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.

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

5207. 'The seven cows beautiful in appearance and fat' means the truths of the natural which are expressions of faith and embodiments of charity. This is clear from the meaning of 'cows' as the truths belonging to the natural, dealt with above in 5198; from the meaning of 'beautiful in appearance' as expressions of faith, dealt with in 5199; and from the meaning of 'fat' as embodiments of charity, dealt with in 5200. As regards this particular matter - that truths were banished from the natural by falsities at the boundaries - it should be recognized that this is what happens initially whenever regeneration takes place. For the truths which are implanted initially in a person are in themselves truths, yet they are not truths residing with that person until good has been linked to them. Once it has been so linked good causes those truths to be truths indeed, for good is the inward essence, while truths are the outward form of that essence. Initially therefore falsities stand close to truths; that is, where at the boundaries truths are present, so also are falsities.

[2] But as good is joined to the truths, the falsities are put to flight. This is what actually happens in the next life. There the sphere of falsity attaches itself to the truths, depending on how much good passes into the truths. When little good enters in, the sphere of falsity is nearby; when more good enters in, the sphere of falsity moves further away; and when good is wholly linked to the truths the sphere of falsity is completely dispersed. When the sphere of falsity is close by, which is the case initially, as has been stated, the truths are so to speak banished. Actually they are for the time being concealed in a more interior place where they are filled with good and from where they are brought back in consecutive stages. These are the considerations that are meant by seven cows and seven heads of grain, and further on by seven years of abundance of corn and by seven years of famine. But anyone who does not know anything about regeneration or anything about a person's internal state fails to understand any of this.