In this message we come to the first four seals with the four horses and the four riders (Rev. 6:1-8).
Revelation 6:1 says, “And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder, Come.” The opening of the seven seals by the Lamb transpired immediately after Christ’s ascension to the heavens. Through His incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection, Christ is fully qualified in His ascension to open the mystery of God’s economy which is contained in the seven seals. Because God’s economy concerning the creatures is contained in the seven seals, the four living creatures are interested in announcing the opening of the first four seals respectively.
The first four seals comprise four horses with their riders in a four-horse race. All four riders are not real persons but personified things. It is evident that the rider of the second horse, the red horse, is war (v. 4); the rider of the third horse, the black horse, is famine (v. 5); and the rider of the fourth horse, the pale horse, is death (v. 8). According to historical facts, the rider of the first horse, the white horse, must be the gospel, not, as some interpret, Christ or Antichrist. Immediately after Christ’s ascension, these four things — the gospel, war, famine, and death — began to run like riders on four horses and will continue until Christ comes back. Beginning with the first century, the gospel has been spreading throughout all these twenty centuries. War has also been proceeding simultaneously. War always causes famine, and famine issues in death. All these will continue until the end of this age.
The rider of the white horse is the preaching of the gospel. White signifies clean, pure, just, and approvable. The white horse is a symbol of the preaching of the gospel, which is clean, pure, just, and approvable both to men and to God.
Some have said that the rider on the white horse is Christ, and others have claimed that the rider is the Antichrist. After much study, we learned that neither of these concepts is right. In interpreting the Bible we must follow the principle. The principle here is that the riders on the four horses are not persons but personified things. The rider on the second horse is war, the rider on the third is famine, and the rider on the fourth is death. None of these are persons but rather are personified things. Following this principle, the rider of the first horse must also be a personified thing. Therefore, the rider can be neither Christ nor Antichrist. According to the principle, this rider must also be a personification. After much consideration, we have seen that this rider must be the preaching of the gospel.
Verse 2 says, “I saw, and behold, a white horse, and he who sits on it having a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went forth conquering and that he might conquer.” A bow is for fighting with an arrow. But here there is a bow without an arrow. This indicates that the arrow has already been shot to destroy the enemy, and the victory has been won for the constitution of the gospel of peace. Now the fighting is over, and the gospel of peace is proclaimed in a peaceful way. On the cross, the arrow was shot into the heart of the enemy, the battle was fought, and the victory was won. Therefore, the bow without an arrow is a declaration that the war is over and that the victory has been won.
Verse 2 also says that “a crown was given to him.” A crown is a sign of glory. The gospel has been crowned with “the glory of Christ” (2 Cor. 4:4, Gk.), and it is called the gospel of the glory of Christ. The gospel we preach is the gospel crowned with the glory of Christ. We not only preach the gospel of grace, but also the gospel of glory.
Verse 2 also says that the rider on the white horse “went forth conquering and that he might conquer.” Throughout all the centuries, wherever the gospel is proclaimed, it has conquered and has overcome all kinds of opposition and attack and it is still conquering today. We are not told that the riders on the second, third, and fourth horses went forth conquering. Only the rider on the first horse, the preaching of the gospel, has been conquering continuously. Wherever the preaching of the gospel goes, there is this conquering.
Verses 3 and 4 say, “And when He opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, Come. And I saw, and behold, another, a red horse went forth; and to him who sits on it, to him it was given to take peace from the earth, and that they should slay one another; and a great sword was given to him.” Red here signifies the shedding of blood. Thus, the red horse is a symbol of the raging of war, which is altogether a matter of shedding blood. “To take peace from the earth,” “they should slay one another,” and “a great sword was given to him” all clearly indicate war. Since Christ’s ascension, the preaching of the gospel has been followed by war.
Verses 5 and 6 say, “And when He opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, Come. And I saw, and behold, a black horse; and he who sits on it having a balance in his hand. And I heard as it were a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying: A choenix of wheat for a denarius, and three choenixes of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine.” Here, black, indicating the dearth (Jer. 14:1-4), signifies the color of the visage of famished people (Lam. 4:8-9; 5:9-10). The black horse is a symbol of the spreading of famine, which causes a black visage. A balance is a scale used to weigh precious things. But here it is used to weigh food, as mentioned in verse 6, thus showing the scarcity of food (Lev. 26:26; Ezek. 4:16). Oil and wine are for man’s pleasure (Psa. 104:15). They are always short and become precious in famine. During a famine, oil and wine should be preserved and not harmed. Famine always follows war, for war causes food to be scarce. If there were another war today, the world would have a food shortage.
Verses 7 and 8 say, “And when He opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, Come. And I saw, and behold, a pale horse, and the name of him who sits upon it is Death; and Hades followed him. And authority was given to them over the fourth part of the earth to kill with sword and with famine and with death and by the beasts of the earth.” The rider on the fourth horse is clearly identified as death. The word translated pale may also be rendered pale green, signifying the color of the appearance of those stricken with the plague. Thus, the pale horse is a symbol of the killing of death, causing a pale appearance. Hades is the place under the earth where the souls of the unsaved dead are kept before being resurrected for the judgment of the white throne (Rev. 20:11-15). After this judgment, the unsaved will be cast into the lake of fire for eternity. Hades may be likened to a temporary jail, and the lake of fire to a permanent prison. Here Hades follows death to receive those whom death kills. The killing by beasts mentioned in verse 8 is God’s judgment (2 Kings 2:24; 17:25; Num. 21:6; Exo. 23:28; Josh. 24:12).
