The Five Horsemen - Part 2

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The Five Horsemen - Part 2

THE FIVE HORSEMEN
By Glenn W. Parrish
Part 2
(taken from a July 11, 1955 Saint’s Herald)

EDITOR’S NOTE: Many Interpretations of the visions and symbols found in the book of Revelation have been published and preached. This article has some new and interesting views of the horsemen, seals, and beasts. The last book of the New Testament in the Greek is called “The Apocalypse of John” – the word “apocalypse” meaning to uncover, unveil. But many of the things recorded in this book were covered so deep that there is room for varied interpretations. Some scholars believe that John chose this method of expression because of the persecution the church was undergoing.

Part 2: The Five Horsemen
By Glenn W. Parrish

The Black Horse Triad

And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny, and hurt not thou the oil and the wine. –Revelation 6:5,6
The black horse and horseman now come forth upon the stage to contend with the white and red horsemen. He carries no sword or weapon but a pair of balances. The horseman on the white horse carried a bow and wore a crown. And so it was for centuries. The head of an empire or kingdom was a crowned warrior often leading his followers to battle in person.
The red horseman that followed was also a warrior with a sword, but one without a crown or bow. The black horseman, however, is not a warrior, but of another profession. The chemist, the shopkeeper, and the businessman fit this description. They have all used and still use a scale of balances.
Let us return to Revelation 4:7 and examine the description of the third beast – the one having the head of a man and speaking the words, “Come and see,” as the black horse comes forth. Therefore, if the first beast of the head of the lion represented the tongue of the Jew or Judah, and the second the tongue of Egypt, then it follows by comparison that the beast with the head of a man would symbolize the language of a man or rather the original pure tongue of Adam and Enoch. The third seal then must represent the coming forth of a third record, written in the language of Adam or the pure and original tongue of man.
As is known to Book of Mormon students, a prophecy has been given concerning this third record. It was made by the brother of Jared and was sealed up with the Urim and Thummim, as part of the twenty-four golden plates of Ether. The prophet Moroni in his abridgment of Ether’s account writes concerning this record:
For behold, the language which ye shall write, I have confounded; wherefore I will cause in mine own due time that these stones shall magnify to the eyes of men, these things which ye shall write….. and the Lord commanded the brother of Jared to go down out of the mount from the presence of the Lord, and write the things which he had seen: and they were forbidden to come unto the children of men, until after he should be lifted up upon the cross…. Behold, I have written upon these plates the very things which the brother of Jared saw; and there never was greater things made manifest…. And he commanded me that I should seal them up.
……For the Lord said unto me, They shall not go forth unto the Gentiles until the day that they shall repent of their iniquity, and become clean before the Lord; and in that day
that they shall exercise faith in me,……as even the brother of Jared did, that they may become sanctified in me, then will I manifest unto them the things which the brother of Jared saw-– Ether 1:89, 94, 98-101.
And in Isaiah 29:23, Inspired Version, also speaks of this record;
Touch not the things which are sealed, for I will bring them forth in mine own due time; for I will show unto the children of men that I am able to do mine own work.
And in Isaiah 29:24 it is written that God would command Joseph Smith;
Then shall thou seal up the book again, and hide it up unto me, that I may preserve the words which thou hast not read until I shall see fit in mine own wisdom to reveal all
Things unto the children of men.

