Herbert W Armstrong

   And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.

   The world's first atomic bomb detonated in the American Western Desert. This before the dropping of Fat Boy or Little Boy on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was destined to change your life and mine and that of all the remainder of humankind. From the explosion of the first atomic and later the first hydrogen bomb, the world has never been the same.

   The bent shattered remnants of the cities which felt the full fury of that experimental explosion in August of 1945. The grim reminders still vividly alive in the memories of many living Japanese people. All cruel testimony to the writing of the four horsemen, all of them, of the Book of the Apocalypse of your New Testament called the Book of Revelation.

   And in the sixth chapter of that book, there are four mysterious horsemen that are seen galloping race like across the skies in the vision of the Apostle John. The second, a red horse, is said to carry in his hand the great sword; it depicts war. Warfare among and between nations and empires and the rise and the fall of one nation after another down through history.

   War has been the inspiration behind almost everything that has happened in modern technology. It has been a fantastic dramatic incentive for man's greatest efforts, his ingenuity, his creativity, his drives, his passions, his music, art, literature, his custom, his language, the very essence of national morality and of patriotism. War is where it's at these days.

   And truly the Apostle John's vision was right because the second of those four horsemen of the apocalypse does ride again. From whence come wars and fighting's among you asked the Apostle James, writing in the Book of James after John's vision coming in the Book of Revelation about the four horsemen, James asked about this greed, the lust that drives the desires of human nature that brings about war and suffering. And he said it comes from human lust, that war comes right out of the innermost heart of human beings. War is where it's at; war is what we want.

   Now, this strange vision in the sixth chapter of the Book of Revelation of the four Horsemen that we have been discussing in the last few programs is not just a dream that someone had because he had the wrong food before he went to bed. It wasn't just a nightmare. It was, as we proved in the last couple of programs, a direct trend or, condition that would become extant on this earth in a cyclical nature.

   Time and time again, nation after nation would experience the terrible crushing curse of what that vivid vision appeared to be like in the mind's eye of the Apostle John so many years ago. Jesus Christ of Nazareth, in the 24th chapter of Matthew, talks about wars and rumors of wars. He talked about a time in which we would be living in the midst of one war after another, where we would be in our very private lives, so influenced by man's efforts to get more and more of the machinery, the ability to kill men in greater increasing amounts and with greater dispatch and speed and ease.

   And at time and again, our very societies would be influenced by man's research into methods to wage better war. The very essence of people's patriotism lies deeply embedded in a search for methods to wage greater war. Songs, usually expressing a desire to defend ourselves against someone else.

   Patriotic songs or, barring that, songs such as "Deutschlandlieds," which talks about the, this is World War II of course, church people still sing that; it's kind of an Austrian hymn. But in World War II, they still sung about the extension of German power over all other people. "Deutschlandlieds," or nostalgic remembrances of past wars, great battles, and victories or heroes. These are sung too.

   Every country has its patriotic song, its national anthem, usually with military overtones, our flags, our heroes, our history, and our wars. These are sung about, written about. How many thousands of books are there about World War I, World War II, about the many great battles and wars of history that we read continually and that absolutely load the library shelves? When you go into bookstores, you see, I don't know whether it's 5%, 10%, or what, but an enormous percentage of either wars of the past or imagined wars out in space of the future, entertainment.

   What would the movie makers of Hollywood and the movie capitals of other countries in the world do with the great battles of the world to portray? What would they do without the sweeping cavalry charges of the desert, without the Bedouins, the Romans in legion, the Nazis and their panzers, or the British and Americans flying in waves with thousands of aircraft bombers across the cities of Europe? During World War II.

   War influences everything we say, think, or do. War is where it's at these days. It's the background of the economy of the entirety of the world. It influences everything in culture, language, literature, music, art, the economy, technology, and even all of history seems to be nothing more than a chronicle of man's wars.

