We had a look at the White Horse and his rider, and while these horses ride at the same time, and often side by side; let's look at them for their individual qualities....
Throughout the ages, the horses have been galloping across the ages. However, in these last hours of this last earth age, the red horse can be seen more prominently and in more forms. Let's look back....
In the mid-1980s, at the height of the Cold War and nuclear arms launches, President Ronald Reagan once openly pondered the potential for an age-ending world war in our time.
“… I turn back to [the] ancient prophets in the Old Testament and the signs foretelling Armageddon,” he mused, “and I find myself wondering if—if we’re the generation that’s going to see that come about … There have been times in the past when we thought the world was coming to an end, but never anything like this.”
Those who lived through World War 1 felt the same way. They called it “the Great War” and “the war to end all wars.” If only that were true, and warfare had ended almost a century ago! More than 150 million people wouldn’t have had their lives snuffed out prematurely by bullets and bombs, stones and spears in the decades since. But it was not to be.
War, and wars do not pause just because we lay down at night for a comforting rest before getting up again to go to our jobs. For all intents and purposes, all of us are at war. We have enemies here, sworn to destroy all with any and all means, discreetly and without causing too much notability. They've been often called the "silent wars." Nevertheless, people have constantly wondered if the nukes (suitcase or otherwise) would ever be employed. The answer is yes.
A Coming War to End All Wars?
Jesus Christ warned us that “And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.” (Matthew 24:22)
We saw that the first of the four horsemen of Revelation 6 represents a massive satan-inspired religious deception-with false ministers behind the pulpits holding false bible versions speaking false doctrines that have lost their soundness; and then there are those of course that were faithful but quickly falling away from truths they once knew.
The second rider, rides along side of the other four horsemen unleashing the malignant forces of evil and removes the last vestiges of peace from the earth. However, Jesus Christ cuts short this horseman’s ride, preventing human extinction, with His appearance and the establishment of His world-ruling Kingdom.
Notice what the apostle John saw with the breaking of the second seal: “And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.” (Revelation 6:3-4).
This vision corresponds with Christ’s prophecy of the end time recorded in Matthew 24: “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. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.” (Matthew 24:6-7).
With the technology of the Tesla era, we have had now since the early 1900's the ability to use weather as a weapon. Throughout the centuries we've seen rise to all sorts of wars (mostly led by the USA- nevertheless, wars in all nations have continued in one form or another. With the advent of weather technology and the subsequent tech of fracking we can by collateral damage or purposeful harm can create earthquakes nearly anywhere that is felt needed for another agenda.
Further, with the use of GMO, chemicals, and lab created bio-tech weapons, evil men can literally control food production and quality with created events of contamination or alteration all in the name of keeping the people "safe." Pestilences of all names (ebola, h1n1,AIDS, Zika,etc) come from technologies developed for the sole purpose of dominating, destroying and altering all that was once good, normal, and plentiful to mankind; including the destruction and maiming of humans on Earth.
Looking at recorded of history will show a pattern of the red horse of war often following the white horse of false religion.
An example: The Thirty Years War in Europe during the mid-17th century. Following the Protestant Reformation, the resultant shift in power among European states led to 30 years of carnage from 1618 to 1648.
Religion, the newly emerged Protestant versus Roman Catholic theology, was the ideology that fueled the winds of war. It led to strange alliances: Catholic France aligned with Protestant Holland to offset the powerful Catholic Hapsburg dynasty. This resulted in prolonging the conflict. By the time “peace” (a euphemism for balance of power) was restored in 1648 with the Treaty of Westphalia, 8 million people had lost their lives That's 8 MILLION MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN—a staggering toll, especially at that time.
What can we expect to see as this red horse continues his ride of war across the landscape in the last days, unleashing the fury of nations on the world?
A look at the history of war will give us a clue. Let’s first look at what the Bible reveals about the roots of war.
The Beginning of War
Those who understand an unsaved man’s nature know he is on a course toward destruction —and has been since the beginning.
In Genesis 4 we read of the first human “war,” the conflict between Cain and Abel, the son the devil killing the son of the first humans, Adam and Eve. When God refused to accept the offering of Cain, reading his sinful heart, Cain’s self-interest was threatened. He did not control his anger and aggression and subsequently 'rose up against Abel his brother and killed him' (Ref. Genesis 4:8).
Expelled from the family environs, Cain went to the land of Nod on the east of Eden (Genesis 4:16). Some biblical scholars say he built on the ancient site of Jericho.
Regardless of the accuracy of those speculations, excavations at the earliest levels of this site, one of the oldest inhabited settlements on earth, reveal a fortress city with walls 12 feet high and 6 1⁄2 feet thick.
The remains of a large tower, 30 feet across at the base and 30 feet high, tell a story of people living in a fortress city, protecting what they had—probably food—from those who would take it by force. Clearly Jericho was a site of conflict long before Joshua and the Israelites encircled its walls.
