Revelation, the End Times, & The 4 Horses of the Apocalypse: Not What You Think

It is common thought that the book of Revelation is entirely about the end times that haven’t even started yet. But what if this is false? What if the book of Revelation, like the book of Daniel, is prophesying not just the times at the very end, but the centuries and millennia leading up until the end?

The book of Daniel prophesies the great kingdoms of the Earth, all of which have come to pass:

Head of gold: King Nebuchadnezzar of the Babylonian Empire (605-539 BC).
Chest and arms of silver: Persian Empire (539-333 BC)
Belly and thighs of bronze: Greek Empire (333-49 BC)
Legs of iron: Holy Roman Empire: 49 BC – 1453 AD
Feet of mingled iron and clay: The second Roman Empire: (1453 – 1918 AD)
10 toes (Daniel) / 10 horns (Revelation): The 10 kingdoms of the European Union (League of Nations) (1920 AD – Present)

UN/EU Member States

The United Nations and European Union began in 1920 following the end of WW1 with the creation of the League of Nations, which lasted until 1945 with the creation of the United Nations which dissolved the League of Nations following the end of WW2 which it had failed to prevent. In 1993, the European Union was created shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 and Yugoslavia in 1992, effectively ending overt Communism in Europe.

There are technically 27 member states of the EU today (originally 6), but these are largely divided states of former unified kingdoms. For example, Austria is listed as an independent member, but it is arguably part of the Germanic kingdoms. There are 10 great kingdoms of Europe, including:

British empire (Britannia)
French empire (France)
Russian empire (Russia)
Prussian empire (Germany/Austria)
Polish-Lithuanian empire (Poland/Baltic)
Holy Roman Empire (Italy)
Spanish empire (Spain)
Portuguese empire (Portugal)
Denmark-Norway empire (Norway)
Swedish empire (Sweden)

The EU Parliament building is designed to mimic the Tower of Babel.

One could also include the Grecian empire, but Greek lost their status after Alexander the Great, which was the bronze belly and thighs of Daniel. Therefore, the 10 Kingdoms of the New Roman Empire effectively include the above.

The Roman Empire never officially ended, but it gradually lost power and converted to other modes, especially after the Ottomans conquered the capital Constantinople in 1453 AD. Largely, the Roman Empire was replaced by the Papacy.

The original Holy Roman Empire technically ended when the Christian capital of the Byzantime (Roman), Constantinople was captured in 1453 by the Ottoman Turks, converting it into what is today Istanbul, capital of today’s Islamic caliphate of the former Ottoman empire.

Siege of Constantinople by the Islamic Empire, 1453 AD

The United States, Australia, Canada, and South Africa are all considered part of the British empire, having been created and founded by Great Britain. Therefore, the US is not absent from scripture, it is part of Britannia, although it has now been conquered and is slowly being erased of its British legacy.

South and Central America are part of the Portuguese and Spanish empires, although they have also been conquered and are being erased of their Spanish heritage.

The Hungarian Empire (Austro-Hungarian empire) lasted 1,000 years and included Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary, part of Poland and western Ukraine, Croatia, and Bosnia. This was dissolved at the same time as the dissolution of Russia, Poland, and all of Eastern Europe, in 1917-1918.

Therefore, as of 1918, the end of the second phase of the Roman Empire ended (the feet of iron mingled with clat, 1453 – 1918 AD), and we are in the last phase, the toes: the 10 kingdoms of the European Union.

Revelation Prophesies: the 4 Horses of the Apocalypse

Now what about Revelation? Revelation’s great tribulations begin in Revelation 6, with the 4 horses of the apocalypse.

Many people have thought that these are the end times, as they have been instructed in churches. However, this is probably not the case. In fact, all 4 horses of the Apocalypse may have already come and gone.

The Pale Horse (4th Horse of the Apocalypse)

Starting with the 4th horse and working backwards, the final 4th horse of the apocalypse, the Pale Horse, may have occurred in the period between the 1200s and the 1400s, shortly before the final fall of the Holy Roman Empire to the Ottoman empire.

During the period of 1200s to 1400s, around 1/4 of the entire world perished by great plagues, great famines, and great wars, exactly matching the Revelation account of the Pale Horse.

It began with the The Genghis Khan conquests in 1207 – 1340. In this period, the Mongolian empire covered most of Asia, and spread by brutal massacres and great genocides like the world had never known.

The Mongol genocides at the hand of Khan and his desccendants are estimated to have caused the deaths of 37-60 million people globally, with a significant impact on areas that are now part of the Middle Eastern region.

In 1346–1353, just following the Mongolian world genocides, the bubonic plague hit the world, a deadly bacterial disease (not viral, as viruses do not exist). The Bubonic plague is quickly fatal without antibiotics (today it is curable). An estaimted 75 million or more people died from the Black Death, also known as the plague. It devastated both Europe and Asia, the whole of the known world.

In Europe, 25 to 50 million people perished, which is 1/3 to half of all of Europe. In China, 1/2 of the whole continent was destroyed by plague. Additionally, China suffered famines and wars which in total reduced the population of China from 125 million to 65 million, reducing it by half, that is, around 60 million. The Middle Eastern region was also devastated by plague, resulting in a significant reduction in population.

The entire world population at the time was around 500 million, and around between 125 to 145 million people died from plague, which was approximately a quarter of the world’s population.

Now let us look at Revelation chapter 6:

“And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.” (Revelation 6:8)

During the period preceding the final collapse of the Holy Roman Empire, from 1200 to 1400 AD, one quarter of the earth was killed by the sword in wars, with hunger in famines, and with death by plague, and with the beasts of the earth – the Mongolian beasts.

