Painting #11 Pale Horse (4th Seal) - Revelation 6:8

Revelation 6:7.     And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.

     The last of the four living ones now issues his invitation, and the fourth horseman of the Apocalypse rides forth. Many previous writers have called attention to the analogy of the four beasts (respectively appearing like a lion, an ox, a man, and an eagle) to the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) which respectively portray the Lord Jesus Christ in His fourfold capacity as King of Israel, Suffering Servant, Son of man, and Son of God. Each of the Gospels, as it were, invites all men to “come and see” the Lord Jesus as He has left His glorious heavenly throne to come to earth as the atoning Lamb of God to take away the world’s guilt. Now, each of the four mighty cherubim, as it were, invites all creation to come and see the Lamb of God returning again to earth to take away the world’s sin by His mighty judgments.

Revelation 6:8.     And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with Him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.

     The fourth horse was green (Greek chlorus), the same word used to describe the color of grass in Mark 6:39, Revelation 8:7, and Revelation 9:4. Green is the color universally associated with life, yet the rider on the horse is called Death. The symbolism probably is intended as prophetic irony. The humanistic optimism generated by recent events will lead the ungodly world to rejoice in the imminent attainment of the utopian life of peace and luxury it had been seeking for ages.

     But the good life they anticipate will quickly become ashes as the judgments of God begin to devastate the earth. “Life” is overcome by “Death” and “Hades” follows quickly to swallow the souls of those who die.

     The judgments associated with this fourth horseman include those brought by the second and third (“sword” and “hunger”), and all are directed by the conquering rider on the first horse. That Christ Himself is directly responsible for the ravages of Death and Hades as they range over the earth is evident from His assertion that He has the keys of Death and Hades (Revelation 1:18).

     In addition to the worldwide violence and famine, this last deadly rider also brings “death” and “the wild beasts of the earth.” The word for “death” is the Greek thanatos, the same word as used for the name of the rider. It does not mean “pestilence” (Greek loimos), as often interpreted, though this may be implied. Violence and famine do lead frequently to pestilence but the term itself includes all causes of death. Everything from old age to traffic accidents or suicide may be a cause of death, and all are included. Although the world population will be the greatest in all history, so will the death rate. In fact, one fourth of all people in the world will die. This will evidently be at least a billion people since the world’s present population is at least four billion. Furthermore this all will take place in only a year or two, during the first part of the three-and-a-half years covered in Revelation 6-11.

     An intriguing additional specific cause of this great toll of death is said to be “the beasts of the earth.” Since practically all the beasts really dangerous to man have either become extinct or are now rare and endangered species, it seems unlikely that wild animals could multiply enough in a couple of years in the last days to become a really serious threat. However, the term is also used in Acts 28:4, 5 to refer to a poisonous serpent, and it is possible that this passage portends a sudden proliferation of venomous snakes all over the earth.

     The word “beast” here is the Greek theerion, and does indeed mean a wild, or dangerous, or venomous beast. It is different from the word zoon, translated “beast” in connection with the “living ones” around God’s throne. It is remarkable, however, that theerion is used no less than thirty-eight times in Revelation, and in every other instance the word is used as a symbol for an ungodly, powerful, evil leader. Thus “the beasts of the earth” in this verse could well refer to latter-day political and military dictators whom the Lord allows for a time to subjugate and persecute their respective subjects.

Revelation 6:9.     And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held.

     With the four horsemen riding forth and the great judgments of God unleashed on the earth, the opening of the fifth seal by the Lamb introduces a strange and different scene. Like the Horsemen, the altar seen by John may be symbolic and the same may be true of the souls beneath it. Nevertheless, the martyrs are real and their cry is real.

     The figure of the shed blood under the altar is taken from Leviticus 4:17, 18. “And the priest shall . . . . pour out all the blood at the bottom of the altar of the burnt offering, which is at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.” The blood under the Levitical altar was from the atoning sacrifices for sins, and “the life of the flesh is in the blood” (Leviticus 17:11). The Hebrew word for “life,” nephesh, is often translated “soul.” The blood was innocent blood, spilled in substitution for those who deserved to die, foreshadowing the sinless blood of the Lamb of God, crucified by those whom He came to save. The souls under the altar likewise had offered their lives in testimony for the sake of their Savior, their blood shed by those whom they sought to lead to salvation.

