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.

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

9994. 'And unleavened wafers anointed with oil' means what is celestial in the external man. This is clear from the meaning of 'wafers' as what is celestial in the external man, dealt with below; from the meaning of 'unleavened' as what has been purified, dealt with above in 9992; and from the meaning of 'oil' as the good of love, dealt with in 886, 4582, 4638. From these meanings it is evident that 'unleavened wafers anointed with oil' means what is celestial in the external man, which proceeds in order from the first two. The wafers are said to be 'anointed with oil' but the cakes 'mixed with oil' because the wafers are third in order and the cakes second, as stated immediately above in 9993. What is second in order proceeds directly from the inmost and consequently has the inmost celestial within it, meant by 'oil'; and what is third in order proceeds indirectly from the inmost, that is to say, through what is second in order, and does not consequently have the inmost within it in quite the same way as that second in order. So it is that the cakes, since they mean the celestial that is second in order, are said to be 'mixed with oil', whereas the wafers, since they mean the celestial that is third in order, are said to be 'anointed with oil'. But these matters are hardly intelligible to anyone unless he knows something about the way things come into existence in succession; this has the same relation as end, cause, and effect. What is inmost constitutes the end, what is in the middle constitutes the cause, and what stands last constitutes the effect. The end must be within the cause if this is to be the cause belonging to that end, and the cause must be within the effect if this is to be the effect belonging to that cause. The end is not apparent within the effect as it is within the cause, because the effect lies further away from the end than the cause does. All this may enlighten the mind to recognize the nature of the inmost, middle, and external following one another in successive order.