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Time To Mount Up

Time To Mount Up
By Steve Meehan

The world is ready for his arrival. They are awaiting his appearance. Someone is needed to step forward to fix the financial morass that is engulfing the major economies of the globe. A leader needs to emerge that can finally bring about a peace plan that will extinguish the long simmering cauldron of tensions inflaming the Middle East. A man the entire international community can rally around to bring about financial security, peace, safety and the outlook for a brighter future. That man is waiting in the wings, soon to take center stage. He is honing his acceptance speech and will quickly emerge from behind the curtain, to take on his appointed position. In the distance, the whinny of a horse can be heard.

Global conflicts are sprouting like mushrooms across the face of the Earth, along with ethnic strife in the far reaches of every continent. The Korean peninsula could explode at any time. The ongoing saber-rattling emanating from both sides, combined with the possibility of nuclear weapons being infused into the dilemma, hangs over the region like Damocles sword. The increasing threat of an outbreak of radical extremism looms in all the major nations of the western world, primarily those in Europe and America. Civil war is raging on in Syria that could soon encapsulate the immediate nations bordering that country, as well as outside major players that may have to intervene to attempt to end the bloodshed. Iran is working incessantly to develop a nuclear weapon, in their desire to wipe Israel off the map. Wars and rumors of war surround us on a daily basis. The sound of a heavy hoof stamps on the Earth.

The world is hungry. The specter of famine is haunting an ever increasing number of peoples throughout Africa, along with populations living in other underdeveloped countries. Appetites, even in the more industrialized and better suited agricultural nations of the world, have not been satiated, due to the worsening economic outlook and job losses. The cost of food continues to rise, due to the ever-increasing price of fuel to transport food items. In some regions of the globe, a day’s wage is already the norm to purchase the basic necessities required to sustain life. In the near future, this will become the “new” normal for most. The impatient neighing of a stallion becomes more audible.

Disease and pestilence are working in tandem, swinging their reaper-like scythes, leaving an ever widening swath of victims in their wake. Recent outbreaks of AIDS, SARS, Mad Cow disease, Salmonella, Ebola and the most current avian influenza virus – H7N9, which threatens to further mutate to develop into a human to human contagion – along with a host of other viruses and plagues have the potential to wipe out millions of lives. Chemical and/or biological agents being produced to be used in the killing of other humans might even fall into this category. Whether it is nature on mankind or of a human on other human variety, disease, pestilences or maybe even biological agents will exact their toll on the globe’s population. A muscled steed snorts, and rears up on its hind legs, ready to bolt.

The apocalyptic writings in the book of Revelation give an account of the four horsemen who will soon stampede their mounts across the face of the Earth, leaving death and destruction in the dust of their passing. To those who read the Word of God – the Holy Bible – and have a special affinity for the study of bible prophecy, it is becoming all too apparent that these riders will soon be untethered to begin their drive throughout the globe. The times are more then ripe for their emergence. Conditions on Earth – physically, socially and morally – beckon for their arrival. The lining up of nations to fit end time battle scenarios are all perfectly aligned. The call for these riders to mount up and gallop off is imminent.

The first rider:

“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.” – Revelation 6:2

This rider will be a world leader – most likely from Western Europe – who will come in peacefully at first (with a bow, but no arrows) who will have the apparent solutions to all of the world’s problems. He will bring prosperity back to struggling economies and will enforce a comprehensive peace plan in the Middle East. He will beguile the nations and the world will clamor after him. He will be what the world thinks it needs. In the end, or halfway through his approximately seven year reign, this man will wreak havoc across the Earth. He will declare himself to be God, and his reign of terror will have no end; that is, until the Lord Jesus Christ comes back to Earth to destroy him and his false prophet. This man will be the antichrist.

The second rider:

“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.” – Revelation 6:4

This rider represents war and its aftermath. It says he is given a great sword, which could be symbolic of the fact that he has every conceivable implement of war to wield at his disposal to cause war and loss of life throughout the globe.

The third rider:

“And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.” Revelation 6:5, 6

This rider is symbolic of famine. Famine, drought and the inability to produce enough food to feed the masses will be so severe, that starvation will decimate the masses and what little can be found will cost a day’s wages to feed a family.

The fourth rider:

“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” – Revelation 6:8

This rider almost seems to be a culmination of the first three. While the antichrist initially comes in as a man of peace, on a gleaming white stallion – as if he is a Christ-like figure – midway through his reign, he will be indwelt by Satan and his countenance takes on a totally different persona. He will be out to destroy by any and all means possible. It could be that his white horse has now turned pale, and this fourth rider is killing by sword – as did the second rider; he is killing with hunger or famine – as did the third rider; and lastly, he is causing death by everything and anything at his disposal, including the beasts of the earth. That might include diseases and pestilences brought on by insects or animals, or maybe even his demonic forces entering into these beasts to inflict harm, or at the very least, manipulate them to attack mankind. It will be a totally different time than ever experienced on Earth and could possibly portend some very unforeseen supernatural occurrences – all used to wipe out as many human beings as possible.

As Jesus Himself said:

“And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.” – Matthew 24:22

Horrible, desperate times lie ahead. The loss of life will be staggering. It will be a seven year period that should be avoided at all costs. You don’t want to be on Earth during those days. And no one has to be. By accepting God’s plan of salvation in accepting the free gift of Jesus Christ, you will be precluded from having to endure that very dark period.

The antichrist will not be released onto the world until Jesus Christ breaks open that first seal of the Tribulation period, mentioned in Revelation 6:1. There are those who contend that the Body of Christ – the Church, all those who have placed their complete faith and trust in the finished work of Christ on the cross – will not be removed from the Earth until just before the most severe wrath of God is unleashed, well into the Tribulation period. If the action of Christ releasing unto the world a figure like that of an antichrist is not considered a part of His wrath, then it defies any notion of what that word entails. He is released due to the fact that the world has rejected the True Christ, who came in His Father’s name, but will be more than willing to accept another who comes in his own name. It is all part of the wrath of God. The believers are told that they will avoid this wrath by:

“And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.” – 1 Thessalonians 1:10

The time of the four horsemen to mount their steeds is rapidly drawing close; they will burst out onto a very unsuspecting and unprepared world soon. The masses will be blindsided by their sudden appearance. Once that first seal is broken, it will be too late to escape their onset. Trust in Christ now, and avoid meeting the antichrist and his fellow riders. Trusting in Christ later – during the Tribulation – will more than likely mean you will be martyred for your faith, after going through some very difficult days.

Accept Christ by:

“That if thou shall confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shall be saved.” – Romans 10:9

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shall be saved…” – Acts 16:1

“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost” – Titus 3:5

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast”. – Ephesians 2:8,9

While the four horsemen may soon run roughshod across the Earth, the Christian can also mount up:

“But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” – Isaiah 40:31

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