Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

[Filter]

I have been reading through William Hendriksen's More than Conquerors, and just a couple days ago I read through his commentary on Revelation 6. He identifies the four horsemen as thus:

1) White horse rider - Jesus Christ Himself, as He throughout the Bible (and especially Revelation) is commonly referred to as conquering, has conquered, will conquer, or as the conqueror. The other horsemen are subservient to the white horse rider.

2) Red horse rider - Refers to 'slaughter' - in specific, the persecution of the church throughout this present age.

3) Black horse rider - Refers to 'economic hardship and poverty' - in specific, again concerning the poverty of Christians (especially Christians who were the original audience of Revelation), while wealth and abundance still exist for many, generally for the worldly unbelievers.

4) Pale horse rider - Refers to death - especially through warfare, famine,pestilence, and wild bests. These four woes are symbolic for all troubles which humanity in general (believer and unbeliever) suffer through.

What are your thoughts on his interpretation?

 

[scottmaciver]

Great question...

 

[Hamalas]

There's not much disagreement on the identity of the last three horsemen, but the identity of the first horseman (the rider on the white horse) is a subject of huge debate.

Most interpreters agree that it is either:

1) Christ
or
2) the anti-Christ

Did I mention this was the first passage I preached on for practice preaching in seminary? That was fun.

 

[RamistThomist]

3) Black horse rider - Refers to 'economic hardship and poverty' - in specific, again concerning the poverty of Christians (especially Christians who were the original audience of Revelation), while wealth and abundance still exist for many, generally for the worldly unbelievers.

I think this might be a generically true observation, but it has to be qualified so much that it doesn't mean anything specific. Most Christians in America are luxurious kings compared to animist pagans in Africa.