In these four seals we see the gospel preaching, war, famine, and death. During the past twenty centuries, these four things have marked the history of mankind. Everything else that has transpired during this time can be included in these four things. Immediately after Christ ascended to the heavens, the preaching of the gospel began. The white horse began to run the race, and the rider on this horse was the gospel of the glory of Christ. In A.D. 70 Titus, the prince of Rome, destroyed Jerusalem with his armies. Since then, throughout the centuries, there has been one war after another. Following war, there has been famine, and famine causes disease and death. Hence, in the history of the past two thousand years, there has been nothing except gospel preaching, war, famine, and death. This is the way to study world history.
Revelation, which was written at the end of the first century, is a prophecy of things to come. If, as some say, the rider on the white horse is either Christ or Antichrist, then all the four seals would refer to the future. If this is the case, then there is no prophecy to cover the last twenty centuries. This would indicate that the prophecy in this book is not complete, because it would not show anything of the history during the past two thousand years, that is, from the first century down to the appearance of the Antichrist or to Christ’s coming back. In principle, there should not be such a great gap in the prophecy of this book. Therefore, based upon this principle, these four seals must be a history of the world from Christ’s ascension to the end of this age.
We should not care for mere doctrine; we must take care of history and of experience. History is experience. We must apply prophecy to history. If we do this, we shall immediately realize that since Christ’s ascension there has been a four-horse race among gospel preaching, war, famine, and death. Today the whole world is preparing for war. Even the diplomats in the United Nations are preparing for it. While they are fighting among themselves, we are preaching the gospel, for the gospel is on the leading horse. For example, in the past two centuries it was not war that first went to China; it was the gospel. The preaching of the gospel was then followed by war, famine, and death. This has been the course of world history throughout the past twenty centuries.
Christ has opened these four seals, and the four-horse race has been revealed. Do not try to understand the prophecy of the Bible simply according to your mentality. We must take care of experience. In order to understand the prophecy of the Bible, we must take care of history because the prophecies are predictions of things to come. What has occurred during the past twenty centuries? Four things — gospel preaching, war, famine, and death.
After His incarnation, Christ accomplished redemption through crucifixion, entered into resurrection, and then ascended into the heavens. No human history gives us such a record. But this is genuine world history. In my study of history, I discovered that the world history I was taught had a great shortage — there was no incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. If you took these four things away from the history of the world, what kind of world would we have? In God’s account of history, these four things are crucial. After the ascension of Christ, the whole course of world history was changed. By opening God’s economy, Christ has written the history of mankind during the past twenty centuries.
We see the proper human history in the pure Word. This record of history in the Word carries out God’s economy. After Christ’s ascension and before His coming back, there is a history of the world. This history is summarized in a race of four horses. As we have seen, the rider on the first horse is gospel preaching. God’s economy is for nothing except the gospel preaching that will fulfill His eternal purpose. Where does the preaching of the gospel come from? It comes from Christ’s incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. These four items are the source of the gospel. The history of the past twenty centuries has been for gospel preaching. This is God’s wisdom. Gospel preaching takes the lead in the four-horse race. What is our generation for? It is for gospel preaching. And gospel preaching is for the carrying out of God’s economy. How can the church be produced? Only through gospel preaching. How can the New Jerusalem come into being? Only through gospel preaching.
Three negative things — war, famine, and death — help to advance the preaching of the gospel. A runner in a race does not run as fast alone as he does when others are running with him. War, famine, and death are terrible things, but they speed the preaching of the gospel. During the early days in China, it was difficult to open the door of the gospel. Do you know what opened the door? It was war. The door was opened, not only by civil war but also by the international war initiated by the Japanese invasion of China. After the last war between China and Japan, thousands of Chinese were saved. Moreover, through the civil war in the 1940’s, many Chinese went to Taiwan from mainland China, and thousands of them were saved. If they had stayed on the mainland, they never would have believed in the Lord Jesus. But, having been forced to migrate to the island of Taiwan, thousands of people flooded into the church for salvation in the years 1949 and 1950. During those years, we preached the gospel in the park every Sunday afternoon. Every Sunday approximately three thousand people heard the preaching of the gospel. Many were saved, and some of them eventually became elders and deacons in the churches in Taiwan and co-workers in the Lord’s work. War brought them to the gospel. Therefore, war has been and still is a good helper of the preaching of the gospel.
God’s wisdom is to make this age, the age from the ascension of Christ to His coming back, an age of gospel preaching. Everything on earth today is for the preaching of the gospel. Factories, printing, airplanes, radio, television, and even nuclear weapons are for the preaching of the gospel. This is the gospel preaching age. The history of the world since the ascension of Christ is a history of gospel preaching. What are we doing today? We are preaching the gospel. And we are not preaching a partial gospel but a whole, complete gospel, a full gospel. Do you realize that the full gospel includes the church life, the kingdom, and even the New Jerusalem? The full gospel encompasses everything from Matthew through Revelation. In these days we are preaching the full gospel, the gospel that includes the church today, the kingdom in the coming age, and the New Jerusalem in eternity. Whatever happens today, including the opposition against us, is a help to preaching the gospel. This is the vision of the first four seals. We should not be like a frog in a narrow well who has a very limited vision of the sky. Rather, we must have an overall vision to see the significance of the first four seals. Instead of having the view of a frog in a well, we should have a bird’s-eye view. The rider on the first horse is neither Christ nor Antichrist; it is the preaching of the gospel of the glory of Christ. This is the crucial factor of this age, and the three other horses are helping this one horse to run the race. We are not with the riders on the last three horses; we are with the rider on the first horse. We have a bow without an arrow, for we are preaching the gospel of peace, a gospel in which the victory has been won, in a peaceful way. Hallelujah, this glorious preaching of the gospel is riding on throughout the earth. Praise the Lord that we are on the first horse!
