Thru the Bible

Steve Schwetz: Welcome to Thru the Bible. Today we pick up our study in Revelation chapter 6 at verse 7, where our teacher Dr. J. Vernon McGee tells us about a rider on a pale horse named Death. I'm Steve Schwetz, and I'm so glad that you're here for this fascinating study that really gives more detail about the wrath of the Lamb or the Day of the Lord. You may have heard that phrase before; in this study, we're going to unpack that.

Before we get started, I want to share some of the great letters that we've received from Bible bus passengers just like you. First, we hear from Robert in California: "I would like to say thank you all for sharing our Lord's word. Sometimes I wish Dr. McGee was still around just so I could thank him. I've been a Christian since I was 30; I'm now 75. I've had my ups and downs, but for the last five years of taking your Bible bus, I have grown so much closer to Jesus. I just wanted you to know how privileged I feel to be able to study the Bible with you all. I donate to you every month when I get paid. Hope that helps keep tires on the bus."

Thanks, Robert. We do appreciate your support that keeps the Bible bus running in more than 250 languages around the world. Then here's Amelia. She writes this: "All of my life, I've tried to escape the truth. My life was full of corruption: drugs, alcohol, sleeping around, and pornography. The biggest disappointment was attempting suicide. It's only by God's grace that I am alive. I'm so far from being perfect and need the Lord more than ever, but He has given me a testimony that only reflects His mercy and grace. My middle name is Grace. It's tough to live up to."

"I wouldn't even be alive if it weren't for the Lord, and Jesus is all I want now. This walk is not easy. The enticements of this world constantly have me doubting and in battle. I'm still learning every single day to lean on God and not this world. My life changed dramatically back in 2022, and now I'm born again. I pray that this testimony touches someone out there who has gone through it all, but God is greater. Thank you, and to God be the glory; great things He has done."

Thanks, Amelia. I know there's a fellow traveler on the Bible bus who needed to hear what you shared. May your story remind us all that no matter how far we've fallen, God's grace is greater and His word gives us strength for every step. Why do you show up every day on the Bible bus with your Bible open, hopefully? Is it because it gives you hope? Because it points you to Jesus? Maybe it comforts you or challenges you. We'd love to know.

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Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Friends, last time I read the 7th and 8th verses that tell us about the fourth seal that the Lord Jesus broke. Then there went forth the rider on a pale horse named Death. I'm going to pick up our study where we left off, but I'd like to read these two verses again in my translation, which I don't recommend.

And 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, that is a greenish-yellow horse. And the 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, or pestilence, and by the wild beasts of the earth.

Now when these horsemen ride, apparently a fourth of the population of the earth is removed by these judgments that come upon the earth. Death here is personalized. You will notice Death was his name. That is the same thing that we have from Paul in Romans 5:14, where he says, "Nevertheless, death became king from Adam down to Moses even over them who did not sin after the fashion of Adam's sin or transgression, who is the type of Him, that is of Adam who was to come, that is the coming One."

Death was his name. Then we are told that Hades followed with him. The word for Hades is sometimes translated by the word hell, unfortunately. Over in Luke the 16th chapter, verse 23, it says, speaking of the rich man and Lazarus, "And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeing Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom." That's very unfortunate. It is this same word Hades.

Actually, it does not refer to hell at all. It speaks either of physical death where the spirit goes, or it can speak of the grave where the body is placed. In other words, while Death takes the body, Hades is the place where the spirit of a lost man goes. The Lord Jesus gave it that way, you see. Paul personifies Death in this verse I've given from Romans 5:14, as he does sin in that same section. He does it for emphasis.

Sin and Death entered the world at the same time. Death is a result of sin. During the interval from Adam to Moses, men did not commit the same sin as did Adam. Adam was put on a different basis. Nor was their sinning a transgression of a law as from Adam. Also, the Ten Commandments had not been given then. So you have a period there when man sinned and died. Nevertheless, Adam's sin became their sin, for they died as Adam died. Even babies died in the flood.

Death has evidently an all-inclusive meaning that we do not attach to it ordinarily. We think of death referring only to the body, or what we call physical death, and it refers only to the body. It comes to a man because of Adam's sin. Then there's what is known as spiritual death. That is separation from and rebellion against God. We inherit a dead nature from Adam. That is, we have no capacity for God, no desire for Him at all.

Then there is eternal death, and that's eternal separation from God. Unless a man is redeemed, this inevitably follows. This is the second death that we will find later on in Revelation 20:14. I'm going to bring these three up again and develop them when we get to Revelation 20:14. When Adam sinned, God said, "In the day you eat, you'll die." He lived 900 and some odd years after that physically, but he was dead spiritually to God. He ran from God, no longer desiring fellowship with God. He died spiritually, and physical death followed and has come into the human family.

