Teams of Horses
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1. Introduction – Our Place in Prophecy 2. The Two Mountains 3. The Red Horses 4. The Black Horses 5. The White Horses 6. The Grizzled and Bay Horses 7. Conclusion - Unequally Yoked |
Introduction – Our Place in Prophecy
We thank you for this sacred time of fellowship and communion, with you and with one another. We are ever thankful for the further insights you give us into your Word and it's application to our present situation and our parts therein.
We ask the blessing of your Spirit on all in attendance. In the name of Yahshua we pray, amen.
First, let me provide you with the passage in question, and then I would like to emphasize
something about it that can serve us well when we are discussing the CSDA Church with members
of other faiths. We read: “And I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and, behold, there
came four chariots out from between two mountains; and the mountains were mountains of brass.
In the first chariot were red horses; and in the second chariot black horses; And in the third chariot
white horses; and in the fourth chariot grisled and bay horses.
“Then I answered and said unto the angel that talked with me, ‘What are these, my lord?’
“And the angel answered and said unto me, ‘These are the four spirits of the heavens, which go
forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth. The black horses which are therein go forth
into the north country; and the white go forth after them; and the grisled go forth toward the south
country.’ And the bay went forth, and sought to go that they might walk to and fro through the
earth; and he said, ‘Get you hence, walk to and fro through the earth.’ So they walked to and fro
through the earth. Then cried he upon me, and spake unto me, saying, ‘Behold, these that go toward
the north country have quieted my spirit in the north country.’” (Zech 6:1-8)
Now, before we get into the specific symbols of this prophecy, I am going to share with you that
this is a time-indicating vision. That means that it tells us where we are in the prophetic timeline.
Furthermore, it is complementary to the Matthew 20 vision that we have often used to indicate the
final “coming out” from the mainstream SDA Church, and the existence of a final movement of
saints.
To briefly refresh us on that, we find in the parable of the workers from Matthew 20 that Christ
speaks of five dispensations of workers that go into the vineyard to labor at different times in the
day, and at the end, regardless of how long they have labored, they all receive the same reward,
with the last being first and the first being last to obtain payment. There are early morning workers,
third hour workers, sixth hour workers, ninth hour workers and eleventh hour workers. We begin
with the early morning workers, and lest some, particularly Adventists, begin to think that we are
mistaken in our application of this parable through ignorance of not knowing where to begin the
count, Ellen White actually tells us directly. After all, some people might say, “The early morning
workers might be the holy ones in the days of Noah, or Abraham. How do you know this all
involves the New Testament times?”
Well, as I mentioned, Mrs. White specifically states that the early morning workers represent the
Jewish Church, so in terms of convincing Adventists that we’ve started at the right point, we
shouldn’t have too much of a problem. But what about other kinds of Christians? Well, first of all
they probably won’t care as much about the conclusion we draw: that the mainstream SDA Church
was prophesied in symbol to experience a calling-out. But we can show the diligent Bible student
that we have justification for our reading of this passage outside of Mrs. White’s body of work.
We read, for example, as the parable begins: “For the Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a man that is
an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard.” (Mat
20:1) Most people are probably aware on some level that the phrase “Kingdom of Heaven” only
appears in the New Testament. What they are probably NOT aware of is that when Christ speaks
of this concept, He invariably means only and specifically the Kingdom that He establishes by His
death and resurrection.
Of course, the Old Covenant saints will BE in the Kingdom, we have no doubt or question about
that. But if you look at the first passage in which the phrase appears, it is here: “In those days came
John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, and saying, ‘Repent ye: for the kingdom of
heaven is at hand.’” (Mat 3:1, 2) Now, that statement “at hand” means something very specific. It
is a single word in the Greek, eggizo, and it means, specifically, “Approaching” or “Coming near.”