     But who were these martyrs? All the “souls” of believers had been clothed with glorified bodies on the great resurrection day when Christ first descended from heaven to the earth’s atmosphere (1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17). The reasons for this interpretation have already been discussed and they seem conclusive. Thus, the martyrs seen at this time can only be those who were put to death for Christ’s sake during the first years of the seven-year period. This in turn means they had become believers during that same period, since al living believers had been raptured into Christ’s presence at the time of the resurrection.

     As noted above, there is some reason to believe that the “beasts of the earth” (verse 8) may refer to evil rulers who will put many to death as they take and consolidate their particular regimes during this period. Whether or not this is the particular meaning of that verse, the martyrs, slain “for that testimony which they held” (literal rendering) must have been victims of religious persecution either ordered or allowed by such leaders.

     This, in turn, means that something has generated a great revival of belief in the true God and His Christ during this period in spite of the fact that there were no believers remaining on the earth at its beginning. For one thing, God will have sent his “two witnesses” (Revelation 11:3) into the world, prophesying and calling forth mighty miracles. Somehow also there will be 144,000 Israelites “sealed” for God’s service during this period (Revelation 7:4). The result will be a “great multitude” saved (Revelation 7:9).

     It is quite possible that there will be other silent witnesses as well whose testimony will finally be heeded. Millions upon millions of copies of the Bible and Bible portions have been published in all major languages, and distributed throughout the world through the dedicated ministries of the Gideons, the Wycliffe Bible Translators, and other such Christian organizations. Removal of believers from the world at the rapture will not remove the Scriptures, and multitudes will no doubt be constrained to read the Bible in those days. Furthermore, there has been in recent years a great revival of the doctrine of creation, and the long intellectual dominance of evolutionary humanism has been seriously undermined by the many books, lectures, debates, and other activities of creationist scientists. With the sudden disappearance of the Christians, followed by the miraculous preaching of the two witnesses and the great catastrophes coming on the earth, great numbers of people will acknowledge that there really is a God and Creator who has finally come to judge and cleanse the world He created. Thus, multitudes will turn to their Creator and Savior in those days, and will be willing to give their testimony for the Word of God and even to give their lives as they seek to persuade the world that the calamities it is suffering are judgments from the Lord.

Revelation 6:10.     And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?

     When Christ rose from the dead, He escorted the souls of believers back with Him to heaven (Ephesians 4:8-10). At His return, both dead and living believers had received their resurrection bodies (Philippians 3:20, 21; 1 Corinthians 15:51-53), and were thenceforth to be with Him forever (1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17). The unsaved dead remained in Hades, and the souls of all others who die outside of Christ in the future will also abide in Hades until the resurrection of all those under the dominion of Death and Hades just prior to the final judgment (Revelation 20:13).

     But this leaves unsettled the question of the condition of those who die in Christ during the period after the resurrection of the saints. Apparently their souls will be translated to the vicinity of the Lord’s throne, where they will rest at some location analogous to “the base of the altar” in the Levitical tabernacle, there to await the resurrection of their bodies. The latter in turn will evidently take place after the final completion of God’s judgments on the earth.

     Their prayer for vindication appeals to the Lord as “holy and true,” whose holiness and truth can hardly endure much longer the wickedness of man and the lies of the evil one. God, however, is longsuffering, and there are still many more who will turn to the Lord as the judgments intensify on the earth.

Revelation 6:11.     And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.

     The “white robes” are symbolic of their righteous deeds (see Revelation 19:8), as well as the imputed righteousness received by them through their faith in Christ. It is most probably the same assemblage described as wearing white robes at the throne (Revelation 7:9), who are said to “have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:14).

     But how can “souls” actually wear white robes? This is a question that cannot be fully answered by mortals. It must be remembered, however, that the Lord Jesus Christ ascended to heaven in a physical body, and will descend from heaven in the same glorified physical body (Acts 1:9-11). In the interim, He is in heaven, preparing a glorious “place” for His disciples (John 14:2, 3). A place has spatial reality, and thus physical reality. That place is where the glorified Christ is spending the time between His first and second comings, and it is that place which He will bring with Him when He returns to the air and finally to the new earth (Revelation 21:1-3).

