Thru the Bible

Steve Schwetz: Are the four horsemen of the Apocalypse getting ready to ride? Are we getting near the end? Well, maybe so. But we'll learn on Thru the Bible that it won't happen until the church is taken out of the world. Dr. J. Vernon McGee, our teacher, will tell us more in this brief introduction. Let's listen.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: We have come now actually to that part that is beyond the rapture of the church. And since we're on this side of the rapture of the church, this is the things that are yet future. And we'll be dealing with the things that pertain to the great tribulation period. To attempt to fit anything from Revelation 6 on into current events or to history is, to my judgment, ridiculous. And we're going to see why when we come to our study.

And we will set aside as much time as we possibly could for the book of Revelation to conclude our five-year program. And the reason for that is that we're living at a time when there's a great interest in prophecy. And there's great uncertainty in the world. No one ever dreamed that events would take place that are taking place today. And the Scripture seems to be giving an indication that God is moving according to a pattern.

And then there are very many wild and weird things being said by prophetic teachers. Some of it is way out in left field. And we want to try to follow a pattern that is consistent with the rest of Scripture and conforms to the pattern that John has given to us here. And you can't avoid the sensational because John is sensational in many places as we'll move along through this area. And we're living at a time when there's this great interest in prophecy. And it does make the study of Revelation extremely interesting at this particular time.

Steve Schwetz: The good news is that God's word is reaching people all across the world, including countries that were essentially closed back when Dr. McGee first recorded these studies. Countries like the former Soviet Union and throughout the Commonwealth of Independent States, nations that emerged after the fall of communism. You've heard us share letters from places like Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan. These are just a few of the countries where Thru the Bible is now heard. And it's particularly dark and volatile in this part of the world. So please keep praying that God will protect our listeners and programs and that he'll keep the doors of opportunity open until all have heard the gospel.

Listeners like Marina in Russia write this. I was in a long, unhealthy relationship where I was manipulated and controlled. When it ended, I felt that I was lost at sea. I couldn't make decisions, I couldn't think clearly. That's when I found your program. It was like an island of peace in the chaos of my mind. It wasn't just the message, but the love I felt as the reader and teacher spoke. I started listening every morning while making my coffee. I used to be religious, but there was no real life there. Your program felt different.

One morning, you talked about our identity in Christ. That was the first time I felt like I actually had worth, a worth that didn't come from others' approval. After that, I started reading the Bible, just a few verses at a time. Now I keep a journal where I write down what I am learning every day. My life looks so different now. I'm part of a Bible study, and I even started praying again. Faith is no longer just a set of rules to me. It's a relationship with God. And it's amazing to think it all began with your program and my morning coffee.

And then here's Samuel in Kazakhstan. What's the right way to pray to Jesus? Is there a special word order I need to use? I grew up a devout Muslim, praying every day and visiting the mosque often. I had heard about Jesus before, but in my language, there is very little information about him. That's why I was so happy to find your videos. I couldn't stop listening. They made me realize how much I want to know him. I feel the weight of my sin, and I am always searching for ways to please God. Please pray that I would understand how to follow Jesus and give him my life truly.

Well, if you want to join our World Prayer Team as we continue our mission to share God's word with listeners like Marina and Samuel in more than 250 languages across the globe, sign up, won't you? In our app or visit ttb.org. Let's pray.

Father, thank you that the powers of this world are nothing compared to you. The king's heart is in your hand, and you turn it wherever you will. Protect those who call out to you in faith. And then teach us your word now through your Spirit in Jesus' name. Amen. We're off to Revelation 6 on Thru the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Friends, we are here in this sixth chapter, which last time I dwelt on the introduction a great deal because of the prominence of it. We said it's the great watershed of the book of Revelation. And the two great systems of interpreting prophecy are really manifested here. The historic theory takes the position that all of this is history that follows, that it can be fitted in. Now, there are those as we illustrated with Dr. Cummings last time, and there are others that treat it for the future. They don't attempt to try to fit it into history.

