Everyone has heard of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Each horse represents a seal on the scroll with seven seals. The horsemen are the first four seals, and they’re riding four different colored horses.
The first seal is the white horse, the antichrist. The second seal is the red horse, a great war. The third horse is the black horse, a great famine, and the fourth seal is the green (chloros) horse, a great dying of humans.
Zechariah
There’s another place in the Bible that talks about different colored horses. The prophecy in Zechariah 6 mentions red horses, black horses, white horses, and dappled horses. Let’s listen to Jesus Christ:
“See to it that no one deceives you. Many will come in My name, claiming, ‘I am He,’ and will deceive many. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. These things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, as well as famines. These are the beginning of birth pains. (Mark 13)
What Jesus says fulfills the prophecy from Zechariah 6:
The first chariot had red horses, the second black horses, the third white horses, and the fourth dappled horses—all of them strong. (Zechariah 6:2-3)
The first chariot had red horses,
In Luke 21:9, Jesus tells the disciples they will hear of wars and rumors of wars. This can remind us of the red horses from Zechariah 6, which represent many wars. Many wars have come since Christ, and they’ve been increasing and becoming worse. We can see this from the wars in the 19th and 20th centuries. From World War II came the Jews returning to Israel, and Psalm 83 is being fulfilled as we speak:
Come, let us erase them as a nation; may the name of Israel be remembered no more. (Psalm 83)
As the red horses in Zechariah represent wars and rumors of wars, the one red horse in Revelation 6, the second seal, represents one final great war, possibly nuclear war. The rider is not just given a sword, but a “great” sword.
the second black horses,
In Luke 21:11, Jesus is referring to the black horses, which represent famines that have happened since the coming of Christ until now. Famines have happened throughout history, and they can come from war or they can lead to war. We have to face the reality that we might have to go through a time of famine. Many of us who live in the developed world don’t think of how bad famine is. The following prophecy can give us an idea of how terrible thirst and hunger are:
as when a hungry man dreams he is eating, then awakens still hungry; as when a thirsty man dreams he is drinking, then awakens faint and parched. (Isaiah 29)
People can be so hungry or thirsty that they dream of eating or drinking. Then they wake up to the reality that there’s nothing to eat. Recently, the United Nations said that coming food shortages will be of biblical proportions.
The two main factors that lead to famine are war and the climate. Near the end of time, the human response to climate change will endanger the food supply.
Let’s continue in Zechariah 6:
As the strong horses went out, they were eager to go and patrol the earth; and the LORD said, “Go and patrol the earth.” So, they patrolled the earth. (Zechariah 6:7)
In this prophecy, the horses go in predetermined directions. In Zechariah 6:6, it says the chariot with the black horses is going toward the land of the north, and the white horses follow them. Some translations say the white horses are going to the west. The word for west is not in the Hebrew text. Here’s an accurate translation:
The one with the black horses is going to the land of the north, and the white are going after them, and the dappled are going to the south. (Zechariah 6:6)
The direction of the red horses isn’t mentioned, which could mean that wars will happen at all four corners of the earth. In verse 8, God says, Behold, those going to the land of the north have given rest to My Spirit in the land of the north.
The black horses are going to the north, and God says they have given rest to his Spirit. This tells us that God is good in feeding mankind, and that any famine that comes in the last days will not be from God. They will be caused by the white horses following the black. We can see this in Mao and Stalin and their man-made famines of the 20th century. So, famines that have occurred since the coming of Christ, the white horses following the black horses, have not come from God.
Yet He has not left Himself without testimony to His goodness. He gives you rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling your hearts with food and gladness.” (Acts 14:17)
Other famines have come naturally, either from diseases or crop failures due to droughts.
Climate change is real, and we’ve talked about it in previous posts. We’re told in Isaiah that the earth will wear out like a garment, like an old t-shirt. The changing climate will play a major role in the final great famine, the third seal, the black horse. This famine will eventually lead to the mark of the beast. The rider of the black horse is holding scales, which represent a time of judgment.
God will release this black horse.
