The Triumphant Scroller vs. the Would-Be Conqueror
Then I began to weep greatly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. And one of the elders said to me, “Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah… has overcome … to open the scroll and its seven seals…. Then I saw when the Lamb broke one of the seven seals, and …I looked, and behold, a white horse, and the one who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.” Rev. 5:5-4; 6:1-2
Late in the Book of Revelation, in explaining a certain vision to John, an angel says to him, “This requires a mind with wisdom.” Indeed, the entire Revelation requires a mind with the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in order to be understood. Paul tells us that the wisdom of God is opposite to that of man and the rulers of the present world (I Cor. 5:2-8). The wisdom of this world and the wisdom from above operate on opposite polarities.
We already know this to be true about the cross, which is the point of Paul’s discussion. But it is just as true in understanding the Revelation with its unfolding of earth history since the cross. The same wisdom by which the power of the cross is understood must be applied to what happens throughout the body of Revelation. Failure to make this application produces a carnal, dismal understanding of the book. (In fact, most of us read the Revelation with no more wisdom than the disciples had before Jesus went to the cross. Thus, just as they did not want to hear about the cross, most of us don’t want to even read Revelation.)
We now begin by observing that the wisdom of the cross is set at the foundation of Revelation when Jesus, first appearing, says to John, “Do not be afraid; I am the … living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.” (1:17-18). Jesus is proclaiming His victory and power over death itself as a result of His own death. So He is telling John (and us) at the get-go, that this principle of the wisdom of the cross is going to govern everything else following that John will see.
Indeed, this principle is what sets the stage for what happens in chapter 5 when the Lion/Lamb takes the scroll. He is acknowledged by the heavenly elder as the Victor over death, the One who has overcome death through His own death, giving Him the right, authority and power to unscroll the scroll. This is then echoed by all the elders, all the angels and every creature, all of whom acknowledge the principle of Christ’s overcoming of death through His death as the reason for His worthiness, honor, power, glory, blessing and dominion. This is God’s wisdom in plain heavenly sight.
(Note also in passing the elder’s word overcome applied to the Lion. This is the same word Jesus sends to all the churches prior in the vision. Jesus tells the churches that He expects them to overcome death through death just as He did. That is the fundamental meaning of the word overcomer. Overcoming is not merely about being triumphant. It is specifically about patiently enduring unto completion of the wisdom of the cross in one’s life. And that challenge is echoed throughout the book.)
So what happens next? This brings us to the crux of this article. The triumphant Lion/Lamb Who has overcome death through death takes the scroll and begins opening it. This scroll forms the entire body of the rest of Revelation through the final vials of wrath (chapter 16) which is the concluding outwork of the seventh trumpet which is the concluding outwork of the seventh (and last) seal of the scroll.
So what do we see when the Lamb opens the first seal of the scroll? We see something in direct opposition to what has just been proclaimed about Him! Remember, the Lamb has just been proclaimed as the overcoming Victor over death unto conquership of the whole universe. Yet the first seal He opens unveils just the opposite. It is unveiling a competing would-be “conqueror” on a white horse going throughout the earth to take over the whole earth.
How can that be? How is it possible that the unfolding of the scroll held by the Victor opens by showing off a competitor to Him? Why would it not be showing HIS own victory? Isn’t that what this scroll should be about since He has won the right to open it?
Before answering that, let’s clear up one thing. This rider on the white horse is not and cannot be the same Jesus who is riding the white horse at the end of the book. This rider is instead a “look-alike.” Nor is it a picture of the “church triumphant” in history as some ancient commentators contend.
Why must that be so? It is so for several reasons:
First, the rider has a bow, but no arrows. This means the rider has nothing with which to actually conquer anything. His conquering can only be based on bluff and deception. By contrast, everywhere the Old Testament speaks of the Lord using a quiver, He always has arrows (Is. 49: Jer. 51:11; Lam. 3:12-13).
Second, Jesus never told the church to conquer anything externally in the earth. But wherever the church did historically try to do so, it resulted in nothing but death and misery.
Thirdly, there is no evidence of the church or the Lord conquering anything throughout the rest of the scroll. The church is seen only throughout as enduring under hardship and martyrdom. Their only overcoming is that of conquering death through death to enter the heavenly estate. So this rider cannot be the church or the Lord.
Lastly, all the seals, trumpets and vials reveal a succession of cause and effect out of what precedes them. Everything that proceeds out of the first seal is ultimately an effect of what is caused from the first seal. And those effects are indeed of war, famine, death and martyrdom. Such effects are not of the Lord. They can only be then the effects of a carnal, counterfeit “church militant horse” whose rider can only be the (Gk.) “anti-christ” (Lat., “vicar of Christ”).