I think it's almost comical because I went to a seminary that was amillennial. And they attempted to fit in this rest of Revelation into the historical or the amillennial viewpoint. And it was almost, well, it was ridiculous at times to put that on when we reached the place of where it says Satan was put in a bottomless pit. And they believe that that had already taken place. And I said, well, how do you explain the activity that is taking place today?

Well, the professor explained it like this. He said, you know that he is chained, but he has a long chain on him. He says it's like when you take a cow out in a vacant lot and tether her out there on a long rope and let her graze. And that was his explanation. And my comment was, I said, doctor, I think Satan's got a pretty long chain on him then because he's able to graze all over the world today. And it really makes some Scriptures rather ridiculous when you follow that viewpoint.

And I say very definitely John has made it clear here that we have now come to future things. And anything from here on in Revelation through the 19th chapter and 20th chapter for that matter is still future. And we're following a chronological order here, and it's very logical. And here you just don't pull up these things and say that they're taking place today or have taken place. You just can't fit them into history unless you water it down until it becomes practically meaningless. And I think that's very important.

Now, the Lord Jesus is the one who took the book with the seals on it. And he alone could open that, he alone was worthy. And we saw him last time as he began to open the seals. Now there came forth first, we saw, a lamb. And I'm going to read my translation again. And I saw, this is television. And I saw when the lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard, he saw, he heard, one of the four living creatures saying as a sound of thunder, go. There was a command to go. And I saw and behold a white horse, one sitting on him having a bow and a crown was given to him. And he went out conquering and to conquer.

Now to begin with, it would be pretty difficult for the Lord Jesus, who's the one that's opening the seals, to make a quick change and mount a horse and come forth on a white horse. To me, that would be a rather inconsistent, rather unbelievable sort of a position. I personally take the viewpoint that this is Antichrist. This is an imitation of Christ. This is one that pretends to be Christ that comes forth. And we are moving today in the direction of a world dictator.

More and more is that true. All the nations of the world today are disturbed. Lawlessness abounds. Governments are not able to control as they should. This is all preparing the way for the coming of one who is going to rule. And he's not going to have horns or cloven feet. He's going to be the most attractive man the world has ever seen, and they will elect him, and the world will acclaim him. And when he takes over, it's sure going to be bad for the world.

Now, this is not just the ravings of a preacher here in California. This is something that other men in other walks of life who apparently make no great claim to being a Christian have said. Professor A.J. Toynbee, who was director of studies in the Royal Institute of International Affairs, and I'm quoting him now. "By forcing on mankind more and more lethal weapons and at the same time making the whole world more and more interdependent economically, technology has brought mankind to such a degree of distress that we are ripe for deifying any new Caesar who might succeed in giving the world unity and peace."

That will be the platform that Antichrist is coming in on: unity of the world, one world, and peace. And believe me, I think if anybody appeared on the scene now and it offered the world that, they wouldn't ask whether he came from heaven or hell. I don't think they'd care because there is today an obsession. We want peace, and we've spent billions of dollars for it. G.K. Chesterton observed in his day, he says one of the paradoxes of this age is that it's the age of pacifism but not the age of peace. A great deal of talking about it.

In a news item some time ago, a woman in Fayetteville, Arkansas, named the United Nations as the beneficiary of a $700,000 estate. And in her will, this was her statement: "In the fervent hope that this relatively small contribution may be of some effect in bringing about universal peace on earth and goodwill among men." And I want to say she poured that money down a rathole because you're not going to buy peace with $700,000 or millions of dollars. We have given away billions of dollars throughout the world, and we don't have peace.

And the Ford Foundation today is the world's wealthiest private organization. And it has announced that the money eventually will be used to work for world peace and better government living and education conditions. And the world gets worse all the time. You see, when Antichrist comes to power, he's going to talk peace. And the world will think that it's entering the millennium when it's actually entering the great tribulation. You see, the great tribulation comes in like a lamb, but it goes out like a lion.

