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John N. Darby
William Kelly
Harry Ironside
John F. Walvoord
Chuck Missler
Deceivers who come in the name of Christ was the first of the signs that Jesus gave in the Olivet Discourse in Mat. 24. This is represented by the first seal in Rev. 6, the rider with a bow on a white horse.
Matthew 24:3-5
3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him
privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall
be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?
4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive
you.
5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall
deceive many.
Why a white horse? And what is the symbolism of the bow and the crown? The armies who follow Christ in Rev. 19:14 all ride on white horses. The false teachers are among the followers of Christ, as the false teachers were who Peter mentioned in 2 Pet. 2.
2 Pet. 2:1
But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there
shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable
heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon
themselves swift destruction.
The rider's crown shows the many conquests; false teachings would prevail. And scripture identifies arrows with "bitter words."
Psalm 64:3
Who whet their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their
arrows, even bitter words:
John said, there were already "many antichrists" in his time.
1 John 2:18
Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that
antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we
know that it is the last time.
History confirms many conquests by the armies of the nations of
Christendom in Western Europe. Much of it was done allegedly to "spread
the gospel among the heathen."
John Darby thought the first horseman represented "imperial conquests" presumably referring to the Roman Empire.
Darby wrote: "The first seals are simple; nor have I anything to offer very new upon them: first, imperial conquests then wars, then famine, then pestilence, carrying with it what Ezekiel calls God's four sore plagues (sword, famine, pestilence, and the beasts of the earth)."
[John Darby's Synopsis, by John N. Darby]
http://www.christnotes.org/commentary.php?com=drby&b=66
William Kelly's interpretation, given near the end of his discussion below, is a little vague, IMO, but he argues that the first horseman does not refer to Christ, as many commentators had thought. He dismisses Darby's suggestion about the first horseman representing conquests by Roman Emperors. He contrasts the white horse with the red one which followed. He wrote:
Next we come to the earthly course of "the things that must be after these." The seals are not judgments executed by the Lord, but of a providential nature. Some, because of the white horse, have thought that the first seal applied to Christ. On the face of it, what more strange than to conceive Him so represented, seeing that He it is who, as the Lamb, opens the seals successively, and, when clearly alluded to under the contents of the sixth seal, still preserves the name of the Lamb! And yet stranger that He should enter on a course of conquest at the very time, if you take it historically, when all Asia had turned away from Paul; when Timothy had the sad and sure foreboding of evil men and seducers waxing worse and worse; when John himself had written, or was about to write, "Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time." Nevertheless most of the ancients and not a few moderns begin their comments with this false start.
Some, again, refer it to the second advent; but this quite upsets the order of the seals fixed by the Holy Ghost, and indeed the structure of all the book. It is true that in Rev. xix. where the Lord comes judicially and in person, He is represented as riding upon a white horse. But there is all the difference possible between that vision of the white horse and the opening of Rev. vi. This horse does not issue from heaven, as that in chap. xix. does. Next, there is not a word in chap. vi. about the rider, which necessarily means Christ; whereas iii chap. xix. He is called Faithful and True, and said to judge and make war in righteousness. Of whom could this be said save of One? His eyes were as a flame of fire. His written name none knew but Himself. The Word of God-- King of kings, Lord of lords--can be the titles of none but Jesus. Not to speak of the blood-dipped vesture, the sword proceeding out of the mouth, the iron rod wherewith to rule, and the treading the wine-press of divine wrath, are descriptions in chap. xix. to which nothing answers in the rider of chap. vi. No armies followed here, clothed in fine linen, &c. And though the rider is said to have a crown given to him, the word is quite different from that employed in chap, xix., which signifies a kingly diadem, the crown of royalty. The earlier Romans were fond of a sort of chaplet, which did not to their mind, like the imperial diadem, convey the idea of absolute authority; and that is the crown mentioned in chapter vi.
Furthermore, there are two frequent figures or symbols used in scripture to express power; the one is the throne, and the other is the horse. Thus we have already seen the supreme throne above, and now we have the horse with the rider on earth. The same thing is seen in chaps, xix. and xx. The symbol of horses in the one chapter, and of thrones in the other. The difference between the bearing is this: When power is meant by putting down of rival or opposing authority on earth, "the horse" is taken, as from its use in war, it is intended to subdue; but when the victory is won, and it is a question not of subjugation, but of governing and judging, "the throne" is used, as being the fit emblem of rule over those who have been thus subdued or are subject. When Christ is going to put down His enemies, He is seen in the vision of chap. xix. on the horse, used to represent the exertion of His power to subdue; when the subsequent sway is meant, thrones appear in chap. xx. It would be quite weak, of course, for persons to confound this symbolic use with a material horse or throne. The idea of the former is power to subdue, and of the latter is dominion after the victory has been gained. The throne may also be used, as it is afterwards, for the solemn and eternal judgment of the dead--a throne of stainless holiness. Still even here, it is Christ's judgment before the kingdom is given up to God. (1 Cor. xv.; 2 Tim. iv.)