     Somehow even today, when the souls of believers depart to be with Christ, they are “clothed upon” with a heavenly “tabernacle” and are somehow recognizable (2 Corinthians 5:1-8), even though their bodies are still in the grave. In like manner, the souls of these tribulation believers will be arrayed in white robes as they await their own resurrection.

     There were still at least five years to go in the tribulation period, and many more who would yet turn to God. Most of these likewise would be slain for their faith and testimony and would then join those already beneath the altar, clothed with their own white robes in the heavenly tabernacle.

Shaking Terribly the Earth

Revelation 6:12.     And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood.

     The opening of the next seal marked another great catastrophe on earth. This one, however, was not a continuing condition, as under the four horsemen of the first four seals, but a single great complex of physical convulsions on the earth. In its brevity and intensity, however, it spoke more clearly and eloquently to the inhabitants of the earth than had any of the others. They had already been experiencing war and famine and pestilence as well as general violence in the world. For that matter, even earthquakes had been occurring “in divers places” for many years. But most men had refused to see in these a divine warning.

     The Lord Jesus Christ had even told his disciples that a worldwide state of war, accompanied and followed by famines, pestilences, earthquakes, fearful sights from heaven, and general troubles, would be a great sign of His coming and the end of the age (Matthew 24:7; Mark 13:8; Luke 21:11). All these, He said, would constitute “the beginning of travail” (that is, the first birth pains, presaging the imminent coming of the new age). This complex of events, in fact, seemed to occur for the first time in history in connection with the first World War, with a second and similar “birth pang” occurring in connection with World War II.

     The same combination of troubles will be repeated in the world for at least the third time as the seals are opened by the Lamb, but the calamities will be far more severe than ever before. Especially is this true of the great earthquake described here, which – for the first time in history – is worldwide in scope.

     Seismologists and geophysicists in recent years have learned a great deal about the structure of the earth and about the cause and nature of earthquakes. The earth’s solid crust is traversed with a complex network of faults, with all resting upon a plastic mantle whose structure is still largely unknown. Whether the crust consists of great moving plates is a current matter of controversy among geophysicists, so the ultimate cause of earthquakes is still not known. In all likelihood, the entire complex of crustal instabilities is a remnant of the phenomena of the great Flood, especially the breakup of the fountains of the great deep.

     In any case, the vast worldwide network of unstable earthquake belts around the world suddenly will begin to slip and fracture on a global basis and a gigantic earthquake will ensue. This is evidently, and naturally, accompanied by tremendous volcanic eruptions, spewing vast quantities of dust and steam and gases into the upper atmosphere.  It is probably these that will cause the sun to be darkened and the moon to appear blood-red.

     Joel apparently speaks of this same time: “And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come” (Joel 2:30, 31). Many other prophets speak of the darkness of the day of the Lord: “That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness” (Zephaniah 1:15). “Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine” (Isaiah 13:9, 10).

Revelation 6:13.     And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a might wind.

     The “earthquake” of verse 12 actually includes more than the solid earth. The word (Greek seismos) literally means “shaking,” and can apply to the air or sea, as well as the land. In Matthew 8:24, it is translated “tempest.” To those on the earth it will seem that the sky is shaking as well as the earth, and it will appear as though the stars themselves are being shaken loose from their moorings in the heavens and then plummeting the earth. “For thus saith the Lord of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come” (Haggai 2:6, 7).

     The word “star” (Greek aster) refers to any luminous body in the sky other than sun and moon. Obviously the “stars” here are not the distant stellar objects we today call stars, but the language of the text seems to denote more than the meteorites commonly today called “falling stars,” which were already, no doubt, as familiar to John as they are to us.

     The most likely identification of these particular falling stars is that of a great swarm of asteroids that pummel the earth. Such an event has never occurred in historic times, but scientists have long speculated about the probability of either past or future earth catastrophes caused by encountering a swarm of asteroids.

     Such an encounter is a real possibility, and would cause great devastation on the earth near the various points of impact. A shower of giant meteorites might have much the same effect. It might even be the trigger that will set off the global earthquake.

Revelation 6:14.     And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.

