UNDERSTANDING CHRISTMAS

 

Introduction

An age-old tradition is to go wait in line to sit in Santa’s lap and tell him what you want for Christmas. You eagerly sit on his knee and listen attentively to what he says, hoping he will promise you the things you want.

Sometimes, on Christmas morning, you find that you can’t always trust Santa. But, there was a promise given over 700 years before Christ that you can take to the bank. Under the anointing and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Isaiah promised that a child would be born and His name would tell His character.

“For a child has been born to us, a son has been given to us. He shoulders responsibility and is called: Extraordinary Strategist, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6)

1. Wonderful Counselor

A. He is worthy of wonder because incarnation defies human understanding, (Philippians 2:6-7). He was equal to God the Father (Philippians 2:6) Then why would God clothe Himself with humanity? Is it any wonder that the angels sang? That the shepherds rejoiced? That the magi traveled for two years? Why would he love me so much? Why you?

B. He is also the divine Counselor. He is a God who guides his people. The Christian God is the only one who loves His followers enough to become involved in their everyday lives.

C. Those of you who know Him have probably already experienced His guidance in your lives. Scripture says, “Seek his will in all you do, and he will direct your paths.” (Proverbs 3:6)

2. Mighty God

A. He has the Power to Protect us against the fiery darts of Satan himself. Sometimes against our own foolish minds. He has the power to preserve when our strength fails or Satan tries to drag us down.

B. He has the power to provide. Sometimes in the face of absolute impossibility, (Philippians 4:19).

C. He has the power to promote. He is coming to take us home to be with Him, (John 14:1-3). This world is just a temporary stop.

3. Everlasting Father

A. Not the warped worldly view of a Father. If Father God was like the earthly father many of us had we wouldn’t want to love Him. Amazing how much your concept of God is shaped by the image of your earthly father. Good or bad!

B. He loves us with unconditional love. Loves us so much he gave away himself on the cross. So that we will have everlasting life if we believe, (John 3:16).

C. He will be there for us forever! Not just with us when it benefits Him. He is with us at all times. He is everywhere we go. “I’ll give you a dollar if you can tell me where He ain’t!”

4. Prince of Peace

A. Perhaps the greatest benefit of salvation is Peace! I first experienced that peace as a new Christian, (Your personal testimony).

B. Without Christ, our lives are marked with fear all the time. Fear of dying and fear of life after death.

C. Fear of the consequences of our sin. God has promised to keep all who trust in him in perfect peace, (Isaiah 26:3)

Invitation

You can’t depend on Santa. The jolly fat man will let you down. But, I can guarantee you that Jesus will never let you down. Put your trust in Him, the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father and the Prince of Peace. Make this decision today and you will be glad you did. 

Merry Christmas to you and your family

THE PALE HORSE

 

Pale HorseEdit

The fourth Horseman, Death on the Pale Horse.
Engraving by Gustave Doré (1865).

When the Lamb broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, "Come." I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth.

— Revelation 6:7–8NASB

The fourth and final Horseman is named Death. Known as "Θάνατος/Thanatos", of all the riders, he is the only one to whom the text itself explicitly gives a name. Unlike the other three, he is not described carrying a weapon or other object, instead he is followed by Hades (the resting place of the dead). However, illustrations commonly depict him carrying a scythe (like the Grim Reaper), sword,^[30] or other implement.

The color of Death's horse is written as khlōros (χλωρός) in the original Koine Greek,^[31] which can mean either green/greenish-yellow or pale/pallid.^[32] The color is often translated as "pale", though "ashen", "pale green", and "yellowish green"^[24]are other possible interpretations (the Greek word is the root of "chlorophyll" and "chlorine"). Based on uses of the word in ancient Greek medical literature, several scholars suggest that the color reflects the sickly pallor of a corpse.^[3][33] In some modern artistic depictions, the horse is distinctly green.^[34][35][36]

The Greek word for plague is θανάτῳ, which is a variation of Θάνατος, indicating a connection between the Fourth Horseman and plague.^[37]

The verse beginning "they were given power over a fourth of the earth" is generally taken as referring to Death and Hades,^[24][38]although some commentators see it as applying to all four horsemen.^[1]

Destroying an empire

This fourth, pale horse, was the personification of Death with Hades following him jaws open receiving the victims slain by Death. Its commission was to kill upon the Roman Earth with all of the four judgements of God—with sword, famine, pestilence and wild beasts. The deadly pale and livid appearance displays a hue symptomatic of approaching empire dissolution. According to Edward Bishop Elliott, an era in Roman history commencing within about 15 years after the death of Severus Alexander (in 235 AD^[39]) strongly marks every point of this terrible emblem.^{[16]:191–192}

