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.

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

221. We Are Not Granted Inner Access to the Truths That Our Faith Discloses and the Good Effects of Our Caring Except As We Can Be Kept in Them to the End of Our Life

In the Christian world, people know that the Lord wants everyone to be saved. They also know that the Lord is omnipotent. As a result, many of them conclude that he can save everyone and does save those who beg for his mercy--especially if they do so with the formula of the standard faith, namely, that God the Father may have mercy for the sake of the Son, and especially if they also ask to be granted this faith. However, in the closing section of the present work [331-340] we shall see that the actual situation is very different indeed. There I will explain that the Lord cannot violate the laws of his divine providence, because violating them would be violating his own divine love and his own divine wisdom, actually violating himself. We shall see there that this kind of instant mercy is impossible because our salvation is accomplished by specific means. No one can lead us by these means except one who both intends the salvation of everyone and is omnipotent, namely, the Lord.

The means by which the Lord leads us are what we are calling "the laws of divine providence." One of them is this: that we are not granted inner access to the truths that wisdom discloses and the good that love does except as we can be kept in them to the end of our life. To demonstrate this rationally, though, I need to lay it out in the following sequence.

1. It is possible for us to be granted wisdom about spiritual matters and even a love for them and still not be reformed.

2. If we then backslide from them and go against them, we profane what is holy.

3. There are many kinds of profanation, but this is the worst of all.

4. This is why the Lord does not grant us inner access to the truths that wisdom discloses and the good that love does except as we can be kept in them to the end of our life.