This perfectly matches the Pale Horse of Revelation 6:8, the fourth horse of the apocalypse.

If then the fourth horse was released at the end of the Holy Roman Empire, then we have a timeline for the previous three horses. Matching with the book of Daniel, these horses had to have been released during the Roman Empire from 49 BC (John wrote Revelation between 68-69 AD, just before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD), and ended at the end of the period of Daniel’s “legs of iron”, in 1453 AD, after the end of the Pale Horse.

Therefore, let us look at the other 3 horses that had to have been located between 69 AD and 1200s AD – from after John wrote his book, until the 4th horse, the Pale Horse, was released on the Earth, killing a quarter of the earth.

The White Horse (1st Horse of the Apocalypse)

“And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.” (Revelation 6:2)

The first horse was a horse of conquering. During the first period, the Holy Roman Empire in its early years began going forth and conquering, starting immediately after John wrote his book.

In the first and second centuries, there were Jewish rebellions, and these were crushed by the Romans, starting with the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, to again in 113 AD being crushed, and again in 132 AD, again crushed.
Emperor Trajan began aggressively conquering and expanding the Roman Empire in the second century, and in 115-117, Mesapatomia was conquered.
Conquests were followed by Marcus Aurelius in the second century from 161 to 180 AD, including the Dacian Wars which conquered Romania.
Marcus Aurelius also conquered the Germanic tribed in 167-180 AD.
In the 270s AD, the Roman empire was divided into The Gallic Empire, The Gallic Empire was centered in the Gaulish and Germanic provinces of part of the Roman Empire, including modern-day France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and parts of Germany, led by the Roman general Postumus who declared himself Emperor.
In 324-337 AD, Constantine reunited the Roman Empire and made Christianity the dominant religion of the empire.
In 410 AD, the Visigoths sack Rome, marking a major milestone in the decline of the Western Roman Empire, and in 476 AD, the last Western Roman Emperor, Romulus Augustus, is deposed, leading to the fall of the Western Roman Empire.
In 565-568 AD, the Byzantine Emperor Justinian reconquers parts of the former Western Roman Empire, including Italy and North Africa.

The Red Horse (2nd Horse of the Apocalypse)

“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 second horse was one of bloodshed. In 610 AD, shortly after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Islamic state began when Mohommed, a child rapist and murderer, invented the religion of Islam which said to kill all infidels.

This was also a period of conquest, but also mass murder, unlike the Roman Empire which was about conquest rather than genocide. The Muslims, which became the Ottoman Empire, went about the world conquering and killing until they finally overthrew the remnants of the Roman Empire by defeating Constantinople and therefore defeating Christianity in 1453 AD.

Under Muhammad and the subsequent Rashidun Caliphate (632-661 AD), the early Muslim conquests rapidly expanded the territory under Muslim control.
During the period of 600s AD to 1200s AD, the Islamic empire continued to expand, murdering, raping, and killing, causing great genocides across the known world. No one had seen such a genocidal force in the world before this.
Due to Ottoman (Islamic) conquests and genocides, Christians were ruthlessly massacred in the most horrific ways. Not one Christian was left alive wherever they went and conquered.
“The Muslim wars of imperialist conquest have been launched for almost 1,500 years against hundreds of nations, over millions of square miles (significantly larger than the British Empire at its peak). The lust for Muslim imperialist conquest stretched from southern France to the Philippines, from Austria to Nigeria, and from central Asia to New Guinea”.
The Muslim conquest of Christian North Africa faced strong resistance from native Berber populations, halting their advance for over 25 years. After bloody battles and massacres, the Muslims continued their followed by bloody revenge massacres of the Muslim’s largely Christian opponents through North Africa into the Iberian Peninsula, until they were stopped at the Battle of Poitiers in France.

The account of the rise of Islam accounts for the bloody half millennia from 600s to 1200s before the Pale Horse began his work in the next era from the 1200s to the 1400s.

The Black Horse (3rd Horse of the Apocalypse)

“And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.”

The third horse was one of famine.

Historical records show there were a great many famines between the 800s and 1400s AD.

Between 400-800 AD, various famines in Western Europe associated with the Fall of the Western Roman Empire. During this period, the population of Rome fell by over 90% mainly due to famine and plague.
Additionally, from 1315-1317 there was the Great Famine in Europe, which alone killed 5% to 12% of Europe.

Jesus’ Prophesy of the Great Tribulation

Destruction of Jerusalem, 70 AD

So it appears that the 4 horses of the apocalypse have already happened, and we are not awaiting the 4 horses, but may be in a later portion of the Book of Revelation. So in fact, the book of Revelation did not sit on hold for 2,000 years, but started unveiling immediately, starting just a year after John wrote his book, in 70 AD with the destruction of Jerusalem as prophesied by Jesus the Christ (a verse now attributed to a fictional “rapture”):

“And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:

Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!

But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.”

(Matthew 24:14-21)

While many try to say that this is the “rapture” at the end of days that has not come yet, in reality this is almost certainly referring to the destruction of Jerusalem just decades after Jesus spoke these words, in 70 AD.

This then, was Jesus’ prophesy, and the beginning of 2,000 years of tribulations, which we are still living out today. We are currently living in the middle of the Great Tribulation, centuries after the 4th horse of the apocalypse was unleashed on the world. We are not waiting for it to start, and the 4 horses of the Apocalypse have already come and gone. We are in the midst of the Great Tribulation.