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.

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

79. "'And you have explored those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars.'" This symbolically means that they have examined what in the church are called goods and truths, which nevertheless are evils and falsities.

That this is the symbolic meaning can be seen only by recourse to the spiritual sense, and only if one knows from that sense what apostles and liars mean. Apostles do not mean apostles, but all who teach the church's goods and truths, and in an abstract sense, its doctrinal goods and truths themselves.

That apostles do not mean apostles is clearly apparent from this declaration to them:

...when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you... will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. (Matthew 19:28; cf. Luke 22:30)

Who does not see that the apostles would not judge anyone, and cannot judge anyone, much less the twelve tribes of Israel, but that the Lord alone would do so in accordance with the goods and truths of the church's doctrine that it has from the Word?

The same is clearly apparent also from the following:

The wall of the city (of the New Jerusalem) had twelve foundations, and on them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. (Revelation 21:14)

The same is clearly apparent from this since the New Jerusalem symbolizes the New Church (nos. 880, 881), and its foundations all the goods and truths of its doctrine (nos. 902ff.)

[2] The same is apparent as well from this:

Rejoice..., O heaven, and you holy apostles and prophets... (Revelation 18:20)

What is the rejoicing of apostles and prophets, unless apostles and prophets mean all those people who possess doctrinal goods and truths in the church?

The Lord's disciples mean people who are instructed by the Lord in doctrinal goods and truths, while apostles mean those who, after having been instructed, teach them. For we are told,

(Jesus) sent (His twelve disciples) to preach the kingdom of God..., and when the apostles had returned, they told Him whatever they had done. (Luke 9:1-2, 10; cf. Mark 6:7, 30)

Liars mean people who are caught up in falsities, and abstractly the falsities themselves, as can be seen from many passages in the Word where liars and lies are mentioned - so many that if we were to cite them they would fill pages. In the spiritual sense lies are nothing else than falsities.

It can be seen from this now that the statement, "You have explored those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars," means, symbolically, that they have examined what in the church are called goods and truths, which nevertheless are evils and falsities.