Herbert W Armstrong

   In this series of programs, we will tell you something of the problems of the world today, how they will affect you and their solution in the World Tomorrow. Ladies and gentlemen, Garner Ted Armstrong.

   "I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see. and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer. 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. 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 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 sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth."

   The four horsemen of the apocalypse? What do they mean? Was this just a nightmare of an elderly man called John on the island of Patmos years ago who wrote a book of the Bible called the Apocalypse? What if John had wrong things to eat that night? What was it he saw in vision in his dream that is talked about even among politicians in the world today, vast meaningful speeches given before congressional groups in which generals of the military have been known to mention the apocalypse, the four horsemen of the apocalypse, or our Armageddon that they say may someday be upon us?"

   What were those mysterious ghostly specter-like apparitions that John saw in his vision in a book that is called the Revelation? Now, in the professing Western Christian world, you would probably hear most people tell you: The Book of Revelation is a closed book. It's a sealed book. It's a book that means a concealing. Something you can't understand a book of many visions of many-headed animals and beasts and creatures of the four horsemen that we have just described a book showing a woman clothed with the sun with her feet on the moon with many-headed lions and tigers and beasts and all sorts of similes, analogies, stories, all kinds of mysterious hidden meaning.

   But what is the Book of Revelation according to its own introductory passage, according to what it itself says, take a look at Revelation one and verse one (Revelation 1:1), I will show you three major things. The Book of Revelation claims to be, the revelation, not the concealing. The revealing is what that word means of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him to show, not to cloud, not to seal or keep from, but to show his servants those things which must shortly come to pass and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John, you believe that? Do you believe that God Almighty actually sent an angel to signify these things to a human being who then put them down in the pen and ink at that time? Maybe it was Papyrus, maybe Velum the original writing material. And how can you know, one-third of the Bible is prophecy and much of that in the New Testament and Jesus Christ himself is a prophet. That was a statement that Jesus Christ of Nazareth did that.

   Now, here's where you're let. At least this is my opinion. You can put it that way. Christian theologians included and especially I think more meaningfully included right now than anybody else. And that is it. I can't see how anybody could claim to be an adherent to the Christian religion. A believer in Jesus Christ of Nazareth who thinks the Book of Revelation is a series of lies, nightmares, dreams, or just ideas of some man that was a kind of an eschatological buff or a prophecy buff of some sort because it claims to be a combination of three things. It claims to be a revealing from Jesus Christ of Nazareth. It claims to be the word of God and the things which John saw.

   Now, how can anybody believe in Christ as a savior and yet believe that he lied or that he was just badly mistaken, that he was a kind of a dreamer that saw all these various things in the future. But he was wrong about that because, believe it or not, the book itself shows us how to understand it. Who is worthy to open those mysterious hidden seals that reveal these horsemen because it shows a scroll that was closed up, the opening of each of the seals as if you were to discover a very high-level envelope carried by a diplomatic courier with a little black bag and the handcuff and the chain around his wrist. But in this case, it was John who saw envision a scroll and it was closed. And the introductory portions of the Book of Revelation show that he could not understand because he couldn't even see what was in the scroll that he looked. And the whole setting is of that in heaven where you're trying to find in the opening chapters of the Book of Revelation, someone who is worthy to open those seals and to look inside of them and to see what they say.

   Now in the sixth chapter, which I'm going to show you point by point in a few more moments, each one of those seals is opened and as it is, he sees in his mind's eye, a very vivid, colorful sort of a spectacle, a specter actually of a ghost-like race riding on a horse which he describes, believe it or not, Jesus Christ of Nazareth in the New Testament tells you what those horsemen are. I want to read for you a couple of scriptures again. Now in the first chapter of the Book of Revelation, because in the following verse (Revelation 1:2), it says, that John bear record of the word of God and of the testimony of Jesus Christ and of all the things that he saw."

   Now that second verse, shows you there is a tripartite arrangement, as it were, in the book of Revelation. That it consists of three things, it consists of the word of God. So it's a part of the word of God. It claims to be, now whether Christian professing folds can say that they, they appropriate Jesus. They believe on Jesus. They go to church, they are Christian, yet they don't know anything at all about the Book of Revelation. They're not sure what it means. They don't read it, they ignore it. They call it a book of hidden symbols, and it's not for us today.

