Visions of Judgment: The Pale Horse of Pestilence

The world is gripped by headlines of a new and deadly virus coming out of Asia. SARS has killed hundreds and threatens the economic stability of several Asian countries. Is this the leading edge of future plagues mentioned in your Bible, or another warning of the fragility of our modern world?

by Darris McNeely

Disease travels in tandem with fear. While the first can lead to the death of thousands, the second can unravel the social fabric, disrupting the precarious balance of relationships essential for stability of nations.

Today it is SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) that is killing hundreds and causing fear among thousands. Tomorrow it will be another, even greater plague that will sweep across the landscape, leaving death and destruction in its wake.

In this series we have been examining each of the first four seals of Revelation 6. These seals, dramatically depicted by four horsemen, show the effect of false religion, war, famine and disease among the earth's population in the days leading to the return of Jesus Christ.

Each of these seals unleashes powerful forces that seek to destroy human life from the earth. The cumulative effect will lead to such conditions that if Christ did not intervene and cut short the time of trial, "no flesh would be saved" (Matthew 24:22). We come to the fourth seal, the fourth horseman, and his ride of death by disease. It is a timely subject, given the recent emergence of the deadly SARS virus from China.

The fourth horseman

In Revelation 6:7-8 we read the following description of the fourth seal's contents. "When He opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, ‘Come and see.' So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth to kill with sword, with hunger, with death and by the beasts of the earth."

Read the full article at www.wnponline.org/wnp/wnp0305/visionspestilence.htm

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