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The Red Horse
Peace Has Been Removed From On Earth
Father Matta El-Meskeen (Matthew the Poor)
THIS IS THE TRUE STORY that an extremely wealthy Pakistani lady saw in a revealing vision. She was divorced and Christ became her comfort. She was a beginner with her Christian faith and had not yet read the Old Testament.
This pious lady was gifted and got to know Christ at the hands of a certain person. One night she saw a vision which text was mentioned in the book of Revelation. She saw an angel riding a red horse with a brandished sword in his hand, descending from heaven shouting in a great voice while descending to earth with his toes touching the earth rising and descending: “Another horse, fiery red, went out. And it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another; and, there was given to him a great sword.”1
When I read this vision in the biography of the Pakistani lady ‘Balkis’ I was astonished because she had only seen that horse without mentioning any other horses, as if it were a choice that pointed to the times we are in, which is true. For it has not happened since the beginning of creation that nations and countries should rise against each other with peoples killing each other except in the age in which we are now. I thus got to know that we are in the end of times, because this red horse is mentioned in the book of Revelation at the end of times, and is immediately followed by the coming of the black horse in whose time the world is destroyed and a great famine will reign.
I told myself: this is a rare perception which every reader must share with me, because we are in an age in which we daily read about wars and its news, about terrorism and killings in even the greatest nations, the flame of war and killing having moved to the rest of the nations. The clearest image of the world now, is that it is passing through the ordeal of last days when there is no hope of reconciliation or peace, instead there is fear and terror, man not knowing his destiny whether he will be safe from such terror or whether he will be snatched from his home. Because nature will also have started to fight man with earthquakes, epidemics, volcanoes, and the storming of the seas, all having started together to show their fangs as if they were an enemy lying in wait. But I believe it is a revert to man’s image destroying his brother man. As peace has been removed from man’s heart then nature has ceased to offer its peace to mankind. Since the beginning God created nature in the service of man as long as he is in peace with God. But man turned his back to God and violated His power, as a consequence God removes the peace that links man to nature and the laws of nature cease to be subject to man seeming as if in dispute against man. Earthquakes, volcanoes and floods are but an open mutiny against man’s power so that they no more are subject to his safety. One look at the floods in the world these days and we are ascertained that the oceans, and rivers have disobeyed God’s commandment and departed from the boundaries God set to them which they must not exceed.
We also hear of animals that used to obey man’s commandment being their master, that have started to disobey him by attacking him and eating him up. Man has consequently lost his prominence and has come to fear for himself and for his children from their ravage. Creation no more suffers in itself to wait for the redemption of our bodies2, but looks towards destroying and eating them, and man in spite of his authority consequently trembles at being killed by them. Creation is thus overturned against man, so that after having been the master it has taken the overhand and he has had to take it into great consideration.
The scientist’s main worry has become finding a means to control the volcanoes, earthquakes and floods that have become a threat to man’s peace, but to no avail. Thus God neglected to create a fence to protect man’s peace from creation’s authority rivaling man who is facing it uncovered, with a feeling of his smallness in relation to the threat he faces during violent earthquakes, volcanoes and floods. The earthquake that attacked Southern Asia swallowed up more than two hundred (200) thousand people in a few hours, while the whole world stood listening and watching with folded arms.
It is as if I am of the same concern as the Lord’s call to Adam when he disobeyed God’s commandment: “Where are you?”3 God is now calling man in the same situation following the destruction he suffered from the earthquakes and floods: “Man, where are you?”
1 Rev 6: 4
2 Rom 8: 19-23
3 Gen 3: 9
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