Before further examining the evidence for the White Horse as
a counterfeit to God’s true religion it is worthwhile to spend some time
examining the nature of Satan and the role played by him and his demons in the
ride of all the Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
First and foremost we must remember that Satan is an angel and not just
any angel but originally he was created as one of the highest order of angels,
the archangel Lucifer. As the highest of
God’s heavenly host Lucifer held a privileged position and actually stood at
the throne of God. The Bible tells us
that Lucifer fell because of his pride, he felt that he was equal to, if not
greater than, God.
There also exists a large body of circumstantial evidence to
suggest that Lucifer’s fall was triggered by God’s creation of man. Man was ultimately created to be far greater
than all the angels, Lucifer included, and would become actual adopted children
of God. Mankind would be true members of
God’s family while the angels would remain created servants of the Most
High. Jewish literature, along with
other sources, have proposed that Lucifer refused to accept the role that man
would eventually play and refused to accept that man could become higher than
he was as he had been created prior to man.
This theory, and bear in mind that it is only an unproven theory, may go
a long way to explaining the unusual nature and the complexity of the
relationship between Satan and humanity.
As our sole source of absolute truth the Bible tells us only that
Lucifer fell, due to pride, and that he took with him one third of all the
heavenly angels. After the fall he
became Satan and his fallen angels were demons.
Irrespective of the exact reasons for the fall, once Lucifer
had become Satan he still retained all the knowledge, understanding and powers
he had possessed as the highest of all of God’s angels. Therefore we must remember that Satan has an
understanding of the manner in which God chooses to work , he knows the
Scripture, he knows God’s laws and he has an understanding of the overall plan
of God. Furthermore Satan’s rebellion
did not immediately preclude his presence at the very throne of God, as we see
clearly in the opening chapter of the Old Testament book of Job. Satan is powerful, intelligent,
knowledgeable, and like the serpent he is sometimes portrayed as, he is also
wise and crafty. Satan fully understands
the inbuilt punishing nature of breaking the laws of God.
As we have seen with three of the Four Horsemen of the
Apocalypse they do not represent a judgement from God onto innocent humanity,
rather they are the natural, inbuilt result of man breaking the laws of
God. Once humanity fell we automatically
began to suffer from war, murder, greed, famine, exploitation, selfishness, and
death. The Bible tells us clearly that
the wages of sin is death – ultimately each and every one of us must die to pay
the price for the sins we have committed, and we are all guilty of sin. As Satan is fully aware of this his role in
the temptation of mankind can easily remain a shadowy thing of subtle
influences and presenting opposing values.
For example Satan does not need to create selfishness, our own carnal
nature once separated from God is naturally selfish, and therefore all Satan
needs to do is subtly influence our thinking and behaviour to make selfishness
acceptable to us instead of abhorrent.
The same is true for the White Horse. There is a spirit within man that longs for a
connection with the divine, a relationship with God. On a subconscious level we are aware that we
are His creation, that God is real and that there is the promise of a better
life after this physical existence. All
of these things are virtually hardwired into human beings and so, once cut off
from the true God it is only natural that we would seek out a substitute. It is here that Satan comes into play,
knowing the spirit in man longs for God, Satan creates a more acceptable god
that will allow and even encourage our carnal nature. As Satan is an extremely powerful
supernatural being it is easy for him to generate a false god, gods made in the
image of man instead of man made in the image of God, and a counterfeit
religion, which functions to draw mankind further and further away from the
true God and our real purpose.
Prior to the earthly ministry of Jesus creating a false
religion was relatively easy for Satan.
This is the religion we now call paganism, a polytheistic system with
many gods who were feared, placated, honoured but there existed no close
personal, loving relationship with these false, pagan gods as we are intended
to have a close, loving, personal relationship with the true God. Polytheistic paganism served Satan well to
keep man from having their birthright, as sons and daughters of God.
Yet even during the
height of paganism there were a few, maybe not many, but a few who did know and
love the true God. The Bible tells us the
stories of Enoch, who walked with God, of Noah who was found worthy to escape
the destructive flood and many others.
Satan’s counterfeit religion has always experienced a high degree of
success but God has also always called out those who are His own.
However, it must also be remembered that being one of God’s
chosen, and I am speaking of individuals here not entire races, does not and
never has precluded those beings from sin.
King David was an adulterer, a murderer, at times sneaky, conniving and
even selfish – yet God called David ‘a man after His own heart’. Why such a contradiction? Because God looks not at who we are today but
the quality of our hearts and who He knows we can become. Of all the wonderful promises that are
contained within the Bible this is possibly the greatest and most comforting.
In peace,
Tracey
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