The next course I selected as part of my Unschooled Master of Theology program was the KI course, The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse, which covers the four prophetic figures spoken of in Revelation. Here are the Discussion Questions for the entire course along with my responses.
As a reminder, you can all of my course assignments for the uThM here.
So, let’s get started….
KWL – What I Knew Before Starting This Study?
The four horsemen are found in Revelation 6:1-8. They are part of the seven seals opened by Jesus when he is declared worthy to open the scroll in the hand of God who sits on the throne and he is able to open its seals. Each one of these horses and their riders represents something specific, but I’m not certain what exactly that is. I know they play an important role in the end times and in the tribulation, but again, I’m not certain of their exact role, place, or importance.
KWL – What I Want to Find Out in This Study?
1. I would like to find out and become intimately familiar with each horse, its rider, and the significance that individual plays in the end times and in bible prophecy in general.
2. I would like to be able to find background information that could be used for an upcoming book I hope to write that casts the four horseman as individual beings who are moving across a foreign landscape. They do not know why they are riding, how they began riding, and they don’t really know where they are going or what they will do once they get there. But they come across a small encampment of other individuals who have in their tradition and culture a legend of a god-man who died and his death allows for their repair to be righted with God. During their discussions and interactions with these people, the four horsemen realize their purpose and how they will eventually fulfill the prophecies of these peoples, ultimately, in bringing their peoples and the whole world into ruination. They discover for themselves that they are this god’s instrument of destruction and closure to a narrative of redemption. They wonder if they, too, will be saved in the end. What will become of them once they fulfill what they were made to do? They wonder if they will be saved as well or if there is no grace for them at all.
This course will serve as extensive background (it is my hope) so I am intimately versed in the four horsemen of the Bible so I will know how to proceed when I draft the plot of the story.
Lecture 1 What did you Learn?
The stage is set in Re 5:1-14 of a particular scroll found in the hand of “him who sat on the throne.” This is, of course, God the Father, and the scroll is written on both the front and the back and it is sealed with seven seals.
A voice of an angel asks the question, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals?” No one was at first found capable of doing so and so John wept bitterly because no one could open the scroll, read it, or even look at it. Then one was discovered in the midst of the throne, and the four living creatures, one who looked like a Lamb slain, who had seven horns and seven eyes (the Holy Spirit). This one was able to take the scroll from God the Father.
He was then declared by the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, having been the one who had redeemed “us” to God by his blood. He has made “us” kings and priests to God.
In Chapter 6 the slain lamb begins to open the first seal. The four living creatures say “Come see.” John did so and he saw the first of the four horsemen: a white horse.
The rider of the white horse had a bow, he had a grown that had been given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.
But this is all that is said of the white horseman. Jesus then goes on immediately in vs 3 to open the second seal.
Missler makes the claim that this is actually the antichrist, but I’m not certain I understand why. I don’t see the connection to the antichrist written in other places. It does appear that by the end of chapter 6, the arrival of the “great day” has come to the earth. The opening of the six seals are the beginning of the “great day” of judgment that Jesus will pour out onto the earth and onto the earthdwellers. It doesn’t actually identify the individual riders, save for Death and Hades who ride the sickly horse (the fourth horse). The other three are known only as “he who sat on it” (1 and 3) and “the one who sat on it” (2nd). They appear to be four “men” who are going out from “somewhere.” They “went out.” (But not the black or 3rd or 4th horse).
There was in Missler’s argument a connection between Re 6:1-2 and Matt 24:4-5 and Luke 21:8. I don’t necessarily see this connection other than the white horse rider is given power (bow) and authority (crown) and he goes out and conquering and to conquer. But I do not see any reference in Re 6:1-2 that this rider attempts to represent himself as a christ or a messiah figure. Missler states that “he keeps bad company” but this is presumptive and not objective. He does make a point that Christ is opening the seals, so he is not the rider, but this too can be manipulated.
