The book of Revelation and the White Horse

[Entropia]

Does anybody have any idea who or what the white horse in Revelation ch. 6 is supposed to be?

I have developed an off and on obsession with the book of Revelation lately.

What an acid trip of a book!

 

[megashawn]

What an acid trip of a book!

Heh, well, now that you relize this, do you still think there is any credibility to it?

While I doubt it was LSD, I'm sure the writers had shrooms or peyote or something.

 

[Zero]

Originally posted by megashawn
Heh, well, now that you relize this, do you still think there is any credibility to it?

While I doubt it was LSD, I'm sure the writers had shrooms or peyote or something.

LOL, or 40 days in the desert...dehydration and sun poisoning can make you see all sorts of loopy crap!

 

[FZ+]

Well... this chapter is where we get the cliche of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse from. The second is clearly war, the third famine and the fourth death. So the white horserider is presumeably pestilence, the whiteness having connotations of malaise?

 

[kyleb]

i dug up the term so it can be seen in context here. pick your flavor if you don't like kjv, i imagine what i say still applies.

anyway, i think you are mistaken FZ+, the fourth horse is the pale horse of pestilence. it seems pretty clear to me that the whiteness of the first horse has connotations of perceived righteousness, both for the rider and those who follow towards the path of war. the horse itself is always a function, and in the case of the white horse that function is conquest.

i think of revolutions as a very complex parable for how society has a habit of turning on itself. it seems to me that it has played itself though many times thought history. granted, Jesus hasn't had a thousand year reign; but i don't really think that was meant to be taken quite so literally and really don't think John did either no matter how tripped out he was.

 

[FZ+]

Maybe we are reading drastically different translations here... I used the NIV.

Ok, from KJV...

And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.

Pretty ambiguous.

3___And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see.
4___And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.

This got to be war!

5___And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.
6___And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

Sounds like famine.

7___And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
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.

Named as death.

 

[kyleb]

niv leave out all sorts of stuff in the claim that it is "better" but the stuff it leaves out is good stuff in my opinion so i have serious question the motives of the people who organized the translation. it seems to me that they did a lot of revisionism for the sake of making it more widely accepted and less in keeping with the original intent.


regardless, note that pestilence is not mentioned in revolutions in either kjv or niv; and more importantly, by definition of pestilence there is an implication of death. this is why i ague that the fourth horse is very much pestilence, though it is called death. also, i don't see what how you can claim the first horse is ambiguous, unless you are trying to vindicate the act of conquest. i mean it goes on pretty lengthy about white horses and conquest:

11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.

14 And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

it doesn't rightly sound like they are talking about pestilence. besides, it doesn't fall in line with nature like that anyway. naturally, conquest leads to war, war leads to famine, and famine leads to death; pestilence just being the point were death becomes inevitable and therefor a quality of the fourth horse.

 

[Laser Eyes]

Does anybody have any idea who or what the white horse in Revelation ch. 6 is supposed to be?

The horse is often used to symbolize warfare in the Bible. The white colour indicates purity and holiness. The use of white colour for the horse means that the warfare its rider will engage in is considered righteous warfare in God's eyes. The crown worn by the rider shows the rider is none other than Jesus Christ. The bow he wields shows he rides forth to war. It is a symbolic representation of Jesus going forth to support God's people on Earth and to fight Satan and his empire of false religion.

 

[kyleb]

man i think you should read it again, that is the anti-christ on the horse.

 

[kyle_soule]

I thought the antichrist was the scarlette beast or something and the rider was the one world religion, but perhaps the anti-christ is also the rider of the white horse

An excellent book to read that deals with Revelations and all the symbolism in it is:
Are We Living in the End Times?
by Tim Lahaye, Jerry B. Jenkins

The one's who brought you the Left Behind series. The book is fairly inexpensive, you can get it at Barnes and Noble or most any other book store with religious books or at Amazon (link to book).

 

[amp]

Guys, Laser Eyes(DBZ?)

is correct. I'm sure it reprsents the second coming. If not, then it represents war.

 

[FZ+]

Originally posted by kyleb
this is why i ague that the fourth horse is very much pestilence, though it is called death. also, i don't see what how you can claim the first horse is ambiguous, unless you are trying to vindicate the act of conquest.

"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."
I am VERY certain that pestilence does not kill with sword. A bow, being a weapon of long range, seems appropiate instead for pestilence. And conquest could be interpreted as overwhelming the body's defenses.

Ok, pure random speculation, but isn't that what this passage is all about?

 

[kyleb]

but what does that have to do with anything FZ+? note that it says "them", meaning all four of the horsemen; and it is commonly accepted that "sword" refers to war in the bible. also, again i remind you that the term "pestilence" is not used in revelations; at least it is not in kjv, or niv for that matter. in the nasb it is used, to replaced death in 6:8. i don't see what is so hard to accept about what i have said, i am not trying to mislead anyone here.

amp, war is the red horse, and the second coming doesn't happen until 19:11; that is were Jesus shows up on a white horse and i imagine it is what Laser Eyes was thinking of.

lastly, my fellow kyle , it explains in John that the antichrist will trick people, not be blatantly evil like some big red beast but someone who will be mistaken for the Chirst. again, that is the whole point; everyone things they are doing the right thing in following the anticrhrist into conquest, conquest leads war, war leads to famine, and famine into death. i have heard rumors that the Pope thinks it is Bush, granted other people say it is the Pope so it is hard to say.

 

[HazZy]

Greek number system "Latin speaking man" - Lateinos = 666
Latin number system "In place of the son of God" - VICARIUS FILII DEI = 666

if you take that into consideration it's highly impropable that our president be the anti-christ as he seemingly has problems even with the english language ;).

kind of bothers me how much support the pope is getting nowadays anyways. i saw a sign on the bus saying "If he doesn't know the way, nobody does." with a picture of the pope, i nearly choked. maybe the position of the pope is considered the "anti-christ", seemingly some catholics look to the pope as if he was god himself, coincedence?

 

[jackle]

I always thought it was war, famine pestilence and death. Can't have read my bible very well then...

 

[jackle]

Originally posted by FZ+
to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.

I have:

They were given power over a fourth of the Earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.

"death" seems to have been translated "plague" here.

 

[Intervention]

Does anybody have any idea who or what the white horse in Revelation ch. 6 is supposed to be?

I have developed an off and on obsession with the book of Revelation lately.

What an acid trip of a book!

Hello Entropia,

I recently stumbled on this discussion board while looking up stuff on the four horseman of the appocalypse. That said, I would like to give you my point of view on this most disturbing prophecy!

I believe that the first horseman of the appocalypse is symbolic of a literal figure. This figure being that of the anti-christ. The reason for this is because the passage in Revelation 6:2 tells of a "bow" given to this figure and he goes forth to conquer. Notice, there is no mention of arrows given along with this bow. Therefor this figure must conquer using peace, or a bow without arrows. Now you might be saying this is a contradiction of terms. Notice the color of this horse is white or (deceptive purity.) In other words this "conqueror" is able to achieve victory through the means of peace or {only a bow without arrows}. The anti-christ is suppose to achieve his power using a deceptive peace. He is suppose to come across, not as a beast or dictator, but as mankind's greatest ruler or King. A wolf in sheeps clothing if you will.
I believe that the other 3 horseman are discriptions of what lies in the 'wake' of this guys time in power. I.e. war, plague, famine, death etc. For this deceptive peace will only be temporary. Just enough time for him to get his 'foot in the door' and gain the world's trust. Next all 'hell will break lose' literally! This guy is going to make past dictators like Hitler, Stalin, Napolean, etc. look like his apprentices!

Hope this sheds some light on your question.