   History shows there have always been wars, disease, and famine threats to the local population. Never before, however, has the possibility of total annihilation of the human race existed until this age of the arms race, nuclear stockpiles, overkill, and the hydrogen bomb. An entire generation has learned to live under the shadow of the mushroom cloud. We've heard talks not of if World War III comes but when.

   Jesus described the critical juncture in history when except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved. He called it the end time. Our climactic age is vividly portrayed in the light of Bible prophecy in the booklet, "Is This The End Time?" Are we now living in that age? You need to know. Request your free copy of the important booklet, "Is This The End Time?" Send your request to Ambassador College Box 345 GPO Sydney, New South Wales. That's Ambassador College Box 345 GPO Sydney, New South Wales.

   Wars don't happen accidentally, even though we live in a world now where that is a growing possibility of all the transistors, some false radar signal, or something of this nature. But speaking historically, wars are brought about by design. Now, that scripture in the book of James asks, "From whence do come wars and fightings among you?" is a very graphic testimony about human nature.

   It reads in James, the third chapter (James 4:1), "From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? You lust and have not. You kill and desire to have and cannot obtain. You fight and war, yet you have not because you ask not." And he shows that when we do ask, that is ask of God or ask of our lusts or passions or appetites, we ask amiss in order that we may consume it upon our own lusts.

   "Wars and rumors of wars" is what Jesus said would be the very current news you would be reading in your newspapers in this modern time. And he dated that prophecy of Matthew 24 in which he said that was at the very time when we could see that the potential of human annihilation was a reality.

   He said in Matthew 24, in verse 21 (Matthew 24:21), "For then shall be great tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world at this time. No, nor ever shall be, and except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved." Speaking of a time when the advent of the atomic and hydrogen bomb have ushered in such a time when unless God would cut short human trends, conditions, activity, that there wouldn't be a man, woman, or child left alive on the face of the earth.

   But he said for the elect's sake, those days shall be shortened. So there is going to come a divine intervention according to biblical prophecy. And that vision of The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, this booklet that we have for you. It goes through that sixth chapter of the Book of Revelation in concert with Matthew, the 24th chapter exactly as Jesus Christ of Nazareth expounded and explained it.

   And as I showed last time, the Bible illustrates graphically depicts, makes clear, elucidates, explains, interprets the rest of the Bible. I don't try to do it. I don't need to do it. It's not up to me to do it, nor you nor your pastor or anyone else. But this book shows you exactly what that vivid dream of John of these four mysterious horsemen was all about. And how Matthew, the 24th chapter, the pivotal focal point of Bible prophecy explains that second mysterious horseman, the one that cried, the horse that was red, the one with a great sword in his hand that depicts warfare on this earth in the last few generations. War has colored everything we have said, thought, and done.

   Let me give you a quick survey of what has happened just since 1945 and then go back and take a look at history briefly.

   Since 1945, the world has experienced about 55 or more wars dignified by the term war. This does not count by any means, the many minor upsets though people died in them. And I could even cite the 65 different cities inside the United States in 1968 that were at one time or another in flames where more servicemen inside the United States during that critical year in our history were coming in a direct bayonet point, confrontation with citizens. Then we're coming into confrontation with the enemy in Vietnam. A war that at that time was at its very height following the assassination of Robert Kennedy of Dr. Martin Luther King. And with the deepening agony over the war in Vietnam. Back in 1968, we had those crises, but you can look at other countries that had the same thing and whether you're talking about Asian countries, Africa, Central or South America, the soccer war and other such wars, some of those weren't even dignified by the term warfare as I am speaking of now.

   But since 1945, there have been about 55 separate wars between and among nations involved over racism, over political ideologies, over struggles for freedom, partitioning secession or what have you tribal warfare down in the Iman Aden thing, the Jew-Arab crisis and so on 55 of them or more. And almost in each one of these, there was at least one participant that was a member of the United Nations.

