The Revelation Explained / An Exposition, Text by Text, of the Apocalypse of St. John

by F. G. Smith

The well-known historian Milman, also an Episcopalian, in his History of Christianity, says, "The earliest Christian communities appear to have been ruled and represented, in the absence of the apostle who was their first founder, by their elders, who are likewise called bishops, or overseers of the church." Page 194.

Kurtz, in his Church History, says: "To aid them in their work, or to supply their places in their absence (Acts 14:23), the apostles ordained rulers in every church, who bore the common name of elders from their dignity, and of bishops from the nature of their office. That originally the elders were the same as the bishops, we gather with absolute certainty from the statements of the New Testament and of Clement of Rome, a disciple of the apostles. (See his first epistle to the Corinthians, Chaps. 42, 44:52.) 1. The presbyters are expressly called bishops—compare [the Greek especially] Acts 20:17 with verse 28, and Titus 1:5 with verse 7. 2. The office of presbyter is described as next to and highest after that of apostle (Acts 15:6, 22). Similarly, the elders are represented as those to whom alone the rule, the teaching and the care of the church is entrusted (1 Tim. 5:17; 1 Pet. 5:1, etc.).... In [several] passages of the New Testament and of Clement we read of many bishops in one and the same church. In the face of such indubitable evidence, it is difficult to account for the pertinacity with which Romish and Anglican theologians insist that these two offices had from the first been different in name and functions.... Even Jerome, Augustine, Urban II. (1091) and Petrus Lombardus admit that originally the two had been identical. It was reserved for the Council of Trent to convert this truth into a heresy." Pages 67, 68. Chrysostom, Theodoret, and others also admitted the same.

Many similar historical testimonies now lying before me to the humble equality of the New Testament ministry could be added; but lest the reader become weary, I will conclude with the following beautiful description from D'Aubigne in his noted History of the Reformation: "The church was in the beginning a community of brethren, guided by a few of the brethren." Again, "All Christians were priests of the living God, with humble pastors as their guides." Vol. I, pp. 35, 50.

With this description of the early ministers of Christ, who went forth under the symbol of the first horseman to disciple all nations, we have the events pertaining to the early history of the church, laid before us; until the opening of the second seal brings us to another important phase of its history.

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.

The symbol of this seal is that of a rider going forth on a red horse armed with a great sword with which to take peace from the earth and to kill. It is drawn from the same source as that of the preceding one, but differing greatly in the character of the horseman and the object of his mission. The symbol is one of great dignity—a living, intelligent agent—drawn from civil and military life. For the same reason as given before, we must go out of the department of civil life into the history of religious affairs to find its fulfilment.

Notice, also, the peculiar characteristics of this horseman and wherein he differs from that of the first seal. The color of the horse is red, denoting something very different from the peace, purity, and benignity of the white. Instead of gaining glorious spiritual conquests and triumphs, like him of the first seal, he was to take peace from the earth. In the place of a victor's crown, he possesses "a great sword" with which to kill, denoting an agent of great destruction.

Where shall we look in the history of religious affairs to find the object that meets the requirements of this symbol? Who were the active, intelligent agents that appeared as the great opposers of the establishment of Christianity by the rider of the white horse? We find the answer undoubtedly in the propagators of the Pagan religions. As soon as Christianity began to gain a foothold in the Roman Empire, the priests and supporters of Paganism were exasperated to the last degree, and they determined to crush out the Christian religion. An example of Pagan opposition is found in the nineteenth chapter of Acts, where it is recorded that the preaching of the gospel so stirred the people of Ephesus that they were filled with wrath and for the space of about two hours cried out, saying, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians!" This great conflict between Christianity and Paganism will be more fully described under other symbols in a subsequent chapter, therefore I will make this description brief.

The destruction of life brought about by this rider of the red horse doubtless signifies the great slaughter of the Christians at the hands of the Pagans. During ten seasons of severe persecution, which occurred under the reigns of the emperors Nero, Domitian, Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, Septimus Severus, Maximus, Decius, Gallus, Valerian, and Diocletian, the Christians suffered every indignity that their relentless persecutors could heap upon them. They had their eyes burned out with red-hot irons; they were dragged about with ropes until life was extinct; they were beheaded, stoned to death, crucified, thrown to wild beasts, burned at the stake; yet "they overcame by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death." Chap. [12:11].