This record then is the one symbolized by the opening of the third seal. Book of Mormon students, of course, are familiar with the fact that the Book of Mormon is an abridgment, not the original and complete history of the Nephites. The Nephites came to this land six hundred years before Christ. However, Mormon gives only a sketchy outline of Nephite-Lamanite history from about 91 B.C. at the beginning of the reign of the judges until four hundred years after the coming of Christ. Except for a brief history of the reign of King Benjamin, Mosiah the first, and Mosiah the second, with the record of Zeniff, very little is recorded of Nephite history.
The Book of Mormon was intended to be principally a revelation of the fullness of the gospel, replacing many revealments that had been taken out of the Bible. The large plates of Nephi, together with the record of Lehi and the brass plates of Laban, were probably in the stone box in Cumorah hill when Joseph Smith took from it the Book of Mormon abridgment. The Lord commanded Joseph to seal the records again and hid them up unto the Lord.
This record then is a representation of the third seal and third beast, and the Scripture texts quoted would indicate that it would come forth at the time of the central period of the black horse and horseman. As has been previously noted, the black horseman of Revelation carried a pair of balances in his hand, instead of a great sword like the red horseman or a bow and crown like the white horseman. If, therefore , we can reasonably assume that the kind of men in the saddle in the age of imperialism were warrior kings , and in the age of the red horse of evolution were warriors then it seems logical to state that the pair of balances in the hand of the black horseman indicates the type of man in the saddle of the coming forth of the black horse of totalitarianism, socialism, collectivism, Nazism, Communism, Fascism, anarchy, or any other name by which this ideology is designated.
The THEORY of the age of imperialism represented by the white horse was that the people are the property of the emperor. The theory of government of the red horse of revolution was that the state is the property of the people. But the theory of the black horse of totalitarianism is that the people are the property of the state. Each theory in turn, it will be noted, is a direct reversal of the preceding one. As the rise of the revolutionary movement was an attempt to eliminate the evils of imperialism, so totalitarianism is an attempt to cure the evils of the industrial and political revolutionary movement. Under the imperialism a few lived in luxury while the great masses lived in poverty, and in many cases actual slavery. Historians write in glowing terms of the glories of Rome, Athens, Antioch of Pisidia, and Antioch of Syria with their marble-paved streets, marble baths, pure mountain water aqueducts, and free water fountains flowing continuously in every home. Little is written of the blighted poorer districts, the slums of Rome, Athens. Pergamum, and other cities of the Greco-Roman colonies. Surely, men thought, with power machinery to help, the supply of men’s needs could be vastly increased so that all men might enjoy equally the fruits of industry. And with great zeal, the revolutionists set to work to accomplish this ideal.
But changing the ideologies of government does not change the hearts of men, “Come and see,” cried the calf-headed beast, “Come and see how the Nephites after the coming of Christ to this continent and under the direction of his ordained disciples led the people of Laman and Nephi in two hundred years of peace and prosperity when men had all things in common and there were no poor among them. Come and see how the Spirit of God was among them in such power that the blind, the lame, and the halt were healed by the power of God; the sick were healed and the dead raised. Come and see the pure principles of Christ’s gospel in its fullness and how those principles are applied to change the hearts of men from selfish, lustful servants of Satan into saints fit for Christ’s kingdom.”
TOTALITARIANISM is sweeping through all the nations, whether democratic, limited monarchy, monarchial, communistic, or socialistic state. It seeks to control all the avenues of trade, commerce, education, science, prices, production, consumption, raw materials, and even the thinking process of the people. To create the “total” state it must destroy the liberties and constitutional guarantees of human rights of the revolutionary ideology. Of sheer necessity all governments are forced to adopt its stern doctrines. One of the most vexatious problems of this age and one of the first that helped to bring on planned or controlled economy (which is totalitarianism) was that of currency. After the first world war in Germany the value of the German mark declined to the point of about the value of the paper on which it was printed. The United States stepped in with loans to Germany to bolster up the mark and to aid her in her reparations payments to France. Inflations, the nightmare of modern economics, spread like a plague to France, Italy, England, Russia, and all through the European economy.
How appropriate then that the black horseman should carry a pair of balances. For in ancient times it was the money that was weighed out by the shopkeeper, not the produce sold over the counter. Coins of gold, silver, and bronze were minted but not accepted at any standard face value. Coins of the same denomination were not of the same weight, and it became necessary for the shopkeeper to weigh all money offered for his produce.
The RIDER on the black horse could also be a lawyer with his scales of justice, a chemist, a businessman, an engineer, or an atomic scientist. Atomic weight is a chemical scientific term. Businessmen, lawyers, and scientists are in the saddle in all the governments of nations of the world today. The economy of European nations after the first world war, sagging under the terrific loads of debt accumulated in expenditures for armament and maintenance of armies, collapsed and brought on the great depression of the thirties, spreading misery throughout the world. These conditions, in turn, forced the nations of England, France, Italy, Germany, and the United States to adopt planned economy of some form,. They reached out to control currency by abolishing the gold standard, to control prices, minimum wages, etc.
To accomplish these ends government agencies grew like a great octopus, with tentacles extending into every avenue of life. We have in America today a modified totalitarian state that tries to run everything and everybody. All the states take their problems to Washington, along with many associations of educators, farmers, cattlemen, manufacturers, and labor unions.
Russia is a type of controlled economy. After the Russian revolution of 1917, so terrible were the conditions of political and economic chaos that Russian leaders decided on an adoption of the most extreme form of socialism; namely, government by party council with constitutional law set aside.
Germany under Adolf Hitler, and Italy under Mussolini adopted this form of legal anarchy. Totalitarianism, if it continues to spread, will destroy constitutional law and eventually degenerate into anarchy, for anarchy is the name of the black horseman.
IF THE FOREGOING INTERPRETATION is true, then the record of Jared is soon to come forth, as according to schedule it should appear about the central point of the totalitarian era. That point has not been reached. Totalitarianism, know as Communism, is on the march. In its service it has enlisted one hundred and fifty million Russians and four hundred million Chinese beside the millions of its satellites. Equipped with modern scientific armaments it stands waiting for its M-day.
