The White Horse Rider: Antichrist or Jesus? Revelation 6

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 by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Okay. Once again, let's turn right back to where we left off in Revelation chapter 6. I'd like to use every minute that we possibly can, but again, I'd like to welcome those watching on television. We're always glad to hear from you. We like to hear your comments, and naturally, we always appreciate your financial help, because after all, this does take money. Revelation chapter 6, and we left off in verse 2, that now as Christ takes the scroll from God the Father, and that scroll includes the mortgage that Satan is holding over the planet as a result of the curse. We're going to lift that curse by the time all of this is over. Now as we see the first seal of this mortgage removed, it's the appearance of a white horse. Now I know there are those who, just because it's a white horse, they feel it has to be Jesus. But it is, I'm convinced, the false Christ. Because all the way back from Genesis chapter 3, just as soon as man entered the scene, Satan comes in as the Master Counterfeiter. Now always remember, a Master Counterfeiter is so like the original, you have to be an expert to tell the difference. Well Satan has done it, and he has been the counterfeiter from day one, and the human race has been falling over it time after time after time. And that's why I always like to give the illustration, and I've given it before even on the program, that when people come into the employ of our Treasury Department to work especially on counterfeit money, for several months they do absolutely nothing but look at legitimate American bills. They don't look at counterfeits, they look at the legitimate. And the reason is that after they have studied them and studied them and studied them, if they see one little mark that is not in an original, they can recognize it as a counterfeit. And that's the way we have to do with the Scripture. We just have to be so aware of what the Book says, lest a counterfeiter come in and we not recognize it as a false teaching. And so the white horse here is a counterfeit, a counterfeit of the original, of the real one. Now let's take a quick look at the real one over in Revelation chapter 19. Now you see the white horse in chapter 6 verse 2 is the first seal, or the very opening of the Tribulation, of the seven years. But now in chapter 19, the seven years have run their course, and now we have the appearance of the genuine article. Revelation 19, 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. He had a name written, that no man knew but he himself. He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and when we get to this I'll show you it's not his blood that's indicated, but the blood of his victims as he comes in wrath and vexation. And so his vesture is dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. And where else is he called the Word? John's Gospel chapter 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Now here he comes, on the white horse of the Second Coming, and the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. Now throughout Scripture who wears the white linen? The saints don't they? It's the saints who are arrayed in white, not angels. Now let's go all the way back with me to Matthew chapter 25. Now I've said over the last several months that all prophecy was directed to the nation of Israel, and that no prophecy gives any indication of the Church as such. Not a word is ever breathed throughout the Old Testament about this Church Age comprised of Gentile believers. Not a word. Now the Old Testament prophets understood that there was something between His first advent and His coming in power and glory. I can remember when I was young hearing Bible teachers picture it as approaching our rocky mountains from the east. The foothills may rise, and you can see them pretty distinct, but in between will be a higher range of mountains. But as you're coming from a distance you can't discern that there's any valley in between. They all look like they're one range of mountains. But as you come to the first range, you suddenly realize that some of those you were seeing from a distance were maybe 100 miles still in the distance. Well that's the way the Old Testament prophets viewed these two advents. They could see them all as one. And that's why I used to put it on the board that according to prophecy it would just go beyond the cross, and that was supposed to be the end of prophecy, and Israel would have her King and the Kingdom, and we'd go into the Kingdom Age. But it didn't end up that way, because Israel rejected it, and unknown to the Old Testament writers we've now had that whole period of time opened up and parenthesized which we call the Church Age. But here's what I'd like to point out. Even in the four Gospels, now this shocks a lot of people until they see it, and then they agree with no problem. Even in the Gospels there is never a single hint that God is going to turn to the Gentiles and call