Edward Gibbon speaks of a period from the celebration of the great secular games by the Emperor Philip to the death of Gallienus (in 268 AD^[40]) as the 20 years of shame and misfortune, of confusion and calamity, as a time when the ruined empire approached the last and fatal moment of its dissolution. Every instant of time in every province of the Roman world was afflicted by military tyrants and barbarous invaders—the sword from within and without.^{[16]:192[26]:189}

According to Elliott, famine, the inevitable consequence of carnage and oppression, which demolished the produce of the present as well as the hope of future harvests, produced the environment for an epidemic of diseases, the effects of scanty and unwholesome food. That furious plague (the Plague of Cyprian), which raged from the year 250 to the year 265, continued without interruption in every province, city and almost every family in the empire. During a portion of this time, 5000 people died daily in Rome; and many towns that escaped the attacks of barbarians were entirely depopulated.^[16]:193

For a time in the late 260s, the strength of Aurelian crushed the enemies of Rome, yet after his assassination certain of them revived.^[26]:246 While the Goths had been destroyed for almost a century and the Empire reunited, the Sassanid Persians were uncowed in the East and during the following year hosts of central Asian Alani spread themselves over Pontus, Cappadocia, Cilicia and Galatia, etching their course by the flames of cities and villages they pillaged.^[16]:197

As for the wild beasts of the earth, according to Elliott, it is a well-known law of nature that they quickly occupy the scenes of waste and depopulation—where the reign of man fails and the reign of beasts begins. After the reign of Gallienus and 20 or 30 years had passed, the multiplication of the animals had risen to such an extent in parts of the empire that they made it a crying evil.^[16]:194

One notable point of apparent difference between the prophecy and history might seem to be expressly limited to the fourth part of the Roman Earth, but in the history of the period the devastations of the pale horse extended over all. The fourth seal prophecy seems to mark the malignant climax of the evils of the two preceding seals to which no such limitation is attached. Turning to that remarkable reading in Jerome's Latin Vulgate which reads "over the four parts of the earth,"^[16]:201[41] it requires that the Roman empire should have some kind of quadripartition. Dividing from the central or Italian fourth, three great divisions of the Empire separated into the West, East and Illyricum under Posthumus, Aureolus and Zenobia respectively—divisions that were later legitimized by Diocletian.^[16]:202

Diocletian ended this long period of anarchy, but the succession of civil wars and invasions caused much suffering, disorder and crime which brought the empire into a state of moral lethargy from which it never recovered.^[16]:203After the plague had abated, the empire suffered from general distress, and its condition was very much like that which followed after the Black Death of the Middle Ages. Talent and art had become extinct in proportion to the desolation of the world.^[42]

THE BLACK HORSE

 

Black HorseEdit

 

The third Horseman, Famine on the Black Horse as depicted in the Angers Apocalypse Tapestry (1372–82)

When He broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, "Come." I looked, and behold, a black horse; and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, "A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; but do not damage the oil and the wine."

— Revelation 6:5–6NASB

The third Horseman rides a black horse and is popularly understood to be Famine as the Horseman carries a pair of balances or weighing scales (Greek ζυγὸν, zygon), indicating the way that bread would have been weighed during a famine.^[3][24] Other authors interpret the third Horseman as the "Lord as a Law-Giver" holding Scales of Justice.^[27] In the passage, it is read that the indicated price of grain is about ten times normal (thus the famine interpretation popularity), with an entire day's wages (a denarius) buying enough wheat for only one person (one choenix, about 1.1 litres), or enough of the less nutritious barley for three, so that workers would struggle to feed their families.^[3]

Of the Four Horsemen, the black horse and its rider are the only ones whose appearance is accompanied by a vocal pronunciation. John hears a voice, unidentified but coming from among the four living creatures, that speaks of the prices of wheat and barley, also saying "and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine". This suggests that the black horse's famine is to drive up the price of grain but leave oil and wine supplies unaffected (though out of reach of the ordinary worker). One explanation for this is that grain crops would have been more naturally susceptible to famine years or locustplagues than olive trees and grapevines, which root more deeply.^[3][24]

The statement might also suggest a continuing abundance of luxuries for the wealthy while staples, such as bread, are scarce, though not totally depleted;^[24] such selective scarcity may result from injustice and the deliberate production of luxury crops for the wealthy over grain, as would have happened during the time Revelation was written.^[2][8] Alternatively, the preservation of oil and wine could symbolize the preservation of the Christian faithful, who use oil and wine in their sacraments.^[28]