So back then to our question: Why should the scroll opened by the triumphant Lion/Lamb reveal a would-be earth-conquering competitor and not a testimony to His own triumph over death? Why would the triumphant Lamb even want to open such a scroll that starts by counterfeiting Him? Is not such a scroll a mockery and travesty of His very triumph? Where is the “honor and glory and blessing and dominion” in that??The answer to this question is again found only in understanding the wisdom of God versus the wisdom of man. Where the heaven-side scene of Revelation 5 reveals the wisdom of God in the Lamb’s open manifest triumph over death and hell, the scroll reveals the earthside view of the wisdom of God, which is just the polar opposite.
In order for the Lion/Lamb’s victory to become as manifest on earth as it is in heaven, the earth itself must pass through subjection to an ages-long death process until that victory can so be made manifest on the earthside. This is the summary meaning of Romans 8:20-22, “For the creation was subjected to futility… and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.” It is also the reason for the Father’s exhortation to the Lion/Lamb, “Sit here until I make your enemies your footstool” (Ps. 110:1). Earth kingdom manifestation requires age-long earth-death process under warfare against the would-be earth conqueror.
Thus the design of the scroll from the vantage of the divine wisdom is to release the death process through which the earth and the generations of man must pass in order to bring about that earthside manifestation. And the agent of that earthly death process is the serpent, his beast system and his false prophetic voices across the millenniums, who are to be cumulatively executed once that process is complete.
Again, this is completely contrary to the wisdom of man. According to the wisdom of man, the earth’s death process is proof that the Lion/Lamb has no victory and that there really is no Lion/Lamb in heaven at all. But in truth and reality, even though the Lamb is indeed triumphant in heaven, He is allowing His own honor, power, glory and blessing to again pass through earthside dishonor, weakness, shame and cursing in order to get that heavenly-manifest triumph to be just as manifest on the earth side.
So when Jesus prayed for “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” this is the process He understood and had in mind all along. And He knew it was going to be a long haul plan that would take millenniums and generations to bring to fulfilment (which from heaven’s view is really just a couple of days!) He had no “church militant” idea of trying to “take over” the systems of this world. Every such concept has been birthed from hell since the first seal.
This is the only way to understand what Jesus means when He tells John, “I hold the keys of death and hell.” He is not talking about having the ability to release men from death and hell through salvation (or from the lake of fire as many fools assert!). When you see what happens to those keys later, you understand that Jesus has the authority to allow the abyss to be unlocked in order to let hell spill up and out over the earth to accomplish the earth-death process, as well as to later lock up the serpent in that abyss once He finally returns (9:1-2; 20:1-3).
Those keys to death and hell and the release of the scroll itself are all about the earth-death process. Every seal, every trumpet and every vial is about the release of some kind of death and hell on earth. As referenced already, the release of the Seal 1 antichrist earth-conqueror leads to the Seal 2 killing on earth which leads to Seal 3 famine on earth which produces Seal 4 death and hell on earth which produces Seal 5 martyrdom on earth.
All this in turn eventuates in Seal 6 atomic warfare and earthwide tribulation, recapitulating in Seal 7 release of compressed judgment trumpets including:
1. atomic warfare;
2. governmental overthrow;
3. poisoning of earth’s waters, naturally, educationally, spiritually;
4. darkening of earth’s lights of leadership and of the human mind;
5. abysmal stinger hordes inflicting torture on men through an individual 5 month plague (see “Joel’s army”);
6. final world war; and
7. final worldwide tribulation.This all in turn leads to the further condensed 7 vials of concluding wrath out of the final tribulation, being intensified recapitulations of the 7 judgment trumpets that produce the final tribulation. Where the seals unfold over millenniums, the trumpets unfold over a few generations, and the vials are poured out over a matter of months or weeks! This is the countdown to the complete earth-death process that finally brings the Lion/Lamb’s heavenside triumph to earth.
This principle in which the Lion/Lamb’s heavenly declared victory immediately yields earthwide death and destruction against Him is not only witnessed through the overall body of the scroll, but is also repeated within the scroll itself, especially toward the end. The seventh (and last) trump also opens with heavenly declaration of the conclusive coming of the Lion/Lamb’s kingdom to earth. The actuality of that is witnessed by the ultimate translation to heaven of the overcoming saints just prior to the tribulation, yes.
But as for the earth itself, that kingdom come trumpet declaration results only in the compressed evil manifestation of the would-be earth-conqueror (the man of sin) and the full murderous blaspheming tyranny of his global system against the Lord and His remaining saints. Again, the wisdom of the cross is the only explanation for this. The kingdom come declaration does not immediately produce earth’s liberation, but only more of its dominion under death and hell in blasphemous opposition to Himself.
