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.

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

4326. I once heard a rumbling of thunder which came from fairly high up above the rear of the head and persisted around the whole of that region. I wondered who they were and was told that they were those who related to general sensory activity that is involuntary. I was told in addition that they can perceive well a person's thoughts but that they are not willing to uncover them and declare what they are, like the cerebellum which perceives every activity of the cerebrum but does not divulge it. When their overt operation into the whole province of the rear of the head had come to an end, the extent of their operation was shown. First of all it reached into the whole face; after that it moved away towards the left side of the face, and finally towards the ear on that side. And what this series of events meant was the nature of general sensory activity which is involuntary as this existed from earliest times with people on this planet and how that activity developed.

[2] Influx from the cerebellum instills itself primarily into the face. This is clear from the consideration that a person's disposition is written into his face and his affections are visible on it. This occurs for the most part independently of the person's conscious will, as when fear, awe, shame, various kinds of gladness and also of sadness present themselves, besides many other emotions which become known to another in such a way that he recognizes from the person's face which affections stir him and what changes of disposition and mind are taking place in him. These feelings are conveyed from the cerebellum through its fibres when no presence lies within. I was shown in the manner referred to above that in earliest times, that is, among the most ancient people, general sensory activity went on in the whole of the face, but that after those earliest times it was gradually limited to the left side of it, and finally after those later times moved away from the face, so much so that nowadays scarcely any general sensory activity that is involuntary is left in the face. The right side of the face, together with the right eye, corresponds to the affection for good, whereas the left corresponds to the affection for truth. The region where the ear belongs corresponds to mere obedience that is devoid of affection.

[3] For with the most ancient people, whose age was called the Golden Age, because they lived in a state of wholeness and in love to the Lord and in mutual love, as angels do, every involuntary endeavour of the cerebellum was evident in the face, and at that time they did not know how to display anything in the countenance in any way other than as heaven, in a comparable manner, flows into involuntary endeavours, and so into the will. But with the ancients whose age was called the Silver Age, because theirs was a state of truth from which they had charity towards the neighbour, the involuntary endeavour of the cerebellum was not evident on the right side of the face, only on the left. But with their descendants, whose times were called the Iron Age, because the affection for truth did not govern their lives, only an obedience to it, that involuntary endeavour was no longer evident in the face but moved away into the region around the left ear. I have been informed that the fibres of the cerebellum have thus effected a change in their outward flow into the face, and that in their place fibres from the cerebrum have been transferred to go in that direction, which now control those from the cerebellum. All this control of them stems from an endeavour to form expressions on the face as the person bids by his own will from the cerebrum. It is not apparent to man that these things are so, but it is quite evident to angels from the influx of heaven and from correspondence.