The Kingdom, as taught to New Testament saints, and as intended without variation by Christ in His
Parables, refers not to the “Third Heaven” where Yahweh and the Angels have their presence, or
where Enoch, Elijah and those translated or resurrected abide. It refers to the spiritual Kingdom
over which Christ, as the High Priest and then as the Conquering King, presides. This should be
obvious because, until Yahshua became a man, He was never referred to as a King (except maybe
in visions of the future)... and you can’t really have a Kingdom without a King.
When the Kingdom of Heaven appears (and this could be a whole study in itself) those who are in
Heaven, and those who are resurrected, will be made citizens of that Kingdom. Until then, we enter
the Kingdom spiritually, and await its manifestation. You can also confirm this by looking at
Daniel 2: “And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be
partly strong, and partly broken. And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall
mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is
not mixed with clay. And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a Kingdom,
which shall never be destroyed; and the Kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break
in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.” (Dan 2:42-44)
So, when is the Everlasting Kingdom to be set up? It is in the days of the earth’s last kings. It is
established in the teachings of Christ, so technically, we could say that the Kingdom has existed in
the spirit for the past two thousand years… but it would not really be Biblical to speak of the
Kingdom of Heaven before that point, therefore I think an honest Bible student would have to
admit that when Christ speaks of the Kingdom of Heaven in Matthew 20, He is referring primarily
to the Gospel workers, who are to gather the Harvest, and NOT to the earlier worshippers of
Yahweh whose job was not to gather the harvest, but rather to plant the seeds in other kingdoms
and maintain a knowledge and presence of the Most High in the world. So then, not only by
description, but also by purpose, we find a difference between the Kingdom of Heaven in the New
Covenant, and the Tribes of Israel in the old.
I am taking a bit of effort to establish this, because we have met people who have looked at our
studies on Matthew 20 and said, “You aren’t interpreting it right.” They can’t really ever tell us
where we are making a mistake, of course, but they are SURE we aren’t reading it right… because
if we were, they would have to admit that the mainstream Seventh-day Adventist Church is NOT
the final movement of workers anticipated in the Bible.
But we need only trace down the lines of history; in the beginning, the “early morning” when the
vineyard was new, (and as I said, the Kingdom existed in the spirit for 2000 years) the Jewish
Church was the only valid set of “workers” for Yahweh. But another group of workers was called
at the third hour. Now, we should clarify something here… the parable has ALL groups of workers
receiving a reward at the end, so some may object to our reading and say, “If you are claiming that
the new set of workers replaces the old set, this does not match the conclusion of the parable, for
all receive a reward.”
But what is the error of that objection?
Clearly, when a Church falls, those who have faithfully labored for Yahweh (while it was a true
and legitimate Bride) do not lose their reward. That would be like saying that James and Ellen
White will be denied entrance into Heaven because of the apostasy of Neal C. Wilson, his
supporters and his successors.
So then, those who replaced the Early Morning workers at the third hour can be nothing but the
Apostolic Movement. Those who replaced them can only be the various Reform Churches. In
each case, there’s really no alternative interpretation that fits any of the specifics. What replaced
the Reform Churches, which were, and are, almost universally ignorant of Yahweh’s divine Law?
It can only be the Seventh-day Adventist movement. But if we count down, as we show people,
that only takes us to the ninth hour. There’s another “Exodus” to go, and I outlined the differences
in my recent article “A Modern Exodus” between the eleventh hour workers, and what the ninth
hour workers have become.
So then, I think we can be fairly confident, even without the assistance of Mrs. White’s writings,
that we are reading Matthew 20 perfectly correctly, although her “starting point” should really put it
beyond any reasonable controversy for anyone who respects her inspiration.
Now as I said, Zechariah 6, properly read, is a confirmation, a second witness, to our understanding
of Matthew 20. It points out that the CSDA Movement – and no other, no independent movement
or offshoot church – fulfills the last group of faithful workers before the end of human history.
Are there any questions before we begin to look at the specific symbols that clearly point this out?
