The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

The color of the second horse is “fiery red” and rightly depicts his mission of bloodshed and slaughter (Mounce, Revelation, 143). But while he takes peace from the earth, the people slaughter one another. The idea seems to convey civil strife within and between peoples and nations. Assassination and civil unrest, riots in the streets, and rebellion against authority will run rampant. No one will be safe. One will live in constant fear of life not knowing whom to trust. Jesus said in Matthew 24:10, “Many will take offense, betray one another, and hate one another.” No one will be excluded. This rider takes peace from the earth. Anarchy and worldwide bloodshed are signatures of the last days.

World War II General Omar N. Bradley once delivered “An Armistice Day Address” in Boston. He said,

With the monstrous weapons man already has, humanity is in danger of being trapped in this world by its moral adolescents. Our knowledge of science has clearly outstripped our capacity to control it. We have many men of science; too few men of God. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount. Man is stumbling blindly through a spiritual darkness while toying with the precarious secrets of life and death. The world has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. This is our 20th century’s claim to distinction and to progress. (Collected Writings, 1:588–89, emphasis in original)

During World War II, Albert Einstein helped bring a German photographer to the United States. They became friends, and the photographer took a number of pictures of Einstein. One day he looked into the camera and started talking. He spoke about his despair that his formula E=mc² and his letter to President Roosevelt had made the atomic bomb possible, and his scientific research had resulted in the death of so many human beings. He grew silent. His eyes had a look of immense sadness. There was a question and a reproach in them. At that moment the cameraman released the shutter. Einstein looked up and the cameraman asked him, “So, you don’t believe there will ever be peace?” “No,” he answered. “As long as there will be man, there will be wars.”

God has used man as His instrument of judgment. He will do it again as the red horse of war rides and time, as we know it, comes to an end.

REVELATION 6:5-6

War has a close companion, an ever-present partner: famine. Conquest, war, famine: these three tend to show up at the same time together. William and Paul Paddock warned in their book Famine—1975, “Today hungry nations, tomorrow starving nations” (40). Some may accuse them of being alarmist. Revelation teaches us tomorrow could come any day.

Christ opens the third seal, and the third living creature commands the rider, “Come.” John looks and sees the black horse of famine with its rider holding “a set of scales” or balances in his hand as he rides onto the stage of history. John MacArthur notes that “the color black is associated with famine in Lamentations 5:10 (KJV). Famine is a logical consequence of worldwide war as food supplies are destroyed and those involved in food production are killed” (Revelation 1–11, 182). Christ has released the black horse of famine and starvation, and no one and nothing can deter it. It is coming. It is unstoppable.

From among the four living creatures John hears “something like a voice” saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius.” A quart of wheat was approximately the amount necessary to sustain one person for one day. Barley was the poor man’s wheat, and it was normally fed to animals. It was low in nutritional value and occasionally mixed with wheat to increase the feeding amount. A denarius was basically a day’s wage. In other words, a man will work all day for just enough wheat to sustain himself or enough barley to barely keep his family alive. This means that inflation prices would be 10–16 times above normal according to prices cited by Cicero for wheat sold in Sicily (Beasley-Murray, Revelation, 133; see also Mounce, Revelation, 145).

The phrase “do not harm the olive oil and the wine” is less clear as to its meaning. Some see the phrase as setting a limit on the deprivation caused by the horse of famine. Others argue that oil and wine were the commodities of the wealthy. The former understanding is more likely. Food for the poor will be scarce and in short supply. Still, there are limits, at least for now. However, once the trumpet and bowl judgments are finished, nothing will be left. Nothing.

Today we know that famine and hunger kill more people every year than AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined. Some 805 million people in the world do not have enough food to lead a healthy active life. That’s about one in nine people on earth. The vast majority of the world’s hungry people live in developing countries, where 13.5 percent of the population is undernourished. Sub-Saharan Africa is the region with the highest prevalence of hunger by percentage of population, where one person in four is undernourished. Poor nutrition causes nearly half (45%) of deaths in children under five—3.1 million children each year. One out of six children—roughly 100 million in developing countries—is underweight. This is what hunger and famine are like today. It will get much worse when the black horse rides.

REVELATION 6:7-8

B. F. Skinner was a famous behavioral psychologist who for much of his life was an optimist. However, at the age of 78, his optimism began to fade. At the American Psychological Association Convention on September 25, 1982, Skinner said,

Why are we not acting to save the world? The world is fatally ill . . . it is a very depressing way to end one’s life. The argument that we have always solved our problems in the past, and shall solve this one, is like reassuring a dying man by pointing out that he has always recovered from his illnesses. . . . When I wrote Beyond Freedom and Dignity, I was optimistic about the future. . . . A decade ago there was hope. . . . Today the world is fatally flawed. (White, “Hope”)

While I would disagree with B. F. Skinner on many things, his diagnosis of the condition of the world was spot on. The world is fatally flawed. The pale horse of death with the grim reaper riding saddle is just around the corner with nothing less than a global agenda.

Thankfully death cannot act apart from the plans and purposes of the sovereign Christ. As with the three previous riders, this horse comes forth at the permission of the Lamb of God and with the command of one of the living creatures. Jesus reminds us in Matthew 10:28, “Don’t fear those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul; rather, fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Death is God’s prerogative. He and He alone decides when it will come and how it will come.

John looks and sees a pale horse, the ashen-green color of a decomposing corpse. Its rider is Death, that which claims the body. Following close behind is its ever-present companion Hades, that which claims the soul. The death visited on the earth is massive and comprehensive in its numbers: one-quarter of the earth. It is also comprehensive in its nature: it kills by the sword (see v. 4), by famine (see v. 6), by plague, and by the wild animals of the earth.

By 2044, the projection is 9 billion. Think about it. If the Lord were to come back today, in all too brief a time over 1.75 billion people will depart planet Earth not by rapture but by death. Later in Revelation 8:18, because of the sixth trumpet, one-third of those remaining will die. In less than seven years, half of the world’s population will be taken in death (see Ezek 14:21). In a world decimated by war and famine, even the wild beasts will join in the carnage. Does this sound far-fetched and beyond reality? Not really.

In his book Death in the City, Francis Schaeffer said of our modern world, “the dust of death” is on everything (21). His diagnosis is correct, and the dust will only grow thicker until our great God has accomplished His purposes. However, we should not fear or fret. He is in absolute control. The Lamb holds history in His hand. Are you trusting Him? He will determine, to the last detail, history’s consummation. He will orchestrate each and every event according to His perfect plan. God has such a plan for the world. God has such a plan for you. Let Him who is taking the world to its appropriate end do the same for you. The way may not be easy, but I promise you: you will not be disappointed.