Of course we cannot apply the four horses and their riders to the great empires, three of which had long disappeared. Equally untenable at least is the notion that four successive religions are intended, especially when one hears it gravely laid down, that Infidelity closes the list, which primitive Christianity opens, followed by Mahomedanism and Popery. It is hard to say whether such thoughts are most opposed to time or place, to congruity or context. Again, it is agreed that it is harsh in the extreme, and in almost every point of view, to understand the first seal of Christ or the church in early gospel triumphs, and then the three subsequent ones of the Roman empire or emperors.
But it is important here to notice, that there is positive ground from the Apocalypse itself to deny the assumption that the horse means the Roman empire. I do not refer to passages like chapter ix.. 17, where literal cavalry seem to be meant; but chapter xix. furnishes an example of its symbolic use. Does the Lord on the white horse mean His direction of the Roman empire? Or the white horses of the linen-clad hosts, do they imply imperial powers? Surely we must look for an interpretation more in keeping with its usage elsewhere. It means, in my judgment, a militant aggresive agency towards the earth, though it may be from heaven. Hence, as in Zech. i., it may apply to the Lord, or to the various imperial powers which succeeded Babylon. And so the chariots with the horses of various colours in Zech. vi. But as distinguished from the horns (chapter i. 19), the former symbol rather refers to the providential instruments behind the scene, and connected especially with these empires, than to the rulers themselves or their realms. Plainly therefore there is no ground from the book itself or from Zechariah, to which the allusion is obvious, to interpret the horse simply of the Roman empire.
Nor is there better ground in profane history to maintain that the horse is the special sign of that people and power. And no wonder. For the Roman infantry was more characteristic of their military power than their cavalry. No doubt the horse abounds on their medals, but not more comparatively than among other warlike nations, particularly in the east, who so set forth their victories. It had formerly been one of the Roman standards of war, but for two centuries before Domitian all the varieties had given way to the eagle.
Abstractly, then, the horse cannot be regarded as the necessary national badge of Rome, or emblem of the Roman empire. Whether it be referred to here must depend on contextual considerations. And here it appears to me that the fourth seal rises up conclusively against such a view, the four seals being providential judgments homogeneous in character but differing in form. The Roman earth may be the sphere, but this has nothing to do with the symbolic force of the horse in the passage.
Without further discussion let me state my own view. We have a regular series of providential judgments. The first is the white horse, the symbol of triumphant and prosperous power. "He that sat on him had a bow" (verse 2). The bow is the symbol of distant warfare. His course is evidently that of unchecked victory. The moment he appears, he conquers. The battle is won without a struggle, and apparently without the carnage of the second judgment, where the sword, the symbol of close hand-to-hand fighting, is used. But this first conqueror is some mighty one who sweeps over the earth, and gains victory after victory by the prestige of his name and reputation. There is no intimation of slaughter here.
But the second judgment is of a more appalling character. There went out a horse that was red, and the one who sits upon him is not the proudly prosperous victor to whom people tamely submit, but one who, if he wins, waves his standard over heaps of slain. Accordingly, he has a blood-red horse--the symbol of power connected with frightful carnage. The result of the first seal (i.e. of the victorious career of the white-horse rider) may have been peace and comparatively bloodless changes; but all is sanguinary under the second seal (ver. 4). Tlie fiery-red horse, the peace taken from the earth, the mutual slaughter, the great sword, are tokens too plain to be misunderstood.
[Lectures on the Book of Revelation, by William Kelly p. 133]
http://books.google.ca/books?id=f5MXAAAAYAAJ
Harry Ironside thought the seals are opened after the "rapture" of the church. He wrote: "The rider on the white horse evidently pictures man's last effort to bring in a reign of order and peace while Christ is still rejected. It will be the world's greatest attempt to pull things together after the church is gone. It will be the devil's cunning scheme for bringing in a mock millennium without Christ How long will it last?"
