THE FOURTH SEAL

Revelation Chapter 6

VERSE 7 “When He opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, “Come and see.”

This is the last in the series of Seals using the four Living Ones and the four horses. This is appropriate since the first four Churches, Seals, and Trumpets show the deterioration of matters spiritual. After Thyatira, things begin remarkably to improve so that (Rev 8:13) at the end of the fourth Trumpet it can be said that the establishment (orthodoxy) will receive WOES during the next three periods of the Church.

I HEARD THE VOICE OF THE FOURTH LIVING CREATURE SAYING:

The fourth living one is the flying eagle (Rev 4:7). It represents wisdom in its far-seeing ability and its ability to provide, therefore, for the peculiarities of the future.

It should be noted that this symbol (and its companion symbol, “eyes”) are found throughout the contexts of the fourth Church, Seal, and Trumpet. In the Church, (Rev 2:18), Jesus stresses his eyes; in the Seal (Rev 6:7), we have the eagle; in the Trumpet (Rev 8:12-13), we have the eagle again.

Since Thyatira is the darkest period of the Church, it would have been essential that the brethren know that wisdom foreknew their problems and made provision for them — that they realize that this permission of evil was not a FLAW in the Divine Plan, but an integral part of it. The wisdom of foresight had prophesied the exultation of Papacy (2 Thess. 2.) It is needed that the words of the Psalmist (Psa 76:10 below) be understood by all when we are in distress from outside sources.

“Surely the wrath of man shall praise You; With the remainder of wrath, You shall gird Yourself.”

Divine Wisdom would have every reason to be distressed over the happenings in the fourth Church EXCEPT that it knew the outcome!

VERSE 8 “So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth.”

SO I LOOKED, AND BEHOLD, A PALE HORSE:

Translators struggle with this one. Some say SICKLY PALE. Phillips says SICKLY GREEN. The Greek is CHLOROS (as in chlorophyll). Had the translators all realized the symbolism of the horse; they would probably have had no trouble. The color of this horse (doctrine) is the color of a corpse — green. It is this color because the blood is no longer circulating. Blood, of course, represents LIFE.

ALL LIFE — all possibility of getting spiritual life from this horse — IS GONE.

As in the parable (Matt. 13:33), the sinful doctrine has metastasized to everything. All of the meal (barley, i.e., fundamental truths) are poisoned. If this horse is anemic, it is pernicious anemia.

AND THE NAME: NAME: a name is a characteristic.

OF HIM WHO SAT ON IT: those controlling or using this doctrine, I. e., the Papacy with Satan himself behind the whole matter.

This rider has the (Name) characteristic of DEATH about him — it is part of his nature. This is the first time the rider is given a name — perhaps because it is the first time in history when his control is so easy to characterize in one name.

WAS DEATH: His name is death because he so rides doctrine, so CONTROLS it, as to be sure that it provides absolutely no possibility of life.

AN IMPORTANT CAVEAT:

If we remember the Matt. 13:33 parable and the barley meal of the third Seal, we will remember that the meal which was leavened was not representative of ALL TRUTH; the leaven (errors) was hidden in the THREE MEASURES of meal (i.e., just in the barley, in the fundamental or basic truths).

The Waldenses had WHEAT.

IT was not leavened. Therefore, we MUST NOT jump to the conclusion that spiritual life was not possible. It was merely not possible if one was attempting to survive on the three measures of barley, the equivalent of the green horse.

In other words, if you were attempting to gain life from what the church was teaching, you would not see life (i.e., spiritual life), as the barley (the basic truths) they promoted were being so mixed with leaven (the doctrines and precepts of men) as to make them utterly useless-lifeless (This continues even today). Spiritual life can only be obtained by the truth; we are begotten by truth not by error, nor by a mixture of error with a little truth in order to make it more palatable. The truths being espoused by Waldo and the Waldenses contained the viable truths needed for spirit begettal at the time. Of course, should you have chosen to accept what they taught at the time you would of course have been branded a heretic by the professed church.

AND HADES FOLLOWED WITH HIM:

This is not a co-rider. It is the RESULT of the activity of the horse and rider. Thus, if one attempted to follow this horse, to eat the leavened three measures of barley, one would have the RESULT of spiritual oblivion.

AND POWER (AUTHORITY) WAS GIVEN TO THEM OVER A FOURTH OF THE EARTH:

This seems the first time we have to deal with THIS fraction. It has been a THIRD up until now, now it is one fourth. The reason for the change seems to be that the Lord wishes to stress something different. He doesn’t wish simply to show the classes over whom Jezebel had authority, but, rather, the PROPHETICALLY DELINEATED scope of her reign. Recall that FOUR is a symbol of UNIVERSALITY. Therefore, one-fourth is a section of something UNIVERSAL.

The reference seems clearly to be to the prophecies of DANIEL:

The four metals of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (Dan. 2) or the four beasts of Daniel’s dream (Dan. 7). The Rider and Horse represents the FOURTH empire in Dan. 7:7, 8, 19-25. This is the Rome which had evolved into the “Holy Roman Empire.” This is the empire which was the most malicious. This is the empire which Satan himself probably directed. Here, then, is the fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy. This fourth beast, now the fourth Church, has authority over the fourth part of Daniel’s dream. It is the beast which was to rule the world during the Times of the Gentiles.

TO KILL: To take away true spiritual life from all it could by ANY means; either by:

SWORD: the MIS-use of the sword of the spirit, the Bible.

During the inquisition, it was not rare for the inquisitors to engage men in spiritual discussions IN ORDER TO TRAP THEM into revealing their heresies.

FAMINE: (Amos 8:11.) Kill by withholding truth, spiritual sustenance. Thus we have a green horse. Among other things, the church was terribly distraught over the distribution of Waldo’s vernacular translation of the Bible.

DEATH: As in Rev 2:23, this symbolism seems to refer to literal death. Papacy was killing the Lord’s children with death; the Lord killed papacy’s children with death also!

WILD BEASTS OF THE EARTH: The governments which readily cooperated with Papacy in the horrors of the inquisition. Compare Rev 12:12, 13. This fornication — cooperation between church and state — is one of the major indictments which the Lord holds against Babylon.

We will take a look at the Forth Trumpet in our next post.