   I don't understand this transition in their thinking. I just don't how you can believe in a person that you claim is the Son of God who has divine origins is supposed to be absolutely truthful 1000%, if that's possible, truthful, purely truthful, who said everything he spoke was the truth. And yet they ignore what he said. Uh, I don't understand that transitional reasoning, how people can appropriate him as their savior and say he's mine and yet not believe what he said.

   Do you know that if you had what they call a red-letter Bible? That's the Bible in which they always print in red, the words which are first-person quotation as recorded by the historical writers of Jesus Christ himself. If you had such a book, you will see that in the very first few chapters of the Book of Revelation and elsewhere, there are printed red lines in first-person quotation from Jesus Christ of Nazareth. His first-person quotes are not confined just to the four gospels. They are also included in this book. At the end of your Bible called The Revelation.

   There is nothing in this book that is intended, now, at this time, this day and age to be completely concealed and hidden from your understanding, the meaning of it can be revealed. And there is only one, the Bible says, who is worthy to do that. And that is Jesus Christ himself. So again, what is the Book of Revelation? It is a revealing, not a concealing. The word apocalypse in the Greek language does not mean calamities. I don't know why, but people talk about because of this misuse of the English word apocalypse from the Greek. They talk about apocalyptic happenings, and they seem to imply chaotic. They seem to imply by this vast disasters of horrible consequence.

   When the word apocalypse merely means, as it is correctly translated into the English language, a revealing, not a concealing but a revealing an opening up to your understanding. So it contains the word of God, the testimony, the eyewitness, testimony of Jesus Christ of Nazareth and the things which he John saw. Now, what did he see? We'll show you in a moment these mysterious seals, each of those four horsemen and how Jesus Christ himself is the one who interprets what they mean.

   One of the enigmas of all time has been understanding the Book of Revelation. For instance, the phrase the four horsemen of the apocalypse is common in our language. But few know the true meaning of these symbolic horsemen.

   The Ambassador College booklet, "The Four Horsemen of The Apocalypse," brings you that understanding. If you dare to know with biblical proofs, each of the horsemen is described and their meaning made clear religious confusion and misdirection, war and upheaval, drought and famine, disease epidemics. You can now understand what the four horsemen of the apocalypse mean and how you can escape their destructive forces for this vital information. Request. Your free copy of "The Four Horsemen of The Apocalypse." Send your request to Ambassador College, Box 345 GPO, Sydney, New South Wales. That's Ambassador College Box 345 GPO, Sydney, New South Wales.

   Jesus Christ of Nazareth is a prophet. The 24th chapter of the book of Matthew is an absolute pivotal prophecy in your New Testament and some of the other prophecies of the gospels of both Mark and Luke the 13th chapter. In the first case in the 21st, the latter are also a corroborative account by the other disciples who wrote of these prophetic statements of Jesus Christ about an entire series of end time events.

   Now first let me set the stage by saying this, there is nothing in my way of thinking that is religious about a famine, now famine where starving millions of human beings die is just not a religious exercise. There is nothing that is picky or that is, is interesting in an eschatological sense which means a force telling or a study of prophetic events about a calamity such as earthquakes like the one that wipes out Managua, Nicaragua, that is not a religious exercise, understanding these scriptures, which talk about vast global trends and conditions, violent occurrences, world wars, massive delusion that grips the minds of millions of people that can bring about the overthrow of government that can bring about the beginning of wars that can grip the entire world in a global conflict. Is not to my way of thinking, religious. Now, religious is doing funny things with your hands. It's thinking all kinds of weird things to many people.

   Many people get an idea of a certain role that they have in life that they have to fulfill that they have been kind of struck with a special calling from God. So they're the only person around that can really interpret the Bible. Well, they're wrong. The Bible interprets the Bible and Jesus Christ of Nazareth of the New Testament who is a prophet in the 24th chapter of the book of Matthew gave a series of events, one after another of overall trends or curves and conditions that he said would unfold and develop toward what he called the time of the end of an age.