[Lectures on the Book of Revelation, by H. A. Ironside. Western book
& tract Co. Oakland, Cal., 1919. p. 103]
From: The Revelation of Jesus Christ
http://bible.org/series/revelation-jesus-christ
6. The Beginning Of The
Great Day Of
God's Wrath
Following the historical school
of interpretation, David N. Lord
suggests that the rider on the first horse represents the true minister
of the gospel. The rider on the second horse, who takes peace from the
earth, represents the succession of Roman rulers in early Christian
centuries, many of whom were usurpers. The rider of the third seal
represents the excessive taxation of the Roman Empire. The fourth seal
represents Roman rulers who destroyed by execution and famine those who
opposed them. The strained nature of such interpretation is apparent,
and there is no real support in the text for it.
McIlvaine makes the penetrating
observation that the authority given to
the riders of the four horses to kill with sword, famine, death, and
wild beasts extends to all four equally or as a group. This would make
impossible identifying the first rider as Christ and the succeeding
riders as forces of evil, but would tie them together. Mcllvaine says,
It is in these words that we find
our Seer's interpretation of the
first seal...it would be very surprising that no one seems ever to have
thought of reading this closing statement as a paragraph by itself, and
consequently as referring, not exclusively to the last, but to all of
these four seals... Here, then, according to the Seer's own
interpretation, this rider upon a white horse, with a crown and bow,
and called forth by the lion-like living creature, is the symbol of the
plague of wild beasts ... all the members of a class must be of the
same sort, so that they can be obtained by one principle of analysis;
and this principle in three of these, war, pestilence, and famine, is
that of a judgment or scourge; consequently, in the remaining one, that
of the first seal, it must be a judgment or scourge; otherwise the laws
of thought are violated in the classification.
Though McIlvaine's historical
interpretation of this passage as having
been fulfilled in the early centuries of the Christian era should be
considered inadequate, his observation that these four seals form a
unit has a good deal of merit and would seem to forbid making Christ
the rider on the white horse... While the dispute as to the identity of
the rider cannot be finally settled, especially in the brief compass of
this discussion, the conclusion identifying him as the world ruler of
the tribulation, the same individual described as the beast out of the
sea in Revelation 13, is preferred.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/6724082/Supplemental-Notes-Daniels-70-Weeks-Chuck-Missler
The Coming World Leader
[A complete discussion of this man of destiny is available in out briefing package, Behold a White Horse.]
His career
The leader will be the Son of Satan, the "Seed of the Serpent" Gen 3:15; Isa. 27:1; Ezek. 28:12; Rev. 13. He will be:
An
intellectual genius:
Dan 7:20; 8:23; Ezek. 28:3
An persuasive orator: Dan
7:20; Rev 13:2
A political manipulator:
Dan 11:21
A commercial genius: Dan
8:25; Rev 13:17; Ps 52:7; Dan 11:38, 43; Ezek
28:4,5
A military leader: Dan
8:24; Rev 6:2; Rev 13:4; Isa 4:16
A powerful organizer: Rev
13:1,3; 17:17
A unifying religious guru:
2 Tess 2:4 ("Allah"?); Rev 13:3, 14, 15
He will be able to appeal to Jew and Muslim alike! 2 Thess 2:4 (includes Allah!) See also: Ps 10, 52, 55; Isa 10, 11, 13, 14; Jer 49-51; Zech 5; Rev 18, et al.
Some believe this leader will be a Jew. Ezek 21:25-27; Ezek 28:2-10 (of the circumcision); Dan 11:36, 37; Jn 5:43 (allos, not hetros: thus, a Jew, not a Gentile); He will be received by Israel, Jn 5:43; Ps 55.
Others believe he will be a Gentile: Roman Prince, from Dan 9:26, 27, etc. [But remember, there are two players in Rev 13!] In no previous period of mankind have "the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of the Lord and of His Christ." (Rev 11:15). Christ's unfulfilled mandate as our "Avenger of Blood" (Isa 61:2) is about to begin.
An Alien Alliance?
Is this Coming World Leader a hybrid? If you have a background on the strange activities of Genesis 6, then there are some bizarre possibilities hinted at in Scripture. The Final World Empire described is expressed in Daniel Chapter 2 with the idiom of "iron mixed with clay."
It is clear that the iron represents the Roman Empire. What does the "miry clay" represent? Daniel interprets it for us! Daniel 2:43: "And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay." Just what (or who) are "mingling with the seed of men?" Who are these non-seed? It staggers the mind to contemplate the potential significance of Daniel's passage and its implications for the future global governance. Could this be a hint of a return to the mischief of Genesis 6? Are "Aliens" and their hybrid offspring part of the political makeup of this emergent world empire? [This is explored in our book, Alien Encounters.]