out a people for His name. And Jesus was so meticulously careful that He didn't betray that. Now don't think for a minute that He didn't know the end from the beginning, but see He never revealed anything that was kept hid in the mind of God. We'll be coming to that sometime down the road, and I'll show it so explicitly again as we have in the past, that God reveals things according to His time frame, and not until. Now it's interesting that in Revelation, I hope you remember what you just read, that there would be the attendant armies of heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean at His Second Coming. Now in Matthew chapter 25, here Jesus is speaking from the pre-church situation, and He's not going to betray the secret that's being held in the mind of God, and watch His language in Matthew chapter 24, verse 31. I want you to see this carefully, and I'm not saying this lightly, when the Son of Man shall come in His glory, He's going to come on that white horse in righteousness, His name will be faithful and true, King of kings, Lord of lords. When that happens, when He shall come in all of His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory. Now I'll be a Bible student, and what am I always telling you to do? Constantly ask yourself a question. Now according to Matthew, who will be attending Him at His coming? Angels. Does it mention anything about saints wearing linen, white and clean? See what I'm driving at? He doesn't betray that here, it's not time. And so He doesn't include the church here, only the angels. Now had He said, "...and all the holy angels, and the saints, clothed in fine linen," what would He have be prayed? The secret that was to be kept in the mind of God, and not revealed until sometime later. But He doesn't. See He's the perfect, sinless, errorless Son of God, and He says only that which was appropriate to say. Am I making my point? I hope so. Now let's come back to Revelation again. Now in chapter 6 we don't have any of the descriptions that are equal to or attendant to Revelation 19, and so this has to be the counterfeit. The counterfeit Christ of course is the Antichrist. Now maybe here's a good time to put again something on the board, that as we come into this seven year period of tribulation, we're going to find ourselves confronted with an unholy trinity. Throughout the book of Revelation there is an unholy trinity, where Satan is the counterfeit of the Father, the counterfeit of the Son of course will be the Antichrist, and a counterfeit of the Holy Spirit and His work will be what we refer to in the book of Revelation as the false prophet. Now I think there's only one place where He is named as such, and we might as well go look at it, and that is in Revelation 19. Revelation 19 and verse 20. Now this of course is at the end of the tribulation, the horrible judgments have already happened, and it's time for the King and the Kingdom to come on the scene. Revelation 19 and verse 20. The beast in Revelation is the Antichrist, and so the Antichrist was taken, and with him the false prophet. Now there He's named, that's the only place. The rest of the time He's referred to as a personality of course, He's referred to as the Lamb with two horns, I think that's back in chapter 13, but here He has the name placed on Him as the false prophet. And both of them, well let's read on as it says, "...the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them who had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image, these..." What's the next word? Both. They're both individuals, they're both men. They both were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone, and of course they go there the first ones to inhabit the eternal doom of the wicked, the lake of fire without benefit of the Great White Throne judgment. All other lost are going to stand before the White Throne, and at least have their moment of time, and I guess they can put up an argument if they feel like it. Because remember Jesus said, and in that day referring to the Great White Throne, they'll say unto me, "...but Lord didn't we cast out demons, didn't we prophesy in Thy name?" And what's His answer going to be? "...Depart from me, I never knew you." So they're going to have a time of rebuttal, but not these two men. The false prophet and the Antichrist, these two humans who are part of this unholy trinity, they're men, and they of course will go to their doom. Now Satan is going to go there as well, but he will join them sometime later. But nevertheless as we come through the book of Revelation, be aware that Satan and the Antichrist and the false prophet are working in unison much as the Holy Trinity does. In other words as the Holy Spirit today in the Age of Grace points people to God the Son. This is the whole work of the Holy Spirit, is to point lost people to the Son. And for you and I as believers, it's the Holy Spirit's work to teach us, to encourage us, to reprove us, and so forth, that we in turn bring honor and glory to the Son. Now the false prophet is going to do the same thing during