The Four Horsemen

Revelation Chapter 6

1 ... The Lamb opened one of the seals ...
2 ... 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.
3 ... the second seal ...
4 ... 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.
5 ... the third seal ... 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.
7 ... the fourth seal ...
8 ... 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.

We have political discussions here, this is one of religion. I consider myself an unaffiliated Christian and have found this;

There are several hypothesizes about who these are. the most common is Dante's 'Conquest, War, Famine, and Death', but I find Dante to be completely non-credible.

I believe these are a list of the principalities (systems of control) that will rule the Earth at the time of the tribulation, follow me here:

1 ... 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.

Who (or what) is responsible for the most physical conquest in history? Alexander the Great? no, not even close, and not associated with the color White. I say this is Catholicism (or possible Christianity in general, but the Pope specifically wears white) they are responsible for conquering an entire continent (or an entire hemisphere. if you include non-Catholic Christians).

2 ... 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.

And this, who or what is associated with Red? Communism, or Socialism. After the end of WWII, peace was foreseen, but was denied because traitors gave Russia nuclear technology (the greatest 'sword' ever invented)

3 ... a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand ... say(ing), 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.

And this, who or what is associated with Black? The other -ism, Capitalism. I've always associated it with blue, what's more, who/what demands money for food "pay me or you can starve!" That's Capitalism ... and don't touch our oil or booze!

4 ... 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.

And finally, where do we see people dying of famine? Where have people (generally) been afraid to travel for fear of being murdered, or especially beheaded with a sword? The lands controlled by Islam.

If we look at the map of the Earth and mark the territories controlled by each of these 4 principles (Catholicism, Socialism, Capitalism, and Islam), we find that they virtually cover the Earth, all of them blending together at various places, and beginning to blend even further. The main exception to this is 1 tiny sliver on the Mediterranean cost, Israel, Yes they use money, but they don't institutionalize it as America, Australia, and Western Europe do. They base their actions on traditional Jewish laws.

The 4 horsemen are already here, they are us.

(There, It's out there on the net)

Some people add one and one then get a million. Whatever makes you happy, but don't put that up for undergrad logic 1.0.1.

This sort of bullshit is fun!

1 ... 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.

This is clearly referring to the proliferation of clouds. You see, the bible doesn't really mention clouds at any point, so the fact that we have so many of them these days (most of them are white, even!) must be a sign.

2 ... 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.

Your theory that the red rider is communism is strong, but I have a better one for you: The red actually symbolizes Coca Cola. It is undeniable that Coca Cola, with its sugary caffeinated drinks, is responsible for more suffering than any other Atlanta-based american softdrink company in history.

3 ... a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand ... say(ing), 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.

Again, capitalism is a strong choice here, but have you considered the cold darkness of space? A blacker black is hard to find, after all. So this rider, obviously, represents the Ferengi from Star Trek. Who very clearly do actually exist and are just waiting to take over.

4 ... 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.

Now, this is curious to me: you have spent the previous three entries tying things to the colour of the horse; in this case, you disregard the colour of the horse and just go straight to Islam. A religion most often associated with the colour green (Do green horses exist?), not with the colour "pale" (which I think means sort of grey-ish white). So, to go with your theme, what apocalyptically evil greyish-white thing can we find?

I think the answer should be obvious. This is, very clearly, representing the default background colour for this very forum. It is undeniable that the existence of this forum is a harbinger of the end times, and that we the commenters here do own at least a quarter of the earth.

(I assume your being sarcastic, I mean this to be serious though.)

as for "pale" that's a good question. As far as I know there is no actual color "pale" It just means light in huge, which could be 'pale green'. but this may come down to miss-translation. after-all it was originally written in Greek, so I would have to go back to the original text to figure that out, but don't read Greek.

Islam (not Atheism) is the antithesis of Christianity and it controls the remaining 1/4th of the Earth (Middle East and much of Africa) which has the issues listed, so everything else fits.

Perhaps also 'Pale' represents the death of the region, mostly desert with pale clothing. As I say, I consider Capitalism as 'Blue' not 'Black' but other cultures associate it different.