Note: Pink rejected dispensationalism, and exposed it as
a delusion.
This is the 2nd seal:
Matthew 24:6
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.
Famine
Pestilences
Martyrs
The sun turns black as
sackcloth
The moon turns to blood
Stars fall to the earth
The heavens are rolled together like a scroll
Every mountain and island is moved out of its
place
Men hide in the dens and caves of the mountains
The sixth seal includes several of the main developments in the
history of the church and of western civilization.
The sun turning black as sackcloth represents the gospel of Christ
becoming obscured by false teaching, because in the early centuries of
the Christian era, the teachings of the apostles in the NT were merged
with Plato's doctrine of the immortality of the soul, by the
Alexandrian scholars such as Clement and Origen. And to this was added
the doctrine of unending infernal torment of unbelievers; together
these ideas turned the true gospel of Christ and of Paul to darkness.
Rev. 6:12-17
12 And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a
great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and
the moon became as blood;
13 And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree
casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.
14 And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and
every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
15 And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and
the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every
free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;
16 And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from
the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the
Lamb:
17 For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to
stand?
What does the sun turning black as sackcloth, and the moon turning to blood represent? What is the meaning of stars falling to the earth, the heaven departing as a scroll when it is rolled together, and every mountain and island were moving out of their places?
I suggest the sun turning to blackness represents the gospel becoming obscured by false teaching. Specifically, by the introduction of Plato's doctrine of the immortality of the soul by the Alexandrian scholars, Clement and Origen, who were Platonists. And also by the introduction of the doctrine of unending infernal torment of unbelievers. Augustine was the one mostly responsible for that. He probably got it from his previous Manichean beliefs.
The reformer and Martyr William Tyndale (1484-1536), who translated the Bible into English, in 1530, responding to Sir Thomas More's objection to his belief that "all souls lie and sleep till doomsday" replied:
"And ye, in putting them [the departed souls] in heaven, hell and
purgatory, destroy the arguments wherewith Christ and Paul prove the
resurection...And again, if the souls be in heaven, tell me why they be
not in as good a case as the angels be? And then what cause is there of
the resurrection?" - William Tyndale, An Answer to Sir Thomas More's
Dialogue (Parker's 1850 reprint), bk.4, ch.4, pp.180,181
Tyndale went to the heart of the
issue in pointing out the papacy's
draft upon the teachings of "heathen philosophers" in seeking to
establish its contention of innante immortality. Thus
"The true faith puteth forth the
resurrection, which we be warned to
look for every hour. The heathen philosophers, denying that, did put
that the souls did ever live. And the pope joineth the spiritual
doctrine of Christ and the fleshy doctrine of philosophers together;
things so contrary that they cannot agree, no more than the Spirit and
the flesh do in a Christian man. And becuase the fleshy-minded pope
consenteth unto heathen doctrine, therefore he corrupteth the Scripture
to stablish it. If the soul be in heaven, tell me what cause is there
for the resurrection?" - ibid., p.180
From:
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Plains/8936/SOULREFM.HTM
The moon is identified with Rachel, the wife of Jacob, in Gen.
37:10.
In Matt. 2:18, she is identified with the Jews whose children were
killed by Herod. The moon reflects the light of the sun, which
represents the gospel, so the moon is symbolic of the Mosaic law, "a
shadow of the good things to come," in the gospel. [Heb. 10:1] The moon
turning to blood thus represents antipathy towards the law, and to the
Jews, and the rise of antisemitism.
Stars falling to the earth like figs falling from a fig tree in a
strong wind suggests the discovery of the law of universal gravitation,
and Newton's celestial mechanics, which initiated the scientific
revolution in the eighteenth century.
When a scroll is rolled up, the spindles cease rotating. That pictures what happened to man's concept of the heavens, at the time of the scientific revolution. The starry heavens were no longer seen to be revolving around the earth as they had for thousands of years, once men began to believe and understand it is the earth that rotates, not the sky. Like a scroll rolled together, the imagined diurnal revolutions of the stars and the firmament suddenly stopped, in the scientific revolution, when the diurnal rotation was assigned to the earth instead of the heavens.
