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.

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

4729. 'And let us say, An evil wild animal has devoured him' means a lie invented out of a life of evil desires. This is clear from the meaning of 'a wild animal' as affection or else evil desire, dealt with in 45, 46, for in the genuine sense 'a wild animal' means that which is living, 774, 841, 908, and therefore 'an evil wild animal' here means a life of evil desires. The fact that a lie is meant is self-evident; and this lie is connected with what has come immediately before about them casting that Divine truth away among falsities - a lie invented out of a life of evil desires. For falsity arises from three different sources, the first being the teaching of the Church, the second the illusions of the senses, and the third the life of evil desires. Falsity arising from the teaching of the Church occupies solely the understanding part of a person's mind, for he has been convinced since early childhood that such falsity is the truth, confirmations coming in by and by to strengthen that conviction. But falsity arising from the illusions of the senses has less impact on the understanding part, for people who are under the influence of falsity arising from the illusions of the senses receive little insight from their understanding because their thinking is founded on base ideas and on sensory impressions. Falsity arising from a life of evil desires however springs from the will itself, or what amounts to the same, from the heart, for a person desires that which he wills from the heart. This is the worst kind of falsity because it clings and is not rooted out except by means of a new life received from the Lord.

[2] As is well known, man has two inner mental powers - the understanding and the will. That which the understanding takes in and absorbs does not therefore pass over into the will, but that which the will takes in and absorbs does pass over into the understanding; for what is in a person's will occupies his thought also. Consequently when his desires lead him to will what is evil he is also thinking about it and confirming it. And when thoughts of evil have become confirmations of it they are called falsities arising from a life of evil desires. These falsities are seen by that person as truths, and once he has confirmed those falsities, truths are then seen by him as falsities, for he has now blocked off the light that flows from the Lord through heaven. But if he has not confirmed those falsities, truths which have been previously absorbed by his understanding stand in the way and prevent those falsities from being confirmed.