In the Book of Revelation we find the Apostle John being shown a vision depicting the events that would take place during the last of the last days of this world.  The vision involves the removal of seven seals from an ancient text.  Their removal revealed the state of mankind from the Day of Pentecost 31 A.D. to the second coming of Christ.  In Revelation 6:1,2 John writes that as the Lamb opened the first seal a white horse appeared whose rider, bearing a bow and wearing a crown, “went forth conquering and to conquer.”

To fully understand the symbolism of the first seal we need to turn to Matthew 24:1-5 where we “listen in on” a conversation that is taking place among Jesus and His disciples as they were leaving the Temple in Jerusalem.  The disciples were showing Him the beautiful buildings and stones of the magnificent structure.   Jesus, knowing that His life was about to end, warned His disciples that the Temple and all of Jerusalem would be destroyed, that one stone would not remain upon another.  Later, as they sat upon the Mt. of Olives, the disciples asked Him when the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple would take place and what would be the sign of His return and the end of the world?  This episode is a prime example of why one must study God’s Word with extreme care.  Such study requires great self-discipline and a heart open to God’s written and spiritual “voice,” without which one cannot learn the Truths of the Holy Bible.

Notice that two timelines are involved in this passage.  Jesus stated that Jerusalem and the Temple would be destroyed, but gave no indication as to when it would happen.  His followers, however, asked Him about His return and the end of the world.  The disciples did not understand the duality of Christ’s Words.  The city and the Temple would be destroyed by the Romans 39 years later.  However, His return and the end of the age would take place at a later, unknown date, at which time the city would once again be destroyed and God’s “Temple”–His backslidden church (1 Cor. 3:16,17/ 2 Cor. 6:16) would be destroyed.  Having abandoned His church and having created their own version, they will have not gone into the place of safety God will have provided for His people and will have been left to face the Great Tribulation and Day of the Lord.  Read The Resurrections.  Now we will direct our attention to what the removal of the seven seals reveals will take place on earth and in the lives of religious people between 31 A.D. and the Second Advent.

Notice that Jesus did not answer the disciples’ question concerning the timing and the sign relative to His return.  Instead He issued a warning: “Take heed that no man deceive you.  For many (men) will come in My name, saying I am Christ, and will deceive many.”  These men will be serving the rider on the white horse who would “conquer” the hearts of many salvation seekers by presenting a false gospel, a false god, a false messiah and a false salvation.  Notice that Jesus said that these false prophets would proclaim that He–Jesus of Nazareth–is indeed the Christ.  Using this Truth they would gain the people’s trust and would then deceive them into accepting “another Jesus.”  The Apostle Paul would later warn the church about this deception in his letter to the churches in Galatia when he told them that they were listening to and believing men who were preaching a “perverted” version of God’s gospel (1:6-9).  Paul also warned the church at Corinth that they were listening to the wrong voices, that if someone came preaching “another Jesus” they would embrace him (2 Cor. 11:4).  Which was exactly what the churches did, with the exception of the church at Philadelphia (Rev. 3:7-13).

Notice that both Jesus and Paul emphasized the fact that Satan–the “prince of the power of the air” (Eph. 2:2), the “angel of light,” uses men who present themselves to the church as “ministers of righteousness.”  These are “false apostles, deceitful workers who transform themselves into apostles of Christ” (2 Cor. 11:13-15).  I have written and spoken much about these false prophets who occupy the pulpits within the world’s Catholic/Protestant religious system.  Be it understood that these people do not know for whom they work and whose gospel they preach.  These Biblically ignorant souls are the products of a religious system built on a foundation of heathenism and wishful thinking.  These false “apostles of Christ” preach what they heard prior to their “calling” to “the ministry.”  Having been influenced by the belief that one neither questions nor tests those whom God has supposedly placed over them, they assume that because they “heard the call to the ministry” and “surrendered” to it under the ministries of their former church leaders, that they, like their mentors, are serving the Biblical God.  Each generation of preachers preach what they were taught was “God’s truth.”  This ministry is designed to prove to them that what they were told, what they believe and what they are preaching came straight from the heart of Satan, and that it is not merely false, but is in fact deadly.  Visit my YouTube site at  proveallthingsofgod  for more information.  One will notice that there are several sites titled “prove all things.”  The Words “of God” distinguishes my site from theirs.  My logo is a circle with my picture in it.

The rider on the white horse of seal number one is Satan who has been conquering the hearts of God seekers since 33 A.D.  Within two years of the founding of God’s church Satan had established a counterfeit church to counteract God’s church.  Read the series titled Simon of Samaria; The Legacy to learn about the most deadly weapon of mass destruction in Satan’s arsenal–Catholicism, which was established in 33 A.D.

The student of God’s Word will notice that not long after the founding of His church in 31 A.D. problems began to arise within the church.  These problems did not involve the Jews and the Romans who hated the Christians for different reasons.  The problems the apostles wrote to the churches about were being generated from within the congregations.  In his letter to the Corinthian Church Paul referred to “false apostles of Christ” who were deceiving the people into embracing “another Jesus” by believing a “perverted” gospel.  Neither the Jews nor the Romans cared about the church’s gospel.  They hated the church for her insistence that the man called Jesus was calling Himself the Son of God, thereby making Himself a God.  The Jews recognized only one God Who did not have a human “son.”  The Romans worshiped whoever their Caesar (king) happened to be at any given time.

The problems the apostles were having were caused the false prophets–“ministers of righteousness”–whom Satan had planted within God’s church.  This problem did not go away over time, but rather intensified.  Eventually Satan’s “Have-it-your-way” brand of religion won the hearts of most of God’s former followers who came to see what Eve had seen when she first gazed upon the forbidden tree–that it was easy on the eyes and its delicious fruit was good to “make one wise.”  Those who fell from grace and followed Satan into his Catholic/Protestant cult system partook of his death-producing fruit (words) and, like their spiritual parents, became spiritually dead while remaining physically alive.  The difference between the parents and the children is that the parents realized what they had done and that they were no longer God’s people.  Their children, however, are so thoroughly blinded to Satan’s wiles that they “know” they are saved, born again, etc. while bragging that they have the right to defy (despise–Lk. 10:16) the God Who supposedly saved them.  Their god has convinced them that they can rebel against Him with impunity.  NEVER UNDERESTIMATE SATAN–the conqueror of  the Institutional Church.   L.J.