Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: Revelation chapter 6 is the Antichrist coming with a little bow in his hand and his white horse. But that's the poser Antichrist coming.

Guest (Male) - Kurt: Pastor Brett Meador says knowing the way, the truth, and the life is protection from deception.

Brett Meador: It says in Revelation 19:11, "And I saw heaven opened and behold, a white horse. And he that sat upon him was called faithful and true." And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh, the name written: King of Kings and Lord of Lords. This is the real deal.

Guest (Male) - Kurt: Our study of the book of Zechariah takes us to the eighth and final vision of the prophet. And again, we'll see local applications to the time of Zechariah and to the future end times. But as also reflected in the book of Revelation, we'll get a glimpse of the coming Antichrist. Pastor Brett Meador helps to tie in the various cross-references found in today's word.

Brett Meador: One night I dreamed I was a muffler. I woke up exhausted. Sorry. I used to actually wake up exhausted. It was funny. When I was young, I had real issues with sleepwalking and sleep-talking. I've got stories where my family just sat and talked to me while I was asleep, and they were all sitting around and talking to me, laughing. I was totally asleep the whole time and they're just talking to me.

One night, true story, I woke up and my furniture was rearranged in my bedroom—everything except for the waterbed. It was a little heavy for me to scoot that around, but the dresser, everything was rearranged. I'd wake up exhausted. But the reason I bring that up is you might be thinking, "Man, I'm exhausted from these dreams and visions that Zechariah is having." I mean, these are kind of crazy visions, and some of them are pretty weird.

And what's interesting here in Zechariah chapter 6, we're finishing up this at least this section dealing with those visions, all that he received in one night. These visions, this guy, he had to kind of sort of digest all of these dreams and visions and what have you in one evening. But just a quick review, if you remember all these visions, first of all, we started with the rider in the myrtle trees.

And that was basically we saw Jesus, the myrtle wood is Israel and the myrtle tree and Jesus was there seeing the situation of Israel and caring for Israel. And then we saw the four horn vision. And again, some people count this as one, and then the craftsmen or the blacksmiths with the hammers. Remember those guys? They came and smashed the horns and stuff that they were basically the nations that were hassling Israel.

We see that as kind of one vision here. Like I told you, some people see 10 visions. That's one of the places where they split it into two. But it's the four horns and then the four horns are crushed by the hammers. That's why I see that as one. It's all interactive the same thing. And then vision three, we saw the measuring line, the measuring out of the temple and what have you.

Then we saw God's courtroom, Joshua the high priest who was standing in the courtroom of heaven, if you would. And that was quite a vision. Olive tree and the candlestick. We saw that was talking about the Holy Spirit constantly flowing, giving power to the two witnesses of the book of Revelation. But also we talked about Zerubbabel and Joshua the high priest and how that was going to be locally applied.

And then vision number six was the flying scroll, the giant scroll with wings. We looked at what that was. And then the ephah and the talent. Remember the lady that was in the ephah and she was a basket case? Remember that lady? And we saw these women with stork wings flying this woman. That's when the dreams started getting really weird—the ephah and the talent, the weight, the lid, and all that.

Now, one of the things that you need to see in these, there's kind of in some ways the local application of these visions, but even more importantly and more overtly, I gotta say, it's not even a covert thing with the prophet Zechariah, but he's also talking overtly about the future, the end times. And vision number one is kind of starts where Jesus sees the trouble of Israel.

You might even say that prophecy is what kind of kicks off sort of the end times. And as these visions go on with the horns and the measuring line and the building of the temple and all this stuff, we see, if you've been following with us, it's been a moving chronologically through from the moment God starts to say, "I'm going to start intervening for Israel." That's God's plan in the future.

The first half of these dreams are things we're kind of seeing in some ways right now. And then the last half of them we're seeing, it's more futuristic. But the later visions here that we've been looking at speaking of what scholars call eschatological Israel, or the Israel of the end times. And Zechariah chapter 6, our text here, we're going to see that specifically that we're speaking of the tribulation period and the beginning of the millennial kingdom.