   Now, if you were to look back over the 5560 years of recorded history, somewhat more than that, now. There have been approximately 14,531 wars or as a computer might point out 2.6 a year somewhere on the earth of the 185 generations of man's recorded history, the 10 generations, whatever and whenever they were and really, it wasn't at any one time because that 2.6 as you know, is an average figure. So if there ever was a generation alive on the earth or there wasn't a war somewhere, I would be very surprised because I would doubt that simply because of the fact that there are no doubt, many wars in many segments of this earth, many places which simply were not reported. I mean, tribal wars in Africa, central of South America, the Indian wars of this continent prior to the arrival of the pilgrim fathers and the like there have been 10 generations in the entirety of the history of humankind that have known peace.

   In the first half of the 20th century, the world managed to spend 4 trillion dollars on war. Take a look at what's happening right now today and see how we've improved in that the expenditures of warfare or research to better machinery, to kill one another, defense spending as we might call it and what it's costing right now today, the daily expenditure worldwide in millions of dollars for help. One of the most critical burning social issues of all time, worse today, not better. 220 million a day, the world spends 366 million dollars a day on educating its youngsters while it manages to get rid of 550 million dollars a day on war and defense spending.

   So again, in the first half of the 20th century, the world spent 4 trillion dollars on wars. But the pace has quickened and if military expenditures continue to grow at the present rate, and the world is going to spend 4 trillion dollars on the military within the next very few years. 10 years at the outside that and the book called, The Cost of World Armaments in the year since World War II, the world has spent more than 1 trillion dollars on arms alone.

   Now, the Vietnam expenditures already in it soared well over 100 billions of dollars. Some of the most deadly wars of the past century might be educated for us to take a look at. There were 130,000 killed in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904, 1905, the Balkan Wars in 1912 and 13, prior to World War I, took 162,500 lives. The Colombian Civil War, 200,000 died in that, and that was in 1948 through 1953. Very recent and most people have forgotten that it ever happened.

   Spanish Civil War from 1937 to 1939 when Hitler's Wehrmacht had a chance to test its weapons. There were 431,000 military dead and 225,000 civilians killed. Korea killed 581,823 in the military, and that included over 33,000 Americans, with 400,000, nearly a half million civilians killed. The Vietnam War, almost a million total, 800,000 military by June 1st, 1970, and it soared well beyond that before the final so-called conclusion. And even with American absence in Vietnam, the killing still goes on. True to the biblical statement, peace, peace, when there is no peace. As the prophecy said, World War I took 8,418,000 military lives, and that included 126,000 Americans.

   I think Americans honestly think World War I was a tremendous war for us. And yet we were one of the least participants in one sense of the word, even though we were very involved emotionally. But look at that statistic again, 8,418,000 died, mostly Europeans. Of those 126,000 Americans perished. But there were 1,300,000 additional civilian deaths in World War I. Over 9,700,000 people died in that great war of history. In World War II, however, we were getting ever more efficient. In World War II, there were 16,933,000 military killed. Think of that figure again, 16 million human beings. Of civilian deaths, 34, 305,000 dead. And that included more than 6 million Jewish people in the pogroms of the genocidal policies of Hitler's maniacal assembly of demon-possessed idiots wearing military uniforms.

   I've said in the past that war has colored almost everything we say, think, and do. Did you ever stop to think of how men from time immemorial? If you go back to the savages, the blackest Africa or if you go back to Asia and some of the paintings, the drawings, the characters you see of the soldiers, the way they used to look of how men like to dress up like animals. You know, when we struggle against one another, even if we do it in terms of sports competition, we like to take on characteristics of beasts.

   Why this is, well, there's an interesting thing in the Bible about that too. It shows a little bit about human nature. Do you ever think about military clothing of why the visor is that just to shade the officer's eyes? No, it began with a guy creeping around the jungle wearing his skin with a head intact, you know, of a lion or a tiger or a leopard. And now we talk about eagles when men are piloting an aircraft that they rise up like eagles in the sky, the Germans drove around in their tanks. What they called Panthers, which merely meant Panthers and not pink panthers either.

