The White Horse and its Rider as read in the book of Revelation (1) The Internal or Spiritual Sense of the Word Revealed
When falsities enter the Church, and, of course, a man as well, and lead astray, it is said that the Church in time, will come into vastation or into its devastation and ends; a man comes into and ends in hell. You can see this happening at the end of the Most Ancient Church (the descendents of Adam and Eve) in the flood. You can see it again in the destruction of the tower of Babel and the confounding of speech, thus ending the Ancient Church (the descendents of Noah and his three sons), and again when the Lord came on earth to the Israelitish and Jewish Nation and established the Christian Church. Most any Christian will say that the book of Revelation reveals the end times and, that a New Church will be established on earth, which can be seen as the New Jerusalem descending from God out of Heaven (cf. Chapter 21). What the book of Revelation reveals is that the end of the First Christian Churches comes and a New Christian Church is again established on earth. The problem, though, to see this is that much of this book is written in symbolic language. So, the truths taught there remain a mystery. Over many years men have attempted to explain what is really meant there and have tried to do so by looking at the histories of those prior Churches and of the world during those times, and have said the Final Judgment spoken of in Revelation is the end of this world. They have made arguments and assumptions based on such past historical events as recorded in the Word. Thus, it is by a man's natural rational understanding that he has come to explain the meaning to the book of Revelation. Such is done 'as it were' in the dark and lacks any light of Heaven, which is needed in order to see and to know spiritual truths.
One of the things written in the Revelation of Jesus Christ is in the 19th chapter where the 'White Horse and its Rider' appears:
First, what is the subject spoken of here? Well, for one thing, we know it is the Lord, as we have already shown. Yet, there is another thing that also can be seen and, that is, that it's the Word of God, for that is what the Lord is called here. And, in fact, we know that the Lord has called Himself the Word and the Truth openly and in the Gospel of John it is said that the Word was God. So, in fact we see that it is established that what is spoken of here concerns the Word, as well as the Lord, for they are the same. However, here, in this passage, the Word or the Lord cannot be understood clearly as to what is said about Him or about the Word. Literally, we cannot understand these words, yet they are the Word and are given to us to lead us in the way, that is, to our salvation. We just cannot understand their meaning in its natural or literal sense.
From this, next, one can see that unless there is a correspondence between the spiritual and the natural senses of the Word and that those correspondences becomes known, one cannot know what is represented and signified by the Word and, so, could be led astray. For, then he only understands according to the literal sense and thinks it is the genuine truth. In fact, this is what man has done. Man, without such knowledge within his natural understanding, can only rationalize as to the meaning of these words.
The Lord's New Chapel's doctrine teaches that the Lord has come again to the earth in the Word of Truth in a new Revelation revealing to those who believe those correspondences found there an internal or spiritual of the sense of the Word. Before we begin to open up these verses to the understanding it must be known what makes man a man, and so, this question is asked. Is man, but, alone, natural and destined to live on earth a natural life until his death? Is that the extent of his existence? Or does he, one day, put off his natural body and leave this natural degree of life and become a spirit with a spiritual body and come to live a Heavenly life in Heaven, that is if he has been redeemed and saved? Of course, if he is but natural and is not spiritual then at his death his life ends and he need not be concerned about any future existence, either a life in Heaven or a death in hell. On the other hand, if he, upon leaving this world, comes to live in the spiritual degree of his life, becomes a spiritual being and his spirit lives in the spiritual world and, hopefully in Heaven and not in hell, he then is, of necessity, both a natural and spiritual man. He lives his natural life, now, in this world and his spiritual life in the spiritual world to where he comes to after his natural death, although man is not aware of this. This is what The Lord's New Church and the Lord's New Chapel believes and teaches. As Christians, one believes that God, in the creation, has not created or intended man for hell, but for Heaven. Yet, we know that if the Lord had not come on earth and redeemed mankind, man would not be redeemed or be able to be saved, but would end in hell. We know, also, that before man's fall from grace, he had the ability of communicating and fellowshipped directly with angels and God. He had perception. He had the ability to learn and know truths from the Lord within. The Lord was present with man. This, you can see is having the Word of Truth, God's Truth and Good as it were, within one's will and understanding. Do we not, today, believe and say that the Lord longs to make His abode within us in our inmost being? Does not the Word say that the Lord stands at the door and knocks for man to open his heart for Him to come in and sup (share) with him?
