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)

330. Then I looked when He opened the sixth seal. (6:12) This symbolizes an examination by the Lord of the states of life of people who were inwardly evil, on whom the Last Judgment would fall.

That these people are the subject is apparent from what now follows. But for those things to be understood, two secrets need to be revealed:

First, that the Last Judgment was not executed on any but people who in outward appearance seemed to be Christians, professing with their mouth matters having to do with the church, but who in their inner makeup or heart were in opposition to them. And because they were of such a character, therefore as to their outward lives they were conjoined with the lowest heaven, and as to their inner ones, with hell.

Second, that as long as they were conjoined with the lowest heaven, the inner qualities of their will and love were kept closed off, so that they did not appear evil to others. But when they were separated from the lowest heaven, then their inner qualities were disclosed, which were in total opposition to their outer qualities, qualities by which they had pretended and feigned themselves to be angels of heaven and the places where they dwelled to be heavens. These so-called heavens were the ones that passed away at the time of the Last Judgment (Revelation 21:1).

More on this subject, however, may be seen in the short work, The Last Judgment, nos. 70, 71, and in A Continuation Concerning the Last Judgment, no. 10.