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4. The Fourth Seal: A Rider on a Pale Horse (Revelation 6:7-8)
Why is Death Given so Much Power? Why does the Lamb of God allow for such an extensive destruction?
We should not forget that it is not the Lamb who causes, sends or implements these catastrophes. On the contrary, faithlessness as well as rejection of the Lamb and his accomplished atonement has reached such an extreme opposition, hatred and blasphemy, so that Jesus is not any longer able to protect and save all of such people. He must allow that people destroy each other and reap the fruit of their longings (Roman 1:18-32).
The hatred of the fundamentalists of various religions against the crucified Son of God is increasing. Additionally, communists fight against God and His anointed. The spirit of rebellion in Russia and China has not died yet (Psalm 2:1-3).
Yet not only the faithlessness and the rejection of the Lamb by the nations, Israel and the various religions cry to high heaven, but also egoism of the affluent people buds in a brutal manner. Wealthy nations graciously bestow loans of money as alms to poor countries, but at the same time exploit the resource deposits of the Third World unscrupulously. Wealthy tourists lie naked on the beaches of Islamic, Hindu or Buddhist countries and wonder when the members of these religions spit out before them. Hollywood movies are loaned to television networks all over the world so that almost everywhere perverse sex and crime movies can be seen on the TV screen.
Yet where can you read in the news paper something about the wrath of God or about the reconciliation accomplished by His Lamb? "Good news are bad news", said a reporter, "they don’t sell!" Our society has become shallow, superficial and sex oriented by means of innumerable advertising spots. The indifference of those working on an assembly line, the tension of commuters and the rage of those being stuck in a traffic jam do not lead to repentance and faith.
An Increasing Collective Obsession: The inconceivably extensive judgment of the death of a fourth of mankind may be related to demonic sins in the time before the Flood when supernatural beings came in to the daughters of men (Genesis 6:1-6). According to a report it is said that in Egypt there are marriages between women and jinn (a race of supernatural creatures) again. Life in this world is not as shallow as it sometimes seems to be – just as there are no areas of vacuum in the atmosphere but airflow up and down – likewise there is no man without any contact to God or to spirits. Luther is supposed to say, "Man is like an ass. He is ridden by God or by Satan, but anyway, a rider is always on his back."
The rider on the white horse may has poisoned by his anti-Christian spirit which is being effective in cultures, philosophies of life, and states, so much men with his ideas, power and programs with the result of an collective deception: Men believe that they are good, intelligent and able to put out the world of its misery. Yet if individuals or groups of men show God and His Lamb the door in such a way then anti-godly spirits press in the back-door. The wrath of God over the collective obsession of the masses and their deceivers is greater than we know. Who like the Lamb does not always hallow and glory the Father, but trusts in men, political parties or spirits, or worships the power of mammon, will become an enemy of God, to whom applies the following saying:
The mills of God grind slowly
but they finely grind;
what he fails to do because of his patience,
he will later do with severity!
The Lamb of God Waits for Man's Repentance: Jesus commands Death via the fourth throne guardian to plague a demonised society so that through an inconceivable disaster of the death of a fourth of mankind the survivors collect their wits, rethink, kneel down before God and His Lamb and get themselves transformed into the image of the Lamb. The great judgment is not a destruction judgment but allows men to repent and believe in God. Yet who will listen to the voice of God in His judgments? Who will return and repent wholeheartedly?
The angel of the Lord revealed John that dying and killing of so many people by four different whips of God (wars, hunger, pestilence and wild animals) will be brought upon mankind, as it had already been revealed to the prophet Ezekiel very clearly (Ezekiel 6:11-13; 7:14-15; 33:27).
Wars of Extermination, the First Whip of God: War is not only the last resort of policy, but it means at the same time judgment by God. Wars do not only destroy houses, countries and cultures but particularly the characters of the soldiers. It is not a simple thing to kill other people! Due to the existence of NBC weapons a global destruction and annihilation has become possible nowadays. The nuclear bomb upon Hiroshima in 1945 heralded a revolution whose implications are still incalculable. Advanced hydrogen, neutron and cobalt bombs provided a destruction potential to mankind so that not only a fourth of mankind but the whole mankind together with the whole flora and fauna could be extinguished several times. We are living in the midst of the apocalyptic era – and won't understand it.
Modern Gas Weapons: In World War I large quantities of gas shells were used. Their devastations left a deep shock on the responsible powers having such engineered systems so that in World War II all involved military systems shrank away from using the horrible weapon of creeping poison gases. Jamal Abd al-Nasser, however, used gas weapons in North Yemen. Likewise Saddam Hussein used these weapons against the invading Iranian armies and against the rebellious Kurds. Even though Saddam was able to bring Khomeini to his knees therewith, he did not dare to use these field-tested gas shells during the US operation "desert storm" in 1991 against the US armies and against Israel. Since that time UN inspectors searched for Saddam's subterranean factories and arsenals to no avail. Also in Libya the use of US missiles did not contribute much to stop the subterranean production of poison gas or even destroy the facilities for it. The power-crazed Arabic dictators are smiling and wait.
Biological Weapons: In World War II experts of the allied forces developed biological weapons on a remote isle of Scotland so as to cover by means of deathly bacteria industrial centres such as the Ruhr area, the Rhine-Main-triangle or Greater Stuttgart with a shroud. These biological weapons which should be released from spray tanks fitted to aircraft had not been used. The USSR had also produced a great arsenal of biological weapons whose inadequate handling and storage caused a depopulation of wide areas in Central Asia.
What a macabre indifference and callousness with which people nowadays speak of the possibility of genocide and extermination of whole nations! Hitler's barbarous crime against Jews has only marked the prelude of upcoming even major catastrophes.
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, we magnify You and thank You because You kept some of Your servants in the midst of tearing bombs. Death has no right on or authority over those who are under Your protection. Help us to resort in You and Your Son that we may fulfill our spiritual duties even in the valley of the shadow of death.
QUESTION:
- How does death attack us through modern wars?