In the final great famine, people won’t be allowed to buy or sell, and this includes food, unless they take the mark of the beast. It will be better to call on Jesus Christ and starve to death and receive eternal life rather than choose life with the beast and receive eternal torment in the second death, the lake of fire. Let’s look at the following verses from the story Susanna and the Elders, which is from the apocryphal chapter 13 of Daniel. Even though these verses are from the apocrypha, we can still use the example set by Susanna for those who might be subjected to the final test:
Then Susanna sighed, and said, “I am trapped; for if I do this thing, it is death to me. If I don’t do it, I can’t escape your hands. It is better for me to fall into your hands, and not to do it, then to sin in the sight of the Lord.” (Daniel 13:22-23)
These two verses tell us that those subjected to the final test will be trapped. If they accept the mark of the beast, it means eternal torment in hell. If they don’t accept the mark of the beast, they will probably be tortured and killed or left to starve to death. Like Susanna’s situation, there will be no escape. But her decision not to sin in the sight of the Lord saves her life, and it will save people’s eternal lives during the final seven years. Susanna’s story tells us that it will be better to be killed by the power of darkness and receive eternal life rather than to take the mark of the beast and go to hell.
Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. (Revelation 14)
the third white horses,
In Luke 21:8, Jesus tells the disciples, “Let no one deceive you.” This might remind us of the white horses from Zechariah 6, many antichrists. Here’s the apostle John:
Children, it is the last hour; and just as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have appeared. This is how we know it is the last hour. (1 John 2:18)
Many antichrists have appeared since the coming of Jesus, including Nero, Napoleon, and Adolf Hitler. But in Revelation 6, the 1st seal, we have one white horse, and the rider is the antichrist himself, the beast:
At the end of the age, the antichrist will come as the savior of the world. He will hate Christians because he is from Satan. Great Christian persecution will come during the world reign of the antichrist. At some point during the beast’s reign, he will probably be shot in the head with the bullet blowing out right eye. With the help of artificial intelligence, he’ll live and become the image of the beast, possibly a transhuman. Currently, the one-eye sign is conditioning the world for the coming of the antichrist.
and the fourth dappled horses—all of them strong.
The dappled horses represent many people dying from the time Jesus prophesied in the Olivet discourse to when the final four horseman come. Death always follows war, disease, famine, and persecution. In the final seven years of human history, the rider of the pale green horse, death, the fourth seal, represents a great number of people dying, two billion to be exact.
Then I looked and saw a pale green horse. Its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed close behind. And they were given authority against a fourth of the earth, to kill by sword, by famine, by plague, and by the beasts of the earth. (Revelation 6:8)
There are two billion Christians in the world. This equals a fourth of the earth. As is went for the Jews in Hitler’s Nazi Germany, so it will go for Christians in the antichrist’s New World Order. Christians throughout history have been persecuted for their faith to one degree or another, and persecution is still happening, and by time the fifth seal is opened, it will be at its worst. The souls in the fifth seal are crying out to God from underneath the altar to avenge their blood. As we read in Revelation 6:11, Christians who have been killed are, “Each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer until the number of their fellow servants and brothers should be complete, who are to be killed as they themselves had been.” So, in the fifth seal, there are still Christians in the world who have yet to be killed, who have not yet been killed. At some point during this holocaust, Jesus Christ will appear. This is day of the Lord.
The day of the Lord is in the 6th seal. On this day, Jesus Christ appears, the rapture happens, and then God’s wrath begins. This will happen while the world is enjoying killing Christians and throwing some of them to the lions in football stadiums (beasts of the earth). At this time, there will be a great earthquake felt around the world, and everything will go dark.
The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD. (Joel 2)
The world will be taken by surprise, and they will not escape. The face of God will appear in the sky, and everyone around the world will see him simultaneously. They will look in wonder until they realize what’s going on. Then they’ll run for their lives, hiding wherever they can, because they’ll know it’s too late for them. Jesus will then send out his angels to gather those Christians who are alive who remain (who survive), and then God’s wrath begins on the world. This starts the seventh seal, in which there are 7 trumpets, 3 woes, and 7 bowls of God’s wrath. But until the first seal is opened, the horses from Zechariah are still patrolling the earth.
My righteousness draws near. My salvation is on the way. (Isaiah 51)
In these last days, let’s remember that heaven and hell are real, and we can only avoid the fate of eternal destruction by receiving God’s promise of eternal life through Jesus Christ. When we accept Jesus as Lord and savior, we’re forgiven for everything we’ve done wrong in our past life. Now, we avoid wrongdoing and do the right thing in life, being obedient to God’s commandments, which fulfills the law of love.
Futile World 