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judgments will take us about twenty-one months from the signing of the treaty
with
Israel. In the coming weeks I will teach about the fourteen remaining
judgments that will carry us through the end of the seven-year period, but for
now, let's concentrate on the first four of the seven seals.
As Bruce plunged ahead, Buck was struck that the last speaker he had heard who
was so captivating was Nicolae Carpathia. But Carpathia's impression had been
choreographed, manipulated. Bruce wasn't trying to impress anyone with
anything but the truth of the Word of God. Would he tell this body that he
believed he knew who the Antichrist was? In a way Buck hoped he would. But
that might be considered slander, to publicly finger someone as the archenemy
of almighty God.
Or would Bruce simply tell what the Bible said and let the people come to
their own conclusions? The news was already full of rumors about some
impending agreement between Carpathia or at least the Carpathia-led U.N. and
Israel. If
Bruce predicted a pact that was borne out over the next few days, who could
doubt him?
Rayford was more than fascinated. He was stunned. In many ways, Bruce was
reading his mind. Not long ago he would have scoffed at such teaching, at such
a literal take on so clearly a poetic and metaphoric passage. But what Bruce
said made sense. The young man hadn't been preaching more than a few weeks.
That had not been his calling or his training. But this wasn't preaching as
much as teaching, and Bruce's passion, the immersion of his soul into the
subject, made it all the more compelling.
I don't have time to get into the second and third and fourth horsemen this
morning, Bruce said, except to say that the rider on the red horse signifies
war, the black horse famine, and the pale horse death. Just a little something
to look forward to, he added wryly, and some chuckled nervously. But I
warned you this is not for the faint of heart.
He sped toward his point and his conclusion by reading from Revelation 6:1-2:
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
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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.
Bruce dramatically moved back a step and began clearing off the small lectern.
Don't worry, he said, I'm not finished. To Rayford's surprise, people
began to applaud. Bruce said, Are you clapping because you want me to finish,
or because you want me to go on all afternoon?
And the people clapped all the more. Rayford wondered what was happening. He
applauded too, and Chloe and Buck were doing the same. They were drinking this
in, and they wanted more and more. Clearly Bruce had been in tune with what
God
was showing him. He had said over and over that this was not new truth, that
the commentaries he cited were decades old and that the doctrine of the end
times was much, much older than that. But those who had relegated this kind of
teaching to the literalists, the fundamentalists, the closed-minded
evangelicals, had been left behind. All of a sudden it was all right to take
Scripture at its word! If nothing else convinced people, losing so many to the
Rapture finally reached them.
Bruce stood before the bare lectern now with only his Bible in his hand. I
want to tell you now what I believe the Bible is saying about the rider of the
white horse, the first horseman of the Apocalypse. I will not give my opinion.
I will not draw any conclusion. I will simply leave it to God to help you draw
any parallels that need to be drawn. I will tell you only this in advance:
This millenniums-old account reads as fresh to me as tomorrow's newspaper.
CHAPTER FOUR
BUCK sat in the pew behind Rayford and Chloe Steele and glanced at his watch.
More than an hour had flown by since he had last checked. His stomach told him
he was hungry, or at least that he could eat. His mind told him he could sit
there all day, listening to Bruce Barnes explain from the Bible what was
happening today and what would happen tomorrow. His heart told him he was on a
precipice. He knew where Bruce was going with this teaching, with this imagery
from the book of
Revelation. Not only did he know who the rider of the white horse was, Buck
knew the rider personally. He had experienced the power of the Antichrist.
Buck had spent enough time with Bruce and the Steeles, poring over the
passages, to know beyond doubt that Nicolae Carpathia embodied the enemy of
God. And yet he could not jump to his feet and corroborate Bruce's message
with his own account. Neither could Bruce reveal that he knew precisely who
the Antichrist was, or that someone in this very church had met him.
For years Buck had been an inveterate name-dropper. He had run in high circles
for so long that it was not uncommon for him to be able to say, Met him,
Interviewed her, Know him, Was with her in Paris, Stayed in their
home.
But that self-centeredness had been swept away by the disappearances and his
experiences on the front lines of supernatural events. The old Buck Williams
would have welcomed the prospect of letting on that he was a personal
acquaintance of not only the leading personality in the world, but also the
very Antichrist foretold in
Scripture. Now he simply sat riveted as his friend preached on.
Let me clarify, Bruce was saying, that I don't believe it is God's intent
to convey individual personality through the imagery of these horsemen, but
rather world conditions. They don't all refer to specific people, because, for
instance, the fourth
horseman is called Death.
Ah, but the first horseman! Notice that it is the Lamb who opens the first
seal and reveals that horseman. The Lamb is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who
died for our sins, was resurrected, and recently raptured his church.
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In Scripture the first in a succession is always important the firstborn, the
first day of the week, the first commandment. The first rider, the first of
the four horses of the first seven judgments, is important! He sets the tone.
He is the key to understanding the rest of the horsemen, the rest of the Seal
judgments, indeed, the rest of all of the judgments.
Who is this first horseman? Clearly he represents the Antichrist and his
kingdom.
His purpose is conquering and to conquer. He has a bow in his hand, a symbol
of aggressive warfare, and yet there is no mention of an arrow. So how will he
conquer? Other passages indicate that he is a willful king and that he will
triumph through diplomacy. He will usher in a false peace, promising world
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