March 27, 2022

Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them. Revelation 9:16

That last phrase takes us immediately back to the sealing of God’s people when John heard the number of those who were sealed. One hundred and forty-four thousand… (7:4)

This repetition is a heads-up that the demonic forces are a counterfeit of the sealed people of God. Both groups, Satan’s hosts and God’s sealed people, are moving toward the final battle in earth’s history: the culmination of the controversy between Christ and Satan. The military metaphor army actually points to spiritual warfare. This is a battle for the hearts and minds of humanity—all of humanity—whom God loves. Any individual who maintains a hold on deceptions is unwittingly volunteering in the “army” of him who desires to take the place of Christ. The ultimate, insatiable desire of this unholy one is to receive worship; he will take it any way he can get it. His foremost strategy is misrepresenting the character of our merciful and loving God to His people. This is why Jesus warned: “Take heed that no one deceives you.” (Matthew 24:4)

And thus I saw the horses in the vision: those that sat on them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow; and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone. By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed—by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths. For their power is in their mouth and in their tails: for their tails are like serpents, having heads; and with them they do harm. vv.17-19

The colors, fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow on the riders’ breastplates correspond directly with the fire, smoke, and brimstone coming out of the horses’ mouths. The horse heads “like lions” reference Babylon—a synonym for confusion. Three times in the above passage mouths are mentioned. The messages that issue forth from their mouths use (co-opt) Biblical terminology* for the purpose of misleading. And the tails symbolize that deception is the power of their propaganda. The message being propagated is causing people to be lost, and thus to die spiritually. The extension of the metaphorical use of “tails” to “serpents” is very telling indeed. Once a deceptive notion is planted by the message “out of their mouths,” the effect leaves the hearer in a weakened state of discernment so that subsequent false messages will be more easily accepted and believed. This army indeed does a great deal of harm. This concept is reiterated in Revelation 16:13. Out of the mouths of the unholy trinity come the complete package of deceptive doctrines.

One of the deceptions that rushes to the forefront in the last days is that the antichrist is yet future as a violent political opposer. After all, antichrist means against Christ. But the word antichrist also means in the place of Christ. In reality, the opposer of Christ is a subtle religious impostor who has been around for a long time! This is the one who exalts himself above God and desires to occupy the throne of your heart.

This is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world. 1 John 4:3

*In the Old Testament the three elements of fire, smoke, and brimstone were a means of executing divine judgement (Genesis 19:24,28, Psalm 11:6, Ezekiel 38:22) and we understand will also be used for destruction of the wicked at the final judgement (Revelation 14:10-11, 20:10, 21:8).