Is the Novel Coronavirus 2019 the Fourth Horseman of
the Apocalypse?
I am writing this in April 2020 and from what I see
from this vantage point in history it appears that Covid-19 has both the
transmission rate and the Case Fatality Rate to potentially kill a large chunk
of mankind. If it can kill 25% of the world’s population that would make it a
contender for being the Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse – which raises the
question “is it?”
Certainly I believe that we are living in the “end
times” and thus the period of time in which one might expect the 4 horsemen of
the apocalypse to turn up.
Before discussing things further let’s look at what I
mean by the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse. The 4 horsemen of the apocalypse are
described in Revelation Chapter 6 verse 1 to Chapter 6 verse 8.
The First
Horseman of the Apocalypse is described in Rev 6:2 which in the KJV reads as
follows:
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.
The Second Horseman of the
Apocalypse is described in Rev 6:4 which in the KJV reads as follows:
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 Third Horseman of the Apocalypse is described in
Rev 6:5 to 6:6 which in the KJV reads as follows:
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.
(As I understand it, when translated to
today’s units this one is talking about needing to do a day’s labor to earn enough food for a day. In
other words there is a shortage of food making it very expensive).
The Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse is described in
Rev 6:8 which in the KJV reads as follows:
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.
(Note that in the NIV the words “and with death” are
translated as “and plague”. Is this plague the Coronavirus currently afflicting
the world and originating from a beast of the earth, that is a bat?)
I must admit that in the past I expected that the 4
horsemen would occur during the 7 year great tribulation (which culminates in Jesus
physically returning to earth to rule for a 1000 years – after which he creates
a new heaven and earth).
As I strongly believe (for reasons I won’t go into
here) that the church will be raptured before the start of the 7 year great
tribulation I did not previously expect to witness any of the horsemen myself.
In hindsight I think that I was wrong to assume that
the 4 horseman occur during the 7 year tribulation. I can remember as a
teenager my Grandfather (who was a prophet) explaining to me that the chapters
in Revelation are not necessarily linear with the events of one chapter always
happening after the completion of the events of the preceding chapter. (Just like
Genesis chapter 2 doesn’t follow on from the end of chapter 1 but expands upon
what happens during chapter 1). I now think that it is possible that the 4
horsemen could occur before the tribulation and some of the horsemen may have
already visited us.
If the current coronavirus plague is the fourth
horseman that raises the question of where or rather when were the first 3
horsemen? It is now rather obvious to me
that horseman number 2 was World War 1 and World War 2 along with the
associated communist takeovers and deaths of millions in China under Mao and in
Russia under Stalin.
So then where is horseman number 1? I think you could
make the case that horseman number 1 was when Europe (mainly Britain) took over
and ruled the rest of the world. If that doesn’t count as conquering by a crown
I don’t know what does. At one point in time North and South America and China
and India and Australia and Africa and the Middle East and most of Asia were
ruled by European monarchs (mainly Britain). So yeah I think that would count as horseman
number 1.
So then where is horseman number 3? You know what, I
can’t find it. If the world wars were horseman 2 then we haven’t seen horseman
3 yet (the great depression happened before WW2 so that can’t have been it).
So I conclude that the current Coronavirus plague is
not horseman number 4 because we have not seen horseman number 3 yet. If
Covid-19 is part of a horseman then it would have to be horseman number 3.
Could Covid-19 be horseman 3? - why yes I think it could.
If Covid-19 is a horseman then its initial damage will
be economic rather than raw death count (because it would be horseman 3 not 4),
and actually I think we are seeing that. While the Case Fatality Rate due to
Covid-19 for places like Italy is quite high, that is probably due to a lot
more Italians actually having the disease than officially counted. When all is
said and done the CFR for Covid-19 will probably only be a few percent, which
while very much higher than the common flu (0.1%) is still not something will
kill 25% of mankind (yet).
I have been watching various videos showing that for
some time now the world has been setting
itself up for a great depression in various ways with bubbles of everything
blowing up (real-estate bubbles, share market bubbles, bond bubbles etc, helped
along by governments money printing not prepared to let economic cycles reset
and debt to clear). The coronavirus (or rather the reactions of government to
it) have put millions of people out of work and that is a shot gun full of pins
to pop the various bubbles. The point is there are many secular authors who see
us entering into a great depression now (triggered by Covid-19). Now on top of the economic damage done by coronavirus to fragile food production and supply lines it is interesting that there have been reports of massive plagues of crop destroying locusts in Africa the Middle East and Asia. Here is an example of one report:
https://interestingengineering.com/plague-like-locust-swarms-sweep-saudia-arabia-east-africa-asia
As well as destroying current crops these locusts will
likely breed leading to even larger future locust plagues. The point is for
various reasons we do look like we could well be heading into food shortages
and thus the arrival of the third horseman.
Now Coronavirus could also mutate into a more deadly
version and then become horseman number 4 as well. In fact there is evidence that the
second time around coronavirus is more deadly with the body’s immune system
over reacting and killing itself in a cytokine storm (this also makes vaccines
impossible which was why a successful vaccine was never developed for the
closely related SARS virus). Just as with the Spanish flu the second
wave was the most deadly, future waves of the coronavirus may be more deadly.
I conclude that the current coronavirus may well be
part of the third horseman of the Apocalypse and is probably laying the ground
work for the fourth horseman of the Apocalypse as well. Time will tell. I don’t
have any current foreknowledge of what will happen, I am just comparing bible
prophecy to what I see and seeing a possible interesting match coming up.
I pray to God that this is not what I suspect and that
this is not the third or fourth horseman of the Apocalypse.
Maybe if enough Christians pray (we are the salt of the earth) judgement can be
averted for now?