It's all going to be talked about here in our Zechariah chapter 6, and it's the eighth vision. Vision number eight is the vision of the four chariots—the four chariots. Let's take a look. Let's start out in verse 1. Zechariah 6, verse 1: "And I turned and lifted up mine eyes and looked, and behold, there came four chariots out from between two mountains, and the mountains were mountains of brass."

Now again, these are images. If you know your Bible, the Bible speaks in types. Another word is typology. And there's some things that we learn about certain types throughout all the other scriptures. So reading your Bible and learning about other stories of the Bible help you interpret the rest of the Bible. It's expositional constancy is what it's called. So when you come up into things like chariots and mountains of brass and stuff like that, you think, "What is that all about?"

Well, a lot of it makes perfect sense. Does anybody remember when you talk about brass in the Bible, it actually is a connotation of something that's radical and important? Does anybody remember what brass symbolizes often? Judgment. And there's so many scriptures we could talk about the idea of brass. And there's these two mountains of brass.

Now, this should make somebody kind of go, "Uh-oh, two mountains of brass." That means lots of judgment. And two of them, what's that all about? I'm not going to go into this too much, but many scholars wonder if this could be speaking of the two mountains of Jerusalem that are most important. And the valley between them is called the Kidron Valley, and the one mountain is the Mount of Olives, the other mountain is Mount Zion or the Temple Mount.

Or Mount Moriah, as it's called in the book of Genesis, or the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Now you might say, "Brett, I've been to there in Jerusalem, and those aren't mountains of brass. They had dirt and dust and broken pottery pieces and stuff. It's dirt." That's true. But the Kidron Valley, which is also called the Valley of Jehoshaphat, probably in the Bible... I can't die on that battlefield, but some people see the Valley of Jehoshaphat as a valley of judgment and wrath in the end times where God's going to judge there in the Valley of Jehoshaphat.

That's a whole another story, but that fits the narrative if that's the place of judgment because here this is talking about two mountains of brass speaking of judgment. That might just be there in Jerusalem, Kidron Valley, Mount Moriah, Mount of Olives. That could be what we're talking about here. And it's talking about the coming judgment, of course, that's going to be executed there in Jerusalem.

We'll talk more about these, what's going to happen here, but the idea also of chariots. It says there will be four chariots from between two mountains. So these chariots will come. Now these chariots, when you think of a chariot, what do you think of? Ben Hur. But does anybody know what the equivalent today would be of a chariot? Tanks. Yes, that's true. And that's the imagery you have to have when you talk about these four chariots and the vision of the four chariots.

You'd think battle. You'd think warfare and bloodshed and death and stuff. You gotta kind of get the imagery sort of going on there. So the tone here is warfare or even conquering. And these two mountains of brass speak of judgment. And some scholars call the Kidron Valley, they put that as the same as the Valley of Jehoshaphat, which will be a valley of judgment in future times.

So this is kind of setting the tone and the stage for the scene here. By the way, brass in the symbology, one of the places we get that was the serpent. Remember the brass serpent when people were bit by snakes? Moses made a serpent of brass, which speaks of that judgment that came upon Israel because of their sins. And when they looked to the serpent on the pole, they were healed.

Also the altar was made of brass, which speaks of judgment. So those are just a couple of imageries. The idea of brass is something that we see all throughout the Bible linked to judgment. But then we go on and hear more description in verse 2. It says: "In the first chariot were red horses, and in the second chariot black horses, and in the third chariot white horses, and in the fourth chariot grizzled and bay horses."

You're saying, "Brett, why are the horses in the chariots? Shouldn't they be pulling the chariots?" Well, that's what the King James says here. The idea is these horses are actually pulling chariots. They're not riding along with people pulling the chariot. Not that. You're like, "Oh, this is a weird dream." No, it's the horses are linked to these chariots, okay? So you gotta get the King Jimmy language out of there for that.

The idea is the horses are pulling these chariots. But by the way, Zechariah chapter 6, I'm not going to pretend to say we know everything about this chapter and what it means and all this stuff. We just have some hints, and that's the way I'm going to put it. We have hints. But where else do we see as it's related to judgment, wrath, warfare? Where else do we see horses and their colors?

