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Revelation 6:4
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4 And [kai] there went out [exerchomai] another [allos] horse [hippos] that was red: [purrhos] and [kai] power was given [didomi] to him [autos] that sat [kathemai] thereon [epi] [autos] to take [lambano] peace [eirene] from [apo] the earth, [ge] and [kai] that [hina] they should kill [sphazo] one another: [allelon] and [kai] there was given [didomi] unto him [autos] a great [megas] sword. [machaira] KJV-Interlinear
4 And another, a red horse, went out; and to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from the earth, and that men should slay one another; and a great sword was given to him. NASB
With the opening of the first seal, thunder sounded. A signal and warning that something ominous is coming.
The first living beast, first mentioned in chapter four, calls John (us) to come and see.
What is coming is a hero, as far as the world is concerned.
However, the anti-christ carries a bow. A seemingly weak or only symbolic weapon, as his agenda first appears to be more diplomatic and promising. That changes quickly however.
The anti-christ is a weak person, but the one thing that stands out in his life is, that all of the people who allow him to come into power, are even weaker than he.
He conquers, and what does that tell you about his opponents? They are very weak. And since the world is anti-truth, then defeating a weak world comes easy.
The second seal is opened. The second living beast says, ‘Come and see.’
The opening act of the Tribulation has begun and it is time to us to see what is really there.
The first angel, the lion, revealed the first seal. The lion is a representation of the real and correct authority of God, but this authority in the hands of the anti-christ is distorted as he pushed his own agenda for the conquest of the world. A lions voice can be heard from far off, and the images that one congers up in ones own mind are those of the lions power and possible destruction if met face to face. So the intimidation factor is definitely there.
Moving on to the second seal, as announced by the ox. The power and service of the ox is expressed in this seal. However, the red horse symbolizes war. Just as the first horse was symbolic and not a real horse, so this horse is symbolic. In contrast, the horse that Christ will ride in chapter 19, is definitely a real horse, a white war horse, and so too, are the horses that we will ride as we follow Him toward earth, in military formations. We are an army of armies.
Now we see reference to armies, but not specific armies. This war is general in nature. This is the attempted coup of the world by the anti-christ.
If he were indeed a hero, then why the need for violent force in order to gain his following. As hero he would be there to serve, but as a tyrant, his service becomes violent enforcement.
None of the first four seals designates a specific name, nor a specific place, nor a specific order, nor a specific time or duration, nor a specific event. They are all general. This is the nature of the seven year period that people will face. From common sense and from our own history, we can generally picture the scene as follows.
The world has a huge population. Whether it is the seven billion of today or 20 plus billion or more, of the future, really isn't the issue. There will still be a lot of people worldwide. The fact that people listen to an anti-christ person in the first place indicates really big problems and the general unhappiness of the vast majority, but not only from one nation but from many nations, perhaps all nations worldwide.
As we will see, the problems run from war conflicts, probably in regional areas such as we now see in Africa, or in the middle-east, but there are many such conflicts worldwide. Even in Europe there will be a great deal of discord and disagreement which will lead to war within that European body, just as we saw in the previous world wars.
The ox represents the burdens placed on man as a result of the vast and numerous wars that will be taking place. War disrupts commerce, disrupts justice, disrupts any type of hope, for that life of peace - that 8 to 5 job and Monday night football will all but disappear. People will be enduring stress, constant stress. There will be no peace. There will be no certainty of what might happen in the night or tomorrow. One could go to sleep, if that is even possible, and suddenly be awaken by an attack. Not only from a formal military group, but this is confusion, tyranny, crime running loose. Gangs will be on the streets. Violence and terror will be the order of the day. Rape, murder, theft, all these and more will become common place.
As the anti-christ attempts to secure his power, he will soon learn, as the world will soon learn, that this initial peace promised will never come, and the price will be huge.
The word for take peace, ‘lambano,’ means the removal or absence of peace. The word for kill, ‘sphazo,’ means slaughter, and is a reference to the general nature of society. This is not just a military attempt to secure power, but a dramatic breakdown in social order. This is a slaughter, as you would find in an animal slaughter house.
With the restraints of sin, off. Society will sink dramatically and quickly into a realm of degenerate and evil pattern, that no one will be able to end. And all the while, the anti-christ will be attempting to secure his power, by doing the same thing. Likewise, he ignores the violence of criminals, but uses that to his own advantage.
When evil rules, then all rules evaporate into raw jungle law. There will be no containment of the trouble, no confinement to specific geographical areas. Trouble will be worldwide.
Such will be the nature of the Tribulation
The continued conflicts will serve to destabilize life across the world, and will continue in random order and will finally culminate in the last great battle of Armageddon. And as we will see, these seals will present the disorder of the earth.
Usually chaos provides little protection for people, but in this case, chaos will provide protection for believers worldwide. With transportation disrupted, communication disrupted, with power disrupted, and virtually everything else that you can think of being disrupted, there will be tremendous chaos in every aspect of life. And in this chaos, those who seek you out simply cannot find you. Odd as it may seem, in this chaos, believers (new believers) will have some semblance of security, while everyone's disorganized attention is directed elsewhere.
When peace is disrupted, and crime runs rampant, when the government actually becomes the criminal, then that overflows into every aspect of society, and suffering and death skyrocket.
But then we need to remove a couple more of the seals to begin to get clearer picture of life in this new utopia of Satan’s.
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