In the Genesis story we read that God first created the Heavens and the earth. From a natural understanding of this man thinks of time and space and, so, thinks of the universe where man lives on this earth, and with a little thought thinks of a 'place' Heaven where man, hopefully, will one day come to. Now, think of the time when the Lord was here on earth and remember what He said when asked about Heaven. Didn't he say Heaven was within us? Now, try to think in the abstract and you will see that by 'Heaven' is meant a man's spiritual existence where God lives within us and that by 'earth' is meant a man's natural existence where he lives 'as if' of himself without the Lord, unless of course, he comes accepts the Lord into his life. (This life on earth with or without the Lord has something to do with a man's freedom and will be explained in a future article.)
Thus, it is that man was made both with a spiritual and natural nature or existence. There are, of course, many other things taught in the Word that shows that man is created with a spiritual nature as well as natural nature. Hence, it is said in the text in Revelation, that 'Heaven opened'. Now, what and where is Heaven? Is it above somewhere in the vast cosmic expanse? We now know that it is not, but that it is within us. Now, in this passage from the Word, we have already shown that the subject is the Word itself; thus, it is the Word that is opened for one's understanding. Question: If the Lord or the Word is now opened for a man to understand, then what is seen and what can be learned? When something is opened and one sees what it is, then, doesn't he or she also begin to understand what it is that had been, before, closed to him, such as this mystery of the 'white horse'? Had not man turned from God and has closed his mind and heart, his understanding and will, and his thoughts and affections are now from self, and are not from God? Thus, it is the spiritual or internal sense that is being described here.
I ask you, has Heaven been opened to you? Has the Word been opened for you to see the things that have remained hidden within its literal sense? Do you understand what is internally and spiritually written within the Word? Do you know what the 'white horse', and all the rest of what is written concerning the Lord, who rides it, means in these verses? Or have you closed your understanding and refused to accept anything but what you understand from your own natural reasoning or learn from others, who think they understand?
You have just read that there are correspondences between the natural world and the spiritual world. In the past, man knew these correspondences. Through them he could understand the Lord, Heaven, and His Word spiritually. After all, one day, man would live there, for that is why he was created for Heaven. He loved this spiritual knowledge because it brought him closer to God, to knowing God, and to knowing His love and His truth. (God, being Divine Love and Divine Wisdom, loves mankind and wants to share these qualities of Good and Truth with him.) At such a time, it delighted man to write of these truths in a style that we see today, as written in the first 12 chapters of Genesis. Later, the histories written about were true histories, but like the made-up histories of the first 12 chapters of Genesis, all the words used mean something of the Lord God and of Heaven. Thus, the angels in Heaven could understand the Word as well as the man living on earth could. Over the many, many years that the Word was written there were things written that when they are studied, one can see what certain words mean in the internal or spiritual sense. One such word is 'horse'. Let us now confirm this, so we may learn what is its internal or spiritual significance.
Of the many texts that the word 'horse' is used throughout the Word we learn that God rode upon horses, that Jehovah would smite the horse, that the horse is scorned, that there were fiery horses and much more. Take first these verses from Habakkuk about the horse, "O LORD . . .You rode on Your horses, Your chariots of salvation . . .You walked through the sea with Your horses" (iii 8, 15). And, in the book Zechariah it is said, "In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD" (xiv 20). Does God ride on His horses? Does He make them to tread through the sea as the literal sense indicates? You can see there is something spiritual that is meant here. And, likewise by 'on the horses bells is Holiness' something spiritual is meant. Else where in Zechariah is written that Jehovah will smite every horse with astonishment, and the rider with madness, and every horse of the people of Judah with blindness. Do you attribute this kind of behavior to the Lord? Are the Lord's attributes and qualities such that He does this to man and animals? Surly, there is another understanding than what is indicated in the natural sense of these words. What does any of this have to do with the Church to whom it is written?
