Disease and manufactured bio-weapons (Compliments of the military and the CDC) can lead to the death of thousands, fear of disease can unravel the social fabric, disrupting the precarious balance of relationships essential for the stability of nations.
With the part hoax (to put controls in place on the premise that there is a bio-threat from a foreign entity) and the controlled release of Zika, once again, the problem of pestilence travels farther on television than in the real world of existence.
Before Zika there was yet another man-made bio-waepon its delivery being controlled; SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), which killed hundreds in years past and panicked thousands more. Before that it was AIDS virus created by the Army's Scientists in around 1963 (some say before this date), which has killed tens of millions and even today is still decimating the populations of some countries. And lest we forget the ground testing of Ebola, our modern and modified version of the Black Plague that killed more thousands in 14th century Europe.
Tomorrow it will be another bio-weapon or chemical weapon, an even greater plague (lies, falsehoods) to sweep across the landscape, leaving death, fear and destruction in its wake.
In examining each of the first four seals of Revelation 6. These seals, dramatically depicted by four horsemen, show the effect of false religion, war, famine and plague among the earth’s population in the days leading to the return of Jesus Christ.
Each of these seals represents powerful forces that devastate human life on the earth. The cumulative effect will lead to such conditions that if Jesus Christ did not intervene and cut short the time of trial, “no flesh would be saved” (Matthew 24:22).
The fourth seal, the fourth horseman, and he riding with his companions bringing now for centuries death by plague/pestilence.
The Ride of the Fourth Horseman
Revelation 6:7-8 tells us this about the fourth seal: “And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.”
The Expositor’s Bible Commentary says this about the color of the fourth horse: “ ‘Pale’ ( chloros ) denotes a yellowish green, the light green of a plant, or the paleness of a sick person in contrast to a healthy appearance.” Put bluntly, this horse is the color of death .
In Jesus’ parallel prophecy in Matthew 24, He explained that in the wake of religious deception, war and famine would come “pestilences” (Matthew 24:7).
The seals have a cumulative effect. False religion causes instability within relationships leading to war. Famine follows war, and when undernourishment (Monsanto, GMO foods) occurs and social systems break down, human beings are more susceptible to disease and bio attacks.
Revelation 6:8, speaking of all four horsemen, states: “And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.”
As this fourth horseman continues riding in this age, earth’s inhabitants will continue to experience incredible devastation.
To understand how bad things really are, let’s go back and look at some of the great plagues of history.
The Black Death
Perhaps the most famous plague in history is the Black Death of the 14th century, thought by most to have been bubonic plague. Estimates are that more than 20 million people (a third to half of Europe’s population) died in the uncontrolled outbreak.
In 1346, reports reached Europe of a devastating disease from China that was affecting many parts of Asia. The next year a mysterious disease "appeared" in Italy. Ships from the Black Sea sailed into Messina with sailors infected with black boils in their armpits and groins. It was the bubonic plaque-similar to today's Ebola symptoms.
The disease was so lethal that people were known to go to bed well and die before waking. There were two types of this plague. The first was internal, causing swelling and internal bleeding (like Ebola). This was spread by contact. The second concentrated in the lungs and spread by coughing airborne germs (similar to the modified SARS-COPD). There was no known prevention or cure.
Whole towns were depopulated. The social structure completely broke down.
Parents abandoned children; husbands and wives left each other to die. In many cases no one was around to bury the dead, both from fear of contagion and lack of concern. One writer of the time tells of observing 5,000 bodies lying dead in a field. This uncontrolled bio-weapon was the worst attack of the fourth horseman ever in history up to that time in Europe.
In that age, the Bible was the primary means to measure any natural calamity. The only way to understand what was happening was to believe the world was coming to an end. There seemed no hope for the future.
The bubonic plague had appeared in more later on as well. The Great Plague of London in 1664-65 resulted in more than 70,000 deaths in a population estimated at 460,000. An outbreak in Canton and Hong Kong in 1894 left 80,000 to 100,000 dead, and within 20 years the pestilence spread from the southern Chinese ports throughout the whole world, resulting in more than 10 million deaths.
The plague came to America from Asia in 1899. Today cases are still reported, and an average of 15 people die each year.
Human-engineered Plague
Throughout its history, plague has been used as an offensive weapon against populations (Depopulation Agenda). The Mongols would catapult plague-infested corpses over the walls of besieged cities. Thousands would die as the disease spread through the walled-in population.
The Depopulations Agenda is still heavy at work with the use of poisoning of foods, additives, vaccines, lab created (but controlled) diseases, airplane dispersed aerosols, electro-magnetic weapons, etc.
During World War II, Japan dropped plague-infested fleas on China. American research growing out of the war experience led to a decades-long research project at Fort Detrick, Maryland, proving that biological warfare was a feasible method of waging war.
Rev. 6:8 "And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth."
Among disease and pestilences, 80 percent of agents that could be implemented for bio-terrorism have animal origins.
In 1969 U.S. President Richard Nixon ordered the research stopped, and in 1972 the United States signed a treaty with 70 other nations outlawing the production, stockpiling and use of biological weapons as a means of war. Despite this treaty, it is known that many nations including and especially the United States, continue to develop and use biological weapons on its people.
The former Soviet Union conducted a sophisticated effort to manufacture biological weapons during the Cold War years. For years scientists researched ways to genetically alter bubonic plague so as to make it resistant to many forms of modern treatment- we know one form as Ebola.
The Seals in Context
When we look at the four seals of Revelation 6, we have to understand them in the context of God’s agelong message to mankind. False religion, war, famine and disease are the results of man’s broken relationship with Him. As these horsemen continue to make their rides, it will be after repeated warning and pleading from God to turn from sin and live righteously based on His eternal law of love toward God and man.
Unfortunately, this will not be the case with most. We read :
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:..."
Revelation 9:21 "Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts."
Revelation 16:9 "And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory."
Revelation 16:11 "And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds."
Mankind eventually will come face to face with God and admit that He is the one and only true God.
Romans 14:11 "For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God."
Philippians 2:10 "That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;....."
Even those that may dwell under the earth, they too, will bow their knee to the One True and Living God.
The book of Revelation shows God’s merciful intervention in human affairs to both correct and save man from destruction. God will bring justice to the earth, but first there will be this time of unparalleled tribulation.
The Fifth Horseman.........
People commonly refer to these four seals as “the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.” Because the last word here is often synonymous with world destruction, there is typically no hope in this reference. But “Apocalypse” is simply the Greek name of the book of Revelation—meaning “revealing” or “unveiling.” And this book reveals more than the gloom and doom that lie at the end of the age.
Indeed, John saw more than four horsemen in his vision. He saw five. Revelation 19:11-16 shows us the ride of the Fifth Horseman.
"And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.
His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.
And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.
And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS."
It is the appearance of Jesus Christ, on a white horse from Heaven, intervening in world affairs at its most crucial point. The King of Kings and Lord of Lords, His appearance will bring an everlasting Kingdom of truth, peace, plenty and ultimate well-being for a thousand years.
Revelation 20:4 "And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years."
2 Peter 3:10 "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up."
2 Peter 3:13 "Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness."
Revelation 21:1 "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea."
