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)

6762. 'And hid him in the sand' means that he banished it to where falsities were. This is clear from the meaning of 'hiding' as banishing; and from the meaning of 'the sand' as true factual knowledge, or in the contrary sense false factual knowledge. The reason why these are meant by 'the sand' is that 'stone', from which the sand is formed, has both those meanings, 1298, 7720, 3769, 3771, 3773, 3789, 3798, 6426. Truth is meant by 'the sand' in Moses, Zebulun and Issachar will call peoples to the mountain; there they will offer sacrifices of righteousness, because they will suck the plentifulness of the sea, and the hidden treasures of the secrets of the sand. Deuteronomy 33:18-19.

'Calling peoples to the mountain' stands for acting so that truths may become forms of good, or faith become charity; for 'peoples' are the truths of faith, and 'the mountain' is the good of charity. 'Offering sacrifices of righteousness' stands for worship that springs from charity, 'sucking the plentifulness of the sea' for abounding in true factual knowledge, and 'the hidden treasures of the secrets of the sand' for the arcana concealed within true factual knowledge. Now since 'the sand' means true factual knowledge, it also means in the contrary sense false factual knowledge; for the majority of things in the Word also have a contrary meaning, and what that contrary meaning is like may be recognized from the genuine one. With regard to the explanation here, a banishment among falsities - which are meant by 'he hid him in the sand' - the situation is this: When hellish spirits who are steeped in falsities have been in the world of spirits, trying to destroy the truths present with those undergoing temptation, they are after that relegated to hells from which they cannot ever again come out. Very many experiences have allowed me to know of this. An operation such as this is what is meant by a relegation to a place among falsities.