Chapter Fourteen – The Red Horse—War
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The horror of war has swept the world since Cain killed Abel. It has been the result of man’s unrelenting murderous rage toward his fellow man. Its fruits are terror, destruction, economic upheaval, orphaned children, population displacement, widespread devastation of the land, rape, hunger, disease, untold suffering, misery, despair, maiming and crippling, atrocities, death and even genocide. All of this yields greater hatred and revenge, endless retaliation and more war, because nothing is ever permanently resolved through military conflict. No matter the diligence or sincerity of their efforts, men and nations cannot find a way to peace!
Setting the Stage
Let’s revisit Revelation 6:4: “And there went out 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.” John’s vision has grave implications for all people today.
Compare once again the parallel passage in Matthew 24:6-7 to better understand the meaning of this symbolic horseman: “And you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that you be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom…”
We find that the rider of the red horse has the power to “take peace from the earth”—which of course means that war replaces it! He represents the dreadful devastation of armed conflict between and within nations.
The phrase “wars and rumors of wars” refers to a general condition of warfare that would be amplified just before Christ’s Return. The next statement—“For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom”—indicates a further intensified state of war to emerge (“kingdom against kingdom”), at this point near the very end—total world war.
Luke 21:9 adds a broader understanding of these events: “But when you shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end is not by and by.” The Greek word for “commotions” means “disorder,” “confusion” and “tumult.” An expanded definition could include acts and effects of terrorism, such as bombings. Could any thinking person doubt this condition has arrived in full force?
But war has existed from the beginning of mankind. How then could Jesus use “wars and rumors of wars” as a special sign announcing the arrival of “the last days”?
The answer: The ever-present grim specter of war has reintroduced itself, having morphed into something with potential for destruction far beyond what has ever been seen before. In fact, this has already begun. Now time is running out.
A Bloody Track Record
It has been observed that human history has primarily been a chronicle of war. What began as family or tribal conflicts later developed into ones between nations. Some international conflicts begin with one-sided action, others with mutual aggression. Additionally, long-standing ethnic, tribal and religious differences, coupled with boundary disputes and outright intent to seize the land or property of others, have always served to fuel the next war fought between the same peoples or nations.
War has affected all nations in every period of history. In fact many nations have made war their primary means of livelihood—not just a means of defense, as so many claim. Those that chose not to actively pursue war were still forced to expend much time, money and effort to protect themselves—sometimes having to “buy” peace by paying tribute to powers that could have dominated or destroyed them.
In the mid-1960s, a Norwegian statistician programmed a computer to count all of the wars through the 6,000 years of mankind’s history. It concluded that 14,531 wars had been fought. But this was merely the number that were known and recorded. How many more were not? And consider that this was several decades ago. Countless more have been fought since then. Of course, this does not count the endless stream of individual terrorist acts, such as suicide bombings and other assaults, which occur in undeclared wars.
My Family History
I grew up in a family filled with Army and Navy officers—some of them senior career officers. Even both of my female cousins married Naval officers. A step-cousin was an army officer. His younger brother attended Annapolis, and I was also appointed to Annapolis, though I declined because God was calling me into His truth at that time.
My father was an Army officer and pilot in WWII, and his older brother, also a pilot (who later rose to the rank of Captain in the Navy—equal to a full Colonel in the Army), was present at Pearl Harbor during the attack. Their father (my grandfather) fought in WWI. I was born on December 7, 1948, and my mother referred to me as her “Pearl Harbor baby.” My uncle (on my mother’s side) studied the Civil War most of his life. Much of his enormous Civil War library (with other sections about General Grant, Custer and Napoleon) was passed to me. He was also a signal corpsman in WWII.
I have visited Pearl Harbor, West Point and Annapolis, Arlington National Cemetery and other military cemeteries, endless forts, and many Civil War, as well as Revolutionary War, battlefields. I have also been to the site of the Battle of Little Big Horn, among so many other sites, including Jerusalem, the Masada, Jericho and many battlefields in Israel. Then there are all the books I have read about war beginning as a child.
I am a classic example of how some grow up hearing and learning much about war. Stories from military history were a large part of my childhood. So was learning about (many) ancestors who always seemed to have fought in wars, where some of them died. I understand Isaiah 2:4 and Micah 4:3, which speak of those who “learn war.”
Truly, speaking personally, war is the worst of “man’s inhumanity to man.”
Assyria
Of the nations familiar from biblical history and prophecy, Egypt was among the first to develop the art of war as an organized endeavor.
Yet it was the Assyrians who developed and perfected many military techniques. In fact, the sword—the weapon held by the red horse’s rider—is said to have been introduced into war by the Assyrians.
Assyrian military advances far surpassed all other powers, due to their ability to borrow effective techniques pioneered by others alongside their own inventions. Illustrating their success, the following quotes come from The Harper Encyclopedia of Military History:
“The Egyptian chariot was a mobile firing platform for well-trained archers…The Assyrians developed chariot warfare to its greatest sophistication in Western Asia, with light chariots for archers and heavier chariots carrying as many as four spearmen.”
“After 1000 B.C., more order was introduced into warfare by the Egyptians, who certainly understood and employed maneuver by well-organized and disciplined units. Soon afterward the Assyrians contributed even more order, organization, and discipline into military affairs, both on and off the battlefield.”
The book continues: “No effort was spared that would contribute to the efficiency of the army or assure continued Assyrian supremacy over all possible foes…[King] Tiglath-Pileser I saw to it that this technical superiority was maintained by constant and systematic improvement of weapons, and by the careful training of the soldiers in the use of their arms.”
“…it was the skill and organization of employment which brought success to Assyrian siegecraft…Terror was another factor contributing greatly to Assyrian success. Their exceptional cruelty and ferocity were possibly reflections of callousness developed over centuries…But theirs was also a calculated policy of terror—possibly the earliest example of organized psychological warfare. It was not unusual for them to kill every man, woman, and child in captured cities. Sometimes they would carry away entire populations into captivity.”
God has often used the Assyrians to punish the nation of Israel as His “rod of correction” (Isa. 10:5-6). But there were times that He suppressed the Assyrians’ power so that they would be out of the picture for a while. One example was the deliverance of Judah’s King Hezekiah and Jerusalem from Sennacherib and his army of 185,000 elite soldiers that besieged the city: “Then the angel of theLord went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians” (Isa. 37:36).
God took away Assyria’s pride overnight. This greatly weakened the proud nation and removed them from the picture for a time, in order for the Babylonian Empire to emerge—serving the next step in God’s Purpose.
After the Babylonian Empire came the Medo-Persian Empire, which defeated Babylon in 539 BC. During the height of this empire, the advancement of the Persians was effectively halted in the Eastern Mediterranean by formidable warriors, including the Spartans. Later, Alexander the Great led the Greek Empire to victory over the Persians in 331 BC. For a period of time, we saw the Greco-Macedonian Empire reigned supreme.