Revelation chapter 6. Would you keep your finger here in our text in Zechariah and flip over to Revelation chapter 6? Before we talk about the colored horses of Zechariah, I think it might help us to review the colored horses in Revelation chapter 6. Now, in Revelation, you have this divine outline of the book. Write the things which thou hast seen—vision of Jesus, chapter 1.

And then in verse 19 of chapter 1, he says, "Then write the things which are," that's present. "And then which things shall be hereafter." So chapters 2 and 3 are the churches, the seven churches of Asia Minor. We're in the church age right now. But then in chapter 4, you hear the words, "Come up here." And the heaven is opened up. And what do you see? Chapters 4 and 5, the heavenly scene.

And you also see the church in heaven there, which to me, it's almost like you see the rapture happen, if you would, in chapter 4 at the beginning, the things that are going to happen after the church age. When's the church age over? When the church is raptured. But in chapter 6 here, you start to look back on earth. We've got the tribulation period beginning.

So you're in heaven with the church, with the Lord in chapters 4 and 5, but then you see chapters 6 through 19 is the description of the tribulation period. So let's look at this. It says in chapter 6, verse 1 of Revelation: "And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, 'Come and see.' And I saw 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."

So the first horseman of the apocalypse. Now, who's the rider on this horse? By the way, this is one of those places where your Bible interpretation can be very different. Have you ever heard people say that this is Jesus? There's actually some churches and people that say this is Jesus coming and returning. I don't believe that, not even for a second. The first thing you might notice is who's coming with him.

Well, if you look who's coming with this horse, we're going to see a red horse that's war, a third horse that's black with balances in his hand that's famine. We're going to see the fourth horse, the seal of death. This is not good company. When we know in Revelation 19, it says when Jesus returns, who's he coming with? Us! Ten thousands of his saints. This is not...

And again, people when they start jumbling the book of Revelation and the order, I just take Revelation chronologically the way it's just laid out, and it makes perfect sense. But if you start, "Oh, this is this, this is that," and start jumbling the pages, then it becomes a matrix, a Rubik's Cube that you have a really difficult time trying to sort out. So attempts to determine the symbolism of the rider on the white horse has given a lot of differences of opinions.

Some say it represents Christ, and they use Psalm 45 and they also try to use Revelation 19 to support their position. But most contemporary Bible expositors, especially of the pre-millennial school that I'm a part of, they would say this is the white horse of the Antichrist. He looks a little like Jesus because that's his whole thing. He's an imitator and he's trying to replace Jesus.

So by the way, the reason I say that is, again, I'm following some of my favorites, Scott, Ironside, Chafer, Walvoord, Woodbridge. There's a lot of scholars over the years who've kind of said, "No, this has to be Antichrist." But this is a great picture of someone who's pretending to be the Messiah. Now, by the way, this horseman that's coming, he comes with a bow in his hand.

Interesting word, bow, because the word bow, both in the Greek and in the Hebrew, can talk about a bow like a bow and arrow or a bow like a rainbow. And what's interesting is both the same words are used not only for to talk about a weapon, but also interestingly enough, about a covenant. Anybody that knows about the Antichrist, if you read Daniel chapter 9, what's he going to do?

He's going to make a covenant with the Jews. If you read Daniel 9, the 70 weeks of Daniel and all that stuff. So basically this guy's going to come and he's going to come to conquer and he's given a crown. The idea of the crown is he's going to be a leader and people are going to look to him as sort of a king. We know the Antichrist is going to come that way.

And the imagery here is, in fact, similar to Jesus's second coming. But we have the authentic account of that. Would you keep now, I'm going second layer, so you got one finger in Zechariah, keep this finger also in Revelation 4 and flip over to chapter 19. I want to just show you the real coming of Jesus. That's the poser Antichrist coming.

