In Matthew 24 we find the Lord’s disciples asking Him when the present world would end and the kingdom would be restored to Israel.  Jesus, being a man, did not know when the restoration would take place.  He shared with them what information He did have.  Because His Father had told Him, He knew that false Christianity, wars, global famine, “natural” disasters and massive death numbers would increasingly plague God-rejecting mankind prior to His return to earth.  One of the specific curses God would pour out on the world’s sinners was disease pandemics.  He warned the disciples that there would be “… pestilences in divers (many) places” (24:7).

Approximately 65 years later the Apostle John was shown a vision concerning “things that will take place in the future” (KJV: “take place thereafter”) and was told to record it–Revelation 1:19.  The Lord was about to reveal to him what would take place in the final days of the present world (civilizations).  In Revelation 6:1-8 Jesus inspired John to write about the “seven seals” that, when opened, would reveal to His saints the events leading up to His Second Coming (Advent).  The first four seals corresponded to His earlier statement recorded in Matthew 24.  These seals are referred to as the “four horsemen of the apocalypse” (revealing).

The “horsemen” of Revelation 6 symbolize the gradual increase in trouble and tribulation that will result in the most devastating punishment mankind will have ever experienced up to that time.  This horrendous event will be the end result of man’s rebellion against the Lord.  The combination of all of the horror and terror that had plagued mankind before that time will not match what is coming upon mankind during the final 3 1/2 years of this age.

For this study we will focus on the fourth horse and its rider: “I looked and there was a pale (green-anemic) horse.  Its rider’s name was death ….” (vs 8).  The description of the horse (pale/green) symbolizes world-wide catastrophic disease epidemics (plural).  Along with the other three riders the sickly horseman will kill one fourth of the world’s population.  Using today’s population count, approximately TWO BILLION PEOPLE will die due to sickness and disease alone.  Note that Jesus prophesied two times in the New Testament (and two times in the Old Testament) about end-time disease epidemics (Mat. 24:7/ Rev. 6:8).  Recall that when the Egyptian pharaoh had two similar dreams, Joseph explained that, because God had spoken to him two times about the subject, the decree had been established–what the Lord had shown him in the dreams would come to pass without fail (Gen. 41:32).  What Jesus prophesied in Matthew 24, Revelation 6, Isaiah 24 and Zechariah 6 WILL COME TO PASS.  Read The God of the Old Testament and Jesus of Nazareth: God, Man or God-man?.  Use “Testament” and “God-man” as your focus words.

The Wuhan coronavirus now sweeping across the world’s nations affords us a glimpse at the overall picture of what is coming upon sinning man.  As if COVID-19 was not enough, the Almighty is sending other plagues into the inner cities throughout the so-called “Christian nations,” specifically the United States and Britain.  Densely populated cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Baltimore and London are magnates for homeless people who gather in their central areas that are now awash with drugs, human feces, garbage, rodents, etc.  The squalor is causing a rapid rise in such diseases as AIDS and hepatitis A.  Diseases such as tuberculosis and typhus that have not been seen in developed countries in generations are now on the rise.  Some experts are warning about the return of bubonic plague–the “black death” that wiped out one-third of Europe in the 14th century.  What we are witnessing now is merely a hint of what is coming upon the present world, specifically modern Israel–the U.S., Britain and the Jewish nation.  The Lord is punishing His chosen people because of SIN–the result of the religious masses believing and following the rider on the first horse–false religion.  Recall that he went forth “conquering and (to continue) to conquer.”  The rider–Satan–continues to deceive salvation seekers just as he did Adam and Eve.  And he continues to get the same result.

At Mt. Sinai Moses’ brother Aaron and the people of Israel set the example followed by the world’s “Christian nations” today.  While Moses was on the mountain conferring with God the people decided to return to Egypt.  Aaron constructed a golden calf and told the people that the statue was their god that would lead them back to Egypt.  He then built an alter (place of worship) before the calf and declared, “Tomorrow we will hold a feast UNTO THE LORD.”  Which they did.  Note that the people worshiped the false god (calf idol) while presenting burnt offerings and peace offerings to the true God.  They knelt, prayed and worshiped at the idol’s alter, then ate, drank and played (sinned) in honor of the Lord.  Sound familiar?  This is exactly what “sinners saved by grace” do.  They go to church, read their Bibles, pray, etc. on Sunday, then spend the rest of the week sinning in obedience to the dictates of their idol.  Just as the golden calf was the idol Satan placed before the children of Israel at Mt. Sinai, the Institutional Church is the idol Satan places before their religious descendants today that represents him.

Why did the Israelites want to return to Egyptian slavery?  BECAUSE THERE THEY COULD SIN AND GET AWAY WITH IT AS LONG AS THEY OBEYED THE EGYPTIANS’ GOD.  The God upon Mt. Sinai was much too strict.  He demanded total control over their behavior, which caused them to yearn for the moral freedom of Egypt where they could sin while being religious.  The bull calf they had worshiped in Egypt did not care what they did in their personal lives as long as they worshiped him.  Does this sound familiar?

It should, because the same attitude and actions are manifested in the Institutional Church today.  Just as did the Israelites of old, their modern day descendants claim the right to sin because they “hold a feast unto the Lord” each Sunday.  Following the “feast” (church service) they are free to sin until the next Satan’s sabbath when they can once again kneel at their idol’s alter where they pretend to worship “the Lord.”  Unbeknownst to them, the “lord” they worship is Satan.  This weekly ritual is more convenient and less confining than obeying the God of the Bible.  This attitude brings a smile to their god’s face.

The true God, however, is not smiling.  He is beginning to pour out His wrath on Satan’s Catholic and Protestant parishioners.  Unbelievably horrible times are coming on the earth.  There is still time to repent, turn from sin, embrace the Biblical God, obey His Word and be taken to His place of safety before the Great Tribulation arrives (Rev. 12:14).  The first thing one must do is follow His command of 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1.  The true God seeker must “COME OUT OF HER (THE CHURCH) … and TOUCH NOT THAT UNCLEAN THING ….”  Then, and only then, can he/she obey the true God and thereby escape that which is coming upon the earth.  L.J.