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.

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

189. "'That no one may take your crown.'" This symbolically means, lest they lose the wisdom from which comes eternal happiness.

A person acquires wisdom from no other source than goodness gained through truths from the Lord. A person acquires wisdom through these truths because they are the means by which the Lord conjoins Himself with the person and the person with Himself, and the Lord is wisdom itself. Wisdom consequently perishes in a person when he stops putting truths into practice, that is, when he stops living in accordance with them. He also then ceases to love wisdom, and accordingly ceases to love the Lord.

By wisdom we mean wisdom in spiritual matters. From this as a wellspring flows wisdom in all else, which we call intelligence, and through this knowledge, which results from an affection for knowing truths.

A crown symbolizes wisdom, because wisdom occupies the highest place in a person and so crowns him. Nor is anything else symbolized by the crown of a king, for a king in the Word's spiritual sense is Divine truth (no. 20), and from Divine truth comes all wisdom.

[2] Wisdom is symbolically meant by a crown also in the following passages:

...I will make the horn of David grow..., and upon Him His crown shall flourish. (Psalms 132:17-18)

(Jehovah) put... earrings in your ears, and an ornate crown on your head. (Ezekiel 16:12)

This is said of Jerusalem, which symbolizes the church in respect to doctrine, and therefore the ornate crown is wisdom originating from Divine truth or the Word.

In that day Jehovah of Hosts will be for an ornate crown and a beautiful turban to the remnants of His people. (Isaiah 28:5)

This is said of the Lord, because it says "in that day." The ornate crown for which He will be is wisdom, and the beautiful turban is intelligence. The remnants of the people are people among whom the church will be.

[3] The crown and turban in Isaiah 62:1, 3 have the same symbolic meaning. So, too, does the plate upon the turban of Aaron in Exodus 28:36-37, which is also called a miter.

Furthermore, in the following:

Say to the king and his lady, "Lower yourselves, sit down, for the ornament of your head has come down, the crown of your beauty." (Jeremiah 13:18)

The joy of our heart has ceased... The crown has fallen from our head. (Lamentations 5:15-16)

He has stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head. (Job 19:9)

You have profaned [by casting it] to the ground the crown (of Your anointed). (Psalms 89:39)

The crown in these places symbolizes wisdom.