Brings the truth about today's world news and the prophecies of the World Tomorrow. Well, greetings, friends around the world. This is Herbert W. Armstrong. How many mystery books of fiction have you read? Countless such books have been written, including science fiction. But was any mystery book or any science fiction ever written that were as mysterious, as strange and as astonishing as the very last book in the Bible? And that is the book called Revelation or in some biblical translations. It's called the Apocalypse and it can now be understood, but it never was understood in the past. And there is a reason for that and I'll explain it a little later. I've been speaking on the subject the past two or three programs. The Book of Revelation has a salutation and introduction a stage setting as it were one of the original apostles of Christ, the Apostle John wrote it in or after the year of 90 A.D., he was getting to be quite an old man by that time, it was given to him by a vision in this vision. He was taken as if in a dream to the very throne of God in heaven actually he was on the isle of Patmos on the earth. But it just seemed in the vision that he was suddenly taken up to heaven where he saw God sitting on the throne and over a great sea of like glass or crystal with lightnings and shining and the colors of the rainbow and a glorious setting. And there John was shown things in vision that were absolutely certain to happen in the future on this earth. Now, those events are things that happen in our time now. The things which he saw were only in symbol, but the symbols represent real things or events that are going to happen in our time on the earth. Well, no wonder it was a closed and sealed book until now, I've shown you how Daniel's prophecy which ties in with this book of Revelation explains that these prophecies were closed and sealed until the time of the end. Now, there's a reason for that. We are in the time of the end, we have been ever since the discovery and the production of the hydrogen bomb as Christ described in his prophecy in Matthew 24 in the New Testament. At the time of the end, mankind would have the weapons to erase all human life from this earth and that it would happen unless God supernaturally intervened. Humanity has never reached such a time until the hydrogen bomb. Now, these events pertain to this time at the time when man would be capable of erasing all mankind off of the earth and would unless God intervened. And this shows how God is going to intervene in these prophecies and prevent men from committing cosmicide. And it is a prophecy of very good news. And so this prophecy, as well as Daniel's prophecy and others were closed and sealed shut because the events didn't refer to or concern the people in the Middle Ages or any previous time, they concern our living generation now. This book of the Revelation was sealed with seven seals. Now, it is not a book like we have today where you turn a good many pages and they're all bound together, rather, it was a long scroll of parchment rolled up and completely sealed with seven seals. So it was just like a long roll. Now I covered before how John saw God sitting on a throne in heaven and with this rolled scroll in his right hand and only one person was found worthy to open the seals and to reveal the meaning. And that was Jesus Christ. Now, that's why it's called the Revelation of Jesus Christ. And remember that what it means is not the closing or the concealing, it was sealed up but not to be concealed. Christ is now opening the seals. He is now opening the mystery of the thing to our understanding so that we can completely understand Christ is the revelator, not John. So, we have come now up to the sixth chapter of the Book of Revelation, I've covered the beginning of salutation and the first chapters in the previous programs. But the sixth chapter is the revelation proper. That's where the real prophecy occurs. Now, one by one, Jesus begins to open the seals. Six of the entire seven seals are opened in this one chapter. The sixth chapter alone, only one chapter is devoted to the first six of the whole seven seals of the entire book. Now, doesn't that strike you as a little bit peculiar? Very little space is devoted to each one of the first six of these seals. So little that six of the seven are condensed into one single chapter. There remain yet 16 whole chapters in the book. And since the seven seals cover the entire prophecy, all of its remaining chapters cover the events of that seventh seal alone. As we come to this pivotal sixth chapter of the book of Revelation, remember the stage setting, it is recording the vision of John here on the earth. He appeared in the vision to be taken up to the very heaven of God's throne, just like in a dream. You think you're way off somewhere else and not where you actually are sleeping there on your own bed. The book of prophecy, in the form of a role as I mentioned, is seen in the right hand of God, the Father sitting on the throne and Jesus Christ. Here pictured as the Lamb of God is standing before his Father's throne. Now Christ, the revelator, the one who reveals and opens the meaning to our understanding, now steps forward in the picture here in the sixth chapter in the description of it and takes the book of prophecy out of the right hand of God, the Father. And one by one, he strips off the seals which sealed the prophecy, the prophetic portions of this writing of John are contained in the things that John saw in vision. Now notice now the first verse of the sixth chapter (Revelation 6:1), quote John writes, And I saw when the Lamb which means Christ opened one of the seals and I heard as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying come and see. Now John is recording for us what he saw in this vision. He saw the Lamb, Jesus Christ, the Messiah opening the first of the seven seals and the four living creatures or living beings invited him to come and see what was under that first seal. Now quote again and I saw it is recorded and behold a white horse and he that sat on him had a bow and a crown was given unto him and he went forth conquering and