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

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

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

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

 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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Chapter Sixteen/Four Horsemen at the Gallop! - Going Forth Conquering - Conclusion

 How does Jesus "complete his conquest"? This he does, as we shall see, by disposing of false religion and then hurling every remaining segment of Satan's visible organization into a symbolic "fiery lake" of destruction, in vindication of Jehovah's sovereignty. Confidently, we now look forward to that day at Armageddon when our "King of kings" will gain the final victory over Satan's oppressive political organization! (Revelation 16:16; 17:14; 19:2, 14-21; Ezekiel 25:1-7) In the meantime, the invincible conqueror on the white horse continues to ride forth as Jehovah keeps adding honesthearted ones to His righteous nation on earth. (Isaiah26:2; 60:22) Are you sharing with the anointed John class in that joyful Kingdom expansion? In that event, what the apostle John sees next when the next seals are opened will no doubt stir you to have an even greater share in Jehovah's work for this day. 

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Chapter Sixteen/Four Horsemen at the Gallop! - Going Forth Conquering - Continue

 Our conquering King has also blessed his zealous people by leading them to many victories "in defending and legally establishing of the good news" in courts of law and before rulers. (Philippians 1:7; Matthew 10:18; 24:9) This has been on an international scale-in Australia, Argentina, Canada, Greece, India, Swaziland, Switzerland, Turkey, and other lands. Among 23 legal victories gained by Jehovah's Witnesses in the United States Supreme Court have been those guaranteeing the right to declare the good news "publicly from house to house" and to desist from idolatrous patriotic ceremonies. (Acts5:42; 20:20; 1 Corinthians 10:14) Thus, the way has been kept open for an expanding global witness. 

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Chapter Sixteen/Four Horsemen at the Gallop! -Going Forth Conquering - Continue

 The global congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses has shared in many conquests under the guidance of its conquering King. Outstandingly, he protected these Bible Students from annihilation in 1918, when they themselves were 'conquered' temporarily by Satan's political organization. In 1919, however, he broke prison bars to rescue them to proclaim the good news 'to the most distant part of the earth." - REVELATION 13:7; ACT 1:8.

Before and during World War II, the dictatorial Axis powers tried to wipe out Jehovah's Witnesses in many lands where religious leaders particularly those of the Roman Catholic hierarchy, gave open or tacit support of oppressive dictators. But the 71,509 Witnesses who were preaching when the war started in 1939 became 141,606 by the end in 1945, even though upwards of 10,000 has spent long years in prisons and concentration camps and other thousands had been killed. The number of active Witnesses earth wide has expanded to well over100,000 active field ministers, - ISAIAH 54:17; JEREMIAH 1:17-19. 

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