Four Horsemen at the Gallop! - The Pale Horse and Its Rider

The story is not yet completely told.  Jesus opens the fourth seal, and John  tell us the result: "Abd when he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say:  'Come!'"  (Revelation 6:7)  This is the voice of the voice of the cherub that resembles a flying eagle.  Farsighted wisdom is indicated, and truly John, the John class, and all other earthly servants of God have needed to observe and act with insight in view of what is here depicted. So doing, we may find a measure of protection from the scourges that plague the worldly-wise of today's proud,  immoral generation.- 1 CORINTHIANS 1:20, 21. 

What new horrors are unleased, then, as the fourth horsemen responds to the call?  John tells us: "And I saw, and look! a pale horse; and the one seated upon it had the name Death. and Hades was closely following him." (Revelation 6:8a)  The rider of the last horse has a name: Death.  He is the only one of the four horsemen of Apocalypse to reveal his identity  so directly.  Fittingly, Death rides a horse that is pale, since the word  pale (Greek, khlo-ros') is used  in Greek literature to describe faces that are blanched, as if by disease.  Also fittingly, Death is closely followed  in some unexplained manner by Hades (gravedom), since Hades receives to itself the greater number of those who fall victime to the ravages of the fourth horseman.  Happily, for these there will be a resurrection, when 'death and hades give up those dead in them.' (Revelation 20:13)  But how does Death claim those victims?

The vision enumerates some of the ways: "And authority was given them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with a long sword and with food shortages and with deadly plague and by the wild beasts of the earth." (Revelation 6:8b)  Not necessarily a literal fourth of earth's population but a large portion of the earth, whether densely or sparsely inhabited would be affected by this ride.  This horseman reaps the victims of the big  sword of the second horseman and the famines and food shortages of the third. He reaps his own harvest too, from deadly plague and also a harvest from earthquakes, as described at Luke 21:10, 11.

Of course importance here is "deadly plague." Following in the wake of the ravages of World War I, the Spanish flue reaped over 20 million human lives in just a few months of 1918-1919.  The only territory on earth to escape this scourge was the small island of St. Helena.  In places where the population was decimated, funeral  pyres were lit to burn the piles of bodies.  And today, there is the frightful incidence of heart disease and cancer, much of which is caused by the tobacco pollution.  In what was described as "the ugly disease" of the 1980's, a way of life that is lawless by Bible standards added the scourge of AIDS to the "deadly plague."  In the year 2000, the U.S. Surgeon general was reported as calling AIDS   "probably the worst health epidemic the world has ever known."  He said that 52 million people around the world had contracted HIV/AIDS, and of them 20 million had died.  How thankful Jehovah's people are that the wise counsel of his Word  keeps them away from fornication and misuse of blood. - 1 CORINTHIANS 6:9-11.

Next time: Four Horsemen at the Gallop! - Conclusion of The Pale Horse and Its Rider 

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