To answer that, we have to look at what it is the mountains represent. First of all, we read from
Daniel 2 that the Kingdom that Christ will reign over is considered a “Mountain.” We can also see
that the mountains that Zechariah sees are “brass,” which is a very specific metal in the Scriptures.
Because the altar of sacrifice in the Tabernacle was made of brass while the other permanent
fixtures were made of gold, a number of commentators have suggested that brass (or, more
properly, bronze) represents the concept of “judgment.” There seems to be some support for this in
a number of symbolic visions, such as when Christ appears in His glorified form to John in
Revelation with feet of brass, (Rev 1:15, 2:18) those same feet that use the earth as a footstool, and
that tread out the grapes in the winepress of wrath. That symbol appears in a number of places,
often quite dramatically, such as Jer 25:30, Isa 63:3, Lam 1:15, Rev 14:19 and 20.
Using these symbols, and what I believe are the only consistent interpretation of them allowed by
the Scriptures, I do not think most people would object when we consider the mountains of brass to
be “Kingdoms of Judgment.” But here is where it gets interesting, and for a couple of reasons.
First, there aren’t two Kingdoms, only one. And second, Zechariah’s vision, highly symbolic,
shows all the teams of horses at the same time. Now, all these horses are tasked with the same job:
to walk to and fro throughout the earth.
Some religious groups have come to the very unusual conclusion that there can only be one prophet
upon the earth at the same time giving the same message. This is clearly false. There were Elijah
and Elisha, there was Haggai and Zechariah, there was Moses and Miriam (who was specifically
called a prophetess in Exo 15:20). Philip had four daughters that prophesied (I assume each did not
die before her younger sister was born), and the prophets of the New Testament are instructed to
speak one at a time. So clearly, this teaching is wrong. It does, however, have at its core a right
principle, which is perverted in a particularly bizarre way. Yahweh does not, and has never had,
two separate and distinct groups of workers on the earth at the same time acting independently. He
may have more than one individual prophet, yes, and in fact He often does, but in terms of the
leading of groups, no. There is always only one Bride of Christ at a time, or else He would be a
spiritual polygamist, and that doesn’t make any sense considering His own teaching about one man
and one wife.
Based on that principle, I believe we can draw the conclusion that the teams of horses Zechariah
saw represent not a vast spread of space, but instead a span of time. The Two Mountains, like the
two showers of Rain, represent the beginning and the ending of something; and just like the
Kingdom of Heaven that they represent, they are established twice, first in the spirit, and then in the
fullness of its visible presence. Have I lost anyone yet?
Ok, if I have: the Kingdom of Heaven existed by that name from the beginning of the preaching of
the Gospel. Christ actually said to His followers, “The kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke
17:21) It has existed there, within Heaven’s human ambassadors, for twenty centuries. But there
will come a day, and very soon, when the entire world will be able to see this “Mountain” as it
comes in judgment. And between the establishments, we have these “horses” which, as I will show
individually, match the different kinds of workers that have existed on the earth to do the will of
the Almighty. However, while the workers in Matthew 20 show the harvesting, the “good work”
that has been done by each group, the Zechariah 6 parable shows, instead, what went wrong
necessitating the calling of the other team.
We find them in Revelation. And they are doing the same thing, going forth from Yahweh. This,
to me, is one of the strongest evidences that Zechariah’s vision is about a stretch of time, because
the only two visions that use this symbolism appear to match so perfectly, and we must allow
Scripture to interpret Scripture.
So let’s read the relevant verses from Revelation, specifically, the breaking of the Seven Seals of
religious history: “And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the
noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, ‘Come and see.’ 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.
“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.
“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.
And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, ‘Come and see.’
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.” (Rev 6:1-8)
By the way, this is another strong indication that the “workers” in Christ’s parable refer only to
groups that existed in New Testament times – we consistently have the prophecy and symbolism of
New Testament teachings referring to history beginning with the work of Yahshua – here we find
the first horse appearing when the Lamb breaks the seal, and this is after it has offered itself as a
sacrifice.
