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.

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

585. That 'the evil of man had been increased on the earth' means that the will for good started to go out of existence is clear from what has been stated before about no will existing any longer, but only evil desire, and also from the meaning of 'man on the earth'. In the literal sense 'the earth' is where mankind is, in the internal sense, where love is. And because love consists either in the will or else in evil desire, 'the earth' stands for man's will itself. In fact it is from willing rather than from knowing and understanding that a person is human, for knowing and understanding flow from his willing. Anything that does not flow from his willing, he does not wish to know or to understand. Indeed when he says or does something other than what the wills there is still something of the will, remote from speech and action, which governs him. That the land of Canaan, or the Holy Land, stands for love and so for the will of the celestial man may be confirmed from many places in the Word; and in like manner that the lands of various nations stand for their loves, which taken in general are self-love and love of the world. But as this point occurs so frequently there is no need to delay over it here. From these considerations it is clear that 'the evil of man on the earth' means his natural evil, which resides in the will, and which is said to have 'increased', because that natural evil had not become so bad with every one - though their intentions were selfish - that they did not wish good to others. 'The imagination of the thoughts of his heart' however means that such perversity became complete.