That's the big lie that the world is going to believe. Now this rider could not be Christ, therefore, in view of the fact that Christ is the lamb in the midst of the throne who is the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David. And he's directing these earthly events from heaven and is giving the orders to the four horsemen to ride. Christ is clearly identified in Revelation 19, while here the identity is certainly obscure, which I think suggests that it's not Christ but an imitation of him.

Now we come to the second seal, and I read my translation, follow the Authorized Version very carefully, that's still the best one. "And when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, go. And another horse, fiery red, flame-colored went out. And although it doesn't say that he saw, he certainly did because he wouldn't know it was flame-colored than red. And there was given to the one sitting on him to take peace from the earth and that they should kill violently one another and there was given to him a great sword."

Now the first horse couldn't be Christ, could it? Because when he brings peace to this earth, it's going to be permanent. This was short-lived. Immediately after the first horse rode, the white horse, then here comes the red horse of war on the earth. You see the peace which the rider on the white horse brought to the earth, it was temporary and it was counterfeit. The Antichrist presents himself as a ruler who brings peace to the world, but he cannot guarantee it, for God says, there's no peace saith my God to the wicked.

And believe me, that passage of Scripture's certainly been fulfilled. And isn't that exactly what every one of the candidates for office in our country today, certainly in my lifetime? I never shall forget that we were promised. I remember the candidate said that our boys would never go across the ocean and fight again and promised peace. We were going to have peace. And every candidate since then promised peace. What baloney that was. One of them dropped two atom bombs.

And I personally think that was a horrible thing to do, to drop it on a hopeless, helpless, defenseless city. Why didn't they drop it where the war was going on? And it would have had its effect there. And yet that candidate, as far as I know, has never been criticized for that because immediately afterward we began to talk about peace. And every candidate since then, no exception and regardless of party, they all going to bring peace.

And my friend, we are as far from peace today as we've ever been. And World War III, already the clouds are gathering for it. So that Antichrist was a phony. He didn't bring peace because here goes the fiery red horse of war riding throughout the earth again. And this is going to be a real world war. Now don't say that this has been fulfilled, it hasn't been. This is future we're talking about.

Now notice the third seal. And I'm reading again my translation, follow the authorized, friends, that's the best translation and I sure wouldn't recommend mine. Listen to this: "And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, go. And I saw," he says here he saw, just want to make sure we knew that, this is television. "And I saw and behold a black horse, and the one sitting on him having a balance," that is scales in his hand. "And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, a choenix," that is a quart of wheat for a denarius and three choenixes, that is three quarts of barley for a denarius, and do not hurt the oil and the wine.

Now the color of the black horse speaks of mourning. And you'll find that's used in the Old Testament. I don't want to take time to look it up, but if you turn to Jeremiah 14:28, Malachi 3:14, you read there mournfully in black. And then it also speaks of famine. And you find that in a little book of the Bible that Jeremiah wrote. We call it Lamentations. And in the fourth chapter of Lamentations and I'll turn there, I read in verse eight: "Their visage is blacker than a coal; they're known in the streets; their skin cleaveth to their bones; it's withered; it is become like a stick. They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field."

It speaks of famine. The black horse speaks of the famine that's coming on the earth, a worldwide famine. And that is the picture of it. And always in war, after war and during a war, there's a shortage of foodstuffs. Now let us look at this for just a moment. The Greek historian Herodotus says that the choenix, the quart of corn, was a soldier's daily supply of food. And a denarius was a day's wage. So that a working man would be unable to support his family in that day. He'd have enough for himself as a soldier, but he couldn't support his family.

Now the oil and the wine are luxuries that are enjoyed by the rich. They get all the liquor they want, even in the time of war. Oil would correspond to our toiletries, to the beauty aids and the body conditioners and all that is used today, that is the luxuries of life. Now the wine corresponds to the liquor that will be in abundance. Now isn't it interesting? There's not enough foodstuffs, not enough barley, but there's enough barley to make liquor.