     This enigmatic prophecy reflects Isaiah 34:4: “And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll; and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree.” The “host of heaven” is a phrase commonly used in Scripture for the stars. The stars of heaven will never actually be “dissolved,” because the Scriptures say they will shine forever (Psalm 148:3-6). However, they will appear to dissolve for the same reason that the sun and the moon are darkened. The dust and gases from the “pillars of smoke” erupting from the earth’s depths will screen and refract the light from all heavenly bodies.

     The departing of the heavens like a scroll is more difficult to understand. There seem to be two possibilities. One is that the clouds of dust will gradually spread across the sky, making it appear that the sky is being “rolled up.” However, the use of the graphic term “departed,” seems to indicate something more spectacular even than this. The other possibility is that the earth’s crust, highly unstable ever since the great Flood, will be so disturbed by the impacting asteroids, the volcanic explosions, and the worldwide earthquakes, that great segments of it will actually begin to slip and slide over the earth’s deep plastic mantle. Geophysicists for many years have been fascinated with the idea of “continental drift” (although strong evidence has been accumulating against any such phenomenon occurring in the present age). Several have published theories of a past naturalistic catastrophism involving what they call “the earth’s shifting crust.” Some such phenomenon may actually be triggered under this judgment of the sixth seal, dwarfing the damage occasioned by all the mighty earthquakes of the past. Those who reside in regions above such shifting crustal plates will observe the heavens appearing to move in the opposite direction, and it will seem as if they are being “rolled up.”

     And, in the process, “every mountain and island [islands are submerged mountains] were moved out of their places.” It would seem that such an amazing phenomenon must be caused by some such area-wide slippages of the crust.

Revelation 6:15.     And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains.

     Such a mighty display of cosmic power will finally gain the attention of the ungodly world, including all its political, industrial, intellectual, and military leaders – the very ones who had ignored the warnings of the previous judgments and were persecuting and slaying those who were trying to bear witness to the world that the judgments were due to the wrath of the Lamb.

     And if the leaders were awed and frightened by the terrifying convulsions, even more so were ordinary people – both those who still enjoyed a measure of freedom and those who were in bondage (the word doulos could apply both to slaves and to those who, as subjugated peoples, were forced to work in occupations not of their own choosing, such as in Red China and other slave nations). Wherever possible, people – particularly the leaders – will flee to the great underground civil defense shelters that had been originally designed as protection against nuclear attack or to the great natural caverns such as Mammoth Cave, hoping to escape the falling stars and other devastations on the surface.

Revelation 6:16.     And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.

     The inhabitants of the world – including even their leaders – are finally convinced of the foolishness of atheism and evolutionary humanism, acknowledging that the God of Creation is indeed on His heavenly throne. They also will reluctantly recognize that He whom they had rejected (Psalm 2:1-3) is now speaking to them in His wrath and vexing them in His sore displeasure (Psalm 2:4, 5). The testimony of those who had borne witness to them of this fact had been silenced by execution, but now the Lamb Himself was angry and “his wrath is kindled but a little” and they were all about to “perish from the way” (Psalm 2:12). These kings and judges of the earth were no longer boasting and threatening, but were quivering in their holes in the earth.

     They were not safe even there, as the sliding crust and quaking rocks caused many of their shelters to collapse on top of them. Even this, however, now seemed preferable to facing further judgments from the Lamb, and thy even prayed for such quick destruction.

Revelation 6:17.     For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

     At least it was salutary that men were finally willing to acknowledge God and His omnipotence. It is absurd for a creature to “imagine a vain thing” (Psalm 2:1), thinking he can dethrone his Creator, and this terrifying physical upheaval had forced them to recognize this fact. But like the devils, they merely believed in God and trembled (James 2:19), still refusing to turn to Him for forgiveness and salvation.

     Isaiah also foresaw this day: “Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty. The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day . . . . And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth” (Isaiah 2:10-19).

     But then, amazingly, even this would pass. After these few terrifying days, the stars stopped falling and the terrible shakings ceased. The survivors emerged from their shelters and began again to rationalize their resistance to God. After all, these awful calamities could be explained scientifically, so perhaps they had been too quick to attribute them to God’s wrath. They quickly set about rebuilding their damaged structures and became more resolute than ever in their opposition to the gospel of Christ.

     Nevertheless there were many who had really believed and were saved. They fearlessly gave a renewed testimony to the Word of God and the imminence of His judgments, and thus quickly they also joined the ranks of the martyrs at the heavenly tabernacle.