Now, here in the next verse, where the horse is used, we begin to see what a horse in the Word signifies. "God deprived her of wisdom and did not endow her with understanding. She lifts up herself on high, she scorns the horse and its rider" (Job xxxix 17, 18, 19). Plainly, here is seen that the horse signifies understanding. In Psalm xlv 4 God is said to ride upon the Word of truth. "Gird Your sword upon Your thigh, O mighty One, with Your glory and majesty. And in Your majesty ride prosperously because of truth, humility, and righteousness." Finally, these verse, "Assemble yourselves and come; Gather together from all sides to my sacrificial meal. You shall eat the flesh of the mighty, drink the blood of the princes of the earth . . . .You shall be filled at My table with horses and riders. I will set My glory among the nations" (Ezekiel 39: 17, 18, 20, 21). And, likewise in Revelation, ". . . .Come and gather together for the supper of the great God . . .. And eat the flesh of the kings . . . .the flesh of the horses and those who sit on them." (xix 17, 18). Here, it is the New Church that is about to be established and where the understanding of the Word will be opened and men will be instructed in the doctrine of truth. Indeed, isn't it nonsense that the Church should eat and be filled with all these things captains, kings, horses and their rides and 'all people free and slave, both small and great.' Instead, aren't they, who become His Church, filled with understanding of the Word when truths are opened and when the internal or spiritual sense is understood when it is eaten or appropriated?
Again, one can read of the 'little Book' whose seals can only be opened by the Lamb, from which four horses went forth, one of which was a white horse whose rider you will agree was the Lord Himself. What is it that comes out of books, surly not horses, but, an understanding does, one which is according to the reader's understanding. So, it is confirmed that a horse means the understanding of the truth or in the opposite sense, the understanding of falsities. The horse is the correspondence between natural and spiritual understanding. You can see that a science of correspondence had even continued for a time in the nations that followed the Ancient Church (Noah and his sons) in Egypt in their hieroglyphics, and in other kingdoms of Asia, and into Greece in their fables, such as the winged horse. Over time these correspondences were lost to man and the corresponding things themselves man turned into idols and the people began worshipping them. Thus, it is that the Lord commanded the Israelites not to make any graven images of any form, either of the Heavens or of the earth, nor to bow down to them (cf. Deut. v 8,9). Perhaps, the remains of this knowledge of correspondences are even seen in various cultures today, even in their language, such as the saying that 'such and such a man has 'horse sense' when they mean that he has a good and true understand of a thing, that he knows the truth.
Today, it has pleased the Lord to reveal the science of correspondences in a new Revelation and to open the Word's interior sense, its spiritual sense, to those who love Him. This is because, at this day the Lord has prepared a place for those who come to Him in love. Both the natural and the spiritual life of a man has been prepared when man who turns to the Lord, and learn the Truth, in love for the sake of Truth and Good. For in such men, the Lord comes and dwells and is victorious over the evils there that have infested him within and He has subjugated them in hell.
The Lord is the Word because He is the Truth. In another article it will be shown that the Lord sitting on a white horse signifies Him as justice and righteousness and that He has the power to save. It will be shown that the armies on white horses that follow Him are those of the New Church and are the goods and truths of Heaven that now descend to man on earth. In this article it has been shown that the Word has an internal or the spiritual sense and that this sense can be known and understood. A man can have a new will and understanding, and so, have a new rational from the Lord. The Word can be seen relates to something spiritual, to the Church and, thus, that man may become enlightened and see the spiritual truths that lie within the literal sense of the Word.
One of the things written in the Revelation of Jesus Christ is in the 19th chapter where the 'White Horse and its Rider' appears:
- "Now I saw Heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called THE WORD OF GOD. And the armies in Heaven clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on a white horses. Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads he winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS" (Revelation XIX: 11-16).
First, what is the subject spoken of here? Well, for one thing, we know it is the Lord, as we have already shown. Yet, there is another thing that also can be seen and, that is, that it's the Word of God, for that is what the Lord is called here. And, in fact, we know that the Lord has called Himself the Word and the Truth openly and in the Gospel of John it is said that the Word was God. So, in fact we see that it is established that what is spoken of here concerns the Word, as well as the Lord, for they are the same. However, here, in this passage, the Word or the Lord cannot be understood clearly as to what is said about Him or about the Word. Literally, we cannot understand these words, yet they are the Word and are given to us to lead us in the way, that is, to our salvation. We just cannot understand their meaning in its natural or literal sense.
From this, next, one can see that unless there is a correspondence between the spiritual and the natural senses of the Word and that those correspondences becomes known, one cannot know what is represented and signified by the Word and, so, could be led astray. For, then he only understands according to the literal sense and thinks it is the genuine truth. In fact, this is what man has done. Man, without such knowledge within his natural understanding, can only rationalize as to the meaning of these words.