Throughout the breadth of the scroll then, the only manifesting of the Lion/Lamb’s triumph over death is found on the heavenly side. Not only is He in heaven, but throughout the millenniums, His faithful and true believers and martyrs have been graduating into that same heavenside manifestation, finding rest from their labors, pains and sorrows here. At the end, the harvestings of the saints both before and at the end of the tribulation are also heavenside-only manifestations of the Lion’s declared triumph. It is not however until earth’s death process itself is complete, that the Lion/Lamb returns with all His fellow death-overcomers to manifest their triumphs together as one on the earth, out of which the earth finds its own temporal rebirth and restoration before being summarily replaced.
This is the wisdom of God. Understanding this wisdom gives us the complete embraceable meaning of the opening of this otherwise Christ-abusing scroll by the triumphant Lion/Lamb worthy of all honor, glory, blessing and dominion. In the same way that He, the Lord, feels our earthly pains here below as He keeps opening the scroll, we can believe that, even as John was given to eat the bittersweet scroll, so too the triumphant heavenly Lion/Lamb's opening of the end times scroll must be a bittersweet experience!
The Lord always submitted Himself to the scroll of scripture. And so He does here with the Revelatory scroll of earth-death handed to Him above, despite the heavenly acclaim of His personal triumph. But He is happy to do this, just as He willingly gave Himself before, all for the Father’s sake.
My hope and desire is that every reader of this article will come to a new measure of understanding the real nature of the Revelation through the heavenly wisdom of death that conquers death, producing life forevermore.
Chris Anderson
First Love Ministry
- a ministry of Anglemar Fellowship
http://www.firstloveministry.org12/24
POSTSCRIPT
The following discussion ensued on this topic in our Readers Circle and I add it for its increased clarity on the identity of the 1st seal horse rider:
------ Original Message ------
From: "Steve" <North Carolina>
To: "littleflock"
Sent: 12/19/2024 4:05:55 PM
Subject: Re: Re (Response 1): First Love Readers Circle: The Triumphant Scroller vs. the Would-Be Conqueror (Unpacking the Book of Revelation, Part 12)
Hi, Chris and all -
I've been prayerfully considering the question, "who is the rider on the white horse?" for a long time. The word translated "bow" is the Greek tocsin which may also mean a bow like a rainbow. Since the word is only used once in the NT, there's no definitive or clarifying usage. I think the fact that no arrows are mentioned does not necessarily mean there are none. If someone says, "Look out! He's got a gun!" we sort of assume it's loaded, even though the warning did not mention bullets.
We see this rider wears a stephanos crown rather than a diadem. That may be significant. We might also infer a few things about him by the company he keeps and what his companions are doing. But I can't be dogmatic on any of this. It's safe to say that the four riders are tasked with, or at least have authority over, a fourth of the earth. Whether they kill about 2 billion, or whether their activities are restricted to just a fourth of the earth, is another question.
There are many fanciful conjectures. One thing seems fairly certain: prophecy is seen clearly only in retrospect. "Maybe it means this or that ..." suggest to me that the prophecy has not yet been fulfilled. I'd also suggest that since we can see large scale famine, disease, war, and death on the very near horizon, we should expect the mystery of the rider on the white horse to be solved/clarified in the very near future.
Best,
SteveMy response: Steve offers some worthy thoughts here. Let me say however that the Spirit is given to us to reveal the meanings of biblical prophecy as we wait on Him in the Spirit for those impartations. We need not be left to our own conjectures, though it is certainly permissible to make conjectures. At the same time, there can also be multiple meanings and applications of these prophecies by the Spirit's impartations as He reveals them. The angel, for instance, in showing John the meaning of the seven heads of the beast (Rev. 17) tells him that they are "seven hills" (on which the woman sits), but that they are also "seven kings." So the Spirit may impart one dimension of meaning to someone over here, and a different dimension of meaning to someone else over there. And both can be accurate.
One of the ways the Spirit reveals the meanings of what we see in Revelation is by clear connection to other passages. In the case of the initial horsemen in Revelation, we see a parallel passage in Matthew 24 where Jesus plainly lays out the initial conditions characterizing the end times. Those conditions match the conditions brought about by the four horsemen seals:
"4 And Jesus answered and said to them, “See to it that no one misleads you. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will mislead many people. 6 And you will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pains."
In this description we find deception, war, famine and so of course death. His description then goes on to cover what occurs in the next two seals, namely, martyrdom and atomic warfare:
9 “Then they will hand you over to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name....29 “But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
When the Spirit makes these connections for us, we can be confident we are no longer dealing with conjecture, but are given certitude as to the meaning of something in Revelation. There are in fact other fascinating elements in Revelation whose meanings are clarified this way. In any case, Jesus himself gives us the certitude as to who the rider on the white horse is. He is the first out of the gate in Revelation, just as he is the first out of the Lord's mouth here. But again, I hasten to add, there are multiple applications to these horsemen as seen in brother Earl's prophetic revelations on this.
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