There is no doubt that the world today is tittering on the edge of an Apocalypse. One only needs to look at the Doomsday Clock that is just seconds to nuclear annihilation. Many are apathetic about our total annihilation because it is believed that no one would be foolish enough to blow up the world, but considering that governments are run by corrupt politicians it is quite possible.
Some still hide behind the Book of Revelation claiming that the predicted Apocalypse is inevitable because Christ will return to save us. Yet, every century since the death of Jesus has resulted in a no-show while we find better methods to destroy ourselves.
Even if Jesus appears on a white horse, it is not clear whether he will just be a false prophet; for Jesus warned, (Matthew 7:15) "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing." More terrifying than this is the definition of who are the ones who are saved because it appears that to be saved you are required to have on your forehead: "either the mark of the beast or the number of his name" (Rev 13:17). The first alternative: the 'mark of the beast' can be assumed to be the 'chi-rho" symbol (the P with an X), that is if we believe that this beast is one of Ezekiel's 'four living creatures'. However, the second alternative: 'the number of his name' is the dreaded "666" which is usually ascribed to Simon Magus who is considered to be the personification of all evil. This contradiction is often ignored as a trick of Satan, but all this increases the terror of the Apocalypse.
The writers of Revelation (the twins: James and John) wanted to use powerful images from the past prophets in the Old Testament to emphasize the event that was the highlight of the gathering in 48AD: the Canonization of the Four Gospels.
The four living creatures are mentioned in Revelation early on. It is from this that early Christians began to ascribe these creatures to the four Gospels using the order of Ezekiel. Matthew was associated with the winged Man, Mark to the Lion, Luke to the Ox, and John to the Eagle.
| Ezekiel 1:4-28 |
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| I looked, and I saw a windstorm coming out of the north: an immense cloud with flashing lightning and surrounded by brilliant light. The center of the fire looked like glowing metal, and in the fire was what looked like four living creatures. ... Their faces looked like this: Each of the four had the face of a human being, and on the right side each had the face of a lion, and on the left the face of an ox; each also had the face of an eagle ... As I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the ground beside each creature with its four faces. |
But the writers chose, instead, to have four horses represent the Four Gospels. It is not widely known where they came from, but they can be found in another mystical vision, this time from Zechariah:
| Ezekiel 1:4-28 |
|---|
| Zechariah 6:1-5 And again I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, four chariots came out from between two mountains; and the mountains were mountains of bronze. The first chariot had red horses, the second black horses, the third white horses, and the fourth chariot variegated and dappled gray. Then I said to the angel who talked with me, 'What are these, my lord?' And the angel answered me, 'These are going forth to the four winds of heaven, after presenting themselves before the LORD of all the earth.' |
Revelation was written in a metaphoric language that needs to be deciphered in order to reveal this history of the Christian Church of which it tells. A perfect example which we have encountered already is the definition of 'beast' which has been shown to be a mythical creature that represented the freedom of the Jewish people from the chains of the conquering empire of Babylon. In this same way the authors of Revelation present Jesus as 'the Lamb' having been sacrificed on the cross for our sins, but here to free the world with his story and teachings contained in the Four Gospels. Thus, Revelation is not a prediction of the end of the world, but a celebration of the continuation of the Christian Church as it describes the Canonization of the Gospels by Jesus and the marriage of Jesus' son, Jesus Justus born from Mary Magdalene, ending with the marriage of his grandson at the hundred year marker (written by John's son).
Revelation begins with the seven letters from Jesus in Patmos to each of the Seven Churches. If this does not convince you that Jesus is alive and present, the next description will certainly convince you:
| Revelation 5:1-5 |
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| And I saw upon the right hand of Him who is sitting upon the throne a scroll, written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals; and I saw a strong angel crying with a great voice, 'Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose the seals of it?' and no one was able in the heaven, nor upon the earth, nor under he earth to open the scroll, nor to behold it. And I was weeping much, because no one was found worthy to open and to read the scroll, nor to behold it, and one of the elders said to me, 'Weep not; lo, overcome did the Lion, who is of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, to open the scroll, and to loose the seven seals of it. |
Jesus had been in a monastery ('in the heaven') all this time having survived his Crucifixion ('under the earth' rising from his tomb). He was a monastic at heart and we were fortunate that he had come out of monastery ('upon earth') to produce a required heir with Mary Magdalene for the continuation of the David line and to have taught us his wisdom. It is he that opens the seven seals.
| Revelation 6:1-8 | |
|---|---|
And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying, as it were a voice of thunder, 'Come and behold!' and I saw, and lo, a white horse,
 (disciple of Jesus, brother of Jonathan) |
|
| verse | translation |
| and its rider had a bow | and its rider had a sickle |
| and a crown was given to him, | and the authority of the Sadducee priest was given to him, |
| and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest. | and he rode out to plant in order to reap. |
And when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, 'Come and behold!' and there went forth another horse, bright red; Peter (who wrote the Gospel of Peter) |
|
| verse | translation |
|---|---|
| Its rider was given the power to take peace from the earth |
Its rider was given the power to oppose the false peace of Pax Romana |
| and to make people sacrifice each other | and to encourage people to follow the teaching of the "suffering servant, Jesus" |
| To him was given a great sword. | As the representative of Jesus, Peter was given a great sword like the flaming sword at the Garden of Eden as at the Garden of Gethsemane. For Jesus saith," I am 'The Way', the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." (John 14:6). |
| When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, "Come!" And I saw, and behold, a black horse,  John Mark (the beloved disciple: Bartholomew) |
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| verse | translation |
|---|---|
| and its rider had a balance in his hand; | and its rider had a balance in his hand to measure the allotted tithes |
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| |
| "A choenix (quart) of wheat for a denarius | in the Five Thousand (the Gentile members) the tithe is one denarius every 6 months (5000/200=25 weekly tithes) |
| and three quarts (choenices) of barley for a denarius | in the Four Thousand (the Celibate ministers Matt15:29-39) the tithe is one denarius every year and a half (3 times longer) |
| but do not harm oil and wine! | in the Three Thousand (monastics who use oil and wine): there is no tithe." |
The church loves its tithes and Pythagoras: the humanitarian miracles to the poor are actually the setting up of its own income: | |
voice of the fourth living creature say, "Come!" And I saw, and behold, a dappled gray horse,  Simon Magus |
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| verse | translation |
|---|---|
| and its rider's name was Death | and the rider had the power of excommunication |
| and Hades followed him | Simon Magus had escaped the crucifixion along with Jesus |
| and they were given the power over a fourth of the earth | and they were given power over Rome, the fourth great power |
| "to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence" | taken from Jeremiah 14:11 (As the Lord would do to the enemy) |
| and by wild beasts of the earth. | and by the Zealots. |
| Seals 5-7 | Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Philip, Revelation) |
So that was not so scary, but you still may be wondering how Simon Magus, who in later tradition as Faust who made a deal with Satan, features so strongly.