to conquer. That's verse two (Revelation 6:2). Now, right here begins the real mystery. What is this white horse? It is merely a symbol and mark well, this fact, symbols are susceptible of many, many different interpretations for generations men have been putting their own human interpretations on these symbols. This white horse has been interpreted many different ways. And while a symbol may be interpreted many ways, it doesn't mean that those many ways are right, or perhaps not even any of them. But let's read on. And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, come and see. And there went out another horse that was red. No, what he sees is a red horse. And that means something. It's a symbol. It doesn't just mean a red horse, but the red horse stands for something. But remember my friends, Jesus Christ is the revelator. He's the one to open the meaning and to explain what the symbols mean. No wonder men have been getting it wrong and it was really closed up and sealed until after the hydrogen bomb, and power was given to him that sat there on, on this red horse to take peace from the earth and that they should kill one another. And there was given unto him a great sword. And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, come and see. And I beheld and lo a black horse and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures say a measure of wheat for a penny. And three measures of barley for a penny and see that thou hurt not the oil and the wine, and continuing on. When he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast or living creature say come and see. And I looked and behold a pale horse and his name that sat there on was death and hell or meaning the grave followed with him and power was given unto him over the fourth part of the earth to kill with the sword and with hunger and with death and with the beasts of the earth. Now that's verses 3 to 8 (Revelation 6:3-8), that I just read to you. And there are the well-known four horsemen of the Apocalypse. You've heard of them. What are these four horsemen of the apocalypse? That word apocalypse is not an English word. It's a Greek word. You see the Apostle John who wrote this book way back in 90 A.D., 1900 years ago almost, wrote in the Greek language. Now, we have translations into the English language and translated into English. That Greek word apocalypse simply means revelation or revealing or opening up. He will understand or unfolding. Some English translations of the Bible have left the word Apocalypse untranslated and have left the original Greek word for the caption of the entire book. Now, it all means the same thing whether we use the Greek word Apocalypse or English word Revelation. So, the famous four Horsemen of the apocalypse are merely the four prophetic symbols of the Book of Revelation. That is the first four of the first four of the seals that have been opened up. But what are these mystic four horsemen? What do these symbols represent? Who has the right for interpretation and who has the correct interpretation? The answer is that no man, no organization of men, whether religious or otherwise has any power or ability to reveal this meaning. Remember as I read to you in the previous program that John was weeping because no one was worthy to open it up. No one could understand it. No one was worthy to interpret what it meant until an angel came and said, don't weep. Jesus Christ is the man who can open up to our understanding. Only Jesus Christ was found worthy. Jesus Christ is the revelator. This is the Revelation of Jesus Christ, not as it says, Saint John the divine because John was not divine anyway, it is not of any human religion or religious society or organization, but the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Now, when Jesus Christ stepped forward in John's vision and stripped off the first four of the seven seals that sealed up the prophecy of the prophetic roll, John merely sees what is written there and the writing is all in symbols and God used symbols purposely to hide the meaning from men until that meaning is revealed by none other than Jesus Christ himself. And so, I want you to mark, well, this situation here in the first eight verses of chapter six of the Book of Revelation, the mystery book of all the Bible, we find the description of Jesus Christ revealing the writing which is in mystic symbols. But Christ who alone is the revelator does not at this time or in this place in the Bible, open up the meaning. Now, to whom then shall we look for the true understanding? The right meaning why of course, to the true revelator, which is Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ does not reveal the meaning in this particular passage of scripture. So therefore, we must look elsewhere to find where Jesus Christ does explain the meaning of these symbols. Now, that is the paramount key to the whole book of Revelation. And when you understand that you begin to understand why men have never understood the book, they've tried to explain these symbols their own way. Now that ought to make plain to you why the men of this world, the religious leaders in the church denominations have never been able to open up to you the true significant meaning of these four horsemen. Now just keep in mind two things. First, Jesus Christ is called in the very first verse of John's gospel, the Word of God. Now that's John's Gospel, not the book of Revelation, but the same John wrote it. He is God's spokesman Jesus in person 1900 years ago was the personal living Word of God. Well, it's more than 1900 years ago when he walked to the earth and was in Jerusalem part of the time. But today we have the written word of God. The Holy Bible, Jesus Christ himself was the personal Word of God. He was here in person on the earth. He's not here today. He's up in heaven, but he still is the living Jesus Christ because God raised him from the dead and he's been alive ever since. But the Bible is left for us. We don't see Jesus as they did over 1900 years ago. The entire Bible then is the written word of God. Jesus Christ is the Word of God in person. Now, the real author of the Bible then