The Meaning of the Book of Revelation: the Four Horsemen
Durch Jonathan S. Rose, Curtis Childs
Transparency is needed to sort things out. Before big change happens, God first reveals what’s really going on.
In the Book of Revelation - the last book of the Word - the apostle John describes a series of apocalyptic visions that he experienced during his exile on the Isle of Patmos, in the Aegean Sea.
In one of these visions, he saw four horsemen, the first riding a white horse, the second a red horse, the third a black, and the fourth - named Death - riding a pale horse. These "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" - oft-pictured - are described in Revelation 6:1-8.
What do these horses, and their riders, represent? What do they have to do with us, today? Watch as Curtis Childs and Jonathan Rose explore the hidden Bible meaning of the Four Horsemen in the Book of Revelation, in this video from the Swedenborg and Life Series, from the Swedenborg Foundation.
Plus, to go straight to the source, follow the links below to the places in "Apocalypse Revealed" where Swedenborg explained the inner meaning of this famous Bible story. A good place to start would be Apocalypse Revealed 298.
(Verweise: Apocalypse Explained 315; Apocalypse Revealed 262-263, 301, 306, 314, 316, 320, 322-323)
Arcana Coelestia #10498
10498. 'That Moses said to the people, You have committed a great sin' means a total alienation and turning away. This is clear from the meaning of 'sin' as a turning away and alienation from the Divine, dealt with in 5229, 5474, 5841, 7589, 9346, at this point a total turning away and alienation, since the expression 'a great sin' is used. A total turning away and alienation from the Divine is the situation when no truth or good at all from heaven is received any longer, for truth and good from heaven constitute the Divine with a person. The fact that there was no reception of truth and good from heaven by that nation and that a total turning away from the Divine was consequently the situation with them is described by the following words in Isaiah,
Say to this people, Hearing, hear - but do not understand; and seeing, see - but do not comprehend. Make the heart of this people fat and their ears heavy, and plaster over their eyes, lest perhaps they see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and their heart understands, and they turn again, so that they are healed. Isaiah 6:9-10; John 12:37-40.
The words 'lest they turn again, so that they are healed' are used to mean that if they had an understanding of the internal things of the Word, the Church, and worship they would render them profane, in accord with what has been stated above in 10490.