More and more, it deteriorates humankind. Most of us are being propped up today, anyway. That's the way we stay alive, because of modern medicine and the marvelous developments of science. Actually, the human race is deteriorating all the time. Human life would be much shorter than it is if it were not for all of the modern gadgets to prop us up and keep us alive down here. Adam is definitely declared here to be a type of Christ. Death must be laid at Adam's door as his total responsibility.

God did not create man to die. It was a penalty imposed because Adam transgressed God's command. His transgression is our transgression, and his death is our death. Thus Christ is the head of a new creation, and this new creation has life in Him and only in Christ. He alone can give life, and He is totally responsible for the life and the bliss of those that are His own. Dr. Chafer put it like this, and this is a theological statement.

Thus spiritual death comes immediately through an unbroken line of posterity. Over against this, physical death is received from Adam immediately as each person dies in body because of his own personal share in Adam's first sin. During the Great Tribulation, Death will ride unbridled. The Lord Jesus put it like this: "Except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved; but for the elect's sake, those days shall be shortened."

At the great white throne, Death is finally destroyed, and we are going to see that later on. Paul confirmed this. He said, "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." That's 1 Corinthians 15:26. John reasserts it in Revelation 21:4: "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away." This is something that's very important for us to see.

Now we see that the sword, famine, pestilence, and wild beasts will decimate this earth by one-fourth. This is something that God had said would come; Ezekiel had predicted it in Ezekiel 14:21: "For thus saith the Lord God: How much more when I send my four sore judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast."

So the pale horse represents plague and pestilence that will stalk the earth, and it will also encompass the possibility of germ warfare. I don't want to get into that today, but there are men that have made the statement and they're scientists. One of them, Dr. Holtman at the University of Tennessee, says while the greater part of a city's population could be destroyed by an atomic bomb, the bacteria method might easily wipe out the entire population within a week.

That brings us down to the fifth seal. I want to read again my translation in verses 9 and 10. Now the four horsemen have ridden, and here we have the prayer of the martyred remnant. Apparently, those that were slain in the Great Tribulation seem to be primarily the ones that are here. I have always felt that it includes all the Old Testament saints, but let me read now my translation here.

And when He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar of burnt sacrifice the souls of those slain on account of the word of God and on account of the witness which they had. And they cried with a great voice saying, "How long, O Master, the holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" Now this altar is in heaven and is evidently where Christ offered His blood for the sins of the world. Those of you acquainted with my book on the Tabernacle know that I take that position, that His literal blood is in heaven.

Let me confirm that with Hebrews chapter 9, verses 23 and 24: "It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but in heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." So we have here the Old Testament saints as the Lord Jesus put it.

That the blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zacharias. Now included with this are those in the Great Tribulation period because we've already found a fourth of the population have been wiped out. They are resting on Old Testament ground and they are on good solid ground; they are only pleading for justice on the basis of God's holy law.

Notice verse 11, and again I'm reading my translation. There was given to them, that is to each one, a white robe, and it was said to them that they should rest in peace yet for a little time until their fellow servants also and their brethren who should be killed even as they were should be fulfilled. In other words, the Tribulation saints, all of them are to be included in the second resurrection, by the way.

That brings us to the opening of the sixth seal, and now the great day of God's wrath has come. This is evidently the beginning of the last half of the Great Tribulation period. We're going to make a division in it a little later on, but let me read again my translation, verses 12 and 13. And I saw when He opened the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake. And the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the whole moon became as blood. And the stars of heaven fell to the earth as a fig tree casteth her unripe figs when she is shaken of a great wind.

The great day of His wrath is before us, and it opens with these tremendous events in the heavens. At the beginning of the Tribulation, you have all of these events taking place, and you also have them at the end of the Great Tribulation period. You find that in Joel the 2nd chapter, verse 30, at the beginning of the Tribulation; at the end of the Great Tribulation, Joel 3:9-17. We've seen that before.

The fact we're having an increase of earthquakes today is no fulfillment of this at all. This is to take place in the Great Tribulation period. But the interesting thing is that earthquakes in the past have really taken off a great deal of the population of this earth. Professor R.A. Daly in his book, Our Mobile Earth, has written this: "In the last 4,000 years, earthquakes have caused the loss of 13 million lives, and the most awful earth shock is yet to come."

That's interesting because we're going to find out a little later on in Revelation 16:18 that there's a great earthquake such as there was not since there were men upon the earth, so great an earthquake, so mighty, and the cities of the nations fell. What a picture that you have here. The earthquakes today are not a fulfillment of this; they just merely show that it could happen as God's word says it will.

Verse 14 in my translation: And the heaven was removed as a scroll when it's rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. This verse, I think, is to be taken quite literally. We've had the same thing in Nahum 1:5; we're going to see it again in Revelation 20, verse 11, and I'll save it until then. Now I want to read verses 15 and 17, again in my translation.

