The word apocalypse half revelation. In the Apocalypse of Saint John, chapter 6, four horsemen are depicted. Many and varied have been the explanations of its meaning. The Orthodox fathers associated them with the four gospels and believed that they had to do with the current ministry of Christ and the Church in this world. According to that point of view, the horse is the war horse and the horsemen are warriors who are sent from the throne of God to wage various types of wars on earth. Each of the horses and riders has something to reveal about the involvement of the throne of God in the affairs of time and history during the Church Age. Only the White Horse correlates with the mission of the Church and actively engages the Church in battle. The saints of God, dressed in white robes, armed with swords and bows, and endowed with their own white horses, follow Christ the Rider on the White Horse and engage in the just war. None of the other horses is followed by an army of the saints and the sons of God do not get involved in the battles that are fought or in the judgments that the other horsemen pass.

 

Early Christian Interpretations

 

Some of the early exhibitors saw a correlation between the four faces of the cherubs, also mentioned in Revelation, and the color of the horses.

 

The face of the lion

 

The Lion is Christ the King, he came to wage war in justice for the preaching of the Gospel. According to this interpretation, the correlation is the Face of the Lion and the White Horse. White is always used in the Bible, and particularly in Revelation, to signify the righteousness of Christ and the righteousness of the saints. There are no legitimate exceptions.

 

The face of the ox / calf

 

The face of the ox is related to the red horse. It speaks of the suffering of sacrifice and the violence of war and persecution, which is a judgment of God against those who reject the truth.

 

The face of man

 

The Face of Man is identified with the Black Horse. Black contrasts with white and is used in the Bible to represent the antithesis and the absence of light. Because the world rejects Christ the Son of Man and chooses its own humanistic concepts of what it is to be humanity, the illumination has gone out in their minds and instead of light there is darkness in the moral, intellectual, social and religious realms. .

 

The flying eagle

 

The Face of the Eagle is identified with the Pale Horse and predicts death and judgment as the Sovereign God rains wars, pestilences, famines and natural calamities from heaven against a creation that rejects His Truth, His Son and His Church.

 

Efforts to interpret the symbols of the Apocalypse literally

 

Some exhibitors try to take these figures literally and look for a future literal manifestation of them, but they cannot defend it. There has yet to be a credible teaching that presents death literally riding on the back of a royal horse, dragging to hell with a rope.

 

A more definitive understanding

 

A fuller understanding of the meaning of what is happening here and what the various colors, figures and instruments project depends on an in-depth study of the symbols of the Book of Revelation, a practice recommended to St. John and the Churches in the Chapter 1.

 

According to the orthodox interpretation, the struggle has been fully engaged during the Church-age in this world and is intensifying as the forces of good and evil fight towards the climax in the consummation of the ages in which all people , evil things and forces will disappear. finally and forever destroyed.