The mountains and islands represents the promises, covenants and prophecies of scripture, and these things being moved out of their places represents the scriptures being misinterpreted. Preterism and dispensationalism are examples, as they deny that the prophecies apply to the present age. And dispensationalism assigns promises that are intended for the saints to unbelieving Jews. The flawed interpretation of the prophecies of Revelation is represented by islands being moved out of their places, as the prophecies of Revelation, that John wrote while on the isle of Patmos, are represented by that island.
Below is an interpretation of the prophecy of the sixth seal by Peter Clarkin in 1849, that speaks of men moving "every mountain and island of hope and security offered to us in the gospel out of their places."
Verse 14: "And the heavens departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places." Such are the fatal effects when mankind fall into error, they have no pleasure in contemplating heavenly objects -- their ideas concerning the great work of creation are gross and absurd, and so are their notions of redeeming love. Converse with such on the providential care and goodness of God, they will admit it, but it affords them no comfort. Speak to them on the subject of justifying faith in Jesus Christ, the influence of the Holy Spirit, the new birth, and they have no conception of such things. Such conversation is insipid to them. Such knowledge is to them like a scroll, or sheet of paper, when it is rolled together.
The application of the latter clause of the verse, and every mountain
and island were moved out of their places, may be understood when it is
considered that the principles of popery removed by degrees every
obstacle in its way, and as it grew in power, it set up kings and
dethroned them; it absolved subjects from their allegiance, and granted
pardon to the rebellious; it changed even the commandments of God, by
leaving out the second, to make way for image worship, and divided the
tenth into two, to preserve the number; it made the scriptures of truth
of no effect by its traditions; it made the canon or decree of a
general council of more validity than any gospel authority; it set up
the pope's infalibility in opposition to Him who is Supreme Judge; it
condemned the righteous and justified the ungodly; it put the Redeemer
into lymbus patrum, when the avaricious road to purgatory was
discovered; it substituted the sacrifice of the mass in the room of
that atoning sacrifice which was to take away the sins of the world;
and thus it gradually removed every mountain and island of hope and
security offered to us in the gospel out of their places, and placed
man's salvation in the merits of the church.
[Reflections on Revelations, by Peter Clarkin. Geo. C. Rand, Boston.
1849. p. 50.]
http://books.google.ca/books?id=ggYOAAAAYAAJ
Revelation 6:15-17
15 And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and
the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every
free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;
16 And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from
the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the
Lamb:
17 For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to
stand?
The mountains in John's prophecy are symbolic of the promises of God, and the gospel. In scripture, the kingdom of God is compared to a great mountain. [Isa. 2:2; Dan. 2:35] Paul said God's righteousness is revealed in the gospel; [Rom. 1:17-18] and David said that God's righteousness is like the great mountains. [Psa. 36:6] The mountains will bring peace, David said, by righteousness. [Psa 72:3] These are the truths of the gospel, the promise to Abraham, that "in thee shall all nations be blessed."
People hiding in the dens and caves of the mountains because of their fear of the "wrath of the Lamb" in Rev. 6:16 seems to capture the attitude prevailing in much of Christendom, over many centuries. The dens and caves might represent the various sects and denominations. The great schism between eastern Orthodox and the Western Church occurred in the 11th century. In the 16th century seems whenever some Reformers discovered a bit more of the light of the gospel, new divisions occurred in the church, because the new light was resisted by those in power.
So we see there is the cave of Calvin, and the cave of Luther, and the cave of Fox, and the cave of Wesley, etc. In the USA the proliferation of sects accelerated, giving us caves of Mormonism, the cave of the SDA church, the cave of Unitarianism, the many caves of John N. Darby, etc. And in more modern times, the caves of Armstrongism and its splinter sects.
In these various figurative dens and caves, which I suggest are denominations and sects, people hide themselves, or become members, by adopting the set of doctrines peculiar to each cave. Most people are there because they fear the judgment of unending infernal torment of their souls, if they are not "saved" and included in the church they think most closely conforms to the "true church."
And by picturing the denominations as dens and caves, the scripture shows the limiting effect of being involved in a denomination; they tend to obscure our view of the whole mountain, or the rest of the world, and we get only the shafts of light that enter through the cave's opening to the outside, which may not be much. Few venture out to other caves, which are generally similar to the ones they were in, but with slightly different doctrines and traditions.
We need to see the whole picture of the gospel and the church, and get free of the dens and caves, where Christians are captives.
Isaiah 40:9
O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain;
O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with
strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah,
Behold your God!
The "Zion" here can't be the literal hill where the temple was located. How can a hill climb a mountain? grin It is a prophecy meant for the church, which is called Mount Zion, and Jerusalem, in Heb 12:22-23.
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