In Genesis 10, God provides a narrative of the sons of Noah and the cities that grew from their dynasties. One descendant, Nimrod, and the city he built, Babel, are inserted into the story.
Nimrod was “a mighty hunter before the LORD” (Genesis 10:9). The “before” here denotes “in the face of” or “against,”indicating an adversarial relationship with God’s purpose and plan. This is made clearer in the story of the Tower of Babel in chapter 11. The cities associated with Nimrod war back and forth for centuries. Babylon becomes a city, then an empire.
Eventually it becomes the symbol of the system that opposes God, His people and His plan throughout the Bible story. It is that city, described in Revelation 17:5 as a “MYSTERY … THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH,” which in the time of the end provides the cultural and religious inspiration to a political-religious empire called “the beast” a woman riding this "beast" already existing.
The roots of this end-time system reach back to the pattern started by Nimrod at Babel, thus bridging the intervening centuries. This system will form the backdrop for the final conflict of the age brought on by the red horse of war.
No war has ever brought peace. Wars waged in the name of religion have not achieved religious harmony. No war waged for national interest has brought lasting security for any city, state or empire. The peace sought by man is all too often a peace that only suits nationalistic interests and lays the groundwork for more subsequent conflict.
The Terrifying Nuclear Genie
As a result of the breakup of the Soviet empire (or so it seemed) in the early 1990s, its nuclear stockpiles and those of the United States have been dramatically reduced- however, in recent years two things happened that went almost unnoticed: One, The Russian Federation has been "increasing" its nuke arsenal; and two, The United States put an executive order in place that if the USA sustained a nuclear attack by Russia, we would absorb it and not retaliate). This was put into place by former Pres. George Bush, and ratified by pres. obama. Certainly the nuclear genie has not been put back into its bottle.
Who are the players of war instigations? Israel, United States, Russia. These countries control and manipulate the chess world of global wars and skirmishes. Oh there are other countries that seem to have nuke capabilities. But none would dare risk launching one, especially at a world super-power or their interests. Why? For fear of mutually assured destruction; or M.A.D.
Those who study war and its players should understand the persistent danger. In a comprehensive look at the subject, author Gwynne Dyer made this chilling, sober and almost hopeless observation: “To begin quite close to the end: we may inhabit the Indian summer of human history, with nothing to look forward to but the ‘nuclear winter’ that closes the account. The war for which the great powers hold themselves in readiness every day may come, as hundreds of others have in the past.
The megatons will fall, the dust will rise, the sun’s light will fail, and the race may perish. Nothing is inevitable until it has actually happened, but the final war is undeniably a possibility, and there is one statistical certainty. Any event that has a definite probability, however small, that does not decrease with time will eventually occur—next year, next decade, next century, but it will come. Including nuclear war” ( War , 1985, p. xi) .
One World Government
This bleak prospect has led many to conclude that a supranational world government is the only hope for universal peace. The medieval writer Dante Alighieri, in his work De Monarchia , speaks of the inevitable contentions between two governments which require arbitration by a third power with the authority to settle the dispute.
This third power is either the world-government, or it is not. So, we must arrive at a first and supreme judge for whom all contentions are judicable … Therefore, world-government is necessary for the world” (quoted in The Great Ideas: A Syntopicon of Great Books of the Western World , Volume II, William Gorman, general editor, “War and Peace,” 1952, p. 1018) .
Christ spoke of a time: "For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.” (Matthew 24:21-22)
This time period, of war will ultimately rest in the hands of God. Remember that Revelation 5 shows us that it is the Lamb, Jesus Christ, who unlocks the seals. Christ is in charge of history, and He will bring this trial to a conclusion that will at long last result in peace for all peoples. But genuine peace will not come without a terrible cost in human suffering.
You would think that just these horses running across the annals of time would persuade men to change, repent, but reading even further in Revelation we see that mankind did not repent:
Revelation 9:20 "And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:..."
One unmistakable message of the book of Revelation is God’s control of seemingly uncontrollable events. The only hope of human survival is the reality of Christ’s intervention to prevent the total destruction of the earth and its inhabitants.
As this crisis at the close of man’s age reaches its crescendo, the heavens will open and Christ will appear on a white horse. Here, in God’s message of hope, appears a fifth horseman whose ride will be decisive and final. Revelation 19:11 says He is “called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war.”
Christ will wage this battle in righteousness because He alone holds the keys to death and the grave (Revelation 1:18). No other person waging battle or war in history, no matter how “just” the cause may seem, can make this claim. God’s judgment on the nations has been building over the millennia and will be executed at precisely the right time.
Christ’s victory in this ultimate battle will result in the establishment of the Kingdom of God. Finally the world will see lasting peace.
There are two other horsemen seen riding along side of their other companions. The third horse, famine is riding too; more on this soon.