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)

481. The man whose love is heavenly and spiritual comes into heaven; while the man whose love is corporeal and worldly with no heavenly and spiritual love goes to hell. This has been confirmed for me from all whom I have seen taken up into heaven or cast into hell. The life of those taken up into heaven had been derived from a heavenly and spiritual love, while the life of those cast into hell had been derived from a corporeal and worldly love. Heavenly love consists in loving what is good, honest, and just, because it is good, honest and just, and in doing this from that love; and those who have this love have a life of goodness, honesty, and justice, which is the heavenly life. Those who love these things for their own sake, and who do them or live them, love the Lord above all things, because they are from Him; they also love the neighbour, because these things are the neighbour who is to be loved. ¹ But corporeal love is loving what is good, honest, and just, not for its own sake but for the sake of self, because reputation, honour, and gain can thus be acquired. Such, in what is good, honest, and just, do not look to the Lord and to the neighbour, but to self and the world, and feel delight in fraud; and the goodness, honesty and justice derived from fraud are evil, dishonesty, and injustice, and these are what are loved by such in their practice of goodness, honesty, and justice.

[2] As the life of everyone is determined by these different kinds of love, as soon as men after death enter the world of spirits they are examined to discover their quality, and are joined to those who are in a like love; those in heavenly love to those who are in heaven, and those in corporeal love to those who are in hell. Also after they have passed through the first and second state they are so separated as to see or know each other no longer; for each one becomes his own love, both in respect of his interiors pertaining to his mind, and in respect of his exteriors pertaining to his face, body, and speech; for each becomes an image of his own love, even in externals. Those who are corporeal loves appear gross, dusky, black and misshapen; while those who are heavenly loves appear fresh, bright, fair and beautiful. Also in their minds and thoughts they are wholly unlike, those who are heavenly loves being intelligent and wise, while those who are corporeal loves are stupid and, as it were, foolish.

[3] When it is granted to behold the interiors and exteriors of thought and affection of those who are in heavenly love, their interiors appear like light, and some like a flamy light, while their exteriors appear in various beautiful colours like rainbows. But the interiors of those who are in corporeal love appear as if black, because they are closed up; and the interiors of some who were interiorly in malignant deceit appear like a dusky fire. But their exteriors appear of a dirty colour, and disagreeable to the sight. (The interiors and exteriors of the mind and "animus" are made visible in the spiritual world whenever the Lord pleases.)

[4] Those who are in corporeal love see nothing in the light of heaven; to them the light of heaven is thick darkness; but the light of hell, which is like light from burning coals, is to them as clear light. Moreover, in the light of heaven their interior sight is so darkened that they become insane; consequently, they shun that light and hide themselves in dens and caverns, more or less at a depth in accordance with the falsities with them derived from their evils. On the other hand, those who are in heavenly love, the more interiorly and deeply they come into the light of heaven, see all things more clearly and all things appear more beautiful to them, and they perceive truths more intelligently and wisely.

[5] It is impossible for those who are in corporeal love to live at all in the heat of heaven, for the heat of heaven is heavenly love; but they can live in the heat of hell, which is the love of raging against others who do not favour them. The delights of that love are contempt of others, enmity, hatred and revenge; and when they are in these delights they are in their life, and have no idea what it is to do good to others from good itself and for the sake of good itself, knowing only what it is to do good from evil and for the sake of evil.

[6] Those who are in corporeal love are unable to breathe in heaven. When any evil spirit is brought into heaven he draws his breath like one struggling in combat; while those who are in heavenly love have a freer respiration and a fuller life the more interiorly they are in heaven. From these things it can be confirmed that heaven with man is heavenly and spiritual love, because on that love all things of heaven are inscribed; also that corporeal love and worldly love apart from heavenly and spiritual love, are hell with man, because on such loves all things of hell are inscribed. From these things it is clear that he whose love is heavenly and spiritual comes into heaven, and he whose love is corporeal and worldly apart from heavenly and spiritual love comes into hell.

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