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.

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

414. And who is able to stand? That this signifies, who shall bear and live? is plain from the signification of standing, when it is before the Lord, as denoting to bear [His presence] and live; here, that they are not able to bear it and live; for, as said above, the wicked not only come into trembling for fear, from the influx and consequent presence of the Lord, that is, of the Divine good and the Divine truth strongly and powerfully going forth and proceeding from Him, but also into torments from interior conflict, therefore, unless they fled thence and cast themselves down, they could not live; for from fear and torment death as it were befalls them; for the presence of the Divine mortifies evil as it vivifies good; from this state of such it is then said, "who is able to stand?" As also in Malachi:

"Who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth?" (3:2).

In Nahum:

"Who can stand up before his indignation? and who can stand in the fierceness of his anger?" (1:6).

And in Joel:

"The day of Jehovah is great and very terrible; and who shall bear it?" (2:11).

Moreover, the expression, to stand, like [the expressions] to walk and to sit, in the Word, signifies, to be, and, to live; and, to stand, the same as to consist and subsist. As in Luke:

"The angel answered Zachariah, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God" (1:19).

And in the same:

"Watch all the time, that ye may be accounted worthy to stand before the Son of Man" (21:36).

And because to stand also signifies to be, it is also said of Jehovah, in Isaiah,

"Jehovah standeth up to plead, and standeth to judge" (3:13, 14).

And in David:

"God hath stood in the assembly of God; he shall judge in the midst of the gods" (Psalms 82:1).

But whence it is that to stand signifies to be, shall be told elsewhere.