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.

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

12. The desolation of the truth of the Church may be compared with the consummations on earth: namely, heat and all those seasons [see 10, above] are consummated by winter, and then comes spring; and light on earth is consummated by night, and then comes morning. Wherefore, the Lord said to those under the altar,

[that they should rest yet for a little time, till their fellow-servants, and their brethren, who should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled (Revelation 6:11)].

(Many passages are to be adduced from the Apocalypse, to the effect that the Church has been devastated, even down to last things.)