is Jesus Christ. The whole Bible is really his written word. Now, second, a symbol is a good deal like a parable. A symbol is a figure of a thing used to represent something else. And a parable is an experience employed to represent something else. The most important fact bearing on our problem, which most of you never realized. I'm sure before, haven't you supposed, along with nearly everyone else that Jesus spoke in parables in order to make his meaning more clear sort of an illustration so that people would better understand what he was trying to say? Well, if you have supposed that you have supposed wrong on the contrary, believe it or not, Jesus spoke in parables to cover up, to hide the true meaning from the crowds that constantly followed him. This knowledge puts in our hands the key that will unlock these symbols of the Book of Revelation. You see Jesus himself said that he spoke comparable. So, that hearing, they would hear but not understand. So, he could cover up the meeting. Notice the parable of the sower and the seed. Let me go back and read that to you in the Bible quote. And when Jesus was alone, they that were about him with the 12 asked him of the parable and he just given the parable of the sower and the seed and continuing the quotes in the Bible. And he said unto them, unto you, it is given to know the mystery of the Kingdom of God. But unto them that are without all these things are done in parables that seeing, they may see and not perceive and hearing, they may hear and not understand lest at any time they should be converted and their sins should be forgiven them. That's in Mark the fourth chapter the 10th of the 12th verses (Mark 4:10-12). And then Jesus proceeded to explain in plain language, the meaning of the parable to his disciples. It was for his disciples to understand but not to the others. So, he spoke in parables. Now understand this my friends, Jesus used parables to conceal the true meaning from those he did not intend to understand you might wonder why would he intend for anyone not to understand? Well, it wasn't given to them and the time had not come for them to understand the time was to come later when they would. And in exactly the same manner, we find in the sixth chapter of the Book of Revelation, a prophecy quote mysteriously in symbols which has hidden the true meaning from men these last 1850 years. And so, if we want to really understand, we must do as those disciples did, we must go to Jesus who alone is the true revelator. And since his message to us this day is now the written word of God, the Bible, we must look to see where in the written word this same Jesus explains to us in plain language, the same identical events that were represented by these symbols. Now did Jesus then in plain language explain the same events in this world crisis at the close of the age leading up to what is the Day of the Lord? And remember I showed you that in the 10th, the middle verse of the first chapter, the whole keynote to the verse that shows the theme of the entire book of Revelation is the Day of the Lord. Now that is called the Lord's Day in that place, but it was not speaking of the day of the week, the Lord's day is the Day of the Lord. And it is a time spoken of in more than 30 different prophecies in different places in the Bible. Isaiah spoke of it. Jeremiah spoke of it. Many others spoke of it. It's spoken of here in the Book of Revelation. Now, did Jesus then in plain language explain the same events of the world crisis at the close of this age, these turbulent World War days that we have been in leading to the Day of the Lord and the second coming of Christ, he certainly did. Let me just explain now that we have been, as I said in a previous program for some 6000 years, we've been in what you might call the day of man. Or if you can understand that man has been absolutely swayed by a devil whom the Bible says, at least you may not believe in the devil and that's neither here nor there, but the Bible does. And the Bible plainly says there is a devil and that he is the god of this world, he's the god that the world worships and believes is god. He's the great deceiver. In the 12th chapter of Revelation. It says he has deceived all nations and he's called the prince of the power of the air and he's broadcasting over the air. And you know that the spirit in the brain of every human being is tuned into his wavelength, and he is swaying people. Now, I've explained this in other programs before he's broadcasting, but he doesn't broadcast in sounds, he doesn't broadcast, in words, he doesn't broadcast in music. He broadcasts merely in impulses and in sort of states of mind and attitudes. For example, you might wake up some morning and you just feel blue and discouraged all over everything. It just looks like I know you don't know why. You just feel that way. You just feel like everything is going to go wrong and you don't understand how it got in your mind or why. Well, there is a spirit being. You can't see Him. He's spirit and eyes can't see it. And not many people believe in any such being at all. I know, but the Bible certainly does. And you can prove that the Bible is true. But this being called the devil is one of discouragement of destruction of rebellion, one of vanity, of lust and greed, one who injects into the minds of people this thing that we've been calling human nature, jealousy and envy and hostility, spirit of competition, of rivalry and, of hatred, besides lust and greed and vanity. You wonder how that gets into people and you've all had it and you just didn't know where it came from. That's all. But we've been in that day, you can call it the day of Satan if you wish or the day of man, because man has been swayed into Satan's way for some 6000 years. And God has a lotted that time. God has made us free moral agents. God has left us here to have all of this time of some 6000 years to write a lesson and to write it in human experience. And it's been written in human anguish and in human blood and in death for 6000 years, God has given his law, which is a way of life. God has given us a law that is the cause of every good a law