Revelation Chapter 6 Verses 1 - 2

 The breaking of the seals signifies the opening, the accessing of the

scroll. Important because as we’ve studied before, this scroll is the title

deed to all of creation. And all of creation, due to the sin of the original

owners, Adam and Eve, has a debt upon its title. A debt that none of us,

no man or woman could ever pay because essentially what made the

debt has to be reversed. That’s repayment. So, if sin created the debt,

sinlessness is the repayment.

 In all of the history of the world there has only ever been one Man to

live a sinless life, (no sin nature), and that was God Himself who

planned from the beginning to give Himself for you and for me. So, the

scroll is now in His hands, won and paid for in full by His perfect

sinless blood, and He begins to crack the seals…with each seal, those

washed and cleaned in the presence of God rejoice…while those still

upon the earth bear the brunt of sin. This is the final act.

 Jesus breaks the first seal and John sees a white horse and upon that

white horse was a he. Later, in Chapter 19, we will see a Man upon a

white horse however that Man is clearly Jesus Christ. And that Man is

clearly different than this man. (Rev 19:11-16) In Chapter 19 the One

who sat upon the white horse is called “Faithful and True” and He is

clothed in a white robe dipped in blood and His name is called “The

Word of God!”

 Almost all scholars agree the man to be the revealed Antichrist. That

certainly fits in what we read and it certainly fits in the Biblically clear

eschatological timeline. Chapters 2 and 3 give us the church age.

Chapter 4 verse 1 gives us the rapture. Chapters 4 and 5 then give us the

heavenly scene of Jesus claiming His victory, and then after the rapture,

after the church age, chapter 6, the beginning of the Tribulation, gives us

the unveiling of the Antichrist.

 Let’s talk just briefly of some of what we know of this man from

scripture. 1 John 2:18 says, and this was 2,000 years ago, “Little

children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is

coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that is

the last hour.” Let’s talk about who he is first. Daniel 11:36-37 gives us

some intriguing details about the Antichrist. “Then the king shall do

according to his own will: he shall exalt and magnify himself above

every god, shall speak blasphemies against the God of gods, and shall

prosper till the wrath has been accomplished; for what has been

determined shall be done. He shall regard neither the God of his fathers

nor the desire of women, nor regard any god; for he shall exalt himself

above them all.”

 Many believe as a result of this verse that the Antichrist will be of

Jewish blood. “He shall regard neither the God of his fathers…,” and

that would be readily understood by the word used in the Hebrew not

being “El,” for God, but being “Elohim,” which was specifically the

title given to the Jewish God beginning all the way back in Genesis.

This is also supported by what Jesus says he does at the mid-point of the

Tribulation. Matthew 24:15-16, “Therefore when you see the

‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing

in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand), “then let those

who are in Judea flee to the mountains.” At the mid-point of the

Tribulation (and we know that from Daniel 9:27) the Antichrist goes

into the rebuilt Jewish temple in Jerusalem and commits the unthinkable,

effectively overthrowing the God of their fathers and proclaiming

himself to be higher. Why the Jewish temple? Why not Mecca? This

seems like targeted, like personal… So many believe he will be Jewish.

 Also, many believe since it tells us that, “he shall not regard the desire

of women,” that he will be homosexual. Interesting that in our day, (and

I truly believe this will be common place in less than a generation if the

Lord tarries), I think we will see people in life-long relationships with

AI powered machine learning humanoid robots… Could mean

something like that too…

 The Antichrist will come on the scene sometime after the rapture of the

church. 2 Thessalonians 2:1-9 says, “Now, brethren, concerning the

coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we

ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by

word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come.

Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless

the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of

perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God

or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God,

showing himself that he is God. Do you not remember that when I was

still with you, I told you these things? And now you know what is

restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of

lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so

until He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be

revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and

destroy with the brightness of His coming. The coming of the lawless

one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and

lying wonders.”

 He will be a man of great charisma and he will arise amongst the leaders

of the earth first speaking then conquering, just as we see in Revelation

6. Daniel 7:8 says, “I was considering the horns, and there was another

horn, a little one, coming up among them, before whom three of the first

horns were plucked out by the roots. And there, in this horn, were eyes

like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking pompous words.”

 Could the Antichrist be on the scene today? Absolutely. And here in

Revelation 6, it is time for him to rise to power. With answers to the

world’s combined geopolitical economical challenges… I mean look at

what Covid did to us just as an example. It revealed how entirely

connected the peoples and economies of every significant world power

really are… If one nation fails economically, now others will fail as

well, and the system of world economics are more complex and inter-

dependent than ever. We don’t need to wait for a one world currency, or

a one world government, its already here!

 We see that he has a crown as opposed to many crowns that we see

upon Jesus in Chapter 19 and this crown is not a “diadem” in the Greek

which is a permanent crown but this is a “stephanos” in the Greek

which is more of a wreath made of olive branches that only lasts a short

while. And this man goes forth conquering and to conquer, which is a

specific word repeated, its “nikao” which could mean victorious as in a

court of law…

 It’s interesting that it’s repeated in this manner. He goes forth

conquering and to conquer. I would offer to you that the idea here is

that his initial conquering isn’t obviously to conquer. I know that sounds

odd. But think of manipulation, we have a new word for that in our

culture, politics… Manipulation is indeed to conquer but it doesn’t

appear that way. At first it appeals before the conquer appears. And so

here the idea is not lead off to conquer as in a brute force fashion but to

subdue diplomatically…, leading to a more drastic and as we will see,

violent conquer… and look at his weapon of choice…the bow.

