living soul; however, the infant has no understanding of just how glorious is the glory that is being experienced. How does an infant grow to maturity when he does not know or understand what is being experienced?

For example, it took the death of my wife of fifty years to reveal that I did not fully know what I had or what I was gloriously experiencing until I could no longer experience it. Most people do not know what they have until they no longer have it. Conversely, how does a person really know what he is experiencing if that which he is experiencing, the glory of the life of God, has nothing to which it can be compared?

Mysteriously, to come finally to know, to appreciate, and to delight in the prize of the high calling of God, the uniqueness of the human mind must first “miss the mark and so not share in the prize.” Man was created in such a way that before he can come to know, to appreciate, and to delight in being the perfected crown jewel of creation, he will first have to learn the fullness of depravity that the human mind can become. It is a hard lesson to learn that the excellency of the power of life is with God and not with man (2 Cor. 4:7), but it is the mysterious matriculation process of the human soul.

The four horsemen of the apocalypses must first be experienced before the revelation of the coming of Christ.

Man must learn by his failures that the ultimate good life he so desperately desires is only in the excellency of the power of God. To this end, the four horsemen of the apocalypses gallop through our lives. John, in Revelation, after being shown the “the things which must be” before Christ can be revealed in all of his glory, wrote,

And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see. And I saw, and behold a white horse . . . And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. And there went out another horse that was red . . . And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse . . . And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see . . . And I looked, and behold a pale horse . . . (Rev. 6:1-8).

It is interesting to note that there were seven seals “on the backside“ of the book of life causing it to be sealed (Rev. 5:1). Although it would take most of Revelation (Chapters 6 through 22) to unseal “the things which must be” in order to usher in the glorious appearing of Christ, four of these seven seals are immediately opened in the first eight verses of Chapter 6.

The reason these four seals are so quickly and briefly exposed is the content of these seals serve as the foundation for the rest of the story. The showground of the entire content of Revelation, especially the great conflict between good and evil (Chapters 8 through 22), which is actually contained in its entirety in the seventh seal, takes place in the spiritual arena of the soul of men. Although there are physical ramifications that play out in the materialistic world, it is within the spiritual realm of the mind of man where the confrontation of the ages is encountered.

In the unveiling of the first four seals, there are two key ingredients that indicate the meaning of what is transpiring in each of the four seals. First, the use of the horse, which in the time of the writing of Revelation was the basic means of transportation, indicate that the essence of these four seals will be the means by which the complete disclosure is carried forward. Secondly, in each of the four seals, one of the four living creatures, each a symbolic representation of the facilitator of life in the heavenly realm, is used to inform John that he should “come and see.“ It seems that the indication of the first four seals is to reveal to John how the soul of mankind is carried forward in the experiencing of life.

The four horsemen begin with the white horse.

John recorded,

when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see. And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer (Rev. 6:1-2).

With the horse and the living creature metaphorically indicating the essence of life being carried forward, the mind of man processing that life (symbolically, “a crown was given unto him“) with its capability to reason (symbolically, “a bow“) set out “conquering, and to conquer.” As we will see (symbolically, the white horse), the opening of the first seal revealed  that the newly formed brain of man had begun its journey in life.

The four horsemen continue with the red horse.

As most, who have experienced in their life what is often called the “terrible twos,“ know that the newly formed mind of man as it set out “conquering and to conquer“ would soon run into trouble.

John continued his record,

And when he [the Lamb] had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. 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 (Rev. 6:3-4).

Although needing others to survive being created as a social creature (Gen. 2:18-25), the mind of man would soon discover however that it would be others who would impede its inherent drive to conquer. Refusing to be deterred, using the great sword given to him (metaphorically, the tongue which no man can tame being “an unruly evil, full of deadly poison“ [James 3:8]), the mind of man quickly butchered and maimed (original word translated kill) those who attempted to obstruct its desired to conquer. Peace was taken from the quality of life to be experienced upon the earth.

The four horsemen reveal the third horse as being black.

With all the conflicts the human mind was having with others, it would soon begin to use its power of reason to scheme to get its desire. Again, John recorded,

And when [the Lamb] had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. 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 (Rev. 6:5-6).

With the word hurt in “hurt not the oil and the wine“ meaning, “to be unjust,“ it gives a clue to the symbolism of the black horse with its rider holding a pair of balances. If the mind of man was to survive in its interaction with others, justice must prevail. The original language also gives another clue in that balances, in “pair of balances,“ means “a coupling, that is, (figuratively) servitude (a law or obligation); also (literally) the beam of the balance (as connecting the scales.“ The King James Version also translated this same original word as yoke. In other words, if mankind being a consuming organism in interaction with others was to survive, no one should go hungry.

The four horsemen finish with the pale horse.

Unfortunately, the fourth horse of the four horsemen of the apocalypse would reveal that justice was not the guiding principle of the developing mind of man. John, again, continued,

And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. 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 (Rev. 6:7-8).

With the excellency of the power of life no longer being with God but now in the hands of the mind of man, death and hell was rampant among men. It was hell on earth because most men were clueless in understanding what they were experiencing, the life of God. They were dead spiritually in their interaction with others being concerned only with consuming the satisfaction of their own selfish desires. They resided in the place of the unseeing (hell) and experienced the reality of fleshly living (death).

The four horsemen of the apocalypses galloping through life with the unbridled thirst to conquer ricked mayhem among men. Killing many (metaphorically, “the fourth part of the earth“), they lied, they cheated, and they stole to plunder, maim, and kill with the sword of the red horse, with the hunger of the black horse, and with the death of the pale horse. Man had become a dangerous animal, a real beast, bring death to many that crossed his path. Mysteriously, the four horses, through the thinking men that set upon them, had been given power to destroy life upon the earth.

If the account of the four horsemen were the end of the story, life for man would indeed be bleak. Miraculously, however, although living in the world dominated by the four horsemen of the apocalypses where the quality of life was being butchered, maimed, and destroyed, there were at the same time a great multitude of believers drinking at “the living fountains of waters” (Rev. 7:17). These believers living in the power of the heavenly realm even though they were experiencing physical  life on earth would mysteriously “hunger no more . . . thirst anymore . . . and God [would] wipe away all tears from their eyes“ (Rev 7:15-17).

The four horsemen of the apocalypses were reaping mayhem on earth, but these believers were not of their world. They were experiencing the power and the glory of the kingdom of God on earth. They were yielding their “bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which [was their] reasonable service.“ They were not being conformed to the world of the four horsemen, but they were being “transformed by the renewing of [their] mind“ (Rom. 12:1-2). Their mind, once again under the control of the Holy Spirit, was living as a spiritual being in a fleshly world. They were what they were intended to be: knowing, appreciating, and delighting in the glorious life of God even though they were experiencing that life in the physical world controlled by the four horsemen of the apocalypses.