We begin Chapter 6 today and in it the Lord Jesus Christ will open the first of the seven seals on the scroll. The opening of the first seal will cause a horseman to ride forth---the first of what are commonly known as "the four horsemen of the apocalypse". The Lord is in charge of the Great Tribulation events. The happenings of the end times are going to take place one by one in an orderly fashion. The inhabitants on earth during those days may feel as if everything is spinning out of control, but at no time does anything happen that is outside of the Lord's will.
John says, "I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, 'Come!' I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest." (Revelation 6:1-2)
Some Bible scholars of the past attempted to to interpret this rider as Christ, but in modern times most scholars and theologians have abandoned this idea. I agree that the rider on the horse is not Christ. For one thing, at this point in Revelation, Christ is standing before the throne holding the scroll in His hands. Throughout the opening of the seven seals He will still be standing in the same place. Later in Revelation, we will see Christ coming to earth riding a white horse, but that will occur at the end of the Great Tribulation. Right now we are still at the very beginning of the things He has told John "are to come".
One reason scholars of old confused the rider on the horse with Christ may be because the horse is white. The color white usually symbolizes purity and holiness. But we must keep in mind that Satan has always tried to imitate Christ. There is a reason why the Lord Jesus referred to Satan as the "father of lies" in John 8:44, and that's because everything that comes from Satan is counterfeit. If Satan can't entice human beings to worship him, then he considers it the next best thing to divert their worship away from the only One who deserves praise.
Most scholars today feel that the rider on the white horse is the Antichrist, and I see no reason to disagree. From the very beginning, war is in his heart, but he tries to give the impression that he seeks peace on the earth. He chooses a white horse to imply that his motives are pure, but in ancient times a horse was what a king would ride into battle. A king coming in peace would ride a donkey. So we see that he pretends to want peace with everyone when what he actually wants is control over everyone.
Another aspect of this rider's appearance is that he carries a bow but no arrows. Several commentators suggest that this means the Antichrist will come to power not by winning a military battle, but by brokering a peace treaty in the Middle East. His ability to do what no other politician has ever done will cause many who were left behind at the rapture of the church to feel that he deserves to rule the nations. A number of United States presidents have tried very hard to convince the enemies of Israel to live at peace alongside her, but every attempt has failed so far. But this man who will come to power in the last days (we know he comes to power because he is "given a crown" in verse 2) will succeed where so many others have failed.
During that time, the nation of Israel will be allowed to rebuild the temple, possibly right beside the Dome of the Rock. In recent years it has been the opinion of some archaeologists that what appears to be the outline of Solomon's temple in satellite images from space indicate that the temple lay slightly to the side of where the Dome of the Rock is situated. The peace treaty brokered by the Antichrist will be designed as a seven-year cease fire, and the Antichrist may present it to the parties involved as a "trial period". He may tell the parties to the treaty that after the seven years are successfully completed, they will be rewarded with various funds or government aid if they will sign a permanent treaty. But all along, the Antichrist intends to break the treaty himself. Once he has the nations under his control, halfway through the seven years he will defile the temple by placing an image of himself in it. At that time, he will have so much authority over the governments of the world that he will be able to issue a decree forbidding the worship of anyone or anything but himself.
The prophet Daniel foresaw the deception of the Antichrist and said of him, "He will confirm a covenant with many for one 'seven'. In the middle of the 'seven' He will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him." (Daniel 9:27) When the nation of Israel is allowed to rebuild the temple, her citizens will go back to bringing sacrifices and offerings to the Lord at the temple. But halfway through the seven years, the Antichrist will set up an image of himself in the temple, as we will see him doing later in our study. This is what Daniel calls "the abomination that causes desolation". The people of Israel will not be able to worship the Lord in a temple that has been defiled. They will be unable to purify it for further use, for they will be forbidden to enter it unless they are willing to bow down to the image of the Antichrist.
