3   And when He had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see.

  4   And there went out another horse that was red:  and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another:  and there was given unto him a great sword.

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     There is certainly no difficulty seeing the correlation between what John here saw and what Jesus spoke of next in His Olivet Discourse.  From Matthew's account, in chapter 24, consider:

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  6   And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars:  see that ye be not troubled:  for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

  7   For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:

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     Perhaps no other words that Jesus spoke concerning what the future held resonate with our generation more than these, that there would be "wars and rumours of wars."  There is really no need to take the time to mention the wars that have occurred in the last hundred years, which the United States alone has been involved in, much less the rest of the world.  And, what about all the wars that have occurred since John received The Revelation!

     Think about this:  How long has Christ's Bride worked towards peaceful solutions to humanity's differences so that war might be averted, only to have so many of Her efforts rode roughshod over by something?  Believing as I do that the rider on the red horse of the 2nd Seal has been the culprit here, I can almost envision this horseman busying himself to keep everything among peoples and nations in a stir, always endeavoring to keep the fires of war stoked.  Isn't it amazing how much we would like to have peace in the world and yet how difficult and seemingly impossible it is to attain?  Why is this so?  I submit that it is because of the power this rider has been given "to take peace from the earth" and his obsession with the exercising of this power.  If the activity of the rider on this red horse has been behind all the wars that have occurred since the first century, the sword he has wielded has indeed been "great" (vs. 4).

     It might be asked, "If Satan has been granted such liberty, what is the Church to do?"  My answer is this:  Just because Satan has been granted certain powers does not mean that God has left us powerless!  Paul instructed the Church to be "strong in the Lord, and in the power of HIS might " (Eph. 6:10).  A sermon could be preached right here!  It is not just the horseman of the 2nd Seal who has been given a great sword.  The Bride has in Her arsenal "the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God " (Eph. 6:17)!  So, though we are fighting "against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" (Eph. 6:12), we must not retreat.  We must continue in our own campaign, in keeping with the song we sing, "Onward Christian Soldiers."  And fellow soldiers, when it seems that you are in a place where you cannot advance, stand, "having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;  And your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace" (Eph. 6:14-15).  This is the only way to countervail for the peace that the horseman of the 2nd Seal is bent on taking away.  Let's continue...

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