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)

7577. 'And there was hail, and at the same time fire running down in the midst of the hail, extremely heavy' means firm beliefs in what is false together with desires for evil. This is clear from the meaning of 'hail' as falsity arising from evil, dealt with above in 7574, at this point firm belief in what is false since it says the hail was 'extremely heavy'; from the meaning of 'fire' as the desire for evil, dealt with just above in 7575; and from the meaning of 'running down in the midst' as being together. Indeed the desire for evil is at the centre, for the falsity emanates from it.

[2] What is being described here is the state of those belonging to the Church who molest the upright in the next life - their state when the things of the Church with them, that is, the forms of good and the truths which they have claimed to believe in, have been laid waste. That is to say, their state is now one in which firm but false beliefs together with evil desires reign; for this is what their state inwardly is like. Those false beliefs and evil desires are inseparable; for when evil takes hold in a person's life, falsity takes hold in his doctrine. When a person's life is taken hold of by evil, the situation may seem to him to be entirely different, for when people claim with their lips to believe in truths drawn from the Word or from the teachings of their Church they fancy that they have a belief in them. It even appears to them as though they do; but in fact they have no such belief if their life is evil. For either they claim with their lips to believe in things which are different from what they really think, or they think something is true because they have been told and persuaded to believe that it is, and this belief they hold on account of their desire for gain and important positions. This means that when they are no longer striving for important positions or seeking after gain that belief falls away, and then those people take hold of falsities that fit in with their evil desires. Falsities fitting in with evil desires are present inwardly with those who lead an evil life, no matter how much they may think that they are not. The truth of this is made thoroughly plain in the next life when everything external has been taken away and those kinds of people have been left to their inner selves. Falsities now erupt, both those which had played a part in their thinking in the world and those which had not evidently done so. For those falsities erupt from the evils which had been part of their life, falsities being nothing other than evils producing reasons to support and justify themselves. From all this one may see what the state of those people in the next life is like, namely a state in which firm beliefs in what is false together with desires for what is evil rule them.