Chapter Sixteen/Four Horsemen at the Gallop! - A Black Horse Plunges Forth - Conclusion

 How happy we can b3e that the Rider of the white horse will soon rein in that galloping black horse! For it is written concerning His loving provision for the new world: "In his days the righteous one will sprout, and the abundance of peace until the moon is no more. . . .There will come to be plenty of grain on the earth on top of the mountains there will be an overflow." - PSALM 72:7, 16; see also ISAIAH 25:6-8. 

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 What is implied by the statement, "Do not harm the olive oil and the wine"? Some have viewed it as meaning that while many would be short of food and even starving, the luxuries of the rich would not be harmed. But in the Middle East, oil and wine are not really luxuries. In Bible times, bread, oil, and wine were viewed as staples. (Compare Genesis 14:18; Psalm 104:14, 15.) Water was not always good, so wine was widely used for drinking and sometimes for medicinal purposes. (1 Timothy 5:23) With regard to oil, in Elijah's day the widow of Zarephath poor as she was, still had some oil left with which to cook her remaining flour. (1 Kings 17:12) Therefore the command "do no harm the olive oil and the wine" appears to be advice not to use up these basic commodities too quickly but to be sparing in their use. Otherwise, they will be 'harmed,' that is, they will run out before the famine ends. 

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Chapter Sixteen/Four Horsemen at the Gallop! - A Black Horse Plunges Forth

 John has more to tell us: "And I heard a voice as if in the midst of the four living creatures say: 'A quart of wheat for a denarius; and three quarts if barley for a denarius; and do no harm the olive oil and the wine.' "(Revelation 6:6) All four cherubs are united in expressing a need to watch food supplies carefully-just as the people had to "eat bread by weight and in anxious care prior to Jerusalem's destruction in 607 B.C.E. (Ezekiel 4:16) In John's time, a quart of wheat was reckoned to be the daily ration for a soldier. How much would such a ration cost?  One denarius-a whole day's wage! (Matthew 20:2) What if a man had a family? Well, he could buy three quarts of unpolished barley instead. Even that would feed only a small family. And barley was not viewed as a quality food such as wheat. 

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 What does John see, then, as the third summons to "Come!" is answered?  "And I saw, and, look! a black horse; and the one seated upon it had a pair of scales in his hand." (Revelation 6:5b) Stark famine! That is the dire message of this prophetic scene. It points forward to situations early in the Lord's day when food was rationed out by scales.  Since 1914 famine has been a continuing worldwide problem. Modern warfare brings famine in its wake. For resources normally used in feeding the hungry are often diverted to supplying war weapons. Farm workers are conscripted, and battle-scarred fields and scorched earth policies curtail food production. How true this was during the 1930's, five million perished in just one famine in the Ukraine.  The second world war brought in its wake more food shortages and famines. As the black horse continued its gallop, The World Food Council reported in mid-1987 that 512 million humans were starving and that 40,000 children die of hunger-related causes every day. 

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Chapter Sixteen/Four Horsemen at the Gallop! - A Black Horse Plunges Forth

 Jesus now opens the third seal! John, what do you observe? "And when he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say: 'Come!' " (Revelation 6:5a) Happily, this third cherub "has a face like a man's, "depicting the quality of love. Principled love will abound in God's new world, even as that fine quality permeates all of Jehovah's organization today. (Revelation4:7; 1 John 4:16) We can be sure that the Rider of the white horse, who "must rule as king until God has put all enemies under his feet," will lovingly remove the calamitous situation that is next brought to John's scrutiny. - 1 CORINTHIANS 15:25.

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Chapter Sixteen/Four Horsemen at the Gallop! -Behold, the Fiery-Colored Horse! - Conclusion

 As long as society is based on nationalistic pride and hatred, mankind must continue to sit on a key 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 hors3e 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 nuclear deterrents of our maddened times. - PSALM 37:9-11; MARK12:29-31; REVELATION 21:1-5. 

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 Then, with his thirst for blood whetted, the rider of the red horse plunged into World War II. Instruments of slaughter became even more fiendish, and casualties skyrocketed to four times those World War I. In 1945 two atomic 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 war 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. 

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 There had been many wars before 1914, the year when the Rider of the white horse receive his crown. But now the rider of the red hors3e 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 p 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! 

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 How, then, is this second summons to "Come!" answered? In this way: "And another came forth, a fiery-colored horse; and to take one seated upon it there was granted to take peace away from the earth so they should slaughter one another; and a great sword was given him." (Revelation 6:4) A grim vision indeed!  And there is no doubt as to what it pictures: war! Not the righteous, victorious warfare of Jehovah's conquering King but cruel, man-made, international warfare with needless bloodshed and pain.  How appropriate that this rider is mounted on a fire-red horse!

Certainly, John would want no part with this horseman and his headlong ride, for it has been prophesied concerning God's people. "Neither will they learn war anymore." (Isaiah 2:4) Though still "in the world," John and, by extension, the John class and the great crowd today are "no part" of this bloodstained system. Our weapons are spiritual and "powerful by God" for actively proclaiming the truth, apart from the carnal warfare. - JOHN 17:11, 14; 2 CORINTHIANS 10:3, 4.

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Chapter Sixteen/Four Horsemen at the Gallop! -Behold, the Fiery-Colored Horse!

 Toward the end of Jesus' ministry on earth, his disciples asked him privately: "What will the sign of your presence and of the conclusion of the system of things?" In reply: he foretold calamities that would be "a beginning of the pangs of distress." Said Jesus: "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there will be great earthquakes, and in one place after another pestilences and food shortages and there will be fearful sights and from heaven great signs." (Matthew 24:3, 7, 8; Luke 21:10, 11) The things John sees when the remaining seals of the scroll are opened provide a remarkable parallel to that prophecy. Watch now as the glorified Jesus opens the second seal! 

"And when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say: Come!' " (Revelation 6:3) It is the second cherub, with the appearance of a bull, that issues the command. Power is the quality here symbolized, but power used righteously. In contrast, though, John is now to see a hideous, death-dealing display of power. 

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