The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are the first four seal judgments in Revelation 6, symbolically depicting conquest, war, famine, and death as the beginning of the tribulation.
Les Feldick teaches that these horsemen are symbolic, not literal, and correlate with the events Jesus lists in Matthew 24 — wars, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes. He also connects them to the opening of a scroll that represents both a mortgage being paid off and the earth's deliverance from the curse.
Revelation 6:1-8 — This passage introduces the four horses and riders and the judgments that accompany each of the first four seals.
Matthew 24:6-8 — Jesus describes wars, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes as the beginning of sorrows, which Les correlates to the horsemen.
Revelation 6 describes the Lamb opening the first four seals of a seven-sealed scroll. As each seal is opened, a rider appears: a white horse with a bow and a crown going forth conquering; a red horse that takes peace from the earth and causes people to kill one another; a black horse with a pair of balances representing scarce food; and a pale horse named Death, followed by Hell, given power over a fourth of the earth to kill with sword, hunger, death, and beasts. In Matthew 24:6-8, Jesus warns of wars and rumors of wars, nation rising against nation, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes, and calls these 'the beginning of sorrows.'
Les Feldick teaches that the four horsemen are not literal riders making announcements; they are symbolisms of events that will come on the planet. He ties them, one by one, to the end-times signs Jesus gives in Matthew 24: false christs, wars and rumors of wars, nation rising against nation, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes. These events, Jesus says, are 'the beginning of sorrows' — a travail or birth-pain imagery that Les connects to the scroll of Revelation 5 as a mortgage and the deliverance of the earth from the curse. The white horse symbolizes the coming Antichrist. The red horse depicts war; Les says he personally believes it is the great Russian invasion from the north, which precipitates the war, famine, disease, and pestilence depicted by the other horsemen. The black horse symbolizes famine and a drop in the food supply, and the pale horse symbolizes death and hell following, with power given to kill a fourth part of the earth. Les calls these opening seal judgments 'tribulation' and emphasizes they are 'just the beginning' — the first stage of an unfolding series of judgments leading to the midpoint of the Tribulation and then to the later trumpet judgments.
Les Feldick directly addresses this: "these are merely symbolisms. This isn't actually someone riding on a horse and announcing that the world is going to have famine or anything like that. But they are symbolic of these events that are going to come on the planet." The horsemen are therefore prophetic symbols of real catastrophe, not literal cavalry.
Les says he likes to tie the four horsemen of Revelation 6 almost one by one with events Jesus lays out in Matthew 24. He connects the first horse with a bow to wars and rumors of wars, the red horse to nation rising against nation, and the famine horse to a great dent in the food supply, inflation, and rationing. Jesus calls all these 'the beginning of sorrows' (Matthew 24:8), which Les equates with travail or birth pains.
In Les's teaching, the white horse symbolizes the coming of the Antichrist; the red horse symbolizes war — Les says he likes to think it is the great Russian invasion from the north; the black horse symbolizes famine and a drop in food supply; and the pale horse symbolizes death and hell following, given power over a fourth of the earth. He summarizes these events as 'tribulation — just the beginning.'
Ezekiel 38 & The Four Horsemen: Russia's Role in End Times
Hello and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly. And now, here is Les Feldick.
Famine, Death, and the Fourth Part of the Earth
Les identifies the black horse with famine and the pale horse with death and hell, noting the fourth part of the earth is killed — what he calls 'just the beginning' of tribulation.
Symbolic Events and the Beginning of Travail
Les stresses these are symbolic, not literal horseback announcements, and that Matthew 24:8 calls these events the beginning of sorrows/travail, connected to the scroll as a mortgage and deliverance from the curse.
Correlation with Matthew 24
Les ties the first horseman's bow to 'wars and rumors of wars,' the red horse to nation rising against nation, and famine/inflation to the horsemen, with earthquakes to follow.
The Red Horse as Russia's Invasion
Les says he likes to think the red horse is the great Russian invasion from the north, which triggers the war, famine, disease, and pestilence depicted by the other horsemen.
Tying Matthew 24 to Revelation 6
Les explicitly says he ties the four horsemen of Revelation 6 one by one to the events Jesus lists in Matthew 24, beginning with false christs and wars.
The Seals and Individual Horsemen
Les describes the scroll as a mortgage, identifies the white horse as the Antichrist, and connects the red horse to the Russian invasion; he also shows the sixth seal follows these four horsemen.
Famine Introduced by Balances
Following the wars, Les connects famines and pestilences to Matthew 24:7 and points to the black horse with balances in Revelation 6:5 as the famine symbol.
Revelation 6:2: 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.
The first horseman appears when the first seal is opened, going forth to conquer.
Revelation 6:4: 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 second horseman takes peace from the earth and brings war.
Revelation 6:5: And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.
The third horseman holds a pair of balances, which Les connects to famine and food scarcity.
Revelation 6:8: And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.
The fourth horseman is Death, followed by Hell, with power over a fourth of the earth.
Matthew 24:7: For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
Jesus describes the same kinds of judgments that the four horsemen portray.
Matthew 24:8: All these are the beginning of sorrows.
Jesus calls these events the beginning of sorrows, which Les equates to the travail or birth pains preceding the end.
Les Feldick teaches that they are symbolisms, not literal riders announcing events. He says they are symbolic of catastrophic events that will come upon the planet, such as famine and war.
Across his lessons, Les identifies the white horse with the Antichrist, the red horse with war (which he personally thinks is the Russian invasion), the black horse with famine, and the pale horse with death and hell, with a fourth of the earth killed.
Les ties the four horsemen one by one to Jesus' words about wars, rumors of wars, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes, which Jesus calls the beginning of sorrows. This is the beginning of travail, not the final end.
Watch the Teaching: Ezekiel 38 & The Four Horsemen: Russia's Role in End Times