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Rev 13:9 (the pesher) If anyone has an ear -- let him hear: Rev 13:16-18 And it (the second beast: Simon Magus as Pope with two horns like a lamb) makes all, the small, and the great, and the rich, and the poor, and the freemen, and the servants, that it may give to them a mark upon their right hand or upon their foreheads, and that no one may be able to buy (convert), or to sell (promote), except he who is having the mark ("X" enhanced to "P": Chi-Rho:  ),or the name of the beast (Christ, the Lamb), or the number of his name ("666") (all three show the person having this mark to be a follower of Christ). Here is the wisdom! He who is having the understanding, let him count the number of the beast (Christ, the Lamb), for the number of a man it is, and its number is "666". |
| Let us jump ahead and decode '666':
The number '666' is arrived at by adding the important grade letters in Hebrew |
| Total | Gematria | Hebrew | Glyph | Pictograph | Title | Reference |
| 0 | +400 | Taw | X | Badge, Seal | Michael (Zadok) |
The top position of the hierarchy: Grade 0 |
| 400 | +200 | Resh | ר | Human Head | Sariel (Jairite) |
Top position that an initiate can reach: Grade 2 |
| 600 | +60 | Samekh | ס | Thorn | Initiate | Beginning level of an initiate: Grade 7 |
| 660 | +6 | Waw | ו | Hook | "The hook!" | |
| 666 | ||||||
Next, you must be dying to ask why Christ is the "name of the beast". For this you must recognize that the beasts of Ezekiel and Zechariah are images of larger-than-life persons like angels but certainly not Satan. Christ the Lamb is the beast that shed his blood for all humankind. Then you will see that "a beast with horns like a lamb" is the second beast and thus his importance is second to Christ: this is Simon Magus. He is Christ's first Pope.
Let us back up in Revelation and see the description of Simon Magus that scares everyone until the images are deciphered.
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Rev 13:1,5,11,12 And I saw rising out of the sea a beast (Simon Magus) having seven heads (the seven churches Rev 1:11) and ten horns with ten diadems on each (Roman provinces (horns=uncircumcised thus Gentiles), and on each a name of evil speaking (foreign tongues like the Pentecost) And there was given to him a mouth speaking great things (great teachings) and evil-speakings (to foreign peoples), and there was given to him authority to make war (send out missionaries) forty-two months, (to last until the Restoration: the three and half years of Daniel's prophecy: 3.5 years*360 (12 months of 30 day months) or 42 months) And I saw another beast (Simon Magus- now the Pope) coming up out of the land, and it had two horns, like a lamb, (the proverbial "wolf in sheep's clothing" for those in the Church who opposed him) and it was speaking as a dragon (Christian Pope similar to the High Priest: dragon) with all the authority of the first beast (Jesus-the Lamb), to make the land (Church) and those dwelling in it (congregation) that they shall bow before the first beast (Jesus), whose deadly stroke was healed (survival of the Crucifixion). |
So there it is in a nutshell: the four horses are the canonized four Gospels. Jesus survived the Crucifixion and Simon Magus is his Pope. Nothing scary there.
You can chose to wait for Jesus' second coming and the end of the world, but I say, "Whose afraid of the Apocalypse." Christ is in your heart - there is not need to wait. Act with your heart: love your fellow brothers and sisters. Do not be followers of deceptive leaders. You will know those you are good and those who are bad: Matthew 7:16 "By their fruit you will recognize them."
My book: The Pesher of Christ describes the time from the birth of Jesus to the canonizing of the Gospels to he death of Simon Magus falling from the sky. My other book soon to be published if I can get a publisher: "Simon Magus: the Great "666" where I intend to show using the evidence from the Clementine Recognitions R.2.7 "Simon (Magus), the son of Antonius and Rachel" that Simon Magus is the son of Iullus Antonius, the son of Mark Antony.
Using the fact that Iullus committed suicide when he was implicated in an affair with Julia the Elder, the only daughter of Augustus, one will see that the timeframe fits the youngest son of Julia the Elder. Such a son is supposedly the son of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, the main lieutenant of Augustus who defeated Mark Antony and Cleopatra in the sea battle of Actium. This son was born after Marcus' death, he having returned very ill from the East. This son would be known as Agrippa Postumus where "posthumus" means 'born after the death of the father'. When one considers that Julia was banished to an island by Augustus for having illicit affairs, this son could quite probably be from Iullus Antonius and thus the true heir to the throne of Augustus, but to avoid Tiberius' wish to kill him he became Simon Magus, Jesus' Pope.