   And so we have various divisions of the military called by various animals or birds. And we have various sports organizations taking their names or civic organizations taking the names of animals have lions, tigers, elks, moose, etc, we paint sharks faces on aircraft. We have men dressing up with all kinds of shoulder decorations or with bills on their cap and big emblems that make it look sort of like an eagle's beak or something. We name various teams after devils, demons, or they're called saints or they're called something. They're from the spirit world. But, you know, you've never heard of the tortoises or the grub worms.

   Now, wouldn't that be a fantastic team? Yay, Grub Worms. I've heard of one called the Jack Rabbits, which are out in the western desert somewhere. There might be the Coyotes. Men very seldom name themselves or their sports organizations or their military organizations after cowardly type creatures. Very few of them are called the Pussycats, for example. They say that for the ladies or the Bunnies, you know, something like that. Rabbits, no mostly fierce wild creatures. Hardly ever a rhinoceros or an elephant or something like that. But a quick cat-like creature hardly ever dogs for some reason, either. Yay, Dogs, maybe there are the teams here and there that have these names that I haven't heard about. So you might write in for me, but isn't it interesting that even in the military, as well as in sports, men like to try to appropriate to themselves the characteristics and even the appearance if they can of animals and they paint animals' bodies and animals' faces and animals' heads and the like, and they wear them on their shoulders or they design them on their tanks or ships or aircraft because you see, war is where it's at, war excites, war stirs, it inspires a nation, war has caused man's most creative works. It has brought about his most desperately urgent programs. It is called upon man for his very greatest sacrifices and it has brought forth man's greatest love stories. And man, in short, glorifies, wallows in, has an orgy over, just loves at the very depth of his being. Warfare. Why? Because war appeals to the basest, most elementary human appetites.

   One of the enigmas of all time has been understanding the book of Revelation. For instance, the phrase "the four horsemen of the apocalypse" is common in our language. But few know the true meaning of these symbolic horsemen. The Ambassador College booklet, "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse," brings you that understanding. If you dare to know with biblical proofs, each of the horsemen is described, and their meaning made clear. Religious confusion and misdirection, war and upheaval, drought and famine, disease epidemics. You can now understand what the four horsemen of the apocalypse mean and how you can escape their destructive forces. For this vital information, request your free copy of "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse." Send your request to Ambassador College Box 345 GPO Sydney, New South Wales. That's Ambassador College Box 345 GPO Sydney, New South Wales.

   The never-ending quest to devise ever more effective means to kill one another has resulted in practically everything we enjoy today. From that plastic pen that you can so easily snap the tip of it and engage a little ballpoint there on down to that big giant 747 you're bored to go visit Aunt Martha on the holidays. Down to television and telecommunications, miniaturization, solid-state radios, transistors, lightweight metals, transport, travel, electronics, avionics, building materials, laser, radar, lightweight metals, synthetics, whether you're talking about fabrics or something that you build your house with, whether we're talking of washers and dryers, all of these things are an outgrowth of man's vast ingenuity vent toward methods of greater and greater destructiveness instead of greater peace on this earth. Let's take a look at that and really understand it once and for all.

   We in the United States of America have reached a standard of living that has never been known in the history of all of humankind. But try to point out in your immediate environment, in your own kitchen, in your own home, your own job, whether it's the buildings rearing their big ugly facades to blot out the horizon in the city where you live, whether it's mass transit, whether it's the automobile or the tractor on the farm that has not been in some way or another very heavily influenced if it is not the very direct spin-off from technologies developed in man's pursuit of ever more effective methods of killing one another. What about metals or almost all lightweight metals have been brought about some of the new alloys as a direct result of breakthrough in aviation, as well as in various other uses for metals. In warfare, modern transportation, modern jet aircraft, modern strong metals are very lightweight are directly the result of warfare. Technology of research into better methods of waging war.

   Building materials, the age of plastic came upon us and completely revolutionized building materials and practically everything else, including that pen I talked about, right on down to the lens covers for cameras and things that you wear in your clothing, to belts, to briefcases, to even the molded dashboard of your brand new GMC pickup truck, you buy. All a direct result of the need to develop a Plexiglas bomber observation. You might call it a window, I guess, in aircraft during World War II.

