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.

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

116. THE SUN IN HEAVEN

In heaven, neither the sun of the world nor anything from that sun is seen, because it is wholly natural. In fact, nature has its beginning from that sun and whatever is produced by means of it is called natural. But the spiritual, in which is heaven, is above nature and quite distinct from what is natural, nor is there communication between the two except by means of correspondences. What the distinction between them is may be understood from the things said before about degrees (38), and what the communication is from the things said in the preceding two sections about correspondences.

38. He who does not know how degrees are related to Divine order cannot comprehend how the heavens are distinct or even what is meant by the internal and the external man. Most people in the world have no other idea of what is interior and what exterior, or of what is higher and what lower, than as something continuous or coherent by continuity from what is purer to what is grosser. But the relation of what is interior to what is exterior is not continuous but discrete. There are two kinds of degrees, those that are continuous and those that are not. Continuous degrees are related like the degrees of the waning of light from a bright blaze until it is obscured, or like the degrees of the decrease of vision from objects in the light to those in the shade, or like degrees of purity of the atmosphere from its depths to its highest point. These degrees are determined by distances.

[2] On the other hand, degrees that are not continuous but discrete are distinguished like prior and posterior, like cause and effect or like what produces and what is produced. Whoever looks into the matter will see that in each and all things in the whole world, whatever they are, there are such degrees of producing and compounding, that is, that from one thing comes another, and from the other a third and so on.

[3] One who does not acquire for himself a perception of these degrees cannot possibly discern the distinctions of the heavens, nor between the interior and exterior faculties of man, nor the distinction between the spiritual and the natural world, nor between the spirit of man and his body. So neither can he understand the nature and source of correspondences and representations nor what influx is. Sensual men do not apprehend these distinctions, for even where these degrees are concerned, they make increases and decreases to be continuous. Therefore, they cannot have any conception of what is spiritual otherwise than as a purer natural. Consequently, they stand outside, and are far removed from intelligence. ¹

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