It was October 18, 1924....famed sportswriter Grantland Rice....reporting on Notre Dame's upset 13-7 victory over Army....penned this lead-in to his article in the New York Herald Tribune....
"Outlined against a blue-gray October sky the Four Horsemen rode again. In dramatic lore they are known as famine, pestilence, destruction and death. These are only aliases. The real names are Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley and Layden."
The overall church....as it ponders John's description of the four horses....and their riders...from Revelation 6.....is divided as to whether the first horse....the white horse.....is the Antichrist.....or if it is Jesus Christ? Of those who are 'sure' that it is the Antichrist....the division continues as to if the rider is European or Islamic or something else?
We know that war follows....and then famine....and then death....but we do not know the time span between these riders on their horses. So....does the King of Kings begin by moving mightily in the world to conquer....or is the white horse and its rider something else?
I put forth this possibility in a post a while back. Even to a graybeard like myself...the single most catastrophic event in my lifetime of 72 years....has been the Covid-19 pandemic....not only in the enormous number of deaths....but in our response to those deaths. Corona comes from the crown-like spikes of the virus. The rider on the white horse was given a crown....and had a bow.
The ancient Greek fighters would put poison on their arrows. They called this....toxikon pharmakon....the archery drug. The evolution of this whole thing has given us the word....toxic.
So....coronavirus revolves around the word....crown....and the word....bow....basically means poison. I do not think it is a stretch to at least put these type of speculations somewhere in the back of the mind. God will reveal these meanings to us in His perfect time. The speculation I give here is probably not the correct interpretation....but He wants our minds active....and inquiring....looking for and desiring His return....yet vigilant....vigilant both on deception from the outside....and deception that our own minds can produce.
Note: Oxford's Word of the Year for 2018....before the pandemic....was....toxic. According to the Oxford website...."the Latin word itself....(toxicus)....came from the Greek term....toxon....meaning....bow."