But now, the “horse” analogy in this last book ends before the Reformation, while Zechariah’s
vision extends all the way to the Brass Mountain, which is the Kingdom and its Judgment. Because
of this, you should not expect to see a one-to-one correspondence between the horses.
Nevertheless, from Revelation we do see that the horses represent groups of Gospel workers, which
– as in other places – are described as or similar to “spirits of the heavens,” (Zech 6:5) and we can
see something about the meaning of the colors. For example, Red indicates war.
While the first horse in Revelation was white, we have a red horse here, and why? Well, because in
this set of symbols the Mountain of Brass is included, as the beginning of the Kingdom on the
earth, and this started with the work of Christ and His apostles. Another horse to indicate that
would be redundant. Additionally, what the vision of Zechariah appears to be indicating is the
failing of each of these groups, and not their characteristics while they are being faithful.
The first group of workers, the Apostolic group, was faithful for a time, but just as the white horse
in Revelation was followed by a red one, indicating war, persecution and bloodshed, so we have a
red horse here between the mountains of brass. Interestingly enough, and this helps us to
strengthen our understanding of this parable, the apostles themselves, and they who followed them
directly, did not actually go into apostasy like the later groups did. They were generally martyred.
So watch for this… while the other horses go off in different directions, like north or south, the Red
horse simply goes forth… it ceases to work, but not because it runs off in a direction indicating
apostasy, as we will see below.
Did everyone understand that part?
Now you might ask, why a black horse to signify the “end” of the Reformers’ usefulness? Well,
first of all it didn’t end in martyrdom, so a red horse wouldn’t work for them. There was no
bloodshed to end the work of the Reformation, but another kind of “death” entirely. We also note
that the Black horse, instead of going through the earth as it was supposed to goes into “the north
country.” Now if Zechariah has his vision in Israel, and he sees the horse going northward, where
is the horse going? This is a bit of a geography lesson.
Babylon. The Reformers started out well, but look at the state of Protestant Churches now.
Revelation speaks of the Age of Sardis (which we have identified in other studies as representing
the Reformation) thus: “I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.”
(Rev 3:1b) So here again we have a correspondence between Revelation’s order and Zechariah’s
vision. The Reformation Churches are all “Churches of Christ.” Some even take that phrase on as
their official name… but while they all name the name of Jesus, if you look at their doctrines, you
see an entirely different story. Theologians such as Alexander Hyslop, in his very interesting book
The Two Babylons, shows in great detail how the doctrines practices of the Roman Catholic Church
may, to a very large extent, be derived from the Babylonian mystery religions. And the Protestant
movement, which was supposed to go forth into all the earth where the Apostolic movement ended,
have generally followed in these traditions with few notable exceptions.
The state of the dead, eternally burning hell, the sin-repent cycle, even Sunday sacredness, these
can all be shown as derivative of Babylonian teachings, so we can legitimately say that the horses,
or the workers, who were to go forth into the earth with the Gospel have gone “into the north
country.”
And yet, we find that the SDA movement followed the Black Horse into Babylon, for it also went
into the north country. Very little is said about the actions of the White Horse in Zechariah,
perhaps as an ironic commentary on how much mainstream Adventism has to say about itself in
terms of its size, political and financial power, and numbers-winning crusades that take place all
over the world. But of the people it entices with half-truths and mostly-truths, they are in many
ways worse off than if they had never heard the message. After the death of Christ, the Jews did
not stop their work of making converts, but those whom they brought in were made “twofold more
the child[ren] of hell” than their evangelists. This is not because they were bad people in a moral
sense, but because they were learning the doctrines of hell clothed in robes of righteousness, and it
would be very difficult for them to escape from this convincing deception.