the tribulation as this verse just said. He is going to cause people to worship the Antichrist, and consequently he fulfills a counterfeit role of the Holy Spirit. And both of these of course are under the control of and under the power of Satan. Now let's come back to chapter 6, where once again we see that the white horse and he that sat upon him had a bow. Now I've had a hard time chasing down that word bow, and I've tried for a long time in the Greek and out of the Hebrew, and of course even in our English the word B-O-W can be bow. You can bend over as someone after a tremendous concert, they bow to their audience. Or it can be a bow, the rainbow in the cloud. Or it can be a bow as we think of it as shooting arrows. But you can't really delineate this word out of the Greek as to what is implied. But I think I'll have to follow in the track of men that I've read where most are agreed that it's the bow that would shoot arrows. But since we know from our study of the Antichrist out of Daniel just several weeks ago, I trust I made it clear that He's not going to come in and usurp His power with military might, or by fighting wars, but do you remember how He's going to come in? Peaceably and with flattery. He's going to be a political maneuverer, He's going to be a charismatic type of individual. So He comes in and He gets His ducks all in a row, if I may put it that way, peaceably. In other words He doesn't have to use the ammunition, and so He can come with maybe the threat of power behind Him, which of course He will have, I mean even western Europe still has NATO. But He doesn't have the actual military power as yet as His command. He hasn't come that far along. And so a crown was given unto Him, and the world is going to recognize Him as the leader. Now remember we're trusting that you understand that He comes up out of the common market of Europe, out of those nations that will come together. I think tonight they're twelve, they may go to fourteen or fifteen, but they're going to drop back to ten, and out of those ten He will come up and usurp the power. Now let's go back to the perfect parallel of Revelation chapter 6, and always flip them back and forth and compare them together. Now as you come back to Matthew chapter 24, and those of you who have been with me now week in and week out, how many times have I said that Matthew 24 is all tribulation. There is no church age doctrine in here whatsoever. This is tribulation ground, because the chapter starts in verse 1 of Matthew 24, when Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and disciples came to Him to show Him the buildings of the temple. And He said, "...see ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down." And of course He was looking forward to the siege by the Roman armies under Titus, and indeed that's what they did. Once they got inside the city wall, they devastated the city, and Josephus has it, and it's not Scripture but it certainly makes sense that the Roman soldiers had heard it rumored that between the very building stones of Herod's temple there was immense amount of gold and other kinds of wealth. And soldiers being soldiers, what do you suppose they did? They tore it down stone by stone, looking for that supposed hidden wealth. Well whatever the reason, we know that that's what happened. The temple was utterly destroyed, not by fire as Nebuchadnezzar did Solomon's temple, because Solomon's temple was built primarily of the cedars of Lebanon, and so it burned to a crisp. But Herod's temple was predominantly of stones, and then of course the precious gold and silver and so forth. So it was just exactly as Jesus said, it was thrown down stone by stone so that nothing was left except that little segment of the western wall, which of course everybody knows now as the Wailing Wall. Then as He sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto Him privately, in other words just the twelve, no big masses of people. They said, "...tell us when shall these things be, and what shall be the sign of thy coming?" Now do you remember that verse in Corinthians? The Jew requires what? A sign. That's all they were asking for, to show us a sign. And what's the sign of thy coming? In other words to set up the Kingdom, and the end of the age. Now in verse 4 Jesus begins to lay out all the events of this seven years, and it begins right up front with the appearance as we saw in Revelation chapter 6 of the White Horse, the man of sin, the counterfeit Christ, and the Antichrist. And here we got it. "...take heed that no man deceive you, for in verse 5, for many shall come in my name saying, I AM Christ." See that's the White Horse. He's going to come on the scene, and He's going to practically convince the world that He is the Christ. He�s what the world is looking for, and we�re already seeing people like this. I don�t know if Mooney still does, but you remember Sigmund Moon from Korea 10-15 years ago? That�s what he tried to tell the world, that he�s the Christ, he�s the Messiah. And we�ve had others, and we�ll have still more, but it�s going