The Fourth Seal

When the fourth seal is opened John sees a Pale horse. The account is in Revelation 6:7-8.

7. And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, come and see.
8. 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 sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.

To understand this seal we will have to examine some key words and determine their true translation.

PALE HORSE - translated from the Greek word CHLOROS, which is the same root from which we get the word CHLOROPHYLL ( the substance which helps make leafy plants green). Its true meaning is a pale green, or the colour of young grass. Biblically this colour is the colour of disease and pestilence a pale-green, or sickly yellowish-green. Mathew 24:7 tells us in the last days "..and there shall be pestilence's..". However these diseases which shall come upon man well be global and there will be no cures.

HELL - This word is WRONGLY translated in to many modern Bibles, the original word is HADES. It means 'the region of departed spirits'. This word used in this verse relates to an intermediate stage, a place between DESEACE and GEENNA (or, gehenna - the hell of eternal fire and punishment, the final resting place of the damned). It is thought the word is derived from the word 'unseen' but most think it from a word meaning 'all recieveing'. It is also believed o be the place ALL souls went after death until the ascention of Christ and now only lost souls go there (Another study!).

It is not an actual place as we would picture hell but a transitionally state of being. It means that all who die now, without Christ will be received into HADES and then on to their final destination following judgement. We must not attribute anything more to Hades, it is not purgatory or a place of limbo. Time has no meaning as it is beyond this temporal earth and the constraints of time.

DEATH - This is the name given to the Angel who is riding the Pale horse. As with all angels their name corresponds to their position or function, if you like their name is their title. It conveys more than just an identity. This can be confirmed by the names given to Lucifer, (the original name of Satan, meaning bright, shining, like the morning star. Some people think the word Lucifer was used in a descriptive sense for his fall) however he is now called Satan, which means advisory and the Devil meaning accuser and slanderer. Gabriel (an Arch angel, who is classed high in the Celestial hierarchy) means 'God is my strength'.

The Death we are looking at is the word THANATOS and it's meaning is 'a separation of the soul from the body and a seperation of man from God'. Altogether it is used in the context of denoting a punishment of sin. Death is not an end but a continuation of an existance, after all the soul can not stop existing it is eternal. The only difference God sees in the difference between life and death can be defined as: 'A spiritual life is a conscious existence in commuinion with God', where as 'a spiritual death is a conscious existence in seperation from God'. All mankind is born into the same spiritual condition but sinners alone are destined for an eternity of spiritual death.

This angel could be described as the 'grim reaper' or the 'angel of death', his function is to seek and destroy the guilty, to gather what belongs to him. Hades, the realm of the dead follows him gathering the harvest as he sweeps across the earth.

Later in verse 8 death is mentioned again but this is the word THANATOO and means 'to put to death' as we would literally take the word to mean.

As for where he comes from we can not say, just because he is death does not mean he is one of Satan's angels. Hades may follow him but then God in the Bible has sent angels to kill, but they are still from God. We can not assume he brings spiritual death to earth as all sinners are spiritually dead, only by allowing Christ into your heart and life can you be re-connected spiritually to the blessings and warmth of God. So DEATH (spiritually) is his title and DEATH (literally, the seperation of the spiritual soul from the earthly body) is his task.

POWER - The word used here is EXOUSIA meaning 'authority' or 'it is lawful'. God has given the authority and power through God's word to carry out the task given him. It has the limitations to which God set and although the angel might want to do more he can not as he is constrained by God's Word.

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We can see then that the Angel on the pale horse has been given the task of bringing judgement on the earth to the lost or sinner. If we see the first 4 seal's as physical judgements we realise that the list of ways (verse 8) in which he will kill will all be done naturally.

The angel has authority over a quarter of the earth, in other words he can kill one quarter of the worlds population, and one quarter only. That is his limitation. However he has been given various methods in which to achieve this. In fractional terms it may not seem like a lot, but when you realise that estimates put the population of the earth to around 6.2 billion, then you can see that during the time of the fourth seal 1.5 billion people could die.

How will they die? In a number of ways as we see from verse 8. Firstly with SWORD then HUNGER then DEATH and finally with the BEASTS of the earth.

We can see from this list that the 'sword' is in line with Seal 2 and hunger Seal 3 therefore death Seal 4 which follows these two is an ongoing process. Disease and pestilence follows in line with the first two naturally. What is being happening here is that this angel has been given the authority to TAKE LIVES. This would indicate the severity of the conditions that the world will go through. We at present suffer from periodic times of famine and war but on the whole the nations rally round and the death toll is reduced greatly from what it could be. Because today War is generally localised, the famine that follows is also local and can be dealt with before disease and pestilence get a strong foot hold.

However there is coming a time when the problem will be of such size (A quarter of the earth) that help will make no dent in the situation, even if help will be given. In times of trouble on these scales people tend to become very self absorbed and look after number one. On a global scale this would mean millions dying on your own doorstep.

We also have the added process of death from BEASTS of the earth. This will become apparent in two forms both of which can be confirmed by history.

Firstly food supplies will become short and this will be true for animals as well as man. In certain cases and in certain lands animals will begin attacking mankind in their search for food. It is well known that a lion for example that kills man becomes fearless in the presence of man and has to be killed as they are labelled with the name of man killer.

It is interesting to note Noah after the flood was told by God that he would make animals fear man, so he and his descendants could hunt animals for food. This agrement between man and God will expire once the period of tribulation starts and Satan takes total control of the earth. We can find this agreement in Genesis 9:2.

2. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every foul of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.

Once an animal looses the fear of man it becomes a threat to man and man becomes potential food for the animals.

In the second case of BEASTS killing mankind we just have to look to the greatest plagues of mankind and see that they were all animal-borne. The bubonic plague (the Black Death) and rabies are to name but a few. Aid's is said to have started in monkeys. All these during times of famine will be a threat once again to mankind. All these and more, for we do not know what else will be introduced or mutate to become a killer to man.

We are already being told that due to the over prescribing of anti-biotics, in the future certain viruses will be immune to treatments. Just recently the Flu has killed many people in Britain due to its variant on existing flu strains.

This fourth seal concludes the physical judgements on mankind when nature will be seen to exact it's revenge on man. Due to the nature of these judgements man will look for a scape goat and the people who side with God will be their target, all with the blessing and persuading of the Anti-Christ.