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.

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

641. In reality, the Lord's merit and justice are purely divine. The nature of purely divine things is such that if they were to be applied or attributed to us, we would instantly die and would be so thoroughly consumed, like a stick thrown into the sun itself, that not even ashes would be left. Therefore when the Lord in all his divinity approaches angels and people, he does so through a light that is tempered and moderated to suit the nature and the faculties of each individual; he works through something fully suited and accommodated to that person. The same is true for the heat through which he makes his approach.

[2] In the spiritual world there is a sun. The Lord is in the center of that sun. From it he flows, through heat and light, into the whole spiritual world and into all the people there. All the light and heat there come from that sun. The Lord also flows from that sun, with the same heat and light, into the souls and minds of people [in the material world]. That heat, in its essence, is the Lord's divine love; that light, in its essence, is the Lord's divine wisdom. The Lord adapts that light and heat to the nature and faculties of the angels and people who are receiving him. This takes place through spiritual auras or atmospheres that convey and carry that heat and light. The divine qualities that directly surround the Lord constitute that sun. It stands at a distance from angels, just as the sun in the physical world stands at a distance from people, so that it will not shine on them unprotectedly and directly, because if it did, they would be consumed, as I say, like a stick thrown into the sun itself.

[3] All this makes it clear that the Lord's merit and justice, purely divine as they are, could never, ever be brought through any process of assignment into any angel or any person. In fact, without the protections just mentioned, if only one undiluted drop of it were to touch us we would immediately be tormented as if we were fighting for our lives; we would thrash about, our eyes rolling in their sockets, and die. In the Israelite church the truth of this was clear from the statement that no one can see God and live [Exodus 33:20].

[4] In the following words in Isaiah, there is a description of what was to happen to the sun of the spiritual world after Jehovah God took on a human manifestation and added to it redemption and a new justice:

The light of the sun will be seven times as strong, like the light of seven days, on the day when Jehovah will bind up the brokenness of his people. (Isaiah 30:26)

From beginning to end, that chapter is about the Lord's Coming.

In the following words in the Book of Revelation, there is a description of what would happen if the Lord were to come down and directly approach some godless person:

They will hide themselves in caves and in the rocks on the mountains, and they will say to the mountains and the rocks, "Hide us from the face of the One sitting on the throne and from the anger of the Lamb. " (Revelation 6:15-16)

The phrase "the anger of the Lamb" is used here because their terror and torment at the approach of the Lord makes him seem angry to them.

[5] The point I am making becomes even clearer from the fact that when any godless people are brought into heaven, where goodwill and faith in the Lord are dominant, darkness comes over their eyes, dizziness and insanity assault their minds, pain and torment afflict their bodies, and they become like dead people. What would happen, then, if the Lord himself were to come into us with his divine merit (which is redemption) and his divine justice? Even the apostle John could not bear the presence of the Lord: we read that when he saw the Son of Humankind among seven lampstands, he fell at his feet as if dead (Revelation 1:13, 17).