Now we’ve reached the very heart of the Book of Revelation. We move from heaven’s splendor to hell’s sorrow on earth.
Matthew 24:21 “For then there will be great tribulation such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, nor ever shall be.”
You might be surprised to know that the tribulation is mentioned over 50 times in the Old Testament. Such as…“The day of wrath”, “Jacob’s trouble”, “Time of trouble”, and the “Vengeance of the Lord”.
The Four Horsemen
Why the use of a horse? In Bible days, a horse symbolized providential movement, authority and aggression.
1. The White Horse: Militant Conquest. Vs. 1,2
Who is riding this white horse? Is it Jesus? No!!!
Revelation 19:1 is Jesus.
This is an imposter - the anti-Christ!!!
2 Thessalonians 2:7 “Satan working with all power, signs and lying wonders.”
Daniel 9:26 “The Prince that shall come…”
Notice 2 things:
· The bow without arrows.
He will conquer by diplomacy rather than war at this point. He will usher in a false peace that will fool the world and even Israel!
· A crown.
This signals that the anti-Christ will have temporary victory.
The anti-Christ will be on an all time high! His popularity ratings will nearly 100% at this point.
Understand that the first 3 1/2 years of the tribulation will be fairly calm as he gains power from every sector of society.
The U.N. as many believe is completely useless to our world. All it really does is feed people and they can’t even do that right. Look at the Sudan! But by this point in the tribulation, I think the U.N. will be a major player on the world’s stage with its humanistic and atheistic philosophies!
All this means that that nation in the future will become less independent and more dependent on this world body along with a strong European influence.
Proverbs 12:19 “Truth stands the test of time, lies are soon exposed.”
As Donald Barnhouse once said, “All is not gold that glitters. No amount of gaudy trappings can deceive the spiritual eye. Cloths do not make the man in spite of the proverb.”
2. The Red Horse: Murderous Conflict. Vs. 3,4
Not just symbolic of war!
“Kill” = is not meant only for battle but also violent killings of any kind, to a degree that we’ve never seen.
We have our drive by shooting and violent predators in every city. We have our ruthless dictators in the world and guiltless teens shooting up campuses across this country. We hear about civil wars and strife in many parts of the world. We hear in the news about America’s vicious molesters on every street corner.
Frightening how much killing goes on in just this country alone! Did you know that there are more murders in the U.S. than in any other country?
Now we have terrorism that can kill massive populations in just seconds with the threat of a biological attack. Anthrax, Ebola and Smallpox are weapons of mass destruction.
Just since World War 2 the world has experienced:
· 15 limited wars
· 38 political assignations
· 74 rebellions for independence
· 164 revolutions
Ezekiel 38:21 “…every man’s sword will be against his brother.”
Jesus said, “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars in the last day.”
2 Thessalonians 2:7 “The mystery of lawlessness is already at work…”
3. The Black Horse: Meager Crops. Vs. 5,6
Symbol of famine
Matthew 24: 7
Inflation at it’s highest! Notice the balances in the hand meaning the scarcity of food.
“Denarius” = one day’s wage
The problem is a day’s wage will buy about a loaf of bread. Barley is the cheapest form of bread on can buy at that!
“Do not damage the oil and the wine” = the affect on even the rich.
Watch this… From the beginning of time to 1850 there were about one billion people that had populated the earth. It took less than 80 years to pass the 2 billion mark in 1930 and only 30 years to reach 3 billion people, 4 billion in 1976, 5 billion by 1989 and almost 7 billion people today.
The U.N. says that by 2025 there will be 8.7 billion people on the planet!
Matthew 24:19 “Woe to pregnant women and nursing mothers in those days.”
David Jeremiah says, “Compare the world’s resources to the gas tank on your car and we have passed the half-full point and rapidly moving towards empty.”
4. The Pale Horse: Manifold Carnage. Vs. 7,8
Death!
This color is like a corpses color. In fact the word here in Greek is “Chloros” where we get our word… “Clorox”
The death rate by this point in the tribulation will be staggering. It will be over 1 and a half billion people dead.
“Beasts of the earth” = many scholars think this is reference to wild beast possibly feeding on the weakness of man at this point. Some even think that “beasts” refers to rats.
