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)

6978. 'And it will become blood on the dry land' means the falsifying of all truth and the consequent deprivation of it in the natural. This is clear from the meaning of 'blood' as holy truth coming forth from the Lord, and in the contrary sense as truth falsified and rendered profane, dealt with in 4735 (the implications of this have been stated in what comes immediately before this); and from the meaning of 'the dry land' as the natural, dealt with just above in 6976. The meaning of 'blood' as the falsification of truth and the profanation of it is clear in particular in Nahum,

Woe to the city of blood, ¹ all full of lies [and] plunder! Prey will not depart! The noise of a whip and the noise of the rumbling wheel, ² and the neighing horse and the clattering ³ chariot! The mounting horseman, ⁴ and the glitter of the sword, and the lightning-flash of the spear, and the multitude of slain, and the heap of corpses, and no end of bodies - they trip over their bodies - all because of the multitude of whoredoms of a harlot with goodly grace, the mistress of sorceries, the seller of nations through her acts of whoredom, and of families through her sorceries. Nahum 3:1-4.

'The city of blood' means teachings that uphold falsity, so that 'blood' means truth that has been falsified and rendered profane. This is evident from the internal sense of every word of the description of the city, not only in the verses that have been quoted but also in those that follow them, since the whole chapter continues with a description of it; for' the city' means doctrinal teachings. 'All full of lies and plunder' means full of falsity and of evil resulting from falsity. 'The noise of the whip and the noise of the rumbling wheel' means the defence of falsity by the use of fallacious ideas. 'The neighing horse and the clattering chariot' means by the use of a perverted power of understanding and of teachings similarly perverted. 'The mounting horseman, the glitter of the sword, the lightning-flash of the spear' means a battle against truth. 'The multitude of slain' means that countless falsities and people under the influence of them result from it. 'The heap of corpses, and no end of bodies' means that countless evils and people governed by them result from it. 'The whoredoms of a harlot' means falsifications themselves which take place; and 'sorceries' has a similar meaning.

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