There is no actual identification of this individual. It does not appear to be Jesus Christ. I’m not certain why there would be an argument for this. It is at the end of all things: the judgment. Maybe they are expecting Jesus to come at the great day. But I would lean toward the argument that Jesus is still in heaven loosening the seals on the scroll when these events take place with the horseman. It doesn’t actually seem that Jesus returns to the earth until the last trumpet sounds. He appears to remain in heaven. This would mean that the rapture does not occur until the last trump of God, in Re 11:15, after the second woe, at the sounding of the seventh trumpet, when the “kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever!”
After Jesus conquers all these who are on the earth, he then conquers those in heaven with the War in Re 12:7ff. He casts Satan out of heaven along with 1/3 of the angels who have sided with him, but the timeframe appears to be both at a particular point and also stretched throughout human history surrounding the birth and death of Jesus and the age of the Christians as well. This would allow for Jesus to have seen Satan fall and still the event not yet having happened.
So I would argue that if the white horse is not Jesus (I would argue this) then it is a particular anti-christ but not necessarily the anti-Christ or the man of perdition, the one spoken of in various places. Then again, if it is the particular man who is spoken of at great lengths in Daniel and elsewhere, then the horse reference would likely be allegorical, which does not stand with the rest of Scripture. I would argue that this is a separate supernatural being that is behind great wars and destruction through various battles and carnage, the beginning of the Great Day, the judgment of the earth and those on it.
Lecture 2 What did you Learn?
I find it interesting that Dr. Missler does not actually discuss a whole lot of detail about the second horse or rider who represents war. In verses 3-4 it states the 2nd seal is opened and the red, fiery house “went out.” He was granted to take peace from the earth, that people will kill each other, and he was given a great sword.
This will be a potential problem for the book I’m wanting to write. It requires a people in a dystopian landscape who receive four mysterious riders to their camp. My question is why are is the space dystopian? What has occurred for this to take place? Has there been an EMP set off over the US, sending them technologically back to the 1800s? If so, and if 90% of the US population dies, primarily in the cities, then only 10% of today’s population would survive. This would be approximately 33.1 million people in the US. 83% of the current US population (275 million) lives in an urban area. The urban centers will suffer the greatest loss of life, much more so than those in rural areas, probably closer to 99%, maybe even greater since those who do somehow survive the urban environment will eventually relocate out of the cities and into the wilds.
The problem with these kinds of discussions (at least for me) is they always lead to the inevitable “preparation” discussions and to eventual paranoia and a desire to try and prepare before these kinds of events occur. 1. I don’t want to actually survive after these kinds of attacks. I would rather die in the first year or even better from the initial attack and spend the rest of human history until the resurrection in paradise with Abraham in a disembodied state. Granted, I’m not all that certain this is without its own kind of trauma. Even severe trauma (why would someone need to be comforted in paradise?). But it would be better than trying to eek out an existence in a post-apocalyptic environment without the modern conveniences we’ve come to depend on and enjoy. 2. If we are called to experience these kinds of environments then we must depend entirely on God to support and sustain us in said environment.
This is not to say that we cannot prepare. But, it should not become our entire, all-consuming focus. Today that focus should be on 1. Building the church (in whatever capacity God has gifted you) 2. Raising our family (if God has called you to married life) 3. Building yourself up by devoting your free time, your work time, your all time, to drawing closer to God, to Christ, and through sanctification, being led by the Spirit. These kinds of issues, scenarios, concepts are simply 1. Out of our control 2. Not something we really should be preparing for if we can’t contain it as a lower priority to pursuing God himself and raising our children to be disciples of Christ, able to handle the Scriptures effectively.
Another interesting comment Dr. Missler made was that it had to be a man on earth or in heaven who was a kinsman of Adam to take possession of the scroll and to open its seals. I wonder why? It is because through the first man sin entered into the world and it would have to be through a last man that sin was removed (1 Co 15:47)? The curse was pronounced by God. Why would that then require a man to remove it? I understand that a mortal man, in the fallen state in which he found himself after the fall, could never redeem himself to God or anyone else for that matter. It had to be one who could keep the law perfectly his entire life and then also die, which allowed for the transmigration of Jesus’ death to pay for our sin. But why did it have to be another man, and more so, another fallen man in the same position as the first man?
