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.

(Referencias: Apocalypse Explained 315; Apocalypse Revealed 262-263, 301, 306, 314, 316, 320, 322-323)

231. And He who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance. (4:3) This symbolizes an appearance of the Lord's Divine wisdom and love in outmost expressions.

In the Word a stone symbolizes truth in outmost expressions, and a precious stone symbolizes truth made translucent by the presence of good (no. 915).

Two colors are fundamental to all the rest in the spiritual world: the color white and the color red. The color white takes its origin from the light of the sun in heaven, thus from spiritual light, which is bright white; and the color red takes its origin from the fire of the sun there, thus from celestial light, which is flaming.

Because spiritual angels are governed by truths of wisdom from the Lord, they live in that bright white light, and are therefore attired in white; and because celestial angels are governed by goods of love from the Lord, they live in that flaming light, and are therefore attired in red. These two colors are consequently found in precious stones in heaven, where they exist in great abundance.

It is owing to this that in the Word precious stones symbolize qualities connected with either the truth of wisdom or the goodness of love; and because jasper is bright white, it symbolizes qualities connected with the truth of wisdom, while because sardius is red, it symbolizes qualities connected with the goodness of love.

These stones symbolize an appearance of Divine wisdom and Divine love in outmost expressions because all precious stones in heaven draw their origin from the outmost constituents of the Word, and they owe their translucence to the spiritual meaning of the outmost expressions in it. The reality of this may be seen in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Sacred Scripture, nos. 44, 45. The outmost expressions of the Word are the truths and goods in its literal sense.

Someone in our world can hardly believe that this is the origin of precious stones in heaven, because he does not know that everything found in the spiritual world is a correspondent form, and that everything found in the natural world takes its spiritual origin from those forms. From conversation with angels I have been given to know that this is the origin of precious stones in heaven, and also to see that it is the origin with my own eyes. It is the Lord alone, however, who causes their formation.

In contrast, dark colors take their origin from hell, of which there are also two. One is the opposite of white, the kind of darkness that exists with people who have falsified the truths of the Word. The other is the opposite of red, the kind of darkness that exists with those who have adulterated the goods of the Word. The first kind of darkness is satanic, the latter diabolical.

Regarding what jasper and sardius symbolize, more may be seen in the exposition of chapter 21, verses 11, 18-20.