If you live in a country or culture that historically has always been influenced by Christianity, then you've probably heard it said by a Bible prophecy teacher, or seen it written in a commentary somewhere, or seen in a Christian movie about "the last days" that the first horseman written about in the first seal in the book of Revelation is "the Antichrist", but put this aside for a while, because this imagery is symbolic, a metaphor for something other than the things seen in the visions John was seeing (John was in the Spirit when he received the Apocalypse, which means, "unveiling", or Revelation).
Whatever type of crown the New Testament always associates with the word stéphanos (crown) is the type of crown the New Testament is teaching us to associate with the rider of the white horse in the first seal in Revelation chapter 6.
The same goes for the color white: Whatever the Revelation associates with the color white in each and every other verse where the color white appears, is what the Revelation is teaching us to associate with the rider of the white horse.
Revelation 4:4: White clothing and stéphanos (crowns):
"In a circle around the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on those thrones were twenty-four elders.
They were dressed in white clothing and had golden crowns (stéphanos) on their heads."
In the Revelation everything that's associated with the color white is pure:
- Jesus' head and hair appear white like wool (Rev 1:14).
- A white stone with a saint's name written on it (Rev 2:17).
- The white raiment of the saints (Rev.3:5 & 18; 6:11; 7:9, 13 & 14).
- The white clothing of the 24 elders (Rev 4:4).
- The white clothing of angels (Rev 15:6).
- The white raiment of the bride of Christ (Rev 19:8).
- The Great White Throne (Rev 20:11).
- Christ seated on a white cloud (Rev 14:14).
- Christ returns on a white horse, leading His armies (Rev 19:11 & 14).
- Christ's armies are riding white horses (Rev 19:14).
- The first horseman of the first seal in the Apocalypse is riding a white horse (Revelation 6:2). He is given a stéphanos (crown).
Christ's armies are following Him on white horses in Revelation 19:14 (for thousands of years horses were used in battle).
The first horseman written about in the first seal has a bow, but no arrows are mentioned, yet he went forth conquering and to conquer.
"Then he answered and spoke to me, saying, This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the LORD of hosts." (Zechariah 4:6) .
Onward, Christian soldiers,
Marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus
Going on before!
Christ, the royal Master,
Leads against the foe;
Forward into battle,
See His banner go!
(19th century hymn).
"And I will give power to My two witnesses, and they will prophesy a thousand, two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.
These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the God of the earth.
And if anyone will hurt them, fire proceeds out of their mouth and devours their enemies. And if anyone will hurt them, so it is right for him to be killed.
These have authority to shut up the heaven, that it may not rain in the days of their prophecy. And they have authority over waters to turn them to blood, and to strike the earth with every plague, as often as they desire." (Rev.11:3-6).
The horseman seated on the white horse in Revelation 6:2 was given a stéphanos (crown) and he had a bow, and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.
The first horse of the first seal does not suggest or imply an Antichrist, but the second one does:
THE SECOND SEAL: A RED HORSE AND NO CROWN
In contrast to the first one, the second horseman is riding a red (Greek: pyrrhós) horse, which is the exact same color of the dragon in Revelation 12:3, and these two verses (Revelation 6:4 - the red horse of the second seal - and Revelation 12:3 - the red dragon) are the only two verses in the entire New Testament where the word pyrrhós is used.
The rider on the red horse is given a great sword and "power was given to him sitting on it, to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another" (Revelation 6:4) *
* Revelation 13:2 tells us that the red dragon of Revelation 12:3 will give the beast his seat, his power, and great authority.
- The rider of the red horse is not given a crown. He is given a "sword" (again, it's a metaphorical sword) and he uses it to take peace from the earth and to cause people to kill one another.
"And when they complete their testimony, the beast coming up out of the abyss will make war against [My two witnesses] and will overcome them and kill them.
And their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.
And many of the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations will see their dead bodies three days and a half, and they will not allow their dead bodies to be put in tombs.
And the ones who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them, and will make merry, and will send one another gifts, because these two prophets tormented those living on the earth.
And after three days and a half, a spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood on their feet. And great fear fell on those seeing them.
And they heard a great voice from Heaven saying to them, Come up here. And they went up to Heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them.
And in that hour a great earthquake occurred, and the tenth part of the city fell. And seven thousand names of men were slain in the earthquake. And the rest were frightened and gave glory to the God of Heaven." (Rev.11:7-13).
"Then the sons of Moses and Israel sang this song to the LORD, and spoke, saying, I will sing to the LORD, for He has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider He has thrown into the sea." (Exodus 15:1).
Serious protest regarding this interpretation has been expressed on the part of some of those Christians who are adamant, or who remain convinced that the first seal of the Apocalypse (the white horse) "is the Antichrist", and have developed a superstition-driven faith around that belief.
Ask yourself, Did Jesus open the seals, or did they? Did God inspire the color white and the stéphanos crown to be used in the imagery of the first seal of the Apocalypse,
or did they?
Was Jesus using the color white and the stéphanos crown in the imagery of the horse and its horseman in the first seal of the Apocalypse so as to "confuse the ignorant and less wise" and "veil the "real meaning and identities of the white horse and its horseman"?
Would God even have done such a thing as to "confuse the ignorant and less wise" and "veil" the "real meaning and identities of the white horse and its horseman" by using the color white for the horse of the first seal, and the stéphanos as the crown its rider was given?
Or was Jesus merely unveiling the judgments that God had (already) decreed, and there is no "trick" to the correct interpretation of the color white and the stéphanos crown in Revelation 6:2 ?
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