SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/19/2015
10:31 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
The First Seal: False Peace
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
6:1-2
Message of the
verses: “1 Then I saw when the Lamb
broke one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures
saying as with a voice of thunder, "Come." 2 I looked, and behold, a
white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and
he went out conquering and to conquer.”
I want to begin with some of the things that I wrote
about this passage on May 4, 2005, and one reason that I want to do this is
because there have been some changes in my thinking a bit which I will explain
after I make this quote: “In this
chapter Jesus Christ will begin to open the scroll that He has in His hand, and
this scroll describes the wrath of God and when the things in this scroll are
worked out on the earth the wrath of Almighty God will be complete. There are seven seals on the scroll and after
the first seal is broken the four living beings said with a loud voice,
“Come.” I think this means that this
part of the judgment of God should come, and this first seal is a description
of the Antichrist who is seen on a white horse and he has a bow in his hand,
but there are no arrows for the bow so it seems he does his conquering through
means of peace. Some think the rider on
the horse is Jesus Christ, but there are reasons as to why this is not so, and
one of them is that as you compare the description of Jesus Christ in
Revelations 19, where the rider on that white horse is identified as Jesus
Christ, and the crown on the Lord’s head is a different Greek word for crown.
“There are many verses in the Scriptures that speak of Antichrist
and one of them is in Daniel’s book where he is identified as a prince. (Daniel 9:26-27) This Antichrist will come upon the scene and
will become popular all over the world in a very short time and the Jews will
think of him as their protector, but in fact he will be their persecutor in a
very short time. He will sign a peace treaty
to protect Israel for seven years, and this will be the beginning of the period
in the Bible know as the “Tribulation.”
Jesus Christ, while He was upon the earth spoke of these events in what
is called the Olivet Discourse, which is found in Matthew 24, and many of the
events in this run parallel with the events in Revelations. Once such passage is from the 5th
verse in Matthew 24, “For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’
and will mislead many. “ I hope to look
at more of these parallels in some of the proceeding verses.”
Some of the things that I have quoted in my earlier SD on
these verses I have already written about in earlier SD’s from this section,
but the thing that perhaps is a bit different here is that I have always
thought that the rider on this white horse is none other than the
antichrist. As I was listening to John
MacArthur’s message on this section he mentioned that he feels that this white
horse represents peace, and also mentions that the antichrist will be the one
to offer this false peace which many will believe. It will be a trap set by Satan and many
around the world will fall into it.
Last Friday my wife and I attended a Bible Study that we
have gone to in the past and we begin to look at the book of Zechariah,
studying the first two chapters. Now in
chapter one beginning with verse seven we see a vision that Zechariah saw and
in the vision he saw four horses of different colors, and there were riders on
these horses. The next day we were discussing
this and so I went to the message that John MacArthur has on this section of Zechariah
and as in the message in Revelation he says that the horses mean different
things. I did not agree with that at
first but as I began to think about it this seemed to me that it is not the
rider of the horses in these two books that are so much important but what the
horse represents is important. As I
stated I always thought that the white horse in Revelation was the antichrist,
but when you look at the rest of the colored horses in Revelation it is the
horse that represents what is going to happen.
My conclusion is that the white horse represents peace, false peace, but
it is the antichrist who will bring about this false peace when he signs a
treaty with the nation of Israel for seven years. Think about how much this would affect the
world today if the enemies of Israel would stop wanting to destroy Israel, for
what is going on right now in the Middle East is news around the world. Israel the size of New Jersey seems always to
be in the news. Even today I see that
the United Sates is in favor of allowing a Palestine State near Israel. I guess
our leaders have forgotten about 911 and who was behind it.
As we begin to look at verse one we see that the Lamb
breaks the first seal and before this scroll is unrolled many people on planet
earth will have died, as mentioned only 25% of people will be alive at the end
of the tribulation period who were alive at the beginning. One of the four living creatures says come
and in response to that a white horse appears, and as I have stated it is a
sign of peace.
John MacArthur writes of this white horse: “Others identify the rider as
Antichrist. But since the other three
riders represent not individual persons but impersonal forces (war, famine, and
death), it is bet to view the first one as a force as well. That force is best
defined as a worldwide peace, shattered during the second seal by the second
rider; 6:4). However Antichrist, as will
be seen, will play a leading role in promoting this worldwide obsession with
seeking peace.”
What we can see is that the tribulation period, the last
week in Daniel’s 490 years prophesied in Daniel nine, will begin with peace and
people will think that they will never see any war again. Wrong!
Perhaps this would be a good time to talk about Muslim eschatology,
for they do have their own version of what will happen in the end times. In fact the political situation in Iran is
based on their eschatology. Reading Joel
Rosenberg’s novels he brings this point up, in fact one of the titles of his
books is “The Twelfth Iman,” and it is about a person who Muslims believe will
come again to earth in the last days, but the earth must be in chaos before he
returns. Interestingly this person
identified as the twelfth Iman is similarly identified as none other than the
antichrist in the Bible. They seem to be looking for the antichrist while we
believers are looking for the Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ.
John MacArthur writes of this rider: “That the rider had a bow but no arrows, and
that he was honored with a crown that was freely given to him, reveals that his
conquering will involve bloodless victories.
His crown (stephanos) is a
winner’ crown. He is no real king and
has no real monarch’s crown (diadema),
but has won a crown from the world for his triumphant achievements leading to
world peace. He will not conquer by
military force, but by cunning and deceit (cf. 2 Thessalonians 2:9-11). His conquest will be a ‘cold war’ victory, a
peace won by agreement, not conflict (Dan. 9:24-27). Even as the final doom of the world
approaches, Antichrist will promise golden age of peace and prosperity. In gratitude, the world will honor him and
elevate him to the position of supreme leadership. But both the accolades and the peace will be
short-lived.”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: Jesus said the
following in Mt 24:24 "For false
Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so
as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.”
I am thankful that even today when all sorts of bad things are going on
in our government that I have the Bible to weigh them against these terrible
things.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul,
mind, and strength, and to live in and be protected by the love of Christ.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “You shall not bear false
witness” (Exodus 20:17).
Today’s Bible
question: “Why did not Paul preach in
Asia on his second missionary journey?”
Answer in our next SD.
3/19/2015 11:21 AM
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