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.

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

3116. These three verses deal with the investigation of truth that was to be introduced into good and so joined to it, in particular as regards its origin, for every single thing is dependent on its origin. Derivations take shape from their origin as their own root or seed in the way that a young plant does from its root or seed. These things residing with Him the Lord saw and investigated from the Divine, and from His own wisdom and intelligence introduced them, that is to say, introduced truths into the good of the rational. It is the investigation itself that is described in these verses in the internal sense; yet the things present in that sense can be explained to very few.

[2] Investigation also takes place with everyone who is being reformed, also with anyone who receives remnants. But of this investigation man knows nothing at all. To him it is so shrouded in obscurity that he does not even believe that it exists, even though it is taking place moment by moment. The Lord however, who alone has sight of a person's state, not only as it is at present but also as it will be for ever, is the one who carries out that investigation. Investigation involves a very delicate balancing to prevent even the smallest amount of falsity being joined to good, or the least amount of truth to evil. If falsity were joined to good, or truth to evil, a person would perish for ever, for he would in that case be suspended in the next life between hell and heaven, ejected by hell on account of good, and by heaven on account of evil.