And they will make it in that day, and the rich are the ones that get it. Now let's be very frank today. During World War II, the rich for the most part, they were able to get meat, they were able to get the luxuries of life. I happen to know of some that have told me. A very wealthy man told me that he never missed getting a big T-bone steak anytime that he wanted it. Well, I can remember, friends, I got so tired of eating tongue, that was the only thing you remember that you didn't have to have a blue-chip stamp to get. It was not something that was rationed.

And I got so tired of eating tongue during that period. And I think of the fact that in this day that's coming, the thing won't change. The rich are going to get theirs, friends, but the poor won't be able to get theirs. And that's the way that it's been. I feel like saying, ho-hum, when I hear all of these sincere egg-headed boys talking about how they're going to work out the poverty problem. And all that it has done, it's given a good job to a lot of these boys.

But so far it hasn't filtered down and has not really been a blessing to the poor yet and has never helped them to lift themselves up with any degree of pride. Why? Because my friend, the only one that can lift you up is Jesus Christ, and none of these egg-headed boys are able to do it. Now I'm sorry to have to say that, but somebody needs to speak out today against all of this tomfoolery that our government is going through and the waste and spending of money today.

All that it does is just create another bureaucracy, and it saps up our tax dollar today. My, this sort of thing is abroad today, but just think what it's going to be in that day. This we're talking about is future. The only reason I make application today is to show that this is not unreasonable, it's going to take place. Now it was way back in 1798 that the Reverend Thomas Malthus concluded that the power of population is indefinitely greater than the power of the earth to produce subsistence for man.

And he made a prediction that there would come a time when there'd be worldwide famine. And again, if I might quote Toynbee, "Sooner or later, food production will reach its limit and then if population is still increasing, famine will do the execution that was done in the past by famine, pestilence, and war combined." And Sir John Boyd Orr, who was the director general of the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, when he was in that office, he warned. He says, "I shall finish my office by giving a last warning to the world. If it's not solved, there will be world chaos in the next 50 years. The nations of the world are insane."

That's his statement, not mine. And someone has made the statement, there are today 750 million people getting hungrier in countries bordering the communist sphere. And this thing is growing. Famine always follows war. Then we come to the fourth seal and the fourth horse rides forth. And again, I read my translation. "When he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, go. And I looked and behold a pale, greenish-yellow horse and one sitting upon him, death was his name, and Hades followed with him. And there was given unto them authority over the fourth part of the earth to kill with the sword and with famine and with death, pestilence by the wild beasts of the earth."

Here is a pestilence that's going to take out one-fourth of the population of the earth. There won't be enough antibiotics and penicillin to go around in that day to stop it. Now death is personalized here. And next time I want to talk about that because death is just more than cessation of physical activity. It's much more than that for a human being. And we'll look at that next time and move right on through this section. Now we've had the riding of the four horsemen.

And I want to say this in conclusion: for this follows exactly the pattern that the Lord Jesus gave. He says in Matthew 24, verse 5, this is the Olivet Discourse. He says first: "Many shall come in my name, saying, I'm Christ, and shall deceive many," the rider on the white horse. "And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars," the red horse. And he says, see that ye be not troubled. Then he goes on to say: "For nation shall rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom; there shall be famines," all right, the third horse, the black horse. "And pestilences," the fourth horse, "and earthquakes in divers places. These are just the beginning of sorrows."

This is the opening of the great tribulation, you see. Our Lord said the identical thing in the Olivet Discourse. All right, that is as far as we can go today. We're going to pick right up there tomorrow. This is a tremendous section, is it not? May God richly bless you, my beloved.

Steve Schwetz: To listen again or dig deeper into this study of prophecy, download our app or go to ttb.org, where you can find lots of resources that'll guide you. Or call us at 1-800-65BIBLE if we can help you find something specific. I'm Steve Schwetz, grateful for your presence on the Bible Bus and your partnership in taking God's whole word to his whole world.

Our story on the Bible Bus today is just one step in a five-year journey through the entire word of God. Come along for the ride, and you'll study both the Old Testament and New Testament, discovering God's great redemption story. Is this your story too?