You cannot help but compare the Revelation 6 horsemen with Matthew 24 birth pains. Most teachers agree that Matthew 24 describes a summary of history from the ascension of Christ up until the midway point of the tribulation. However, when one gets to chapter 6 of revelations, many believe that this describes only the first 3 1/2 years of the tribulation. Failure to connect these two passages is primarily due to the fact that most insert a rapture as happening somewhere after chapter 3 and before chapter 6 so therefore the white horse must be the antichrist, and the other three horses are the escalation of things that we do find in Matthew 24, such as war, famine, and death. However, if we see the white horse as the gospel these two passages correlate perfectly. This also helps us understand chapter 5 of revelation, what John was seeing was the freshly slain Lamb right after his ascension into heaven. Of course, all of these things eventually will escalate right before the midway point of the tribulation. Many ask, but what about the 25% of the worlds population dying with the pale horse? Historically this has happened before with a smaller world population, and I believe it could be happening right now all over the world with accumulated deaths as a result of escalating war, famine , and pestilence. Note it says authority was given to death to touch 25%. That’s negative, but let me encourage you! Satan cannot destroy mankind. His desire is to stop the kingdom of heaven from going forward. He is constantly using evil men and women to kill mankind , to decrease the earth population, but no than 75% of the worlds population is not going to die!Satan is not going to win , but since Christ ascension there have been such fervent efforts on his part, and on the part of his minions to stop the kingdom of Jesus from occurring on the earth. Seeing this view of the gospel in revelation 6 will absolutely rivet you to see the battle that is occurring right now and will challenge you to live for this gospel today rather than hoping for a better day, Yes, things are going to escalate right before the midway point of the tribulation, but we’re not waiting for things to happen, they are now happening! God will care for the rapture, He knows when the antichrist will emerge, ours is simply to be watching and ready by spreading and living according to the gospel of the kingdom right now. Amen. (Listen to Season 2, Episodes 22-24 for further discussion on Revelation 6 and the Gospel as the White Horse rider).
