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)

6700. As regards the worship of God which the inhabitants of other worlds offer Him, all there who are not idolaters acknowledge the Lord as the one and only God. None but a very few, it is true, know that the Lord assumed the Human on our planet and made that Human Divine. Yet they adore God not as a Deity who is altogether unknowable but as One who can be known through a human form. For when the Divine shows Himself to them He does so within that form, as He also did in former times to Abraham and to others on our planet. And since they adore the Divine under a human form they adore the Lord. They also know that no one can be joined to the Divine in faith and love unless He is present in a form that people can have some conception of. If He did not present Himself in such a form their conception of Him would be lost, like sight looking at outer space. When they have been told by spirits from our planet that the Lord assumed the Human on our planet, they have pondered on it a little and soon said that this happened for the sake of the salvation of the human race. They have also said that the Divine whom they adore and offer the holiest worship to shines in heaven as the Sun and, when He appears, presents Himself in visible Human form. Regarding the Lord's appearance in the next life as the Sun and the fact that all the light of heaven is derived from Him, see 1053, 1521, 1529-1531, 3636, 3643, 4060, 4321 (end), 5097. But more on these matters in particular is to be mentioned in later sections.