Rats are some of the most destructive animals on earth.
Over 1 billion dollars worth of food is lost every year in U.S. because of rats.
“Death” = plagues
Remember the Bubonic plague that killed over 25 million people in 5 years throughout Europe during the 14th century!
This event during the tribulation will be even worst than AIDS virus.
Dr. William Hazeltine a leading researcher at Harvard Medical School said in 1998, “Perhaps a million people in the U.S. and 20 million worlds wide are infected every year.”
Dr. James Curran of the Center for Disease Control wrote, “In many cases the number of persons infected with the AIDS virus is at least 100 times greater than the reported cases of AIDS.”
New HIV cases in 2000 as reported by the WHO:
· W. Europe – 30,000
· N. Africa – 20,000
· E. Europe – 80,000
· East Asia – 1.2 million
· Sub-Sahara Africa – 4 million (no next generation)
· Latin America – 170,000
· North America 75,000
William A Hazeltine again, “My personal estimate is more than 1 billion people will be infected and die of AIDS within the first decade of the 21st century.”
5. Martyred Christians. Vs. 9-11
The horsemen are gone to give way to 2 more seals unloosed.
Vs. 9 = “Testimony”
Vs. 10 = could be the prayers contained in the golden bowls of chapter 5:8
Matthew 24:9 “They will hand you over to persecution, and they will kill you. You will be hated for by all nations because of My name.”
Included in these Christians will be Jews coming to Jesus as they are now doing. I firmly believe that millions of Jews will be saved during this time. We will see more of this in the 144,000 witness of chapter 7.
There are only 18 million Jews in the world today and only a small portion of that is born again.
I asked myself this week, “Haven’t the Jews been persecuted enough?” From Pharaoh to Hitler and it’s not over yet!
Adolf Eichmann, a leading Jew killer under Hitler, said, before he died, “I leap in my grave, for the thought that I have 5 million lives on my conscience, to me this is a source of satisfaction.”
Moses was right when he prophetically said in
Deuteronomy 28:64-66 “The Lord will scatter you among the nations. Among those nations you will find no…resting place for the sole of your foot, you will live in constant suspense, never sure of your life.”
Paul said to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:6 “For I am already being poured out as a drink offering and the time of my departure is at hand.”
6. Massive Catastrophes. Vs. 12-17.
a. Earthquake disturbances.
Matthew 24:7,8 “…There will be famines, pestilences and earthquakes in various places. And these are the beginning of sorrows (birth pains).”
·The U.S. Geological National Earthquake Information Center said: “The 15th century recorded 115 earthquakes in various places. 253 in the 16th century. 378 in the 17th century. 640 earthquakes in the 18th century and 2,119 in the 19th century.”
· During the 20th century - in 1983 alone, the Earthquake Information Center recorded 2,588 earthquakes, and in 1992 4,084.
· In this 21st century already we’ve seen thousands dead in Iran, Turkey and Indonesia combined.
Need I say any more?
b. Cosmic disturbances.
With the crust of the earth breaking loose, volcanoes may well be spewing dust, gas and ash to obscure the sun and moon. Think this can’t happen?
· On August 27, 1883 – the East Indies had a massive earthquake and that triggered volcano “Kratatau”. The ash and disturbances affected the look of the sun and moon al the way to South America.
· When Mount St. Helen erupted, the ash spread by way of the wind currents ash half way around the earth and at times the daylight seems like darkness!
Matthew 24:29 “…The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give it’s light, the stars will fall from heaven…”
The sky unfolding with fantastic changes accruing in the atmosphere right before man’s eyes!
Then there are asteroids that are a real concern for astronomers. The last one to hit the earth was in 1908. It hit Siberia and it destroyed over 700 miles of forest and it killed a lot of wildlife. In 1994 an asteroid came about 64,000 miles of earth. Scientists were concerned because if it hit a city like San Francisco, it would destroy everything within 100 miles.
Isaiah 34:3 “…the heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll.”
Isaiah 13:6-8 “Every man’s heart will melt”…“they will be in pain like a woman in child birth”…“faces will be like flames” (pure terror on faces)
All this and only 21 months at most have gone by!
