Has the Red Horseman of the Apocalypse Started to Ride?

In his commentary today, LCG’s Wyatt Ciesielka wrote:

Commentary: Has the Red Horse been released?

More human beings have been killed in war and genocide from World War I to now than ever before in the same span of time. Warfare, natural disasters, religious confusion and religious strife, economic calamity, immorality and famine all seem to be increasing. Prophecy is clearly marching forward. Has the second seal been opened? Has the Red Horse been released?

The United States appears stuck in Afghanistan and Iraq, while China, Iran and North Korea continue to threaten and provoke America. Throughout Africa, the Middle East, South America and Indonesia ethnic and civil conflict rages. Pakistan and India appear ready to escalate. The list goes on.

Jesus revealed the “signs of the times and the end of the age” and the sequence of those major end-time events in the Olivet prophecy in Matthew 24…

Before the second seal is opened and the Red Horse is released, the first seal must be opened and a militaristic false religious movement must sweep the earth. Leading this religious confusion will be a great false religious leader who will rise up at the end of the age. His blasphemous reign will coincide with the White Horse. He will demand to be worshipped as God (2 Thessalonians 2:4)! This great false prophet will be destroyed by Christ at His Second Coming (2 Thessalonians 2:8)!

The first seal occurs before the second seal. As brutal as the last 100 years of war and genocide have been, the second seal has not yet been opened and the Red Horse has not yet been released to ride in full fury across the earth.

But the Four Horsemen only introduce “the beginning of sorrows” (Matthew 24:8). Those who survive the first four seals must then face the fifth seal – the Great Tribulation followed by the Day of the Lord – an episode from which “no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened” (Matthew 24:22).

Mr. Richard Ames summarized the seals and their timing in his recent Tomorrow’s World telecast: “The first five seals of Revelation outlined in Chapter 6 cover a period of about two and one-half years of the Great Tribulation … the sixth seal is the heavenly signs … The heavenly signs introduce the one year prophetic time period known as the Day of the Lord” (“You Can Understand Prophecy”).

These events will soon shake the earth! But, a true Christian who is seeking righteousness and God’s Kingdom, and is fully surrendered to Christ’s will (Galatians 2:20) does not need to fear these events (Luke 12:31-32, Revelation 3:10).Read more

And while the second horseman has not yet started his final ride, it is remotely possible that the first one has started to make inroads (the false prophet, the final Antichrist, is alive today).

We are getting to the end of the 6,000 years that God has allowed humans to rule themselves, which will soon be followed by the 1,000 year reign of Christ. This is something that nearly all of those who professed Christ believed in the first and second centuries A.D. And many still (correctly) believe it today.

Some articles of possibly related interest may include:

Did The Early Church Teach Millenarianism? Was the millennium (sometimes called chiliasm) taught by early Christians? Who condemned it. Will Jesus literally reign for 1000 years on the earth? Is this time near?
Does God Have a 6,000 Year Plan? What Year Does the 6,000 Years End? Was a 6000 year time allowed for humans to rule followed by a literal thousand year reign of Christ on Earth taught by the early Christians? When does the six thousand years of human rule end?
Can the Great Tribulation Begin in 2010, 2011, or 2012? Can the Great Tribulation begin today? What happens before the Great Tribulation in the “beginning of sorrows”? What happens in the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord? When is the earliest that the Great Tribulation can begin? What is the Day of the Lord?
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse What is the Book of Revelation trying to tell us about them? Does the first one deceive many?
The Antichrist Quiz Do you really know much about the Antichrist?
Some Doctrines of Antichrist Are there any doctrines taught outside the Churches of God which can be considered as doctrines of antichrist? This article suggests at least three. It also provides information on 666 and the identity of “the false prophet”. Plus it shows that several Catholic writers seem to warn about an ecumenical antipope that will support heresy.