MAD-4A wrote:(I assume your being sarcastic, I mean this to be serious though.)

as for "pale" that's a good question. As far as I know there is no actual color "pale" It just means light in huge, which could be 'pale green'. but this may come down to miss-translation. after-all it was originally written in Greek, so I would have to go back to the original text to figure that out, but don't read Greek.

Islam (not Atheism) is the antithesis of Christianity and it controls the remaining 1/4th of the Earth (Middle East and much of Africa) which has the issues listed, so everything else fits.

Perhaps also 'Pale' represents the death of the region, mostly desert with pale clothing. As I say, I consider Capitalism as 'Blue' not 'Black' but other cultures associate it different.

As one of my teachers once preached, ~"there are many ways to interpret the bible, unarguably the least interesting is literally." What never cases to amaze me is that Gnosticism has been declared HERESY. like thousands of years ago. (well, ok almost a couple) One gnostic text remains for some obscure reason. So why are we focusing on that particular text?

Kind of hard to take seriously when the latest interpretation declared the world was going to end 10 days ago. But yeah, we can seriously have a serious discussion.

Is just kind if hard, being a literal interpreter and all not to ascibe Black to the color of mourning in western social tradition (white in eastern society, Black refers to the soil and reoresents Summer in Native American circles). Also hard to ascribe the rider as anyone besides DEATH carrying his Sickle, the symbol of the harvest.

Seriously, this is just stupid. Especially the red one. The USSR would have nuclear technology anyway; our physical school were as good as any foreign. Yes, the technological "help" allowed us to cut a few years, so what? How does those few years would "bring more peace"? By allowing USA to star World War Three for some reason and kill dozens of millions? Oh yeah, a good idea of peace, no doubt - in which humanity could rest.

Dilandu wrote:Seriously, this is just stupid. Especially the red one. The USSR would have nuclear technology anyway; our physical school were as good as any foreign. Yes, the technological "help" allowed us to cut a few years, so what? How does those few years would "bring more peace"? By allowing USA to star World War Three for some reason and kill dozens of millions? Oh yeah, a good idea of peace, no doubt - in which humanity could rest.

Oh, yeah, sure. Just what we'd expect from the de facto representative of "The Evil Empire" aka "The Red Menace" [trying to express the sarcasm of my post]

pappilon wrote: Oh, yeah, sure. Just what we'd expect from the de facto representative of "The Evil Empire" aka "The Red Menace" [trying to express the sarcasm of my post]

Yeah, fear my communist plotsky! Mua-ha-ha, tovarichi!!!

MAD-4A wrote:Islam (not Atheism) is the antithesis of Christianity and it controls the remaining 1/4th of the Earth (Middle East and much of Africa) which has the issues listed, so everything else fits.

I'm sorry, I thought you said you meant this seriously? Because, as anyone who knows anything about theology and the history of religions knows, this statement is so hilariously wrong that it can only be taken as sarcasm.

Islam is, basically, version 3 of the abrahamic religions (the first two being judaism and christianity, respectively). To say it is "the antithesis" of christianity is flat out wrong; yes, its precepts are different (and sometimes harsher) compared to christianity, but there is no explicit reversal of christian teachings in it. Given that Jesus is canonified in Islam as one of Allah's prophets (albeit a lesser one than Mohammed, obviously), it would be a bit hard for islam to be antithetical to christianity.

Now, granted, islam doesn't rate him as an actual divine being (just as Mohammed isn't divine). But I would think that the teachings of Jesus and his disciples is valid regardless of whether or not Jesus was actually god incarnate; him being divine or him being god's messenger doesn't actually change anything.

Furthermore: You describe Israel as unique in the world because they "base their economy on jewish law and tradition". Please explain how they are different to, say, modern social democracies like Sweden and Norway in not "institutionalizing money in the way the west does".

I'm trying to be polite and respectful here, but if you have a religious bent, how do you know that you have picked the right horse?
There have been thousands of religions throughout human history and prehistory. How do you know that your interpretation of a particular version of one (Christianity in this case) is superior to - pick one - Hindu, Buddhism, Roman or Greek, Rainbow Serpent (Australian aborigines, arguably the oldest known and longest existing), Flying Spaghetti Monster, Ramesis, Sun Worship, Inca & Aztec, enough - lots.