Revelation 6:6 identifies the time of the coming of the black horse. It reads, ”And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny.” In other words, the voice is saying that if the four horses were set in line as for a race, and if the line signified the total period of time from the beginning of the imperial era to the end of the gray horse era, then at a point of time between the red and the black horse would be a period of extreme low prices of wheat, barley, and all agricultural products. And so it was. The period after the first world war was one of falling prices of agricultural products until wheat, corn, barley, and rye were used for fuel, not being worth the cost of hauling it to Market. By 1934 dairy products in the form of milk were being dumped on the ground by irate farmers who, taking things in their own hands and arming with shotguns and rifles, stopped milk trucks on the way to market and disposed of the contents as a protest against low prices. The year 1921 was the beginning of the great agricultural price decline. So, even as the black horseman with the pair of balances represents the businessman, so the black horse represents government in business; for government today is big business- a colossal economic corporation, powerful and strongly entrenched, defying even governors and legislatures. The acts of some of these governmental agencies are not even subject to review or control by courts of law. Responsible only to Congress, they become the pawns of party politics.
The Pale Horse Triad
“The gray horse triad forecasts the state of the world before and at the time of the coming of Christ.
And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked, and behold a pale horse; and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with the sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth- Revelation 6; 7,8
The empires with all their faults were kingdoms of law. Roman law was greatly respected and rigidly enforced. The democracies were built on constitutional law. The totalitarian states are more or less lawless entities, governed by the rule of expediency that respects the rights of no minority group or individual. The fact that a totalitarian state has a constitution means nothing . Adolf Hitler laughed at democracy and looked upon his own German Reichstag with contempt. The Reichstag gave him all emergency powers. He delegated those powers to his cabinet. And the acts of members of his cabinet could not be reviewed by the courts.
The pale horse comes forth as a still more degenerate form of civilization. If the color of the white horse of imperialism, and the color of the red horse of revolution is mixed with the color of the black horse of totalitarian anarchy, the result is a pale gray – depending of course on the proportions of color. The pale horse means a combination of the three forms of government; imperialism, revolution, and anarchy or totalitarianism. And the men in the saddle in this last state of civilization will be “dead” men- spiritually dead. They will be dead to righteousness, justice, mercy, and love, dead to decency and human rights, dead to holiness and compassion and reverence for the laws of God, dead to things beautiful and lovely. The pale horse also refers to the death of nations.
IN NEBUCHADNEZZAR’S DREAM (Daniel 2) , the degenerating tendency of civilizations is revealed. The head of gold, breast and arms of silver, belly and thighs of brass, legs of iron, and toes of iron and clay, forecast the breaking up of kingdoms and dissolution of civilized states. Daniel in interpreting the dream to Nebuchadnezzar said, “Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay and broke them to pieces” (Daniel 2:34) Verse 35 continues:
Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing –floors ;and the wind carried them away; that no place was found for them; and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.
It will be noticed that when the image is broken, the original gold , silver, brass, and iron will still be present, and the toes of iron and clay are broken together, or mixed together just as the three ideologies are mixed together in the “death” on the pale horse. The United States of America shows a strong tendency toward becoming a pale-horse ideology state. Although it originally was set up as a republic, it still contained the spirit of the old imperialism. By wars of conquest it drove out the Indian from the rich hunting preserves of the South and West. In some cases land was purchased, but in others the Indian was brazenly robbed of his heritage. The United States continue to expand until it controlled the entire Pacific Ocean and was the dominant nation of North and South America.
But WHAT OF THE FOURTH BEAST that was like a flying eagle, that in turn spoke the words “Come and see” as the fourth seal was opened and the pale horse came forth?
To answer this question, it is necessary to examine the Book of Mormon;
Woe be unto the Gentiles, saith the Lord God of hosts; for notwithstanding I shall lengthen out mine arm unto them from day to day, they will deny me…… Wherefore, because that ye have a bible, ye need not suppose that it contains all of my words; neither need ye suppose that I have not caused more to be written; For I command all men, both in the east, and in the west, and in the north and in the south, and in the islands of the sea, that they shall write the words which I speak unto them; For out of the books which shall be written, I will judge the world, every man according to their works, according to that which is written. For behold, I shall speak unto the Jews, and they shall write it; And I shall also speak unto the Nephites, and they shall write it; and I shall also speak unto the other tribes of the house of Israel, which I have led away, and they shall write it ; and I shall also speak unto all nations of the earth, and they shall write it. And it shall come to pass that the Jews shall have the words of the Nephites, and the Nephites shall have the words of the Jews: and the Nephites and the Jews shall have the words of the lost tribes of Israel; and the lost tribes of Israel shall have the words of the Nephites and the Jews. – II Nephi 12:40, 64-72.
In the foregoing quotation, the Lord God himself spoke and said that he would command men in the north, south, east, and west to write the things that he would speak. Thus the seven seals of Revelation 6 are accounted for; namely, 1. The record of the Jews (the lion) 2. The record of the Nephites (the calf); 3: The record of the brother of Jared (beast with head of a man); 4.The record of the tribes of the north (flying eagle); 5. The record of the nations of the south; 6. The record of the nations of the east;7. The record of the nations of the west (the Doctrine and Covenants is part of this record).
By elimination then the record represented by the beast like a flying eagle with the fourth seal must represent the record of the people of the north countries who will come to Zion during the reign of the pale horse. The people of the north country are symbolized by the eagle which is a symbol of Joseph’s land. “Lo, to the land shadowing with wings,” wrote Isaiah. The
land under the sign of wings would be Joseph’s land, the whole North and South American continents under the Monroe Doctrine. Christ referred to this land when he said, “And now I show unto you a parable. Behold, wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together; so likewise shall mine elect be gathered from the four quarters of the earth” (Matthew 24:28) . Here again the four quarters of the earth are mentioned as in the Book of Mormon. In II Nephi 12:73 the Lord says, “My people which are of the house of Israel, shall be gathered home unto the lands of their possessions; and my word also shall be gathered in one.” Thus the seven books shall be gathered during the gathering of the eagles in the days of the pale horse.
Jesus indicated that these days of the gathering of the lost tribes would be the times shortly before his coming: “And immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven shall be shaken” (Matthew 24:34). Four records are to come forth after the flying eagle speaks; and since north is the first direction mentioned, it follows that the fourth seal is the record of the people of the north countries that shall come to Zion during the reign of the pale horse. The Doctrine and Covenants refers to the people of the north countries in Secion 108:6,
And they who are in the north countries shall come in remembrance before the Lord, and their prophets shall hear his voice, and shall no longer stay themselves, and they shall smite the rocks, and the ice shall flow down at their presence….And they shall bring forth their rich treasures unto the children of Ephraim my servants.

