A CROWN FOR THE AMERICAN PHARAOH, RIDER ON THE WHITE HORSE & ONE OF THE TEN KINGS

Most expositors identify the rider on a white horse in Revelation as either the Antichrist or Jesus Christ, usually the former. Both are misleading interpretations based on guesswork, hearsay and often false interpretations designed to deceive. The last category is widespread in these last days in order to promote counterfeits and divert recognition of the real fulfillment of of prophecy.

The Antichrist (The Beast) will not rise to power until mid-Tribulation, after the Seal and Trumpet judgments.

Jesus Christ will return to the world on a white horse at the end of the Tribulation, not the beginning, and He is clearly identified there as the “Word of God.”

Having ruled out these false interpretations of Revelation 6:2, we will consider another option. Jesus said that “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” (Matt. 4:4) We must therefore pay careful attention to every word of God in the verses which introduce the Tribulation period, especially the symbols.

In his exposition of the book of Revelation, American theologian Albert Barnes noted the prominent use of symbols to convey important information about the future. He also acknowledged that these symbols would be open to a wide range of interpretations which would be proven or disproved as the prophecies are fulfilled. This lack of certainty, however, does not mean that Christians are forbidden to seek to understand and interpret the meaning of the symbols before their fulfillment. On the contrary, they are encouraged to study the symbols and pray to understand their meaning. Barnes’ commentary on symbols in the book of Revelation is instructive:

Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible, Revelation VI

“In the boundless future that was to succeed the times of John there would be, of necessity, many events to which these symbols might be applied, and the result has shown that it has required but a moderate share of pious ingenuity to apply them, by different expositors, to events differing widely from each other in their character, and in the times when they would occur...

“It may be assumed that there is meaning in these symbols, and that they were not used without an intention to convey some important ideas to the mind of John and to the minds of his readers—to the church then, and to the church in future times...

“But it is...to be borne in mind that it is an inspired book, and this fact is to determine the character of the exposition. If inspired, it is to be assumed that there is a meaning in these symbols; an idea in each one of them, and in all combined, of importance to the church and the world. Whether we can ascertain the meaning is another question; but it is never to be doubted by an expositor of the Bible that there is a meaning in the words and images employed, and that to find out that meaning is worthy of earnest study and prayer...

“Suppose, for instance, that there had been some symbol, or emblem representing what actually occurs now, when in a morning newspaper we read what occurred last evening at St. Louis, Dubuque, Galena, Chicago, Cincinnati, Charleston, New Orleans. It is clear that at a time when the magnetic telegraph and the printing-press were unknown, any symbol or language describing it that could be employed must be obscure, and the impression must have been that this could be accomplished only by miracle—and it would not be difficult for one who was disposed to scepticism to make out an argument to prove that this could not occur. It would be impossible to explain any symbol that could be employed to represent this until these wonderful descriptions should become reality, and in the mean time the book in which the symbols were found might be regarded as made up of mere riddles and enigmas; but when these inventions should be actually found out, however much ridicule or contempt had been poured on the book before, it might be perfectly evident that the symbol was the most appropriate that could be used, and no one could doubt that it was a Divine communication of what was to be in the future. Something of the same kind may have occurred in the symbols used by the writer of the book before us.

“It is not necessary to suppose that a prophecy will be understood in all its details until the prediction is accomplished. In the case just referred to, though the fact of the rapid spread of intelligence might be clear, yet nothing would convey any idea of the mode or of the actual meaning of the symbols used, unless the inventions were themselves anticipated by a direct revelation. The trial of faith in the case would be the belief that the fact would occur, but would not relate the mode in which it was to be accomplished, or the language employed to describe it. There might be great obscurity in regard to the symbols and language, and yet the knowledge of the fact be perfectly plain. When, however, the fact should occur as predicted, all would be clear. So it is in respect to prophecy. Many recorded predictions that are now clear as noon-day, were once as ambiguous and uncertain in respect to their meaning as in the supposed case of the press and the telegraph. Time has made them plain; for the event to which they referred has so entirely corresponded with the symbol as to leave no doubt in regard to the meaning. Thus many of the prophecies relating to the Messiah were obscure at the time when they were uttered; were apparently so contradictory that they could not be reconciled; were so unlike anything that then existed, that the fulfilment seemed to be impossible; and were so enigmatical in the symbols employed, that it seemed in vain to attempt to disclose their meaning. The advent of the long-promised Messiah, however, removed the obscurity, and now they are read with no uncertainty as to their meaning, and with no doubt that those predictions, once so obscure, had a Divine origin.

“The view just suggested may lead us to some just conceptions of what is necessary to be done in attempting to explain the prophecies. Suppose then, first, that there had been, say in the dark ages, some predictions that claimed to be of Divine origin, of the invention of the art of printing and of the magnetic telegraph. The proper business of an interpreter, if he regarded this as a Divine communication, would have consisted in four things:

“(a) to explain, as well as he could, the fair meaning of the symbols employed, and the language used;

“(b) to admit the fact referred to, and implied in the fair interpretation of the language employed, of the rapid spread of intelligence in that future period, though he could not explain how it was to be done;

“(c) in the meantime it would be a perfectly legitimate object for him to inquire whether there were any events occurring in the world, or whether there had been any, to which these symbols were applicable, or which would meet all the circumstances involved in them.

“(d) if there were, then his duty would be ended; if there were not, then the symbols, with such explanation as could be furnished of their meaning, should be handed on to future times to be applied when the predicted events should actually occur.”

The question will surely be asked, “Why does God speak in symbols and not plainly state what will happen in the last days?”

Because the book of Revelation is necessarily obscure, the Lord Jesus Christ encouraged in-depth study of its prophecies:

Albert Barnes explained: “It is...more in accordance with the usual meaning of the word rendered ‘read,’ to suppose that it refers to the act of one’s reading for himself; to learn by reading.” The Greek word for “hear” is ακουω (akouo) which means “to understand” while the word for “keep” τηρεω (tereo) means to “keep in mind those things which relate to the future.”

Encouraged by these recommendations with respect to the symbols in Revelation 6:2 we shall proceed “to inquire whether there [are] any events occurring in the world...to which these symbols [are] applicable, or which would meet all the circumstances involved in them.”