 The word “bow” tends to conjure up an image of a bow and arrow but

I’m not sure that’s the idea here. We have no baseline for this word in

any other part of the New Testament…this is the only time in the Bible

that we see this word…its only used once…why? Because it’s specific I

believe. It’s one of a kind I believe, not just a bow and arrow but

something else. Another bow, a peculiar bow.

 The first time the bow is mentioned in the Bible, it is a rainbow which is

the token of God’s promise of peace (Genesis 9:13). Daniel says that

right after the church is raptured, a man will come, making covenant

with Israel…, a peace treaty, and the entire world will rejoice! At last,

someone has solved the middle east problem! The currency problem.

The warring nations problem. Love is winning! And so, the conquering

and to conquer occurs as this man is accepted and exalted, possibly

even by the Jews as their Messiah and thus this bow that John sees could

be the same type, the peculiar/specific type just as God set the bow in

the air to declare peace…only his peace is false.

 And thus, the first seal is broken…and the Anti-Christ is on the scene,

the Great Tribulation has begun…there is seemingly peace, but not for

long…

Revelation Chapter 6 Verses 3 – 4

 War comes…the red horse, red like fire set forth at the breaking of the

second seal…the repayment of the debt is taking place upon the

earth…and this horse is shown to John by the second living creature…

 This second horse comes to take the peace from the earth…what peace?

The peace established by the man on the white horse…and what kind of

war is it? Is it a war of heaven against earth…no…it’s a war between

men…why? John says here that a great sword was in the midst of the

one on the red horse…the same word used for the scripture in other

verses such as Hebrews 4:12…and so the red horse, the horse that takes

peace…the horse that brings war…carries with him a new sword…and

so this is most likely a war charged by religion…, perhaps the Anti-

Christ proclaiming himself to be God…some following, some not…just

as in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, or perhaps some sort of new religion

or perhaps an old religion that is named “peace” but spreads by the

sword… Or, even perhaps the new religion is not one of a god above at

all but a god within, secular humanism, the worship of self and

affirmation, and a it leads to blood shed across the globe…

Revelation Chapter 6 Verses 5 – 6

 And so, the third horse…I call this one desperation. War always

brings desperation… In our homes, our jobs, our

relationships…there’s going to be conflict, but we ought to fight for

peace. Because all-out war will bring desperation. “A quart of wheat for

a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius,” means that the

time of the Tribulation will be so economically difficult that the masses

will exist on rations. Thus, the scales. Exactly what would happen if

one economy of one major super power failed…

 A full day’s wage will only buy a small bit of wheat or barley because

of the Antichrist’s system that will be based on the mark of the beast. A

whole day’s work for a handful of wheat…not bread…notice…why?

Society is reversing (another result of destruction – and sin brings forth

destruction) …loaves of bread one day, factories bustling, people

working…then war, and a diplomatic centrality…and no more folks left

to work…all the power centralized and we’re back to making cakes in

ovens…

 A whole day’s wage for just a handful of meal…Even if you make

minimum wage in today’s American economy, a day’s wage will buy

you at least 10 loaves of bread (pre-tax). But here, a ration, a desperate

portion of wheat…

 And notice the oil and the wine are not harmed…why? It could be that

the rich, the 1%...are just fine. A day’s wage for a measure of

wheat…how much then would the oil and wine be? Very

expensive…however the rich, which in this economy of the Antichrist,

his inner circle…unharmed…the famine that follows war never affects

the wealthy. Interesting thought there about the rich in Spirit…the

rich in maturity and wealth of spiritual growth… When things all fall

apart, you will find that wealth quite useful.

Revelation Chapter 6 Verses 7 – 8

 And so, the final horse…the pale horse…and his rider…Death. The

wages of sin. Death himself. The false peacemaker is on the scene, the

terrible purifying war of the world has occurred from which he exacts

his throne and lordship…he now controls the food and therefore

controls the people…having them to take a mark of allegiance just to

get a little wheat for their families…and finally his reign is completely

established…sin has brought its reward…and its hell on earth.

 A fourth of the earth has been killed off…as we saw through the sword

with the red horse, through hunger with the black horse and then John

says “with death by the beasts of the earth.”

 Now this word beast doesn’t mean some sort of huge grotesque

monster…this is the word, “therion” which simply means something

exceedingly frightful, of any size…and therefore it could be very small,

maybe even microscopic which leads me to arrive at some sort of

chemical warfare possibly or a virus that is used by the Antichrist

against the people contributing to the death of billions…

 And so, the scene upon the earth through the first four seals is a scene

of doom and death as sin reigns…and throughout this revelation that

John is receiving, the four living creatures are constantly saying to him,

“Come and see.” See what is the price of sin… we would be wise to

choose also to “come and see.” Really, its either “come and see” now

and make some decisions, maybe even some hard decisions, or later,

it’s going to be “go and experience.” And the scene of sin being on top

is hunger, strife and hell on earth.

 This is what God calls us away from through Jesus Christ. It’s really a

picture of the rapture. Where is the church when all of this hunger, war,

strife, poverty and hell is happening? Not there. Why. They chose

Jesus. It will be just that same for you and for me today, tomorrow, the

next day and the next day.