The Lord's New Chapel's doctrine teaches that the Lord has come again to the earth in the Word of Truth in a new Revelation revealing to those who believe those correspondences found there an internal or spiritual of the sense of the Word. Before we begin to open up these verses to the understanding it must be known what makes man a man, and so, this question is asked. Is man, but, alone, natural and destined to live on earth a natural life until his death? Is that the extent of his existence? Or does he, one day, put off his natural body and leave this natural degree of life and become a spirit with a spiritual body and come to live a Heavenly life in Heaven, that is if he has been redeemed and saved? Of course, if he is but natural and is not spiritual then at his death his life ends and he need not be concerned about any future existence, either a life in Heaven or a death in hell. On the other hand, if he, upon leaving this world, comes to live in the spiritual degree of his life, becomes a spiritual being and his spirit lives in the spiritual world and, hopefully in Heaven and not in hell, he then is, of necessity, both a natural and spiritual man. He lives his natural life, now, in this world and his spiritual life in the spiritual world to where he comes to after his natural death, although man is not aware of this. This is what The Lord's New Church and the Lord's New Chapel believes and teaches. As Christians, one believes that God, in the creation, has not created or intended man for hell, but for Heaven. Yet, we know that if the Lord had not come on earth and redeemed mankind, man would not be redeemed or be able to be saved, but would end in hell. We know, also, that before man's fall from grace, he had the ability of communicating and fellowshipped directly with angels and God. He had perception. He had the ability to learn and know truths from the Lord within. The Lord was present with man. This, you can see is having the Word of Truth, God's Truth and Good as it were, within one's will and understanding. Do we not, today, believe and say that the Lord longs to make His abode within us in our inmost being? Does not the Word say that the Lord stands at the door and knocks for man to open his heart for Him to come in and sup (share) with him?
In the Genesis story we read that God first created the Heavens and the earth. From a natural understanding of this man thinks of time and space and, so, thinks of the universe where man lives on this earth, and with a little thought thinks of a 'place' Heaven where man, hopefully, will one day come to. Now, think of the time when the Lord was here on earth and remember what He said when asked about Heaven. Didn't he say Heaven was within us? Now, try to think in the abstract and you will see that by 'Heaven' is meant a man's spiritual existence where God lives within us and that by 'earth' is meant a man's natural existence where he lives 'as if' of himself without the Lord, unless of course, he comes accepts the Lord into his life. (This life on earth with or without the Lord has something to do with a man's freedom and will be explained in a future article.)
Thus, it is that man was made both with a spiritual and natural nature or existence. There are, of course, many other things taught in the Word that shows that man is created with a spiritual nature as well as natural nature. Hence, it is said in the text in Revelation, that 'Heaven opened'. Now, what and where is Heaven? Is it above somewhere in the vast cosmic expanse? We now know that it is not, but that it is within us. Now, in this passage from the Word, we have already shown that the subject is the Word itself; thus, it is the Word that is opened for one's understanding. Question: If the Lord or the Word is now opened for a man to understand, then what is seen and what can be learned? When something is opened and one sees what it is, then, doesn't he or she also begin to understand what it is that had been, before, closed to him, such as this mystery of the 'white horse'? Had not man turned from God and has closed his mind and heart, his understanding and will, and his thoughts and affections are now from self, and are not from God? Thus, it is the spiritual or internal sense that is being described here.
I ask you, has Heaven been opened to you? Has the Word been opened for you to see the things that have remained hidden within its literal sense? Do you understand what is internally and spiritually written within the Word? Do you know what the 'white horse', and all the rest of what is written concerning the Lord, who rides it, means in these verses? Or have you closed your understanding and refused to accept anything but what you understand from your own natural reasoning or learn from others, who think they understand?
You have just read that there are correspondences between the natural world and the spiritual world. In the past, man knew these correspondences. Through them he could understand the Lord, Heaven, and His Word spiritually. After all, one day, man would live there, for that is why he was created for Heaven. He loved this spiritual knowledge because it brought him closer to God, to knowing God, and to knowing His love and His truth. (God, being Divine Love and Divine Wisdom, loves mankind and wants to share these qualities of Good and Truth with him.) At such a time, it delighted man to write of these truths in a style that we see today, as written in the first 12 chapters of Genesis. Later, the histories written about were true histories, but like the made-up histories of the first 12 chapters of Genesis, all the words used mean something of the Lord God and of Heaven. Thus, the angels in Heaven could understand the Word as well as the man living on earth could. Over the many, many years that the Word was written there were things written that when they are studied, one can see what certain words mean in the internal or spiritual sense. One such word is 'horse'. Let us now confirm this, so we may learn what is its internal or spiritual significance.