The Fifth Horseman
It would seem that in compiling the books or chapters of the Book of Revelation chapter 19 should follow chapter 6, for chapter 19 introduces the fifth and most important horseman.
And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him is called Faithful and True , and in righteousness he doth judge and make war; his eyes as a flame of fire; and he had on his head many crowns; and a name written that no man knew, but himself. And he is clothed with a vesture dipped in blood; and his name is called The Word of God... And out of his mouth proceedeth the word of God, and with it he will smite the nations, and he will rule them with the word of his mouth.’ Revelation 19:11-13, 15
The Inspired Version (verse 16) leaves no doubt as to who the fifth horseman is: “And he hath on a vesture, and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”
The fifth horseman is unquestionably then the kingdom of God, the coming of which all the prophets have prophesied, even our Lord himself.
And now the pageant of the five horsemen is finished. However, some interesting features may be noted concerning the accouterments and actions of the characters involved. The first and fifth horsemen are both white. However, the first which is imperialism carries a weapon of war with which he conquers. The fifth and last horseman is also white but goes forth to conquer with the word of God or the truth of the gospel of Christ.
The whole purpose of the pageant is to explain how the kingdom of God would come forth in the beginning as a voice of testimony from the mouth of the lion of Judah saying “Come and see...” It would then go forth as a record of testimony, not in word only but in the power of His Spirit. As the ages unfold, God would reveal his will in dispensations of time- in actual records brought forth of additional testimony of his love, inviting all to come to Christ and be saved. (the end)