It says in Revelation 19:11: "And I saw heaven opened and behold, a white horse. And he that sat upon him was called faithful and true. And in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire and on his head were many crowns. And he had a name written that no man knew but he himself. He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood and his name is called the Word of God.

And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goes a sharp sword with it he would smite the nations. And he shall rule them with a rod of iron. He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and the wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh, the name written: King of Kings and Lord of Lords."

Doesn't that seem a little better? Like when I read the first one, I'm like, "Yeah, what a poser." You know, chapter 6 is the Antichrist coming with a little bow in his hand and his white horse and its conquer, conquer, conquer. But he's a poser. He's not the real deal. This is the real deal. By the way, this happens at the end of the tribulation period, the second coming of Christ, just like we talked about before.

And so when we go back to Revelation chapter 6 now, we see this first horseman, white horse. This is the Antichrist. What does this guy look like here back to chapter 6? It says chapter 6, verse 1, he's got a bow and he's coming to conquer. What is this Antichrist going to look like? Now let me share something with you about the Islamic Mahdi. You say, "Well, who in the world is that?"

Did you know the Muslims have eschatology too? It's interesting because their eschatology is, you know, from not the Bible, but you know, from Muhammad, the Quran, the Hadith, and these different traditions of the Islamic faith. But it's really uncanny how the Muslim story of their end times sort of matches the biblical story of end times. Only here's the problem, all the players are the opposite.

What do you mean, Brett? Well, what we deem as the Antichrist, they deem as the Mahdi. What we say is Jesus the Messiah, they call him the Dajjal. Or maybe you could even call him something else. In fact, let me share with you some of the things here. In case you aren't aware, I'm going to go over in lightning speed the Islamic view of eschatology. And here's what they believe. Are you guys ready for this?

The Mahdi, the 12th Imam, as he's often called—and whether he's called the Mahdi or the 12th Imam depends on what kind of Islam you are—he's a descendant of Muhammad. He has to be. And bears his name. In fact, his name is going to be Muhammad al-Hasan al-Mahdi. He's of course going to be a devout Muslim according to Muslim teaching. He's going to have unparalleled spiritual and political and military world leadership.

That's what they say. Now, if you know the Bible and the Antichrist that's coming, these are all the things the Antichrist is going to have. He's going to be having religious Babylon, political or economic Babylon, and he's going to worship military according to the Bible. He will emerge after great turmoil on the earth. The tribulation starts, then the Antichrist comes on the scene. That's interesting. Do you see how opposite these things are?

He will establish justice and righteousness through the world. That's the peace treaty that he's going to have signed and make a deal with the Jews and all the other nations. According to them, he's going to eradicate tyranny and oppression. He will lead a world revolution and establish a new world order. That's what the Muslims teach. That's what the Bible says Antichrist is going to do—a new world order.

He will lead military action against all those that oppose him. Number 11, he will invade many countries. The Bible talks about that both in the Revelation and the book of Daniel. He will make a seven-year peace treaty with the Jews. This is amazing. They believe their Mahdi is going to make a peace treaty with the Jews, just like the Bible says Antichrist is going to make a peace treaty with the Jews. What a coincidence, no?

But after that, number 13, he's going to conquer Israel for Islam, lead faithful Muslims in a final slaughter of the Jews. And that's exactly what Antichrist is going to, according to the Bible, attempt to do. He's going to establish Islamic world headquarters in Jerusalem. That's where Antichrist is going to establish his headquarters according to the book of Daniel.

How long do you think he's going to rule for? The Muslims say their Antichrist will rule for seven years, their Messiah figure. Number 16, he will cause Islam to be the only religion practiced. Number 17, appear riding on a white horse. Number 18, will discover manuscripts that he will use to argue with the Jews, converting some to Islam. Number 19, he will rediscover the ark of the covenant and bring it to Jerusalem. That's an interesting little tidbit.

Number 20, he will have supernatural power from Allah over wind, rain, and crops. By the way, the Antichrist will appear to have supernatural powers in the Bible. The Bible tells us that. Number 21, he will possess huge amounts of wealth. Bible says that about the Antichrist. Number 22, loved by all the people of the earth. Antichrist is going to be extremely popular in the world and he's going to dupe everybody, at least in the first half of the tribulation.