that will cause and bring about peace, a law that will cause and bring about everything that you might want. Not only peace, but happiness and joy and prosperity, and universal prosperity. So that if all were practicing it and living in that way, my friends, there would be no poverty. You wouldn't find wretchedness on the earth. You wouldn't find people living in filth and squalor and amid so much disease and all of the things that you find on the earth today. Now, this book of Revelation is about the Day of God or the Day of the Lord. We have been in the day of man or the day of Satan. The time when God has kept hands off except to dip in as he has a little say with the Abraham way back there. And Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and then later with Moses and the children of Israel and he gave the children of Israel a chance to have his law, his government and said they would become the greatest and the most wealthy and the most happy nation on the face of the earth. But they would not continue in his way and under his government. And so, you read back in I Samuel the eighth chapter in the Bible of how the people wanted a man to be their king. They wanted to be just like all of the other nations. They wanted to go the way of man. So, God told Samuel, Samuel didn't like it. But God said, will you listen to the people because they're not rejecting you, Samuel, they're rejecting me, God that I should not reign over them. And so, the Israelites went the wrong way and finally, they were driven out and made slaves and God intervened again when He sent Jesus Christ into this world. But generally speaking, God has kept hands off. This has been the day when God is allowing man to go the way that seems right to a man. The Bible says the ends thereof are the ways of death. That's the way we've been living. There is a way to world peace. I have been showing the world that way. I've been showing that way to many Kings and Prime Ministers and Presidents of nations over this earth. And until we go that way, the way that will cause peace and happiness, there isn't going to be any peace or happiness on this earth. Now, the whole book of Revelation is a book leading up to the time of the Day of the Lord. That's the time of the day when God is going to come in and supernaturally and with power and force intervene. And ultimately, it will climax in the second coming of Christ and the taking over of every government on this earth to rule with the way the law, the government that will cause and will produce world peace and happiness and joy and abundance, just abundance for everybody. We're in a physical material world. God wants us to have plenty. God doesn't want us to be poor or wretched or ignorant and the world is going to be educated and educated in the right way. We're not being educated in the right way now. Well, my friends, I'm afraid I'm going to have to break off there because I want to tell you a little about a book that I have written it titled, Just what do you mean the Kingdom of God? Daniel in the second chapter speaks of the time when the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed and will govern over all nations. Daniel pictured this again in the seventh chapter of his book of Prophecy, the Book of Daniel. It is shown in many places in the book of Revelation and other places. You need this booklet because very few people have ever understood, Just what is the Kingdom of God? Some people think it's the church, some think that it is something that is just set up in the hearts of men. In other words, just sort of an ethereal nothing. Some have even claimed that the British Empire is the Kingdom of God and some say it is the good within man. Well, the Bible says there is no good within man. Then some think it's the millennium and each of these is widely taught, but you need to get the real truth as it is in the Bible and don't take my word for it. My friends just read this and look in your Bible and you will find it there and believe what you find there because this will show you what's in the Bible. It will show you where to turn where to look in your own Bible and you can prove it to yourself. Now, also there is, The Book of Revelation Unveiled at Last. Now that is a larger book that unveils the book of Revelation and explains it in a great deal more detail. Now there's no charge, there's no price and incidentally while you're at it, I invite you to write in requesting the booklet, Does God Exist? My friends, God is the creator. God is the one source of supply for every possible need. God pointed the way to our first parents that will cause every good that will cause peace, happiness, abundance, everything that man desires and needs that is good. Our first parents rejected God's instruction. But God has it all set in print so that we're not without it today. It's God's instruction manual for mankind, the Bible. I know that there are evangelists who will tell you quote, Christ is the answer to all of our problems. Yes, but that's as much as they say Christ is the answer. So, they just go on and leave it to Christ to do it. But how just saying sentimentally that you accept or that you believe in Christ or that Christ is the answer. The time is coming and it's coming soon when the living Christ will step in with all the supreme power and glory of the whole universe and then force peace and happiness and prosperity on the earth. But that's for the world tomorrow. That's not taking place in this world today. We could bring it about today, but humanity won't. Now there's another booklet along this line. Why were you BORN? Why were you BORN? Well, is there any purpose for human life? Does life after all have real meaning that you may never have realized you need to know. And I think you will have an eye-opening experience if you read this book, Why were you BORN? These booklets are priceless, my friends and yet, well, they are priceless. There's no price on them because they're free. Now remember these booklets and the Plain Truth magazine ask for it while you're at it. Just send them your request to me Herbert W Armstrong Post Office Box 111 in Pasadena, California.