   The Greek word is aon, which does not mean the end of the orb on which we live the physical earth. But it means that transitory transitional period in which man's society, the orderly system as we know it today makes way for a new world system which Christ is going to bring, not which we have to worry about. We don't have to worry about it. I could disbelieve it. I could tell you it isn't true, it would happen anyhow, let's take a look at some of these scriptures of Matthew the 24th chapter and verse three (Matthew 24:3), as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately.

   This is not a sermon then, but a private statement saying, tell us when shall these things be? He had said there would not be one stone left on top of another one that would not be toned down. They wanted to know when is all of this going to happen and what shall be the sign of your coming and the end of the world? Three things they wanted to know when shall these things be, that he had told them about, what will be the sign of your arrival, you're coming to this earth. And at the end of the age, the Greek word is aion and does not mean the end of the entire globe or the earth on which we live.

   Jesus answered and said unto them, take heed that no man deceive you for many shall come in my name saying I am the Christ, not that they are the Christ, but that he is the Christ and shall deceive many so far so good. That's the first statement in order, did Jesus speak in order? Did he mean it that way? Well, biblical scholars, I'm not alone on the corner of this information because there are many biblical scholars who recognize that what Jesus said in the 24th chapter of Matthew is in a parallel order with the unfolding of this scroll which was sealed as it were by these wax official seals that you might draw that analogy that appeared to John in the Book of Revelation as it is called a sealed scroll.

   And he said he wept because no man was found worthy to open those seals. And the biblical setting then shows that the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world, the typical picture of the Passover Lamb which represented Christ is found worthy. It shows then that Jesus Christ is the Lamb. He opens the seals and we'll see that in Revelation the sixth chapter verses one through eight in the sixth chapter of Revelation (Revelation 1-8). John says, I saw when the lamb opened one of the seals and I heard as it were the noise of thunder, he heard like a thunderclap, then, one of the four beasts.

   Now, the Greek word means a living creature and it describes what they look like too, saying, "Come and see." And I saw, and behold, a white horse, and he that sat on him had a bow, and a crown was given unto him, and he went forth, conquering and to conquer.

   Now, if you decided for yourself, "I know what that means," you can say, "Oh, well, now look, the Bible talks about Christ coming on a white horse. It talks about him having a crown on his head or many crowns in different places, and he is going to rule on the earth. So that's bound to mean Jesus Christ. Will you be close?" Because it's true that Jesus is represented in the Book of Revelation, the 19th chapter, and elsewhere, as riding on a white horse and is coming to conquer and rule the earth. Nowhere, though, does it talk of him having a bow in his hand. Rather, it talks about a sharp sword with which he will smite the nations and talks about the sword of the word of God which divides asunder even unto the morrow of the bone. And it talks about Jesus Christ coming to rule.

   Now, these are biblical symbols. If you decided for yourself that you're a prophetic buff, you got this special thing going between you and God. I've met such people that you, you know what this means. So you read your interpretation into the scripture; you can come up with all sorts of reasonings about what it means. I'm not going to do that. You check up and see what the Bible itself says because I believe and I know the 10th, the Bible says, no scripture is a private interpretation that Holy Men of old spoke. They were moved by the Holy Spirit, Isaiah said to the law and the testimony.

   If they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them or as one translation has it, the light will surely not dawn on what they say what they foretell will not come to pass. Jesus said thy word is truth and he said, you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. It talks about the Bereans who searched the scriptures daily. And therefore, because they did this, many of them believed it talks about dividing scripture with scripture rightly, dividing the word of truth. And it says, line upon line here a little there, a little precept upon precept.

   It shows you then that the Bible must be put together like a mathematical problem. If you've got a vague scripture over here and five or six or more plain scriptures over here, then those plain scriptures have to show you the meaning of that vague scripture. One which is ambiguous, capable of a couple of different meanings has got to be made clear by what other scriptures in the Bible are clear and pointed on that same subject.

   Now, here we have exactly that happening right in front of us. We've got two scriptures from two different parts of the Bible. Each one of them involves Jesus Christ. Here's the Lamb that's Christ and here's Jesus saying this Matthew the 24th chapter gives a direct chronological series of events as he unfolded them to his own disciples about what's going to occur in the time of the end of his earth. A culmination, a climax at the close of an age.