I also find it quite fascinating that Dr. Missler states there are 185 suitcase nukes missing? On researching this further, there appear to be 6 nukes from the US that have disappeared and never recovered, but as many as 100 from the Soviets, though there is great speculation on this since it is unclear who actually had the bombs built or if they were accounted for, since the official statements from Russia is all nukes are accounted for. I found it interesting that the person raising the issue stated in an interview, “We must seriously look for them or else humankind cannot rest in peace.” How can we rest in peace, even if they do find the supposed missing nukes? The world is being run by madmen.
I did really like the information on EMP detonations. The fact that EMP tests discovered electronic failure 600-1400 km away spells an interesting severity, that these could be dropped anywhere in Colorado and the impact could reach the west coast. But, if it were set off over Kanas, it would not necessarily reach the Oregon Coast. But, any discussion of electricity in Oregon is not a closed loop. We get electricity from different parts of Oregon and the Western states with only 39% of our electricity coming from hydro. 26% comes from coal and 21% from Natural Gas. A small, out of the way place where we are moving to will be the last on the list when resources become limited. The percentage of power created by hydro at the Columbia River will certainly be used up quickly by those in the I5 corridor. Wherever our oil is refined into gas will certainly faulted, without oil from other places. Since the US is no longer oil independent then we will most likely be cut off from oil imports, and the oil we have domestically will be difficult to impossible to pull without electrical machinery in those states hit by the EMP. This would go along with Dr. Missler’s assessment that an EMP detonation prevents you from having a recovery plan. It would be quite difficult to put anything back together once it breaks, especially since we have no resources to manufacture, no electricity, etc. Having a recovery plan in place is fine, but you might just find yourself futility fighting against God.
In researching the issue of EMP’s effect on unplugged appliances and devices, also on batteries, it appears as if the information is mixed and unclear. Some say everything will be damaged while others say only large systems like power lines and electronic grids will take the hit. Small items like phones and cars will not. I’m skeptical. But I know with our system we will have simply a generator to use to recharge our batteries. I’m assuming we will have Lithium Ion batteries because of their extended live and full use capabilities. But it sounds as if Lead acid batteries will fair better. So it is hard to determine without some dependable information what one would do or how this would send us back to the 1800s with one detonation. I would think, though, if they wanted to do this, it would require the joint operations of multiple states: Russia, China, and the Middle East working in tandem to take out a superpower. If that were the case, a single EMP detonation would not be all that occurred. They would have to also strategically send out bombers to take out key infrastructure and command centers. They would have to use outside economic and trade influence to virtually cut the US off from the rest of the world. They would have to follow up with a peace keeping force on the ground to round up and sequester survivors so they did not rebuild. They would then also have to go after the heads of state who would be hiding in their fortified bunkers. I’m not certain they could do this or financially support such a join action long-term. Our biggest problem would be other people. Not military or even our military (but possibly our military). It would be starving people from the cities who came out to steal and murder and rape. Unless we are going to be fortified, and well armed, and let no one escape (to allow them to reground and return), which means we would have to have a large force of people with a massive amount of ammunition. It is better then to hide and allow people to move over us and pick at the bones, hoping they don’t find us. We would have to plan on no electricity because even if our vehicles continued (boats) then there would be no gas to run them. We would have our kayaks, though.
If within 12 months 90% of the US population would die from disease, starvation, or societal breakdown (violence) and the eastern portion of the US covered 70% of the US population, this means the majority of these deaths would be in the eastern part of the country. We are as west as we can possibly go without going to Australia or Hawaii or New Zealand, and those groups will fair no better than we will with their tyrannical governments.
It might be true that the Northern Hemisphere is the portion of the globe that has risk of nuclear exchange. The Southern Hemisphere does not. But, if one looks at a nuke map for fallout, bizarrely, the state of Oregon is free from any fallout after an exchange. The winds, the strategic positions, every portion of the US is in jeopardy but Oregon. Even if there is a strike in Europe or in China or Russia or in Japan, the fallout will move east across the Pacific Ocean, but will drift lower and lower, missing Oregon altogether.
I was a little disappointed overall with this lecture on the Black horse. There really was no discussion of the horse or the rider in any kind of depth. It was an intense discussion of war and the history of war and the possibilities of global war in the future. While I think this is helpful in a practical and geopolitical sense, it provides little information for my upcoming book.
