The Red Horse – “You Shall Hear of Wars…”

Next Part Assyria

BY DAVID C. PACK'

The red horse and rider, second of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, represent the horror of WAR. Violent conflicts have intensified worldwide, and Jesus Christ foretold that this trend will grow much worse. Prophecy reveals that the red horse will soon ride across the globe. No nation will be spared. You will be shocked by what is about to crash into an unsuspecting world!

Author’s Note: This booklet is part of a unique series covering the subject of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. While each booklet stands alone, the reader will only gain a full understanding if the series is read in the following order, reflecting the sequence described in Revelation 6 and Matthew 24:

• The White Horse – “Many Shall Come in My Name…”

• The Red Horse – “You Shall Hear of Wars…”

• The Black Horse – “There Shall Be Famines…”

• The Pale Horse – “There Shall Be Pestilences…”

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 begin by reading 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 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 rumours 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 rumours of wars” as a special sign announcing the arrival of “the last days”?

The answer: The ever-present grim spectre 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 defence, 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.

War has been the chief manner in which nations have settled disputes throughout history. War has been considered a natural state of equilibrium, while peace has been considered a period of recuperation from the previous campaign in which preparations were being made for the next venture or conquest. A quote by Georges Clemenceau, the WWI French statesman, sums up this idea: “I do not know whether war is an interlude in peace, or whether peace is an interlude in war” (Quotes for the Air Force Logistician, United States Air Force Logistics Management Agency, pg. 66).

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.

The presidential historian and columnist, Peggy Noonan, summarized the jumbled, awful course that has been man’s history: “In the long ribbon of history, life has been one long stained and tangled mess, full of famine, horror, war and disease. We must have thought we had it better because man had improved. But man doesn’t really ‘improve,’ does he? Man is man. Human nature is human nature; the impulse to destroy coexists with the desire to build and create and make better” (“America’s Age of Uncertainty,” Akron Beacon Journal, Nov. 9, 2001).

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 Harbour 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 Harbour 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 Harbour, 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.”