to be culminated by the real counterfeiter, the real Antichrist, and he�s going to convince the world that he is the Christ, and he shall deceive many. Now on your way back to Revelation, just stop at I John for a moment, the little letter by the same writer. Back there just before you get to Revelation, I John, come through the letters of Peter, and you come to I John, and drop down to chapter 2, verse 18. And here again, I think as I stressed several weeks ago, this is the one place that this man of sin, this counterfeit Christ, is actually called the Antichrist. Here it is, I John 2, verse 18. I John 2.1 You want to remember, all these writers of scripture had no idea this was going to be 1900 and some years, they thought it was all going to be coming in relatively short time. And so he says it is the last time, as you have heard that Antichrist shall come. Even now there are many Antichrists, of course there are, but they don�t hold a candle to the One that is coming, the Antichrist. Now let�s go back again to Revelation chapter 6, and so we see this man of sin come on the scene and he begins to conquer and overtake nations. He�s setting up his power base, and he goes forth conquering and to conquer. Now before I get into this rider of the red horse, I wish I had another hour, but like we�ve had to do in the past, we�ll go as far as we can. We�ll just have to quit. For those of you watching on television, you�ll just have to wait a week. But anyway, when he had opened the second seal, now don�t forget where these seals are. They�re on that mortgage, they�re on that scroll. The first one was the appearance of the Antichrist. He signs the seven year treaty with Israel as we saw back in Daniel chapter 70. Now the next event which is probably within the first month or so after the seven years have begun, the first event that�s now going to come on the scene is another horse, and this one is red. Now when you have the absence of peace, what do you have? You�ve got war. I mean a real war. So this individual, or this power entity, this rider of the red horse is going to bring war on the earth. He�s going to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another. Now I want you to underline those three words, or do something, because I think this indicates what I�m going to show is the rider of the red horse. I�m not going to have time to take it all the way to fruition, but here we have the rider of the red horse, and his battleground is going to be epitomized by not killing the enemy, but what are they going to do? They�re going to kill each other, and they will kill one another. Now all I�m going to have time to do is wet your appetite, and as you�re turning back to Ezekiel, I want you to be thinking, what great power on earth is associated with the color red? It�s Russia. And for 20 years I have been teaching that I think the rider of the red horse will be the Russian invasion of Israel that we have back in Ezekiel 38-39. Now like I said, I�m not going to have time to bring it to fruition, but we�ll go into it far enough so that you can have something to think about and chew about until we come back again. For us it�ll be a whole month I guess for our next taping, but for those on television, it�ll be next week. In Ezekiel 38, and again Ezekiel begins as he does so many times, and the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshach and Tubal, and prophesy against him. Now all Bible scholars, or most all that I read anyway, are convinced that Gog and Magog and Meshach and Tubal are Russia and her satellite nations. Now I�ve been literally raising my voice to my classes for the last year or two, and I�ve been saying, �Don�t you believe for a minute that the Russian bear is dead. The Russian bear is alive and well. Now they may be a little crimped economically, and they may be a little cold and hungry, but have all the threats of mass famine in Russia come true? No. The Russian army is sitting there east of the Ural mountains just as intact as it�s ever been. I read again in one of the major news magazines just a week or two ago, that Russia has not cut one person from the staff of their espionage. They are just as busy with their spying activity as they ever were. They have not slowed down the production of any of their war material. You remember just a few weeks ago they sent another rocket into space. How are they doing it if they�re so destitute and broke? Listen, they are just as alive as they can be. Oh I know they�ve got their problem, but I�m still saying that one day soon the Communists will come back in, they�ll take over, and Russia will be right back on track. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a weekly Bible study. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries, a Bible study in your area, or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kenta, OK 74552. That�s Route 1, Box 760, Kenta, OK 74552. Through the Bible with Les Feldick is viewer supported and your gift is appreciated. Thank you and be sure to tune in next time for Through the Bible with Les Feldick.