Lecture 3 What did you Learn?
The examples of hyperinflation in the 20th century are eye opening. Food prices doubling every 4, 19 days, or in Hungary, every 15 hours.
It is hard to imagine such exponential increase in goods and services. My wonder is if this was across the board for all things or just for certain items like food? The only way to really combat this is by operating off the money system altogether or as little as possible. To have larger reserves of food and other supplies, and to have natural resources available: and all of this must be able to blend into the natural environment (and be away from other people with difficult environment surrounding you to avoid strangers visiting), then you must also have a means of repelling strangers who do happen to find you. This typically would require killing them since leaving them alive to wander off wounded or insulted would only lead to them regrouping and returning with a larger force.
In all honestly, there really is no way to combat hyperinflation or the suffering inflicted by the elites in this world. Tyranical people will do as they will. God is in control of all things and every one of us and every one of them. When I was single I was pretty much a pacifist. I knew in my situation I had no appetite for defense, for fighting, for preparing. I really did not want to survive if there was a natural disaster or an economic meltdown or a strike from another country. I wanted to die immediately or be left to whatever God provided. I, unlike Paul, am not torn between being with Christ and being on earth. My body is somehow programmed to fight death at all cost, but my soul, my mind, my spirit is not. I want to go.
Now as a married man with children, I do not maintain a pacifist mentality. Instead I know that it is my responsibility to protect my wife and children from external forces. As Dr. Missler states, it is not my responsibility to fix the issues in the governmental system, especially since the issues stem from long before I was ever born will will endure long after I die, and because there is nothing I can actually do to stem the oncoming tide of tyranny that the elites are hell bing to bring on the earth. Instead, it is my responsibility as the head of my home, before God, to know what is happening, to understand what is coming, and to prepare to endure it, and to protect my family in the process. I don’t want to think about these things. I don’t want to consider them. I want my family to be able to enjoy the resources we’ve been given, the provisions he has given to us the rest of our lives. But it is my responsibility to consider the state of affairs of other men, the motives and probabilities of wicked people and the spiritual forces that drive them, and then prepare as best we can. My family will be armed in coming years. My family will be moving away from the large metropolitan areas (not that we live close to them now), we will have a defendable area, we will have alternative systems in place so that we can function without the governmental or financial systems if they were to disappear or be disrupted. My children and wife and myself will know and understand how to survive eating natural plants and how to trap and how to fish and how to get by on little to nothing. Because that is what God calls me to do as the head of my home and it is what the current events of this world demand in the region in which we live.
Despite all this, though, it is crucial, imperative, that we also recognize that even though God might be calling someone into the dark valleys to walk through, he does not cease having us do good. He does not stop in the drawing of people to the cross of Christ. In fact, as persecution increases, so does the fanning of the flame of the spirit of God. We need to be ready, in season and out, to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you.
Lecture 4 What did you Learn?
It is not convincing for me that the 24 elders represent the entire church. There is nothing in the Bible that emphatically states this. It is conjecture. There is no contextual evidence of this. They certainly are saved individuals, but not necessarily emblematic of the entire church itself. It does not automatically necessitate the rapture of the church being pretrib. In fact, to demand the pretrib view violates other passages that indicate a mid trib view.
Dr. Missler also claims that Death = the Devil and cites Hebrews 2:14 and Re 1:18. I’m not sure the point of this. Satan brought about death and condemned all people to death by tempting and deceiving the woman in the garden of eden. But it ultimately was God who cursed man and the entire physical universe. Because of this, everything is subject to futility, to decay, to death, to the process of moving from order to disorder. But we should not mistake the reality that Satan is not death, but has the power of death. Somehow he has usurped his position, has taken possession of the earth (and possibly the entire physical universe) as the prince of the air, but he does not have a rightful claim to it or to the people imprisoned in hades. God has allowed his possession (for some unknown reason – possibly to prove a point once and for all) but this will only last so long before he brings to heel every authority, every power on earth or in heaven (assuming this is heaven in the sense of the universe or it could be heaven in the sense of Satan and his angels). This is the point in which I desire most: judgment upon the earth and in heaven. I desire for God to make right everything that has gone wrong. I desire for the world to be under his rule, under his authority, regardless of that outcome (or my own status in that outcome). At least, if I am not found worthy of Christ, that I will know with certainty where I stand. Today, we have no idea where we stand, we cannot believe anything that we are told by anyone, and nothing is as it seems.
