Continue with Behold, The Fiery-Colored Horse!

There had been many wars before 1914, the year when the Rider of the white horse received his crown. But now the rider of t he red horse is given "a great sword." What does this imply? With the eruption of World War I, human warfare becomes more sanguinary, more destructive than ever before. During the 1914-1918 bloodbath, tanks, poison gas, airplanes, submarines, huge cannons and automatic weapons were used either for the first time or on an unprecedented scale. In some 28 nations, whole populations, not just professional soldiers, were pressed into the war effort. Casualties were horrendous. More than nine million soldiers were slaughtered, and civilian casualties were astronomical. Even with the end of the war, there was no return to real peace on earth. More than 50 years after that war, German statesman Konrad Adenauer commented: "security and quiet have disappeared from the lives of men since 1914." It was, indeed, granted to the rider of the fiery-colored horse to take peace away from the earth!

Then, with his thirst for blood whetted, the rider of the red horse plunged into World War II. Instruments of slaughter became ever more fiendish, and casualties skyrocketed to four times those of World War I. In 1945 two atom bombs burst over Japan, each one annihilating - in a flash-tens of thousands of victims. During the second world war, the rider of the red horse reaped a huge harvest of some 55 million lives, and even then he was not satisfied. It is reliably reported that at least 19 million souls have fallen under the "great sword" since World War II.

Could we call this a triumph for military technology? It is, rather, a testimony that the merciless red horse is at the gallop. And where will that gallop end? Some scientists forecast mathematically that an accidental nuclear is virtually certain to take place within the next 25 years -let alone a planned nuclear conflagration! But happily the conquering Rider of the white horse has other thoughts about this.

As long as society is based on nationalistic pride and hatred, mankind must continue to sit on keg of nuclear peril. Even if the nations out of desperation, should scrap all nuclear firepower, they would retain the know-how. In short order, they could reproduce their murderous nuclear devices hence, any war with conventional weapons could soon mushroom into a holocaust. The pride and hatred that envelop the nations today must lead to humanity's suicide, unless -ah, yes, unless the Rider of the white horse should head off the mad gallop of the fiery-colored mount. Let us be confident that Christ the King will ride, both to complete his conquest over the world controlled by Satan and to establish a new earthly society based on love-love of God and neighbor-a force for peace, far, far superior to the shaky deterrents of our maddened times.-Psalm 37:9-11; Mark 12:29-31; Revelation 21:1-5.

Next time: A Black Horse Plunges Forth