   The book of Revelation is a revealing of the word of God, of the testimony of Jesus Christ and of what he John saw and it talked about the time of the end. It talks about an unfolding of the events as they are going to lead up to the second coming of Jesus Christ. Look then at how one scripture can interpret the other scripture. Here is the very first event Jesus said would occur as a sign, a warning to his own true followers at the end of this age is near.

   He said, many will come in my name in the name of Jesus saying that Jesus is the Christ and shall deceive many. And what is the very first event you see in the chronological sequence of the Book of Revelation, the sixth chapter and that first seal, but a white horse and he that sat, had a bow, a crown and he went forth conquering and to conquer.

   Now, believe it or not, the Bible interpreting the Bible, Jesus, who is the revelator telling you what revelation means. Says that the very first sign along the way to the time of the end of this age would be the emergence of a tremendous reawakening in religion that it would involve false Christs and false prophets whose message would basically be a message about the personality of Jesus Christ saying he is the Christ saying he is Jesus bless you, Jesus in all such statements. He is the Lord and deceiving many. Why? Because Jesus asks in Luke 6:46, Why call you me Lord, Lord and do not the things which I say?

   Would you recognize a picture of Jesus Christ? Millions would but almost nobody knows the man, the Ambassador College publication entitled "The Real Jesus" shows how the traditional renaissance paintings of Jesus are diametrically opposed to the dynamic, masculine, powerful Christ described in your Bible.

   The man from Galilee is shrouded in mystery. Millions disagree on the manner of his birth, his message, his family, why and if he died, his resurrection, and where he is now. The Christian world is confused about the true Jesus. But now you can discover the real Jesus, you can prove what he taught, how he lived and who he is from the pages of your own Bible. You'll see why the traditional Sunday school picture of Christ is not the real Jesus, write, for this surprising booklet, your copy will be sent free of charge when you request the real Jesus, send your request to Ambassador College Box 345 GPO Sydney New South Wales. That's Ambassador College Box 345 GPO Sydney New South Wales.

   Are there such things as false Christs? Had there ever been? You bet there had take a look at that off Hitler. He thought he was a sort of a Jesus to rescue the entire world and bring in a millennium German style. He talked about a 1000 year Reich, you know where he got it out of the Book of Revelation, the same book we're quoting from right now where in the 20th chapter, it describes a 1000 year reign of Jesus Christ of Nazareth on this earth.

   Now, I don't want to get off on the subject of the idea of going to heaven that people have in their minds, which is not in the Bible again because that would take me an hour to get back to what we're talking about here. How they reconcile a 1000 year rule, reign of Jesus Christ on the earth was going up to heaven. I'll never know but they managed to do it somehow. That's between you and me privately.

   But we see this direct sequence of events as it is in Matthew, the 24th chapter Jesus Christ of Nazareth talking and the first person being quoted as saying, the very next thing behind false Christs, false prophets, and deceptions religiously would be, quote, and you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that should be not troubled for all these things must come to pass. But the end is not yet for nations shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. We've been living in a time of world war since before I was born. World war. Beginning back in the teens of the first world war, then the second World War and we have had a world global ideological and political struggle, the Cold War ever since.

   And now it seems new power blocks emerging to, to describe the falcon of the balance of power between the east and the west in central Europe, an emerging United States of Europe, the super giant of Japan, the Soviet or the Sino Soviet problem of China and emerging nuclear power and the Soviet Union at each other's throats. The stage it seems is being set either by design or by accident, either a limited or a global nuclear bomb war at some time in the future.

   What is your daily news? What has it been? The involvement of the United States before the end of the call it? Cease fire. But that sounds weird. It isn't a cease fire. It's just a name printed on a headline somewhere, cease fire. But the people still getting killed over there don't believe the firing has ceased even as it has not ceased in Laos, even as it has not ceased in other areas around the borders of Thailand and elsewhere. No, the killing still goes on.

   And what do you hear of whether you're talking about the Middle East, about the African crisis of this present moment, Central and South America where we can get involved in wars over a soccer match? You hear continually true to what Jesus said of wars and rumors of wars.

   And what was the second creature? The second beast. What was that second mysterious horseman that he revealed to John's mind's eye? Here it is. When he had opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature of the beast say come and see. And there went out another horse that was red and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth that they should kill one another. And it was given unto him a great sword, so far, so good. Exactly match wars and rumors of wars and a mysterious red horse with its rider that had the power to take peace away from the earth and to kill with the sword of biblical symbol of warfare.