He states that death claims the body but hades claims the soul. I find this reassuring to hear him state this, because most people seem to assume either a materialistic worldview (that there is simply the human being that is indivisible), a dichotomic worldview (there is just the body and the spirit/soul), or nothing, we are all accidents. From Scripture the trichotomic view is rather clear, at least in my estimation. It is not really necessarily for salvation, but it will be a surprise for those who are dichotomy or materialistic in their biblical anthropology.
I always find it fascinating that so many claim Tartarus is used only once in the Bible when, in actuality, it is used 4 times in the Bible, once in the NT and 3 times in the OT.
τάρταρος in LXX 3x, noun = deep place, netherworld). This is also found in Enoch 20:2, “Ureil, one of the holy angels, who is over the world and the netherworld.”
ταρταρώσας in 2 Pe 2:4 verb = “cast them down into the underworld.”
It is unclear where I derived the “church fathers have 63 instances of the word in use” since I can now only find 1 in the English version or in the Greek.
This, overall, unfortunately, has been a disappointing course. I thought we would talk more about the actual horsemen, about the horses, about their significance in prophecy, but we discussed the emblems in which they represent instead, focusing on the human efforts involved rather than the supernatural beings themselves. This is actually rather good in some ways. It means, concerning my upcoming book, I have a blank canvas in which to paint. They have no real beginning from which they come and no end in which they go to. The result of them is simply the results Dr. Missler discussed at length. This means I can utilize the figures as I see fit and still have them be faithful to the text. My book will be about faith, the substance of that which is hoped for, but whose evidence remains unseen. My goal with this book is to incite readers to ask questions about their own faith. To become quizzical about the Bible, to drive them back into the word to find out what they really do believe.
I am hopefully I am able to do so with the horsemen, to the glory of my God and my King.
Conclusion
This was a good review. But at this point, that is really all I can say. Most of the KWL courses are not very challenging, given that they have no discussion questions. But, overall, it was good.
Until my next post……
Excerpt from The Light Aurora:
The door’s lock released and Dr. Lewis looked around at each of them.
“Stay close, and be ready for anything. I’m not sure if they’re all in the Command Center or if they are trying to secure Level 4. Hell, they could all be evacuating.”
He stared at Scott as he came up onto the landing.
“Let’s go,” Scott said.
Dr. Lewis pushed the door open and walked out into the hall, followed by the others – in ones and twos. Level 2 was similar to the other level, with a long corridor, doors on either side, all with security displays recessed into the wall next to them.
But, as they entered the corridor, Scott’s breath caught in his throat. As he stood there with the others, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. In front of them, probably no more than a few yards away, were three bodies lying on the floor. One was sitting up against the wall, the side of his face melted, exposing his right eyeball and a good portion of his right skull. Another one was laying face down, his entire back opened up at the spine, as if his spinal cord had been ripped out of him from behind. The last one was a few more feet away from the others, on his back, his eyes seared from his head, black, burnt flesh where his eyes used to be.
The intercom came back to crackling life.
“Professor?” Derrick said over the intercom.
“Don’t worry. You can answer,” he said. “I can hear you.”
Scott looked up, then fixed his gaze on the security camera at the end of the corridor.
“Yes?” Scott finally asked.
There was a pause, static.
“What are you doing, Derrick?” he asked. “Did you do this?”
“Indeed,” Derrick said, coming back on.
“Why?”
“They refused to help me.”
“What are you trying to do, Derrick?” Scott asked.
There was another pause.
“I want to go home, Professor,” the boy said.
“Home?”
“Yes,” Derrick said, his tone soaked with some other-worldly confidence that did not belong in an innocent, ten year old boy.
“I want to go home, Professor,” he said again. “Would you be interested in coming home with me?”
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But, trust me when I say, reading this book will change your life forever.
What do you think?