When the SDA Church accepted the Trinity doctrine in the early-to-middle 1900s, it had planted its
feet firmly on the path to Babylon. And as I mentioned to someone in a recent email, when we
speak carefully and technically about this subject, we would say that the SDA Church has become
“A sister to fallen Babylon,” or has become “Babylonian” in its practices. It has not become
“Babylon” proper, because the Roman Catholic Church still exists, is still Mystery Babylon and the
“Mother” of Harlots; that has not changed, and the SDA Church has not replaced it as the mother of
the fallen Protestant Churches. Even so, as the Scriptures demonstrate with the parable of Aholah
and Aholibah, (Ezek 23) a story of a younger sister following her older one into idolatry and
prostitution, the younger sister will receive the same cup of judgment. Thus, when the fourth angel
of Revelation says, “Babylon is fallen” and the message sounds to “Come out of her” in order to
flee the judgments, this applies just as clearly to EVERY fallen religion that is about to be judged
for its infidelity. So then, if we describe the General Conference’s organization as “Babylon,” we
have to be prepared to explain exactly what we mean by that in order to be fully correct in our
doctrine.
There are other considerations as well, such as the invasion of Jerusalem by Babylon during the
time of Jeremiah. Because of this occupation of the city, when the Hebrews thought to escape
“Babylon,” they were actually leaving Jerusalem. And of course, we also show inspired writings
indicating that the General Conference organization is no longer even a legitimate “Church” since
its union with the world’s civil governments, so the name “Babylon” does properly apply in a
practical sense, but we cover the details of that in other studies.
The black and white horses, as we read, go into the north country which, from Israel, is Babylon.
And the result of this may be read in verse 8: “Behold, these that go toward the north country have
quieted my spirit in the north country.” (Zech 6:8) Now, before you begin to wonder what this
could mean, because a “quiet spirit” is generally a blessing, understand that to quiet the spirit of
Yahweh is not at all a good thing; the word there for “quiet,” doesn’t just mean to bring to rest; it
means to leave or abandon. When the Spirit that works, even with Babylon, to bring about
reformation and blessings is silenced, Babylon falls, and never recovers.
Any questions on this?
What we actually have here is one team, consisting of two different kinds of horses. And the
difference between them goes far beyond mere color, for we read of this last chariot: “The grisled
go forth toward the south country. And the bay went forth, and sought to go that they might walk
to and fro through the earth.” (Zech 6:6b, 7a) The actual instructions given to the horses by
Heaven is found in the rest of verse 7: “and He [either Yahweh Himself or the narrating angel] said,
‘Get you hence, walk to and fro through the earth,’” so we see that while the grisled (which means
“marked”) horses go off to the South, the bay (which is actually the word for “strong”) do the will
of their Commander. And here again we have confirmation that we are speaking about a stretch of
time, for the last group of horses are divided into two groups (as it will be with all humanity) –
those who are “marked” and those who are “strong.”
When the mainstream Adventist Church went into apostasy, and began to imbibe pagan errors,
something interesting happened. Instead of a single, strong movement stepping forward to take its
place, instead we had a number of weak, fragmented attempts. The Reform Movement (as it is
called) tried, but they came out for the wrong reasons, and ultimately did little beyond adding a
dash of legalism to the doctrines on diet, divorce, and a few others. The Davidians tried, but they
were pointing in the wrong direction from the very beginning, and to this day do not see the need to
truly “come out and be separate;” an error that is actually pointed out by this very parable we are
studying today.
A number of independent ministries and charismatic individuals have been trying, competing with
the General Conference, but the ones with whom we have spoken do not seem to have much of a
heart for true unity, and without this (according to Christ Himself in John 17) there can be
absolutely no chance of success.
And so, today, we have the Gospel Chariot being drawn by two kinds of horses: the marked
(consisting of the GC organization and various others) and the strong. But the marked, it seems,
take off in a different direction than the horses before it, heading south and not north. So, what is
to the south of Israel?