   What was the next thing Jesus said would happen and there shall be famine, that same area of the 24th chapter of Matthew, that pivotal point of Bible prophecy, the very focal point of Bible prophecy that Jesus spoke of. And what does it say? The third seal? The third horse was? Look at the 5th and 6th verses of Revelation six (Revelation 6:6). When he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say come and see and I beheld in low, a black horse and he that sat on him had a pair of balances is in his hand. Now, balances are for measuring. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beast say, quote, a measure of wheat for a penny, a tiny little pinch of wheat for a penny, a British English penny at that time. And three measures of barley for a penny and see that you hurt, not the oil. And the wine here is a mysterious horse with a rider with balances and a voice that says, be careful. Don't spill any of that oil. Careful with that wine. Talking about staples of an economy, staples of a diet that we have to have to live talking about wheat.

   And this black horse here with the balances in his hand of the creature measuring out a tiny little amount in the Greek language is a tiny little amount of money. And in 1611, it was translated a penny. Just a tiny little pinch of grain. What was the very next thing Jesus said would occur? Famine. And what is the exact order of the revealing of these seals, famine, measuring out little tiny dole, little pinches of some of the staples of life and the potential for famine revealed in that third horseman of the apocalypse.

   And what was the fourth that Jesus said? And pestilences a simple statement but a vast meaning. Look at the seventh verse of Revelation, the sixth chapter (Revelation 6:7). And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature of the beast say, come and see and I looked and behold a pale horse and his name that sat on him was death and hades that the Greek word grave, hell not burning, but the grave followed with him and power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with the sword with hunger and with death and with the beast or living creatures of the earth. So pestilences include many of these other things and one additional thing not mentioned earlier. It includes war. It includes even savage attacks by wild animals driven mad as a result of the bodies left lying around which has even happened in the course of the Vietnam war. There were accounts of man-eating tigers beginning to attack villagers and so on. It talks about killing with hunger and with death, disease epidemics, starvation, warfare. All of these mounting up to comprise the meaning of that fourth seal. The fourth horseman of the apocalypse and to fulfill what Jesus said, the fourth event, one after another would culminate in vast global pestilential disease epidemics and death. Not a very pretty picture is it? It's no wonder people talk in very dramatic tones about the four horsemen of the apocalypse and the tremendous awesome specter like ghost-like race-like meaning of those horsemen you have seen now in this brief introductory program as we begin a short series on the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, I'm going to break it down, talk of each one of them and their global import. Exactly what biblical prophecy says. You have seen the meaning of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th of these horsemen of the Apocalypse.

   We have seen by comparing scripture with scripture, letting Jesus Christ of Nazareth be the revelator. He is the one who reveals, not Garner Ted Armstrong. And if you want to have a chance to look it up in your own Bible in your own home, then you write for these booklets called, "Is This The End Time?" A new booklet and a brand new booklet right off the press called "The Four Horsemen of The Apocalypse." First time ever announced and advertised, The Four Horsemen of The Apocalypse. And Is This The End Time? They are absolutely free of charge? There is no price whatsoever.

   The Bible characterizes the end time as being a time when certain great global conditions would be extant. Are these conditions just exactly as the Bible lays them out conditions that concern you and me right now today? Are they right now on the earth? Are they a living part of your day-to-day news?

   The approach that is taken in this brand new booklet, very little advertised before, "Is This The End Time?" It's to take the challenging prophecies of your Bible and put them to the test to superpose over these prophetic statements of the old, as well as the New Testament. The conditions that are expanded upon this earth right now at this present time, these and other proofs are going to be found in this booklet "Is this the end of time."

   And all you need to do is to request it by sending your letter to Post Office Box 345, Sydney New South Wales. Be sure to tell us the call letters of your station. We need that. That's all there is no cost but tell us the name of the radio station to which you've been listening, the call letters, and then send your letter to Box 345, Sydney New South Wales. Until next time, this is Garner Ted Armstrong saying goodbye, friends.

   You have been listening to the World Tomorrow. If you would like more information, write to Ambassador College Box 345 GPO Sydney, New South Wales. That's Ambassador College Box 345 GPO Sydney New South Wales.