As imperial oppressionEdit

According to Edward Bishop Elliott's interpretation, through this third seal, the black horse is unleashed—aggravated distress and mourning. The balance in the rider's hand is not associated with a man's weighing out bits of bread in scanty measure for his family's eating but in association with the buying and selling of corn and other grains. The balance during the time of the apostle John's exile in Patmos was commonly a symbol of justice since it was used to weigh out the grains for a set price. The balance of justice held in the hand of the rider of the black horse signified the aggravation of the other previous evil, the bloodstained red of the Roman aspect into the darker blackness of distress.[16]:161,164–167,170The black horse rider is instructed not to harm the oil and the wine which signifies that this scarcity should not fall upon the superfluities, such as oil and wine, which men can live without, but upon the necessities of life—bread.[29]

In history, the Roman Empire suffered as a result of excessive taxation of its citizens. During the reign of Emperor Caracalla, whose sentiments were very different from the Antonines being inattentive, or rather averse, to the welfare of the people, he found himself under the necessity of gratifying the greed and excessive lifestyle which he had excited in the Army. During his reign, he crushed every part of the empire under the weight of his iron scepter. Old as well as new taxes were at the same time levied in the provinces. In the course of this history, the land tax, the taxes for services and the heavy contributions of corn, wine, oil and meat were exacted from the provinces for the use of the court, army and capital. This noxious weed not totally eradicated again sprang up with the most luxurious growth and going forward darkened the Roman world with its deadly shade.^{[26]:138–139}

In reality, the rise to power of the Emperor Maximin, whose cruelty was derived from a different source being raised as a barbarian from the district of Thrace, expanded the distress on the empire beyond the confines of the illustrious senators or bold adventurers who in the court or army exposed themselves to the whims of fortune. This tyrant, stimulated by the insatiable desires of the soldiers, attacked the public property at length. Every city of the empire was destined to purchase corn for the multitudes as well as supply expenses for the games. By the Emperor's authority, the whole mass of wealth was confiscated for use by the Imperial treasury—temples stripped of their most valuable offerings of gold, silver and statues which were melted down and coined into money.^{[26]:142–143}

THE RED HORSE

 

Red HorseEdit

The second Horseman, War on the Red Horse as depicted in a thirteenth-century Apocalypse manuscript.

When He broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, "Come." And another, a red horse, went out; and to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from Earth, and that men would slay one another; and a great sword was given to him.

— Revelation 6:3–4NASB

The rider of the second horse is often taken to represent War^[2] (he is often pictured holding a sword upwards as though ready for battle^[21]) or mass slaughter.^[1][6][22] His horse's color is red (πυρρός, pyrrhos from πῦρ, fire); and in some translations, the color is specifically a "fiery" red. The color red, as well as the rider's possession of a great sword (μάχαιρα, machaira), suggests blood that is to be spilled.^[3] The sword held upward by the second Horseman may represent war or a declaration of war, as seen in heraldry. In military symbolism, swords held upward, especially crossed swords held upward, signify war and entering into battle.^[23] (See for example the historical and modern images, as well as the coat of arms, of Joan of Arc.)

The second Horseman may represent civil war as opposed to the war of conquest that the first Horseman is sometimes said to bring.^[3][24] Other commentators have suggested that it might also represent the persecution of Christians.^{[9][25][full citation needed]}

As empire divisionEdit

Death on the Pale Horse, Benjamin West, 1817

According to Edward Bishop Elliott's interpretation of the Four Horsemen as symbolic prophecy of the history of the Roman Empire, the second seal is opened and the Roman nation that experienced joy, prosperity and triumph is made subject to the red horse which depicts war and bloodshed—civil war. Peace left the Roman Earth resulting in the killing of one another as insurrection crept into and permeated the Empire beginning shortly into the reign of the Emperor Commodus.^{[16]:147–148}

Elliott points out that Commodus, who had nothing to wish and everything to enjoy, that beloved son of Marcus Aurelius who ascended the throne with neither competitor to remove nor enemies to punish, became the slave of his attendants who gradually corrupted his mind. His cruelty degenerated into habit and became the ruling passion of his soul.^[26]:86–87

Elliott further recites that, after the death of Commodus, a most turbulent period lasting 92 years unfolded during which time 32 emperors and 27 pretenders to the Empire hurled each other from the throne by incessant civil warfare. The sword was a natural, universal badge among the Romans, of the military profession. The apocalyptic figure indicated by the great sword indicated an undue authority and unnatural use of it. Military men in power, whose vocation was war and weapon the sword, rose by it and also fell. The unrestrained military, no longer subject to the Senate, transformed the Empire into a system of pure military despotism.^{[16]:150–152}