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.

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

2078. 'O that Ishmael might live before You!' means that others who are rational from truth should not perish. This is clear from the representation and consequent meaning of 'Ishmael' as the rational, dealt with in the previous chapter, where Ishmael was the subject. Inside the Church there are two types of people, namely spiritual and celestial. The former - the spiritual - become rational from truth, but the latter - the celestial - do so from good. For what distinguishes spiritual people from celestial, see 2069 above, and in many places in Volume One. The former, namely spiritual people who become rational through truth, are here meant by 'Ishmael', for the name 'Ishmael' in its genuine sense means rational truth, as shown already in 1839, 1949 1951. When this rational truth is adopted and desired by good, as it is here by the Lord (meant by Abraham), it means that which is spiritual, and so the spiritual man. Or what amounts to the same, it means the spiritual Church, the salvation of which the Lord, out of the Divine love referred to immediately above in 2077, earnestly desired. That desire is expressed by the words, O that Ishmael might live before You!