The Apostle Paul, by revelation from the Holy Spirit, when speaking of the one who will insist on being worshiped as a god, said that he will oppose and exalt himself above every so-called god or object of worship, "so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God". (2 Thessalonians 2:4) The reason it is believed that it will be an image of the Antichrist and not the Antichrist himself who sits in the temple is because, later in Revelation, we find the image being given the ability through Satanic powers to speak, causing many citizens of the world to gasp in awe and to give their allegiance to the one whom the image represents.
Why will so many people of earth be willing to bow their knees to the Antichrist? We have to remember that in those days the church is gone from the world. Their godly influence will not be present. They will not be there to point to the Scriptures and warn the world's citizens that they are being deceived. It will still be possible for people to come to Christ during the Great Tribulation, and a large number actually will repent and trust Christ with the destiny of their eternal souls. But an even larger number will give their allegiance to the wicked world leader. They are easy pickings for Satan, for they have long been in the habit of closing their ears to the pleas of the Holy Spirit to repent and be made right with a holy God. They've long been in the habit of closing their eyes to all the evidence that suggests there is a God and that He is holy and that He will someday judge the world by His standards of holiness.
The rider on the white horse in Revelation 6 is given a crown, but not the royal crown placed on a king's head at his coronation. John uses the Greek word "stephanos", which is a crown of victory given to a conqueror. This symbolizes the temporary authority the Antichrist will have during the last days. Although the Lord Jesus Christ certainly deserves a crown of victory for having conquered death, He would more properly be crowned with a king's crown. In Revelation 19:12 we will see the Lord Jesus Christ crowned as King of kings, and at that time John will say "on His head were many crowns", signifying that He is going to be king over every nation of the earth. John will use the Greek word "diadems" to describe these crowns, and that means they are royal crowns. The Antichrist wears no royal crown because he has no right to wear it. He will wear a conqueror's crown, but only for the brief number of years the Lord allows him to wear it.
Once we get it straight in our minds that the first horseman represents the Antichrist, the three other horsemen will make a great deal of sense to us. After the first horseman rides out promising peace and prosperity for the earth, the other three horsemen ride out bringing war, inflation, famine, and death. Whenever people fall for the lies of Satan, bad things are sure to follow. Those will be the days the prophet Daniel said will be "a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then." (Daniel 12:10 Those will be terrible times for the people of Israel, for the Antichrist will hate the Jewish people more than anyone before him ever did, and he will want them wiped from the earth so that the Lord Jesus Christ---the Lion of the tribe of Judah and the heir to David's throne---will have no twelve tribes of Israel over which He can be the head and will have no throne from which to rule the nations. The prophet Jeremiah foresaw how the Antichrist would persecute the people of Israel, and he said, "How awful that day will be! No other will be like it. It will be a time of trouble for Jacob, but he will be saved out of it." (Jeremiah 30:7)
The Lord, however, will never break the promises He's made to Israel. During our study of Revelation, all the things the Lord has promised Israel will come to pass and she will at last be granted peace on every side. Ever since the Lord first said a Deliverer was coming from the nation of Israel, Satan has tried to wipe the people of Israel from the earth, but he wasn't able to keep Christ from coming. Since he was unable to prevent the birth, death, and resurrection of Christ, there's nothing left for him to do in his attempt to get back at God than to persecute the people of God. He persecutes Christians in an attempt to get them to renounce Christ or to cause them to fall into such sin that their testimonies have no impact on people who are lost without the Lord. He has persecuted the Jewish people (by using various wicked world leaders) throughout the ages in an attempt to eradicate them from the earth and keep Christ from returning to claim the throne that is rightfully His and to rule the nations from Israel. But Satan's plots are all destined to fail. The Lord who spoke the universe into existence has always been and will always be in control of everything. He will carry out His plans for mankind and for the entire creation. At no time, as we study the Great Tribulation, is the Lord not in charge of everything that takes place. Satan's man---the Antichrist---will think he has the world at his feet, but he is nothing but one small piece on the Lord's chess board, and though he thinks he is in charge of his own destiny, he is merely being moved about by the hand of the One who made all things.
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