   The age of plastic came upon us as a direct result of an outgrowth of World War II technology, electronics miniaturization, solid state, all brought about directly as a result of research for methods of killing one another. The space race came about directly as a result of Hitler's scientists gathered over there at Peenemünde trying to create terror weapons to use against the British to bring them to their knees and to cause them to capitulate in the 1940s. And so, of course, the Russians grabbed their hands full of German scientists, and the Americans grabbed their handful of German scientists. And so in the two countries at the opposite poles of the Cold War, the German captured or attracted, as the case may be, scientists have been waging a kind of a Cold War struggle all of their own and getting ever more effective intercontinental ballistic missiles. And now we have come to the point of anti-missile missile systems of Merv, which is the multiple independently target reentry vehicles of our modern space age. And the idea that space platforms could actually receive loads of nuclear warheads from missiles launched from various places in the United States or in Russia or from whatever country and as they orbit around the world, every 90 minutes are a continuous threat, there could be a whole stream of them.

   So that today, not only would we have nuclear submarines, spying the waters offshore, the United States or the United States having its nuclear submarines, that Russia with all of those computers ticking away continually with all of those missiles with their assigned targets, the big cities of the industries of Russia or the big cities in an industrial Heartland of the United States of America, right now stalemates. All the results of the search for ever more effective means to kill one another in war, avionics. Some of the fantastic things that we have today, I'm able to use an inertial guidance system. Maybe you haven't heard of INS, but it's the very same system that is used by the space-age people in trying to get our astronauts and it did put our astronauts on the moon. It's a computer for a guidance system that is used toward modern jet aircraft. The 747s have standard equipment now and many of the others do, an inertial navigation system of a series of gyros. All of it as a result of space-age technology bent toward destructiveness and toward war. War is where it's at today.

   The horseman of the apocalypse that was red with a sword in his hand that galloped across the sky. And the vision that John had back at the turn of the first century was not just a child's nightmare. And what Jesus Christ of Nazareth said about the time of the end in which you live, the time when the potential for human annihilation would be very real has come to pass in our day, in our time. The series of programs on the four horsemen of the apocalypse shows you what the Bible says about the day in which we live and the potential for human destruction. And the fact that war is the thing that excites man's imagination more than any other activity on this earth. Write for these free booklets. The one on The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and the other that I've announced several times, Is this the end of time? How would you like to have the whole thing in a very handy little pocketbook size? So you can read it at home and you can see this graphic, beautiful artwork, showing the vision just the way John might have seen it. You will see the time setting, you will see how the Book of Revelation can be unfolded. To your understanding, you'll see every single one of these horsemen with other scriptures from Jesus Christ on first-person quotation out of the Gospels over in the Book of Matthew verse.

   Well, the 24th chapter, some of those verses, as well as other sections of the New Testament, are included in this II Thessalonians, the second chapter, and other scriptures that show you exactly what this Book of Revelation, the sixth chapter, those four Horsemen are all about. So this book, "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse," a booklet unveiling a part of that mystery book of all the books of the Bible, the Book of Revelation, it shows you chapter by chapter and verse by verse exactly what those mysterious horsemen mean in today's world news. That's The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

   And also while you're at it, be sure to write for the current number of the Plain Truth magazine. It's free of charge, at no price. The Plain Truth magazine, it really is free. There is no bill to follow. You receive it a full year and then another year and another, as long as you want to keep renewing, and you don't need to pay for it, it's already prepaid, and all you need to do is to request it by sending a letter to Post Office Box 345 Sydney New South Wales. Be sure to tell us the call letters of your station. We need that. That's all, there is no cost but tell us the name of the radio station to which you've been listening to call letters and then send your letter to Box 345 Sydney New South Wales. Until next time. This is Garner Ted Armstrong saying goodbye, friends.

   You have been listening to the World Tomorrow. If you would like more information, write to Ambassador College Box 345 GPO Sydney New South Wales. That's Ambassador College Box 345 GPO Sydney New South Wales.