“And when he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living being say, ‘Come!’ And I watched, and behold a pale horse. The name of its rider was ‘Death,’ and the ‘Grave’ was riding with him. To them authority was granted over a quarter of the earth to kill by sword and by hunger and by plague, and by the savage rulers of the earth.”
The Apocalypse 6.7-8

The “precursor” prophecy of the pale horse looks similar to that of the red horse, for death is the outcome of each. However, in the case of the red horse, it is a prediction of individual people killing other people. The number of deaths is not quantified; rather, it is the circumstance of the loss of peace and security that is described.

The prophecy of the pale horse, on the other hand, speaks of calamities and atrocities that affect large numbers of people at the same time. Note that this is not a prediction of a quarter of the earth’s population being killed, but that a quarter of the inhabited earth will be impacted by such adversity.

The kind of circumstances suggested here are things like genocide, civil war, barbaric law and law enforcement, starvation (not just hunger), contagious, spreading sickness and disease, and war.

Admittedly, growing up in Southern Ontario as I have done has felt very secure and insulated compared with what so much of the rest of earth’s population faces. It is like there are two different planets on which people have to live, some so protected, some so difficult. However, even here in North America we cannot help but hear the thunder of the horse hooves. COVID 19 has helped us to see that no place on earth is immune.

Jim’s talk entitled, “Big Change Coming,” explores this prophecy in more depth as we listen to Revelation telling us what the world will look like as it nears to time of the return of Jesus.