The Meaning of the Book of Revelation: the Four Horsemen
Door Jonathan S. Rose, Curtis Childs
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)
This video is a product of the Swedenborg Foundation. Follow these links for further information and other videos: www.youtube.com/user/offTheLeftEye and www.swedenborg.com
Heaven and Hell #118
118. As for the Lord's actually appearing in heaven as the sun, this is something I have not simply been told by angels but have also been allowed to see a number of times; so I should like at this point to describe briefly what I have heard and seen concerning the Lord as the sun.
The Lord does not appear as a sun in the heavens, but high above them, and not directly overhead but in front of angels at a middle elevation. He appears in two places, in one for the right eye and in another for the left, noticeably far apart. For the right eye he looks just like a sun, with much the same fire and size as our world's sun. For the left eye, though, he does not look like a sun but like a moon, with similar brilliance but more sparkling, and with much the same size as our earth's moon; but he seems to be surrounded by many apparent lesser moonlets, each similarly brilliant and sparkling.
The reason the Lord appears in two places, so differently, is that he appears to people according to their receptiveness. So he looks one way to people who accept him through the good of love and another way to people who accept him through the good of faith. To people who accept him through the good of love, he looks like a sun, fiery and flaming in response to their receptivity. These people are in his heavenly kingdom. To people who accept him through the good of faith, though, he looks like a moon, brilliant and sparkling in response to their receptivity. These people are in his spiritual kingdom. 1 This is because the good of love corresponds to fire, so that fire, in its spiritual meaning, is love; while the good of faith corresponds to light, so that light, in its spiritual meaning, is faith. 2
The reason he appears to the eyes is that the deeper levels of the mind see through the eyes, looking from the good of love through the right eye and from the good of faith through the left eye. 3 You see, everything on the right side of an angel or one of us corresponds to what is good and yields truth, while everything on the left side corresponds to that truth that comes from what is good. 4 "The good of faith" is, essentially, truth that comes from what is good.
Voetnoten:
1. [Swedenborg's footnote] The Lord is seen in heaven as a sun, and is the sun of heaven: 1053, 3636, 3643, 4060. The Lord appears as a sun to people in the heavenly kingdom, where love for him reigns, and as a moon to people in the spiritual kingdom, where thoughtfulness toward one's neighbor and faith reign: 1521, 1529-1531, 1837, 4696. The Lord as a sun appears at a medium elevation for the right eye, and as a moon for the left eye: 1053, 1521, 1529-1531, 3636, 3643, 4321, 5097, 7078, 7083, 7173, 7270, 8812, 10809. The Lord has been seen as the sun and as the moon: 1531, 7173. The Lord's essential Divine is far above his Divine in the heavens: 7270, 8760.
2. [Swedenborg's footnote] Fire in the Word means love for either good or evil: 934, 4906, 5215. Sacred or heavenly fire means divine love: 934, 6314, 6832. Hellfire means love for oneself and the world, and all the craving that belongs to those loves: 1861, 5071, 6314, 6832, 7575, 10747. Love is the fire of life, and life itself actually comes from it: 4096 [4906?], 5071, 6032, 6314. Light means the truth of faith: 3395 [3195?], 3485, 3636, 3643, 3993, 4302, 4413, 4415, 9548, 9684.
3. [Swedenborg's footnote] The sight of the left eye corresponds to what is true in faith, and the sight of the right eye corresponds to what is good in it: 4410, 6923.
4. [Swedenborg's footnote] Things on our right side have reference to the good that yields truth, while things on our left have reference to the truth that comes from what is good: 9495, 9604.