And the kings of the earth and the princes and the chief captains and the rich and the strong and every bondman and free man hid themselves in the caves and rocks of the mountains. And they say to the mountains and to the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of the One sitting on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of Their wrath came, and who is able to stand?"

Now we have here something that's quite interesting. There are those on the earth that are praying to the rocks and to the mountains to fall on them because they want to be hidden from whom? The wrath of the Lamb. This is the great day of the wrath of God. But now we come to an interesting statement: the wrath of the Lamb. The Bible is filled with paradoxes, and I'm sure that you've discovered scripture abounds with them.

Somebody says, "Well, what's a paradox?" Haven't you heard the definition of a paradox? It's two doctors in conference. Well, that would be a paradox, but this is different. It's a proposition which is contrary to received opinion, that is that which is seemingly contradictory. On the surface, the assertion seems contradictory, but closer examination reveals it's factual.

In other words, here's several of these paradoxes. Farther an object goes from you, the larger it gets. Now you know that's not true, is it? But it is true. When a balloon goes up, it'll get smaller to the eye, but the balloon is getting larger all the time as the atmosphere gets thin. Then here's another paradox. Water flows uphill in Sequoia National Park. Somebody said, "I don't believe it." Well, my friend, literally tons of it flows uphill.

Sequoia National Park is filled with giant redwoods, and those giant redwoods are pulling up tons of water all the time. They call it osmosis. That's a scientific word that means they don't know what it's really all about, but that's what's happening. Then the closer you get to the sun, the hotter it is. Well, out in Hawaii Islands in a tropical climate, but you look up on the top of Mauna Kea and there's snow up there, and it's closer to the sun than you are.

May I say to you, a lot of paradoxes that are true. Now the Christian life is a series of paradoxes: for when I was weak, then am I strong. Well, we've got one here: the wrath of the Lamb. The Lamb is a familiar figure of Christ, and how in the world can a little lamb that's noted for gentleness and meekness, suppose it did get angry, what then? It's like a tempest in a teapot. Well, will you notice? From the days of Abel to John the Baptist, the Lord Jesus Christ is depicted as a lamb.

John says He's the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. In other words, God did not choose the lamb because it possessed characteristics of Christ, neither sacrificial aspects. God created such an animal to represent Christ, and that little lamb was the animal. That's the reason God created it, because Christ is the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world, before any lamb was ever created.

Now He has the qualities of a lamb. He was meek: "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden." He says, "I'm meek and lowly." He was gentle: "Suffer the little children to come unto me." He was harmless. You never saw a sign up, "Beware of the lamb." You've seen a sign "Beware of a dog," but not a lamb. He was harmless. He was humble. Christ washed the feet of His disciples.

This is a tremendous thing. Here we have One whose life was marked by winsomeness. His life was like the perfume of a lovely and fragile flower. His coming was a doxology; His stay was a blessing, and His departure was a benediction. Even the unbelieving world has been fascinated by His life. Now the Lamb sets forth His sacrifice. Abraham said, "God will provide Himself a lamb," and God did provide Himself a lamb.

Then what about the wrath? Well, that's strange and foreign even to the person of God, is it not? God though loves the good, God hates the evil. He does not hate as you and I hate. He's not vindictive. God is righteous, God is holy, and He hates that which is contrary to Him. He calls Himself Jehovah is a man of war. He's strong and mighty; He's mighty in battle. And the gospel reveals the wrath of God.

Paul said the wrath of God is revealed from heaven. And you look at this world we're in today, my friend; it reveals already the wrath of God, the judgment of God. Now it's like mixing fire and water to bring wrath and a lamb together. But all the fury of the wrath of God's revealed in the Lamb. May I say to you, when He was here, He made a scourge of small cords; He drove out the money changers.

Was He bluffing? He was not. He called the religious rulers a generation of vipers, whited sepulchers. He cursed the fig tree. He said, "Woe unto you, Capernaum," and Christ rejected Jerusalem, but He had tears in His eyes. He still controls the forces of nature and He uses them in judgment. God has declared war against sin, and I say blessed be His name. He will not compromise with that which has brought such havoc to the human family.

There is a day coming when the wrath of the Lamb will be revealed. Somebody said, "I thought He was gentle and not punish sin." He says, "Be wise now therefore, ye kings, ye judges of the earth, kiss the Son, lest He be angry and ye perish from the earth." All right, until next time, may God richly bless you, my beloved.

Steve Schwetz: If you haven't chosen to believe in Jesus Christ, these can be troublesome passages. But there's good news for those who put their faith and hope in Him. Click on "How Can I Know God" in our app or at ttb.org for free messages by Dr. McGee to read and listen to that will help you make the most important decision of your life. Or call us at 1-800-65-BIBLE and we'll send you a few. You can also email us at biblebus@ttb.org. Well, our wild ride through Revelation continues as the Bible bus presses on in chapter 7. I'm Steve Schwetz, and I'll be here saving a seat just for you.