By the way, in the Bible, the Antichrist will have a false prophet who will come with him. In Islam, guess who's going to be his sidekick? Who's going to be the Mahdi's sidekick? Jesus of the Bible. That's what the Muslim believes that their 12th Imam's going to come, and then Jesus who died on the cross and all that stuff, he's going to be... and they believe he's just a prophet. They don't believe Jesus is the Son of God.

In fact, on the Dome of the Rock shrine, the golden dome over the Temple Mount, writing, it says God does not have a begotten nor does he beget. So it's a statement on the top of that building that goes all the way on the building saying that God doesn't have a son. But they do believe the Jesus of Christianity will be sort of the sidekick of the Muslim Messiah. The Bible says the Antichrist will have a sidekick, he'll be called the false prophet.

Also, just a reminder in the Bible, Jesus returns in the Bible to defend the Jews on his second coming from a military attack by a vast coalition of nations in the Valley of Armageddon. You guys remember all that? Listen to what the Islamic believes in their eschatology. So you got the Mahdi and his sidekick, which they believe is Jesus, but actually someone comes and causes all kinds of trouble for them.

His name is Dajjal. Dajjal will gain a great Jewish following and claim to be the Jesus and fight against the Mahdi of the Muslim Jesus. Dizzying how much the two eschatologies match the story point for point, except one is true and one is false. The reason I go into that is because this picture in Revelation chapter 6, we see this coming guy on a white horse.

I wonder if the Islamic world, it might be just that, that gets the Islamic world to come on board with the Antichrist's global plan. And then the rest of the world's going to follow. It's not going to be just a Muslim thing. But it is interesting that the Islamic eschatology matches really the satanic plan of Antichrist. It matches the Islamic plan kind of interestingly enough. So point-for-point things match up, only the characters are on the opposite sides.

Guest (Male) - Kurt: Pastor Brett Meador with the fair warning of a coming false Messiah is a truth that we're assured of from scripture. And Pastor Brett has more to come from this fascinating study next time in Today's Word. And I invite you to stay right there as Pastor Brett will join me here in just a moment. If you've missed any portion of our time today, you'll find all of his messages online at todayswordradio.com.

That's todayswordradio.com. Our vision on Today's Word is to proclaim the hope of salvation and help people know Jesus through careful study of the Bible. We invite you to find out more by going to todayswordradio.com. I also want to mention that Pastor Brett Meador is the senior pastor of Athey Creek Church just outside of Portland, Oregon. In addition to the main Athey Creek campus in West Linn, we also have locations in Hillsboro and McMinnville, Oregon.

For more information, just go to todayswordradio.com and click on the link "Locations." That's todayswordradio.com and click the link "Locations." All right, Pastor Brett is with me now. Brett, I know your church, Athey Creek in the Portland, Oregon area, has seen tremendous growth over the years. Why is it so important to expand via this Today's Word radio program to a lot more places around the United States?

Brett Meador: Well, Kurt, as grateful as we are for what the Lord's done at Athey Creek here in the Portland area, you know, we've never really wanted to keep it just local if God was opening a bigger door. And we really sense that that's what the Lord has done recently. And one of the things that's marked our church from the beginning is just simple, consistent verse-by-verse teaching through the Bible.

And we really know that people are hungry for that. And so as we just do what the Lord's called us to do, expanding through Today's Word Radio wasn't really about growth for growth's sake. It was about stewardship really, just using what the Lord's entrusted to us, teaching people the Word, helping people to grow. And radio really allows us to go beyond geography and reach into a broader sense everyone who wants to hear.

Guest (Male) - Kurt: Right, and helping more people grow through God's Word. Thank you, Pastor Brett. Well, if you'd like more information about this Today's Word Radio program or Pastor Brett Meador, just go to todayswordradio.com. Well, next time, Pastor Brett will look at the vision of the four chariots in Zechariah and see how it's full of prophetic clues about the end times also seen in Revelation. Today's Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.