THE REVELATION OF THE SEVEN SEALS - SECOND SEAL

THE SECOND SEAL - The Red Horse Rider

REVELATION 6:3-4 “ And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. 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 SEAL revealed a RED HORSE RIDER. It was the same rider, Satan himself again, just changing horse from "White" to "Red". This was the next stage of Satan's trail. It was a fulfillment of prophesy wherein Christians will be perecuted for their faith as it is written in Matthew 24:9 which states, " "Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.”

"RED" Horse symbolized persecution and tribulation leading to the Holy Inquisition of Rome. It was the time when the Roman Church began to persecute the Christians. Millions of Christians were burnt at stake, fed to the lions, and tortured to death by the Roman Catholic Church, which even included Joan of Arc and St. Patrick.

As recorded in history, from the time of St. Augustine in 300 AD until AD 1850, 68 million Protestants have been killed by the Roman Catholic Church just because of disagreeing with their doctrine. This was the time when Satan rode the "Red Horse" to kill them all with the sword of affliction.

 
The Nicolaitane system moved on throughout this age. It ex-communicated the righteous teachers and burned the scrolls. The false church said, "It takes a special education to read and understand the Word. Why even Peter said that many things Paul wrote were hard to understand." Having taken away the Word from the people, it soon came to the people listening only to what the priest had to say, and doing what he told them. They called that God and His holy Word. They took over the minds and lives of the people and made them the servants of a despotic priesthood. Those who fought this terrible anti-Christ church were destroyed. Those who stayed with it found themselves the pawn of the church whether they be peasants or kings. Their lives were not their own, and neither were their lives Christ's, but they belonged body, soul, and spirit to the Church of Rome.

The name, Christian, which originally brought persecution, now became the name of the persecutors. It was in this age that Augustine of Hippo (354-430) set forth the precept that the church ought and MUST use force if necessary to bring her children back into the fold, and that it was in harmony with the Word of God to kill the heretics and apostates. If you want to refer to the writing of Schmucker, the Schmucker's "The Glorious Reformation," here's what it stated, that "From the time that Saint Augustine of Hippo passed this verdict to the Catholic church, it throwed the doors wide open for them to kill anything they wanted to then, that denied that pagan church. And from the time of Saint Augustine, about three hundred years after Christ until 1850, the great massacre of Ireland, there was eighty-six million Protestants killed by the Catholic church." That's recorded on the Roman martyrology.

Yet while Satan through the Roman Church was destroying the Christians during the Smyrnean, Pergamean and Thyaterian ages, his evil power was then counteracted by God's higher standard – God’s second BEAST, the CALF – which is the spirit of a "beast of burden, a beast of sacrifice". The saints during this time willingly gave their lives for the Gospel no matter what the cost. It was given to the Christians in this age that they should bear the 'OX" spirit, to bear the "burden of sacrifice" till death. Though they were persecuted, tortured, burned at stake, fed to lions, they still were so courageous and were faithful until death, giving their lives gladly for the sake of the Word of God. Surely this RED HORSE is driven by a blood-hungry devil. HEBREWS 11:36-38 talks about the saints in this age-“And others had trial of [cruel] mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword..."