After seeing on TV some of the wildfires around the US, I thought I might give our readers a picture of what is going to happen on this earth right before Jesus Christ comes back. Because of the Apostle John’s stand for Jesus Christ as the Savior of this world, the Roman Government exiled him to the island of Patmos. While he was there God revealed to John what would happen in the end times.
God took John into the spiritual realm (Revelation 1:10) and showed him the future of the church while it is on this earth (Revelation 2-3). After that John saw a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which he heard was like a trumpet speaking with him, saying, “Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.” Immediately John was in the Spirit and saw a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne (Revelation 4:1-2). God is now going to reveal to John the horrible consequences of a world that has rejected God.
Some people believe that we should not take the words of Revelation literally, but that could be a serious mistake. Jesus said, “For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city and from the things which are written in this book” (Revelation 22:18-19). A strong warning to anyone who decides to believe that this book is not to be taken literally!
“Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals; and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder, ‘Come and see.’ And I looked, and behold, a white horse. He who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer” (Revelation 6:1).
Most Bible scholars believe the man riding the white horse is the anti-christ, and he will be the most amazing person this world has seen since Jesus Christ. He will be extremely good-looking, charming, charismatic, intelligent and a natural born leader. He will come on the scene when it seems that no one can bring peace to this earth. This man will actually be Satan in the flesh. This man will be totally controlled by the spirit of Satan. And he will bring peace to this earth for the first 3-1/2 years he rules on this earth.
“When He opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, ‘Come and see.’ Another horse, fiery red, went out. And it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth and that people should kill one another; and there was given to him a great sword” (Revelation 6:3-4).
Although this is the next verse of Scripture, this will not actually happen until about 3-1/2 years after the anti-christ comes on the scene. We see here that peace is taken from this earth; wars and killing will be rampant all over the earth. Wars are nothing new on this earth, if you look at history, you will discover that only eight percent of world history has been a time of peace. For every 13 years of war, there has only been one year of peace. It has been said that if you took the value of destruction from all of the wars that have been fought over the past few thousand years that it would form a belt of pure gold 97.2 miles wide and 33 feet thick that would circle the complete earth. And over a billion people have been killed in these wars.
“When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, ‘Come!’ I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, ‘A quart of wheat for a day’s wages, and three quarts of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!’” (Revelation 6:5-6).
When this prophecy was written a quart of wheat was considered to be day’s food provision for a person and a denarius was considered to be a day’s wages. During the tribulation it will take all a working person makes just to provide the food necessary for their own survival, not counting their family. Food will be scarce and extremely expensive in the end times.
There is one other thing in this prophecy, “and do not damage the oil and the wine.” Today, it is easy to see that world leaders will do almost anything to keep from hurting the world’s oil supply. And we all know that the rich live a luxurious lifestyle, even where the masses are starving. This earth is fast becoming over-crowded, with over six billion people living on this earth to feed and clothe. It is estimated that the population of the earth will be over nine billion people in 2050. That is a fifty-percent increase over what the world population is today. But you can bet that the rich people and the world’s political leaders will still live a luxurious lifestyle, even while the middle class and poor are starving.
It is not hard to see how such a massive amount of humanity will have trouble feeding themselves. Wars and famine usually go together; and with wars rampant around the world during the end times, there could easily be a worldwide famine. Even today, it is estimated that over half of the world’s children go to bed hungry every night and malnutrition kills over five million children each year. It is estimated that over 800 million people in this world are malnourished today. But in the end times it will get a lot worse. More next time.