Egypt. Egypt is not the land of apostasy – per se – but rather the land of enslavement, military and
civil power, and idolatry. The leaders Israelites were specifically told, “But he shall not multiply
horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses:
forasmuch as Yahweh hath said unto you, ‘Ye shall henceforth return no more that way.’” (Deu
17:16)
What we have here are two sets of horses, the strong and the marked. But the marked, who desire
to BE strong, are not willing to be strong by obedience to Yahweh’s instructions. Yah tells them,
“Go forth into all the earth,” but instead, they decide to make a fake strength, an image of strength,
by going south… to Egypt. Now as I mentioned a little while ago, the Davidian movement has
made a particular error in their attempts to reform Adventism that is pointed out quite clearly in this
parable. They have a number of doctrinal mistakes, some subtle, and some really very obvious,
but that by itself isn’t the biggest problem. The biggest problem is that they, by not seeking to
actively separate from the General Conference, actually participate in the very guilt and apostasy
that they try so hard to show.
According to Davidian doctrine, as I have understood it from their writings and the conversations I
have had with their members, the mainstream SDA Church is going to experience a dramatic
shaking, in which many of those now within it, and among the leaders, will be slain. This great
event will leave new and faithful leaders in charge, King David himself will be raised to rule the
144,000, and those who have stood on the sidelines waiting for this to happen will now happily
filter back into the unified whole.
Now, there is not a single Biblical parable, teaching, or symbol that I can find to indicate this
sequence of occurrences. I certainly can’t find it in The Great Controversy or Last Day Events.
But what I do see, from this Zechariah 6 parable and a couple other places, is that the two teams of
horses separate: the marked ones go into Egypt, and the strong ones go forth into all the earth and
preach the message. The very next thing that happens after this separation is…. Nothing. We don’t
see any re-unification of the team. We don’t see the grisled horses dying, repenting or turning
around. The only thing we see is that the Strong Bay horses do the will of the Almighty between
those mountains of brass.
Are there any questions here?
And so, if the last thing that happens is that the marked and the strong horses diverge in their paths,
then the wisdom we draw from this teaching, despite all its symbols and imagery, is quite a simple
one. Those who are waiting for the grisled horses to fix themselves or get fixed are going to wait in
vain. Those who stay connected to the fallen organization in an attempt to give it support or repair it
from the inside are going to be dragged right along to Egypt with the others. The only safety, the
only way to faithfully carry out the commands of Yahweh, is to be “strong,” and in the only way
that matters in eternity: strong of faith.
In the old days, they used to have this method of execution called “quartering.” If you haven’t
heard of it, it worked like this in some parts of the world: The condemned man would have his
limbs tied, each to a different horse (four or five were used, depending on whether or not you
considered the head a limb), and then they were sent off in different directions as quickly as
possible. As you can imagine, this was a messy and painful way to die. But whenever I see Paul’s
statement about being “unequally yoked together with unbelievers,” (2Cor 6:14) I think of this
image.
In the last days, there are two teams of horses trying to pull the Gospel Chariot. Some are marked,
and some are “strong,” but either team is strong enough to destroy a human being if he or she is
caught between them. It is as Christ said, it is better to be hot or cold than lukewarm. It’s better to
be either among the grisled or the bay horses, for now… because at least those going with the
grisled ones might survive long enough to repent. But it is those who are caught between, trying to
hold on to both their integrity and the church that they are coming to realize has betrayed them…
these are the ones who will not survive, because they will be “burned out” on religion, and will not
even have the courage to lift up their eyes and see the faithful horses going through the earth on
their divine mission.
The time has come when all people, everywhere, have to choose between the mark of
disobedience, or the strength of Yahweh’s salvation. We have a great and solemn responsibility to
show them these things, so that they will have the necessary knowledge to hear the voice of
Yahweh saying, “Get you hence, walk to and fro through the earth.” (Zech 6:7) Let our prayers,
and our efforts, be directed to this end.
The Two Mountains
The Red Horses
The Black Horses
The White Horses
The Grizzled and Bay Horses
Conclusion – Unequally Yoked