Of the many texts that the word 'horse' is used throughout the Word we learn that God rode upon horses, that Jehovah would smite the horse, that the horse is scorned, that there were fiery horses and much more. Take first these verses from Habakkuk about the horse, "O LORD . . .You rode on Your horses, Your chariots of salvation . . .You walked through the sea with Your horses" (iii 8, 15). And, in the book Zechariah it is said, "In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD" (xiv 20). Does God ride on His horses? Does He make them to tread through the sea as the literal sense indicates? You can see there is something spiritual that is meant here. And, likewise by 'on the horses bells is Holiness' something spiritual is meant. Else where in Zechariah is written that Jehovah will smite every horse with astonishment, and the rider with madness, and every horse of the people of Judah with blindness. Do you attribute this kind of behavior to the Lord? Are the Lord's attributes and qualities such that He does this to man and animals? Surly, there is another understanding than what is indicated in the natural sense of these words. What does any of this have to do with the Church to whom it is written?
Now, here in the next verse, where the horse is used, we begin to see what a horse in the Word signifies. "God deprived her of wisdom and did not endow her with understanding. She lifts up herself on high, she scorns the horse and its rider" (Job xxxix 17, 18, 19). Plainly, here is seen that the horse signifies understanding. In Psalm xlv 4 God is said to ride upon the Word of truth. "Gird Your sword upon Your thigh, O mighty One, with Your glory and majesty. And in Your majesty ride prosperously because of truth, humility, and righteousness." Finally, these verse, "Assemble yourselves and come; Gather together from all sides to my sacrificial meal. You shall eat the flesh of the mighty, drink the blood of the princes of the earth . . . .You shall be filled at My table with horses and riders. I will set My glory among the nations" (Ezekiel 39: 17, 18, 20, 21). And, likewise in Revelation, ". . . .Come and gather together for the supper of the great God . . .. And eat the flesh of the kings . . . .the flesh of the horses and those who sit on them." (xix 17, 18). Here, it is the New Church that is about to be established and where the understanding of the Word will be opened and men will be instructed in the doctrine of truth. Indeed, isn't it nonsense that the Church should eat and be filled with all these things captains, kings, horses and their rides and 'all people free and slave, both small and great.' Instead, aren't they, who become His Church, filled with understanding of the Word when truths are opened and when the internal or spiritual sense is understood when it is eaten or appropriated?
Again, one can read of the 'little Book' whose seals can only be opened by the Lamb, from which four horses went forth, one of which was a white horse whose rider you will agree was the Lord Himself. What is it that comes out of books, surly not horses, but, an understanding does, one which is according to the reader's understanding. So, it is confirmed that a horse means the understanding of the truth or in the opposite sense, the understanding of falsities. The horse is the correspondence between natural and spiritual understanding. You can see that a science of correspondence had even continued for a time in the nations that followed the Ancient Church (Noah and his sons) in Egypt in their hieroglyphics, and in other kingdoms of Asia, and into Greece in their fables, such as the winged horse. Over time these correspondences were lost to man and the corresponding things themselves man turned into idols and the people began worshipping them. Thus, it is that the Lord commanded the Israelites not to make any graven images of any form, either of the Heavens or of the earth, nor to bow down to them (cf. Deut. v 8,9). Perhaps, the remains of this knowledge of correspondences are even seen in various cultures today, even in their language, such as the saying that 'such and such a man has 'horse sense' when they mean that he has a good and true understand of a thing, that he knows the truth.
Today, it has pleased the Lord to reveal the science of correspondences in a new Revelation and to open the Word's interior sense, its spiritual sense, to those who love Him. This is because, at this day the Lord has prepared a place for those who come to Him in love. Both the natural and the spiritual life of a man has been prepared when man who turns to the Lord, and learn the Truth, in love for the sake of Truth and Good. For in such men, the Lord comes and dwells and is victorious over the evils there that have infested him within and He has subjugated them in hell.
The Lord is the Word because He is the Truth. In another article it will be shown that the Lord sitting on a white horse signifies Him as justice and righteousness and that He has the power to save. It will be shown that the armies on white horses that follow Him are those of the New Church and are the goods and truths of Heaven that now descend to man on earth. In this article it has been shown that the Word has an internal or the spiritual sense and that this sense can be known and understood. A man can have a new will and understanding, and so, have a new rational from the Lord. The Word can be seen relates to something spiritual, to the Church and, thus, that man may become enlightened and see the spiritual truths that lie within the literal sense of the Word.
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